We well know, indeed, that a government requiring arbitrary power has been the situation in which this man has attempted to place us.
Edmund Burke: “We well know, indeed, that a government requiring arbitrary power has been the situation in which this man has attempted…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke reflects on the dangers of a government that requires arbitrary power, indicating a troubling situation.
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But the course of succession is the healthy habit of the British Constitution.
A few years ago I should be ashamed to overload a matter so capable of supporting itself by the then unnecessary support of any argument; but this seditious, unconstitutional doctrine is now publicly taught, avowed, and printed.
By adhering in this manner and on those principles to our forefathers, we are guided, not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic analogy.
When such an unwarrantable maxim is once established, that no throne is lawful but the elective, no one act of the princes who preceded this era of fictitious election can be valid.





