If they should be found (as in all probability they would be found) false and calumnious, and supported by forgery, then the censure would fall on the accuser; at the same time the necessity would be manifest for proper measures towards the security of government against such infamous accusations.
Burke emphasizes the importance of protecting the reputation of virtuous leaders while addressing false accusations.
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More from Edmund Burke
Always acting as if in the presence of canonized forefathers, the spirit of freedom, leading in itself to misrule and excess, is tempered with an awful gravity.
Those who are servants in name, as well as in effect, do not like to be told of their situation, their duty, and their obligations.
The people of England will not ape the fashions they have never tried, nor go back to those which they have found mischievous on trial.
But the course of succession is the healthy habit of the British Constitution.
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