Here is a Resident at Benares exercising power not given to him by virtue of his office, but given only by the private orders of the prisoner at your bar.
Edmund Burke: “Here is a Resident at Benares exercising power not given to him by virtue of his office, but given only by the private…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke criticizes the misuse of power by a Resident in Benares, emphasizing the illegitimacy of their authority.
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This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction.
The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.
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.
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.





