Bribery and extortion have been covered by the name of presents, and the authority and practice of the East has been adduced as a palliation of the crime.
Edmund Burke: “Bribery and extortion have been covered by the name of presents, and the authority and practice of the East has been…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke critiques the use of the term 'presents' to disguise bribery and extortion.
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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.
Who could doubt but that, at any expense to the state, of which they understood nothing, they must pursue their private interests, which they understood but too well?
But the king of Great Britain obeys no other person; all other persons are individually, and collectively too, under him, and owe to him a legal obedience.
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.





