France has always more or less influenced manners in England; and when your fountain is choked up and polluted, the stream will not run long or not run clear with us, or perhaps with any nation.
Burke warns that the corruption of French society and principles will inevitably spread and negatively affect England and other nations.
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Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
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