On the record
Liberty, if I understand it at all, is a general principle, and the clear right of all the subjects within the realm, or of none.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “Liberty, if I understand it at all, is a general principle, and the clear right of all the subjects within the realm, or…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke defines liberty as a universal right for all subjects within a realm.
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Jan 1, 1790
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.
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Unquestionably there was at the Revolution, in the person of King William, a small and a temporary deviation from the strict order of a regular hereditary succession; but it is against all genuine principles of jurisprudence to draw a…
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The House of Lords, for instance, is not morally competent to dissolve the House of Commons,--no, nor even to dissolve itself, nor to abdicate, if it would, its portion in the legislature of the kingdom.
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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.
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