But the moment in which that event shall happen, the person who really commands the army is your master,--the master (that is little) of your king, the master of your Assembly, the master of your whole republic.
In his critique of the French Revolution, Burke warns that whoever truly commands the army will inevitably become the master of the entire nation, including its government.
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This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.
Who could flatter himself that these men, suddenly, and as it were by enchantment, snatched from the humblest rank of subordination, would not be intoxicated with their unprepared greatness?
But the course of succession is the healthy habit of the British Constitution.
The engagement and pact of society, which generally goes by the name of the Constitution, forbids such invasion and such surrender.
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