On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Reflecting on the Glorious Revolution, Burke states that the British secured their constitution by strengthening existing structures, not by relying on future upheavals.
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More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
No experience has taught us that in any other course or method than that of an hereditary crown our liberties can be regularly perpetuated and preserved sacred as our hereditary right.
Jan 1, 1790
If kings who did not owe their crown to the choice of their people had no title to make laws, what will become of the statute De tallagio non concedendo? of the Petition of Right? of the act of Habeas Corpus?
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.
Jan 1, 1790
When such an unwarrantable maxim is once established, that no throne is lawful but the elective, no one act of the princes who preceded this era of fictitious election can be valid.
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