On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
They are to execute, without power; they are to be responsible, without discretion; they are to deliberate, without choice.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “They are to execute, without power; they are to be responsible, without discretion; they are to deliberate, without…”
Editor's note · Context
From his critique of the French Revolution, Burke describes the impossible position of ministers in the new government.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
They threw a politic, well-wrought veil over every circumstance tending to weaken the rights which in the meliorated order of succession they meant to perpetuate, or which might furnish a precedent for any future departure from what they…
Jan 1, 1790
They look on the frame of their commonwealth, such as it stands, to be of inestimable value; and they conceive the undisturbed succession of the crown to be a pledge of the stability and perpetuity of all the other members of our…
Jan 1, 1790
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.
Jan 1, 1790
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
Other voices in this conversation
