It is not, and from its nature cannot be, the property of any particular man or family, but of the whole community, at whose expense it is supported; and though by force or contrivance it has been usurped into an inheritance, the usurpation cannot alter the right of things.
Burke asserts that government is a communal property, not owned by any individual or family.
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More from Edmund Burke
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
There are some follies which baffle argument, which go beyond ridicule, and which excite no feeling in us but disgust; and therefore I say no more upon it.
The prattling about the rights of men will not be accepted in payment of a biscuit or a pound of gunpowder.
In some people I see great liberty, indeed; in many, if not in the most, an oppressive, degrading servitude.
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