His Majesty's slumbers were interrupted, his pillow was stuffed with thorns, and his peace of mind entirely broken,--because the king's turnspit was a member of Parliament.
Edmund Burke: “His Majesty's slumbers were interrupted, his pillow was stuffed with thorns, and his peace of mind entirely…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke uses a metaphor to describe the king's troubled state due to a seemingly trivial issue.
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They look upon the legal hereditary succession of their crown as among their rights, not as among their wrongs,--as a benefit, not as a grievance,--as a security for their liberty, not as a badge of servitude.
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.
Who could doubt but that, at any expense to the state, of which they understood nothing, they must pursue their private interests, which they understood but too well?
The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.





