The Constitution of England is founded upon compact; and the subjects of this kingdom have, in their several public and private capacities, as legal a title to what are their rights by law as a prince to the possession of his crown.
Burke emphasizes that the rights of subjects in England are as legally valid as a monarch's claim to the throne, highlighting the importance of legal rights.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
In some people I see great liberty, indeed; in many, if not in the most, an oppressive, degrading servitude.
This is the result of all the delusions held out to engage a miserable people in rebellion, murder, and sacrilege, and to make them prompt and zealous instruments in the ruin of their country!
This was reserved to our time, to quench the little glimmerings of reason which might break in upon the solid darkness of this enlightened age.
They rob only to enable them to cheat; but in a very short time they defeat the ends both of the robbery and the fraud, by making out accounts for other purposes, which blow up their whole apparatus of force and of deception.
Other voices in this conversation
