On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
All contrivances by ballot we know experimentally to be vain and childish to prevent a discovery of inclinations.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “All contrivances by ballot we know experimentally to be vain and childish to prevent a discovery of inclinations.”
Editor's note · Context
In his critique of the French Revolution, Burke dismisses the use of ballots as ineffective in concealing true inclinations.
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More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
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!
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Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.
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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.
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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.
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