Edmund Burke: “The Company might suffer above, the natives might suffer below; the intermediate party must profit to the prejudice of…”

But supposing they had ranked as they ought to do, and as with us they do actually, the sides of sick-beds are not the academies for forming statesmen and legislators.

The House of Lords, for instance, is not morally competent to dissolve the House of Commons,--no, nor even to dissolve itself, nor to abdicate, if it would, its portion in the legislature of the kingdom.

Who could flatter himself that these men, suddenly, and as it were by enchantment, snatched from the humblest rank of subordination, would not be intoxicated with their unprepared greatness?

The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.