That is, the Allies are to give up whatever conquests they have made or may make upon France; but all which she has violently ravished from her neighbors, and thought fit to appropriate, are not to become so much as objects of negotiation.
Burke critiques the expectation that allies must relinquish their conquests while France retains its gains.
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Of this consolation whoever deprives them deadens their industry, and strikes at the root of all acquisition as of all conservation.
To tell the people that they are relieved by the dilapidation of their public estate is a cruel and insolent imposition.
The prattling about the rights of men will not be accepted in payment of a biscuit or a pound of gunpowder.
Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.
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