We shall see a throne founded in arms, and augmented by the successive policy of five able princes, at once shaken to its foundations: first made tributary by the arts of a foreign power; then limited, and almost overturned, by the violence of its subjects.
Edmund Burke: “We shall see a throne founded in arms, and augmented by the successive policy of five able princes, at once shaken to…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke warns of the instability of a throne built on military power and foreign influence.
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Those who are servants in name, as well as in effect, do not like to be told of their situation, their duty, and their obligations.
We procure reverence to our civil institutions on the principle upon which Nature teaches us to revere individual men: on account of their age, and on account of those from whom they are descended.
As he is not to obey us, but we are to obey the law in him, our Constitution has made no sort of provision towards rendering him, as a servant, in any degree responsible.
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?





