Edmund Burke: “But they will be afraid to act ill, if they know that the day of their account is always near.”

The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.

They have not more notes in their song than the cuckoo; though, far from the softness of that harbinger of summer and plenty, their voice is as harsh and as ominous as that of the raven.

If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.

They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.