On the record
He cannot declare peace or war without the same sentence of the law: so much is he, more than European sovereigns, a subject of strict law, that he cannot declare war or peace without it.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Burke states that a ruler's ability to declare war or peace is also bound by law, underscoring the limitations of sovereign power.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
Jan 1, 1790
If kings who did not owe their crown to the choice of their people had no title to make laws, what will become of the statute De tallagio non concedendo? of the Petition of Right? of the act of Habeas Corpus?
Jan 1, 1790
No experience has taught us that in any other course or method than that of an hereditary crown our liberties can be regularly perpetuated and preserved sacred as our hereditary right.
Jan 1, 1790
Ill would our ancestors at the Revolution have deserved their fame for wisdom, if they had found no security for their freedom, but in rendering their government feeble in its operations and precarious in its tenure,--if they had been able…
Other voices in this conversation
