Edmund Burke: “Hence the bitter heart-burnings, and the war of tongues, which is so often the prelude to other wars.”

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

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.

But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.

Not being illuminated with the light of which the gentlemen of France tell us they have got so abundant a share, they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance and fallibility of mankind.