Good God! would not one rather have expected to hear him put all these travellers to shame by the authority of a man who had resided so long in the supreme situation of government,--to set aside all these wild, loose, casual, and silly observations of travellers and theorists?
Burke expresses disbelief that a person in power would rely on unreliable sources instead of authoritative knowledge.
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They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.
I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…
Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
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