Hastings was at the time treating for a peace; and he tells him why he might have had peace at that time, and why he had it not,--and that the cause of it was his own ridiculous and even buffoonish perfidiousness, which exposed him to the ridicule of all the princes of India, and with him the whole British nation.
Burke describes Hastings' failure to secure peace due to his own foolishness, which led to ridicule.
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An irregular, convulsive movement may be necessary to throw off an irregular, convulsive disease.
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?
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.
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