Seldom is the title or preamble of the law of the same import with the body and enacting part; but they generally place some other color uppermost, which differs from that which is afterwards to appear, or at least one that is several shades fainter.
Burke notes the discrepancy between the titles of laws and their actual content, suggesting deception.
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More from Edmund Burke
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
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…
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.
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