On the record
They are a nation of placemen; they are a commonwealth without a people; they are a state made up wholly of magistrates.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “They are a nation of placemen; they are a commonwealth without a people; they are a state made up wholly of magistrates.”
Editor's note · Context
Burke critiques the English in India as a society of officials without a true populace, reflecting on the nature of governance.
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More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
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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The House of Lords, for instance, is not morally competent to dissolve the House of Commons,--no, nor even to dissolve itself, nor to abdicate, if it would, its portion in the legislature of the kingdom.
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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
Their objects would be enlarged with their elevation; but their disposition, and habits, and mode of accomplishing their designs must remain the same.
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