Edmund Burke: “A penal law not ordinarily put in execution seems to me to be a very absurd and a very dangerous thing.”

But to form a free government, that is, to temper together these opposite elements of liberty and restraint in one consistent work, requires much thought, deep reflection, a sagacious, powerful, and combining mind.

Rome, under her emperors, united the evils of both systems; and this unnatural combination was one great cause of her ruin.

Of this consolation whoever deprives them deadens their industry, and strikes at the root of all acquisition as of all conservation.

Who but the most desperate adventurers in philosophy and finance could at all have thought of destroying the settled revenue of the state, the sole security for the public credit, in the hope of rebuilding it with the materials of…