I am ready, my Lords, to admit that there are situations in which a minister in high office may use concealment: it may be his duty to use concealment from the enemies of his masters; it may be prudent to use concealment from his inferiors in the service.
Burke discusses the ethical implications of concealment by government officials in certain situations.
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The engagement and pact of society, which generally goes by the name of the Constitution, forbids such invasion and such surrender.
They have little regard to the obvious consequences of their doctrine, though they may see that it leaves positive authority in very few of the positive institutions of this country.
The people of England will not ape the fashions they have never tried, nor go back to those which they have found mischievous on trial.
Do they mean to attaint and disable backwards all the kings that have reigned before the Revolution, and consequently to stain the throne of England with the blot of a continual usurpation?
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