Who but a tyrant (a name expressive of everything which can vitiate and degrade human nature) could think of seizing on the property of men, unaccused, unheard, untried, by whole descriptions, by hundreds and thousands together?
Edmund Burke: “Who but a tyrant (a name expressive of everything which can vitiate and degrade human nature) could think of seizing on…”
Editor's note · Context
In his denunciation of the French Revolution, Burke questions the legitimacy of a government that seizes property without due process.
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Those who are servants in name, as well as in effect, do not like to be told of their situation, their duty, and their obligations.
They look upon the legal hereditary succession of their crown as among their rights, not as among their wrongs,--as a benefit, not as a grievance,--as a security for their liberty, not as a badge of servitude.
As he is not to obey us, but we are to obey the law in him, our Constitution has made no sort of provision towards rendering him, as a servant, in any degree responsible.
They look on the frame of their commonwealth, such as it stands, to be of inestimable value; and they conceive the undisturbed succession of the crown to be a pledge of the stability and perpetuity of all the other members of our…





