Living law, full of reason, and of equity and justice, (as it is, or it should not exist,) ought to be severe, and awful too,--or the words of menace, whether written on the parchment roll of England or cut into the brazen tablet of Borne, will excite nothing but contempt.
Burke advocates for a living law that embodies reason and justice, warning against mere written threats.
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The prattling about the rights of men will not be accepted in payment of a biscuit or a pound of gunpowder.
This is the result of all the delusions held out to engage a miserable people in rebellion, murder, and sacrilege, and to make them prompt and zealous instruments in the ruin of their country!
Of this consolation whoever deprives them deadens their industry, and strikes at the root of all acquisition as of all conservation.
He that does this is the cruel oppressor, the merciless enemy of the poor and wretched; at the same time that by his wicked speculations he exposes the fruits of successful industry and the accumulations of fortune to the plunder of the…
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