Of these four hundred thousand political citizens, I look upon one fifth, or about eighty thousand, to be pure Jacobins, utterly incapable of amendment, objects of eternal vigilance, and, when they break out, of legal constraint.
Burke identifies a segment of the political citizens as Jacobins, emphasizing the need for vigilance against them.
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More from Edmund Burke
This was reserved to our time, to quench the little glimmerings of reason which might break in upon the solid darkness of this enlightened age.
It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
Not being illuminated with the light of which the gentlemen of France tell us they have got so abundant a share, they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance and fallibility of mankind.
There are some follies which baffle argument, which go beyond ridicule, and which excite no feeling in us but disgust; and therefore I say no more upon it.
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