If such means can with any probability be shown, from circumstances, rather to add strength to our mixed ecclesiastical and secular Constitution than to weaken it, surely they are means infinitely to be preferred to penalties, incapacities, and proscriptions, continued from generation to generation.
Burke argues for the preference of strengthening the Constitution over imposing penalties on dissenters.
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More from Edmund Burke
Every honest mind, every true lover of liberty and humanity, must rejoice to find that injustice is not always good policy, nor rapine the high-road to riches.
The prattling about the rights of men will not be accepted in payment of a biscuit or a pound of gunpowder.
In some people I see great liberty, indeed; in many, if not in the most, an oppressive, degrading servitude.
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.
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