Indeed, this art of converting a great monarch into a little prince, this royal masquerading, is a very dangerous and expensive amusement, and one of the king's menus plaisirs, which ought to be reformed.
Burke critiques the frivolous nature of royal pretenses and the dangers they pose to governance.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
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.
Who could doubt but that, at any expense to the state, of which they understood nothing, they must pursue their private interests, which they understood but too well?
Other voices in this conversation
