Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund BurkeBurke, Edmund
Philosophy
Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke
Burke, Edmund
Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797; Essays; Political science; Speeches, addresses, etc.
This violent breach in the community of Europe we must conclude to have
been made (even if they had not expressly declared it over and over
again) either to force mankind into an adoption of their system, or to
live in perpetual enmity with a community the most potent we have
ever known. Can any person imagine, that, in offering to mankind this
desperate alternative, there is no indication of a hostile mind, because
men in possession of the ruling authority are supposed to have a right
to act without coercion in their own territories. As to the right of men
to act anywhere according to their pleasure, without any moral tie, no
such right exists. Men are never in a state of TOTAL independence of
each other. It is not the condition of our nature: nor is it conceivable
how any man can pursue a considerable course of action without its
having some effect upon others; or, of course, without producing some
degree of responsibility for his conduct. The SITUATIONS in which
men relatively stand produce the rules and principles of that
responsibility, and afford directions to prudence in exacting it.
Distance of place does not extinguish the duties or the rights of men;
but it often renders their exercise impracticable. The same circumstance
of distance renders the noxious effects of an evil system in any
community less pernicious. But there are situations where this
difficulty does not occur; and in which, therefore, these duties are
obligatory, and these rights are to be asserted. It has ever been the
method of public jurists to draw a great part of the analogies, on which
they form the law of nations, from the principles of law which prevail
in civil community. Civil laws are not all of them merely positive.
Those, which are rather conclusions of legal reason than matters of
statutable provision, belong to universal equity, and are universally
applicable. Almost the whole praetorian law is such. There is a "Law of
Neighbourhood" which does not leave a man perfectly master on his
own ground. When a neighbour sees a NEW ERECTION, in the nature of a
nuisance, set up at his door, he has a right to represent it to the
judge; who, on his part, has a right to order the work to be stayed; or,
if established, to be removed. On this head the parent law is express
and clear, and has made many wise provisions, which, without destroying,
regulate and restrain the right of OWNERSHIP, by the right of VICINAGE.
No INNOVATION is permitted that may redound, even secondarily, to the
prejudice of a neighbour. The whole doctrine of that important head
of praetorian law, "De novi operis nunciatione," is founded on the
principle, that no NEW use should be made of a man's private liberty
of operating upon his private property, from whence a detriment may
be justly apprehended by his neighbour. This law of denunciation is
prospective. It is to anticipate what is called damnum infectum, or
damnum nondum factum, that is, a damage justly apprehended, but not
actually done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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