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.
Such, sir, being amongst us the foundation of monarchy itself, much more
clearly and much more peculiarly is it the ground of all parliamentary
power. Parliament is a security provided for the protection of freedom,
and not a subtile fiction, contrived to amuse the people in its place.
The authority of both houses can, still less than that of the crown, be
supported upon different principles in different places, so as to be,
for one part of your subjects, a protector of liberty, and for another
a fund of despotism, through which prerogative is extended by occasional
powers, whenever an arbitrary will finds itself straitened by the
restrictions of law. Had it seemed good to parliament to consider itself
as the indulgent guardian and strong protector of the freedom of the
subordinate popular assemblies, instead of exercising its power to their
annihilation, there is no doubt that it never could have been their
inclination, because not their interest, to raise questions on the
extent of parliamentary rights, or to enfeeble privileges which were the
security of their own. Powers evident from necessity, and not suspicious
from an alarming mode or purpose in the exertion, would, as formerly
they were, be cheerfully submitted to; and these would have been fully
sufficient for conservation of unity in the empire, and for directing
its wealth to one common centre. Another use has produced other
consequences; and a power which refuses to be limited by moderation
must either be lost, or find other more distinct and satisfactory
limitations.
BURKE'S DESIGN IN HIS GREATEST WORK.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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