The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
Philosophy
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
populace, and justly increases their discontent. Men become pensioners
of state on account of their abilities in the array of riot, and the
discipline of confusion. Government is put under the disgraceful
necessity of protecting from the severity of the laws that very
licentiousness, which the laws had been before violated to repress.
Everything partakes of the original disorder. Anarchy predominates
without freedom, and servitude without submission or subordination.
These are the consequences inevitable to our public peace, from the
scheme of rendering the executory government at once odious and feeble;
of freeing administration from the constitutional and salutary control
of Parliament, and inventing for it a _new control_, unknown to the
constitution, an _interior cabinet_; which brings the whole body of
government into confusion and contempt.
After having stated, as shortly as I am able, the effects of this system
on our foreign affairs, on the policy of our government with regard to
our dependencies, and on the interior economy of the commonwealth;
there remains only, in this part of my design, to say something of the
grand principle which first recommended this system at court. The
pretence was, to prevent the king from being enslaved by a faction, and
made a prisoner in his closet. This scheme might have been expected to
answer at least its own end, and to indemnify the king, in his personal
capacity, for all the confusion into which it has thrown his government.
But has it in reality answered this purpose? I am sure, if it had, every
affectionate subject would have one motive for enduring with patience
all the evils which attend it.
In order to come at the truth in this matter, it may not be amiss to
consider it somewhat in detail. I speak here of the king, and not of the
crown; the interests of which we have already touched. Independent of
that greatness which a king possesses merely by being a representative
of the national dignity, the things in which he may have an individual
interest seem to be these:--wealth accumulated; wealth spent in
magnificence, pleasure, or beneficence; personal respect and attention;
and, above all, private ease and repose of mind. These compose the
inventory of prosperous circumstances, whether they regard a prince or a
subject; their enjoyments differing only in the scale upon which they
are formed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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