The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 07 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
Religion
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 07 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
doubly lost to the public: it is money given to diminish the general
stock of the community, which is in the industry of the subject. I am
sure that it is a good while before he or his family settle again to
their business. Their heads will never cool; the temptations of
elections will be forever glittering before their eyes. They will all
grow politicians; every one, quitting his business, will choose to
enrich himself by his vote. They will all take the gauging-rod; new
places will be made for them; they will run to the custom-house quay;
their looms and ploughs will be deserted.
So was Rome destroyed by the disorders of continual elections, though
those of Rome were sober disorders. They had nothing but faction,
bribery, bread, and stage-plays, to debauch them: we have the
inflammation of liquor superadded, a fury hotter than any of them. There
the contest was only between citizen and citizen: here you have the
contests of ambitious citizens of one side supported by the crown to
oppose to the efforts (let it be so) of private and unsupported ambition
on the other. Yet Rome was destroyed by the frequency and charge of
elections, and the monstrous expense of an unremitted courtship to the
people. I think, therefore, the independent candidate and elector may
each be destroyed by it, the whole body of the community be an infinite
sufferer, and a vicious ministry the only gainer.
Gentlemen, I know, feel the weight of this argument; they agree, that
this would be the consequence of more frequent elections, if things were
to continue as they are. But they think the greatness and frequency of
the evil would itself be, a remedy for it,--that, sitting but for a
short time, the member would not find it worth while to make such vast
expenses, while the fear of their constituents will hold them the more
effectually to their duty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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