Thoughts on the Present Discontents, and SpeechesBurke, Edmund
General
Thoughts on the Present Discontents, and Speeches
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1789
If the reader believes that there really exists such a Faction as I have
described, a Faction ruling by the private inclinations of a Court,
against the general sense of the people; and that this Faction, whilst it
pursues a scheme for undermining all the foundations of our freedom,
weakens (for the present at least) all the powers of executory
Government, rendering us abroad contemptible, and at home distracted; he
will believe, also, that nothing but a firm combination of public men
against this body, and that, too, supported by the hearty concurrence of
the people at large, can possibly get the better of it. The people will
see the necessity of restoring public men to an attention to the public
opinion, and of restoring the Constitution to its original principles.
Above all, they will endeavour to keep the House of Commons from assuming
a character which does not belong to it. They will endeavour to keep
that House, for its existence for its powers, and its privileges, as
independent of every other, and as dependent upon themselves, as
possible. This servitude is to a House of Commons (like obedience to the
Divine law), "perfect freedom." For if they once quit this natural,
rational, and liberal obedience, having deserted the only proper
foundation of their power, they must seek a support in an abject and
unnatural dependence somewhere else. When, through the medium of this
just connection with their constituents, the genuine dignity of the House
of Commons is restored, it will begin to think of casting from it, with
scorn, as badges of servility, all the false ornaments of illegal power,
with which it has been, for some time, disgraced. It will begin to think
of its old office of CONTROL. It will not suffer that last of evils to
predominate in the country; men without popular confidence, public
opinion, natural connection, or natural trust, invested with all the
powers of Government.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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