The Works Of The Right Honourable Edmund Burke (volume 5-6)

Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1826. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... politick obscurity; not from those who only controvert the opinions of the old whigs, without advancing any of their own, but from those who speak plainly and affirmatively. The whig reader may make his choice between the two doctrines. The doctrine then propagated by these societies, which gentlemen think they ought to be very tender in discouraging, as nearly as possible in their own words, is as follows: that in Great Britain we are not only without a good constitution, but that we have no constitution. That, though it is much talked about, no such thing as a con stitution exists or ever did exist; and conse quently that the people have a constitution yet to form; that since William the Conquerer, the country has never yet regenerated itself, and is therefore without a constitution. That where it cannot be produced in a visible form there is none. That a constitution is a thing antecedent to government; and that the constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of a people constituting a government. That every thing in the English government is the reverse of what it ought to be, and what it is said to be in England. That the right of war and peace re sides in a metaphor shewn at the Tower, for sixpence or a shilling a piece.--That it signifies not where the right resides, whether in the Crown or in parliament. War is the common harvest harvest of those who participate in the division and expenditure of publick money. That the portion of liberty enjoyed in England is just enough to enslave a country more productively than by despotism. So far as to the general state of the British constitution.--As to our house of lords, the chief virtual representatives of our aristocracy, the great ...