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Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

"Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke"

Let us give a faithful pledge to the
people, that we honour indeed the crown, but that we BELONG to them;
that we are their auxiliaries, and not their task-masters,--the
fellow-labourers in the same vineyard,--not lording over their rights,
but helpers of their joy: that to tax them is a grievance to ourselves;
but to cut off from our enjoyments to forward theirs, is the highest
gratification we are capable of receiving.

REFORMED CIVIL LIST.
As things now stand, every man, in proportion to his consequence at
court, tends to add to the expense of the civil list, by all manner of
jobs, if not for himself, yet for his dependents. When the new plan is
established, those who are now suitors for jobs will become the most
strenuous opposers of them. They will have a common interest with the
minister in public economy. Every class, as it stands low, will become
security for the payment of the preceding class; and, thus, the persons
whose insignificant services defraud those that are useful, would then
become interested in their payment. Then the powerful, instead of
oppressing, would be obliged to support the weak; and idleness would
become concerned in the reward of industry. The whole fabric of the
civil economy would become compact and connected in all its parts; it
would be formed into a well-organized body, where every member
contributes to the support of the whole; and where even the lazy stomach
secures the vigour of the active arm.


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