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Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

"The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 04 (of 12)"

He seconds Brissot in the Assembly, and is at once his coadjutor
and his rival in a newspaper, which, in his own name, and as successor
to M. Garat, a member also of the Assembly, he has just set up in that
empire of gazettes. Condorcet was chosen to draw the first declaration
presented by the Assembly to the king, as a threat to the Elector of
Treves, and the other princes on the Rhine. In that piece, in which both
Feuillants and Jacobins concurred, they declared publicly, and most
proudly and insolently, the principle on which they mean to proceed in
their future disputes with any of the sovereigns of Europe; for they
say, "that it is not with fire and sword they mean to attack their
territories, but by what will be _more dreadful_ to them, the
introduction of liberty."--I have not the paper by me, to give the exact
words, but I believe they are nearly as I state them.--_Dreadful_,
indeed, will be their hostility, if they should be able to carry it on
according to the example of _their_ modes of introducing liberty. They
have shown a perfect model of their whole design, very complete, though
in little.


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