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Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

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

The
others they regard as traitors.
The first description is that of the Christian Royalists, men who as
earnestly wished for reformation, as they opposed innovation in the
fundamental parts of their Church and State. _Their_ part has been _very
decided_. Accordingly, they are to be set aside in the restoration of
Church and State. It is an odd kind of disqualification, where the
restoration of religion and monarchy is the question. If England should
(God forbid it should!) fall into the same misfortune with France, and
that the court of Vienna should undertake the restoration of our
monarchy, I think it would be extraordinary to object to the admission
of Mr. Pitt or Lord Grenville or Mr. Dundas into any share in the
management of that business, because in a day of trial they have stood
up firmly and manfully, as I trust they always will do, and with
distinguished powers, for the monarchy and the legitimate Constitution
of their country. I am sure, if I were to suppose myself at Vienna at
such a time, I should, as a man, as an Englishman, and as a Royalist,
protest in that case, as I do in this, against a weak and ruinous
principle of proceeding, which can have no other tendency than to make
those who wish to support the crown meditate too profoundly on the
consequences of the part they take, and consider whether for their open
and forward zeal in the royal cause they may not be thrust out from any
sort of confidence and employment, where the interest of crowned heads
is concerned.


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