Prev | Current Page 645 | Next

Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

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

BURKE, excepting
such of the Notes as are here distinguished.]

CASES OF INTERFERENCE WITH INDEPENDENT POWERS.
"If, then, there is anywhere a nation of a _restless and mischievous_
disposition, always ready _to injure others, to traverse their designs,
and to raise domestic troubles_[38] it is not to be doubted that all
have a right to join _in order to repress, chastise, and put it ever
after out of its power_ to injure them. Such should be the just fruits
of the policy which Machiavel praises in Caesar Borgia. The conduct
followed by Philip the Second, King of Spain, _was adapted to unite all
Europe against him_; and it was from just reasons that Henry the Great
formed the design of humbling a power _formidable by its forces and
pernicious by its maxims_."--Book II. ch. iv. Sec. 53.
"Let us apply to the unjust what we have said above (Sec. 53) of a
mischievous or maleficent nation. If there be any that makes an open
profession _of trampling justice under foot, of despising and violating
the right of others_,[39] whenever it finds an opportunity, _the
interest of human society will authorize all others to unite in order to
humble and chastise it_.


Pages:
633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657