Prev | Current Page 651 | Next

Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

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

Besides, the king does not lose his quality merely by the loss of
his kingdom. _If he is stripped of it unjustly by an usurper, or by
rebels, he preserves his rights, in the number of which are his
alliances_.[40]
[Sidenote: Case wherein aid may be given to a deposed king.]
"But who shall judge if the king be dethroned lawfully or by violence?
An independent nation acknowledges no judge. If the body of the nation
declares the king deprived of his rights by the abuse he has made of
them, and deposes him, it may justly do it _when its grievances are well
founded_, and no other power has a right to censure it. The personal
ally of this king ought not then to assist him against the nation that
has made use of its right in deposing him: if he attempts it, he injures
that nation. England declared war against Louis the Fourteenth, in the
year 1688, for supporting the interest of James the Second, who was
deposed in form by the nation. The same country declared war against him
a second time, at the beginning of the present century, because that
prince acknowledged the son of the deposed James, under the name of
James the Third.


Pages:
639 640 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663