[The Works Of The Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IX. (of 12) by Edmund Burke]@TWC D-Link book
The Works Of The Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IX. (of 12)

PART IX
191/219

But if we may judge by those ten precepts of Genghiz Khan which we have, there is not a shadow of arbitrary power to be found in any one of them.

Institutes of arbitrary power! Why, if there is arbitrary power, there can be no institutes.
As to the institutes of Tamerlane, here they are in their original, and here is a translation.

I have carefully read every part of these institutes; and if any one shows me one word in them in which the prince claims in himself arbitrary power, I again repeat, that I shall for my own part confess that I have brought myself to great shame.

There is no book in the world, I believe, which contains nobler, more just, more manly, more pious principles of government than this book, called the Institutions of Tamerlane.

Nor is there one word of arbitrary power in it, much less of that arbitrary power which Mr.Hastings supposes himself justified by,--namely, a delegated, subordinate, arbitrary power.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books