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| | Modern History Sourcebook: Edmund Burke: Reflections 1791 |
 | | His Reflections, written in the form of a long letter in 1791, in a sense marks the origin of modern conservative thought. |
 | | Selden, and the other profoundly learned men, who drew this Petition of Right, were as well acquainted, at least, with all the general theories concerning the "rights of men," as any of the discourses in our pulpits, or on your tribune, full as well as Dr. Price, or as the Abbé Siéyès. |
 | | But, for reasons worthy of that practical wisdom which superseded their theoretic science, they preferred this positive, recorded, hereditary title to all which can be dear to the man and the citizen, to that vague speculative right, which exposed their sure inheritance to be scrambled for and torn to pieces by every wild, litigious spirit. |
| www.fordham.edu /halsall/mod/1791burke.html (4761 words) |
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