The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

Asia, since we are called upon to make good our charge on the principles of the
governments there, rather than on those of our own country, (which I trust your Lordships
will oblige him finally to be governed by, puffed up as he is with the insolence of Asia,)—
the nearest to us of the governments he appeals to is that of the Grand Seignior, the
Emperor of the Turks.—He an arbitrary power! Why, he has not the supreme power of his
own country. Every one knows that the Grand Seignior is exalted high in titles, as our
prerogative lawyers exalt an abstract sovereign,—and he cannot be exalted higher in our
books. I say he is destitute of the first character of sovereign power: he cannot lay a tax
upon his people. The next part in which he misses of a sovereign power is, that he cannot
dispose of the life, of the property, or of the liberty of any of his subjects, but by what is
called the fetwah, or sentence of the law. He cannot declare peace or war without the same
sentence of the law: so much is he, more than European sovereigns, a subject of strict law,
that he cannot declare war or peace without it. Then, if he can neither touch life nor
property, if he cannot lay a tax on his subjects, or declare peace or war, I leave it to your
Lordships' judgment, whether he can be called, according to the principles of that
constitution, an arbitrary power. A Turkish sovereign, if he should be judged by the body of
that law to have acted against its principles, (unless he happens to be secured by a faction of
the soldiery,) is liable to be deposed on the sentence of that law, and his successor comes in
under the strict limitations of the ancient law of that country: neither can he hold his place,
dispose of his succession, or take any one step whatever, without being bound by law. Thus
much may be said, when gentlemen talk of the affairs of Asia, as to the nearest of Asiatic
sovereigns: and he is more Asiatic than European, he is a Mahomedan sovereign; and no
Mahomedan is born who can exercise any arbitrary power at all, consistently with their
constitution; insomuch that this chief magistrate, who is the highest executive power among
them, is the very person who, by the constitution of the country, is the most fettered by law.

<<   386   387   388   389   390   391   392   >>

More intriguing information