"I will not say that there have been no instances of sedition; but I will affirm even that the evidence of these appears in so questionable a shape as ought to excite your suspicion. It is supported by a system of spies and informers, a system which has been carried to a greater extent under the present administration, than in any former period of the history of the country. ... [T]he government which avails itself of such support does not exist for the happiness of the people. It is a system which is calculated to engender suspicion, and to beget hostility; it not only destroys all confidence between man and man, but between the governors and the governed; where it does not find sedition, it creates it."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Playwrights from IrelandPoliticians from IrelandPeople from DublinPoets from IrelandSatirists from Ireland
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Speech in the House of Commons against the Treasonable and Seditious Practices Bill (5 January 1795), quoted in Speeches of the Late Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Vol. IV (1816), p. 23
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Brinsley_Sheridan
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
1751 – 1816
irischer Dramatiker und Politiker
91 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Richard Brinsley Sheridan →
Related Quotes
"THEY, by a strange Frenzy driven, fight for Power, for Plunder, and extended Rule—WE, for our Country, our Altars, an…"
"He stated it distinctly...as what he conceived was the unalterable resolution of ministers, that no proposal for peac…"
"My visits to you may possibly be misunderstood by my friends; but I hope you know, Mr. Addington, that I have an unpu…"
"An apothecary should never be out of spirits."
"Death's a debt; his mandamus binds all alike — no bail, no demurrer."
"He was of opinion that the Press should be unfettered; that its freedom should be, as indeed it was, commensurate wit…"
"While his off-heel, insidiously aside, Provokes the caper which he seems to chide."
"Such protection as vultures give to lambs."
"Date not the life which thou hast run by the mean of reckoning of the hours and days, which though hast breathed: a l…"
"Take our constitution, wanting certainly as it did many reforms, yet, practically, it afforded the best security that…"