"The claim set up was nothing less than the right of a general superintendence of the states of Europe, and of the suppression of all changes in their internal government, if those changes should be hostile to what the Holy Alliance called the legitimate principles of government... Every reform of abuses, every improvement in government, which did not originate with a sovereign, of his own free will, was to be prevented. Were this principle to be successfully maintained, the triumph of tyranny would be complete, and the chains of mankind would be riveted for ever... He was one of those old-fashioned politicians who thought that every great political change might be traced to previous misgovernment... Let their lordships look to the revolution of 1688, and then he would ask them, if it could have been carried into effect without the combinations of those great men, who restored and secured our religion, our laws, and our liberties, and without such mutual communications among them as would bring them under the description of a sect or party?"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandWhig (British political party) politiciansSecretaries of State for Foreign Affairs of Great Britain and the United KingdomLeaders of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Speech in the House of Lords during the debate on Naples (19 February 1821). After the revolution in Naples in July 1820 the protocol which affirmed the right of the European Alliance to interfere to crush dangerous internal revolutions had been issued at the Congress of Troppau, October 1820. Parliamentary Debates, N.S. iv, pp. 744-59, quoted in Alan Bullock and Maurice Shock (ed.), The Liberal Tradition from Fox to Keynes (1967), pp. 13-16
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Grey%2C_2nd_Earl_Grey
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, KG, PC (13 March 1764 – 17 July 1845), known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 22 November 1830 to 16 July 1834. A member of the Whig Party, he backed significant reform of the British government and was among the primary architects of the Reform Act 1832. In addition to his political achievements, he famously gave his name to Earl Grey tea.
33 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey →
Related Quotes
"Bad as I am thought, I cannot express the horror I feel at this atrocity."
"Mr. Grey said, that he was prepared to defend the country, not only against an invasion of a foreign enemy, wishing t…"
"What was the conduct of the minister in the year 1782, when his pretended sincerity for a parliamentary reform had be…"
"Mr. Grey was much obliged to his hon. friend for submitting the motion to the House. The length of time during which …"
"What I most heartily wish for is, a union between the two countries: by a union I mean something more than a mere wor…"
"We are referred to the period the Revolution [of 1688]. We are told to be contented with those securities for our lib…"
"Has, then, the influence of the crown increased since the Revolution? Down to the period of 1782 I believe the fact w…"
"I have from the beginning been adverse to distant expeditions for the purpose of expanding our colonial possessions. …"
"[The Spanish news] really keeps me awake at night and in the day I can think of nothing else. I did not think it poss…"
"He was not a friend to Paine's doctrines, but he was not to be deterred by a name from acknowledging that he consider…"