| Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989. | | | |
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| | | NUMBER: | 774 |
| AUTHOR: | Edmund Burke (1729–97) |
| QUOTATION: | If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the people think so,—and that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of this matter. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | EDMUND BURKE, letter to the sheriffs of Bristol, April 3, 1777.—The Works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke, vol. 2, p. 227 (1899). |
| SUBJECTS: | Government—definition of |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia | | |
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