Edmund Burke and the Constitution
Sir: Some of those intent on the rape of the British Constitution have sought justification in Edmund Burke's dictum that a member of parliament owes his constituent's his judgement but is not their delegate.
That it was never Burke's intention that this principle should be applied to such all-embracing issues as adherence to the Treaty of Rome is clearly shown by another, and wider, statement of his which has been conveniently overlooked:
"Each generation is but one link in a lengthening chain. It is not for us, the creatures of a day, to decide what part of the heritage of the ages we will preserve, what part we will remodel or destroy. We are not the owners, but only the custodians, of humanity's baggage. It would be presumption on our part to discard old customs and institutions because their purpose is not clear to us; no one generation should set itself up as a fudge of society's future needs; the ties which knit together a state or a people have a mystical sanctity, and the rationalist who strikes right and left in a fanatical desire for progress may end by destroying the vital but intangible forces which preserve a civilisation."
What I have underlined calls for no elucidation in the context of the present.
J. D. Godber 22 Sandcross Lane, Reigate, Surrey.
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