The English people believes itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken; it is free only during election of members of parliament; as soon as the members are elected, the people is enslaved; it is nothing. In the brief moment of its freedom, the English people makes such a use of that freedom that it deserves to lose it.
ATTRIBUTION:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), Swiss-born-French philosopher, political theorist. The Social Contract, bk. 3, ch. 15 (1762).
