Another remark of high importance is to be made respecting democratic and monarchical absolutism. What is absolutism, the außaciksia of Aristotle ? The striking appearance, the form rather than the essential principle, have in this case, as so frequently, misled. Authors and politicians treat of absolutism as if there existed none but monarchic absolutism. It is not so in reality. A late writer, Mr. Dahlmann, defines absolute government thus: "When government has not only power, but all power, not only superioritas, but absolutum imperium, it is absolute government." This seems to be a circle; absolute government is absolutum imperium. No doubt it is, because it is the same expressed in two languages. I would say, wherever all power that can be obtained is undivided, unmodified, and un-mediatised, somewhere, whether apparently in an individual, or a body of men, or the whole people, which means in this case of course the majority, there is absolutism. The Athenian democracy sank into absolutism. I shall recur to this subject. Comparing democratic and monarchical absolutism, we shall find that the latter must needs rest its power somewhere without the monarch himself; for, as has been several times observed, the monarch has personally no more power than the meanest of the crowd. He must be supported by opinion without him; but democratic absolutism is power itself—it is a reality— fearfully sweeping power. It is real power, a torrent which nothing can stem. If an individual opposes monarchical absolutism, there is something heroic in it in the eyes of the people; if a man opposes democratic absolutism, he is at once considered a heretic, a traitor to the common weal. On the other hand, there is, indeed, a difference in democratic absolutism, namely, that at its height it necessarily leads to anarchy, and hence to a change; for anarchy is against the nature

may be ready to commit as members of a society, under a common pledge, was lately exhibited in the trial of the Glasgow cotton-spinners, in Edinburgh, January, 1838. A society had been formed for the purpose of keeping up high wages, not disdaining atrocities and murder as a means to effect their object. If a murder was to be committed, the lot decided who should commit it.

of man, and nothing remains long which contends against its own nature; while monarchical absolutism may last centuries, as in Asia. Democratic absolutism may, if not at its height, yet in an obnoxious degree, exist for a long time, in lesser communities.

CXVI. The untenable ground on which absolutism, of whatever kind, rests, can be shown also in this way. Absolute power in the state necessarily demands absolute obedience, for without obedience to government there is no government. What other meaning has authority than that in some way or other it can direct our actions? We cannot say, then, "here is absolute power, but the citizen need not obey if he choose not to do it." It would be a contradiction in itself; it would not be absolutism. Are the minority not bound to absolute obedience, though the majority have absolute power? These are contradictory terms. But, as I have had repeated occasion to observe, and as we shall farther see in the chapter on Obedience of the Laws, absolute obedience is not only immoral but impossible. Absolutism, therefore, in whatever shape, falls to the ground.

CXVII. Where power lodges, thither flattery flows. The prince-I here use this word not only for monarchs, but as the Venetians were in the habit of using it of their large body of nobles, who jointly had the supreme power, of the powerholders in general, whoever they may be-the prince loves flattery. Let us always beware of it. Every one loves flattery -we too, if we have power. Power, it will be remembered, has an inherent tendency to absorb, increase, extend; and interested men will always be found in abundance to help along this tendency, because it is pleasing to power to increase. Every prince, used in the above sense, finds his courtier. Republics are not freer from base courtiers than monarchs. The power-holder finds always ready instruments; and we ought early to learn how to guard against the flattering insinuations of those who live in the wake of power.

Power loves to be flattered, the same flatteries are ever repeated. The Turkish conquerors, the Solymans, Mustaphas, Mahmouds, loved to hear their fury compared to the ire of God and the lightnings of the heavens; and we have seen already how the revenge of the French people in the first revolution was complacently or cunningly compared to vast natural phenomena. Demagogues are but courtiers, though the court dress of the one may consist in the soiled handkerchief of a Marat, that of the other in silk and hair-powder. The king of France was told in 1827, "The royal absolute power exists by natural right. Every engagement against this right is void. Thus the prince is not obliged to keep his oath;" and in America the people of a large state were lately urgently advised to break a solemn engagement, because they, the majority, had sovereign power. When Napoleon was at the summit of his power, the archbishop of Paris wrote to his bishops in a pastoral letter, "Servants of the altars, let us sanctify our words; let us hasten to surpass them by one word, in saying he [Napoleon] is the man of the right hand of God;" and one of the presidents of the

2

1 A. R. Dédilon, Coup-d'œil sur les Constitutions et les Parties en France, Lyons, 1827.

2 Goldsmith, Histoire secrète, page 130. Can the author have invented it? I only know it from that work. The bishop of Amiens says in his mandement, "The Almighty, having created Napoleon, rested from his labors." Fabre de l'Aude, president of the tribunal, said to Napoleon's mother, "The conception you have had, in carrying in your bosom the great Napoleon, was certainly nothing else than a divine inspiration." It is well for us fearlessly to see how far man is ever ready to err, as soon as opportunity offers. Shall we wonder that the Romans deified their emperors and worshipped their images? If power had such effect, so shortly after one of the bloodiest revolutions in the name of liberty, after the Christian religion had been professed for centuries, a religion which teaches that the mightiest emperor is but a sinful servant in the presence of God, should we be surprised that the Roman emperor was considered godlike by the subject, whose gods had abandoned him? (See chapters xii. and xiii. of Book II.)

It is not good, between individuals, to rake up past follies; it is noble not only to forgive but truly to forget. What is true of individuals holds likewise of nations. Not, therefore, to offend, I wish that some one would publish the most remarkable addresses made to Napoleon in and out of France: I wish it, that

United States (General Jackson) was told in a pamphlet that he was the actual representation and embodiment of the spirit of the American people, the personification of American democracy, that is, of the American nation.

we may have them as a mirror of ourselves; for is it not our own time which committed these guilty follies? No man can improve unless he reflect at times seriously on his past life; so it is with nations, with mankind.

CHAPTER XI.

Political Atony one of the greatest Evils.-The Ancient Tyrannies.- Variety of Means to Check the Abuse of Power.-Can Power be controlled ?-Who controls the controlling Power? - Constitutions. — Are Written Constitutions of any Value? Constitutions are Indispensable. - Various Reasons why and Circumstances when Written Constitutions are desirable or necessary. Division of Power; Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary. - Great Danger resulting from Confusion of these Branches, in Republics as much as in Monarchies.-Importance of the Separation of the Executive from the Legis. lature. Vast Importance of an Independent Judiciary.-What does Independent Judiciary mean? - The farther political Civilization advances, the more independent does the Judiciary become.

CXVIII. THE state requires power; without public power government cannot act, it cannot obtain its object, is unable to protect, and to enforce obedience to the laws; yet, on the other hand, all power has a tendency to increase. Without power, government, the laws themselves become despicable, political immorality and along with it all other immorality increases like a very cancer of society. This state of things may be called, borrowing a term from the healing art, atony, the necessary forerunner of a change of government either directly or by the intermediate state of anarchy, which I distinguish from the former by this, that atony is a state of general disregard of law from weakness, want of energy, a depression of the vital spirits of society; while by anarchy I would denote rather a chaotic stirring of the elements of society, open, forcible, avowed disregard of the laws, and of the principles of political society. Atony existed under the Merovingians, anarchy frequently in the feudal times. Atony exists in some parts of Turkey, anarchy in some parts of Spain.

If, on the other hand, power is permitted to go on increasing, it leads to despotism, by which is meant that state of the