DES'POTISM, a form of government where the monarch rules by his solo and uncontrolled authority. In popular lan guage, all governments are called des potical that are administered by one in dividual whose decisions are not con trolled by any representative assembly or recognized subordinate authbrities. Thus, we are in the habit of saying that the emperors of Austria and Russia and the king of Prussia are despotical or ab solute sovereigns; meaning by this, that all legislative and executive measures seem to proceed from their free will. But the abstract idea of despotism goes farther than ; and means a government by a single individual with unlimited power over the lives and fortunes of his subjects. The prophet Daniel, in his description of the Babylonian monarch Nebuchadnez zar, has given what is perhaps the best account of this species of government. "All people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him : whom he would lie slew, and whom he would he kept alive: whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down." But though this gives a vivid idea of what is understood by a pure despotism, it can be regarded only as a popular, or rather poetical account, of a government where the sovereign is possessed of great power. The truth is, that a purely despotical government never had, and never can have, any existence in fact. How abso lute or despotical soever, all sovereigns must conduct their government so as to procure the concurrence and support of a large, or, at all events, a powerful por tion of their subjects. A despot is, after all, merely an individual, and becomes quite powerless When those masses of in dividuals, in whom the ability to coerce others really resides, disapprove of his proceedings. The prretorinu bands is. an tiquity, the Janissaries of Constantinople, and the grenadiers of Petersburg, must, at least, be led by opinion. But though the sanction of the instruments employed in his government be indispensable to the existence of a despot, it is but seldom that he dares trust to it only. The most ab solute awl tyrannical of the Roman em perors, when they wished to get rid of any obnoxious individual, dared not to order hint to he executed, but were obliged to suborn false evidence, and to proceed against him according to legal forms: and so it is in all countries. Were the
most absolute sovereign of whom we have any certain accounts openly to seize on the property of any individual in his do minions, or to put bin, to death, without being able to assign some apparently sat isfactory grounds for doing so, the founda tions of his power would be shaken to the very centre ; and the repetition of such conduct would most likely occasion his deposition. The strength of absolute gov ernments, when they embark in oppres sive courses, depends on their being able to conceal or pervert the real facts of the case, so that the victims of their tyranny may he made to appear to be the victims of their justice. We may he assured that no ruler of any country emerged from the merest barbarism ever could, fur any con siderable period, openly commit on his own responsibility any gross injustice to wards any considerable portion of his subjects. Those who have done so have rarely, if ever, failed to expiate their fol ly and tyranny by some signal punish ment. N cif her the government of Prus sia nor Austria, nor even that of Russia, can be justly called despotical. Their rulers are controlled to a very great ex tent by the force of public opinion ; and are influenced by a much more lively feeling of responsibility than the sover eigns of limited monarchies, or of coun tries in which the legislative functions are divided. It is this fear of their subjects that makes them so anxious, by laying restrictions on the freedom of the press, to conceal their conduct, or to obtain a favorable judgment upon it. There can be no despotism, nor any considerable ap proach towards despotical government, where the press is free and the people in structed ; and it is to their influence in securing the freedom of the press, and consequently in enlightening public opin ion, and making the bulk of the people acquainted with their real interests, that the advantage of representative assem blies and of a popular form of govern ment is mainly to be found.