Under the Dcmocratical form, public virtue, pervading the hearts and conduct of the whole body of the people, is the animating and sustaining principle. Every selfish and exclusive purpose must be relinquished by the individual ; and his country, its glory, and its happiness, must take en tire possession of his breast. Proud distinction for popu lar government! and happy the people among whom it is established, if the principle were a sure consequence of the form ! Under an Aristocracy, (and as a distinct principle is as cribed to it, we have here a further indication that it con stitutes a fourth form, altogether different from a Demo cracy, with which the celebrated writer we have alluded to had classed it,) moderation, as well on the part of the few who govern, as of the many who obey, is the principle. lf, among the former, any individual aspire to an over-ruling share of power, a tendency to the Monarchical or to the Despotic form, immediately arises; and if, among the lat ter, a sense of public rights, a spirit of patriotism, a dis position to interfere with the government, should appear, a tendency emerges in favour of Democracy.
Under the Monarchical form, the preserving principle is said to be honour. The word is abundantly vague and illusory, because the thing signified is commonly so also; but here it seems to import, that each individual of a nu merous nobility, (for a Monarchy, in the sense or Montes quieu, implies a nobility,— no nobles, no king,) as well as the whole order considered as a separate'body, and even each individual of the people, as well as the separate class es of which they may be composed, are constantly actuat ed by a jealousy for their respective and exclusive interests and consequence. Ever jostling in the pursuit of these objects ; ever suspicious of mutual encroachments ; and, at the same time, alike intent upon securing a portion of the royal favour, through one or other of the many chan nels in which, in a Monarchy so nearly absolute, it always abundantly flows, they become at once the vigilant instru ments of their own controul, and the vain-glorious yet sub missive dependants of the sovereign. Without a suffrage in the enactment of laws, and deriving from the constitu tion little power of restraint over the direction of affairs, they are almost necessarily unconscious of any principle of a pure and disinterested patriotism. The envied dis tinction of the prince's approbation,—preferment, emolu ments, honours, become the chief incitement to their pub lic exertions : and if thus they are not the legitimate ob jects of moral approbation, they often achieve deeds at once illustrious in themselves and beneficial to their country, as the proper means of acquiring the royal distinctions to which they aspire.—The government which has been so lately annihilated in France, as. well as the more ancient monarchy, and several of the other governments of the continent of Europe, sufficiently illustrate and justify this description.
Fear, on the part of the people, is the dismal principle by which a Despotism must be maintained: nor need any thing further be added to indicate that system of sangui nary and incessant cruelty, which, on the part of the prince, becomes necessary to uphold his unhallowed empire.
These observations, as well on the primary forms of go vernment, as on the principles on which they chiefly de pend for their maintenance, are elementary, and could not with propriety, in a work of this nature, be passed over in silence. But, in contemplating the subject further, we are
at a loss to determine under what particular aspect to re gard it. When the various combinations of which these primary forms are susceptible, both with one another, and with their respective principles, are considered ; the in finite varieties in the modification of the most simple as well as complex system of government,—arising from a narrower or more extended territory,—from insular or continental, maritime or inland situation,—a thinly scatter ed or crowded population,—the religious ceremonies and dogmas of the people, and the nature of their ecclesiasti cal establishment,—the constantly progressive or retrograde state of their morals, manners, and intellectual habits,— their warlike or peaceful, commercial or agricultural ge nius,—the character 'of the political institutions of the neighbouring states with which they have their principal intercou•se,—the accidents of talent or imbecility, disin terested purpose or selfish emolument and aggrandise ment, which may influence alike the conduct of the exe cutive and legislative members of the government,—and the innumerable other circumstances which conspire to the same infinite variety of modification,—thought is be wildered in the complexity of the subject, and finds all at tempt at detail utterly overwhelming and impracticable. To deduce, with any degree of exactness, the particulars which truly and accurately characterize even the most celebrated governments of ancient or of modern times, would he an undertaking sufficiently appalling from its magnitude, and sufficiently hazardous flow the obscurity in which the information to be derived on such subjects seems inevitably to be involved. Nay, to attempt a clear and satisfactory delineation of our own government, on the nature of which full and accurate information might be supposed to be the most accessible, would be bold, per haps presumptuous. For how has it fluctuated, by a thousand minute or more extensive gradations, throughout the greater period of its history! and though, since the days of William III. it has acquired a more balanced mo tion, and assumed an infinitely more regular and majestic form, yet how great the diversity of parts of which it is composed ! how varied, and often delicate, the machinery by which it is impelled! and how numerous the interfering considerations necessary for giving it a safe and steady di rection But amidst a speculation so complex and embarrassing, some general views present themselves of a more manage able nature, and of a universal and paramount interest. Of these, an investigation of the rule by which the legitimacy of all governments shall be tried, which shall serve at once as the measure of lawful authority on the part of the sove reign, and of obedience on that of the people, seems the most important. It is a subject unquestionably of some delicacy, but infinitely less so than, in some countries, the mercenary partizans of usurped power,—and, in others, the mistaken and narrow-sighted zeal of many sincere friends to order,—would represent it; whilst the advan tages to liberty, of preserving it constantly in the public view, are incalculable. Under arbitrary governments, such discussions (when, indeed, they can be avowed at all) are justly alarming to the existing authorities ; but under a constitution like that of Great Britain, they are its worst enemies, and but little acquainted with its real nature, who would regard the subject as dangerous.