Chapter 3
That the ideally best Form of Government is Representative
Government.
IT HAS long (perhaps throughout the entire duration of British
freedom) been a common saying, that if a good despot could be ensured,
despotic monarchy would be the best form of government. I look upon
this as a radical and most pernicious misconception of what good
government is; which, until it can be got rid of, will fatally vitiate
all our speculations on government.
The supposition is, that absolute power, in the hands of an
eminent individual, would ensure a virtuous and intelligent
performance of all the duties of government. Good laws would be
established and enforced, bad laws would be reformed; the best men
would be placed in all situations of trust; justice would be as well
administered, the public burthens would be as light and as judiciously
imposed, every branch of administration would be as purely and as
intelligently conducted, as the circumstances of the country and its
degree of intellectual and moral cultivation would admit. I am
willing, for the sake of the argument, to concede all this; but I must
point out how great the concession is; how much more is needed to
produce even an approximation to these results than is conveyed in the
simple expression, a good despot. Their realisation would in fact
imply, not merely a good monarch, but an all-seeing one.
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