For these several reasons, kingly government, free from the
control (though perhaps strengthened by the support) of representative
institutions, is the most suitable form of polity for the earliest
stages of any community, not excepting a city-community like those
of ancient Greece: where, accordingly, the government of kings,
under some real but no ostensible or constitutional control by
public opinion, did historically precede by an unknown and probably
great duration all free institutions, and gave place at last, during a
considerable lapse of time, to oligarchies of a few families.
A hundred other infirmities or short-comings in a people might be
pointed out, which pro tanto disqualify them from making the best
use of representative government; but in regard to these it is not
equally obvious that the government of One or a Few would have any
tendency to cure or alleviate the evil. Strong prejudices of any kind;
obstinate adherence to old habits; positive defects of national
character, or mere ignorance, and deficiency of mental cultivation, if
prevalent in a people, will be in general faithfully reflected in
their representative assemblies: and should it happen that the
executive administration, the direct management of public affairs,
is in the hands of persons comparatively free from these defects, more
good would frequently be done by them when not hampered by the
necessity of carrying with them the voluntary assent of such bodies.
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