The interest, or apparent and supposed interest, of the
king or aristocracy is to permit no censure of themselves, at least in
any form which they may consider either to threaten their power, or
seriously to interfere with their free agency. The interest of the
people is that there should be full liberty of censure on every public
officer, and on every public act or measure. The interest of a
ruling class, whether in an aristocracy or an aristocratic monarchy,
is to assume to themselves an endless variety of unjust privileges,
sometimes benefiting their pockets at the expense of the people,
sometimes merely tending to exalt them above others, or, what is the
same thing in different words, to degrade others below themselves.
If the people are disaffected, which under such a government they
are very likely to be, it is the interest of the king or aristocracy
to keep them at a low level of intelligence and education, foment
dissensions among them, and even prevent them from being too well off,
lest they should "wax fat, and kick"; agreeably to the maxim of
Cardinal Richelieu in his celebrated Testament Politique. All these
things are for the interest of a king or aristocracy, in a purely
selfish point of view, unless a sufficiently strong counter-interest
is created by the fear of provoking resistance. All these evils have
been, and many of them still are, produced by the sinister interests
of kings and aristocracies, where their power is sufficient to raise
them above the opinion of the rest of the community; nor is it
rational to expect, as a consequence of such a position, any other
conduct.
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