and the dignity of the realm towards his subjects; and to reward useful arts and suffering merit.9 He must be able to leave the realm in quietness to his heir; in an elective empire every election weakens the reins of the prince, until there remains nothing more than the external splendour of the throne.97

"The person of the king must be sacred, secured against all molestation, and protected by the laws against all violence, as on his preservation rests the tranquillity of the state; the the agressor of his king offends the majesty of the whole people, as he represents the dignity of the whole society.98

"But the laws alone must protect the king. He cannot administer justice for himself; his power would be too far superior to that of every citizen; he would soon be a despot and a tyrant, if he could punish, if he could seize the goods or the person of him by whom he believes himself offended.99 He should be, of course, protected by the laws against the attacks of the slanderous, who shake deeper than is believed the pillars of the government, by withdrawing the confidence of the people from him who is charged with the general welfare. Slowly the calumniators stir the fire, which at last becomes

general, and, when the minds of the greater part of the nation are prejudiced, breaks out into an all-consuming flame; and never is a prince overthrown without the state being weakened, and many thousands becoming miserable. 100

"It is an afflicting acknowledgment, but the history of the world sufficiently proves it, that a bad prince has greater power, and is more protected, than a good one. The virtuous prince is blackened without danger, and rendered suspicious to his people; he suffers what can possibly be suffered, but when he can no longer prolong his patience, he calls, but too late, on the slow assistance of the law, from which he receives no relief; when once a great number of citizens are prejudiced, they wish a diminution of his power. A bad prince finds in all constitutions sufficient means to win the laws through the judges; 101 to purchase the fearful by the example of his revenge; the greedy, by the dissipation of treasures; and the ambitious, by raising him in honour. 102 He uses means which the virtuous disdain, but which effect the corruption of men with infallible power. It is therefore necessary that the laws protect the good king, and maintain him in veneration in the eyes of the nation, and suppress, by punishment, the voice of unbridled calumny. The more free the

people the greater necessity for this protection, without which, it is impossible for the king to preserve the power which is necessary to hold the reins of government."

Alfred smiled. "Amund seems to provide for my fame after death; but will he then silence the punishing voice of truth, that voice which raises itself against bad princes, and warns the citizen to oppose attacks against the general security and the increase of a dangerous power?"103

"The actions of a bad prince," said Amund, "would speak louder against him than the tongue of hatred. If the principles are unshakably based, if the conditions by which the king is bound are well secured, if the potency of the other powers of the realm are exactly defined, no prince will be able to increase his authority, or raise himself above the laws without offending the other powers of the state, nor violate the boundaries of law without its being seen, even by the lowest citizen. The worst princes are the least calumniated, inevitable vengeance suppresses the complaints, even of the oppressed.

"But the more silent a people remains, the more it feels; and there is a limit which the prince cannot

transgress without arming against himself every other power of the realm, and without being unavoidably hurled from the throne.104 It were not difficult for me to name more than one prince who punished an accidental word with a fine of two thousand pounds of gold,105 and open complaints even with mutilation; and in whose realm no other voice was heard than that of flattery. But when he attacked the fundamental laws of the country, the tyrant suddenly fell, by the combined forces of all those parties who had previously pursued each other, but who soon united against the general oppressor."

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Amund," said the wise Alfred, "here starts a difficult question. When does the king begin to forfeit his right to the throne? where is the boundary he must transgress, that his people should attain the right of hurling him from the throne? Amund forgets that the faults of a prince differ extremely in magnitude, and that even the people is not an enlightened judge, who can justly weigh these faults. If the people will resent the slightest fault of the prince, no government will be. firm, for every prince commits faults; and prejudice or interest may point out to the people faults in the prince, which in reality are virtues. If we admit a convention between the prince and the people, giving the former the right to govern so long as he fulfils the

conditions; and the people the right to withdraw their obedience, so soon as these are not exactly complied with by the ruler; and if that convention be the fundamental law of all governments, I pity the prince who ascends such a tottering throne. I pity the people, who is continually forced to purchase, by violence and bloodshed, the downfal of one prince and the election of another, of whom sufficient reasons would soon be found to overthrow him, like the former

one.

"If, on the contrary, the prince can oppress his people with impunity; if, under the pretence of a general peace, nobody can oppose his acts of violence; if he tears to himself, by dreadful taxes, the most necessary subsistence of the poor, and lets his citizens starve-all for the purpose of satisfying his desires; if he seizes, arbitrarily, the lives of his subjects, incarcerates them without a trial, and executes, through bribed judges, unconvicted; if he attacks the honour and dignity of the best citizens, voluntarily destroys the ancestorial courts of justice; if he reluctantly admits, and punishes by branding the representations of working truth, shall then millions be miserable because one mortal is unjust? Has the Supreme Governor created those millions for one man only? Shall the happiness of so many thousands be counterbalanced by the foolish will