HISTORY OF VERMONT. 245 



human race. By placing the rulers in a situa- 

 tion altogether unnatural, that is, above all sense 

 of accountability to their fellow men, it has pro- 

 duced that constant, steady, and universal abuse 

 of power, which, in every part of the globe, has 

 been the distinguishing and certain effect of 

 this form of government. Its spirit and prin- 

 ciple have every where been the same ; not the 

 honour which the great Montesquieu wished to 

 ascribe to it, and wanted to find in it, but that 

 total want of regard and accountability to man, 

 which, with great accuracy and propriety, has 

 been lately named a contempt of the people. 



The empire of Peru was formed and govern- 

 ed by a species of monarchy, different from 

 what has ever taken place among any other 

 people. Twelve successive monarchs, for a 

 period of more than four hundred years, had 

 been invested with hereditary and absolute 

 power. They claimed this authority, not as 

 derived to them in any manner or degree from 

 the people, but as the absolute and exclusive 

 donation of heaven. They announced them- 

 selves to be the children of the sun, and clothed 

 with divine and unlimited power to direct all 

 the civil and religious affairs of the people. The 

 sovereign Avas named Inca ; and so sacred and 

 pure were the family of the Inca's, in the minds 

 of the people, that they were universally esteem- 

 ed incapable of committing a crime, or falling 

 into an errour : No other family might many 

 or mingle with it, for fear of polluting the heav- 

 enly blood. The people looked up to them, as 

 to beings of a superior and heavenly race : And 

 all disobedience to them, was viewed not barely 



VOL. J. G 2 



