i EARLY LIFE 23 



to expect that any such government will ever be estab- 

 lished in Great Britain, upon the dissolution of our mon- 

 archy ? If any single person acquire power enough to take 

 our constitution to pieces and put it up anew, he is really 

 an absolute monarch ; and we have already had an instance 

 of this kind, sufficient to convince us, that such a person 

 will never resign his power, or establish any free govern- 

 ment. Matters, therefore, must be trusted to their natural 

 progress and operation ; and the House of Commons, 

 according to its present constitution, must be the only 

 legislature in such a popular government. The incon- 

 veniences attending such a situation of affairs present 

 themselves by thousands. If the House of Commons, in 

 such a case, ever dissolve itself, which is not to be ex- 

 pected, we may look for a civil war every election. If it 

 continue itself, we shall suffer all the tyranny of a faction sub- 

 divided into new factions. And, as such a violent govern- 

 ment cannot long subsist, we shall at last, after many con- 

 vulsions and civil wars, find repose in absolute monarchy, 

 which it would have been happier for us to have estab- 

 lished peaceably from the beginning. Absolute monarchy, 

 therefore, is the easiest death, the true Euthanasia of the 

 British constitution. 



" Thus, if we have more reason to be jealous of mon- 

 archy, because the danger is more imminent from that 

 quarter; we have also reason to be more jealous of popular 

 government, because that danger is more terrible. This 

 may teach us a lesson of moderation in all our political 

 controversies." (III. 55.) 



One may admire the sagacity of these specula- 

 tions, and the force and clearness with which they 

 are expressed, without altogether agreeing with 

 them. That an analogy between the social and 

 bodily organism exists, and is, in many respects, 

 clear and full of instructive suggestion, is undeni- 



