"So great is the force of laws and of particular forms of
government, and so little dependence have they on the humours and
tempers of men, that consequences almost as general and certain may
sometimes be deduced from them as any which the mathematical
sciences afford us."--(III. 15.) (_See_ p. 45.)
Hume proceeds to exemplify the evils which inevitably flow from
universal suffrage, from aristocratic privilege, and from elective
monarchy, by historical examples, and concludes:--
"That an hereditary prince, a nobility without vassals, and a
people voting by their representatives, form the best monarchy,
aristocracy, and democracy."--(III. 18.)
If we reflect that the following passage of the same essay was written
nearly a century and a half ago, it would seem that whatever other
changes may have taken place, political warfare remains _in statu
quo_:--
"Those who either attack or defend a minister in such a government
as ours, where the utmost liberty is allowed, always carry matters
to an extreme, and exaggerate his merit or demerit with regard to
the public. His enemies are sure to charge him with the greatest
enormities, both in domestic and foreign management; and there is
no meanness or crime, of which, in their judgment, he is not
capable. Unnecessary wars, scandalous treaties, profusion of public
treasure, oppressive taxes, every kind of maladministration is
ascribed to him.
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