But
what reason have we to expect that any such government will ever be
established in Great Britain, upon the dissolution of our monarchy?
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 government. 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 inconveniences 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 expected, we may look for a civil war every election. If it
continue itself, we shall suffer all the tyranny of a faction
subdivided into new factions. And, as such a violent government
cannot long subsist, we shall at last, after many convulsions and
civil wars, find repose in absolute monarchy, which it would have
been happier for us to have established 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 monarchy, 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.
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