PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

or et'en by the la\Vles5 wiil of an arbitrary monarch;
from whose knowledge, and from whose injustice,
the.greati"St part of his .:.ubjec!S are re~o\"'ed by their
d~stance, or concealed b}· theIr obscunty.
Europe eKhibits more [han one modern example,
where the people, aggric\-ed by the exa~tions, or
provoked by the enormities, of their immediate
superiors, have joined with the reigning prince in the
overthrow of the arl!'tocracy, deliberately exchanging
their condirion for the miseries of despnti~m. About
the middle of the last century, the- commons of Denmark,
weary of the oppre~ons which they had long
suffered from the nobles, and exasperated b}~ some
?'ecent in ,ults, pr6e..1J.tcd them~elves at the foot of
:he throne, with a formal offer of their consent to
establish unlimited dominion in the khig. The revolution
in Sweden, still more lately brought about
with the acquiescence~ not (0 t;ay the assistance of the
people j owed its success to the sanle cause, namely,
to the prospect of deliverance, that it afforded, from
the tyranny which their nobles exerc.ised under the
old constitution. In England the people beheld the
.depression of the Barons~ under the house of Tudor,
~.",ith $ atisfacrion, although they saw the crown
acquiring thereby a po\\yer, \\·hich no limitations~
i.hat the cOll2titutioa had then provided, were likely
to confine~ The lesson to be drawn from such events
is this, that a nUxed govcrnnlent, \\~hich admits a
patrician order into its con ,utution, ought to circumscribe
the p~rsonal pri\:ileges of the nobility, especially
claims ot" hereditary jurisdiction and local authority,
with a jealousy equal to the solicitude with which
it wishes its own preservation.
For nothing so
alienates the minds of the people fram the government
under which they live) by a perpetual sense of
annoyance and inconveniency ; or so prepares them
for the pactices of an enterpr:sing prince or a fae ..
bOUS demagog·ue, as . the abuse which almost always
accompanies the existence of separate immunities.
Amongst the inferior, but by no means inconsiderhIe
advantagei of J.DEMOCRATIC ccnstitlition, or of a