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354 ON THE RISE, PROGRESS, ETC.ever prerogatives may be formally assignedto him.Whoever is chosen merely as regards his own person, mayalso be deposed byhis electors, however differentlyit maystand upon paper.It is otherwise with those who are elected to an hereditary crown.Such cases may occur by the actual extinction of thereigning house, by abdication, and so forth, where there isno one who has an hereditary claim. There are accidentswhich no human power or wisdom can prevent, and on theoccurrence of which, the best means which present themselves must be adopted, and thus election is often the only,or at least the most reasonable, expedient. But then, if thepower bestowed by election be made hereditary, the personwho receives it is at once raised above the people or theelectors, as the possessionof the throne is then no longer aprerogative of the person but of the dynasty. The name ofelective monarchies has therefore been very justly restrictedto those in which every vacancy of the throne is filledupby election. That such states are the most unhappily constituted, both as regards themselves and the other stateswith which they unite in forming a political system, thehistory of all times will show. Fortunately for Europe,elective monarchies have with the exception of the papalgovernment, the mode of election to which hardly entitlesit to the name entirely disappeared froril its system and;with them the danger of those general wars with which thevacancy of the kingly throne of Poland, or the imperial oneof Germany, was wont to threaten the continent.The inviolability of the sovereign,i. e. the principle thathe is not in person accountable, and cannot, therefore, bebrought to punishment, is implied, as a matter of course, intrue monarchies : for who in such monarchies is able to callhim to account? But if this should be included as an articlein any of our new constitutions, it would be either superfluous or absurd ; superfluous in a true monarchy absurdin a fictitious one, where the sovereigntyisreserved to thepeople, for it would be a contradiction to exempt a delegatefrom being accountable to his superiors. Nor is itany secretthat, notwithstanding all written declarations and .assurances,there is always in such states a way open for the deposition,imprisonment, and even execution of the prince.