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OF POLITICAL THEORIES. 361The voice of those who demand constitutional governments is become too loud to be silenced without danger.But at the same time there is no doubt but that expectationsare entertained which no change in the forms of the statesthemselves can satisfy.Those who have speculated upon the forms of constitutional government, and set up new maxims of their own,ought at the same time to have learnt to estimate thoseforms at their true value. They should have shown whatthey admit of being, and of producing. But in rejectingthis course, in giving themselves up without reserve to theirmetaphysical speculations, they have originated and constantly kept up the error, that every thing depends uponthese forms ;and that from them, and not from the spirit ofthe government and of the administration, the welfare orruin of states must proceed.And thus it has become moreand more customary to consider the state as a machine;and whilst men speak of the machine of state> they havefallen into the dangerous mistake of supposing that thismachine may, like any other, be taken to pieces and puttogether againat will.They forget that not only mechanical but moral powersare at work in it ! What are state forms themselves beyondany other empty forms ? What more are theyif Imay betions should be adopted by the federate states of Germany. But the article(the 13th of the Act of Confederation) was so vaguely worded as to admit ofalmost any latitude of meaning ;and accordingly different expositions of itwere made and supported by different princes ; many of which, as may bebelieved, tended to the continuance of their own authority. See RUSSEL'SGermany, i. 108. The list, however, of those states whose rulers have eitheradopted or had thrust upon them the liberal meaning of the article, is nowpretty large, and embraces Bavaria, Wirtemberg, Hanover, Baden, the GrandDuchy of Hesse, Brunswick, Nassau, Mecklenburg, Saxe Weimar, etc. Ofthese, Saxe Weimar was the first to receive the boon, although from Russel'samusing description its value does not appear to have been very fully appreciated by the people.All these constitutions, (to quote the words of Heeren himself, in the newedition of his Manual,) " Notwithstanding many modifications, in respectboth of the organization and the greater or less publicity of their transactions,have hitherto coincided in the following points:1st, The monarchical principle has every where been upheld, in the mode of conferring constitutionsby the rulers, and by a just determination of their rights in relation to thestates. 2ndly, The assembly of the states consists of two chambers. Srdly,To these is allotted their proper part in the legislation, especially with regardto taxation."The 13th article, therefore, does not appear to have been wholly inoperabut it must be remembered that the act which contains it, also containstive ;provisions for the Diet of Frankfort. TR.]