This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1853 edition. Excerpt: ... of opposite evils. Nothing can be more absurd, nothing more liable to produce serious misfortunes, than the succession to supreme power of one i whom neither worth nor capacity fits for the station, and whom a court education most probably renders still less virtuous and able than nature had made him. Nevertheless, the dangers which are sure to result from suffering the place of chief magistrate to be played for by intriguing, or fought for by ambitious men, whose partisans will assuredly convulse the country with their conflicts, are so formidable as to make reflecting persons overlook all lesser risks in the apprehension of the worst of calamities, civil war. This is the redeeming quality of monarchy; it is far enough from leaving the question all one way, but upon the balance it gives a great gain. The question may not be decided for all countries and all stages of society, between a commonwealth, where the chief magistrate must be elective, and a monarchy, Where he must be hereditary; but in the present state of society, or at least in the state of society where monarchy has hitherto been established, the risk of civil war does appear to determine that question. Wherever men are so ill-informed respecting their own interests, their duties, and their rights, as to reckon the person or the family of the sovereign the most important of all subjects of controversy, the rule of hereditary succession is the only security against that risk; and no state can safely have any form of government which we term monarchical without adopting this rule---for if the people have become wise enough to avoid splitting into parties and fighting for who shall be king, they are wise enough to govern themselves, and_the great use of monarchy is at an end....