; but whether it will nourish the avarice of their
merchants, or the piratical spirit of their navy, or produce any other
effect which may strengthen them in their places. As to engagements,
however positive, entered into by the predecessors of the Ins, why, they
were their enemies; they did every thing which was wrong; and to reverse
every thing they did, must, therefore, be right. This is the true
character of the English government in practice, however different
its theory; and it presents the singular phenomenon of a nation, the
individuals of which are as faithful to their private engagements and
duties, as honorable, as worthy, as those of any nation on earth, and
whose government is yet the most unprincipled at this day known. In
an absolute government there can be no such equiponderant parties.
The despot is the government. His power, suppressing all opposition,
maintains his ministers firm in their places. What he has contracted,
therefore, through them, he has the power to observe with good faith;
and he identifies his own honor and faith with that of his nation.

When I observed, however, that the King of England was a cipher, I did
not mean to confine the observation to the mere individual now on that
throne. The practice of Kings marrying only into the families of Kings,
has been that of Europe for some centuries. Now, take any race of
animals, confine them in idleness and inaction, whether in a sty, a
stable, or a state-room, pamper them with high diet, gratify all their
sexual appetites, immerse them in sensualities, nourish their passions,
let every thing bend before them, and banish whatever might lead them to
think, and in a few generations they become all body, and no mind: and
this, too, by a law of nature, by that very law by which we are in the
constant practice of changing the characters and propensities of the
animals we raise for our own purposes. Such is the regimen in raising
Kings, and in this way they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe,
I often amused myself with contemplating the characters of the then
reigning sovereigns of Europe. Louis the XVI. was a fool, of my own
knowledge, and in despite of the answers made for him at his trial.
The King of Spain was a fool, and of Naples the same. They passed their
lives in hunting, and despatched two couriers a week, one thousand
miles, to let each other know what game they had killed the preceding
days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All