his scheme: our keenest thinkers will combine in elaborating
it. Every social and technical achievement of our age and of the more
advanced age which will be reached before the slow execution of my
plan is accomplished must be employed for this object. Every valuable
invention which exists now, or lies in the future, must be used. By
these means a country can be occupied and a State founded in a manner
as yet unknown to history, and with possibilities of success such, as
never occurred before.

CONSTITUTION

One of the great commissions which the Society will have to appoint
will be the council of State jurists. These must formulate the best,
that is, the best modern constitution possible. I believe that a good
constitution should be of moderately elastic nature. In another work I
have explained in detail what forms of government I hold to be the
best. I think a democratic monarchy and an aristocratic republic are
the finest forms of a State, because in them the form of State and the
principle of government are opposed to each other, and thus preserve a
true balance of power. I am a staunch supporter of monarchial
institutions, because these allow of a continuous policy, and
represent the interests of a historically famous family born and
educated to rule, whose desires are bound up with the preservation of
the State. But our history has been too long interrupted for us to
attempt direct continuity of ancient constitutional forms, without
exposing ourselves to the charge of absurdity.

A democracy without a sovereign's useful counterpoise is extreme in
appreciation and condemnation, tends to idle discussion in Parliaments,
and produces that objectionable class of men--professional politicians.
Nations are also really not fit for unlimited democracy at present, and
will become less and less fitted for it in the future. For a pure
democracy presupposes a predominance of simple customs, and our customs
become daily more complex with the growth of commerce and increase of
culture. "_Le ressort d'une democratic est la vertu_," said wise
Montesquieu. And where is this virtue, that is to say, this political
virtue, to be met with? I do not believe in our political virtue;
first, because we are no better than the rest of modern humanity; and,
secondly, because freedom will make us show our fighting qualities at
first. I also hold a settling of questions by the referendum to be an
unsatisfactory procedure, because there are