Page:Conventional Lies of our Civilization.djvu/113

Rh form of government. Russia and Turkey are the only countries in Europe with absolute monarchies, and this, as I have mentioned before, is the only logical form of the monarchical institution. All the remaining European countries, except such as are republics, have combined with the monarchical form of government some constitutional forms which are diametrically opposed to it and in perpetual contradiction with it. A limited monarchy condemns every one who takes part in the farce, to an everlasting hypocrisy, and causes them to act a perpetual lie.

In those countries where the Parliament is a truth, and the monarch is only a figure-head, patiently endured, as in England, Belgium and Italy, the laws and decrees proclaim lies, when they are issued as manifestations of the royal will, for they are the results of the. Parliament's will and take effect whether the king accepts them or not. The Cabinet ministers lie when they make use of the customary phrases; "On behalf of His Majesty we recommend," "By His Majesty's command," "We have the honor to recommend to His Majesty so and so," for they know, and every one knows, that the king has not recommended or commanded any thing of the kind, and that the "so and so" recommended to him, is usually an established fact before they lay it before him, entirely independent of his wish or decision. Every one knows too, that the monarch is obliged in reality to obey without question the designs and decisions of the Parliament and Cabinet. The king lies in every word of his address to Parliament when it assembles, if he speaks in the first person, for the address is not at all the expression of his own sentiments, but a document whose composition is due entirely to others, who place it, when finished, in his hands, and he reads it as a phonograph repeats the