Page:The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.djvu/64

 ON THE ADVANTAGES OF A MONARCHY.

The monarchical form of government has the advantages of energy for external purposes, as well as of simplicity in execution. It is prompt and efficient in attack. Its legislation is ready, emanating from a single will, and it has the means of respecting treaties with more fidelity than other systems.

As laws are framed on general principles, they sometimes work evil in particular cases, and in a government of the will, the remedy is applied with more facility than in a government of law.

In a monarchy, men are ruled without their own agency, and as their time is not required for the supervision or choice of the public agents, or the enactment of laws, their attention may be exclusively given to their personal interests. Could this advantage be enjoyed without the abuses of such a state of things, it would alone suffice to render this form of government preferable to all others, since contact with the affairs of state is one of the most corrupting of the influences to which men are exposed.

As a monarchy recedes from absolutism, and takes the character of constitutionality, it looses these advantages to a certain extent, assuming more of those of legality.