“The community,” says he, “cannot have an interest opposite to its interests. To affirm this would be a contradiction in terms. The community within itself, and with respect to itself, can have no sinister interest. One community may intend the evil of another; never its own. This is an indubitable proposition, and one of great importance.” Mr. Mill then proceeds to demonstrate that a purely aristocratical form of government is necessarily bad. “_The reason for which government exists is, that one man, if stronger than another, will take from him whatever that other possesses and he desires. But if one man will do this, so will several. And if powers are put into the hands of a comparatively small number, called an aristocracy,--powers which make them stronger than the rest of the community, they will take from the rest of the community as much as they please of the objects {13}of desire. They will thus defeat the very end for whieh government was instituted. The unfitness, therefore, of an aristocracy to be intrusted with the powers of government, rests on demonstration_.” In exactly the same manner Mr. Mill proves absolute monarchy to be a bad form of government. “_If government is founded upon this as a law of human nature, that a man, if able, will take from others any thing which they have and he desires, it is sufficiently evident, that when a man is called a king he does not change his nature; so that when he has got power to enable him to take from every man whatever he pleases, he will take whatever he pleases. To suppose that he will not, is to affirm that government is unnecessary, and that human beings will abstain from injuring one another of their own accord. “It is very evident that this reasoning extends to every modification of the smaller number. Whenever the powers of government are placed in any hands other than those of the community, whether those of one man, of a few, or of several, those principles of human nature which imply that government is at all necessary, imply that those persons will make use of them to defeat the very end for which government exists._”