great monarchical whole; and hence again arose a new force tending both to maintain the form, and to predetermine the march, of kingly government.[12] And it has been found in practice possible to attain this latter object,—to combine regal government with fixity of administration, equal law impartially executed, security to person and property, and freedom of discussion under representative forms,—in a degree which the wisest ancient Greek would have deemed hopeless.[13] Such an improvement in the practical working of this species of government, speaking always comparatively with the kings of ancient times in Syria, Egypt, Judæa, the Grecian cities, and Rome,—coupled with the increased force of all established routine, and the greater durability of all institutions and creeds which have once obtained footing throughout any wide extent of territory and people, has caused the monarchical sentiment to remain predominant in the European mind, though not without vigorous occasional dissent, throughout the increased knowledge and the enlarged political experience of the last two centuries. [9] See this subject discussed in the admirable collection of letters, called the Federalist, written in 1787, during the time when the federal constitution of the United States of America was under discussion.—Letters 9, 10, 14, by Mr. Madison. “Il est de la nature d’une république (says Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, viii, 16) de n’avoir qu’un petit territoire: sans cela, elle ne peut guère subsister.” [10] David Hume, in his Essay xii (vol. i, p. 159, ed. 1760), after remarking “that all kinds of government, free and despotic, seem to have undergone in modern times (_i. e._ as compared with ancient) a great change for the better, with regard both to foreign and domestic management,” proceeds to say:—