“But though all kinds of government be improved in modern times, yet monarchical government seems to have made the greatest advances towards perfection. It may now be affirmed of civilized monarchies, what was formerly said in praise of republics alone, that they are a government of laws, not of men. They are found susceptible of order, method, and constancy to a surprising degree. Property is there secure; industry encouraged; the arts flourish; and the prince lives secure among his subjects, like a father among his children. There are, perhaps, and have been for two centuries, near two hundred absolute princes, great and small, in Europe; and allowing twenty years to each reign, we may suppose that there have been in the whole two thousand monarchs, or tyrants, as the Greeks would have called them; yet of these there has not been one, not even Philip the Second of Spain, so bad as Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Domitian, who were four in twelve amongst the Roman emperors. It must, however, be confessed, that though monarchical governments have approached nearer to popular ones in gentleness and stability, they are still much inferior. Our modern education and customs instil more humanity and moderation than the ancient, but have not as yet been able to overcome entirely the disadvantages of that form of government.” [11] See the Lectures of M. Guizot, Cours d’Histoire Moderne, Leçon 30, vol. iii, p. 187, edit. 1829. [12] M. Augustin Thierry observes, Lettres sur l’Histoire de France, Lettre xvi, p. 235:— “Sans aucun souvenir de l’histoire Grecque ou Romaine, les bourgeois des onzième et douzième siècles, soit que leur ville fut sous la seigneurie d’un roi, d’un comte, d’un duc, d’un évêque ou d’une abbaye, allaient droit à la république: mais la réaction du pouvoir établi les rejetait souvent en arrière. Du balancement de ces deux forces opposées résultait pour la ville une sort de gouvernement mixte, et c’est ce qui arriva, en général, dans le nord de la France, comme le prouvent les chartes de commune.” Even among the Italian cities, which became practically self-governing, and produced despots as many in number and as unprincipled in character as the Grecian (I shall touch upon this comparison more largely hereafter), Mr. Hallam observes, that “the sovereignty of the emperors, though not very effective, was in theory always admitted: their name was used in public acts and appeared upon the coin.”—View of the Middle Ages, part i, ch. 3, p. 346, sixth edit.