It cannot be denied that such a system of government, in many respects, agreed with the principal wants of society and the country at that day. Still it must be carried out without precipitation, with caution, and a thorough knowledge of the country and the national character. Two points in this advice to the king deserve comment, however. In his opinion about the nobility, Struensee showed himself to be a man who had but slight confidence in himself, and was more competent to form great schemes than carry them out. A statesman displays his weakness when he shows a fear of that class of his fellow-citizens who are able to weigh his actions properly. In the hands of a wise regent and a clever minister the service of the nobility must be the principal support of the state, and not the object of ignoble apprehension. As regards Struensee's views about morality, and its influence in the welfare of the state, he was one of those sciolists who derive their principles neither from reason nor virtue, and who, under the deceptive mask of respect for the rights of society, give admission to the utmost irregularity. The general overthrow, which had not spared any class of officials, and had hurled the highest of them from office, aroused an indescribable alarm in every mind. The queen dowager quietly watched this terrible storm from a distance: her dissatisfaction at it was as uncertain as it was of little consequence; she merely made a point of meeting those persons, on whom the ruinous blows had fallen, with the greatest expressions of sympathy and friendship on every occasion. In the meanwhile, the young queen and her adviser enjoyed the advantages they had acquired; the confidential union and peace in which they lived was heightened by the most agreeable amusements, and their happy days were passed in undisturbed delight. Still they did not forget to insure the permanency of this state of things, and followed a very cleverly-devised plan. Struensee, whose far-sighted schemes aimed at getting the whole royal authority into his hands and the queen's, felt that this was impossible so long as the power was not brought into one hand, and that hand must be the king's. The king was certainly an absolute ruler, but there was a serious obstacle to the proposed scheme in the traditional respect felt for the council of state, which had grown, as it were, into a law of custom. Through Bernstorff's fall the council had certainly received a shock, but the earnest Thott, the experienced Moltke, and the clever Rosenkrantz, were still members of it, and possessed numerous partisans. The privy council aroused a certain degree of reverence, both because it was established on the introduction of absolutism into Denmark in 1660, and because it had always consisted of members of the highest aristocracy. Hence it seemed a serious matter to abolish it all at once, and Struensee, therefore, resolved upon an expedient.