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Monarchy defended. A treatise for revolutionary times
Monarchy defended A treatise for revolutionary times Author:John Vickers Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: streets and public monuments; to harass the country by urging it in a direction contrary to that in which it has hitherto gone; to unflinchingly put in practice ... more »abstract doctrines, unknown or condemned by experience ; to make light of obstacles and to crush opposition,—such is government by the revolutionary method, and a careful reproduction of the precedents set by the Great Revolution." II.—Simple And Complex Societies. To say that Monarchy is a great incubus on the shoulders of an industrial community, a mere national encumbrance, and that mankind would be greatly benefited by having all their monarchical systems clean swept away, is certainly a rash statement, even for an ardent Republican. In social organizations, as in those of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, nature never works without a purpose; there is no permanent development of force which can be considered accidental or unnecessary : if we examine a great many individuals, and still find each furnished with the same organic contrivance, we may reasonably presume this to be a useful provision, which cannot be eliminated without detriment. The very fact of a form of government having subsisted for so many ages, having weathered so many revolutionary storms, and being at this day so generally prevalent throughout the civilized world, is the all-sufficing proof of its being adapted to the wants of mankind. Monarchism is not merely a successful politicalsuperstition, originating with one nation or race, and making its way by proselytizing enthusiasm till it has overspread half the globe: it is a government arrangement which has sprung up independently in every quarter, and has commended itself to the common sense of all the nations and races of the earth. Egyptians, Assyrians, Jews, Greeks, Romans, Teutons, Arabs,...« less