iginal Constitution, and think
it, as I do, substantially a good one, I do not amuse you in this, more
than in other things, with any inventions of mine. A certain
intemperance of intellect is the disease of the time, and the source of
all its other diseases. I will keep myself as untainted by it as I can.
Your architects build without a foundation. I would readily lend an
helping hand to any superstructure, when once this is effectually
secured,--but first I would say, [Greek: Dos pou sto].

You think, Sir, (and you might think rightly, upon the first view of the
theory,) that to provide for the exigencies of an empire so situated and
so related as that of France, its king ought to be invested with powers
very much superior to those which the king of England possesses under
the letter of our Constitution. Every degree of power necessary to the
state, and not destructive to the rational and moral freedom of
individuals, to that personal liberty and personal security which
contribute so much to the vigor, the prosperity, the happiness, and the
dignity of a nation,--every degree of power which does not suppose the
total absence of all control and all responsibility on the part of
ministers,--a king of France, in common sense, ought to possess. But
whether the exact measure of authority assigned by the letter of the law
to the king of Great Britain can answer to the exterior or interior
purposes of the French monarchy is a point which I cannot venture to
judge upon. Here, both in the power given, and its limitations, we have
always cautiously felt our way. The parts of our Constitution have
gradually, and almost insensibly, in a long course of time, accommodated
themselves to each other, and to their common as well as to their
separate purposes. But this adaptation of contending parts, as it has
not been in ours, so it can never be in yours, or in any country, the
effect of a single instantaneous regulation, and no sound heads could
ever think of doing it in that manner.

I believe, Sir, that many on the Continent altogether mistake the
condition of a king of Great Britain. He is a real king, and not an
executive officer. If he will not trouble himself with contemptible
details, nor wish to degrade himself by becoming a party in little
squabbles, I am far from sure that a king of Great Britain, in whatever
concerns him as a king, or indeed as a rational man, who combines his
public interest with his personal satisfaction,