ew Edward the
Fifth, who was the son of Edward the Fourth, who with bloody
Richard slew Henry the Sixth, who succeeded Henry the Fifth,
who was the son of Henry the Fourth, who was the cousin of
Richard the Second, who was the son of Edward the Third, who
was the son of Richard the Second, who was the son of Edward
the First, who was the son of Henry the Third, who was the
son of John, who was the brother of Richard the First, who
was the son of Henry the Second, who was the son of Matilda,
who was the daughter of Henry the First, who was the brother
of William Rufus, who was the son of William the Conqueror,
who was the son of a whore."--_Editor._

The effects of Royalty have been entirely harmonious with its origin.
What scenes of horror, what refinements of iniquity, do the annals of
monarchies present! If we should paint human nature with a baseness of
heart, an hypocrisy, from which all must recoil and humanity disavow, it
would be the portraiture of kings, their ministers and courtiers.

And why should it not be so? What should such a monstrosity produce
but miseries and crimes? What is monarchy? It has been finely disguised,
and the people familiarized with the odious title: in its real sense the
word signifies _the absolute power of one single individual_, who may
with impunity be stupid, treacherous, tyrannical, etc. Is it not an
insult to nations to wish them so governed?

Government by a single individual is vicious in itself, independently of
the individual's vices. For however little a State, the prince is
nearly always too small: where is the proportion between one man and the
affairs of a whole nation?

True, some men of genius have been seen under the diadem; but the evil
is then even greater: the ambition of such a man impels him to conquest
and despotism, his subjects soon have to lament his glory, and sing
their _Te-deums_ while perishing with hunger. Such is the history of
Louis XIV. and so many others.

But if ordinary men in power repay you with incapacity or with princely
vices? But those who come to the front in monarchies are frequently
mere mean mischief-makers, commonplace knaves, petty intriguers, whose
small wits, which in courts reach large places, serve only to display
their ineptitude in public, as soon as they appear. (*) In short,
monarchs do nothing, and their ministers do evil: this is the history of
all monarchies.

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