impossible to put anything in its place; they received it as we receive
the rays of the sun and the return of the seasons. Amongst them the
royal power had neither advocates nor opponents. In like manner does
the republican government exist in America, without contention or
opposition; without proofs and arguments, by a tacit agreement, a sort
of consensus universalis. It is, however, my opinion that by changing
their administrative forms as often as they do, the inhabitants of the
United States compromise the future stability of their government.

It may be apprehended that men, perpetually thwarted in their designs
by the mutability of the legislation, will learn to look upon republican
institutions as an inconvenient form of society; the evil resulting from
the instability of the secondary enactments might then raise a doubt
as to the nature of the fundamental principles of the Constitution,
and indirectly bring about a revolution; but this epoch is still very
remote.

It may, however, be foreseen even now, that when the Americans lose
their republican institutions they will speedily arrive at a despotic
government, without a long interval of limited monarchy. Montesquieu
remarked, that nothing is more absolute than the authority of a
prince who immediately succeeds a republic, since the powers which had
fearlessly been intrusted to an elected magistrate are then transferred
to a hereditary sovereign. This is true in general, but it is more
peculiarly applicable to a democratic republic. In the United States,
the magistrates are not elected by a particular class of citizens, but
by the majority of the nation; they are the immediate representatives of
the passions of the multitude; and as they are wholly dependent upon its
pleasure, they excite neither hatred nor fear: hence, as I have already
shown, very little care has been taken to limit their influence, and
they are left in possession of a vast deal of arbitrary power. This
state of things has engendered habits which would outlive itself; the
American magistrate would retain his power, but he would cease to be
responsible for the exercise of it; and it is impossible to say what
bounds could then be set to tyranny.

Some of our European politicians expect to see an aristocracy arise in
America, and they already predict the exact period at which it will be
able to assume the reins of government. I have previously observed, and
I repeat my assertion, that the pres