5.10. 10. Of the Expedition peculiar to the Executive Power in Monarchies.
Great is the advantage which a monarchical government has over a
republic: as the state is conducted by a single person, the executive
power is thereby enabled to act with greater expedition. But as this
expedition may degenerate into rapidity, the laws should use some
contrivance to slacken it. They ought not only to favour the nature of
each constitution, but likewise to remedy the abuses that might result
from this very nature.
Cardinal Richelieu
[31]
advises monarchs to permit no such things a ssocieties or communities that
raise difficulties upon every trifle. If this man's heart had not been
bewitched with the love of despotic power, still these arbitrary notions would
have filled his head.
The bodies entrusted with the deposition of the laws are never more
obedient than when they proceed slowly, and use that reflection in the
prince's affairs which can scarcely be expected from the ignorance of a
court, or from the precipitation of its councils.
[32]
What would have become of the finest monarchy in the world if the
magistrates, by their delays, their complaints, and entreaties, had not
checked the rapidity even of their princes' virtues, when these
monarchs, consulting only the generous impulse of their minds, would
fain have given a boundless reward to services performed with an
unlimited courage and fidelity?
Footnotes
[32]
"Barbaris cunctatio servilis, statim exequi regium videtur." --
Tacitus, Annals., v. 32.
