2.5. 5. Of the Laws in relation to the Nature of a despotic Government.
From the nature of despotic power it follows that the single person,
invested with this power, commits the execution of it also to a single
person. A man whom his senses continually inform that he himself is
everything and that his subjects are nothing, is naturally lazy,
voluptuous, and ignorant. In consequence of this, he neglects the
management of public affairs. But were he to commit the administration
to many, there would be continual disputes among them; each would form
intrigues to be his first slave; and he would be obliged to take the
reins into his own hands. It is, therefore, more natural for him to
resign it to a vizir,
[26]
and to invest him with the same power as himself. The creation of a vizir is
a fundamental law of this government.
It is related of a pope that he had started an infinite number of
difficulties against his election, from a thorough conviction of his
incapacity. At length he was prevailed on to accept of the pontificate,
and resigned the administration entirely to his nephew. He was soon
struck with surprise, and said, "I should never have thought that these
things were so easy." The same may be said of the princes of the East,
who, being educated in a prison where eunuchs corrupt their hearts and
debase their understandings, and where they are frequently kept ignorant
even of their high rank, when drawn forth in order to be placed on the
throne, are at first confounded: but as soon as they have chosen a
vizir, and abandoned themselves in their seraglio to the most brutal
passions; pursuing, in the midst of a prostituted court, every
capricious extravagance, they would never have dreamed that they could
find matters so easy.
The more extensive the empire, the larger the seraglio; and
consequently the more voluptuous the prince. Hence the more nations such
a sovereign has to rule, the less he attends to the cares of government;
the more important his affairs, the less he makes them the subject of
his deliberations.
Footnotes
[26]
The Eastern kings are never without viziers, says Sir John
Chardin.
