They will hardly
assert that the destruction of an absolute monarchy is a thing good in
itself, without any sort of reference to the antecedent state of things,
or to consequences which result from the change,--without any
consideration whether under its ancient rule a country was to a
considerable degree flourishing and populous, highly cultivated and
highly commercial, and whether, under that domination, though personal
liberty had been precarious and insecure, property at least was ever
violated. They cannot take the moral sympathies of the human mind along
with them, in abstractions separated from the good or evil condition of
the state, from the quality of actions, and the character of the actors.
None of us love absolute and uncontrolled monarchy; but we could not
rejoice at the sufferings of a Marcus Aurelius or a Trajan, who were
absolute monarchs, as we do when Nero is condemned by the Senate to be
punished _more majorum_; nor, when that monster was obliged to fly with
his wife Sporus, and to drink puddle, were men affected in the same
manner as when the venerable Galba, with all his faults and errors, was
murdered by a revolted mercenary soldiery.
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