But one thing I
conceive to be far beyond a doubt: that the settlement cannot be
immediate; but that it must be preceded by some sort of power, equal at
least in vigor, vigilance, promptitude, and decision, to a military
government. For such a _preparatory_ government, no slow-paced,
methodical, formal, lawyer-like system, still less that of a showy,
superficial, trifling, intriguing court, guided by cabals of ladies, or
of men like ladies, least of all a philosophic, theoretic, disputatious
school of sophistry,--none of these ever will or ever can lay the
foundations of an order that can last. Whoever claims a right by birth
to govern there must find in his breast, or must conjure up in it, an
energy not to be expected, perhaps not always to be wished for, in
well-ordered states. The lawful prince must have, in everything but
crime, the character of an usurper. He is gone, if he imagines himself
the quiet possessor of a throne. He is to contend for it as much after
an apparent conquest as before. His task is, to win it: he must leave
posterity to enjoy and to adorn it.
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