But such a one, and not the actual
authority, would then be the supreme power; which is contradictory.
The supreme sovereign power, then, in proceeding by a minister who
is at the same time the ruler of the state, consequently becomes
despotic; and the expedient of giving the people to imagine- when they
have properly only legislative influence- that they act by their
deputies by way of limiting the sovereign authority, cannot so mask
and disguise the actual despotism of such a government that it will
not appear in the measures and means adopted by the minister to
carry out his function. The people, while represented by their
deputies in parliament, under such conditions, may have in these
warrantors of their freedom and rights, persons who are keenly
interested on their own account and their families, and who look to
such a minister for the benefit of his influence in the army, navy,
and public offices. And hence, instead of offering resistance to the
undue pretensions of the government- whose public declarations ought
to carry a prior accord on the part of the people, which, however,
cannot be allowed in peace, they are rather always ready to play
into the hands of the government. Hence the so-called limited
political constitution, as a constitution of the internal rights of
the state, is an unreality; and instead of being consistent with
right, it is only a principle of expediency.
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