“. . . . . Machiavelli has shown you why Mitford (had there been no French Revolution) would have sided with the tyrants instead of the democracies of Greece in his history. Read the history of any despotism, and your feelings become republican; read that of any republic, and you become monarchical. The happiest age of the world, as far as its happiness depends upon earthly governments, was that of the Antonines, and the reign of Augustus before it; and we all know to what these reigns led, not accidentally, but by the sure effects of such a system. As far as relates to government and religion, this country is the most favoured under heaven: not only above all others at this time, but above all others of any time. But our prosperity was hardly won, and is not two centuries old. The Venetian was the most durable of European Governments, and an infernal one it was, though it was the object of admiration to the Liberals of the Great Rebellion.
“The great works of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and
Spanish Moors were not erected in
| 296 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 52. |
