Here you see a people deprived of all rational freedom, and tyrannized over by about two thousand men; and yet this body of two thousand are so far from enjoying any liberty by the subjection of the rest, that they are in an infinitely severer state of slavery; they make themselves the most degenerate and unhappy of mankind, for no other purpose than that they may the more effectually contribute to the misery of a whole nation.

In short, the regular and methodical proceedings of an _aristocracy_ are more intolerable than the very excesses of a _despotism_, and, in general, much further from any remedy.
Thus, my lord, we have pursued _aristocracy_ through its whole progress; we have seen the seeds, the growth, and the fruit.

It could boast none of the advantages of a _despotism_, miserable as those advantages were, and it was overloaded with an exuberance of mischiefs, unknown even to _despotism_ itself.

In effect, it is no more than a disorderly tyranny.
This form, therefore, could be little approved, even in speculation, by those who were capable of thinking, and could be less borne in practice by any who were capable of feeling.

However, the fruitful policy of man was not yet exhausted.