[The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay<br> Vol. 1 (of 4) by Thomas Babington Macaulay]@TWC D-Link book
The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay
Vol. 1 (of 4)

BOOK XII
15/52

A man who, upon abstract principles, pronounces a constitution to be good, without an exact knowledge of the people who are to be governed by it, judges as absurdly as a tailor who should measure the Belvidere Apollo for the clothes of all his customers.

The demagogues who wished to see Portugal a republic, and the wise critics who revile the Virginians for not having instituted a peerage, appear equally ridiculous to all men of sense and candour.
That is the best government which desires to make the people happy, and knows how to make them happy.

Neither the inclination nor the knowledge will suffice alone; and it is difficult to find them together.
Pure democracy, and pure democracy alone, satisfies the former condition of this great problem.

That the governors may be solicitous only for the interests of the governed, it is necessary that the interests of the governors and the governed should be the same.

This cannot be often the case where power is intrusted to one or to a few.


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