CHAPTER I.THE INSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENT.
I.The Institution of Government.
Conditions on which the public power can act .-- Two points forgotten by the authors of the preceding constitutions .-- Difficulty of the undertaking and poor quality of the available materials.
Every human society requires government, that is to say an authority.

No other machinery is more useful.

But a machinery is useful only if it is adapted to its purpose; if not it will not work, or may even work contrary to its purpose.

Hence, during its construction, one must first of all consider the magnitude of the work it has to do as well as the quality of the materials one has at one's disposal.

It is very important to know beforehand whether it will lift 100 or of 100,000 kilograms, whether the pieces fitted together will be of iron or of steel, of sound or of unsound timber .-- But the legislators had not taken that into consideration during the last ten years.