DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47347#0110
94
HISTORICAL ESSAY ON
to the authority of Montesquieu, who considered the govern-
ment of females as more conducive, in some respects, to the
prosperity and glory of a nation than that of men; neither
need we mention facts of public notoriety, or advert to
the government of Elizabeth in England, of Catherine in
Russia, of Maria Theresa in Austria: we shall merely ob-
serve that in England, a state whose political importance
her very enemies are compelled to acknowledge, there
exists this same cognatic order of succession, sanctioned by
usage, as in Spain. There, too, a young queen has recently
ascended the throne, without any of her father’s brothers
deeming himself authorized to set himself up against the
sacred laws of his country and to have recourse to arms,
under the mask of legitimacy, against the daughter of his
brother. And while Christendom has seen the glorious
sceptre of England transferred by the cognatic order of
succession to the delicate hands of a youthful princess,
nobody has thought of predicting from this circumstance
any derangement of the peace of Europe.
England and Spain, how different soever may be the
political constitution and the character of the two nations,
have, nevertheless, the same fundamental laws in regard to
the succession to the throne; because these two mighty
kingdoms have both raised themselves to their present poli-
tical greatness by the union of several petty states. The
same historical cause had analogous results in both countries,
and formed there a right intimately combined with their
political independence. Shake this traditional and national
right, and you annihilate the principle of legitimacy itself.
Here we lay down the pen, trusting to the wisdom of the
cabinets and to the sentiments of the sovereigns of Europe
for the welfare of their people and of humanity. We think
that the moment is not far distant, when a just and con-'
scientious declaration of the great monarchs who have more
7
HISTORICAL ESSAY ON
to the authority of Montesquieu, who considered the govern-
ment of females as more conducive, in some respects, to the
prosperity and glory of a nation than that of men; neither
need we mention facts of public notoriety, or advert to
the government of Elizabeth in England, of Catherine in
Russia, of Maria Theresa in Austria: we shall merely ob-
serve that in England, a state whose political importance
her very enemies are compelled to acknowledge, there
exists this same cognatic order of succession, sanctioned by
usage, as in Spain. There, too, a young queen has recently
ascended the throne, without any of her father’s brothers
deeming himself authorized to set himself up against the
sacred laws of his country and to have recourse to arms,
under the mask of legitimacy, against the daughter of his
brother. And while Christendom has seen the glorious
sceptre of England transferred by the cognatic order of
succession to the delicate hands of a youthful princess,
nobody has thought of predicting from this circumstance
any derangement of the peace of Europe.
England and Spain, how different soever may be the
political constitution and the character of the two nations,
have, nevertheless, the same fundamental laws in regard to
the succession to the throne; because these two mighty
kingdoms have both raised themselves to their present poli-
tical greatness by the union of several petty states. The
same historical cause had analogous results in both countries,
and formed there a right intimately combined with their
political independence. Shake this traditional and national
right, and you annihilate the principle of legitimacy itself.
Here we lay down the pen, trusting to the wisdom of the
cabinets and to the sentiments of the sovereigns of Europe
for the welfare of their people and of humanity. We think
that the moment is not far distant, when a just and con-'
scientious declaration of the great monarchs who have more
7