So it is if the prince come young to the throne; but the case is worse when he comes to it old or middle-aged.  He is then unfit to work.  He will then have spent the whole of youth and the first part of manhood in idleness, and it is unnatural to expect him to labour.  A pleasure-loving lounger in middle life will not begin to work as George III. worked, or as Prince Albert worked.  The only fit material for a constitutional king is a prince who begins early to reign—­who in his youth is superior to pleasure—­who in his youth is willing to labour—­who has by nature a genius for discretion.  Such kings are among God’s greatest gifts, but they are also among His rarest.

An ordinary idle king on a constitutional throne will leave no mark on his time:  he will do little good and as little harm; the royal form of Cabinet government will work in his time pretty much as the unroyal.  The addition of a cypher will not matter though it take precedence of the significant figures.  But corruptio optimi pessima.  The most evil case of the royal form is far worse than the most evil case of the unroyal.  It is easy to imagine, upon a constitutional throne, an active and meddling fool who always acts when he should not, who never acts when he should, who warns his Ministers against their judicious measures, who encourages them in their injudicious measures.  It is easy to imagine that such a king should be the tool of others; that favourites should guide him; that mistresses should corrupt him; that the atmosphere of a bad Court should be used to degrade free government.

We have had an awful instance of the dangers of constitutional royalty.  We have had the case of a meddling maniac.  During great part of his life George III.’s reason was half upset by every crisis.  Throughout his life he had an obstinacy akin to that of insanity.  He was an obstinate and an evil influence; he could not be turned from what was inexpedient; by the aid of his station he turned truer but weaker men from what was expedient.  He gave an excellent moral example to his contemporaries, but he is an instance of those whose good dies with them, while their evil lives after them.  He prolonged the American War, perhaps he caused the American War, so we inherit the vestiges of an American hatred; he forbade Mr. Pitt’s wise plans, so we inherit an Irish difficulty.  He would not let us do right in time, so now our attempts at right are out of time and fruitless.  Constitutional royalty under an active and half-insane king is one of the worst of Governments.  There is in it a secret power which is always eager, which is generally obstinate, which is often wrong, which rules Ministers more than they know themselves, which overpowers them much more than the public believe, which is irresponsible because it is inscrutable, which cannot be prevented because it cannot be seen.  The benefits of a good monarch are almost invaluable, but the evils of a bad monarch are almost irreparable.