Common Sense, I - Of The Origin And Design Of Government In General, With Concise Remarks On The English Constitution

Society is a natural developement necessary to the survival and prosperity of man.  Government, on the other hand, is necessary only to counter the vices that arise in a natural society.  As society grows, the most natural organization for a government is of representatives elected from the various regions or groups that make up society.  Of utmost importance is that the Elected do not view themselves as a separate class from the Electors.

The only advantage of an absolute governmental authority is its simplicity of organization.  The English system cannot even boast of that, given the complex system of checks between the monarch, the peers in the House of Lords, and the republicans in the House of Commons.  The hereditary positions contribute nothing to legitimate government, because they necessarily separate the class of government apart from the governed.

An absurdity: The House of Commons has check on the monarch either because the monarch cannot be trusted, or the commons are wiser than the monarch.  Yet somehow the monarch can reject the bills of the commons as well-- even though the monarch is shut off from knowledge of the world.  Any investigation of this system leads to the question: Whence the power of the king?

Whatever improvements England has introduced beyond a traditional monarchy are for nought while that question remains unaddressed.  IF England is a superior nation, it is due to the superior people, not the superior system.  We must now look at the system objectively, so as not to prejudice ourselves against its failings.

------------------------

The American system has the same internal inconsistencies, with every house checking every office.  The difference, of course, is the election of every office-- so no part of it is inherently the "first moving power".  Likewise, the Presidency possesses the danger of devolving into a tyranny, but for periodic elections of a new President.

New vocabulary: "felo de se" -- a suicide, considered a crime against oneself.  Used as a metaphor for the internal contradictions of the English system of checks against the monarch.

Embarrassing history I had to look up: Charles the First

Paine: "For the fate of Charles the first, hath only made kings more subtle-- not more just."

King at the start of the English Civil War in 1642, ultimately over the king's defiance of Parliament.  Put on trial for high treason by the Rump Parliament in 1649; defiant, claiming the divine right to rule; beheaded.

In the aftermath, a new republic was declared: the Commonwealth of England.  Shortly after, in 1653, Oliver Cromwell was declared Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.  Died in 1658.  Posthumously beheaded in 1661 after the restoration of the monarchy...

Which led me to this (note: this is ridiculous):