The recasting of French administration by Napolon is therefore my second example of the perfecting of civil machinery by the single will of an absolute ruler before the dawn of a constitutional era . No corporate , popular will could ever have effected arrangements such as those which Napoleon commanded. Arrangements so simple at the expense of local prejudice, so logical in their influence to popular choice, might be decreed by a Constitutional Assembly, but could be established only by the unlimited authority of a despot. The system of the year VIII was ruthlessly thorough and heartlessly perfect . It was, besides, in large part, a return to the despotism that had been overthrown.
Among those nations, on the other hand, which entered upon a season of constitution making and popular reform before administration had received the impress of liberal principle, administrative improvement has been tardy and half - done, Once a nation has embarked in the business of manufacturing constitutions, it finds it exceedingly difficult to close out that business and open for the public a bureau of skilled, economical administration. There seems to be no end to the tinkering of constitutions. Your ordinary constitution will last you hardly ten years without rep airs or additions; and the time for administrative detail comes late.