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These principalities are liable to danger when they are passing

from the civil to the absolute order of government, for such

princes either rule personally or through magistrates. In the

latter case their government is weaker and more insecure, because

it rests entirely on the goodwill of those citizens who are

raised to the magistracy, and who, especially in troubled times,

can destroy the government with great ease, either by intrigue or

open defiance; and the prince has not the chance amid tumults to

exercise absolute authority, because the citizens and subjects,

accustomed to receive orders from magistrates, are not of a mind

to obey him amid these confusions, and there will always be in

doubtful times a scarcity of men whom he can trust.