Note 213-4 — Chapter I

This advance is generally observed to be introduced by the jus fortioris. Steuart, Principles I, ch. 7. (Compare §§ 45-6-8.) In this way, the earliest oriental despotisms have unwittingly been of great service to mankind. What the sultan here accomplished with his few favorites was done in the lower stages of civilization of the west by the aristocracy of great vassals, in a manner more worthy of human beings, and in a much more stable form. (J. S. Mill, Principles I, 14 ff.)