LECTURE VII. 
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL DANGERS. 
For estimating the stability of an Empire there are 
certain plain tests which the political student ought to 
have at his fingers’ ends. Of these some are applied to 
its internal organisation, and some to its external condi 
tions, just as an insurance company in estimating the 
value of a life will take the opinion of the medical officer, 
who will feel the candidate’s pulse and listen to his 
heart, but they will also inquire how and where the 
candidate lives, and whether his pursuits or habits expose 
him to any peculiar risks from without. Now I have 
partly applied the internal test. The internal test of the 
vitality of a state consists in ascertaining whether or no 
the Government rests upon a solid basis. For in every 
state besides the two things which are obvious to all, viz., 
the Government and the governed, there is a third thing, 
which is overlooked by most of us and yet is usually not 
difficult to distinguish, I mean the power outside the 
Government which holds the Government up. This power 
may be slight or it may be substantial, and according to 
its solidity, or rather according to the ratio of its strength 
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