or on Louis XV ⁠—why should it react just on Louis XVI ? And what is the time limit for such reactions? To these questions there are and can be no answers. Equally little does this view explain why for several centuries the collective will is not withdrawn from certain rulers and their heirs, and then suddenly during a period of fifty years is transferred to the Convention, to the Directory, to Napoleon, to Alexander, to Louis XVIII , to Napoleon again, to Charles X , to Louis Philippe, to a Republican government, and to Napoleon III