Machiavellism, the doctrine taught by Machiavelli in “The Prince,” that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity; the State he regards as too precious an institution to endanger by scruples of that sort.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Machiavelli, Niccolo * M'Ivor, Flora