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distinctions thus introduced among them. Men are divided into Nations; each Nation has its Speech, its History, its Usages, its Laws, its National Char

acter.

935. A nation requires not merely to have Justice administered, but also to act as a Nation. It must have a Governor to act for it; to foresee, design, execute, on the part of all; as well as to keep each from wronging each. If it be governed by Judges only, it will ask for a King.

The King represents the Nation, both as to Facts and Ideas. He exercises the Will and Power of the Nation, and acts its part in History; and he is also the Source of Justice, the Preserver of Order, the Assertor of Rights, the Punisher of Wrongs.

936. But within the nation also there may remain traces of ancient actual distinctions; which the national union, though it has comprehended and superseded, has not obliterated. Ancient conquerors and heroes, and rich and historical families may have their successors; who continue to retain a portion of the ascendancy over men's minds which belonged to Patriarchs and Heroes at earlier periods; and may also have power from their present wealth.

These

Nobles form a Natural Aristocracy in the Nation. There may be several Ranks and Conditions of persons. The individuals of a Nation are thus distinguished as Noblemen and Common men, Patricians and Plebeians, Rich and Poor, High and Low. But in almost every Nation, there is to some extent or other this Difference of Conditions, or Classes.

937. This Difference of Conditions will enter into the consideration of questions of Right between the members of the Nation. For the Definitions of Rights of all the Citizens are necessarily historical facts: namely, the historical facts which have established the differences of which we have just spoken. The same series of facts which has made

one field belong to Caius and the next to Titius, has made Caius a Patrician and Titius a Plebeian.

938. This difference of Ranks is accompanied with a difference of Political Rights. The history which has produced Patricians and Nobles, has also, in general left them some portion of the power of Aristocracy. They have some share in the Government. The Government is compounded, variously in various countries, of Aristocracy and Monarchy.

939. Although the King is, as we have said, conceived as the representative of Justice and Order, and the assertor of Rights, the person who is at any time King, becomes so by the course of historical facts, and not by any process which makes him necessarily conformable to the Idea of a King. As a matter of fact, he may be unjust in his judgments between his Subjects, and in his actions towards them. He may take advantage of their habit of obedience, for his own personal gratification. Or he may act, on the part of the nation, in a way which does not at all represent the will of the nation. He may wish to use its power for war, when all his subjects wish for peace; or may neglect the defence of the Country, or the administration of the Laws, or any other National Obligation.

940. In the Cases in which any portion of the government remains in the hands of any other part of the nation, as the Elders, or the Nobles, this portion may be used by them, on the part of the Nation, for the purpose of preventing that neglect of the National Obligations, or Violation of Personal Duties, which the King would otherwise have committed. If, for instance, there be a Senate, without whose consent the King cannot make war or peace; or by which unjust Judges can be punished; such a Senate will be a Check upon the power of the King. It will balance, in some measure, his authority; and may

thus prevent the results of unjust intention or perverse will in him.

941. The Senate are in the Condition, both of Governors, and Governed: they are Subjects of the King, and Rulers of the People. For them, the Government combines the conditions of Order and Freedom, at least to some extent; for they are, in some respects, not only free to act for themselves, but also to act for others, and to exercise a share of command over others. They are not irresistibly controlled by the will of the King, for they have the power of resisting it, and even, in some degree, of controlling it.

942. But the People, who are thus subject to the King and the Senate combined, are they free agents, such as their moral nature requires them to be? If the sway possessed by the King and the Senate be exercised mildly and temperately, the People may be, for a long time, free, so far as almost all the purposes of Morality require. Under the paternal sway of good and kind men, acting without check, as King and Senators, the subjects have the means of acting as good children. But such a sway cannot answer all the purposes of Morality. Men cannot feel themselves free, when their freedom depends upon the arbitrary will of others. They are not free, if their freedom may be taken from them to-morrow, without their having any power of resistance. They are not free, if they have no security for their freedom; no means of asserting and defending it, should it be assailed or infringed; in short, they are not free, if they have not some Political Rights; some Rights in relation to the Govern

ment.

And not being free, their moral career cannot be complete. They cannot carry on their moral and intellectual culture, in the hope of bringing into intelligible harmony with themselves all the circumstances of their condition; for there is one element

of their condition, the Government, on which they have no power of acting, and which does not allow itself to be scrutinized and understood. They cannot go on constantly and indefinitely in the realization of their moral ideas; for when they would extend this realization from private to public life, they find themselves stopped by the impassable barrier which separates them from the ruling classes.

943. Thus, without Political Rights securing the Liberty of the people at large, Government incompletely attains that Combination of Order and Freedom which is requisite as the Condition of man's moral being. For this purpose, besides the Checks and Balances which a Senate may offer to the injustice or imprudence of a King, there must be some security of Popular Rights, some protection of the Liberty of the Subject. The Monarchy must not only be balanced by an Aristocracy, but must also recognize a Democracy.

The

944. Thus the State, in order to answer its purposes completely, must contain a combination of Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy. Aristocracy stands for order, and the Democracy for Freedom in the Combination: the Monarchy gives unity to the Combination. The Aristocracy stands for Order; for the Sovereign Power cannot subsist except it be supported by the natural Aristocracy of the Community; if not by the Aristocracy of Birth and Wealth, by the Aristocracy of Prudence and Force. The Aristocracy represents the actual Past; the events which have taken place and left their effects: the Democracy represents the actual Present; the events which the powers of men, acting freely, are bringing into being. Monarchy is an Ideal Power which binds together these elements; acts for the State in present history, and is the source of the Order and Justice which the State must realize.

945. Thus, these three kinds of Government

must be combined in the Idea of a State; and they have, in general, been mixed together, in the States which have best answered their moral purposes. But yet, from various circumstances, one or another of these elements may become so obscure, as to seem to lose its nature; and still, the Government may have a long and tranquil existence. If a State be established by actual contract among a number of men meeting as equals, it has no past, and need have no Aristocracy. For the moment, the Aristocracy and the Democracy are identified. Every man is at the same time Governor and Subject, bound to Order, and possessed of Freedom. And if the Constitution be wisely framed, such a condition of things may long continue. The natural tendency of the progress of time is to generate an Aristocracy; but this tendency may be counteracted by the activity of the Democracy. Again, the Democratic element may be so feeble that the nation may be entirely governed by the past;-by an ancient Aristocracy, or an ancient line of Monarchs. Where Freedom is thus extinguished, the State as we have already said, answers its moral ends imperfectly. Again; the Monarchical element may be enfeebled in various ways: as by dividing the executive from the judicial character; by presenting the State itself, not the King, as the source of Justice, and by distributing the Sovereign Executive Power. The Executive Power may be held but for a short time, as by Consuls or Presidents for a year, or a few years. By such means, Democracy may be established, with very small evident mixture, either of Monarchy or Aristocracy.

946. In nations which have subsisted for many centuries, the Aristocratic element is generally conspicuous and powerful, having on its side accumulated property, the habit of command, superiority of culture; and in its favour on the other side, the habit of respect for historical families, and of obedience to

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