Of aristocracy. Aristocratic governmentsH. G. Bohn, 1861 - Political science |
Common terms and phrases
administration afterwards ancient appears appointed archons Areopagus aristocracy aristocratic government assembly Athenian Athens authority barons became burghers called century chief chosen citizens civil comitia comitia curiata comitia tributa common commonwealth condottiero constitution consuls council Council of Ten credenza crown democratic Demosthenes Diet doge effect election Ephori established excluded executive exercised existence factions families favour feudal foreign formed Ghibellines give Guelfs held Helots hundred important influence inhabitants interrex Italian judicial Julius Cæsar jurisdiction king Lacedæmonians land legislative Livy Lycurgus magistrates ment military monarchy natural aristocracy never nobility nobles obtained oligarchy oppression originally Padua party patrician body patricians persons plebeians Plutarch podesta political popular possessed prætor prince principles privileges proceedings republic respect Roman Rome senate slaves Spartan supposed supreme power taken tion towns tribes tribunes Venetian Venice vested Vicenza Visconti vote wealth whole
Popular passages
Page 58 - The history of our own House of Lords abounds in examples of these truths. But for their determination to resist measures which they deemed detrimental to the state, or to which they had objections from a regard for the interests of their own order, many measures of crude and hasty legislation would have passed in almost every parliament.
Page 38 - It is no wonder that faction is so productive of vices of all kinds ; for, besides that it inflames all the passions, it tends much to remove those great restraints, honour and shame, when men find that no iniquity can lose them the applause of their own party, and no innocence secure them against the calumnies of the opposite.
Page 7 - ... take extreme courses and push matters to an irreparable rupture even on those few and excepted occasions. This brings us immediately to that which is at once the foundation of the doctrine of checks or balances, and the exposition of the fallacy upon which the objectors rest. The efficacy of the check always consists in the general reluctance of all parties to risk the consequences of driving matters to extremities.
Page 57 - The very vices which we have been considering lead naturally to this virtue, and it is a very great merit in any system of government. A system of administration, a plan of finance, a measure of commercial or agricultural legislation, a project of criminal or other judicial administration, may seem to have failed, yet the patrician body will give it a further trial. They adopted it on mature deliberation, and not on the spur of a passing occasion ; they will not be hastily driven from it. Akin to...
Page 55 - of patricians, next to that of princes, is peculiarly adapted to spoil them. They are born to power and pre-eminence,, and they know that, do what they will, they must ever continue to retain it. They see no superiors ; their only intercourse is with rivals, or associates, or adherents, and other inferiors. They are p'ampered bythe gifts of fortune in various other shapes.
Page 1 - ... with himself. Omitting, for the reasons already given, the remainder of the first volume as historical, we proceed to the second, which treats of aristocracy. Lord Brougham defines aristocracy to be the form of government "in which, the supreme power is in the hands of a portion of the community, and that portion is so constituted, that the rest of the people cannot gain admittance, or can gain admittance only with the consent of the select body.
Page 57 - ... aristocratic defects enumerated by Lord Brougham,. only the first, the absence of individual responsibility, belongs to it. Lord Brougham now proceeds to enquire whether- the aristocratic institution possesses any virtues to be set in opposition to so many imperfections. ' There cannot,' he says, ' be any doubt that the quality of firmness and steadiness of purpose belongs peculiarly to an aristocracy. The very vices which we have been considering lead naturally to this virtue, and it is a very...
Page 57 - ... dissoluteness of manners, eagerness in the pursuit of wealth, and extravagance in its employment; and not only to vex and harass, but to enslave men's minds. They become possessed with exaggerated notions of the importance of the upper classes; they bow to their authority as individuals, not merely as members of the ruling body — transferring the allegiance which the order justly claims, as ruler, to the individuals of whom it is composed ; they ape their manners, and affect their society....
Page 56 - He adds, that it is the tendency of aristocracy to produce among the people a general dissoluteness of manners, eagerness in the pursuit of wealth, and extravagance in its employment ; and not only to vex and harass, but to enslave men's minds. They become possessed with exaggerated notions of the importance of the upper classes; they bow to their authority as individuals...
Page 270 - A majority of twenty-five of these electors was required to join in choosing the doge. The prevailing view in this combination of choice and chance must have been twofold — to prevent the combination of partisans and thus neutralize or weaken party influence ; and to prevent the knowledge of the parties who should elect, and thus frustrate or obstruct the exercise of bribery or other undue influence. The first of these objects could not be at all secured by the contrivance ; the second could only...