This, then, is one species of monarchical government in which the kingly power is in a general for life; and is sometimes hereditary, sometimes elective: besides, there is also another, which is to be met with among some of the barbarians, in which the kings are invested with powers nearly equal to a tyranny, yet are, in some respects, bound by the laws and the customs of their country; for as the barbarians are by nature more prone to slavery than the Greeks, and those in Asia more than those in Europe, they endure without murmuring a despotic government; for this reason their governments are tyrannies; but yet not liable to be overthrown, as being customary and according to law.
These, then, are the two different sorts of these monarchies, and another is that which in ancient Greece they called aesumnetes ; which is nothing more than an elective tyranny; and its difference from that which is to be found amongst the barbarians consists not in its' not being according to law, but only in its not being according to the ancient customs of the country.
Thinking it might possibly be in the enjoyment of the
elective franchise, he gave it a cordial and earnest grasp.
A well-constituted court for the trial of impeachments is an object not more to be desired than difficult to be obtained in a government wholly
elective. The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.
His idea was a republic, with- out privileged orders, but with a hereditary royal family at the head of it instead of an
elective chief magistrate.
The foundation of the original government of Rome was laid by Romulus, and the work completed by two of his
elective successors, Numa and Tullius Hostilius.
I do not care to think of it; but it was
elective, for the threatened blow did not descend.
At last it seemed settled that the rightful distinction was that the proprietors should have more
elective franchise than non-proprietors, on the Spartan principle of "calling that which is just, equal; not that which is equal, just."
Has the naturalist or chemist learned his craft, who has explored the gravity of atoms and the
elective affinities, who has not yet discerned the deeper law whereof this is only a partial or approximate statement, namely that like draws to like, and that the goods which belong to you gravitate to you and need not be pursued with pains and cost?
We have all heard of King Log; but, in these jostling times, one of that royal kindred will hardly win the race for an
elective chief-magistracy.
Again, if this
elective body, changing from time to time according to the needs and ideas of those whom it represents, should refuse obedience to a bad law in the name of the people, well and good.
The salon d'Esgrignon represented the upper aristocracy (the returning Troisvilles attached themselves to it); the Cormon salon represented, under the clever influence of du Bousquier, that fatal class of opinions which, without being truly liberal or resolutely royalist, gave birth to the 221 on that famous day when the struggle openly began between the most august, grandest, and only true power, ROYALTY, and the most false, most changeful, most oppressive of all powers,--the power called PARLIAMENTARY, which
elective assemblies exercise.