[Transcriber's note: This production is based on
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The lecture subheadings (page headers) are shown in italics.
The publisher has included a lengthy list of other books
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Bohn's Standard Library.
Guizot's
Representative Government.
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History Of The Origin Of
Representative Government
In Europe.
By M. Guizot.
Translated By Andrew E. Scoble,
London:
Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden.
1852.
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Printed By Harrison And Son,
London Gazette Office, St. Martin's Lane;
And
Orchard Street, Westminster.
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Preface.
In 1820, at the time when the various faculties of the
_Académie de Paris_ and the _Collège de France_ were
recommencing their courses of lectures, several persons combined
to establish a _Journal des Cours Publiques_, in which they
reproduced, from their notes, the lectures which they had
attended. The course which I delivered, at this period, on the
history of Representative Government, occupies a place in this
collection. I did not revise the analyses of my lectures which
were published. They were brief and incomplete, and frequently
incorrect and confused. I have been requested to authorize a
reprint of them. I could not consent to this without bestowing
upon these analyses, at the present day, that labour of revision
to which they were not subjected at the time of their
publication. The two volumes which I now publish are the result
of this labour, which has been more protracted, and has involved
more considerable alterations than I at first anticipated. In
order to accomplish it, I have frequently had recourse to my
_Essaies sur l'Histoire de France_, in which I embodied, in
1823, some of my researches on the same subject. This course of
lectures on the origin of Representative Government is now as
exact and complete as if my lectures in 1820-1822 had been
collected and revised with the same care as I bestowed, in
1827-1830, on the publication of my courses on the General
History of Civilization in Europe, and on the History of
Civilization in France.
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When, in the year 1820, I devoted my energies to this course of
instruction, I was taking leave of public life, after having,
during six years, taken an active part in the work of
establishing representative government in our own land. The
political ideas and friends with whom I had been associated were,
at that period, removed from the head of affairs. I connected
myself with their reverses, without abandoning our common hopes
and efforts. We had faith in our institutions. Whether they
entailed upon us good or evil fortune, we were equally devoted to
them. I was unwilling to cease to serve their cause. I
endeavoured to explain the origin and principles of
representative government, as I had attempted to practise it.
How shall I speak, at the present day, of bad fortune and
reverse, in reference to 1820? What shall we say of the fate
which has recently overtaken our fatherland, and of that which is
perhaps in store for us? It is a shame to make use of the same
words in respect to evils and dangers so prodigiously unequal. In
truth, the trials of 1820 were severe and painful, yet the State
was not thrown into confusion by them, and they were followed by
ten years of regular and free government. In 1830, a still
severer trial, the test of a revolution, was applied to our noble
institutions, and they did not succumb; they shook off the
revolutionary yoke, and gave us eighteen years more of order and
liberty. From 1814 to 1848, notwithstanding so many violent
convulsions, constitutional monarchy remained standing, and
events justified the obstinacy of our hopes. But now the storm
has struck every institution, and still threatens to destroy all
that survive. Not merely kings and laws, but the very root of
government, of all government--what do I say?--the roots of
society itself have been reached, and are left bare and almost
torn up. Can we again seek safety at the same source? can we
still believe and hope in representative government and monarchy?
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I have not escaped, any more than other persons, from the anxiety
occasioned by this doubt. Nevertheless, in proportion as the
events which have weighed upon us, for the last three years, have
received development and elucidation--when I beheld society
pausing, by an effort of its own, on the verge of that abyss to
which it had been brought by its own weakness--I felt the revival
in my soul of that faith and hope which have filled my life, and
which, until these last days, have constituted the faith and hope
of our time. Among the infinite illusions of human vanity, we
must number those of misfortune; whether as peoples or as
individuals, in public or in private life, we delight to persuade
ourselves that our trials are unprecedented, and that we have to
endure evils and to surmount obstacles previously unheard of. How
deceitful is this consolation of pride in suffering! God has made
the condition of men, of all men, more severe than they are
willing to believe; and he causes them, at all times, to
purchase, at a dearer price than they had anticipated, the
success of their labours and the progress of their destiny. Let
us accept this stern law without a murmur; let us courageously
pay the price which God puts upon success, instead of basely
renouncing the hope of success itself. The leading idea, the
national desire of France, in 1789, was the alliance of free
institutions with hereditary monarchy. We have been carried far
away from our design; we have immensely deceived ourselves and
gone astray in our presumptuous hopes; but we should no less
deceive ourselves in our sceptical despondency. God, who permits
the burden of their faults to fall upon nations, does not make
their own life to be to them a continuous falsehood and a fatal
snare; our whole history, our entire civilization, all our
glories and our greatness urged and led us onward to the union of
monarchy and liberty; we have often taken the wrong road in our
way towards our object; and in order to reach it, we shall still
have to take many new roads and to pass over many difficult
spots. But let our object remain the same; for there lies our
haven.
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If I should apply, at the present day, to these historical
studies of 1820, all the lessons which political life has given
me since that period, I should perhaps modify some of the ideas
which I have expressed in reference to some of the conditions and
forms of representative government. This system of government has
no unique and solely good type, in conformity to which it must
necessarily and universally be instituted. Providence, which
allots to nations different origins and destinies, also opens to
justice and liberty more than one way of entering into
governments: and it would be foolishly to reduce their chances of
success if we condemned them to appear always with the same
lineaments, and to develope themselves by the same means. One
thing only is important, and that is, that the essential
principles of order and liberty should subsist beneath the
different forms which the interference of the country in its own
affairs may assume amongst different peoples and at different
epochs. These essential and necessary principles of all
representative government are precisely those which, in our days,
are ignored and outraged. I venture to believe that they will be
found faithfully expounded in these lectures; and that on this
account, even at the present day, my work will not be devoid
either of utility or of interest.
Guizot.
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Contents.
Part I.
Representative Institutions In
England, France, And Spain,
From The Fifth To The Eleventh Century.
Lecture I.--Page 1
Simultaneous development of history and civilization.
Two errors in our method of considering the past; proud
disdain, or superstitious admiration.
Historic impartiality the vocation of the present age.
Divisions of the history of the political institutions
of Europe into four great epochs.
Representative government the general and natural aim of
these institutions.
Object of the course; inquiry into the origin of
representative government in France, Spain, and England.
State of mind appropriate to this inquiry.
Lecture II.--Page 23
General character of political institutions in Europe,
from the fourth to the eleventh century.
Political sterility of the Roman Empire.
Progress of the Germanic invasions.
Sketch of the history of the Anglo-Saxons.
Lecture III.--Page 32
Subject of the lecture.
A knowledge of the state of persons necessary
to the proper study of institutions.
Essential difference between antiquity and modern societies,
as regards the classification of social conditions.
State of persons among the Anglo-Saxons.
Thanes and Ceorls.
Central and local institutions.
Predominance of the latter among the Anglo-Saxons.
Its cause.
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Lecture IV.--Page 41
Local institutions among the Anglo-Saxons.
Divisions of territory; their origin and double object.
Internal police of these local associations.
Importance of the county-courts; their composition
and attributes.
Complex origin of the Jury.
Central institutions of the Anglo-Saxons.
The Wittenagemot; its composition, and the
principle on which it was based.
Increasing preponderance of the large landowners
in the Anglo-Saxon monarchy.
Lecture V.--Page 49
The Wittenagemot; its business and power.
Method of its convocation.
Vicissitudes of its character and importance.
The kingly office among the Anglo-Saxons.
Extent and progress of the royal power.
Lecture VI.--Page 55
The true principle of representative government.
Error of classifying governments according to their external
forms.
Montesquieu's error with respect to the origin of the
representative system.
Necessary correlation and simultaneous formation of
society and government.
Rousseau's mistaken hypothesis of the social contract.
The nature of rightful sovereignty.
Confused and contradictory ideas entertained on this subject.
Societies, as individuals, possess the right of being placed
under laws of justice and reason.
Governments ought to be continually reminded of their
obligation to inquire into and conform to these laws.
Classification of governments on this principle.
Lecture VII.--Page 65
Comparison of the principles of different governments with the
true principle of representative government.
Aristocratic governments.
Origin and history of the word _aristocracy_.
Principle of this form of government; its consequences.
How the principle of representative government enters into
aristocratic governments.
Democratic governments.
Origin and consequences of the principle of the sovereignty of
the people.
This principle not identical with that of representative
government.
In what sense representative government is the government
of the majority.
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Lecture VIII.--Page 76
The forms of a government are related to its principle, but are
swayed by circumstances, and vary according to different
degrees of civilization.
What are the forms essential to a representative government?
1st. Division of powers; why absolutely
essential to the principle of representative government;
2nd. Election;
3rd. Publicity.
Lecture IX.--Page 82
Primitive institutions of the Franks.
Sketch of the history of the Frankish monarchy.
The Franks in Germany.
Their settlement in Belgium and in Gaul.
Character and authority of their chiefs after their
establishment in the Roman Empire.
Early Frankish chieftains.
Clovis: his expeditions, wars, and conquests.
Decisive preponderance of the Franks in Gaul.
Lecture X.--Page 86
Division of territory among the sons of the Frankish kings.
Rapid formation and disappearance of several Frank kingdoms.
Neustria and Austrasia; their geographical division.
Early predominance of Neustria.
Fredegonde and Brunehaut.
Elevation of the _Mayors of the Palace_.
True character of their power.
The Pepin family.
Charles Martel.
Fall of the Merovingians.
Lecture XI--Page 94
General character of events under the Carlovingian Empire.
Reign of Pepin the Short.
Reign of Charlemagne.
Epoch of transition.
Reigns of Louis the Débonnair and Charles the Bald.
Norman invasions.
The last Carlovingians.
Accession of Hugh Capet.
Lecture XII.--Page 103
Ancient institutions of the Franks.
They are more difficult of study than those of the
Anglo-Saxons.
Three kinds of landed property; allodial, beneficiary,
and tributary lands.
Origin of allodial lands.
Meaning of the word allodium.
Salic land amongst the Franks.
Essential characteristics of the allods.
Lecture XIII.--Page 109
Origin of military service; its cause and limits.
It was made a general obligation by Charlemagne.
Allodial lands were originally exempt from taxation.
Origin of benefices.
Change in the position of the German chiefs in consequence of
their territorial settlement.
Their wealth.
No public treasury.
The _œrarium_ and _fiscus_ of the old Roman republic.
Formation of the private domain of the kings of France.
Character of benefices.
Error of Montesquieu on this subject.
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Lecture XIV.--Page 116
Proofs of the co-existence of various modes of conferring
benefices, from the fifth to the tenth century.
Of benefices that were absolutely and arbitrarily revocable.
Of benefices conceded for a limited time; the_precaria_.
Of benefices granted for life.
Of benefices granted hereditarily.
General character of the concession of benefices.
Their tendency to become hereditary.
Its prevalence under Charles the Bald.
Military service.
Judicial and domestic service.
Origin, meaning, and vicissitudes of the fidelity due by the
vassal to his lord.
Lecture XV.--Page 124
Of benefices conceded by great landowners to men dependent
upon them:
_First_, benefices conceded for all kinds of services,
and as a mode of paying salary;
_Secondly_, larger proprietors usurp the lands adjoining
their own, and bestow them as benefices on their
subordinates;
_Thirdly_, the conversion of a great number of allodial
lands into benefices, by the practice of
_recommendation_.
Origin and meaning of this practice.
Permanence of freeholds, especially in certain parts of the
Frankish monarchy.
Tributary lands.
Their origin and nature.
Their rapid extension: its causes.
General view of the condition of territorial
property, from the sixth to the eleventh century:
_First_, different conditions of territorial property;
_Secondly_, the individual dependence of territorial
property;
_Thirdly_, the stationary condition of territorial
wealth.
Why the system of beneficiary property, that is to say, the
feudal system, was necessary to the formation of modern society
and of powerful states.
Lecture XVI.--Page 132
Of the state of persons, from the fifth to the tenth century.
Impossibility of determining this, according to any fixed and
general principle.
The condition of lands not always correspondent with that of
persons.
Variable and unsettled character of social conditions.
Slavery.
Attempt to determine the condition of persons according to
the _Wehrgeld_.
Table of twenty-one principal cases of _Wehrgeld_.
Uncertainty of this principle.
The true method of ascertaining the condition of persons.
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Lecture XVII.--Page 141
Of the _Leudes_ or Antrustions.
Men, faithful to the king and to the large proprietors.
Different means of acquiring and retaining them.
Obligations of the _Leudes_.
The _Leudes_ are the origin of the nobility.
Bishops and heads of monasteries were reckoned among the
_leudes_ of the king.
Moral and material of the bishops.
Efforts of the kings to possess themselves of the right of
nominating bishops.
Free men.
Did they form a distinct and numerous class?
The _arimanni_, and _rathimburgi_.
Mistake of M. de Savigny.
Rapid and general extension of the feudal hierarchy.
The freedmen.
Different modes of enfranchisement:
_First_, the _denariales_, enfranchised with
respect to the king:
_Second_, the _tabularii_, enfranchised with
respect to the church:
_Third_, the _chartularii_, enfranchised by a
charter.
Different consequences resulting from these different modes
of enfranchisement.
Lecture XVIII.--Page 148
Simultaneous existence of three systems of institutions, after
the settlement of the Franks in Gaul.
Conflict of these three systems.
Summary of this conflict, its vicissitudes, and results.
Its recurrence in local and central institutions.
Of local institutions under the Frankish monarchy.
Of the assemblies of free men.
Of the authority and jurisdiction of the great landowners in
their estates.
Of the authority and jurisdiction of the dukes, counts, and
other royal officers.
Lecture XIX.--Page 154
Government of Charlemagne.
Apparent revival of free institutions.
Individual independence and social liberty.
Organization of monarchical power under Charlemagne.
His active surveillance over his vassals and agents.
Rapid decline of monarchical institutions after his death.
Definitive predominance of the feudal system.
Central institutions during the same epoch: royalty.
Causes of the progress of royalty, and of the principle of
hereditary succession among the Franks.
Influence of the clergy.
Lecture XX.--Page 163
National assemblies of the Franks; their primitive character,
and rapid decline under the Merovingians.
They regain importance under the Carlovingians; and are held
regularly under Charlemagne.
Letter of Archbishop Hincmar _De ordine Palatii_.
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Lecture XXI.--Page 171
Decay of national assemblies under Louis the Débonnair and
Charles the Bald.
Definitive predominance of the feudal system at the end of the
tenth century.
Cause of this predominance.
Character of feudalism.
No trace of true representative government in France, from the
fifth to the tenth century.
Lecture XXII.--Page 177
Political institutions of the Visigoths.
Peculiar character of Visigothic legislation.
Its authors and its influences.
Destruction and disappearance of the middle class in the Roman
empire, at the time of the Barbarian invasion.
History of the Roman municipal system.
Three epochs in that history.
Lecture XXIII.--Page 193
Of the various social conditions in the Roman Empire, before
the final invasion of the Barbarians.
The privileged classes, and curials.
Their obligations, functions, and immunities.
Attributes of the _curia_ as a body.
Of the various municipal magistracies and offices.
Of the _Defender_ in cities.
Comparison of the development of the municipal system, and its
relations to the central organization of the State in the Roman
Empire and in modern societies.
Lecture XXIV.--Page 206
Sketch of the history of Spain under the Visigoths.
Condition of Spain under the Roman empire.
Settlement of the Visigoths in the south-west of Gaul.
Euric's collection of the laws of the Visigoths.
Alaric's collection of the laws of the Roman subjects.
Settlement of the Visigoths in Spain.
Conflict between the Catholics and Arians.
Political importance of the Councils of Toledo.
Principal kings of the Visigoths.
Egica collects the _Forum judicum_.
Fall of the Visigothic monarchy in Spain.
Lecture XXV.--Page 215
Peculiar character of the legislation of the Visigoths.
Different sorts of laws contained in the _Forum judicum_.
It was a doctrine as well as a code.
Principles of this doctrine on the origin and nature of power.
Absence of practical guarantees.
Preponderance of the clergy in the legislation of the
Visigoths.
True character of the election of the Visigothic kings.
The Visigothic legislation characterized by a spirit of
mildness and equity towards all classes of men, and especially
towards the slaves.
Philosophical and moral merits of this legislation.
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Lecture XXVI.--Page 229
Central institutions of the Visigothic monarchy.
True character of the Councils of Toledo.
Amount of their political influence.
The _Officium palatinum._
Prevalence of Roman maxims and institutions, among the Goths,
over Germanic traditions.
Proof of this in the local and central institutions of the
Visigoths.
Refutation of the errors of Savigny and the _Edinburgh
Review_ on this subject.
Conclusion.