The Russian and Austrian Governments, and even the French Government
in its normal condition, are oligarchies of officials, of whom the
head of the State does little more than select the chiefs. I am
speaking of the regular course of their administration; for the will
of the master of course determines many of their particular acts.
The governments which have been remarkable in history for
sustained mental ability and vigour in the conduct of affairs have
generally been aristocracies. But they have been, without any
exception, aristocracies of public functionaries. The ruling bodies
have been so narrow, that each member, or at least each influential
member, of the body, was able to make and did make, public business an
active profession, and the principal occupation of his life. The
only aristocracies which have manifested high governing capacities,
and acted on steady maxims of policy, through many generations, are
those of Rome and Venice. But, at Venice, though the privileged
order was numerous, the actual management of affairs was rigidly
concentrated in a small oligarchy within the oligarchy, whose whole
lives were devoted to the study and conduct of the affairs of the
state. The Roman government partook more of the character of an open
aristocracy like our own. But the really governing body, the Senate,
was in general exclusively composed of persons who had exercised
public functions, and had either already filled or were looking
forward to fill the higher offices of the state, at the peril of a
severe responsibility in case of incapacity and failure.
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