When once
members of the Senate, their lives were pledged to the conduct of
public affairs; they were not permitted even to leave Italy except
in the discharge of some public trust; and unless turned out of the
Senate by the censors for character or conduct deemed disgraceful,
they retained their powers and responsibilities to the end of life. In
an aristocracy thus constituted, every member felt his personal
importance entirely bound up with the dignity and estimation of the
commonwealth which he administered, and with the part he was able to
play in its councils. This dignity and estimation were quite different
things from the prosperity or happiness of the general body of the
citizens, and were often wholly incompatible with it. But they were
closely linked with the external success and aggrandisement of the
State: and it was, consequently, in the pursuit of that object
almost exclusively that either the Roman or the Venetian aristocracies
manifested the systematically wise collective policy, and the great
individual capacities for government, for which history has deservedly
given them credit.
It thus appears that the only governments, not representative, in
which high political skill and ability have been other than
exceptional, whether under monarchical or aristocratic forms, have
been essentially bureaucracies. The work of government has been in the
hands of governors by profession; which is the essence and meaning
of bureaucracy.
Pages:
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135