History Of The Origin Of Representative Government In EuropeBy M Guizot

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Title: History Of The Origin Of Representative Government In Europe

Author: François Guizot

Translator: Andrew R. Scoble

Release Date: January 27, 2020 [EBook #61250]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIGIN OF REPRESENTATIVE GOV'T--EUROPE ***

Produced by Don Kostuch

[Transcriber's note: This production is based on https://archive.org/details/historyoforigino00guiz/page/n9. The lecture subheadings
(page headers) are shown in italics. The publisher has included a lengthy list of other books on the front and back fly leafs. These
have gathered at the end of this file. Several of these pages are obscured by library inserts for circulation control.]

Bohn's Standard Library.

Guizot's Representative Government.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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Guizot.

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.

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Predominance of the latter among the Anglo-Saxons.

Its cause.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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; theprecaria.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

Part II.

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Essays Of Representative Government In England, From The Conquest Till The Reign Of

The Tudors.

Lecture I.—Page 257

Subject of the course: the history of the origin and establishment of representative government in Europe.

Different aspects under which history is considered at various epochs.

Poetic history; philosophic history; political history.

Disposition of our time to consider history under these various aspects.

Fundamental principle and essential characteristics of representative government.

Existence of this principle and these characteristics in England at all times.

Lecture II.—Page 270

Sketch of the History of England, from William the Conqueror to John Lackland (1066-1199).

William the Conqueror (1066-1087).

William Rufus (1087-1100).

Henry I. (1100-1135).

Stephen (1135-1154).

Henry II. (1154-1189).

Constitutions of Clarendon.

Richard Cœur de Lion (1189-1199).

Lecture III.—Page 281

Anglo-Saxon institutions.

Effects of the Norman Conquest upon Anglo-Saxon institutions.

Effects of the Conquest upon Norman institutions.

Causes which made the Norman Conquest favourable to the establishment of a system of free institutions in England.

Lecture IV.—Page 288

The English Parliament in the earliest times of the Anglo-Norman Monarchy.

Different names given to the King's Great Council.

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Its characteristics.

Its constitution.

Opinions of Whigs and Tories on this subject.

Lecture V.—Page 295

The Anglo-Norman royalty: its wealth and power.

Comparison of the relative forces of the Crown and of the feudal aristocracy.

Progress of the royal power.

Spirit of association and resistance among the great barons.

Commencement of the struggle between these two political forces.

Lecture VI.—Page 302

History of English Charters.

Charter of William the Conqueror (1071).

Charter of Henry I. (1101).

Charters of Stephen (1135-1136).

Charter of Henry II. (1154).

Lecture VII.—Page 308

Charter of John, or the Great Charter (1215).

Three epochs in John's reign.

Formation of a coalition among the barons.

Civil war.

Conference at Runnymead.

Concession of the Great Charter.

Analysis of this Charter.

Its stipulations refer to national rights as well as to those of the barons.

John petitions and obtains from Innocent III. a bull to reverse the Great Charter.

Resistance of the English clergy.

Recommencement of the civil war (October, 1215).

Louis of France, son of Philip Augustus, is appealed to by the barons.

Death of John (October, 1216).

Lecture VIII.—Page 319

Charters of Henry III.

First Charter of Henry III. (November, 1216).

Louis of France renounces his title to the Crown, and leaves England.

Second Charter of Henry III. (1217).

Forest Charter granted by Henry III. (1217).

Confirmation of Charters (1225).

Revocation of Charters (1227).

New confirmation of Charters (1237).

Continual violation of Charters.

Civil war.

Renewal of Charters (1264).

New confirmation of Charters (1267).

Death of Henry III. (November 16, 1272).

Lecture IX.—Page 325

Conclusion of the history of Charters under the reign of Edward I.

Political conflict follows civil war.

The king frequently violates the Charters, especially in the matter of imposts.

The barons resist energetically.

Edward gives a definitive confirmation to the Charters (1298-1301).

A bull of Clement V., solicited by Edward I., annuls the Charters.

Its failure.

Death of Edward I. (July 7, 1307)

Lecture X.—Page 334

Necessity of inquiring into the political sense of the word representation at the time when a representative government began
to be formed.

Mistaken theories on this subject.

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Rousseau's theory, which denies representation and insists on individual sovereignty.

Theories of writers who attempt to reconcile the principle of representation with that of individual sovereignty.

Erroneousness of the idea that the sovereignty belongs to the majority.

True idea of representation.

Lecture XI.—Page 350

Formation of a Parliament.

Introduction of county deputies into the Parliament.

Relations of the county deputies to the great barons.

Parliament of Oxford (1258).

Its regulations, termed the Acts of Oxford.

Hesitancy of the county deputies between the great barons and the crown.

Lecture XII.—Page 359

Struggle between Henry III. and his Parliament.

Arbitration of Saint Louis.

The Earl of Leicester heads the great barons in their struggle with the king.

He is defeated and killed at Evesham (1265).

Admission of deputies from towns and boroughs into Parliament (1264).

Royalist reaction.

Leicester's memory remains popular.

Lecture XIII.—Page 368

Progress of the Parliament under the reign of Edward I.

Frequent holding of Parliament.

Different composition of Parliaments.

Deputies from the counties and towns were not always present.

Discretionary power of the king in the convocation of barons.

The varying number of county and borough deputies.

Lecture XIV.—Page 377