Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/169

151 SPEECH OF NIKIAS. 151 the fear of being called cowards. Let them leave to these men the ruinous appetite for what is not within reach, in the convic- tion that few plans ever succeed from passionate desire ; many, from deliberate foresight. Let them vote against the expedition ; maintaining undisturbed our present relations with the Sicilian cities, and desiring the Egestteans to close the war against Seli- nus, as they have begun it, without the aid of Athens.' Nor be Thucyd. vi, 9-14. Kat PV, u Trpvravi, Tavra, elirep jyyet aot. (cr/<5foi9at re rf/^ 7ro/.ewf, not fioi>?iei yevecp&ai Tro/Urjyf uya&bf, eiriipf/^e, Kat yvijfiaf ^poridei aii?if 'A$nvaotf, vo/iiaaf, el oppudsic TO uva^>7jlaai, rb nlv AVECV roOf v6fj.ovg fir] P.ETU. roauvd' av fiaprvpuv alriav o^elv, rr^ 6e TTO- <ief Ka/CGJf /3ov7ivaafj.EVj]f t'arpof uv -yevefr&ai, etc. I cannot concur in the remarks of Dr. Arnold, cither on this passage or upon the parallel case of the renewed debate in the Athenian assembly, oa the subject of the punishment to be inflicted on the Mitylenasans (see above, vol. vi. ch. 1, p. 338, and Thucyd. iii, 36). It appears to me that Nikias was here asking the prytanis to do an illegal act, which might well expose him to accusation and punishment. Probably he would have been accused on this ground, if the decision of the second assembly had been different from what it actually turned out; if they had reversed the decision of the former assembly, but only by a small majority. The distinction taken t.y Dr. Arnold between what was illegal and what was merely irregulr.r, v;as little marked at Athens : both were called illegal, rodf vojuovf 2,{ie/v. The rules which the Athenian assembly, a sovereign assembly, laid Jowu for its own debates and decisions, were just as much lines as those which it passed for the guidance of private citizens. The English House cf Commons is not a sovereign assembly, but only a portion of the sovereign power : accordingly, the rules which it lays down for its debates are not lutes, But orders of the House : a breach of these orders, therefore, in debating any particular subject, would not be illegal, bu t merely irregular or informal. The same was the case with the French Chamber of Deputies, prior to the revolution of February, 1848 : the rules which it Ijiid down for its own proceedings were not laws, but simply le reglement de 'a C'hambre. It is remarkable that the present National Assembly now sit- in'/ (March, 1849) hac retained this expression, and adopted a rfylement for ts own business ; though it is in point of fact a sovereign assembly, and the rales which it sanctions are, properly speaking, laws, Both in this case, and in the Mitylenaean debate, I think the Athenian prytanis committed an illegality. In the first case, every one is glad of the illegality, because it proved the salvation of so many Mitylensean lives. In the second case, the illegality was productive of practical bad consequences, inasmuch as it seems to have brought about the immense extension of tho scale upon which the expedition was projected. But there will occur in a fay vears a third incident, the condemnation of tho six generals after th