Page:Max Havelaar Or The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company Siebenhaar.djvu/67

 the centralized power of the German Empire, the need was felt of binding some distant people by other means than material superiority only, as soon as a far-off region was considered, by virtue of similarity of origin, language and customs, as belonging more directly to the Empire, the necessity was realized of charging someone with the direction of affairs who not only was autochthonous to such country, but who by his own rank was elevated above his fellow citizens there, so that obedience to the commands of the Emperor should be facilitated by the coherent tendency of submission to the person entrusted with the execution of these commands. By this means, at the same time, the expenses of a standing army were entirely or partially obviated, and therewith a burden on the public treasury, or, as was otherwise mostly the case, on the provinces themselves which had to be guarded by such army. Thus the first Counts were chosen from among the Barons of the country, and correctly speaking the word Count is therefore not a title of nobility, but only the description of the person charged with a certain office. And I believe that in the middle ages the opinion was current that the German Emperor certainly had the right to appoint Counts, i.e. district-rulers, and Dukes, i.e. army-leaders, but that on the other hand the Barons held that they were the equals of the Emperor as regards birth, and were only dependent on God, save for the obligation of serving the Emperor provided the latter had been elected with their consent and from their numbers. A Count filled an office to which the Emperor had called him. A Baron considered himself a Baron “by the grace of God.” The Counts represented the Emperor, and as such flew banner, i.e. the standard of the Empire. A Baron raised a contingent of followers under his own flag, as a bannerlord.

Now the circumstance that Counts and Dukes were usually selected from among the Barons caused them to throw the importance of their office into the balance with the influence they derived from their birth, and from this, especially when the heredity of these offices had become customary, sprang afterwards the prefer-