Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/145

Rh where a local custom has rendered real estates alienable, Bodin very justly observes that confiscations should extend only to such as are purchased or acquired.

N a despotic government the power is communicated intire to the person entrusted with it. The vizir himself is the despotic prince; and each particular officer is the vizir. In monarchies the power is less immediately applied; being tempered by the monarch as he gives it*. He makes such a distribution of his authority, as never to communicate a part of it, without reserving a greater share to himself.

Hence in monarchies the particular governors of towns are not so dependent on the governor of the province, as not to be still more so on the prince; and the private officers of military bodies are not so far subject to their general, as not to owe still a greater subjection to their sovereign.

In most monarchies it has been wisely regulated, that those who have an extensive command, should not belong to any military body; so that as they have no authority but through the prince's particular pleasure, and as they may be employed or not, they are in some measure in the service, and in some measure out of it.

This is incompatible with a despotic government. For if those who are not actually employed, were nevertheless invested with privileges and titles, the

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