Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/69

Rh The people's suffrages ought doubtless to be public ; and this should be considered as a fundamental law of democracy. The lower sort of people ought to be directed by those of higher rank, and restrained within bounds by the gravity of certain personages. Hence by rendering the suffrages secret in the Roman Republic all was lost; it was no longer possible to direct a populace that sought its own destruction. But when the body of the nobles are to vote in an aristocracy ; or in a democracy, the senate ; as the business is then only to prevent intrigues, the suffrages cannot be too secret.

Intriguing in a senate is dangerous; dangerous it is also in a body of nobles, but not so in the people whose nature it is to act through passion. In countries where they have no share in the government, we often see them as much inflamed on the account of an actor, as ever they could be for any concern of the state. The misfortune of a republic is, when there are no more intrigues; and this happens when the people are corrupted by dint of money: in which case they grow indifferent to public concerns, and passionately desirous of lucre. Careless of the government, and of every thing belonging to it, they quietly wait for their salary.

It is likewise a fundamental law in democracies, that the people should have the sole power to enact laws. And yet there are a thousand occasions on which it is necessary the senate should have a power Rh