Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/70

18 of decreeing, nay it is frequently proper to make some trial of a law before it is established. The constitutions of Rome and Athens were excellent. The decrees of the senate had the force of laws for the space of a year, and did not become perpetual till they were ratified by the consent of the people.

N an aristocracy the supreme power is lodged in the hands of a certain number of persons. These are invested both with the legislative and executive authority; and the rest of the people are in respect to them, the same as the subjects of a monarchy in regard to the monarch.

They do not vote here by lot, for this would be attended only with inconveniencies. In fact, in a government where the most oppressive distinctions are already established, though they were to vote by lot, still they would not cease to be odious; it is the nobleman they envy and not the magistrate.

When the nobility are numerous, there must be a senate to regulate the affairs which the body of nobles are incapable of deciding, and to prepare those they decide. In this case it may be said that the aristocracy is in some measure in the senate, the democracy in the body of the nobles, and the people are nothing at all.

It would be a very happy thing in an aristocracy, if by some indirect method the people could be emancipated from their state of annihilation. Thus at Genoa the bank of St. George Rh