Senates and councils of state. 53. Sovereignty resides in the supreme legislative authority; but this requires the aid of other inferior and delegated ministers, to the consideration of which the third book of Bodin is directed. A senate he defines, “a lawful assembly of counsellors of state, to give advice to them who have the sovereignty in every commonwealth; we say, to give advice, that we may not ascribe any power of command to such a senate.” A council is necessary in a monarchy; for much knowledge is generally mischievous in a king. It is rarely united with a good disposition, and with a moral discipline of mind. None of the emperors were so illiterate as Trajan, none more learned than Nero. The counsellors should not be too numerous, and he advises that they should retain their offices for life. It would be dangerous as well as ridiculous, to choose young men for such a post, even if they could have wisdom and experience, since neither older persons, nor those of their own age, would place confidence in them. He then expatiates, in his usual manner, upon all the councils that have existed in ancient or modern states.[1103]
[1103] c. 1.
Duties of magistrates. 54. A magistrate is an officer of the sovereign, possessing public authority.[1104] Bodin censures the usual definitions of magistracy, distinguishing from magistrates both those officers who possess no right of command, and such commissioners as have only a temporary delegation. In treating of the duty of magistrates towards the sovereign, he praises the rule of the law of France, that the judge is not to regard private letters of the king against the justice of a civil suit.[1105] But after stating the doubt, whether this applies to matters affecting the public, he concludes that the judge must obey any direction he receives, unless contrary to the law of nature, in which case he is bound not to forfeit his integrity. It is however better, as far as we can, to obey all the commands of the sovereign, than to set a bad example of resistance to the people. This has probably a regard to the frequent opposition of the Parliament of Paris, to what it deemed the unjust or illegal ordinances of the court. Several questions, discussed in these chapters on magistracy, are rather subtle and verbal; and, in general, the argumentative part of Bodin is almost drowned in his erudition.
[1104] c. 3.
[1105] c. 4.
Corporations. 55. A state cannot subsist without colleges and corporations, for mutual affection and friendship is the necessary bond of human life. It is true that mischiefs have sprung from these institutions, and they are to be regulated by good laws; but as a family is a community natural, so a college is a community civil, and a commonwealth is but a community governed by a sovereign power; and thus the word community is common unto all three.[1106] In this chapter we have a full discussion of the subject; and, adverting to the Spanish Cortes and English Commons as a sort of colleges in the state, he praises them as useful institutions, observing, with somewhat more boldness than is ordinary to him, that in several provinces in France there had been assemblies of the states, which had been abolished by those who feared to see their own crimes and peculations brought to light.
[1106] c. 7.
Slaves, part of the state. 56. In the last chapter of the third book, on the degrees and orders of citizens, Bodin seems to think that slaves, being subjects, ought to be reckoned parts of the state.[1107] This is, as has been intimated, in conformity with his monarchical notions. He then enters upon the different modes of acquiring nobility, and inveighs against making wealth a passport to it; discussing also the derogation to nobility by plebeian occupation. The division into three orders is useful in every form of government.
[1107] Si mihi tabellæ ac jura suffragiorum in hac disputatione tribuantur, servos æque ac liberos homines civitate donari cupiam. By this he may only mean that he would desire to emancipate them.
Rise and fall of states. 57. Perhaps the best chapter in the Republic of Bodin is the first in the fourth book, on the rise, progress, stationary condition, revolutions, decline, and fall of states. A commonwealth is said to be changed when its form of polity is altered; for its identity is not to be determined by the long standing of the city walls; but when popular government becomes monarchy, or aristocracy is turned to democracy, the commonwealth is at an end. He thus uses the word respublica in the sense of polity or constitution, which is not, I think, correct, though sanctioned by some degree of usage, and leaves his proposition a tautological truism. The extinction of states may be natural or violent, but in one way or the other it must happen, since there is a determinate period to all things, and a natural season in which it seems desirable that they should come to an end. The best revolution is that which takes place by a voluntary cession of power.