[1] Aristotle elsewhere speaks of the error of those who think that any one of the depraved forms is better than any other.
[2] None of the free states of Greece ever made extensive or permanent conquests; but the tribute sometimes paid by one state to another (as by the Aeginetans to the Athenians) was a manifest source of corruption. Compare the remarks of Hume (Essays, part i. 3, That Politics may be reduced to a Science), “free governments are the most ruinous and oppressive for their provinces.”
[3] Ultimately, in the theory of English law, the king may be said to have become the universal successor of the people. Some of the peculiarities of the prerogative rights seem to be explainable only on this view, e.g. the curious distinction between wrecks come to land and wrecks still on water. The common right to wreckage was no doubt the origin of the prerogative right to the former. Every ancient common right has come to be a right of the crown or a right held of the crown by a vassal.
[4] See Bagehot’s English Constitution; or, for a more recent analysis, Sidney Low’s Governance of England.
[5] For an account of the double chamber system in the state legislatures see [United States]: Constitution and Government, and also S. G. Fisher, The Evolution of the Constitution (Philadelphia, 1897).
[6] A government “defeat” may, of course, not really represent a hostile vote in exceptional cases, and in some instances a government has obtained a reversal of the vote and has not resigned.
GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide), in general, one who governs or exercises authority; specifically, an official appointed to govern a district, province, town, &c. In British colonies or dependencies the representative of the crown is termed a governor. Colonial governors are classed as governors-general, governors and lieutenant-governors, according to the status of the colony or group of colonies over which they preside. Their powers vary according to the position which they occupy. In all cases they represent the authority of the crown. In the United States (q.v.) the official at the head of every state government is called a governor.