S10

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap, celebrated writer of our own times has traced of

VII.

_the military government of the Roman empire.

“ What in that age was called the Roman eni-“ pire, was only an irregular republic, not un-“ like the aristocracy f of Algiers, * where the“ militia, possessed of the sovereignty, creates“ and deposes a magistrate, who is styled a dey.“ Perhaps, indeed, it may be laid down as a“ general rule, that a military government is,“ in some respects, more republican than mo-“ narchical. Nor can it be said that the sol-“ diers only partook of the government by their“ disobedience and rebellions. The speeches“ made to them by the emperors, were they“ not at length of the same nature as those“ formerly pronounced to the people by the“ consuls and the tribunes ? And although the“ armies had no regular place or forms of as-“ sembly; though their debates were short,“ their action sudden, and their resolves seldom“ the result of cool reflection, did they not dis-“ pose, with absolute sway, of the public for-“ tune? What was the emperor, except the“ minister of a violent government, elected for“ the private benefit of the soldiers.

“ When the army had elected Philip, who“ was praetorian prefect to the third Gordian,

f Can the epithet of aristocracy be applied, with any propriety, to thegovernment of Algiers ? Every military government floats between theextremes of absolute monarchy and wild democracy.

8 The military republic of the mamalukes in Egypt , would haveafforded M. de Montesquieu (see Considerations sur la Grandeuret la Decadence des Komains, c. 16), a juster and more nobleparallel.