BOOK in a republic, had usurped the power of an absolute monarch. .XXIII. This is the ordinary sense of the term in the Greek and Roman authors. The moderns use the term to express violent and cruel abuses of authority in all kinds of government. Despotism. Despotism has been confounded, sometimes with tyranny, sometimes with absolute monarchy. Despotism is absolute power, which is not derived from a lawful source, and which consequently acknowledges no limits. The despot pretends to be master of his country and of his subjects. just as a private person is proprietor of his estate or his cattle. Despotism is not necessarily tyrannical, or cruel and violent— it is not absolutely incompatible with some administrative forms, and some institutions which properly belong to regular States, or even to Republics.

It would be improper to class with these forms of government, or of anarchy, created by man, the singular state Theocracy. termed theocracy. "It is," say the Theologians, "a go"vernment instituted by God himself, and in which the ma"gistrates govern in the name of God." Such was the constitution of the Jewish people-with them theocracy was united first to democracy, and then to monarchy. The popes, in the dark and middle ages, attempted to establish a theocracy upon a great scale.

Federal

system.

We have still to notice the federal systems, which are the unions of several independent States, under a superior authority chosen by themselves, and which are invested with powers more or less extensive, to maintain mutual order, and to furnish the means of defence against external enemies. We may term a confederation, of which all the constituent members are on a footing of equality, a democracy of States: Such is that of America. There have been, however, confederations with a chief or presiding power: The late Germanic empire was of this nature. Confederations sometimes have subjects in common: The Swiss had several districts in this manner.

Political geography considers in societies of men, besides the general tie, or the form of government, the particular

ties which bind individuals to society, and which result from BOOK the station assigned to these individuals, or from their divi- XXIII. sion into classes and orders.

the classes

In the most savage state, insulated man procures directly Origin of for himself the little which is necessary to supply his wants of society. or to gratify his wishes. As soon as families begin to draw near each other, they unite together for accomplishing their common labours; but when the number of families augments, the society, becoming larger and more powerful, has recourse to the division of labour. The different products of each branch of industry are then reciprocally changed. These exchanges being not without inconvenience, means are sought for to give them facility and dispatch. Some measure, to ascertain the comparative values of the different commodities, is adopted, either some article in general request, as corn or cattle, or some reputed precious substance, such as gold and silver. This token becomes money: the productions become merchandize; and instead of being bartered, they are purchased. Some sagacious observers now perceive that gain is to be got by buying and selling; they become intermediate agents between the consumers of produce and those who raise or work it; and here commence the first rude attempts of commerce. Ere long, the administration of the affairs, and the defence of the territories of the state, become functions too laborious and too complicated to be gratuitously discharged; the functionaries receive a salary, and instead of warriors we have soldiers. At the same time, every inch of ground would receive its master; property of every kind, after having passed from one hand to another-chance favouring some individuals, and address serving others would at last become fixed. Those who had been unfortunate or unskilful, finding the impossibility of producing any thing by their own efforts, would let out their strength or their dexterity to others. From society thus at last completely constituted, various. classes originate.

The productive class comprehends all those who draw Productive from the earth or some other element, any productions use- class.

BOOK ful to society; cultivators of the soil, fishermen, vine-dressXXIII. ers, miners, &c. There are tribes entirely composed of one

Mechanic

al or ope

rative class.

Commercial class.

Class of

cers.

or more productive classes. Such are the pastoral tribes, or Nomades; the fishermen, or Ichthyophagi. In civilized states, there exists one productive class of a peculiar kind; -the man of science who enlarges the empire of knowledge, and the man of letters, who purifies the taste, or refines the sentiments, or elevates the morals and manners of the age, equally contribute to the production of true national riches of inestimable price and perpetual duration.

The operative class consists of those who, by various processes, convert raw produce into artificial produce. When such processes eminently require genius and taste, they obtain the name of the fine arts. When they chiefly demand corporeal strength and dexterity, they are called the mechanic arts. A manufactory is an establishment where an art is conducted on a large scale. The name of work seems to denote one of these establishments in which extensive and powerful machinery is employed.

The commercial class is composed of merchants properly so termed, who buy and sell, either on a great or small scale, the productions of nature and of art; of different kinds of correspondents or agents, who facilitate the execution of purchases and sales; of bankers and brokers, who confine their operations to the representative signs of merchandise; and, lastly, of mariners and carriers, in so far as these are proprietors of their means of conveyance, and do not fall to be ranked under the class of mercenaries.

We include in one class the public functionaries, and public offi- the officers of the sea and land forces. They are equally invested with a greater or less proportion of the force of the state; they are equally the agents of the supreme power.

Class of mercena

ries.

The last class comprehends the mercenaries of every kind who let out their labour to private persons, or chiefly to the community. It is composed of labourers and domestics. This last class is most numerous in the states where luxury prevails.

The numerical proportion in which these classes are met BOOK with in a state, is one of the most interesting questions of XXIII. statistics. According to this proportion it is that we decide whether we are to denominate a nation agricultural or commercial.

Classes have their foundation in the very nature of socie- Castes. ty itself, but castes and orders are created by laws and constitutions. By the word caste is understood an hereditary class, exclusively assigned to one species of occupation. This system of division existed in Persia, Arabia Felix, and Egypt, and it still exists in India. It is accounted for in a satisfactory manner, by referring to the original difference of the primitive tribes, whose union formed the nation. The caste of priests and that of warriors, in Egypt, were probably two clans somewhat organized and disciplined, which had reduced to a state of subjection several tribes of husbandmen and shepherds. The conqueror disdained to intermingle with the vanquished; and the laws afterwards sanctioned and perpetuated a system of separation which accident had originally established.*

the state.

The political orders in the states of Europe differ essen- Orders of tially from the castes, in this, that they have no occupation which is exclusively reserved for them, or if they have it, like the clergy, it is not hereditary. In the middle ages, when the armies consisted of cavalry, the order of the nobility partook much of the nature of a caste. The nobles now are merely an order of the state. The citizens, commonalty, or third order, and the peasants, form, in some states, orders recognized by the constitution. In Sweden, the order of peasants possesses much influence. The same was the case in the Tyrol before the late events. There are still, however, some countries, particularly Russia, where the husbandmen, subjected to the yoke of personal slavery, form a real caste, condemned to a state of abject and perpetual degradation.

* Compare Heeren, Views of the Politics and Trade of the Ancients. (In German.)

BOOK XXIII.

Denomina

tions of

ties.

In despotic states, as in Turkey and in China, there are no orders.

66

Slavery renders all individuals equal. In Europe, it is the esprit de corps," the corporation or professional spirit of the orders of the state,-it is the equilibrium resulting from their various prerogatives and interests, contending with each other, and with the supreme power, which secures political liberty. It is, therefore, in describing Europe that we shall have to explain the institutions of chivalry, the honorary distinctions, and other institutions, whose object it is, either to mark the degrees in the scale of society, or to render the distance between them less felt and less perceptible.

It would be rather uninteresting to enumerate the various Sovereign- denominations which designate the different states. The use of the terms empire, kingdom, sultanat, khanat, and others, will be learnt in the descriptive part of this work. It would be equally useless to consider in this place, the titles which the heads of states assume, from the modest president of the United States, to the vain-glorious Emperor of China, who is called the son of heaven, and who is, however, only the silly imitator of the Persian monarchs, who style themselves kings of kings, princes of the stars, and brothers of the sun and moon.* Empty sounds have no influence upon the prosperity or the power of states. Political geography regards, as almost unworthy of notice, the arms and colours by which the different states mark their ensigns, their flags, and their frontier posts.

Resources

It is a matter of much greater importance to ascertain the of the state material resources of the state. This is the particular object of an extensive science, termed political arithmetic ; the results, however, of this science must have a place in the descriptions of political geography.

*Ammian. Marcell. xvii. 5. xxiii. 6.

+ Becmanni, Syntagma Dignitat. Illust. Dissert. iii. cap. 3.

See the works of Young, Petty, &c. quoted p. 551, 552. The general Treatises of Statistics, by Ackenwall, Toze and Mensel, (in German,) and the Statistical Account of Scotland by the Parochial Clergy.