ESTATES. 



97 



dent. We cannot properly speak of liberty in such 

 a state, because liberty, truly so called, implies the 

 protection of each man's rights by the laws of an 

 organized society, the main object of political insti- 

 tutions being to secure individual liberty, by afford- 

 ing equal protection to all. But what a number of 

 gradations are to be found between the lawlessness 

 of the savage and the rational independence of the 

 citizen of a tree state. There are several prominent 

 stages in the progress of man from the one to the 

 other of these points : a. The state of unsettled and 

 roving tribes, the hunters and nomades. Though 

 very great difference exists among nations in this 

 state, yet all political development is so much 

 checked by the non-existence of landed property 

 (the beginning of proper civilization), that we may 

 class them all together. It. The patriarchal state, 

 in which the authority and power of the father of a 

 family (patria potestas), that of the magistrate and of 

 the priest are united in one person : this is the first 

 rude beginning of political civilization.* c. The 

 state in which the authority of the father and the 

 magistrate are separated, but that of the priest and 

 the magistrate still remain blended. This is the 

 theocratic state. In this, priests form a separate 

 caste, and are the rulers, d. When the authority 

 of the father, priest, and magistrate are separated, 

 and the distinction between the family and state is 

 clearly understood, but yet birth decides to what 

 class an individual belongs. This is the state of 

 castes. The whole people is divided into different 

 classes, with different privileges, e. That state of 

 government, which prevails in many parts of Europe, 

 where the nobility have hereditary privileges, and 

 correspond to the castes in the East, whilst the other 

 subjects are divided into classes distinguished by 

 their occupations, as peasants, citizens, &c. /. That 

 state of political society in which all the members 

 have equal privileges and rights, and are subject to 

 equal burdens. In this class must be included 

 several of the republics of antiquity, notwithstanding 

 a large portion of the inhabitants were in servitude ; 

 for the slaves, in these cases, were not considered as 

 belonging to the state, were not members of the 

 political society. Such an anomalous form of 

 government as existed in Algiers, where a tribe of 



* We cannot abstain here from a few remarks on the gross 

 error of many politicians of the continent, of whom Charles 

 Louis de Haller must be considered the head, on account of 

 his \voTiRestauration der Staatswissenschaft , Oder Theorie 

 des natiirlichen geselligen Zustandes, tier Cltimere det, 

 Kiinstlich-biirgerlichen entgfgengesetzt, \Vinterthur, 181 b 

 1820, 4 vols. (Restoration 01 the Science of Politics, or 

 Theory of the natural-social State, in Opposition to the 

 Chimera of the artificial-civil). These absolutists ridicule 

 the idea of a social contract, as the basis of the political con. 

 stitution of a nation, deriving all their arguments against 

 it from the patriarchal origin of the political state. Politi- 

 cal unions, say they, nowhere began with such a contract, 

 but grew out of the relations of families. Haller calls it an 

 idea communicated to him from Heaven, that, the father 

 being the natural ruler of the children, the master stands 

 in the same relation to his slaves, and the prince to his 

 subjects. He says there is no foundation for the notion 

 that princes are made for their subjects, but both are corre- 

 lative a very logical deduction, certainly, from the original 

 condition of men ! as if the highest branches of mathematics, 

 particularly the exalted and abstract theory of functions, 

 were visionary and groundless, because mathematics began 

 with simple calculations applied to the most ordinary busi- 

 ness of life, geometry, with the surveying of the banks of 

 the Nile after its inundation ! as if the laws of architecture 

 applied to the erection of the stately cathedral were chim- 

 erical, because architecture began with the construction of 

 miserable huts ! as if grammatical writing were nonsense, 

 because language began with inarticulate sounds! as if the 

 laws of war, by which its horrors are mitigated, were un- 

 founded, because war began with common murder! Yet 

 Mr Mailer's theory is so weirreceired by the illiberal party 

 in Germany, that a production which most probably would 

 not even have found a publisher in England, is there heid 

 up as a standard work ! See Constitutions. 



III. 



soldiers, kept up by perpetual recruits from abroad, 

 and excluding their own children from any share in 

 their political privileges, elected then* ruler, and 

 tyrannized over the other inhabitants of the coun- 

 try, without allowing them any rights (although they 

 did not actually treat them as slaves, at least not as 

 the property of individuals) , such a government 

 does not fall under any one of the established divi- 

 sions, and, in fact, can hardly be regarded in a different 

 light from an association of robbers. That condition 

 of government mentioned under e forms the subject 

 of this article. 



Estates are those political bodies which partake 

 either directly or by representation, in the govern- 

 ment : they are different from corporations, whicl 

 very often had, and still have, certain political privi- 

 leges. Estates are of Teutonic origin, being- tound 

 only in countries occupied by the descendants of 

 Teutonic tribes. They are to be considered as a 

 consequence of the feudal system, which originated 

 from certain customs prevalent among the Germans, 

 and from their conquests. (See Feudal System.) 

 From the feudal system sprang the modern heredi- 

 tary nobles a privileged body, partaking essen- 

 tially in, or, in some instances, chiefly forming the 

 government. (See Nobility.) Bondage became gra- 

 dually established an institution, hi many cases, of 

 much more recent date than those who profit by it 

 maintain. (See ViUenage.) At the same time that 

 the high nobility began to constitute a distinct and 

 hereditary class (which is of much later date than 

 the origin of feudalism), the high clergy, in many 

 countries, began to participate in the government 

 as a body, which they were, in those barbarous 

 times, as much entitled to do as the warlike nobi- 

 lity ; since they were the only members of society 

 with whom the little knowledge which had survived 

 the fearful storms of the dark ages had taken re 

 fuge. More or less distinct from each other, and 

 from the lower orders of their respective classes, 

 the high nobility and clergy continued to form the 

 estates, which, together with the prince, consti- 

 tuted the general government so far as any general 

 government can be said to have existed, when 

 every feudal lord was, in most respects, entirely 

 independent, and the higher clergy were almost 

 always feudal lords, so that a conflict of innumerable 

 interests, privileges, and liberties prevented any gen- 

 eral and orderly administration of government and 

 justice. " That prodigious fabric (as Hume calls 

 it), for several centuries, preserved such a mixture 

 of liberty and oppression, order and anarchy, sta- 

 bility and revolution, as was never experienced in any 

 other age, or any other part of the world." But the 

 time appeared when cities began to claim and assume 

 political rights, the time to wiiich we may apply, in 

 respect of all Europe, what Spelman applies to Eng- 

 land at the time of the Norman conquest, Novus 

 seclorum nascitur ordo. 



It is to the cities that we owe the origin of the 

 third estate, or citizens, from whom, through their 

 contests with the other estates or estate (if the no- 

 bility and clergy were united), and through their 

 greater number, which rendered a representation oi 

 them necessary, originated more general views oi 

 the administration of government and justice, more 

 equitable laws, and more correct notions of indivi- 

 dual liberty. To the historian, who sees, amid the 

 conflicts of feudalism, the beginning of the political 

 importance of the cities, it is like the first appear- 

 ance of tile rays of morning after a long and stormy 

 night. (See Cities). But the power of the other 

 estates was too great ; nor was it to be expected 

 that the third estate should be in advance of the 

 age : a general representation was not yet founded. 

 c 



