302 CAUSES OF DEGENEKATIVE EVOLUTION 



to make these payments for services no longer 

 rendered. 1 



In each of the above cases of survival it is plain 

 that compulsion intervened more or less directly 

 to secure the maintenance of non-functional 

 institutions. 



In the first cases referred to, the privileged 

 persons concerned, took advantage of their influ- 

 ential positions to enforce the maintenance of their 

 sinecures. 



In the second case that of the rotten boroughs 



the institution was not only advantageous to the 



member himself but to the whole of his party, so 



that naturally its maintenance met with the cordial 



support of the latter. 



In the third case, those in authority maintained 

 part of the institution that of the mere titles 

 and emoluments in order to suppress the remainder 

 more easily. In this case it was not an institution 

 which atrophied, but an institution which was caused 

 to atrophy by compulsion. 



2. INDIRECT USEFULNESS. It sometimes happens 

 that an institution, although ceasing to be functional, 

 yet retains a certain usefulness. This is so in 

 England, with the office of the Privy Seal. All 

 the functions formerly discharged by the holder 

 of this office have long since disappeared, but the 

 post is reserved as a sinecure for persons who have 



1 Babeau, Les assemblies des pays cCEtat sous Vancien regime ; 

 Reforme sociale, 1893, p. 704, 



