POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN GENERAL. 255 



formed, but the sustentation of those who perform the func 

 tion, becomes the object in view : the result being that when 

 the function is needless, or even detrimental, the structure 

 still keeps itself intact as long as it can. In early days 

 the history of the Knights Templars furnished an illustration 

 of this tendency. Down to the present time we have before 

 us the familiar instance of trade-guilds in London, which 

 having ceased to perform their original duties, nevertheless 

 jealously defend their possessions and privileges. The con 

 vention of Eoyal Burghs in Scotland, which once regulated 

 the internal municipal laws, still meets annually though it 

 has no longer any work to do. And the accounts given in 

 The Black Book of the sinecures which survived up to recent 

 times, yield multitudinous illustrations. 



The extent to which an organization resists re -organization, 

 we shall not fully appreciate until we observe that its resist 

 ance increases in a compound progression. For while each new 

 part is an additional obstacle to change, the formation of it 

 involves a deduction from the forces causing change. If, 

 other things remaining the same, the political structures of a 

 society are further developed if existing institutions are 

 extended or fresh ones set up if for directing social activities 

 in greater detail, extra staffs of officials are appointed ; the 

 simultaneous results are an increase in the acr^recfate of 



OO o 



those who form the regulating part, and a corresponding de 

 crease in the aggregate of those who form the part regulated. 

 In various ways all who compose the controlling and adminis 

 trative organization, become united with one another and 

 separated from the rest. Whatever be their particular 

 duties, they are similarly related to the governing centres of 

 their departments, and, through them, to the supreme govern 

 ing centre ; and are habituated to like sentiments and ideas 

 respecting the set of institutions in which they are incorpo 

 rated. Receiving their subsistence through the national 

 revenue, they tend towards kindred views and feelings 

 respecting the raising of such revenue. Whatever jealousies 

 75 



