COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS. 380 



those Swiss cantons which, physically characterized in ways 

 less favourable than the others to personal independence, 

 were at the same time given to wars, offensive as well as 

 defensive. Berne, Lucerne, Fribourg, Soleure, acquired politi 

 cal constitutions in large measure oligarchic ; and in &quot; Berne, 

 where the nobles had always been in the ascendant, the entire 

 administration had fallen into the hands of a few families, 

 with whom it had become hereditary.&quot; 



We have next to note as a cause of progressive modification 

 in compound heads, that, like simple heads, they are apt to 

 be subordinated by their administrative agents. The earliest 

 case to be named is one in which this effect is exemplified 

 along with the last the case of Sparta. Originally appointed 

 by the kings to perform prescribed duties, the ephors first 

 made the kings subordinate, and eventually subordinated the 

 senate ; so that they became substantially the rulers. From 

 this we may pass to the instance supplied by Venice, where 

 power, once exercised by the people, gradually lapsed into 

 the hands of an executive body, the members of which, 

 habitually re-elected, and at death replaced by their children, 

 became an aristocracy, whence there eventually grew the 

 council of ten, who were, like the Spartan ephors, &quot; charged 

 to guard the security of the state with a power higher than 

 the law;&quot; and who thus, &quot;restrained by no rule,&quot; constituted 

 the actual government. Through its many revolutions and 

 changes of constitution, Florence exhibited like tendencies. 

 The appointed administrators, now signoria, now priors, 

 became able, during their terms of office, to effect their 

 private ends even to the extent of suspending the constitu 

 tion : getting the forced assent of the assembled people, who 

 were surrounded by armed men. And then, eventually, the 

 head executive agent, nominally re-elected from time to time 

 but practically permanent, became, in the person of Cosmo de 

 Medici, the founder of an inherited headship. 



But the liability of the compound political head to become 

 subject to its civil agents, is far less than its liability to 



