410 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



rarely or never occur occasions on which the king has to &quot;be 

 elected by the chief men, so that they have no opportunity of 

 choosing one who will conform to their wishes, they are 

 further debarred from maintaining any authority. Hence, 

 habitually, we do not find consultative bodies having an inde 

 pendent status in the despotically-governed countries of the 

 East, ancient or modern. Though we read of the Egyptian 

 king that &quot; he appears to have been attended in war by the 

 council of the thirty, composed apparently of privy councillors, 

 scribes, and high officers of state,&quot; the implication is that the 

 members of this council were functionaries, having such 

 powers only as the king deputed to them. Similarly in 

 Babylonia and Assyria, attendants and others who performed 

 the duties of ministers and advisers to the god-descended 

 rulers, did not form established assemblies for deliberative 

 purposes. In ancient Persia, too, there was a like condition. 

 The hereditary king, almost sacred and bearing extravagant 

 titles, though subject to some check from princes and nobles 

 of royal blood who were leaders of the army, and who ten 

 dered advice, was not under the restraint of a constituted 

 body of them. Throughout the history of Japan down to our 

 own time, a kindred state of things existed. The Daimios 

 were required to reside in the capital during prescribed inter 

 vals, as a precaution against insubordination ; but they were 

 never, while there, called together to take any share in the 

 government. So too is it in China. We are told that, 

 &quot; although there is nominally no deliberative or advisatory 

 body in the Chinese government, and nothing really analo 

 gous to a congress, parliament, or tiers etat, still necessity 

 compels the emperor to consult and advise with some of his 

 officers.&quot; Nor does Europe fail to yield us evidence of like 

 meaning. I do not refer only to the case of Eussia, but 

 more especially to the case of France during the time 

 when monarchy had assumed an absolute form. In the age 

 when divines like Bossuet taught that &quot; the king is account 

 able to no one . . . the whole state is in him, and the will 



