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reine, königin, queen; comes, with its derivatives, conte, conde, and comte, graf and earl, may be considered as equipollent, and are treated as such in translating from one language to another. The names of the degrees of naval and military rank, as marshal, general, colonel, major, captain, lieutenant; admiral and captain, &c., are accepted as equivalents in nearly all modern languages ; but the German replaces colonel and captain with obrist and hauptmann. Nevertheless, such names of offices, though acknowledged as equivalents for the convenience of description, do not designate any constant idea.

Sometimes ancient terms adopted into the modern political vocabulary have been deflected from their classical signification. Thus, the term jus gentium, which was used by the Romans to signify principles of jurisprudence common to the law of many nations, has been in modern times used to signify the rules which regulate the intercourse of different nations; a confusion of meanings which has not been without its influence upon the treatises of Grotius and Puffendorf, and their followers. In like manner the Greek word rúpavvoç, Latinized into tyrannus, designated an absolute prince, who had acquired his power by usurpation and violence. (3) Cromwell and Napoleon afford examples of the class of rulers whom the Greeks designated by this name; and the Roman emperors were properly a series of Túpavvoi, concealed, at first, under a constitutional disguise. The king of Persia was not called by the Greeks a rúpavvoc, because, though his power was despotic, he ruled according to the laws and customs of the country. The Greeks never applied the term to any aristocratic or democratic government

(33) Speaking of Miltiades, Nepos says (c. 8): Nam Chersonesi omnes illos quos habitarat annos, perpetuam obtinuerat dominationem, tyrannusque fuerat appellatus, sed justus. Non erat enim vi consequutus, sed suorum voluntate, eamque potestatem bonitate retinuit. Omnes autem et habentur et dicuntur tyranni, qui potestate sunt perpetuâ in eâ civitate quæ libertate usa est.'

If any one rules through deceit or violence, this is thought a rupavís,' says Aristot. Pol. v. 10. It is sufficiently known, that the odious appellation of tyrant was often employed by the ancients to express the illegal seizure of supreme power, without any reference to the abuse of it.Gibbon, Decline and Fall, c. 10 (vol. i. p. 357).

except metaphorically; as when they compared the Athenian empire over the subject-states to a rupavvic. In modern languages, however, tyranny signifies any harsh and oppressive exercise of political power; and the government of a body may as properly be called tyrannical as the government of one.

§ 6 When a word, taken from common use, has been engrafted into the technical vocabulary of politics, and has thus received a tolerably precise meaning, there are numerous influences at work to untechnicalize it; to blur the distinct outline which philosophy has drawn; to obliterate the landmarks which a long litigation between learned disputants has settled; and to counteract the dispensations of the scientific god Terminus. One of these is the circumstance above adverted to, that a technical word formed in this manner does not cease to be a common word, and as it necessarily occurs much oftener in popular than in scientific discussion, there is a constantly-renewed tendency to a relapse. Like an animal imperfectly domesticated, a technical term of this sort in politics is perpetually in danger of losing its refinement, and of reverting to a state of wildness. This is owing to the weakness of the scientific authority, and to the consequent force of the popular voice in political questions. Until there is more agreement than exists at present among scientific writers on politics, the standard of authority is subject to dispute, and is imperfectly recognised: hence there is, in a certain class of political terms, a constant gravitation from their technical orbit to the popular medium whence they had their origin. Such is not the case with technical terms in the physical sciences, which originate in the same manner. In these, (owing to the general agreement of men of science,) the scientific authority is paramount; there is no tendency in technicalized common terms to degenerate into their primitive meaning; but there is a perpetual reference to the new and precise canon of interpretation. Thus, the words heart, spine, brain, lungs, veins, nerves, bone, lion, cat, dog, wolf, &c., as used by the comparative anatomist, are interpreted by his standard, which is perpetually passing into general use, and supplanting the popular standard. For instance,

the technical use of the word nerve has now become popular, and has expelled the old acceptation, which made it synonymous with muscle or sinew.(34)

8 7 Another circumstance which often draws a technical term of politics from its strict sense, is its close connexion with some of the strongest feelings of aversion or affection which animate the human breast. Sir James Mackintosh speaks of the ethical philosopher as impeded by this obstacle to sound reasoning. In those most difficult inquiries, for which the utmost coolness is not more than sufficient, he is often forced to use terms commonly connected with warm feeling, with high praise, with severe reproach; which excite the passions of his readers, when he most needs their calm attention, and the undisturbed exercise of their impartial judgment. There is scarcely a neutral term left in ethics; so quickly are such expressions enlisted on the side of praise or blame, by the address of contending passions.'(3) Many of the terms used in politics, for instance, such terms as monarchy, republic, democracy, church, are in like manner connected with party feeling, patriotism, and religious sentiment, and serve as torches to kindle a whole train of emotions ready laid in every bosom. This description, however, only applies to a few political terms, though these may be important; and there is this difference between politics and ethics, that whereas the ethical feelings vary little from nation to nation, the technical terms of politics excite different emotions in different countries, and in some countries a term may be heard with indifference, which in others is a watchword of parties, and a provocative of angry controversy.

§ 8 The distinction which Dr. Whewell makes between terminology and nomenclature, that is, between a set of descriptive phrases, and a system of names for classes, applies principally to the physical sciences; and among the physical sciences, to

(34) We still retain a vestige of this meaning in the word nervous, as applied to style. A nervous woman means a woman whose nerves are easily excited; but a nervous style means a powerful and vigorous style.

(35) Ib. p. 6.

VOL. I.

H

those which concern natural history and chemistry.(3) The business of nomenclature in physics, is to invent names for a series of natural objects or classes; as in human anatomy and physiology, in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, in mineralogy, and in chemical science. All the physical sciences require a nomenclature to a greater or less extent. In politics, however, there are no natural objects, like the bones, arteries, veins, and muscles of the human body, and no natural classes, like botanical species, to be named: the ideas and relations to be named are artificial; that is to say, they are the result of human arrangement, conditioned by natural laws. Political terms, therefore, rather resemble a technological than a scientific vocabulary: they resemble the names of the parts of a watch, of a steam-engine, of a ship, of a house, or of a fortress, rather than the names of the human bones, or of species in natural history.

For practical politics, however, an artificial vocabulary is requisite, which is framed less systematically indeed, but not less arbitrarily, than the nomenclature of a science. The legal terms of each country form a technical system, which has been built up by successive generations of lawyers; most of its words have no popular currency, and, when they have, the technical meaning, established by professional usage, is recognised by the public as the canon of interpretation, not less than the meaning of a technical term, as fixed by men of science, is recognised in the physical sciences. Such terms as guardian and ward, debtor and creditor, principal and agent, vendor and vendee, lessor and lessee, obligor and obligee, bailor and bailee, feoffor and feoffee, trustee and cestuique trust, the drawer, indorser and acceptor of a bill of exchange, the maker and payee of a promissory note, a bankrupt, an insolvent, the executor of a will, the administrator of the effects of a deceased person, plaintiff and defendant, and many others in the English law, are instances of

(36) See Aph. 2, concerning the language of science. In Aph. 88, concerning ideas, he says: Terminology must be conventional, precise, constant; copious in words, and minute in distinctions, according to the needs of the science.'

technical terms invented by lawyers, and bearing an analogy to the nomenclature of a science. Terms descriptive of degrees of consanguinity and affinity, and of different sorts of estates, as estate in fee, estate-tail, estate for lives, &c.; also terms of pleading, descriptive of forms of action, and the various steps and proceedings in a suit, or in an indictment; names of writs, as writ of habeas corpus, mandamus, fieri facias, &c., with other legal terms, belong to the same class. Each system of law possesses its own set of legal terms, but these terms are not necessarily peculiar to any one nation, inasmuch as several nations may, to a certain extent, use the same system of jurisprudence. Thus most of the continental nations, together with Scotland, agree in using a legal nomenclature founded on that of the Roman law; while most of the United States, together with the English dependencies colonized from England, use the terms of the English common law. For example, the fundamental distinction of property, which the systems derived from the Roman law designate by immoveable and moveable, the English common law calls real and personal; (7) and this difference of phraseology pervades all the countries in question. In deciding upon questions which involve a foreign domicile, and transactions in a foreign country, the courts of justice of one nation recognise the legal phraseology of another.(3)

Parliamentary language likewise has its technical terms, which acquire a fixed meaning in the same manner as legal terms, and are used with a precision recognised by a constant usage. Such, in the language of the English parliament, are the words bill, act, motion, resolution, readings of a bill, clauses, preamble, and title of a bill, committee, amendment, address to the Crown, conference, message, petition, vote, division, tellers, proxy;(9) many of which terms are similarly used in the countries whose institutions are derived from England. The

(37) The corresponding terms in the Athenian law were ovσia pavepà Kai apavńs, visible and invisible property.'-Harpocrat. in v.

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(38) See Story's Conflict of Laws.

(39) See May's Law of Parliament.

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