The word aristocracy, when used in this last sense, may be applied to an order of persons in states of any form of govern ment. Thus, the privileged orders in France from the reign of Louis XIV. to the revolution of 1789, have often been called the aristocracy, although the go vernment was during that time purely monarchical ; so a class of persons has by many historians been termed the aristo cracy in aristocratical republics, as Venice, and Rome before the admission of the plebeians to equal political rights : and in democratical republics, as Athens, Rome in later times, and France during a part of her revolution. It would therefore be an error if any person were to infer from the existence of an aristocracy (that is, an aristocratical class) in a state, that the form of government is therefore aristocra tical, though in fact that might happen to be the case.
The use of the word aristocracy to sig nify a class of persons never occurs in the Greek writers, with whom it originated, nor (as far as we are aware) is it ever employed by Machiavelli and the revivers of political science since the middle age : among modern writers of all parts of Eu rope this acceptation has, however, now become frequent and established.
There is scarcely any political term which has a more vague and fluctuating sense than aristocracy ; and the historical or political student should be careful to watch with attention the variations in its meaning : observing, first, whether it means a form of government or a class of persons : if it means a form of government, whether the whole community is included, or whether there is also a class of subjects or slaves : if it means a class of persons, what is the principle which makes them a political party, or on what ground they are jointly opposed to other orders in the state. If attention is not paid to these
points, there is great danger, in political or historical discussions, of confounding things essentially different, and of drawing parallels between governments, parties, and states of society, which resemble each other only in being called by the same name.
It has been lately proposed by Mr. Austin, in his work on ' The .Province of Jurisprudence,' to use the term aristocracy as a general name for governments in which the sovereignty belongs to several persons, that is, to all governments which are not monarchies. There would, how ever, be much inconvenience in deviating so widely from the established usage of words, as to make democracy a kind of aristocracy; and it appears that the word republic has properly the sense required, being a general term including both aris tocracy and democracy, and signifying all governments which are not monarchies or despotisms. (Journal of Education, Part viii. p. 299; and REPUBLIC and DEMO CRACY.)