litary
government is, in some respects, more republican than monarchical. Nor
can it be said that the soldiers only partook of the government by their
disobedience and rebellions. The speeches made to them by the emperors,
were they not at length of the same nature as those formerly pronounced
to the people by the consuls and the tribunes? And although the armies
had no regular place or forms of assembly; though their debates were
short, their action sudden, and their resolves seldom the result of
cool reflection, did they not dispose, with absolute sway, of the
public fortune? What was the emperor, except the minister of a violent
government, elected for the private benefit of the soldiers?

[Footnote 53: Can the epithet of Aristocracy be applied, with any
propriety, to the government of Algiers? Every military government
floats between two extremes of absolute monarchy and wild democracy.]

[Footnote 54: The military republic of the Mamelukes in Egypt would have
afforded M. de Montesquieu (see Considerations sur la Grandeur et la
Decadence des Romains, c. 16) a juster and more noble parallel.]

"When the army had elected Philip, who was Praetorian praefect to the
third Gordian, the latter demanded that he might remain sole emperor; he
was unable to obtain it. He requested that the power might be equally
divided between them; the army would not listen to his speech. He
consented to be degraded to the rank of Caesar; the favor was refused
him. He desired, at least, he might be appointed Praetorian praefect;
his prayer was rejected. Finally, he pleaded for his life. The army, in
these several judgments, exercised the supreme magistracy." According to
the historian, whose doubtful narrative the President De Montesquieu has
adopted, Philip, who, during the whole transaction, had preserved a
sullen silence, was inclined to spare the innocent life of his
benefactor; till, recollecting that his innocence might excite a
dangerous compassion in the Roman world, he commanded, without regard to
his suppliant cries, that he should be seized, stripped, and led away to
instant death. After a moment's pause, the inhuman sentence was
executed. [55]

[Footnote 55: The Augustan History (p. 163, 164) cannot, in this
instance, be reconciled with itself or with probability. How could
Philip condemn his predecessor, and yet consecrate his memory? How could
he order his public execution, and yet, in his letters to the senate,
exculpate h