portion
of the republic of Geneva, and the only class whose members were
eligible to the chief magistracies.

3. We next have a group of propositions setting forth the attributes
of sovereignty. It is inalienable.[235] It is indivisible.

These two propositions, which play such a part in the history of some
of the episodes of the French Revolution, contain no more than was
contended for by Hobbes, and has been accepted in our own times by
Austin. When Hobbes says that "to the laws which the sovereign maketh,
the sovereign is not subject, for if he were subject to the civil laws
he were subject to himself, which were not subjection but freedom,"
his notion of sovereignty is exactly that expressed by Rousseau in his
unexplained dogma of the inalienableness of sovereignty. So Rousseau
means no more by the dogma that sovereignty is indivisible, than
Austin meant when he declared of the doctrine that the legislative
sovereign powers and the executive sovereign powers belong in any
society to distinct parties, that it is a supposition too palpably
false to endure a moment's examination.[236] The way in which this
account of the indivisibleness of sovereignty was understood during
the revolution, twisted it into a condemnation of the dreaded idea of
Federalism. It might just as well have been interpreted to condemn
alliances between nations; for the properties of sovereignty are
clearly independent of the dimensions of the sovereign unit. Another
effect of this doctrine was the rejection by the Constituent Assembly
of the balanced parliamentary system, which the followers of
Montesquieu would fain have introduced on the English model. Whether
that was an evil or a good, publicists will long continue to dispute.

4. The general will of the sovereign upon an object of common interest
is expressed in a law. Only the sovereign can possess this law-making
power, because no one but the sovereign has the right of declaring the
general will. The legislative power cannot be exerted by delegation or
representation. The English fancy that they are a free nation, but
they are grievously mistaken. They are only free during the election
of members of parliament; the members once chosen, the people are
slaves, nay, as people they have ceased to exist.[237] It is
impossible for the sovereign to act, except when the people are
assembled. Besides such extraordinary assemblies as unforeseen events
may call for, there must be fixed periodical