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Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Benjamin Constant, from "The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with That of the Moderns" ( I B19 ) some freedom and peace today, was totaily SpeechGiven at the Ath6n6e unknor.vn to the fre e nations of antiquity. Royal in Paris I know that there are writers who have Gentlemen, claimed to distinguish traces of it among some ancient peoples, in the Lacedaemonian repub- I wish to submit for your attention a fbw dis- lic fbr example, or amongst our ancestors the tinctions, sriil rather nen', befiveen two kinds Gauls; but they are mistaken. of libertl': tl-rese differences have thus far The Lacedaemonian government was a remained unnoticed, or at least insufficientll, monasdc aristocracv.and in no way a repre remarked. The first is the liberty the exercise sentative government. The power of the kings of rvhich \\'as so dear to the ancient peoples; was limited, but it was limited by the ephors, the second the one the enjoyment of v'hich is and not by rnen invested with a mission similar especiallyprecious to the modern nations. If I to that which election confers today on the am right, this investigation u'ill prove inter defenders of our iibcrties. The ephors, no esting fiom nvo different angles. doubt, though originally created by the kings, Firsdl'', the confusion of these two kinds of were elected b,v the people. But there were liberty has been amongst us, in the all too onlv five of them. Their authority was as much fhmous days of our revolution, the cause of religious as political; they even shared in the many an evil. France was exhausted by useless administration of government, that is, in the experiments, the authors of which, irritated by executive power. Thus their prerogative, Iike their poor success,sought to lbrce her to enjoy that of ahnost all popular magistrates in the the good she did not want) and denied her the ancient republics, fhr from being simply a good which she did want. barrier against tyranny, became sometimes Secondly, called as \\,.e are by our happi. itself an insuffbrable tyranny. revolution (I call it h"ppl', despite its excesses, The regime of the Gauls, which quite because I corrcentrate my attention on its resembled the one that a certain party would resuits) to enjoy the benefits ofrepresentative like to restore to us. was at the same time government, it is curious and interesdng ro theocratic and warlike. The priests enjoyed discover rvhy this fbrrn of government, the unlimited power. The rnilitary class or only one in the shelter of nhich lve could find nobiliry had markedly insolent and oppressive 16 Neqatipe nnd Positiye Freedoru privileges; the people had no rights and no nlore or less compelled to pay heed. Norv safeguards. compare this liberty rvith that of the ancients. In Rome the tribunes had, up to a poinr, a The latter consisted in exercising collec- representative mission. Thet. $.ere the organs tivelr,.,but directl1,, several parts of the com- of those plebeians lvhom the oligarchy - r.r.hich plete sovereignw; in deliberating, in the public is the same in all ages- had submitted, in over- square, over war and pcace; in fonning throw'ing the kings, to so harsh a sla','erli The alliancesuith loreign governnrcnts:in voting people, horvever, exercised a large part of the laws, in pronouncing judgements; in examin- political rights directl),. The"v mct to \/ore on ing the accounts, the acts, the stewardship of the lalr's end to judge the patricians against the magistrates; in calling rhem to appear in rvhom charges had becn levelled: thus there front of the assembled people, in accusing, rvere, in Rome, only fbeble traces of a repre - condemning or absolving them. But if this rvas sentative system. r'vhat the ancients called libertv. thel' n4trli,,.O This system is a discoverv of the moderns, as compatible r.r'ith this collecti.,'e treedorn the and you will see,Gendemen, that the condition cornplete subjection of the individual to the of the human race in antiquity did not allorv lbr authority of the communitl'. You find among the introduction or establishment of an institu- them almost none of the enjoyments u'hich u'e tion of this nature. The ancient people could have just seen form part of the libertv of the neithcr feel the nccd for ir, nor appreciateirs modems. All private actions rvere submitted to advantages.Their social organization led them a sc\reresr.rrveillance. No importance r.as given to desire an entirely diflbrent licedom fiorn the to individual independence, neither in relation one rvhich this system grants to us. to opinions, nor to labour, nor, above all, to Tonight's lecture will be devote d ro religion. The right to choose one's ou'n reii- demonstrating this truth to you. gious aff,liation, a right rvhich we regard as one First ask yourselves, Gentlemen, w.hat an of the most precious, rvould have scemed to Englishman, a Frenchman, and a citizen of the the ancients a crime and a sacrilege. In the United States of America understand toda,v bv domains rvhich seem to us the most useftil, the the word 'liberw'. authoritv of the social bodv interposed itself For each of them it is the right to be sub and obstructed the r,r,illof individuals. Among jected or-rly to the larvs, and to be neither the Spartans, Therpandrus cor-rld r-rot add a arrested, detained, put to death or maltreated string to his lvre u'ithor-rtcausing oftbnce to the in ar-rytvay by the arbitrar-v r.vill of one or more ephors. In the most domestic of relations the individuals. It is the right of everlrone to public ar.rthority again intcrvenecl. The young express their opinion, choose a profbssion and Lacedaemonian could not visit his ner.v bride practise it, to dispose of properq,, and et.en to fieelr.. In Rome, the censors cast a searching abuse it; to comc and go rvithout permission, eve o\.er family life . The larvs rcgulated and r'vithout hal.ing to accounr for their customs) and as custonts touch on everything, rnotives or undertakings. It is everyone's right there u.as hardly anvthins rhat the laws did not to associate r,r..ithother individuals, either to regulate. discusstheir interests, or to profbss tire religion Thus among thc ancienrs the individual, r'vhicir the,v and their associates pref'er, or e\ren almost alu'avs soveleigr-rin public affairs, rl'as simplv to occupy their days or hours in a rv:r1. a slavein all his priiatc rclatior-rs.As tr citizen, r,r'hich is most compatible r.r.ith their inclina, he decided ()n perce lnd n ar; as private indi tions or r,vhims.Finall,v it is evervone's right to vicl,ral, he \\ i1s constr,rined, n.atched and exercise some influence on the administration represserl ir-rall his l-novernents; as a member of the government, either bi, electing all or par- of the collectivc borlr', he ir.rterrogated,dis- ticular officials, or through representations, r-r-rissctl.con.1cmnet1, beggared, exilecl, or sen- petitions, demanclsto lr'hich the authorities are rcn\ c\l r(, .lc.rih lrir nr.rgistratcsand supcriors; Negnt'ive ond Positipe Freedow I7 as a subject of the collective body he cor-rld conquerors, could still not la,v down their himself be deprived of his status, stripped of \\'eapons, lest they should themselves bc con his privileges, banished, put to death, b.v the quered. All had to buy their security, their discretionarl' u'ill of the rvhole to rvhich he independence, their u'hole existence at the belonged. Among the modems, on the con- price of r.r.'ar.This rvasthe constant interest, the trar\', the individual, independent in his private almost habitual occupation of the free states of lifb, is, el'en in the fieest of states, sovereign antiquity. Finall1,,by an equally necessaryrcsult onlr, in appearance. His sovereignn, is re ofthis rvay ofbeing, all these stateshad slaves. stricted and ahnost alr.a},5 511sp.nded. If, at The mechanical professions and even, among fixed and rare intervals, in r.r'hich he is again some nations, the industrial ones, were com surrounded by precautions and obstacles, he mitted to people in chains. exercises this sovereigntv, it is ahr.ar.son1,v to The modern r.r'orld otTers us a completelv renounce it. opposing vie.,v.The smallest states of our dav I must at this point, Gentlemen, pause fbr a are incomparabiy larger than Sparta or than moment to anticipate an objection $'hich ma), Rome lvas over five centuries. Even the divi- bc ad.lresscdto me. Thcre sas in anuquin .r sion of Europe into several states is, thanks to republic u'here the enslavement of ir-rdividual the progress of enlightemlent) more apparent existence to the collective bod1. 11'nr l-rot i1s than real. While each people, in the past, complete as I have described it. This republic formed an isoiated famill', the born enemv of was the most falnous of all: r.ou r.r'illguess that other families, a rlass of hr-rman beings nor,v I am speaking of Athens. I shall return to it exists, that under diffbrent names and under later, and in subscribing to the truth of this different forms of social organization are fhct, I shall also indicate its cause.We shall see essentially homogeneous ir-rtheir nature . This lvhy,, of all the ancient states, Athens was the mass is strong enough to have nothing to fear one u'hich most resembles the modern ones.
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