Proceedings of the Estates of the Kingdom of Württemberg

[p. 504]

|504| It may seem that estates of a former German land which had such a disposition lose very much in authority and power if this is no longer conceded to them. But it has already been remarked that through the change of a land from a fief of the Empire into a sovereign state the estates have gained infinitely in authority and power, and that only for the sake of this new accession can that earlier authority not remain united with it. The state would with such provisions cease to be a state, and be shattered by the two sovereign powers which would be found in it; – or rather unity would restore itself, either in that the so-called estates, as we have seen in more recent history, overthrew the hitherto existing government and seized it for themselves, or, as we have likewise seen, in that the governments drove such estates of the realm away and thereby saved state and people. The greatest guarantee and security of the estates of the realm is precisely this, that they do not possess a power contradicting the nature of the matter, – the most foolish thing, by contrast, is to seek in such a power a protection for themselves and for the people; for such a power makes it a right or, sooner or later, a necessity to abolish such estates of the realm.

It is still to be added that with the qualitative difference between a fief and a state the closer formality too is wholly altered which the relation between prince and subjects had in the former. Since prince and land stood over against one another as owners and holders of particular prerogatives in the manner of private parties entitled and thus under a third, the power of Emperor and Empire, they were, as if under a praetor, in a position to conclude contracts with one another and to conduct themselves towards one another in the manner of private law. Even in more recent times, when truer concepts have taken the place of the notion, formerly taken without thought or reason, that governments and princes rest on divine authority,

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136