Aristocracy About 1760: The Constituted Bodies

This chapter presents a descriptive survey of the constituted bodies of the middle of the eighteenth century, with especial reference to their membership and recruitment. It covers the diets of Eastern Europe, councils and estates of the Middle Zone, provincial estates and parlements of France, and parliaments and assemblies in the British Isles and America. It argues that nothing was more characteristic of the eighteenth century than constituted bodies of parliamentary or conciliar type. They existed everywhere west of Russia and Turkey. They were more universal than the institution of monarchy, more widespread than the famous middle class. All defended their liberties as they understood them. In defending their rights and justifying their pretensions, the constituted bodies elaborated a good deal of political theory.