[xxxiv. 299]

1824. Feb y. 27

Constitutional Code. for Greece

Ch. Sub-Legislatures

Observations

Federative System

In case of modification, one of the points might perhaps be in the Administrative department, giving the location of the Sub Minister of this or that department - not to the Prime Minister but to the Sub Legislature of the District, especially if that district be an island or a cluster of nearly adjacent islands.

This provision however should not extend to the Judiciary Department. To the magnitude of The advantage in respect of impartiality resulting from the [...?] state of the Judge in respect of family and other intimate connections, few it is hoped are the persons who will not be fully sensible. In the ages called the middle ages when Italy was in great part divided into little republics it was a point of known and widely adopted policy to choose for the head of the judiciary a person who was a foreigner and a stranger with reference to the republic in which he was chosen to serve.

In the several Districts, and in particular in those composed of islands it /the term Local Legislatures/ might perhaps be more agreable to the nation than a term corresponding to Sub-Legislatures

A minor difficulty would probably be that which regards taxation. In relation to this subject the options seem to lie between no more than two sorts of arrangements. Fixing the quota that each District or Member of the Union shall contribute, and as to the mode of contribution - the subject matter of taxation leaving the fixation to the inhabitants /people themselves/ the other is - the locating by the General Legislature functionaries for collecting the amount in the several districts, the amount being settled by a general tax applying to all the several members without distinction

The first mode is that according to which the difficulty presents itself as being at the highest pitch: for when the fixation comes to be made, each would regard its quota as too high, and thus it is that whatever were the most equitable system of proportions, the probability is - that it would find itself rejected by a majority of the Assembly whatsoever were the composition of it, if it were a free one.