Those, magistracies, again, were not elected by the citizens.

They elected themselves by renewing their own vacancies, and were, in short, immortal corporations.

Thus, in final analysis, the supreme power was distributed and localised among the mayors and aldermen of a large number of cities, all independent alike of the people below and of any central power above.
It is true that the nobles, as, a class, had a voice in the provincial and, in the general assembly, both for themselves and as technical representatives of the smaller towns and of the rural population.

But, as a matter of fact, the influence of this caste had of late years very rapidly diminished, through its decrease in numbers, and the far more rapid increase in wealth and power of the commercial and manufacturing classes.

Individual nobles were constantly employed in the military, civil, and diplomatic service of the republic, but their body had ceased to be a power.