REPUBLIC

(Lat.res public a, cow7Moww;<?«//A.) That form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people. A republic may be either an aristocracy or a democracy: the supreme power, in tlie former, being consigned to the nobles or a few privileged individuals, as was formerly the case in Venice and Genoa; while, in the latter, it is placed in the hands oC rulers chosen by and from the whole body of the people, or by their representatives a embled in a congre or national a embly. The free towns of the Continent, Hamburg, Frankfort, Liibeck, and Bremen, are instances of this latter form of government; but the most perfect example of it is to be found in the United States, in Texas, and in some of the South American confederations which have shaken off the Spanish yoke. In Switzerland, aristocracy is blended with democracy 'n the form of government. 3X3 [s. 1058]