cious as that of a woman; and concluding his the men in their several societies, the most respecttime to be short, he makes haste to fill up the able for their understanding and fortunes, they measure of his iniquity, in rapine, in luxury, and confided to them the charge of the publick welfare. in revenge. Every avenue to the throne is shut This originally formed what is called an aristocracy. up. He oppresses and ruins the people, whilst he They hoped it would be impossible that such a persuades the prince, that those murmurs raised number could ever join in any design against the by his own oppression are the effects of disaffection general good; and they promised themselves a to the prince's government. Then is the natural great deal of security and happiness, from the violence of despotism inflamed and aggravated united councils of so many able and experienced by hatred and revenge. To deserve well of the persons. But it is now found by abundant expestate is a crime against the prince. To be popular, rience, that an aristocracy and a despotism differ and to be a traitor, are considered as synonymous but in name; and that a people, who are in terms. Even virtue is dangerous, as an aspiring general excluded from any share of the legislative, quality, that claims an esteem by itself, and inde- are, to all intents and purposes, as much slaves, pendent of the countenance of the court. What when twenty, independent of them, govern, as has been said of the chief, is true of the inferiour when but one domineers. The tyranny is even officers of this species of government; each in his more felt, as every individual of the nobles has the province exercising the same tyranny, and grind- haughtiness of a sultan; the people are more miing the people by an oppression, the more severely serable, as they seem on the verge of liberty, from felt, as it is near them, and exercised by base and which they are for ever debarred: this fallacions subordinate persons. For the gross of the people; idea of liberty, whilst it presents a vain shadow of they are considered as a mere herd of cattle; and happiness to the subject, binds faster the chains really in a little time become no better; all prin- of his subjection. What is left undone by the ciple of honest pride, all sense of the dignity of natural avarice and pride of those who are raised their nature, is lost in their slavery. The day, above the others, is completed by their suspicions, says Homer, which makes a man a slave, takes and their dread of losing an authority, which has away half his worth; and in fact, he loses every no support in the common utility of the nation. impulse to action, but that low and base one of A Genoese or a Venetian republick, is a concealed fear. In this kind of government, human nature despotism; where you find the same pride of the is not only abused, and insulted, but it is actually rulers, the same base subjection of the people, the degraded and sunk into a species of brutality. The same bloody maxims of a suspicious policy. In consideration of this made Mr. Locke say, with one respect the aristocracy is worse than the great justice, that a government of this kind was despotism. A body politick, whilst it retains its worse than anarchy; indeed it is so abhorred and authority, never changes its maxims; a despotism, detested by all who live under forms that have a which is this day horrible to a supreme degree, br milder appearance, that there is scarcely a rational the caprice natural to the heart of man, may, man in Europe that would not prefer death to the same caprice otherwise exerted, be as lovely Asiatick despotism. Here then we have the the next; in a succession, it is possible to meet acknowledgement of a great philosopher, that an with some good princes. If there have been irregular state of nature is preferable to such a Tiberiuses, Caligulas, Neros, there have been government; we have the consent of all sensible likewise the serener days of Vespasians, Tituses, and generous men, who carry it yet further, and Trajans, and Antonines; but a body politick avow that death itself is preferable; and yet this not influenced by caprice or whim; it proceeds in species of government, so justly condemned, and a regular manner; its succession is insensible; and so generally detested, is what infinitely the greater every man, as he enters it, either has, or soon part of mankind groan under, and have groaned attains, the spirit of the whole body. Never was under from the beginning. So that, by sure and it known, that an aristocracy, which was haughty uncontested principles, the greatest part of the and tyrannical in one century, became easy and governments on earth must be concluded tyrannies, mild in the next. In effect, the yoke of this speimpostures, violations of the natural rights of man-cies of government is so galling, that whenever the kind, and worse than the most disorderly anarchies. How much other forms exceed this, we shall consider immediately. In all parts of the world, mankind, however debased, retains still the sense of feeling; the weight of tyranny, at last, becomes insupportable; but the remedy is not so easy: in general, the only remedy by which they attempt to cure the tyranny, is to change the tyrant. This is, and always was, the case, for the greater part. In some countries, however, were found men of more penetration; who discovered, "that to live by one man's will, "was the cause of all men's misery." They therefore changed their former method, and, assembling br people have got the least power, they have shak ง slaves, and treated with the utmost indignity. | brated republick of this model was that of Athens. The republick of Venice is somewhat more mode- It was constructed by no less an artist than the rate; yet even here, so heavy is the aristocratick celebrated poet and philosopher, Solon. But no voke, that the nobles have been obliged to ener- sooner was this political vessel launched from the vate the spirit of their subjects by every sort of stocks, than it overset, even in the lifetime of debauchery; they have denied them the liberty the builder. A tyranny immediately supervened; of reason, and they have made them amends, by not by a foreign conquest, not by accident, but what a base soul will think a more valuable liberty, by the very nature and constitution of a democracy. by not only allowing, but encouraging them to An artful man became popular, the people had corrupt themselves in the most scandalous manner. power in their hands, and they devolved a consiThey consider their subjects as the farmer does derable share of their power upon their favourite; the hog he keeps to feast upon. He holds him and the only use he made of this power, was to fast in his stye, but allows him to wallow as much plunge those who gave it into slavery. Accident as he pleases in his beloved filth and gluttony. So restored their liberty, and the same good fortune scandalously debauched a people as that of Venice produced men of uncommon abilities and uncomis to be met with no where else. High, low, men, mon virtues amongst them. But these abilities women, clergy, and laity, are all alike. The were suffered to be of little service either to their ruling nobility are no less afraid of one another, possessors or to the state. Some of these men, for than they are of the people; and, for that reawhose sakes alone we read their history, they son, politically enervate their own body by the banished; others they imprisoned; and all they same effeminate luxury by which they corrupt treated with various circumstances of the most their subjects. They are impoverished by every shameful ingratitude. Republicks have many means which can be invented; and they are kept things in the spirit of absolute monarchy, but none in a perpetual terrour by the horrours of a state-in- more than this. A shining merit is ever hated or quisition. Here you see a people deprived of all suspected in a popular assembly, as well as in a rational freedom, and tyrannized over by about court; and all services done the state are looked two thousand men; and yet this body of two upon as dangerous to the rulers, whether sultans thousand are so far from enjoying any liberty by or senators. The Ostracism at Athens was built the subjection of the rest, that they are in an in- upon this principle. The giddy people, whom we finitely severer state of slavery; they make them- have now under consideration, being elated with selves the most degenerate and unhappy of man- some flashes of success which they owed to kind, for no other purpose than that they may nothing less than any merit of their own, began the more effectually contribute to the misery of a to tyrannize over their equals, who had associated whole nation. In short, the regular and me- with them for their common defence. With their thedical proceedings of an aristocracy are more prudence they renounced all appearance of justice. intolerable than the very excesses of a despotism, They entered into wars rashly and wantonly. If and, in general, much further from any remedy. they were unsuccessful, instead of growing wiser Thus, my Lord, we have pursued aristocracy by their misfortune, they threw the whole blame through its whole progress; we have seen the seeds, of their own misconduct on the ministers who the growth, and the fruit. It could boast none had advised, and the generals who had conducted, of the advantages of a despotism, miserable as those wars; until by degrees they had cut off all those advantages were, and it was overloaded with who could serve them in their councils or their An exuberance of mischiefs, unknown even to des- battles. If at any times these wars had an happotism itself. In effect, it is no more than a dis- pier issue, it was no less difficult to deal with them merly tyranny. This form therefore could be on account of their pride and insolence. Furious Irtie approved, even in speculation, by those who in their adversity, tyrannical in their successes, were capable of thinking, and could be less borne a commander had more trouble to concert his In practice by any who were capable of feeling. defence before the people, than to plan the operaHowever, the fruitful policy of man was not yet tions of the campaign. It was not uncommon exhausted. He had yet another farthing-candle for a general, under the horrid despotism of the to supply the deficiencies of the sun. This was the Roman emperours, to be ill received in proportion tard form, known by political writers under the to the greatness of his services. Agricola is a strong name of democracy. Here the people transacted instance of this. No man had done greater things, all public business, or the greater part of it, in nor with more honest ambition. Yet, on his retheir own persons: their laws were made by them- turn to court, he was obliged to enter Rome with wives, and upon any failure of duty, their officers all the secresy of a criminal. He went to the re accountable to themselves, and to them only. palace, not like a victorious commander who had In all appearance, they had secured by this method merited and might demand the greatest rewards, the advantages of order and good government, but, like an offender who had come to supplicate a thout paying their liberty for the purchase. pardon for his crimes. His reception was answerNow, my Lord, we are come to the master-piece able; Exceptusque brevi osculo et nullo serGrecian refinement, and Roman solidity, a "mone, turbæ servientium immixtus est." Yet in popular government. The earliest and most cele- that worst season of this worst of monarchical * *Seiant quibus moris illicita mirari, posse etiam sub malis principibus magnos viros, &c. See 42, to the end of it. 66 tyrannies, modesty, discretion, and coolness of temper, formed some kind of security even for the highest merit. But at Athens, the nicest and best studied behaviour was not a sufficient guard for a man of great capacity. Some of their bravest commanders were obliged to fly their country, some to enter into the service of its enemies, rather than abide a popular determination on their con-duct, lest as one of them said, their giddiness might make the people condemn where they meant to acquit; to throw in a black bean even when they intended a white one. The Athenians made a very rapid progress to the most enormous excesses. The people, under no restraint, soon grew dissolute, luxurious, and idle. They renounced all labour, and began to subsist themselves from the publick revenues. They lost all concern for their common honour or safety, and could bear no advice that tended to reform them. At this time truth became offensive to those lords the people, and most highly dangerous to the speaker. The orators no longer ascended the rostrum, but to corrupt them further with the most fulsome adulation. These orators were all bribed by foreign princes on the one side or the other. And besides its own parties, in this city there were parties, and avowed ones too, for the Persians, Spartans, and Macedonians, supported each of them by one or more demagogues pensioned and bribed to this iniquitous service. The people, forgetful of all virtue and publick spirit, and intoxicated with the flatteries of their orators (these courtiers of republicks, and endowed with the distinguishing characteristicks of all other courtiers) this people, I say, at last arrived at that pitch of madness, that they coolly and deliberately, by an express law, made it capital for any man to propose an application of the immense sums squandered in publick shows, even to the most necessary purposes of the state. When you see the people of this republick banishing and murdering their best and ablest citizens, dissipating the publick treasure with the most senseless extravagance, and spending their whole time, as spectators or actors, in playing, fiddling, dancing and singing, does it not, my Lord, strike your imagination with the image of a sort of complex Nero? And does it not strike you with the greater horrour, when you observe, not one man only, but a whole city, grown drunk with pride and power, running with a rage of folly into the same mean and senseless debauchery and extravagance? But if this people resembled Nero in their extravagance, much more did they resemble and even exceed him in cruelty and injustice. In the time of Pericles, one of the most celebrated times in the history of that commonwealth, a king of Egypt sent them a donation of corn. This they were mean enough to accept. And had the Egyptian prince intended the ruin of this city of wicked bedlamites, he could not have taken a more effectual method to do it, than by such an ensnaring largess. The distribution of this bounty caused a quarrel; the majority set on foot an enquiry into a the title of the citizens; and upon a vain pretence of illegitimacy, newly and occasionally set up, they deprived of their share of the royal donation no less than five thousand of their own body. They went further; they disfranchised them; and having once begun with an act of injustice, they could set no bounds to it. Not content with cutting them off from the rights of citizens, they plundered these unfortunate wretches of all their substance; and, to crown this master-piece of violence and tyranny, they actually sold every man of the five thousand as slaves in the publick market. Observe, my Lord, that the five thousand we here speak of were cut off from a body of no more than nineteen thousand; for the entire number of citizens was no greater at that time. Could the tyrant who wished the Roman people but one neck; could the tyrant Caligula himself have done, nay, he could scarcely wish for, greater mischief, than to have cut off, at one stroke, a fourth of his people? Or has the cruelty of that series of sanguine tyrants, the Cæsars, ever presented such a piece of flagrant and extensive wickedness? The whole history of this celebrated republick is but one tissue of rashness, folly, ingratitude, injustice, tumult, violence, and tyranny, and, indeed, of every species of wickedness that can well be imagined. This was a city of wise men, in which a minister could not exercise his functions; a warlike people, amongst whom a general did not dare either to gain or lose a battle; a learned nation in which a philosopher could not venture on a free enquiry. This was the city which banished Themistocles, starved Aristides, forced into exile Miltiades, drove out Anaxagoras. and poisoned Socrates. This was a city which changed the form of its government with the moon; eternal conspiracies, revolutions daily, nothing fixed and established. A republick, as an antient philosopher has observed, is no one species of government, but a magazine of every species: here you find every sort of it, and that in the worst form. As there is a perpetual change, one rising and the other falling, you have all the violence and wicked policy by which a beginning power must always acquire its strength, and all the weakness by which falling states are brought to a complete destruction. Rome has a more venerable aspect than Athens: and she conducted her affairs, so far as related to the ruin and oppression of the greatest part of the world, with greater wisdom and more uniformity. But the domestick economy of these two states was nearly or altogether the same. An internal dissension constantly tore to pieces the bowels of the Roman commonwealth. You find the same confusion, the same factions, which subsisted at Athens, the same tumults, the same revolutions, and in fine, the same slavery; if perhaps their former condition did not deserve that name altogether as well. All other republicks were of the same character. Florence was a transcript of Athens. And the modern republicks, as they approach more or less to the democratick form, partake more or less of the nature of those which I have described. and for natural reason against all three. When the world is in a fitter temper than it is at present We are now at the close of our review of the to hear truth, or when I shall be more indifferent three simple forms of artificial society; and we about its temper, my thoughts may become more have shewn them, however they may differ in name, publick. In the mean time, let them repose in or in some slight circumstances, to be all alike in my own bosom, and in the bosoms of such men effect: in effect, to be all tyrannies . But suppose as are fit to be initiated in the sober mysteries of we were inclined to make the most ample concestruth and reason. My antagonists have already sions; let us concede Athens, Rome, Carthage, and | done as much as I could desire. Parties in relitwo or three more of the antient, and as many of gion and politicks make sufficient discoveries conthe modern, commonwealths, to have been, or to cerning each other, to give a sober man a proper be, free and happy, and to owe their freedom and caution against them all. The monarchick, and happiness to their political constitution. Yet, al-aristocratical, and popular, partisans, have been lowing all this, what defence does this make for jointly laying their axes to the root of all governartificial society in general, that these inconsider-ment, and have in their turns proved each other able spots of the globe have for some short space of time stood as exceptions to a charge so general? But when we call these governments free, or concede that their citizens were happier than those which lived under different forms, it is merely ex abundanti. For we should be greatly mistaken, if we really thought that the majority of the people which filled these cities, enjoyed even that nominal political freedom of which I have spoken so much already. In reality, they had no part of it. In Athens there were usually from ten to thirty thousand freemen: this was the utmost. But the slaves usually amounted to four hundred thousand, and sometimes to a great many more. men of Sparta and Rome were not more numerous in proportion to those whom they held in a slavery even more terrible than the Athenian. Therefore state the matter fairly: the free states never formed, though they were taken altogether, the thousandth part of the habitable globe; the freemen in these states were never the twentieth part of the people, and the time they subsisted is scarce any thing in that immense ocean of duration I have purposely avoided the mention of the in which time and slavery are so nearly commen-mixed form of government, for reasons that will surate. Therefore call these free states, or popular be very obvious to your Lordship. But my caugovernments, or what you please; when we contion can avail me but little. You will not fail to sider the majority of their inhabitants, and regard urge it against me in favour of political society. the natural rights of mankind, they must appear You will not fail to shew how the errours of the in reality and truth, no better than pitiful and several simple modes are corrected by a mixture oppressive oligarchies. of all of them, and a proper balance of the several powers in such a state. I confess, my Lord, that this has been long a darling mistake of my own; and that of all the sacrifices I have made to truth, this has been by far the greatest. When I confess that I think this notion a mistake, I know to whom I am speaking, for I am satisfied that reasons are like liquors, and there are some of such a nature as none but strong heads can bear. There are few with whom I can communicate so freely as with Pope. But Pope cannot bear every truth. He has a timidity which hinders the full exertion of his faculties, almost as effectually as bigotry cramps those of the general herd of mankind. But whoever is a genuine follower of truth keeps his eye steady upon his guide, indifferent whither he is led, provided that she is the leader. And, my Lord, if it be properly considered, it were infinitely better to remain possessed by the whole legion of vulgar mistakes, absurd and inconvenient. In vain you tell me that artificial government is good, but that I fall out only with the abuse. The thing! the thing itself is the abuse! Observe, my Lord, I pray you, that grand errour upon which all artificial legislative power is founded. It was observed, that men had ungovernable passions, which made it necessary to guard against the violence they might offer to each other. They appointed governours over them for this reason! But a worse and more perplexing difficulty arises, how to be defended against the governours? Quis, custodiet ipsos custodes? In vain they change from a sinThe free-gle person to a few. These few have the passions of the one; and they unite to strengthen themselves, and to secure the gratification of their lawless passions at the expense of the general good. In vain do we fly to the many. The case is worse; their passions are less under the government of reason, they are augmented by the contagion, and defended against all attacks by their multitude. After so fair an examen, wherein nothing has been exaggerated; no fact produced which cannot be proved, and none which has been produced in any wise forced or strained, while thousands have, for brevity, been omitted; after so candid a discussion in all respects; what slave so passive, what bigot so blind, what enthusiast so headlong, What politician so hardened, as to stand up in defence of a system calculated for a curse to manKind a curse under which they smart and groan to this hour, without thoroughly knowing the nature of the disease, and wanting understanding or courage to supply the remedy. I need not excuse myself to your Lordship, nor, 1 think, to any honest man, for the zeal I have hewn in this cause; for it is an honest zeal, and in a good cause. I have defended natural religion gainst a confederacy of atheists and divines. I now plead for natural society against politicians, merits of the cause, merely as the parties who uphold these jarring interests may chance to prevail; and as they prevail, the balance is overset, now upon one side, now upon the other. The government is, one day, arbitrary power in a single person; another a juggling confederacy of a few to cheat the prince and enslave the people; and the third, a frantick and unmanageable democracy. The great instrument of all these changes, and what infuses a peculiar venom into all of them, is party. It is of no consequence than to reject some, and at the same time to retain a fondness for others altogether as absurd and irrational. The first has at least a consistency, that makes a man, however erroneously, uniform at least; but the latter way of proceeding is such an inconsistent chimera and jumble of philosophy, and vulgar prejudice, that hardly any thing more ridiculous can be conceived. Let us therefore freely, and without fear or prejudice, examine this last contrivance of policy. And, without considering how near the quick our instruments may come, let us search it to the bot-what the principles of any party, or what their tom. First then, all men are agreed that this junction of regal, aristocratick, and popular power, must form a very complex, nice, and intricate machine, which being composed of such a variety of parts, with such opposite tendencies and movements, it must be liable on every accident to be disordered. To speak without metaphor, such a government must be liable to frequent cabals, tumults, and revolutions, from its very constitution. These are undoubtedly as ill effects as can happen in a society; for in such a case, the closeness acquired by community, instead of serving for mutual defence, serves only to increase the danger. Such a system is like a city, where trades that require constant fires are much exercised, where the houses are built of combustible materials, and where they stand extremely close. pretensions are; the spirit which actuates all parties is the same; the spirit of ambition, of selfinterest, of oppression, and treachery. This spirit entirely reverses all the principles which a benevolent nature has erected within us; all honesty, all equal justice, and even the ties of natural society, the natural affections. In a word, my Lord, we have all seen, and, if any outward considerations were worthy the lasting concern of a wise man, we have some of us felt, such oppression from party government as no other tyranny can parallel. We behold daily the most important rights, rights upon which all the others depend, we behold these rights determined in the last resort without the least attention even to the appearance or colour of justice; we behold this without emotion, because we have grown up in the constant view of such practices; and we are In the second place, the several constituent parts not surprised to hear a man requested to be a having their distinct rights, and these many of knave and a traitor, with as much indifference as them so necessary to be determined with exact- if the most ordinary favour were asked; and we ness, are yet so indeterminate in their nature, that hear this request refused, not because it is a most it becomes a new and constant source of debate unjust and unreasonable desire, but, because this and confusion. Hence it is, that whilst the busi-worthy has already engaged his injustice to anness of government should be carrying on, the question is, Who has a right to exercise this or that function of it, or what men have power to keep their offices in any function? Whilst this contest continues, and whilst the balance in any sort continues, it has never any remission; all manner of abuses and villainies in officers remain unpunished; the greatest frauds and robberies in the publick revenues are committed in defiance of justice; and abuses grow, by time and impunity, into customs; until they prescribe against the laws, and grow too inveterate often to admit a cure, unless such as may be as bad as the disease. Thirdly, the several parts of this species of government, though united, preserve the spirit which each form has separately. Kings are ambitious; the nobility haughty; and the populace tumultuous and ungovernable. Each party, however in appearance peaceable, carries on a design upon the others; and it is owing to this, that in all questions, whether concerning foreign or domestick affairs, the whole generally turns more upon some party-matter than upon the nature of the thing itself; whether such a step will diminish or augment the power of the crown, or how far the privileges of the subject are likely to be extended or restricted by it. And these questions are constantly resolved, without any consideration of the A man other. These and many more points I am far from |