Armys receive withal a pleasing Idea of all they have don besides and imagin their great prosperity not to have proceded from the emulation of particular Men but from the virtue of their popular form of Government not considering the frequent Seditions and Civil Wars produc'd by the imperfection of their Polity Where first the blame he lays to the Heathen Authors is in his sense laid to the Scripture and wheras he holds them to be young Men or Men of no antidot that are of like opinions it should seem that MACCHIAVEL the sole retriever of this antient Prudence is to his solid Reason a beardless Boy that has newly read LIVY And how solid his Reason is may appear where he grants the great prosperity of antient Commonwealths which is to give up the Controversy For such an effect must have som adequat cause which to evade he insinuats that it was nothing else but the emulation of particular Men as if so great an Emulation could have bin generated without as great Virtue so great Virtue without the best Education the best Education without the best Laws or the best Laws any otherwise than by the excellency of their Polity BUT if som of these Commonwealths as being less perfect in their Polity than others have bin more seditious it is not more an argument of the infirmity of this or that Commonwealth in particular than of the excellency of that kind of Polity in general which if they that have not altogether reach'd have nevertheless had greater prosperity what would befal them that should reach IN answer to which Question let me invite LEVIATHAN who of all other Governments gives the advantage to Monarchy for perfection to a better disquisition of it by these three assertions THE first That the perfection of Government lys upon such a libration in the frame of it that no Man or Men in or under it can have the interest or having the interest can have the power to disturb it with Sedition THE second That Monarchy reaching the perfection of the kind reaches not to the perfection of Government but must have som dangerous flaw in it THE third That popular Government reaching the perfection of the kind reaches the perfection of Government and has no flaw in it THE first assertion requires no proof FOR the proof of the second Monarchy as has bin shewn is of two kinds the one by Arms the other by a Nobility and there is no other kind in Art or Nature for if there have bin antiently som Governments call'd Kingdoms as one of the Goths in Spain and another of the Vandals in Africa where the King rul'd without a Nobility and by a Council of the People only it is expresly said by the Authors that mention them that the Kings were but the Captains and that the People not only gave them Laws but depos'd them as often as they pleas'd Nor is it possible in reason that it should be otherwise in like cases wherfore these were either no Monarchys or had greater slaws in them than any other BUT for a Monarchy by Arms as that of the Ture which of all models that ever were coms up to the perfection of the kind it is not in the wit or power of Man to cure it of this dangerous flaw That the Janizarys have frequent interest and perpetual power to raise Sedition and to tear the Magistrat even the Prince himself in pieces Therfore the Monarchy of Turky is no perfect Government AND for a Monarchy by a Nobility as of late in Oceana which of all other models before the declination of it came up to the perfection in that kind it was not in the power or wit of Man to cure it of that dangerous flaw That the Nobility had frequent interest and perpetual power by their Retainers and Tenants to raise Sedition and wheras the Janizarys occasion this kind of Calamity no sooner than they make an end of it to levy a lasting War to the vast effusion of Blood and that even upon occasions wherin the People but for their dependence upon their Lords had no concernment as in the feud of the Red and White The like has bin frequent in Spain France Germany and other Monarchys of this kind wherfore Monarchy by a Nobility is no perfect Government FOR the proof of the third assertion LEVIATHAN yields it to me that there is no other Commonwealth but Monarchical or Popular wherfore if no Monarchy be a perfect Government then either there is no perfect Government or it must be popular for which kind of Constitution I have somthing more to say than LEVIATHAN has said or ever will be able to say for Monarchy As FIRST That it is the Government that was never conquer'd by any Monarch from the beginning of the World to this day for if the Commonwealths of Greece came under the yoke of the Kings of Macedon they were first broken by themselves SECONDLY That it is the Government that has frequently led mighty Monarchs in Triumph THIRDLY That it is the Government which if it has bin seditious it has not bin so from any imperfection in the kind but in the particular Constitution which wherever the like has happen'd must have bin inequal FOURTHLY That it is the Government which if it has bin any thing near equal was never seditious or let him shew me what Sedition has happen'd in Lacedemon or Venice FIFTHLY That it is the Government which attaining to perfect equality has such a libration in the frame of it that no Man living can shew which way any Man or Men in or under it can contract any such Interest or Power as should be able to disturb the Commonwealth with Sedition wherfore an equal Commonwealth is that only which is without flaw and contains in it the full perfection of Government But to return BY what has bin shewn in Reason and Experience it may appear that tho Commonwealths in general be Governments of the Senat proposing the People resolving and the Magistracy executing yet som are not so good at these Orders as others thro som impediment or defect in the frame balance or capacity of them according to which they are of divers kinds Division of Common-wealths THE first division of them is into such as are single as Israel Athens Lacedemon c. and such as are by Leagues as those of the Acheans Etolians Lyceans Switz and Hollanders THE second being MACCHIAVEL'S is into such as are for preservation as Lacedemon and Venice and such as are for increase as Athens and Rome in which I can see no more than that the former takes in no more Citizens than are necessary for defence and the latter so many as are capable of increase THE third division unseen hitherto is into equal and inequal and this is the main point especially as to domestic Peace and Tranquillity for to make a Commonwealth inequal is to divide it into partys which sets them at perpetual variance
where he says that rendering his Citizens emulous not careless of that honor he assign'd to the People the election of the Senat. Wherfore MACCHIAVEL in this as in other places having his ey upon the division of Patrician and Plebeian Familys as they were in Rome has quite mistaken the Orders of this Commonwealth where there was no such thing Nor did the quiet of it derive from the Power of the Kings who were so far from shielding the People from the injury of the Nobility of which there was none in his sense but the Senat that one declar'd end of the Senat at the institution was to shield the People from the Kings who from that time had but single Votes Neither did it procede from the straitness of the Senat or their keeping the People excluded from the Government that they were quiet but from the equality of their administration seeing the Senat as is plain by the Oracle their fundamental Law had no more than the Debate and the Result of the Commonwealth belong'd to the People Wherfore when THEOPOMPUS and POLYDORUS Kings of Lacedemon would have kept the People excluded from the Government by adding to the antient Law this Clause If the determination of the People be faulty it shall be lawful for the Senat to resume the Debate the People immediatly became unquiet and resum'd that Debate which ended not till they had set up their Ephors and caus'd that Magistracy to be confirm'd by their Kings * * Nam cum primus instituisset Theopompus ut Ephori Lacedamone crearentur ita futuri regiae potestati oppositi quemadmodum Romae Tribuni plâ—bis consulati imperio sunt objecti atque illi uâ—or dixiâ—â—et id egiâ—â—â— illum ut filâ—is minorem potestatem reâ—inqueret Relinquam inquit sed diuturniorem Optimè quidem Ea enim demum tuta est potentia quae viribus suis modum imponit Theopompus igitur legitimis regnum vinculis constringendo quo longius à licentia â—etraxit hot propius ad benevolentiam civium admovit Val. Max. l. 4. c. 1. de externis §. 8. For when THEOPOMPUS first ordain'd that the Ephori or Overseers should be created at Lacedemon to be such a restraint upon the Kings there as the Tribuns were upon the Consuls at Rome the Queen complain'd to him that by this means he transmitted the Royal Authority greatly diminish'd to his Children I leave indeed less answer'd he but more lasting And this was excellently said for that Power only is safe which is limited from doing hurt THEOPOMPUS therfore by confining the Kingly Power within the bounds of the Laws did recommend it by so much to the Peoples Affection as he remov'd it from being Arbitrary By which it may appear that a Commonwealth for preservation if she coms to be inequal is as obnoxious to enmity between the Senat and the People as a Commonwealth for increase and that the Tranquillity of Lacedemon was deriv'd from no other cause than her Equality FOR Venice to say that she is quiet because she disarms her Subjects is to forget that Lacedemon disarm'd her Helots and yet could not in their regard be quiet wherfore if Venice be defended from external causes of Commotion it is first thro her Situation in which respect her Subjects have no hope and this indeed may be attributed to her fortune and secondly thro her exquisit Justice whence they have no will to invade her But this can be attributed to no other cause than her Prudence which will appear to be greater as we look nearer for the effects that procede from Fortune if there be any such thing are like their cause inconstant But there never happen'd to any other Commonwealth so undisturb'd and constant a Tranquillity and Peace in her self as is that of Venice wherfore this must procede from som other cause than Chance And we see that as she is of all others the most quiet so the most equal Commonwealth Her Body consists of one Order and her Senat is like a rolling stone as was said which never did nor while it continues upon that rotation never shall gather the moss of a divided or ambitious interest much less such a one as that which grasp'd the People of Rome in the talons of their own Eagles And if MACCHIAVEL averse from doing this Commonwealth right had consider'd her Orders as his Reader shall easily perceive he never did he must have bin so far from attributing the Prudence of them to Chance that he would have touch'd up his admirable work to that perfection which as to the civil part has no pattern in the universal World but this of Venice ROME secure by her potent and victorious Arms from all external causes of Commotion was either beholden for her Peace at home to her Enemys abroad or could never rest her head My LORDS you that are Parents of a Commonwealth and so freer Agents than such as are merely natural have a care For as no man shall shew me a Commonwealth born streight that ever became crooked so no man shall shew me a Commonwealth born crooked that ever became streight Rome was crooked in her birth or rather prodigious Her twins the Patricians and Plebeian Orders came as was shewn by the foregoing story into the World one body but two heads or rather two bellys for notwithstanding the Fable out of AESOP wherby MENENIUS AGRIPPA the Orator that was sent from the Senat to the People at Mount Aventin shew'd the Fathers to be the Belly and the People to be the Arms and the Legs which except that how slothful soever it might seem they were nourish'd not these only but the whole Body must languish and be dissolv'd it is plain that the Fathers were a distinct Belly such a one as took the meat indeed out of the Peoples mouths but abhorring the Agrarian return'd it not in the due and necessary nutrition of a Commonwealth Nevertheless as the People that live about the Cataracts of Nilus are said not to hear the noise so neither the Roman Writers nor MACCHIAVEL the most conversant with them seem among so many of the Tribunitian storms to hear their natural voice for tho they could not miss of it so far as to attribute them to the strife of the People for participation in Magistracy or in which MACCHIAVEL more particularly joins to that about the Agrarian this was to take the business short and the remedy for the disease A PEOPLE when they are reduc'd to misery and despair becom their own Politicians as certain Beasts when they are sick becom their own Physicians and are carry'd by a natural instinct to the desire of such Herbs as are their proper cure but the People for the greater part are beneath the Beasts in the use of them Thus the People of Rome tho in their misery they had recourse by instinct as it were to the two main Fundamentals of a Commonwealth participation of Magistracy and the Agrarian
to complete what was wanting And if at any time they alleg'd that this Bounty had bin thrown away on ungrateful Persons he would answer with a smile that he saw they were mercenary and that they plainly sold their Gifts since they expected so great a return as Gratitude 8. HIS natural inclinations to study kept him from seeking after any publick Imployments But in the year 1646 attending out of curiosity the Commissioners appointed by Parlament to bring King CHARLES the First from Newcastle nearer to London he was by som of 'em nam'd to wait on his Majesty as a Person known to him before and ingag'd to no Party or Faction The King approv'd the Proposal yet our Author would never presume to com into his presence except in public till he was particularly commanded by the King and that he with THOMAS HERBERT created a Baronet after the Restoration of the Monarchy were made Grooms of the Bedchamber at Holmby together with JAMES MAXWELL and PATRICK MAULE afterwards Earl of Penmoore in Scotland which two only remain'd of his old Servants in that Station 9. HE had the good luck to grow very acceptable to the King who much convers'd with him about Books and Foren Countrys In his Sisters Papers I find it exprest that at the King's command he translated into English Dr. SANDERSONS Book concerning the Obligation of Oaths but ANTHONY WOOD says it was the King's own doing and that he shew'd it at different times to HARRINGTON HERBERT Dr. JUXON Dr. HAMMOND and Dr. SHELDON for their approbation However that be 't is certain he serv'd his Master with untainted fidelity without doing any thing inconsistent with the Liberty of his Country and that he made use of his Interest with his Friends in Parlament to have Matters accommodated for the satisfaction of all Partys During the Treaty in the I le of Wight he frequently warn'd the Divines of his acquaintance to take heed how far they prest the King to insist upon any thing which however it concern'd their Dignity was no essential point of Religion and that such matters driven too far wou'd infallibly ruin all the indeavors us'd for a Peace which Prophecy was prov'd too true by the Event His Majesty lov'd his company says ANTHONY WOOD and finding him to be an ingenious Man chose rather to converse with him than with others of his Chamber They had often discourses concerning Government but when they happen'd to talk of a Commonwealth the King seem'd not to indure it Here I know not which most to commend the King for trusting a Man of Republican Principles or HARRINGTON for owning his Principles while he serv'd a King 10. AFTER the King was remov'd out of the I le of Wight to Hurstcastle in Hampshire HARRINGTON was forcibly turn'd out of service because he vindicated som of his Majesty's Arguments against the Parlament Commissioners at Newport and thought his Concessions not so unsatisfactory as did som others As they were taking the King to Windsor he beg'd admittance to the Boot of the Coach that he might bid his Master farewel which being granted and he preparing to kneel the King took him by the hand and pull'd him in to him He was for three or four days permitted to stay but because he would not take an Oath against assisting or concealing the King's Escape he was not only discharg'd from his Office but also for som time detain'd in custody till Major General IRETON obtain'd his Liberty He afterwards found means to see the King at St. James's and accompany'd him on the Scaffold where or a little before he receiv'd a Token of his Majesty's Affection 11. AFTER the King's Death he was observ'd to keep much in his Library and more retir'd than usually which was by his Friends a long time attributed to Melancholy or Discontent At length when they weary'd him with their importunitys to change this sort of Life he thought fit to shew 'em at the same time their mistake and a Copy of his Oceana which he was privatly writing all that while telling 'em withal that ever since he began to examin things seriously he had principally addicted himself to the study of Civil Government as being of the highest importance to the Peace and Felicity of mankind and that he succeded at least to his own satisfaction being now convinc'd that no Government is of so accidental or arbitrary an Institution as people are wont to imagin there being in Societys natural causes producing their necessary effects as well as in the Earth or the Air. Hence he frequently argu'd that the Troubles of his time were not to be wholly attributed to wilfulness or faction neither to the misgovernment of the Prince nor the stubborness of the People but to a change in the Balance of Property which ever since HENRY the Seventh's time was daily falling into the Scale of the Commons from that of the King and the Lords as in his Book he evidently demonstrats and explains Not that hereby he approv'd either the Breaches which the King had made on the Laws or excus'd the Severity which som of the Subjects exercis'd on the King but to shew that as long as the Causes of these Disorders remain'd so long would the like Effects unavoidably follow while on the one hand a King would be always indeavoring to govern according to the example of his Predecessors when the best part of the National Property was in their own hands and consequently the greatest command of Mony and Men as one of a thousand pounds a Year can entertain more Servants or influence more Tenants than another that has but one hundred out of which he cannot allow one Valet and on the other hand he said the People would be sure to struggle for preserving the Property wherof they were in possession never failing to obtain more Privileges and to inlarge the Basis of their Liberty as often as they met with any success which they generally did in quarrels of this kind His chief aim therfore was to find out a method of preventing such Distempers or to apply the best Remedys when they happen'd to break out But as long as the Balance remain'd in this unequal state he affirm'd that no King whatsoever could keep himself easy let him never so much indeavor to please his People and that tho a good King might manage Affairs tolerably well during his life yet this did not prove the Government to be good since under a less prudent Prince it would fall to pieces again while the Orders of a well constituted State make wicked men virtuous and fools to act wisely 12. THAT Empire follows the Balance of Property whether lodg'd in one in a few or in many hands he was the first that ever made out and is a noble Discovery wherof the Honor solely belongs to him as much as those of the Circulation of the Blood of Printing of Guns of the Compass or of Optic Glasses to their several
his Oceana was the Model of an equal Commonwealth or a Government wherin no Party can be at variance with or gaining ground upon another and never to be conquer'd by any foren Power whence he concluded it must needs be likewise immortal for as the People who are the materials never dy so the Form which is the Motion must without som opposition be endless The Immortality of a Commonwealth is such a new and curious Problem that I could not assure my self of the Reader 's pardon without giving him som brief account of the Arguments for it and they run much after this manner The perfection of Government is such a Libration in the frame of it that no Man or Men under it can have the interest or having the interest can have the power to disturb it with Sedition This will be granted at first sight and HARRINGTON appeals to all Mankind whether his Oceana examin'd by this principle be not such an equal Government completely and intirely fram'd in all its necessary Orders or fundamental Laws without any contradiction to it self to Reason or Truth If this be so as the contrary dos not yet appear then it has no internal cause of Dissolution and consequently such a Government can never be ruin'd any way for he further shews what all History cannot contradict that a Commonwealth if not first broken or divided by Factions at home was never conquer'd by the Arms of any Monarch from the beginning of the World to this day but the Commonwealth of Oceana having no Factions within and so not to be conquer'd from without is therfore an equal perfect and immortal Government For want of this equality in the frame he clearly demonstrats how the Common-wealths of Rome Athens and others came to be destroy'd by their contending and oveâ—topping partys wheras that of Venice can never change or finish He proves that this Equality is yet more wanting in Monarchys for in absolute Monarchy as that of the Turk for example the Janizarys have frequent interest and perpetual power to raise Sedition to the ruin of the Emperor and when they please of the Empire This cannot be said of the Armys of Oceana and therfore an absolute Monarchy is no perfect Government In what they improperly call a mix'd Monarchy the Nobility are somtimes putting Chains on the King at other times domineering over the People the King is either oppressing the People without control or contending with the Nobility as their Protectors and the People are frequently in arms against both King and Nobility till at last one of the three Estates becoms master of the other two or till they so mutually weaken one another that either they fall a prey to som more potent Government or naturally grow into a Commonwealth therfore mixt Monarchy is not a perfect Government and if no such Partys or Contentions can possibly exist in Oceana then on the contrary is it a most equal perfect and immortal Commonwealth Quod erat demonstrandum 43. IT will not be objected to the disparagement of this Model that it was no better receiv'd by OLIVER CROMWEL nor is it fair to judg of things at any time by their Success If it should be said that after the expiration of his Tyranny the People did not think fit to establish it I shall only answer that all the Attemts which have bin us'd for introducing Arbitrary Power have prov'd as unfortunat wherby it appears at least that the character which TACITUS gave the Romans of his time may as well agree to the People of England and it is that They are able to bear neither absolute Liberty nor absolute Slavery CONCLVSION I AM dispos'd to believe that my Lady ASHTON'S memory fail'd her when she said that her Brother was at Rome during the Jubilee for as Chronology seems to contradict it so she might easily mistake the Jubilee for the Ceremony of consecrating Candles or any other solemnity his remarks being equally applicable to all those of the Popish Church But as to the whole of this History tho it be manag'd with due moderation and contains nothing but bare matters of fact or such observations as they naturally suggest yet I was sensible before I wrote it that I could not escape the displeasure of three sorts of persons such as have resolv'd to be angry at whatever I do such as neither rightly understand what is written by me nor any body else and those who without any particular spite against an Author yet to get a penny will pretend to answer any book that makes a considerable figure Therfore I find my self oblig'd beforehand to disclaim all explanations made of my meaning beyond what is warranted by the express words of my Book having constantly indeavor'd not only to write intelligibly but so as that none can possibly misunderstand me I renounce all the designs that may be imputed to me by such as are so far from being admitted into my secret that they were never in my company but I specially disown whatever is said by those who first presume to divine my thoughts and then to vent their own rash conjectures as my undoubted opinions I slight their artifice who when unable to object against the point in question labor to ingage their Adversary in matters wholly besides the purpose and when their Evasions have no better fortune than their Attacks fall to railing against his Person because they cannot confute his Arguments I am as much above the malice of som as they are below my resentments and I wou'd at any time chuse to be rather the object of their Envy than of their Favor but as I am far from thinking my self exemt from all the indiscretions of Youth or the frailtys of human Nature so I am not conscious of entertaining higher thoughts of my own performances than are becoming or meaner of other mens than they deserve I know that to enterprize any thing out of the common road is to undergo undoubted envy or peril and that he who is not beforehand resolv'd to bear opposition will never do any great or beneficial exploit yet 't is no small incouragement to me that from the beginning of the world to this time not a single instance can be produc'd of one who either was or would be eminent but he met with Enemys to his person and fame Notwithstanding this consideration be just yet if I write any thing hereafter either as oblig'd by Duty or to amuze idle time I have determin'd it shall not concern personal disputes or the narrow interests of jarring Factions but somthing of universal benefit and which all sides may indifferently read Without such provocations as no man ought to indure this is my fix'd resolution and I particularly desire that none may blame me for acting otherwise who force me to do so themselves I shall never be wanting to my own defence when either the Cause or the Aggressor deserves it for as to those Authors who conceal their
most of his Materials are pleas'd to bestow on them there being no mention of the name of Scot in any Authentic Writer till four hundred years after CHRIST No we shall no more envy these old Heroes to them than their placing the Red Lion in the dexter Point of their Escucheon But tho we might in justice reject them as fabulous and monkish yet since they themselves acknowlege them and they equally make against them we shall run them over like genuin History The first of this blessed Race was FERGUS first General and afterward got himself made King but no sooner cast away on the Coast of Ireland but a Contention arises about the validity of their Oath to him and Uncles are appointed to succede which argues it Elective so FERITHARIS Brother to FERGUS is King but his Nephew forms a Conspiracy against him forces him to resign and fly to the Iles where he dy'd FERITHARIS dying soon after was suspected to be poison'd After him coms in MAIN FERGUS'S second Son who with his Son DORNADILLA reign'd quietly fifty seven years But REUTHER his Son not being of age the People make his Uncle NOTHAT take the Government but he misruling REUTHER by the help of one DOUAL rais'd a Party against him and beheads him makes himself King with the indignation of the People that he was not elected so that by the Kindred of NOTHAT he is fought taken and displac'd but afterwards makes a Party and regainâ— His Son THEREUS was too young so that his Brother RHEUTHA succeeded but after seventeen years was glad to resign Well THEREUS reigns but after six years declines to such Leudness that they force him to fly and govern by a Prorex After his Death JOSINA his Brother and his Son FINAN are Kings and quietly dy so BUT then coms DURST one who slays all the Nobility at a Banquet and is by the People slain After his Death the validity of the Oath to FERGUS is call'd in question and the elective Power vindicated but at length EVEN his Brother is admitted who tho he rul'd valiantly and well yet he had GILLUS a Bastard Son Vafer Regni cupidus The next of the Line are Twins DOCHAM and DORGAL Sons of DURST they while they disputed about priority of Age are by the artifice of GILLUS slain in a Tumult who makes a strong Party and seizing of a Hold says he was made Supervisor by his Father and so becoms King cuts off all the Race of DURST but is after forc'd out of the Kingdom and taken by EVEN the Second his Successor who was chosen by the People and by him put to death in Ireland After EVEN coms EDER after EDER his Son EVEN the Third who for making a Law that the Nobility should have the enjoyment of all new marry'd Women before they were touch'd by their Husbands was doom'd to Prison during his Life and there strangl'd His Successor was his Kinsman METELLAN after whom was elected CARATAC whom his Brother CORBRET succeded But then came DARDAN whom the Lords made to take on him the Government by reason of the Nonage of CORBRET'S Son who for his Leudness was taken by the People and beheaded AFTER him CORBRET the Second whose Son LUCTAC for his Leudness was by the People put to death then was elected MOGALD who following his vitious Predecessors steps found his Death like theirs violent HIS Son CONAR one of the Conspirators against him succeded but misgoverning was clapt in Prison and there dy'd ETHODIUS his Sister's Son succeded who was slain in the night in his Chamber by his Piper HIS Son being a Minor SATRAEL his Brother was accepted who seeking to place the Succession in his own Line grew so hateful to the People that not daring to com abroad he was strangl'd in the night by his own Servants which made way for the youngest Brother DONALD who outdid the others Vices by contrary Virtues and had a happy Reign of one and twenty years ETHODIUS the Second Son of the first of that name was next a dull inactive Prince Familiarium tumultu occisus HIS Son ATHIRCO promis'd fair but deceiv'd their expectations with most horrid Leudness and at length vitiated the Daughters of NATHALOCK a Nobleman and caus'd them to be whipt before his eys but seeing himself surrounded by Conspirators eluded their Fury with his own Sword his Brother and Children being forc'd to fly to the Picts NATHALOCK turning his Injury into Ambition made himself King and govern'd answerably for he made most of the Nobility to be strangl'd under pretence of calling them to Council and was after slain by his own Servants AFTER his Death ATHIRCO'S Children were call'd back and FINDOC his Son being of excellent hopes accepted who made good what his Youth promis'd he beat in sundry Battels DONALD the Ilander who seeing he could not prevail by force sent two as Renegados to the King who being not accepted conspire with his Brother by whose means one of them slew him with a Spear when he was hunting HIS Brother DONALD succedes the youngest of the three who about to revenge his Brother's Death hears the Ilander is enter'd Marray whom he incountring with inequal Forces is taken Prisoner with thirty of the Nobility and whether of Grief or his Wounds dy's in Prison THE Ilander that had before usurp'd the Name now assum'd the Power the Nobles by reason of their kindred Prisoners being over-aw'd This man wanting nothing of an exquisit Tyrant was aster twelve years Butcherys slain by CRATHLINTH Son of FINDOC who under a disguise found Address and Opportunity The brave Tyrannicid was universally accepted and gave no cause of Repentance his Reign is famous for a War begun between the Scots and Picts about a Dog as that between the Trojans and Italians for a white Hart and the defection of CARAUSIUS from DIOCLESIAN which happen'd in his time HIS Kinsman FINCORMAC succeded worthy of memory for little but the Piety of the Culdys an Order of religious Men of that time overborn by others succeding He being dead three Sons of his three Brothers contended for the Crown ROMACH as the eldest strengthen'd by his Alliance with the Picts with their assistance seiz'd on it forcing others to fly but proving cruel the Nobility conspir'd and slew him ANGUSIAN another Pretender succedes who being assail'd by NECTHAM King of the Picts who came to revenge ROMACH routed his Army in a pitcht Battel but NECTHAM coming again he was routed and both he and NECTHAM slain FETHELMAC the third Pretender came next who beating the Picts and wasting their Fields HERGUST when he saw there could be no advantage by the Sword suborn'd two Picts to murder him who drawing to conspiracy the Piper that lay in his Chamber as the manner was then he at the appointed time admitted them and there slew him THE next was EVGEN Son of FINCORMAC who was slain in a Battel with the Picts to the almost extirpation and banishment of the
him take it quite away †Neque id existimaâ—e debes autorem me tibi esse ut tyrannidem in S. P. Q. R. in servitutem redactum teneas quod neque dicere meum nâ—que facere tuum est Whence this Empire being neither Hawk nor Buzzard made a flight accordingly and the Prince being perpetually tost having the Avarice of the Soldiery on this hand to satisfy upon the People and the Senat and the People on the other to be defended from the Soldiery seldom dy'd any other death than by one Horn of this Dilemma as is noted more at large by MACCHIAVEL But P. cap. 19. the Pretorian Bands those bestial executioners of their Captain 's Tyranny upon others and of their own upon him having continued from the time of AUGUSTUS were by CONSTANTIN the Great incens'd against them for taking part with his Adversary MAXENTIUS remov'd from their strong Garison which they held in Rome and distributed into divers Provinces The Benefices of the Soldiers that were hitherto held for Life and upon Duty were by this Prince made Hereditary so that the whole Foundation wherupon this Empire was first built being now remov'd shews plainly that the Emperors must long before this have found out som other way of support and this was by stipendiating the Goths a People that deriving their Roots from the Northern parts of Germany or out of Sweden had thro their Victorys obtain'd against DOMITIAN long since spred their Branches to so near a Neighborhood with the Roman Territorys that they began to overshadow them For the Emperors making use of them in their Armys as the French do at this day of the Switz gave them that under the notion of a Stipend which they receiv'd as Tribute coming if there were any default in the payment so often to distrein for it that in the time of HONORIUS they sack'd Rome and possest themselves of Italy And such was the transition of antient into modern Prudence or that breach which being follow'd in every part of the Roman Empire with Inundations of Vandals Huns Lombards Franks Saxons overwhelm'd antient Languages Learning Prudence Manners Citys changing the names of Rivers Macchiavel Countrys Seas Mountains and Men CAMILLUS CAESAR and POMPEY being com to EDMUND RICHARD and GEOFFREY The Gothic Balance TO open the Groundwork or Balance of these new Politicians Feudum says CALVIN the Lawyer is a Gothic word of divers significations for it is taken either for War or for a possession of conquer'd Lands distributed by the Victor to such of his Captains and Soldiers as had merited in his Wars upon condition to acknowlege him to be their perpetual Lord and themselves to be his Subjects Institution of Feudatory Principalitys OF these there were three Kinds or Orders The first of Nobility distinguish'd by the Titles of Dukes Marquisses Earls and these being gratified with the Citys Castles and Villages of the conquer'd Italians their Feuds participated of Royal Dignity and were call'd Regalia by which they had right to coin Mony create Magistrats take Toll Customs Confiscations and the like FEUDS of the second Order were such as with the consent of the King were bestow'd by these Feudatory Princes upon men of inferior Quality call'd their Barons on condition that next to the King they should defend the Dignitys and Fortunes of their Lords in Arms. THE lowest Order of Feuds were such as being confer'd by those of the second Order upon privat men whether Noble or not Noble oblig'd them in the like Duty to their Superiors these were call'd Vavasors And this is the Gothic Balance by which all the Kingdoms this day in Christendom were at first erected for which cause if I had time I should open in this place the Empire of Germany and the Kingdoms of France Spain and Poland But so much as has bin said being sufficient for the discovery of the Principles of modern Prudence in general I shall divide the remainder of my Discourse which is more particular into three parts THE first shewing the Constitution of the late Monarchy of Oceana THE second the Dissolution of the same And THE third the Generation of the present Commonwealth THE Constitution of the late Monarchy of Oceana is to be consider'd in relation to the different Nations by whom it has bin successively subdu'd and govern'd The first of these were the Romans the second the Teutons the third the Scandians and the fourth the Neustrians THE Government of the Romans who held it as a Province I shall omit because I am to speak of their Provincial Government in another place only it is to be remember'd here that if we have given over running up and down naked and with dappl'd hides learn'd to write and read and to be instructed with good Arts for all these we are beholden to the Romans either immediatly or mediatly by the Teutons for that the Teutons had the Arts from no other hand is plain enough by their Language which has yet no word to signify either writing or reading but what is deriv'd from the Latin Furthermore by the help of these Arts so learn'd we have bin capable of that Religion which we have long since receiv'd wherfore it seems to me that we ought not to detract from the memory of the Romans by whose means we are as it were of Beasts becom Men and by whose means we might yet of obscure and ignorant Men if we thought not too well of our selves becom a wise and a great People For the proof of the insuing Discourse out of Records and Antiquitys see Selden's Titles of Honor from pag. 593 to pag. 837. THE Romans having govern'd Oceana provincially the Teutons were the first that introduc'd the Form of the late Monarchy To these succeded the Scandians of whom because their Reign was short as also because they made little alteration in the Government as to the Form I shall take no notice But the Teutons going to work upon the Gothic Balance divided the whole Nation into three sorts of Feuds that of Ealdorman that of Kings Thane and that of Middle Thane The Teuton Monarchy WHEN the Kingdom was first divided into Precincts will be as hard to shew as when it began first to be govern'd it being impossible that there should be any Government without som Division The Division that was in use with the Teutons was by Countys and every County had either its Ealdorman or High Reeve The title of Ealdorman came in time to Eorl or Erl and that of High Reeve to High Sheriff Earls EARL of the Shire or County denoted the Kings Thane or Tehant by Grand Serjeantry or Knights Service in chief or in capite his Possessions were somtimes the whole Territory from whence he had his denomination that is the whole County somtimes more than one County and somtimes less the remaining part being in the Crown He had also somtimes a third or som other customary
the end they may be the better protected by the State in the free exercise of the same they are desir'd to make choice in such manner as they best like of certain Magistrats in every one of their Congregations which we could wish might be four in each of them to be Auditors in cases of differences or distast if any thro variety of opinions that may be grievous or injurious to them should fall out And such Auditors or Magistrats shall have power to examin the matter and inform themselves to the end that if they think it of sufficient weight they may acquaint the Phylarch with it or introduce it into the Council of Religion where all such Causes as those Magistrats introduce shall from time to time be heard and determin'd according to such Laws as are or shall hereafter be provided by the Parlament for the just defence of the Liberty of Conscience THIS Order consists of three parts the first restoring the power of Ordination to the People which that it originally belongs to them is clear tho not in English yet in Scripture where the Apostles ordain'd Acts 14. 23. Elders by the holding up of hands in every Congregation that is by the suffrage of the People which was also given in som of those Citys by the Ballot And tho it may be shewn that the Apostles ordain'd som by the laying on of hands it will not be shewn that they did so in every Congregation EXCOMMUNICATION as not clearly provable out of the Scripture being omitted the second part of the Order implys and establishes a National Religion for there be degrees of Knowlege in divine things true Religion is not to be learnt without searching the Scriptures the Scriptures cannot be search'd by us unless we have them to search and if we have nothing else or which is all one understand nothing else but a Translation we may be as in the place alleg'd we have bin beguil'd or misled by the Translation while we should be searching the true sense of the Scripture which cannot be attain'd in a natural way and a Commonwealth is not to presume upon that which is supernatural but by the knowlege of the Original and of Antiquity acquir'd by our own studys or those of som others for even Faith coms by hearing Wherfore a Commonwealth not making provision of men from time to time knowing in the original Languages wherin the Scriptures were written and vers'd in those Antiquitys to which they so frequently relate that the true sense of them depends in great part upon that Knowlege can never be secure that she shall not lose the Scripture and by consequence her Religion which to preserve she must institute som method of this Knowlege and som use of such as have acquir'd it which amounts to a National Religion THE Commonwealth having thus perform'd her duty towards God as a rational Creature by the best application of her Reason to Scripture and for the preservation of Religion in the purity of the same yet pretends not to Infallibility but coms in the third part of the Order establishing Liberty of Conscience according to the Instructions given to her Council of Religion to raise up her hands to Heaven for further light in which proceding she follows that as was shewn in the Preliminarys of Israel who tho her National Religion was always a part of her Civil Law gave to her Prophets the upper hand of all her Orders Definition of a Parish BUT the Surveyors having now don with the Parishes took their leaves so a Parish is the first division of Land occasion'd by the first Collection of the People of Oceana whose Function proper to that place is compriz'd in the six preceding Orders Institution of the Hundred THE next step in the progress of the Surveyors was to a meeting of the nearest of them as their work lay by twentys where conferring their Lists and computing the Deputys contain'd therin as the number of them in Parishes being nearest Neighbors amounted to one hundred or as even as might conveniently be brought with that account they cast them and those Parishes into the Precinct which be the Deputys ever since more or fewer is still call'd the Hundred and to every one of these Precincts they appointed a certain place being the most convenient Town within the same for the annual Rendevouz which don each Surveyor returning to his Hundred and summoning the Deputys contain'd in his Lists to the Rendevouz they appear'd and receiv'd 7. Order THE seventh ORDER requiring That upon the first Monday next insuing the last of January the Deputys of every Parish annually assemble in Arms at the Rendevouz of the Hundred and there elect out of their number one Justice of the Peace one Juryman one Captain one Ensign of their Troop or Century each of these out of the Horse and one Juryman one Crowner one High Constable out of the Foot the Election to be made by the Ballot in this manner The Jurymen for the time being are to be Overseers of the Ballot instead of these the Surveyors are to officiat at the first Assembly and to look to the performance of the same according to what was directed in the Ballot of the Parishes saving that the High Constable setting forth the Vrn shall have five several sutes of Gold Balls and one dozen of every sute wherof the first shall be mark'd with the Letter A the second with the letter B the third with C the fourth with D and the fifth with E and of each of these sutes he shall cast one Ball into his Hat or into a little Vrn and shaking the Balls together present them to the first Overseer who shall draw one and the sute which is so drawn by the Overseer shall be of use for that day and no other for example if the Overseer drew an A the High Constable shall put seven Gold Balls mark'd with the letter A into the Vrn with so many Silver ones as shall bring them even with the number of the Deputys who being sworn as before at the Ballot of the Parish to make a fair Election shall be call'd to the Vrn and every man coming in manner as was there shew'd shall draw one Ball which if it be Silver he shall cast it into a Bowl standing at the foot of the Vrn and return to his place but the first that draws a Gold Ball shewing it to the Overseers who if it has not the letter of the present Ballot have power to apprehend and punish him is the first Elector the second the second Elector and so to the seventh which Order they are to observe in their function The Electors as they are drawn shall be plac'd upon the Bench by the Overseers till the whole number be complete and then be conducted with the List of the Officers to be chosen into a Place apart where being privat the first Elector shall name a Person to the first
in vain to put it to somthing requir'd the name of one that was in their ey particularly on whom when he mov'd not they commanded a Lictor to lay hands but the People thronging about the Party summon'd forbad the Lictor who durst not touch him at which the Hotspurs that came with the Consuls inrag'd by the affront descended from the Throne to the aid of the Lictor from whom in so doing they turn'd the indignation of the People upon themselves with such heat that the Consuls interposing thought fit by remitting the Assembly to appease the Tumult in which nevertheless there had bin nothing but noise Nor was there less in the Senat being suddenly rally'd upon this occasion where they that receiv'd the repulse with others whose heads were as addle as their own fell upon the business as if it had bin to be determin'd by clamor till the Consuls upbraiding the Senat that it differ'd not from the Marketplace reduc'd the House to Orders And the Fathers having bin consulted accordingly there were three Opinions PUBLIUS VIRGINIUS conceiv'd that the consideration to be had upon the matter in question or aid of the indebted and imprison'd People was not to be further extended than to such as had ingag'd upon the promise made by SERVILIUS TITUS LARGIUS that it was no time to think it enough if mens Merits were acknowleg'd while the whole People sunk under the weight of their debts could not emerge without som common aid which to restrain by putting som into a better condition than others would rather more inflame the Discord than extinguish it APPIUS CLAUDIUS still upon the old hant would have it that the People were rather wanton than fierce It was not oppression that necessitated but their power that invited them to these freaks the Empire of the Consuls since the appeal to the People wherby a Plebeian might ask his fellows if he were a Thief being but a mere scarecrow Go to says he let us create the Dictator from whom there is no appeal and then let me see more of this work or him that shall forbid my Lictor The advice of APPIUS was abhor'd by many and to introduce a general recision of Debts with LARGIUS was to violat all Faith That of VIRGINIUS as the most moderat would have past best but that there were privat Interests that constant bane of the Public which withstood it So they concluded with APPIUS who also had bin Dictator if the Consuls and som of the graver sort had not thought it altogether unseasonable at a time when the Volsci and the Sabins were up again to venture so far upon alienation of the People for which cause VALERIUS being descended from the PUBLICOLAS the most popular Family as also in his own person of a mild nature was rather trusted with so rigid a Magistracy Whence it happen'd that the People tho they knew well enough against whom the Dictator was created sear'd nothing from VALERIUS but upon a new promise made to the same effect with that of SERVILIUS hop'd better another time and throwing away all disputes gave their names roundly went out and to be brief came home again as victorious as in the former Action the Dictator entring the City in Triumph Nevertheless when he came to press the Senat to make good his promise and do somthing for the ease of the People they regarded him no more as to that point than they had don SERVILIUS Wherupon the Dictator in disdain to be made a stale abdicated his Magistracy and went home Here then was a victorious Army without a Captain and a Senat pulling it by the beard in their Gowns What is it if you have read the Story for there is not such another that must follow Can any man imagin that such only should be the opportunity upon which this People could run away Alas poor men the Aequi and the Volsci and the Sabins were nothing but the Fathers invincible There they sat som three hundred of them arm'd all in Robes and thundering with their Tongues without any hopes in the earth to reduce them to any tolerable conditions Wherfore not thinking it convenient to abide long so near them away marches the Army and incamps in the fields This Retreat of the People is call'd the Secession of Mount Aventin where they lodg'd very sad at their condition but not letting fall so much as a word of murmur against the Fathers The Senat by this time were great Lords had the whole City to themselves but certain Neighbors were upon the way that might com to speak with them not asking leave of the Porter Wherfore their minds became troubl'd and an Orator was posted to the People to make as good conditions with them as he could but whatever the terms were to bring them home and with all speed And here it was covenanted between the Senat and the People that these should have Magistrats of their own Election call'd the Tribuns upon which they return'd TO hold you no longer the Senat having don this upon necessity made frequent attempts to retract it again while the Tribuns on the other side to defend what they had got instituted their Tributa Comitia or Council of the People where they came in time and as Disputes increas'd to make Laws without the Authority of the Senat call'd Plebiscita Now to conclude in the point at which I drive such were the steps wherby the People of Rome came to assume Debate nor is it in Art or Nature to debar a People of the like effect where there is the like cause For ROMULUS having in the Election of his Senat squar'd out a Nobility for the support of a Throne by making that of the Patricians a distinct and hereditary Order planted the Commonwealth upon two contrary Interests or Roots which shooting forth in time produc'd two Commonwealths the one Oligarchical in the Nobility the other a mere Anarchy of the People and ever after caus'd a perpetual feud and enmity between the Senat and the People even to death THERE is not a more noble or useful question in the Politics than that which is started by MACCHIAVEL Whether means were to be found wherby the Enmity that was between the Senat and the People of Rome could have bin remov'd Nor is there any other in which we or the present occasion are so much concern'd particularly in relation to this Author forasmuch as his Judgment in the determination of the question standing our Commonwealth falls And he that will erect a Commonwealth against the Judgment of MACCHIAVEL is oblig'd to give such reasons for his enterprize as must not go a begging Wherfore to repeat the Politician very honestly but somwhat more briefly he disputes thus Macch. Disc B. 1. c. 6. THERE be two sorts of Commonwealths the one for preservation as Lacedemon and Venice the other for increase as Rome LACEDEMON being govern'd by a King and a small Senat could maintain it self a long
time in that condition because the Inhabitants being few having put a bar upon the reception of Strangers and living in a strict observation of the Laws of LYCURGUS which now had got reputation and taken away all occasion of Tumults might well continue long in Tranquillity For the Laws of LYCURGUS introduc'd a greater equality in Estates and a less equality in Honors whence there was equal Poverty and the Plebeians were less ambitious because the Honors or Magistracys of the City could extend but to a few and were not communicable to the People nor did the Nobility by using them ill ever give them a desire to participat of the same This proceded from the Kings whose Principality being plac'd in the midst of the Nobility had no greater means wherby to support it self than to shield the People from all injury whence the People not fearing Empire desir'd it not And so all occasion of enmity between the Senat and the People was taken away But this Vnion happen'd especially from two causes the one that the Inhabitants of Lacedemon being few could be govern'd by the Few the other that not receiving Strangers into their Common-wealth they did not corrupt it nor increase it to such a proportion as was not governable by the Few VENICE has not divided with her Plebeians but all are call'd Gentlemen that be in administration of the Government for which Government she is more beholden to Chance than the Wisdom of her Lawmakers For many retiring to those Ilands where that City is now built from the inundations of Barbarians that overwhelm'd the Roman Empire when they were increas'd to such a number that to live together it was necessary to have Laws they ordain'd a form of Government wherby assembling often in Council upon Affairs and sinding their number sufficient for Government they put a bar upon all such as repairing afterwards to their City should becom Inhabitants excluding them from participation of Power Whence they that were included in the Administration had right and they that were excluded coming afterwards and being receiv'd upon no other conditions to be Inhabitants had no wrong and therfore had no occasion nor being never trusted with Arms any means to be tumultuous Wherfore this Commonwealth might very well maintain it self in Tranquillity THESE things consider'd it is plain that the Roman Legislators to have introduc'd a quiet State must have don one of these two things either shut out Strangers as the Lacedemonians or as the Venetians not allow'd the People to bear Arms. But they did neither By which means the People having power and increase were in perpetual tumult Nor is this to be help'd in a Commonwealth for increase seeing if Rome had cut off the occasion of her Tumults she must have cut off the means of her Increase and by consequence of her Greatness Wherfore let a Legislator consider with himself whether he would make his Commonwealth for preservation in which case she may be free from Tumults or for increase in which case she must be infested with them IF he makes her for preservation she may be quiet at home but will be in danger abroad First Because her Foundation must be narrow and therfore weak as that of Lacedemon which lay but upon 30000 Citizens or that of Venice which lys but upon 3000. Secondly Such a Commonwealth must either be in Peace or in War If she be in Peace the Few are soonest effeminated and corrupted and so obnoxious also to Faction If in War succeding ill she is an easy prey or succeding well ruin'd by increase a weight which her Foundation is not able to bear For Lacedemon when she had made her self Mistriss upon the matter of all Greece thro a slight accident the Rebellion of Thebes occasion'd by the Conspiracy of PELOPIDAS discovering this infirmity of her nature the rest of her conquer'd Citys immediatly fell off and in the turn as it were of a hand reduc'd her from the fullest tide to the lowest eb of her fortune And Venice having possest her self of a great part of Italy by her purse was no sooner in defence of it put to the trial of Arms than she lost all in one Battel WHENCE I conclude That in the Ordination of a Common-wealth a Legislator is to think upon that which is most honorable and laying aside Models for Preservation to follow the example of Rome conniving at and temporizing with the enmity between the Senat and the People as a necessary step to the Roman Greatness For that any Man should find out a balance that may take in the Conveniences and shut out the Inconveniences of both I do not think it possible These are the words of the Author tho the method be somwhat alter'd to the end that I may the better turn them to my purpose MY LORDS I do not know how you hearken to this sound but to hear the greatest Artist in the modern World giving sentence against our Commonwealth is that with which I am nearly concern'd Wherfore with all honor due to the Prince of Politicians let us examin his reasoning with the same liberty which he has asserted to be the right of a free People But we shall never com up to him except by taking the business a little lower we descend from effects to their causes The causes of Commotion in a Common-wealth are either external or internal External are from Enemys from Subjects or from Servants To dispute then what was the cause why Rome was infested by the Italian or by the Servil Wars why the Slaves took the Capitol why the Lacedemonians were near as frequently troubl'd with their Helots as Rome with all those or why Venice whose Situation is not trusted to the faith of Men has as good or better quarter with them whom she governs than Rome had with the Latins were to dispute upon external causes The question put by MACCHIAVEL is of internal causes Whether the enmity that was beeween the Senat and the People of Rome might have bin remov'd And to determin otherwise of this question than he dos I must lay down other Principles than he has don To which end I affirm that a Commonwealth internally consider'd is either equal or inequal A Commonwealth that is internally equal has no internal cause of Commotion and therfore can have no such effect but from without A Commonwealth internally inequal has no internal cause of quiet and therfore can have no such effect but by diversion TO prove my Assertions I shall at this time make use of no other than his examples Lacedemon was externally unquiet because she was externally inequal that is as to her Helots and she was internally at rest because she was equal in her self both in root and branch In the root by her Agrarian and in branch by the Senat inasmuch as no Man was therto qualify'd but by election of the People Which Institution of LYCURGUS is mention'd Arist Polit. B. 2. by ARISTOTLE
Crimes against the Majesty of the People such as High Treason as also of Peculat that is robbery of the Treasury or defraudation of the Commonwealth appertains to this Tribe And if any Person or Persons Provincials or Citizens shall appeal to the People it belongs to the Prerogative to judg and determin the case provided that if the Appeal be from any Court of Justice in this Nation or the Provinces the Appellant shall first deposit a hundred Pounds in the Court from which he appeals to be forfeited to the same if he be cast in his Suit by the People But the Power of the Council of War being the expedition of this Commonwealth and the martial Law of the Strategus in the Field are those only from which there shall ly no Appeal to the People THE Proceding of the Prerogative in case of a Proposition is to be thus order'd The Magistrats proposing by Authority of the Senat shall rehearse the whole matter and expound it to the People which don they shall put the whole together to the Suffrage with three Boxes the Negative the Affirmative and the Nonsincere and the Suffrage being return'd to the Tribuns and number'd in the presence of the Proposers if the major Vote be in the Nonsincere the Proposers shall desist and the Senat shall resume the Debate If the major Vote be in the Negative the Proposers shall desist and the Senat too But if the major Vote be in the Affirmative then the Tribe is clear and the Proposers shall begin and put the whole matter with the Negative and the Affirmative leaving out the Nonsincere by Clauses and the Suffrages being taken and number'd by the Tribuns in the presence of the Proposers shall be written and reported by the Tribuns to the Senat. And that which is propos'd by the Authority of the Senat and consirm'd by the Command of the People is the Law of Oceana THE Proceding of the Prerogative in a case of Judicature is to be thus order'd The Tribuns being Auditors of all Causes appertaining to the cognizance of the People shall have notice of the Suit or Trial whether of Appeal or otherwise that is to be commenc'd and if any one of them shall acâ—ept of the same it appertains to him to introduce it A Cause being introduc'd and the People muster'd or assembl'd for the decision of the same the Tribuns are Presidents of the Court having power to keep it to Orders and shall be seated upon a Scaffold erected in the middle of the Tribe Vpon the right hand shall stand a Seat or large Pulpit assign'd to the Plaintif or the Accuser and upon the left another for the Defendent each if they please with his Council And the Tribuns being attended upon such occasions with so many Ballotins Secretarys Doorkeepers and Messengers of the Senat as shall be requisit one of them shall turn up a Glass of the nature of an Hourglass but such a one as is to be of an hour and a halfs running which being turn'd up the Party or Council on the right hand may begin to speak to the People If there be Papers to be read or Witnesses to be examin'd the Officer shall lay the Glass sideways till the Papers be read and the Witnesses examin'd and then turn it up again and so long as the Glass is running the Party on the right hand has liberty to speak and no longer The Party on the right hand having had his time the like shall be don in every respect for the Party on the left And the Cause being thus heard the Tribuns shall put the question to the Tribe with a white a black and a red Box or Nonsincere whether Guilty or not Guilty And if the Suffrage being taken the major Vote be in the Nonsincere the Cause shall be reheard upon the next juridical day following and put to the question in the same manner If the major Vote coms the second time in the Non-sincere the Cause shall be heard again upon the third day but at the third hearing the question shall be put without the Nonsincere Vpon the first of the three days in which the major Vote coms in the white Box the Party accus'd is absolv'd and upon the first of them in which it coms in the black Box the Party accus'd is condemn'd The Party accus'd being condemn'd the Tribuns if the case be criminal shall put with the white and the black Box these Questions or such of them as regard had to the case they shall conceive most proper 1. WHETHER he shall have a Writ of ease 2. WHETHER he shall be sin'd so much or so much 3. WHETHER he shall be consiscated 4. WHETHER he shall be render'd incapable of Magistracy 5. WHETHER he shall be banish'd 6. WHETHER he shall be put to death THESE or any three of these Questions whether simple or such as shall be thought sitly mix'd being put by the Tribuns that which has most above half the Voies in the black Box is the Sentence of the People which the Troop of the third Classis is to see executed accordingly BVT wheras by the Constitution of this Commonwealth it may appear that neither the Propositions of the Senat nor the Judicature of the People will be so frequent as to hold the Prerogative in continual imployment the Senat a main part of whose Office it is to teach and instruct the People shall duly if they have no greater Affairs to divert them cause an Oration to be made to the Prerogative by som Knight or Magistrat of the Senat to be chosen out of the ablest men and from time to time appointed by the Orator of the House in the great Hall of the Pantheon while the Parlament resides in the Town or in som Grove or sweet place in the sield while the Parlament for the heat of the year shall reside in the Country upon every Tuesday morning or afternoon AND the Orator appointed for the time to this Office shall first repeat the Orders of the Commonwealth with all possible brevity and then making choice of one or som part of it discourse therof to the People An Oration or Discourse of this nature being afterward perus'd by the Council of State may as they see cause be printed and publish'd THE ARCHON'S Comment upon the Order I find to have bin of this sense My Lords TO crave pardon for a word or two in farther explanation of what was read I shall briefly shew how the Constitution of this Tribe or Assembly answers to their Function and how their Function which is of two parts the former in the Result or Legislative Power the latter in the supreme Judicature of the Common-wealth answers to their Constitution MACCHIAVEL has a Discourse where he puts the question Whether the guard of Liberty may with more security be committed to the Nobility or to the People Which doubt of his arises thro the want of explaining his terms for the guard of Liberty can
signify nothing else but the Result of the Commonwealth so that to say that the guard of Liberty may be committed to the Nobility is to say that the Result may be committed to the Senat in which case the People signify nothing Now to shew it was a mistake to affirm it to have bin thus in Lacedemon sufficient has bin spoken and wheras he will have have it to be so in Venice also * * Quello appresso il quale e la somma autorita di tutta la città e delle leggi decreti de i quali â—ende l'autoritâ cosi del Senato come ancora di tutti i Magistrati e il Consiglio Grande They says CONTARINI in whom resides the Supreme Power of the whole Commonwealth and of the Laws and upon whose Orders depends the Authority as well of the Senat as of all the other Magistrats is the GREAT COVNCIL It is institutively in the Great Council by the judgment of all that know that Commonwealth tho for the Reasons shewn it be somtimes exercis'd by the Senat. Nor need I run over the Commonwealths in this place for the proof of a thing so doubtless and such as has bin already made so apparent as that the Result of each was in the popular part of it The popular part of yours or the Prerogative Tribe consists of seven Deputys wherof three are of the Horse annually elected out of every Tribe of Oceana which being fifty amounts to one hundred and fifty Horse and two hundred Foot And the Prerogative consisting of three of these Lists consists of four hundred and fifty Horse and six hundred Foot besides those of the Provinces to be hereafter mention'd by which means the overbalance in the Suffrage remaining to the Foot by one hundred and fifty Votes you have to the support of a true and natural Aristocracy the deepest root of a Democracy that has bin ever planted Wherfore there is nothing in Art or Nature better qualify'd for the Result than this Assembly It is noted out of CICERO by MACCHIAVEL That the People tho they are not so prone to find out Truth of themselves as to follow Custom or run into Error yet if they be shewn Truth they not only acknowlege and imbrace it very suddenly but are the most constant and faithful Guardians and Conservators of it It is your Duty and Office wherto you are also qualify'd by the Orders of this Commonwealth to have the People as you have your Hauks and Greyhounds in Leases and Slips to range the Fields and beat the Bushes for them for they are of a nature that is never good at this sport but when you spring or start their proper quarry Think not that they will stand to ask you what it is or less know it than your Hauks and Greyhounds do theirs but presently make such a flight or course that a Huntsman may as well undertake to run with his Dogs or a Falconer to fly with his Hauk as an Aristocracy at this game to compare with the People The People of Rome were possest of no less a prey than the Empire of the World when the Nobility turn'd tails and perch'd among Daws upon the Tower of Monarchy For tho they did not all of them intend the thing they would none of them indure the Remedy which was the Agrarian BUT the Prerogative Tribe has not only the Result but is the Supreme Judicature and the ultimat Appeal in this Commonwealth For the popular Government that makes account to be of any standing must make sure in the first place of the ††Ante omnes de provocatione adversus Magistratus ad Populum sacrandcque cum bonis capite ejus qui regni occupandi consilia iniisset Appeal to the People As an Estate in trust becoms a man's own if he be not answerable for it so the Power of a Magistracy not accountable to the People from whom it was receiv'd becoming of privat use the Commonwealth loses her Liberty Wherfore the Right of Supreme Judicature in the People without which there can be no such thing as popular Government is confirm'd by the constant practice of all Commonwealths as that of Israel in the cases of ACHAN and of the Tribe of BENJAMIN adjudg'd by the Congregation The Dicasterion or Court call'd the Heliaia in Athens which the Comitia of that Commonwealth consisting of the whole People and so being too numerous to be a Judicatory was constituted somtimes of five hundred at others of one thousand or according to the greatness of the cause of fifteen hundred elected by the Lot out of the whole Body of the People had with the nine ARCHONS that were Presidents the cognizance of such Causes as were of highest importance in that State The five Ephors in Lacedemon which were popular Magistrats might question their Kings as appears by the cases of PAUSANIAS and of AGIS who being upon his Trial in this Court was cry'd to by his Mother to appeal to the People as PLUTARCH has it in his Life The Tribuns of the People of Rome like in the nature of their Magistracy and for som time in number to the Ephors as being according to HALICARNASSEUS and PLUTARCH instituted in imitation of them hâ—d power ††Diem dicere to summon any man his Magistracy at least being expir'd for from the Dictator there lay no Appeal to answer for himself to the People As in the case of CORIOLANUS who was going about to force the People by withholding Corn from them in a Famin to relinquish the Magistracy of the Tribuns in that of SPURIUS CASSIUS for affecting Tyranny of MARCUS SERGIUS for running away at Veii of CAIUS LUCRETIUS for spoiling his Province of JUNIUS SILANUS for making War without a command from the People against the Cimbri with divers others And the Crimes of this nature were call'd Laesâ—e Majestatis or High Treason Examples of such as were arrain'd or try'd for Peculat or Defraudation of the Common-wealth were MARCUS CURIUS for intercepting the Mony of the Samnits SALINATOR for the inequal division of Spoils to his Soldiers MARCUS POSTHUMIUS for cheating the Commonwealth by a feign'd Shipwreck Causes of these two kinds were of a more public nature but the like Power upon Appeals was also exercis'd by the People in privat matters even during the time of the Kings as in the case of HORATIUS Nor is it otherwise with Venice where the Doge LOREDANO was sentenc'd by the Great Council and ANTONIO GRIMANI afterwards Doge question'd for that he being Admiral had suffer'd the Ture to take Lepanto in view of his Fleet. NEVERTHELESS there lay no Appeal from the Roman Dictator to the People which if there had might have cost the Commonwealth dear when SPURIUS MELIUS affecting Empire circumvented and debauch'd the Tribuns wherupon â—ITUS QUINTIUS CINCINNATUS was created Dictator who having chosen SERVILIUS AHALA to be his Lieutenant or Magister Equitum sent him to
apprehend MELIUS whom while he disputed the Commands of the Dictator and implor'd the aid of the People AHALA cut off upon the place By which example you may see in what cases the Dictator may prevent the Blow which is ready somtims to fall e're the People be aware of the Danger Wherfore there lys no Appeal from the Dieci or the Council of Ten in Venice to the Great Council nor from our Council of War to the People For the way of proceding of this Tribe or the Ballot it is as was once said for all Venetian THIS Discourse of Judicatorys wherupon we are faln brings us rather naturally than of design from the two general Orders of every Commonwealth that is to say from the debating part or the Senat and the resolving part or the People to the third which is the executive part or the Magistracy wherupon I shall have no need to dwell For the executive Magistrats of this Commonwealth are the Strategus in Arms the Signory in their several Courts as the Chancery the Exchequer as also the Councils in divers cases within their Instructions the Censors as well in their proper Magistracy as in the Council of Religion the Tribuns in the Government of the Prerogative and that Judicatory and the Judges with their Courts Of all which so much is already said or known as may suffice THE Tuesday Lectures or Orations to the People will be of great benefit to the Senat the Prerogative and the whole Nation To the Senat because they will not only teach your Senators Elocution but keep the System of the Government in their memorys Elocution is of great use to your Senators for if they do not understand Rhetoric giving it at this time for granted that the Art were not otherwise good and com to treat with or vindicat the cause of the Commonwealth against som other Nation that is good at it the advantage will be subject to remain upon the merit of the Art and not upon the merit of the Cause Furthermore the Genius or Soul of this Government being in the whole and in every part they will never be of ability in determination upon any particular unless at the same time they have an Idea of the whole That this therfore must be in that regard of equal benefit to the Prerogative is plain tho these have a greater concernment in it For this Commonwealth is the Estate of the People and a man you know tho he be virtuous yet if he dos not understand his Estate may run out or be cheated of it Last of all the Treasures of the Politics will by this means be so open'd risled and dispers'd that this Nation will as soon dote like the Indians upon glass Beads as disturb your Government with Whimsys and Freaks of Motherwit or suffer themselves to be stutter'd out of their Libertys There is not any reason why your Grandees your wise men of this Age that laugh out and openly at a Commonwealth as the most ridiculous thing do not appear to be as in this regard they are mere Idiots but that the People have not eys THERE remains no more relating to the Senat and the People than 24. Order Constitution of the provincial part of the Senat and the People THE twenty fourth ORDER wherby it is lawful for the Province of Marpesia to have 30 Knights of their own election continually present in the Senat of Oceana together with 60 Deputys of Horse and 120 of Foot in the Prerogative Tribe indu'd with equal Power respect had to their quality and number in the Debate and Result of this Commonwealth provided that they observe the Course or Rotation of the same by the annual Return of 10 Knights 20 Deputys of the Horse and 40 of the Foot The like in all respects is lawful for Panopea and the Horse of both the Provinces amounting to one Troop and the Foot to one Company one Captain and one Cornet of the Horse shall be annually chosen by Marpesia and one Captain and one Ensign of the Foot shall be annually chosen by Panopea THE Orb of the Prerogative being thus complete is not unnaturally compar'd to that of the Moon either in consideration of the Light borrow'd from the Senat as from the Sun or of the ebs and floods of the People which are mark'd by the Negative or Affirmative of this Tribe And the Constitution of the Senat and the People being Constitution of the Parlament shewn you have that of the Parlament of Oceana consisting of the Senat proposing and of the People resolving which amounts to an Act of Parlament So the Parlament is the Heart which consisting of two Ventricles the one greater and replenish'd with a grosser matter the other less and full of a purer sucks in and spouts forth the vital Blood of Oceana by a perpetual Circulation Wherfore the life of this Government is no more unnatural or obnoxious upon this score to dissolution than that of a Man nor to giddiness than the World seeing the Earth whether it be it self or the Heavens that are in rotation is so far from being giddy that it could not subsist without motion But why should not this Government be much rather capable of duration and steddiness by motion than which God has ordain'd no other to the universal Commonwealth of Mankind seeing one Generation coms and another gos but the Earth remains firm for ever that is in her proper Situation or Place whether she be mov'd or not mov'd upon her proper Center The Senat the People and the Magistracy or the Parlament so constituted as you have seen is the Guardian of this Commonwealth and the Husband of such a Wife as is elegantly describ'd by SOLOMON She is like the Merchant's Ship she brings her Prov. 31. Food from far She considers a Field and buys it With the fruit of her hands she plants a Vineyard She perceives that her Merchandize is good She stretches forth her hands to the Poor She is not afraid of the Snow for her Houshold for all her Houshold are cloth'd with Scarlet She makes her self Coverings of Tapestry her Clothing is Silk and Purple Her Husband is known by his Robes in the Gates when he sits among the Senators of the Land The Gates or inferior Courts were branches as it were of the Sanhedrim or Senat of Israel Nor is our Common-wealth a worse Houswife or she has less regard to her Magistrats as may appear by 25. Order THE twenty fifth ORDER That wheras the public Revenue is thro the late Civil Wars dilapidated the Excise being improv'd or improvable to the Revenue of one Million be apply'd for the space of eleven years to com to the reparation of the same and for the present maintenance of the Magistrats Knights Deputys and other Officers who according to their several Dignitys and Functions shall annually receive towards the Support of the same as follows THE Lord Strategus Marching is
are not at leisure for the Essays Wherfore the Essays being Degrees wherby the Youth commence for all Magistracys Offices and Honors in the Parish Hundred Tribe Senat or Prerogative Divines Physicians and Lawyers not taking these Degrees exclude themselves from all such Magistracys Offices and Honors And wheras Lawyers are likest to exact further reason for this they growing up from the most gainful Art at the Bar to those Magistracys upon the Bench which are continually appropriated to themselves and not only indow'd with the greatest Revenues but also held for life have the least reason of all the rest to pretend to any other especially in an equal Commonwealth where Accumulation of Magistracy or to take a Person ingag'd by his Profit to the Laws as they stand into the Power which is Legislative and which should keep them to what they were or ought to be were a Soloecism in Prudence It is true that the Legislative Power may have need of Advice and Assistance from the executive Magistracy or such as are learn'd inthe Law for which cause the Judges are as they have heretofore bin Assistants in the Senat. Nor however it came about can I see any reason why a Judg being but an Assistant or Lawyer should be Member of a Legislative Council I DENY not that the Roman Patricians were all Patrons and that the whole People were Clients som to one Family and som to another by which means they had their Causes pleaded and defended in som appearance gratis for the Patron took no Mony tho if he had a Daughter to marry his Clients were to pay her Portion nor was this so great a grievance But if the Client accus'd his Patron gave testimony or suffrage against him it was a crime of such a nature that any man might lawfully kill him as a Traitor and this as being the nerve of the Optimacy was a great cause of ruin to that Commonwealth for when the People would carry any thing that pleas'd not the Senat the Senators were ill provided if they could not intercede that is oppose it by their Clients with whom to vote otherwise than they pleas'd was the highest Crime The observation of this Bond till the time of the GRACCHI that is to say till it was too late or to no purpose to break it was the cause why in all the former heats and disputes that had happen'd between the Senat and the People it never came to blows which indeed was good but withal the People could have no remedy which was certainly evil Wherfore I am of opinion that a Senator ought not to be a Patron or Advocat nor a Patron or Advocat to be a Senator for if his Practice be gratis it debauches the People and if it be mercenary it debauches himself take it which way you will when he should be making of Laws he will be knitting of Nets LYCURGUS as I said by being a Traveller became a Legislator but in times when Prudence was another thing Nevertheless we may not shut out this part of Education in a Commonwealth which will be her self a Traveller for those of this make have seen the World especially because this is certain tho it be not regarded in our times when things being left to take their chance it sares with us accordingly that no man can be a Politician except he be first a Historian or a Traveller for except he can see what must be or what may be he is no Politician Now if he has no knowlege in Story he cannot tell what has bin and if he has not bin a Traveller he cannot tell what is but he that neither knows what has bin nor what is can never tell what must be or what may be Furthermore the Embassys in ordinary by our Constitution are the Prizes of young men more especially such as have bin Travellers Wherfore they of these inclinations having leave of the Censors ow them an account of their time and cannot chuse but lay it out with som ambition of Praise or Reward where both are open whence you will have eys abroad and better choice of public Ministers your Gallants shewing themselves not more to the Ladys at their Balls than to your Commonwealth at her Academy when they return from their Travels BUT this Commonwealth being constituted more especially of two Elements Arms and Councils drives by a natural instinct at Courage and Wisdom which he who has attain'd is arriv'd at the perfection of human nature It is true that these Virtues must have som natural root in him that is capable of them but this amounts not to so great a matter as som will have it For if Poverty makes an industrious a moderat Estate a temperat and a lavish Fortune a wanton man and this be the common course of things Wisdom then is rather of necessity than inclination And that an Army which was meditating upon flight has bin brought by despair to win the Field is so far from being strange that like causes will evermore produce like effects Wherfore this Commonwealth drives her Citizens like Wedges there is no way with them but thorow nor end but that Glory wherof Man is capable by Art or Nature That the Genius of the Roman Familys commonly preserv'd it self throout the line as to instance in som the MANLII were still severe the PUBLICOLAE lovers and the APPII haters of the People is attributed by MACCHIAVEL to their Education nor if Interest might add to the reason why the Genius of a Patrician was one thing and that of a Plebeian another is the like so apparent between different Nations who according to their different Educations have yet as different manners It was antiently noted and long confirm'd by the actions of the French that in their first assaults their Courage was more than that of Men and for the rest less than that of Women which nevertheless thro the amendment of their Disciplin we see now to be otherwise I will not say but that som Man or Nation upon an equal improvement of this kind may be lighter than som other but certainly Education is the scale without which no Man or Nation can truly know his or her own weight or value By our Historys we can tell when one Marpesian would have beaten ten Oceaners and when one Oceaner would have beaten ten Marpesians MARC ANTHONY was a Roman but how did that appear in the imbraces of CLEOPATRA You must have som other Education for your Youth or they like that passage will shew better in Romance than true Story THE Custom of the Commonwealth of Rome in distributing her Magistracys without respect of age happen'd to do well in CORVINUS and SCIPIO for which cause MACCHIAVEL with whom that which was don by Rome and that which is well don is for the most part all one commends this course Yet how much it did worse at other times is obvious in POMPEY and CAESAR Examples by which BOCCALINI illustrats the
if you add to the propagation of Civil Liberty so natural to this Commonwealth that it cannot be omitted the propagation of the Liberty of Conscience this Empire this Patronage of the World is the Kingdom of Christ For as the Kingdom of God the Father was a Commonwealth so shall be the Kingdom of God Psal 110. 3. the Son The People shall be willing in the day of his Power HAVING shew'd you in this and other places som of those inestimable Benefits of this kind of Government together with the natural and facil Emanation of them from their Fountain I com lest God who has appear'd to you for he is the God of Nature in the glorious Constellation of these subordinat Causes wherof we have hitherto bin taking the true Elevation should shake off the dust of his Feet against you to warn you of the Dangers which you not taking the opportunity will incur by omission MACCHIAVEL speaking of the defect of Venice thro her want of proper Arms crys out ††Questo tagliogli le gambe da montar in cielo This cut her Wings and spoil'd her mount to Heaven If you lay your Commonwealth upon any other Foundation than the People you frustrat your self of proper Arms and so lose the Empire of the World nor is this all but som other Nation will have it COLVMBVS offer'd Gold to one of your Kings thro whose happy incredulity another Prince has drunk the Poison even to the consumption of his People but I do not offer you a Nerve of War that is made of Pursestrings such a one as has drawn the face of the Earth into Convulsions but such as is natural to her Health and Beauty Look you to it where there is tumbling and tossing upon the bed of sickness it must end in death or recovery Tho the People of the World in the dregs of the Gothic Empire be yet tumbling and tossing upon the bed of sickness they cannot dy nor is there any means of recovery for them but by antient prudence whence of necessity it must com to pass that this Drug be better known If France Italy and Spain were not all sick all corrupted together there would be none of them so for the sick would not be able to withstand the sound nor the sound to preserve their health without curing of the sick The first of these Nations which if you stay her leisure will in my mind be France that recovers the health of antient Prudence shall certainly govern the World for what did Italy when she had it And as you were in that so shall you in the like case be reduc'd to a Province I do not speak at random Italy in the Consulship of LUCIUS AEMILIUS PAPUS and CAIUS ATILIUS REGULUS arm'd upon the Gallic Tumult that then happen'd of her self and without the Aid of foren Auxiliarys seventy thousand Horse and seven hundred thousand Foot But as Italy is the least of those three Countrys in extent so is France now the most populous I decus I nostrum melioribus utere fatis MY dear Lords Oceana is as the Rose of Sharon and the Lilly of the Vally As the Lilly among Thorns such is my Love among the Daughters She is comly as the Tents of Kedar and terrible as an Army with Banners Her Neck is as the Tower of David builded for an Armory wheron there hang a thousand Bucklers and Shields of mighty Men. Let me hear thy Voice in the morning whom my Soul loves The South has drop'd and the West is breathing upon thy Garden of Spices Arise Queen of the Earth Arise holy Spouse of Jesus for lo the Winter is past the Rain is over and gon the Flowers appear on the Earth the time for the singing of Birds is com and the Voice of the Turtle is heard in our Land Arise I say com forth and do not tarry Ah! wherfore should my eys behold thee by the Rivers of Babylon hanging thy Harps upon the Willows thou fairest among Women EXCELLENT PATRIOTS If the People be Soverain here is that which establishes their Prerogative If we be sincere here is that which disburdens our Souls and makes good all our Ingagements If we he charitable here is that which imbraces all Partys If we would be settl'd here is that which will stand and last for ever IF our Religion be any thing else but a vain boast scratching and defacing human Nature or Reason which being the Image of God makes it a kind of Murder here is that Empire whence Justice Amos 5. 24. shall run down like a River and Judgment like a mighty Stream Who is it then that calls us or what is in our way a Lion is it not the Dragon that old Serpent for what wretched shifts are these Here is a great deal might we not have som of this at one time and som at another MY LORDS permit me to give you the Sum or brief Epitome of the whole Commonwealth THE Center or Fundamental Laws are first the Agrarian proportion'd at two thousand Pounds a Year in Land â—ying and being within the proper Territory of Oceana and stating Property in Land at such a balance that the Power can never swerve out of the hands of the Many SECONDLY The Ballot conveying this equal Sap from the Root by an equal Election or Rotation into the Branches of Magistracy or Soverain Power THE Orbs of this Commonwealth being Civil Military or Provincial are as it were cast upon this Mold or Center by the Divisions of the People First into Citizens and Servants Secondly into Youth and Elders Thirdly into such as have one hundred Pounds a year in Lands Goods or Monys who are of the Horse and such as have under who are of the Foot Fourthly they are divided by their usual residence into Parishes Hundreds and Tribes THE Civil Orbs consist of the Elders and are thus created every Monday next insuing the last of December the Elders in every Parish elect the fifth man to be a Deputy which is but half a days work every Monday next insuing the last of January the Deputys meet at their respective Hundred and elect out of their number one Justice of the Peace one Juryman one Coroner and one High Constable of the Foot one days work EVERY Monday next insuing the last of February the Hundreds meet at their respective Tribe and there elect the Lords High Sherif Lieutenant Custos Rotulorum the Conductor the two Censors out of the Horse the Magistrats of the Tribe and of the Hundreds with the Jury-men constituting the Phylarch and who assist in their respective Offices at the Assizes hold the Quarter Sessions c. The day following the Tribe elects the annual Galaxy consisting of two Knights and three Deputys out of the Horse with four Deputys out of the Foot therby indu'd with Power as Magistrats of the whole Nation for the term of three years An Officer chosen at the Hundred may not be
elected a Magistrat of the Tribe but a Magistrat or Officer either of the Hundred or of the Tribe being elected into the Galaxy may substitute any one of his own Order to his Magistracy or Office in the Hundred or in the Tribe This of the Muster is two days work So the body of the People is annually at the charge of three days work and a half in their own Tribes for the perpetuation of their Power receiving over and above the Magistracys so divided among them EVERY Monday next insuing the last of March the Knights being a Hundred in all the Tribes take their places in the Senat the Knights having taken their places in the Senat make the third Region of the same and the House procedes to the Senatorian Elections Senatorian Elections are annual biennial or emergent THE annual are perform'd by the Tropic THE Tropic is a Scedule consisting of two parts the first by which the Senatorian Magistrats are elected and the second by which the Senatorian Councils are perpetuated THE first part is of this Tenor. THE Lord Strategus Annual Magistrats and therfore such as may be elected out of any Region the term of every Region having at the Tropic one year at the least unexpir'd THE Lord Orator THE first Censor THE second Censor THE third Commissioner of the Seal Triennial Magistrats and therfore such as can be chosen out of the third Region only as that alone which has the term of three years unexpir'd THE third Commissioner of the Treasury THE Strategus and the Orator sitting are Consuls or Presidents of the Senat. THE Strategus marching is General of the Army in which case a new Strategus is elected to sit in his room THE Strategus sitting with the six Commissioners being Counsillors of the Nation are the Signory of the Commonwealth THE Censors are Magistrats of the Ballot Presidents of the Council for Religion and Chancellors of the Vniversitys THE second part of the Tropic perpetuats the Council of State by the election of five Knights out of the first Region of the Senat to be the first Region of that Council consisting of fifteen Knights five in every Region THE like is don by the election of four into the Council of Religion and four into the Council of Trade out of the same Region in the Senat each of these Councils consisting of twelve Knights four in every Region BVT the Council of War consisting of nine Knights three in every Region is elected by and out of the Council of State as the other Councils are elected by and out of the Senat. And if the Senat add a Juncta of nine Knights more elected out of their own number for the term of three months the Council of War by virtue of that addition is Dictator of Oceana for the said term THE Signory jointly or severally has right of Session and Suffrage in every Senatorian Council and to propose either to the Senat or any of them And every Region in a Council electing one weekly Provost any two of those Provosts have Power also to propose to their respective Council as the proper and peculiar Proposers of the same for which cause they hold an Academy where any man either by word of mouth or writing may propose to the Proposers NEXT to the Elections of the Tropic is the biennial Election of one Embassador in ordinary by the Ballot of the House to the Residence of France at which time the Resident of France removes to Spain he of Spain to Venice he of Venice to Constantinople and he of Constantinople returns So the Orb of the Residents is wheel'd about in eight years by the biennial Election of one Embassador in Ordinary THE last kind of Election is emergent Emergent Elections are made by the Scrutiny Election by Scrutiny is when a Competitor being made by a Council and brought into the Senat the Senat chuses four more Competitors to him and putting all five to the Ballot he who has most above half the Suffrages is the Magistrat The Polemarchs or Fiâ—ld Officers are chosen by the Scrutiny of the Council of War an Embassador Extraordinary by the Scrutiny of the Council of State the Judges and Serjeants at Law by the Scrutiny of the Seal and the Barons and prime Officers of the Exchequer by the Scrutiny of the Treasury THE Opinion or Opinions that are legitimatly propos'd to any Council must be debated by the same and so many as are resolv'd upon the Debate are introduc'd into the Senat where they are debated and resolv'd or rejected by the whole House that which is resolv'd by the Senat is a Decree which is good in matters of State but no Law except it be propos'd to and resolv'd by the Prerogative THE Deputys of the Galaxy being three Horse and four Foot in a Tribe amount in all the Tribes to one hundred and fifty Horse and two hundred Foot which having enter'd the Prerogative and chosen their Captains Cornet and Ensign triennial Officers make the third Classis consisting of one Troop and one Company and so joining with the whole Prerogative elect four annual Magistrats call'd Tribuns wherof two are of the Horse and two of the Foot These have the Command of the Prerogative Sessions and Suffrage in the Council of War and Sessions without Suffrage in the Senat. THE Senat having past a Decree which they would propose to the People cause it to be printed and publish'd or promulgated for the space of six weeks which being order'd they chuse their Proposers The Proposers must be Magistrats that is the Commissioners of the Seal those of the Treasury or the Censors These being chosen desire the Muster of the Tribuns and appoint the day The People being assembl'd at the day appointed and the Decree propos'd that which is propos'd by authority of the Senat and commanded by the People is the Law of Oceana or an Act of Parlament SO the Parlament of Oceana consists of the Senat proposing and the People resolving THE People or Prerogative are also the Supreme Judicatory of this Nation having Power of hearing and determining all Causes of Appeal from all Magistrats or Courts Provincial or Domestic as also to question any Magistrat the term of his Magistracy being expir'd if the Case be introduc'd by the Tribuns or any one of them THE Military Orbs consist of the Youth that is such as are from eighteen to thirty years of Age and are created in the following manner EVERY Wednesday next insuing the last of December the Youth of every Parish assembling elect the fifth of their number to be their Deputys the Deputys of the Youth are call'd Stratiots and this is the first Essay EVERY Wednesday next insuing the last of January the Stratiots assembling at the Hundred elect their Captain and their Ensign and fall to their Games and Sports EVERY Wednesday next insuing the last of February the Stratiots are receiv'd by the Lord Lieutenant their Commander in Chief with the
with Honors limited came to be hereditary and rising to Power proceded afterwards to the War against Troy After the War with Troy tho with much ado and in a long time Greece had constant rest and Land without doubt came to Property for shifting their seats no longer at length they sent Colonys abroad the Athenians into Ionia with the Islands the Peloponnesians into Italy Sicily and other parts The Power of Greece thus improv'd and the desire of Mony withal their Revenues in what not in Mony if yet there was no Usury therfore except a man can shew that there was Usury in Land being inlarg'd in most of the Citys there were erected Tyrannys Let us lay this place to the former when out of a desire of Gain the meaner sort underwent Servitude with the Mighty it caus'd hereditary Kingdoms with Honors limited as happen'd also with us since the time of the Goths and Vandals But when the People came to Property in Land and their Revenues were inlarg'd such as assum'd Power over Book I them not according to the nature of their Property or Balance were Tyrants well and what remedy why then it was says the Considerer that the Grecians out of an extreme aversion to that which was Consid p. 4. the cause of their present Sufferings slipt into Popular Government not that upon calm and mature Debates they found it best but that they might put themselves at the greatest distance which Spirit usually accompanys all Reformations from that with which they were grown into dislike Wherby he agrees exactly with his Author in making out the true Force and Nature of the Balance working even without deliberation and whether men will or no. For the Government that is natural and easy being in no other direction than that of the respective Balance is not of choice but of necessity The Policy of King Lords and Commons was not so much from the Prudence of our Ancestors as from their necessity If three hundred men held at this day the like over-balance to the whole People it was not in the power of Prudence to institute any other than the same kind of Government thro the same necessity Thus the meaner sort with THUCYDIDES submitting to the Mighty it came to Kingdoms with hereditary Honors but the People coming to be wealthy call'd their Kings tho they knew not why Tyrants nay and using them accordingly found out means with as little deliberation it may be as a Bull takes to toss a Dog or a Hern to split a Hauk that is rather as at the long-run they will ever do in the like cases by Instinct than Prudence or Debate to thro down that which by the mere information of sense they could no longer bear and which being thrown down they found themselves eas'd But the question yet remains and that is forsooth whether of these is to be call'd Antient Prudence To this end never man made a more unlucky choice than the Considerer has don for himself of this Author who in the very beginning of his Book speaking of the Peloponnesian War or that between the Common-wealths of Athens and Lacedemon says that the Actions which preceded this and those again that were more antient tho the truth of them thro length of time cannot by any means be clearly discover'd yet for any Argument that looking into times far past he had yet lighted on to persuade him he dos not think they have bin very great either for matter of War or otherwise that is for matter of Peace or Government And lest this should not be plain enough he calls the Prudence of the Mr. Hobbs in the Magire three Periods observ'd by Mr. HOBBS viz. that from the beginning of the Grecian Memory to the Trojan War that of the Trojan War it self and that from thence to the present Commonwealths and Wars Thu. B. 1. p. 3. wherof he treats The Imbecillity of antient Times Whersore certainly this Prevaricator to give him his own fees has less discretion than a Consid p. 34. common Attorny who will be sure to examin only those Witnesses that seem to make for the Cause in which he is entertain'd Seeing that which he affirms to be Antient Prudence is depos'd by his own witness to have bin the Imbecillity of antient Times for which I could have so many more than I have leisure to examin that to take only of the most Authentic as you have heard one Greec I shall add no more than one Roman and that is FLORUS in his Prolog where computing the Ages of the Romans in the same manner THUCYDIDES did those of the Greecs he affirms the time while they liv'd under their Kings to have bin their Infancy that from the Consuls till they conquer'd Italy their Youth that from hence to their Emperors their manly age and the rest with a Complement or Salvo to TRAJAN his present Chap. 1 Lord their Dotage THESE things tho originally all Government among the Greeâ—s and the Romans was Regal are no more than they who have not yet past their Novitiat in story might have known Yet says the Considerer Consid p. 2 3. It seems to be a defect of experience to think that the Greec and the Roman Actions are only considerable in Antiquity But is it such a defect of Experience to think them only considerable as not to think them chiefly considerable in Antiquity or that the name of Antient Prudence dos not belong to that Prudence which was chiefest in Antiquity True says he it is very frequent with such as have bin conversant with Greec and Roman Authors to be led by them into a belief that the rest of the World was a rude inconsiderable People and which is a term they very much delight in altogether Barbarous This should be som fine Gentleman that would have Universitys pull'd down for the Office of a University is no more than to preserve so much of Antiquity as may keep a Nation from stinking or being barbarous which Salt grew not in Monarchys but in Commonwealths or whence has the Christian World that Religion and those Laws which are now common but from the Hebrews and Romans or from whence have we Arts but from these or the Greecs That we have a Doctor of Divinity or a Master of Arts we may thank Popular Government or with what Languages with what things are Scholars conversant that are otherwise descended will they so plead their own Cause as to tell us it is possible there should be a Nation at this day in the world without Universitys or Universitys without Hebrew Greec and Latin and not be Barbarous that is to say rude unlearn'd and inconsiderable Yes this humor even among the Greecs and Romans themselves was a servil addiction to narrow Principles and a piece of very pedantical Pride What man the Greecs and the Romans that of all other would not serve servil their Principles their Learning with whose scraps we
Law I might as well say The Declaration to all men by these presents that a man ows Mony is call'd a Bond which if it outlives the Person that enter'd into that Bond it is only because the Persons that succede him in his Estate are presum'd to have the same Will unless they manifest the contrary and that is the abrogation or cancelling of the Bond so that still the Debt is not in the Bond but in his Will who gave a being to that Bond. If it be alleg'd against this example that it is a privat one the case may be put between several Princes States or Governments or between several States of the same Principality or Government whether it be a Regulated Monarchy or a Commonwealth for in the like Obligation of the States as of the King the Lords and Commons or Partys agreeing Authoritate Patrum jussu Populi till the Partys that so agreed to the Obligation shall agree to repeal or cancel it lys all Law that is not merely in the Will of one Man or of one State or Party as the Oligarchy But not to dispute these things further in this place let the Government be what it will for the Prevaricator to fetch the Origination of Law no further than the Will while he knows very well that I fetch'd it from Interest the Antecedent of Will and yet Book I to boast that he has outthrown me I say he is neither an honest Man nor a good Bowler No matter he will be a better Gunner for where I said that the Magistrat upon the Bench is that to the Law which a Gunner upon his Platform is to his Cannon he gos about to take better aim and says If the proportion of things be accuratly consider'd it will appear that the laden Cannon answers not to the Laws but to the Power of the Person whose Will created those Laws Which if som of them that the Power of the Person whose Will created them intended should be of as good Stuff or Carriage as the rest do nevertheless according to the nature of their Matter or of their Charge com short or over and others break or recoil sure this Report of the Prevaricator is not according to the bore of my Gun but according to the bore of such a Gunner Yet again if he be not so good a Gunner he will be a better Anatomist for wheras I affirm that to say ARISTOTLE and CICERO wrote not the Rights or Rules of their Politics from the Principles of Nature but transcrib'd them into their Books out of the practice of their own Commonwealths is as if a man should say of famous HARVEY that he transcrib'd his Circulation of the Blood not out of the Principles of Nature but out of the Anatomy of this or that Body He answers that the whole force of this Objection amounts but to this that because HARVEY in his Circulation has follow'd the Principles of Nature therfore ARISTOTLE and CICERO have don so in their Discourses of Government PRETTY It is said in Scripture Thy Word is sweet as Hony Amounts that but to this Because Hony is sweet therfore the Word of God is sweet To say that my Lord Protector has not conquer'd many Nations were as if one should say that CESAR had not conquer'd many Nations Amounts that but to this that because CAESAR conquer'd many Nations therfore my Lord Protector has conquer'd many Nations What I produce as a Similitude he calls an Objection where I say as he says because what ingenuous man dos not detest such a cheat A Similitude is brought to shew how a thing is or may be not to prove that it is so it is us'd for Illustration not as an Argument The Candle I held did not set up the Post but shew where the Post was set and yet this blind Buzzard has run his head against it Nor has he yet enough if he be not the better Naturalist he will be the better Divine tho he should make the worse Sermon My Doctrin and Use upon that of SOLOMON I have seen Servants upon Horses and Princes walking as Servants upon the Ground discovers the true means wherby the Principles of Power and Authority the Goods of the Mind and of Fortune may so meet and twine in the Wreath or Crown of Empire that the Government standing upon Earth like a holy Altar and breathing perpetual Incense to Heaven in Justice and Piety may be somthing as it were between Heaven and Earth while that only which is propos'd by the best and resolv'd by the most becoms Law and so the whole Government an Empire of Laws and not of Men. This he says is a goodly Sermon it is honest and sense But let any man make sense or honesty Consid p. 7. of this Doctrin which is his own To say that Laws do or can govern is to amuse our selves with a Form of Speech as when we say Time or Age or Death dos such a thing to which indeed the Phansy of Poets and Superstition of Women may adapt a Person and give a Power of Action but wise Men know they are only Expressions of such Actions or Qualifications as belong to Things or Chap. 3 Persons SPEAK out Is it the Word of God or the Knavery and Nonsense of such Preachers that ought to govern Are we to hearken to that of the Talmud There is more in the word of a Scribe than in the words of the Law or that which Christ therupon says to the Pharisees You have made the Word of God of no effect by your Traditions Mat. 15. 6. Say is the Commonwealth to be govern'd in the Word of a Priest or a Pharisee or by the Vote of the People and the Interest of Mankind CHAP. III. Whether the Balance of Dominion in Land be the natural Cause of Empire THE Doctrin of the Balance is that tho he strains at it which choaks the Prevaricator for this of all others is that Principle which makes the Politics not so before the invention of the same to be undeniable throout and not to meddle with the Mathematics an Art I understand as little as Mathematicians do this the most demonstrable of any whatsoever FOR this cause I shall rather take pleasure than pains to look back or tread the same path with other and perhaps plainer steps as thus If a man having one hundred pounds a year may keep one Servant or have one man at his command then having one hundred times so much he may keep one hundred Servants and this multiply'd by a thousand he may have one hundred thousand men at his command Now that the single Person or Nobility of any Country in Europe that had but half so many men at command would be King or Prince is that which I think no man will doubt But * Point de Argent point de Suisse no Mony no Switzers as the French speak If the Mony be flown so are the Men also Tho
of the Magistrat as in Spain But this by making som Familys too secure as those in possession and others too despairing as those not in possession may make the whole People less industrious WHERFORE the other way which by the regulation of Purchases ordains only that a mans Land shall not excede som certain proportion for example two thousand Pounds a year or exceding such a proportion shall divide in descending to the Children so soon as being more than one they shall be capable of such a division or subdivision till the greater share excedes not two thousand pounds a year in Land lying and being within the native Territory is that which is receiv'd and establish'd by the Commonwealth of Oceana BY Levelling they who use the word seem to understand when a People rising invades the Lands and Estates of the richer sort and divides them equally among themselves as for example No where in the World this being that both in the way and in the end which I have already demonstrated to be impossible Now the words of this Lexicon being thus interpreted let us hearken what the Prevaricator will say and out it coms in this manner Consid p. 73. TO him that makes Property and that in Lands the Foundation of Empire the establishing of an Agrarian is of absolute necessity that by it the Power may be fix'd in those hands to whom it was at first committed WHAT need we then procede any further while he having no where disprov'd the Balance in these words gives up the whole Cause For as to that which he says of Mony seeing neither the vast Treasure of HENRY the 7 th alter'd the Balance of England nor the Revenue of Book I the Indys alters that of Spain this Retrait except in the Cases excepted is long since barricado'd But he is on and off and any thing to the contrary notwithstanding gives you this for certain THE Examples of an Agrarian are so infrequent that Mr. HARRINGTON is constrain'd to wave all but two Commonwealths and can find in the whole extent of History only Israel and Lacedemon to fasten upon A MAN that has read my Writings or is skill'd in History cannot chuse but see how he slurs his Dice nevertheless to make this a Pol. L. 2. C. 5. little more apparent It has seem'd to som says ARISTOTLE the main point of Institution in Government to order Riches right whence otherwise derives all civil Discord Vpon this ground PHALEAS the Chalcedonian Legislator made it his first work to introduce equality of Goods and PLATO in his Laws allows not increase to a possession beyond certain bounds The Argives and the Messenians had each their Agrarian after the manner of Lacedemon If a man shall translate the words Plut. Lycurg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 virtus facultas civilis Political Virtue or Faculty where he finds them in ARISTOTLE'S Politics as I make bold and appeal to the Reader whether too bold to do by the words Political Balance understood as I have stated the thing it will give such a light to the Author as will go nearer than any thing alleg'd as before by this Prevaricator to deprive me of the honor Pol. L. 3. C. 9. of that invention For example where ARISTOTLE says If one man or such a number of men as to the capacity of Government com within the compass of the Few excel all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in balance or in such a manner that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Political Facultys or Estates of all the rest be not able to hold weight with him or them they will never condescend to share equally with the rest in power whom they excel in Balance nor is it to any purpose to give them Laws who will be as the Gods their own Laws and will answer the People as the Lions are said by ANTISTHENES to have answer'd the Hares when they had concluded that every one ought to have an equal Portion For this cause he adds Citys that live under Popular Power have instituted the Ostracism for the preservation of Equality by which if a man increase in Riches Retinue or Popularity above what is safe they can remove him without loss of Honor or Estate for a time IF the Considerer thinks that I have strain'd courtesy with ARISTOTLE who indeed is not always of one mind further than is warrantable in relation to the Balance be it as he pleases I who must either have the more of Authority or the less of Competition in the point shall lose neither way However it is in this place enough that the Ostracism being of like nature was that which supply'd the defect in the Grecian Citys of an Agrarian To procede then to Rome that the People there by striving for an Agrarian strove to save their Liberty is apparent in that thro the want of such a Law or the nonobservance of it the Commonwealth came plainly to ruin If a Venetian should keep a Table or have his House furnish'd with Retainers he would be obnoxious to the Council of Ten and if the best of them appear with other State or Equipage than is allow'd to the meanest he is obnoxious to the Officers of the Pomp which two Orders in a Commonwealth where the Gentry have but small Estates in Land are as much as needs be in lieu of an Agrarian But the German Republics have no more to supply the place of this Law than that Estates descending are divided among the Children which sure no man but will say must needs be Chap. 11 both just and pious and we ask you no more in Oceana where grant this and you grant the whole Agrarian Thus had I set him all the Commonwealths in the World before and so it is no fault of mine that he will throw but at three of them These are Israel Lacedemon and Oceana Consid p. 77. FIRST at Israel Mr. HARRINGTON says he thinks not upon the Promise of GOD to ABRAHAM whence the Israelites deriv'd their Right to the Land of Canaan but considers the division of the Lands as a Politic Constitution upon which the Government was founded tho in the whole History of the Bible there be not the least footstep of such a design WHAT means the man the Right of an Israelite to his Land deriv'd from the Promise of GOD to ABRAHAM therfore the Right of an Oceaner to his Land must derive from the Promise of GOD to ABRAHAM Or why else should I in speaking of Oceana where Property is taken as it was found and not stirr'd a hair think on the Promise to ABRAHAM Nor matters it for the manner of division seeing that was made and this was found made each according to the Law of the Government But in the whole Bible says he there is not the least footstep that the end of the Israelitish Agrarian was Political or that it was intended to be the Foundation of the Government THE
posteriori one in the snout another in the tail of it For had there bin formerly no Rotation in Athens how should there have have bin men of Valor and Conduct to ly by the Walls And if Rotation thenceforth should have ceas'd how could those men of Valor and Conduct have don otherwise than ly by the Walls So this inavoidably confesses that Rotation was the means wherby Athens came to be stor'd with Persons of Valor and Conduct they to be capable of Imployment and the Commonwealth to imploy the whole Virtue of her Citizens And it being in his own words an Argument of much imperfection in a Government not to dare to imploy the whole Virtue of the Citizens this wholly routs a standing General for the Government that dares imploy but the Virtue of one dares not imploy the Virtue of all Yet he jogs on Consid p. 91. THOSE Orders must needs be against Nature which excluding Persons of the best Qualifications give admission to others who have nothing to commend them but their Art in canvassing for the suffrage of the People He never takes notice that the Ballot bars Canvassing beyond all possibility Book I of any such thing but we will let that go Canvassing it is confest was more frequent in Rome and Athens than is laudable where nevertheless it is the stronger Argument for the integrity of popular Suffrage which being free from any aid of Art produc'd in those Commonwealths more illustrious examples if a man gos no further than PLUTARCH'S Lives than are to be found in all the rest of Story Consid p. 91. YET says he this Law has bin as often broken as a Commonwealth has bin brought into any exigence for the hazard of trusting Affairs in weak hands then appearing no scruple has bin made to trample upon this Order for giving the Power to som able man at that time render'd incapable by the Vacation this Law requires The continuation of the Consulship of MARIUS is sufficient to be alleg'd for the proof of this tho if occasion were it might be back'd by plenty of examples His choice confutes his pretended variety who jests with edg'd tools this example above all will cut his fingers for by this prolongation of Magistracy or to speak more properly of Empire for the Magistracy of the Consul was Civil and confer'd by the People Centuriatis Comitiis but his Empire was Military and confer'd Curiatis Rome began to drive those wheels of her Rotation heavily in MARIUS which were quite taken off in CAESAR I HAVE heretofore in vain persuaded them upon this occasion to take notice of a Chapter in MACCHIAVEL so worthy of regard that I have now inserted it at length as follows Macch. Discor B. 3. c. 24. THE Procedings of the Roman Commonwealth being well consider'd two things will be found to have bin the causes of her dissolution The Contention that happen'd thro the indeavor of the People always oppos'd or eluded by the Nobility to introduce an Agrarian and the damage that accru'd from the prolongation of Empire which Mischiefs had they bin foreseen in due time the Government by application of fit Remedys might have bin of longer life and better health The Diseases which this Commonwealth from contention about the Agrarian contracted were acute and tumultuous but those being slower and without tumult which she got by promulgation of Empire were Chronical and went home with her giving a warning by her example how dangerous it is to States that would injoy their Liberty to suffer Magistracy how deservedly soever confer'd to remain long in the possession of the same man Certainly if the rest of the Romans whose Empire happen'd to be prolong'd had bin as virtuous and provident as LUCIUS QUINTIUS they had never run into this inconvenience Of such wholsom example was the goodness of this man that the Senat and the People after one of their ordinary Disputes being com to som accord wheras the People had prolong'd the Magistracy of their present Tribuns in regard they were Persons more fitly oppos'd to the Ambition of the Nobility than by a new Election they could readily have found when hereupon the Senat to shew they needed not be worse at this game would have prolong'd the Consulat to QUINTIUS he refus'd his consent saying that ill examples were to be corrected by good ones and not incourag'd by others like themselves nor could they stir his Resolution by which means they were necessitated to make new Consuls Had this Wisdom and Virtue I say bin duly regarded or rightly understood it might have sav'd Rome which thro this neglect came to ruin The first whose Empire happen'd to be prolong'd was PUBLILIUS PHILO his Consulat expiring at the Camp before Palaepolis while it seem'd to the Senat that he had the Victory in his hand actum cum Tribunis Plebis est ad Populum Chap. 12 ferrent ut cum Philo Consulatu abiisset Proconsul rem gereret Liv. l. 8. they sent him no Successor but prolong'd his Empire by which means he came to be the first Proconsul An Expedient tho introduc'd for the public good that came in time to be the public bane For by how much the Roman Armys march'd further off by so much the like course seeming to be the more necessary became the more customary whence insu'd two pernicious consequences The one that there being fewer Generals and Men of known Ability for Conduct the Art with the reputation of the same came to be more ingrost and obnoxious to Ambition the other that a General standing long got such hold upon his Army as could take them off from the Senat and hang them on himself Thus MARIUS and SYLLA could be follow'd by the Soldiery to the detriment of the Commonwealth and CESAR to her perdition Wheras had Rome never prolong'd Empire she might perhaps not so soon have arriv'd at Greatness or Acquisition but would have made less haste to destruction ALL the Dilemma that MACCHIAVEL observes in these words is that if a Commonwealth will not be so slow in her acquisition as is requir'd by Rotation she will be less sure than is requisit to her preservation But the Prevaricator not vouchsafing to shew us upon what reasons or experience he grounds his Maxim is positive That Consid p. 92. the Dilemma into which a Commonwealth is in this case brought is very dangerous for either she must give her self a mortal blow by gaining the habit of infringing such Orders as are necessary for her preservation or receive one from without THIS same is another Parakeetism these words are spoken by me after MACCHIAVEL in relation to Dictatorian Power in which they are so far from concluding against Rotation that this in case of a Dictator is more especially necessary maxima libertatis custodia Mamercus apud Liv. l. 4. est ut magna imperia diuturna non sint temporis modus imponatur quibus juris imponi
of the Province but because they could not foresee all things as appear'd by the Questions which PLINY put upon the Laws of POMPEY to TRAJAN it came to pass that much was permitted to the Edicts of the Provincial Pretors as was also in use at Rome with the Pretors of the City and if any man had judg'd otherwise in his Province than he ought to have don in the City made an Edict contrary to the Law of his Province or judg'd any thing otherwise than according to his own Edict he was held guilty of and questionable for a hainous Crime But what the Law of this or that Province which differed in each was would be hard particularly to say only in general it was for the main very much resembling that of Sicily call'd Rupilia LEGE Rupilia or by the Law of RUPILIUS a Cause between one Citizen and another being of the same City was to be try'd at home by their own Laws A Cause between one Provincial and another being of divers Citys was to be try'd by Judges whom the Pretor should appoint by lot What a privat man claim'd of a People or a People of a privat man Book II was to be refer'd to the Senat of som third City Vpon what a Roman claim'd of a Provincial a Provincial was to be appointed Judg. Vpon what a Provincial claim'd of a Roman a Roman was to be appointed Judg. For decision of other Controversys select Judges from among the Romans not out of the Pretorian Cohort but out of such Romans or other Citizens free of Rome as were present in the same Court were to be given In criminal Causes as Violence Peculat or Treason the Law and the manner of proceding was the same in the Provinces as in Rome FOR the Tributs Customs Taxes levys of Men Mony Shipping ordinary or extraordinary for the common defence of the Roman Republic and her Provinces the Consuls Proconsuls or Pretors proceding according to such Decrees of the Senat as were in that case standing or renew'd upon emergent occasions in gathering these lay the Magistracy or office of the Questor if the Proconsul were indispos'd or had more business than he could well turn his hand to Courts of this nature might be held by one or more of his Legats With matter of Religion they meddl'd not every Nation being so far left to the liberty of Conscience that no violence for this cause was offer'd to any man by which means both Jews and Christians at least till the time of the persecuting Emperors had the free exercise of their Religion throout the Roman Provinces This the Jews lik'd well for themselves nor were they troubl'd at the Heathens but to the Christians they always gâ—udg'd the like privilege Thus when they could no otherwise induce PILAT to put Christ to death they accus'd Christ of affecting Monarchy and so afrighted PILAT being a mean condition'd fellow while they threaten'd to let TIBERIUS know he was not Cesar's Friend that he comply'd with their ends But when at Corinth where GALLIO a man of another temper was Proconsul of Achaia they would have bin at this sport again and with a great deal of Tumult had brought PAUL before the Tribunal GALLIO took it not well that they should think he had nothing else to do than to judg of Words and Names and Questions of their Law for he car'd no more for the Disputes between the Christians and the Jews than for those between the Epicureans and the Stoics Wheâ—fore his Lictors drave them from the Tribunal and the officious Corinthians to shew their love to the Proconsul fell on knocking them out of the way of other business NOW tho the Commonwealth of the Achaeans being at this time a Roman Province under the Proconsul GALLIO injoy'd no longer her common Senat Strategus and Demiurges according to the model shown in the former Book yet remain'd each particular City under her antient form of Popular Government so that in these especially at Corinth many of the Greecs being of the same judgment the Jews could not dispute with the Christians without Tumult Of this kind was that which happen'd at Ephesus where Christianity growing so Act. 19. fast that the Silversmiths of DIANA'S Temple began to fear they should lose their Trade the Jews liking better of Heathenism than Christianity set ALEXANDER one of their pack against PAUL THIS place in times when men will understand no otherwise of human story than makes for their ends is fallen happily unto my hand seeing that which I have said of a Roman Province will be thus no less than prov'd out of Scripture For the Chancellor of Ephesus perceiving the Ecclesia so it is in the Original or Assembly as in our Translation uncall'd by the Senat or the Magistracy to Chap. 2 be tumultuously gather'd in the Theater their usual place as in Syracusa and other Citys of meeting betakes himself to appease the People with divers arguments among which he has these First as to matter of Religion You have brought hither says he these men which are neither robbers of Temples Churches our Bible has it before there was any Church to be robb'd nor yet blasphemers of the Goddess In which words seeing that they offering no scandal but only propagating that which was according to their own judgment were not obnoxious to Punishment he shews that every man had liberty of Conscience Secondly as to Law If DEMETRIUS and the Craftsmen which are with him have a matter against any man the Law says he is open Thirdly as to the matter of Government which appears to be of two parts the one Provincial the other Domestic For the former says he there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proconsuls he speaks in the plural number with relation to the Legats by whom the Proconsul somtimes held his Courts otherwise this Magistrat was but one in a Province as at this time for Asia PUBLIUS SUILIUS and to the latter says he if you desire any thing concerning other matters that is such as appertain to the Government of the City in which the care of the Temple was included it shall be determin'd in a lawful Ecclesia or Assembly of the People By which you may see that notwithstanding the Provincial Government Ephesus tho she was no free City for with a free City the Proconsul had nothing of this kind to do had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Government of her self as those other Citys mention'd in PLINY'S Epistles by the Senat and the People for wherever one of these is nam'd as the Senat by PLINY or the People by LUKE the other is understood When the Chancellor had thus spoken he dismiss'd the Ecclesia It is LUKE'S own word and so often as I have now repeated it so often has he us'd it upon the same occasion Wherfore I might henceforth expect two things of Divines first that it might be acknowleg'd that I have good Authors LUKE and the Chancellor of
Halac San. C. 4. S. 11. should happen that in all the Holy Land there remain'd but one Presbyter that Presbyter assisted by two other Israelites might ordain the seventy or great Sanhedrim and the Sanhedrim so constituted might constitute and ordain the lesser Courts I am of opinion that were there no Presbyter in the Land yet if all the Wise Men of Israel should agree to constitute or ordain Judges they might do it lawfully enoug But if so then how coms it to pass that our Ancestors have bin so solicitous lest Judicature should fail in Israel Surely for no other cause than that from the time of the Captivity the Israelites were so dispers'd that they could not upon like occasions be brought together Now I appeal whether the clear Words of MAIMONIDES where he says that our Master MOSES ordain'd the Sanhedrim by the Chirothesia be not more clearly and strongly contradicted in this place than affirm'd in the other since acknowleging that if the People could assemble they might ordain the Sanhedrim he gives it for granted that when they did assemble they had power to ordain it and that MOSES did assemble them upon this occasion is plain in Scripture Again if the power of Ordination falls ultimatly to the People there is not a stronger argument in Nature that it is thence primarily deriv'd To conclude the Chirothesia of the Presbyterian Party in Israel is thus confess'd by the Author no otherwise necessary than thro the defect of the Chirotonia of the People which Ingenuity of the Talmudist for any thing that has yet past might be worthy the imitation of Divines IN tracking the Jews from the restitution of their Commonwealth after the Captivity to their dispersion it seems that the later Monarchy in Israel was occasion'd by the Oligarchy the Oligarchy by the Aristocracy and the Aristocracy by the Chirothesia but that this Monarchy tho erected by magnanimous and popular Princes could be no less than Tyranny deriv'd from another Principle that is the insufficiency of the balance For tho from the time of the Captivity the Jubile was no more in use yet the Virgin MARY as an Heiress is affirm'd by som to have bin marri'd to JOSEPH by virtue of this Law Every Daughter that possesses an Inheritance in any Tribe of the Children of Israel Numb 27. 8. shall be Wife to one of the Family of the Tribe of her Fathers c. By which the Popular Agrarian may be more than suspected to have bin of greater vigor than would admit of a well-balanc'd Monarchy THE second Presbytery which is now attain'd to a well balanc'd Empire in the Papacy has infinitly excel'd the pattern the Lands of Italy being most of them in the Church This if I had leisure might be track'd by the very same steps At first it consisted of the seventy Parish Priests or Presbyters of Rome now seventy Cardinals creating to themselves a High Priest or Prince of their Sanhedrim the Pope but for the Superstition wherto he has brought Religion Book II and continues by his Chirothesia to hold it a great and a Reverend Monarch establish'd upon a solid Foundation and governing by an exquisit Policy not only well balanc'd at home but deeply rooted in the greatest Monarchys of Christendom where the Clergy by virtue of their Lands are one of the three States THE Maxims of Rome are profound for there is no making use of Princes without being necessary to them nor have they any regard to that Religion which dos not regard Empire All Monarchys of the Gothic Model that is to say where the Clergy by virtue of their Lands are a third estate subsist by the Pope whose Religion creating a reverence in the People and bearing an aw upon the Prince preserves the Clergy that else being unarm'd becom a certain Prey to the King or the People and where this happens as in HENRY the Eighth down gos the Throne for so much as the Clergy loses falls out of the Monarchical into the Popular Scale Where a Clergy is a third Estate Popular Government wants Earth and can never grow but where they dy at the root a Prince may sit a while but is not safe nor is it in nature except he has a Nobility or Gentry able without a Clergy to give balance to the People that he should subsist long or peaceably For wherever a Government is sounded on an Army as in the Kings of Israel or Emperors of Rome there the saddest Tragedys under Heaven are either on the Stage or in the Tiring-house These things consider'd the Chirothesia being originally nothing else but a way of Policy excluding the People where it attains not to a balance that is sufficient for this purpose brings forth Oligarchy or Tyranny as among the Jews And where it attains to a balance sufficient to this end produces Monarchy as in the Papacy and in all Gothic Kingdoms THE Priests of Aegypt where as it is describ'd by SICULUS their Revenue came to the third part of the Realm would no question have bin exactly well fitted with the Chirothesia pretended to by modern Divines Suppose the Apostles had planted the Christian Religion in those Parts and the Priests had bin all converted I do not think that Divines will say that having alter'd their Religion they needed to have deserted their being a third Estate their overbalance to the People their Lands their Preeminence in the Government or any part of their Policy for that and I am as far from saying so as themselves ON the other side as PAUL was a Citizen of Rome let us suppose him to have bin a Citizen of Athens and about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to constitute the Christian Religion in this Commonwealth where any Citizen might speak to the People Imagin then he should have said thus Men of Athens that which you ignorantly seek I bring to you the true Religion but to receive this you must not alter your former Belief only but your antient Customs Your Political Assemblys have bin hitherto call'd Ecclesiae this word must lose the antient sense and be no more understood but of Spiritual Consistorys and so wher as it has bin of a Popular it must henceforth be of an Aristocratical or Presbyterian signification For your Chirotonia that also must follow the same rule insomuch as on whomsoever one or more of the Aristocracy or Presbytery shall lay their hands the same is understood by virtue of that Action to be chirotoniz'd How well would this have sounded in Aegypt and how ill in Athens Certainly the Policy of the Church of CHRIST admits of more Prudence Chap. 5 and Temperament in these things Tho the Apostles being Jews themselves satisfy'd the converted Jews that were us'd to Aristocracy by retaining somwhat of their Constitutions as the Chirothesia yet when PAUL and BARNABAS com to constitute in Popular Commonwealths they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chirotonizing them Elders in every Congregation CHAP. V.
Liberty of the People which sense also is imply'd by their upbraiding him in Scripture Is it a small thing that thou hast Numb 16. 13. brought us up out of the Land that flows with Milk and Hony to kill us in the Wilderness except thou makest thy self altogether a Prince over us But wheras the Scripture in all this presumes these Incendiarys to have That Moses was no King bely'd MOSES som will have all they thus laid to his charge to be no more but less than truth in as much as they will needs have MOSES not only to have bin a King but to have bin a King exercising Arbitrary Power and such Arbitrary Power as being without any bounds fully amounts to Tyranny Sect. 2 That Moses propos'd his Laws to the People and their Suffrage THE word King is not a sufficient definition of the Magistrat so stil'd Between a Lacedemonian King and a Persian King or between either of these and a King of England there was a vast difference Both the Kings in Lacedemon were but as one Duke in Venice The Venetians therfore if it had so pleas'd them might as well have call'd their Duke a King Certainly it is that he is not so much in the Commonwealth as are a few of his Counsillors and yet all Acts of the Government run in his name as if there were no Common-wealth Deut. 34. 4. In what sense Moses may be call'd a King IT is said according to our Translation MOSES commanded us a Law c. according to the Original MOSES propos'd or gave us a Law which is an Inheritance to the Congregation of JACOB The Duke of Venice has a right to propose or give Law in the Congregation or great Council of Venice where he who sees him sitting would believe he were a King And if MOSES were King in Jesurun Ver. 5. or Israel it was when the Heads of the People and the Tribes of Israel were gather'd together PAUL epitomizing the story of the Acts 13. People of Israel in his Sermon to the Antiochian Jews shews how God chose their Fathers exalted the People destroy'd for their sakes seven Nations in the Land of Canaan and divided their Land to them by Lots but speaks not a word of any King given to them till expresly after their Judges But if MOSES were a King yet that he did not propose but command by his power the Laws which he gave to Israel dos not follow For DAVID was a King who nevertheless did no otherwise make any Law than by Proposition to the People and their â— Chron. 13. free Suffrage upon it DAVID consulted with the Captains of thousands and hundreds and with every Leader of which Military Disciplin of the Congregation of Israel more in due place will be shewn and DAVID said to all the Congregation If it seems good to you and that it be of the Lord our God tho he was a King and a man after God's own heart he makes the People Judges what was of God let us send abroad to our Brethren every where that are left in all the Land of Israel and with them also to the Priests and Levits that are in their Citys and Suburbs that they to the end this thing may be perform'd with the greatest solemnity may gather themselves to us and let us bring the Ark of God to us for we inquir'd not at it in the days of SAUL 1 Sam. 4. In the days of ELI the Ark was taken by the Philistins who being smitten till there was a deadly destruction throout all the City and their Divines attributing the cause therof to the detention of the Ark after seven months sent it to Bethshemesh whence it was brought to Kirjath-jearim and there lodg'd in the house of AMINADAB before SAUL was King where it remain'd till such time as DAVID propos'd in the manner shewn to the People the reduction of the same Upon this Proposition the People giving Suffrage are unanimous Chap. 1 in their result All the Congregation said that they would do so not 1 Chron. 13. 4. that they could do no otherwise by a King for they did not the like by REHOBOAM but that the thing was right in the eys of all the People Moreover DAVID and the Captains of the Host separated to Chap. 25. the Service som of the Sons of ASAPH and of HEMAN and of JEDUTHUN who should prophesy with Harps with Psalterys and with Cymbals that is propos'd these Laws for Church Disciplin or Offices of the Priests and Levits to the same Representative of the People of which more in other places Thus much in this to shew that if MOSES were a King it dos not follow that he propos'd not his Laws to a Congregation of the People having the power of Result To say that the Laws propos'd by MOSES were the Dictat of GOD is not to evade but to confirm the necessity of proposing them to the People seeing the Laws or Dictats of GOD or of CHRIST can no otherwise be effectually receiv'd or imbrac'd by a People or by a privat man than by the free suffrage of the Soul or Conscience and not by Force or Rewards which may as well establish the Laws of the Devil That there lay no appeal from the 70 Elders to Moses Numb 11. 16. BUT for another way such a one as it is of crowning MOSES Sect. 3 som are positive that there lay an appeal from the seventy Elders to Him Now the Command of God to MOSES for the institution of the Seventy is this Gather to me seventy men of the Elders of Israel that they may stand with thee Upon which words let me ask whether had MOSES thenceforth a distinct or a joint political Capacity If the Seventy stood with MOSES or it were a joint Capacity then MOSES was no King in their sense and if it were distinct then lay there to MOSES no appeal even by his own Law for thus in the case of Appeals it is by him directed If there arises a Controversy too Deut. 6. hard for thee in Judgment thou shalt com to the Priests and Levits that is to the seventy Elders According to the sentence of the Law which they shall tell thee thou shalt do And the man that will do presumtuously and will not hearken even that man shall dy In which words all color of appeal from the seventy Elders is excluded BUT whether MOSES were a King or no King either his Sect. 4 Power was more than that of King DAVID or without proposition to and result of the People it is plain that he could pass no Law Now the Senat Sanhedrim or seventy Elders came in the place of MOSES or stood with him therfore their Power could be no more than was that of MOSES So that if the Power of MOSES were never more in the point of Lawgiving than to propose to the People then the power of the Sanhedrim
any thing wherof they were in actual possession yet as to their legal Right took he from them as SAMUEL had forewarn'd their Fields their Vinyards and their Oliveyards even the best of them and gave them to his Servants or to a Nobility which by this means he introduc'd 2 Sam. 23. 1 Chron. 11. THE first Order of the Nobility thus instituted were as they are term'd by our Translators DAVID'S Worthys to these may be added the great Officers of his Realm and Court with such as sprang out of both But however these things by advantage of foren Conquest might be order'd by DAVID or continu'd for the time of his next Successor certain it is that the balance of Monarchy in so small a Country must be altogether insufficient to it self or destructive to the People A Parallel of the Monarchichal Balances in Israel and in Lacedemon Plutarch in Agis and Cleomenes THE Commonwealth of Lacedemon being founded by LYCURGUS Sect. 3 upon the like Lots with these design'd by MOSES came after the spoil of Athens to be destroy'd by Purchasers and brought into one hundred hands wherupon the People being rooted out there remain'd no more to the two Kings who were wont to go out with great Armys than one hundred Lords nor any way if they were invaded to defend themselves but by Mercenarys or making War upon the Penny which at the farthest it would go not computing the difference in Disciplin reach'd not in one third those Forces which the popular Balance could at any time have afforded without Mony This som of those Kings perceiving were of all others the most earnest to return to the popular Balance What Disorders in a Country no bigger than was theirs or this of the Israelits must in case the like course be not taken of necessity follow may be at large perus'd in the story of Lacedemon and shall be fully shewn when I com to the story of the present Kings The Superstructures of the Hebrew Monarchy FOR the Superstructures of DAVID'S Government it has bin Sect. 4 shewn at large what the Congregation of Israel was and that without the Congregation of Israel and their Result there was not any Law made by DAVID The like in the whole or for the most part was observ'd till REHOBOAM who refusing to redress the Grievances of the People was depos'd by one part of this Congregation or Parlament and set up by another to the confusion both of Parlament and People And DAVID as after him JEHOSHAPHAT did restore the Sanhedrim I will not affirm by popular Election after the antient manner He might do it perhaps as he made JOAB over the Host JEHOSHAPHAT Recorder and SERAIAH Scribe 1 Sam. 8. 15. Certain it is the Jewish Writers hold unanimously that the seventy Elders were in DAVID'S time and by a good token for they say to him only of all the Kings it was lawful or permitted to enter into the Sanhedrim which I the rather credit for the words of DAVID where he says I will praise the Lord with my whole Heart in the Council Psal 111. 1. and in the Congregation of the Vpright which words relate to the Senat and the Congregation of Israel The final cause of the popular Congregation in a Commonwealth is to give such a balance by their Book II Result as may and must keep the Senat from that Faction and Corruption wherof it is not otherwise curable or to set it upright Yet our Translation gives the words cited in this manner I will praise the Lord with my whole Heart in the Assembly of the Vpright and in the Psal 82. 1. Congregation There are other Allusions in the English Psalms of the like nature shaded in like manner As God is present in the Congregation of God that is in the Representative of the People of Israel he judges among the Gods that is among the seventy Elders or in the Sanhedrim What the Orders of the Israelitish Monarchy in the time of DAVID were tho our Translators throout the Bible have don what they could against Popular Government is clear enough in many such places Sect. 5 The Story of the Hebrew Kings TO conclude this Chapter with the story of the Hebrew Kings Till REHOBOAM and the division thro the cause mention'd of the Congregation in his time the Monarchy of the Hebrews was one but came thenceforth to be torn into two that of Judah consisting of two Tribes Judah and Benjamin and that of Israel consisting of the other ten From which time this People thus divided had little or no rest from the flame of that Civil War which once kindl'd between the two Realms or Factions could never be extinguish'd but in the destruction of both Nor was Civil War of so new a date among them SAUL whose whole Reign was impotent and perverse being conquer'd by DAVID and DAVID invaded by his Son ABSALOM so strongly that he fled before him SOLOMON the next Successor happen'd to have a quiet Reign by settling himself upon his Throne in the death of ADONIJAH his elder Brother and in the deposing of the High Priest ABIATHAR yet made he the yoke of the People grievous After him we have the War between JEROBOAM and REHOBOAM Then the Conspiracy of BAASHA against NADAB King of Israel which ends in the destruction of JEROBOAM'S House and the Usurpation of his Throne by BAASHA which BAASHA happens to leave to his Son ASA Against ASA rises ZIMRI Captain of the Chariots kills him with all his kindred reigns seven days at the end wherof he burns himself for fear of OMRI who upon this occasion is made Captain by one part of the People as is also TIBNI by another The next Prize is plaid between OMRI and TIBNI and their Factions in which TIBNI is slain Upon this success OMRI out-doing all his Predecessors in Tyranny leaves his Throne and Virtues to his Son AHAB Against AHAB drives JEHU furiously destroys him and his Family gives the flesh of his Queen JEZEBEL to the Dogs and receives a Present from those of Samaria even seventy Heads of his Masters Sons in Baskets To ASA and JEHOSHAPHAT Kings of Judah belongs much Reverence But upon this Throne sat ATHALIAH who to reign murder'd all her Grand-children except one which was JOASH JOASH being hid by the High Priest at whose command ATHALIAH was som time after slain ends his Reign in being murder'd by his Servants To him succedes his Son AMAZIA slain also by his Servants About the same time ZACHARIAH King of Israel was smitten by SHALLUM who reign'd in his stead SHALLUM by MANAHIM who reign'd in his stead PEKAHA the Son of MANAHIM by PEKAH one of his Captains who reign'd in his stead PEKAH by HOSHEA HOSHEA having reign'd nine years is carry'd by Chap. 4 SALMANAZZER King of Assyria with the ten Tribes into Captivity Now might it be expected that the Kingdom of Judah should injoy Peace a good King they
interest to break but to preserve the Orders which therfore no other can have the power or strength to break or som other breaking must but lose that which they pretend to gain to wit the Right which in this case must still fall to the Might devolving upon the People That Mr. WREN will needs fancy the Tribes or Citys in Oceana as those in W. p. 87. the united Provinces or the Cantons of Switzerland to be distinct Soveraintys concerns not me seeing the form of Oceana is far otherwise nor indeed him seeing neither do the Citys in Holland nor the Cantons in Switzerland go about to dissolve their Commonwealths or Leagues The Champion having thus fail'd at the head is contented to play low Tho there be care taken says he that at the Assembly of the Hundred W. p. 181. and the Tribe such and such Magistrats should be elected out of the Horse there is no necessary provision there should be any Horse there out of which to elect And where can they be then if not in som Parish He might better have said that at the Parish there was no care taken that the People should not elect too many of the Horse which being indeed the defect of the former is in this Edition rectify'd His last See Proposition 44. W. p. 183. exception is against the place where I say that They who take upon them the profession of Theology Physic or Law are not at leisure for the Essays wherby the Youth commence for all Magistracys and Honors in the Commonwealth To which reason he offers not so much as any Answer nor pretends any other Argument against it than that this excludes Divines Lawyers and Physicians from those Honors to which their Parish Clerks their Scriveners and their Apothecarys nay Farriers and Coblers may attain And what can I help that if it ought nevertheless so to be for a reason which he cannot answer Nay if so it be in common practice where the reason is nothing near so strong seeing a Parish Clerk a Scrivener an Apothecary nay a Cobler or a Farrier is not uncapable of being of the Common Council nor yet of being an Alderman or Lord Mayor of London which nevertheless that a Divine a Lawyer or a Physician should be were absurd to think Divines have a Plow from which they ought not to look back they have above a tenth of the Territory with which they ought to be contented and more than all Civil Interest contracted by a Clergy corrupts Religion For Lawyers their Practice and Magistracys are not only the most gainful but for life and in a Common-wealth neither is accumulation of Magistracy just or equal nor the confounding of Executive and Legislative Magistracy safe Will Mr. WREN believe one of our own Lawyers and one of the learnedst of them upon this point It is the Lord VERULAM They says he Verulam de Aug. Scien lib. 8. cap. 3. who have written de legibus of Lawmaking have handl'd this Argument as Philosophers or as Lawyers Philosophers speak higher than will fall into the capacity of practice to which may be refer'd PLATO'S Commonwealth Sir THOMAS MORE' 's Vtopia with his own Atlantis and Lawyers being obnoxious and addicted each to the Laws of their particular Country have no freedom nor sincerity of Judgment but plead as it were in bonds Certainly the cognizance of these things is most properly pertaining to political Persons who best know what stands with human Society what with the safety of the People what with natural Equity with antient Prudence and with the different Constitution of Common-wealths These therfore by the Principles and Precepts of natural Equity and good Policy may and ought to determin of Laws For Physicians who as such have in the management of State Affairs no prejudice if you open them the door they will not at all or very rarely com in wherby it appears First that such a bar may in som cases be no violation of Liberty and secondly that the Divines who for better causes might be as well satisfy'd and for more unanswerable Reasons ought to forbear yet are impatient and give a full testimony that their meaning is not good THUS is the Commonwealth by Mr. WREN oppos'd by him asserted There remains no more to the full confutation of his Book than to shew how the Monarchy by him asserted is by him destroy'd This is to be don by the examination of his ninth Chapter which is the next of those to which he refer'd us Sect. 3 THE opposition made by Mr. WREN to a Commonwealth That Mr. Wren's Assertion of Monarchy amounts to the Subversion of it and his pretended asserting of Monarchy run altogether upon Mr. HOBS'S Principles and in his very words but for want of understanding much enervated so that Mr. WREN'S whole â—eat of Arms coms but to have given me a weaker Adversary for a stronger In Soverainty says he the diffus'd strength of the Multitude is united W. p. 97. in one person which in a Monarchy is a natural person in a State an artificial one procreated by the majority of Votes This then is the grand W. p. 99. security of all Soverains whether single Persons or Assemblys that the united Forces of their Subjects with which they are invested is sufficient to suppress the beginnings of Seditions Who reads Mr. HOBS if this be news But what provision is made by either of these Authors that the Forces of the Subject must needs be united Is Union in Forces or in Government an Effect wherof there is no Cause Or to what cause are we to attribute this certain Union and grand Security Why let W. p. 103. there be such a Nobility as may be a Monarch's Guard against the People And lest a Monarch stand in need of another Guard against this Nobility let none of these excel the resâ— of his Order in power or dignity Which Effects or Ends thuâ— commanded â—ouchsafe not to acquaint us with Ibid. their ways Yâ—s let the Nobility hâ—â—e no right to assemble themselves for electing a Succâ—ssor to the Monarchy or for making of War or Peace or for nominating the great Ministers of State or for performing any other Act which by the nature of it is inseparable from the Soverain Power But why then must such a Nobility be a guard against the People and not rather a guard for the People seeing both their Interests and Sufferings at this rate are the same and include those very causes for which in the Barons War the Nobility became Incendiarys and Leaders of the People of England against their Kings and so those wherby their Captain came to excel the rest of his order in power or dignity But for this W. p. 105. the Prince is to be provided by having always in pay a sufficient Militia and som places of strength where a few may be secure against a number For places of Strength Citadels or Castles
there were in the time of the Barons Wars more than som yet were they as to this purpose none But a Militia is one thing and a sufficient Militia is another where the Government consists of a Nobility and of a People what sufficient part of the Property or Revenue of the Territory can there remain to the Prince wherby to have always in pay such a Militia as may be sufficient to keep the Nobility and the People from joining or to suppress them being join'd If these be small Armys the like may befal them which befel those of the Kings in the Wars of the Barons And if they be great Armys the Prince has not wherwithal to support or content them nay if he had Mr. WREN tells us plainly W. p. 106. That Princes who keep great Armys as Guards to their Persons or Empires teach us that this is to walk upon Precipices there being no possibility of preventing such an Army specially if they ly still without imployment from acquiring an interest distinct from that of the Prince Wherfore to follow Mr. WREN and no other Leader in his own words against himself this Militia being great cannot be so instituted as to have no interest besides the pay it receives from the Monarch nor so as to have no hopes of being safe in their own strength if they should withdraw themselves from the Service and Obedience due to him and being not great against the whole Order or Orders of the Nobility and the People they cannot be sufficient What then remains but to say that Mr. WREN having declar'd the perfection of Monarchical Government W. p. 107. to consist in a mixture of Monarchy by a Nobility and a Monarchy by Arms has as to his Model intirely subverted Monarchy In this way of disputing I have rather follow'd my Leader than Reason the true Answer being that which was given in the Preface namely that an Army to be effectual in England must be such where the Officers have popular Estates or where they have such Estates as had the antient Nobility in the latter case they make a King in the former a Commonwealth But Mr. WREN will have his own way and therfore to conclude let me but desire him to lay his hand upon his heart and then tell me whether the condition of the Nobility to whose favor in my exclusion he pretends a meritorious Title sharing eminently and according to their rank with the People in the Commonwealth by me propos'd or the condition of the Nobility under the insolence and burden of a mercenary Army sharing equally with the People in Oppression and Slavery or reviving the old Barons Wars for new Liberty in the Monarchy by him propos'd be the more desirable And to speak a word for my Adversary we will submit it wholly to the present Nobility whether Mr. WREN or I be so extravagant in these things that they have or can have any other than the like choice Yet enters not Mr. WREN Ibid. into despair of living to injoy his share which ought to be a good one of the Felicitys which will belong to the Subjects of such a Government He looks upon Persons but Things are invincible THE rest of his Book to which The Prerogative of Popular Government is still a complete Answer consists altogether of gross evasion or invective or of drawing out of story against Popular Prudence such imaginary Swords as do but stand bent To rectify or streighten these I may hereafter present him if any man shall think it worth the while with a fuller Answer A VVORD Concerning a House of PEERS NO man knowing what is necessary to the Foundation or Being of a Popular Government can hope or expect the introduction of any such Form where Monarchy is not impracticable They where Monarchy is impracticable who com first to discover it and be convinc'd of it if Reason be not altogether depos'd are inevitable Leaders Hence it is that our Commonwealthsmen are already renown'd throout this Nation for their invincible Reasons even by the confession of their Opponents or such as procede nevertheless in other ways But where Seed is so well sown and rooted intervening Possession and Interests are like such Weather as holding back the Spring yet improves the Harvest Commonwealthsmen indeed may have a cold time on 't but upon the Common-wealth it must bestow Fermentation Had our incomparable Assertors of public Liberty appear'd before a universal eviction of the necessity which inforces their Cause it must have bin thro such a reluctancy as would have made them glad to do things by halves which is the only Rock to a rising Commonwealth of Scandal or of Danger the whole being such against which there is nothing to be alleg'd and the half what may be easily confuted These things consider'd what appearance is there but that it must redound to the greater advantage of our Commonwealthsmen that we are under the force of a present Humor which abhors the very name of a Commonwealth Seeing by this means one of two things must of necessity happen and com shortly to public view or discovery either that Monarchy is practicable or that it is not practicable I mean in our state of Affairs or in this present distribution of the Balance If Monarchy be found practicable Commonwealthsmen are satisfy'd in their Consciences and so ready in fair ways to return and submit not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake But let Divines cry Atheism and Lawyers Treason if it be once discover'd to common Understanding that Monarchy is impracticable then in coms the Commonwealth not by halves but with all its Tackling full sail displaying its Streamers and flourishing with Top and Topgallant THE ways wherby it is at hand to be discover'd whether Monarchy be practicable or impracticable are particularly two the one quicker the other slower The quicker way will be by the Workmen the slower by the Work IF the Workmen being willing be yet overcom by the mere obstinacy of their Matter it amounts to a plain confession that Monarchy is impracticable And if they give away the Libertys of the People they are overcom by the obstinacy of the Matter for that is not their Work nor any other Work than such as must be useless not so much in regard of it self tho that may be true enough as by the want of any other Security than what the Prince had before that is an Army And such an Army which for security is as good as none at all nay the very contrary as has bin shewn already nor to Art of Law-giving p. 433. be alter'd with better success than theirs who became Princes in Grecian and Sicilian States BUT if the Workmen give not away the Libertys of the People then must they so limit their Prince that he can in no manner invade those Libertys and this by any other means than the full and perfect introduction of a well order'd Commonwealth they will
Senat. 33. THAT in all cases wherin Power is deriv'd to the Senat by Law made or by Act of Parlament the result of the Senat be ultimat That in all cases of Law to be made or not already provided for by Act of Parlament as som particular Peace or War levy of Men or Mony or the like the Result of the Senat be not ultimat but preparatory only and be propos'd by the Senat to the Prerogative Tribe or Assembly of the People except only in cases of such speed or secrecy wherin the Senat shall judg the necessary slowness or openness of like proceding to be of detriment or danger to the Commonwealth 34. THAT if upon the motion or proposition of a Council or Proposer General the Senat add nine Knights promiscuously or not promiscuously chosen out of their own number to the Council of War the said Council of War be therby made Dictator and have power of Life and Death as also to enact Laws in all cases of speed or secrecy for and during the term of three months and no longer except upon new Order from the Senat And that all Laws enacted by the Dictator be good and valid for the term of one year and no longer except the same be propos'd by the Senat and resolv'd by the People 35. THAT the Burgesses of the annual Election return'd by the Tribes enter into the Prerogative Tribe on Monday next insuing the last of March and that the like number of Burgesses whose term is expir'd recede at the same time That the Burgesses thus enter'd elect to themselves out of their own number two of the Horse one to be Captain and the other to be Cornet of the same and two of the Foot one to be Captain the other to be Insign of the same each for the term of three years That these Officers being thus elected the whole Tribe or Assembly procede to the election of four annual Magistrats two out of the Foot to be Tribuns of the Foot and two out of the Horse to be Tribuns of the Horse That the Tribuns be Commanders in chief of this Tribe so far as it is a Military Body and Presidents of the same as it is a Civil Assembly And lastly that this whole Tribe be paid weekly as follows to each of the Tribuns of the Horse seven pounds to each of the Tribuns of the Foot six pounds to each of the Captains of Horse five pounds to each of the Captains of Foot four pounds to each of the Cornets three pounds to each of the Insigns two pounds seven shillings to every Horseman one pound ten shillings and to every one of the Foot one pound 36. THAT inferior Officers as Captains Cornets Insigns be only for the Military Disciplin of the Tribe That the Tribuns have Session in the Senat without Suffrage That of course they have Session and Suffrage in the Dictatorian Council so often as it is created by the Senat. That in all cases to be adjudg'd by the People they be Presidents of the Court or Judicatory 37. THAT Peculat or Defraudation of the Public and all Cases or Crimes tending to the subversion of the Government be triable by the Prerogative Tribe or the Assembly of the People and that to the same there ly an Appeal in all Causes and from all Courts Magistrats or Councils National or Provincial 38. THAT the right of Debate as also of proposing to the People be wholly and only in the Senat without any power at all of Result not deriv'd from the People and estated upon the Senat by act of Parlament 39. THAT the power of Result be wholly and only in the People without any right at all of Debate 40. THAT the Senat having debated and agreed upon a Law to be propos'd cause promulgation of the said Law to be made for the space of six weeks before Proposition that is cause the Law to be written fair and hung up for the time aforesaid in som of the most eminent places of the City and of the Suburbs 41. THAT promulgation being made the Signory demand of the Tribuns sitting in the Senat an Assembly of the People That the Tribuns upon such demand of the Signory or of the Senat be oblig'd to assemble the Prerogative Tribe in Arms by sound of Trumpet with Drums beating and Colors flying in any Town Field or Marketplace being not above six miles distant upon the day and at the hour appointed except the meeting thro inconvenience of the Weather or the like be prorogu'd by consent of the Signory and of the Tribuns That the Prerogative Tribe being assembl'd accordingly the Senat propose to them by two or more of the Senatorian Magistrats therto appointed at the first promulgation of the Law That the Proposers for the Senat open to the People the occasion motives and reasons of the Senat for the Law to be propos'd and that the same being don they put the Law or Proposition by distinct clauses to the Ballot of the People That if any material Clause or Clauses of the Proposition or Law so propos'd be rejected by the People the Clause or Clauses so rejected may be review'd alter'd and propos'd again to the third time if the Senat think fit but no oftner 42. THAT what is thus propos'd by the Senat and resolv'd by the People be the Law of the Land and no other except what is already receiv'd as such or reserv'd to the Dictatorian Council 43. THAT every Magistracy Office or Election throout this whole Commonwealth whether annual or triennial be understood of course or consequence to injoin an interval or vacation equal to the term of the same That the Magistracy or Office of a Knight and of a Burgess be in this relation understood as one and the same and that this Order regard only such Elections as are National or Domestic and not such as are foren or contain'd in the Provincial part of this Model 44. THAT for an Exception from this Rule where there is but one Elder of the Horse in one and the same Parish that Elder be eligible in the same without interval and where there be above four Elders of the Horse in one and the same Parish there be not above half nor under two of them eligible at the same Election 45. THAT throout all the Assemblys and Councils of this Commonwealth the Quorum consist of one half in the time of health and of one third part in a time of sickness being so declar'd by the Senat. THE use of the Ballot being as full of prolixity and abstruseness in writing as of dispatch and facility in practice is presum'd throout all Elections and Results in this Model and for the rest refer'd rather to practice than writing There remain the Religious Military and Provincial parts of this Frame But the Civil part being approv'd they follow or being not approv'd may be spar'd CONCLUSION or the use of these PROPOSITIONS THESE Propositions are so laid