the Agrarian came to eat up the people and battening themselves in Luxury to be as Salust speaketh of them Inertissumi nobiles in quibus sicut in statua praeter nomen nihil erat additamenti to bring so mighty a Common-wealth so huge a glory unto so deplorable an end Wherefore means might have been found whereby the enmity that was between the Senate and the People of Rome might have been removed My Lords If I have argued well I have given you the comfort and assurance that notwithstanding the judgment of Machiavill your Common-wealth is both safe and sound but if I have not argued well then take the comfort and assurance which he gives you while he is firm That a Legislator is to lay aside all other examples and follow that of Rome only conniving and temporizing with the enmity between the Senate and the People as a necessary step unto the Roman Greatnesse Whence it followes that your Common-wealth at the worst is that which he hath given you his word is the best I have held your Lordships long but upon an account of no small importance which I can now sum up in these few words Where there is a lickerrishnesse in a popular Assembly to Debate it proceedeth not from the constitution of the People but of the Common-wealth Now that the Common-wealth is of such Constitution as is naturally free from this kind of intemperance is that which to make good I must divide the remainder of my Discourse into two Parts The First shewing the several Constitutions of the Assemblies of the People in other Common-wealths The Second comparing of Our Assembly of the People with Theirs and shewing how it excludeth the inconveniences and embraceth the conveniencies of them all IN the beginning of the first Part I must take notice that among the Popular error of our dayes it is no small one That men imagines the ancient Governments of this kind to have consisted for the most part of one City that is of one Town whereas by what we have learnt of my Lords that open'd them it appears that there was not any considerable one of such a constitution but Carthage till this in our dayes of Venice For to begin with Israel it consisted of the twelve Tribes locally spread or quartered throughout the whole Territory these being called together by Trumpets constituted the Church or Assembly of the people The vastnesse of this weight as also the slownesse thence inavoidable became a great cause as hath been shewn at large by my Lord Phosphorus of the breaking that Common-wealth notwithstanding that the Temple and those religious Ceremonies for which the people were at least annually obliged to repair thither were no small ligament of the Tribes otherwise but slightly tack'd together Athens consisted of four Tribes taking in the whole People both of the City and of the Territory not so gather'd by Theseus into one Town as to exclude the Country but to the end that there might be some Capital of the Commonwealth though true it be that the Congregation consisting of the Inhabitants within the Walls was sufficient to all intents and purposes without those of the Country these also being exceeding numerous became burdensome unto themselves and dangerous unto the Common-wealth the more for their ill education as is observed by Xenophon and Polybius who compare them unto Marriners that in a calm are perpetually disputing and swaggering one with another and never lay their hands unto the Common tackling or safety till they be all indangered by some storm Which caused Thucydides when he saw this people through the purchase of their misery become so much wiser as to reduce their Comitia or Assemblies unto five thousand to say as in his eighth Book And now at least in my time the Athenians seem to have ordered their State aright consisting of a moderate temper both of the Few by which he means the Senate of the Bean and of the Many or the five thousand and he doth not only give you his judgment but the best proof of it for this saith he was the first thing that after so many misfortunes past made the City again to raise her head The place I would desire your Lordships to note as the first example that I find or think is to be found of a popular Assembly by way of Representative Lacedemon consisted of thirty thousand Citizens dispersed throughout Laconia one of the greatest Provinces in all Greece and divided as by some Authors is probable into six Tribes of the whole Body of these being gather'd consisted the great Church or Assembly which had the Legislative power the little Church gather'd sometimes for matters of concernment within the City consisted of the Spartans only these happened like that of Venice to be good constitutions of a Congregation but from an ill cause the infirmity of a Common-wealth which through her Paucity was Oligarchical Wherefore go which way you will it should seem that without a Representative of the people your Commonwealth consisting of an whole Nation can never avoid falling either into Oligarchy or confusion This was seen by the Romans whose rustick Tribes extending themselves from the river Arno unto the Vulturnus that is from Fesulae or Florence unto Capua invented a way of Representative by Lots the Tribe upon which the first fell being the prerogative and some two or three more that had the rest the Jure-vocatae These gave the Suffrage of the Common-wealth binis Comitiis the Prerogative at the first Assembly and the Jure vocatae at a second Now to make the paralel All the inconveniences that you have observed in these Assemblies are shut out and all the conveniences taken in to your prerogative for first it is that for which Athens shaking off the blame of Xenophon and Polybius came to deserve the praise of Thucydides a Representative and secondly not as I suspect in that of Athens and is past suspition in this of Rome by lot but by suffrage as was also the late House of Commons by which means in the prerogatives all the Tribes of Oceana are Jure Vocatae and if a man shall except against the paucity of the standing number it is a wheel which in the revolution of a few years turneth every hand that is fit or fitteth every hand that it turns unto the publick work Moreover I am deceived if upon due consideration it do not fetch your Tribes with greater equality and ease unto themselves and unto the Government from the frontiers of Marpesia than Rome ever brought any one of hers out of her Pomaeria or the nearest parts of her adjoyning Territories To this you may adde That whereas a Common-wealth which in regard of the People is not of facility in execution were sure enough in this Nation to be cast off through impatience Your Musters and Gallaxy's are given unto the people as milk unto babes whereby when they are brought up through four dayes election in an whole
the Result but is the Supream Judicature and the ultimate Appeal in this Common-wealth For the Popular Government that makes account to be of any standing must make sure in the first place of the Appeal unto the People Ante omnes de provocatione adversus Magistratus ad Populum sacrandoque cum bonis capite ejus qui regni occupandi concilia inesset As an Estate in trust becomes a mans own if he be not answerable for it so the Power of a Magistracy not accomptable unto the People from whom it was received becoming of private use the Common-wealth loses her Liberty Wherefore the right of Supream Judicature in the People without which there can be no such thing as Popular Government is confirmed by the constant Practice of all Common-wealths as that of Israel in the Cases of Achan and of the Tribe of Benjamin adjudged by the Congregation The Dicasterion or Court called the Heliaia in Athens which the Comitia of that Common-wealth consisting of the whole People and so being too numerous to be a Judicatory was constituted sometimes of Five hundred at others of One thousand or according to the greatnesse 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 Magistrates might question their Kings as appears by the Cases of Pausanias and of Agis who being upon his Tryall in this Court was cryed unto by his Mother to appeal unto the People as Plutarch hath it in his Life The Tribunes of the People of Rome like in the nature of their Magistracy and for sometime in number unto the Ephors as being according unto Halicarnasseus and Plutarch instituted in imitation of them had power diem dicere to Summon any Man his Magistracy at least being expired for from the Dictator there lay no Appeal to answer for himself unto the People As in the case of Coriolanus which was going about to force the People by withholding Corn from them in a famine to relinquish the Magistracy of the Tribunes In that of Sp. Cassius for affecting Tyranny Of M. Sergius for running away at Veii Of C. Lucretius for spoyling his Province Of Junius Silanus for making War against the Cimberi in jussu Populi with divers others And the Crimes of this nature were call'd Laesae Majestatis Examples of such as were arraigned or tryed for Peculate or Defraudation of the Common-wealth were M. Curius for intercepting the money of the Samnites Salinator for the unequal division of Spoyles unto his Souldiers M. Posthumius for Cheating the Common-wealth by a feigned Shipwrack Causes of these two kinds were of more Publique nature but the like Power upon Appeals was also exercised by the People in private Matters even during the time of the Kings As in the Case of Horatius Nor is it otherwise with Venice where Doge Loridano was Sentenced by the great Council and Antonio Grimani afterwards Doge questioned for that he being Admiral had suffered the Turk to take Lepanto in view of his Fleet. Neverthelesse there lay no Appeal from the Roman Dictator unto the People which if there had might have cost the Common-wealth dear when Sp. Moelius affecting Empire circumvented and debauched the Tribunes whereupon T. Quintius Cinninatus was created Dictator Who having chosen Servilius Alaha to be his Lievtenant or Magister Equitum sent him to apprehend Moelius whom while he disputed the Commands of the Dictator and implored the ayd of the People Alaha cut off upon the place By which example you may see in what cases the Dictator may prevent the blow which is ready sometimes to fall ere the People be aware of the danger Wherefore there lyes no Appeal from the Dieii in Venice unto the Great Council nor from our Council of War to the People For the way of proceeding of this Tribe or the Ballot it is as was once said for all Venetian This Discourse de Judiciis whereupon we are fallen bringeth us rather naturally then of design from the two general Orders of every Common-wealth that is to say from the Debating part or the Senate and the Resolving part or the People to the third which is the Executive part or the Magistracy whereupon I shall have no need to dwell For the Executive Magistrates of this Common-wealth 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 Tribunes 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 unto the People will be of great benefit unto the Senate the Prerogative and the whole Nation Unto the Senate because they will not only teach your Senators Elocution but keep the Systeme of the Government in their memories Elocution is of great use unto your Senators for if they do not understand Rhetorick giving it at this time for granted that the Art were not otherwise good and come to treat with or vindicate the cause of the Common-wealth against some 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 unlesse at the same time they have an Idea of the whole That this therefore must be in that regard of equal benefit unto the Prerogative is plain though these have a greater concernment in it For this Common-wealth is the Estate of the People and a man you know though he be virtuous yet if he do not understand his Estate may run out or be cheated of it Last of all the treasures of the Politicks will by this means be so opened rifled and dispersed that this Nation will as soon dote like the Indians upon glasse Beads as disturb your Government with whimsies and freaks of mother-wit or suffer themselves to be stutter'd out of their Liberties There is not any reason why your Grandees your wise men of this Age that laugh out and openly at a Common-wealth as the most ridiculous thing do not appear to be as in this regard they are meer Ideots but that the People have not Eyes There remaineth no more appertaining unto the Senate and the People than order 24 The Twenty fourth Order Whereby it is lawfull for the Province of Marpesia to have 30. Knights of their own election continually present in the Senate of Oceana together with 60. Deputies of Horse and 120. of Foot in the Prerogative Tribe indued with equall power respect
their Discretion shall be delivered unto four Commissaries of the Spoiles elected and sworn by the Councill of War which Commissaries shall be allowd shipping by the State and convoyes according as occasion shall require by the Strategus to the end that having a bill of lading signed by thrée or more of the Polemarchs they may Ship and bring or cause such spoiles to be brought unto the Prize Office in Oceana where they shall be sold and the profit arising by such spoiles shall be divided into thrée parts whereof one shall go unto the Treasury another shall be paid to the Souldiery of this Nation a third unto the Auxiliaries at their return from their service provided that the said Auxiliaries be equall in number unto the proper forces of this Nation otherwise their share shall be so much lesse as they are fewer in number the rest of the two thirds to go unto the Officers and Souldiers of the proper forces and the spoiles so divided unto the proper forces shall be subdivided into thrée equall parts whereof one shall go unto the Officers and two unto the common Souldiers the like for the Auxiliaries and the share allotted unto the Officers shall be divided into foure equall parts whereof one shall go to the Strategus another unto the Polemarchs a third unto the Colonels and a fourth unto the Captaines Cornets Ensignes and under Officers receiving their share of the spoile as common Souldiers The like for the Auxiliaries and this upon paine in the case of failure of what the people of Oceana unto whom the Cognizance of Peculate or Crimes of this nature is properly appertaining shall adjudge or decrée Upon these three last orders the Archon seemed to bee haranging at the head of his Army in this manner My dear Lords and Excellent Patriots A Government of this make is a CoÌ„monwealth for increase Of those for preservation the inconveniences and frailties have been shewn their rootes are narrow such as do not runne have no fivers their tops weak and dangerously exposed unto the weather except you chance to finde one as Venice planted in a flowerpot and if shee grow shee grows top-heavy and falls too But you cannot plant an Oak in a flowerpot She must have earth for her root and heaven for her branches Imperium Oceano famam quae terminet astris Rome was said Mole sua ruere to bee broken by her own weight but Poetically For that weight by which she was pretended to bee ruined was supported in her Emperors by a farre slighter foundation And in the Common experience of good Architecture there is nothing more known than that buildings stand the firmer and the longer for their own weight nor ever swerve through any other internal cause than that their materials are corruptible but the people never dyes nor as a Political Body are subject unto any other corruption than that which deriveth from their Government Unlesse a man will deny the chain of causes in which hee denies God hee must also acknowledge the chain of effects wherefore there can bee no effect in Nature that is not from the first Cause and those successive lincks of the chain without which it could not have been Now except a man can shew the contrary in a Commonwealth if there bee no cause of corruption in the first make of it there can never bee any such effect Let no mans superstition impose prophanenesse upon this assertion for as Man is sinful and yet the world is perfect so may the Citizen bee sinfull and yet the Commonwealth bee perfect And as man seeing the World is perfect can never commit any such sin as can render it imperfect or bring it unto a natural dissolution so the Citizen where the common Wealth is perfect can never commit any such crime as can render it imperfect or bring it unto a natural dissolution To come unto experience Venice notwithstanding that wee have found some flaws in it is the only CoÌ„monwealth in the make wherof no man can find a cause of dissolution for which reason wee behold her albeit she consist of men that are not without sin at this day with one thousand years upon her back for any internal cause as young as fresh and free from decay or any appearance of it as shee was born but what ever in nature is not sensible of decay by the course of a thousand years is capable of the whole age of nature by which calculation for any check that I am able to give my self a Commonwealth rightly ordered may for any internal causes be as immortal or long-lived as the World But if this be true those Commonwealths that are naturally fallen must have derived their ruine from the rise of them Israel and Athens died not naturall but violent deaths in this manner the World is to dye wee are speaking of those causes of dissolution which are naturall unto government and they are but two either Contradiction or Inequality if a Common-wealth be a contradiction she must needs destroy her self and if she be unequal it tends to strife and strife to ruine By the former of these fell Lacedemon by the latter Rome Lacedemon being made altogether for war and yet not for increase her natural progresse became her natural dissolution and the building of her own victorious hand too heavy for her foundation so shee indeed fell by her own weight But Rome through her native Inequality which how it invâ—terated the bosomes of the Senate and the people each against other and even unto death hath been shewn at large Look well unto it my Lords for if there be a contradiction or inequality in your Commonwealth it must fall but if it have neither of these it hath no principle of mortality do not think mee impudent if this be truth I should commit a grosse indiscretion in concealing it Sure I am that Machiavil is for the immortality of a Commonwealth upon far weaker principles If a Commonwealth saith he were so happy as to be provided often with men that when she is swarving from her principles should reduce her unto her institution shee would be immortall But a Common-wealth as we have demonstrated swarveth not from her Principles but by and through her institution if she brought no byasse into the World with her her course for any internal cause must be streight forward as we see is that of Venice she cannot turn unto the right hand nor to the left but by some rubs which is not an internal but an external cause against such she can be no way fortifyed but through her situation as is Venice or through her Militia as was Rome by which examples a Common-wealth may be secure or those also Think me not vain for I cannot hold a Common-wealth that is rightly instituted can never swarve nor one that is not rightly instituted be secured from swarving by reduction unto her principles wherefore it is no less apparent in this place that Machiavil understood
Iron And so giving your Lordships much joy I take my leave of this Tribe The Orator descending had the period of his speech made with a vast applause and exultation by the whole Tribe attending him for that night unto his quarter as the Phylarch with some commanded Troops did the next day unto the Frontires of the Tribe where Leave was taken on both sides with more Teares then Grief So A Tribe is the third division of Land occasioned by the third Collection of the People whose functions proper unto that place are contained in the five foregoing Orders The Institution of the Common-wealth was such as needed those props and Scaffolds which may have troubled the Reader but I shall here take them away and come unto the Constitution which stands by it selfe and yeelds a clearer prospect The Motions by what hath been already shewn are Spherical and sphericall motions have their proper Center for which cause ere I proceed further it will be necessary for the better understanding of the whole that I discover the Center whereupon the motions of this Common-wealth are formed The Center or Basis of every Government is no other then the Fundamentall Lawes of the same Fundamentall Lawes are such as state what it is that a man may call his own that is to say Proprietie and what the meanes be whereby a man may enjoy his own that is to say Protection the first is also called Dominion and second Empire or Soveraigne power whereof this as hath been shewn is the naturall product of the former for such as is the Ballance of of the Dominion in a Nation such as the nature of her Empire Wherefore the Fundamentall Lawes of Oceana or the Center of this Common-wealth are the Agrarian and the Ballot The Agrarian by the Ballance of dominion preserving equalitie in the Roote and the Ballot by an equall rotation conveying it into the branch or exercise of Soveraigne power as to begin with the former appeareth by order 13 The Thirtéenth Order Constituting the Agrarian Lawes of Oceana Marpesia and Panopea whereby it is ordained First for all such Lands as are lying and being within the proper Tercitories of Oceana that every man who is at present possessed or shall hereafter be possessed of an Estate in Land excéeding the Revenue of two thousand pounds a year and having more then one Son shall leave his Lands either equally divided among them in case the Lands amount unto above 2000 l. a year unto each or so near equally in case they come under that the greater part or portion of the same remaining unto the eldest excéed not the value of two thousand pounds Revenue And no man not in present possession of Lands above the value of two thousand pounds by the year shall receive enjoy except by Lawful Inheritance acquire or purchase unto himself Lands within the said Territories amounting with those already in his possession above the said Revenue And if a man have a daughter or daughters except she be an Heir or they be Heirs he shall not leave or give unto any one of them in Marriage or otherwise for her portion above the value of one thousand five hundred pounds in Lands Gods and Moneys Nor shall any Friend Kinsman or Kinswoman adde unto her or their Portion or Portions that are so provided for to make any one of them greater Nor shall any man demand or have more in marriage with any woman Neverthelesse an Heir shall enjoy her Lawfull Inheritance and a Widow whatsoever the bounty or affection of her husband shall bequeath unto her to be divided in the first Generation wherein it is divisible according as hath béen shewn Secondly for Lands lying and being within the Territories of Marpesia the Agrarian shall hold in all parts as it is established in Oceana save onely in the Standard or Proportion of Estates in Land which shall be set for Marpesia at five Hundred pounds And thirdly for Panopea the Agrarian shall hold in all parts as in Oceana And whosoever possessing above the proportion allowed by these Lawes shall be lawfully convicted of the same shall forfeit the overplus unto the use of the State Agrarian Lawes of all others have ever been the greatest Bugbears and so in the Institution were these at which time it was ridiculous to see how strange a fear appeared in every body of that which being good for all could hurt no body But instead of the proof of this Order I shall out of those many debates that happened ere it could be past insert two Speeches that were made at the Councill of Legislators the first by the Right Honourable Philautus de Garbo a young man being Heir apparent unto a very Noble Family and one of the Counsellours who expressed himself as followeth May it please your Highnesse My Lord Archon OF Oceana IF I did not to my Capacity know from how profound a Counsellor I dissent it would certainly be no hard task to make it as light as the day First that an Agrarian is altogether unnecessary Secondly that it is dangerous unto a Common-wealth Thirdly that it is insufficient to keep out Monarchy Fourthly that it destroyes Families Fifthly that it destroyes Industry And last of all that though it were indeed of any good use it will be a matter of such difficulty to introduce in this Nation and so to settle that it may be lasting as is altogether invincible First that an Agrarian is unnecessary unto a Common-wealth what clearer testimony can there be than that the Common-wealths which are our Contemporaries Venice whereunto your Highnesse giveth the upper hand of all Antiquity being one have no such thing And there can be no reason why they have it not seeing it is in the Soveraign Power at any time to establish such an Order but that they need it not wherefore no wonder if Aristotle who pretends to be a good Common-wealths-man have long since derided Phaleas to whom it was attributed by the Greeks for this invention Secondly That an Agrarian is dangerous unto a Common-wealth is affirmed upon no sleight Authority seeing Machiavill is positive that it was the Dissention which happened about the Agrarian that caused the Destruction of Rome Nor do I think that it did much better in Lacedemon as I shall shew anon Thirdly That it is insufficient to keep out Monarchy cannot without impiety be denyed the holy Scriptures bearing Witnesse that the Common-wealth of Israel notwithstanding her Agrarian submitted her neck unto the Arbitrary Yoke of her Princes Wherefore to come unto my Fourth Assertion That it is destructive unto Families this also is so apparent that it needeth pity rather then proof Why alas do you bind a Nobility which no Generation shall deny to have been the first that freely sacrificed her blood unto the ancient Liberties of this People up-an unholy Altar VVhy are the People taught That their Liberty which except our noble Ancestors had been born must