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
The like for the Auxiliarys And this upon pain in the case of failure of what the People of Oceana to whom the Cognizance of Peculat or Crimes of this nature is properly appertaining shall adjudg or decree UPON these three last Orders the ARCHON seem'd to be haranguing at the head of his Army in this manner My Dear Lords and Excellent Patriots A GOVERNMENT of this make is a Commonwealth for Increase Of those for Preservation the Inconveniences and Frailtys have bin shewn Their Roots are narrow such as do not run have no Fibers their tops weak and dangerously expos'd to the weather except you chance to find one as Venice planted in a Flowerpot and if she grows she 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 to be broken by her own weight but poetically For that weight by which she was pretended to be ruin'd was supported in her Emperors by a far 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 thro any other internal cause than that their Materials are corruptible But the People never dy nor as a political Body are subject to any other Corruption than that which derives from their Government Unless a Man will deny the Chain of Causes in which he denys God he must also acknowlege the Chain of Effects wherfore there can be no effect in Nature that is not from the first Cause and those successive Links of the Chain without which it could not have bin Now except a Man can shew the contrary in a Commonwealth if there be no cause of Corruption in the first make of it there can never be any such Effect Let no Man's Superstitition impose Profaneness upon this Assertion for as Man is sinful but yet the Universe is perfect so may the Citizen be sinful and yet the Commonwealth be perfect And as Man seeing the World is perfect can never commit any such Sin as shall render it imperfect or bring it to a natural dissolution so the Citizen where the Common-wealth is perfect can never commit any such Crime as will render it imperfect or bring it to a natural dissolution To com to experience Venice notwithstanding we have found fom flaws in it is the only Commonwealth in the Make wherof no man can find a cause of dissolution for which reason we behold her tho she consists of men that are not without sin at this day with one thousand Years upon her back yet for any internal cause as young as fresh and free from decay or any appearance of it as she was born but whatever 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 order'd may for any internal causes be as immortal or longliv'd as the World But if this be true those Commonwealths that are naturally fall'n must have deriv'd their Ruin from the rise of them Israel and Athens dy'd not natural but violent deaths in which manner the World it self is to dy We are speaking of those causes of Dissolution which are natural to Government and they are but two either Contradiction or Inequality If a Commonwealth be a Contradiction she must needs destroy her self and if she be inequal it tends to strife and strife to ruin By the former of these fell Lacedemon by the latter Rome Lacedemon being made altogether for War and yet not for Increase her natural Progress became her natural Dissolution and the building of her own victorious Hand too heavy for her Foundation so that she fell indeed by her own weight But Rome perish'd thro her native Inequality which how it inveterated the Bosoms of the Senat and the People each against other and even to death has bin shewn at large LOOK well to it my Lords for if there be a contradiction or inequality in your Commonwealth it must fall but if it has neither of these it has no principle of Mortality Do not think me impudent if this be truth I should commit a gross indiscretion in concealing it Sure I am that MACCHIAVEL is for the immortality of a Commonwealth upon far weaker Principles If a Commonwealth Disc â— 3. c. 22. b. 3. c. 29. says he were so happy as to be provided often with men that when she is swerving from her Principles should reduce her to her Institution she would be immortal But a Commonwealth as we have demonstrated swerves not from her Principles but by and thro her Institution if she brought no Biass 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 to the right hand nor to the left but by som rub which is not an internal but external cause against such she can be no way fortify'd but thro her Situation as is Venice or thro her Militia as was Rome by which Examples a Commonwealth may be secure of those also Think me not vain for I cannot conceal my opinion here a Commonwealth that is rightly instituted can never swerve nor one that is not rightly instituted be secur'd from swerving by reduction to her first Principles Wherfore it is no less apparent in this place that MACCHIAVEL understood not a Commonwealth as to the whole piece than where having told you That a Tribun or any other Citizen Disc B. 1. c. 18. of Rome might propose a Law to the People and debate it with them he adds this Order was good while the People were good but when the People became evil it became most pernicious As if this Order thro which with the like the People most apparently became evil could ever have bin good or that the People or the Common-wealth could ever have becom good by being reduc'd to such Principles as were the Original of their Evil. The Disease of Rome was as has bin shewn from the native inequality of her Balance and no otherwise from the Empire of the World than as this falling into one Scale that of the Nobility an evil in such a Fabric inevitable kick'd out the People Wherfore a Man that could have made her to throw away the Empire of the World might in that have reduc'd her to her Principles and yet have bin so far from rendring her immortal that going no further he should never have cur'd her But your Commonwealth is founded upon an equal Agrarian and if the Earth be given to the Sons of men this Balance is the Balance of Justice such a one as in having due regard to the different Industry of different men yet faithfully judges the Poor And Prov. 29. 14.
the Minister of State takes his pastime 16. THE Complaint that the Wisdom of all these latter times in Princes Affairs consists rather in fine deliverys and shiftings of Dangers or Mischiefs when they are near than in solid and grounded courses to keep them off is a Complaint in the Streets of Aristocratical Monarchy and not to be remedy'd because the Nobility being not broken Chap. X the King is in danger and the Nobility being broken the Monarchy is ruin'd 17. AN Absurdity in the form of the Government as that in a Monarchy there may be two Monarchs shoots out into a mischief in the Administration or som wickedness in the Reason of State as in ROMULUS'S killing of REMUS and the monstrous Associations of the Roman Emperors 18. USURPATION of Government is a Surfeit that converts the best Arts into the worst Nemo unquam imperium flagitio acquisitum bonis artibus exercuit 19. AS in the privation of Virtue and in Beggery men are Sharks or Robbers and the reason of their way of living is quite contrary to those of Thrift so in the privation of Government as in Anarchy Oligarchy or Tyranny that which is Reason of State with them is directly opposit to that which is truly so whence are all those black Maxims set down by som Politicians particularly MACCHIAVEL in his Prince and which are condemn'd to the fire even by them who if they liv'd otherwise might blow their fingers 20. WHERE the Government from a true Foundation rises up into proper Superstructures or Form the Reason of State is right and streight but give our Politician peace when you please if your House stands awry your Props do not stand upright 21. TAKE a Jugler and commend his Tricks never so much yet if in so doing you shew his Tricks you spoil him which has bin and is to be confess'd of MACCHIAVEL 22. CORRUPTION in Government is to be read and consider'd in MACCHIAVEL as Diseases in a man's Body are to be read and consider'd in HIPPOCRATES 23. NEITHER HIPPOCRATES nor MACCHIAVEL introduc'd Diseases into man's Body nor Corruption into Government which were before their times and seeing they do but discover them it must be confest that so much as they have don tends not to the increase but the cure of them which is the truth of these two Authors POLITICAL APHORISMS Obsequium amicos veritas odium parit Terent. 1. THE Errors and Sufferings of the People are from their Governors 2. WHEN the Foundation of a Government coms to be chang'd and the Governors change not the Superstructures accordingly the People becom miserable 3. THE Monarchy of England was not a Government by Arms but a Government by Laws tho imperfect or ineffectual Laws 4. THE later Governments in England since the death of the King have bin Governments by Arms. 5. THE People cannot see but they can feel 6. THE People having felt the difference between a Government by Laws and a Government by Arms will always desire the Government by Laws and abhor that of Arms. 7. WHERE the Spirit of the People is impatient of a Government by Arms and desirous of a Government by Laws there the spirit of the People is not unfit to be trusted with their Liberty 8. THE spirit of the People of England not trusted with their Liberty drives at the restitution of Monarchy by Blood and Violence 9. THE Spirit of the People of England trusted with their Liberty if the Form be sufficient can never set up a King and if the Form be insufficient as a Parlament with a Council in the intervals or two Assemblys coordinat will set up a King without Blood or Violence 10. TO light upon a good Man may be in Chance but to be sure of an Assembly of good Men is not in Prudence 11. WHERE the Security is no more than personal there may be a good Monarch but can be no good Commonwealth 12. THE necessary Action or Use of each thing is from the nature of the Form 13. WHERE the Security is in the Persons the Government makes good men evil where the Security is in the Form the Government makes evil men good 14. ASSEMBLYS legitimatly elected by the People are that only Party which can govern without an Army 15. NOT the Party which cannot govern without an Army but the Party which can govern without an Army is the refin'd Party as to this intent and purpose truly refin'd that is by Popular Election according to the Precept of MOSES and the Rule of Scripture Take ye wise men and understanding and known among your Tribes and I will make them Rulers over you 16. THE People are deceiv'd by Names but not by Things 17. WHERE there is a well order'd Commonwealth the People are generally satisfy'd 18. WHERE the People are generally dissatisfy'd there is no Commonwealth 19. THE Partys in England declaring for a Commonwealth hold every one of them somthing that is inconsistent with a Common-wealth 20. TO hold that the Government may be manag'd by a few or by a Party is inconsistent with a Commonwealth except in a Situation like that of Venice 21. TO hold that there can be any National Religion or Ministry without public Indowment and Inspection of the Magistracy or any Government without a National Religion or Ministry is inconsistent with a Commonwealth 22. TO hold that there may be Liberty and not Liberty of Conscience is inconsistent with a Commonwealth that has the Liberty of her own Conscience or that is not Popish 23. WHERE Civil Liberty is intire it includes Liberty of Conscience 24. WHERE Liberty of Conscience is intire it includes Civil Liberty 25. EITHER Liberty of Conscience can have no security at all or under Popular Government it must have the greatest security 26. TO hold that a Government may be introduc'd by a little at once is to wave Prudence and commit things to Chance 27. TO hold that the Wisdom of God in the formation of a House or of a Government gos not universally upon natural Principles is inconsistent with Scripture 28. TO hold that the Wisdom of Man in the formation of a House or of a Government may go upon supernatural Principles is inconsistent with a Commonwealth and as if one should say God ordain'd the Temple therfore it was not built by Masons he ordain'd the Snuffers therfore they were not made by a Smith 29. TO hold that Hirelings as they are term'd by som or an indow'd Ministry ought to be remov'd out of the Church is inconsistent with a Commonwealth 30. NATURE is of GOD. 31. SOM part in every Religion is natural 32. A UNIVERSAL Effect demonstrats a universal Cause 33. A UNIVERSAL Cause is not so much natural as it is Nature it self 34. EVERY man either to his terror or consolation has som sense of Religion 35. MAN may rather be defin'd a religious than a rational Creature in regard that in other Creatures there may be somthing of Reason but there
consist of too many 71. IN every Commonwealth there has bin a Popular Assembly This in Israel at least consisted of twenty four thousand upon a monthly Rotation In Athens Lacedemon Rome it consisted of the whole Citizens that is of all such as had a right in the Commonwealth whether they inhabited in City or Country In Venice it consists of about two thousand In the Province of Holland only which contains eighteen or nineteen Soveraintys the Popular or resolving Assemblys consist at least of five hundred Persons these in the whole Union may amount to five or six thousand in Switzerland I believe they com to a greater number And the most of these Assemblys have bin perpetually extant 72. IF the Popular Assembly consists of so few and so eminent Persons as are capable of any orderly Debate it is good for nothing but to destroy the Commonwealth 73. IF the Popular Assembly consists of so many and for the greater part of so mean Persons as are not capable of Debate there must be a Senat to help this defect 74. THE Reason of the Senat is that a Popular Assembly rightly constituted is not capable of any prudent debate 75. THE Reason of the Popular Assembly is that a Senat rightly constituted for Debate must consist of so few and eminent Persons that if they have the Result too they will not resolve according to the Interest of the People but according to the Interest of themselves 76. A POPULAR Assembly without a Senat cannot be wise 77. A SENAT without a Popular Assembly will not be honest 78. THE Senat and the Popular Assembly being once rightly constituted the rest of the Commonwealth will constitute it self 79. THE Venetians having slain divers of their Dukes for their Tyranny and being assembl'd by such numbers in their great Council as were naturally incapable of Debate pitch'd upon thirty Gentlemen who were call'd Pregati in that they were pray'd to go apart and debating upon the Exigence of the Commonwealth to propose as they thought good to the great Council and from thence first arose the Senat of Venice to this day call'd the Pregati and the Great Council that is the Senat and the Popular Assembly of Venice And from these two arose all those admirable Orders of that Commonwealth 80. THAT a People of themselves should have such an understanding as when they of Venice did institute their Pregati or Senat is rare 81. THAT a Senat or Council of Governors having supreme Power should institute a popular Assembly and propose to it tho in all reason it be the far more facil and practicable is that which is rarer 82. THE diffusive body of the People is not in a natural capacity of judging for which cause the whole judgment and power of the diffusive Body of the People must be intirely and absolutely in their collective Bodys Assemblys or Representatives or there can be no Commonwealth 83. TO declare that the Assemblys or Representatives of the People have power in som things and in others not is to make the diffusive Body which is in a natural incapacity of judging to be in a political capacity of judging 84. TO bring a natural incapacity of judging to a political capacity of judging is to introduce Government To bring a natural incapacity of judging to such a collective or political capacity of judging as yet necessarily must retain the Interest of the diffusive Body is to introduce the best kind of Government But to lay any appeal whatsoever from a political capacity of judging to a natural incapacity of judging is to frustrat all Government and to introduce Anarchy Nor is Anarchy whether impos'd or obtruded by the Legislator first or by the People or their Demagogs or Incendiarys afterwards of any other kind whatsoever than of this only 85. TO make Principles or Fundamentals belongs not to Men to Nations nor to human Laws To build upon such Principles or Fundamentals as are apparently laid by GOD in the inevitable necessity or Law of Nature is that which truly appertains to Men to Nations and to human Laws To make any other Fundamentals and then build upon them is to build Castles in the Air. 86. WHATEVER is violent is not secure nor durable whatever is secure or durable is natural 87. GOVERNMENT in the whole People tho the major part were disaffected must be secure and durable because it waves Force to found it self upon Nature 88. GOVERNMENT in a Party tho all of these were well affected must be insecure and transitory because it waves Nature to found it self upon Force 89. COMMONWEALTHS of all other Governments are more especially for the preservation not for the destruction of Mankind 90. COMMONWEALTHS that have bin given to cut off their diseas'd Limbs as Florence have brought themselves to impotence and ruin Commonwealths that have bin given to healing their diseas'd Limbs as Venice have bin healthful and flourishing 91. ATHENS under the Oligarchy of four hundred was infinitly more afflicted and torn with Distraction Blood and Animosity of Partys than is England yet by introduction of a Senat of four hundred and a Popular Assembly of five thousand did therupon so suddenly as if it had bin a Charm recover Might and Glory See the eighth Book of THUCYDIDES A Story in these Times most necessary to be consider'd 92. TO leave our selves and Posterity to a farther purchase in Blood or Sweat of that which we may presently possess injoy and hereafter bequeath to Posterity in Peace and Glory is inhuman and impious 93. AS certainly and suddenly as a good state of health dispels the peevishness and peril of Sickness dos a good state of Government the animosity and danger of Partys 94. THE Frame of a Commonwealth having first bin propos'd and consider'd Expedients in case such should be found necessary for the safe effectual and perfect introduction of the same may with som aim be apply'd or fitted as to a House when the Model is resolv'd upon we fit Scaffolds in building But first to resolve upon Expedients and then to fit to them the Frame of a Commonwealth is as if one should set up Props and then build a House to lean upon them 95. AS the chief Expedients in the building of a House are Axes and Hammers so the chief Expedient in the building of a Government is a standing Army 96. AS the House which being built will not stand without the perpetual noise or use of Axes and Hammers is imperfect so is the Government which being form'd cannot support it self without the perpetual use of a standing Army 97. WHILE the Civil and Religious parts of a Commonwealth are in forming there is a necessity that she should be supported by an Army but when the Military and Provincial parts are rightly form'd she can have no farther use of any other Army Wherfore at this point and not till then her Armys are by the practice of Common-wealths upon slighter occasions to have
frustated which made the King willinger to assist ALPIN in his pretension to the Kingdom of Picts in which Attemt he was drown'd and left to ALPIN that which he before had so nobly refus'd who making use of the former rais'd an Army beat the Picts in many signal Victorys but at last was slain by them leaving his name to the place of his Death and the Kingdom to his Son KENNETH This man seeing the People broken with the late War and unwilling to fight drew them on by this Subtilty he invites the Nobility to dinner and after plying them with Drink till midnight leaves them sleeping on the floor as the manner was and then hanging Fishskins about the Walls of the Chamber and making one speak thro a Tube and call them to war they waking and half asleep suppos'd somthing of Divinity to be in it aud the next morning not only consented to War but so strange is deluded imagination with unspeakable Courage fell upon the Enemy and put them to the rout which being confirm'd by other great Victorys utterly ruin'd the Pictish Name This man may be added to the two FERGUSES and truly may be said to be the Founder of the Scots Empire not only in making that the middle of his Dominion which was once the bounds but in confirming his Acquisitions with good Laws having the opportunity of a long Peace which was sixteen years his whole time of Government being twenty This was he that plac'd that Stone famous for that illusory Prophecy Ni fallat fatum c. which first was brought out of Spain into Ireland and from thence into Argyle at Scoon where he put it in a Chair in which all his Successors till EDWARD the First brought it away were crown'd and since that all the Kings of England till the happiness of our Commonwealth made it useless His Brother DONALD was his Successor a man made up of extremitys of Virtues and Vices no man had more bravery in the Field nor more Vice at home which increasing with his yeras the Nobility put him in prison where either for fear or scorn he put an end to his days leaving behind him his Brother CONSTANTIN a Man wanting nothing of him but his Vices who strugling with a potent Enemy for the Picts had call'd in the Danes and driving them much into despair a Bravery that has not seldom rain'd many excellent Captains was taken by them put into a little Cave and there slain He was succeded by ETHUS his Brother who had all his eldest Brother's Vices and none of his second 's Virtues Nature it seems making two extremes and a middle in the three Brethren This man voluptuous and cowardly was forc'd to resign or as others say dy'd of Wounds receiv'd in a Duel from his Successor who was GREGORY Son of DONGAL who was not only an excellent Man but an excellent Prince that both recover'd what the others had lost and victoriously travers'd the Northern Countys of England and a great part of Ireland of whose King a Minor and in his power he generously made no advantage but settled his Country and provided faithful and able Guardians for him These things justly yield him the name of Great DONALD Son of CONSTANTIN the Second by his recommendation succeded in his Power and Virtues notwithstanding some say he was remov'd by Poison Next was CONSTANTIN the the Third Son of ETHUS an unstable person who assisted the Danes which none of his Predecessors would do and after they had deserted him basely yet yielded them Succors consisting of the chief of the Scots Nobility which with the whole Danish Army were routed by the Saxons This struck him so that he retir'd among the Culdys which were as the Greec Caloyers or Romish Monks at this day and there bury'd himself alive After him was MILCOM Son of DONALD the Third who tho a good Prince and well skil'd in the Arts of Peace was slain by a Conspiracy of those to whom his Virtue was burdensom His Successor was INDULF by what Title I find not who fighting with the Danes that with a Navy unexpectedly came into the Frith was slain DUF his Son succedes famous for an Accident which if it be true seems nearly distant from a Fable He was suddenly afflicted by a sweating Disease by which he painfully languish'd yet no body could find the cause till at last a Girl that had scatter'd som words after torments confest that her Mother and som other women had made an Image of Wax which as it wasted the King should wast by sweating much the place being diligently search'd it was found accordingly so the Image being broke he instantly recover'd That which disturb'd his five years Reign was the turbulency of the Northern People whom when he had reduc'd and taken with intent to make exemplary Punishment DONALD the Commander of the Castle of Forres where he then lay interceded for som of them but being repuls'd and exasperated by his Wife after he had made all his Servants drunk slew him in his Bed and bury'd him under a little Bridg lest the cutting of Turfs might discover a Grave near Kilros Abby tho others say he turn'd aside a River and after he had bury'd him suffer'd it to take its former Chanel CULEN the Son of INDULF by the Election of Parlament or Convention of the People succeded good only in this one Action of inquiring and punishing his Predecessor's Death but after by the neglect of Discipline and the exquisiteness of his Vices became a Monster and so continued three years till being weakned and exhausted in his Body and vext with perpetual Diseases he was summon'd by the Parlament and in the way was slain by a Thane so they then call'd Lieutenants of Counties whose Daughter he had ravish'd THEN came KENETH Brother to DUF tho the forepart of his Reign was totally unlike his who being invaded by the Danes beat them in that famous Battle which was won by the three HAYS Husbandmen from whom all the HAYS now give three Shields Gules who with their Sythes reinforc'd the lost Battle but in his latter time he lost this reputation by poisoning MILCOLM Son of DUF to preserve the Crown for a Son of his Name tho of less merit for says BUCHANAN They use to chuse the fittest not the nearest which being don he got ordain'd in a Parlament that the Succession should be lineal the Son should inherit and be call'd Prince of Scots and if he were a Minor be govern'd by som wise Man here coms the pretence of Succession wheras before it was clearly Elective and at fifteen he should chuse his Guardian himself But the Divine Vengeance which seldom even in this life passes by Murder overtook him for he was ensnar'd by a Lady whose Son he had caus'd to be executed and slain by an Arrow out of an Ambush she had laid CONSTANTIN the Son of CULEN notwithstanding all the Artifice of KENNETH by his reasoning
Estates there must be equality of Power and where there is equality of Power there can be no Monarchy The generation of the Common-wealth TO com then to the generation of the Commonwealth it has bin shewn how thro the ways and means us'd by PANURGUS to abase the Nobility and so to mend that flaw which we have asserted to be incurable in this kind of Constitution he suffer'd the Balance to fall into the power of the People and so broke the Government but the Balance being in the People the Commonwealth tho they do not see it is already in the nature of * Cornua nota priâ—â— vitulo quà m frontibus extant them There wants nothing else but Time which is slow and dangerous or Art which would be more quick and secure for the bringing those native Arms wherwithal they are found already to resist they know not how every thing that opposes them to such maturity as may fix them upon their own strength and bottom What Prudence is BUT wheras this Art is Prudence and that part of Prudence which regards the present Work is nothing else but the skill of raising such Superstructures of Government as are natural to the known Foundations they never mind the Foundation but thro certain animosities wherwith by striving one against another they are infected or thro freaks by which not regarding the course of things nor how they conduce to their purpose they are given to building in the Air com to be divided and subdivided into endless Partys and Factions both Civil and Ecclesiastical which briefly to open I shall first speak of the People in general and then of their Divisions A PEOPLE says MACCHIAVEL that is corrupt is not capable of a Commonwealth But in shewing what a corrupt People is he has either involv'd himself or me nor can I otherwise com out of the Labyrinth than by saying that the Balance altering a People as to the foregoing Government must of necessity be corrupt but Corruption in this sense signifys no more than that the Corruption of one Government as in natural Bodys is the Generation of another Wherfore if the Balance alters from Monarchy the Corruption of the People in this case is that which makes them capable of a Commonwealth But wheras I am not ignorant that the Corruption which he means is in Manners this also is from the Balance For the Balance leading from Monarchical into Popular abates the Luxury of the Nobility and inriching the People brings the Government from a more privat to a more public Interest which coming nearer as has bin shewn to Justice and right Reason the People upon a like alteration is so far from such a Corruption of Manners as should render them incapable of a Commonwealth that of necessity they must therby contract such a Reformation of Manners as will bear no other kind of Government On the other side where the Balance changes from Popular to Oligarchical or Monarchical the public Interest with the Reason and Justice included in the same becoms more privat Luxury is introduc'd in the room of Temperance and Servitude in that of Freedom which causes such a corruption of Manners both in the Nobility and People as by the Example of Rome in the time of the Triumvirs is more at large discover'd by the Author to have bin altogether incapable of a Commonwealth BUT the Balance of Oceana changing quite contrary to that of Rome the Manners of the People were not therby corrupted but on the contrary adapted to a Commonwealth For differences of Opinion in a People not rightly inform'd of their Balance or a division into Partys while there is not any common Ligament of Power sufficient to reconcile or hold them is no sufficient proof of Corruption Nevertheless seeing this must needs be matter of scandal and danger it will not be amiss in shewing what were the Partys to shew what were their Errors THE Partys into which this Nation was divided were Temporal or Spiritual and the Temporal Partys were especially two the one Royalists the other Republicans each of which asserted their different Causes either out of Prudence or Ignorance out of Interest or Conscience FOR Prudence either that of the Antients is inferior to the Modern which we have hitherto bin setting face to face that any one The Royalist may judg or that of the Royalist must be inferior to that of the Commonwealthsman And for Interest taking the Commonwealths-man to have really intended the Public for otherwise he is a Hypocrit and the worst of Men that of the Royalist must of necessity have bin more pâ—ivat Wherfore the whole dispute will com upon matter of Conscience and this whether it be urg'd by the Right of Kings the Obligation of former Laws or of the Oath of Allegiance is absolv'd by the Balance FOR if the Right of Kings were as immediatly deriv'd from the Breath of God as the Life of Man yet this excludes not Death and Dissolution But that the dissolution of the late Monarchy was as natural as the Death of a Man has bin already shewn Wherfore it remains with the Royalists to discover by what Reason or Experience it is possible for a Monarchy to stand upon a popular Balance or the Balance being popular as well the Oath of Allegiance as all other Monarchical Laws imply an impossibility and are therfore void The Commonwealthsman TO the Commonwealthsman I have no more to say but that if he excludes any Party he is not truly such nor shall ever found a Commonwealth upon the natural Principle of the same which is Justice And the Royalist for having oppos'd a Commonwealth in Oceana where the Laws were so ambiguous that they might be eternally disputed and never reconcil'd can neither be justly for that cause excluded from his full and equal share in the Government nor prudently for this reason that a Commonwealth consisting of a Party will be in perpetual labor of her own destruction Whence it was that the Romans having conquer'd the Albans incorporated them with equal Right into the Commonwealth And if the Royalists be flesh of your flesh and nearer of Blood than were the Albans to the Romans you being also both Christians the Argument's the stronger Nevertheless there is no reason that a Commonwealth should any more favor a Party remaining in fix'd opposition against it than BRUTUS did his own Sons But if it sixes them upon that opposition it is its own fault not theirs and this is don by excluding them Men that have equal Possessions and the same security for their Estates and their Libertys that you have have the same cause with you to defend both But if you will be trampling they fight for Liberty tho for Monarchy and you for Tyranny tho under the name of a Common-wealth The nature of Orders in a Government rightly instituted being void of all jealousy because let the Partys which it imbraces bo what they will
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
he dos not only give you his judgment but the best proof of it for this says 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 dispers'd throout Laconia one of the greatest Provinces in all Greece and divided as by som 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 somtimes for matters of concern within the City consisted of the Spartans only These happen'd like that of Venice to be good Constitutions of a Congregation but from an ill cause the infirmity of a Commonwealth which thro her paucity was Oligarchical WHERFORE go which way you will it should seem that without a Representative of the People your Commonwealth consisting of a whole Nation can never avoid falling either into Oligarchy or Confusion THIS was seen by the Romans whose rustic Tribes extending themselves from the River Arno to the Vulturnus that is from Fesâ—lâ— or Florence to Câ—pua invented a way of Representative by Lots the Tribe upon which the first fell being the Prerogative and som two or three more that had the rest the Jure vocatae These gave the Suffrage of the Commonwealth in * * Binis Comitiis two meetings the Prerogative at the first Assembly and the Jure vocatae at a second NOW to make the parallel all the Inconveniences that you have observ'd in these Assemblys are shut out and all the Conveniences taken into 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 suspicion in this of Rome by lot but by suffrage as was also the late House of Commons by which means in your 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 turns every hand that is fit or fits every hand that it turns to the public work Moreover I am deceiv'd if upon due consideration it dos not fetch your Tribes with greater equality and ease to themselves and to the Government from the Frontiers of Marpesia than Rome ever brought any one of hers out of her Pomâ—ria or the nearest parts of her adjoining Territorys To this you may add That wheras a Commonwealth which in regard of the People is not of facility in execution were sure enough in this Nation to be cast off thro impatience your Musters and Galaxys are given to the People as milk to Babes wherby when they are brought up thro four days election in a whole year one at the Parish one at the Hundred and two at the Tribe to their strongest meat it is of no harder digestion than to give their Negative or Affirmative as they see cause There be gallant men among us that laugh at such an Appeal or Umpire but I refer it whether you be more inclining to pardon them or me who I confess have bin this day laughing at a sober man but without meaning him any harm and that is PETRUS CUNAEUS where speaking of the nature of the People he says that taking them apart they are very simple but yet in their Assemblys they see and know somthing and so runs away without troubling himself with what that somthing is Wheras the People taken apart are but so many privat Interests but if you take them together they are the public Interest The public Interest of a Commonwealth as has bin shewn is nearest that of mankind and that of mankind is right reason but with Aristocracy whose Reason or Interest when they are all together as appear'd by the Patricians is but that of a Party it is quite contrary for as taken apart they are far wiser than the People consider'd in that manner so being put together they are such fools who by deposing the People as did those of Rome will saw off the branch wherupon they sit or rather destroy the root of their own Greatness Wherfore MACCHIAVEL following ARISTOTLE and yet going before him may well assert * * Che la multitudine è piu savia piu constante che un Prencipe That the People are wiser and more constant in their Resolutions than a Prince which is the Prerogative of popular Government for Wisdom And hence it is that the Prerogative of your Commonwealth as for Wisdom so for Power is in the People which tho I am not ignorant that the Roman Prerogative was so call'd à Praerogando because their Suffrage was first ask'd gives the denomination to your Prerogative Tribe THE Elections whether Annual or Triennial being shewn by the twenty second that which coms in the next place to be consider'd is 23. Order The Constitution Function and manner of Proceding of the Prerogative THE twenty third ORDER shewing the Power Function and manner of Proceding of the Prerogative Tribe THE Power or Function of the Prerogative is of two parts the one of Result in which it is the Legislative Power the other of Judicature in which regard it is the highest Court and the last appeal in this Commonwealth FOR the former part the People by this Constitution being not oblig'd by any Law that is not of their own making or confirmation by the result of the Prerogative their equal Representative it shall not be lawful for the Senat to require obedience from the People nor for the People to give obedience to the Senat in or by any Law that has not bin promulgated or printed and publish'd for the space of six weeks and afterwards propos'd by the Authority of the Senat to the Prerogative Tribe and resolv'd by the major Vote of the same in the Affirmative Nor shall the Senat have any power to levy War Men or Mony otherwise than by the consent of the People so given or by a Law so enacted except in cases of Exigence in which it is agreed that the Power both of the Senat and the People shall be in the Dictator so qualify'd and for such a term of time as is according to that Constitution already prescrib'd While a Law is in promulgation the Censors shall animadvert upon the Senat and the Tribuns upon the People that there be no laying of heads together no Conventicles or canvassing to carry on or oppose any thing but that all may be don in a free and open way FOR the latter part of the Power of the Prerogative or that wherby they are the Supreme Judicatory of this Nation and of the Provinces of the same the cognizance of
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
a standing General First Because it could not have bin more to their own safety And Secondly Because so long as they should have need of a standing Army his work was not done That he would not dispute against the Judgment of the Senat and the People nor ought that to be Nevertheless he made little doubt but experience would shew every Party their own Interest in this Government and that better improv'd than they could expect from any other that Mens animositys should overbalance their Interest for any time was impossible that humor could never be lasting nor thro the Constitution of the Government of any effect at the first charge For supposing the worst and that the People had chosen no other into the Senat and the Prerogative than Royalists a matter of fourteen hundred men must have taken their Oaths at their Election with an intention to go quite contrary not only to their Oaths so taken but to their own Interest for being estated in the Soverain Power they must have decreed it from themselves such an example for which there was never any experience nor can there be any reason or holding it it must have don in their hands as well every whit as in any other Furthermore they must have remov'd the Government from a Foundation that apparently would hold to set it upon another which apparently would not hold vvhich things if they could not com to pass the Senat and the People consisting vvholly of Royalists much less by a parcel of them elected But if the fear of the Senat and of the People deriv'd from a Party without such a one as vvould not be elected nor ingage themselves to the Commonwealth by an Oath this again must be so large as would go quite contrary to their own Interest they being as free and as fully estated in their Liberty as any other or so narrow that they could do no hurt vvhile the People being in Arms and at the beck of the Strategus every Tribe vvould at any time make a better Army than such a Party and there being no Partys at home fears from abroad vvould vanish But seeing it vvas otherwise determin'd by the Senat and the People the best course vvas to take that which they held the safest in vvhich vvith his humble thanks for their great bounty he was resolv'd to serve them vvith all Duty and Obedience A VERY short time after the Royalists now equal Citizens made good the ARCHON'S Judgment there being no other that found any thing near so great a sweet in the Government For he who has not bin acquainted with Affliction says SENECA knows but half the things of this world MOREOVER they saw plainly that to restore the antient Government they must cast up their Estates into the hands of three hundred men wherfore in case the Senat and the Prerogative consisting of thirteen hundred men had bin all Royalists there must of necessity have bin and be for ever one thousand against this or any such Vote But the Senat being inform'd by the Signory that the ARCHON had accepted of his Dignity and Office caus'd a third Chair to be set for his Highness between those of the Strategus and the Orator in the House the like at every Council to which he repair'd not of necessity but at his pleasure being the best and as ARGUS not vainly said the greatest Prince in the World for in the Pomp of his Court he was not inferior to any and in the Field he was follow'd with a Force that was formidable to all Nor was there a cause in the nature of this Constitution to put him to the charge of Guards to spoil his stomach or his sleep Insomuch as being handsomly disputed by the Wits of the Academy whether my Lord ARCHON if he had bin ambitious could have made himself so great it was carry'd clear in the Negative not only for the Reasons drawn from the present balance which was Popular but putting the case the balance had bin Monarchical For there be som Nations wherof this is one that will bear a Prince in a Commonwealth far higher than it is possible for them to bear a Monarch Spain look'd upon the Prince of Orange as her most formidable Enemy but if ever there be a Monarch in Holland he will be the Spaniards best friend For wheras a Prince in a Commonwealth derives his Greatness from the root of the People a Monarch derives his from one of those balances which nip them in the root by which means the Low Countrys under a Monarch were poor and inconsiderable but in bearing a Prince could grow to a miraculous height and give the Glory of his Actions by far the upper hand of the greatest King in Christendom There are Kings in Europe to whom a King of Oceana would be but a petit Companion But the Prince of this Commonwealth is the Terror and the Judg of them all THAT which my Lord ARCHON now minded most was the Agrarian upon which Debate he incessantly thrust the Senat and the Council of State to the end it might be planted upon som firm root as the main point and basis of perpetuity to the Commonwealth AND these are som of the most remarkable Passages that happen'd in the first year of this Government About the latter end of the second the Army was disbanded but the Taxes continu'd at thirty thousand Pounds a month for three years and a half By which means a piece of Artillery was planted and a portion of Land to the value of 50 l. a year purchas'd for the maintenance of the Games and of the Prize arms for ever in each Hundred WITH the eleventh year of the Commonwealth the term of the Excise allotted for the maintenance of the Senat and the People and for the raising of a public Revenue expir'd By which time the Exchequer over and above the annual Salarys amounting to three hundred thousand Pounds accumulating every year out of one Million incom seven hundred thousand Pounds in Banco brought it with a product of the Sum rising to about eight Millions in the whole wherby at several times they had purchas'd to the Senat and the People four hundred thousand Pounds per annum solid Revenue which besides the Lands held in Panopea together with the Perquisits of either Province was held sufficient for a public Revenue Nevertheless Taxes being now wholly taken off the Excise of no great burden and many specious advantages not vainly propos'd in the heightning of the public Revenue was very chearfully establish'd by the Senat and the People for the term of ten years longer and the same course being taken the public Revenue was found in the one and twentieth of the Commonwealth to be worth one Million in good Land Wherupon the Excise was so abolish'd for the present as withal resolv'd to be the best the most fruitful and easy way of raising Taxes according to future Exigencys But the Revenue being now such as was
as in that case is necessary are very few as the Counsillors the Savi the Provosts Wherever a Commonwealth is thus propos'd to the Balance or Popular Assembly will do her duty to admiration but till then never Yet so it has bin with us of late years that altho in Royal Authority there was no more than the right of Proposing and the King himself was to stand legibus consuetudinibus quas vulgas elegerit to the result of the People yet the popular Council has bin put upon Invention and they that have bin the prevailing Party have us'd means to keep the Result to themselves quite contrary to the nature of Popular Administration Let one speak and the rest judg Of whatever any one man can say or do Mankind is the natural and competent Judg in which is contain'd the very reason of Parlaments thro the want of understanding this came in confusion Man that is in Honor and has no understanding is like the Beasts that perish Nor can we possibly return to Order but by mending the Hedg where it was broken A prudent intire and sit Proposition made to a free Parlament recovers all To them who are of the greatest Eminency or Authority in a Commonwealth belongs naturally that part of Reason which is Invention and using this they are to propose but what did our Grandees ever invent or propose that might shew so much as that themselves knew what they would be at and yet how confidently do they lay the fault upon the People and their unfitness forsooth for Government in which they are wondrous wise For this I will boldly say Where there was an Aristocracy that perform'd their duty there never was nor ever can be a People unfit for Government but on the contrary where the Aristocracy have fail'd the People being once under Orders have held very often But while they are not under Orders if they fail it is not their fault but the fault of the Aristocracy for who else should model a Government but men of Experience There is not in England I speak it to their shame one GRANDEE that has any perfect knowlege of the Orders of any one Commonwealth that ever was in the World Away with this same grave complexion this huff of Wisdom maintain'd by making faces The People cannot do their duty consisting in Judgment but by virtue of such Orders as may bring them together and direct them but the duty of the Aristocracy consisting in Invention may be don by any one man and in his study and where is that one man among all the Grandees that studys They are so far from knowing their own duty that a man for proposing that in which none can find a flaw has don enough to be ridiculous to them who are themselves ridiculous to the whole World in that they could never yet propose any thing that would hold BVT if this amounts to a Demonstration it amounts to a clear detection of your profound Grandees and a full proof that they are Phanatical Persons State Jesuits such as have reduc'd the Politics to mental Reservation and implicit Faith in their nods or nightcaps GOD to propose his Commandments to the People of Israel wrote them on two Tables the Decemviri to propose their Commandments to the People of Rome wrote them on twelve Tables the Athenians propos'd in writing sign'd with the name of the particular Inventor after this pattern do the Venetians as was said the same at this day But no Goosquill no Scribling Your Grandees are above this MOSES who was the first Writer in this kind shall be pardon'd but MACCHIAVEL the first in later times that has reviv'd his Principles or trod in his steps is deservedly pelted for it by Sermons They are not for the Scripture but the Cabala I WILL tell you a story out of BOCCALINI APOLLO having spy'd the Philosopher and great Master of Silence HARPOCRATES in the Court of Parnassus us'd such importunity with him that for once he was persuaded to speak upon which such apparent discovery was made of the Hypocrite and the gross ignorance he had so long harbor'd under a deceitful silence that he was immediatly banish'd the Court. Were there cause I could be modest but this Virtue to the diminution of sound and wholsom Principles would be none wherfore let a Grandee write and I will shew you HARPOCRATES THVS having sufficiently defy'd Sir GUY I may with the less impeachment of reputation descend to TOM THUM Not that I hold my self a fit Person to be exercis'd with Boys play but that som who should have more wit have so little as to think this somthing A good Rat-catcher is not so great a blessing to any City as a good Jugglercatcher would be to this Nation Now because I want an Office I shall shew my Parts to my Country and how fit I am for the white Staff or long Pole of so worshipful a Preferment Ridiculus ne sis esto THE FIRST BOOK CONTAINING The first Preliminary of OCEANA inlarg'd interpreted and vindicated from all such Mistakes or Slanders as have bin alleg'd against it under the notion of Objections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A full Answer to all such OBJECTIONS as have hitherto bin made against OCEANA NEITHER the Author or Authors of the Considerations upon OCEANA nor any other have yet so much as once pretended one Contradiction or one Inequality to be in the whole Common-wealth Now this is certain That Frame of Government which is void of any contradiction or any inequality is void of all internal causes of Dissolution and must for so much as it imbraces have attain'd to full perfection This by wholesale is a full Answer to the Considerations with all other Objections hitherto and will be with any man that comprehends the nature of Government to thousands of such Books or Myriads of such tittel tattel Nevertheless because every man is not provided with a Sum in the following Discourse I shall comply with them that must have things by Retail or somwhat for their Farthing The PREFACE IT is commonly said and not without incouragement by som who think they have Parnassus by the horns that the University has lash'd me so it seems I have to do with the Vniversity and lashing is lawful with both which I am contented In Moorfields while the People are busy at their sports they often and ridiculously lose their Buttons their Ribbands and their Purses where if they light as somtimes they do upon the Masters of that Art they fall a kicking them a while which one may call a rude charge and then to their work again I know not whether I invite you to Moorfields but difficile est Satyram non scribere all the favor I desire at your hands is but this that you would not so condemn one man for kicking as in the same Act to pardon another for cutting of Purses A Gentleman that commits a fallacious Argument
such an Example are posted As if for a Christian Commonwealth to make so much use of Israel as the Roman did of Athens whose Laws she transcrib'd were against the Interest of the Clergy which it seems is so hostil to popular Power that to say the Laws of Nature tho they be the Fountains of all Civil Law are not the Civil Law till they be the Civil Law or thus that thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal tho they be in natural Equity yet were not the Laws of Israel or of England till voted by the People of Israel or the Parlament of England is to assert Consid p. 35 40. the People into the mighty Liberty of being free from the whole moral Law and inasmuch as to be the Adviser or Persuader of a thing is less than to be the Author or Commander of it to put an Indignity upon God himself In which Fopperys the Prevaricator boasting of Principles but minding none first confounds Authority and Command or Power and next forgets that the dignity of the Legislator or which is all one of the Senat succeding to his Office as the Sanhedrim to MOSES is the greatest dignity in a Commonwealth and yet that the Laws or Orders of a Commonwealth derive no otherwise whether from the Legislator as MOSES LYCURGUS SOLON c. or the Senat as those of Israel Lacedemon or Athens than from their Authority receiv'd and confirm'd by the Vote or Command of the People It is true that with Almighty God it is otherwise than with a mortal Legislator but thro another Nature which to him is peculiar from whom as he is the cause of being or the Creator of Mankind Omnipotent Power is inseparable yet so equal is the goodness of this Nature to the greatness therof that as he is the cause of welbeing by way of Election for example in his chosen People Israel or of Redemption as in the Christian Church himself has prefer'd his Authority or Proposition before his Empire What else is the Book I meaning of these words or of this proceding of his Now therfore if ye will obey my Voice indeed and keep my Covenant ye shall be to me a Exod. 19. 5. Kingdom or I will be your King which Proposition being voted by the People in the Affirmative God procedes to propose to them the ten Commandments in so dreadful a manner that the People being excedingly Exod. 20. 19. afrighted say to MOSES Speak thou with us and we will hear thee that is be thou henceforth our Legislator or Proposer and we will resolve accordingly but let not God speak with us lest we dy From whenceforth God proposes to the People no otherwise than by MOSES whom he instructs in this manner These are the Judgments which thou shalt propose or set before them Wherfore it is said of the Deut. 29. 1. Book of Deuteronomy containing the Covenant which the Lord commanded MOSES to make with the Children of Israel in the Land of Moab besides the Covenant which he made with them in Horeb This is Deut. 4. 44. the Law which MOSES set before the Children of Israel Neither did GOD in this case make use of his Omnipotent Power nor CHRIST in the like who also is King after the fame manner in his Church and would have bin in Israel where when to this end he might have muster'd up Legions of Angels and bin victorious with such Armys or Argyraspides as never Prince could shew the like he says no more Matth. 23. 37. than O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gather'd thee and thy Children as a Hen gathers her Chickens under her wings and ye would not where it is plain that the Jews rejecting CHRIST that he should not reign over them the Law of the Gospel came not to be the Law of the Jews and so if the ten Commandments came to be the Law of Israel it was not only because God propos'd them seeing Christ also propos'd his Law which nevertheless came not to be the Law of the Jews but because the People receiv'd the one and rejected the other It is not in the nature of Religion that it should be thought a profane saying that if the Bible be in England or in any other Government the Law or Religion of the Land it is not only because God has propos'd it but also because the People or Magistrat has receiv'd it or resolv'd upon it otherwise we must set lighter by a Nation or Government than by a privat Person who can have no part nor portion in this Law unless he vote it to himself in his own Conscience without which he remains in the condition he was before and as the Heathen who are a Law to themselves Thus wheras in a Covenant there must be two Partys the Old and New Testament being in sum the Old and New Covenant these are that Authority and Proposition of GOD and CHRIST to which they that refuse their Vote or Result may be under the Empire of a Clergy but are none of his Commonwealth Nor seeing I am gon so far dos this at all imply Freewil but as is admirably observ'd by Mr. HOBBS the freedom of that which naturally precedes Will namely Deliberation or Debate in which as the Scale by the weight of Reason or Passion coms to be turn'd one way or other the Will is caus'd and being caus'd is necessitated When God coms in thus upon the Soul of Man he gives both the Will and the Deed from which like Ossice of the Senat in a Commonwealth that is from the excellency of their Deliberation and Debate which prudently and faithfully unsolded to the People dos also frequently cause and necessitat both the Will and the Deed. GOD himself has said of the Senat that they are Gods an expression tho divine yet not unknown to the Heathens Homo homini Deus one man for the excellency of his Aid may be a God to Chap. 8 another But let the Prevaricator look to it for he that leads the blind out of his way is his Devil FOR the things I have of this kind as also for what I have said upon the words Chirotonia and Ecclesia the Prevaricator is delighted to make me beholden underhand to Mr. HOBBS notwithstanding the open enmity which he says I profess to his Politics As if JOSEPHUS upon that of SAMUEL They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me 1 Sam. 8. 7. that I should not reign over them had not said of the People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they unchirotoniz'd or unvoted God of the Kingdom Now if they unchirotoniz'd or unvoted God of the Kingdom then they had chirotoniz'd or voted him to the Kingdom and so not only the Doctrin that God was King in Israel by Compact or Covenant but the use of the word Chirotonia also in the sense I understand it is more antient than Mr. HOBBS I might add that of CAPELLUS
have for that which if they obtain they lose two for one and if they obtain not all for nothing Wherfore a People never will nor ever can never did nor ever shall take Arms for Levelling But they are intrusted with a Vote and therfore taking away the Lands of the five thousand or diminishing the Agrariâ—n by way of Counsil they need not obstruct their Industry but preserving the Revenue of that may bring themselves into the possession of the Land too This will they this can they less do because being in Counsil they must propose somthing for the advantage of the Commonwealth or of themselves as their end in such an Action But the Land coming to be in the possession of five thousand falls not into a number that is within the compass of the Few or such a one as can be Princes either in regard of their Number or of their Estates but to such a one as cannot consent to abolish the Agrarian because that were to consent to rob one another nor can they have any Party among them or against their common Interest strong enough to force them or to break it which remaining the five thousand neither are nor can be any more than a Popular State and the Balance remains every whit as equal as if the Land were in never so many more hands Wherfore the Commonwealth being not to be better'd by this means the People by Counsil can never go about to level nor diminish the Agrarian for the good of the Common-wealth Nor can they undertake it for the inrichment of themselves because the Land of Oceana as has bin demonstrated being level'd or divided equally among the Fathers of Familys only coms not to above ten pounds a year to each of them wheras every Footman costs his Master twenty pounds a year and there is not a Cottager having a Cow upon the Common but with his own Labor at one shilling a day gets twenty pounds a year which the Land being level'd were impossible because there would be no body able to set a Laborer on work oâ— to keep a Servant wherfore neither would nor could the People by Counsil go about any such business So there being no possible cause of Disagreement between the Few and the Many the Senat and the People there can be no such effect whence this is the Government which being perfectly equal has such a Libration in the frame of it that no man in or under it can contract such an Interest or Power as should be able to disturb the Common-wealth with Sedition Yet after all this the Prevaricator will only tell Consid p. 67. Mr. HARRINGTON for to deny the Conclusion is a fair way of disputing that this Libration is of the same nature with a Perpetual Motion in the Mechanics But let me tell him that in the Politics there is nothing mechanic or like it This is but an Idiotism of som Mathematician Book I resembling his who imagin'd the Stream of a River to be like that of his Spiggot Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis at ille Labitur labetur in omne volubilis aevum The silly Swain upon a River stood In hope the rolling bottom of the Flood Would once unwind it self whose liquid Clew The silver Thred for ever shall renew THE Mathematician must not take God to be such a one as he is Is that of the Sun of the Stars of a River a perpetual Motion Galen de usu partium l. 4. Even so one Generation gos and another coms Nature says GALEN has a tendency to make her Creature immortal if it were in the capacity of the matter on which she has to work but the People never dys This motion of theirs is from the hand of a perpetual Mover even God himself in whom we live and move and have our being and to this Current the Politician adds nothing but the Banks to which end or none the same God has also created human Prudence Wherfore there is not any thing that raises it self against God or right Reason if I say that it is in human Prudence so to apply these Banks that they may stand as long as the River runs or let this Considerer consider again and tell me out of Scripture or Reason why not Mathematicians it is true pretended to be the Monopolists of Demonstration but speak ingenuously have they as to the Politics hitherto given any other Demonstration than that there is a difference between Seeing and making of Spectacles Much more is that comparison of the Politics going upon certain and demonstrable Principles to Astrologers and Fortunetellers who have none at all vain and injurious For as in relation to what DAVID has said and Experience confirm'd of the Age of Man that it is threescore years and ten I may say that if a Man lys bedrid or dys before threescore years and ten of any natural Infirmity or Disease it was not thro any imperfection of Mankind but of his particular Constitution So in relation to the Principles and Definition of an equal Commonwealth yet unshaken nay untouch'd by this Prevaricator I may safely affirm that a Commonwealth is a Government which if it has bin seditious it has not bin from any imperfection in the kind but in the particular Constitution which where the like has happen'd must have bin inequal My Retreat to these Principles is call'd running into a Bog as if such as have no Principles were not Bogs Informis limus Stygiaeque paludes CHAP. IX Chap. 9 Whether Monarchy coming up to the perfection of the kind coms not short of the perfection of Government and has not som flaw in it In which is also treated of the Balance of France of the Original of a landed Clergy of Arms and their kinds ON Monarchy I have said that wheras it is of two kinds the one by Arms the other by a Nobility for that by Arms as to take the most perfect model in Turky it is not in Art or Nature to cure it of this dangerous flaw that the Janizarys have frequent Interest and perpetual Power to raise Sedition or tear the Magistrat in pieces For that by a Nobility as to take the most perfect Model of late in Oceana it was not in Art or Nature 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 levy War whence I conclude that Monarchy reaching the perfection of the kind reaches not the perfection of Government but must still have som dangerous flaw in it THIS place tho I did not intend by it to make work for a Tinker could not be of less concernment than it proves to the Prevaricator who as if he were oblig'd to mend all falls first to patching with a Monarchy by Arms then with a Monarchy by a Nobility at length despairing throws away each and betakes himself with egregious confidence to make out of both a
write and yet not omit writing on any occasion that shall be offer'd for if my Principles be overthrown which when I see I shall most ingenuously confess with thanks to the Author such an acknowlegement will ly in a little room and this failing I am deceiv'd if I shall not now be able to shew any Writer against me that his Answer is none within the compass of three or four sheets THIS also will be the fittest way for Boys-play with which I am sure enough to be entertain'd by the quibling University men I mean a certain busy Gang of 'em who having publicly vanted that they would bring 40 examples against the Balance and since laid their Caps together about it have not produc'd one These vants of theirs offering prejudice to truth and good Principles were the cause why they were indeed press'd to shew som of their skill not that they were thought fit Judges of these things but first that they had declar'd themselves so and next that they may know they are not An Answer to three Objections against Popular Government that were given me after these two Books were printed Object 1. MONARCHICAL Government is more natural because we see even in Commonwealths that they have recourse to this as Lacedemon in her Kings Rome both in her Consuls and Dictators and Venice in her Dukes Answer GOVERNMENT whether Popular or Monarchical is equally artificial wherfore to know which is more natural we must consider what piece of Art coms nearest to Nature as for example whether a Ship or a House be the more natural and then it will be easy to resolve that a Ship is the more natural at Sea and a House at Land In like manner where one man or a few men are the Landlords a Monarchy must doubtless be the more natural and where the whole People are the Landlords a Commonwealth for how can we understand that it should be natural to a People that can live of themselves to give away the means of their livelihood to one or a few men that they may serve or obey Each Government is equally artificial in effect or in it self and equally natural in the cause or the matter upon which it is founded A COMMONWEALTH consists of the Senat proposing the People resolving and the Magistracy executing so the Power of the Magistrats whether Kings as in Lacedemon Consuls as in Rome or Dukes as in Venice is but barely executive but to a Monarch belongs both the Result and Execution too wherfore that there have bin Dukes Consuls or Kings in Commonwealths which were quite of another nature is no Argument that Monarchical Government is for this cause the more natural AND if a man shall instance in a mix'd Government as King and Parlament to say that the King in this was more natural than the Parlament must be a strange Affirmation TO argue from the Roman Dictator an Imperfection which ruin'd that Commonwealth and was not to be found in any other that all Commonwealths have had the like recourse in exigences to the like remedy is quite contrary to the universal Testimony of Prudence or Story A MAN who considers that the Commonwealth of Venice has stood one thousand years which never any Monarchy did and yet shall affirm that Monarchical Government is more natural than Popular must affirm that a thing which is less natural may be more durable and permanent than a thing that is more natural WHETHER is a Government of Laws less natural than a Government of Men or is it more natural to a Prince to govern by Laws or by Will Compare the Violences and bloody Rapes perpetually made upon the Crown or Royal Dignity in the Monarchys of the Hebrews and the Romans with the State of the Government under either Commonwealth and tell me which was less violent or whether that which is more violent must therfore be more natural Object 2. THE Government of Heaven is a Monarchy so is the Government of Hell Answer IN this says MACCHIAVEL Princes lose themselves and their Empire that they neither know how to be perfectly good nor intirely wicked He might as well have said that a Prince is always subject to Error and Misgovernment because he is a Man and not a God nor a Devil A Shepherd to his Flock a Plowman to his Team is a better Nature and so not only an absolute Prince but as it were a God The Government of a better or of a superior Nature is to a worse or inferior as the Government of God The Creator is another and a better Nature than the Creature the Government in Heaven is of the Creator over his Creatures that have their whole dependence upon him and subsistence in him Where the Prince or the Few have the whole Lands there is somwhat of dependence resembling this so the Government there must of necessity be Monarchical or Aristocratical But where the People have no such dependence the causes of that Government which is in Heaven are not in Earth for neither is the Prince a distinct or better Nature than the People nor have they their subsistence by him and therfore there can be no such effect If a Man were good as God there is no question but he would be not only a Prince but a God would govern by Love and be not only obey'd but worship'd or if he were ill as the Devil and had as much power to do mischief he would be dreaded as much and so govern by Fear To which latter the Nature of man has so much nearer approaches that tho we never saw upon Earth a Monarchy like that of Heaven yet it is certain the perfection of the Turkish Policy lys in this that it coms nearest to that of Hell Object 3. GOD instituted a Monarchy namely in MELCHIZEDEC before he instituted a Commonwealth Answer IF MELCHIZEDEC was a King so was ABRAHAM too tho one that paid him Tithes or was his Subject for ABRAHAM made War or had the power of the Sword as the rest of the Fathers of Familys he fought against So if CANAAN was a Monarchy in those days it was such a one as Germany is in these where the Princes also have as much the right of the Sword as the Emperor which coms rather as has bin shewn already to a Commonwealth But whether it were a Monarchy or a Commonwealth we may see by the present state of Germany that it was of no very good Example nor was MELCHIZEDEC otherwise made a King by God than the Emperor that is as an Ordinance of Man THE ART OF LAWGIVING In Three BOOKS The First shewing the Foundations and Superstructures of all kinds of Government The Second shewing the Frames of the Commonwealths of Israel and of the Jews The Third shewing a Model fitted to the present State or Balance of this Nation The Order of the Work The First Book THE Preface considering the Principles or Nature of Family
likewise regardless of this point into which nevertheless he saw so far as not seldom to prophesy sad things to his Successors neither his new Peerage which Chap. 3 in abundance he created nor the old avail'd him any thing against that dread wherin more freely than prudently he discover'd himself to stand of Parlaments as now mere Popular Councils and running to popularity of Government like a Bowl down a hill not so much I may say of Malice prepens'd as by natural instinct wherof the Petition of Right well consider'd is a sufficient Testimony All persuasion of Court Eloquence all patience for such as but look'd that way was now lost There remain'd nothing to the destruction of a Monarchy retaining but the name more than a Prince who by contending should make the People to feel those advantages which they could not see And this happen'd in the next King who too secure in that undoubted right wherby he was advanc'd to a Throne which had no foundation dar'd to put this to an unseasonable trial on whom therfore fell the Tower in Silo. Nor may we think that they upon whom this Tower fell were Sinners above all men but that we unless we repent and look better to the true foundations must likewise perish We have had latter Princes latter Parlaments In what have they excel'd or where are they The Balance not consider'd no effectual work can be made as to settlement and consider'd as it now stands in England requires to settlement no less than the Superstructures natural to Popular Government and the Superstructures natural to Popular Government require no less than the highest skill or art that is in Political Architecture The sum of which Particulars amounts to this That the safety of the People of England is now plainly cast upon skill or sufficiency in Political Architecture it is not enough therfore that there are honest men addicted to all the good ends of a Commonwealth unless there be skill also in the formation of those proper means wherby such Ends may be attain'd Which is a sad but a true account this being in all experience and in the judgment of all Politicians that wherof the Many are incapable And tho the meanest Citizen not informing the Commonwealth of what he knows or conceives to concern its safety commits a hainous Crime against God and his Country yet such is the temper of later times that a man having offer'd any light in this particular has scap'd well enough if he be despis'd and not ruin'd BUT to procede if the Balance or state of Property in a Nation be the efficient cause of Government and the Balance being not fix'd the Government as by the present Narrative is evinc'd must remain inconstant or floting then the process in the formation of a Government must be first by a fixation of the Balance and next by erecting such Superstructures as to the nature therof are necessary CHAP. III. Of Fixation of the Balance or of Agrarian Laws FIXATION of the Balance of Property is not to be provided for but by Laws and the Laws wherby such a Provision is made are commonly call'd Agrarian Laws Now as Governments thro the divers Balance of Property are of divers or contrary natures Book I that is Monarchical or Popular so are such Laws Monarchy requires of the standard of Property that it be vast or great and of Agrarian Laws that they hinder recess or diminution at least in so much as is therby intail'd upon Honor But Popular Government requires that the standard be moderat and that its Agrarian prevent accumulation In a Territory not exceding England in Revenue if the It is at present in more hands but without fixation may com into fewer Balance be in more hands than three hundred it is declining from Monarchy and if it be in fewer than five thousand hands it is swerving from a Commonwealth which as to this point may suffice at present CHAP. IV. Shewing the Superstructures of Governments The Superstructures of Absolute Monarchy THAT the Policy or Superstructures of all absolute Monarchs more particularly of the Eastern Empires are not only contain'd but meliorated in the Turkish Government requires no farther proof than to compare them but because such a work would not ly in a small compass it shall suffice for this time to say that such Superstructures of Government as are natural to an absolute Prince or the sole Landlord of a large Territory require for the first story of the Building that what Demeans he shall think fit to reserve being set apart the rest be divided into Horse quarters or Military Farms for life or at will and not otherwise And that every Timariots Tenant for every hundred pounds a year so held be by condition of his Tenure oblig'd to attend his Soverain Lord in Person in Arms and at his proper cost and charges with one Horse so often and so long as he shall be commanded upon service These among the Turks are call'd Timariots Beglerbegs THE second Story requires that these Horse quarters or Military Farms be divided by convenient Precincts or Proportions into distinct Provinces and that each Province have one Governor or Commander in chief of the same at the will and pleasure of his Grand Signior or for three years and no longer Such among the Turks unless by additional honors they be call'd Bashaws or Viziers are the Beglerbegs Janizarys and Spahys FOR the third Story there must of necessity be a Mercenary Army consisting both of Horse and Foot for the Guard of the Prince's Person and for the Guard of his Empire by keeping the Governors of Provinces so divided that they be not suffer'd to lay their arms or heads together or to hold correspondence or intelligence with one another Which Mercenary Army ought not to be constituted of such as have already contracted som other interest but to consist of Men so educated from their very childhood as not to know that they have any other Parent or native Country than the Prince and his Empire Such among the Turks are the Foot call'd Janizarys and the Horse call'd Spahys The Divan and the Grand Signior THE Prince accommodated with a Privy Council consisting of such as have bin Governors of Provinces is the Topstone This Council among the Turks is call'd the Divan and this Prince the Grand Signior THE Superstructures proper to a regulated Monarchy or to the Chap. 4 Government of a Prince three or four hundred of whose Nobility The Superstructures of Regulated Monarchy or of whose Nobility and Clergy hold three parts in four of the Territory must either be by his personal influence upon the Balance or by virtue of Orders IF a Prince by easing his Nobility of Taxes and feeding them with such as are extorted from the People can so accommodat their Ambition and Avarice with great Offices and Commands that a Party rebelling he can overbalance and reduce them
aid of som political Anatomist without which they may have Appeâ—iâ—s but will be chopfallen Examples wherof they have had but too many one I think may be insisted upon without envy THIS is that which was call'd The Agreement of the People consisting in sum of these Propositions The Anarchy of the Levellers THAT there be a Representative of the Nation consisting of four hundred Persons or not above WHICH Proposition puts the Bar on the quite contrary side this being the first example of a Commonwealth wherin it was conceiv'd that five hundred thousand men or more might be represented by four hundred The Representation of the People in one man causes Monarchy and in a few causes Oligarchy the Many cannot be otherwise represented in a State of Liberty than by so many and so qualify'd as may within the compass of that number and nature imbrace the interest of the whole People Government should be establish'd upon a Rock not set upon a Precipice a Representative consisting but of four hundred tho in the nature therof it be popular is not in it self a Weapon that is fix'd but has somthing of the broken Bow as still apt to start aside to Monarchy But the paucity of the number is temper'd with the shortness of the term it being farther provided THAT this Representative be biennial and sit not above eight Months But seeing a supreme Council in a Commonwealth is neither assembl'd nor dissolv'd but by stated Orders directing upwards an irresistible strength from the root and as one tooth or one nail is driven out by another how is it provided that this Biennial Council shall not be a perpetual Council Wheras nothing is more dangerous in a Commonwealth than intire Removes of Councils how is it provided that these shall be men sufficiently experienc'd for the management of Affairs And last of all wheras dissolution to Soverain Power is death to whom are these after their eight months to bequeath the Commonwealth In this case it is provided THAT there be a Council of State elected by each new Representative within twenty days after their first meeting to continue till ten days after the meeting of the next Representative In which the faults observ'd in the former Order are so much worse as this Council consists of fewer Thus far this Commonwealth is Oligarchy but it is provided THAT these Representatives have Soverain Power save that in som things the People may resist them by Arms. Which first is a flat contradiction and next is downright Anarchy Where the Soverain Power is not as intire and absolute as in Monarchy it self there can be no Government at all It is not the limitation of Soverain Power that is the cause of a Commonwealth but such a libration or poize of Orders that there can be in the same no number of men having the interest that can have the power nor any number of men having the power that can have the interest to invade or disturb the Goverment As the Orders of Commonwealths are more approaching to or remote from this Maxim of which this of the Levellers has nothing so are they more quiet or turbulent In the Religious part only proposing a National Religion and Liberty of Conscience tho without troubling themselves much with the means they are right in the end AND for the Military part they provide THAT no man even in case of Invasion be compellable to go out of the Country where he lives if he procures another to serve in his room Which plainly intails upon this Commonwealth a fit Guard for such a Liberty even a Mercenary Army for what one dos of this kind may and will where there is no bar be don by all so every Citizen by mony procuring his man procures his Master Now if this be work of that kind which the People in like cases as those also of Rome when they instituted their Tribuns do usually make then have I good reason not only to think but to speak it audibly That to sooth up the People with an opinion of their own sufficiency in these things is not to befriend them but to feed up all hopes of Liberty to the slaughter Yet the Leveller a late * A later Pamphlet call'd XXV Querys using the Balance of Property which is fair enough refers it to Sir Thomas Smith's 15th chap. de Repub. populi ingenio accommodanda where the Author speaks not one word of Property which is very foul Pamphlet having gather'd out of Oceana the Principles by him otherwise well insinuated attributes it to the Agitators or that Assembly which fram'd this wooden Agreement of the People That then som of that Council asserted these Principles and the reason of them BVT Railery apart we are not to think it has bin for nothing that the wisest Nations have in the formation of Government as much rely'd upon the invention of som one man as upon themselves for wheras it cannot be too often inculcated that Reason consists of two parts the one Invention the other Judgment a People or an Assembly are not more eminent in point of Judgment than they are void of Invention Nor is there in this any thing at all against the sufficiency of a People in the management of a proper Form being once introduc'd tho they should never com to a perfect understanding of it For were the natural Bodys of the People such as they might commonly understand they would be as I may say wooden Bodys or such as they could not use wheras their Bodys being now such as they understand not are yet such as in the use and preservation wherof they are perfect THERE are in Models of Government things of so easy practice and yet of such difficult understanding that we must not think them even in Venice who use their Commonwealth with the greatest prudence and facility to be all or any considerable number of them such as perfectly understand the true Reason or Anatomy of that Government nor is this a presumtuous Assertion since none of those Venetians who have hitherto written of their own form have brought the truth of it to any perfect light The like perhaps and yet with due acknowlegement to LIVY might be said of the Romans The Lacedemonians had not the right understanding of their Model till about the time of ARISTOTLE it was first written Book III by DICEARCHUS one of his Scholars How egregiously our Ancestors till those foundations were broken which at length have brought us round did administer the English Government is sufficiently known Yet by one of the wisest of our Writers even my Lord VERULAM is HENRY the Seventh parallel'd with the Legislators of antient and heroic times for the institution of those very Laws which have now brought the Monarchy to utter ruin The Commonwealths upon which MACCHIAVEL in his Discourses is incomparable are not by him any one of them sufficiently explain'd or understood Much less is it to be expected from
highest Mystery of Popular Government and indeed the supreme Law wherin is contain'd not only the Liberty but the Safety of the People FOR the remainder of the Civil part of this Model which is now but small it is farther propos'd Rule for Vacations THAT every Magistracy Office or Election throout this whole Commonwealth whether annual or triennial be understood of consequeuce to injoin an interval or vacation equal to the term of the same That the Magistracy 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 Provincial or Foren Exception from the Rule 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 OTHERWISE the People beyond all manner of doubt would elect so many of the better sort at the very first that there would not be of the Foot or of the meaner sort enough to supply the due number of the Popular Assembly or Prerogative Tribe and the better sort being excluded subsequent Elections by their intervals there would not be wherwithal to furnish the Senat the Horse of the Prerogative Tribe and the rest of the Magistracys each of which Obstructions is prevented by this Exception Where by the way if in all experience such has bin the constant temper of the People and can indeed be reasonably no other it is apparent what cause there can be of doubt who in a Commonwealth of this nature must have the leading Yet is no man excluded from any Preferment only Industry which ought naturally to be the first step is first injoin'd by this Policy but rewarded amply seeing he who has made himself worth one hundred Pounds a year has made himself capable of all Preferments and Honors in this Government Where a man from the lowest state may not rise to the due pitch of his unquestionable Merit the Commonwealth is not equal yet neither can the People under the Limitations propos'd make choice as som object of any other than Book III the better sort nor have they at any time bin so inclining to do where they have not bin under such Limitations Be it spoken not to the disparagement of any man but on the contrary to their praise whose Merit has made them great the People of England have not gon so low in the election of a House of Commons as som Prince has don in the election of a House of Lords To weigh Election by a Prince with Election by a People set the Nobility of Athens and Rome by the Nobility of the old Monarchy and a House of Commons freely chosen by the Nobility of the new There remains but the Quorum for which it is propos'd The Quorum 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. HOW the City Government without any diminution of their Privileges and with an improvement of their Policy may be made to fall in with these Orders has * In Oceana elswhere bin shewn in part and may be consider'd farther at leisure Otherwise the whole Commonwealth so far as it is merely Civil is in this part accomplish'd Now as of necessity there must be a natural Man or a Man indu'd with a natural Body before there can be a spiritual Man or a Man capable of Divine Contemplation so a Government must have a Civil before it can have a Religious part And if a man furnisht only with natural parts can never be so stupid as not to make som Reflections upon Religion much less a Commonwealth which necessitats the Religious part of this Model CHAP. II. Containing the Religious Part of this Model propos'd practicably THERE is nothing more certain or demonstrable to common Sense than that the far greater part of Mankind in matters of Religion give themselves up to the public Leading Now a National Religion rightly establish'd or not coercive is not any public driving but only the public leading If the Public in this case may not lead such as desire to be led by the Public and yet a Party may lead such as desire to be led by a Party where would be the Liberty of Conscience as to the State Which certainly in a well order'd Commonwealth being the public Reason must be the public Conscience Nay where would be the Liberty of Conscience in respect of any Party which should so procede as to shew that without taking their Liberty of Conscience from others they cannot have it themselves If the Public refusing Liberty of Conscience to a Party would be the cause of Tumult how much more a Party refusing it to the Public And how in case of such a Tumult should a Party defend their Liberty of Conscience or indeed their Throats from the whole or a far greater Party without keeping down or tyrannizing over the whole or a far greater Party by force of Arms These things being rightly consider'd it is no wonder that Men living like men have not bin yet found without a Government or that any Government has not bin yet found without a National Religion that is som orderly and known way of public Chap. 2 leading in divine things or in the Worship of God A NATIONAL Religion being thus prov'd necessary it remains that I prove what is necessary to the same that is as it concerns the State or in relation to the Duty of the Magistrat CERTAIN it is that Religion has not seen corruption but by one of these three causes som Interest therwith incorporated som ignorance of the truth of it or by som complication of both Nor was ever Religion left wholly to the management of a Clergy that escap'd these Causes or their most pernicious Effects as may be perceiv'd in Rome which has brought Ignorance to be the Mother of Devotion and indeed Interest to be the Father of Religion Now the Clergy not failing in this case to be dangerous what recourse but to the Magistrat for safety specially seeing these Causes that is Interest and Ignorance the one proceding from evil Laws the other from the want of good Education are not in the right or power of a Clergy but only of the Civil Magistracy Or if so it be that Magistrats are oblig'd in duty to be nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to the Church Isa 49. 23. how shall a State in the sight of God be excusable that takes no heed or care lest Religion suffer by Causes the prevention or remedy wherof is in them only To these therfore it
the Hollanders Val. PUBLICOLA have you any more to tell me Pub. VALERIUS have you any more to ask me Val. Not except why you have not given the Parlament to understand thus much Pub. I have printed it over and over Val. They take no great notice of Books you should have laid it as they say in their dish by som direct Address as a Petition or so Pub. I did petition the Committee for Government Val. What answer did they make you Pub. None at all Val. I would have gon further and have presented it to the House Pub. Towards this also I went as far as I could Val. How far was that Pub. Why I think my Petition may have bin worn out in the pockets of som two or three Members Val. Have you a Copy of it about you Pub. Let me see here are many Papers this same is it To the Parlament of the Commonwealth of England c. The Humble Petition c. Sheweth THAT what neither is nor ever was in Nature can never be in Nature THAT without a King and Lords no Government either is or ever was in Nature but in mere force other than by a Senat indu'd with Authority to debate and propose and by a numerous Assembly of the People wholly and only invested with the right of Result in all matters of Law-giving of making Peace and War and of levying Men and Mony WHERFORE your Petitioner to disburden his Conscience in a matter of such concern to his Country most humbly and earnestly prays and beseeches this Parlament to take into speedy and serious consideration the irrefragable truth of the Premises and what therupon must assuredly follow that is either the institution of a Commonwealth in the whole People of England without exception or with exception for a time of so few as may be by way of a Senat and a numerous Assembly of the People to the ends and for the respective Functions aforesaid or the inevitable ruin of this Nation which God of his mercy avert And your Petitioner shall pray c. Val. I would it had bin deliver'd Pub. Look you if this had bin presented to the House I intended tohave added this other Paper and to have printed them together The Petitioner to the Reader Reader I SAY not that the Form contain'd in the Petition if we had it and no more would be perfect but that without thus much which rightly introduc'd introduces the rest there neither is was nor can be any such thing as a Commonwealth or Government without a King and Lords in Nature WHERE there is a coordinat Senat there must be a King or it falls instantly by the People as the King failing the House of Peers fell by the Commons WHERE there is a Senat not elective by the People there is a perpetual Feud between the Senat and the People as in Rome TO introduce either of these Causes is certainly and inevitably to introduce one of these Effects and if so then who are Cavaliers I leave you to judg hereafter BVT to add farther reason to experience All Civil Power among us not only by declaration of Parlament but by the nature of Property is in and from the People WHERE the Power is in the People there the Senat can legitimatly be no more to the Popular Assembly than my Counsil at Law is to me that is auxilium non imperium a necessary Aid not a Competitor or Rival in Power WHERE the Aids of the People becom their Rivals or Competitors in Power there their Shepherds becom Wolves their Peace Discord and their Government Ruin But to impose a select or coordinat Senat upon the People is to give them Rivals and Competitors in Power SOM perhaps such is the temper of the times will say That so much human Confidence as is express'd especially in the Petition is Atheistical But how were it Atheistical if I should as confidently foretel that a Boy must expire in Nonage or becom a Man I prophesy no otherwise and this kind of Prophesy is also of God by those Rules of his Providence which in the known Government of the World are infallible In the right observation and application of these consists all human Wisdom and we read that a poor man deliver'd a City by his Wisdom Eccles 9. 14. yet was this poor man forgotten But if the Premises of this Petition fail or one part of the Conclusion coms not to pass accordingly let me hit the other mark of this ambitious Address and remain a Fool upon Record in Parlament to all Posterity Val. Thou Boy and yet I hope well of thy Reputation Pub. Would it were but as good now as it will be when I can make no use of it Val. The Major of the Petition is in som other of your Writings and I remember som Objections which have bin made against it As that à non esse nec fuisse non datur argumentum ad non posse Pub. Say that in English Val. What if I cannot are not you bound to answer a thing tho it cannot be said in English Pub. No truly Val. Well I will say it in English then Tho there neither be any House of Gold nor ever were any House of Gold yet there may be a House of Gold Pub. Right but then à non esse nec fuisse in natura datur argumentum ad non posse in natura Val. I hope you can say this in English too Pub. That I can now you have taught me If there were no such thing as Gold in nature there never could be any House of Gold Val. Softly The frame of a Government is as much in Art and as little in Nature as the frame of a House Pub. Both softly and surely The Materials of a Government are as much in Nature and as little in Art as the Materials of a House Now as far as Art is necessarily dispos'd by the nature of its Foundation or Materials so far it is in Art as in Nature Val. What call you the Foundation or the Materials of Government Pub. That which I have long since prov'd and you granted The Balance the distribution of Property and the Power thence naturally deriving which as it is in one in a few or in all dos necessarily dispose of the form or frame of the Government accordingly Val. Be the Foundation or Materials of a House what they will the Frame or Superstructures may be diversly wrought up or shapen and so may those of a Commonwealth Pub. True but let a House be never so diversly wrought up or shapen it must consist of a Roof and Walls Val. That 's certain Pub. And so must a Commonwealth of a Senat and of a Popular Assembly which is the sum of the Minor in the Petition Val. The Mathematicians say They will not be quarrelsom but in their Sphere there are things altogether new in the World as the present posture of the Heavens is and as was the Star in
Cassiopoeia Pub. VALERIUS if the Major of the Petition extends as far as is warranted by SOLOMON I mean that there is nothing new under the Sun what new things there may be or have bin above the Sun will make little to the present purpose Val. It is true but if you have no more to say they will take this but for shifting Pub. Where there is Sea as between Sicily and Naples there was antiently Land and where there is Land as in Holland there was antiently Sea Val. What then Pub. Why then the present posture of the Earth is other than it has bin yet is the Earth no new thing but consists of Land and Sea as it did always so whatever the present posture of the Heavens be they consist of Star and Firmament as they did always Val. What will you say then to the Star in Cassiopoeia Pub. Why I say if it consisted of the same matter with other Stars it was no new thing in nature but a new thing in Cassiopoeia as were there a Commonwealth in England it would be no new thing in Nature but a new thing in England Val. The Star you will say in Cassiopoeia to have bin a new thing in nature must have bin no Star because a Star is not a new thing in nature Pub. Very good Val. You run upon the matter but the newness in the Star was in thâ— manner of the generation Pub. At Putzuoli near Naples I have seen a Mountain that rose up from under water in one night and pour'd a good part of the Lake antiently call'd Lucrin into the Sea Val. What will you infer from hence Pub. Why that the new and extraordinary generation of a Star or of a Mountain no more causes a Star or a Mountain to be a new thing in nature than the new and extraordinary generation of a Commonwealth causes a Commonwealth to be a new thing in nature ARISTOTLE reports that the Nobility of Tarantum being cut off in a Battel that Commonwealth became popular And if the Pouder Plot in England had destroy'd the King and the Nobility it is possible that Popular Government might have risen up in England as the Mountain did at Putzuoli Yet for all these would there not have bin any new thing in nature Val. Som new thing thro the blending of unseen causes there may seem to be in shuffling but Nature will have her course there is no other than the old game Pub. VALERIUS let it rain or be fair weather the Sun to the dissolution of Nature shall ever rise but it is now set and I apprehend the mist Val. Dear PUBLICOLA your Health is my own I bid you goodnight Pub. Goodnight to you VALERIUS Val. One word more PUBLICOLA Pray make me a present of those same Papers and with your leave and license I will make use of my Memory to commit the rest of this Discourse to writing and print it Pub. They are at your disposing Val. I will not do it as has bin don but with your name to it Pub. Whether way you like best most noble VALERIUS Octob. 22. 1659. Chap. 1 A System of Politics Delineated in short and easy APHORISMS Publish'd from the Author 's own Manuscript CHAP. I. Of GOVERNMENT 1. A PEOPLE is either under a state of Civil Government or in a state of Civil War or neither under a state of Civil Government nor in a state of Civil War 2. CIVIL Government is an Art wherby a People rule themselves or are rul'd by others 3. THE Art of Civil Government in general is twofold National or Provincial 4. NATIONAL Government is that by which a Nation is govern'd independently or within it self 5. PROVINCIAL Government is that by which a Province is govern'd dependently or by som foren Prince or State 6. A PEOPLE is neither govern'd by themselves nor by others but by reason of som external Principle therto forcing them 7. FORCE is of two kinds Natural and Unnatural 8. NATURAL Force consists in the vigor of Principles and their natural necessary Operations 9. UNNATURAL Force is an external or adventitious opposition to the vigor of Principles and their necessary working which from a violation of Nature is call'd Violence 10. NATIONAL Government is an effect of natural Force or Vigor 11. PROVINCIAL Government is an effect of unnatural Force or Violence 12. THE natural Force which works or produces National Government of which only I shall speak hereafter consists in Riches 13. THE Man that cannot live upon his own must be a Servant but he that can live upon his own may be a Freeman 14. WHERE a People cannot live upon their own the Government is either Monarchy or Aristocracy where a People can live upon their own the Government may be Democracy Chap. II 15. A MAN that could live upon his own may yet to spare his own and live upon another be a Servant but a People that can live upon their own cannot spare their own and live upon another but except they be no Servants that is except they com to a Democracy they must wast their own by maintaining their Masters or by having others to live upon them 16. WHERE a People that can live upon their own imagin that they can be govern'd by others and not liv'd upon by such Governors it is not the Genius of the People it is the Mistake of the People 17. WHERE a People that can live upon their own will not be govern'd by others lest they be liv'd upon by others it is not the Mistake of the People it is the Genius of the People 18. OF Government there are three Principles Matter Privation and Form CHAP. II. Of the Matter of Government 1. THAT which is the Matter of Government is what we call an Estate be it in Lands Goods or Mony 2. IF the Estate be more in Mony than in Land the port or garb of the Owner gos more upon his Monys than his Lands which with privat Men is ordinary but with Nations except such only as live more upon their Trade than upon their Territory is not to be found for which cause overbalance of Riches in Mony or Goods as to the sequel of these Aphorisms is altogether omitted 3. IF the Estate be more in Land than in Goods or Mony the garb and port of the Owner whether a Man or a Nation gos more if not altogether upon his Land 4. IF a Man has som Estate he may have som Servants or a Family and consequently som Government or somthing to govern if he has no Estate he can have no Government 5. WHERE the eldest of many Brothers has all or so much that the rest for their livelihood stand in need of him that Brother is as it were Prince in that Family 6. WHERE of many Brothers the eldest has but an equal share or not so inequal as to make the rest to stand in need of him for their livelihood that Family is as it
were a Commonwealth 7. DISTRIBUTION of shares in Land as to the three grand Interests the King the Nobility and the People must be equal or inequal 8. EQUAL distribution of Land as if one man or a few men have one half of the Territory and the People have the other half causes privation of Government and a state of Civil War for the Lord or Lords on the one side being able to assert their pretension or right to rule and the People on the other their pretension or right to Liberty that Nation can never com under any form of Government till that Question be decided and Property being not by any Law to be violated or mov'd any such Question cannot be decided but by the Sword only Chap. III 9. INEQUAL distribution of shares in Land as to the three grand Interests or the whole Land in any one of these is that which causes one of these three to be the predominant Interest 10. ALL Government is Interest and the predominant Interest gives the Matter or Foundation of the Government 11. IF one man has the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory the Interest of one man is the predominant Interest and causes absolute Monarchy 12. IF a few men have the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory the Interest of the few or of the Nobility is the predominant Interest and were there any such thing in nature would cause a pure Aristocracy 13. IT being so that pure Aristocracy or the Nobility having the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory without a Moderator or Prince to balance them is a state of War in which every one as he grows eminent or potent aspires to Monarchy and that not any Nobility can have Peace or can reign without having such a Moderator or Prince as on the one side they may balance or hold in from being absolute and on the otâ—â—r side may balance or hold them and their Factions from flying out into Arms it follows that if a few men have the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory the Interest of the Nobility being the predominant Interest must of necessity produce regulated Monarchy 14. IF the Many or the People have the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory the Interest of the Many or of the People is the predominant Interest and causes Democracy 15. A PEOPLE neither under absolute or under regulated Monarchy nor yet under Democracy are under a privation of Government CHAP. III. Of the Privation of Government 1. WHERE a People are not in a state of Civil Government but in a state of Civil War or where a People are neither under a state of Civil Government nor under a state of Civil War there the People are under Privation of Government 2. WHERE one Man not having the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory yet assumes to himself the whole Power there the People are under Privation of Government and this Privation is call'd Tyranny 3. WHERE a few Men not having the whole or about two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory yet assume to themselves the whole Power there the People are under Privation of Government and this Privation is call'd Oligarchy 4. WHERE the Many or the People not having the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory yet assume to themselves the whole Power there the People are under Privation of Government and this Privation is call'd Anarchy 5. WHERE the Tyranny the Oligarchy or the Anarchy not having in the Land or Territory such a full share as may amount to the truth of Government have nevertheless such a share in it as may Chap. IV maintain an Army there the People are under privation of Government and this Privation is a state of Civil War 6. WHERE the Tyranny the Oligarchy or the Anarchy have not any such share in the Land or Territory as may maintain an Army there the People are in privation of Government which Privation is neither a state of Civil Government nor a state of Civil War 7. WHERE the People are neither in a state of Civil Government nor in a state of Civil War there the Tyranny the Oligarchy or the Anarchy cannot stand by any force of Nature because it is void of any natural Foundation nor by any force of Arms because it is not able to maintain an Army and so must fall away of it self thro the want of a Foundation or be blown up by som tumult and in this kind of Privation the Matter or Foundation of a good orderly Government is ready and in being and there wants nothing to the perfection of the same but proper Superstructures or Form CHAP. IV. Of the Form of Government 1. THAT which gives the being the action and the denomination to a Creature or Thing is the Form of that Creature or Thing 2. THERE is in Form somthing that is not Elementary but Divine 3. THE contemplation of Form is astonishing to Man and has a kind of trouble or impulse accompanying it that exalts his Soul to God 4. AS the Form of a Man is the Image of God so the Form of a Government is the Image of Man 5. MAN is both a sensual and a philosophical Creature 6. SENSUALITY in a Man is when he is led only as are the Beasts that is no otherwise than by Appetit 7. PHILOSOPHY is the knowlege of Divine and Human Things 8. TO preserve and defend himself against Violence is natural to Man as he is a sensual Creature 9. TO have an impulse or to be rais'd upon contemplation of natural things to the Adoration or Worship of God is natural to Man as he is a Philosophical Creature 10. FORMATION of Government is the creation of a Political Creature after the Image of a Philosophical Creature or it is an infusion of the Soul or Facultys of a Man into the body of a Multitude 11. THE more the Soul or Facultys of a Man in the manner of their being infus'd into the body of a Multitude are refin'd or made incapable of Passion the more perfect is the Form of Government 12. NOT the refin'd Spirit of a Man or of som Men is a good Form of Government but a good Form of Government is the refin'd Spirit of a Nation Chap. IV 13. THE Spirit of a Nation whether refin'd or not refin'd can neither be wholly Saint nor Atheist Not Saint because the far greater part of the People is never able in matters of Religion to be their own Leaders nor Atheists because Religion is every whit as indelible a Character in man's Nature as Reason 14. LANGUAGE is not a more natural intercourse between the Soul of one man and another than Religion is between God and the Soul of a man 15. AS not this Language nor that Language but som
them be refer'd the Judgment of all Magistrats in Cases of Maladministrations in their Offices AND in prosecution of these Principles YOVR Petitioners humbly propose for the settlement of this Commonwealth that it be ordain'd 1. THAT the Parlament or the supreme Authority of England be chosen by the free People to represent them with as much equality as may be 2. THAT a Parlament of England shall consist of two Assemblys the lesser of about three hundred in whom shall reside the intire power of consulting debating and propounding Laws the other to consist of a far greater number in whom shall rest the sole power of resolving all Laws so propounded 3. THAT the free People of England in their respective divisions at certain days and places appointed shall for ever annually chuse one third part to each Assembly to enter into their Authority at certain days appointed the same days the Authority of a third of each of the said Assemblys to cease only in the laying the first Foundation in this Commonwealth's Constitution the whole number of both the Assemblys to be chosen by the People respectively viz. one third of each Assembly to be chosen for one year one third for two years and one third for three years 4. THAT such as shall be chosen having serv'd their appointed time in either of the said Assemblys of Parlament shall not be capable to serve in the same Assembly during som convenient interval or vacation 5. THAT the Legislative Power do wholly refer the execution of the Laws to the Magistracy according to the sixth Principle herein mention'd 6. THAT in respect to Religion and Christian Liberty it be ordain'd that the Christian Religion by the appointment of all succeding Parlaments be taught and promulgated to the Nation and public Preachers therof maintain'd and that all that shall profess the said Religion tho of different Persuasions in parts of the Doctrin or Disciplin therof be equally protected in the peaceable profession and public exercise of the same and be equally capable of all Elections Magistracys Preferments in the Commonwealth according to the order of the same Provided always that the public exercise of no Religion contrary to Christianity be tolerated nor the public exercise of any Religion tho professedly Christian grounded upon or incorporated into the Interest of any Foren State or Prince THESE your Petitioners humbly conceive to be the Essentials of the form of a free Commonwealth which if they were made fit for practice by your Honors appointing the numbers times places and all other necessary circumstances and settl'd as the fundamental Orders of the Commonwealth would naturally dispose those that should hereafter be chosen into the Parlaments from the love of their own interest to seek the common good being oblig'd by the Constitutions here humbly offer'd to partake with the whole body of the People of the good or evil that shall happen to the Commonwealth having no probable temtations or means left to compass any privat or factious ends in matters Religious or Civil And your Petitioners cannot imagin a greater security for the Cause and Interest contended for with such effusion of Blood than by disposing the free People into this kind of order wherby the same Cause would becom their common Interest Yet if your Honors should think it necessary or convenient for securing the minds of such as are doubtful and jealous that the People may betray their own Libertys there may be inserted into the fundamental Orders of the Commonwealth these following Expedients viz. 1. THAT for securing the Government of this Commonwealth and of the Religious and Civil freedom of the good People therof it may be for ever esteem'd and judg'd Treason against the Common-wealth for any Member of either Assembly of Parlament or any other person whatsoever to move or propose in either of the said Assemblys the restitution of Kingly Government or the introduction of any single Person to be chief Magistrat of England or the alteration of that part of the fundamental Order herein contain'd that concerns the equal freedom and protection of Religious persons of different Persuasions 2. THAT about the number of twelve persons of the most undoubted Fidelity and Integrity may be authoriz'd and impower'd for som certain number of years next insuing to seize apprehend and in safe custody to detain any person or persons whatsoever till he or they be in due form of Law deliver'd as is hereafter specify'd that shall move or propose in either of the said Assemblys of Parlament the restitution of Kingly Government or the introduction of any single Person to be chief Magistrat of this Commonwealth or the alteration of that part of the fundamental Order herein contain'd that concerns the equal freedom and protection of religious persons of different persuasions but for no other matter or cause whatsoever And when it shall happen that any person or persons shall be arrested or seiz'd for any of the causes aforesaid in manner aforesaid then a Commission of Oyer and Terminer may issue forth in due form of Law to the said twelve or any six of them to procede in due form of Law within one month after the apprehension of any such person or persons to the arrainment and public trial of every such person or persons and upon the legal conviction of him or them by the testimony of two sufficient Witnesses of any of the Treasons herein declar'd to condemn to the pains of death and to cause the same Judgment to be duly executed and the Keeper or Keepers of the Great Seal of England that shall be for the time being may be authoriz'd and requir'd from time to time during the term of years to issue out Commissions to the said twelve or any six of them authorizing them to procede as aforesaid AND if your Honors shall further judg it convenient the fundamental Orders of the Government may be consented to or subscrib'd by the People themselves if their express Pact shall be esteem'd any additional security other Nations upon the like occasions of expulsion of their Kings having taken the Peoples Oaths against their returning And the same may be proclaim'd as often as our Ancestors provided for the proclaiming of Magna Charta and any further security also added if any can be found among men that has a foundation in Justice NOW your Petitioners having with humble submission to your grave Wisdoms thus declar'd their apprehensions of the present condition of this distracted Nation and the only effectual means under God to prevent the impending Mischiefs They do must humbly pray THAT such speedy considerations may be had of the Premises as the Condition of this Nation requires and that such a method may be settled for the debating and consulting about the Government that your wise Results may be seasonable for the healing all the breaches of the Commonwealth and establishing the sure foundations of Freedom Justice Peace and Unity And your Petitioners shall always pray c. Wednesday July the 6 th 1659. THE House being inform'd that divers Gentlemen were at the door with a Petition they were call'd in and one of the Petitioners in behalf of himself and the rest said We humbly present you a Petition to which we might have had many thousand hands but the Matter rather deserves your serious Consideration than any public Attestation and therfore we do humbly present it to this Honorable House Which after the Petitioners were withdrawn was read and was intitl'd The humble Petition of divers wellaffected Persons Resolv'd THAT the Petitioners have the Thanks of the House THE Petitioners were again call'd in and Mr. Speaker gave them this Answer Gentlemen THE House has read over your Petition and find it without any privat end and only for the public Interest and I am commanded to let you know that it lys much upon them to make such a Settlement as may be most for the good of Posterity and they are about that work and intend to go forward with it with as much expedition as may be And for your parts they have commanded me to give you Thanks and in their names I do give you the Thanks of this House accordingly Tho. St. Nicholas Clerc of the Parlament FINIS Advertisement DIscourses concerning Government by ALGERNON SIDNEY Son to ROBERT Earl of Leicester and Ambassador from the Commonwealth of England to CHARLES GUSTAVUS King of Sweden Published from an Original Manuscript of the Author Price 15 s. A Complete Collection of the Historical Political and Miscellaneous Works of JOHN MILTON both English and Latin With som Papers never before publish'd In 3 Vol. To which is prefix'd The Life of the Author containing besides the History of his Works several extraordinary Characters of Men and Books Sects Partys and Opinions Price 35 s. Both printed by J. DARBY and sold by the Booksellers