people have made a very ill choice in the man who is not easily capable of the perfect knowledge in one year of the Senatorian Orders which knowledge allowing him for the first to have been a Novice brings him the second year unto practice and time enough for at this rate you must alwaies have two hundred knowing men in the Government and thus the vicissitude of your Senators is not perceiveable in the steddinesse and perpetuity of your Senate which like that of Venice being alwaies changing is for ever the same and though other Polititians have not so well imitated their pattern there is nothing more obvious in nature seeing a man who wears the same flesh but a short time is neverthelesse the same man and of the same Genius and whence is this but from the constancy of nature in holding a man unto her Orders Wherefore hold also unto your Orders but this is a mean request your Orders will be worth little if they do not hold you unto them wherefore imbarque They are like a ship if you be once aboard you do not carry them but they you and see how Venice stands unto her tacklin you will no more forsake them then you will leap into the Sea But they are very many and difficult O my Lords what Seaman casts away his Carde because it hath four and twenty points of Compasse and yet those are very near as many and as difficult as the Orders in the whole Circumference of your Common-wealth Consider how have we been tossed with every wind of Doctrine lost by the glib tongues of your Demagogs and Grandees in our own Havens A Company of Fidlers that have disturbed your rest for your groat two to one three thousand pounds a year to another hath been nothing and for what is there one of them that yet knowes what a Common-wealth is And are you yet afraid of such a Government in which these shall not dare to scrape for fear of the Statute Themistocles could not fiddle but could make of a small City a great Common-wealth these have fiddled and for your money till they have brought a great Common-wealth to a small City It grieves me while I consider how and from what causes imaginary difficulties will be aggravated that the foregoing Orders are not capable of any greater clearnesse in discourse or writing But if a man should make a book describing every trick or passage it would fare no otherwise with a game at Cards and this is no more if a man play upon the square There is a great difference saith Verulamius between a cunning man and a wise man between a Demagog and a Legislator not onely in point of honesty but in point of ability As there be that can pack the Cards and yet cannot play well so there be some that are good in canvasses and factions that are otherwise weak men Allow me but these Orders and let them come with their Cards in their sleeves or pack if they can Again saith he it is one thing to understand persons and another to understand matters for many are perfect in mens humours that are not greatly capable of the reall part of businesse which is the constitution of one that hath studied men more then books but there is nothing more hurtfull in a State than that cunning men passe for wise His words are an Oracle As Dionysius when he could no longer exercise his tyranny among men turned School-master that he might exercise it among boyes Allow me but these Orders and your Grandees so well skilled in the baites and palates of men shall turn Rat-catchers And whereas Councils as is discreetly observed by the same Authour in his time are at this day in most places but familiar meetings somewhat like the Academy of Provosts where matters are rather talked on then debated and run too swift to order an Act of Council Give me my Orders and see if I have not trashed your Demagogs It is not so much my desire to return upon haunts as theirs that will not be satisfied wherefore if notwithstanding what was said of dividing and choosing in our Preliminary discourses men will yet be returning unto the question Why the Senate must be a Council apart though even in Athens where it was of no other constitution then the Popular Assembly the distinction of it from the other was never held lesse then necessary this may be added unto the former reasons that if the Aristocracy be not for the Debate it is for nothing but if it be for the Debate it must have convenience for it and what convenience is there for debate in a crowd where there is nothing but jostling treading upon one another and stirring of blood than which in this case there is nothing more dangerous Truly it was not ill said of my Lord Epimonus That Venice playes her Game as it were at billiards or nine-holes and so may your Lordships unlesse your ribs be so strong that you think better of football for such sport is debate in a Popular Assembly as notwithstanding the distinction of the Senate was the destruction of Athens This Speech concluded the Debate which happened at the Institution of the Senate the next Assembly is that of the People or Prerogative Tribe The Face or nime of the Prerogative Tribe for the Arms the Horses and the Discipline but more especially for the select Men is that of a very noble Regiment or rather of two the One of Horse divided into three Troops besides that of the Provinces which will be shewn hereafter with their Captains Cornets and two Tribunes of the Horse at the head of them The other of Foot in three Companies besides that of the Provinces with their Captains Ensigns and two Tribunes of the Foot at the head of them The first Troop is called the Phoenix the second the Pelican and the third the Swallow The first Company the Cypresse the second the Mirtle and the third the Spray Of these again not without a near resemblance of the Roman Division of a Tribe the Phoenix and the Cypresse constitute the first Classis the Pelican and the Myrtle the second and the Swallow with the Spray the third renewed every Spring by order 21 The One and Twentieth Order Directing that upon every Monday next ensuing the last of March the Deputies of the annuall Gallaxy arriving at the Pavilion in the Halo and electing one Captain and one Cornet of the Swallow Trienniall Officers by and out of the Cavalry at the Horse Urn according unto the Rules contained in the Ballot of the Hundred And one Captain with one Ensign of the Spray Trienniall Officers by and out of the Infantry at the Foot Urn after the same way of ballotting Constitute and become the third Classis of the Prerogative Tribe Seven Deputies are annually returned by every Tribe whereof three are Horse and four are Foot and there be fifty Tribes so the Swallow must consist of 150
the Result but is the Supream Judicature and the ultimate Appeal in this Common-wealth For the Popular Government that makes account to be of any standing must make sure in the first place of the Appeal unto the People Ante omnes de provocatione adversus Magistratus ad Populum sacrandoque cum bonis capite ejus qui regni occupandi concilia inesset As an Estate in trust becomes a mans own if he be not answerable for it so the Power of a Magistracy not accomptable unto the People from whom it was received becoming of private use the Common-wealth loses her Liberty Wherefore the right of Supream Judicature in the People without which there can be no such thing as Popular Government is confirmed by the constant Practice of all Common-wealths as that of Israel in the Cases of Achan and of the Tribe of Benjamin adjudged by the Congregation The Dicasterion or Court called the Heliaia in Athens which the Comitia of that Common-wealth consisting of the whole People and so being too numerous to be a Judicatory was constituted sometimes of Five hundred at others of One thousand or according to the greatnesse of the Cause of Fifteen hundred elected by the Lot out of the whole body of the People had with the nine Archons that were Presidents the Cognizance of such Causes as were of highest importance in that State The Five Ephors in Lacedemon which were Popular Magistrates might question their Kings as appears by the Cases of Pausanias and of Agis who being upon his Tryall in this Court was cryed unto by his Mother to appeal unto the People as Plutarch hath it in his Life The Tribunes of the People of Rome like in the nature of their Magistracy and for sometime in number unto the Ephors as being according unto Halicarnasseus and Plutarch instituted in imitation of them had power diem dicere to Summon any Man his Magistracy at least being expired for from the Dictator there lay no Appeal to answer for himself unto the People As in the case of Coriolanus which was going about to force the People by withholding Corn from them in a famine to relinquish the Magistracy of the Tribunes In that of Sp. Cassius for affecting Tyranny Of M. Sergius for running away at Veii Of C. Lucretius for spoyling his Province Of Junius Silanus for making War against the Cimberi in jussu Populi with divers others And the Crimes of this nature were call'd Laesae Majestatis Examples of such as were arraigned or tryed for Peculate or Defraudation of the Common-wealth were M. Curius for intercepting the money of the Samnites Salinator for the unequal division of Spoyles unto his Souldiers M. Posthumius for Cheating the Common-wealth by a feigned Shipwrack Causes of these two kinds were of more Publique nature but the like Power upon Appeals was also exercised by the People in private Matters even during the time of the Kings As in the Case of Horatius Nor is it otherwise with Venice where Doge Loridano was Sentenced by the great Council and Antonio Grimani afterwards Doge questioned for that he being Admiral had suffered the Turk to take Lepanto in view of his Fleet. Neverthelesse there lay no Appeal from the Roman Dictator unto the People which if there had might have cost the Common-wealth dear when Sp. Moelius affecting Empire circumvented and debauched the Tribunes whereupon T. Quintius Cinninatus was created Dictator Who having chosen Servilius Alaha to be his Lievtenant or Magister Equitum sent him to apprehend Moelius whom while he disputed the Commands of the Dictator and implored the ayd of the People Alaha cut off upon the place By which example you may see in what cases the Dictator may prevent the blow which is ready sometimes to fall ere the People be aware of the danger Wherefore there lyes no Appeal from the Dieii in Venice unto the Great Council nor from our Council of War to the People For the way of proceeding of this Tribe or the Ballot it is as was once said for all Venetian This Discourse de Judiciis whereupon we are fallen bringeth us rather naturally then of design from the two general Orders of every Common-wealth that is to say from the Debating part or the Senate and the Resolving part or the People to the third which is the Executive part or the Magistracy whereupon I shall have no need to dwell For the Executive Magistrates of this Common-wealth are the Strategus in Arms the Signory in their several Courts as the Chancery the Exchequer as also the Councils in divers Cases within their Instructions the Censors as well in their proper Magistracy as in the Council of Religion the Tribunes in the Government of the Prerogative and that Judicatory And the Judges with their Courts Of all which so much is already said or known as may suffice The Tuesday-Lectures or Orations unto the People will be of great benefit unto the Senate the Prerogative and the whole Nation Unto the Senate because they will not only teach your Senators Elocution but keep the Systeme of the Government in their memories Elocution is of great use unto your Senators for if they do not understand Rhetorick giving it at this time for granted that the Art were not otherwise good and come to treat with or vindicate the cause of the Common-wealth against some other Nation that is good at it the advantage will be subject to remain upon the merit of the Art and not upon the merit of the Cause Furthermore the Genius or Soul of this Government being in the whole and in every part they will never be of ability in determination upon any particular unlesse at the same time they have an Idea of the whole That this therefore must be in that regard of equal benefit unto the Prerogative is plain though these have a greater concernment in it For this Common-wealth is the Estate of the People and a man you know though he be virtuous yet if he do not understand his Estate may run out or be cheated of it Last of all the treasures of the Politicks will by this means be so opened rifled and dispersed that this Nation will as soon dote like the Indians upon glasse Beads as disturb your Government with whimsies and freaks of mother-wit or suffer themselves to be stutter'd out of their Liberties There is not any reason why your Grandees your wise men of this Age that laugh out and openly at a Common-wealth as the most ridiculous thing do not appear to be as in this regard they are meer Ideots but that the People have not Eyes There remaineth no more appertaining unto the Senate and the People than order 24 The Twenty fourth Order Whereby it is lawfull for the Province of Marpesia to have 30. Knights of their own election continually present in the Senate of Oceana together with 60. Deputies of Horse and 120. of Foot in the Prerogative Tribe indued with equall power respect
have no sense of honour or concernment in the sufferings of others But as the Aetolians a state of the like fabrick were reproached by Phillip of Macedon prostrate themselves by letting out their arms unto the lusts of others while they have their own liberty barren and without legitimate issue I do not defame the people the Switz for valour have no superior the Hollander for industry no equal but themselves in the mean time shall so much the less excuse their Governments seeing that unto the Switz it is well enough known that the Ensigns of his Common-wealth have no other Motto then in te converte manus and that of the Hollander though hee swear more gold than the Spaniard digs let 's him languish in debt for shee her self lives upon charity these are dangerous unto themselves precarious governments such as do not command but beg their bread from Province to Province in Coats that being patched up of all colours are of none That their Cantons and Provinces are so many arrows is good but they are so many bows too which is naught Like unto these was the Commonwealth of the ancient Tuscans hung together like Bobbins without an hand to weave with them therefore easily overcome by the Romans though at that time for number a far lesse considerable people If your liberty be not a root that grows it will be a branch that withers which consideration brings mee unto the Paragon the Common-wealth of Rome The ways and means whereby the Romans acquired the Patronage and in that the Empire of the world were different according unto the different Condition of their Commonwealth in her rise and in her growth in her rise shee proceeded rather by Colonies in her growth by unequal Leagues Colonies without the bounds of Italy shee planted none such dispersion of the Roman Citizen as to plant him in forreign parts til the contrary interest of the Emperors brought in that practice was unlawful nor did shee ever demolish any City within that Compass or divest it of liberty but whereas the most of them were Commonwealths stirred up by emulation of her great felicity to war against her if shee overcame any she confiscated some part of their Lands that were the greatest incendiaries or causes of the trouble upon which shee planted Colonies of her own people preserving the Lands and Liberties for the rest unto the natives or inhabitants By this way of proceeding that I may bee brief as is possible she did many and great things For in confirming of Liberty shee propagated her Empire in holding the inhabitants from rebellion shee put a curb upon the incursion of Enemies in exonerating her self of the poorer sort shee multiplied her Citizens in rewarding her veterans shee rendered the rest lesse seditious and in acquiring unto her self the reverence of the Common parent shee from time to time became the Mother of New-born Cities In her farther growth the way of her propagation went more upon Leagues which for the first division were of two kindes Social and Provincial Again Social Leagues or Leagues of Society were of two kindes The first called Latinity or Latine The second Italian Right The League between the Romans and the Latins or Latine Right approached nearest unto Jus Quiritium the right of a native Roman The Man or the City that was honoured with this Right was Civitate donatus cum suffragio adopted a Citizen of Rome with the right of giving suffrage with the people in some cases as those of Confirmation of Law or Determination in Judicature if both the Consuls were agreed not otherwise wherefore that coming to little the greatest and most peculiar part of this Priviledge was that who had born Magistracy at least that of Aedile or Quaestor in any Latine City was by consequence of the same a Citizen of Rome at all points Italian Right was also donation of the City but without Suffrage they who were in either of these Leagues were governed by their own Laws and Magistrates having all the Rights as to liberty of Citizens of Rome yeelding and paying to the Commonwealth as head of the League and having the Conduct of all Affairs appertaining to the Common Cause such aid of Men and Monies as were particularly agreed upon the merit of the cause and specified in their respective Leagues whence such Leagues came to be called equal or unequal accordingly Provincial Leagues were of different extention according unto the Merit and Capacity of a conquered people but of one kinde for every Province was governed by Roman Magistrates as a Praetor or a Consul according to the dignity of the Province for the Civil Administration and conduct of the Provincial Army And a Quaestor for the gathering of the publick Revenue from which Magistrates a Province might appeal unto Rome For the better understanding of these particulars I shall exemplifie in as many of them as is needful And first in Macedon The Macedonians were thrice conquered by the Romans first under the conduct of T. Quintus Flaminius secondly under that of L. Aemilius Paulus and thirdly under that of Q. Caecilius Metellus thence called Macedonicus For the first time Pax petenti Philippo data Graeciae libertas Philip of Macedon who possessed of Acro Corinthus boasted no less than was true that he had Greece in fetters being overcome by Flaminius had his Kingdome restored unto him upon condition that he should forthwith set all the Cities which he held in Greece and in Asia at liberty and that he should not make war out of Macedon but by leave of the Senate of Rome which Philip having no other way to save any thing agreed should be done accordingly The Grecians being at this time assembled at the Istmian Games where the concourse was mighty great a Cryer appointed unto the office by Flaminius was heard among them proclaiming all Greece to be free to which the people being amazed at so hopeless a thing gave little credit till they received such testimony of the truth as put it past all doubt whereupon they fell immediately on running unto the Proconsul with Flowers and Garlands and such violent expressions of their admiration and joy as if Flaminius a young man about some thirty three had not also been very strong hee must have dyed of no other death then their kindness while every one striving to touch his hand they bore him up and down the field with an unruly throng full of such Ejaculations as these How Is there a people in the world that at their own Charge at their own Peril will fight for the liberty of another Did they live at the next door unto this fire Or what kinde of men are these whose business it is to pass Seas that the World may be governed with righteousness The Cities of Greece and of Asia shake off their Iron fetters at the voyce of a Cryer Was it madness to imagine such a thing and is it done O Vertue O Felicity O
Captaines Cornets The Introduction or Order of the Work OCeana is saluted by the Panegyrist after this manner O the most blessed and fortunate of all Countreys Oceana How deservedly hath Nature with the bounties of Heaven and Earth endued thee thy ever fruitfull womb not closed with Ice nor dissolved by the raging Star where Ceres and Bacchus are perpetuall Twins Thy Woods are not the harbour of devouring beasts nor thy continuall Verdure the ambush of Serpents but the food of innumerable herds and flocks presenting thee their Shepherdesse with distended dugs or golden Fleeces The Wings of thy Night involve thee not in the horrour of darknesse but have still some white feather and thy Day is that for which we esteem life the longest But this Extasie of Plinie's as is observed by Bertius seemeth to allude as well unto Marpesia and Panopea now Provinces of this Common-Wealth as unto Oceana her self To speak of the people in each of these Countreys this of Oceana for so soft an one is the most martiall in the whole World Let States that aym at greatnesse saith Verulamius take heed how their Nobility and Gentlemen do multiply too fast for that maketh the common Subject grow to be a Peasant and base Swain driven out of heart and in effect but a Gentlemans labourer Even as you may see in Coppice Woods if you leave the Staddles too thick you shall never have clean underwood but shrubbs and bushes So in Countries if the Gentlemen be too many the Commons will be base and you will bring it to that that not the hundredth pole will be fit for an Helmet especially as to the Infantry which is the nerve of an Army and so there will be great population and little strength This which I speak of hath been no where better seen then by comparing of Oceana and France whereof Oceana though far lesse in territory and population hath been neverthelesse an overmatch in regard the middle people of Oceana make good Souldiers which the Peasants in France do not In which words Verulamius as Machiavill hath done before him harps much upon a string which he hath not perfectly tuned and that is the ballance of Dominion or Propriety as it followeth more plainly in his praise of the profound and admirable device of Panurgus King of Oceana in making Farms and houses of Husbandry of a Standard that is maintained with such a proportion of Land unto them as may breed a Subject to live in convenient plenty and no servile condition and to keep the Plough in the hand of the owners and not meer hirelings and thus indeed saith he you shall attain unto Virgil's Character which he gives of ancient Italy Terra potens armis atque ubere glebae But the Tillage bringing up a good Souldiery bringeth up a good Common-Wealth which the Author in the praise of Panurgus did not mind nor Panurgus in deserving that praise for where the owner of the Plough comes to have the Sword too he will use it in defence of his own whence it hath happened that the people of Oceana in proportion unto their propriety have been alwaies free and the Genius of this Nation hath ever had some resemblance with that of antient Italy which was wholly addicted unto Common-Wealths and where Rome came to make the greatest accompt of her Rustick Tribes and to call her Consuls from the Plough for in the way of Parliaments which was the Government of this Realm men of Country Lives have been still intrusted with the greatest affairs and the people have constantly had an aversion from the wayes of the Court Ambition loving to be gay and to fawn hath been a gallantry looked upon as having something in it of the Livery and Husbandry or the Country way of life though of a grosser spinning as the best stuffe of a Common-wealth according unto Aristotle Agricolarum democratica respublica optima such an one being the most obstinate assertresse of her liberty and the least subject unto innovation or turbulency Wherefore till the foundations as will be hereafter shewed were removed this people was observed to be the least subject unto shakings and turbulency of any Whereas Common-wealths upon which the City life hath had the stronger influence as Athens have seldome or never been quiet but at the best are found to have injured their own businesse by overdoing it Whence the Urbane Tribes of Rome consisting of the Turbaforensis Libertines that had received their freedom by manumission were of no reputation in comparison of the Rusticks It is true that with Venice it may seem to be otherwise in regard the Gentlemen for so are all such called as have right unto the Government are wholly addicted unto the City life but then the Turbaforensis the Secretaries cittadini with the rest of the populacy are wholly excluded otherwise a Common-wealth consisting but of one City would doubtlesse be stormy in regard that ambition would be every mans trade but where it consisteth of a Country the plough in the hands of the owner findeth him a better calling and produceth the most innocent and steddy Genius of a Common-wealth such as is that of Oceana Marpesia being the Northern part of the same Island is the dry nurse of a populous and hardy people but where the Staddles have been formerly too thick whence their courage answered not unto their hardinesse except in the Nobility who governed that Country much after the manner of Poland save that the King was not elective till the people received their liberty the yoke of the Nobility being broken by the Common-Wealth of Oceana which in grateful return is thereby provided with an inexhaustible Magazeen of Auxiliaries Panopea the soft mother of a slothful and pusillanimous people is a neighbour Island anciently subjected by the Arms of Oceana since almost depopulated for shaking off the Yoke and at length replanted with a new Race But through what vertues of the soyl or vice of the air soever it be they come still to degenerate wherefore seeing it is neither likely to yield men fit for Arms nor necessary it should it had been the interest of Oceana so to have disposed of this Province being both rich in the nature of the soyl and full of commodious Ports for Trade that it might have been ordered for the best in relation unto her purse Which in my opinion if it had been thought upon in time might have been best done by planting it with Jewes allowing them their own Rites and Lawes for that would have brought them suddainly from all parts of the World and in sufficient numbers and though the Jews be now altogether for Merchandize yet in the Land of Canaan since their exile from whence they have not been Landlords they were altogether for agriculture and there is no cause why a man should doubt but having a fruitfull Country and good Ports too they would be good at both Panopea well peopled would be
called Vice-comites The Court of the County that had an Earl was held by the Earl and the Bishop of the Diocesse after the manner of the Sheriffs Turns unto this Day by which means both the Ecclesiasticall and Temporal Lawes were given in charge together unto the Country the causes of Vavosors or Vavosories appertained to the Cognizance of this Court where Wills were proved Judgment and Execution given cases criminall and civill determined The Kings Thanes had like jurisdiction in their Thain-Lands as Lords in their Manours where they also kept Courts Besides these in particular both the Earls and Kings-Thanes together with the Bishops Abbots and Vavosors or Middle-Thanes had in the High Court or Parliament of the Kingdome a more publick jurisdiction consisting first of Deliberative power for advising upon and assenting unto new Lawes Secondly of giving Counsel in matters of State and thirdly of Judicature upon Suits and Complaints I shall not omit to enlighten the obscurity of these times in which there is little to be found of a Methodical constitution of this High Court by the addition of an Argument which I conceive to bear a strong testimony unto it self though taken out of a late Writing that conceals the Authour It is well known saith he that in every quarter of the Realm a great many Boroughs do yet send Burgesses unto the Parliament which neverthelesse be so anciently and so long since decayed and gone to naught that they cannot be shew'd to have been of any reputation since the Conquest much lesse to have obtained any such priviledge by the grant of any succeeding King wherefore these must have had this right by more ancient usuage and before the Conquest they being unable now to shew whence they derived it This Argument though there be more I shall pitch upon as sufficient to prove First that the lower sort of the people had right unto Session in Parliament during the time of the Teutons Secondly that they were qualify'd unto the same by election in their Boroughs and if Knights of the Shire as no doubt they are be as ancient in the Countries Thirdly if it be a good Argument to say that the Commons during the raign of the Teutons were elected into Parliament because they are so now and no man can shew when this custom began I see not which way it should be an ill one to say that the Commons during the reign of the Teutons constituted also a distinct house because they do so now unlesse any man can shew that they did ever sit in the same House with the Lords Wherefore to conclude this part I conceive for these and other reasons to be mentioned hereafter that the Parliament of the Teutons consisted of the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of the Nation notwithstanding the style of divers Acts of Parliament which runs as that of Magna Charta in the Kings name only seeing the same was neverthelesse enacted by the King Peers and Commons of the Land as is testified in those words by a subsequent Act. The Monarchy of the Teutons had stood in this posture about two hundred and twenty years when Turbo Duke of Neustria making his claim to the Crown of one of their Kings that dyed Childlesse followed it with successeful Arms and being possessed of the Kingdom used it as conquered distributing the Earldomes Thane Lands Bishopricks and Prelacies of the whole Realm amongst his Neustrians From this time the Earl came to be called Comes Consul Dux though Consul Dux grew afterward out of use The Kings Thanes came to be called Barons and their Lands Baronies the Middle-Thane holding still of a mean Lord retained the name of Vavosor The Earl or Comes continued to have the third part of the pleas of the County paid unto him by the Sheriff or Vice-comes now a distinct Officer in every County depending upon the King saving that such Earls as had their Counties to their own use were now Counts-Palatine and had under the King Regal Jurisdiction insomuch that they constituted their own Sheriffs granted Pardons and issued Writs in their own names nor did Kings Writ of ordinary Justice run in their Dominions till a late Statute whereby much of this priviledge was taken away For Barons they came from henceforth to be in different times of three kinds Barons by their estates and Tenures Barons by writ and Barons created by Letters Pattents From Turbo the first to Adoxus the seventh King from the Conquest Barons had their Denomination from their Possessions and Tenures and these were either Spiritual or Temporal for not onely the Thane Lands but the possessions of Bishops as also of some twenty six Abbots and two Priors were now erected into Baronies whence the Lords Spiritual that had Suffrage in the Teuton Parliament as Spiritual Lords came to have it in the Neustrian Parliament as Barons and were made subject which they had not formerly been unto Knights service in chief Barony comming henceforth to signifie all honorary possessions as well of Earls as Barons and Baronage to denote all kinds of Lords as well Spiritual as Temporal having right to sit in Parliament the Baronies in this sense were sometimes more and sometimes fewer but commonly about 200 or 250 containing in them a matter of sixty thousand feuda militum or Knights fees whereof some twenty eight thousand were in the Clergy It is ill luck that no man can tell what the land of a Knights fee reckoned in some Writs at 40 l. a year and in others at 10. was certainly worth for by such an help we might have exactly demonstrated the Ballance of this Government But sayes Cook it contained twelve plough lands and that was thought to be the most certain account but this again is extreamly uncertain for one Plough out of some Land that was fruitfull might work more than ten out of some other that was barren Neverthelesse seeing it appeareth by Bracton that of Earldoms and Baronies it was wont to be said that the whole Kingdome was composed as also that these consisting of 60000 Knights fees furnisht 60000 men for the Kings service being the whole Militia of this Monarchy it cannot be imagined that the Vavosories or Freeholds in the people amounted to any considerable proportion Wherefore the Ballance and Foundation of this Government was in the 60000 Knights fees and these being possest by the 250 Lords it was a Government of the Few or of the Nobility wherein the people might also assemble but could have no more than a meer name And the Clergy holding a third to the whole Nation as is plaine by the Parliament Rolle it is an absurdity seeing the Clergy of France came first through their riches to be a state of that Kingdome to acknowledge the people to have beene a state of this Realme and not to allow it unto the Clergy who were so much more weighty in
he enjoy his Fathers Estate It is his and his Sons and his Sons Sons after him A man hath five Sons let them be called Would they enjoy their Fathers Estate It is divided among them for we have four Votes for one in the same Family and therefore this must be the Interest of the Family or the Family knoweth not her own Interest If a man shall dispute otherwise he must draw his Arguments from Custom and from Greatnesse which was the interest of the Monarchy not of the Family and we are now a Common-wealth If the Monarchy could not bear with such divisions because they tended to a Common-wealth neither can a Common-wealth connive at such accumulations because they tend to a Monarchy If the Monarchy might make bold with so many for the good of one We may make bold with one for the good of so many nay for the good of all My Lords it cometh into my head that upon occasion of the variety of Parties enumerated in our late Civill Wars was said by a Friend of mine coming home from his Travels about the latter end of these Troubles That he admired how it came to passe that Younger Brothers especially being so many more in number then their Elder did not make one against a Tyranny the like whereof hath not been exercised in any other Nation And truly when I consider that our Country-men are none of the worst natur'd I must confesse I marveil much how it comes to passe that we should use our Children as we do our Puppies take one lay it in the lap feed it with every good bit and drown five Nay worse for as much as the Puppies are once drown'd whereas the Children are left perpetually drowning Really my Lords it is a flinty Custome and all this for his cruell Ambition that would raise himself a Pillar a golden Pillar for his Monument though he have Children his own reviving Flesh and a kind of immortality And this is that Interest of a Family for which we are to think ill of a Government that will not endure it But quiet your selves The Land through which the River Nilus wanders in one stream is barren but where he parts into Seven he multiplies his fertile shores by distributing yet keeping and improving such a Propriety and Nutrition as is a prudent Agrarian unto a well ordered Common-wealth Nor to come unto the fifth Assertion is a Political body rendred any fitter for Industry by having one Gowty and another withered Leg than a naturall It tendeth not unto the improvement of Merchandize that there be some who have no need of their Trading and others that are not able to follow it If confinement discourage Industry an Estate in money is not confined and lest Industry should want whereupon to work Land is not engrossed nor entailed upon any man but remains at her Devotion I wonder whence the computation can arise that this should discourage Industry Two thousand pounds a year a man may enjoy in Oceana as much in Panopea Five hundred in Marpesia there be other Plantations and the Common-wealth will have more Who knoweth how far the Arms of our Agrarian may extend themselves and whether he that might have left a Pillar may not leave a Temple or many Pillars unto his more pious Memory Where there is some measure in riches a man may be rich but if you will have them to be infinite there will be no end of sterving himself and wanting what he hath and what pains does such an one take to be poor Furthermore if a man shall think that there may be an Industry lesse greasie or more noble and so cast his thoughts upon the Common-wealth he will have Leisure for her and she Riches and Honours for him his sweat shall smell like Alexander's My Lord Philautus is a young Man who enjoying his Ten thousand pounds a year may keep a noble House in the old way and have homely Guests and having but Two by the means proposed may take the upper hand of his great Ancestors with reverence unto whom I may say there hath not been one of them would have disputed his place with a Roman Consul My Lord do not break my heart the Nobility shall go unto no other Ploughs then those from which we call our Consuls But saith he it having been so with Lacedemon that neither the City nor the Citizens was capable of increase a blow was given by that Agrarian which Ruined both And what are we concerned with that Agrarian or that blow while our Citizens and our City and that by our Agrarian are both capable of encrease The Spartane if he made a Conquest had not Citizens to hold it the Oceaner will have enow the Spartane could have no Trade the Oceaner may have all The Agrarian in Laconia that it might bind on Knapsacks forbidding all other Arts but that of War could not make an Army of above 30000. Citizens The Agrarian in Oceana without interruption of Traffique provides us in the fifth part of the Youth an annuall source or fresh spring of 100000. besides our Provinciall Auxiliaries out of which to draw marching Armies And as many Elders not feeble but men most of them in the flowr of their Age and in Arms for the defence of our Territories The Agrarian in Laconia banisht money this multiplyes it That allowed a matter of twenty or thirty Acres to a man this two or three thousand There is no Comparison between them And yet I differ so much from my Lord or his opinion that the Agrarian was the Ruine of Lacedemon that I hold it no lesse then demonstrable to have been her main support For if banishing all other diversions it could not make an Army of above 30000 then letting in all other diversions it must have broken that Army Wherefore Lysander bringing in the golden spoyles of Athens irrecoverably ruin'd that Common-wealth and is a warning to us that in giving encouragement unto Industry we also remember that Covetousnesse is the root of all Evill And our Agrarian can never be the cause of those Seditions threatened by my Lord but is the proper cure of them as Lucan noteth well in the State of Rome before the Civil Wars which happened through the want of such an Antidote Hinc usura vorax rapidumque in tempore Foenus Hinc concussa fides et multis utile bellum Why then are we mistaken as if we intended not equall advantages in our Common-wealth unto either Sex because we would not have womens fortunes consist in that metall which exposeth them unto Cut-purses If a man cut my purse I may have him by the heels or by the neck for it Whereas a man may cut a Womans purse and have her for his pains in fetters How bruitish and much more then bruitish is that Common-wealth which preferreth the Earth before the fruits of her Womb If the people be her treasure the staffe by which she is sustained and comforted with
be the most wise and understanding Solon having found the Athenians neither Locally nor Genealogically but by their different wayes of life divided into four Tribes that is into the Souldiery the Tradesmen the Husbandmen and the Goat-herds instituted a new distribution of them according unto the Cense or valuation of their Estates into four Classes the first second and third consisting of such as were Proprietors in Land distinguished by the rate of their free-holds with that stamp upon them which making them capable of honour unto their riches that is to say of the Senate and all the Magistracies excluded the fourth being the body of the people and far greater in number then the former three from other right as to those capacities then the election of these who by this means became an hereditary Aristocracy or Senatorian Order of Nobility This was that course which came afterwards to be the destruction of Rome and had now ruin'd Athens the Nobility according to the inevitable nature of such an one having laid the plot how to devert the people of the result and so to draw the whole power of the Common-wealth unto themselves which in all likelihood they had done if the people coming by meer chance to be victorious in the battel of Plateae and famous for defending Greece against the Persian had not returned with such courage as irresistibly brake the Classes unto which of old they had born a white tooth brought the Nobility unto equall terms and the Senate with the Magistracies to be common unto both the Magistracies by Suffrage and the Senate which was the mischief of it as I shall shew anon in that constitution by lot only The Lacedemonians were in the manner and for the same cause with the Venetians at this day no other than Nobility even according to the definition given of Nobility by Machiavill for they neither exercised any Trade nor labour'd their Lands or Lots which was done by their Helots wherefore some Nobility may be far from pernicious in a Common-wealth by Machiavill's own testimony who is an admirer of this though the servants thereof were more then the Citizens To these servants I hold the answer of Lycurgus when he bad him who asked why he did not admit the people unto the Government of his Common-wealth go home and admit his servants unto the government of his Family to relate for neither were the Lacedemonians servants nor farther capable of the Government unlesse whereas the Congregation had the result he should have given them the debate also every one of these that attained unto sixty years of age and the major vote of the Congregation being equally capable of the Senate The Nobility of Rome and their capacity of the Senate I have already described by that of Athens before the battaile of Plateae save only that the Athenian was never eligible into the Senate without the suffrage of the people till the introduction of the lot but the Roman Nobility ever for the patriPatricians were elected into the Senate by the Kings by the Consuls or the Censors or if a plebeian happened to be conscribed he and is posterity became patrician nor though the people had many disputes with the Nobility did this ever come in controversy which if there had been nothing else might in my judgment have been enough to overturne that Commonwealth The Venetian Nobility but that they are richer and not military resemble at all other points the Lacedemonian as I have already shewn these Machiavill excepts from his rule by saying that their Estates are rather personal then real or of any great revenue in Land which comes unto our account and shews that a Nobility or party of the Nobility not over-ballancing in Dominion is not dangerous but of necessary use in every Common-wealth provided that it be rightly ordered for if it be so ordered as was that of Rome though they do not overballance in the beginning as they did not there it will not be long ere they do as is clear both in reason and that experience towards the later end That the Nobility be capable of the Senate is there only not dangerous where there be no other Citizens as in this Government and that of Lacedemon The Nobility of Holland and Switz though but few have priviledges not only distinct from the people but so great that in some Soveraignties they have a Negative voice an example which I am far from commending being such as if those Governments were not Cantonized divided and subdivided into many petty Soveraignties that ballance one another and in which the Nobility except they had a Prince at the head of them can never joyn to make work would be the most dangerous that ever was but the Gothick of which it savours For in ancient Common-wealths you shall never find a Nobility to have had a negative but by the pole which the people being far more in number came to nothing whereas these have it be they never so few by their stamp or order Ours of Oceana have nothing else but their education and their leisure for the publick furnished by their ease and competent riches and their intrinsick value which according as it comes to hold weight in the Judgment or Suffrage of the People is their only way unto honour and preferment wherefore I would have your Lordships to look upon your Children as such who if they come to shake off some part of their baggage shall make the more quick and glorious march for it was nothing else but the baggage sordidly plunder'd by the Nobility of Rome that lost the victory of the whole World in the midst of her Triumph Having follow'd the Nobility thus close they bring us according unto their natural course and divers kinds unto the divers Constitutions of the Senate That of Israel as was shew'd by my right noble Lord Phosphorus de Auge in the opening of the Common-wealth consisted of seventy Elders elected at the first by the people but whereas they were for life they ever after though without any Divine precept for it substituted their Successours by Ordination which ceremony was most usually performed by imposition of hands and by this means a Common-wealth of as popular institution as can be found became as it is accounted by Josephus Aristocratical From this ordination deriveth that which was introduced by the Apostles into the Christian Church for which cause I think it is that the Presbyterians would have the Government of the Church to be Aristocraticall albeit the Apostles to the end as I conceive that they might give no occasion unto such a mistake but shew that they intended the Government of the Church to be popular Ordained Elders as hath been shewn by the holding up of hands or free Suffrage of the people in every Congregation or Ecclesia for that is the word in the Original being borrow'd from the civil Congregations of the people in Athens and Lacedemon which were so called and
Councils driveth by a natural instinct at Courage and Wisdome which he who hath attained is arriv'd at the perfection of humane nature It is true that these Virtues must have some naturall root in him that is capable of them but this amounteth not unto so great a matter as some will have it For if Poverty make an industrious a moderate Estate a temperate and a Lavish fortune a Wanton Man and this be the common course of things Wisdom is rather of necessity than Inclination And that an Army which was meditating upon Flight hath been brought by Despair to win the Field is so far from being strange that like Causes will evermore produce like Effects Wherefore this Common-wealth driveth her Citizens like Wedges there is no way with them but through nor end but that Glory whereof Man is capable by Art or Nature That the Genius of the Roman Families preserved it self throughout the line as to instance in some that the Manlii were still severe the Publicolae lovers and the Appiâ— haters of the people is attributed by Marchiavill unto their Education nor if interest might adde unto 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 unto their different Educations have yet as different manners It was anciently noted and long confirmed by the French that in their first assaults their courage was more then that of men and for the rest lesse then that of women which neverthelesse through the amendment of their discipline we see to be otherwise I will not say but that some Man or Nation upon equall improvement of this kind may be lighter then some 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 Histories 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 embraces of Cleopatra You must have some other Education for your Youth or they like that passage will shew better in Romance then true Story The Custom of the Common-wealth of Rome in distributing her Magistracies without respect of age happened to do well in Corvinus and Scipio for which cause Machiavill with whom that which was done by Rome and that which is well done is for the most part all one commendeth this course Yet how much it did work at other times is obvious in Pompey Caesar examples by which Bocalini illustrateth the Prudence of Venice in her contrary practice affirming it to have been no small step unto the ruine of the Roman Liberty that these having tasted in their Youth of the Supream Honours had no greater in their age to hope for but by perpetuating of the same in themselves which came to Blood and ended in Tyranny The opinion of Verulamius is safe The Errours saith he of Young Men are the ruine of Businesse whereas the errours of aged men amount but to this that more might have been done or sooner But though their Wisdome be little their Courage is great Wherefore to come unto the main Education of this Common-wealth the Militia of Oceana is the Province of Youth The distribution of this Province by the Essays is so fully described in the Order that I need repeat nothing The Order it self being but a Repetition or Copy of that Originall which in ancient Prudence is of all other the fairest as that from whence the Commonwealth of Rome more especially derived the Empire of the World And there is much more reason in this age when Governments are universally broken or swerved from their Foundations and the People groan under Tyranny that the same causes which could not be withstood when the World was full of Popular Governments should have the like effect The Causes in the Common-wealth of Rome whereof the Empire of the World was not any miraculous but a naturall nay I may safely say necessary consequence are contained in that part of her discipline which was domestick and in that which shee exercised in her provinces or conquest Of the latter I shall have better occasion to speak when we come unto our Provinciall Orbes the former divided the whole People by Tribes amounting as Livy shewes at their full growth unto thirty five and every Tribe by the Cense or valuation of Estates into five Classes for the sixth being Proletary that is the Nursery or such as through their Poverty contributed nothing to the Commonwealth but Children was not reckoned nor used in Armes And this is the first point of the Militia in which Moderne Prudence is quite contrary unto the Ancient for where as we excusing the rich and arming the Poore become the vassalls of our Servants they by excusing the Poor and Arming such as were rich enough to be Freemen became Lords of the Earth The Nobility and Gentry of this Nation who understand so little what it is to be Lords of the Earth that they have not been able to keep their Lands will think it a strange education for their Children to be common Souldiers and obliged unto all the duties of Armes neverthelesse it is not for 4 s. a week but to be capable of being the best man in the Feild or in the City the latter part of which consideration makes the Common Souldier in this a better man then the Generall of any Monarchicall Army And whereas it may be thought that this would drink deep of Noble Blood I dare boldly say take the Roman Nobility in the heat of their fiercest Warrs and you shall not find such a shambles of them as hath been made of ours by meer luxury and slothfullnesse which killing the body Animalsque in vulnere ponunt kill the Soul also whereas Common right is that which who stands in the vindication of hath used that Sword of Justice for which he receiveth the purple of Magistracy the glory of a man on Earth can go no higher and if he fall he riseth and comes sooner unto that reward which is so much higher as Heaven is above Earth To return unto the Roman example Every Classis was divided as hath been more then once shewn into Centurys and every Century was equally divided into Youth and Elders the Youth for Forraigne Service and the Elders for the Guard of the Territory In the first Classis were a matter of eighteene Centurys of Horse being those which by the Justitution of Servius were first called unto the suffrage Centuriâ—tis But the delectus oâ— Levy of an Army which is the present businesse proceeded according to Polybius in this manner Upon a Warr decreed the Consuls elected four and twenty military Tribunes or Colonels whereof ten being such as had merited their tenth Stipend were younger Officers The Tribunes being chosen the Consuls appointed the day unto the Tribes when those in them of military Age
without encouragement by the Roman way of proceeding much lesse that which is proposed But whereas the Roman Legions in all amounted not in one Army to above 30000 Men or little more you have here Fourty thousand and whereas they added Auxiliaries in this regard it is that Marpesia will be of greater Revenue unto you then if you had the Indies for whereas heretofore She hath brought you forth nothing but her native Thistle ploughing out the ranknesse of her Aristocracy by your Agrarian you will find her an inexhaustible Magazine of Men and to her own advantage who will make a far better Accompt by the Arms then by the Pins of Poland Wherefore as a Consular Army consisted of about an equall number of Auxiliaries added unto their Legions by their Latine or Italian Associates you may adde unto a Parliamentary Army an equall number of Marpesians or Panopeans as that Colony shall hereafter be able to supply you By which means the Common-wealth will be able to go forth to Battail with Fourscore thousand Men. To make Wars with small Forces is no Husbandry but a waste a disease a lingring and painful Consumption of Men and Money the Romans making theirs thick made them short and had little regard unto money as that which they who have men enow can command where it is fittest that it should be Levied All the ancient Monarchies by this means got on wing and attain'd unto vast Riches Whereas your Modern Princes being dear Purchasers of small parcels have but empty Pockets But it may be that some will accuse the Order of rashnesse in that it committeth the sole Conduct of the War unto the General and the Custom of Venice by her Proveditori or Checks upon her Commanders in Chief may seem to be of greater Prudence but in this part of our Government neither Venice nor any Nation that maketh use of mercenary Forces is for our Instruction A mercenary Army with a standing Generall is like the fatall Sister that Spins But proper Forces with an annuall Magistrate are like Her that cuts the thread Their Interests are quite contrary and yet you have a better Proveditor then the Venetian another Strategus sitting with an Army standing by him whereupon that which is marching if there were any probability it should would find as little possibility that it could recoyl as a Forraign Enemy to invade you These things considered a War will appear to be of a contrary nature unto that of all other reckonings in as much as of this you must never look to have a good accompt if you be strict in imposing Checks Let a Council of Hunts-men assembled before-hand tell you which way the Stagg shall run where you shall cast about at the fault and how you shall ride to be in at the Chase all the day but these may as well do that as a Council of War direct a General The hours that have painted wings and of different colours are his Counsel he must be like the eye that maketh not the scene but hath it so soon as it changes That in many Counsellors there is strength is spoken of civill Administrations As to those that are Military there is nothing more certain then that in many Counsellors there is weaknesse Joynt Commissions in Military affairs are like hunting your Hounds in their Couples In the Attick War Cleomenes and Demaratus Kings of Lacedemon being thus coupled tugg'd one against another and while they should have joyn'd against the Persian were the Cause of the calamity whereupon that Common-wealth took better Counsel and made a Law whereby from thenceforth there went at once but one of her Kings unto Battail The Fidenati being in rebellion and having slain the Colony of the Romans four Tribunes with Consular power were created by the people of Rome whereof one being left for the guard of the City the other three were sent against the Fidenati who through the division that happened among them brought nothing home but dishonour whereupon the Romans created the Dictator and Livy gives his judgment in these words Tres Tribuni potestate Consulari documento fuêre quà m plurimum imperium bello inutile esset tendendo ad sua quisque consilia cum alii aliud videretur aperuerunt ad occasionem locum hosti When the Consuls Quictius and Agrippa were sent against the Aequi Agrippa for this reason refused to go forth with his Colleague saying Saluberrimum in administratione magnarum rerum summam imperii apud unum esse And if the ruine of Modern Armies were well considered most of it would be found to have fallen upon this Point it being in this case far safer to trust unto any one Man of common Prudence then to any two or more together of the greatest Parts The Consuls indeed being equal in Power while one was present with the Senate and the other in the Field with the Army made a good Ballance and this with us is exactly follow'd by the Election of a new Strategus upon the march of the old one The Seven and twentieth Order Whereby the Elders in case of Invasion are obliged unto equall duty with the Youth and each upon their own Charge is suitable unto reason for every Man defends his own Estate and unto our Copy as in the War with the Samnites and Tuscans Senatus justitium indici delectum omnis generis hominum haberi jussit nec ingenui modo et juniores Sacramento adacti sunt sed seniorum etiam cohortes factae This Nation of all others is the least obnoxious unto Invasion Oceana saith a French Polititian is a Beast that cannot be devoured but by her Self Neverthelesse that Government is not perfect which is not provided at all points and in this ad Triarios res rediit the Elders being such as in a martial State must be Veterans the Common-wealth invaded gathers strength like Antaeus by her fall whilst the whole number of the Elders consisting of five hundred thousand and the Youth of as many being brought up according unto the Order give twelve Successive Battels each Battel consisting of Eighty thousand Men half Elders and half Youth And the Common-wealth whose Constitution can be no stranger unto any of those virtues which are to be acquired in humane life growes familiar with Death ere She dye If the hand of God be upon her for her transgressions She shall mourn for her sins and lye in the dust for her iniquities without losing of her manhood Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidam ferient ruinae The remaining part being the Constitution of the Provinciall Orbe is partly Civill or consisting of the Elders and partly Military or consisting of the Youth The Civil part of the Provincial Orbe is directed by order 28 The Twenty-Eighth Order Whereby the Council of a Province being constituted of twelve Knights divided by four into thrée Regions for their terme and revolution conformable unto the Parliament is perpetuated by the annuall election
their Discretion shall be delivered unto four Commissaries of the Spoiles elected and sworn by the Councill of War which Commissaries shall be allowd shipping by the State and convoyes according as occasion shall require by the Strategus to the end that having a bill of lading signed by thrée or more of the Polemarchs they may Ship and bring or cause such spoiles to be brought unto the Prize Office in Oceana where they shall be sold and the profit arising by such spoiles shall be divided into thrée parts whereof one shall go unto the Treasury another shall be paid to the Souldiery of this Nation a third unto the Auxiliaries at their return from their service provided that the said Auxiliaries be equall in number unto the proper forces of this Nation otherwise their share shall be so much lesse as they are fewer in number the rest of the two thirds to go unto the Officers and Souldiers of the proper forces and the spoiles so divided unto the proper forces shall be subdivided into thrée equall parts whereof one shall go unto the Officers and two unto the common Souldiers the like for the Auxiliaries and the share allotted unto the Officers shall be divided into foure equall parts whereof one shall go to the Strategus another unto the Polemarchs a third unto the Colonels and a fourth unto the Captaines Cornets Ensignes and under Officers receiving their share of the spoile as common Souldiers The like for the Auxiliaries and this upon paine in the case of failure of what the people of Oceana unto whom the Cognizance of Peculate or Crimes of this nature is properly appertaining shall adjudge or decrée Upon these three last orders the Archon seemed to bee haranging at the head of his Army in this manner My dear Lords and Excellent Patriots A Government of this make is a CoÌ„monwealth for increase Of those for preservation the inconveniences and frailties have been shewn their rootes are narrow such as do not runne have no fivers their tops weak and dangerously exposed unto the weather except you chance to finde one as Venice planted in a flowerpot and if shee grow shee grows top-heavy and falls too But you cannot plant an Oak in a flowerpot She must have earth for her root and heaven for her branches Imperium Oceano famam quae terminet astris Rome was said Mole sua ruere to bee broken by her own weight but Poetically For that weight by which she was pretended to bee ruined was supported in her Emperors by a farre slighter foundation And in the Common experience of good Architecture there is nothing more known than that buildings stand the firmer and the longer for their own weight nor ever swerve through any other internal cause than that their materials are corruptible but the people never dyes nor as a Political Body are subject unto any other corruption than that which deriveth from their Government Unlesse a man will deny the chain of causes in which hee denies God hee must also acknowledge the chain of effects wherefore there can bee no effect in Nature that is not from the first Cause and those successive lincks of the chain without which it could not have been Now except a man can shew the contrary in a Commonwealth if there bee no cause of corruption in the first make of it there can never bee any such effect Let no mans superstition impose prophanenesse upon this assertion for as Man is sinful and yet the world is perfect so may the Citizen bee sinfull and yet the Commonwealth bee perfect And as man seeing the World is perfect can never commit any such sin as can render it imperfect or bring it unto a natural dissolution so the Citizen where the common Wealth is perfect can never commit any such crime as can render it imperfect or bring it unto a natural dissolution To come unto experience Venice notwithstanding that wee have found some flaws in it is the only CoÌ„monwealth in the make wherof no man can find a cause of dissolution for which reason wee behold her albeit she consist of men that are not without sin at this day with one thousand years upon her back for any internal cause as young as fresh and free from decay or any appearance of it as shee was born but what ever in nature is not sensible of decay by the course of a thousand years is capable of the whole age of nature by which calculation for any check that I am able to give my self a Commonwealth rightly ordered may for any internal causes be as immortal or long-lived as the World But if this be true those Commonwealths that are naturally fallen must have derived their ruine from the rise of them Israel and Athens died not naturall but violent deaths in this manner the World is to dye wee are speaking of those causes of dissolution which are naturall unto government and they are but two either Contradiction or Inequality if a Common-wealth be a contradiction she must needs destroy her self and if she be unequal it tends to strife and strife to ruine By the former of these fell Lacedemon by the latter Rome Lacedemon being made altogether for war and yet not for increase her natural progresse became her natural dissolution and the building of her own victorious hand too heavy for her foundation so shee indeed fell by her own weight But Rome through her native Inequality which how it invâ—terated the bosomes of the Senate and the people each against other and even unto death hath been shewn at large Look well unto it my Lords for if there be a contradiction or inequality in your Commonwealth it must fall but if it have neither of these it hath no principle of mortality do not think mee impudent if this be truth I should commit a grosse indiscretion in concealing it Sure I am that Machiavil is for the immortality of a Commonwealth upon far weaker principles If a Commonwealth saith he were so happy as to be provided often with men that when she is swarving from her principles should reduce her unto her institution shee would be immortall But a Common-wealth as we have demonstrated swarveth not from her Principles but by and through her institution if she brought no byasse into the World with her her course for any internal cause must be streight forward as we see is that of Venice she cannot turn unto the right hand nor to the left but by some rubs which is not an internal but an external cause against such she can be no way fortifyed but through her situation as is Venice or through her Militia as was Rome by which examples a Common-wealth may be secure or those also Think me not vain for I cannot hold a Common-wealth that is rightly instituted can never swarve nor one that is not rightly instituted be secured from swarving by reduction unto her principles wherefore it is no less apparent in this place that Machiavil understood
the Agrarian came to eat up the people and battening themselves in Luxury to be as Salust speaketh of them Inertissumi nobiles in quibus sicut in statua praeter nomen nihil erat additamenti to bring so mighty a Common-wealth so huge a glory unto so deplorable an end Wherefore means might have been found whereby the enmity that was between the Senate and the People of Rome might have been removed My Lords If I have argued well I have given you the comfort and assurance that notwithstanding the judgment of Machiavill your Common-wealth is both safe and sound but if I have not argued well then take the comfort and assurance which he gives you while he is firm That a Legislator is to lay aside all other examples and follow that of Rome only conniving and temporizing with the enmity between the Senate and the People as a necessary step unto the Roman Greatnesse Whence it followes that your Common-wealth at the worst is that which he hath given you his word is the best I have held your Lordships long but upon an account of no small importance which I can now sum up in these few words Where there is a lickerrishnesse in a popular Assembly to Debate it proceedeth not from the constitution of the People but of the Common-wealth Now that the Common-wealth is of such Constitution as is naturally free from this kind of intemperance is that which to make good I must divide the remainder of my Discourse into two Parts The First shewing the several Constitutions of the Assemblies of the People in other Common-wealths The Second comparing of Our Assembly of the People with Theirs and shewing how it excludeth the inconveniences and embraceth the conveniencies of them all IN the beginning of the first Part I must take notice that among the Popular error of our dayes it is no small one That men imagines the ancient Governments of this kind to have consisted for the most part of one City that is of one Town whereas by what we have learnt of my Lords that open'd them it appears that there was not any considerable one of such a constitution but Carthage till this in our dayes of Venice For to begin with Israel it consisted of the twelve Tribes locally spread or quartered throughout the whole Territory these being called together by Trumpets constituted the Church or Assembly of the people The vastnesse of this weight as also the slownesse thence inavoidable became a great cause as hath been shewn at large by my Lord Phosphorus of the breaking that Common-wealth notwithstanding that the Temple and those religious Ceremonies for which the people were at least annually obliged to repair thither were no small ligament of the Tribes otherwise but slightly tack'd together Athens consisted of four Tribes taking in the whole People both of the City and of the Territory not so gather'd by Theseus into one Town as to exclude the Country but to the end that there might be some Capital of the Commonwealth though true it be that the Congregation consisting of the Inhabitants within the Walls was sufficient to all intents and purposes without those of the Country these also being exceeding numerous became burdensome unto themselves and dangerous unto the Common-wealth the more for their ill education as is observed by Xenophon and Polybius who compare them unto Marriners that in a calm are perpetually disputing and swaggering one with another and never lay their hands unto the Common tackling or safety till they be all indangered by some storm Which caused Thucydides when he saw this people through the purchase of their misery become so much wiser as to reduce their Comitia or Assemblies unto five thousand to say as in his eighth Book And now at least in my time the Athenians seem to have ordered their State aright consisting of a moderate temper both of the Few by which he means the Senate of the Bean and of the Many or the five thousand and he doth not only give you his judgment but the best proof of it for this saith he was the first thing that after so many misfortunes past made the City again to raise her head The place I would desire your Lordships to note as the first example that I find or think is to be found of a popular Assembly by way of Representative Lacedemon consisted of thirty thousand Citizens dispersed throughout Laconia one of the greatest Provinces in all Greece and divided as by some Authors is probable into six Tribes of the whole Body of these being gather'd consisted the great Church or Assembly which had the Legislative power the little Church gather'd sometimes for matters of concernment within the City consisted of the Spartans only these happened like that of Venice to be good constitutions of a Congregation but from an ill cause the infirmity of a Common-wealth which through her Paucity was Oligarchical Wherefore go which way you will it should seem that without a Representative of the people your Commonwealth consisting of an whole Nation can never avoid falling either into Oligarchy or confusion This was seen by the Romans whose rustick Tribes extending themselves from the river Arno unto the Vulturnus that is from Fesulae or Florence unto Capua invented a way of Representative by Lots the Tribe upon which the first fell being the prerogative and some two or three more that had the rest the Jure-vocatae These gave the Suffrage of the Common-wealth binis Comitiis the Prerogative at the first Assembly and the Jure vocatae at a second Now to make the paralel All the inconveniences that you have observed in these Assemblies are shut out and all the conveniences taken in to your prerogative for first it is that for which Athens shaking off the blame of Xenophon and Polybius came to deserve the praise of Thucydides a Representative and secondly not as I suspect in that of Athens and is past suspition in this of Rome by lot but by suffrage as was also the late House of Commons by which means in the prerogatives all the Tribes of Oceana are Jure Vocatae and if a man shall except against the paucity of the standing number it is a wheel which in the revolution of a few years turneth every hand that is fit or fitteth every hand that it turns unto the publick work Moreover I am deceived if upon due consideration it do not fetch your Tribes with greater equality and ease unto themselves and unto the Government from the frontiers of Marpesia than Rome ever brought any one of hers out of her Pomaeria or the nearest parts of her adjoyning Territories To this you may adde That whereas a Common-wealth which in regard of the People is not of facility in execution were sure enough in this Nation to be cast off through impatience Your Musters and Gallaxy's are given unto the people as milk unto babes whereby when they are brought up through four dayes election in an whole
year one at the Parish one at the Hundred and two at the Tribe unto their strongest meat it is of no harder digestion then 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 confesse have been 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 saith that taking them apart they are very simple but yet in their Assemblies they see and know something and so runs away without troubling himself with what that something is Whereas the people taken apart are but so many private interests but if you take them together they are the publick interest the publick interest of a Common-wealth as hath been shewn is nearest that of mankind and that of mankind is right reason but with the 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 then the people considered in that manner so being put together they are such fooles that by deposing the people as did those of Rome they will saw off the branch whereupon they sit or rather destroy the root of their own greatnesse Wherefore Machiavill following Aristotle and yet going before him may well assert Che la multitudine è piu savia et piu costunte che vn Prencipe the Prerogative of Popular Government for wisdome And hence it is that the Prerogative of your Common-wealth as for Wisdom so for Power is in the People which albeit I am not ignorant that the Roman Prerogative was so called a Praerogando because their Suffrage was first asked gives the denomination unto your Prerogative Tribe The Elections whether Annual or Triennial being shewn by the Twenty second that which comes in the next place to be considered is order 23 The Twenty third Order shewing the Power function and manner of Proceeding 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 Iudicature in which regard it is the highest Court and the last appeale in this Common-wealth For the former part the people by this Constitution being not obliged by any Law that is not of their own making or Confirmation by the Result of the Prerogative their equall Representative It shall not be lawfull for the Senate to require Obedience from the people nor for the people to give obe obedience unto the Senate in or by any Law that hath not been promulgated or printed publisht for the space of six wéeks afterwards porposed by the Authority of the Senate unto the Prerogative Tribe and resolved by the Major Uote of the same in the affirmative Nor shall the Senate have any power to levy War Men or Money otherwise then by the consent of the People so given or by a Law so Enacted except in cases of exigence in which it is agreed thar the Power both of the Senate and the People shall be in the Dictator so qualified and for such a terme of time as is according unto that Constitution already prescribed While a Law is in Promulgation the Censors shall animadvert upon the Senate and the Tribunes upon the People that there he no laying of heads together Conventicles or Canvassing to carry on or oppose any thing but that all my be done in a frée and open way For the latter part of the Power of the Prerogative or that whereby they are the Supream Iudicatory of this Nation and of the Provinces of the same the Cognizance of Crimes against the Majesty of the People as high Treason as also of Peculate that is robery of the Treasury or Defraudation of the Common-wealth appertaineth unto this Tribe and if any Person or Persons Provincialls or Citizens shall appeale unto the people it belongerh unto the Prerogative to Iudge and determine the Case Provided that if the Appeale be from any Court of justice in this Nation or the Provinces the Appellant shall first deposite one hundred pounds in the Court from which he appealeth to be forfeited unto the same if he be cast in his Suite by the people But the Power of the Council of War being the expedition of this Common-wealth and the Martiall Law of the Strategus in the Field are those onely from which there shall lye no Appeale unto the People The Proceeding of the Prerogative in case of a Proposition is to be thus Ordered The Magistrates proposing by Authority of the Senate shall rehearse the whole Matter and expound it unto the People which done they shall put the whole together unto the Suffrage with three Boxes the Negative the Affirmative and the Non-sincere and the Suffrage being returned unto the Tribunes and numbred in the presence of the Proposers if the Major Uote be in the Non-sincere the Proposers shall desist and the Senate shall resume the Debate If the Major Uote be in the Negative the Proposers shall desist and the Senate too But if the Major Uote be in the Affirmative then the Tribe is clear and the Proposers shall begin and put the whole matter with the Negative and the Affirmative leaving out the Non-sincere by Clauses and the Suffrages being taken and numbred by the Tribunes in the presence of the proposers shall be written and reported by the Tribunes unto the Senate and that which is proposed by the authority of the Senate and confirmed by the Command of the People is the Law of Oceana The Proceeding of the Prerogative in a case of Iudicature is to be thus ordered The Tribunes being Auditors of all Causes appertaining unto the Cognizance of the people shall have notice of the Sute or Tryall whether of appeale or otherwise that is to be Commenced and if any one of them shall accept of the same it appertaineth unto him to introduce it A Cause being introduced and the people Mustered or Assembled for the Decision of the same the Tribunes are Presidents of the Court having power to keep it unto Orders and shall be seated upon a Scaffold erected in the middle of the Tribe upon the right hand shall stand a seat or large Pulpit assigned unto the Plaintiffe or the Accuser and upon the left another for the Defendant each if they splease with his Counsel And the Tribunes being attended upon such occations with so many Ballotines Secretaryes Door-keekers and Messengers of the Senate as shall be requisite One of them shall turn up a Glasse of the nature of an hour-glasse but such an one as is to be of an houre and a halfe's running which being turned up the party or Counsell on the right hand may begin to speak to the People if there be Papers to be read or