this our Author attributes it to the wisdom of Princes But before this comes to be authentick we must at the least be sure that all Princes have this great and profound Wisdom which our Author acknowledges to be in them and which is certainly necessary for the doing of such great things if they were referred to them They seem to us to be born like other men and to be generally no wiser than other men We are not obliged to believe that Nebuchadnezzar was wise till God had given him the heart of a man or that his Grandson Belshazzar who being laid in the balance was found too light had any such profound Wisdom Ahasuerus shewed it not in appointing all the People of God to be slain upon a Lie told to him by a Rascal and the matter was not very much mended when being informed of the truth he gave them leave to kill as many of their Enemies as they pleased The hardness of Pharaoh's heart and the overthrow thereby brought upon himself and People dos not argue so profound a Judgment as our Author presumes every Prince must have And 't is not probable that Samuel would have told Saul He had done foolishly if Kings had always bin so exceeding wise Nay if Wisdom had bin annexed to the Character Solomon might have spared the pains of asking it from God and Rehoboam must have had it Not to multiply examples out of Scripture 't is believed that Xerxes had not inflicted Stripes upon the Sea for breaking his Navy in pieces if he had bin so very wise Caligula for the same reason might have saved the labour of making love to the Moon or have chosen a fitter Subject to advance to the Consulat than his Horse Incitatus Nero had not endeavoured to make a Woman of a Man nor married a Man as a Woman Many other Examples might be alledged to shew that Kings are not always wise and not only the Roman Satyrist who says Quicquid delirant Reges c. shews that he did not believe them to be generally wiser than other men but Solomon himself judges them to be as liable to infirmities when he prefers a wise Child before an old and foolish King If therefore the strength of our Author's Argument lies in the certainty of the Wisdom of Kings it can be of no value till he proves it to be more universal in them than History or Experience will permit us to believe Nay if there be Truth or Wisdom in the Scripture which frequently represents the wicked Man as a Fool we cannot think that all Kings are wise unless it be proved that none of them have bin wicked and when this is performed by Filmer's Disciples I shall confess my error Men give testimony of their Wisdom when they undertake that which they ought to do and rightly perform that which they undertake both which points do utterly fail in the subject of our Discourse We have often heard of such as have adopted those to be their Sons who were not so and some Civil Laws approve it This signifies no more than that such a man either through affection to one who is not his Son or to his Parents or for some other reason takes him into his Family and shews kindness to him as to his Son but the adoption of Fathers is a whimsical piece of nonsense If this be capable of an aggravation I think none can be greater than not to leave it to my own discretion who having no Father may resolve to pay the Duty I owed to my Father to one who may have shewed Kindness to me but for another to impose a Father upon a Man or a People composed of Fathers or such as have Fathers whereby they should be deprived of that natural Honour and Right which he makes the foundation of his Discourse is the utmost of all absurdities If any Prince therefore have ever undertaken to appoint Fathers of his People he cannot be accounted a man of profound Wisdom but a Fool or a Madman and his acts can be of no value But if the thing were consonant to Nature and referred to the will of Princes which I absolutely deny the frequent Extravagancies committed by them in the elevation of their Favourites shews that they intend not to make them Fathers of the People or know not what they do when they do it To chuse or institute a Father is nonsense in the very term but if any were to be chosen to perform the Office of Fathers to such as have none and are not of age to provide for themselves as men do Tutors or Guardians for Orphans none could be capable of being elected but such as in kindness to the person they were to take under their care did most resemble his true Father and had the vertues and abilities required rightly to provide for his good If this fails all Right ceases and such a corruption is introduced as we saw in our Court of Wards which the Nation could not bear when the Institution was perverted and the King who ought to have taken a tender care of the Wards and their Estates delivered them as a prey to those whom he favoured Our Author ridiculously attributes the Title and Authority of Father to the word Prince for it hath none in it and signifies no more than a Man who in some kind is more eminent than the Vulgar In this sense Mutius Scaevola told Porsenna that Three hundred Princes of the Roman Youth had conspired against him by which he could not mean that three hundred Fathers of the Roman Youth but three hundred Roman young men had conspired and they could not be Fathers of the City unless they had bin Fathers of their own Fathers Princeps Senatus was understood in the same sense and T. Sempronius the Censor chusing Q. Fabius Maximus to that Honour gave for a reason Se lectarum Q. Fabium Maximum quem tum Principem Romanae Civitatis esse vel Annibale judice dicturus esset which could not be understood that Hannibal thought him to be the Father or Lord of the City for he knew he was not but the Man who for Wisdom and Valour was the most eminent in it The like are and ought to be the Princes of every Nation and tho something of Honour may justly be attributed to the Descendents of such as have done great Services to their Country yet they who degenerate from them cannot be esteemed Princes much less can such Honours or Rights be conferred upon Court-creatures or Favourites Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Galba and others could advance Macro Pallas Narcissus Tigellinus Vinnius Laco and the like to the highest degrees of Riches and Power but they still continued to be Villains and so they died No wise or good Man ever thought otherwise of those who through the folly of Princes have bin advanced to the highest places in several Countries The madness of attributing to them a paternal power seems to
are so civil The vanity of our Age seems to carry this Point a little higher especially among the French who put a great weight upon the word Prince but they cannot change the true signification of it and even in their sense Prince du Sang signifies no more than a chief Man of the Royal Blood to whom they pay much respect because he may come to the Crown as they at Rome do to Cardinals who have the Power of chusing Popes and out of whose number for some Ages they have bin chosen In this sense did Scevola when he was apprehended by Porsenna say Trecenti conjuravimus Romanae juvcntutis Principes which was never otherwise understood than of such young Citizens as were remarkable amongst their Companions And nothing can be more absurd than to think if the name of Prince had carried an absolute and despotical Power with it that it could belong to three hundred in a City that possessed no more than a ten miles Territory or that it could have been given to them whilst they were young and the most part of their Fathers as is most probable still living I should like our Author run round in a Circle if I should refute what he says of a Regal Power in our first Parents or shew that the Regal where it is is not absolute as often as he dos assert it But having already proved that Adam Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob c. enjoyed no such Power transmitted to every one of their Sons that which they had and they became Fathers of many great Nations who always continued independent on each other I leave to our Author to prove when and by what Law the Right of subdividing the Paternal Power was stopped and how any one or more of their Descendants came to have that Power over their Brethren which none of their immediate Children had over theirs His question to Suarez how and when Sons become free savours more of Jesuitical Sophistry than any thing said by the Jesuit but the Solution is easy for if he mean the respect veneration and kindness proceeding from gratitude it ceases only with the Life of the Father to whom it is due and the memory of it must last as long as that of the Son and if they had bin possessed of such an absolute Power as he fancies it must have ceased with the reasons upon which it was grounded First Because the Power of which a Father would probably have made a wise and gentle use could not be rightly trusted in the hands of one who is not a Father and that which tended only to the preservation of all the Children could not be turned to the increase of the Pride Luxury and Violence of one to the oppression of others who are equally Heirs In the second place Societies cannot be instituted unless the Heads of the Families that are to compose them resign so much of their Right as seems convenient into the publick Stock to which every one becomes subject But that the same Power should at the same time continue in the true Father and the figurative Father the Magistrate and that the Children should owe intire Obedience to the Commands of both which may often cross each other is absurd Thirdly It ceases when it cannot be executed as when men live to see four or five Generations as many do at this day because the Son cannot tell whether he should obey his Father Grandfather or Great-Grandsather and cannot be equally subject to them all most especially when they live in divers places and set up Families of their own as the Sons of the Patriarchs did which being observed I know no place where this Paternal Power could have any effect unless in the fabulous Island of Pines and even there it must have ceased when he died who by the Inventor of the story is said to have seen above ten thousand Persons issued of his body And if it be said that Noah Shem Abraham c. consented that their Children should go where they thought fit and provide for themselves I answer that the like has bin done in all Ages and must be done for ever 'T is the Voice of Nature obeyed not only by mankind but by all living Creatures and there is none so stupid as not to understand it A Hen leaves her Chickens when they can seek their own nourishment A Cow looks after her Calf no longer than till it is able to feed A Lion gives over hunting for his Whelps when they are able to seek their own Prey and have strength enough to provide what is sufficient for themselves And the contrary would be an insupportable burden to all living Creatures but especially to men for the good order that the rational Nature delights in would be overthrown and Civil Societies by which it is best preserved would never be established We are not concerned to examine Whether the Political and Oeconomical Powers be intirely the same or in what they differ for that absolute Power which he contends for is purely despotical different from both or rather inconsistent with either as to the same Subject and that which the Patriarchs exercised having bin equally inherited by their Children and consequently by every one of their Posterity 't is as much as is required for my purpose of proving the natural universal Liberty of Mankind and I am no way concerned in the Question Whether the first Parents of Mankind had a Power of Life and Death over their Children or not SECT V. Freemen join together and frame greater or lesser Societies and give such Forms to them as best please themselves THIS being established I shall leave Filmer to fight against Suarez or Bellarmin or to turn one of them against the other without any concernment in the Combat or the success of it But since he thereupon raises a Question Whether the supreme Power be so in the People that there is but one and the same Power in all the People of the World so that no Power can be granted unless all Men upon the Earth meet and agree to chuse a Governor I think it deserves to be answered and might do it by proposing a Question to him Whether in his opinion the Empire of the whole World doth by the Laws of God and Nature belong to one Man and who that Man is Or how it came so to be divided as we have ever known it to have bin without such an injury to the Universal Monarch as can never be repaired But intending to proceed more candidly and not to trouble my self with Bellarmin or Suarez I say that they who place the Power in a Multitude understand a Multitude composed of Freemen who think it for their convenience to join together and to establish such Laws and Rules as they oblige themselves to observe which Multitude whether it be great or small has the same Right because ten men are as free as ten millions of men and tho it may be more prudent
as much as to say that they were ruin'd when they fell from their own unnatural Inventions to follow the Law of God and of Nature that Luxury also through which they fell was the product of their Felicity and that the Nations that had bin subdued by them had no other way of avenging their Defeats than by alluring their Masters to their own Vices This was the Root of their Civil Wars When that proud City found no more resistance it grew wanton Saevior armis Luxuria incubuit victumque ulciscitur orbem Lucan Honest Poverty became uneasy when Honours were given to ill-gotten Riches This was so Monarchical that a People infected with such a Custom must needs fall by it They who by Vice had exhausted their Fortunes could repair them only by bringing their Country under a Government that would give impunity to Rapine and such as had not Virtues to deserve Advancement from the Senate and People would always endeavour to set up a Man that would bestow the Honours that were due to Virtue upon those who would be most abjectly subservient to his Will and Interests When mens minds are filled with this Fury they sacrifice the common Good to the advancement of their private Concernments This was the temper of Catiline expressed by Sallust Luxuria principi gravis paupertas vix à privato toleranda and this put him upon that desperate extremity to say Incendium meum ruinâ extinguam Others in the same manner being filled with the same rage he could not want Companions in his most villanous Designs 'T is not long since a Person of the highest Quality and no less famous for Learning and Wit having observed the State of England as it stood not many years ago and that to which it has bin reduc'd since the year sixty as is thought very much by the Advice and Example of France said That they now were taking a most cruel vengeance upon us for all the Overthrows received from our Ancestors by introducing their most damnable Maxims and teaching us the worst of their Vices 'T is not for me to determine whether this Judgment was rightly made or not for I intend not to speak of our Affairs but all Historians agreeing that the change of the Roman Government was wrought by such means as I have mentioned and our Author acknowledging that change to have bin their ruin as in truth it was I may justly conclude that the overthrow of that Government could not have bin a ruin to them but good for them unless it had bin good and that the Power which did ruin it and was set up in the room of it cannot have bin according to the Laws of God or Nature for they confer only that which is good and destroy nothing that is so but must have bin most contrary to that good which was overthrown by it SECT XVI The best Governments of the World have bin composed of Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy OUR Author's cavils concerning I know not what vulgar Opinions that Democracies were introduc'd to curb Tyranny deserve no answer for our question is Whether one form of Government be prescribed to us by God and Nature or we are left according to our own understanding to constitute such as seem best to our selves As for Democracy he may say what pleases him of it and I believe it can sute only with the convenience of a small Town accompanied with such Circumstances as are seldom found But this no way obliges men to run into the other extream in as much as the variety of forms between meer Democracy and Absolute Monarchy is almost infinite And if I should undertake to say there never was a good Government in the world that did not consist of the three simple Species of Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy I think I might make it good This at the least is certain that the Government of the Hebrews instituted by God had a Judg the great Sanhedrin and General Assemblies of the People Sparta had two Kings a Senate of twenty eight chosen Men and the like Assemblies All the Dorian Cities had a chief Magistrate a Senate and occasional Assemblies The Ionian Athens and others had an Archon the Areopagi and all Judgments concerning matters of the greatest importance as well as the Election of Magistrates were referr'd to the People Rome in the beginning had a King and a Senate whilst the Election of Kings and Judgments upon Appeals remained in the People afterwards Consuls representing Kings and vested with equal Power a more numerous Senate and more frequent meetings of the People Venice has at this day a Duke the Senate of the Pregadi and the Great Assembly of the Nobility which is the whole City the rest of the Inhabitants being only Incolae not Cives and those of the other Cities or Countries are their Subjects and do not participate of the Government Genoa is governed in like manner Luca not unlike to them Germany is at this day governed by an Emperor the Princes or great Lords in their several Precincts the Cities by their own Magistrates and by general Diets in which the whole power of the Nation resides and where the Emperor Princes Nobility and Cities have their places in person or by their Deputies All the Northern Nations which upon the dissolution of the Roman Empire possessed the best Provinces that had composed it were under that form which is usually called the Gothick Polity They had King Lords Commons Diets Assemblies of Estates Cortez and Parliaments in which the Sovereign Powers of those Nations did reside and by which they were exercised The like was practised in Hungary Bohemia Sweden Denmark Poland and if things are changed in some of these places within few years they must give better proofs of having gained by the change than are yet seen in the World before I think my self obliged to change my opinion Some Nations not liking the name of King have given such a power as Kings enjoy'd in other places to one or more Magistrates either limited to a certain time or left to be perpetual as best pleased themselves Others approving the name made the Dignity purely elective Some have in their Elections principally regarded one Family as long as it lasted Others consider'd nothing but the fitness of the Person and reserved to themselves a liberty of taking where they pleased Some have permitted the Crown to be hereditary as to its ordinary course but restrained the Power and instituted Officers to inspect the Proceedings of Kings and to take care that the Laws were not violated Of this sort were the Ephori of Sparta the Maires du Palais and afterwards the Constable of France the Justicia in Arragon Rijckshofmeister in Denmark the High Steward in England and in all places such Assemblies as are before-mentioned under several names who had the Power of the whole Nation Some have continued long and it may be always in the same form others have changed
If this was not so he must think that no Crime was capital but the punishment of capital Crimes or that no man was subject to the Supreme Power but he that was created for the execution of it Yet even this will not stop the gap for the Law that condemned the Magistrate to die could be of no effect if there were no man to execute it and there could be none if the Law prohibited it or that he who did it was to die for it And this goes on to infinity For is a Magistrate could not put a Citizen to death I suppose a Citizen could not put to death a Magistrate for he also is a Citizen So that upon the whole matter we may conclude that Malice is blind and that Wickedness is Madness 'T is hard to say more in praise of Popular Governments than will result from what he says against them his reproaches are Praises and his Praises reproaches As Government is instituted for the preservation of the governed the Romans were sparing of Blood and are wisely commended by Livy for it Nulli unquam Populo mitiores placuere poenae which gentleness will never be blamed unless by those who are pleased with nothing so much as the fury of those Monsters who with the ruin of the best part of mankind usurp'd the dominion of that glorious City But if the Romans were gentle in punishing Offences they were also diligent in preventing them the excellence of their Discipline led the Youth to Virtue and the Honours they received for recompence confirmed them in it By this means many of them became Laws to themselves and they who were not the most excellent were yet taught so much of good that they had a veneration for those they could not equal which not only served to incite them to do well according to their Talents but kept them in such aw as to fear incurring their ill opinion by any bad action as much as by the penalty of the Law This integrity of manners made the Laws as it were useless and whilst they seemed to sleep ignorant persons thought there were none But their Discipline being corrupted by Prosperity those Vices came in which made way for the Monarchy and Wickedness being placed in the Throne there was no safety for any but such as would be of the same spirit and the Empire was ruined by it SECT XIX That Corruption and Venality which is natural to Courts is seldom found in Popular Governments OUr Author's next work is with that modesty and truth which is natural to him to impute Corruption and Venality to Commonwealths He knows that Monarchies are exempted from those evils and has discovered this truth from the integrity observed in the modern Courts of England France and Spain or the more antient of Rome and Persia But after many falshoods in matter of fact and misrepresentations of that which is true he shews that the Corruption Venality and Violence he blames were neither the effects of Liberty nor consistent with it Cneius Manlius who with his Asiatic Army brought in the Luxury that gave birth to those mischiefs did probably follow the loosenss of his own disposition yet the best and wisest men of that time knew from the beginning that it would ruin the City unless a stop might be put to the course of that evil But they who had seen Kings under their feet and could no longer content themselves with that equality which is necessary among Citizens fomented it as the chief means to advance their ambitious designs Tho Marius was rigid in his nature and cared neither for Mony nor sensual Pleasures yet he favour'd those Vices in others and is said to be the first that made use of them to his advantage Catiline was one of the lewdest men in the world and had no other way of compassing his designs than by rendring others as bad as himself and Cesar set up his Tyranny by spreading that corruption farther than the others had bin able to do and tho he Caligula and some others were slain yet the best men found it as impossible to restore Liberty to the City when it was corrupted as the worst had done to set up a Tyranny whilst the integrity of their manners did continue Men have a strange propensity to run into all manner of excesses when plenty of means invite and that there is no power to deter of which the succeeding Emperors took advantage and knowing that even their subsistence depended upon it they thought themselves obliged by interest as well as inclination to make Honours and Preferments the rewards of Vice and tho it be not always true in the utmost extent that all men follow the example of the King yet it is of very great efficacy Tho some are so good that they will not be perverted and others so bad that they will not be corrected yet a great number dos always follow the course that is favour'd and rewarded by those that govern There were Idolaters doubtless among the Jews in the days of David and Hezekiah but they prosper'd better under Jeroboam and Ahab England was not without Papists in the time of Queen Elizabeth but they thrived much better during the Reign of her furious Sister False Witnesses and Accusers had a better trade under Tiberius who called them Custodes Legum than under Trajan who abhorred them and Whores Players Fidlers with other such Vermin abounded certainly more when encouraged by Nero than when despised by Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius But as every one of these manifested what he was by those he favour'd or punish'd and that a man can only be judged by his principles or practices he that would know whether absolute Monarchies or mixed Governments do most foment or punish Venality and Corruption ought to examine the principle and practice of both and compare them one with the other As to the principle the above-mentioned Vices may be profitable to private men but they can never be so to the Government if it be popular or mixed No People was ever the better for that which renders them weak or base and a duly created Magistracy governing a Nation with their consent can have no interest distinct from that of the Publick or desire to diminish the strength of the People which is their own and by which they subsist On the other side the absolute Monarch who governs for himself and chiefly seeks his own preservation looks upon the strength and bravery of his Subjects as the root of his greatest danger and frequently desires to render them weak base corrupt and unfaithful to each other that they may neither dare to attempt the breaking of the Yoak he lays upon them nor trust one another in any generous design for the recovery of their Liberty So that the same corruption which preserves such a Prince if it were introduced by a People would weaken if not utterly destroy them Again all things have their continuance from a principle in
Mother and Nurse of them Tho I should fill a Volume with examples of this kind as I might easily do such as our Author will say that in Popular Governments men look upon Mischiefs as Thunder and only wish it may not touch themselves But leaving them to the scorn and hatred they deserve by their impudence and folly I conclude this point with the answer that Trajano Boccalini puts into the mouth of Apollo to the Princes who complained that their Subjects had not that love to their Countries as had bin and was daily seen in those who lived under Commonwealths which did amount to no more than to tell them that their ill Government was the cause of that defect and that the prejudices incurr'd by Rapine Violence and fraud were to be repaired only by Liberality Justice and such a care of their Subjects that they might live happily under them SECT XXII Commonwealths seek Peace or VVar according to the Variety of their Constitutions IF I have hitherto spoken in general of popular or mixed Governments as if they were all founded on the same principle it was only because our Author without distinction has generally blamed them all and generally imputed to every one those Faults which perhaps never were in any but most certainly are directly opposite to the temper and constitution of many among them Malice and Ignorance reign so equally in him that 't is not easy to determine from which of the two this false representation proceeds But lest any man should thereby be imposed upon 't is time to observe That the Constitutions of Commonwealths have bin so various according to the different temper of Nations and Times that if some of them seem to have bin principally constituted for War others have as much delighted in Peace and many having taken the middle and as some think the best way have so moderated their love to Peace as not to suffer the Spirits of the People to fall but kept them in a perpetual readiness to make War when there was occasion and every one of those having followed several ways and ends deserve our particular consideration The Cities of Rome Sparta Thebes and all the Associations of the Etolians Achaians Sabins Latins Samnites and many others that antiently flourish'd in Greece and Italy seem to have intended nothing but the just preservation of Liberty at home and making War abroad All the Nations of Spain Germany and Gaul sought the same things Their principal work was to render their People valiant obedient to their Commanders lovers of their Country and always ready to fight for it And for this reason when the Senators of Rome had kill'd Romulus they perswaded Julius Proculus to affirm that he had seen him in a most glorious form ascending to Heaven and promising great things to the City Proinde rem militarem colant The Athenians were not less inclined to War but applied themselves to Trade as subservient to that end by increasing the number of the People and furnishing them with the means of carrying it on with more vigour and power The Phenician Cities of which Carthage was the most eminent followed the same method but knowing that Riches do not desned themselves or scorning slothfully to enjoy what was gained by Commerce they so far applied themselves to War that they grew to a Power which Rome only was able to overthrow Venice Florence Genoa Lucca and some other Cities of Italy seem chiefly to have aimed at Trade and placing the hopes of their safety in the protection of more powerful States unwillingly enter'd into Wars especially by Land and when they did they made them by mercenary Soldiers Again some of those that intended War desir'd to enlarge their Territories by conquest others only to preserve their own and to live with freedom and safety upon them Rome was of the first sort and knowing that such ends cannot be accomplished without great numbers of men they freely admitted Strangers into the City Senate and Magistracy Numa was a Sabin Tarquinius Priscus was the Son of a Grecian One hundred of those Sabins who came with Tatius were admitted into the Senate Appius Claudius of the same People came to Rome was made a Member of the Senate and created Consul They demolished several Cities and brought the Inhabitants to their own gave the right of Citizens to many others sometimes to whole Cities and Provinces and cared not how many they received so as they could engraft them upon the same interest with the old stock and season them with the same Principles Discipline and Manners On the other side the Spartans desiring only to continue free virtuous and safe in the enjoyment of their own Territory and thinking themselves strong enough to defend it framed a most severe Discipline to which few Strangers would submit They banished all those curious Arts that are useful to Trade prohibited the importation of Gold and Silver appointed the Helotes to cultivate their Lands and to exercise such Trades as are necessary to life admitted few Strangers to live amongst them made none of them free of their City and educated their Youth in such exercises only as prepared them for War I will not take upon me to judg whether this proceeded from such a moderation of Spirit as placed Felicity rather in the fulness and stability of Liberty Integrity Virtue and the enjoyment of their own than in Riches Power and Dominion over others nor which of these two different methods deserves most to be commended But certain it is that both succeeded according to the intention of the Founders Rome conquer'd the best part of the World and never wanted men to defend what was gained Sparta lived in such happiness and reputation that till it was invaded by Epaminondas an Enemies Trumpet had not bin heard by those within the Town for the space of eight hundred years and never suffer'd any great disaster till receding from their own Institutions they were brought by prosperity to affect the Principality of Greece and to undertake such Wars as could not be carried on without Mony and greater numbers of men than a small City was able to furnish by which means they were obliged to beg assistance from the Barbarians whom they scorned and hated as appears by the Stories of Callicratidas Lysander and Agesilaus and fell into such straits as were never recovered The like variety has bin observed in the Constitutions of those Northern Nations that invaded the Roman Empire for tho all of them intended War and looked upon those only to be Members of their Commonwealths who used arms to defend them yet some did immediately incorporate themselves with those of the conquer'd Countries Of this number were the Franks who presently became one Nation with the Gauls others kept themselves in a distinct body as the Saxons did from the Britains And the Goths for more than three hundred years that they reigned in Spain never contracted Marriages or otherwise mixed with
destroy those he seared that is the City he might easily have accomplish'd his work if the judgment had bin referred to him If the people judg Tarquin 't is hard to imagine how they should be brought to give an unjust Sentence They loved their former Kings and hated him only for his Villanies They did not fancy but know his cruelty When the best were slain no man that any way resembled them could think himself secure Brutus did not pretend to be a Fool till by the murder of his Brother he found how dangerous a thing it was to be thought wise If the people as our Author says be always lewd foolish mad wicked and desirous to put the Power into the hands of such as are most like to themselves he and his Sons were such men as they sought and he was sure to find favourable Judges If virtuous and good no injustice was to be feared from them and he could have no other reason to decline their indgment than what was suggested by his own wickedness Caligula Nero Domitian and the like had probably the same considerations But no man of common sense ever thought that the Senate and People of Rome did not better deserve to judg whether such Monsters should reign over the best part of mankind to their destruction than they to determine whether their Crimes should be punished or not If I mention some of these known Cases every man's experience will suggest others of the like nature and whosoever condemns all Seditions Tumults and Wars raised against such Princes must say that none are wicked or seek the ruin of their people which is absurd for Caligula wish'd the People had but one Neck that he might cut it off at a blow Nero set the City on fire and we have known such as have bin worse than either of them They must either be suffer'd to continue in the free exercise of their rage that is to do all the mischief they design or must be restrain'd by a legal judicial or extrajudicial way and they who disallow the extrajudicial do as little like the judicial They will not hear of bringing a supreme Magistrate before a Tribunal when it may be done They will says our Author depose their Kings Why should they not be deposed if they become Enemies to their people and set up an interest in their own persons inconsistent with the publick good for the promoting of which they were erected If they were created by the publick consent for the publick good shall they not be removed when they prove to be of publick damage If they set up themselves may they not be thrown down Shall it be lawful for them to usurp a Power over the liberty of others and shall it not be lawful for an injur'd People to resume their own If injustice exalt it self must it be for ever established Shall great persons be rendred sacred by rapine perjury and murder Shall the crimes for which privat men do justly suffer the most grievous punishments exempt them from all who commit them in the highest excess with most power and most to the prejudice of mankind Shall the Laws that solely aim at the prevention of Crimes be made to patronize them and become snares to the innocent whom they ought to protect Has every man given up into the common store his right of avenging the Injuries he may receive that the publick Power which ought to protect or avenge him should be turned to the destruction of himself his Posterity and the Society into which they enter without any possibility of redress Shall the Ordinance of God be rendred of no effect or the Powers he hath appointed to be set up for the distribution of Justice be made subservient to the Iusts of one or a few men and by impunity encourage them to commit all manner of crimes Is the corruption of man's Nature so little known that such as have common sense should expect Justice from those who fear no punishment if they do Injustice or that the modesty integrity and innocence which is seldom found in one man tho never so cautiously chosen should be constantly found in all those who by any means attain to Greatness and continue for ever in their Successors or that there can be any security under their Government if they have them not Surely if this were the condition of men living under Government Forests would be more sase than Cities and 't were better for every man to stand in his own defence than to enter into Societies He that lives alone might encounter such as should assault him upon equal terms and stand or fall according to the measure of his courage and strength but no valour can defend him if the malice of his Enemy be upheld by a publick Power There must therefore be a right of proceeding judicially or extrajudicially against all persons who transgress the Laws or else those Laws and the Societies that should subsist by them cannot stand and the ends for which Governments are constituted together with the Governments themselves must be overthrown Extrajudicial proceedings by Sedition Tumult or War must take place when the persons concern'd are of such power that they cannot be brought under the Judicial They who deny this deny all help against an usurping Tyrant or the perfidiousness of a lawfully created Magistrate who adds the crimes of Ingratitude and Treachery to Usurpation These of all men are the most dangerous Enemies to supreme Migistrates for as no man desires indemnity for such Crimes as are never committed he that would exempt all from punishment supposes they will be guilty of the worst and by concluding that the People will depose them if they have the power acknowledg that they pursue an Interest annexed to their Persons contrary to that of their People which they would not bear if they could deliver themselves from it This shewing all those Governments to be tyrannical lays such a burden upon those who administer them as must necessarily weigh them down to destruction If it be said that the word Sedition implies that which is evil I answer that it ought not then to be applied to those who seek nothing but that which is just and tho the ways of delivering an oppressed People from the violence of a wicked Magistrate who having armed a Crew of lewd Villains and fatted them with the Blood and Confiscations of such as were most ready to oppose him be extraordinary the inward righteousness of the Act doth fully justify the Authors He that has virtue and power to save a People can never want a right of doing it Valerius Asiaticus had no hand in the death of Caligula but when the furious Guards began tumultuously to enquire who had kill'd him he appeased them with wishing he had bin the man No wise man ever asked by what authority Thrasibulus Harmodius Aristogiton Pelopidas Epaminondas Dion Timoleon Lucius Brutus Publicola Horatius Valerius Marcus Brutus C. Cassius and the
Physician who should boast there was not a sick person in a house committed to his care when he had poison'd all that were in it The Spaniards have established the like peace in the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily the West-Indies and other places The Turks by the same means prevent Tumults in their Dominions And they are of such efficacy in all places that Mario Chigi Brother to Porâ— Alexander the seventh by one sordid cheat upon the sale of Corn â—â— said within eight years to have destroy'd above a third part of the people in the Ecclesiastical State and that Country which was the strength of the Romans in the time of the Carthaginian Wars suffer'd more by the covetousness and fraud of that Villain than by all the defeats receiv'd from Hannibal 'T were an endless work to mention all the places where this peace able solitude has bin introduc'd by absolute Monarchy but Popular and regular Governments have always applied themselves to increase the Number Strength Power Riches and Courage of their People by providing comfortable ways of subsistence for their own Citizens inviting Strangers and filling them all with such a love to their Country that every man might look upon the publick Cause as his own and be always ready to defend it This may sometimes give occasion to Tumults and Wars as the most vigorous bodies may fall into Distempers When every one is sollicitous for the Publick there may be difference of opinion and some by mistaking the way may bring prejudice when they intend profit But unless a Tyrant do arise and destroy the Government which is the root of their felicity or they be overwhelm'd by the irresistible power of a Virtue or Fortune greater than their own they soon recover and for the most part rise up in greater Glory and Prosperity than before This was seen in the Commonwealths of Greece and Italy which for this reason were justly called Nurseries of Virtue and their Magistrates Preservers of men whereas our Author 's peace-making Monarchs can deserve no better title than that of Enemies and Destroyers of Mankind I cannot think him in earnest when he exaggerates Sylla's Cruelties as a proof that the mischiefs suffer'd under free States are more universal than under Kings and Tyrants For there never was a Tyrant in the World if he was not one tho through weariness infirmity of body fear or perhaps the horror of his own wickedness he at length resigned his Power but the evil had taken root so deep that it could not be removed There was nothing of Liberty remaining in Rome The Laws were overthrown by the violence of the Sword the remaining Contest was who should be Lord and there is no reason to believe that if Pompey had gained the Battel of Pharsalia he would have made a more modest use of his Victory than Cesar did or that Rome would have bin more happy under him than under the other His Cause was more plausible because the Senate follow'd him and Cesar was the Invader but he was no better in his person and his designs seem to have bin the same He had bin long before Suarum legum auctor eversor He gave the beginning to the first Triumvirat and 't were folly to think that he who had bin insolent when he was not come to the highest pitch of Fortune would have proved moderate if success had put all into his hands The proceedings of Marius Cinna Catiline Octavius and Antonius were all of the same nature No Laws were observ'd No publick good intended the ambition of private persons reigned and whatsoever was done by them or for their interests can no more be applied to Popular Aristocratical or mix'd Governments than the furies of Caligula and Nero. SECT XXVII The Mischiefs and Cruelties proceeding from Tyranny are greater than any that can come from Popular or mixed Governments 'T Is now time to examin the reasons of our Author 's general Maxims The Cruelties says he of a Tyrant extend ordinarily no farther than some particular men that offend him and not to the whole Kingdom It is truly said of his late Majesty King James A King can never be so notoriously vicious but he will generally favour Justice and maintain some order Even cruel Domitian Dionysius the Tyrant and many others are commended in Histories as great observers of Justice except in particular cases wherein his inordinate lusts may carry him away This may be said of Popular Governments for tho a People through error do sometimes hurt a private person and that may possibly result to the publick damage because the man that is offended or destroy'd might have bin useful to the Society they never do it otherwise than by error For having the Government in themselves whatever is prejudicial to it is so to them and if they ruin it they ruin themselves which no man ever did willingly and knowingly In absolute Monarchies the matter is quite otherwise A Prince that sets up an interest in himself becomes an Enemy to the Publick in following his own lusts he offends all except a few of his corrupt Creatures by whose help he oppresses others with a Yoak they are unwilling to bear and thereby incurs the universal hatred This hatred is always proportionable to the injuries received which being extreme that must be so too and every People being powerful in comparison to the Prince that governs he will always fear those that hate him and always hate those he fears When Luigi Farnese first Duke of Parma had by his Tyranny incensed the People of that small City their hatred was not less mortal to him than that of the whole Empire had bin to Nero and as the one burn'd Rome the other would have destroy'd Parma if he had not bin prevented The like has bin and will be every where in as much as every man endeavours to destroy those he hates and fears and the greatness of the danger often drives this fear to rage and madness For this reason Caligula wish'd but one Neck to all the People and Nero triumphed over the burning City thinking by that ruin he had prevented his own danger I know not who the good Authors are that commend Domitian for his justice but Tacitus calls him Principem virtutibus infestum and 't is hard to find out how such a man can be an observer of justice unless it be just that whoever dares to be virtuous under a vicious and base Prince should be destroy'd Another Author of the same time speaking of him dos not say he was unjust but gives us reason to think he was so unless it were just for him who had a power over the best part of the World to destroy it and that he who by his cruelty had brought it to the last gasp would have finish'd the work if his rage had not bin extinguished Many Princes not having in themselves power to destroy their People have stirred up foreign Nations
Riches Virtue and Power If on the other side by doing evil he has drawn upon himself the publick hatred he will always endeavour to take from them the power of doing him any hurt by bringing them into the utmost weakness poverty and baseness And whoever would know whether any particular Prince desires to increase or destroy the Bodies and Goods of his Subjects must examine whether his Government be such as renders him grateful or odious to them and whether he do pursue the publick Interest or for the advancement of his own Authority set up one in himself contrary to that of his People which can never befal a Popular Government and consequently no mischief equal to it can be produced by any such unless something can be imagined worse than corruption and destruction SECT XXVIII Men living under Popular or Mix'd Governments are more careful of the publick Good than in Absolute Monarchies OUR Author delighting in strange things dos in the next place with an admirable sagacity discover two faults in Popular Governments that were never found by any man before him and these are no less than Ignorance and Negligence Speaking of the Care of Princes to preserve their Subjects he adds On the contrary in a Popular State every man knows the publick Good doth not wholly depend upon his Care but the Commonwealth may be well enough governed by others tho he only tend his private business And a little below Nor are they much to be blamed for their Negligence since it is an even wager their Ignorance may be as great The Magistrates amongst the people being for the most part annual do always lay down their Office before they understand it so as a Prince of a duller understanding must needs excel them This is bravely determin'd and the world is beholden to Filmer for the discovery of the Errors that have hitherto bin Epidemical Most men had believed that such as live in Free States are usually pleas'd with their condition desire to maintain it and every man finding his own good comprehended in the Publick as those that sail in the same Ship employs the Talent he has in endeavouring to preserve it knowing that he must perish if that miscarry This was an incouragement to Industry and the continual Labours and Dangers to which the Romans and other free Nations exposed themselves have bin taken for Testimonies that they thought themselves concerned in the businesses that passed among them and that every one did not neglect them through an opinion that they would be done well enough by others It was also thought that free Cities by frequent Elections of Magistrates became Nurseries of great and able Men every man endeavouring to excel others that he might be advanced to the Honor he had no other title to than what might arise from his Merit or Reputation in which they succeeded so well that one of them may be justly said to have produced more eminent Men than all the Absolute Monarchies that have bin in the World But these were mistakes Perhaps Brutus Valerius and other Roman Senators or Magistrates for the space of three hundred years might have taken some care of the Common-wealth if they had thought it wholly depended upon one of them But believing it would be well enough governed by others they neglected it Camillus Cincinnatus Papirius Fabius Rullus and Maximus Scipio Africanus Amilcar Hannibal Pericles Themistocles Alcibiades Epaminondas Philopemen and others might have proved able Men in affairs of War or Government but they were removed from their Offices before they understood them and must needs be excelled in both by Princes tho of duller understanding This may be enough to excuse them for performing their Duty so slackly and meanly But 't is strange that Tacitus and others should so sar overlook the Reason and so grosly mistake the matter of Fact as not only to say that great and excellent Spirits failed when Liberty was lost and all Preferments given to those who were most propense to Slavery but that there wanted men even to write the History Inscitia Reipublicae ut alienae They never applied themselves to understand Affairs depending upon the will of one man in whom they were no otherwise concern'd than to avoid the effects of his Rage and that was chiefly to be done by not falling under the suspicion of being virtuous This was the study then in request and the most cunning in this Art were called Scientes temporum No other wisdom was esteemed in that and the ensuing Ages and no more was requir'd since the paternal Care deep Wisdom and profound Judgment of the Princes provided for all and tho they were of duller understandings they must needs excel other Magistrates who having bin created only for a year left their Offices before they could understand the Duties of them This was evidenced by that tenderness and sincerity of heart as well as the great purity of manners observed in Tiberius the Clemency Justice solid Judgment and Frugality of Caligula the Industry Courage and Sobriety of Claudius the good Nature and prudent Government of Nero the Temperance Vivacity and Diligence of Vitellius the Liberality of Galba and Vespasian together with the Encouragement given by Domitian Commodus Heliogabalus and many others to all manner of Virtues and Favours conferred upon those that excelled in them Our Author giving such infallible proof of his Integrity and Understanding by teaching us these things that would never have come into our heads ought to be credited tho that which he proposes seem to be most absurd But if we believe such as lived in those times or those who in later ages have perused their Writings we cannot but think the Princes beforementioned and the greatest part of those who possessed the same place not only to have bin void of all Virtue and to have suffer'd none to grow up under them but in baseness sottishness and malice to have bin equal to the worst of all Beasts Whilst one Prince polluted with Lust and Blood sat in his Grotto at Capreae surrounded with an infamous troop of Astrologers and others were govern'd by Whores Bardache's manumised Slaves and other Villains the Empire was ruin'd through their negligence incapacity and wickedness and the City that had flourish'd in all manner of Virtue as much or more than any that has bin yet known in the world produced no more the Discipline was dissolved that nourish'd it no man could hope to advance a publick Good or obviate an Evil by his diligence and valour and he who acquired reputation by either could expect no other reward than a cruel death If Germanicus and Corbulo who were born when Liberty was expiring be brought for Examples against the first part of my Assertion their ends will justify the latter and no eminent Roman Family is known to have brought forth a man that deserved to be named in History since their time This is as probable in reason as true in fact Men are
had a power like to that of the Sanhedrin and by them Kings were condemned to fines imprisonment banishment and death as appears by the examples of Pausanias Clonymus Leonidas Agis and others The Hebrew Discipline was the same Reges Davidicae stirpis says Maimonides judicabant judicabantur They gave testimony in judgment when they were called and testimony was given against them Whereas the Kings of Israel as the same Author says were superbi corde elati spretores legis nec judicabant nec judicabantur proud insolent and contemners of the Law who would neither judg nor submit to judgment as the Law commanded The Fruits they gathered were sutable to the Seed they had sown their Crimes were not left unpunish'd they who despised the Law were destroy'd without Law and when no ordinary course could be taken against them for their excesses they were overthrown by force and the Crown within the space of sew years transported into nine several Families with the utter extirpation of those that had possess'd it On the other hand there never was any Sedition against the Spartan Kings and after the moderate Discipline according to which they liv'd was established none of them died by the hands of their Subjects except only two who were put to death in a way of Justice the Kingdom continued in the same races till Cleomenes was defeated by Antigonus and the Government overthrown by the insolence of the Macedonians This gave occasion to those bestial Tyrants Nabis and Machanidas to set up such a Government as our Author recommends to the World which immediately brought destruction upon themselves and the whole City The Germans who pretended to be descended from the Spartans had the like Government Their Princes according to their merit had the credit of perswading not the power of commanding and the question was not what part of the Government their Kings would allow to the Nobility and People but what they would give to their Kings and 't is not much material to our present dispute whether they learnt this from some obscure knowledg of the Law which God gave to his People or whether led by the light of reason which is also from God they discovered what was altogether conformable to that Law Whoever understands the affairs of Germany knows that the present Emperors notwithstanding their haughty Title have a power limited as in the days of Tacitus If they are good and wise they may perswade but they can command no farther than the Law allows They do not admit the Princes Noblemen and Cities to the power which they all exercise in their general Diets and each of them within their own Precincts but they exercise that which has bin by publick consent bestow'd upon them All the Kingdoms peopled from the North observed the same rules In all of them the powers were divided between the Kings the Nobility Clergy and Commons and by the Decrees of Councils Diets Parliaments Cortez and Assemblies of Estates Authority and Liberty were so balanced that such Princes as assumed to themselves more than the Law did permit were severely punished and those who did by force or fraud invade Thrones were by force thrown down from them This was equally beneficial to Kings and People The Powers as Theopompus King of Sparta said were most safe when they were least envied and hated Lewis the 11th of France was one of the first that broke this Golden Chain and by more subtil Arts than had bin formerly known subverted the Laws by which the fury of those Kings had bin restrain'd and taught others to do the like tho all of them have not so well saved themselves from punishment James the third of Scotland was one of his most apt Scholars and Buchanan in his life says That he was precipitated into all manner of Infamy by men of the most abject condition that the corruption of those times and the ill Example of neighbouring Princes were considerable motives to pervert him for Edward the fourth of England Charles of Burgundy Lewis the 11th of France and John the second of Portugal had already laid the Foundations of Tyranny in those Countries and Richard the third was then most cruelly exercising the same in the Kingdom of England This could not have bin if all the Power had always bin in Kings and neither the People nor the Nobility had ever had any For no man can be said to gain that which he and his Predecessors always possessed or to take from others that which they never had nor to set up any sort of Government if it had bin always the same But the foresaid Lewis the 11th did assume to himself a Power above that of his Predecessors and Philip de Commines shews the ways by which he acquir'd it with the miserable effects of his Acquisition both to himself and to his people Modern Authors observe that the change was made by him and for that reason he is said by Mezeray and others to have brought those Kings out of Guardianship they were not therefore so till he did emancipate them Nevertheless this Emancipation had no resemblance to the unlimited Power of which our Author dreams The General Assemblies of Estates were often held long after his death and continued in the exercise of the Sovereign Power of the Nation Davila speaking of the General Assembly held at Orleans in the time of Francis the second asserts the whole Power of the Nation to have bin in them Monsieur de Thou says the same thing and adds that the King dying suddenly the Assembly continued even at the desire of the Council in the exercise of that Power till they had setled the Regency and other Affairs of the highest importance according to their own judgment Hottoman a Lawyer of that Time and Nation famous for his Learning Judgment and Integrity having diligently examin'd the antient Laws and Histories of that Kingdom distinctly proves that the French Nation never had any Kings but of their own chusing that their Kings had no Power except what was conferr'd upon them and that they had bin removed when they excessively abused or readred themselves unworthy of that Trust. This is sufficiently clear by the forecited examples of Pharamond's Grandchildren and the degenerated Races of Meroveus and Pepin of which many were deposed some of the nearest in Blood excluded and when their Vices seemed to be incorrigible they were wholly rejected All this was done by virtue of that Rule which they call the Salique Law And tho some of our Princes pretending to the Inheritance of that Crown by marrying the Heirs General denied that there was any such thing no man can say that for the space of above twelve hundred years Females or their Descendents who are by that Law excluded have ever bin thought to have any right to the Crown And no Law unless it be explicitly given by God can be of greater Authority than one which
by the most outragious injuries done to the People sometimes by a foreign aid as Kings were by the power of the Romans imposed upon the Britans that they might wast the Forces and break the Spirits of that sierce people This Tacitus acknowledges and says That amongst other instruments of inslaving Nations they imposed Kings upon them The Medices were made Masters of Florence by the force of Charles the Fifth's Army Sometimes by a corrupt party in their own Country they have destroy'd the best men and subdued the rest as Agathocles Dionysius and Cesar did at Rome and Syracuse Others taking upon them to defend a People have turned the Arms with which they were entrusted against their own Masters as Francesco Sforza who being chosen by those of Milan to be their General against the Venetians made peace with them and by their assistance made himself Prince or in our Author's phrase Father of that great City If these be acts of tenderness love justice and charity those who commit them may well think they have gained the afsections of their People and grow to love those from whom they fear nothing and by whom they think they are loved But if on the other hand they know they have attained to their greatness by the worst of all Villanies and that they are on that account become the object of the publick hatred they can do no less than hate and sear those by whom they know themselves to be hated The Italians ordinarily say that he who dos an injury never pardons because he thinks he is never pardoned But he that enslaves and oppresses a People dos an injury which can never be pardoned and therefore fears it will be revenged Other Princes who come to their Thrones by better ways and are not contented with the power that the Law allows draw the same hatred upon themselves when they endeavour by force or fraud to enlarge it and must necessarily fear and hate their own People as much as he who by the ways besoremention'd has betray'd or subdued them Our Author makes nothing of this but taking it for granted that it was all one whether Samuel spoke of a King or a Tyrant declares that the same patient obedience is due to both but not being pleased to give any reason why we should believe him I intend to offer some why we should not First there is nothing in the nature or institution of Monarchy that obliges Nations to bear the exorbitances of it when it degenerates into Tyranny In the second place we have no precept for it Thirdly we have many approved examples and occasional particular commands to the contrary 1. To the first The point of Paternity being explain'd the duty of Children to Parents proved to proceed from the benefits received from them and that the power over them which at the first seems to have bin left at large because it was thought they would never abuse it has long since bin much restrain'd in all civilized Nations and particularly in our own We may conclude that men are all made of the same paste and that one ows no more to another than another to him unless for some benefit received or by virtue of some promise made The duty arising from a benefit received must be proportionable to it that which grows from a promise is determined by the promise or contract made according to the true sense and meaning of it He therefore that would know what the Babylonians Hebrews Athenians or Romans did owe to Nimrod Saul Theseus or Romulus must inquire what benefits were received from them or what was promised to them It cannot be said that any thing was due to them for the sake of their Parents they could have no prerogative by birth Nimrod was the sixth Son of Chush the Son of Cham who was the youngest Son of Noah his Kingdom was erected whilst Noah and his elder Sons Shem and Faphet as well as Cham Chush and his elder Sons were still living Saul was the Son of Chish a man of Benjamin who was the youngest Son of Jacob and he was chosen in the most Democratical way by Lot amongst the whole People Theseus according to the custom of the times pretended to be the Son of Neptune and Rhea was so well pleased with the Soldier that had gotten her with child that she resolved to think or say that Mars was the Father of the Children that is to say they were Bastards and therefore whatever was due to them was upon their own personal account without any regard to their Progenitors This must be measured according to what they did for those Nations before they were Kings or by the manner of their advancement Nothing can be pretended before they were Kings Nimrod rose up after the confusion of Languages and the People that understood the tongue he spoke follow'd him Saul was a young man unknown in Israel Theseus and Romulus had nothing to recommend them before other Athenians and Romans except the reputation of their Valour and the honours conferred upon them for that reason must proceed from expectation or hope and not from gratitude or obligation It must therefore proceed from the manner by which they came to be Kings He that neither is nor has any title to be a King can come to be so only by force or by consent If by force he dos not confer a benefit upon the People but injures them in the most outragious manner If it be possible therefore or reasonable to imagine that one man did ever subdue a multitude he can no otherwise resemble a Father than the worst of all Enemies who dos the greatest mischiefs resembles the best of all Friends who confers the most inestimable benefits and consequently dos as justly deserve the utmost effects of hatred as the other dos of love respect and service If by consent he who is raised from amongst the people and placed above his Brethren receives great honours and advantages but confers none The obligations of gratitude are on his side and whatsoever he dos in acknowledgment to his benefactors for their love to him is no more than his duty and he can demand no more from them than what they think fit to add to the favours already received If more be pretended it must be by virtue of that contract and can no otherwise be proved than by producing it to be examined that the true sense meaning and intention of it may be known This Contract must be in form and substance according to a general Rule given to all mankind or such as is left to the will of every Nation If a general one be pretended it ought to be shown that by enquiring into the contents we may understand the force and extent of it If this cannot be done it may justly pass for a fiction no conclusion can be drawn from it and we may be sure that what Contracts soever have bin made between Nations and their Kings have
unless the whole body of the Nation for which they serve and who are equally concerned in their resolutions could be assembled This being impracticable the only punishment to which they are subject if they betray their trust is scorn infamy hatred and an assurance of being rejected when they shall again seek the same honor And tho this may seem a small matter to those who fear to do ill only from a sense of the pains inflicted yet it is very terrible to men of ingenuous spirits as they are supposed to be who are accounted fit to be entrusted with so great Powers But why should this be Liberty with a mischief if it were otherwise or how the liberty of particular Societies world be greater if they might do what they pleased than whilst they send others to act for them such wise men only as Filmer can tell us For as no man or number of men can give a Power which he or they have not the Achaians Etolians Latins Samnites and Tuscans who transacted all things relating to their Associations by Delegates and the Athenians Carthaginians and Romans who kept the power of the State in themselves were all equally free And in our days the United Provinces of the Netherlands the Switsers and Grisons who are of the first sort and the Venetians Genoeses and Luccheses who are of the other are so also All men that have any degree of common sense plainly see that the Liberty of those who act in their own persons and of those who send Delegates is perfectly the same and the exercise is and can only be changed by their consent But whatever the Law or Custom of England be in this point it cannot concern our question The general proposition concerning a Patriarchical Power cannot be proved by a single example If there be a general power every where forbidding Nations to give instructions to their Delegates they can do it no where If there be no such thing every people may do it unless they have deprived themselves of their right all being born under the same condition 'T is to no purpose to say that the Nations before mentioned had not Kings and therefore might act as they did For if the general Thesis be true they must have Kings and if it be not none are obliged to have them unless they think fit and the Kings they make are their Creatures But many of these Nations had either Kings or other Magistrates in power like to them The Provinces of the Netherlands had Dukes Earls or Marquesses Genoa and Venice have Dukes If any on account of the narrowness of their Territories have abstained from the name it dos not alter the case for our dispute is not concerning the name but the right If that one man who is in the principal Magistracy of every Nation must be reputed the Father of that people and has a Power which may not be limited by any Law it imports not what he is called But if in small Territories he may be limited by Laws he may be so also in the greatest The least of men is a man as well as a Giant And those in the West-Indies who have not above twenty or thirty Subjects able to bear Arms are Kings as well as Xerxes Every Nation may divide it self into small parcels as some have done by the same Law they have restrained or abolished their Kings joined to one another or taken their hazard of subsisting by themselves acted by delegation or retaining the Power in their own persons given finite or indefinite Powers reserved to themselves a power of punishing those who should depart from their duty or referred it to their General Assemblies And that Liberty for which we contend as the Gift of God and Nature remains equally to them all If men who delight in cavilling should say that great Kingdoms are not to be regulated by the Examples of small States I desire to know when it was that God ordained great Nations should be Slaves and deprived of all right to dispose matters relating to their Government whilst he left to such as had or should divide themselves into small parcels a right of making such Constitutions as were most convenient for them When this is resolved we ought to be informed what extent of territory is required to deserve the name of a great Kingdom Spain and France are esteemed great and yet the Deputies or Procuradores of the several parts of Castille did in the Cortez held at Madrid in the beginning of Charles the fifths reign excuse themselves from giving the supplies he desired because they had received no orders in that particular from the Towns that sent them and afterwards receiving express orders not to do it they gave his Majesty a flat denial The like was frequently done during the reigns of that great Prince and of his Son Philip the second And generally those Procuradores never granted any thing of importance to either of them without particular Orders from their Principals The same way was taken in France as long as there were any General Assemblies of Estates and if it do not still continue 't is because there are none For no man who understood the Affairs of that Kingdom did ever deny that the Deputies were obliged to follow the Orders of those who sent them And perhaps if men would examin by what means they came to be abolished they might find that the Cardinals de Richelieu and Mazarin with other Ministers who have accomplished that work were acted by some other principle than that of Justice or the establishment of the Laws of God and Nature In the General Assembly of Estates held at Blois in the time of Henry the third Bodin then Deputy for the third Estate of Vermandois by their particular Order proposed so many things as took up a great part of their time Other Deputies alledged no other reason for many things said and done by them highly contrary to the King's will than that they were commanded so to do by their superiors These General Assemblies being laid aside the same Custom is still used in the lesser Assemblies of Estates in Languedoc and Britany The Deputies cannot without the infamy of betraying their Trust and fear of punishment recede from the Orders given by their principals and yet we do not find that Liberty with a mischief is much more predominant in France than amongst us The same method is every day practised in the Diets of Germany The Princes and great Lords who have their places in their own right may do what they please but the Deputies of the Cities must follow such Orders as they receive The Histories of Denmark Sweden Poland and Bohemia testify the same thing and if this Liberty with a mischief do not still continue entire in all those places it has bin diminished by such means as sute better with the manners of Pirats than the Laws of God and Nature If England therefore do not still enjoy