the Jews and their Heirs for ever for the pay of a provincial Army to protect them during the term of seven years and for two Millions annual Revenue from that time forward besides the Customs which would pay the provincial Army would have bin a bargain of such advantage both to them and this Commonwealth as is not to be found otherwise by either To receive the Jews after any other manner into a Commonwealth were to maim it for they of all Nations never incorporat but taking up the room of a Limb are of no use or office to the body while they suck the nourishment which would sustain a natural and useful Member IF Panopea had bin so dispos'd of that Knapsack with the Marpesian Auxiliary had bin an inestimable Treasure the Situation of these Countrys being Ilands as appears by Venice how advantageous such a one is to the like Government seems to have bin design'd by God for a Commonwealth And yet that thro the streitness of the place and The Situation of the Common-wealth of Oceana defect of proper Arms can be no more than a Commonwealth for Preservation wheras this reduc'd to the like Government is a Commonwealth for increase and upon the mightiest foundation that any has bin laid from the beginning of the World to this day Illam arctâ capiens Neptunus compede stringit Hanc autem glaucis captus complectitur ulnis THE Sea gives law to the growth of Venice but the growth of Oceana gives law to the Sea THESE Countrys having bin antiently distinct and hostil Kingdoms came by MORPHEUS the Marpesian who succeded by hereditary right to the Crown of Oceana not only to be join'd under one head but to be cast as it were by a charm into that profound sleep which broken at length by the Trumpet of Civil War has produc'd those effects that have given occasion to the insuing Discourse divided into four parts 1. The Preliminarys shewing the Principles of Government 2. The Council of Legislators shewing the Art of making a Commonwealth 3. The Model of the Commonwealth of Oceana shewing the effect of such an Art 4. The Corollary shewing som Consequences of such a Government The Preliminarys shewing the Principles of Government JANOTTI the most excellent Describer of the Commonwealth of Venice divides the whole Series of Government into two Times or Periods The one ending with the Liberty of Rome which was the Course of Empire as I may call it of Antient Prudence first discover'd to mankind by GOD himself in the Fabric of the Commonwealth of Israel and afterwards pick'd out of his Footsteps in Nature and unanimously follow'd by the Greecs and Romans The other beginning with the Arms of CAESAR which extinguishing Liberty were the Transition of Antient into Modern Prudence introduc'd by those Inundations of Huns Goths Vandals Lombards Saxons which breaking the Roman Empire deform'd the whole face of the World with those ill features of Government which at this time are becom far worse in these western parts except Venice which escaping the hands of the Barbarians by virtue of its impregnable Situation has had its ey fix'd upon antient Prudence and is attain'd to a perfection even beyond the Copy Definitions of Government RELATION being had to these two times Government to define it de jure or according to antient Prudence is an Art wherby a Civil Society of Men is instituted and preserv'd upon the Foundation of common Right or Interest or to follow ARISTOTLE and LIVY It is the Empire of Laws and not of Men. AND Government to define it de facto or according to modern Prudence is an Art wherby som man or som few men subject a City or a Nation and rule it according to his or their privat Interest which because the Laws in such cases are made according to the interest of a man or of som few Familys may be said to be the Empire of Men and not of Laws THE former kind is that which MACHIAVEL whose Books are neglected is the only Politician that has gon about to retrieve and Pag. 180. Pag. 377. that LEVIATHAN who would have his Book impos'd upon the Universitys gos about to destroy For It is says he another Error of ARISTOTLE'S Politics that in a well-order'd Commonwealth not Men should govern but the Laws What man that has his natural senses tho he can neither write nor read dos not find himself govern'd by them he fears and believes can kill or hurt him when he obeys not Or who believes that the Law can hurt him which is but Words and Paper without the Hands and Swords of men I confess that * Magistratus est lex armata the Magistrat upon his Bench is that to the Law which a Gunner upon his Platform is to his Cannon Nevertheless I should not dare to argue with a man of any Ingenuity after this manner A whole Army tho they can neither write nor read are not afraid of a Platform which they know is but Earth or Stone nor of a Cannon which without a hand to give fire to it is but cold Iron therfore a whole Army is afraid of one man But of this kind is the Ratiocination of LEVIATHAN as I shall shew in divers places that com in my way throout his whole Politics Pag. 111. or worse as where he says of ARISTOTLE and of CICERO of the Greecs and of the Romans who liv'd under popular States that they deriv'd those Rights not from the Principles of Nature but transcrib'd them into their Books out of the practice of their own Commonwealths as Grammarians describe the Rules of Language out of Poets Which is as if a man should tell famous HERVY that he transcrib'd his Circulation of the Blood not out of the Principles of Nature but out of the Anatomy of this or that Body TO go on therfore with this preliminary Discourse I shall divide it according to the two definitions of Government relating to JANOTTI'S two times into two parts The First treating of the Principles of Government in general and according to the Antients The Second treating of the late Governments of Oceana in particular and in that of modern Prudence Division of Government GOVERNMENT according to the Antients and their learn'd Disciple MACHIAVEL the only Politician of later Ages is of three kinds The Government of One Man or of the Better sort or of the whole People which by their more learn'd names are call'd Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy These they hold thro their proneness to degenerat to be all evil For wheras they that govern should govern according to Reason if they govern according to Passion they do that which they should not do Wherfore as Reason and Passion are two things so Government by Reason is one thing and the corruption of Government by Passion is another thing but not always another Government as a Body that is alive is one thing and a Body that is dead
of the cause wherupon they were subdu'd it seem'd good to the Senat and the People to confirm them And that it be lawful for the Provincials to appeal from their Provincial Magistrats Councils or Generals to the People of England IN modelling a Commonwealth the concernment of Provincial Government coms in the last place for which cause I conceive any long Discourse upon these Orders to be at present unnecessary But certain things there are in the way which I am unwilling to let slip without pointing at them Whether Men or Mony be the Nerve of War SOM will have Men som will have Mony to be the Nerve of War each of which Positions in proper cases may be a Maxim For if France where the main Body of the People is imbas'd or Venice which stands upon a Mercenary Militia want Mony they can make no War But it has heretofore bin otherwise with Commonwealths Roman Historians as is observ'd by MACCHIAVEL in their Military Preparations or Expeditions make no mention of Mony unless what was gain'd by the War and brought home into the Treasury as the Spoil of Macedon by AEMILIUS PAULUS being such as the People for som years after were discharg'd of their Tribute Not that their Wars were made altogether without Mony for if so why should the People at any time before have paid Tribute Or why upon this occasion were they excus'd but that the Mony in which their Wars stood them was not considerable in comparison of that which is requisit where Mony may be counted the Nerve of War that is where Men are not to be had without it But Rome by virtue of its Orders could have rais'd vaster numbers of Citizens and Associats than perhaps it ever did tho during the Consulat of PAPPUS and REGULUS she levy'd in Italy only seventy thousand Horse and seven hundred thousand Foot Should we conceive the Nerve of this Motion to have bin Mony we must reckon the Indys to have bin exhausted before they were found or so much Brass to have bin in Italy as would have made Stones to be as good Mony A well order'd Commonwealth dos these things not by Mony but by such Orders as make of its Citizens the Nerve of its Wars The Youth of the Commonwealth propos'd are esteem'd in all at five hundred thousand Of these there is an annual Band consisting of one hundred thousand Of this one hundred thousand there is a standing Army consisting of thirty thousand Foot and ten thousand Horse besides such as being above Book III thirty years of age shall offer themselves as Voluntiers of which the number is in no wife likely to be few To the standing Army the Provinces or that only of Scotland being both Populous and Martial can afford at any time an equal number of Auxiliarys THESE Orders thus sum'd up together render this Common-wealth ordinarily able to wage War with fourscore thousand men a Force which it is known not any Prince in Christendom is able to match in Virtue Number or Disciplin For these the Common-wealth in her Sea Guard has always at hand sufficient Waftage or at least such a sufficient Convoy as may make any Vessels at hand a sufficient Transportation all this I say by virtue of Orders Not but that the March the Equipage the Waftage of so great an Army must cost Mony but that it will com to no account in comparison of a lingring War made by a matter of thirty thousand Mercenarys the very consumtion of a State wheras fourscore thousand men so disciplin'd and so furnish'd as has bin shewn being once transported must suddenly com to be no Charge or make the War defray it self BUT 't is objected that to reckon upon such a Militia were to suppose a large Country capable of being a Commonwealth wheras we hold them learn'd who say that no Commonwealth has consisted of more Whether a Commonwealth has consisted of more than one City or Town than som one City or Town But in what Language or in what Geography are the twelve Tribes of Israel the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peopledoms or Prytanys of Athens which THESEUS gather'd into one body the Tribes and Linages in Lacedemon instituted by LYCURGUS the five and thirty Roman Tribes planted between the Rivers Vulturnus and Arno or between the Citys now call'd Capua and Florence the 13 Cantons of the Switzers the seven United Provinces of the Low Countrys understood to have bin or to be but one City or Town Whether were not the People of Israel under their Commonwealth six hundred thousand What reason can be given why the Government that could take in six hundred thousand might not as well take in twice that number How much short came the Country planted by the Roman Tribes of 150 Miles square Or how much over is England And what reason can be given why a Government taking in 150 Miles square might not as well take in twice that Compass Whether was our House of Commons under Monarchy not collected from the utmost Bounds of the English Territory And whether had the Laws by them enacted not their free course to the utmost limits of the same And why should that be impossible or impracticable to a Representative of the People in a Commonwealth which was so facil and practicable to a Representative of the People under Monarchy IT is a wonder how the Commonwealth of Rome which held as it were the whole World by Provinces should be imagin'd by any man to have consisted but of one Town or City BUT to return It is alleg'd by others and as to Provincial Government very truly that a Commonwealth may be a Tyranny Nor do I think that Athens in this point came short of any Prince Rome on the other side was according to the merits of the cause as frequent in giving Liberty as in taking it away The Provinces of Venice and of Switzerland would not change their condition with the Subjects of the best Prince However the possibility in a Common-wealth of tyrannizing over Provinces is not to be cur'd for be the Commonwealth or the Prince a State or a Man after God's own heart there is no way of holding a Province but by Arms. The thirteenth Parallel 2 Sam. 8. 5 6. WHEN the Syrians of Damascus came to succor HADADEZER King of Zobah DAVID slew of the Syrians two and twenty thousand Men then DAVID put Garisons in Syria of Damascus and the Syrians became Servants to DAVID and brought Gifts and the Lord preserv'd DAVID whithersoever he went WITH this Parallel I draw the Curtain and close be it Comedy to such as are for Tragedy this Model appealing to the present or the next Age whether throout I have not had God himself for my Vouchee In the mean time there is nothing hereby propos'd which See the Corollary of Oceana may not stand with a supreme Magistrat The Conclusion Shewing how the Model propos'd may be prov'd or examin'd
allow'd or may be safely exercis'd among you Toleration being only deny'd to immoral Practices and the Opinions of Men being left as free to them as their Possessions excepting only POPERY and such other Rites and Notions as directly tend to disturb or dissolve Society Besides the political Advantages of Union Wealth and numbers of People which are the certain Consequents of this impartial Liberty 't is also highly congruous to the nature of true Religion and if any thing on Earth can be imagin'd to ingage the Interest of Heaven it must be specially that which procures it the sincere and voluntary respect of Mankind I might here display the Renown of the City for Military Glory and recite those former valiant Atchievments which our Historians carefully record but I should never finish if I inlarg'd on those things which I only hint or if I would mention the extraordinary Privileges which London now injoys and may likely possess hereafter for which she well deserves the name of a New Rome in the West and like the old one to becom the Soverain Mistress of the Universe THE Government of the City is so wisely and completely contriv'd that HARRINGTON made very few Alterations in it tho in all the other parts of our National Constitution he scarce left any thing as he found it And without question it is a most excellent Model The Lord Mayor as to the Solemnity of his Election the Magnificence of his State or the Extent of his Authority tho inferior to a Roman Consul to whom in many respects he may be fitly compar'd yet he far outshines the figure made by an Athenian Archon or the grandeur of any Magistrat presiding over the best Citys now in the World During a vacancy of the Throne he is the chief Person in the Nation and is at all times vested with a very extraordinary Trust which is the reason that this Dignity is not often confer'd on undeserving Persons of which we need not go further for an Instance than the Right Honorable Sir RICHARD LEVET who now so worthily fills that eminent Post into which he was not more freely chosen by the Suffrages of his Fellowcitizens than he continues to discharge the Functions of it with approv'd Moderation and Justice But of the great Caution generally us'd in the choice of Magistrats we may give a true judgment by the present Worshipful Sherifs Sir CHARLES DUNCOMB and Sir JEFFERY JEFFERIES who are not the Creatures of petty Factions and Cabals nor as in the late Reigns illegally obtruded on the City to serve a Turn for the Court but unanimously elected for those good Qualitys which alone should be the proper Recommendations to Magistracy that as having the greatest Stakes to lose they will be the more concern d for securing the Property of others so their willingness to serve their Country is known not to be inferior to their Zeal for King WILLIAM and while they are for the Credit of the City generously equalling the Expences of the Roman Praetors such at the same time is their tender care of the Distrest as if to be Overseers of the Poor were their sole and immediat Charge As the Common Council is the Popular Representative so the Court of Aldermen is the Aristocratical Senat of the City To enter on the particular Merits of those Names who compose this Illustrious Assembly as it must be own'd by all to be a labor no less arduous than extremely nice and invidious yet to pass it quite over in such a manner as not to give at least a Specimen of so much Worth would argue a pusillanimity inconsistent with LIBERTY and a disrespect to those I wou'd be always understood to honor In regard therfore that the eldest Alderman is the same at London with what the Prince of the Senat was at Rome I shall only presume to mention the Honorable Sir ROBERT CLAYTON as well in that capacity as by reason he universally passes for the perfect Pattern of a good Citizen That this Character is not exaggerated will be evident to all those who consider him either as raising a plentiful Fortune by his Industry and Merit or as disposing his Estate with no less liberality and judgment than he got it with honesty and care For as to his public and privat Donations and the provision he has made for his Relations or Friends I will not say that he is unequal'd by any but that he deserves to be imitated by all Yet these are small Commendations if compar'd to his stâ—ddy Conduct when he supply'd the highest Stations of this Great City The danger of defending the Liberty of the Subject in those calamitous times is not better remember'd than the courage with which he acted particularly in bringing in the Bill for excluding a Popish Successor from the Crown his brave appearance on the behalf of your Charter and the general applause with which he discharg'd his Trust in all other respects nor ought the Gratitude of the People be forgot who on this occasion first stil'd him the Father of the City as CICERO for the like reason was the first of all Romans call'd the Father of his Country That he still assists in the Government of London as eldest Alderman and in that of the whole Nation as a Member of the High Court of Parlament is not so great an honor as that he deserves it while the Posterity of those Familys he supports and the memory of his other laudable Actions will be the living and eternal Monuments of his Virtue when time has consum'd the most durable Brass or Marble TO whom therfore shou'd I inscribe a Book containing the Rules of good Polity but to a Society so admirably constituted and producing such Great and Excellent Men That elswhere there may be found who understand Government better distribute Justice wiser or love Liberty more I could never persuade my self to imagin nor can the Person wish for a nobler Address or the Subject be made happy in a more sutable Patronage than THE SENAT AND PEOPLE OF LONDON to whose uninterrupted increase of Wealth and Dignity none can be a heartier Welwisher than the greatest admirer of their Constitution and their most humble Servant JOHN TOLAND THE PREFACE HOW allowable it is for any man to write the History of another without intitling himself to his Opinions or becoming answerable for his Actions I have expresly treated in the Life of JOHN MILTON and in the just defence of the same under the Title of AMYNTOR The Reasons there alleg'd are Excuse and Authority enough for the Task I have since impos'd on my self which is to transmit to Posterity the worthy Memory of JAMES HARRINGTON a bright Ornament to useful Learning a hearty Lover of his Native Country and a generous Benefactor to the whole World a Person who obscur'd the false Lustre of our Modern Politicians and that equal'd if not exceded all the Antient Legislators BVT there are som People more
Womb not clos'd with Ice nor dissolv'd by the raging Star where CERES and BACCHUS are perpetual Twins Thy Woods are not the harbor of devouring Beasts nor thy continual Verdure the ambush of Serpents but the food of innumerable Herds and Flocks presenting thee their Shepherdess with distended Dugs or golden Fleeces The wings of thy Night involve thee not in the horror of darkness but have still som white feather and thy Day is that for which we esteem Life the longest But this Extasy of PLINY as is observ'd by BERTIUS seems to allude as well to Marpesia and Panopea now Provinces of this Commonwealth as to Oceana it self The Nature of the People TO speak of the People in each of these Countrys this of Oceana for so soft a one is the most martial in the whole World Let States that aim at Greatness says VERULAMIUS take heed how their Nobility and Gentlemen multiply too fast for that makes the common Subject grow to be a Peasant and base Swain driven out of heart and in effect but a Gentleman's Laborer just as you may see in Coppice Woods if you leave the Staddels too thick you shall never have clean Vnderwood but Shrubs and Bushes So in Countrys if the Gentlemen be too many the Commons will be base and you will bring it to that at last that not the hundredth Poll will be sit for a Helmet specially as to the Infantry which is the nerve of an Army and so there will be great Population and little Strength This of which I speak has bin no where better seen than by comparing of Oceana and France wherof Oceana tho far less in Territory and Population has bin nevertheless an overmatch in regard the middle People of Oceana make good Soldiers which the Peasants in France do not In which words VERULAMIUS as MACHIAVEL has don before him harps much upon a string which he has not perfectly tun'd and that is the balance of Dominion or Property as it follows 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 maintain'd with such a proportion of Land to them as may breed a Subject to live in convenient plenty and no servil condition and to keep the Plow in the hand of the owners and not mere hirelings And thus indeed says he you shall attain to VIRGIL'S Character * Terra potens armis atque ubere gleba which he gives of antient Italy BUT the Tillage bringing up a good Soldiery brings up a good Commonwealth which the Author in the praise of PANURGUS did not mind nor PANURGUS in deserving that praise for where the owner of the Plow coms to have the Sword too he will use it in defence of his own whence it has happen'd that the People of Oceana in proportion to their property have bin always free And the Genius of this Nation has ever had som resemblance with that of antient Italy which was wholly addicted to Commonwealths and where Rome came to make the greatest account of her rustic Tribes and to call her Consuls from the Plow for in the way of Parlaments which was the Government of this Realm men of Country-lives have bin still intrusted with the greatest Affairs and the People have constantly had an aversion to the ways of the Court. Ambition loving to be gay and to fawn has bin a Gallantry look'd upon as having somthing in it of the Livery and Husbandry or the country way of Life tho of a grosser spinning as the best stuf of a Commonwealth according to ARISTOTLE such a one being the most obstinat Assertors of her Liberty and the least subject to Innovation or Turbulency Wherfore till the Foundations as will be hereafter shew'd were remov'd this People was observ'd to be the least subject to Shakings and Turbulency of any Wheras Commonwealths upon which the City Life has had the stronger influence as Athens have seldom or never bin quiet but at the best are found to have injur'd their own business by over-doing it Whence the Urban Tribes of Rome consisting of the Turba forensis and Libertins that had receiv'd their Freedom by manumission were of no reputation in comparison of the Rustics It is true that with Venice it may seem to be otherwise in regard the Gentlemen for so are all such call'd as have a right to that Government are wholly addicted to the City Life but then the Turba forensis the Secretarys Cittadini with the rest of the Populace are wholly excluded Otherwise a Commonwealth consisting but of one City would doubtless be stormy in regard that Ambition would be every man's trade but where it consists of a Country the Plow in the hands of the owner finds him a better calling and produces the most innocent and steddy Genius of a Commonwealth such as is that of Oceana The Nature of the Marpesians MARPESIA being the Northern part of the same Iland is the dry Nurse of a populous and hardy Nation but where the Staddels have bin formerly too thick whence their Courage answer'd not their hardiness except in the Nobility who govern'd that Country much after the manner of Poland but that the King was not elective till the People receiv'd their Liberty the yoke of the Nobility being broke by the Commonwealth of Oceana which in grateful return is therby provided with an inexhaustible Magazin of Auxiliarys The Nature of the Panopeans PANOPEA the soft Mother of a slothful and pusillanimous People is a neighbor Iland antiently subjected by the Arms of Oceana since almost depopulated for shaking the Yoke and at length replanted with a new Race But thro what virtues of the Soil or vice of the Air soever it be they com still to degenerat Wherfore seeing it is neither likely to yield men fit for Arms nor necessary it should it had bin the Interest of Oceana so to have dispos'd of this Province being both rich in the nature of the Soil and full of commodious Ports for Trade that it might have bin order'd for the best in relation to her Purse which in my opinion if it had bin thought upon in time might have bin best don by planting it with Jews â—llowing them their own Rites and Laws for that would have brought them suddenly from all parts of the World and in sufficient numbers And tho the Jews be now altogether for Merchandize yet in the Land of Canaan except since their exile from whence they have not bin Landlords they were altogether for Agriculture and there is no cause why a man should doubt but having a fruitful Country and excellent Ports too they would be good at both Panopea well peopled would be worth a matter of four millions dry rents that is besides the advantage of the Agriculture and Trade which with a Nation of that Industry coms at least to as much more Wherfore Panopea being farm'd out to
him take it quite away †Neque id existimaâ—e debes autorem me tibi esse ut tyrannidem in S. P. Q. R. in servitutem redactum teneas quod neque dicere meum nâ—que facere tuum est Whence this Empire being neither Hawk nor Buzzard made a flight accordingly and the Prince being perpetually tost having the Avarice of the Soldiery on this hand to satisfy upon the People and the Senat and the People on the other to be defended from the Soldiery seldom dy'd any other death than by one Horn of this Dilemma as is noted more at large by MACCHIAVEL But P. cap. 19. the Pretorian Bands those bestial executioners of their Captain 's Tyranny upon others and of their own upon him having continued from the time of AUGUSTUS were by CONSTANTIN the Great incens'd against them for taking part with his Adversary MAXENTIUS remov'd from their strong Garison which they held in Rome and distributed into divers Provinces The Benefices of the Soldiers that were hitherto held for Life and upon Duty were by this Prince made Hereditary so that the whole Foundation wherupon this Empire was first built being now remov'd shews plainly that the Emperors must long before this have found out som other way of support and this was by stipendiating the Goths a People that deriving their Roots from the Northern parts of Germany or out of Sweden had thro their Victorys obtain'd against DOMITIAN long since spred their Branches to so near a Neighborhood with the Roman Territorys that they began to overshadow them For the Emperors making use of them in their Armys as the French do at this day of the Switz gave them that under the notion of a Stipend which they receiv'd as Tribute coming if there were any default in the payment so often to distrein for it that in the time of HONORIUS they sack'd Rome and possest themselves of Italy And such was the transition of antient into modern Prudence or that breach which being follow'd in every part of the Roman Empire with Inundations of Vandals Huns Lombards Franks Saxons overwhelm'd antient Languages Learning Prudence Manners Citys changing the names of Rivers Macchiavel Countrys Seas Mountains and Men CAMILLUS CAESAR and POMPEY being com to EDMUND RICHARD and GEOFFREY The Gothic Balance TO open the Groundwork or Balance of these new Politicians Feudum says CALVIN the Lawyer is a Gothic word of divers significations for it is taken either for War or for a possession of conquer'd Lands distributed by the Victor to such of his Captains and Soldiers as had merited in his Wars upon condition to acknowlege him to be their perpetual Lord and themselves to be his Subjects Institution of Feudatory Principalitys OF these there were three Kinds or Orders The first of Nobility distinguish'd by the Titles of Dukes Marquisses Earls and these being gratified with the Citys Castles and Villages of the conquer'd Italians their Feuds participated of Royal Dignity and were call'd Regalia by which they had right to coin Mony create Magistrats take Toll Customs Confiscations and the like FEUDS of the second Order were such as with the consent of the King were bestow'd by these Feudatory Princes upon men of inferior Quality call'd their Barons on condition that next to the King they should defend the Dignitys and Fortunes of their Lords in Arms. THE lowest Order of Feuds were such as being confer'd by those of the second Order upon privat men whether Noble or not Noble oblig'd them in the like Duty to their Superiors these were call'd Vavasors And this is the Gothic Balance by which all the Kingdoms this day in Christendom were at first erected for which cause if I had time I should open in this place the Empire of Germany and the Kingdoms of France Spain and Poland But so much as has bin said being sufficient for the discovery of the Principles of modern Prudence in general I shall divide the remainder of my Discourse which is more particular into three parts THE first shewing the Constitution of the late Monarchy of Oceana THE second the Dissolution of the same And THE third the Generation of the present Commonwealth THE Constitution of the late Monarchy of Oceana is to be consider'd in relation to the different Nations by whom it has bin successively subdu'd and govern'd The first of these were the Romans the second the Teutons the third the Scandians and the fourth the Neustrians THE Government of the Romans who held it as a Province I shall omit because I am to speak of their Provincial Government in another place only it is to be remember'd here that if we have given over running up and down naked and with dappl'd hides learn'd to write and read and to be instructed with good Arts for all these we are beholden to the Romans either immediatly or mediatly by the Teutons for that the Teutons had the Arts from no other hand is plain enough by their Language which has yet no word to signify either writing or reading but what is deriv'd from the Latin Furthermore by the help of these Arts so learn'd we have bin capable of that Religion which we have long since receiv'd wherfore it seems to me that we ought not to detract from the memory of the Romans by whose means we are as it were of Beasts becom Men and by whose means we might yet of obscure and ignorant Men if we thought not too well of our selves becom a wise and a great People For the proof of the insuing Discourse out of Records and Antiquitys see Selden's Titles of Honor from pag. 593 to pag. 837. THE Romans having govern'd Oceana provincially the Teutons were the first that introduc'd the Form of the late Monarchy To these succeded the Scandians of whom because their Reign was short as also because they made little alteration in the Government as to the Form I shall take no notice But the Teutons going to work upon the Gothic Balance divided the whole Nation into three sorts of Feuds that of Ealdorman that of Kings Thane and that of Middle Thane The Teuton Monarchy WHEN the Kingdom was first divided into Precincts will be as hard to shew as when it began first to be govern'd it being impossible that there should be any Government without som Division The Division that was in use with the Teutons was by Countys and every County had either its Ealdorman or High Reeve The title of Ealdorman came in time to Eorl or Erl and that of High Reeve to High Sheriff Earls EARL of the Shire or County denoted the Kings Thane or Tehant by Grand Serjeantry or Knights Service in chief or in capite his Possessions were somtimes the whole Territory from whence he had his denomination that is the whole County somtimes more than one County and somtimes less the remaining part being in the Crown He had also somtimes a third or som other customary
did but tast and spit at them not which is necessary in Physic drink down the potion and in that their healths For when they had obtain'd participation of Magistracy it was but lamely not to a full and equal Rotation in all Elections nor did they greatly regard it in what they had got And when they had attain'd to the Agrarian they neglected it so far as to suffer the Law to grow obsolete but if you do not take the due dose of your Medicins as there be slight tasts which a man may have of Philosophy that incline to Atheism it may chance to be poison there being a like tast of the Politics that inclines to Confusion as appears in the Institution of the Roman Tribuns by which Magistracy and no more the People were so far from attaining to Peace that they in getting but so much got but heads for an eternal feud wheras if they had attain'd in perfection either to the Agrarian they had introduc'd the equality and calm of Lacedemon or to Rotation and they had introduc'd that of Venice And so there could have bin no more enmity between the Senat and the People of Rome than there was between those Orders in Lacedemon or is now in Venice Wherfore MACCHIAVEL seems to me in attributing the Peace of Venice more to her luck than her prudence of the whole stable to have saddled the wrong Horse for tho Rome * * Qui nimbos non imitabile fulmen Aere cornipedum cursu simularat equorum in her military part could beat it better beyond all comparison upon the sounding hoof Venice for the civil part has plainly had the wings of Pegasus THE whole Question then will com upon this point Whether the People of Rome could have obtain'd these Orders And first to say that they could not have obtain'd them without altering the Commonwealth is no Argument seeing neither could they without altering the Commonwealth have obtain'd their Tribuns which nevertheless were obtain'd And if a man considers the posture that the People were in when they obtain'd their Tribuns they might as well and with as great ease forasmuch as the reason why the Nobility yielded to the Tribuns was no other than that there was no remedy have obtain'd any thing else And for experience it was in the like case that the Lacedemonians did set up their Ephors and the Athenians after the battel of Plateae bow'd the Senat so hard a thing it is for a Commonwealth that was born crooked to becom streight as much the other way Nor if it be objected that this must have ruin'd the Nobility and in that depriv'd the Common-wealth of the Greatness which she acquir'd by them is this opinion holding but confuted by the sequel of the story shewing plainly that the Nobility thro the defect of such Orders that is to say of Rotation and the Agrarian came to eat up the People and battening themselves in Luxury to be as SALUST speaks of them ††Inertissimi nobiles in quibus sicut in statua praeter nomen nihil erat additamenti a most sluggish and lazy Nobility in whom besides the name there was no more than in a statue and to bring so mighty a Commonwealth and of so huge a Glory to so deplorable an end Wherfore means might have bin found to remove the enmity that was between the Senat and the People of Rome MY LORDS If I have argu'd well I have given you the comfort and assurance that notwithstanding the judgment of MACCHIAVEL your Commonwealth is both safe and sound but if I have not argu'd 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 Senat and the People as a necessary step to the Roman Greatness Whence it follows that your Commonwealth at the worst is that which he has 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 liquorishness in a popular Assembly to debate it procedes not from the Constitution of the People but of the Commonwealth Now that your Commonwealth is of such a 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 Assemblys of the People in other Commonwealths THE Second comparing our Assembly of the People with theirs and shewing how it excludes the Inconveniences and imbraces the Conveniences of them all IN the beginning of the first Part I must take notice that among the popular Errors of our days it is no small one that men imagin the antient Governments of this kind to have consisted for the most part of one City that is of one Town wheras 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 days of Venice FOR to begin with Israel it consisted of the twelve Tribes locally spread or quarter'd throout the whole Territory and these being call'd together by Trumpets constituted the Church or Assembly of the People The vastness of this weight as also the slowness thence inavoidable became a great cause as has bin shewn at large by my Lord PHOSPHORUS of the breaking that Commonwealth notwithstanding that the Temple and those religious Ceremonys for which the People were at least annually oblig'd 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 som Capital of the Commonwealth tho 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 exceding numerous became burdensom to themselves and dangerous to the Commonwealth the more for their ill education as is observ'd by XENOPHON and POLYBIUS who compare them to Mariners that in a calm are perpetually disputing and swaggering one with another and never lay their hands to the common tackling or safety till they be all indanger'd by som storm Which caus'd THUCYDIDES when he saw this People thro the purchase of their misery becom so much wiser as to reduce their Comitia or Assemblys to five thousand to say in his eighth Book And now at least in my time the Athenians seem to have order'd their State aright consisting of a moderat temper both of the Few by which he means the Senat of the Bean and of the Many or the five thousand And
one of these could thus get would certainly lose by this bargain What should we speak of those innumerable Trades wherupon men live not only better than others upon good shares of Lands but becom also purchasers of greater Estates Is not this the demonstration which my Lord meant that the Revenue of Industry in a Nation at least in this is three or fourfold greater than that of the mere Rent If the People then obstruct Industry they obstruct their own livelihood but if they make a War they obstruct Industry Take the Bread out of the Peoples mouths as did the Roman Patricians and you are sure enough of a War in which case they may be Levellers but our Agrarian causes their Industry to slow with Milk and Hony It will be own'd that this is true if the People were given * * O fortunati nimium bona si sua nôrint Agricolae to understand their own happiness But where is it they do that Let me reply with the like question Where do they not They do not know their happiness it should seem in France Spain and Italy but reach them what it is and try whose Sense is the truer As to the late Wars in Germany it has bin affirm'd to me there that the Princes could never make the People to take Arms while they had Bread and have therfore suffer'd Countrys now and then to be wasted that they might get Soldiers This you will find to be the certain pulse and temper of the People and if they have bin already prov'd to be the most wise and constant Order of a Government why should we think when no man can produce one Example of the common Soldiery in an Army mutinying because they had not Captains pay that the Prerogative should jole the heads of the Senat together because these have the better Salarys when it must be as evident to the People in a Nation as to the Soldiery in an Army that it is no more possible their Emoluments of this kind should be afforded by any Commonwealth in the World to be made equal with those of the Senat than that the common Soldiers should be equal with the Captains It is enough for the common Soldier that his Virtue may bring him to be a Captain and more to the Prerogative that each of them is nearer to be a Senator IF my Lord thinks our Salarys too great and that the Commonwealth is not Houswife enough whether is it better Houswisery that she should keep her Family from the Snow or suffer them to burn her House that they may warm themselves for one of these must be Do you think that she came off at a cheaper rate when men had their Rewards by a thousand two thousand pounds a Year in Land of Inheritance If you say that they will be more godly than they have bin it may be ill taken and if you cannot promise that it is time we find out som way of stinting at least if not curing them of that same sacra Fames On the other side if a poor man as such a one may save a City gives his sweat to the Public with what conscience can you suffer his Family in the mean time to starve But he that lays his hand to this Plow shall not lose by taking it off from his own and a Commonwealth that will mend this shall be penny wise The Sanhedrim of Israel being the Supreme and a constant Court of Judicature could not chuse but be exceding gainful The Senat of the Bean in Athens because it was but annual was moderatly salariated but that of the Areopagits being for Life bountifully and what advantages the Senators of Lacedemon had where there was little Mony or use of it were in Honors for life The Patricians having no profit took all Venice being a Situation where a man gos but to the door for his Imployment the Honor is great and the Reward very little but in Holland a Counsillor of State has fifteen hundred Flemish Pounds a Year besides other Accommodations The States General have more And that Commonwealth looks nearer her Penny than ours needs to do FOR the Revenue of this Nation besides that of her Industry it amounts as has bin shewn to ten Millions and the Salarys in the whole com not to three hundred thousand Pounds a Year The Beauty they will add to the Commonwealth will be exceding great and the People will delight in this Beauty of their Commonwealth the Incouragement they will give to the study of the Public being very profitable the Accommodation they will afford to your Magistrats very honorable and easy And the Sum when it or twice as much was spent in Hunting and Housekeeping was never any grievance to the People I am asham'd to stand huckling upon this Point it is sordid Your Magistrats are rather to be provided with further Accommodations For what if there should be Sickness whither will you have them to remove And this City in the soundest Times for the heat of the Year is no wholsom abode have a care of their Healths to whom you commit your own I would have the Senat and the People except they see cause to the contrary every first of June to remove into the Country Air for the space of three months You are better fitted with Summer-houses for them than if you had built them to that purpose There is som twelve miles distant the Convallium upon the River Halciâ—nia for the Tribuns and the Prerogative a Palace capable of a thousand Men and twenty miles distant you have Mount Celâ—â— reverend as well for the Antiquity as State of a Castle completely capable of the Senat the Proposers having Lodgings in the Convallium and the Tribuns in Celia it holds the Correspondency between the Senat and the People exactly And it is a small matter for the Proposers being attended with the Coaches and Officers of State besides other Conveniences of their own to go a matter of five or ten miles those Seats are not much further distant to meet the People upon any Heath or Field that shall be appointed where having dispatch'd their business they may hunt their own Venizon for I would have the great wall'd Park upon the Hâ—lcionia to belong to the Signory and those about the Convallium 〈◊〉 the Tribuns and so go to supper Pray my Lords see that they do not pull down these Houses to sell the Lead of them for when you have consider'd on 't they cannot be spar'd The Founders of the School in Hiera provided that the Boys should have a Summer Seat You should have as much care of these Magistrats But there is such a selling such a Jewish humor in our Republicans that I cannot tell what to say to it only this any man that knows what belongs to a Commonwealth or how diligent every Nation in that case has bin to preserve her Ornaments and shall see the wast lately made the Woods adjoining to this
is a greater Light which they have I do not know There is a greater Light than the Sun but it dos not extinguish the Sun nor dos any Light of Gods giving extinguish that of Nature but increase and sanctify it Wherfore neither the Honor born by the Israelitish Roman or any other Commonwealth that I have shewn to their Ecclesiastics consisted in being govern'd by them but in consulting them in matters of Religion upon whose Responses or Oracles they did afterwards as they thought fit Nor would I be here mistaken as if by affirming the Universitys to be in order both to Religion and Government of absolute necessity I declar'd them or the Ministry in any wise fit to be trusted so far as to exercise any power not deriv'd from the Civil Magistrat in the administration of either If the Jewish Religion were directed and establish'd by MOSES it was directed and establish'd by the Civil Magistrat or if MOSES exercis'd this Administration as a Prophet the same Prophet did invest with the same Administration the Sanhedrim and not the Priests and so dos our Commonwealth the Senat and not the Clergy They who had the supreme Administration or Government of the National Religion in Athens were the first ARCHON the Rex Sacrificus or High Priest and a Polemarch which Magistrats were ordain'd or elected * * Per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the holding up of hands in the Church Congregation or Comitia of the People The Religion of Lacedemon was govern'd by the Kings who were also High Priests and officiated at the Sacrifice these had power to substitute their Pythii Embassadors or Nuncios by which not without concurrence of the Senat they held intelligence with the Oracle of APOLLO at Delphos And the Ecclesiastical part of the Commonwealth of Rome was govern'd by the Pontifex Maximus the Rex Sacrificulus and the Flamins all ordain'd or elected by the People the Pontifex by the ††Tributis Tribes the King by the ‖ ‖ Centuriatis Centurys and the Flamins by the ‖ ‖ ‖ ‖ Curiatis Comitiis Parishes I do not mind you of these things as if for the matter there were any parallel to be drawn out of their Superstitions to our Religion but to shew that for the manner antient Prudence is as well a rule in divine as human things nay and such a one as the Apostles themselves ordaining Elders by the holding up of hands in every Congregation have exactly follow'd for som of the Congregations where they thus ordain'd Elders were those of Antioch Iconium Lystra Derbe the Countrys of Lycaonia Pisidia Pamphylia Perga with Attalia Now that these Citys and Countrys when the Romans propagated their Empire into Asia were found most of them Commonwealths and that many of the rest were indu'd with like power so that the People living under the protection of the Roman Emperors continu'd to elect their own Magistrats is so known a thing that I wonder whence it is that men quite contrary to the universal proof of these examples will have Ecclesiastical Government to be necessarily distinct from Civil Power when the Right of the Elders ordain'd by the holding up of hands in every Congregation to teach the People was plainly deriv'd from the same Civil Power by which they ordain'd the rest of their Magistrats And it is not otherwise in our Commonwealth where the Parochial Congregation elects or ordains its Pastor To object the Common-wealth of Venice in this place were to shew us that it has bin no otherwise but where the Civil Power has lost the liberty of her Conscience by imbracing Popery as also that to take away the Liberty of Conscience in this Administration from the Civil Power were a proceding which has no other precedent than such as is Popish Wherfore your Religion is settled after the following manner the Universitys are the Seminarys of that part which is national by which means others with all safety may be permitted to follow the Liberty of their own Consciences in regard that however they behave themselves the ignorance of the unlearned in this case cannot lose your Religion nor disturb your Government which otherwise it would most certainly do and the Universitys with their Emoluments as also the Benefices of the whole Nation are to be improv'd by such Augmentations as may make a very decent and comfortable subsistence for the Ministry which is neither to be allow'd Synods nor Assemblys except upon the occasion shewn in the Universitys when they are consulted by the Council of State and suffer'd to meddle with Affairs of Religion nor to be capable of any other public Preferment whatsoever by which means the Interest of the Learned can never com to corrupt your Religion nor disturb your Government which otherwise it would most certainly do Venice tho she dos not see or cannot help the corruption of her Religion is yet so circumspect to avoid disturbance of her Government in this kind that her Council procedes not to election of Magistrats till it be proclaim'd Fora Papalini by which words such as have consanguinity with red Hats or relation to the Court of Rome are warn'd to withdraw If a Minister in Holland meddles with matter of State the Magistrat sends him a pair of Shoes wherupon if he dos not go he is driven away from his charge I wonder why Ministers of all men should be perpetually tampering with Government first because they as well as others have it in express charge to submit themselves to the Ordinances of men and secondly because these Ordinances of men must go upon such political Principles as they of all others by any thing that can be found in their Writings or Actions least understand whence you have the suffrage of all Nations to this sense that an ounce of Wisdom is worth a pound of Clergy Your greatest Clercs are not your wisest men and when som foul Absurdity in State is committed it is common with the French and even the Italians to call it Pas de Clerc or Governo da Prete They may bear with men that will be preaching without study while they will be governing without Prudence My Lords if you know not how to rule your Clergy you will most certainly like a man that cannot rule his Wife have neither quiet at home nor honor abroad Their honest Vocation is to teach your Children at the Schools and the Universitys and the People in the Parishes and yours is concern'd to see that they do not play the shrews of which parts dos consist the Education of your Commonwealth so far as it regards Religion The Ins of Court and Chancery TO JUSTICE or that part of it which is commonly executive answers the Education of the Ins of Court and Chancery Upon which to philosophize requires a peculiar kind of Learning that I have not But they who take upon them any Profession proper to the Educations mention'd that is Theology Physic or Law
as in that case is necessary are very few as the Counsillors the Savi the Provosts Wherever a Commonwealth is thus propos'd to the Balance or Popular Assembly will do her duty to admiration but till then never Yet so it has bin with us of late years that altho in Royal Authority there was no more than the right of Proposing and the King himself was to stand legibus consuetudinibus quas vulgas elegerit to the result of the People yet the popular Council has bin put upon Invention and they that have bin the prevailing Party have us'd means to keep the Result to themselves quite contrary to the nature of Popular Administration Let one speak and the rest judg Of whatever any one man can say or do Mankind is the natural and competent Judg in which is contain'd the very reason of Parlaments thro the want of understanding this came in confusion Man that is in Honor and has no understanding is like the Beasts that perish Nor can we possibly return to Order but by mending the Hedg where it was broken A prudent intire and sit Proposition made to a free Parlament recovers all To them who are of the greatest Eminency or Authority in a Commonwealth belongs naturally that part of Reason which is Invention and using this they are to propose but what did our Grandees ever invent or propose that might shew so much as that themselves knew what they would be at and yet how confidently do they lay the fault upon the People and their unfitness forsooth for Government in which they are wondrous wise For this I will boldly say Where there was an Aristocracy that perform'd their duty there never was nor ever can be a People unfit for Government but on the contrary where the Aristocracy have fail'd the People being once under Orders have held very often But while they are not under Orders if they fail it is not their fault but the fault of the Aristocracy for who else should model a Government but men of Experience There is not in England I speak it to their shame one GRANDEE that has any perfect knowlege of the Orders of any one Commonwealth that ever was in the World Away with this same grave complexion this huff of Wisdom maintain'd by making faces The People cannot do their duty consisting in Judgment but by virtue of such Orders as may bring them together and direct them but the duty of the Aristocracy consisting in Invention may be don by any one man and in his study and where is that one man among all the Grandees that studys They are so far from knowing their own duty that a man for proposing that in which none can find a flaw has don enough to be ridiculous to them who are themselves ridiculous to the whole World in that they could never yet propose any thing that would hold BVT if this amounts to a Demonstration it amounts to a clear detection of your profound Grandees and a full proof that they are Phanatical Persons State Jesuits such as have reduc'd the Politics to mental Reservation and implicit Faith in their nods or nightcaps GOD to propose his Commandments to the People of Israel wrote them on two Tables the Decemviri to propose their Commandments to the People of Rome wrote them on twelve Tables the Athenians propos'd in writing sign'd with the name of the particular Inventor after this pattern do the Venetians as was said the same at this day But no Goosquill no Scribling Your Grandees are above this MOSES who was the first Writer in this kind shall be pardon'd but MACCHIAVEL the first in later times that has reviv'd his Principles or trod in his steps is deservedly pelted for it by Sermons They are not for the Scripture but the Cabala I WILL tell you a story out of BOCCALINI APOLLO having spy'd the Philosopher and great Master of Silence HARPOCRATES in the Court of Parnassus us'd such importunity with him that for once he was persuaded to speak upon which such apparent discovery was made of the Hypocrite and the gross ignorance he had so long harbor'd under a deceitful silence that he was immediatly banish'd the Court. Were there cause I could be modest but this Virtue to the diminution of sound and wholsom Principles would be none wherfore let a Grandee write and I will shew you HARPOCRATES THVS having sufficiently defy'd Sir GUY I may with the less impeachment of reputation descend to TOM THUM Not that I hold my self a fit Person to be exercis'd with Boys play but that som who should have more wit have so little as to think this somthing A good Rat-catcher is not so great a blessing to any City as a good Jugglercatcher would be to this Nation Now because I want an Office I shall shew my Parts to my Country and how fit I am for the white Staff or long Pole of so worshipful a Preferment Ridiculus ne sis esto THE FIRST BOOK CONTAINING The first Preliminary of OCEANA inlarg'd interpreted and vindicated from all such Mistakes or Slanders as have bin alleg'd against it under the notion of Objections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A full Answer to all such OBJECTIONS as have hitherto bin made against OCEANA NEITHER the Author or Authors of the Considerations upon OCEANA nor any other have yet so much as once pretended one Contradiction or one Inequality to be in the whole Common-wealth Now this is certain That Frame of Government which is void of any contradiction or any inequality is void of all internal causes of Dissolution and must for so much as it imbraces have attain'd to full perfection This by wholesale is a full Answer to the Considerations with all other Objections hitherto and will be with any man that comprehends the nature of Government to thousands of such Books or Myriads of such tittel tattel Nevertheless because every man is not provided with a Sum in the following Discourse I shall comply with them that must have things by Retail or somwhat for their Farthing The PREFACE IT is commonly said and not without incouragement by som who think they have Parnassus by the horns that the University has lash'd me so it seems I have to do with the Vniversity and lashing is lawful with both which I am contented In Moorfields while the People are busy at their sports they often and ridiculously lose their Buttons their Ribbands and their Purses where if they light as somtimes they do upon the Masters of that Art they fall a kicking them a while which one may call a rude charge and then to their work again I know not whether I invite you to Moorfields but difficile est Satyram non scribere all the favor I desire at your hands is but this that you would not so condemn one man for kicking as in the same Act to pardon another for cutting of Purses A Gentleman that commits a fallacious Argument
to writing or gos about to satisfy others with such Reasons as he is not satisfy'd with himself is no more a Gentleman but a Pickpocket with this in my mind I betake my self to my work or rather to draw open the Curtain and begin the Play ONE that has written Considerations upon OCEANA speaks the Prolog in this manner I beseech you Gentlemen are not we the Writers Epist of Politics somwhat a ridiculous sort of People Is it not a fine piece of Folly for privat men sitting in their Cabinets to rack their brains about Models of Government Certainly our Labors make a very pleasant recreation for those great Personages who sitting at the Helm of Affairs have by their large Experience not only acquir'd the perfect Art of Ruling but have attain'd also to the comprehension of the Nature and Foundation of Government In which egregious Complement the Considerer has lost his considering Cap. IT was in the time of ALEXANDER the greatest Prince and Commander of his age that ARISTOTLE with scarce inferior Applause and equal Fame being a privat man wrote that excellent piece of Prudence in his Cabinet which is call'd his Politics going upon far other Principles than those of ALEXANDER'S Government which it has long outliv'd The like did TITUS LIVIUS in the time of AUGUSTUS Sir THOMAS MOOR in the time of HENRY the Eighth and MACCHIAVEL when Italy was under Princes that afforded him not the ear These Works nevertheless are all of the most esteem'd and applauded in this kind nor have I found any man whose like Indeavors have bin persecuted since PLATO by DIONYSIUS I study not without great Examples nor out of my Calling either Arms or this Art being the proper Trade of a Gentleman A man may be intrusted with a Ship and a good Pilot too yet not understand how to make Sea-charts To say that a man may not write of Government except he be a Magistrat is as absurd as to say that a man may not make a Sea-chart unless he be a Pilot. It is known that CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS made a Chart in his Cabinet that found out the Indys The Magistrat that was good at his Steerage never took it ill of him that brought him a Chart seeing whether he would use it or no was at his own choice and if Flatterers being the worst sort of Crows did not pick out the eys of the living the Ship of Government at this day throout Christendom had not struck so often as she has don To treat of Affairs Arte della Guer. â—roem says MACCHIAVEL which as to the conduct of 'em appertain to others may be thought a great boldness but if I commit Errors in writing these may be known without danger wheras if they commit Errors in acting such com not otherwise to be known than in the ruin of the Commonwealth For which cause I presume to open the Scene of my Discourse which is to change according to the variety of these following Questions 1. WHETHER Prudence be well distinguish'd into Antient and Modern 2. WHETHER a Commonwealth be rightly defin'd to be a Government of Laws and not of Men and Monarchy to be a Government of som Man or a few Men and not of Laws 3. WHETHER the Balance of Dominion in Land be the natural cause of Empire 4. WHETHER the Balance of Empire be well divided into National and Provincial and whether these two or any Nations that are of distinct Balance coming to depend upon one and the same head such a mixture creates a new Balance 5. WHETHER there be any common Right or Interest of Mankind distinct from the parts taken severally and how by the Orders of a Commonwealth this may best be distinguish'd from privat Interest 6. WHETHER the Senatusconsulta or Decrees of the Roman Senat had the power of Laws 7. WHETHER the ten Commandments propos'd by GOD or MOSES were voted by the People of Israel 8. WHETHER a Commonwealth coming up to the perfection of the kind coms not up to the perfection of Government and has no flaw in it 9. WHETHER Monarchy coming up to the perfection of the kind coms not short of the perfection of Government and has not som flaw in it in which is also treated of the Balance of France of the Original of a landed Clergy of Arms and their kinds 10. WHETHER a Commonwealth that was not first broken by it self was ever conquer'd by any Monarch 11. WHETHER there be not an Agrarian or som Law or Laws of that nature to supply the defect of it in every Commonwealth and whether the Agrarian as it is stated in Oceana be not equal and satisfactory to all Interests or Partys 12. WHETHER Courses or a Rotation be necessary to a well-order'd Commonwealth In which is contain'd the Parembole or Courses of Israel before the Captivity together with an Epitome of the whole Commonwealth of Athens as also another of the Common-wealth of Venice Antient and Modern Prudence Chap. 1 CHAP. I. Whether Prudence be well distinguish'd into Antient and Modern THE Considerer where by Antient Prudence I understand the Policy of a Commonwealth and by Modern Prudence that of King Lords and Commons which introduc'd by the Goths and Vandals upon the ruin of the Roman Empire has since reign'd in these Western Countrys till by the predominating of som one of the three parts it be now almost universally extinguish'd thinks it enough for the confutation of this distinction to shew out of THUCYDIDES that of Monarchy to be a more antient Policy than that of a Commonwealth Upon which occasion I must begin here to discover that which the further I go will be the more manifest namely that there is a difference between quoting Authors and saying som part of them without book this may be don by their words but the former no otherwise than by keeping to their sense Now the sense of THUCYDIDES as he is translated by Mr. HOBBS in the place alleg'd is thus The manner says he Thu. B. 1. P. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. of living in the most antient times of Greece was Thieving the stronger going abroad under the conduct of their most puissant Men both to inrich themselves and fetch home maintenance for the weak for there was neither Traffic property of Lands nor constant Abode till MINOS built a Navy and expelling the Malefactors out of the Islands planted Colonys of his own by which means they who inhabited the Seacoasts becoming more addicted to Riches grew more constant to their dwellings of whom som grown now rich compass'd their Towns about with Walls For out of a desire of Gain the meaner sort underwent Servitude with the Mighty and the Mighty thus overbalancing at home with their Wealth brought the lesser Citys abroad into subjection Thus PELOPS tho he was a stranger obtain'd such Power in Peloponnesus that the Country was call'd after his name Thus ATREUS obtain'd the Kingdom of Mycenae and thus Kingdoms
Riches in general have Wings and be apt to bate yet those in Land are the most hooded and ty'd to the Perch wheras those in Mony have the least hold and are the swiftest of flight A Bank where the Mony takes not wing but to com home seiz'd or like a Coyduck may well be great but the Treasure of the Indys going out and not upon returns makes no Bank Whence a Bank never paid an Army or paying an Army soon became no Bank But where a Prince or a Nobility has an Estate in Land the Revenue wherof will desray this Charge there their Men are planted have Toes that are Roots and Arms that bring forth what Fruit you please THUS a single Person is made or a Nobility makes a King not with difficulty or any great prudence but with ease the rest coming home as the Ox that not only knows his Master's Crib but must starve or repair to it Nor for the same reason is Government acquir'd with more ease than it is preserv'd that is if the Foundation of Property Book I be in Land but if in Mony lightly com lightly go The reason why a single Person or the Nobility that has one hundred thousand men or half so many at command will have the Government is that the Estate in Land wherby they are able to maintain so many in any European Territory must overbalance the rest that remains to the People at least three parts in four by which means they are no more able to dispute the Government with him or them than your Servant is with you Now for the same reason if the People hold three parts in four of the Territory it is plain there can neither be any single Person nor Nobility able to dispute the Government with them in this case therfore except Force be interpos'd they govern themselves So by this computation of the Balance of Property or Dominion in Land you have according to the threefold Foundation of Property the Root or Generation of the threefold kind of Government or Empire Oceana p. 39. IF one man be sole Landlord of a Territory or overbalance the whole People three parts in four or therabouts he is Grand Signior for so the Turc not from his Empire but his Property is call'd and the Empire in this case is absolute Monarchy IF the Few or a Nobility or a Nobility with a Clergy be Landlords to such a proportion as overbalances the People in the like manner they may make whom they please King or if they be not pleas'd with their King down with him and set up whom they like better a HENRY the Fourth or the Seventh a GUISE a MONTFORT a NEVIL or a PORTER should they find that best for their own ends and purposes For as not the Balance of the King but that of the Nobility in this case is the cause of the Government so not the Estate or Riches of the Prince or Captain but his Virtue or Ability or fitness for the ends of the Nobility acquires that Command or Office This for Aristocracy or mix'd Monarchy But if the whole People be Landlords or hold the Land so divided among them that no one man or number of men within the compass of the Few or Aristocracy overbalance them it is a Commonwealth Such is the Branch in the Root or the Balance of Property naturally producing Empire which not confuted no man shall be able to batter my Superstructures and which confuted I lay down my Arms. Till then if the cause necessarily precede the effect Property must have a being before Empire or beginning with it must be still first in order PROPERTY coms to have a being before Empire or Government two ways either by a natural or violent Revolution Natural Revolution happens from within or by Commerce as when a Government erected upon one Balance that for example of a Nobility or a Clergy thro the decay of their Estates coms to alter to another Balance which alteration in the Root of Property leaves all to confusion or produces a new Branch or Government according to the kind or nature of the Root Violent Revolution happens from without or by Arms as when upon Conquest there follows Confiscation Confiscation again is of three kinds when the Captain taking all to himself plants his Army by way of military Colonys Benefices or Timars which was the Policy of MAHOMET or when the Captain has som Sharers or a Nobility that divides with him which was the Policy introduc'd by the Goths and Vandals or when the Captain divides the Inheritance by Lots or otherwise to the whole People which Policy was instituted by GOD or MOSES in the Common-wealth Chap. 3 of Israel This triple distribution whether from natural or violent Revolution returns as to the generation of Empire to the same thing that is to the nature of the Balance already stated and demonstrated Now let us see what the Prevaricator will say which first is this Consid p. 14. THE Assertion that Property producing Empire consists only in Land appears too positive A Pig of my own Sow this is no more than I told him only there is more imply'd in what I told him than he will see which therfore I shall now further explain The balance in Mony may be as good or better than that of Land in three cases First where there is no Property of Land yet introduc'd as in Greece during the time of her antient Imbecillity whence as is noted by THUCYDIDES the meaner sort thro a desire of Gain underwent the Servitude of the Mighty Secondly in Citys of small Territory and great Trade as Holland and Genoa the Land not being able to feed the People who must live upon Traffic is overbalanc'd by the means of that Traffic which is Mony Thirdly in a narrow Country where the Lots are at a low scantling as among the Israelits if care be not had of Mony in the regulation of the same it will eat out the balance of Land For which cause tho an Israelit might both have Mony and put it to Usury Thou shalt lend upon usury to many Nations yet Deut. 15. 6. 23. 19. might he not lend it upon usury to a Citizen or Brother whence two things are manifest First that Usury in it self is not unlawful And next that Usury in Israel was no otherwise forbidden than as it might com to overthrow the Balance or Foundation of the Government for where a Lot as to the general amounted not perhaps to four Acres a man that should have had a thousand Pounds in his Purse would not have regarded such a Lot in comparison of his Mony and he that should have bin half so much in debt would have bin quite eaten out Usury is of such a nature as not forbidden in the like cases must devour the Government The Roman People while their Territory was no bigger and their Lots which exceded not two Acres a man were yet
it for the less or com to downright Levelling But as to this in the 8 th Chapter I have bar'd his Dice that being the place in which I thought most proper to give a full Answer to this Objection AT the third throw he is extreme aukward For wheras the Israelits notwithstanding the Voyages of SOLOMON and what is said of the Ships of Tharsis during their Agrarian or while they had Land were a Commonwealth of Husbandmen and not of Merchants nor came to the exercise of this Trade till they had no Land or after their dispersion by the Emperor ADRIAN he scrues it in after this manner As the Jews who have no Lands are every where great Traders Consid p. 85. so the possession of Lands being limited by this Agrarian men who are either covetous or ambitious as if Estates were not got by Industry but by Covetousness and Ambition will imploy themselves and their Estates in foren Traffic which being in a manner wholly ingrost by the Capital City of Oceana that City already too great will immediatly grow into an excess of Power and Riches very dangerous to the Commonwealth Amsterdam being com by such means to exercise of late a Tyranny in the disposal of som public Affairs much to the prejudice both of the Liberty and Interest of the rest of the Vnion An equal if not greater Incommodity to Oceana would bâ— created by the Agrarian which making Emporium a City of Princes would render the Country a Commonwealth of Book I Cottagers able to dispute Precedence with the Beggers Bush NEWS not from Tripoli nor any other corner of the whole World but one Bate me this and shew me in what other City increase of Houses or new Foundations was ever held a Nusance This sure is a Phansy that regards not the old Folks or antient Prudence ONE of the Blessings that God promis'd to ABRAHAM was that his Seed should be multiply'd as the Stars of Heaven And the Commonwealth of Rome by multiplying her Seed came to bound her Territory with the Ocean and her Fame with the Stars of Heaven That such a Populousness is that without which there can be no great Commonwealth both Reason and good Authors are clear but whether it ought to begin in the Country or in the City is a scruple I have not known them make That of Israel began in the Country that of Rome in the City Except there be obstruction or impediment by the Law as in Turky where the Country and in England where the City is forbid to increase wherever there is a populous Country for example France it makes a populous City as Paris and wherever there is a populous City as Rome after the ruin of Alba and Amsterdam after the ruin as to Trade of Antwerp it makes a populous Territory as was that of the Rustic Tribes and is that of Holland BUT the ways how a populous City coms to make a populous Country and how a populous Country coms to make a populous City are contrary the one happening thro sucking as that of the City and the other thro weaning as that of the Country FOR proof of the former the more mouths there be in a City the more meat of necessity must be vented by the Country and so there will be more Corn more Cattel and better Markets which breeding more Laborers more Husbandmen and richer Farmers bring the Country so far from a Commonwealth of Cottagers that where the Blessings of God thro the fruitfulness of late years with us render'd the Husbandman unable to dispute Precedence with the Beggers Bush his Trade thus uninterrupted in that his Markets are certain gos on with increase of Children of Servants of Corn and of Cattel for there is no reason why the Fields adjoining to Emporium being but of a hard soil should annually produce two Crops but the Populousness of the City THE Country then growing more populous and better stock'd with Cattel which also increases Manure for the Land must proportionably increase in fruitfulness Hence it is that as the Romans also were good at such works in Holland there is scarce a puddle undrain'd nor a bank of Sand cast up by the Sea that is not cover'd with Earth and made fruitful by the People these being so strangely with the growth of Amsterdam increas'd as coms perhaps to two parts in three nor the Agrarian taking place in Oceana would it be longer disputed whether she might not destroy Fishes to plant Men. Thus a populous City makes a Country milch or populous by sucking and wheras som may say that such a City may suck from foren parts it is true enough and no where more apparent than in Amsterdam But a City that has recourse to a foren Dug ere she had first suck'd that of her proper Nurse or Territory dry you shall hardly find or finding as in som Plantation not yet wean'd will hardly be able to make that Objection hold seeing it will not ly so much against Chap. 11 the Populousness of the place as the contrary BUT a populous Country makes a populous City by weaning for when the People increase so much that the dug of Earth can do no more the overplus must seek som other way of Livelihood which is either Arms such were those of the Goths and Vandals or Merchandize and Manufacture for which ends it being necessary that they lay their Heads and their Stock together this makes populous Citys Thus Holland being a small Territory and suck'd dry has upon the matter wean'd the whole People and is therby becom as it were one City that sucks all the World BUT by this means says the Considerer Emporium being already too great while indeed Amsterdam considering the narrowness of the Territory or the smalness of Holland is much more populous would immediatly grow into an excess of Power and Riches very dangerous to Liberty an example wherof was seen in the late Tyranny of that City As if it were not sufficiently known that Amsterdam contributes and has contributed more to the desence of the Commonwealth or United Provinces than all the rest of the League and had in those late Actions which have bin scandaliz'd resisted not the Interest of Liberty but of a Lord. That the increase of Rome which was always study'd by her best Citizens should make her Head too great for her Body or her Power dangerous to the Tribes was never so much as imagin'd and tho she were a City of Princes her rustic Tribes were ever had in greatest Esteem and Honor insomuch that a Patrician would be of no other BUT the Authority of antient Commonwealths is needless the Prevaricator by his own Argumentation or Might lays himself neck and heels Consid p. 93. FOR says he Were this Agrarian once settl'd Emporium would be a City of Princes and the Nobility so throly plum'd that they would be just as strong of wing as wild Fowl in moulting time There would be a
City of Princes and yet no Nobility He is so fast that I have pity on him if I knew but which way to let him loose He means perhaps that the Merchants growing rich would be the Nobility and the Nobility growing poor would be Grasiers BUT so for ought I know it was always or worse that is men attain'd to Riches and Honors by such or worse Arts and in Poverty made not always so honest Retreats To all which Infirmitys of the State I am deceiv'd if this Agrarian dos not apply the proper Remedys For such an Agrarian makes a Commonwealth for increase the Trade of a Commonwealth for increase is Arms Arms are not born by Merchants but by Noblemen and Gentlemen The Nobility therfore having these Arms in their hands by which Provinces are to be acquir'd new Provinces yield new Estates so wheras the Merchant has his returns in Silk or Canvas the Soldier will have his return in Land He that represents me as an Enemy to the Nobility is the man he speaks of for if ever the Commonwealth attains to five new Provinces and such a Commonwealth will have Provinces enow it is certain that besides Honors Magistracys and the Revenues annex'd there will be more Estates in the Nobility of Oceana of fourteen thousand pounds Land a year than ever were or can otherwise be of four and that without any the least danger to the Book I Commonwealth for if Rome had but look'd so far to it as to have made good her Agrarian in Italy tho she had neglected the rest the Wealth of her Nobility might have suck'd her Provinces but must have inrich'd the People and so rather have water'd her Roots than starv'd and destroy'd them as it did In this case therfore the Nobility of Oceana would not moulter like wild Fowl but be strong of wing as the Eagle ONE Argument more I have heard urg'd against the Populousness of the Capital City which is That the Rich in time of sickness forsaking the place by which means the Markets com to fail the Poor lest they should starve will run abroad and infect the whole Country But should a man tell them at Paris or Grand Cairo in the latter wherof the Plague is more frequent and furious than happens with us that they are not to build Houses nor increase so much lest they should have the Plague or that Children are not to be born so fast lest they dy they would think it strange news A Commonwealth is furnish'd with Laws and Power to add such as she shall find needful In case a City be in that manner visited it is the duty of the Country and of the Government to provide for them by contribution Consid p. 37. THE difficulty in making the Agrarian equal and steddy thro the rise or fall that may happen in Mony which is the fourth throw of the Prevaricator is that which it might have bin for his ease to have taken notice was long since sufficiently bar'd where it is said That if a new Survey at the present Rent was taken an Agrarian ordaining that no man should thenceforth hold above so much Land as is there valu'd at the rate however Mony might alter would be equal and steddy enough Consid p. 89. HIS last cast is That the Agrarian would make War against universal and immemorial Custom which being without doubt more prevalent than that of Reason there is nothing of such difficulty as to persuade men at once and crudely that they and their Forefathers have bin in an Error WISE men I see may differ in Judgment or Counsil for says Essay 24. Sir FRANCIS BACON Surely every Medicin is an Innovation and he that will not apply new Remedys must expect new Evils for Time is the greatest Innovator and if Time of course alters things to the worse and Wisdom and Counsil may not alter them to the better what must be the end BUT the case of the Agrarian receives equal strength from each of these Counsillors or Opinions from the latter in that it gos upon grounds which Time has not innovated for the worse but for the better and so according to the former coms not to have bin at once and crudely persuaded but introduc'd by Custom now grown universal and immemorial For who remembers the Gentry of this Nation to have worn the blew Coats of the Nobility or the lower sort of People to have liv'd upon the smoak of their Kitchins On the contrary Is it not now a universal Custom for men to rely upon their own Fortunes or Industry and not to put their Trust in Princes seeking in their Liberality or Dependence the means of living The Prevaricator might as well jump into his great Grandfather's old Breeches and persuade us that he is a la mode or in the new cut as that the ways of our Forefathers would agree with our Customs Dos not every man now see that if the Kings in those days had settl'd the Estates of the Chap. 12 Nobility by a Law restraining them from selling their Land such a Law had bin an Agrarian and yet not warring against their antient Customs but preserving them Wherfore neither dos the Agrarian propos'd taking the Balance of Estates as she now finds them make War against but confirm the present Customs The only Objection that can seem in this place to ly is that wheras it has bin the Custom of Oceana that the bulk of the Estate should descend to the eldest Son by the Agrarian he cannot in case he has more Brothers inherit above two thousand pounds a year in Land or an equal share But neither dos this whether you regard the Parents or the Children make War with Custom For putting the case the Father has twenty thousand pounds a year in Land he gos not the less in his custom or way of Life for the Agrarian because for this he has no less and if he has more or fewer Sons to whom this Estate descends by equal or inequal portions neither do they go less in their ways or customs of Life for the Agrarian because they never had more But says ARISTOTLE Pol. L. 3. c. 9. speaking of the Ostracism as it supplys the defect of an Agrarian this course is as necessary to Kings as to Commonwealths By this means the Monarchys of Turky and of Spain preserve their Balance thro the neglect of this has that of the Nobility of Oceana bin broken and this is it which the Prevaricator in advising that the Nobility be no further level'd than will serve to keep the People under requires of his Prince So That an Agrarian is necessary to Government be it what it will is on all hands concluded CHAP. XII Whether Courses or a Rotation be necessary to a well-order'd Commonwealth In which is contain'd the Courses or Parembole of Israel before the Captivity together with the Epitome of Athens and Venice Oceana p. 54. ONE bout more and we
the Spirit was obey'd and BARNABAS with PAUL to the end that every one might see who were chosen were separated from the rest and when the Congregation had unanimously implor'd the favor of God by prayer and fasting the most eminent in Authority among them laid their hands upon the Persons so separated and sent them wherever the Spirit of God should direct them By this impulse therfore BARNABAS and PAUL went to Seleucia being a Promontory of Antiochia and thence sail'd into the Iland of Cyprus where they landed at Salamis a famous City upon the Eastern part of the Iland they preach'd not human Inventions but the Word of God nor that by stealth but in the Synagogs of the Jews wherof thro the Neighborhood of Syria there was store This Honor by the Commandment of CHRIST was always defer'd to the Jews that the Gospel should be first offer'd to them lest they being a querulous and repining Nation should complain that they were despis'd Thus travel'd these Apostles thro the whole Iland till they came to Paphos a City consecrated to VENUS upon the Western Coast of Cyprus Here they found a certain Magician call'd BARJESUS that is the Son of JESUS a Jew both by Nation and Religion under which color he falsly pretended to the gift of Prophesy This man follow'd the Court of SERGIUS PAULUS Proconsul or Governor of the Iland for the Romans otherwise a prudent man but this sort of Vermin insinuats it self into the best to chuse that so their Corruption may do the greater and more compendious mischief to mankind The Proconsul nevertheless having understood the Gospel to be planting throout Cyprus not only forbore to stop the ears of others but by sending for BARNABAS and PAUL seem'd desirous to open his own Wherfore BARJESUS indeavoring to resist the growth of the Word as an Enemy to CHRIST and resisting the Truth with Falshood a strife arose between the true Prophets and a false one for such is the Interpretation Book II of the Syriac word ELYMAS whom PAUL at length confuted of spiritual blindness by taking away the eys of his body miraculously struck in the presence of the Proconsul who at the same time receiving the light of the Gospel imbrac'd the Christian Faith This being don at Paphos PAUL imbark'd there with his Associats for the lesser Asia and came to Perga being a City of Pamphylia here JOHN whose Sirname was MARC left them and return'd to Jerusalem while they when they had visited Pamphylia travel'd to Antiochia a City of Pisidia where having enter'd a Synagog they sat after the usual manner with the rest attentive to the Law and the Prophets wherof when the Parts appointed were read and no man stood up the Rulers of the Synagog perceiving that the Strangers by their habit were Jews and such as by their aspect promis'd more than ordinary sent to them desiring that if they had any word of exhortation for the People they would speak Wherupon PAUL standing up preach'd to them CHRIST whence came the Word of the Lord to be divulg'd throout that Region tho the Jews out of envy to the Gentils stirring up the devoutest Matrons an Art not unknown in these times and by them the chief of the City rais'd such Sedition in it and Tumult against the Apostles that PAUL and BARNABAS being cast out shook off the dust from their feet against them and went thence to Iconium a City of Lycaonia Chap. 14. When they were com to Iconium entring with the Jews after the custom into the Synagog they preach'd as they had at Antioch the Gospel of Jesus Christ and with such efficacy that multitudes both of the Jews and Greecs believ'd Here again the Envy of the Jews became the Author of Sedition by which means the City was divided into two Parts or Factions wherof one stood for the unbelieving Jews and the other for the Apostles At length when such of the Gentils as were join'd with the Jews and the Rulers of the City made an assault upon the Apostles to offer violence and stone them they being aware of it fled to Lystra a City of Lycaonia which is a part of Pamphylia and Derbe At Lystra there was a man lame of his feet from the Womb who having listen'd to PAUL with great Attention and Zeal was miraculously cur'd by the Apostle when the People seeing what PAUL had don cry'd out The Gods were descended in the likeness of men a persuasion that might gain the more easily upon the minds of the Lycaonians for the Fable of JUPITER and MERCURY said to have descended in human shape and bin entertain'd by LYCAON from whom the Lycaonians receiv'd their name Wherfore they call'd BARNABAS for the gravity of his aspect JUPITER PAUL for his Eloquence MERCURY and the Priest of JUPITER who dwelt in the Suburbs brought Bulls and Garlands to the Gates of the House where the Apostles were to have offer'd Sacrifice with the People which the Apostles abhorring vigorously dissuaded In the mean time certain Jews by Nation that were Vnbelievers coming from Antioch of Pisidia and Iconium drew the People to the other extreme who from sacrificing to the Apostles fell on stoning them a work which was brought so near to an end that PAUL being drawn by them out of the City was left for dead tho he soon after recover'd and went thence with BARNABAS to Derbe when they had propagated the Gospel there also they return'd to Lystra Iconium and Antiochia confirming the Disciples whom they had converted Now because the propagation of the Gospel requir'd that the Apostles should be moving thro divers Nations they chirotonizing them Elders in every Congregation or Church that is ordaining them Elders by the Votes of the People in every City left them to perform the Dutys of the absent Apostles and when they had fasted and pray'd commended them to the Lord. These Chap. 2 things being brought to a conclusion or finish'd at Antioch in Pisidia when they had perambulated this Country they also visited Pamphylia sowing the Gospel where it was not yet sowâ— and confirming those who already believ'd till they came to Perga where having order'd their affairs they proceded to Attalia being a maritim City of Pamphylia and from thence they sail'd back to Antioch of Syria whence first they set out with Commission from the Elders to preach the Gospel to the Gentils and where by the Chirothesia or Imposition of hands Prayer and Fasting they had bin recommended to the Grace of God and design'd to the Work now finish'd IN this Narrative you have mention both of the Chirotonia and of the Chirothesia or Imposition of hands but of the former as of Ordination for by that such were made Presbyters or Church-Officers as were not so before of the latter not I think as of Ordination at least in the sense we now take it but as of designation of Persons to an occasional and temporary imployment that had bin ordain'd
in Asia the scene of our present Discourse where the same PAUL of whom we are speaking being born at Tarsus a City oâ— Cilicia that had acquir'd like or greater Privilege by the same bounty was also a Citizen of Rome than in Greece Asia is understood in three significations First for the third part of the World answering to Europe and Africa Secondly for that part of Asia which is now call'd Natolia Thirdly for that part of it which ATTALUS King of Pergamum dying without Heirs bequeath'd and left to the People of Rome this contain'd Mysia Phrygia Aeolis Ionia Caria Doris Lydia Lycaonia Pisidia and by consequence the Citys wherof we are speaking To all these Countrys the Romans gave their Liberty till in favor of ARISTONICUS the Bastard of EUMENES many of them taking Arms they were recover'd brought into subjection and fram'd into a Province WHEN a Consul had conquer'd a Country and the Romans intended to form it into a Province it was the custom of the Senat to send decem Legatos ten of their Members who with the Consul had power to introduce and establish their provincial way of Government In this manner Asia was form'd by MARCUS AQUILLIUS Consul afterwards so excellently reform'd by SCAEVOLA that the Senat in their Edicts us'd to propose his example to succeding Magistrats and the Inhabitants to celebrat a Feast to his Name Nevertheless MITHRIDATES King of Pontus all the Romans in this Province being massacred in one day came to possess himself of it till it was recover'd at several times by SYLLA MURENA LUCULLUS and POMPEY The Romans in framing a Country into a Province were not accustom'd to deal with all the Inhabitants of the same in a like manner but differently according to their different merit Thus divers Citys in this were left free by SYLLA as those of the Ilienses the Chians Rhodians Lycians and Magnesians with the Cyzicens tho the last of these afterwards for their practices against the Romans forfeited their Liberty to TIBERIUS in whose Reign they were for this reason depriv'd of the same TAKING Asia in the first sense that is for one third part of the World the next Province of the Romans in this Country was Cilicia containing Pamphylia Isauria and Cilicia more peculiarly so call'd Here CICERO was somtimes Proconsul in honor to whom part of Book II Phrygia with Pisidia and Lycaonia were taken from the former and added to this Jurisdiction by which means the Citys wherof we are speaking came to be of this Province Adjoining hereto was the Commonwealth of the Lycians which the Romans left free into this also the City of Attalia by som is computed but Iconium both by STRABO â—â—ist and CICERO the latter wherof being Proconsul in his Journy from Laodicea was receiv'd by the Magistrats and Deputys of this City Lysâ—ra and Derbe being Citys of Lycaonia must also have bin of the same Province Next to the Province of Cilicia was that of Syria containing Comagene Seleucis Phoenicia Coelosyria and Judea or Palestin In Seleucis were the four famous Citys Seleucia Antiochia Apamea the last intire in her Liberty and Laodicea Comagene and Judea were under Kings and not fram'd into Provinces till in the time of the Emperors THE fourth Province of the Romans in Asia was that of Bithynia with Pontus these were all acquir'd or confirm'd by the Victorys of POMPEY the Great STRABO who was a Cappadocian born at Amasia relates a story worthy to â—e remember'd in this place From the time says he that the Romans having conquer'd ANTIOCHUS became Moderators of Asia they contracted Leagues of Amity with divers Nations where there were Kings the honor of address was defer'd to them with whom the Treatys that concern'd their Countrys were concluded But as concerning the Cappadocians they treated with the whole Nation for which cause the Royal Line of this Realm coming afterwards to fail the Romans gave the People their freedom or leave to live under their own Laws and when the People hereupon sending Embassadors to Rome renounc'd their Liberty being that to them which they said was intolerable and demanded a King the Romans amaz'd there should be men that could so far despair permitted them to chuse of their Nation whom they pleas'd so ARIOBARZANES was chosen whose Line again in the third Generation coming to fail ARCHELAUS was made King by ANTONY where you may observe in passing that the Romans impos'd not Monarchical Government but for that matter us'd to leave a People as they found them Thus at the same time they left PONTUS under King MITHRIDATES who not containing himself within his bounds but extending them afterwards as far as Colchis and Armenia the Less was reduc'd to his terms by POMPEY who devesting him of those Countrys which he had usurp'd distributed som part of them to such Princes as had assisted the Romans in that War and divided the rest into twelve Common-wealths of which added to Bithynia he made one Province When the Roman Emperors became Monarchs they also upon like occasions made other distributions constituting Kings Princes and Citys som more som less som wholly free and others in subjection to themselves Thus came a good if not the greater part of the Citys in the Lesser Asia and the other adjoining Provinces to be som more som less free but the most of them to remain Commonwealths or to be erected into popular Governments as appears yet clearer by the intercourse of PLINY while he was Pretor or Governor of Bithynia with his Master the Emperor TRAJAN a piece of which I have inserted in the Letters following PINY to TRAJAN Chap. 2 SIR Plin. Epist l. 10. IT is provided by POMPEY'S Laws for the Bithynians that no man under thirty years of Age be capable of Magistracy or of the Senat by the same it is also establish'd that they who have born Magistracy may be Senators Now because by a latter Edict of AUGUSTUS the lesser Magistracys may be born by such as are above one and twenty there remains with me these doubts whether he that being under thirty has born Magistracy may be elected by the Censors into the Senat and if he may whether of those also that have not born Magistracy a man being above one and twenty seeing at that age he may bear Magistracy may not by the same interpretation be elected into the Senat tho he has not born it which is here practis'd and pretended to be necessary because it is somwhat better they say that the Senat be fill'd with the Children of good Familys than with the lower sort My opinion being ask'd upon these points by the new Censors I thought such as being under thirty have born Magistracy both of POMPEY'S Laws and the Edict of AUGUSTUS to be capable of the Senat seeing the Edict allows a man under thirty to bear Magistracy and the Law a man that has born Magistracy to be a Senator But as to those that have
not born Magistracy tho at the age in which they may bear it I demur till I may understand your Majestys pleasure to whom I have sent the Heads both of the Law and of the Edict TRAJAN to PLINY YOU and I dearest PLINY are of one mind POMPEY'S Laws are so far qualify'd by the Edict of AUGUSTUS that they who are not under one and twenty may bear Magistracy and they who have born Magistracy may be Senators in their respective Citys but for such as have not born Magistracy tho they might have born it I conceive them not eligible into the Senat till they be thirty years of age PLINY to TRAJAN SIR POWER is granted to the Bithynian Citys by POMPEY'S Law to adopt to themselves what Citizens they please so they be not Foreners but of the same Province by the same Law it is shewn in what cases the Censors may remove a man from the Senat Among which nevertheless it is not provided what is to be don in case a foren Citizen be a Senator Wherfore certain of the Censors have thought fit to consult me whether they ought to remove a man that is of a foren City for that cause out of the Senat. Now because the Law tho it forbids the adoption of a Forener commands not that a Forener for that cause should be remov'd out of the Senat and I am inform'd there be foren Citizens almost in every Senat so that many not only Men but Citys might suffer Concussion by the Book II restitution of the Law in that part which thro a kind of consent seems to be now grown obsolete I conceive it necessary to have your Majestys Resolution in the case to which end I have sent a Breviat of the Law annex'd TRAJAN to PLINY WITH good cause dearest PLINY have you doubted what answer to return to the Censors inquiring whether they ought to elect a man into the Senat that is of another City tho of the same Province seeing on the one side the Authority of the Law and of Custom on the other to the contrary might well disorder you To innovat nothing for the time past I think well of this expedient they who are already elected Senators tho not according to the Law of what City soever they be may remain for the present but for the future POMPEY'S Laws should return to their full virtue which if we should cause to look back might create trouble THIS might serve but there will be no hurt in being a little fuller in the discovery of Provincial Government THE Provinces so fram'd as has bin shewn were subdivided into certain Circuits call'd Dioceses that of Asia had six Alabandae Sardes antiently the Senat of CRAESUS Smyrna Ephesus Adramytis Pergamum That of Cilicia had also six the Pamphylian Isaurian and Cilician the Metropolis wherof was Tarsus a free City to these were taken out of the Province of Asia Cibyra Sinnadae Apamea what were the Dioceses of the other two SIGONIUS whom I follow dos not shew At these in the Winter for the Summer was spent commonly with the Army the People of the Province assembl'd at set times as at our Assizes where the Roman Governors did them Justice THE Governors or Magistrats to whose care a Province was committed were of two kinds the first and chief was Consul or Pretor which appellations differ'd not in Power but in Dignity that of Consul being more honorable who had twelve Lictors wheras the Pretor had but six if the annual Magistracy of either of these came to be prorogu'd he was call'd Proconsul or Propretor THE second kind of Magistrat in a Province was the Questor Receiver or Treasurer who being also annual was attended by Lictors of his own if he dy'd within his year the Consul Proconsul or Pretor might appoint one for that time in his place who was call'd Proquestor The Power of the Consul Proconsul or Pretor was of two kinds the one Civil the other Military the former call'd Magistracy the latter Empire THE Pomp of these assuming and exercising their Magistracy was reverend the Consul or Proconsul had Legats somtimes more but never under three appointed him by the Senat these were in the nature of Counsillors to assist him in all Affairs of his Province he had Tribuns Colonels or Field Officers for the military part of his Administration he had also Secretarys Serjeants Heralds or Criers Lictors or Insignbearers Interpreters Messengers Divines Chamberlains Physicians and besides these his Companions which for the most part were of the younger sort of Gentlemen or Gallants that accompany'd Chap. 2 him for his Ornament and their own Education Into this the som what like Train of the Questor who by the Law was in place of a Son to the Proconsul and to whom the Proconsul was to give the regard of a Father being cast it made the Pretorian Cohort or Guard always about the Person of the Proconsul who in this Equipage having don his Devotions at the Capitol departed the City Paludatus that is in his Royal Mantle of Gold and Purple follow'd for som part of the way with the whole Train of his Friends wishing him much joy and good speed IN his Province he executed his twofold Office the one of Captain General the other of the supreme Magistrat In the former relation he had an Army either receiv'd from his Predecessor or new levy'd in the City this consisted in the one half of the Legions as I have elsewhere shewn and in the other of Associats for the greatness of the same it was proportion'd to the Province or the occasion to an ordinary Province in times of Peace I believe an Army amounted not to above one Legion with as many Auxiliarys that is to a matter of twelve thousand Foot and twelve hundred Horse The Magistracy or Jurisdiction of the Proconsul or Pretor was executed at the Metropolitan City of each Dioecis which upon this occasion was to furnish the Pretorian Cohort with Lodging Salt Wood Hay and Stable-room at the charge of the Country These tho CICERO would hardly receive any of them were towards the latter time of the Commonwealth extended by the Provincial Magistrats to so great a burden to the People that it caus'd divers Laws to be pass'd in Rome de repetundis for restitution to be made to the Provinces by such as had injur'd them Upon such Laws was the prosecution of VERRES by CICERO When and where this kind of Court was to be held the Consul Proconsul â—or Pretor by Proclamation gave timely notice Being assembl'd at the time and the City appointed in the Townhal stood a Tribunal upon this the Sella Curulis or Chair of State in which sat the Consul Proconsul or Pretor with his Pretorian Cohort or Band about him furnish'd with all manner of Pomp and Officers requisit to the Ornament or Administration of so high a Magistracy The Jurisdiction of this Court was according to the Laws made for the administation
consist of too many 71. IN every Commonwealth there has bin a Popular Assembly This in Israel at least consisted of twenty four thousand upon a monthly Rotation In Athens Lacedemon Rome it consisted of the whole Citizens that is of all such as had a right in the Commonwealth whether they inhabited in City or Country In Venice it consists of about two thousand In the Province of Holland only which contains eighteen or nineteen Soveraintys the Popular or resolving Assemblys consist at least of five hundred Persons these in the whole Union may amount to five or six thousand in Switzerland I believe they com to a greater number And the most of these Assemblys have bin perpetually extant 72. IF the Popular Assembly consists of so few and so eminent Persons as are capable of any orderly Debate it is good for nothing but to destroy the Commonwealth 73. IF the Popular Assembly consists of so many and for the greater part of so mean Persons as are not capable of Debate there must be a Senat to help this defect 74. THE Reason of the Senat is that a Popular Assembly rightly constituted is not capable of any prudent debate 75. THE Reason of the Popular Assembly is that a Senat rightly constituted for Debate must consist of so few and eminent Persons that if they have the Result too they will not resolve according to the Interest of the People but according to the Interest of themselves 76. A POPULAR Assembly without a Senat cannot be wise 77. A SENAT without a Popular Assembly will not be honest 78. THE Senat and the Popular Assembly being once rightly constituted the rest of the Commonwealth will constitute it self 79. THE Venetians having slain divers of their Dukes for their Tyranny and being assembl'd by such numbers in their great Council as were naturally incapable of Debate pitch'd upon thirty Gentlemen who were call'd Pregati in that they were pray'd to go apart and debating upon the Exigence of the Commonwealth to propose as they thought good to the great Council and from thence first arose the Senat of Venice to this day call'd the Pregati and the Great Council that is the Senat and the Popular Assembly of Venice And from these two arose all those admirable Orders of that Commonwealth 80. THAT a People of themselves should have such an understanding as when they of Venice did institute their Pregati or Senat is rare 81. THAT a Senat or Council of Governors having supreme Power should institute a popular Assembly and propose to it tho in all reason it be the far more facil and practicable is that which is rarer 82. THE diffusive body of the People is not in a natural capacity of judging for which cause the whole judgment and power of the diffusive Body of the People must be intirely and absolutely in their collective Bodys Assemblys or Representatives or there can be no Commonwealth 83. TO declare that the Assemblys or Representatives of the People have power in som things and in others not is to make the diffusive Body which is in a natural incapacity of judging to be in a political capacity of judging 84. TO bring a natural incapacity of judging to a political capacity of judging is to introduce Government To bring a natural incapacity of judging to such a collective or political capacity of judging as yet necessarily must retain the Interest of the diffusive Body is to introduce the best kind of Government But to lay any appeal whatsoever from a political capacity of judging to a natural incapacity of judging is to frustrat all Government and to introduce Anarchy Nor is Anarchy whether impos'd or obtruded by the Legislator first or by the People or their Demagogs or Incendiarys afterwards of any other kind whatsoever than of this only 85. TO make Principles or Fundamentals belongs not to Men to Nations nor to human Laws To build upon such Principles or Fundamentals as are apparently laid by GOD in the inevitable necessity or Law of Nature is that which truly appertains to Men to Nations and to human Laws To make any other Fundamentals and then build upon them is to build Castles in the Air. 86. WHATEVER is violent is not secure nor durable whatever is secure or durable is natural 87. GOVERNMENT in the whole People tho the major part were disaffected must be secure and durable because it waves Force to found it self upon Nature 88. GOVERNMENT in a Party tho all of these were well affected must be insecure and transitory because it waves Nature to found it self upon Force 89. COMMONWEALTHS of all other Governments are more especially for the preservation not for the destruction of Mankind 90. COMMONWEALTHS that have bin given to cut off their diseas'd Limbs as Florence have brought themselves to impotence and ruin Commonwealths that have bin given to healing their diseas'd Limbs as Venice have bin healthful and flourishing 91. ATHENS under the Oligarchy of four hundred was infinitly more afflicted and torn with Distraction Blood and Animosity of Partys than is England yet by introduction of a Senat of four hundred and a Popular Assembly of five thousand did therupon so suddenly as if it had bin a Charm recover Might and Glory See the eighth Book of THUCYDIDES A Story in these Times most necessary to be consider'd 92. TO leave our selves and Posterity to a farther purchase in Blood or Sweat of that which we may presently possess injoy and hereafter bequeath to Posterity in Peace and Glory is inhuman and impious 93. AS certainly and suddenly as a good state of health dispels the peevishness and peril of Sickness dos a good state of Government the animosity and danger of Partys 94. THE Frame of a Commonwealth having first bin propos'd and consider'd Expedients in case such should be found necessary for the safe effectual and perfect introduction of the same may with som aim be apply'd or fitted as to a House when the Model is resolv'd upon we fit Scaffolds in building But first to resolve upon Expedients and then to fit to them the Frame of a Commonwealth is as if one should set up Props and then build a House to lean upon them 95. AS the chief Expedients in the building of a House are Axes and Hammers so the chief Expedient in the building of a Government is a standing Army 96. AS the House which being built will not stand without the perpetual noise or use of Axes and Hammers is imperfect so is the Government which being form'd cannot support it self without the perpetual use of a standing Army 97. WHILE the Civil and Religious parts of a Commonwealth are in forming there is a necessity that she should be supported by an Army but when the Military and Provincial parts are rightly form'd she can have no farther use of any other Army Wherfore at this point and not till then her Armys are by the practice of Common-wealths upon slighter occasions to have