which a grave Author's sense is best comprehended it will appear that all his Books of Laws and of a Commonwealth are chiefly grounded upon this That Magistrates are chosen by Societies seeking their own good and that the best men ought to be chosen for the attaining of it whereas his whole design of seeking which is the best Form of Government or what Laws do most conduce to its perfection and permanency if one Rule were by nature appointed for all and none could justly transgress it if God had designed an universal Lord over the whole world or a particular one over every Nation who could be bound by no Law were utterly absurd and they who write Books concerning Political matters and take upon them to instruct Nations how to govern themselves would be found either foolishly to mispend their time or impiously to incite people to rebel against the Ordinance of God If this can justly be imputed to Plato he is not the wise Man he is supposed to have bin and can less deserve the title of Divine which our Author gives him but if he remain justly free from such Censures it must be confessed that whilst he seeks what is good for a people and to convince them by reason that it is so he takes it for granted that they have a liberty of chusing that which appears to be the best to them He first says that this Good consists in the obtaining of Justice but farther explaining himself he shews that under the name of Justice he comprehends all that tends to their perfection and felicity in as much as every People by joining in a civil Society and creating Magistrates doth seek its own good and 't is just that he or they who are created should to the utmost of their power accomplish the end of their Creation and lead the people to Justice without which there is neither perfection nor happiness That the proper act of Justice is to give to every one his due to Man that which belongs to Man and to God that which is God's But as no man can be just or desire to be so unless he know that Justice is good nor know that it is good unless he know that original Justice and Goodness through which all that is just is just and all that is good is good 't is impossible for any man to perform the part of a good Magistrate unless he have the knowledg of God or to bring a People to Justice unless he bring them to the knowledg of God who is the Root of all Justice and Goodness If Plato therefore deserve credit he only can duly perform the part of a good Magistrate whose moral Vertues are ripened and heightned by a superinduction of Divine Knowledg The misery of Man proceeds from his being separated from God This Separation is wrought by corruption his restitution therefore to Felicity and Integrity can only be brought about by his reunion to the Good from which he is fallen Plato looks upon this as the only worthy Object of Man's desire and in his Laws and Politicks he intends not to teach us how to erect Manufactures and to increase Trade or Riches but how Magistrates may be helpful to Nations in the manner before-mentioned and consequently what Men are fit to be Magistrates If our Author therefore would make use of Plato's Doctrine to his end he ought to have proved that there is a Family in every Nation to the chief of which and successively to the next in Blood God dos ever reveal and insuse such a knowledg of himself as may render him a Light to others and failing in this all that he says is to no purpose The weakness in which we are born renders us unable to attain this Good of our selves we want help in all things especially in the greatest The fierce Barbarity of a loose multitude bound by no Law and regulated by no Discipline is wholly repugnant to it Whilst every man fears his Neighbour and has no other defence than his own strength he must live in that perpetual anxiety which is equally contrary to that happiness and that sedate temper of mind which is required for the search of it The first step towards the cure of this pestilent Evil is for many to join in one body that every one may be protected by the united force of all and the various Talents that men possess may by good discipline be rendred useful to the whole as the meanest piece of wood or stone being placed by a wise Architect conduces to the beauty of the most glorious Building But every man bearing in his own breast Affections Passions and Vices that are repugnant to this end and no man owing any submission to his Neighbour none will subject the correction or restriction of themselves to another unless he also submit to the same Rule They are rough pieces of timber or stone which 't is necessary to cleave saw or cut This is the work of a skilful Builder and he only is capable of erecting a great Fabrick who is so Magistrates are Political Architects and they only can perform the Work incumbent on them who excel in Political Vertues Nature in variously framing the minds of men according to the variety of Uses in which they may be imploy'd in order to the institution and preservation of Civil Societies must be our Guide in allotting to every one his proper work And Plato observing this Variety affirms that the Laws of Nature cannot be more absurdly violated than by giving the Government of a People to such as do not excel others in those Arts and Vertues that tend to the ultimate Ends for which Governments are instituted By this means those who are Slaves by Nature or rendred so by their Vices are often set above those that God and Nature had fitted for the highest Commands and Societies which subsist only by order fall into corruption when all Order is so preposterously inverted and the most extreme Confusion introduced This is an Evil that Solomon detested Folly is set in great dignity and the Rich sit in low places I have seen Servants upon Horses and Princes walking as Servants upon the Earth They who understand Solomon's Language will easily see that the Rich and the Princes he means are such only who are rich in Vertue and Wisdom and who ought to be preferred for those Qualities And when he says a Servant that reigneth is one of the three things the Earth cannot bear he can only mean such as deserve to be Servants for when they reign they do not serve but are served by others which perfectly agrees with what we learn from Plato and plainly shews that true Philosophy is perfectly conformable with what is taught us by those who were divinely inspired Therefore tho I should allow to our Author that Aristotle in those words It seems to some not to be natural for one Man to be Lord of all the Citizens since the City
care of his Hens The Monarchy of France must have perished under the base Kings they call Les Roys faineants if the Scepter had not bin wrested out of their unworthy hands The World is full of Examples in this kind and when it pleases God to bestow a just wise and valiant King as a blessing upon a Nation 't is only a momentary help his Virtues end with him and there being neither any divine Promise nor human Reason moving us to believe that they shall always be renewed and continued in his Successors men cannot rely upon it and to alledg a possibility of such a thing is nothing to the purpose On the other side in a popular or mixed Government every man is concerned Every one has a part according to his quality or merit all changes are prejudicial to all whatsoever any man conceives to be for the publick good he may propose it in the Magistracy or to the Magistrate the body of the People is the publick defence and every man is arm'd and disciplin'd The advantages of good success are communicated to all and every one bears a part in the losses This makes men generous and industrious and fills their hearts with love to their Country This and the desire of that praise which is the reward of Virtue raised the Romans above the rest of Mankind and wheresoever the same ways are taken they will in a great measure have the same effects By this means they had as many Soldiers to fight for their Country as there were Freemen in it Whilst they had to deal with the free Nations of Italy Greece Africa or Spain they never conquer'd a Country till the Inhabitants were exhausted But when they came to fight against Kings the success of a Battel was enough to bring a Kingdom under their power Antiochus upon a rufflle received from Acilius at Thermipolae left all that he possessed in Greece and being defeated by Scipio Nasica he quitted all the Kingdoms and Territories of Asia on this side Taurus Paulus Emilius became Master of Macedon by one prosperous fight against Perseus Syphax Gentius Tigranes Ptolomy and others were more easily subdued The mercenary Armies on which they relied being broken the Cities and Countries not caring for their Masters submitted to those who had more virtue and better fortune If the Roman Power had not bin built upon a more sure soundation they could not have subsisted Notwithstanding their Valour they were osten beaten but their losses were immediately repair'd by the excellence of their Discipline When Hannibal had gained the Battels of Trebia Ticinum Thrasimene and Cannae defeated the Romans in many other Encounters and slain above two hundred thousand of their Men with Paulus Emilius C. Servilius Sempronius Gracchus Quintius Marcellus and many other excellent Commanders When about the same time the two brave Scipio's had bin cut off with their Armies in Spain and many great losses had bin sustain'd in Sicily and by Sea one would have thought it impossible for the City to have resisted But their Virtue Love to their Country and good Government was a strength that increased under all their Calamities and in the end overcame all The nearer Hannibal came to the Walls the more obstinate was their resistance Tho he had kill'd more great Captains than any Kingdom ever had others daily stepp'd up in their place who excell'd them in all manner of Virtue I know not if at any time that conquering City could glory in a greater number of men fit for the highest Enterprises than at the end of that cruel War which had consumed so many of them but I think that the finishing Victories by them obtained are but ill prooss of our Author's assertion that they thought basely of the common good and sought only to save themselves We know of none except Cecilius Metellus who after the Battel of Cannae had so base a thought as to design the withdrawing himself from the publick ruin but Scipio asterwards sirnamed Africanus threatning death to those who would not swear never to abandon their Country forced him to leave it This may in general be imputed to good Government and Discipline with which all were so seasoned from their infancy that no affection was so rooted in them as an ardent love to their Country and a resolution to die for it or with it but the means by which they accomplished their great ends so as after their defeats to have such men as carried on their noblest designs with more glory than ever was their annual Elections of Magistrates many being thereby advanc'd to the supreme Commands and every one by the Honours they enjoy'd fill'd with a desire of rendring himself worthy of them I should not much insist upon these things if they had bin seen only in Rome but tho their Discipline seems to have bin more perfect better observed and to have produc'd a Virtue that surpassed all others the like has bin found tho perhaps not in the same degree in all Nations that have enjoyed their Liberty and were admitted to such a part of the Government as might give them a love to it This was evident in all the Nations of Italy The Sabins Volsci AEqui Tuscans Samnites and others were never conquer'd till they had no men lest The Samnites alone inhabiting a small and barren Province suffer'd more defeats before they were subdued than all the Kingdoms of Numidia AEgypt Macedon and Asia and as 't is exprest in their Embassy to Hannibal never yielded till they who had brought vast numbers of men into the Field and by them defeated some of the Roman Armies were reduced to such weakness that they could not resist one Legion We hear of few Spartans who did not willingly expose their Lives for the service of their Country and the Women themselves were so far inflamed with the same affection that they refused to mourn for their Children and Husbands who died in the defence of it When the brave Brasidas was slain some eminent men went to comfort his Mother upon the news of his death and telling her he was the most valiant man in the City she answer'd that he was indeed a valiant man and died as he ought to do but that through the goodness of the Gods many others were lest as valiant as he When Xerxes invaded Greece there was not a Citizen of Athens able to bear Arms who did not leave his Wife and Children to shift for themselves in the neighbouring Cities and their Houses to be burnt when they imbarked with Themistocles and never thought of either till they had defeated the Barbarians at Salamine by Sea and at Platea by Land When men are thus spirited some will ever prove excellent and as none did ever surpass those who were bred under this discipline in all moral military and civil Virtues those very Countries where they flourished most have not produced any eminent men since they lost that Liberty which was the
are often evident When he intends to exalt a People he fills both them and their Leaders with the Virtues sutable to the accomplishment of his end and takes away all Wisdom and Virtue from those he resolves to destroy The Pride of the Babylonians and Assyrians fell through the baseness of Sardanapalus and the great City was taken while Belshazzar lay drunk amongst his Whores The Empire was transported to the Persians and Grecians by the valor of Cyrus Alexander and the brave Armies that follow'd them Histories furnish us with innumerable examples of this kind But I think none can be found of a cowardly weak effeminate foolish ill disciplin'd People that have ever subdued such as were eminent in Strength Wisdom Valor and good Discipline or that these qualities have bin found or subsisted any where unless they were cultivated and nourish'd by a well order'd Government If this therefore was found among the Romans and not in the Kingdoms they overthrew they had the order and stability which the Monarchies had not and the Strength and Virtue by which they obtained such success was the product of them But if this Virtue and the glorious effects of it did begin with Liberty it did also expire with the same The best men that had not fallen in Battle were gleaned up by the Proscriptions or circumvented for the most part by false and frivolous Accusations Mankind is inclin'd to Vice and the way to Vertue is so hard that it wants encouragement but when all Honours Advantages and Preferments are given to Vice and despised Vertue finds no other reward than Hatred Persecution and Death there are few who will follow it Tacitus well describes the State of the Empire when the Power was absolutely fallen into the hands of one Italia novis cladibus vel post longam seculorum seriem repetitis afflicta Vrbs incendiis vastata consumptis antiquissimis delubris ipso Capitolio Civium manibus incenso pollutae ceremoniae magna adulteria plenum exiliis mare infecti caedibus scopuli atrocius in urbe saevitum Nobilitas opes omissi vel gesti honores pro crimine ob virtutes certissimum exitium His following words shew that the rewards of these abominations were not less odious than the things themselves The highest Dignities were bestowed upon the Delatores who were a kind of Rogues like to our Irish Witnesses or those that by a new coin'd word we call Trepanners This is not a Picture drawn by a vulgar hand but by one of the best Painters in the world and being a Model that so much pleases our Author 't is good to see what it produced The first fruit was such an entire degeneracy from all good that Rome may be justly said never to have produced a brave Man since the first age of her Slavery Germanieus and Corbulo were born expirante Libertate and the recompence they received did so little encourage others to follow their example that none have bin found in any degree like to them and those of the most noble Families applied themselves to sleep laziness and luxury that they might not be suspected to be better than their Masters Thraseas Soranus and Helvidius were worthy men who resolved to persist in their Integrity tho they should die for it but that was the only thing that made them eminent for they were of unknown Families not Romans by birth nor ever employ'd in War And those Emperors who did arrive to any degree of Vertue were Spaniards Gauls Africans Thracians and of all Nations except Romans The Patrician and Plebeian Families which for many ages had fill'd the World with great Commanders and such as excelled in all Vertues being thus extinguished or corrupted the common People fell into the lowest degree of baseness Plebs sordida Circo Theatris sueta That People which in Magnanimity surpassed all that have bin known in the World who never found any Enterprize above their Spirit to undertake and Power to accomplish with their Liberty lost all their Vigour and Vertue They who by their Votes had disposed of Kingdoms and Provinces fell to desire nothing but to live and see Plays Duas tantum res anxius optat Panem Circenses Whether their Emperors were good or bad they usually rejoic'd at their Death in hopes of getting a little Mony or Victuals from the Successor Tho the Empire was by this means grown weak and bloodless yet it could not fall on a sudden So vast a Body could not die in a moment All the neighbouring Nations had bin so much broken by their Power that none was able to take advantage of their Weakness and life was preserved by the strength of hungry Barbarians allured by the greatness of the Pay they received to defend those who had no power left to defend themselves This precarious and accidental help could not be durable They who for a while had bin contented with their Wages soon began to think it fit for them rather to fight for themselves than for their weak Masters and thereupon fell to set up Emperors depending on themselves or to seize upon the naked Provinces where they found no other difficulty than to contend with other Strangers who might have the like design upon the same Thus did the Armies of the East and West set up Emperors at their pleasure and tho the Goths Vandals Huns Sueves Alans and others had cruel Wars among themselves yet they feared and suffered little or nothing from the Romans This state of things was so soon observed that in the beginning of Tiberius his reign they who endeavoured to excite the Gauls to take Arms used no other arguments than such as were drawn from the extreme weakness of the Romans Quà m inops Italia Plebs urbana imbellis nihil in exercitibus validum praeter externum It was evident that after the Battles of Philippi and Actium the strength of the Roman Armies consisted of Strangers and even the Victories that went under their name were gained by those Nations which in the time of their Liberty they had subdued They had nothing left but Riches gather'd out of their vast Dominions and they learnt by their ruin that an Empire acquir'd by Virtue could not long be supported by Mony They who by their Valour had arrived at such a height of Glory Power Greatness and Happiness as was never equalled and who in all appearance had nothing to fear from any foreign Power could never have fallen unless their Virtue and Discipline had decay'd and the corruption of their Manners had excited them to turn their victorious Swords into their own bowels Whilst they were in that flourishing condition they thought they had nothing more to desire than continuance but if our Author's judgment is to be followed there was nothing of good in it except the shortness of its continuance they were beholden to those who wrought the Change they were the better for the Battles of Pharsalia
Mother and Nurse of them Tho I should fill a Volume with examples of this kind as I might easily do such as our Author will say that in Popular Governments men look upon Mischiefs as Thunder and only wish it may not touch themselves But leaving them to the scorn and hatred they deserve by their impudence and folly I conclude this point with the answer that Trajano Boccalini puts into the mouth of Apollo to the Princes who complained that their Subjects had not that love to their Countries as had bin and was daily seen in those who lived under Commonwealths which did amount to no more than to tell them that their ill Government was the cause of that defect and that the prejudices incurr'd by Rapine Violence and fraud were to be repaired only by Liberality Justice and such a care of their Subjects that they might live happily under them SECT XXII Commonwealths seek Peace or VVar according to the Variety of their Constitutions IF I have hitherto spoken in general of popular or mixed Governments as if they were all founded on the same principle it was only because our Author without distinction has generally blamed them all and generally imputed to every one those Faults which perhaps never were in any but most certainly are directly opposite to the temper and constitution of many among them Malice and Ignorance reign so equally in him that 't is not easy to determine from which of the two this false representation proceeds But lest any man should thereby be imposed upon 't is time to observe That the Constitutions of Commonwealths have bin so various according to the different temper of Nations and Times that if some of them seem to have bin principally constituted for War others have as much delighted in Peace and many having taken the middle and as some think the best way have so moderated their love to Peace as not to suffer the Spirits of the People to fall but kept them in a perpetual readiness to make War when there was occasion and every one of those having followed several ways and ends deserve our particular consideration The Cities of Rome Sparta Thebes and all the Associations of the Etolians Achaians Sabins Latins Samnites and many others that antiently flourish'd in Greece and Italy seem to have intended nothing but the just preservation of Liberty at home and making War abroad All the Nations of Spain Germany and Gaul sought the same things Their principal work was to render their People valiant obedient to their Commanders lovers of their Country and always ready to fight for it And for this reason when the Senators of Rome had kill'd Romulus they perswaded Julius Proculus to affirm that he had seen him in a most glorious form ascending to Heaven and promising great things to the City Proinde rem militarem colant The Athenians were not less inclined to War but applied themselves to Trade as subservient to that end by increasing the number of the People and furnishing them with the means of carrying it on with more vigour and power The Phenician Cities of which Carthage was the most eminent followed the same method but knowing that Riches do not desned themselves or scorning slothfully to enjoy what was gained by Commerce they so far applied themselves to War that they grew to a Power which Rome only was able to overthrow Venice Florence Genoa Lucca and some other Cities of Italy seem chiefly to have aimed at Trade and placing the hopes of their safety in the protection of more powerful States unwillingly enter'd into Wars especially by Land and when they did they made them by mercenary Soldiers Again some of those that intended War desir'd to enlarge their Territories by conquest others only to preserve their own and to live with freedom and safety upon them Rome was of the first sort and knowing that such ends cannot be accomplished without great numbers of men they freely admitted Strangers into the City Senate and Magistracy Numa was a Sabin Tarquinius Priscus was the Son of a Grecian One hundred of those Sabins who came with Tatius were admitted into the Senate Appius Claudius of the same People came to Rome was made a Member of the Senate and created Consul They demolished several Cities and brought the Inhabitants to their own gave the right of Citizens to many others sometimes to whole Cities and Provinces and cared not how many they received so as they could engraft them upon the same interest with the old stock and season them with the same Principles Discipline and Manners On the other side the Spartans desiring only to continue free virtuous and safe in the enjoyment of their own Territory and thinking themselves strong enough to defend it framed a most severe Discipline to which few Strangers would submit They banished all those curious Arts that are useful to Trade prohibited the importation of Gold and Silver appointed the Helotes to cultivate their Lands and to exercise such Trades as are necessary to life admitted few Strangers to live amongst them made none of them free of their City and educated their Youth in such exercises only as prepared them for War I will not take upon me to judg whether this proceeded from such a moderation of Spirit as placed Felicity rather in the fulness and stability of Liberty Integrity Virtue and the enjoyment of their own than in Riches Power and Dominion over others nor which of these two different methods deserves most to be commended But certain it is that both succeeded according to the intention of the Founders Rome conquer'd the best part of the World and never wanted men to defend what was gained Sparta lived in such happiness and reputation that till it was invaded by Epaminondas an Enemies Trumpet had not bin heard by those within the Town for the space of eight hundred years and never suffer'd any great disaster till receding from their own Institutions they were brought by prosperity to affect the Principality of Greece and to undertake such Wars as could not be carried on without Mony and greater numbers of men than a small City was able to furnish by which means they were obliged to beg assistance from the Barbarians whom they scorned and hated as appears by the Stories of Callicratidas Lysander and Agesilaus and fell into such straits as were never recovered The like variety has bin observed in the Constitutions of those Northern Nations that invaded the Roman Empire for tho all of them intended War and looked upon those only to be Members of their Commonwealths who used arms to defend them yet some did immediately incorporate themselves with those of the conquer'd Countries Of this number were the Franks who presently became one Nation with the Gauls others kept themselves in a distinct body as the Saxons did from the Britains And the Goths for more than three hundred years that they reigned in Spain never contracted Marriages or otherwise mixed with
by him only and by him if with industry and courage they make use of the means he has given them for their own defence God helps those who help themselves and men are by several reasons suppose to prevent the increase of a suspected Power induced to succour an industrious and brave People But such as neglect the means of their own preservation are ever left to perish with shame Men cannot rely upon any League The State that is defended by one Potentat against another becomes a Slave to their Protector Mercenary Souldiers always want Fidelity or Courage and most commonly both If they are not corrupted or beaten by the Invader they make a prey of their Masters These are the followers of Camps who have neither faith nor piety but prefer Gain before Right They who expose their Blood to sale look where they can make the best bargain and never fail of pretences for following their interests Moreover private Families may by several arts increase their Wealth as they increase in number but when a People multiplies as they will always do in a good Climat under a good Government such an enlargement of Territory as is necessary for their subsistence can be acquired only by War This was known to the Northern Nations that invaded the Roman Empire but for want of such Constitutions as might best improve their Strength and Valour the numbers they sent out when they were overburden'd provided well for themselves but were of no use to the Countries they left and whilst those Goths Vandals Franks and Normans enjoyed the most opulent and delicious Provinces of the World their Fathers languished obscurely in their frozen Climats For the like reasons or through the same defect the Switzers are obliged to serve other Princes and often to imploy that valour in advancing the power of their Neighbours which might be used to increase their own Genoua Lucca Geneva and other small Commonwealths having no Wars are not able to nourish the men they breed but sending many of their Children to seek their Fortunes abroad scarce a third part of those that are born among them die in those Cities and if they did not take this course they would have no better than the Nations inhabiting near the River Niger who sell their Children as the increase of their Flocks This dos not less concern Monarchies than Commonwealths nor the absolute less than the mixed All of them have bin prosperous or miserable glorious or contemptible as they were better or worse arm'd disciplin'd or conducted The Assyrian Valour was irresistible under Nabuchodonozor but was brought to nothing under his base and luxurious Grandson Belsbazzar The Persians who under Cyrus conquer'd Asia were like Swine exposed to slaughter when their Discipline failed and they were commanded by his proud cruel and cowardly Successors The Macedonian Army overthrown by Paulus Emilius was not less in number than that with which Alexander gained the Empire of the East and perhaps had not bin inferior in Valour if it had bin as well commanded Many poor and almost unknown Nations have bin carried to such a height of Glory by the Bravery of their Princes that I might incline to think their Government as fit as any other for disciplining a People to War if their Virtues continued in their Families or could be transmitted to their Successors The impossibility of this is a breach never to be repaired and no account is to be made of the good that is always uncertain and seldom enjoy'd This disease is not only in absolute Monarchies but in those also where any regard is had to Succession of Blood tho under the strictest limitations The fruit of all the Victories gained by Edward the first and third or Henry the fifth of England perished by the baseness of their Successors the glory of our Arms was turned into shame and we by the loss of Treasure Blood and Territory suffer'd the punishment of their Vices The effects of these changes are not always equally violent but they are frequent and must fall out as often as occasion is presented It was not possible for Lewis the 13th of France to pursue the great designs of Henry the Fourth Christina of Sweden could not supply the place of her brave Father nor the present King in his infancy accomplish what the great Charles Gustavus had nobly undertaken and no remedy can be found for this mortal infirmity unless the power be put into the hands of those who are able to execute it and not left to the blindness of fortune When the Regal power is committed to an annual or otherwise chosen Magistracy the Virtues of excellent men are of use but all dos not depend upon their persons One man finishes what another had begun and when many are by practice rendred able to perform the same things the loss of one is easily supplied by the election of another When good Principles are planted they do not die with the person that introduced them and good Constitutions remain tho the Authors of them perish Rome did not fall back into slavery when Brutus was killed who had led them to recover their Liberty Others like to him pursued the same ends and notwithstanding the loss of so many great Commanders consumed in their almost continual Wars they never wanted such as were fit to execute whatever they could design A well-governed State is as fruitful to all good purposes as the seven-headed Serpent is said to have bin in evil when one head is cut off many rise up in the place of it Good Order being once established makes good men and as long as it lasts such as are fit for the greatest imployments will never be wanting By this means the Romans could not be surprised No King or Captain ever invaded them who did not find many excellent Commanders to oppose him whereas they themselves found it easy to overthrow Kingdoms tho they had bin established by the bravest Princes through the baseness of their Successors But if our Author say true 't is of no advantage to a popular State to have excellent men and therefore he imposes a necessity upon every People to chuse the worst men for being the worst and most like to themselves lest that if virtuous and good men should come into power they should be excluded for being vicious and wicked c. Wise men would seize upon the State and take it from the People For the understanding of these words 't is good to consider whether they are to be taken simply as usually applied to the Devil and some of his instruments or relatively as to the thing in question If simply it must be concluded that Valerius Brutus Cincinnatus Capitolinus Mamercus Paulus Emilius Nasica and others like to them were not only the worst men of the City but that they were so often advanced to the supreme Magistracies because they were so if in the other sense relating to Magistracy and the command of Armies
their Dominion on the Terra firma and prepared to assault the City it was under God solely preserved by the vigour and wisdom of their Nobility who tho no way educated to War unless by Sea sparing neither persons nor purses did with admirable industry and courage first recover Padoüa and then many other Cities so as at the end of that terrible War they came off without any diminution of their Territories Whereas Portugal having in our age revolted from the House of Austria no one doubts that it had bin immediately reduced if the great men of Spain had not bin pleased with such a lessening of their Master's power and resolved not to repair it by the recovery of that Kingdom or to deprive themselves of an cafy retreat when they should be oppressed by him or his Favourites The like thought was more plainly express'd by the Mareschal de Bassompierre who sceing how hardly Rochel was pressed by Lewis the 13th faid he thought they should be such fools to take it but 't is believ'd they would never have bin such fools and the treachery only of our Countrymen did enable the Cardinal Richlieu to do it as for his own glory and the advancement of the Popish Cause he really intended and nothing is to this day more common in the mouth of their wisest and best men tho Papists than the acknowledgment of their own folly in suffering that place to fall the King having by thar means gotten power to proceed against them at his pleasure The brave Monsieur de Turenne is said to have carried this to a greater height in his last Discourse to the present King of France You think said he you have Armies but you have none the one half of the Officers are the Bawdy-house Companions of Monsieur de xxx or the Creatures of his Whore Madam de xxx the other half may be men of experience and fit for their Imployments but they are such as would be pleased with nothing more than to see you lose two or three Battels that coming to stand in need of them you might cause them to be better used by your Ministers than of late they have bin It may easily be imagin'd how men in such sentiments do serve their Master and nothing is more evident than that the French in this age have had so great advantages that they might have brought Europe and perhaps Asia under their power if the interest of the Nation had bin united to that of the Government and the Strength Vigour and Bravery of the Nobility employ'd that way But since it has pleased God to suffer us to fall into a condition of being little able to help our selves and that they are in so good terms with the Turk as not to attack him 't is our happiness that they do not know their own strength or cannot without ruin to themselves turn it to our prejudice I could give yet more pregnant testimonies of the difference between men fighting for their own interests in the Offices to which they had bin advanced by the votes of numerous Assemblies and such as serve for pay and get preferments by corruption or favour if I were not unwilling to stir the spleen of some men by obliging them to reflect upon what has passed in our own Age and Country to compare the justice of our Tribunals within the time of our memory and the integrity of those who for a while manag'd the publick Treasure the Discipline Valour and Strength of our Armies and Fleets the increase of our Riches and Trade the success of our Wars in Scotland Ireland and at Sea the glory and reputation not long since gained with that condition into which we are of late fallen But I think I shall offend no wise or good man if I say that as neither the Romans nor Grecians in the time of their Liberty ever performed any actions more glorious than freeing the Country from a Civil War that had raged in every part the conquest of two such Kingdoms as Scotland and Ireland and crushing the formidable power of the Hollanders by Sea nor ever produced more examples of Valor Industry Integrity and in all respects compleat disinterested unmovable and incorruptible Virtue than were at that time seen in our Nation So neither of them upon the change of their Affairs did exceed us in weakness cowardice baseness venality lewdness and all manner of corruption We have reason therefore not only to believe that all Princes do not necessarily understand the affairs of their People or provide better for them than those who are otherwise chosen but that as there is nothing of Greatness Power Riches Strength and Happiness which we might not reasonably have hoped for if we had rightly improved the advantages we had so there is nothing of shame and misery which we may not justly fear since we have neglected them If any man think that this evil of advancing Officers for personal respects favour or corruption is not of great extent I desire him to consider that the Officers of State Courts of Justice Church Armies Fleets and Corporations are of such number and power as wholly to corrupt a Nation when they themselves are corrupted and will ever be corrupt when they attain to their Offices by corruption The good mannagement of all Affairs Civil Military and Ecclesiastical necessarily depends upon good order and discipline and 't is not in the power of common men to reform abuses patronized by those in Authority nor to prevent the mischiefs thereupon ensuing and not having power to direct publick actions to the publick good they must consequently want the industry and affection that is required to bring them to a good issue The Romans were easily beaten under the Decemviri tho immediatly before the erection and after the extinction of that Power none of their Neighbours were able to resist them The Goths who with much glory had reigned in Spain for about three hundred years had neither strength nor courage under their lewd and odious King Rodrigo and were in one day subdued with little loss of blood by the Saracens and could not in less than eight hundred years free their Country from them That brave Nation having of late fallen under as base a conduct has now as little heart or power to defend it self Court-Parasites have rendred Valour ridiculous and they who have ever shew'd themselves as much inclin'd to Arms as any people of the world do now abhor them and are sent to the Wars by force laid in Carts and bound like Calves brought to the Shambles and left to starve in Flanders as soon as they arrive It may easily be judged what service can be expected from such men tho they should happen to be well commanded but the great Officers by the corruption of the Court think only of enriching themselves and encreasing the misery of the Soldiers by their frauds both become equally useless to the State Notwithstanding the seeming prosperity
promote I may go a step farther and truly say that as such vast Powers cannot be generally granted to all who happen to succeed in any Families without evident danger of utter Destruction when they come to be executed by children women sools vicious incapable or wicked persons they can be reasonably granted to none because no man knows what any one will prove till he be tried and the importance of the Affair requires such a trial as can be made of no man till he be dead He that resists one Temptation may fall under the power of another and nothing is more common in the world than to see those men fail grosly in the last actions of their lives who had passed their former days without reproach Wise and good men will with Moses say of themselves I cannot bear the burden and every man who is concern'd for the publick Good ought to let fools know they are not fit to undergo it and by Law to restrain the fury of such as will not be guided by reason This could not be denied tho Governments were constituted for the good of the Governor 'T is good for him that the Law appoints helps for his Infirmities and restrains his Vices but all Nations ought to do it tho it were not so in as much as Kingdoms are not established for the good of one man but of the People and that King who seeks his own good before that of the People departs from the end of his Institution This is so plain that all Nations who have acted freely have some way or other endeavoured to supply the defects or restrain the vices of their supreme Magistrates and those among them deserve most praise who by appointing means adequate to so great a work have taken care that it might be easily and safely accomplished Such Nations have always flourished in Virtue Power Glory and Happiness whilst those who wanted their Wisdom have suffer'd all manner of Calamities by the weakness and injustice of their Princes or have had their hands perpetually in Blood to preserve themselves from their fury We need no better example of the first than that of the Spartans who by appointing such Limits to the power of their Kings as could hardly be transgress'd continued many Ages in great union with them and were never troubled with civil Tumults The like may be said of the Romans from the expulsion of the Tarquins till they overthrew their own Orders by continuing Marius for five years in the Consulat whereas the Laws did not permit a man to hold the same Office two years together and when that rule was broken their own Magistrates grew too strong for them and subverted the Commonwealth When this was done and the power came to be in the hands of one man all manner of evils and calamities broke in like a flood 'T is hard to judg whether the mischiefs he did or those he suffer'd were the greater he who set up himself to be Lord of the World was like to a Beast crowned for the slaughter and his greatness was the forerunner of his ruin By this means some of those who seem not to have bin naturally prone to evil were by their fears put upon such courses to preserve themselves as being rightly estimated were worse than the death they apprehended and the so much celebrated Constantine the Great died no less polluted with the Blood of his nearest Relations and Friends than Nero himself But no place can show a more lively picture of this than the Kingdoms of Granada and others possessed by the Moors in Spain where there being neither Senate nor Assemblies of the Nobility and People to restrain the violence and fury of their Kings they had no other way than to kill them when their vices became insupportable which happening for the most part they were almost all murder'd and things were brought to such extremity that no man would accept a Crown except he who had neither Birth nor Virtue to deserve it If it be said that Kings have now found out more easy ways of doing what they please and securing themselves I answer that they have not proved so to them all and it is not yet time for such as tread in the same steps to boast of their success many have fallen when they thought their designs accomplished and no man as long as he lives can reasonably assure himself the like shall not befal him But if in this corrupted Age the treachery and perjury of Princes be more common than formerly and the number of those who are brought to delight in the rewards of injustice be so increased that their parties are stronger than formerly this rather shows that the balance of Power is broken or hard to be kept up than that there ought to be none and 't is difficult for any man without the Spirit of Prophesy to tell what this will produce Whilst the antient Constitutions of our Northern Kingdoms remain'd intire such as contested with their Princes sought only to reform the Governments and by redressing what was amiss to reduce them to their first Principles but they may not perhaps be so modest when they see the very nature of their Government chang'd and the foundations overthrown I am not sure that they who were well pleased with a moderate Monarchy will submit to one that is absolute and 't is not improbable that when men see there is no Medium between Tyranny and Popularity they who would have bin contented with the reformation of their Government may proceed farther and have recourse to Force when there is no help in the Law This will be a hard work in those places where Virtue is wholly abolished but the difficulty will lie on the other side if any sparks of that remain if Vice and Corruption prevail Liberty cannot subsist but if Virtue have the advantage arbitrary Power cannot be established Those who boast of their Loyalty and think they give testimonies of it when they addict themselves to the will of one Man tho contrary to the Law from whence that quality is derived may consider that by putting their Masters upon illegal courses they certainly make them the worst of men and bring them into danger of being also the most miserable Few or no good Princes have fallen into disasters unless through an extremity of corruption introduced by the most wicked and cannot properly be called unhappy if they perished in their Innocence since the bitterness of Death is asswaged by the tears of a loving People the assurance of a glorious memory and the quiet of a well satisfied mind But of those who have abandoned themselves to all manner of Vice followed the impulse of their own fury and set themselves to destroy the best men for opposing their pernicious designs very few have died in peace Their Lives have bin miserable Death infamous and Memory detestable They therefore who place Kings within the power of the Law and the Law to
may be alledged From which we may safely conclude that if the death of one King do really invest the next Heir with the Right and Power or that he who is so invested be subject to no Law but his own Will all matters relating to that Kingdom must have bin horribly confused during the reigns of 22 Kings of Pharamonds race they can have had no rightful King from the death of Chilperic to King John and the Succession since that time is very liable to be questioned if not utterly overthrown by the house of Austria and others who by the Counts of Hapsburg derive their Descent from Pharamond and by the house of Lorrain claiming from Charles who was excluded by Capet all which is most absurd and they who pretend it bring as much confusion into their own Laws and upon the Polity of their own Nation as shame and guilt upon the memory of their Ancestors who by the most extreme injustice have rejected their natural Lord or dispossessed those who had bin in the most solemn manner placed in the Government and to whom they had generally sworn Allegiance 3. If the next Heir be actually King seized of the power by the death of his Predecessor so that there is no intermission then all the Solemnities and religious Ceremonies used at the Coronations of their Kings with the Oaths given and taken are the most profane abuses of sacred things in contempt of God and Man that can be imagined most especially if the Act be as our Author calls it voluntary and the King receiving nothing by it be bound to keep it no longer than he pleases The Prince who is to be sworn might spare the pains of watching all night in the Church fasting praying confessing communicating and swearing that he will to the utmost of his power defend the Clergy maintain the union of the Church obviate all excess rapine extortion and iniquity take care that in all judgments Justice may be observed with Equity and Mercy c. or of invoking the assistance of the Holy Ghost for the better performance of his Oath and without ceremony tell the Nobility and People that he would do what he thought fit 'T were to as little purpose for the Archbishop of Rheims to take the trouble of saying Mass delivering to him the Crown Scepter and other ensigns of Royalty explaining what is signified by them anointing him with the Oil which they say was deliver'd by an Angel to St. Remigius blessing him and praying to God to bless him if he rightly performed his Oath to God and the People and denouncing the contrary in case of failure on his part if these things conferred nothing upon him but what he had before and were of no obligation to him Such ludifications of the most sacred things are too odious and impious to be imputed to Nations that have any virtue or profess Christianity This cannot fall upon the French and Spaniards who had certainly a great zeal to Religion whatever it was and were so eminent for moral Virtues as to be a reproach to us who live in an Age of more Knowledg But their meaning is so well declared by their most solemn Acts that none but those who are wilfully ignorant can mistake One of the Councils held at Toledo declared by the Clergy Nobility and others assisting That no man should be placed in the Royal Seat till he had sworn to preserve the Church c. Another held in the same place signified to Sisinandus who was then newly crown'd That if he or any of his Successors should contrary to their Oaths and the Laws of their Country proudly and cruelly presume to exercise Domination over them he should be excommunicated and separated from Christ and them to eternal judgment The French Laws and their best Writers asserting the same things are confirmed by perpetual practice Henry of Navarr tho certainly according to their Rules and in their esteem a most accomplish'd Prince was by two General Assemblies of the Estates held at Blois deprived of the Succession for being a Protestant and notwithstanding the greatness of his Reputation Valour Victories and Affability could never be admitted till he had made himself capable of the ceremonies of his Coronation by conforming to the Religion which by the Oath he was to defend Nay this present King tho haughty enough by nature and elevated by many successes has acknowledged as he says with joy that he can do nothing contrary to Law and calls it a happy impotence in pursuance of which he has annulled many Acts of his Father and Grandfather alienating the demeasnes of the Crown as things contrary to Law and not within their power These things being confirmed by all the good Authors of that Nation Filmer finds only the worst to be fit for his turn and neither minding Law nor History takes his Maxims from a vile flattering discourse of Bellay calculated for the personal interest of Henry the fourth then King of Navarr in which he says That the Heir apparent tho furious mad a fool vicious and in all respects abominably wicked must be admitted to the Crown But Bellay was so far from attaining the ends designed by his Book that by such Doctrines which filled all men with horror he brought great prejudice to his Master and procured little favour from Henry who desired rather to recommend himself to his People as the best man they could set up than to impose a necessity upon them of taking him if he had bin the worst But our Author not contented with what this Sycophant says in relation to such Princes as are placed in the Government by a Law establishing the Succession by inheritance with an impudence peculiar to himself asserts the same right to be in any man who by any means gets into Power and imposes the same necessity of obedience upon the Subject where there is no Law as Bellay dos by virtue of one that is established 4. In the last place As Bellay acknowledges that the right belongs to Princes only where 't is established by Law I deny that there is was or ever can be any such No People is known to have bin so mad or wicked as by their own consent for their own good and for the obtaining of Justice to give the power to Beasts under whom it could never be obtain'd or if we could believe that any had bin guilty of an act so full of folly turpitude and wickedness it could not have the force of a Law and could never be put in execution for tho the rules by which the proximity should be judged be never so precise it will still be doubted whose case sutes best with them Tho the Law in some places gives private Inheritances to the next Heir and in others makes allotments according to several proportions no one knows to whom or how far the benefit shall accrue to any man till it be adjudged by a Power to which the parties
honest and generous do also make them lovers of Liberty and constant in the defence of their Country which savouring too much of a Republican Spirit he prefers the morals of that City since they are become more refined by the pious and charitable Jesuits before those that were remarkable in them as long as they retained any shadow of their antient Integrity which admitted of no equivocations and detested prevarications by that means preserving innocence in the hearts of private men for their inward contentment and in civil Societies for the publick good which if once extinguish'd Mankind must necessarily fall into the condition Hobbes rightly calls Bellum omnium contra omnes wherein no man can promise to himself any other Wife Children or Goods than he can procure by his own Sword Some may perhaps think that the endeavours of our Author to introduce such accursed Principles as tend to the ruin of Mankind proceed from his ignorance But tho he appears to have had a great measure of that quality I fear the evil proceeds from a deeper root and that he attempts to promote the interests of ill Magistrates who make it their business to destroy all good principles in the People with as much industry as the good endeavour to preserve them where they are and teach them where they are wanting Reason and experience instruct us that every man acts according to the end he proposes to himself The good Magistrate seeks the good of the People committed to his care that he may perform the end of his Institution and knowing that chiefly to consist in Justice and Virtue he endeavours to plant and propagate them and by doing this he procures his own good as well as that of the Publick He knows there is no Safety where there is no Strength no Strength without Union no Union with Justice no Justice where Faith and Truth in accomplishing publick and private Contracts is wanting This he perpetually inculcates and thinks it a great part of his duty by precept and example to educate the Youth in a love of Virtue and Truth that they may be seasoned with them and filled with an abhorrence of Vice and Falshood before they attain that Age which is exposed to the most violent temptations and in which they may by their crimes bring the greatest mischiefs upon the publick He would do all this tho it were to his own prejudice But as good Actions always carry a reward with them these contribute in a high measure to his advantage By preferring the interest of the People before his own he gains their affection and all that is in their power comes with it whilst he unites them to one another he unites all to himself In leading them to virtue he increases their strength and by that means provides for his own safety glory and power On the other side such as seek different ends must take different ways When a Magistrate fancies he is not made for the People but the People for him that he dos not govern for them but for himself and that the People live only to increase his glory or furnish matter for his pleasures he dos not inquire what he may do for them but what he may draw from them By this means he sets up an interest of profit pleasure or pomp in himself repugnant to the good of the publick for which he is made to be what he is These contrary ends certainly divide the Nation into parties and whilst every one endeavours to advance that to which he is addicted occasions of hatred sor injuries every day done or thought to be done and received must necessarily arise This creates a most fierce and irreconcileable enmity because the occasions are frequent important and universal and the causes thought to be most just The People think it the greatest of all crimes to convert that power to their hurt which was instituted for their good and that the injustice is aggravated by perjury and ingratitude which comprehend all manner of ill and the Magistrate gives the name of Sedition or Rebellion to whatsoever they do for the preservation of themselves and their own Rights When mens spirits are thus prepared a small matter sets them on fire but if no accident happen to blow them into a flame the course of Justice is certainly interrupted the publick affairs are neglected and when any occasion whether foreign or domestick arises in which the Magistrate stands in need of the Peoples assistance they whose affections are alienated not only shew an unwillingness to serve him with their Persons and Estates but fear that by delivering him from his distress they strengthen their enemy and enable him to oppress them and he fancying his will to be unjustly opposed or his due more unjustly denied is filled with a dislike of what he sees and a fear of worse for the future Whilst he endeavours to ease himself of the one and to provide against the other he usually increases the evils of both and jealousies are on both sides multiplied Every man knows that the Governed are in a great measure under the power of the Governor but as no man or number of men is willingly subject to those who seek their ruin such as fall into so great a misfortune continue no longer under it than force fear or necessity may be able to oblige them But as such a necessity can hardly lie longer upon a great People than till the evil be fully discovered and comprehended and their Virtue Strength and Power be united to expel it the ill Magistrate looks upon all things that may conduce to that end as so many preparatives to his ruin and by the help of those who are of his party will endeavour to prevent that Union and diminish that Strength Virtue Power and Courage which he knows to be bent against him And as truth faithful dealing due performance of Contracts and integrity of Manners are bonds of Union and helps to good he will always by tricks artifices cavils and all means possible endeavour to establish falshood and dishonesty whilst other Emissaries and instruments of Iniquity by corrupting the Youth and seducing such as can be brought to lewdness and debauchery bring the People to such a pass that they may neither care nor dare to vindicate their Rights and that those who would do it may so far suspect each other as not to confer upon much less to join in any action tending to the publick Deliverance This distinguishes the good from the bad Magistrate the faithful from the unfaithful and those who adhere to either living in the same principle must walk in the same ways They who uphold the rightful power of a just Magistracy encourage Virtue and Justice teach men what they ought to do suffer or expect from others fix them upon principles of Honesty and generally advance every thing that tends to the increase of the valour strength greatness and happiness of the Nation creating a good
is instituted for the good of those that are under it 'T is therefore for them that he enjoys it and it can no otherwise subsist than in concurrence with that end He also yields that the safety of the People is the supreme Law The right therefore that the King has must be conformable and subordinate to it If any one therefore set up an interest in himself that is not so he breaks this supreme Law he doth not live and reign for his People but for himself and by departing from the end of his institution destroys it and if Aristotle to whom our Author seems to have a great deference deserves credit such a one ceases to be a King and becomes a Tyrant he who ought to have bin the best of men is turned into the worst and he who is recommended to us under the name of a Father becomes a publick Enemy to the People The question therefore is not what is good for the King but what is good for the People and he can have no right repugnant to them Bracton is not more gentle The King says he is obliged by his Oath to the utmost of his power to preserve the Church and the Christian World in peace to hinder rapine and all manner of iniquity to cause justice and mercy to be observed He has no power but from the Law that only is to be taken for Law quod recté fuerit definitum he is therefore to cause justice to be done according to that rule and not to pervert it for his own pleasure profit or glory He may chuse Judges also not such as will be subservient to his will but Viros sapientes timentes Deum in quibus est veritas eloquiorum qui oderunt avaritiam Which proves that Kings and their Officers do not possess their places for themselves but for the People and must be such as are fit and able to perform the duties they undertake The mischievous fury of those who assume a power above their abilities is well represented by the known fable of Phaeton they think they desire fine things for themselves when they seek their own ruin In conformity to this the same Bracton says that If any man who is unskilful assume the seat of justice he falls as from a Precipice c. and 't is the same thing as if a sword be put into the hand of a mad man which cannot but affect the King as well as those who are chosen by him If he neglect the functions of his Office he dos unjustly and becomes the Vicegerent of the Devil for he is the Minister of him whose works he dos This is Bracton's opinion but desiring to be a more gentle Interpreter of the Law I only wish that Princes would consider the end of their institution endeavour to perform it measure their own abilities content themselves with that power which the Laws allow and abhor those Wretches who by flattery and lies endeavour to work upon their frailest Passions by which means they draw upon them that hatred of the People which frequently brings them to destruction Tho Ulpian's words Princeps legibus non tenetur be granted to have bin true in fact with relation to the Roman Empire in the time when he lived yet they can conclude nothing against us The Liberty of Rome had bin overthrown long before by the power of the Sword and the Law render'd subservient to the will of the Usurpers They were not Englishmen but Romans who lost the Battels of Pharsalia and Philippi The Carcases of their Senators not ours were exposed to the Wolves and Vulturs Pompeius Scipio Lentulus Afranius Petreius Cato Cassius and Brutus were defenders of the Roman not the English Liberty and that of their Country not ours could only be lost by their defeat Those who were destroy'd by the Proscriptions left Rome not England to be enslaved If the best had gained the victory it could have bin no advantage to us and their overthrow can be no prejudice Every Nation is to take care of their own Laws and whether any one has had the Wisdom Virtue Fortune and Power to defend them or not concerns only themselves The Examples of great and good men acting freely deserve consideration but they only perish by the ill success of their designs and whatsoever is afterwards done by their subdued Posterity ought to have no other effect upon the rest of the world than to admonish them so to join in the defence of their Liberties as never to be brought under the necessity of acting by the command of one to the prejudice of themselves and their Country If the Roman greatness perswade us to put an extraordinary value upon what passed among them we ought rather to examin what they did said or thought when they enjoy'd that Liberty which was the Mother and Nurse of their Virtue than what they suffer'd or were forc'd to say when they were fallen under that Slavery which produced all manner of corruption and made them the most base and miserable People of the world For what concerns us the Actions of our Ancestors resemble those of the antient rather than the later Romans tho our Government be not the same with theirs in form yet it is in principle and if we are not degenerated we shall rather desire to imitate the Romans in the time of their virtue glory power and felicity than what they were in that of their slavery vice shame and misery In the best times when the Laws were more powerful than the commands of men fraud was accounted a crime so detestable as not to be imputed to any but Slaves and he who had sought a power above the Law under colour of interpreting it would have bin exposed to scorn or greater punishments if any can be greater than the just scorn of the best men And as neither the Romans nor any people of the world have better defended their Liberties than the English Nation when any attempt has bin made to oppress them by force they ought to be no less careful to preserve them from the more dangerous efforts of fraud and falshood Our Ancestors were certainly in a low condition in the time of William the First Many of their best men had perished in the Civil Wars or with Harold their valour was great but rough and void of skill The Normans by frequent Expeditions into France Italy and Spain had added subtilty to the boisterous violence of their native climate William had engaged his Faith but broke it and turned the power with which he was entrusted to the ruin of those that had trusted him He destroy'd many worthy men carried others into Normandy and thought himself Master of all He was crafty bold and elated with Victory but the resolution of a brave People was invincible When their Laws and Liberties were in danger they resolved to die or to defend them and made him see he could no otherwise preserve his Crown
Manners and better enabled them to frame Laws for the preservation of their Liberty but no way diminished their love to it and tho the Normans might desire to get the Lands of those who had joined with Harold and of others into their hands yet when they were settled in the Country and by marriages united to the antient Inhabitants they became true Englishmen and no less lovers of Liberty and resolute defenders of it than the Saxons had bin There was then neither conquering Norman nor conquered Saxon but a great and brave People composed of both united in blood and interest in the defence of their common Rights which they so well maintained that no Prince since that time has too violently encroached upon them who as the reward of his folly has not lived miserably and died shamefully Such actions of our Ancestors do not as I suppose savour much of the submission which patrimonial slaves do usually render to the will of their Lord. On the contrary whatsoever they did was by a power inherent in themselves to defend that Liberty in which they were born All their Kings were created upon the same condition and for the same ends Alfred acknowledged he found and left them perfectly free and the confession of Offa that they had not made him King for his own merits but for the defence of their Liberty comprehends all that were before and after him They well knew how great the honour was to be made head of a great People and rigorously exacted the performance of the ends for which such a one was elevated severely punishing those who basely and wickedly betray'd the trust reposed in them and violated all that is most sacred among men which could not have bin unless they were naturally free for the Liberty that has no being cannot be defended SECT XXXIV No Veneration paid or Honor conferr'd upon a just and lawful Magistrate can diminish the Liberty of a Nation SOME have supposed that tho the people be naturally free and Magistrates created by them they do by such creations deprive themselves of that natural liberty and that the names of King Sovereign Lord and Dread Sovereign being no way consistent with Liberty they who give such Titles do renounce it Our Author carries this very far and lays great weight upon the submissive Language used by the people when they humbly crave that his Majesty would be pleased to grant their accustomed freedom of speech and access to his Person and give the name of Supplications and Petitions to the Addresses made to him Whereas he answers in the haughty Language of Le Roy le veut Le Roy s'avisera and the like But they who talk at this rate shew that they neither understand the nature of Magistracy nor the practice of Nations Those who have lived in the highest exercise of their Liberty and have bin most tenacious of it have thought no Honor too great for such Magistrates as were eminent in the defence of their Rights and were set up for that end The name of Dread Sovereign might justly have bin given to a Roman Dictator or Consul for they had the Sovereign Authority in their hands and power sufficient for its execution Whilst their Magistracy continued they were a terror to the same men whose Axes and Rods had bin a terror to them the year or month before and might be so again the next The Romans thought they could not be guilty of excess in carrying the power and veneration due to their Dictator to the highest And Livy tells us that his Edicts were esteemed sacred I have already shewn that this haughty People who might have commanded condescended to join with their Tribuns in a Petition to the Dictator Papirius for the life of Quintus Fabius who had fought a battel in his absence and without his order tho he had gained a great and memorable Victory The same Fabius when Consul was commended by his Father Q. Fabius Maximus for obliging him by his Lictors to dismount from his Horse and to pay him the same respect that was due from others The Tribuns of the People whe were instituted for the preservation of Liberty were also esteemed sacred and inviolable as appears by that phrase Sacrosancta Tribunorum potest as so common in their antient Writers No man I presume thinks any Monarchy more limited or more clearly derived from a delegated Power than that of the German Emperors and yet Sacra Caesarea Majest as is the publick stile Nay the Hollanders at this day call their Burgermasters tho they see them selling Herring or Tar High and Mighty Lords as soon as they are advanced to be of the 36 42 or 48 Magistrates of a small Town 'T is no wonder therefore if a great Nation should think it conducing to their own glory to give magnificent Titles and use submissive language to that one man whom they set up to be their Head most especially if we consider that they came from a Country where such Titles and Language were principally invented Among the Romans and Grecians we hear nothing of Majesty Highness Serenity and Excellence appropriated to a single Person but receive them from Germany and other Northern Countries We find Majestas Populi Romani and Majestas Imperii in their best Authors but no man speaking to Julius or Augustus or even to the vainest of their Successors ever used those empty Titles nor took upon themselves the name of Servants as we do to every fellow we meet in the streets When such ways of speaking are once introduced they must needs swell to a more than ordinary height in all transactions with Princes Most of them naturally delight in vanity and Courtiers never speak more truth than when they most extol their Masters and assume to themselves the names that best express the most abject slavery These being brought into mode like all ill customs increase by use and then no man can omit them without bringing that hatred and danger upon himself which few will undergo except for something that is evidently of great importance Matters of ceremony and title at the first seem not to be so and being for some time neglected they acquire such strength as not to be easily removed From private Usage they pass into publick Acts and those Flatterers who gave a beginning to them proposing them in publick Councils where too many of that sort have always insinuated themselves gain credit enough to make them pass This work was farther advanced by the Church of Rome according to their custom of favouring that most which is most vain and corrupt and it has bin usual with the Popes and their adherents liberally to gratify Princes for Services render'd to the Church with Titles that tended only to the prejudice of the people These poisonous Plants having taken root grew up so fast that the Titles which within the space of a hundred years were thought sufficient for the Kings and Queens of England have
set limits to them but all reasonable men confessing that they are instituted for the good of Nations they only can deserve praise who above all things endeavour to procure it and appoint means proportioned to that end The great variety of Governments which we see in the world is nothing but the effect of this care and all Nations have bin and are more or less happy as they or their Ancestors have had vigour of Spirit integrity of Manners and wisdom to invent and establish such Orders as have better or worse provided for this common Good which was sought by all But as no rule can be so exact to make provision against all contestations and all disputes about Right do naturally end in force when Justice is denied ill men never willingly submitting to any decision that is contrary to their passions and interests the best Constitutions are of no value if there be not a power to support them This power first exerts it self in the execution of justice by the ordinary Officers But no Nation having bin so happy as not sometimes to produce such Princes as Edward and Richard the Seconds and such Ministers as Gaveston Spencer and Tresilian the ordinary Officers of Justice often want the will and always the power to restrain them So that the Rights and Liberties of a Nation must be utterly subverted and abolished if the power of the whole may not be employed to assert them or punish the violation of them But as it is the fundamental Right of every Nation to be governed by such Laws in such manner and by such persons as they think most conducing to their own good they cannot be accountable to any but themselves for what they do in that most important affair SECT XXXVII The English Government was not ill constituted the defects more lately observed proceeding from the change of manners and corruption of the times I Am not ignorant that many honest and good men acknowledging these Rights and the care of our Ancestors to preserve them think they wanted wisdom rightly to proportionate the means to the end 'T is not enough say they for the General of an Army to desire Victory he only can deserve praise who has skill industry and courage to take the best measures of obtaining it Neither is it enough for wise Legislators to preserve Liberty and to erect such a Government as may stand for a time but to set such clear Rules to those who are to put it in execution that every man may know when they transgress and appoint such means for restraining or punishing them as may be used speedily surely and effectually without danger to the Publick Sparta being thus constituted we hardly find that for more than eight hundred years any King presumed to pass the limits prescribed by the Law If any Roman Consul grew insolent he might be reduced to order without blood or danger to the Publick and no Dictator ever usurped a power over Liberty till the time of Sylla when all things in the City were so changed that the antient foundations were become too narrow In Venice the power of the Duke is so circumscribed that in 1300 years no one except Falerio and Tiepoli have dared to attempt any thing against the Laws and they were immediately suppressed with little commotion in the City On the other side our Law is so ambiguous perplext and intricate that 't is hard to know when 't is broken In all the publick contests we have had men of good judgment and integrity have follow'd both parties The means of transgressing and procuring Partizans to make good by force the most notorious violations of Liberty have bin so easy that no Prince who has endeavoured it ever failed to get great numbers of followers and to do infinite mischiefs before he could be removed The Nation has bin brought to fight against those they had made to be what they were upon the unequal terms of hazarding all against nothing If they had success they gained no more than was their own before and which the Law ought to have secured whereas 't is evident that if at any one time the contrary had happened the Nation had bin utterly enslaved and no victory was ever gained without the loss of much noble and innocent blood To this I answer that no right judgment can be given of human things without a particular regard to the time in which they passed We esteem Scipio Hannibal Pyrrhus Alexander Epaminondas and Cesar to have bin admirable Commanders in War because they had in a most eminent degree all the qualities that could make them so and knew best how to employ the Arms then in use according to the discipline of their times and yet no man doubts that if the most skilful of them could be raised from the Grave restored to the utmost vigour of mind and body set at the head of the best Armies he ever commanded and placed upon the Frontiers of France or Flanders he would not know how to advance or retreat nor by what means to take any of the places in those parts as they are now fortified and defended bnt would most certainly be beaten by any insignificant fellow with a small number of men furnished with such Arms as are now in use and following the methods now practised Nay the manner of marching encamping besieging attacking defending and fighting is so much altered within the last threescore years that no man observing the discipline that was then thought to be the best could possibly defend himself against that which has bin since found out tho the terms are still the same And if it be consider'd that political matters are subject to the same mutations as certainly they are it will be sufficient to excuse our Ancestors who suting their Government to the Ages in which they lived could neither soresee the changes that might happen in future Generations nor appoint remedies for the mischiefs they did not soresee They knew that the Kings of several Nations had bin kept within the limits of the Law by the virtue and power of a great and brave Nobility and that no other way of supporting a mix'd Monarchy had ever bin known in the world than by putting the balance into the hands of those who had the greatest interest in Nations and who by birth and estate enjoy'd greater advantages than Kings could confer upon them for rewards of betraying their Country They knew that when the Nobility was so great as not easily to be number'd the little that was left to the King's disposal was not sufficient to corrupt many and if some might fall under the temptation those who continued in their integrity would easily be able to chastise them for deserting the publick Cause and by that means deter Kings srom endeavouring to seduce them from their duty Whilst things continued in this posture Kings might safely be trusted with the advice of their Council to confer the commands of the Militia in
his hands it would neither bring inconvenience or danger on the present King He can with patience expect that nature should take her course and would neither anticipate nor secure his entrance into the possession of the power by taking one day from the life of his Brother Tho the Papists know that like a true Son of their Church he would prefer the advancement of their Religion before all other considerations and that one stab with a Dagger or a dose of Poison would put all under his feet not one man would be found among them to give it The Assassins were Mahometans not pupils of the honest Jesuits nor ever employ'd by them These things being certain all our concernments would be secure if instead of the foolish Statutes and antiquated Customs on which our Ancestors and we have hitherto doted we may be troubled with no Law but the King's will and a Proclamation may be taken for a sufficient declaration of it We shall by this means be delivered from that Liberty with a mischief in which our mistaken Nation seems so much to delight This phrase is so new and so peculiar to our Author that it deserves to be written upon his Tomb. We have heard of Tyranny with a mischief Slavery and Bondage with a mischief and they have bin denounced by God against wicked and perverse Nations as mischiefs comprehending all that is most to be abhorr'd and dreaded in the world But Filmer informs us that Liberty which all wise and good men have in all ages esteemed to be the most valuable and glorious privilege of mankind is a mischief If he deserve credit Moses Joshua Gideon Sampson and Samuel with others like them were enemies to their Country in depriving the people of the advantages they enjoy'd under the paternal care of Pharaoh Adonibezek Eglon Jabin and other Kings of the neighbouring Nations and restoring them to that Liberty with a mischief which he had promised to them The Israelites were happy under the power of Tyrants whose Proclamations were Laws and they ought to have bin thankful to God for that condition and not for the deliverances he wrought by the hands of his Servants Subjection to the will of a man is happiness Liberty is a mischief But this is so abominably wicked and detestable that it can deserve no answer SECT XLIV No People that is not free can substitute Delegates HOW full soever the Power of any person or people may be he or they are obliged to give only so much to their Delegates as seems convenient to themselves or conducing to the ends they desire to attain but the Delegate can have none except what is conferred upon him by his Principal If theresore the Knights Citizens and Burgesses sent by the People of England to serve in Parliament have a Power it must be more perfectly and fully in those that send them But as was proved in the last Section Proclamations and other significations of the King's pleasure are not Laws to us They are to be regulated by the Law not the Law by them They are to be considered only so far as they are conformable to the Law srom which they receive all the strength that is in them and can confer none upon it We know no Laws but our own Statutes and those immemorial Customs established by the consent of the Nation which may be and often are changed by us The Legislative Power therefore that is exercised by the Parliament cannot be conferred by the Writ of Summons but must be essentially and radically in the People from whom their Delegates and Representatives have all that they have But says our Author They must only chuse and trust those whom they chuse to do what they list and that is as much liberty as many of us deserve for our irregular Elections of Burgesses This is ingeniously concluded I take what Servant I please and when I have taken him I must suffer him to do what he pleases But from whence should this necessity arise Why may not I take one to be my Groom another to be my Cook and keep them both to the Offices for which I took them What Law dos herein restrain my Right And if I am free in my private capacity to regulate my particular affairs according to my own discretion and to allot to each Servant his proper work why have not I with my Associates the Freemen of England the like liberty of directing and limiting the Powers of the Servants we employ in our publick Affairs Our Author gives us reasons proportionable to his judgment This were liberty with a mischief and that of chusing only is as much as many of us deserve I have already proved that as far as our Histories reach we have had no Princes or Magistrates but such as we have made and they have had no other power than what we have conferred upon them They cannot be the judges of our merit who have no power but what we gave them thrô an opinion they did or might deserve it They may distribute in parcels to particulars that with which they are entrusted in the gross But 't is impossible that the Publick should depend absolutely upon those who are nothing above other men except what they are made to be for and by the Publick The restrictions therefore of the peoples Liberty must be from themselves or there can be none Nevertheless I believe that the Powers of every County City and Borough of England are regulated by the general Law to which they have all consented and by which they are all made Members of one political Body This obliges them to proceed with their Delegates in a manner different from that which is used in the United Netherlands or in Switserland Amongst these every Province City or Canton making a distinct body independent from any other and exercising the sovereign Power within it self looks upon the rest as Allies to whom they are bound only by such Acts as they themselves have made and when any new thing not comprehended in them happens to arise they oblige their Delegates to give them an account of it and retain the power of determining those matters in themselves 'T is not so amongst us Every County dos not make a distinct Body having in it self a sovereign Power but is a Member of that great Body which comprehends the whole Nation 'T is not therefore for Kent or Sussex Lewis or Maidstone but for the whole Nation that the Members chosen in those places are sent to serve in Parliament and tho it be fit for them as Friends and Neighbours so far as may be to hearken to the opinions of the Electors for the information of their Judgments and to the end that what they shall say may be of more weight when every one is known not to speak his own thoughts only but those of a great number of men yet they are not strictly and properly obliged to give account of their actions to any
latter Kings hath bin so gracious as to allow always of the intire Bill as it passed both Houses He judiciously observes when our Kings began to be gracious and we to be free That King excepting the persecution for Religion in his time which is rather to be imputed to the ignorance of that age than to any evil in his own nature governed well and as all Princes who have bin virtuous and brave have always desired to preserve their Subjects Liberty which they knew to be the mother and nurse of their Valour fitting them for great and generous Enterprizes his care was to please them and to raise their Spirits But about the same time those detestable Arts by which the mixed Monarchies in this part of the world have bin every where terribly shaken and in many places totally overthrown began to be practised Charles the seventh of France under pretence of carrying on a War against him and his Son took upon him to raise Mony by his own Authority and we know how well that method has bin pursued The mischievous sagacity of his Son Lewis the 11th which is now called King-Craft was wholly exerted in the subversion of the Laws of France and the Nobility that supported them His Successors except only Lewis the 12th followed his example and in other Nations Ferdinand of Arragon James the third of Scotland and Henry the seventh of England were thought to imitate him the most Tho we have little reason to commend all the Princes that preceded Henry the fifth yet I am inclined to date the general impairing of our Government from the death of that King and his valiant Brothers His weak Son became a prey to a furious French woman who brought the Maxims of her own Country into ours and advanced the worst of villains to govern according to them These measures were pursued by Edward the fourth whose wants contracted by prodigality and debauchery were to be supplied by fraud and rapine The ambition cruelty and persidiousness of Richard the third the covetousness and malicious subtilty of Henry the seventh the violent lust rage and pride of Henry the 8th and the bigotted fury of Queen Mary instigated by the craft and malice of Spain perswaded me to believe that the English Liberty did not receive birth or growth from the favour and goodness of their gracious Princes But it seems all this is mistaken Henry the sixth was wise valiant and no way guided by his Wife Edward the sourth continent sober and contented with what the Nation gave him Richard the third mild gentle and faithful Henry the 7th sincere and satisfied with his own Henry the 8th humble temperate and just and Queen Mary a friend to our Country and Religion No less praises sure can be due to those who were so gracious to recede from their own right of picking what they pleased out of our Laws and to leave them intirely to us as they passed both Houses We are beholden to our Author for the discovery of these mysteries but tho he seems to have taken an Oath like that of the Gypsies when they enter into that virtuous Society never to speak one word of truth he is not so subtle in concealing his Lies All Kings were trusted with the publication of the Laws but all Kings did not falsify them Such as were not wicked and vicious or so weak as to be made subservient to the malice of their Ministers and Flatterers could never be drawn into the guilt of so infamous a cheat directly contrary to the Oath of their Coronation They swear to pass such Laws as the People chuse but if we will believe our Author they might have pick'd out whatever they pleased and falsly imposed upon the Nation as a Law made by the Lords and Commons that which they had modelled according to their own will and made to be different from or contrary to the intention of the Parliament The King's part in this fraud of which he boasts was little more than might have bin done by the Speaker or his Clerks They might have falfified an Act as well as the King tho they could not so well preserve themselves from punishment 'T is no wonder if for a while no stop was put to such an abominable Custom 'T was hard to think a King would be guilty of a fraud that were infamous in a Slave But that proved to be a small security when the worst of Slaves came to govern them Nevertheless 't is probable they proceeded cautioufly the first alterations were perhaps innocent or it may be for the best But when they had once found out the way they stuck at nothing that seemed for their purpose This was like the plague of Leprosy that could not be cured the house infected was to be demolished the poisonous plant must be torn up by the root the trust that had bin broken was to be abolished they who had perverted or frustrated the Law were no longer to be suffered to make the least alteration and that brave Prince readily joined with his People to extinguish the mischievous abuse that had bin introduced by some of his worthless Predecessors The worst and basest of them had continual disputes with their Parliaments and thought that whatever they could detract from the Liberty of the Nation would serve to advance their Prerogative They delighted in frauds and would have no other Ministers but such as would be the instruments of them Since their Word could not be made to pass for a Law they endeavoured to impose their own or their Servants inventions as Acts of Parliaments upon the deluded people and to make the best of them subservient to their corrupt Ends and pernicious Counsels This if it had continued might have overthrown all our Rights and deprived us of all that men can call good in the world But the Providence of God furnished our Ancestors with an opportunity of providing against so great so universal a mischief They had a wise and valiant Prince who scorned to encroach upon the Liberties of his Subjects and abhorred the detestable Arts by which they had bin impair'd He esteemed their courage strength and love to be his greatest advantage riches and glory He aimed at the conquest of France which was only to be effected by the bravery of a free and well-satisfied People Slaves will always be cowards and enemies to their Master By bringing his Subjects into that condition he must infallibly have ruined his own designs and made them unfit to fight either for him or themselves He desired not only that his People should be free during his time but that his Successors should not be able by oblique and fraudulent ways to enslave them If it be a reproach to us that Women have reigned over us 't is much more to the Princes that succeeded our Henry that none of them did so much imitate him in his Government as Queen Elizabeth She did not go about to mangle Acts