17. and Trading Mony be all one ever shall Where there is a Bank Ten to One there is a Commonwealth This does Us no hurt For if England or Spain were a Commonwealth their Ballance in Mony might then outweigh that in Land which is the Thing contended for But He will be in Danger to loose his Wager and his Credit to boot For some Monarchs have been as great Traders as any Commonwealths The example of the Medices he yields Me to that I will adde the Crown of Portugall which presently after the Discovery of the Cape of good Hope did manage that mighty Lucrative Traffique which now the Dutch and English share with them The Examples of the Mogor and other Eastern Princes may also be alledged who though Monarchs are very great Traders And where there is a Traffique it is undeniable but that if it be found expedient there may be a Bank Or is Antwerp a Commonwealth or the Monti at Rome planted in a Popular Government It would not be unfit also that before We consent to resolve that in such a Territory as England Mony can never overballance Land We did a little reflect upon the Successes of our last Wars and inquire Whether it was not the Mony of the City of London which turned the Scales Having thus examined what the Influence of Riches is upon Empire What the Importance of Propriety in Land and What that of ready Mony in such a Territory particularly as Spain or England I may with reason expect not to be thought to have strained very much at the H. p. 18. Doctrine of the Ballance much less to have been choaked with it I consess I cannot swallow it so fast as Mr Harrington but that it may be does not hinder Me from digesting it better At least I have leisure to observe that while He attributes so much to the Ballance He commits an Error in making an Army depend meerly upon the Riches of those who have the Disposing of it For though it be true That an Army is a Beast with a great Belly which subsisteth not without very large Pastures It is as true that this Beast is none of those tame Ones that are kept within Fences or imprisoned in a Severall When an Army is once on foot the Inclosure of the Law is too weak to hold it in And Propriety is no better then an Hedge of rotten Sticks It was the Observation of Him who had Wit and Experience enough to be the Founder of the Roman Monarchy That Men Dion Cass lib. 42. and Mony are the two Things by which Power is acquired and preserved And that these two do mutually support One another For as by Mony an Army is brought together So He that has Arms in his hand need not want Mony Thus even after the Settlement of Propriety by Government and Lawes Force goes a share with Riches and is not wholly excluded from concurring to the Establishment of Empire Nay further If there comes to be a Contest between Gold and Iron the Advantage generally remains with the harder Metall And He that has Arms in his Hand may when He pleases both command the Mony in his Neighbours Pocket and also gather the Rents of his Lands As it of old fell out among the Thurians Where the Nobility had ingrost all Offices and Magistracy into their own Hands and had bought though against the Law the Lands of the Arist Polit. whole Country Yet the People being exercised inured to the Wars proved too hard for the Nobility and their Guard And dismissed them of their Power and excessive Possessions in Land From which Example these two Corollaries are evidently deduceable That an Agrarian Law is not a sufficient Provision for fixing the Ballance And that the Conformity of the Ballance to the establish't Government does not necessarily secure a State from Changes and Revolutions One thing more remains to dispatch this Question of the Ballance And that is to produce Examples of such Governments as have been setled contrary to the Ballance in Land But I find by the whole Course of Mr Harrington's Reply to Me that this way of arguing is of no great Efficacy with Him For either He takes no Notice of such Examples or by some pitifull unmanly Cavill seeks to elude them Wherefore I am put to make use of another Method that is to bring him as a Witness against himself and to prove this Point by the Authority of his own Assertions In the 73 page of his Discourse concerning Ordination against Dr Hamond He has imparted this Lesson to Us The People of Egypt till having sold their Lands they came to loose their Popular Ballance were not servants unto Pharaoh wherefore when Joseph was made Governour over all Egypt they were Free. And in Consequence to this We are told by him H. p. 56. in another Place That the Ballance of absolute Monarchy or of a Nobility came into Egypt by the Purchase of Joseph But it is evident that the Exercise of Sovereign Power was before belonging to the Kings of Egypt in a most Absolute manner seeing the People when not only their whole Fortunes and Estates but their very Lives also lay at stake by the Extremity of the Famine had not force enough to break open the Granaries and take out Corne for their sustenance but were faine to buy it of the King at his own Price And if the People of Egypt had not in the Case of extream hunger which uses to inrage the most abject and slavish People of the whole World Power enough to serve themselves when there was enough of Corne in the Land It is ridiculous to think they could retain any Power or Liberty in reference to the Government Wherefore the Ballance of Egypt being Popular and the Government Absolute Monarchy Mr Harrington himself has furnished Us with a cleare Example of a Government that has been setled contrary to the Ballance in Land I might by this time lawfully hope for a Release from this Dispute of the Ballance if I were not ingaged by my Promise in the first Chapter to examine that place of Thucydides which by diverting the Discourse gave Mr Harrington the Opportunity of saying something upon a Subject in which He must otherwise have been silent But what He has there said is so extravagant and wandering from the true meaning of Thucydides that I must needs think either He has parted with his own Understanding or believes his Readers willing to part with theirs Let the first 12 or 14 Pages of Thucydides which serve as an Introduction to his Historie be considerately perused And it will be found to be the Author's aime to make it appear That the Actions he goes about to describe were more great and considerable then any had formerly been performed by the Graecians To this end He relates That of old Greece was not constantly Thucyd. p. 2. inhabited but that at first there were often Removals every
One easily leaving the place of his Abode to the Violence of some greater Number Every Man so husbanded the Ground as but barely to live upon it without any stock of Riches and planted Nothing but made account to be Masters in any Place of such necessary Sustenance as might serve from day to day And for this Cause Id. p. 3. they were of no Ability at all either for greatness of Cities or other Provision And the Imbecillity of Antient Times is not a little demonstrated also by this That before the Trojan War nothing appeareth to have been done by Greece in Common This then is Manifest to have been the oldest Condition of Greece That though the People were not absolutely destitute of Civill Society yet those Societies being of very small Numbers were too weak to improve by Plantation or Traffique but were forced to abandon their Habitations to the Violence of such whom the fatness of the Soile invited thither And as these Societies of Men were of themselves weak and inconsiderable so were they without any League or Union in Common by which this their Imbecillity might have received a Cure Sutable to their Condition was their manner of living To weare Iron or be alwaies in Arms Id. p. 4. and to count Theeving the best means of their living being a Matter at that time no where in Disgrace but rather carrying with it something of Glory But Minos having built a Navy Navigators had the Sea more free For He expelled the Malefactors out of the Islands and in most of Id. p. 5. 6. them planted Colonies of his own By which meanes They who inhabited the Sea coasts becoming more addicted to Riches grew more constant to their dwellings Of whom some grown now Rich compassed their Towns about with Wals. For out of desire of gaine the meaner sort underwent Servitude with the Mighty And the Mighty with their Wealth brought the lesser Cities into Subjection It appeares by this that the first considerable increment of Greece was by King Minos who having supprest the Pirates and render'd Navigation safe the Maritime Cities by their Traffique soon began to grow Rich and for their Security fortified themselves and by these Advantages People in want flocking to their Service they prevailed over the lesser Cities and grew up to some indifferent Force with which the War of Troy was undertaken Which Enterprize though of greater Name then any before it was through want of Mony but weake and Id. p. 8. in fact beneath the Fame and report which by meanes of the Poets now goeth of it After the Trojan War also the Graecians continued still their Shiftings and Transplantations insomuch as never resting they improved not their Power But after a long time Greece had constant Rest and shifting their seats no longer at length sent Colonies Id. p. 9. ahroad When the Power of Greece was now improved and the desire of Mony withall their Revenues being inlarged in most of the Cities there were erected Tyrannies For before that time Kingdomes with Honours limited were Hereditary And the Graecians built Navies and became more seriously addicted to the Affaires of the Sea Yet was not their Navall force very great for having spoken of such Fleets as had been brought together either by Tyrants or Cities and of the Actions performed by them He concludes That if Men consider of the War he describes by the Acts done in the same It will manifest it self to be greater then any of those before mentioned These Id. p. 13. are the Passages of Thucydides out of which Mr Harrington goes about by an unheard of Chymistry to extract the Doctrine of the Ballance But He must give Me leave to observe these Errors and False Consequences in his Operation First He saies that When out of desire of gain the Meaner Sort underwent Servitude with the Mighty It caused Hereditary Kingdomes with Honours limited As happened also with Vs since the times of the Goths and Vandals Good So H. p. 2â— We will be content to acknowledge this imaginary Force of the Ballance that Prudence which He himself cals Modern and will have to be first introduced into the World after the breaking of the Roman Empire shall be allowed to be more ancient then the most ancient Republiques But I beseech him Where does He find that the Servitude the meaner Sort underwent with the Mighty caused Hereditary Kingdomes Thucydides owns no such Causality Nor do those two passages of His thus joyned together by Mr Harrington appear to have any Reference to one another Nay on the contrary it is manifest that Hereditary Kingdomes were before that Servitude seeing that Servitude happened not till after Minos who was a King had by scouring the Seas of Pirates and destroying their Nests given Security to Traffique by which and not by the Ballance of Land these Cities grew Potent In the second Place He attributes the Power of Pelops to the Ballance in Land Whereas Thucydides saies expresly He obtained this Power by the abondance of Wealth He brought with him out of Asia to Men in want Did He transport his Land with Him Or is not this a cleare Instance of the Prevalence of Mony against the Ballance in Land But then thirdly He at the same time supposes no Propriety in Land till after the Trojan War And yet makes before that War the Over-ballancing of the Mighty to be the Cause of Hereditary Kingdomes This has the aspect of a Contradiction into which it is likely he slipt by not having a true apprehension of Thucydides who does not affirm there was in those remote Ages He treats of a time when there was no Propriety but only that Men being not yet united into great Nations but living in small Clans there joynt Force was not sufficient to defend them against the Violence of such who had any small oddes in Number which was the Cause of so frequent Transmigrations Fourthly He will have the Revenues of Greece which were inlarged about the Time of erecting the Tyrannies to consist only in Land unless forsooth We can shew there was Usurie at that Time He must pardon Me for this also It is enough that there then began to be great Trading which is plainly testified by Thucydides where He saies That the Graecians became more seriously addicted to the Affaires of the Sea Fifthly He imagines the difference between the old Hereditary Monarchies and the new erected Tyrannies to have been only in the Peoples Apprehension of them who being grown Rich called that Government Tyrannie which before during their Poverty They had been content to own for a lawfull Monarchy This is indeed to be a true Servant to his own Supposition but not to be a faithfull Historian of the Actions of other Men For in some of these Tyrannies the change from Monarchy must be attributed to the Princes themselves Who upon Arist Polit. lib. 3. cap. 15. lib. 5. cap. 10. the increase
of Wealth having put off the Sobriety and Moderation of their Predecessors and addicted themselves to Avarice and Luxurie or as Thucydides expresses it Their desire of Mony being improved with their Power governed their People with all manner of Insolence and Oppression But most of the Tyrannies were then at that time first erected for the old Monarchies having by the failing of the Royall Arist Polit. lib. 3. cap. 14. lib. 5. cap. 5. Lines or by the remisseness of the Princes been changed into Commonwealths the Supream Power was afterward usurped by such Persons who having no just Claime were forced to secure themselves by Violent and Tyrannicall Courses Last of all Because Thucydides comparing only the Actions of the old Graecians with those He is about to describe gives the Advantage to the latter calling the other the Imbecillity of Antient Times He would therefore have it thought that the Considerer has made an unlucky choise of Thucydides his Testimony But it is easy for Me to convince him that though I had on my side no other Testimony which by the way is untrue the matter being attested by all the Greek Histories of those remote Ages but this of Thucydides I were upon Terms secure enough For first Thucydides mentions this Imbecillity only in reference to the times before the Trojan War and not the whole time that Greece was governed by Hereditary Monarchs And then again this Imbecillity is no diminution of the Antiquity of that Government which was the sole thing at that time in Debate between Us nor yet any Imputation to the Prudence of it For it is not to be understood of any Morall or Politicall Imbecillity radicated in the Nature of that Government but of a Naturall one equally attending the Infancy of all Governments Arms Shipping Mony and the other Provision by which a Nation frees it self from this Imbecillity being not originall or essentiall Members of any Government but like Haire the Productions of Age and Grouth I could not at a less Expence of Time and Pains satisfie my Promise to consider these Passages of Thucydides To some Readers it will not possibly be unacceptable to have been rescued from an Erroneous Apprehension of of that excellent Author For my own part I gain by it the satisfaction of observing that I am not the only Person who suffer by Mr Harrington CHAP. IV. Whether the Ballance of Empire be well divided into Nationall and Provinciall And whether these two or Nations that are of distinct Ballance coming to depend upon one and the same Head such a mixture create a New Ballance TO make recompence for the length of the last Chapter this shall be a very short one The Question was put by the Considerer Whether there may not be a Mixture of the Nationall and Provinciall Ballance so that the severall Parts of an Empire may come to poise one another and by that produce a New Ballance To this Mr Harrington gives a Solution in the H. p. 22. Negative by saying that No one Government whatsoever hath any more then One of two Ballances That of Land which is Nationall or that of Arms which is Provinciall I might without Prejudice to my Cause abstain from any further Discussion of this Question for coming just now from digging up the Roots of the Doctrine of the Ballance these Branches of it must of themselves wither and fall off Yet to show that I did not at first without Reason propose the Question this shall be added in Explication of it There is scarse any one of the Considerable Dominions of Europe which is not like a rich Fur composed of Tips of Sables made up of severall Pieces Spain consists of the Crowns of Castile Arragon Navarre and Granada besides divers Kingdomes Islands and Provinces in distant Parts of the World France though it looks like an entire Piece is constituted by severall Provinces which have by various Occasions come to be united in that Potent Kingdome In Spain the power of the Castilian Kings was more absolute then that of the Aragonese In France some of the Provinces retain Priviledges not injoyed by the rest as the Liberty of Assembling their particular Estates and the like The Considerer to prove the Mixture of the Ballance made Instance in the Kingdome of Arragon where since the Union with Castile the Regall Power is very much advanced And yet without reducing it to a Provinciall Ballance seeing Arragon is still as to the maine governed by their own Lawes and by their own Officers and not by an Army This Instance is rejected by Mr Harrington because the Ballance both in Castile and Aragon being that of a Nobility They both saies He continue Nationall I am desirous of giving him all faire Satisfaction and therefore am Content to lay aside this Instance and instead of it fix upon One in France which is not liable to the same Objection And this shall be the Imperiall Cities of Metz Thoul and Verdun These Cities were free Members of the Empire governed in the way of a Republique by their own Citizens as Strasbourg and other Imperiall Cities are at this day and by Consequence their Ballance must necessarily have been Popular They were somewhat more then an hundred yeares agoe surprized by the French who have since incorporated them into the Crown the Ballance of which is by a Nobility And the last King of France erected a Parliament there after the manner of the other Members of that Crown Now I am to demand of Mr Harrington Whether the Ballance in these Cities be changed from Popular to that by a Nobility If He affirms it to be changed We shall not be obliged to believe him unless He brings Proofs strong enough to overthrow the Vehement Presumption that We may have for the Contrary by observing that these Cities continue still to be of great Traffique which must of Necessity keep the Wealth in the People's hands If He replies that the Ballance of them is Provinciall It will be very difficult to apprehend the Truth of that Answer seeing the Inhabitants of them injoy all the Privileges of French Subjects and are governed by the same Lawes and the same Forme of Administration of Justice with the rest of France T is true indeed they live under the Power of a Governour but in that They differ not from Picardie Champagne Languedoc and all other Parts of that Kingdome whose Ballance notwithstanding is not therefore Provinciall Nor can it be denied that they have a Garrison upon them but in this their Case is the same with all the Frontire Towns in France which are secured with Garrisons not so much out of Jealousie of the People as of a Forreign Enemy If then the Ballance of these Cities can neither be said to be the Nationall One of the Crown they live under nor yet Provinciall I had Reason to put the Question Whether there might not be a Mixture of the Nationall and Provinciall Ballance
à non esse ad non posse or affirming because a Thing has not yet been it can never be is peculiar to Mr Harrington But there is some reason to doubt other men will not look upon this as sufficient Security especially if They consider how the People are now taught Principles before unknown to them That the Ballance of Dominion in Land is the Naturall Cause of Empire And That the Ballance ought to be fixt by an Agrarian Law For in Oceana every Man who is not a Servant above 18 yeares of age being obliged to have Armes and every Man above 30 being capable of Magistracy the People finding the Empire in their own hands must of necessity conclude the Ballance ought to be there too and consequently must endeavour to take down the standard of the Agrarian so low as that the Land may come to be divided among the whole Body of the People And if the People in other Governments for Example under the late Monarchy did never H. pag. 44. so much as think of Levelling the Nobility It was partly because They did not then apprehend it as They will do now to be a thing just and necessary And partly because They wanted Power to do it their Arms depending upon the Nobilitie And their Vote in the Commons house being insignificant without the Consent of the King and Lords But in the Commonwealth of Oceana the People can not want Power and Interest to effect it either by the way of Arms or Vote By the way of Arms the People amounting to 200000 armed Men with Commanders and Officers chosen by themselves out of their own Body and having a certain Rendezvous appointed in reference to their Musters need but declare their Resolution to have the Agrarian taken down to a less Rate then 2000l p. an And the whole Business is dispatch't For They who can have an Interest to keep it up at that Rate not being above 5000 Men can not possibly resist so much a greater Multitude that is already armed and formed into a Body So that the People of Oceana ought not to be deterred from this Attempt by the Feare of a Civill War and the Loss they may sustain by it Though by the way If that Reflection were enough to keep the People Qâ—uet there would be little need ever to feare their stirring seeing the 5000 Men can not do otherwise then immediatly submit as being apparently too weak to maintain themselves in the State of War But if the People of Oceana choose rather to manage this Design by the way of Vote They may with more ease effect it For the Elders or Men capable of Magistracy in Oceana being 100000 in number And they who possess 2000l p. an being but 5000 in number The same Proportion according to an equall Calculation must hold in the Deputies at the Prerogative Tribe Wherefore in the Representative or Prerogative Tribe there will be twenty for one who will have an Interest to Vote the Agrarian down to a lower Standard Yet I do not think that this will come to absolute Levelling or giving to every Man as Mr Harrington computes it ten pounds H. pag. 45. a yeare But I do not see how it is possible it should stay sooner then at about 200 pounds a yeare But that being made the measure of the Agrarian or the greatest Estate which any man can possess in Land there can not be less then 50000 Persons concerned to keep it from going lower which number will it is likely prove considerable enough to fix it at that Rate In his Answer to my third Argument He takes Pleasure in straying out of a plain Way and will understand Me as if I had said The old Jewes during their being Inhabitants of Canaan were great Traders I am not aware that any Ambiguity in my Words could give him an Occasion of this Thought But howsoever I am content to explaine my self better by declaring that I meant this of the Modern Jewes who though dispossest of Canaan are every where so Rich that unless perhaps in Solomons time their Ancestours could never have compared Estates with them And as They having no Land are all Merchants so in Oceana the Possession of Land being limited Men who aimed at farther Riches or Power would convert their stock into Traffique by which Emporium would be increast beyond the Proportion consisting with the Security of the Commonwealth These were the Considerer's thoughts which Mr Harrington seems not to disallow of but only in the last particular that the greatness of Emporium can prove dangerous to the Commonwealth of Oceana To make this Probable I must begin a Good way off Of Commonwealths both Antient and Modern some have been founded upon one Great City in which are Resident not only the Magistrates and Senate but also the whole Body of the People which constitues the Commonwealth Such were of old Athens Syracuse Carthage Rome at present Venice and Genoa These Cities are both the Heart and Head of their severall Commonwealths In them the Principall Actions of Life are performed and from thence Bloud and Spirits are conveyed into all the Parts Their Increase is the Augmentation of the whole and as long as they continue in Health the Republique can not die Hereupon have all wise Legislators contrived and incouraged the Increase of these Cities both in Population and Riches for the whole Commonwealth being in a manner comprehended within their Walls their inlargement can never cause any inequality or Danger to the Publique If it be Ocean p. 147 H. p. 98. thought that I commit an Error in placing Rome in this Classis of Commonwealths seeing her Rustick Tribes were the most considerable both for number and Reputation My inducements to it were First that at the Institution of the Rustick Tribes they were so neere adjacent to the City that there was scarse any difference as to the facility of Assembling together between them and the Inhabitants of the City it self And then secondly That before Rome had attained any considerable Greatness the Tribes were no longer to be taken in a Locall acception but only as so many divisions of the People to some one of which every Citizen wheresoever inhabiting must necessarily relate As with us every freeman of London must be of some one of the old Companies And it was in this sense that the Patricians chose to be of some Rustick Tribe which is no more then that my Lord Major is a Skinner or a Merchant Taylor But thirdly though Rome had her Rustick Tribes and Athens her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Populations in the Country none of these had Right to assemble within their own precincts for choosing Magistrates or nominating Deputies to represent them nor had any capacity of dealing in Publique Affaires unless They in person repaired to the Capitall City so that this City still remained the Seat of the Commonwealth all Publique Business being transacted within her Walls