de Moret and other Bastards of the Royal Family following their example the Houses of Guise D' Elbeuf Bouillon Nemours Rochefocault and almost all the most eminent in France with the Parliaments of Paris Bourdeaux and some others joining with them I might alledg many more Examples to shew that this Monarchy as well as all others has from the first establishment bin full of blood and slaughter through the violence of those who possessed the Crown and the Ambition of such as aspired to it and that the end of one Civil War has bin the beginning of another but I presume upon the whole these will be thought sufficient to prove that it never enjoyed any permanent domestick quiet The Kingdoms of Spain have bin no less disturbed by the same means but especially that of Castille where the Kings had more power than in other places To cite all the Examples were to transcribe their Histories but whoever has leisure to examine them will find that after many troubles Alphonso the II notwithstanding his glorious sirname of Wise was deposed by means of his ambitious Son Don Alonso sirnamed El Desheredado supplanted by his Uncle Don Sancho el bravo Peter the Cruel cast from the Throne and killed by his bastard Brother the Conde de Trastamara From the time of the above-named Alphonso to that of Ferdinand and Isabella containing about two hundred years so few of them passed without Civil Wars that I hardly remember two together that were free from them And whosoever pretends that of late years that Monarchy has bin more quiet must if he be ingenuous confess their Peace is rather to be imputed to the dexterity of removing such Persons as have bin most likely to raise disturbances of which number were Don John of Austria Don Carlos Son to Philip the second another of the same name Son to Philip the third and Don Balthazar Son to Philip the sourth than to the rectitude of their Constitutions He that is not convinced of these Truths by what has bin said may come nearer home and see what Mischiefs were brought upon Scotland by the Contests between Baliol and Bruce with their consequences till the Crown came to the Stuart Family the quiet Reigns and happy Deaths of the five James's together with the admirable Stability and Peace of the Government under Queen Mary and the perfect Union in which she lived with her Husband Son and People as well as the Happiness of the Nation whilst it lasted But the Miseries of England upon the like occasions surpass all William the Norman was no sooner dead but the Nation was rent in pieces by his Son Robert contesting with his Sons William and Henry for the Crown They being all dead and their Sons the like happen'd between Stephen and Maud Henry the second was made King to terminate all disputes but it proved a fruitless Expedient Such as were more scandalous and not less dangerous did soon arise between him and his Sons who besides the Evils brought upon the Nation vexed him to death by their Rebellion The Reigns of John and Henry the third were yet more tempestuous Edward the second 's lewd foolish infamous and detestable Government ended in his deposition and death to which he was brought by his Wife and Son Edward the third employ'd his own and his Subjects Valour against the French and Scots but whilst the Foundations were out of order the Nation could never receive any advantage by their Victories All was calculated for the Glory and turned to the Advantage of one man He being dead all that the English held in Scotland and in France was lost through the baseness of his Successor with more blood than it had been gained and the Civil Wars raised by his wickedness and madness ended as those of Edward the second had done The Peace of Henry the fourth's Reign was interrupted by dangerous Civil Wars and the Victory obtained at Shrewsbury had not perhaps secured him in the Throne if his death had not prevented new Troubles Henry the fifth required such reputation by his Virtue and Victories that none dared to invade the Crown during his life but immediatly after his death the Storms prepared against his Family broke out with the utmost violence His Son's weakness encouraged Richard Duke of York to set up a new Title which produced such mischiefs as hardly any people has suffer'd unless upon the like occasion For besides the slaughter of many thousands of the people and especially of those who had bin accustom'd to Arms the devastation of the best parts of the Kingdom and the loss of all that our Kings had inherited in France or gained by the blood of their Subjects fourscore Princes of the Blood as Philip de Commines calls them died in Battel or under the hand of the Hangman Many of the most noble Families were extinguished others lost their most eminent Men. Three Kings and two presumptive Heirs of the Crown were murder'd and the Nation brought to that shameful exigence to set up a young Man to reign over them who had no better cover for his sordid extraction than a Welsh Pedigree that might shew how a Tailor was descended from Prince Arthur Cadwallader and Brutus But the wounds of the Nation were not to be healed with such a plaister He could not relie upon a Title made up of such stuff and patch'd with a Marriage to a Princess of a very questionable Birth His own meanness enclin'd him to hate the Nobility and thinking it to be as easy for them to take the Crown from him as to give it to him he industriously applied himself to glean up the remainders of the House of York from whence a Competitor might arise and by all means to crush those who were most able to oppose him This exceedingly weakned the Nobility who held the Balance between him and the Commons and was the first step towards the dissolution of our antient Government but he was so far from setling the Kingdom in peace that such Rascals as Perkin Warbeck and Simnel were able to disturb it The Reign of Henry the eighth was turbulent and bloody that of Mary furious and such as had brought us into subjection to the most powerful proud and cruel Nation at that time in the world if God had not wonderfully protected us Nay Edward the sixth and Queen Elizabeth notwithstanding the natural excellency of their Dispositions and their knowledg of the Truth in matters of Religion were forced by that which men call jealousy of State to foul their hands so often with illustrious Blood that if their Reigns deserve to be accounted amongst the most gentle of Monarchies they were more heavy than the Government of any Commonwealth in time of Peace and yet their lives were never secure against such as conspired against them upon the account of Title Having in some measure shew'd what miseries have bin usually if not perpetually brought upon Nations subject to
Flower of the Roman Nobility and People destroyed with them or by them When Cato's Virtue had prov'd too weak to support a falling State and Brutus with Cassius had perished in their noble Attempt to restore the Liberty When the best part of the Senat had bin exposed for a Prey to the Vulturs and Wolves of Thessaly and one hundred and thirty of those who deserved the hatred of Tyrants and had escaped the fury of War had bin destroy'd by the Proscriptions When neither Captains nor Soldiers remained in the desolate City when the Tyrant abhorr'd and fear'd all those who had either Reputation or Virtue and by the most subtil Arts endeavoured so to corrupt or break the Spirits of the remaining People that they might not think of their former Greatness or the ways of recovering it we ought not to wonder that they ceased from War But such a Peace is no more to be commended than that which Men have in the Grave as in the Epitaph of the Marquess Trivultio seen at Milan Qui nunquam quievit quiescit tace This Peace is in every Wilderness The Turks have established it in the empty Provinces of Asia and Greece Where there are no men or if those men have no Courage there can be no War Our Ancestors the Britains observed that the Peace which in that Age the Romans established in the Provinces consisted in the most wretched slavery and solitude Miserrimam servitutem pacem appellant And in another place Solitudinem faciunt pacem vocant This is the Peace the Spaniards settled in their Dominions of the West-Indies by the destruction of forty millions of Souls The Countries were very quiet when wild Beasts only were left to fight in them or a few miserable Wretches who had neither strength nor courage to resist their violence This was the Peace the Romans enjoyed under Augustus A few of those who made themselves subservient to his Pleasure and Ministers of the publick Calamities were put into a flourishing condition but the rest pined withered and never recovered If yet our Author will have us to think the Liberty and People of Rome obliged to Augustus who procured such a Peace for them he ought to remember that besides what they suffered in settling it they paid dear for it even in the future for Italy was thereby so weakned as never to recover any strength or virtue to defend it self but depending absolutely upon barbarous Nations or Armies composed of them was ravaged and torn in pieces by every Invader 4. That Peace is only to be valued which is accompanied with Justice and those Governmenrs only deserve praise who put the Power into the hands of the best Men. This was wholly wanting during the Reigns of Augustus and his Successors The worst of men gained the Soverainty by Alliance Fraud or Violence and advanced such as most resembled themselves Augustus was worse in the beginning than in the latter end of his Reign but his bloody and impure Successor grew every day more wicked as long as he lived Whilst he sat upon the Rocks at Capreae with his Chaldeans he meditated nothing but Lust or Mischief and had Sejanus and Macro always ready to execute his detestable Designs Caligula could find none equal to himself in all manner of Villanies but favour'd those most who were likest to him Claudius his stupidity drunkenness and subjection to the sury of two impudent Strumpets and manumised Slaves proved as hurtful to the Empire as the savage fury of his Predecessor Tho Nero was a Monster that the world could not bear yet the raging Soldiers kill'd Galba and gave the Empire to Otho for no other reason than that he had bin the Companion of his Debauches and of all men was thought most to resemble him With them all Evils came in like a Flood and their Successors finding none so bad as themselves but the Favourites Whores and Slaves that governed them would suffer no Vertue to grow up and filled the City with a base lewd and miserable Rabble that cared for nothing beyond Stage-plays and Bread Such a People could not be seditious but Rome had bin desolate if they had not thus filled it And tho this temper and condition of a People may please our Author yet it was an incurable Wound to the State and in consequence to the best part of the World When the City had bin burnt by the Gauls it was soon restored The Defeats of Ticinum Trebia Thrasimene and Cannae were repair'd with equal or greater Victories The War of the Allies ended in their overthrow The Fury of the Gladiators was extinguished with their Blood The Commonwealth lost Battels but was never conquer'd in any War and in the end triumphed over all that had contended with them Whilst Liberty continued it was the Nurse of Vertue and all the Losses suffered in Foreign or Civil Wars were easily recovered but when Liberty was lost Valour and Virtue was torn up by the roots and the Roman Power proceeding from it perished I have not dwelt so long upon this point to expose the solly of our Author but to show that the abovemention'd Evils did proceed from a permanent cause which will always produce the like effects and Histories testify that it has done the same in all places Carthage was rebuilt after it had bin destroy'd by Scipio and continued to be a rich City for almost a thousand years but produced no such men as Amilcar Asdrubal and Hannibal Cleomenes and Euclidas were the last that deserved to be called Spartans Athens never had an eminent Man after it felt the weight of the Macedonian Yoak and Philopemen was the last of the Achaians Tho the Commonwealths of Italy in later Ages having too much applied themselves to the acquisition of Money and wanted that greatness of Spirit which had reigned in their Ancestors yet they have not been without Valour and Virtue That of Pisa was famous for Power at Sea till the Genoeses overthrew them Florence had a brave Nobility and a stout People Arezzo Pistoia Cortona Sienna and other small Towns of Tuscany were not without strength tho for the most part unhappily exercised in the Factions of Ghibelins and Guelphs Neri and Bianchi that divided all Italy but since the introduction of Filmer's divine Absolute Monarchy all Power Virtue Reputation and Strength is utterly perished from among them and no man dares to oppose the publick Mischiess They usually decide private Quarrels by Assassination or Poison and in other respects they enjoy the happiness of that Peace which is always found within empty Walls and desolated Countries And if this be according to the Laws of God and Nature it cannot be denied that Weakness Baseness Cowardice Destruction and Desolation are so likewise These are the Blessings our well-natur'd Author would confer upon us but if they were to be esteemed so I cannot tell why those that selt them complained so much of them Tacitus reciting what passed
was as soon composed as the rebellion of the County of Vaux against the Canton of Bern and those few of the like nature that have happened among them have had the like Success So that Thuanus in the History of his time comprehending about fifty years and relating the horrid domestick and foreign Wars that distracted Germany France Spain Italy Flanders England Scotland Poland Denmark Sweden Hungary Transilvania Muscovy Turky Africk and other places has no more to say of them than to shew what Arts had bin in vain used to disturb their so much envied quiet But if the modest temper of the People together with the Wisdom Justice and Strength of their Government could not be discomposed by the measures of Spain and France by the industry of their Ambassadors or the malicious craft of the Jesuits we may safely conclude that their State is as well setled as any thing among men can be and can hardly comprehend what is like to interrupt it As much might be said of the Cities of the Hanseatick Society if they had an entire Soveraignty in themselves But the Cities of the United Provinces in the Low Countries being every one of them Soveraign within themselves and many in number still continuing in their Union in spite of all the endeavours that have bin used to divide them give us an example of such steddiness in practice and principle as is hardly to be parallel'd in the world and that undeniably prove a temper in their Constitutions directly opposite to that which our Author imputes to all popular Governments and if the Death of Barnevelt and De Wit or the preserment of some most unlike to them be taken for a testimony that the best men thrive worst and the worst best I hope it may be consider'd that those Violences proceeded from that which is most contrary to Popularity tho I am not very willing to explain it If these matters are not clear in themselves I desire they may be compared with what has happen'd between any Princes that from the beginning of the world have bin joined in League to each other whether they were of the same or of different Nations Let an example be brought of six thirteen or more Princes or Kings who enter'd into a League and sor the space of one or more ages did neither break it nor quarrel upon the explication of it Let the States of the Switzers Grisons or Hollanders be compared with that of France when it was sometimes divided between two three or four Brothers of Meroveus or Pepin's Races with the Heptarchy of England the Kingdoms of Leon Arragon Navarr Castille and Portugal under which the Christians in Spain were divided or those of Cordoua Sevil Malaga Granada and others under the Power of the Moors and if it be not evident that the popular States have bin remarkable for Peace among themselves constancy to their Union and Fidelity to the Leagues made with their Associates whereas all the abovementioned Kingdoms and such others as are known among men to have bin joined in the like Leagues were ever infested with domestick Rebellions and Quarrels arising from the Ambition of Princes so as no Confederacy could be so cautiously made but they would find ways to elude it or so solemn and sacred but they would in far less time break through it I will confess that Kingdoms have sometimes bin as free from civil disturbances and that Leagues made between several Princes have bin as constantly and religiously observed as by Commonwealths But if no such thing do appear in the world and no man who is not impudent or ignorant dare pretend it I may justly conclude that tho every Commonwealth hath its Action sutable to its Constitution and that many associated together are not so free from disturbances as those that wholly depend upon the Authority of a Mother City yet we know of none that have not bin and are more regular and quiet than any Principalities and as to Foreign Wars they seek or avoid them according to their various Constitutions SECT XXIII That is the best Government which best provides for War OUR Author having huddled up all popular and mixed Governments into one has in some measure forced me to explain the various Constitutions and Principles upon which they are grounded but as the wisdom of a Father is seen not only in providing Bread for his Family or encreasing his Patrimonial Estate but in making all possible provision for the security of it so that Government is evidently the best which not relying upon what it dos at first enjoy seeks to increase the number strength and riches of the People and by the best Discipline to bring the Power so improved into such order as may be of most use to the Publick This comprehends all things conducing to the administration of Justice the preservation of domestick Peace and the increase of Commerce that the People being pleased with their present condition may be filled with love to their Country encouraged to fight boldly for the publick Cause which is their own and as men do willingly join with that which prospers that Strangers may be invited to fix their Habitations in such a City and to espouse the principles that reign in it This is necessary for several reasons but I shall principally insist upon one which is that all things in their beginning are weak The Whelp of a Lion newly born has neither strength nor fierceness He that builds a City and dos not intend it should increase commits as great an absurdity as if he should desire his Child might ever continue under the same weakness in which he is born If it do not grow it must pine and perish for in this world nothing is permanent that which dos not grow better will grow worse This increase also is useless or perhaps hurtful if it be not in Strength as well as in Riches or Number for every one is apt to seize upon ill guarded Treasures and the terror that the City of London was possessed with when a few Dutch Ships came to Chatham shews that no numbers of men tho naturally valiant are able to defend themselves unless they be well arm'd disciplin'd and conducted Their multitude brings consusion their Wealth when 't is like to be made a prey increases the fears of the owners and they who if they were brought into good order might conquer a great part of the World being destitute of it durst not think of defending themselves If it be said that the wise Father mention'd by me endeavours to secure his Patrimony by Law not by Force I answer that all defence terminates in force and if a private man dos not prepare to defend his Estate with his own Force 't is because he lives under the protection of the Law and expects the force of the Magistrate should be a security to him but Kingdoms and Commonwealths acknowledging no Superior except God alone can reasonably hope to be protected
against them and placed the only hopes of their safety in the publick Calamity and lawful Kings when they have fallen into the first degree of madness so as to assume a power above that which was allowed by the Law have in fury proved equal to the worst Usurpers Clonymus of Sparta was of this sort He became says Plutarch an Enemy to the City because they would not allow him the absolute Power he affected and brought Pyrrhus the fiercest of their Enemies with a mighty and excellently well disciplin'd Army to destroy them Vortigern the Britan call'd in the Saxons with the ruin of his own People who were incensed against him for his Lewdness Cruelty and Baseness King John for the like reasons offer'd the Kingdom of England to the Moors and to the Pope Peter the Cruel and other Kings of Castille brought vast Armies of Moors into Spain to the ruin of their own People who detested their Vices and would not part with their Privileges Many other examples of the like nature might be alledged and I wish our own experience did not too well prove that such designs are common Let him that doubts this examin the Causes of the Wars with Scotland in the Years 1639 1640 the slaughters of the Protestants in Ireland 1641 the whole course of Alliances and Treaties for the space of fourscore Years the friendship contracted with the French frequent Quarrels with the Dutch together with other circumstances that are already made too publick if he be not convinced by this he may soon see a man in the Throne who had rather be a Tributary to France than a lawful King of England whilst either Parliament or People shall dare to dispute his Commands insist upon their own Rights or defend a Religion inconsistent with that which he has espoused and then the truth will be so evident as to require no proof Grotius was never accused of dealing hardly with Kings or laying too much weight upon imaginary cases nevertheless amongst other reasons that in his opinion justify Subjects in taking arms against their Princes he alledges this propter immanem saevitiam and quando Rex in Populi exitium fertur in as much as it is contrary to and inconsistent with the ends for which Governments are instituted which were most impertinent if no such thing could be for that which is not can have no effect There are therefore Princes who seek the destruction of their People or none could be justly opposed on that account If King James was of another opinion I could wish the course of his Government had bin suted to it When he said that whilst he had the power of making Judges and Bishops he would make that to be Law and Gospel which best pleased him and filled those places with such as turned both according to his Will and Interests I must think that by overthrowing Justice which is the rule of civil and moral Actions and perverting the Gospel which is the light of the spiritual man he left nothing unattempted that he durst attempt by which he might bring the most extensive and universal evils upon our Nation that any can suffer This would stand good tho Princes never erred unless they were transported with some inordinate Lusts for 't is hard to find one that dos not live in the perpetual power of them They are naturally subject to the impulse of such appetites as well as others and whatever evil reigns in their nature is fomented by education 'T is the handle by which their Flatterers lead them and he that discovers to what Vice a Prince is most inclin'd is sure to govern him by rendring himself subservient In this consists the chief art of a Courtier and by this means it comes to pass that such Lusts as in private men are curbed by fear do not only rage as in a wild Beast but are perpetually inflamed by the malice of their own Servants their hatred to the Laws of God or Men that might restrain them increases in proportion with their Vices or their fears of being punished for them And when they are come to this they can set no limits to their fury and there is no extravagance into which they do not frequently fall But many of them do not expect these violent motives the perversity of their own nature carries them to the extremities of evil They hate Virtue for its own sake and virtuous men for being most unlike to themselves This Virtue is the dictate of Reason or the remains of Divine Light by which men are made beneficent and beneficial to each other Religion proceeds from the same spring and tends to the same end and the good of Mankind so intirely depends upon these two that no people ever enjoyed any thing worth desiring that was not the product of them and whatsoever any have suffer'd that deserves to be abhorr'd and feared has proceeded either from the defect of these or the wrath of God against them If any Prince therefore has bin an enemy to Virtue and Religion he must also have bin an enemy to Mankind and most especially to the People under him Whatsoever he dos against those that excel in Virtue and Religion tends to the destruction of the People who subsist by them I will not take upon me to define who they are or to tell the number of those that do this but 't is certain there have bin such and I wish I could say they were few in number or that they had liv'd only in past ages Tacitus dos not fix this upon one Prince but upon all that he writes of and to give his Readers a tast of what he was to write he says that Nobility and Honours were dangerous but that Virtue brought most certain destruction and in another place that after the slaughter of many excellent men Nero resolved to cut down Virtue it self and therefore kill'd Thraseas Patus and Bareas Soranus And whosoever examines the Christian or Ecclesiastical Histories will find those Princes to have bin no less enemies to Virtue and Religion than their Predecessors and consequently enemies to the Nations under them unless Religion and Virtue be things prejudicial or indifferent to Mankind But our Author may say these were particular cases and so was the slaughter of the Prophets and Apostles the crucifixion of Christ and all the Villanies that have ever bin committed yet they proceeded from a universal principle of hatred to all that is good exerting it self as far as it could to the ruin of mankind And nothing but the over-ruling Power of God who resolved to preserve to himself a People could set bounds to their Rage which in other respects had as full success as our Author or the Devil could have wished Dionysius his other example of Justice deserves observation More falshood lewdness treachery ingratitude cruelty baseness avarice impudence and hatred to all manner of Good was hardly ever known in a mortal Creature For this reason
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
of France matters there are not much better managed The warlike temper of that people is so worn out by the frauds and cruelties of corrupt Officers that few men list themselves willingly to be Soldiers and when they are engaged or forced they are so little able to endure the miseries to which they are exposed that they daily run away from their Colours tho they know not whither to go and expect no mercy if they are taken The King has in vain attempted to correct this humour by the severity of martial Law but mens minds will not be forced and tho his Troops are perfectly well arm'd cloth'd and exercised they have given many testimonies of little worth When the Prince of Condé had by his own valour and the strength of the King's Guards broken the first line of the Prince of Orange's Army at the battel of Seneff and put the rest into disorder he could not make the second and third line of his own Army to advance and reinforce the first by which means he lost all the fair hopes he had conceived of an entire Victory Not long after the Marechal de Crequi was abandoned by his whole Army near Trier who ran away hardly striking a stroke and left him with sixteen horse to shift for himself When Monsieur de Turenne by the excellency of his Conduct and Valour had gain'd such a Reputation amongst the Soldiers that they thought themselves secure under him he did not suffer such disgraces but he being kill'd they return'd to the usual temper of forced and ill-used Soldiers half the Army was lost in a retreat little differing from a flight and the rest as they themselves confess saved by the bravery of two English Regiments The Prince of Condé was soon after sent to command but he could not with all his courage skill and reputation raise their fallen Spirits nor preserve his Army any other way than by lodging them in a Camp near Schlestadt so fortified by Art and Nature that it could not be forc'd To these we may add some Examples of our own In our late War the Scots Foot whether Friends or Enemies were much inferior to those of the Parliament and their Horse esteemed as nothing Yet in the year 1639 and 1640 the King's Army tho very numerous excellently armed and mounted and in appearance able to conquer many such Kingdoms as Scotland being under the conduct of Courtiers and affected as men usually are towards those that use them ill and seek to destroy them they could never resist a wretched Army commanded by Leven but were shamefully beaten at Newborn and left the Northern Counties to be ravaged by them When Van Tromp set upon Blake in Foleston-Bay the Parliament had not above thirteen Ships against threescore and not a man that had ever seen any other fight at Sea than between a Merchant ship and a Pirat to oppose the best Captain in the world attended with many others in valour and experience not much inferior to him Many other Difficulties were observ'd in the unsetled State Few Ships want of Mony several Factions and some who to advance particular Interests betray'd the Publick But such was the power of Wisdom and Integrity in those that sat at the Helm and their diligence in chusing men only for their Merit was blessed with such success that in two years our Fleets grew to be as famous as our Land Armies the Reputation and Power of our Nation rose to a greater height than when we possessed the better half of France and the Kings of France and Scotland were our Prisoners All the States Kings and Potentates of Europe most respectfully not to say submissively sought our Friendship and Rome was more afraid of Blake and his Fleet than they had bin of the great King of Sweden when he was ready to invade Italy with a hundred thousand men This was the work of those who if our Author say true thought basely of the publick Concernments and believing things might be well enough managed by others minded only their private Affairs These were the effects of the negligence and ignorance of those who being suddenly advanced to Offices were removed before they understood the Duties of them These Diseases which proceed from popular corruption and irregularity were certainly cured by the restitution of that Integrity good Order and Stability that accompany divine Monarchy The justice of the War made against Holland in the year 1665 the probity of the Gentleman who without partiality or bribery chose the most part of the Officers that carried it on the Wisdom Diligence and Valour manifested in the conduct and the Glory with which it was ended justifies all that our Author can say in its commendation If any doubt remains the subtilty of making the King of France desire that the Netherlands might be an accession to his Crown the ingenious ways taken by us to facilitate the conquest of them the Industry of our Ambassadors in diverting the Spaniards from entring into the War till it was too late to recover the Losses sustain'd the honourable Design upon the Smyrna Fleet and our frankness in taking the quarrel upon our selves together with the important Figure we now make in Europe may wholly remove it and in confirmation of our Author's Doctrine shew that Princes do better perform the Offices that require Wisdom Industry and Valour than annual Magistrates and do more seldom err in the choice of Officers than Senates and popular Assemblies SECT XXIX There is no assurance that the Distempers of a State shall be cured by the Wisdom of a Prince BVT says our Author the Virtue and Wisdom of a Prince supplies all Tho he were of a duller understanding by use and experience he must needs excel all Nature Age or Sex are as it seems nothing to the case A Child as soon as he comes to be a King has experience the head of a Fool is filled with Wisdom as soon as a Crown is set upon it and the most vicious do in a moment become virtuous This is more strange than that an Ass being train'd to a Course should outrun the best Arabian Horse or a Hare bred up in an Army become more strong and fierce than a Lion for Fortune dos not only supply all natural defects in Princes and correct their vices but gives them the benefit of use and experience when they have none Some Reasons and Examples might have bin expected to prove this extraordinary Proposition But according to his laudable custom he is pleased to trouble himself with neither and thinks that the impudence of an Assertion is sufficient to make that to pass which is repugnant to experience and common sense as may appear by the following discourse I will not insist upon terms for tho duller understanding signifies nothing in as much as no understanding is dull and a man is said to be dull only because he wants it but presuming he means little understanding I shall so
in the hands of the worst which produced the effects beforementioned This seems to have bin so well known that no man pretended to be great at Court but those who had cast off all thoughts of honour and common honesty Revertar cum Leno Meretrix Scurra Cinaedus ero said one who saw what manners prevailed there and wheresoever they do prevail such as will rise must render themselves conformable in all corruption and venality And it may be observed that a noble Person now living amongst us who is a great enemy to Bribery was turned out from a considerable Office as a scandal to the Court for said the principal Minister he will make no profit of his place and by that means casts a scandal upon those that do If any man say this is not generally the fate of all Courts I confess it and that if the Prince be just virtuous wise of great Spirit and not pretending to be absolute he may chuse such men as are not mercenary or take such a course as may render it hard for them to deserve Bribes or to preserve themselves from punishment if they should deflect from his intention And a Prince of this Age speaking familiarly with some great Men about him said he had heard much of vast Gains made by those who were near to Princes and asked if they made the like one of them answer'd that they were as willing as others to get something but that no man would give them a farthing for every one finding a free admittance to his Majesty no man needed a Sollicitor And it was no less known that he did of himself grant those things that were just than that none of them had so much credit as to promote such as were not so I will not say such a King is a Phenix perhaps more than one may be found in an Age but they are certainly rare and all that is good in their Government proceeding from the excellency of their personal Virtues it must fail when that Virtue fails which was the root of it Experience shews how little we can rely upon such a help for where Crowns are hereditary Children seldom prove like to their Fathers and such as are elective have also their defects Many seem to be modest and innocent in private Fortunes who prove corrupt and vicious when they are raised to Power The violence pride and malice of Saul was never discover'd till the people had placed him in the Throne But where the Government is Absolute or the Prince endeavours to make it so this integrity can never be found He will always seek such as are content to depend upon his Will which being always unruly good men will never comply ill men will be paid for it and that opens a gap to all manner of corruption Something like to this may befal regular Monarchies or popular Governments They who are placed in the principal Offices of trust may be treacherous and when they are so they will always by these means seek to gain Partizans and dependents upon themselves Their designs being corrupt they must be carried on by corruption But such as would support Monarchy in its regularity or popular Governments must oppose it or be destroy'd by it And nothing can better manifest how far Absolute Monarchies are more subject to this venality and corruption than the regular and popular Governments than that they are rooted in the principle of the one which cannot subsist without them and are so contrary to the others that they must certainly perish unless they defend themselves from them If any man be so far of another opinion as to believe that Brutus Camillus Scipio Fabius Hannibal Pericles Aristides Agesilaus Epaminondas or Pelopidas were as easily corrupted as Sejanus Tigellinus Vinnius or Laco That the Senate and People of Rome Carthage Athens Sparta or Thebes were to be bought at as easy rates as one profligate Villain a Slave an Eunuch or a Whore or tho it was not in former Ages yet it is so now he may be pleased to consider by what means men now rise to places of Judicature Church-preferment or any Offices of trust honour or profit under those Monarchies which we know that either are or would be absolute Let him examine how all the Offices of Justice are now disposed in France how Mazarin came to be advanced what traffick he made of Abbies and Bishopricks and what treasures he gained by that means Whether the like has not continued since his death and as a laudable Example been transmitted to us since his Majesty's happy restauration Whether Bawds Whores Thieves Buffoons Parasites and such vile wretches as are naturally mercenary have not more Power at Whitehal Versailles the Vatican and the Escurial than in Venice Amsterdam and Switzerland Whether H-de Arl-ng-t-n D-nby their Graces of Cleveland and Portsmouth S-nd-rl-nd Jenkins or Chiffinch could probably have attained such Power as they have had amongst us if it had bin disposed by the Suffrages of the Parliament and People Or lastly Whether such as know only how to work upon the personal Vices of a man have more influence upon one who happens to be born in a reigning Family or upon a Senate consisting of men chosen for their Virtues and Quality or the whole Body of a Nation But if he who possesses or affects an absolute Power be by his interest led to introduce that corruption which the People Senate and Magistrates who uphold Popular Governments abhor as that which threatenâ— them with destruction if the example arts and means used by him and his dependents be of wonderful efficacy towards the introduction of it if nothing but an admirable Virtue which can hardly be in one that enjoys or desires such a Power can divert him from that design and if such Virtue never did nor probably ever will continue long in any one Family we cannot rationally believe there ever was a race of men invested with or possessing such a Power or that there will ever be any who have not and will not endeavour to introduce that corruption which is so necessary for the defence of their Persons and most important Concernments and certainly accomplish their great Design unless they are opposed or removed SECT XXVI Civil Tumults and Wars are not the greatest Evils that befal Nations BUT skin for skin says our Author and all that a man hath will he give for his life And since it was necessary to grace his Book with some Scripture phrases none could be fitter for that purpose than those that were spoken by the Devil but they will be of little use to him For tho I should so far recede from truth as to avow those words to be true I might safely deny the conclusions he draws from them That those are the worst Governments under which most men are slain or that more are slain in Popular Governments than in Absolute Monarchies For having proved that all the Wars and Tumults that have happen'd
in Commonwealths have never produced such slaughters as were brought upon the Empires of Maecedon and Rome or the Kingdoms of Israel Judah France Spain Scotland or England by contests between several Competitors for those Crowns if Tumult War and Slaughter be the point in question those are the worst of all Governments where they have bin most frequent and cruel But tho these are terrible Scourges I deny that Government to be simply the worst that has most of them 'T is ill that men should kill one another in Seditions Tumults and Wars but 't is worse to bring Nations to such misery weakness and baseness as to have neither strength nor courage to contend for any thing to have nothing left worth defending and to give the name of Peace to desolation I take Greece to have bin happy and glorious when it was full of populous Cities flourishing in all the Arts that deserve praise among men When they were courted and feared by the greatest Kings and never assaulted by any but to his own loss and confusion When Babylon and Susa trembled at the motion of their Arms and their valour exercised in these Wars and Tumults which our Author looks upon as the greatest Evils was raised to such a power that nothing upon Earth was found able to resist them and I think it now miserable when Peace reigns within their empty walls and the poor remains of those exhausted Nations sheltering themselves under the ruins of the desolated Cities have neither any thing that deserves to be disputed amongst them nor spirit or force to repel the Injuries they daily suffer from a proud and insupportable Master The like may be said of Italy Whilst it was inhabited by Nations governing themselves by their own Will they fell sometimes into domestick Seditions and had frequent Wars with their Neighbours When they were free they loved their Country and were always ready to fight in its defence Such as succeeded well increased in vigor and power and even those that were the most unfortunate in one Age found means to repair their greatest losses if their Government continued Whilst they had a propriety in their goods they would not suffer the Country to be invaded since they knew they could have none if it were lost This gave occasion to Wars and Tumults but it sharpned their Courage kept up a good Discipline and the Nations that were most exercised by them always increased in power and number so that no Country seems ever to have bin of greater strength than Italy was when Hannibal invaded it and after his defeat the rest of the World was not able to resist their Valour and Power They sometimes killed one another but their Enemies never got any thing but burying-places within their Territories All things are now brought into a very different method by the blessed Governments they are under The fatherly care of the King of Spain the Pope and other Princes has established Peace amongst them We have not in many Ages heard of any Sedition among the Latins Sabins Volsci Equi Samnits or others The thin half-starv'd Inhabitants of Walls supported by Ivy fear neither popular Tumults nor foreign Alarms and their sleep is only interrupted by Hunger the cries of their Children or the howling of Wolves Instead of many turbulent contentious Cities they have a few scatter'd silent Cottages and the fierceness of those Nations is so temper'd that every rafcally Collector of Taxes extorts without fear from every man that which should be the nourishment of his Family And if any of those Countries are free from that pernicious Vermin 't is through the extremity of their Poverty Even in Rome a man may be circumvented by the fraud of a Priest or poison'd by one who would have his Estate Wife Whore or Child but nothing is done that looks like Tumult or Violence The Governors do as little fear Gracchus as Hannibal and instead of wearying their Subjects in Wars they only seek by perverted Laws corrupt Judges false Witnesses and vexatious Suits to cheat them of their Mony and Inheritance This is the best part of their condition Where these Arts are used there are men and they have something to lose but for the most part the Lands lie waste and they who were formerly troubled with the disorders incident to populous Cities now enjoy the quiet and peaceable estate of a Wilderness Again there is a way of killing worse than that of the Sword for as Tertullian says upon a different occasion prohibere nasci est occidere those Governments are in the highest degree guilty of Blood which by taking from men the means of living bring some to perish through want drive others out of the Country and generally disswade men from marriage by taking from them all ways of subsisting their Families Notwithstanding all the Seditions of Florence and other Cities of Tuscany the horrid Factions of Guelphs and Ghibelins Neri and Bianchi Nobles and Commons they continued populous strong and exceeding rich but in the space of less than a hundred and fifty years the peaceable Reign of the Medices is thought to have destroyed nine parts in ten of the people of that Province Amongst other things 't is remarkable that when Philip the second of Spain gave Sienna to the Duke of Florence his Ambassador then at Rome sent him word that he had given away more than six hundred and fifty thousand Subjects and 't is not believ'd there are now twenty thousand Souls inhabiting that City and Territory Pisa Pistoia Arezzo Cortona and other Towns that were then good and populous are in the like proportion diminished and Florence more than any When that City had bin long troubled with Seditions Tumults and Wars for the most part unprosperous they still retain'd such strength that when Charles the eighth of France being admitted as a Friend with his whole Army which soon after conquer'd the Kingdom of Naples thought to master them the people taking Arms struck such a terror into him that he was glad to depart upon such conditions as they thought fit to impose Machiavel reports that in that time Florence alone with the Val d'Arno a small Territory belonging to that City could in a few hours by the sound of a Bell bring together a hundred and thirty five thousand well arm'd men whereas now that City with all the others in that Province are brought to such despicable weakness emptiness poverty and baseness that they can neither resist the oppressions of their own Prince nor defend him or themselves if they were assaulted by a foreign Enemy The People are dispers'd or destroy'd and the best Families sent to seek Habitations in Venice Genoa Rome Naples and Lucca This is not the effect of War or Pestilence they enjoy a perfect peace and suffer no other plague than the Government they are under But he who has thus cured them of Disorders and Tumults dos in my opinion deserve no greater praise than a