under forms that have a milder appearance, that there is scarce a rational man in Europe, that would not prefer death to Afiatick defpotifm. Here then we have the acknowledgment of a great philofopher, that an irregular state of nature is preferable to fuch a government; we have the consent of all fenfible and generous men, who carry it yet further, and avow that death itself is preferable; and yet this species of government, fo juftly condemned, and fo generally detefted, is what infinitely the greater part of mankind groan under, and have groaned under from the beginning. So that by fure and uncontefted principles, the greatest part of the governments on earth must be concluded tyrannies, impoftures, violations of the natural rights of mankind, and worse than the most diforderly anarchies. How much other forms exceed this, we fhall confider immediately.

In all parts of the world, mankind, however debased, retains still the sense of feeling; the weight of tyranny, at last, becomes infupportable; but the remedy is not so easy; in general, the only remedy by which they attempt to cure the tyranny, is to change the tyrant. This is, and always was the case for the greater part. In fome countries however, were found men of more penetration; who discovered, "that to live by one man's will, was the cause of all men's "mifery." They therefore changed their former method, and affembling the men in their several societies, the most respectable for their understanding and fortunes, they confided to them the charge of the public welfare. This originally formed what is called an aristocracy. They hoped, it would be impoffible that fuch a number could ever join in any defign against the general good; and they promised themselves a great deal of fecurity and happiness, from the united counfels of so many able and experienced perfons. But it is now found by abundant experience, that an aristocracy, and a defpotifm, differ but in name; and that a people, who are in

general

general excluded from any share of the legislative, are to all intents and purposes, as much flaves, when twenty, independent of them, govern, as when but one domineers. The tyranny is even more felt, as every individual of the nobles has the haughtiness of a fultan; the people are more miferable, as they feem on the verge of liberty, from which they are for ever debarred; this fallacious idea of liberty, whilst it presents a vain fhadow of happiness to the fubject, binds fafter the chains of his fubjection. What is left undone, by the natural avarice and pride of those who are raised above the others, is compleated by their fufpicions, and their dread of losing an authority, which has no fupport in the common utility of the nation. A Genoefe, or a Venetian republick, is a concealed defpotifm; where you find the fame pride of the rulers, the fame bafe fubjection of the people, the fame bloody maxims of a suspicious policy. In one respect the aristocracy is worse than the defpotifm. A body politick, whilst it retains its authority, never changes its maxims; a defpotism, which is this day horrible to a supreme degree, by the caprice natural to the heart of man, may, by the fame caprice otherwife exerted, be as lovely the next; in a fucceffion, it is poffible to meet with fome good princes. If there have been Tiberius's, Caligula's, Nero's, there have been likewise the ferener days of Vefpafian's, Titus's, Trajan's, and Antonine's; but a body politick is not influenced by caprice or whim; it proceeds in a regular manner; its fucceffion is infenfible; and every man as he enters it, either has, or foon attains the spirit of the whole body. Never was it known, that an aristocracy, which was haughty and tyrannical in one century, became easy and mild in the next. In effect, the yoke of this fpecies of government is fo galling, that whenever the people have got the least power, they have shaken it off with the utmost indignation, and estaVOL. I. blished

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blished a popular form. And when they have not had ftrength enough to fupport themselves, they have thrown themselves into the arms of defpotifm, as the more eligible of the two evils. This latter was the cafe of Denmark, who fought a refuge from the oppreffion of its nobility, in the strong hold of arbitrary power. Poland has at present the name of republick, and it is one of the aristocratick form; but it is well known, that the little finger of this government, is heavier than the loins of arbitrary power in most nations. The people are not only politically, but perfonally flaves, and treated with the utmost indignity. The republick of Venice is fomewhat more moderate; yet even here, fo heavy is the arifocratick yoke, that the nobles have been obliged to enervate the spirit of their fubjects by every fort of debauchery; they have denied them the liberty of reason, and they have made them amends, by what a bafe foul will think a more valuable liberty, by not only allowing, but encouraging them to corrupt themselves in the moft fcandalous manner. They confider their fubjects, as the farmer does the hog he keeps to feaft upon. He holds him faft in his ftye, but allows him to wallow as much as he pleases in his beloved filth and gluttony. So fcandaloufly debauched a people as that of Venice, is to be met with no where else. High, low, men, women, clergy, and laity, are all alike. The ruling nobility are no lefs afraid of one another, than they are of the people; and for that reason, politically enervate their own body by the fame effeminate luxury, by which they corrupt their fubjects. They are impoverished by every means which can be invented; and they are kept in a perpetual terror by the horrors of a ftate-inquifition; here you fee a people deprived of all rational freedom, and tyrannized over by about two thousand men; and yet this body of two thoufand, are fo far from enjoying any liberty

by

by the subjection of the reft, that they are in an infinitely feverer state of flavery; they make themfelves the most degenerate, and unhappy of mankind, for no other purpose than that they may the more effectually contribute to the mifery of an whole nation. In fhort, the regular and methodical proceedings of an aristocracy, are more intolerable than the very exceffes of a defpotifm, and in general, much further from any remedy.

Thus, my Lord, we have purfued aristocracy through its whole progress; we have feen the feeds, the growth, and the fruit. It could boaft none of the advantages of a defpotifm, miferable as those advantages were, and it was overloaded with an exuberance of mifchiefs, unknown even to defpotifm itself. In effect, it is no more than a disorderly tyranny. This form therefore could be little approved, even in fpeculation, by those who were capable of thinking, and could be less borne in practice by any who were capable of feeling. However, the fruitful policy of man was not yet exhausted. He had yet another farthing-candle to supply the deficiencies of the fun. This was the third form, known by political writers under the name of democracy. Here the people transacted all publick bufinefs, or the greater part of it, in their own perfons: their laws were made by thenfelves, and upon any failure of duty, their officers were accountable to themfelves, and to them only. In all appearance, they had fecured by this method the advantages of order and good government, without paying their liberty for the purchase. Now, my Lord, we are come to the masterpiece of Grecian refinement, and Roman folidity, a popular government. The earliest and most celebrated republick of this model, was that of Athens. It was conftructed by no lefs an artist, than the celebrated poet and philofopher, Solon. But no fooner was this political veffel launched from

the stocks, than it overfet, even in the life-time of the builder. A tyranny immediately fupervened; not by a foreign conqueft, not by accident, but by the very nature and conftitution of a democracy. An artful man became popular, the people had power in their hands, and they devolved a confiderable fhare of their power upon their favourite; and the only use he made of this power, was to plunge those who gave it into flavery. Accident restored their liberty, and the fame good fortune produced men of uncommon abilities and uncommon virtues amongst them. But these abilities were fuffered to be of little fervice either to their poffeffors or to the state. Some of these men, for whose fakes alone we read their history, they banished; others they imprisoned; and all they treated with various circumstances of the most shameful ingratitude. Republicks have many things in the spirit of abfolute monarchy, but none more than this; a fhining merit is ever hated or fufpected in a popular affembly, as well as in a court; and all fervices done the state, are looked upon as dangerous to the rulers, whether fultans or fenators. The ostracism at Athens was built upon this principle. The giddy people, whom we have now under confideration, being elated with fome flashes of success, which they owed to nothing less than any merit of their own, began to tyrannize over their equals, who had affociated with them for their common defence. With their prudence they renounced all appearance of justice. They entered into wars rafhly and wantonly. If they were unsuccessful, instead of growing wiser by their misfortune, they threw the whole blame of their own misconduct on the ministers who had advised, and the generals who had conducted those wars; until by degrees they had cut off all who could ferve them in their councils or their battles. If at any time these wars had an happier iffue, it was no less difficult

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