A Letter of Gondamar to some secretary or minister of MAXIMS OF STATE. OF GOVERNMENT. GOVERNMENT is of two sorts. 1. Private, of a man's self, sobriety; of his family, called economy. 2. Public, of the commonwealth, called policy. A man must first govern himself, ere he be fit to govern a family; and his family, ere he be fit to bear a part in the government of the commonwealth. OF POLICY. POLICY is an art of government of a commonwealth, and some part of it, according to that state or form of government wherein it is settled for the public good. State is the frame or set order of a commonwealth, or of the governors that rule the same, especially of the chief and sovereign governor that commandeth the rest. The state of sovereignty consisteth in five points. 1. Making or annulling of laws. 2. Creating and disposing of magistrates. 3. Power over life and death. 4. Making of war or peace. 5. Highest or last appeal. Where these five are, either in one or in more, there is the state. These five points of state rest either in 1. One; monarchy or kingdom. 2. Some few chief men for virtue and wisdom, called aristocracy. 3. Many, called a free state, or popular state. These three sorts of government have respect to the com mon good, and therefore are just and lawful states. These three degenerate into three other governments, viz. 1. Monarchy into tyranny. 2. Aristocracy into oligarchy. 3. Popular estate into commonwealth or government of all the common and baser sort, and therefore called a commonwealth by an usurped nickname. These all respect their own, and not the public good, and therefore are called bastard governments. 1. Monarchy. A monarchy or kingdom is the government of a state by one head or chief, tending to the common benefit of all. Monarchies or kingdoms are of three sorts, touching the right or possession of them; viz. 1. Hereditary, by descent, as the English, French, &c. 2. Elective, by suffrage of the other orders, or some of them, as the Polonian. Mixed, or of both kinds, viz. by descent, yet not tied to the next of blood, as the ancient Jewish state. Monarchies are of two sorts, touching their power or authority; viz. 1. Entire, where the whole power of ordering all state matters both in peace and war, doth by law and custom appertain to the prince; as in the English kingdom, where the prince hath power to make laws, leagues, and war; to create magistrates; to pardon life; of appeal, &c. Though to give a contentment to the other degrees, they have a suffrage in making laws, yet ever subject to the prince's pleasure or negative will. 2. Limited or restrained, that hath no full power in all the points or matters of state; as the military king that hath not the sovereignty in time of peace, as to the making of laws, &c. but in war only, as the Polonian kings. II. Aristocracy, or Senatory state. An aristocracy is the government of a commonwealth by some competent number of the better sort, preferred for their wisdom and other virtues for the public good. Aristocracies are of three sorts; viz. where the senators are chosen, for, 1. Virtue, riches, and the common good, as the Venetian. 2. Virtue and the public good, without respect of wealth; as sometimes the Roman, when some of the senators were fetched from the plough, and some from the schools. 3. Virtue and wealth, more respecting their private than the public good, which inclineth towards an oligarchy, or the government of the richer or nobler sort, as in Rome towards the end. III. Free state, or Popular state. The popular state is the government of a state by the choicer sort of people, tending to the public good of all sorts; viz. with due respect of the better, nobler, and richer sort. In every just state, some part of the government is or ought to be imparted to the people: as in a kingdom, a voice or suffrage in making laws; and sometimes also in levying of arms (if the charge be great, and the prince forced to borrow help of his subjects) the matter rightly may be propounded to a parliament, that the tax may seem to have proceeded from themselves; so consultations, and some proceedings in judicial matters, may in part be referred to them. The reason, lest seeing themselves to be in no number, nor of reckoning, they mislike the state or kind of government: and where the multitude is discontented, there must needs be many enemies to the present state. For which cause tyrants (which allow the people no manner of dealing in state matters) are forced to bereave them of their wealth and weapons, and all other means wherein they may resist or amend themselves, as in Rushland, Turkey, &c. IV. Tyranny. A tyranny is the swerving or distorting of a monarchy, or the government of one tending not to the public good, but the private benefit of himself and his followers. As in the Russen and Turkish government, where the state and wealth of other orders are employed only to the upholding of the greatness of the king or emperor. This is the worst of all the bastard states, because it is the perverting of the best regimen, to wit, of a monarchy, which resembleth the sovereign government of God himself. V. Oligarchy, or the government of a few. An oligarchy is the swerving, or the corruption of an aristocracy, or the government of some few, that are of the wealthier or nobler sort, without any respect of the public good. The chief end of these governors is their own greatness and enriching, and therefore their manner is to prepare fit means to uphold their estates. This state is not altogether so bad as is the tyranny, and yet worse than the commonwealth, because it respecteth only the good of a few. VI. Commonwealth. A commonwealth is the swerving or depravation of a free or popular state, or the government of the whole multitude of the base and poorer sort, without respect of the other orders. These two states, to wit, the oligarchy and commonwealth, are very adverse the one to the other, and have many bickerings between them. For that the richer or nobler sort suppose a right or superiority to appertain unto them in every respect, because they are superior but in some respects only, to wit, in riches, birth, parentage, &c. On the other side, the common people suppose there ought to be an equality in all other things, and in some state matters, because they are equal with the rich or noble, touching their liberty; whereas indeed neither the one nor the other are simply equal or superior, as touching government and fitness thereunto, because they are such, to wit, because they are rich, noble, free, &c. but because they are wise, virtuous, valiant, &c. and so have fit parts to govern a state. The several states are sometimes mixed and interwrought one with the other, yet ever so, as that the one hath the pre |