or dangers And if they should open a War they foresee the consumption which France must fall into by the stop of their Wine Salts and other Commodities now in a manner wholly taken off by our two Nations And the head that may be made against their Forces in the Field it self by a Body of English Infantry so much renowned abroad So as though their first Interest be to continue the Peace while it may be done with any safety yet when that fails their next is to open a War in favour of Spain and conjunction with us And the greatest they have in the world is to preserve and encrease their Alliance with us Which will make them follow our measures absolutely in all the present Conjunctures THE Crown of France considered in the extent of Countrey in the number of People in the riches of Commodities in the Revenues of the King the greatness of the Land-Forces now on foot and the growth of those at Sea within these two years past the number and bravery of their Officers the conduct of their Ministers and chiefly in the Genius of their present King A Prince of great aspiring thoughts unwearied application to whatever is in pursuit severe in the institution and preservation of Order and Discipline In the main a Manager of his Treasure and yet bountiful from his own motions wherever he intends the marks of Favour and discerns particular Merit To this in the flower of his Age at the head of all his Armies and hitherto unfoiled in any of his attempts either at home or abroad I say considered in all these circumstances France may appear to be designed for greater Atchievements and Empires than have been seen in Christendom since that of Charlemaigne The present Greatness of this Crown may be chiefly derived from the fortune it has had of two great Ministers Richelieu and Mazarine succeeding one another between two great Kings Henry the Fourth and this present Prince so as during the course of one unactive life and of a long Minority That Crown gained a great deal of ground both at home and abroad instead of losing it Which is the common fate of Kingdoms upon those occasions The latter greatness of this Crown began in the time of Lewis the 11th by the Spoils of the House of Burgundy and the Divisions of the Princes which gave that King the heart of attempting to bring the Government as he called it Hors de Page Being before controul'd by their Princes and restrained by their States And in point of Revenue kept within the bounds of the Kings Demesnes and the Subjects voluntary Contributions 'T is not here necessary to observe by what difficulties and dangers to the Crown this design of Lewis was pursued by many succeeding Kings like a great Stone forced up a Hill and upon every slacking of either strength or care rolling a great way back often to the very bottom of the Hill and sometimes with the destruction of those that forced it on till the time of Cardinal Richelieu It was in this great Minister most to be admired that finding the Regency shaken by the Factions of so many great ones within and awed by the terror of the Spanish greatness without He durst resolve to look them both in the face and begin a War by the course of which for so many years being pursued by Mazarine till the year 60 The Crown of France grew to be powerfully armed The Peasants were accustomed to Payments which could have seemed necessary only by a War and which none but a successful one could have helpt to digest and grew heartless as they grew poor The Princes were sometimes satisfied with Commands of the Army sometimes mortified and supprest by the absoluteness or addresses of the Ministry The most boiling blood of the Nobility and Gentry was let out in so long a War or wasted with Age and Exercise At last it ended at the Pireenes in a Peace and a Match so advantageous to France As the reputation of them contributed much to the Authority of the young King who bred up in the Councils and served by the tried Instruments of the former Ministry But most of all advantaged by his own personal Qualities fit to make him obeyed Grew absolute Master of the Factions of the great men as well as the purses of his people In the beginning of his Minority the two disputes with the Pope about the outrage of the Corsi and with the King of Spain about the encounter at London between the Count D'Estrades and the Baron De Batteville Ambassadors from those Crowns both carried so high and both ended so honourably and to the very will of France Were enough to give a young Prince the humour and appetite of trying yet further what there was could oppose him The Invasion and easie success in Flanders fed his Glory and encreast the reputation of his Power Till this career was interrupted by the Peace at first then the Alliances between Us and Holland and afterwards the Peace at Aix and the Tripple Alliance contracted purposely to secure it since which time the Counsels of that Court have turned wholly from Action to Negotiation Of which no man can yet see the success nor judg whether it may not be more prosperous to them than that of their Arms. If there were any certain heighth where the flights of Power and Ambition use to end one might imagine that the Interest of France were but to conserve its present Greatness so feared by its Neighbours and so glorious in the world But besides that the motions and desires of human minds are endless It may perhaps be necessary for France from respects within to have some War or other in pursuit abroad which may amuse the Nation and keep them from reflecting upon their condition at home Hard and uneasie to all but such as are in charge or in pay from the Court I do not say miserable the term usually given it because no condition is so but to him that esteems it so And if a Paisan of France thinks of no more than his coarse Bread and his Onions his Canvass Clothes and Wooden Shooes labours contentedly on Working-days and dances or plays merrily on Holy-days He may for ought I know live as well as a Boor of Holland who is either weary of his very ease or whose cares of growing still richer and richer waste his life in toils at Land or dangers at Sea and perhaps fool him so far as to make him enjoy less of all kind in his riches than t'other in his poverty But to leave strains of Philosophy which are ill mingled with discourses of Interest The common people of France are as little considerable in the Government as the Children so that the Nobles and the Soldiers may in a manner be esteemed the Nation Whose Interest and Hopes carry them all to War And whatever is the general humour and bent of a Nation ought ever to be much considered by
and avarice have made no entrance the desire of leasure is much more natural than of business and care besides Men conversing all their lives with the Woods and the Fields and the Herds more than with one another come to know as little as they desire Use their Senses a great deal more than their Reasons examine not the nature or the tenure of Power and Authority find only they are fit to obey because they are not fit to Govern And so come to submit to the will of him they found in Power as they do the will of Heaven and consider all changes of conditions that happen to them under good or bad Princes like good or ill Seasons that happen in the Weather and the Air. It may be said further that in the more intemperate Climates the spirits either exhal'd by heat or comprest by cold are rendred faint and sluggish and by that reason the men grow tamer and fitter for servitude That in more temperate Regions the spirits are stronger and more active whereby men become bolder in the defence or recovery of their liberties But all Government is a restraint upon liberty And under all The Dominion is equally absolute where it is in the last resort So that when men seem to contend for Liberty it is indeed but for the change of those that rule or for the forms of Government they have formerly been used to and being grown weary of the present now begin to regret though when they enjoyed them it was not without some pressure and complaint Nor can it be in the other case that when vast numbers of men submit their lives and fortunes absolutely to the Will of one it should be want of heart but must be force of custom or opinion the true ground and foundation of all Government and that which subjects Power to Authority For Power arising from Strength is always in those that are governed who are many But Authority arising from opinion is in those that Govern who are few This distinction is plain in the forms of the old Roman State where Laws were made and resolutions taken Authoritate Senatus and Jussu populi The Senate were Authors of all Counsels in the State and what was by them consulted and agreed was proposed to the People By whom it was enacted or commanded because in them was the power to make it be obeyed But the great opinion which the people had at first of the persons of the Senators and afterwards of their families which were called Patricians gained easie assent to what was thus proposed the Authority of the persons adding great weight to the reason of the things And this went so far that though the choice of all Magistrates was wholly in the people yet for a long course of years they chose none but Patricians into the great Offices of State either Civil or Military But when the People began to lose the general opinion they had of the Patricians or at least so far as to believe some among themselves were as able and fit as these to advise the State and lead their Armies They then pretended to share with the Senate in the Magistracy and bring in Plebeians to the Offices of chiefest Power and Dignity And hereupon began those seditions which so long distempered and at length ruined that State AUthority arises from the opinion of Wisdom Goodness and Valour in the persons who possess it Wisdom As that which makes men judg what are the best ends and what the best means to attain them and gives a man advantage among the weak and the ignorant as sight among the blind which is that of Counsel and Direction This gives Authority to Age among the younger till these begin at certain years to change their opinion of the old and of themselves This gives it more absolute to a Pilot at Sea whom all the passengers suffer to steer them as he pleases Goodness As that which makes men prefer their Duty and their Promise before their Passions or their Interest and is properly the object of Trust. In our Language it goes rather by the name of Honesty though what we call an honest man the Romans called a good man and honesty in their Language as well as in French rather signifies a composition of those qualities which generally acquire honour and esteem to those who possess them Valour As it gives awe and promises protection to those who want either heart or strength to defend themselves This makes the Authority of Men among Women and that of a Master-Buck in a numerous herd though perhaps not strong enough for any two of them but the impression of single fear holds when they are all together by the ignorance of Uniting Eloquence As it passes for a mark of Wisdom Beauty of Goodness And Nobility of Valour which was its original have likewise ever some effect upon the opinion of the People but a very great one when they are really joined with the qualities they promise or resemble There is yet another source from which usually springs greater Authority than from all the rest which is the opinion of Divine Favour or designation of the persons or of the races that Govern This made the Kings among the Heathens ever derive themselves or their Ancestors from some god passing thereby for Heroes that is persons issued from the mixture of divine and humane race and of a middle nature between gods and men others joyned the Miter to the Crown and thereby the reverence of Divine to the respect of Civil Power This made the Caliphs of Persia and Egypt and the great Emperors of Arabia derive themselves by several branches from their great Prophet Mahomet The Yncas in Peru from the Sun And the Ottoman race to be adored among the Turks as designed by Heaven for perpetual Empire And the sacring of the Kings of France as Loysel says is the sign of their Sovereign Priesthood as well as Kingdom and in the right thereof they are capable of holding all vacant Benefices of the Church Piety As it is thought a way to the favour of God and Fortune as it looks like the effect either of that or at least of Prudence and Courage beget Authority As likewise splendor of living in great Palaces with numerous attendance much observance and rich habits differing from common men Both as it seems to be the reward of those Virtues already named or the effect of Fortune or as it is a mark of being obeyed by many From all these Authority arises but is by nothing so much strengthned and confirmed as by custom For no man easily distrusts the persons or disputes the things which he and all men that he knows of have been always bred up to observe and believe or if he does he will hardly hope or venture to introduce opinions wherein he knows none or few of his mind and thinks all others will defend those already received so as no man nor party can offer at the change
Fathers themselves to believe what he teaches to follow what he advises and obey what he commands Thus the Father by a natural Right as well as Authority becomes a Governour in this little State and if his life be long and his generations many as well as those of his Children He grows the Governour or King of a Nation and is indeed a Pater patriae as the best Kings are and as all should be and as those which are not are yet content to be called Thus the peculiar compellation of the Kings in France is by the name of Sire which in their ancient language is nothing else but Father and denotes the Prince to be the Father of the Nation For a Nation properly signifies a great number of Families derived from the same Blood born in the same Countrey and living under the same Government and Civil Constitutions As Patria does the land of our Father and so the Dutch by expressions of deerness instead of our Countrey say our Father-land With such Nations we find in Scripture all the Lands of Judea and the adjacent Territories were planted of old With such the many several Provinces of Greece and Italy when they began first to appear upon the Records of Ancient Story or Tradition And with such was the main Land of Gaul inhabited in the time of Caesar and Germany in that of Tacitus Such were the many Branches of the old British Nation the Scepts among the Irish. And such the infinite variety and numbers of Nations in Africa and America upon the first discoveries distinguisht by their several names and living under their several Kings or Princes till they came to be swallowed up by greater Empires These seem to have been the natural and original Governments of the World springing from a tacite deference of many to the Authority of one single Person Under Him if the Father of the Family or Nation the elder of his Children comes to acquire a degree of Authority among the younger by the same means the Father did among them and to share with him in the consultation and conduct of their common affairs And this together with an opinion of Wisdom from experience may have brought in the Authority of the Elders so often mentioned among the Jews and in general of aged men not only in Sparta and Rome but all other places in some degree both civil and barbarous For the names of Lord Signior Seigneur Senor in the Italian French and Spanish Languages seem to have at first imported only elder men who thereby were grown into Authority among the several Governments and Nations which seated themselves in those Countreys upon the fall of the Roman Empire This perhaps brought in Vogue that which is called the Authority of the Ancients in matters of opinion though by a mistaken sense for I suppose Authority may be reasonably allowed to the opinions of ancient men in the present age but I know not why it should be so to those of men in general that lived in ages long since past nor why one age of the World should be wiser than another or if it be why it should not be rather the latter than the former as having the same advantage of the general experience of the World that an old man has of the more particular experiments of life THus a Family seems to become a little Kingdom and a Kingdom to be but a great Family Nor is it unlikely that this Paternal Jurisdiction in its successions and with the help of accidents may have branched out into the several heads of Government commonly received in the Schools For a Family Governed with order will fall naturally to the several Trades of Husbandry which are Tillage Gardening and Pasturage the product whereof was the original riches For the managing of these and their encrease and the assistance of one man who perhaps is to feed twenty it may be a hundred children since it is not easily told how far Generations may extend with the Arbitrary choice and numbers of women practised anciently in most Countries the use of servants comes to be necessary These are gained by victory and captives or by fugitives out of some worse governed Family where either they cannot or like not to live and so sell their liberty to be assured of what is necessary to life Or else by the debased nature of some of the Children who seem born to drudgery or who are content to encrease their pains that they may lessen their cares and upon such terms become servants to some of their brothers whom they most esteem or chuse soonest to live with The Family thus encreased is still under the Fathers common though not equal care that what is due to the servants by Contract or what is fit for them to enjoy may be provided as well as the portions of the Children And that whatever they acquire by their industry or ingenuity beyond what the Masters expect or exact from them by the conditions of their servitude should be as much their property as any divisions of Land or of Stock that are made to the Sons and the possession as secure unless forfeited by any demerit or offence against the customs of the Family which grow with time to be the orders of this little State Now the Father of a Family or Nation that uses his Servants like Children in point of Justice and Care and advises with his Children in what concerns the Commonweal and thereby is willingly followed and obeyed by them all Is what I suppose the Schools mean by a Monarch And he that by harshness of nature wilfulness of humour intemperance of passions and arbitrariness of commands uses his Children like Servants is what they mean by a Tyrant And whereas the first thought himself safe in the love and obedience of his Children the other knowing that he is feared and hated by them thinks he cannot be safe among his children but by putting arms into the hands of such of his Servants as he thinks most at his will which is the original of Guards For against a Forreign Enemy and for defence of evident Interest all that can bear Arms in a Nation are Soldiers Their Cause is common safety their Pay is Honour And when they have purchased these they return to their homes and former conditions of peaceable lives Such were all the Armies of Greece and of Rome in the first Ages of their States Such were their Gens d' ordonnance in France and the Trainbands in England but standing Troops and in constant pay are properly Servants armed who use the Lance and the Sword as other servants do the Sickle or the Bill at the command and will of those who entertain them And therefore Martial Law is of all other the most absolute and not like the Government of a Father but a Master And this brings in another sort of Power distinct from that already described which follows Authority and consists in the willing obedience of the
people But this in the command of Soldiers who as Servants are bound to execute the Will and Orders of those that Lead them And as Authority follows the qualities before-mentioned so this Power follows Riches or the opinion of it a multitude of Servants being his that is able to maintain them And these kind of forces come to be used by good Princes only upon necessity of providing for their defence against great and armed neighbours or enemies But by ill ones as a support of decayed Authority or as they lose the force of that which is Natural and Paternal and so grow to set up an Interest of those that Govern different from that of those that are Governed which ought ever to be the same Yet this seems a much weaker principle of Government than the other for the number of Soldiers can never be great in proportion to that of People no more than the number of those that are idle in a Country to that of those who live by labour or industry so as if the people come to unite by any strong passion or general interest or under the wise conduct of any Authority well rooted in their minds They are Masters of Armies Besides the humour of the People runs insensibly among the very Soldiers so as it seems much alike to keep off by Guards a general infection or an universal sedition for the distemper in both kinds is contagious and seizes upon the defenders themselves Besides common pay is a faint principle of Courage and Action in comparison of Religion Liberty Honour Revenge or Necessity which make every Soldier have the quarrel as much at heart as their Leaders and seem to have spirited all the great Actions and Revolutions of the World And lastly without the force of Authority this Power of Soldiers grows pernicious to their Master who becomes their Servant and is in danger of their mutinies as much as any Government can be of the seditions of a people If the Father of our Family govern it with Prudence Goodness and Success and his eldest Son appear Heir to the virtues and worth of his Father He succeeds in the Government by a Natural Right and by the Strength of an Authority both derived from his Father and acquired by His own personal qualities but if either the eldest Son by qualities degenerate and ill happen to lose all trust and opinion and thereby Authority in the Family Or else to dye before his time and leave a Child in his room when the Father comes to fail then the Children fall into Councils of Election and either prefer the eldest of the Sons then living or perhaps one later and so remoter in birth according as He may have acquired Authority by those qualities which naturally produce it and promise the best conduct and protection to the common affairs of the Family Where the Father comes to lose his Authority many of the elder or wiser or braver of the Sons increase in theirs by the same degree and when both these arrive at a certain heighth the Nature of the Government is ready for a change and upon the Fathers death or general defection of the Family they succeed in his Authority whil'st the humour of the whole body runs against the succession or election of any single person which they are grown weary of by so late an example And thus comes in what they call an Aristocracy But Authority contracting it self as it seems naturally to do till it ends in a point or single Person this Government falls sometimes into the hands of a few who establish it in their Families and that is called an Oligarchy If the Authority come to be lost in either of these forms while the Children of the Family grow into the manners and qualities and perhaps into the condition and poverty of Servants and while many of the Servants by industry and virtue arrive at riches and esteem then the nature of the Government inclines to a Democracy or Popular State which is nearest confusion or Anarchy and often runs into it unless upheld or directed by the Authority of one or of some few in the State though perhaps without Titles or marks of any extraordinary Office or Dignity GOvernments founded upon Contract may have succeeded those founded upon Authority But the first of them should rather seem to have been agreed between Princes and Subjects than between men of equal Rank and Power For the original of Subjection was I suppose when one Nation warring against another for things necessary to Life or for Women or for extent of Land overcame their enemies if they only won a Battel and put their enemies to flight those they took Prisoners became their Slaves and continued so in their Generations unless infranchized by their Masters But if by great slaughter or frequent victories they subdued the very courages of their enemies while great numbers of them remained alive then the vanquisht Nation became subject to the Conquerors by Agreement and upon certain conditions of safety and protection and perhaps equal enjoyment of liberties and customs with the common Natives under the other Government If by such frequent successes and additions a Nation extended it self over vast Tracts of Land and numbers of People it thereby arrived in time at the ancient name of Kingdom or Modern of Empire After such a victory the chiefest of the conquering Nations become Rich and Great upon the divisions of Lands of Spoils and of Slaves By all which they grow into Power are Lords in their own Lands and over those that inhabit them with certain Rights or Jurisdictions and upon certain homages reserved to the Prince The custom of imploying these great persons in all great Offices and Councils grows to pass for a Right as all Custom does with length and force of time The Prince that Governs according to the conditions of subjection at first agreed upon of which Use is the Authentique record and according to the ancient Customs which are the original Laws and by which the Right of succession in the Crown as well as private Inheritance and Common Justice is directed and establisht is called a Lawful Sovereign He that breaks and violates these ancient Constitutions especially that of Succession is termed an Usurper A Free Nation is that which has never been conquered or thereby enter'd into any conditions of Subjection as the Romans were before they were subdued by the Goths and Vandals and as the Turks seem to be at this time who having been called from Scythia to assist the Grecian Empire against that of the Saracens made themselves Masters of both In Countreys safer from Forreign Invasions either by Seas or Rivers by Mountains and Passes or great Tracts of rough barren and uninhabited Lands People lived generally in scattered dwellings or small Villages But where Invasion is easie and passage open and bordering Nations are great and valiant men croud together and seek their safety from number better united and from
Walls and other Fortifications the use whereof is to make the few a match for the many so as they may Fight or Treat on equal terms And this is the original of Cities but the greatness and riches of them encrease according to the commodiousness of their scituation in fertile Countries or upon Rivers and Havens which surpass the greatest fertility of any Soil in furnishing plenty of all things necessary to Life or Luxury When Families meet together surround themselves by Walls fall into Order and Laws either invented by the wisdom of some one or some few men and from the evidence of their publick utility received by all or else introduced by experience and time and these Cities preserve themselves in the enjoyment of their Possessions and observance of their Institutions against all Invasions and never are forced to submit to the will of any Conqueror or conditions of any absolute Subjection They are called free Cities and of such there were many of old in Greece and Sicily deducing their original from some one Founder or Law-giver And are many now in Germany subject to no Laws but their own and those of the Empire which is an Union of many Soveraign Powers by whose general consent in their Dyets all its Constitutions are framed and establisht Commonwealths were nothing more in their original but free Cities though sometimes by force of orders and discipline or of a numerous and valiant people they have extended themselves into mighty Dominions and often by Scituation and Trade grow to vast Riches and thereby to great Power by force of mercenary Arms. And these seem to be the more artificial as those of a single Person the more Natural Governments being forced to supply the want of Authority by wise inventions orders and institutions For Authority can never be so great in many as in one because the opinion of those qualities which acquire it cannot be equal in several persons These Governments seem to be introduced either by the wisdom and moderation of some one Lawgiver who has Authority enough with the people to be followed and observed in all his orders and advices and yet prefers that which he esteems publick utility before any interest or greatness of his own such were Lycurgus in Sparta and Solon in Athens and Timoleon in Syracuse Or else by the confluence of many Families out of some Countries exposed to some fierce or barbarous invasions into places fortified by Nature and secure from the fury and misery of such Conquests Such were Rhodes of old and several small Islands upon the Coasts of Ionia and such was Venice founded upon the Inundation of the barbarous Nations over Italy Or lastly by the suppression and extinction of some Tyranny which being thrown off by the violent indignation of an oppressed people makes way for a Popular Government or at least some form very contrary to that which they lately execrated and detested Such were Rome upon the expulsion of the Tarquins and the Vnited Provinces upon their revolt from Spain Yet are none of these forms to be raised or upheld without the influence of Authority acquired by the force or opinion of those virtues above-mentioned which concur'd in Brutus among the Romans and in Prince William of Orange among those of the Netherlands I will not enter into the Arguments or comparisons of the several forms of Government that have been or are in the World wherein that cause seems commonly the better that has the better advocate or is advantaged by fresher experience and impressions of good or evil from any of the Forms among those that judg They have all their heighths and their falls their strong and weak sides are capable of great perfections and subject to great corruptions and though the preference seem already decided in what has been said of a single Persons being the original and natural Government and that it is capable of the greatest Authority which is the foundation of all ease safety and order in the Governments of the World yet it may perhaps be the most reasonably concluded That those forms are best which have been longest received and authorized in a Nation by custom and use and into which the humours and manners of the people run with the most general and strongest current Or else that those are the best Governments where the best men Govern and that the difference is not so great in the forms of Magistracy as in the persons of Magistrates which may be the sense of what was said of old taking wise and good men to be meant by Philosophers that the best Governments were those where Kings were Philosophers or Philosophers Kings THE safety and firmness of any frame of Government may be best judged by the rules of Architecture which teach us that the Pyramid is of all figures the firmest and least subject to be shaken or overthrown by any concussions or accidents from the Earth or Air and it grows still so much the firmer by how much broader the bottom and sharper the top The ground upon which all Government stands is the consent of the people or the greatest or strongest part of them whether this proceed from reflections upon what is past by the reverence of an Authority under which they and their Ancestors have for many Ages been born and bred or from sense of what is present by the ease plenty and safety they enjoy or from opinions of what is to come by the fears they have from the present Government or hopes from another Now that Government which by any of these or all these ways takes in the consent of the greatest number of the People and consequently their desires and resolutions to support it may justly be said to have the broadest bottom and to stand upon the largest compass of ground and if it terminate in the Authority of one single person it may likewise be said to have the narrowest top and so to make the figure of the firmest sort of Pyramid On the contrary a Government which by alienating the affections losing the opinions and crossing the interests of the people leaves out of its compass the greatest part of their consent may justly be said in the same degrees it thus loses ground to narrow its bottom and if this be done to serve the Ambition humour the Passion satisfy the Appetites or advance the Power and Interests not only of one man but of two or more or many that come to share in the Government By this means the top may be justly said to grow broader as the bottom narrower by the other Now by the same degrees that either of these happen the stability of the figure is by the same lessened and impaired so as at certain degrees it begins to grow subject to accidents of wind and of weather and at certain others it is sure to fall of it self or by the least shake that happens to the ground By these measures it will appear that a Monarchy where the
and NATURE OF GOVERNMENT Written in the Year 1672. THE Nature of Man seems to be the same in all times and places but varyed like their statures complexions and features by the force and influence of the several Climates where they are born and bred which produce in them by a different mixture of the humours and operation of the Air a different and unequal course of Imaginations and Passions and consequently of Discourses and Actions These differences incline men to several Customs Educations Opinions and Laws which Form and Govern the several Nations of the World where they are not interrupted by the violence of some force from without or some faction within which like a great blow or a great disease may either change or destroy the very frame of a body though if it lives to recover strength and vigor it commonly returns in time to its natural constitution or something near it I speak not of those changes and revolutions of State or Institutions of Government that are made by the more immediate and evident operation of Divine Will and Providence being the Themes of Divines and not of common men and the Subjects of our Faith not of our Reason This may be the cause that the same Countreys have generally in all times been used to Forms of Government much of a sort The same Nature ever continuing under the same Climate and making returns into its old Channel though sometimes led out of it by perswasions and sometimes beaten out by force Thus the more Northern and more Southern Nations extreams as they say still agreeing have ever lived under single and Arbitrary Dominions as all the Regions of Tartary and Muscovy on the one side and of Africk and India on the other While those under the more temperate Climates especially in Europe have ever been used to more moderate Governments Running anciently much into Commonwealths and of latter ages into Principalities bounded by Laws which differ less in Nature than in Name For though the old distinctions run otherwise there seem to be but two general kinds of Government in the world The one exercised according to the Arbitrary commands and will of some single Person And the other according to certain Orders or Laws introduced by agreement or custom and not to be changed without the consent of many But under each of these may fall many more particular kinds than can be reduced to the common heads of Government received in the Schools For those of the first sort differ according to the dispositions and humours of Him that Rules and of them that obey As Feavers do according to the temper of the persons and accidents of the seasons And those of the other sort differ according to the quality or number of the persons upon whom is devolved the authority of making or power of executing Laws Nor will any man that understands the State of Poland and the Vnited Provinces be well able to range them under any particular names of Government that have been yet invented The great Scenes of Action and Subjects of Ancient Story Greece Italy and Sicily were all divided into small Commonwealths till swallowed up and made Provinces by that mighty one of Rome together with Spain Gaule and Germany These were before composed of many small Governments among which the Cities were generally under Commonwealths and the Countreys under several Princes Who were Generals in their Wars but in peace lived without Armies or Guards or any Instruments of Arbitrary Power And were only chief of their Councils and of those Assemblies by whose consultations and authority the great affairs and actions among them were resolved and enterprized Through all these Regions some of the smaller States but chiefly those of the Cities fell often under Tyrannies Which spring naturally out of Popular Governments While the meaner sort of the people opprest or ill protected by the richer and greater give themselves up to the conduct of some one man in chief credit among them and submit all to his will and discretion either running easily from one extream to another or contented to see those they hated and feared before now in equal condition with themselves Or because a multitude is incapable of framing Orders though capable of conserving them Or that every man comes to find by experience that confusion and popular tumults have worse effects upon common safety than the rankest Tyranny For it is easier to please the humour and either appease or resist the fury of one single man than of a multitude And taking each of them in their extreams the rage of a Tyrant may be like that of fire which consumes what it reaches but by degrees and devouring one house after another whereas the rage of people is like that of the Sea which once breaking bounds overflows a Countrey with that suddenness and violence as leaves no hopes either of flying or resisting till with the change of tides or winds it returns of it self The force and variety of accidents is so great that it will not perhaps bear reasoning or enquiry how it comes about that single Arbitrary Dominion seems to have been natural to Asia and Africk and the other sort to Europe For though Carthage was indeed a Commonwealth in Africk and Macedon a Kingdom in Europe yet the first was not Native of that Soyl being a Colony of the Tyrians as there were some other small ones of he Grecians upon the same Coasts and the Kings of Macedon Governed by Laws and the consent as well as Councils of the Nobles Not like the Kings of Persia by humour and will as appears by the event of their quarrel while so few Subjects conquered so many Slaves Yet one reason may be that Sicily Greece and Italy which were the Regions of Commonwealths were planted thick with rich and populous Cities occasioned by their being so far encompassed with the Sea And the vein of all rich Cities ever inclines to that kind of Government Whether it be that where many grow Rich many grow to power and are harder to be subjected Or where men grow to great possessions they grow more intent upon safety and therefore desire to be Governed by Laws and Magistrates of their own choice fearing all Armed and Arbitrary Power Or that the small compass of Cities makes the ease and convenience of Assemblies and Councils Or that conversation sharpens mens wits and makes too many reasoners in matters of Government The contrary of all this happens in Countries thin inhabited and especially in vast Campania's such as are extended through Asia and Africk where there are few Cities besides what grow by the residence of the Kings or their Governours The people are poorer and having little to lose have little to care for and are less exposed to the designs of power or violence The assembling of persons deputed from people at great distances one from another is trouble to them that are sent and charge to them that send And where ambition
of a Government establisht without first gaining new Authority by the steps already traced out and in some degree debasing the old by appearance or impressions of contrary qualities in those who before enjoyed it This induces a general change of opinion concerning the person or party like to be obeyed or followed by the greatect or strongest part of the people according to which the power or weakness of each is to be measured So as in effect all Government may be esteemed to grow strong or weak as the general opinion of these qualities in those that Govern is seen to lessen or increase And Power must be allowed to follow Authority in all Civil Bodies as in Natural the motions of the body follow those of the mind great numbers ever acting and pursuing what the few whom they trust begin or advise FRom this Principle and from the discovery of some natural Authority may perhaps be deduced a truer original of all Governments among men than from any Contracts though these be given us by the great Writers concerning Politicks and Laws Some of them lay for their foundation That men are sociable creatures and naturally disposed to live in numbers and troops together Others That they are naturally creatures of prey and in a state of war one upon another so as to avoid confusion in the first case and violence in the other they found out the necessity of agreeing upon some Orders and Rules by which every man gives up his common Right for some particular possession and his power to hurt and spoil others for the priviledg of not being hurt or spoiled himself And the agreement upon such Orders by mutual Contract with the consent to execute them by common strength and endeavours They make to be the rise of all Civil Governments I know not whether they consider what it is that makes some creatures sociable and others live and range more alone or in smaller companies but I suppose those creatures whose natural and necessary food is easie and plentiful as Grass or Plants or Fruits the common product of the earth are the sociable creatures because where-ever they go they usually find what they want and enough for them all without industry or contention And those live more alone whose food and therefore prey is upon other sensitive creatures and so not attained without pursuit and violence and seldom in such quantities at once as to satisfy the hunger of great numbers together Yet this does not hold so far but that Ravens are seen in flocks where a Carrion lies and Wolves in herds to run down a Deer Nay they feed quietly together while there is enough for them all Quarrel only when it begins to fail and when 't is ended they scatter to seek out new encounters Besides those called sociable quarrel in hunger and in lust as well as the others and the Bull and the Ram appear then as much in fury and war as the Lyon and the Bear So that if Mankind must be ranged to one of these sorts I know not well to which it will be and considering the great differences of customs and dispositions in several men and even in the same men at several times I very much doubt they must be divided into several forms Nor do I know if men are like sheep why they need any Government or if they are like Wolves how they can suffer it Nor have I read where the Orders of any State have been agreed on by mutual Contract among great numbers of men meeting together in that natural state of War where every man takes himself to have equal right to every thing But often where such Orders have been invented by the Wisdom and received by the Authority of some one man under the name of a Law-giver And where this has not happened the original of Government lyes as undiscovered in story as that of Time All Nations appearing upon the first Records that are left us under the Authority of Kings or Princes or some other Magistrates Besides this principle of contract as the original of Government seems calculated for the account given by some of the old Poets of the original of man whom they raise out of the ground by great numbers at a time in perfect Stature and Strength Whereas if we deduce the several races of mankind in the several parts of the World from generation we must imagine the first numbers of them who in any place agree upon any civil constitutions to assemble not as so many single heads but as so many heads of families whom they represent in the framing any Compact or common accord and consequently as persons who have already an Authority over such numbers as their families are composed of For if we consider a Man multiplying his Kind by the birth of many Children and his Cares by providing even necessary food for them till they are able to do it for themselves which happens much later to the generations of men and makes a much longer dependance of children upon Parents than we can observe among any other creatures If we consider not only the cares but the industry he is forced to for the necessary sustenance of his helpless brood either in gathering the natural fruits or raising those which are purchased with labour and toil if he be forced for supply of this stock to catch the tamer creatures and hunt the wilder sometimes to exercise his courage in defending his little Family and fighting with the strong and Savage Beasts that would prey upon him as he does upon the weak and the mild if we suppose him disposing with discretion and order what-ever he gets among his Children according to each of their hunger or need sometimes laying up for to morrow what was more than enough for to day at other times pinching himself rather than suffering any of them should want And as each of them grows up and able to share in the common support teaching him both by lesson and example what he is now to do as the Son of this family and what hereafter as the Father of another instructing them all what qualities are good and what are ill for their health and life or common Society which will certainly comprehend whatever is generally esteemed virtue or vice among men cherishing and encouraging dispositions to the good disfavouring and punishing those to the ill And lastly Among the various accidents of Life lifting up his eyes to Heaven when the earth affords him no relief and having recourse to a higher and a greater nature whenever he finds the frailty of his own We must needs conclude that the Children of this Man cannot fail of being bred up with a great opinion of his Wisdom his Goodness his Valour and his Piety And if they see constant plenty in the Family they believe well of his fortune too And from all this must naturally arise a great paternal Authority which disposes his Children at least till the age when they grow
Prince governs by the affections and according to the opinions and interests of his people or the bulk of them that is by many degrees the greatest or strongest part of them makes of all others the safest and firmest Government and on the contrary a Popular State which is not founded in the general humours and interests of the people but only of the persons who share in the Government or depend upon it is of all others the most uncertain unstable and subject to the most frequent and easie changes That a Monarchy the less it takes in of the Peoples opinions and interests and the more it takes in of the passions and interests of particular men Besides those of the Prince and contrary to those of the people the more unstable it grows and the more endangered by every storm in the Air or every shake of the earth and a Common-wealth the more it takes in of the general humour and bent of the People and the more it spires up to a head by the Authority of some one Person founded upon the love and esteem of the People the firmer it stands and less subject to danger or change by any concussions of earth or of air 'T is true that a Pyramid reversed may stand for a while upon its point if ballanced by admirable skill and held up by perpetual care and there be a calm in the Air about it Nay if the point be very hard and strong and the soil very yielding and soft it may pierce into the ground with time so as to grow the firmer the longer it stands But this last can never happen if either the top of the figure be weak or soft or if the soil be hard and rough and at the best it is subject to be overthrown if not by its own weight yet when ever any forreign weight shall chance to fall upon any part of it and the first must overturn when ever there happens any inequality in the ballance or any negligence in the hands that set it up and even without either of those when ever there arrives any violence to shake it either from the winds abroad or those in the bowels of the earth where it stands I will not pretend from this Scheme to presage or judg of the future events that may attend any Governments which is the business of those that are more concerned in them than I am and write with other design than that alone of discovering or clearing truth But I think any man may deduce from it the causes of the several revolutions that we find upon record to have happen'd in the Governments of the World Except such as have been brought about by the unresistable force and conquests of some Nations over others whom they very much surmounted in Strength Courage and Numbers Yet the brave long and almost incredible defences that have still been made by those Governments which were rooted in the general affections esteem and interests of the Nation make it seem probable that almost all the Conquests we read of have been made way for or in some measure facilitated if not assisted by the weakness of the conquered Government grown from the disesteem dissatisfaction or indifferency of the People or from those vicious and effeminate constitutions of body and mind among them which ever grow up in the corrupt Air of a weak or loose a vicious or a factious State And such can never be strong in the hearts of the People nor consequently firm upon that which is the true bottom of all Governments in the World Thus the small Athenian State resisted with success the vast Power and Forces of the Persians in the time of Miltiades and Themistocles Rome those of the Gauls in the time of Camillus And the vast Armies collected from Africk Spain and the greatest part of Italy in the Carthaginian Wars under the conduct of several great Captains but chiefly Fabius and Scipio The little Principality of Epire was Invincible by the whole Power of the Turks in Three several Invasions under their Prince Castriot commonly called Scanderbeg the Kingdom of Leon and Oviedo by all the Wars of the Moors or Saracens for many ages The State of Venice by those of the Turks The Switzers by the Power of the Emperors and the Hollanders by that of Spain Because in all these Wars the People were both united and spirited by the common Love of their Countrey their Liberty or Religion Or by the more particular esteem and love of their Princes and Leaders In the Conquests of the Lydians by Cyrus and the Persians by Alexander of the great Asian and Egyptian Kings by the Roman State and of all the Roman Provinces by the several Northern or as they were usually called barbarous Nations of the Spaniards by the Moors and of our Ancient Britains by the Saxons It is easie and obvious to observe that the resistances were rendered faint and weak either by the soft and effeminate dispositions of the people grown up under the easiness or examples of Vicious or Luxurious Princes whom they neither honoured nor willingly obeyed Or else by the common hatred and disdain of their present servitude which they were content to change for any other that came in their way Or lastly by the distracted factions of a discontented Nation who agreed in no one common design or dedefence nor under any Authority grounded upon the general love or esteem of the People Of Instability and changes of Governments arrived by narrowing their bottoms which are the consent or concurrence of the peoples affections and interests all stories and ages afford continual examples From hence proceeded the frequent tumults seditions and alterations in the Commonwealths of Athens and Rome as often as either by the charms of Orators or the sway of men grown to unusual Power and Riches the Governments were engaged in Counsels or Actions contrary to the general interests of the People Hence the several violent changes that have arrived in the Races or Persons of the Princes of England France or Spain Nor has the force hereof appeared any where more visible than in France during the Reign of Henry the Third and a constant Succession of Minions as they were then called where all was conducted by the private passions humours and interests of a few persons in sole confidence with the King contrary to those more publick and current of the people till He came to lose at first all esteem afterwards obedience and at last his Life in the troubles given him by the League That Government was in the same manner exposed to the Dominion of succeeding Favorites during the Regency of the Queen-Mother in the Minority of Lewis the 13th which occasioned perpetual commotions in that State and changes of the Ministry and would certainly have produced those in the Government too if Richelieu having gained the absolute ascendant in that Court had not ingaged in the designs at first of a War upon the Hugonotts and
after that was ended upon Spain In both which he fell in with the current humour and dispositions of the People which with the prosperous successes of both those enterprises helped to bear up him and the Government against all the hatred and continual practices of the great Ones in the Kingdom But the two freshest examples may be drawn from the Revolutions of England in the year Sixty and of Holland in Seventy two In the First The usurped Powers that had either designed no Root or at least drawn none but only in the affections and interests of those that were engaged with the Government thought themselves Secure in the Strength of an unfoiled Army of above Sixty thousand men and in a Revenue proportionable raised by the awe of their Forces though with the mock-forms of Legal Supplies by pretended Parliaments Yet we saw them forced to give way to the bent and current humour of the People in favour of their Ancient and Lawful Government and this mighty Army of a sudden lose their Heart and their Strength abandon what they had so long called their Cause and their Interest and content themselves to be moulded again into the Mass of the People and by conspiring with the general humour of the Nation make way for the Kings glorious restauration without a drop of blood drawn in the end of a quarrel the beginning and course whereof had been so fatal to the Kingdom For the other in Holland the constitution of their Government had continued Twenty years in the hands of their Popular Magistrates after the exclusion or intermission of the Authority of the House of Orange upon the death of the last Prince and infancy of this The chief direction of their affairs had for Eighteen years lain constantly in the hands of their Pensioner de Witt a Minister of the greatest Authority and Sufficiency the greatest Application and Industry that was ever known in their State In the course of his Ministry He and his Party had reduced not only all the Civil charges of the Government in his Province but in a manner all the Military Commands in the Army out of the hands of persons affectionate to the House of Orange into those esteemed sure and fast to the Interests of their more Popular State And all this had been attended for so long a course of years with the perpetual success of their affairs by the growth of their Trade Riches and Power at home and the consideration of their Neighbours abroad Yet the general humour of kindness in the people to their old form of Government under the Princes of Orange grew up with the Age and Virtues of the young Prince so as to raise the prospect of some unavoidable revolutions among them for several years before it arrived And we have seen it grow to that heighth in this present year upon the Princes coming to the Two and twentieth of his Age the time assigned him by their Constitutions for his entring upon the publick charges of their Milice that though it had found them in Peace it must have occasioned some violent sedition in their State But meeting with the conjuncture of a Forreign Invasion It broke out into so furious a rage of the People and such general tumults through the whole Countrey as ended in the Blood of their chief Ministers In the displacing all that were suspected to be of their party throughout the Government In the full restitution of the Princes Authority to the highest point any of his Ancestors ever enjoyed But withall in such a distraction of their Councils and their Actions as made way for the easie successes of the French Invasion for the loss of almost Five of their Provinces in Two months time and for the general presages of utter ruin to their State Dublin July 22d 1673. AN ESSAY UPON THE ADVANCEMENT OF TRADE in IRELAND Written to the Earl of Essex Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom My LORD I Know not what it was that fell into discourse t'other day and gave your Excellency the occasion of desiring me to digest into some Method and upon Paper the means and ways I esteemed most proper for the advancing of Trade in Ireland This I know very well that you did it in a manner and with Expressions too obliging to be refused and out of a design so publick and generous as ought not to be discouraged I had therefore much rather obey your Lordship in this point how ill soever I do it than excuse my self though never so well which were much easier than the other For I might alledg that neither my Birth nor my Breeding has been at all in this Countrey That I have passed only one short period of my life here and the greatest part thereof wholly out of business and publick thoughts That I have since been Ten years absent from it and am now here upon no other occasion than of a short Visit to some of my Friends Which are all Circumstances that make me a very improper subject for such a command But I suppose the vein I have had of running into speculations of this kind upon a greater scene of Trade and in a Countrey where I was more a stranger and the too partial favour your Lordship has exprest to another Discourse of this nature have cost me this present service and you have thought fit to punish me for one folly by engaging me to commit another like the Confessor that prescribed a Drunkard the penance of being drunk again However it is your Lordship shall be obeyed and therein I hope to be enough excused which is all I pretend to upon this occasion Before I enter upon the considerations of Trade which are more general and may be more lasting in this Kingdom I will observe to your Lordship some particular Circumstances in the Constitution and Government which have been hitherto and may be long the great discouragers of Trade and Riches here And some others in the present Conjuncture which are absolutely mortal to it that so you may not expect to find remedies where indeed there is none nor suffer men like busie ignorant Physicians to apply such as are contrary to the disease because they cannot find such as are proper for it The true and natural ground of Trade and Riches is number of People in proportion to the compass of Ground they inhabit This makes all things necessary to life dear and that forces men to industry and parsimony These Customs which grow first from necessity come with time to be habitual in a Countrey And where-ever they are so that place must grow great in Traffick and Riches if not disturbed by some accidents or revolutions as of Wars of Plagues or Famines by which the People come to be either scattered or destroyed People are multiplied in a Countrey by the temper of the Climate favourable to Generation to Health and long-life Or else by the Circumstances of safety and ease under the Government the credit whereof invites
of all others ought the least to be encouraged in Ireland or if it be which requires the most restriction to certain places and Rules For I do not remember to have heard that there is any Oare in Ireland at least I am sure the greatest part is fetched from England so that all this Country affords of its own growth towards this Manufacture is but the Wood which has met but with too great consumptions already in most parts of this Kingdom and needs not this to destroy what is left So that Iron-works ought to be confined to certain places where either the Woods continue vast and make the Country savage or where they are not at all fit for Timber or likely to grow to it or where there is no conveyance for Timber to places of vent so as to quit the cost of the carriage Having run through the Commodities of Ireland with their defects and improvements I will only touch the other two Points mentioned at first as the grounds likewise of Trade in a Country those are the Commodiousness of Ports and the store of Shipping in one of which this Kingdom as much abounds as it fails in the other The Haven of Dublin is barr'd to that degree as very much to obstruct the Trade of the City the clearing or opening of it were a great work and proper either for the City or the whole Province of Lemster to undertake But whether it be feasible or at such charges as will quit cost I will not judg especially considering the many good Havens that are scattered upon that whole Eastern Coast of Ireland Besides this I know not what to propose upon this head unless it be the making of two free Ports one in Kerry and t'other upon the Northwest Coast which may thereby grow to be Magazines for the West-Indy Trade and from thence those Commodities may be dispersed unto all other parts of Europe after having paid the Customs which they ought to pay in England where this must be concerted For the last Point I doubt there is hardly any other Country lying upon the Sea-coast and not wholly out of the way of Trade which has so little Shipping of its own as Ireland and which might be capable of imploying more The reason of this must be in part the scarcity of Timber proper for this built but more the want of Merchants and uncertainty of Trade in the Country For preventing the further destruction of Timber a Law may be made forbidding any man to cut down any Oak that is of a certain heighth unless it be of a certain scantling as twelve inches diameter or some such measure as usually makes a Tree useful Timber And further the severest Penalties ought to be put upon Barking any Tree that is not felled a custom barbarous and peculiar to this Country and by which infinite quantities of Timber have been destroyed Most Traders in these parts at least of Ireland are but Factors nor do I hear of any number of Merchants in the Kingdom The cause of this must be rather an ill opinion of security than of gain for those are the two baits which draw Merchants to a place the last intices the poorer Traders or the young beginners or those of passage but without the first the substantial and the rich will never settle in a Country This opinion can be attained only by a course of time of good conduct and good government and thereby of justice and of peace which lye out of the compass of this Discourse But to make some amends for this want at present encouragement may be given to any Merchants that shall come over and turn a certain stock of their own here as Naturalization upon any terms freedom from Customs the two first years and from any Offices of trouble or expence the first seven years I see no hurt if the King should give leave to the Merchants in eight or ten of the chief Trading-Ports of Ireland to name for each Town one of their number out of which the Lord Lieutenant should chuse two to be of the Privy-Council of Ireland with a certain Salary from the King to defray their attendance This would be an honour and encouragement to so worthy a Calling and would introduce an interest of Trade into the Council which being now composed wholly of the Nobility or Gentry the Civil or Military Officers the Traders seem to be left without Patrons in the Government and thereby without favour to the particular concernments of a chief member in the Politick body and upon whose prospering the wealth of the whole Kingdom seems chiefly to depend But this is enough for your Excellencies trouble and for the discharge of my promise and too much I doubt for the humour of our age to bring into practice or so much as to admit into consideration Your Lordship I know has generous thoughts and turned to such Speculations as these But that is not enough towards the raising such buildings as I have drawn you here the lines of unless the direction of all affairs here were wholly in your hands or at least the opinion lost of other mens being able to contest with you those points of publick utility which you ought best to know and most to be believed in while you deserve or discharge so great a trust as the government of this Kingdom For I think a Prince cannot too much consider whom to chuse for such employments but when he has chosen cannot trust them too far or thereby give them too much Authority no more than end it too soon whenever he finds it abused In short 't is left only to Princes to mend the world whose Commands find general obedience and Examples imitation For all other men they must take it as they find it and good men enter into commerce with it rather upon cautions of not being spoiled themselves than upon hopes of mending the World At least this opinion becomes men of my level amongst whom I have observed all set-quarrels with the Age and pretences of reforming it by their own models to end commonly like the pains of a man in a little Boat who tugs at a Rope that 's fast to a Ship it looks as if he resolved to draw the ship to him but the truth and his meaning is to draw himself to the Ship where he gets in when he can and does like the rest of the Crew when he is there When I have such designs I will begin such contentions in the mean time the bent of my thoughts shall be rather to mend my self than the World which I reckon upon leaving much what I found it Nor should I have reason in complaining too far of an Age which does your Lordship so much justice by the honour of so great an Imployment In which as I know no man deserves greater successes than you do so I am sure no man wishes you greater than I do Written to the Duke of ORMOND in October 1673.