where he says that rendering his Citizens emulous not careless of that honor he assign'd to the People the election of the Senat. Wherfore MACCHIAVEL in this as in other places having his ey upon the division of Patrician and Plebeian Familys as they were in Rome has quite mistaken the Orders of this Commonwealth where there was no such thing Nor did the quiet of it derive from the Power of the Kings who were so far from shielding the People from the injury of the Nobility of which there was none in his sense but the Senat that one declar'd end of the Senat at the institution was to shield the People from the Kings who from that time had but single Votes Neither did it procede from the straitness of the Senat or their keeping the People excluded from the Government that they were quiet but from the equality of their administration seeing the Senat as is plain by the Oracle their fundamental Law had no more than the Debate and the Result of the Commonwealth belong'd to the People Wherfore when THEOPOMPUS and POLYDORUS Kings of Lacedemon would have kept the People excluded from the Government by adding to the antient Law this Clause If the determination of the People be faulty it shall be lawful for the Senat to resume the Debate the People immediatly became unquiet and resum'd that Debate which ended not till they had set up their Ephors and caus'd that Magistracy to be confirm'd by their Kings * * Nam cum primus instituisset Theopompus ut Ephori Lacedamone crearentur ita futuri regiae potestati oppositi quemadmodum Romae Tribuni plâ—bis consulati imperio sunt objecti atque illi uâ—or dixiâ—â—et id egiâ—â—â— illum ut filâ—is minorem potestatem reâ—inqueret Relinquam inquit sed diuturniorem Optimè quidem Ea enim demum tuta est potentia quae viribus suis modum imponit Theopompus igitur legitimis regnum vinculis constringendo quo longius à licentia â—etraxit hot propius ad benevolentiam civium admovit Val. Max. l. 4. c. 1. de externis §. 8. For when THEOPOMPUS first ordain'd that the Ephori or Overseers should be created at Lacedemon to be such a restraint upon the Kings there as the Tribuns were upon the Consuls at Rome the Queen complain'd to him that by this means he transmitted the Royal Authority greatly diminish'd to his Children I leave indeed less answer'd he but more lasting And this was excellently said for that Power only is safe which is limited from doing hurt THEOPOMPUS therfore by confining the Kingly Power within the bounds of the Laws did recommend it by so much to the Peoples Affection as he remov'd it from being Arbitrary By which it may appear that a Commonwealth for preservation if she coms to be inequal is as obnoxious to enmity between the Senat and the People as a Commonwealth for increase and that the Tranquillity of Lacedemon was deriv'd from no other cause than her Equality FOR Venice to say that she is quiet because she disarms her Subjects is to forget that Lacedemon disarm'd her Helots and yet could not in their regard be quiet wherfore if Venice be defended from external causes of Commotion it is first thro her Situation in which respect her Subjects have no hope and this indeed may be attributed to her fortune and secondly thro her exquisit Justice whence they have no will to invade her But this can be attributed to no other cause than her Prudence which will appear to be greater as we look nearer for the effects that procede from Fortune if there be any such thing are like their cause inconstant But there never happen'd to any other Commonwealth so undisturb'd and constant a Tranquillity and Peace in her self as is that of Venice wherfore this must procede from som other cause than Chance And we see that as she is of all others the most quiet so the most equal Commonwealth Her Body consists of one Order and her Senat is like a rolling stone as was said which never did nor while it continues upon that rotation never shall gather the moss of a divided or ambitious interest much less such a one as that which grasp'd the People of Rome in the talons of their own Eagles And if MACCHIAVEL averse from doing this Commonwealth right had consider'd her Orders as his Reader shall easily perceive he never did he must have bin so far from attributing the Prudence of them to Chance that he would have touch'd up his admirable work to that perfection which as to the civil part has no pattern in the universal World but this of Venice ROME secure by her potent and victorious Arms from all external causes of Commotion was either beholden for her Peace at home to her Enemys abroad or could never rest her head My LORDS you that are Parents of a Commonwealth and so freer Agents than such as are merely natural have a care For as no man shall shew me a Commonwealth born streight that ever became crooked so no man shall shew me a Commonwealth born crooked that ever became streight Rome was crooked in her birth or rather prodigious Her twins the Patricians and Plebeian Orders came as was shewn by the foregoing story into the World one body but two heads or rather two bellys for notwithstanding the Fable out of AESOP wherby MENENIUS AGRIPPA the Orator that was sent from the Senat to the People at Mount Aventin shew'd the Fathers to be the Belly and the People to be the Arms and the Legs which except that how slothful soever it might seem they were nourish'd not these only but the whole Body must languish and be dissolv'd it is plain that the Fathers were a distinct Belly such a one as took the meat indeed out of the Peoples mouths but abhorring the Agrarian return'd it not in the due and necessary nutrition of a Commonwealth Nevertheless as the People that live about the Cataracts of Nilus are said not to hear the noise so neither the Roman Writers nor MACCHIAVEL the most conversant with them seem among so many of the Tribunitian storms to hear their natural voice for tho they could not miss of it so far as to attribute them to the strife of the People for participation in Magistracy or in which MACCHIAVEL more particularly joins to that about the Agrarian this was to take the business short and the remedy for the disease A PEOPLE when they are reduc'd to misery and despair becom their own Politicians as certain Beasts when they are sick becom their own Physicians and are carry'd by a natural instinct to the desire of such Herbs as are their proper cure but the People for the greater part are beneath the Beasts in the use of them Thus the People of Rome tho in their misery they had recourse by instinct as it were to the two main Fundamentals of a Commonwealth participation of Magistracy and the Agrarian
can depose the Senat and remain a Commonwealth The People of Capua being inrag'd to the full height resolv'd and assembl'd together the Senat if the People will being always in their power on purpose to cut the throats of the Senators when PACUVIUS CALAVIUS exhorted them that ere they went upon the design they would first make election among themselves of a new Senat which the throats of the old being cut might for the safety of the Commonwealth immediatly take their places for said he * Senâ—tum omninâ— non haâ—â—re non vultis Quippe aut Rex quod abominandâ—m aut quod â—num liberae civitatis Concilium est Senatus habendus est Liv. You must either have a King which is to be abhor'd or whatever becoms of this you must have som other Senat for the Senat is a Council of such a nature as without it no free City can subsist By which Speech of PACUVIUS the People who thought themselves as the Considerer has it wise enough to consult being convinc'd sell to work for the Election of a succeding Senat out of themselves the Prevaricator should not tell me of Notions but learn that in a Commonwealth there must be a Senat is a Principle while the People of Capua were intent upon chusing this new Senat the Partys propos'd seem'd to them to be so ridiculously unsit for such an Office that by this means coming to a nearer sight of themselves they were secretly so fill'd with the shame of their Enterprize that slinking away they would never after be known so much as to have thought upon such a thing Nor ever went any other People so far not the Florentins themselves tho addicted to Innovation or changing of the Senat beyond all other examples Sons of the University Brothers of the College Heads and Points you love fine words Whether tends to bring all things into servitude my Hypothesis or his †Arocheâ— Hypothytes For says he I am willing to gratify Mr. HARRINGTON with his partition of the twenty men into six and fourteen but if I had bin in a humor of contradiction it had bin as free for me to have said that som one of the twenty would have excel'd all the rest in Judgment Experience Courage and height of Genius and then told him that this had bin a natural Monarchy establish'd by God himself over Mankind As if the twenty would give their Clothes or Mony to the next man they meet wiser or richer than themselves which before he deny'd Oportet mendacem esse memorem God establish'd Kings no otherwise than by election of the People and the twenty will neither give their Clothes nor Mony How then why in coms a Gallant with a file Book I of Musketeers What says he are you dividing and chusing here Go to I will have no dividing give me all Down go the pots and up go their heels What is this why a King What more by Divine Right As he took the Cake from the Girls CHAP. VI. Whether the Senatusconsulta or Decrees of the Roman Senat had the Power of Laws AMONG divers and weighty Reasons why I would have that Prince look well to his file of Musketeers this is no small one that he being upon no balance will never be able to give Law without them For to think that he succedes to the Senat or that the power of the Senat may serve his turn is a presumtion that will fail him The Senat as such has no power at all but mere Authority of proposing to the People who are the makers of their own Laws whence the Decrees of the Senat of Rome are never Laws nor so call'd but Senatusconsulta It is true that a King coming in the Senat as there it did may remain to his aid and advantage and then they propose not as formerly to the People but to him who coms not in upon the right of the Senat but upon that of the People whence says JUSTINIAN * Quod Principi placuit legis habet vigorem quum lege Regia quae de ejus imperio lata est Populus ei in eum omne imperium suum potestatem concedat The Princes Pleasure has the force of Law since the People have by the Lex Regia concerning his Power made over to him all their own Empire Consid p. 30 31. and Authority Thus the Senatusconsultum Macedonicum with the rest that had place allow'd by JUSTINIAN in compilement of the Roman Laws were not Laws in that they were Senatusconsulta or propos'd by the Senat but in that they were allow'd by JUSTINIAN or the Prince in whom was now the right of the People Wherfore the Zealot for Monarchy has made a pas de clerc or foul step in his procession where he argues thus out of CUJACIUS It was soon agreed that the distinct Decrees of the Senat and People should be extended to the nature of Laws therfore the distinct Decrees of the Senat are Laws whether it be so agreed by the People or by the Prince or no. For thus he has no sooner made his Prince than he kicks him heels over head seeing where the Decrees of the Senat are Laws without the King that same is as much a King as the Prevaricator a Politician A Law is that which was past by the Power of the People or of the King But out of the Light in this place he takes a Welsh Bait and Consid p. 32. looking back makes a muster of his Victorys like the bussing Gascon who to shew what he had thrown out of the windows in his Debauchery made a formal repetition of the whole Inventory of the House CHAP. VII Chap. 7 Whether the Ten Commandments were propos'd by GOD or MOSES and voted by the People of Israel ONE would think the Gascon had don well Is he satisfy'd No he will now throw the House out of the windows The principal Consid p. 33 35. stones being already taken from the Foundation he has a bag of certain Winds wherwithal to reverse the Superstructures The first Wind he lets go is but a Puff where he tells me that I bring Switzerland and Holland into the enumeration of the Heathen Commonwealths which if I had don their Libertys in many parts and places being more antient than the Christian Religion in those Countrys as is plain by TACITUS where he speaks of CIVILIS and of the Customs of the Germans I had neither wrong'd them nor my self but I do no such matter for having enumerated the Heathen Commonwealths I add that the Procedings of Holland and Switzerland tho after a more obscure Oceana p. 51. manner are of the like nature The next is a Storm while reproaching me with Rudeness he brings in Dr. FERN and the Clergy by head and shoulders who till they undertake the quarrel of Monarchy to the confusion of the Commonwealth of Israel at least so far that there be no weight or obligation in
man run themselves and their Posterity into an eternal Inconvenience for any thing they know of bad Governors And if the People would never so formally agree with him that in regard of his Merits or felicity of Actions his Son should be receiv'd in that place yet would they not stand to it that very Pact expiring with the life of either For my Father may leave me notionally a Slave in a Tenure a thing frequent with our Ancestors or as Civilians term it a Feodary with which I am content in respect of the Advantage it brings me or because my own Estate is too little to be independent and therfore I think it good prudence to be shelter'd under the protection of the greater but my natural Liberty that is to say to make my Life as justly happy and advantageous to me as I may he can no more give away from me than my Understanding or Eysight for these are Privileges with which God and Nature have indu'd me and these I cannot be deny'd but by him that will also deny me a Being But to go on Suppose a second Generation should accept the Son and a third a Grandson yet this confirms not a fourth and the People very impoliticly strengthen and confirm the Power by continuance and in a manner with their own hands lay the Foundation of Absoluteness their Governors themselves growing in Interests increasing in Alliances and Forces so it is very improbable but that within a little they grow too big and formidable and leave nothing of Liberty except the Name and if they be less cunning not that A pertinent Example of this and so near us that I cannot pass it we see in young ORANGE and the Low Countrys at this day who continuing his Progenitors for their signal Services and him for theirs are now punish'd for their generous and indiscrete rewarding of Virtue that their Liberty was lately almost blown up before they well perceiv'd it to be undermin'd and they are now at charge to maintain their own Oppression As for that formal Election and Stipulation who sees not what a vain and ridiculous cheat it is they coming with Swords in their hands to demand the Scepter of a weak and stupid multitude that appears only to gaze upon the Ceremonys and whose refusal were ineffectual but it is a gracious piece of the Cabal of Tyranny to deceive the People with Shadows Fantasms and names of Liberty AS for those that intrude by Force they cannot certainly have the Forehead to infer any Right they being but as the Pirat said to ALEXANDER public and more magnificent Robbers Certainly these are the NIMRODS the great Hunters Gods Scourges and the Burdens of the Earth and whether they be Founders of Empires or great Captains as BOCCALIN distinguishes them they ought rather to be remember'd with horror and detestation than have that undue Reverence with which they commonly meet YET these are they that lay the Foundations of Succession and from these do the Successors claim and enjoy with he less reluctance because the regret of the Violences and hate of the first daily wears out whether it be by the continuance of Peace that charms men into a love of ease or that the continuance of Slavery enfeebles their Minds that they rather chuse to look at their present Enjoyment than real Happiness so that it is not strange if the Person of their Oppressor becomes in time adorable and he himself thinks that confirm'd and justify'd to him in process of time to which in the beginning he had no right But if we consider the business a little higher we might find that since neither the People as we have prov'd before have power to make themselves Vassals and the Intruders themselves cannot pretend any just Title their Domination is merely illegal and apt to be shaken off with the first conveniency it being every whit as equitable that these men should be judg'd Enemys of Mankind and condemn'd to die the death of Parricids for usurping a Power as NERO for abusing it But I would fain ask the Regious Defenders by what Law they can maintain Governments to be inherent in one and to be transmitted to his Ofspring If they say by the Law of God I would demand again how they can make this Law appear to me If they say that the Scripture contains the Right and sacredness of Kings I ask them again How they know that God extends that Privilege and Authority to this King If they say that he is involv'd in the general Right they do but run into a Circle unless they can show me that all his Approches to the Government were regular and such as God was pleas'd with or else God had by som Sign and Wonder declar'd his approbation of him for without these two they must make God the Author of Evil which is impious and pretend his Commission for an unlawful Act and by the same right any other as a Tyrant for example may pretend it to an Action never so unjust it being no inusual thing to borrow the face of Divinity even upon som foul Impostures as to forbear further Instances NUMA'S Conference with AEGERIA SCIPIO'S Retirement into the Capitol and SERTORIUS'S white Hart. Now if they pretend the Law of Nature they must demonstrat to us both that she endow'd men with inequal Freedom and that she shap'd out such a Man to rule whereas it appears on the contrary that all Men naturally are equal for tho Nature with a noble Variety has made different the Features and Lineaments of Men yet as to Freedom till it be lost by som external means she has made every one alike and given them the same Desires But suppose she had intended such a Family for Government and had given them som illustrious Marks as we read of som that had whether by the imagination of their Mothers or by Deceit yet then would Nature fall into a double Irregularity first in deserting her Method of making all free and secondly in making her general Work merely subservient and secondary to her particular which how contrary it is to that beautiful Harmony of hers I need not much insist Now if they say they are Fathers of the People and for that reason they call themselves the Heads inferring the People to be no more than a Trunk it 's only metaphorical and proves nothing for they must remember that since Father has a relation upon which it depends and upon whose removal it vanishes they themselves cannot bring any such for by physical procreation they will not offer it and for metaphorical Dependence it will com to nothing we seeing People languish when their Princes are fullest and like Leeches rather willing to burst than to fall of and on the contrary the People upon the removal of a Prince cheerful and reliev'd Now if there were so strict a Union between these two such a Contrariety and Antipathy could never appear for certainly when any two
the Interest of popular Government com the nearest to the Interest of Mankind then the Reason of popular Government must com the nearest to right Reason BUT it may be said that the diâ—ficulty remains yet for be the Interest of popular Government right Reason a Man dos not look upon Reason as it is right or wrong in it self but as it makes for him or against him Wherfore unless you can shew such Orders of a Government as like those of God in Nature shall be able to constrain this or that Creature to shake off that Inclination which is more peculiar to it and take up that which regards the common Good or Interest all this is to no more end than to persuade every man in a popular Government not to carve himself of that which he desires most but to be mannerly at the public Table and give the best from himself to Decency and the common Interest But that such Orders may be establish'd as may nay must give the upper hand in all cases to common Right or Interest notwithstanding the nearness of that which sticks to every man in privat and this in a way of equal certainty and facility is known even to Girls being no other than those that are of common practice with them in divers cases For example two of them have a Cake yet undivided which was given between them that each of them therfore may have that which is due Divide says one to the other and I will chuse or let me divide and you shall chuse If this be but once agreed upon it is enough for the divident dividing unequally loses in regard that the other takes the better half wherfore she divides equally and so both have right O the depth of the Wisdom of God! and yet by the mouths of Babes and Sucklings has he set forth his strength that which great Philosophers are disputing upon in vain is brought to light by two harmless Girls even the whole Mystery of a Commonwealth which lys only in dividing and chusing Nor has God if his Works in Nature be understood left so much to Mankind to dispute upon as who shall divide and who chuse but distributed them for ever into two Orders wherof the one has the natural right of dividing and the other of chusing For Example The Orders of popular Government in Nature A COMMONWEALTH is but a civil Society of Men let us take any number of Men as twenty and immediatly make a Commonwealth Twenty Men if they be not all Idiots perhaps if they be can never com so together but there will be such a difference in them that about a third will be wiser or at least less foolish than all the rest these upon acquaintance tho it be but small will be discover'd and as Stags that have the largest heads lead the herd for while the six discoursing and arguing one with another shew the eminence of their parts the fourteen discover things that they never thought on or are clear'd in divers Truths which had formerly perplex'd them Wherfore in matter of common concernment difficulty or danger they hang upon their lips as Children upon their Fathers and the influence thus acquir'd by the six the eminence of whose parts is found to be a stay and comfort to the fourteen is * Authoritas Patrum the Authority of the Fathers Wherfore this can be no other than a natural Aristocracy diffus'd by God throout the whole Body of Mankind to this end and purpose and therfore such as the People have not only a natural but a positive Obligation to make use of as their Guides as where the People of Israel are commanded to take wise men Deut. 1. 13. and understanding and known among their Tribes to be made Rulers over them The six then approv'd of as in the present case are the Senat not by hereditary Right or in regard of the greatness of their Estates only which would tend to such Power as might force or draw the People but by election for their excellent Parts which tends to the advancement of the influence of their Virtue or Authority that leads the People Wherfore the Office of the Senat is not to be Commanders but Counsellors of the People and that which is proper to Counsellors is first to debate and afterward to give advice in the business wherupon they have debated whence the Decrees of the Senat are never Laws nor so †Senatusconsulta call'd and these being maturely fram'd it is their duty ‖ Ferre ad Populum to propose in the case to the People Wherfore the Senat is no more than the debate of the Commonwealth But to debate is to discern or put a difference between things that being alike are not the same or it is separating and weighing this reason against that and that reason against this which is dividing The People THE Senat then having divided who shall chuse Ask the Girls for is she that divided must have chosen also it had bin little worse for the other in case she had not divided at all but kept the whole Cake to her self in regard that being to chuse too she divided accordingly Wherfore if the Senat have any farther power thanto divide the Commonwealth can never be equal But in a Commonwealth consisting of a single Council there is no other to chuse than that which divided whence it is that such a Council sails not to scramble that is to be factious there being no other dividing of the Cake in that case but among themselves NOR is there any remedy but to have another Council to chuse The Wisdom of the Few may be the Light of Mankind but the Interest of the Few is not the Profit of Mankind nor of a Common-wealth Wherfore seeing we have granted Interest to be Reason they must not chuse lest it put out their Light But as the Council dividing consists of the Wisdom of the Commonwealth so the Assembly or Council chusing should consist of the Interest of the Common-wealth as the Wisdom of the Commonwealth is in the Aristocracy so the Interest of the Commonwealth is in the whole body of the People And wheras this in case the Commonwealth consist of a whole Nation is too unweildy a body to be assembled this Council is to consist of such a Representative as may be equal and so constituted as can never contract any other Interest than that of the whole People the manner wherof being such as is best shewn by Exemplification I remit to the Model But in the present case the six dividing and the fourteen chusing must of necessity take in the whole interest of the twenty DIVIDING and chusing in the language of a Commonwealth is debating and resolving and whatsoever upon debate of the Senat is propos'd to the People and resolv'd by them is enacted * Authoritate Patrum jussu Populi by the authority of the Fathers and by the power of
extraordinary gives at once the Commission and takes security in a balance added to the Council of War tho securer before by the Tribuns of the People than that of Venice which yet never incur'd Jealousy For if the younger Nobility have bin often girding at it that happen'd not so much thro the apprehension of danger in it to the Commonwealth as thro the aw of it upon themselves Wherfore the Graver have doubtlesly shewn their Prudence in the Law wherby the Magistracy of these Counsillors being to last till their Successors be created the Council is establish'd THE Instructions of the Councils for their matter being shewn it remains that I shew the Instructions for the manner of their proceding as they follow in 20. Order Instructions for the Councils as to their manner of Proceding THE twentieth ORDER containing the Method of Debates to be observ'd by the Magistrats and the Councils successively in order to a Decree of the Senat. THE Magistrats of the Signory as Counsillors of this Commonwealth shall take into their consideration all matters of State or of Government and having right to propose in any Council may any one or more of them propose what business he or they please in that Council to which it most properly belongs And that the Councils may be held to their duty the said Magistrats are superintendents and inspectors of the same with right to propose to the Senat. THE Censors have equal Power with these Magistrats but in relation to the Council of Religion only ANY two of the three Provosts in every Council may propose to and are the more peculiar Proposers of the same Council to the end that there be not only an inspection and superintendency of business in general but that every work be also committed to a peculiar hand ANY one or more of the Magistrats or any two of the Provosts respectively having propos'd the Council shall debate the business so propos'd to which they of the third Region that are willing shall speak first in their order they of the second next and they of the first last and the opinions of those that propos'd or spoke as they shall be thought the most considerable by the Council shall be taken by the Secretary of the same in writing and each of them sign'd with the name of the Author THE Opinions being thus prepar'd any Magistrat of the Signory the Censor or any two of the Provosts of that Council upon this occasion may assemble the Senat. THE Senat being assembled the Opinions for example if they be four shall be read in their Order that is according to the Order or Dignity of the Magistrats or Counsillors by which they were sign'd And being read if any of the Council introducing them will speak they as best acquainted with the business shall have precedence and after them the Senators shall speak according to their Regions beginning by the third first and so continuing till every man that will has spoken and when the Opinions have bin sufficiently debated they shall be put all together to the Ballot after this manner FOVR Secretarys carrying each of them one of the Opinions in one hand with a white Box in the other and â—ach following the other according to the order of the Opinions shall present his Box naming the Author of his Opinion to every Senator and one Secretary or Ballotin with a green Box shall follow the four white ones and one Secretary or Ballotin with a red Box shall follow the green one and every Senator shall put one Ball into som one of these six boxes The Suffrage being gather'd and open'd before the Signory if the red Box or Nonsincere had above half the Suffrages the Opinions shall he all cast out for the major part of the House is not clear in the business If no one of the four Opinions had above half the Suffrages in the Affirmative that which had fewest shall be cast out and the other three shall be balloted again If no one of the three had above half that which had fewest shall be cast out and the other two shall ballot again If neither of the two had above half that which had fewest shall be cast out and the remaining Opinion shall be balloted again And if the remaining Opinion has not above half it shall also be cast out But the first of the Opinions that arrives at most above half in the Affirmative is the Decree of the Senat. The Opinions being all of them cast out by the Nonsincere may be review'd if occasion permits by the Council and brought in again If they be cast out by the Negative the case being of advice only the House approves not and there is an end of it the case being necessary and admitting delay the Council is to think again upon the business and to bring in new Opinions but the Case being necessary and not admitting delay the Senat immediatly electing the Juncta shall create the Dictator * Et videat Dictator ne quid Respub detrimenti capiat And let the Dictator as the Roman saying is take care that the Commonwealth receives no harm THIS in case the Debate concludes not in a Decree But if a Decree be past it is either in matter of State or Government according to Law enacted already and then it is good without going any further or it is in matter of Law to be enacted repeal'd or amended and then the Decree of the Senat especially if it be for a War or for a Levy of Men or Mony is invalid without the result of the Commonwealth which is in the Prerogative Tribe or Representative of the People THE Senat having prepar'd a Decree to be propos'd to the People shall appoint their Proposers and no other may propose for the Senat to the People but the Magistrats of the House that is to say the three Commissioners of the Seal or any two of them the three of the Treasury or any two of them or the two Censors THE Senat having appointed their Proposers shall require of the Tribuns a muster of the People at a set time and place and the Tribuns or any two of them having muster'd the People accordingly the Proposers shall propose the Sense or Decree of the Senat by clauses to the People And that which is propos'd by the Authority of the Senat and resolv'd by the Command of the People is the Law of Oceana TO this Order implicitly containing the sum very near of the whole Civil part of the Commonwealth my Lord ARCHON spoke thus in Council My Dear Lords THERE is a Saying That a man must cut his Coat according to his Cloth When I consider what God has allow'd or furnish'd to our present work I am amaz'd You would have a popular Government he has weigh'd it to you in the present balance as I may say to a dram you have no more to do but to fix it For the Superstructures of such a Government they
he dos not only give you his judgment but the best proof of it for this says he was the first thing that after so many misfortunes past made the City again to raise her head The place I would desire your Lordships to note as the first example that I find or think is to be found of a popular Assembly by way of Representative LACEDEMON consisted of thirty thousand Citizens dispers'd throout Laconia one of the greatest Provinces in all Greece and divided as by som Authors is probable into six Tribes Of the whole body of these being gather'd consisted the great Church or Assembly which had the Legislative Power the little Church gather'd somtimes for matters of concern within the City consisted of the Spartans only These happen'd like that of Venice to be good Constitutions of a Congregation but from an ill cause the infirmity of a Commonwealth which thro her paucity was Oligarchical WHERFORE go which way you will it should seem that without a Representative of the People your Commonwealth consisting of a whole Nation can never avoid falling either into Oligarchy or Confusion THIS was seen by the Romans whose rustic Tribes extending themselves from the River Arno to the Vulturnus that is from Fesâ—lâ— or Florence to Câ—pua invented a way of Representative by Lots the Tribe upon which the first fell being the Prerogative and som two or three more that had the rest the Jure vocatae These gave the Suffrage of the Commonwealth in * * Binis Comitiis two meetings the Prerogative at the first Assembly and the Jure vocatae at a second NOW to make the parallel all the Inconveniences that you have observ'd in these Assemblys are shut out and all the Conveniences taken into your Prerogative For first it is that for which Athens shaking off the blame of XENOPHON and POLYBIUS came to deserve the praise of THUCYDIDES a Representative And secondly not as I suspect in that of Athens and is past suspicion in this of Rome by lot but by suffrage as was also the late House of Commons by which means in your Prerogatives all the Tribes of Oceana are Jure vocatae and if a man shall except against the paucity of the standing number it is a wheel which in the revolution of a few years turns every hand that is fit or fits every hand that it turns to the public work Moreover I am deceiv'd if upon due consideration it dos not fetch your Tribes with greater equality and ease to themselves and to the Government from the Frontiers of Marpesia than Rome ever brought any one of hers out of her Pomâ—ria or the nearest parts of her adjoining Territorys To this you may add That wheras a Commonwealth which in regard of the People is not of facility in execution were sure enough in this Nation to be cast off thro impatience your Musters and Galaxys are given to the People as milk to Babes wherby when they are brought up thro four days election in a whole year one at the Parish one at the Hundred and two at the Tribe to their strongest meat it is of no harder digestion than to give their Negative or Affirmative as they see cause There be gallant men among us that laugh at such an Appeal or Umpire but I refer it whether you be more inclining to pardon them or me who I confess have bin this day laughing at a sober man but without meaning him any harm and that is PETRUS CUNAEUS where speaking of the nature of the People he says that taking them apart they are very simple but yet in their Assemblys they see and know somthing and so runs away without troubling himself with what that somthing is Wheras the People taken apart are but so many privat Interests but if you take them together they are the public Interest The public Interest of a Commonwealth as has bin shewn is nearest that of mankind and that of mankind is right reason but with Aristocracy whose Reason or Interest when they are all together as appear'd by the Patricians is but that of a Party it is quite contrary for as taken apart they are far wiser than the People consider'd in that manner so being put together they are such fools who by deposing the People as did those of Rome will saw off the branch wherupon they sit or rather destroy the root of their own Greatness Wherfore MACCHIAVEL following ARISTOTLE and yet going before him may well assert * * Che la multitudine è piu savia piu constante che un Prencipe That the People are wiser and more constant in their Resolutions than a Prince which is the Prerogative of popular Government for Wisdom And hence it is that the Prerogative of your Commonwealth as for Wisdom so for Power is in the People which tho I am not ignorant that the Roman Prerogative was so call'd à Praerogando because their Suffrage was first ask'd gives the denomination to your Prerogative Tribe THE Elections whether Annual or Triennial being shewn by the twenty second that which coms in the next place to be consider'd is 23. Order The Constitution Function and manner of Proceding of the Prerogative THE twenty third ORDER shewing the Power Function and manner of Proceding of the Prerogative Tribe THE Power or Function of the Prerogative is of two parts the one of Result in which it is the Legislative Power the other of Judicature in which regard it is the highest Court and the last appeal in this Commonwealth FOR the former part the People by this Constitution being not oblig'd by any Law that is not of their own making or confirmation by the result of the Prerogative their equal Representative it shall not be lawful for the Senat to require obedience from the People nor for the People to give obedience to the Senat in or by any Law that has not bin promulgated or printed and publish'd for the space of six weeks and afterwards propos'd by the Authority of the Senat to the Prerogative Tribe and resolv'd by the major Vote of the same in the Affirmative Nor shall the Senat have any power to levy War Men or Mony otherwise than by the consent of the People so given or by a Law so enacted except in cases of Exigence in which it is agreed that the Power both of the Senat and the People shall be in the Dictator so qualify'd and for such a term of time as is according to that Constitution already prescrib'd While a Law is in promulgation the Censors shall animadvert upon the Senat and the Tribuns upon the People that there be no laying of heads together no Conventicles or canvassing to carry on or oppose any thing but that all may be don in a free and open way FOR the latter part of the Power of the Prerogative or that wherby they are the Supreme Judicatory of this Nation and of the Provinces of the same the cognizance of
Crimes against the Majesty of the People such as High Treason as also of Peculat that is robbery of the Treasury or defraudation of the Commonwealth appertains to this Tribe And if any Person or Persons Provincials or Citizens shall appeal to the People it belongs to the Prerogative to judg and determin the case provided that if the Appeal be from any Court of Justice in this Nation or the Provinces the Appellant shall first deposit a hundred Pounds in the Court from which he appeals to be forfeited to the same if he be cast in his Suit by the People But the Power of the Council of War being the expedition of this Commonwealth and the martial Law of the Strategus in the Field are those only from which there shall ly no Appeal to the People THE Proceding of the Prerogative in case of a Proposition is to be thus order'd The Magistrats proposing by Authority of the Senat shall rehearse the whole matter and expound it to the People which don they shall put the whole together to the Suffrage with three Boxes the Negative the Affirmative and the Nonsincere and the Suffrage being return'd to the Tribuns and number'd in the presence of the Proposers if the major Vote be in the Nonsincere the Proposers shall desist and the Senat shall resume the Debate If the major Vote be in the Negative the Proposers shall desist and the Senat too But if the major Vote be in the Affirmative then the Tribe is clear and the Proposers shall begin and put the whole matter with the Negative and the Affirmative leaving out the Nonsincere by Clauses and the Suffrages being taken and number'd by the Tribuns in the presence of the Proposers shall be written and reported by the Tribuns to the Senat. And that which is propos'd by the Authority of the Senat and consirm'd by the Command of the People is the Law of Oceana THE Proceding of the Prerogative in a case of Judicature is to be thus order'd The Tribuns being Auditors of all Causes appertaining to the cognizance of the People shall have notice of the Suit or Trial whether of Appeal or otherwise that is to be commenc'd and if any one of them shall acâ—ept of the same it appertains to him to introduce it A Cause being introduc'd and the People muster'd or assembl'd for the decision of the same the Tribuns are Presidents of the Court having power to keep it to Orders and shall be seated upon a Scaffold erected in the middle of the Tribe Vpon the right hand shall stand a Seat or large Pulpit assign'd to the Plaintif or the Accuser and upon the left another for the Defendent each if they please with his Council And the Tribuns being attended upon such occasions with so many Ballotins Secretarys Doorkeepers and Messengers of the Senat as shall be requisit one of them shall turn up a Glass of the nature of an Hourglass but such a one as is to be of an hour and a halfs running which being turn'd up the Party or Council on the right hand may begin to speak to the People If there be Papers to be read or Witnesses to be examin'd the Officer shall lay the Glass sideways till the Papers be read and the Witnesses examin'd and then turn it up again and so long as the Glass is running the Party on the right hand has liberty to speak and no longer The Party on the right hand having had his time the like shall be don in every respect for the Party on the left And the Cause being thus heard the Tribuns shall put the question to the Tribe with a white a black and a red Box or Nonsincere whether Guilty or not Guilty And if the Suffrage being taken the major Vote be in the Nonsincere the Cause shall be reheard upon the next juridical day following and put to the question in the same manner If the major Vote coms the second time in the Non-sincere the Cause shall be heard again upon the third day but at the third hearing the question shall be put without the Nonsincere Vpon the first of the three days in which the major Vote coms in the white Box the Party accus'd is absolv'd and upon the first of them in which it coms in the black Box the Party accus'd is condemn'd The Party accus'd being condemn'd the Tribuns if the case be criminal shall put with the white and the black Box these Questions or such of them as regard had to the case they shall conceive most proper 1. WHETHER he shall have a Writ of ease 2. WHETHER he shall be sin'd so much or so much 3. WHETHER he shall be consiscated 4. WHETHER he shall be render'd incapable of Magistracy 5. WHETHER he shall be banish'd 6. WHETHER he shall be put to death THESE or any three of these Questions whether simple or such as shall be thought sitly mix'd being put by the Tribuns that which has most above half the Voies in the black Box is the Sentence of the People which the Troop of the third Classis is to see executed accordingly BVT wheras by the Constitution of this Commonwealth it may appear that neither the Propositions of the Senat nor the Judicature of the People will be so frequent as to hold the Prerogative in continual imployment the Senat a main part of whose Office it is to teach and instruct the People shall duly if they have no greater Affairs to divert them cause an Oration to be made to the Prerogative by som Knight or Magistrat of the Senat to be chosen out of the ablest men and from time to time appointed by the Orator of the House in the great Hall of the Pantheon while the Parlament resides in the Town or in som Grove or sweet place in the sield while the Parlament for the heat of the year shall reside in the Country upon every Tuesday morning or afternoon AND the Orator appointed for the time to this Office shall first repeat the Orders of the Commonwealth with all possible brevity and then making choice of one or som part of it discourse therof to the People An Oration or Discourse of this nature being afterward perus'd by the Council of State may as they see cause be printed and publish'd THE ARCHON'S Comment upon the Order I find to have bin of this sense My Lords TO crave pardon for a word or two in farther explanation of what was read I shall briefly shew how the Constitution of this Tribe or Assembly answers to their Function and how their Function which is of two parts the former in the Result or Legislative Power the latter in the supreme Judicature of the Common-wealth answers to their Constitution MACCHIAVEL has a Discourse where he puts the question Whether the guard of Liberty may with more security be committed to the Nobility or to the People Which doubt of his arises thro the want of explaining his terms for the guard of Liberty can
better Proveditor than the Venetian another Strategus sitting with an Army standing by him wherupon that which is marching if there were any probability it should would find as little possibility that it could recoil as a foren Enemy to invade you These things consider'd a War will appear to be of a contrary nature to that of all other reckonings inasmuch as of this you must never look to have a good account if you be strict in imposing checks Let a Council of Huntsmen assembl'd beforehand tell you which way the Stag shall run where you shall cast about at the fault and how you shall ride to be in at the chase all the day but these may as well do that as a Council of War direct a General The hours that have painted wings and of different colors are his Council he must be like the Ey that makes not the Scene but has it so soon as it changes That in many Counsillors there is strength is spoken of Civil Administrations as to those that are military there is nothing more certain than that in many Counsillors there is weakness Joint Commissions in military affairs are like hunting your Hounds in their Couples In the Attic War CLEOMENES and DEMARATUS Kings of Lacedemon being thus coupl'd tug'd one against another and while they should have join'd against the Persian were the cause of the common calamity wherupon that Commonwealth took better Counsil and made a Law wherby from thenceforth there went at once but one of her Kings to Battel THE Fidenati being in rebellion and having slain the Colony of the Romans four Tribuns with Consular Power were created by the People of Rome wherof one being left for the guard of the City the other three were sent against the Fidenati who thro the division that happen'd among them brought nothing home but Dishonor wherupon the Romans created the Dictator and LIVY gives his Judgment in these words * * Tres Tribuni potestate Consulari documento fuêre quà m plurium imperium bello inutile esset tendendo ad sua quisque consilia cum alii aliud videretur aperuerunt ad occasionem locum hosti The three Tribuns with Consular Power were a lesson how useless in War is the joint Command of several Generals for each following his own Counsils while they all differ'd in their opinions gave by this opportunity an advantage to the Enemy When the Consuls QUINTIUS and AGRIPPA were sent against the AEQUI AGRIPPA for this reason refus'd to go with his Collegue saying * * Saluberrimum in administratione magnarum rerum summam imperii apud unum esse That in the administration of great Actions it was most safe that the chief Command should be lodg'd in one Person And if the Ruin of modern Armys were well consider'd most of it would be found to have faln upon this point it being in this case far safer to trust to any one Man of common Prudence than to any two or more together of the greatest Parts The Consuls indeed being equal in Power while one was present with the Senat and the other in the Field with the Army made a good Balance and this with us is exactly follow'd by the Election of a new Strategus upon the march of the old one THE seven and twentieth Order wherby the Elders in case of Invasion are oblig'd to equal duty with the Youth and each upon their own charge is sutable to Reason for every Man defends his own Estate and to our Copy as in the War with the Samnits and Tuscans ††Senatus justitium indici delectum omnis generis hominum haberi jussit nec ingenui modo juniores Sacramento adacti sunt sed seniorum etiam cohortes factae The Senat order'd a Vacation to be proclaim'd and a Levy to be made of all sorts of Persons And not only the Freemen and Youths were listed but Cohorts of the old Men were likewise form'd This Nation of all others is the least obnoxious to Invasion Oceana says a French Politician is a Beast that cannot be devour'd but by her self nevertheless that Government is not perfect which is not provided at all points and in this ad Triarios res rediit the Elders being such as in a martial State must be Veterans the Commonwealth invaded gathers strength like ANTAEUS by her fall while the whole number of the Elders consisting of five hundred thousand and the Youth of as many being brought up according to the Order give twelve successive Battels each Battel consisting of eighty thousand Men half Elders and half Youth And the Commonwealth whose Constitution can be no stranger to any of those Virtues which are to be acquir'd in human life grows familiar with Death ere she dys If the hand of God be upon her for her Transgressions she shall mourn for her Sins and ly in the dust for her Iniquitys without losing her Manhood Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidam ferient ruinae THE remaining part being the Constitution of the Provincial Orb is partly Civil or consisting of the Elders and partly Military or consisting of the Youth The Civil part of the provincial Orb is directed by 28. Order Constitution of the Civil part of the Provincial Orb. THE twenty eighth ORDER wherby the Council of a Province being constituted of twelve Knights divided by four into three Regions for their term and revolution conformable to the Parlament is perpetuated by the annual election at the Tropic of four Knights being triennial Magistrats out of the Region of the Senat whose term expires and of one Knight out of the same Region to be Strategus or General of the Province which Magistracy is annual The Strategus or Magistrat thus chosen shall be as well President of the Provincial Council with power to propose to the same as General of the Army The Council for the rest shall elect weekly Provosts having any two of them also right to propose after the manner of the Senatorian Councils of Oceana And wheras all Provincial Councils are Members of the Council of State they may and ought to keep diligent correspondence with the same which is to be don after this manner Any Opinion or Opinions legitimatly propos'd and debated at a Provincial Council being therupon sign'd by the Strategus or any two of the Provosts may be transmitted to the Council of State in Oceana and the Council of State proceding upon the same in their natural course whether by their own Power if it be a matter within their Instructions or by Authority of the Senat therupon consulted if it be a matter of State which is not in their Instructions or by Authority of the Senat and Command of the People if it be a matter of Law as for the Levys of Men or Mony upon common use and safety shall return such Answers Advice or Orders as in any of the ways mention'd shall be determin'd upon the case The Provincial Councils of
elected a Magistrat of the Tribe but a Magistrat or Officer either of the Hundred or of the Tribe being elected into the Galaxy may substitute any one of his own Order to his Magistracy or Office in the Hundred or in the Tribe This of the Muster is two days work So the body of the People is annually at the charge of three days work and a half in their own Tribes for the perpetuation of their Power receiving over and above the Magistracys so divided among them EVERY Monday next insuing the last of March the Knights being a Hundred in all the Tribes take their places in the Senat the Knights having taken their places in the Senat make the third Region of the same and the House procedes to the Senatorian Elections Senatorian Elections are annual biennial or emergent THE annual are perform'd by the Tropic THE Tropic is a Scedule consisting of two parts the first by which the Senatorian Magistrats are elected and the second by which the Senatorian Councils are perpetuated THE first part is of this Tenor. THE Lord Strategus Annual Magistrats and therfore such as may be elected out of any Region the term of every Region having at the Tropic one year at the least unexpir'd THE Lord Orator THE first Censor THE second Censor THE third Commissioner of the Seal Triennial Magistrats and therfore such as can be chosen out of the third Region only as that alone which has the term of three years unexpir'd THE third Commissioner of the Treasury THE Strategus and the Orator sitting are Consuls or Presidents of the Senat. THE Strategus marching is General of the Army in which case a new Strategus is elected to sit in his room THE Strategus sitting with the six Commissioners being Counsillors of the Nation are the Signory of the Commonwealth THE Censors are Magistrats of the Ballot Presidents of the Council for Religion and Chancellors of the Vniversitys THE second part of the Tropic perpetuats the Council of State by the election of five Knights out of the first Region of the Senat to be the first Region of that Council consisting of fifteen Knights five in every Region THE like is don by the election of four into the Council of Religion and four into the Council of Trade out of the same Region in the Senat each of these Councils consisting of twelve Knights four in every Region BVT the Council of War consisting of nine Knights three in every Region is elected by and out of the Council of State as the other Councils are elected by and out of the Senat. And if the Senat add a Juncta of nine Knights more elected out of their own number for the term of three months the Council of War by virtue of that addition is Dictator of Oceana for the said term THE Signory jointly or severally has right of Session and Suffrage in every Senatorian Council and to propose either to the Senat or any of them And every Region in a Council electing one weekly Provost any two of those Provosts have Power also to propose to their respective Council as the proper and peculiar Proposers of the same for which cause they hold an Academy where any man either by word of mouth or writing may propose to the Proposers NEXT to the Elections of the Tropic is the biennial Election of one Embassador in ordinary by the Ballot of the House to the Residence of France at which time the Resident of France removes to Spain he of Spain to Venice he of Venice to Constantinople and he of Constantinople returns So the Orb of the Residents is wheel'd about in eight years by the biennial Election of one Embassador in Ordinary THE last kind of Election is emergent Emergent Elections are made by the Scrutiny Election by Scrutiny is when a Competitor being made by a Council and brought into the Senat the Senat chuses four more Competitors to him and putting all five to the Ballot he who has most above half the Suffrages is the Magistrat The Polemarchs or Fiâ—ld Officers are chosen by the Scrutiny of the Council of War an Embassador Extraordinary by the Scrutiny of the Council of State the Judges and Serjeants at Law by the Scrutiny of the Seal and the Barons and prime Officers of the Exchequer by the Scrutiny of the Treasury THE Opinion or Opinions that are legitimatly propos'd to any Council must be debated by the same and so many as are resolv'd upon the Debate are introduc'd into the Senat where they are debated and resolv'd or rejected by the whole House that which is resolv'd by the Senat is a Decree which is good in matters of State but no Law except it be propos'd to and resolv'd by the Prerogative THE Deputys of the Galaxy being three Horse and four Foot in a Tribe amount in all the Tribes to one hundred and fifty Horse and two hundred Foot which having enter'd the Prerogative and chosen their Captains Cornet and Ensign triennial Officers make the third Classis consisting of one Troop and one Company and so joining with the whole Prerogative elect four annual Magistrats call'd Tribuns wherof two are of the Horse and two of the Foot These have the Command of the Prerogative Sessions and Suffrage in the Council of War and Sessions without Suffrage in the Senat. THE Senat having past a Decree which they would propose to the People cause it to be printed and publish'd or promulgated for the space of six weeks which being order'd they chuse their Proposers The Proposers must be Magistrats that is the Commissioners of the Seal those of the Treasury or the Censors These being chosen desire the Muster of the Tribuns and appoint the day The People being assembl'd at the day appointed and the Decree propos'd that which is propos'd by authority of the Senat and commanded by the People is the Law of Oceana or an Act of Parlament SO the Parlament of Oceana consists of the Senat proposing and the People resolving THE People or Prerogative are also the Supreme Judicatory of this Nation having Power of hearing and determining all Causes of Appeal from all Magistrats or Courts Provincial or Domestic as also to question any Magistrat the term of his Magistracy being expir'd if the Case be introduc'd by the Tribuns or any one of them THE Military Orbs consist of the Youth that is such as are from eighteen to thirty years of Age and are created in the following manner EVERY Wednesday next insuing the last of December the Youth of every Parish assembling elect the fifth of their number to be their Deputys the Deputys of the Youth are call'd Stratiots and this is the first Essay EVERY Wednesday next insuing the last of January the Stratiots assembling at the Hundred elect their Captain and their Ensign and fall to their Games and Sports EVERY Wednesday next insuing the last of February the Stratiots are receiv'd by the Lord Lieutenant their Commander in Chief with the
is Debating But they that are capable of this kind of dividing or debating are few among many that when things are thus divided and debated are able enough to chuse which in the language of a Commonwealth is to resolve Hence it is that the Debate of the Few because there be but few that can debate is the wisest Debate and the Result of the Many because every man has an Interest what to chuse and that choice which sutes with every man's Interest excludes the distinct or privat Interest or Passion of any man and so coms up to the common and public Interest or Reason is the wisest Result To this end God who dos nothing in vain has so divided Mankind into the Few or the natural Aristocracy and the Many or the natural Democracy that there can hardly be upon any occasion a meeting of twenty men wherin it will not be apparent or in which you may not see all those Lines which are requisit to the face of a beautiful Commonwealth For example among any twenty men occasionally met there will be som few perhaps six excelling the fourteen in greatness of Parts These six falling into discourse of business or giving their judgment upon Persons or Things tho but by way of mere Conversation will discover their Abilitys wherupon they shall be listen'd to and regarded by the Fourteen that is the Six will acquire an Authority with and imprint a Reverence upon the Fourteen which Action and Passion in the Roman Commonwealth were call'd Authoritas Patrum Verecundia Plebis Nevertheless if the Six indeavor to extend the Authority which they find thus acquir'd to Power that is to bring the Fourteen to terms or conditions of Obedience or such as would be advantageous to the Few but prejudicial to the Many the Fourteen will soon find that consenting they hurt not only themselves by indamaging their own Interests but hurt the Six also who by this means com to lose their Virtue and so spoil their Debate which while such advantages are procurable to themselves will go no further upon the common Good but their privat Benefit Wherfore in this case they Book I will not consent and not consenting they preserve not only their own Liberty but the integrity of the Six also who perceiving that they cannot impair the common Interest have no other interest left but to improve it And neither any Conversation nor any People how dull soever and subject by fits to be deluded but will soon see thus much which is enough because what is thus propos'd by the Authority of the Six or of the Senat and resolv'd by the Fourteen or by the People is enacted by the Whole and becoms that Law than which tho Mankind be not infallible there can be nothing less fallible in Mankind Art is the imitation of Nature by observation of such Lines as these in the face of Nature a Politician limns his Commonwealth Consid p. 26. But says the Prevaricator the Paralogism lys in this that the twenty men are first suppos'd to be a Commonwealth and then it is consider'd how they would dispose of the Government What is this Art is the imitation of Nature therfore Art presumes Nature to be Art A Picture is the representation of a Face therfore the Picturedrawer presum'd the Face to be a Picture and in this same there is lying being or squatting a thing call'd a Paralogism Did you ever hear such a Paraketism for to speak a word without understanding the sense of it is like a Parrat And yet I wrong the Parrat in this comparison for she tho she do not understand her self is understood by others wheras neither can this Prevaricator tell what he means nor any man Consid p. 27. else Or riddle me riddle me what is this The sense of want among men that are in equality of Power may beget a desire of exchange as let me have your Horse and you shall have my Cow which is the fountain of privat Contracts but it is not to be with reason imagin'd that this should be enough to make a man part with a natural Freedom and put himself into the hands of a Power from which he can afterwards have no shield tho it should be us'd to his own destruction MOST victorious Nonsense for he that says nothing cannot be answer'd It should seem if the twenty men were indeed a Commonmonwealth or in equality of Power for so he puts the case they might truck Horses and Cows but not by any means consider or once let it enter into their heads how by Art to make good their natural Freedom That unless they set up a Prince as you shall see anon were to part with their natural Freedom and put themselves into the hands of a Power from which there being no other Power but themselves they can afterwards have no shield To read it throughly for the understanding as is intimated in his Epistle will be more I doubt than his Book will obtain of any Reader Yet is he in his own conceit as surefooted as any Mule and knows the Road. But Mr. HARRINGTON has not lost his way without company his Brother GROTIUS complains that they who treat of Jus Gentium do commonly mistake som part of the Roman Jus Civile for it and even so he laments an 't please you that while men profess to consider the Principles of Government they fall upon Notions which are the mere effects of Government But as an Ape is the more ugly for being like a Man so this Prevaricator for making Faces like GROTIUS I who am complain'd of deriving Government from the true Principle of the same in the Balance or Foundation set the Superstructures accordingly and he who complains forsooth never so much as proposes any thing like a Principle or Superstructure but runs altogether upon mere Notions Consid p. 28. As where he asks me What Security will you give that the Six in their Consultations shall not rather aim at their own advantage than that of Chap. 5 the Fourteen and so make use of the eminence of their Parts to circumvent the rest In another place he can answer himself and say that the Fourteen or the People in this Constitution have the Vote and the Sword too How then should the Six circumvent them What Security has a Prince that his People will not pull him out of his Throne why a Nobility or an Army And are not the People in a Common-wealth their own Army Is this to mind Principles On the other side How says he shall we be satisfy'd that the Fourteen will not soon begin to ihink themselves wise enough to consult too and making use of their excess in Power pull the Six off their Cushions As if there were any experience public or privat any sense or reason that men having the whole Power in their own hands would deprive themselves of Counsillors or that ever a Commonwealth depos'd the Senat or
as if Victory had known no other wings than those of her Eagles nor seeing the Goths and Vandals are the Legislators from whom we derive the Government of King Lords and Commons were these when they overcame the Roman Empire a People so cloign'd from the perfection of Government but their Policy was then far better than that of the Emperors which having bin at first founded upon a broken Senat and a few military Colonys was now com to a Cabinet and a mercenary Army The Judgment of all Ages and Writers upon the Policy of the Roman Emperors is in this place worthy and thro the pains already taken by ERASMUS and SLEIDAN easy to be inserted O miserable and deplorable State says ERASMUS the Authority of the Senat the Power of the Law the In his Preface to Suetonius Liberty of the People being trod underfoot to a Prince that got up in this manner the whole World was a Servant while he himself was a Servant to such as no honest man would have indur'd the like Servants in his House the Senat dreaded the Emperor the Emperor dreaded his execrable Militia the Emperor gave Laws to Kings and receiv'd them from his Mercenarys To this is added by SLEIDAN That the condition De quat Imp. of these Princes was so desperat it was a wonderful thing Ambition it self could have the Courage to run such a hazard seeing from CAIUS CAESAR slain in the Senat to CHARLES the Great there had bin above thirty of them murder'd and four that had laid violent hands upon themselves For there was always somthing in them that offended the Soldiery which whether they were good or bad was equally subject to pick Quarrels upon the least occasion rais'd Tumults and dispatch'd even such of them as they had forc'd to accept of that Dignity for example AELIUS PERTINAX But if this be true that of the Goths and Vandals when they subdu'd this Empire must have bin the better Government for so ill as this never was there any except that only of the Kings of Israel which certainly was much worse Those of the Britans and the Gauls were but the dregs of this of Rome when they were overcom by the Saxons and Franks who brought in the Policy of the Goths and Vandals Book I WHEN TAMERLAN overcame BAJAZET the Turkish Policy had not attain'd to that extent of Territory which is plainly necessary to the nature of it nor was the Order of the Janizarys yet instituted The Hollander who under a potent Prince was but a Fisherman with the restitution of the popular Government is becom the better Soldier nor has he bin match'd but by a rising Commonwealth whose Policy you will say was yet worse but then her Balance being that especially which produces men was far better For Vastness for Fruitfulness of Territory for Bodys of Men for Number for Courage Nature never made a Country more potent than Germany yet this Nation antiently the Seminary of Nations has of late years merely thro the defect of her Policy which intending one Commonwealth has made a hundred Monarchys in her Bowels whose cross Interests twist her guts bin the Theater of the saddest Tragedys under the Sun nor is she curable unless som Prince falling to work with the Hammer of War be able totally to destroy the old and forge her a Government intirely new But if this coms to pass neither shall it be said that a well-policy'd Empire was subverted nor by a People so eloign'd from perfection of Government but theirs must be much better than the other Let me be as ridiculous as you will the World is in faece Romuli ripe for great Changes which must com And look to it whether it be Germany Spain France Italy or England that coms first to fix her self upon a firm Foundation of Policy she shall give Law to and be obey'd by the rest There was never so much fighting as of late days to so little purpose Arms except they have a root in Policy are altogether fruitless In the War between the King and the Parlament not the Nation only but the Policy of it was divided and which part of it was upon the better Foundation Consid p. 51. BVT says he Ragusa and San Marino are commended for their upright and equal frame of Government and yet have hardly extended their Dominion beyond the size of a handsom Mannor HAVE Ragusa or San Marino bin conquer'd by the Arms of any Monarch For this I take it is the question tho if they had these being Commonwealths unarm'd it were nothing to the purpose The question of Increase is another point Lacedemon could not increase because her frame was of another nature without ruin yet was she not conquer'd by any Monarch Consid p. 52. COM com says he for all this It is not the perfection of Government but the populousness of a Nation the natural valor of the Inhabitants the abundance of Horses Arms and other things necessary for equipping of an Army assisted with a good military Disciplin that qualify a People for Conquest and where these concur Victory is intail'd upon them Very fine AS if these could concur any otherwise than by virtue of the Policy For example there is no Nation under Heaven more populous Essay 29. than France Yet says Sir FRANCIS BACON If the Gentlemen be too many the Commons will be base and not the hundredth Poll fit for a Helmet as may be seen by comparison of England with France wherof the former tho far less in Territory and Populousness has bin nevertheless the overmatch in regard the middle People in England make good Soldiers which the Peasants in France do not This therfore was from the Policy by which the one has bin the freest and the other the most inslav'd Subject in the World and not from Populousness in Chap. 10 which case France must have bin the Overmatch THE like is observable in the natural valor of the People there being no greater courage of an Infantry than that of the middle People in England wheras the Peasant having none at all is never us'd in Arms. Again France has one of the best Cavalrys in the World which the English never had yet it avail'd her not Victory is more especially intail'd upon Courage and Courage upon Liberty which grows not without a Root planted in the Policy or Foundation of the Government ALEXANDER with a handful of Freemen overcame the greatest abundance of Horses Arms and other things necessary for the equipping of an Army the hugest Armys the most vast and populous Empire in the World and when he had don could not by all these subdue that handful of freer men tho he kill'd CLYTUS with his own hand in the quarrel to the servil Customs of that Empire And that the best military Disciplin deriv'd from the Policy of the Romans I intimated before and have shewn at large in other places BUT the Prevaricator neither minds
Ephesus for the word Ecclesia in this sense and secondly that they would not persuade us the word Ecclesia has lost this signification lest they condemn this place of Scripture to be no more understood The manner of Provincial Government being thus prov'd not only out of profane Authors but out of Scripture it self and the Citys that were least free having had such power over themselves and their Territorys why if the Romans took no more of them for this protection than was paid to their former Lords did they not rather undertake the patronage of the World than the Empire seeing Venice and Dantzic while the one was tributary to the Turk the other to the King of Poland were nevertheless so free Estates that of a King or a Commonwealth that should have put the rest of the world into the like condition no less in our day could have bin said And yet that the Romans when the nature of the Eastern Monarchys shall be rightly consider'd took far less of these Citys than their old Masters will admit of little doubt CICERO surely would not ly he when Proconsul of Cilicia wrote in this manner concerning his Circuit to his friend SERVILIUS Two days I staid at Laodicea at Apamea five at Sinnadae three at Pilomelis five at Iconium ten than which Jurisdiction or Government there is nothing more just or equal Why then had not those Citys their Senats and their Book II Ecclesiae or Congregations of the People as well as that of Ephesus and those wherof PLINY gives an account to TRAJAN CORINTH was in Achaia Perga of Pamphylia Antioch of Pisidia Iconium Lystra Derbe of Lycaonia were in Cilicia and with these as som reckon Attalia Ephesus and the other Antioch were in Syria Achaia Cilicia and Syria were Roman Provinces at the time of this Perambulation of the Apostles The Citys under Provincial Administration whether free or not free were under Popular Government whence it follows that Corinth Ephesus Antioch of Syria Antioch of Pisidia Perga Iconium Lystra Derbe Attalia being at this time under Provincial Administration were at the same time under Popular Government There has bin no hurt in going about for the proof of this tho indeed to shew that these Citys had quandam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were under Popular Government we needed to have gon no further than the Text as where the Chancellor of Ephesus to get rid of a tumultuous Ecclesia or Assembly of the People promises them a lawful one In Iconium Lystra Derbe and the rest you hear not of any King as where HEROD stretch'd out his hand to please the Jews and vex the Church but of the People of their Rulers of their Assemblys and of their Tumults The People at Lystra are now agreed to give the Apostles divine Honors and anon both at Iconium and Lystra to stone them Now to determin of divine Honor or of Life and Death are acts of Soverain Power It is true these nevertheless may happen to be usurp'd by a mere Tumult but that cannot be said of these Congregations which consisted as well of the Magistrats and Rulers as of the People and where the Magistrats shew that they had no distinct Power wherby to restrain the People nor other means to prevail against them than by making of Partys Which Passages as they prove these Commonwealths on the one side to have bin ill constituted evince on the other that these Citys were under Popular Government CHAP. III. The Deduction of the Chirotonia from Popular Government and of the Original Right of Ordination from the Chirotonia In which is contain'd the Institution of the Sanhedrim or Senat of Israel by MOSES and of that of Rome by ROMULUS DIVINES generally in their way of disputing have a bias that runs more upon Words than upon Things so that in this place it will be necessary to give the Interpretation of som other Words wherof they pretend to take a strong hold in their Controversys The chief of these has bin spoken to already Chirotonia being a word that properly signifys the Suffrage of the People wherever it is properly us'd implys Power wherfore tho the Senat decrees by Suffrage as well as the People yet there being no more in a Decree of the Senat than Authority the Senat is never said to Chirotonize or very seldom and improperly this word being peculiar to the People And thus much is imply'd in what went before THE next Word in Controversy is Psephisma which signifys a Decree Chap. 3 or Law and this always implying Power always implys the Suffrage of the People that is where it is spoken of popular Government for tho a Psephisma or Decree of the Athenian Senat was a Law for a year before it came to the Suffrage or Chirotonia of the People yet the Law or Constitution of SOLON wherby the Senat had this Power originally deriv'd from the Chirotonia of the People THE third Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifys to constitute or ordain this in the political sense of the same implys not Power but Authority for a man that writes or proposes a Decree or Form of Government may be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to propose or constitute it whether it be confirm'd by the Chirotonia of the People or not nay with HALICARNASSAEUS the Word signifys no more than barely to call or assemble the Senat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 NOW if these Words be somtimes otherwise taken what Words be there in any Language that are not often us'd improperly But that understood politically they must of necessity be understood as I have shewn or will so intangle and disorder Government that no man shall either make head or foot of it is that which I make little question to evince in the surest way that is by opening the nature of the Things whence they derive and wherof they are spoken by the best Authors AND because the Words tho the Things they signify were much more antient derive all from Athens I shall begin by this Constitution to shew the proper use of them Chirotonia in Athens as has bin shewn out of SUIDAS who speaking of Rome refers to this was Election of Magistrats or enacting Laws by the Suffrage of the People which because they gave by holding up their hands came thence to be call'd Chirotonia which signifys holding up of hands The Legislative Assembly or Representative of the People call'd the Nomothetae upon occasion of repealing an old Law and enacting a new one gave the Chirotonia of the People And yet says the Athenian Demost contra Timocr Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the Proedri give or make the Chirotonia to either Law The Proedri as was shewn in the former Book were the ten Presidents of the Prytans which Prytans upon this occasion were Presidents of the Nomothetae Again wheras it was the undoubted Right and Practice of the People to elect their Magistrats by their Chirotonia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it
as certain When the Children of Ammon made War against Israel Israel assembl'd themselves together and incamp'd in Mizpeh whence the Judg. 10. 17. Elders of Gilead went to fetch JEPHTA out of the Land of Tob. Then Judg. 11. 5 11. JEPHTA went with the Elders of Gilead and the People made him Head and Captain over them and JEPHTA utter'd all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh But that SOLOMON was elected by the Lot I do not affirm it being most probable that it was by Suffrage only DAVID proposing and the People resolving Nor whether JEPHTA was elected by Suffrage or by the Ballot is it material however that the ordinary Magistrats were elected by the Ballot I little doubt Election of Senators and Judges of inferior Courts THE ordinary Magistrats of this Commonwealth as shall hereafter Sect. 9 be more fully open'd were the Sanhedrim or the seventy Elders and the inferior Courts or Judges in the Gates of the Citys Book II For the Institution and Election of these MOSES propos'd to the Deut. 1. 13. People or the Congregation of the Lord in this manner Take you wise men and understanding and known among your Tribes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I will make or constitute them Rulers over you Where by the way lest MOSES in these words be thought to assume power SOLON says ARISTOTLE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made or constituted the Popular Government of Athens In which he implys not that SOLON was a King or had Soverain Power but that he was a Lawgiver and had authority to propose to the People Nor is there more in the words of MOSES upon whose Proposition say Jewish Writers each of the twelve Tribes by free Suffrages elected six Competitors and wrote their Names in scrols which they deliver'd to MOSES MOSES having thus presented to him by the twelve Tribes seventy and two Competitors for seventy Magistracys had by consequence two more Competitors than were capable of the Preferment to which they were elected by the People Wherfore MOSES took two Urns into the one he cast the seventy two Names presented by the People into the other seventy two Lots wherof two were blanks the rest inscrib'd with the word Elder This don he call'd the Competitors to the Urn where the seventy to whose Names came forth the Prizes went up to the Tabernacle the Session-house See Numb 11. 26. being there provided and the two that drew the Blanks namely ELDAD and MEDAD tho of them that were elected and written by the Tribes went not up to the Tabernacle but remain'd in the Camp as not having attain'd to Magistracy Thus if this place in Scripture can admit of no other Interpretation so much as I have cited out of the Talmud tho otherwise for the most part but a fabulous and indigested heap must needs be good and valid In this manner one or more Senators happening to dy it was easy for each Tribe chusing one or more Competitors accordingly out of themselves to decide at the Urn which Competitor so chosen should be the Magistrat without partiality or cause of feud which if a man considers this Constitution was not perhaps so readily to be don otherwise The like no doubt was don for the inferior Courts except that such Elections the Commonwealth being once settl'd were more particular and perform'd by that Tribe only in whose Gates that Court was sitting Sect. 10 The story of the Sanhedrim and of the inferior Courts as to their first institu ion Exod. 18. 24 25. THE first institution of these Courts came to pass in the manner following Before the People were under orders the whole Judicature lay upon the shoulders of MOSES who being overburden'd was advised by JETHRO And MOSES hearken'd to the voice of his Father-in-law and chose after the manner shewn able men out of all Israel and made them Heads over the People Rulers of thousands Rulers of hundreds Rulers of fiftys and Rulers of tens The number of which Rulers compar'd with the number of the People as in the muster roll at Sinai must in all have amounted to about six thousand These thus instituted while Israel was an Army came to be the same when the Army was a Commonwealth wherof it is said 〈◊〉 16. 18. Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee in all thy Gates which the Lord thy God gives thee throout thy Tribes and they shall judg the People with just Judgment Each of these Courts by the practice of the Jewish Commonwealth consisted of twenty three Elders But JETHRO in his advice to MOSES adds concerning these Judicatorys this Caution Let them judg the People at all seasons and it shall be that Chap. 2 every great matter they shall bring to thee but every small matter they shall Exod. 18. 22. judg So shall it be easier for thy self and they shall bear the burden with thee Which nevertheless follow'd not according to JETHRO'S promise the Appeals being such to MOSES that he gos with this complaint to God I am not able to bear all this People alone because it is too heavy for me Numb 11. 14 16. Wherupon the Lord said to MOSES Gather to me seventy men of the Elders of Israel whom thou knowest to be Elders of the People and Officers over them and bring them to the Tabernacle of the Congregation that they may stand with thee but Crowns will have no rivals and they shall bear the burden of the People with thee that thou bear it not alone But a Monarch is one that must be alone And MOSES went out and told Ver. 24. the People the words of the Lord which a Monarch needed not to have don and gather'd the seventy men of the Elders of the People the manner wherof is already shewn JETHRO being a Heathen informs MOSES of the Orders of his own Commonwealth which also was Heathenish Yet in Scripture is both JETHRO join'd with MOSES and the Commonwealth of Midian with the Commonwealth of Israel How then coms it to be irreverend or atheistical as som say in Politicians and while political Discourses cannot otherwise be manag'd to compare tho but by way of illustration other Legislators or Politicians as LYCURGUS SOLON with MOSES or other Commonwealths as Rome and Venice with that of Israel But the Authors of such Objections had better have minded that the burden wherof MOSES here complain'd could in no manner be that of ordinary Judicature of which he was eas'd before by the advice of JETHRO and therfore must have bin that of Appeals only so either the Sanhedrim bore no burden at all with MOSES or they bore that of Appeals with him And if so how say they that there lay an Appeal from the seventy Elders to MOSES Lot Ordel or Inquisition by Lot Deut. 13. 12 c. BUT I said the Lot was of use also toward the discovery of conceal'd Sect. 11 Malefactors Of this we have an Example in
ways the one in Theory or notionally in which it is of easy understanding but of difficult practice The other practicably in which it is of difficult understanding but of facil use Book III One of these ways is a Shooinghorn and the other the Shoo for which cause I shall propose both as first notionally thus The Model propos'd notionally 1. THAT the native Territory of the Commonwealth be divided so equally as with any convenience it may into fifty Tribes or Precincts 2. THAT the People in each Tribe be distinguish'd first by their Age and next by the valuation of their Estates All such as are above eighteen and under thirty being accounted Youth and all such as are thirty or upwards being accounted Elders All such as have under one hundred pounds a year in Lands Goods or Mony being accounted of the Foot and all such as have so much or upwards being accounted of the Horse 3. THAT each Tribe elect annually out of the Horse of their number two Elders to be Knights three Elders out of the same and four Elders more out of the Foot of their number to be Deputys or Burgesses That the term of each Knight and Burgess or Deputy so elected be triennial and that whoever has serv'd his triennial Term in any one of these Capacitys may not be reelected into any one of the same till a triennial Vacation be expir'd 4. THAT in the first year of the Commonwealth there be a Senat so constituted of three hundred Knights that the term of one hundred may expire annually and that the hundred Knights annually elected by two in each Tribe take in the Senat the places of them whose Term coms to be thus annually expir'd 5. THAT in the first year of the Commonwealth there be a Representative of the People consisting of one thousand and fifty Deputys four hundred and fifty of them being Horse and the rest Foot That this Representative be so constituted that the term of two hundred of the Foot and of one hundred and fifty of the Horse expire annually and that the two hundred Foot and one hundred and fifty Horse elected annually by four of the Foot and three of the Horse in each Tribe take the places in this Representative of them whose terms coms thus annually to be expir'd 6. THAT the Senat have the whole Authority of Debate that the Representative have the whole power of Result in such a manner that whatever having bin debated by the Senat shall by their Authority be promulgated that is printed and publish'd for the space of six weeks and afterwards being propos'd by them to the Representative shall be resolv'd by the People of the same in the Affirmative be the Law of the Land THVS much may suffice to give implicitly a notional account of the whole frame But a Model of Government is nothing as to use unless it be also deliver'd practicably and the giving of a Model practicably is so much the more difficult that men not vers'd in thisâ—way say of it as they would of the Anatomy of their own Bodys that it is impracticable Here lys the whole difficulty such things as trying them never so often they cannot make hang together they will yet have to be practicable and if you would bring them from this kind of shifts or of tying and untying all sorts of knots to the natural nerves and ligaments of Government then with them it is impracticable But to render that which is practicable facil or to do my last indeavor of this kind of which if I miss this once more I must hereafter despair I shall do two things first omit the Ballot and then make som alteration in my former method THEY who have interwoven the Ballot with the description of a Chap. 1 Commonwealth have therby render'd the same by far the more complete in it self but in the understanding of their Readers as much defective wherfore presuming the use of the Ballot throout the Orders of this Model I shall refer it to practice in which it will be a matter of as much facility as it would have bin of difficulty in writing And for the method I have chosen it is the most natural and intelligible being no more than to propose the whole practicably first in the Civil secondly in the Religious then in the Military and last of all in the Provincial part of the Model CHAP. I. Containing the Civil part of the Model propos'd practicably SEEING it has bin sufficiently prov'd that Empire follows the nature of Property that the particular kind of Empire or Government depends upon the special distribution except in small Countrys of Land and that where the Balance in Property has not bin six'd the nature of the Government be it what you will has bin floting it is very reasonable that in the proposition of a Common-wealth we begin with a fixation of the Balance in Property and this being not otherwise to be don than by som such Laws as have bin commonly call'd Agrarian it is propos'd THAT every one holding above two thousand pounds a year in Land lying within the proper Territory of the Commonwealth leave the said Agrarian Laws Land equally divided among his Sons or else so near equally that there remain to the eldest of them not above two thousand pounds a year in Land so lying That this Proposition be so understood as not to concern any Parent having no more than one Son but the next Heir only that shall have more Sons in such sort as nothing be hereby taken from any man or from his Posterity but that fatherly Affection be at all points extended as formerly except only that it be with more Piety and less Partiality And that the same Proposition in such Familys where there are no Sons concern the Daughter or Daughters in the like manner THAT no Daughter being neither Heir nor Coheir have above fifteen hundred pounds in Portion or for her preferment in Marriage That any Daughter being an Orphan and having seven hundred pounds or upwards in Portion may charge the State with it That the State being so charg'd be bound to manage the Portion of such an Orphan for the best either by due payment of the Interest of the same or if it be desir'd by way of Annuity for Life at the rate of one hundred pounds a year for every seven hundred pounds so receiv'd The manner wherof being elswhere shewn is not needful to be repeated THAT these Propositions prevent the growing of a Monarchical Nobility is their peculiar end Wherfore that this should hold the weight of an Objection in a popular Balance already introduc'd thro the failure of a Monarchical Nobility or thro a level made not by the People but by the Kings or themselves were preposterous Yet upon this score for I see no other is there such Animosity against the like Laws that wise men have judg'd it an Indiscretion in such as are affected to
the Hollanders Val. PUBLICOLA have you any more to tell me Pub. VALERIUS have you any more to ask me Val. Not except why you have not given the Parlament to understand thus much Pub. I have printed it over and over Val. They take no great notice of Books you should have laid it as they say in their dish by som direct Address as a Petition or so Pub. I did petition the Committee for Government Val. What answer did they make you Pub. None at all Val. I would have gon further and have presented it to the House Pub. Towards this also I went as far as I could Val. How far was that Pub. Why I think my Petition may have bin worn out in the pockets of som two or three Members Val. Have you a Copy of it about you Pub. Let me see here are many Papers this same is it To the Parlament of the Commonwealth of England c. The Humble Petition c. Sheweth THAT what neither is nor ever was in Nature can never be in Nature THAT without a King and Lords no Government either is or ever was in Nature but in mere force other than by a Senat indu'd with Authority to debate and propose and by a numerous Assembly of the People wholly and only invested with the right of Result in all matters of Law-giving of making Peace and War and of levying Men and Mony WHERFORE your Petitioner to disburden his Conscience in a matter of such concern to his Country most humbly and earnestly prays and beseeches this Parlament to take into speedy and serious consideration the irrefragable truth of the Premises and what therupon must assuredly follow that is either the institution of a Commonwealth in the whole People of England without exception or with exception for a time of so few as may be by way of a Senat and a numerous Assembly of the People to the ends and for the respective Functions aforesaid or the inevitable ruin of this Nation which God of his mercy avert And your Petitioner shall pray c. Val. I would it had bin deliver'd Pub. Look you if this had bin presented to the House I intended tohave added this other Paper and to have printed them together The Petitioner to the Reader Reader I SAY not that the Form contain'd in the Petition if we had it and no more would be perfect but that without thus much which rightly introduc'd introduces the rest there neither is was nor can be any such thing as a Commonwealth or Government without a King and Lords in Nature WHERE there is a coordinat Senat there must be a King or it falls instantly by the People as the King failing the House of Peers fell by the Commons WHERE there is a Senat not elective by the People there is a perpetual Feud between the Senat and the People as in Rome TO introduce either of these Causes is certainly and inevitably to introduce one of these Effects and if so then who are Cavaliers I leave you to judg hereafter BVT to add farther reason to experience All Civil Power among us not only by declaration of Parlament but by the nature of Property is in and from the People WHERE the Power is in the People there the Senat can legitimatly be no more to the Popular Assembly than my Counsil at Law is to me that is auxilium non imperium a necessary Aid not a Competitor or Rival in Power WHERE the Aids of the People becom their Rivals or Competitors in Power there their Shepherds becom Wolves their Peace Discord and their Government Ruin But to impose a select or coordinat Senat upon the People is to give them Rivals and Competitors in Power SOM perhaps such is the temper of the times will say That so much human Confidence as is express'd especially in the Petition is Atheistical But how were it Atheistical if I should as confidently foretel that a Boy must expire in Nonage or becom a Man I prophesy no otherwise and this kind of Prophesy is also of God by those Rules of his Providence which in the known Government of the World are infallible In the right observation and application of these consists all human Wisdom and we read that a poor man deliver'd a City by his Wisdom Eccles 9. 14. yet was this poor man forgotten But if the Premises of this Petition fail or one part of the Conclusion coms not to pass accordingly let me hit the other mark of this ambitious Address and remain a Fool upon Record in Parlament to all Posterity Val. Thou Boy and yet I hope well of thy Reputation Pub. Would it were but as good now as it will be when I can make no use of it Val. The Major of the Petition is in som other of your Writings and I remember som Objections which have bin made against it As that à non esse nec fuisse non datur argumentum ad non posse Pub. Say that in English Val. What if I cannot are not you bound to answer a thing tho it cannot be said in English Pub. No truly Val. Well I will say it in English then Tho there neither be any House of Gold nor ever were any House of Gold yet there may be a House of Gold Pub. Right but then à non esse nec fuisse in natura datur argumentum ad non posse in natura Val. I hope you can say this in English too Pub. That I can now you have taught me If there were no such thing as Gold in nature there never could be any House of Gold Val. Softly The frame of a Government is as much in Art and as little in Nature as the frame of a House Pub. Both softly and surely The Materials of a Government are as much in Nature and as little in Art as the Materials of a House Now as far as Art is necessarily dispos'd by the nature of its Foundation or Materials so far it is in Art as in Nature Val. What call you the Foundation or the Materials of Government Pub. That which I have long since prov'd and you granted The Balance the distribution of Property and the Power thence naturally deriving which as it is in one in a few or in all dos necessarily dispose of the form or frame of the Government accordingly Val. Be the Foundation or Materials of a House what they will the Frame or Superstructures may be diversly wrought up or shapen and so may those of a Commonwealth Pub. True but let a House be never so diversly wrought up or shapen it must consist of a Roof and Walls Val. That 's certain Pub. And so must a Commonwealth of a Senat and of a Popular Assembly which is the sum of the Minor in the Petition Val. The Mathematicians say They will not be quarrelsom but in their Sphere there are things altogether new in the World as the present posture of the Heavens is and as was the Star in
them be refer'd the Judgment of all Magistrats in Cases of Maladministrations in their Offices AND in prosecution of these Principles YOVR Petitioners humbly propose for the settlement of this Commonwealth that it be ordain'd 1. THAT the Parlament or the supreme Authority of England be chosen by the free People to represent them with as much equality as may be 2. THAT a Parlament of England shall consist of two Assemblys the lesser of about three hundred in whom shall reside the intire power of consulting debating and propounding Laws the other to consist of a far greater number in whom shall rest the sole power of resolving all Laws so propounded 3. THAT the free People of England in their respective divisions at certain days and places appointed shall for ever annually chuse one third part to each Assembly to enter into their Authority at certain days appointed the same days the Authority of a third of each of the said Assemblys to cease only in the laying the first Foundation in this Commonwealth's Constitution the whole number of both the Assemblys to be chosen by the People respectively viz. one third of each Assembly to be chosen for one year one third for two years and one third for three years 4. THAT such as shall be chosen having serv'd their appointed time in either of the said Assemblys of Parlament shall not be capable to serve in the same Assembly during som convenient interval or vacation 5. THAT the Legislative Power do wholly refer the execution of the Laws to the Magistracy according to the sixth Principle herein mention'd 6. THAT in respect to Religion and Christian Liberty it be ordain'd that the Christian Religion by the appointment of all succeding Parlaments be taught and promulgated to the Nation and public Preachers therof maintain'd and that all that shall profess the said Religion tho of different Persuasions in parts of the Doctrin or Disciplin therof be equally protected in the peaceable profession and public exercise of the same and be equally capable of all Elections Magistracys Preferments in the Commonwealth according to the order of the same Provided always that the public exercise of no Religion contrary to Christianity be tolerated nor the public exercise of any Religion tho professedly Christian grounded upon or incorporated into the Interest of any Foren State or Prince THESE your Petitioners humbly conceive to be the Essentials of the form of a free Commonwealth which if they were made fit for practice by your Honors appointing the numbers times places and all other necessary circumstances and settl'd as the fundamental Orders of the Commonwealth would naturally dispose those that should hereafter be chosen into the Parlaments from the love of their own interest to seek the common good being oblig'd by the Constitutions here humbly offer'd to partake with the whole body of the People of the good or evil that shall happen to the Commonwealth having no probable temtations or means left to compass any privat or factious ends in matters Religious or Civil And your Petitioners cannot imagin a greater security for the Cause and Interest contended for with such effusion of Blood than by disposing the free People into this kind of order wherby the same Cause would becom their common Interest Yet if your Honors should think it necessary or convenient for securing the minds of such as are doubtful and jealous that the People may betray their own Libertys there may be inserted into the fundamental Orders of the Commonwealth these following Expedients viz. 1. THAT for securing the Government of this Commonwealth and of the Religious and Civil freedom of the good People therof it may be for ever esteem'd and judg'd Treason against the Common-wealth for any Member of either Assembly of Parlament or any other person whatsoever to move or propose in either of the said Assemblys the restitution of Kingly Government or the introduction of any single Person to be chief Magistrat of England or the alteration of that part of the fundamental Order herein contain'd that concerns the equal freedom and protection of Religious persons of different Persuasions 2. THAT about the number of twelve persons of the most undoubted Fidelity and Integrity may be authoriz'd and impower'd for som certain number of years next insuing to seize apprehend and in safe custody to detain any person or persons whatsoever till he or they be in due form of Law deliver'd as is hereafter specify'd that shall move or propose in either of the said Assemblys of Parlament the restitution of Kingly Government or the introduction of any single Person to be chief Magistrat of this Commonwealth or the alteration of that part of the fundamental Order herein contain'd that concerns the equal freedom and protection of religious persons of different persuasions but for no other matter or cause whatsoever And when it shall happen that any person or persons shall be arrested or seiz'd for any of the causes aforesaid in manner aforesaid then a Commission of Oyer and Terminer may issue forth in due form of Law to the said twelve or any six of them to procede in due form of Law within one month after the apprehension of any such person or persons to the arrainment and public trial of every such person or persons and upon the legal conviction of him or them by the testimony of two sufficient Witnesses of any of the Treasons herein declar'd to condemn to the pains of death and to cause the same Judgment to be duly executed and the Keeper or Keepers of the Great Seal of England that shall be for the time being may be authoriz'd and requir'd from time to time during the term of years to issue out Commissions to the said twelve or any six of them authorizing them to procede as aforesaid AND if your Honors shall further judg it convenient the fundamental Orders of the Government may be consented to or subscrib'd by the People themselves if their express Pact shall be esteem'd any additional security other Nations upon the like occasions of expulsion of their Kings having taken the Peoples Oaths against their returning And the same may be proclaim'd as often as our Ancestors provided for the proclaiming of Magna Charta and any further security also added if any can be found among men that has a foundation in Justice NOW your Petitioners having with humble submission to your grave Wisdoms thus declar'd their apprehensions of the present condition of this distracted Nation and the only effectual means under God to prevent the impending Mischiefs They do must humbly pray THAT such speedy considerations may be had of the Premises as the Condition of this Nation requires and that such a method may be settled for the debating and consulting about the Government that your wise Results may be seasonable for the healing all the breaches of the Commonwealth and establishing the sure foundations of Freedom Justice Peace and Unity And your Petitioners shall always pray c. Wednesday July the 6 th 1659. THE House being inform'd that divers Gentlemen were at the door with a Petition they were call'd in and one of the Petitioners in behalf of himself and the rest said We humbly present you a Petition to which we might have had many thousand hands but the Matter rather deserves your serious Consideration than any public Attestation and therfore we do humbly present it to this Honorable House Which after the Petitioners were withdrawn was read and was intitl'd The humble Petition of divers wellaffected Persons Resolv'd THAT the Petitioners have the Thanks of the House THE Petitioners were again call'd in and Mr. Speaker gave them this Answer Gentlemen THE House has read over your Petition and find it without any privat end and only for the public Interest and I am commanded to let you know that it lys much upon them to make such a Settlement as may be most for the good of Posterity and they are about that work and intend to go forward with it with as much expedition as may be And for your parts they have commanded me to give you Thanks and in their names I do give you the Thanks of this House accordingly Tho. St. Nicholas Clerc of the Parlament FINIS Advertisement DIscourses concerning Government by ALGERNON SIDNEY Son to ROBERT Earl of Leicester and Ambassador from the Commonwealth of England to CHARLES GUSTAVUS King of Sweden Published from an Original Manuscript of the Author Price 15 s. A Complete Collection of the Historical Political and Miscellaneous Works of JOHN MILTON both English and Latin With som Papers never before publish'd In 3 Vol. To which is prefix'd The Life of the Author containing besides the History of his Works several extraordinary Characters of Men and Books Sects Partys and Opinions Price 35 s. Both printed by J. DARBY and sold by the Booksellers
is in my Opinion the most perfect Form of Popular Government that ever was so this with his other Writings contain the History Reasons Nature and Effects of all sorts of Government with so much Learning and Perspicuity that nothing can be more preferably read on such occasions LET not those therfore who make no opposition to the reprinting or reading of PLATO's Heathen Commonwealth ridiculously declaim against the better and Christian Model of HARRINGTON but peruse both of 'em with as little prejudice passion or concern as they would a Book of Travels into the Indys for their improvement and diversion Yet so contrary are the Tempers of many to this equitable disposition that DIONYSIUS the Sicilian Tyrant and such Beasts of Prey are the worthy Examples they wou'd recommend to the imitation of our Governors tho if they cou'd be able to persuade 'em they wou'd still miss of their foolish aim for it is ever with all Books as formerly with those of CREMUTIUS CORDUS who was condemn'd by that Monster TIBERIUS for speaking honorably of the immortal Tyrannicides BRUTUS and CASSIUS TACITUS records the last words of this Historian and subjoins this judicious Remark The Senat says he order'd his Books to be burnt by the Ediles but som Copys were conceal'd and afterwards publish'd whence we may take occasion to laugh at the sottishness of those who imagin that their present Power can also abolish the memory of succeding time for on the contrary Authors acquire additional Reputation by their Punishment nor have Foren Kings and such others as have us'd the like severity got any thing by it except to themselves Disgrace and Glory to the Writers But the Works of HARRINGTON were neither supprest at their first publication under the Vsurper nor ever since call'd in by lawful Authority but as inestimable Treasures preserv'd by all that had the happiness to possess 'em intire so that what was a precious rarity before is now becom a Public Good with extraordinary advantages of Correctness Paper and Print What I have perform'd in the History of his Life I leave the Readers to judg for themselves but in that and all my other studys I constantly aim'd as much at least at the benefit of Mankind and especially of my fellow Citizens as at my own particular Entertainment or Reputation THE Politics no less than Arms are the proper study of a Gentleman tho he shou'd consine himself to nothing but carefully adorn his Mind and Body with all useful and becoming Accomplishments and not imitat the servil drudgery of those mean Spirits who for the sake of som one Science neglect the knowlege of all other matters and in the end are many times neither masters of what they profess nor vers'd enough in any thing else to speak of it agreably or pertinently which renders 'em untractable in Conversation as in Dispute they are opinionative and passionat envious of their Fame who eclipse their littleness and the sworn Enemys of what they do not understand BVT Heaven be duly prais'd Learning begins to flourish again in its proper Soil among our Gentlemen in imitation of the Roman Patricians who did not love to walk in Leading strings and to be guided blindfold nor lazily to abandon the care of their proper Business to the management of Men having a distinct Profession and Interest for the greatest part of their best Authors were Persons of Consular Dignity the ablest Statesmen and the most gallant Commanders Wherfore the amplest satisfaction I can injoy of this sort will be to find those delighted with reading this Work for whose service it was intended by the Author and which with the study of other good Books but especially a careful perusal of the Greec and Roman Historians will make 'em in reality deserve the Title and Respect of Gentlemen help 'em to make an advantageous Figure in their own time and perpetuat their illustrious Names and solid Worth to be admir'd by future Generations AS for my self tho no imployment or condition of Life shall make me disrelish the lasting entertainment which Books afford yet I have resolv'd not to write the Life of any modern Person again except that only of one Man still alive and whom in the ordinary course of nature I am like to survive a long while he being already far advanc'd in his declining time and I but this present day beginning the thirtieth year of my Age. Canon near Bansted Novemb. 30. 1699. THE LIFE OF James Harrington 1. JAMES HARRINGTON who was born in January 1611 was descended of an Antient and Noble Family in Rutlandshire being Great Grandson to Sir JAMES HARRINGTON of whom it is observ'd by the * Wright's Antiquitys of the County of Rutland p. 52. Historian of that County that there were sprung in his time eight Dukes three Marquisses seventy Earls twenty seven Viscounts and thirty six Barons of which number sixteen were Knights of the Garter to confirm which Account we shall annex a Copy of the Inscription on his Monument and that of his three Sons at Exton with Notes on the same by an uncertain hand As for our Author he was the eldest Son of Sir SAPCOTES HARRINGTON and JANE the Daughter of Sir WILLIAM SAMUEL of Vpton in Northamtonshire His Father had Children besides him WILLIAM a Merchant in London ELIZABETH marry'd to Sir RALPH ASHTON in Lancashire Baronet ANN marry'd to ARTHUR EVELYN Esq And by a second Wife he had JOHN kill'd at Sea EDWARD a Captain in the Army yet living FRANCES marry'd to JOHN BAGSHAW of Culworth in Northamtonshire Esq and DOROTHY marry'd to ALLAN BELLINGHAM of Levens in Westmorland Esq This Lady is still alive and when she understood my Design was pleas'd to put me in possession of all the remaining Letters and other Manuscript Papers of her Brother with the Collections and Observations relating to him made by his other Sister the Lady ASHTON a Woman of very extraordinary Parts and Accomplishments These with the Account given of him by ANTHONY WOOD in the second Volum of his Athenae Oxonienses and what I cou'd learn from the Mouths of his surviving Acquaintance are the Materials wherof I compos'd this insuing History of his Life 2. IN his very Childhood he gave sure hopes of his future Abilitys as well by his Inclination and Capacity to learn whatever was propos'd to him as by a kind of natural gravity whence his Parents and Masters were wont to say That he rather kept them in aw than needed their correction yet when grown a Man none could easily surpass him for quickness of Wit and a most facetious Temper He was enter'd a Gentleman Commoner of Trinity College in Oxford in the year 1629 and became a Pupil to that great Master of Reason Dr. CHILLINGWORTH who discovering the Errors Impostures and Tyranny of the Popish Church wherof he was for som time a Member attackt it with more proper and succesâ—ful Arms than all before or perhaps any since have
safe company Lord. WHAT time was it Har. IN Venison time I am sure for we had a good Venison pasty Lord. DO you know one PORTMAN Har. NO my Lord I never heard of his name before Sir G. C. THIS is strange Lord. COM deal ingenuously you had better confess the things Har. MY Lord you do not look upon me for I saw he did not firmly I pray look upon me Do you not know an innocent face from a guilty one com you do my Lord every one dos My Lord you are great Men you com from the King you are the Messengers of Death Lord. IS that a small matter at which my Lord gave a shrug Har. IF I be a Malefactor I am no old Malefactor why am not I pale why do not I tremble why dos not my tongue falter why have you not taken me tripping My Lord these are unavoidable symtoms of guilt Do you find any such thing in me Lord. NO which he spoke with a kind of amazement and then added I have said all that I think I have to say Har. MY Lord but I have not Lord. COM then Har. THIS plainly is a practice a wicked practice a practice for innocent Blood and as weak a one as it is wicked Ah my Lord if you had taken half the pains to examin the Guilty that you have don to examin the Innocent you had found it it could not have escap'd you Now my Lord consider if this be a practice what kind of persons you are that are thus far made instrumental in the hands of wicked men Nay whither will wickedness go Is not the King's Authority which should be sacred made instrumental My Lord for your own sake the King's sake for the Lord's sake let such Villanys be found out and punish'd At this my Lord LAUDERDALE as was thought somwhat out of countenance rose up and fumbling with his hand upon the Table said Lord. WHY if it be as you say they deserve punishment enough but otherwise look it will com severely upon you Har. MY Lord I accepted of that condition before Lord. COM Mr. Vice-Chamberlain it is late Har. MY Lord now if I might I could answer the Preamble Lord. COM say and so he sat down again Har. MY Lord in the Preamble you charge me with being eminent in Principles contrary to the King's Government and the Laws of this Nation Som my Lord have aggravated this saying that I being a privat man have bin so mad as to meddle with Politics what had a privat man to do with Government My Lord there is not any public Person not any Magistrat that has written in the Politics worth a button All they that have bin excellent in this way have bin privat men as privat men my Lord as my self There is PLATO there is ARISTOTLE there is LIVY there is MACCHIAVEL My Lord I can sum up ARISTOTLE'S Politics in a very few words he says there is the barbarous Monarchy such a one where the People have no Votes in making the Laws he says there is the Heroic Monarchy such a one where the People have their Votes in making the Laws and then he says there is Democracy and affirms that a man cannot be said to have Liberty but in a Democracy only MY Lord LAUDERDALE who thus far had bin very attentive at this shew'd som impatience Har. I SAY ARISTOTLE says so I have not said so much And under what Prince was it Was it not under ALEXANDER the greatest Prince then in the World I beseech you my Lord did ALEXANDER hang up ARISTOTLE did he molest him LIVY for a Commonwealth is one of the fullest Authors did not he write under AUGUSTUS CAESAR did CAESAR hang up LIVY did he molest him MACCHIAVEL what a Commonwealthsman was he but he wrote under the Medici when they were Princes in Florence did they hang up MACCHIAVEL or did they molest him I have don no otherwise than as the greatest Politicians the King will do no otherwise than as the greatest Princes But my Lord these Authors had not that to say for themselves that I have I did not write under a Prince I wrote under a Usurper OLIVER He having started up into the Throne his Officers as pretending to be for a Commonwealth kept a murmuring at which he told them that he knew not what they meant nor themselves but let any of them shew him what they meant by a Commonwealth or that there was any such thing they should see that he sought not himself the Lord knew he sought not himself but to make good the Cause Upon this som sober men came to me and told me if any man in England could shew what a Commonwealth was it was my self Upon this persuasion I wrote and after I had written OLIVER never answer'd his Officers as he had don before therfore I wrote not against the King's Government And for the Law if the Law could have punish'd me OLIVER had don it therfore my Writing was not obnoxious to the Law After OLIVER the Parlament said they were a Commonwealth I said they were not and prov'd it insomuch that the Parlament accounted me a Cavalier and one that had no other design in my writing than to bring in the King and now the King first of any man makes me a Roundhead Lord. THESE things are out of doors if you be no Plotter the King dos not reflect upon your Writings AND so rising up they went out my Lord being at the head of the stairs I said to him My Lord there is one thing more you tax me with Ingratitude to the King who had suffer'd me to live undisturb'd truly my Lord had I bin taken right by the King it had by this Example already given bin no more than my due But I know well enough I have bin mistaken by the King the King therfore taking me for no Friend and yet using me not as an Enemy is such a thing as I have mention'd to all I have convers'd with as a high Character of Ingenuity and Honor in the King's Nature Lord. I AM glad you have had a sense of it and so went down Har. MY Lord it is my duty to wait on you no farther 34. NOTWITHSTANDING the apparent Innocence of our Author he was still detain'd a close Prisoner and Chancellor HIDE at a Conference of the Lords and Commons charg'd him with being concern'd in a Plot wherof one and thirty persons were the chief mâ—nagers after this manner That they met in Bowstreet Coventgarden in St. Mâ—rtins le grand at the Mill Bank and in other places and that they were of seven different Partys or Interests as three for the Commonwealth three for the Long Parlament three for the City three for the Purchasers three for the Disbanded Army three for the Independents and three for the Fifthmonarchy men That their first Consideration was how to agree on the choice of Parlamentmen against the insuing Session and that a special care
at the Will of the first Mover otherwise he would never have concern'd himself so much in giving Dues to CAESAR and to God what is Gods intimating the distinct Obedience owing by all men as Christians and Citizens When granting Monarchy the most and only lawful Government yet every one knows that knows any thing of the Roman Story that AUGUSTUS had no more Title to that Government than to any of those over whom he usurp'd and that his Access to the Government was as fraudulent and violent as could be Another Error is the mistaking of the word * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13. Powers when it 's clear the Scripture speaks of it in a Latitude as extending it to all sorts of establish'd Governments Now men have falsly pretended that those Powers were only meant of Kings and what by an indiscrete collation of the places of the Old and violent wrestings of others of the New Testament they perfected the other grand Mistake which since it has bin already clear'd up and as we said is but collateral with us for the present we shall no further mention it AS for the alleg'd Examples and Speeches of the Primitive Times I see not much in them considerable for tho Insurrections against Princes cannot be produc'd or rather much is said against them yet we are to consider that the Gospel of CHRIST which was at that time not much defil'd by the World engages not to any Domination but wholly taken up with its own Extasys spiritual Delights and Expectations neglects all other Affairs as strange and dangerous And moreover tho I know what has bin said to the contrary I cannot find after well considering those Ages any probable ground how if they would have rebel'd they could have made any Head They were indeed numerous but then they had Legionarys among them and who knows not what an ineffectual thing a People is be it never so desirous when overaw'd by the Soldiery And they were a People as Greatness to God and Man is different not considerable for their worldly Power for how few eminent Commanders were converted in the first Ages but out of his own mere choice so that it was not strange if they could not do much For God as he chose the weakest means in planting the Gospel even Fishermen so in the primitive Propagation he call'd the weaker Men tho Christianity afterwards grew ample and august and Kings were proud to give their Names to it AS for the Fathers supposing them free of their many Adulterations Interpolations and all those Errors and Incertaintys which the process of time and fraud of men has foisted into them they are to be accepted only as Witnesses not as Judges that is to say they may prove matter of Fact but none of their words matter of Right especially if we consider their Writings either Homilys Commentarys or Controversys which are ever directed to another end than this is and they themselves men secluded from Business are so much more unable to judg and resolve civil Controversys in regard the unhappiness of the latter times has produc'd many Controversys not known or thought of in their days which not falling directly under their Profession cannot receive any Light or Authority from them HAVING thus consider'd Kingship and how well it has appear'd thro the false Lights of the Understanding we shall now consider whether taking it by it self its Foundations be laid upon a Cylinder or upon a Cube and this I think we are the likeliest to do if we consider them in their Rights and Uses or to speak plainer in their Legality and Policy so that if we find that none of the ways of retaining their Crowns can be authentic except one and that one makes against them we shall see we have no just causes of blind Adoration or implicit Obligation to truckle under any of their Commands And if again we discover that sort of Government it self is not so profitable to the end of civil Happiness but rather diametrically opposit to it we may suppose that men are either strangly obstinat or else they might eradicat an Error which not only offers so many Prejudices to their Understanding but that has such an evil Influence upon their external Welbeing WE have then to consider that for One man to rule over Many there must necessarily be pretended some Right tho it be but colorable for either he must be chosen by the People as their Arbitrator and supreme Judg or else he must by force of Arms invade them and bring them to Obedience which he by force preserving for his Sons or Successors makes way for a third Claim which is Inheritance A fourth some have invented tho were it real it is but a difference of the last and I therfore shall mention it under that Head But to the Consideration FIRST therfore Election supposing the People either finding themselves unable to weild their own Happiness or for preventing of Disorder make choice of one Man to be set over them it here instantly follows that the Authority is in the People and flowing from them for Choice argues a Power and being elected a Subordination to it in the end I mean tho not in every act Now there is none chosen but for som End or for som Intentions reciprocal betwixt both Partys for otherwise such a choice were but Dotage and consequently invalid Wherefore thus it will follow that those who pretend to King it upon this Topic must either shew a formal Election which I think many Kings are not able to do or if he can shew one produce also the Conditions and Ends for which he was chosen Now all parts being either implicit or explain'd let him exhibit the Covenant that it may be known whether he governs according to it or not for if he transgresses he forfeits and the others are absolv'd from their promis'd Obedience If the Agreement be unwritten or intentional either Party is relatively ty'd and then if he dos any thing against the welfare of the People that Soverain Law and end of all Governments the People may not only justly suppose the former Capitulation broken but even endeavor by what possible means they can to restore themselves to their former Rights for why should the making of a Compact prejudice any when it is once broken And here comes in another Fallacy with which the Assertors of Royalty have so flourish'd that an Agreement between a People and one Man should descend to his Posterity wheras it is to be consider'd that the People chusing one man is commonly in consideration of his Person and personal Merit which not being the same in his Son as commonly Familys in the Horizon are in the Meridian the Founders being braver than any that follow after them that very intent is frustrated and ceases and the People providing for the Happiness of a few years which are determinable with incertainty of the latter part of the Life of one
the People which concurring make a Law The Magistracy BUT the Law being made says LEVIATHAN is but Words and Paper without the Hands and Swords of Men wherfore as those two Orders of a Commonwealth namely the Senat and the People are Legislative so of necessity there must be a third to be executive of the Laws made and this is the Magistracy in which order with the rest being wrought up by art the Commonwealth consists of the Senat proposing the People resolving and the Magistracy executing wherby partaking of the Aristocracy as in the Senat of the Democracy as in the People and of Monarchy as in the Magistracy it is complete Now there being no other Commonwealth but this in Art or Nature it is no wonder if MACCHIAVEL has shew'd us that the Antients held this only to be good but it seems strange to me that they should hold that there could be any other for if there be such a thing as pure Monarchy yet that there should be such a one as pure Aristocracy or pure Democracy is not in my understanding But the Magistracy both in number and function is different in different Commonwealths Nevertheless there is one condition of it that must be the same in every one or it dissolves the Commonwealth where it is wanting And this is no less than that as the hand of the Magistrat is the executive Power of the Law so the head of the Magistrat is answerable to the People that his execution be according to the Law by which LEVIATHAN may see that the hand or sword that executes the Law is in it and not above it The Orders of a Commonwealth in experience as that NOW whether I have rightly transcrib'd these Principles of a Commonwealth out of Nature I shall appeal to God and to the World To God in the Fabric of the Commonwealth of Israel and to the World in the universal Series of antâ—ent Prudence But in regard the same Commonwealths will be open'd at large in the Council of Legislators I shall touch them for the present but slightly beginning with that of Israel Of Israel THE Commonwealth of Israel consisted of the Senat the People and the Magistracy THE People by their first division which was genealogical were contain'd under their thirteen Tribes Houses or Familys wherof the firstborn in each was Prince of his Tribe and had the leading of it Numb 1. the Tribe of LEVI only being set apart to serve at the Altar had no other Prince but the High Priest In their second division they were divided locally by their Agrarian or the distribution of the Land of Josh ch 13 to ch 42. Canaan to them by lot the Tithe of all remaining to LEVI whence according to their local division the Tribes are reckon'd but twelve The People THE Assemblys of the People thus divided were methodically gather'd by Trumpets to the Congregation which was it should seem Numb 10. 7. of two sorts For if it were call'd by one Trumpet only the Princes of the Tribes and the Elders only assembl'd but if it were call'd Numb 10. 4. with two the whole People gather'd themselves to the Congregation Numb 10. 3. for so it is render'd by the English but in the Greec it is call'd Ecclesia Judg. 20. 2. or the Church of God and by the Talmudist the great Synagog The word Ecclesia was also antiently and properly us'd for the Civil Congregations or Assemblys of the People in Athens Lacedemon and Ephesus where it is so call'd in Scripture tho it be otherwise render'd Acts 19. 23. by the Translators not much as I conceive to their commendation seeing by that means they have lost us a good lesson the Apostles borrowing that name for their spiritual Congregations to the end that we might see they intended the Government of the Church to be Democratical or Popular as is also plain in the rest of their Constitutions THE Church or Congregation of the People of Israel assembl'd in a military manner and had the result of the Commonwealth or Judg. 20. 2. the power of confirming all their Laws tho propos'd even by God Exod. 19. himself as where they make him King and where they reject or depose him as Civil Magistrat and elect Saul It is manifest 1 Sam. 8. 7. that he gives no such example to a Legislator in a popular Government as to deny or evade the power of the People which were a contradiction but tho he deservedly blames the ingratitude of the People in that action he commands SAMUEL being next under himself Supreme Magistrat to hearken to their Voice for where the suffrage of the People gos for nothing it is no Commonwealth and comforts him saying They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them But to reject him that he should not reign over them was as Civil Magistrat to depose him The Power therfore which the People had to depose even God himself as he was Civil Magistrat leaves little doubt but that they had power to have rejected any of those Laws confirm'd by them throout the Deut. 29. Scripture which to omit the several parcels are generally contain'd under two heads those that were made by Covenant with the People in the Land of Moab and those which were made by Covenant with the People in Horeb which two I think amount to the whole body of the Israelitish Laws But if all and every one of the Laws of Israel being propos'd by God were no otherwise enacted than by Covenant with the People then that only which was resolv'd by the People of Israel was their Law and so the result of that Commonwealth was in the People Nor had the People the result only in matter of Law Josh 7. 16. Judg. 20. 8 9 10. 1 Sam. 7. 6 7 8. 1 Chron. 13. 2. 2 Chron. 30. 4. Judg. 11. 11. 1 Sam. 10. 17. 1 Mac. 14. Exod. 9. 3 4 5. Josh 7. 1 Sam. 10. but the Power in som cases of Judicature as also the right of levying War cognizance in matter of Religion and the election of their Magistrats as the Judg or Dictator the King the Prince which functions were exercis'd by the Synagoga magna or Congregation of Israel not always in one manner for somtimes they were perform'd by the suffrage of the People vivâ voce somtimes by the Lot only and at others by the Ballot or by a mixture of the Lot with the Suffrage as in the case of ELDAD and MEDAD which I shall open with the Senat. The Senat. THE Senat of Israel call'd in the Old Testament the seventy Elders and in the New the Sanhedrim which word is usually translated the Numb 11. Council was appointed by God and consisted of Seventy Elders besides Deut. 1. MOSES which were at first elected by the People but in what Numb 11. manner is rather
the People a fear of the Nobility or Gentry as if their interests were destructive to each other when indeed an Army may as well consist of Soldiers without Officers or of Officers without Soldiers as a Commonwealth especially such a one as is capable of Greatness of a People without a Gentry or of a Gentry without a People Wherfore this tho not always so intended as may appear by MACCHIAVEL who else would be guilty is a pernicious error There is somthing first in the making of a Commonwealth then in the governing of it and last of all in the leading of its Armys which tho there be great Divines great Lawyers great men in all professions seems to be peculiar only to the Genius of a Gentleman For so it is in the universal series of Story that if any man has founded a Commonwealth he was first a Gentleman MOSES had his Education by the Daughter of PHARAOH THESEUS and SOLON of noble Birth were held by the Athenians worthy to be Kings LYCURGUS was of the Royal Blood ROMULUS and NUMA Princes BRUTUS and PUBLICOLA Patricians the GRACCHI that lost their lives for the People of Rome and the restitution of that Commonwealth were the Sons of a Father adorn'd with two Triumphs and of CORNELIA the Daughter of SCIPIO who being demanded in marriage by King PTOLOMY disdain'd to becom the Queen of Egypt And the most renown'd OLPHAUS MEGALETOR sole Legislator as you will see anon of the Commonwealth of Oceana was deriv'd from a noble Family nor will it be any occasion of scruple in this case that LEVIATHAN affirms the Politics to be no antienter than his Book de Cive Such also as have got any fame in the Civil Government of a Commonwealth or by the leading of its Armys have bin Gentlemen for so in all other respects were those plebeian Magistrats elected by the People of Rome being of known Descents and of equal Virtues except only that they were excluded from the name by the Usurpation of the Patricians Holland thro this defect at home has borrow'd Princes for Generals and Gentlemen of divers Nations for Commanders And the Switzers if they have any defect in this kind rather lend their People to the Colors of other Princes than make that noble use of them at home which should assert the Liberty of Mankind For where there is not a Nobility to hearten the People they are slothful regardless of the World and of the public interest of Liberty as even those of Rome had bin without their Gentry wherfore let the People embrace the Gentry in peace as the light of their eys and in war as the trophy of their arms And if CORNELIA disdain'd to be Queen of Egypt if a Roman Consul look'd down from his Tribunal upon the greatest King let the Nobility love and cherish the People that afford them a Throne so much higher in a Commonwealth in the acknowledgement of their Virtue than the Crowns of Monarchs An inequal Commonwealth BUT if the equality of a Commonwealth consist in the equality first of the Agrarian and next of the Rotation then the inequality of a Commonwealth must consist in the absence or inequality of the Agrarian or of the Rotation or of both ISRAEL and Lacedemon which Commonwealths as the People of this in JOSEPHUS claims kindred of that have great resemblance were each of them equal in their Agrarian and inequal in their Rotation especially Israel where the Sanhedrim or Senat first elected by the People as appears by the words of MOSES took upon them Deut. 1. ever after without any precept of God to substitute their Successors by Ordination which having bin there of civil use as Excommunication Community of Goods and other Customs of the Esseans who were many of them converted came afterward to be introduc'd into the Christian Church And the election of the Judg Suffes or Dictator was irregular both for the occasion the term and the vacation of that Magistracy as you find in the Book of Judges where it is often repeated That in those days there was no King in Israel that is no Judg and in the first of SAMUEL where ELY judg'd Israel forty years and SAMUEL all his life In Lacedemon the election of the Senat being by suffrage of the People tho for life was not altogether so inequal yet the hereditary Right of Kings were it not for the Agrarian had ruin'd her ATHENS and Rome were inequal as to their Agrarian that of Athens being infirm and this of Rome none at all for if it were more antiently carry'd it was never observ'd Whence by the time of TIBERIUS GRACCHUS the Nobility had almost eaten the People quite out o their Lands which they held in the occupation of Tenants and Servants Wherupon the remedy being too late and too vehemently apply'd that Commonwealth was ruin'd THESE also were inequal in their Rotation but in a contrary manner Athens in regard that the Senat chosen at once by lot not by suffrage and chang'd every year not in part but in the whole consisted not of the natural Aristocracy nor sitting long enough to understand or to be perfect in their office had no sufficient Authority to restrain the People from that perpetual Turbulence in the end which was their ruin notwithstanding the efforts of NICIAS who did all a man could do to help it But as Athens by the headiness of the People so Rome fell by the Ambition of the Nobility thro the want of an equal Rotation which if the People had got into the Senat and timely into the Magistracys wherof the former was always usurp'd by the Patricians and the latter for the most part they had both carry'd and held their Agrarian and that had render'd that Common-wealth immovable BUT let a Commonwealth be equal or inequal it must consist as has bin shewn by Reason and all Experience of the three general Orders that is to say of the Senat debating and proposing of the People resolving and of the Magistracy executing Wherfore I can never wonder enough at LEVIATHAN who without any reason or example will have it that a Commonwealth consists of a single Person or of a single Assembly nor can I sufficiently pity those thousand Gentlemen whose Minds which otherwise would have waver'd he has fram'd as is affirm'd by himself into a conscientious obedience for so he is pleas'd to call it of such a Government BUT to finish this part of the Discourse which I intend for as complete an Epitome of antient Prudence and in that of the whole Art of Politics as I am able to frame in so short a time THE two first Orders that is to say the Senat and the People are Legislative wherunto answers that part of this Science which by Politicians is intitl'd * De Legibus of Laws and the third Order is executive to which answers that part of the same Science which is stil'd †De Judiciis
of Athens THIS Speech concluded the Debate which happen'd at the Institution of the Senat. The next Assembly is that of the People or Prerogative Tribe The Face of the Prerogative Tribe THE face or mein of the Prerogative Tribe for the Arms the Horses and the Disciplin but more especially for the select men is that of a very noble Regiment or rather of two the one of Horse divided into three Troops besides that of the Provinces which will be shewn hereafter with their Captains Cornets and two Tribuns of the Horse at the head of them the other of Foot in three Companys besides that of the Provinces with their Captains Ensigns and two Tribuns of the Foot at the head of them The first Troop is call'd the Phoenix the second the Pelican and the third the Swallow The first Company the Cypress the second the Myrtle and the third the Spray Of these again not without a near resemblance of the Roman division of a Tribe the Phoenix and the Cypress constitute the first Class the Pelican and the Myrtle the second and the Swallow with the Spray the third renew'd every Spring by 21. Order The Change or Election of the Triennial Officers of the Prerogative THE one and twentieth ORDER directing that upon every Monday next insuing the last of March the Deputys of the annual Galaxy arriving at the Pavilion in the Halo and electing one Captain and one Cornet of the Swallow triennial Officers by and out of the Cavalry at the Horse Vrn according to the Rules contain'd in the Ballot of the Hundred and one Captain with one Ensign of the Spray triennial Officers by and out of the Infantry at the Foot Vrn after the same way of ballotting constitute and becom the third Classes of the Prerogative Tribe SEVEN Deputys are annually return'd by every Tribe wherof three are Horse and four are Foot and there be fifty Tribes so the Swallow must consist of 150 Horse the Spray of 200 Foot And the rest of the Classes being two each of them in number equal the whole Prerogative besides the Provinces that is the Knights and Deputys of Marpesia and Panopea must consist of 1050 Deputys And these Troops and Companys may as well be call'd Centurys as those of the Romans for the Romans related not in so naming theirs to the number And wheras they were distributed according to the valuation of their Estates so are these which by virtue of the last Order are now accommodated with their triennial Officers But there be others appertaining to this Tribe whose Election being of far greater importance is annual as follows in 22. Order The Change or Election of the Annual Magistrats of the Prerogative THE twenty second ORDER whereby the first Class having elected their triennial Officers and made Oath to the Old Tribuns that they will neither introduce cause nor to their power suffer Debate to be introduc'd into any popular Assembly of this Government but to their utmost be aiding and assisting to seize and deliver any Person or Persons in that way offending and striking at the Root of this Commonwealth to the Council of War are to procede with the other two Classes of the Prerogative Tribe to election of the new Tribuns being four annual Magistrats wherof two are to be elected out of the Cavalry at the Horse Vrn and two out of the Infantry at the Foot Vrn according to the common Ballot of the Tribes And they may be promiscuously chosen out of any Classis provided that the same Person shall not be capable of bearing the Tribunitian Honor twice in the term of one Galaxy The Tribuns thus chosen shall receive the Tribe in reference to the Power of mustering and disciplining the same as Commanders in chief and for the rest as Magistrats whose proper Function is prescrib'd by the next Order The Tribuns may give leave to any number of the Prerogative not exceding one hundred at a time to be absent so they be not Magistrats nor Officers and return within three months If a Magistrat or Officer has a necessary occasion he may also be absent for the space of one month provided that there be not above three Corners or Ensigns two Captains or one Tribun so absent at one time TO this the ARCHON spoke at the Institution after this manner My Lords IT is affirm'd by CICERO in his Oration for FLACCUS that the Commonwealths of Greece were all shaken or ruin'd by the intemperance of their Comitia or Assemblys of the People The truth is if good heed in this point be not taken a Common-wealth will have bad legs But all the world knows he should have excepted Lacedemon where the People as has bin shewn by the Oracle had no power at all of Debate nor till after LYSANDER whose Avarice open'd a gulf that was not long ere it swallow'd up his Country came it ever to be exercis'd by them Whence that Commonwealth stood longest and firmest of any other but this in our days of Venice which having underlaid her self with the like Institution ows a great if not the greatest part of her steddiness to the same principle the great Council which is with her the People by the Authority of my Lord EPIMONUS never speaking a word Nor shall any Common-wealth where the People in their political capacity is talkative ever see half the days of one of these But being carry'd away by vain-glorious Men that as OVERBURY says piss more than they drink swim down the stream as did Athens the most prating of these Dames when that same ranting fellow ALCIBIADES fell a demagoging for the Sicilian War But wheras Debate by the authority and experience of Lacedemon and Venice is not to be committed to the People in a well-order'd Government it may be said That the Order specify'd is but a slight bar in a matter of like danger for so much as an Oath if there be no recourse upon the breach of it is a weak ty for such hands as have the Sword in them wherfore what should hinder the People of Oceana if they happen not to regard an Oath from assuming Debate and making themselves as much an Anarchy as those of Athens To which I answer Take the common fort in a privat capacity and except they be injur'd you shall find them to have a bashfulness in the presence of the better sort or wiser Men acknowleging their Abilitys by attention and accounting it no mean honor to receive respect from them But if they be injur'd by them they hate them and the more for being wife or great because that makes it the greater injury Nor refrain they in this case from any kind of intemperance of Speech if of Action It is no otherwise with a People in their political capacity you shall never find that they have assum'd Debate for it self but for somthing else Wherfore in Lacedemon where there was and in Venice where there is nothing else
in vain to put it to somthing requir'd the name of one that was in their ey particularly on whom when he mov'd not they commanded a Lictor to lay hands but the People thronging about the Party summon'd forbad the Lictor who durst not touch him at which the Hotspurs that came with the Consuls inrag'd by the affront descended from the Throne to the aid of the Lictor from whom in so doing they turn'd the indignation of the People upon themselves with such heat that the Consuls interposing thought fit by remitting the Assembly to appease the Tumult in which nevertheless there had bin nothing but noise Nor was there less in the Senat being suddenly rally'd upon this occasion where they that receiv'd the repulse with others whose heads were as addle as their own fell upon the business as if it had bin to be determin'd by clamor till the Consuls upbraiding the Senat that it differ'd not from the Marketplace reduc'd the House to Orders And the Fathers having bin consulted accordingly there were three Opinions PUBLIUS VIRGINIUS conceiv'd that the consideration to be had upon the matter in question or aid of the indebted and imprison'd People was not to be further extended than to such as had ingag'd upon the promise made by SERVILIUS TITUS LARGIUS that it was no time to think it enough if mens Merits were acknowleg'd while the whole People sunk under the weight of their debts could not emerge without som common aid which to restrain by putting som into a better condition than others would rather more inflame the Discord than extinguish it APPIUS CLAUDIUS still upon the old hant would have it that the People were rather wanton than fierce It was not oppression that necessitated but their power that invited them to these freaks the Empire of the Consuls since the appeal to the People wherby a Plebeian might ask his fellows if he were a Thief being but a mere scarecrow Go to says he let us create the Dictator from whom there is no appeal and then let me see more of this work or him that shall forbid my Lictor The advice of APPIUS was abhor'd by many and to introduce a general recision of Debts with LARGIUS was to violat all Faith That of VIRGINIUS as the most moderat would have past best but that there were privat Interests that constant bane of the Public which withstood it So they concluded with APPIUS who also had bin Dictator if the Consuls and som of the graver sort had not thought it altogether unseasonable at a time when the Volsci and the Sabins were up again to venture so far upon alienation of the People for which cause VALERIUS being descended from the PUBLICOLAS the most popular Family as also in his own person of a mild nature was rather trusted with so rigid a Magistracy Whence it happen'd that the People tho they knew well enough against whom the Dictator was created sear'd nothing from VALERIUS but upon a new promise made to the same effect with that of SERVILIUS hop'd better another time and throwing away all disputes gave their names roundly went out and to be brief came home again as victorious as in the former Action the Dictator entring the City in Triumph Nevertheless when he came to press the Senat to make good his promise and do somthing for the ease of the People they regarded him no more as to that point than they had don SERVILIUS Wherupon the Dictator in disdain to be made a stale abdicated his Magistracy and went home Here then was a victorious Army without a Captain and a Senat pulling it by the beard in their Gowns What is it if you have read the Story for there is not such another that must follow Can any man imagin that such only should be the opportunity upon which this People could run away Alas poor men the Aequi and the Volsci and the Sabins were nothing but the Fathers invincible There they sat som three hundred of them arm'd all in Robes and thundering with their Tongues without any hopes in the earth to reduce them to any tolerable conditions Wherfore not thinking it convenient to abide long so near them away marches the Army and incamps in the fields This Retreat of the People is call'd the Secession of Mount Aventin where they lodg'd very sad at their condition but not letting fall so much as a word of murmur against the Fathers The Senat by this time were great Lords had the whole City to themselves but certain Neighbors were upon the way that might com to speak with them not asking leave of the Porter Wherfore their minds became troubl'd and an Orator was posted to the People to make as good conditions with them as he could but whatever the terms were to bring them home and with all speed And here it was covenanted between the Senat and the People that these should have Magistrats of their own Election call'd the Tribuns upon which they return'd TO hold you no longer the Senat having don this upon necessity made frequent attempts to retract it again while the Tribuns on the other side to defend what they had got instituted their Tributa Comitia or Council of the People where they came in time and as Disputes increas'd to make Laws without the Authority of the Senat call'd Plebiscita Now to conclude in the point at which I drive such were the steps wherby the People of Rome came to assume Debate nor is it in Art or Nature to debar a People of the like effect where there is the like cause For ROMULUS having in the Election of his Senat squar'd out a Nobility for the support of a Throne by making that of the Patricians a distinct and hereditary Order planted the Commonwealth upon two contrary Interests or Roots which shooting forth in time produc'd two Commonwealths the one Oligarchical in the Nobility the other a mere Anarchy of the People and ever after caus'd a perpetual feud and enmity between the Senat and the People even to death THERE is not a more noble or useful question in the Politics than that which is started by MACCHIAVEL Whether means were to be found wherby the Enmity that was between the Senat and the People of Rome could have bin remov'd Nor is there any other in which we or the present occasion are so much concern'd particularly in relation to this Author forasmuch as his Judgment in the determination of the question standing our Commonwealth falls And he that will erect a Commonwealth against the Judgment of MACCHIAVEL is oblig'd to give such reasons for his enterprize as must not go a begging Wherfore to repeat the Politician very honestly but somwhat more briefly he disputes thus Macch. Disc B. 1. c. 6. THERE be two sorts of Commonwealths the one for preservation as Lacedemon and Venice the other for increase as Rome LACEDEMON being govern'd by a King and a small Senat could maintain it self a long
their native Caucasus MACCHIAVEL gives a handsom caution Let no man says he be circumvented with the Glory of CAESAR from the false reflection of their Pens who thro the longer continuance of his Empire in the Name than in the Family chang'd their Freedom for Flattery But if a man would know truly what the Romans thought of CAESAR let him observe what they said of CATILIN AND yet by how much he who has perpetrated som heinous Crime is more execrable than he who did but attemt it by so much is CAESAR more execrable than CATILIN On the contrary let him that would know what antient and heroic Times what the Greecs and Romans would both have thought and said of my Lord ARCHON observe what they thought and said of SOLON LYCURGUS BRUTUS and PUBLICOLA And yet by how much his Virtue that is crown'd with the perfection of his Work is beyond theirs who were either inferior in their aim or in their performance by so much is my Lord ARCHON to be prefer'd before SOLON LYCURGUS BRUTUS and PUBLICOLA NOR will we shun the most illustrious Example of SCIPIO This Hero tho never so little less yet was he not the founder of a Commonwealth and for the rest allowing his Virtue to have bin of the most untainted Ray in what did it outshine this of my Lord ARCHON But if dazling the Eys of the Magistrats it over-aw'd Liberty Rome might be allow'd som excuse that she did not like it and I if I admit not of this comparison For where is my Lord ARCHON Is there a Genius how free soever which in his presence would not find it self to be under power He is shrunk into Clouds he seeks Obscurity in a Nation that sees by his Light He is impatient of his own Glory lest it should stand between you and your Liberty LIBERTY What is even that if we may not be grateful And if we may we have none For who has any thing that he dos not ow My Lords there be som hard conditions of Virtue If this Debt were exacted it were not due wheras being concel'd we are all enter'd into Bonds On the other side if we make such a payment as will not stand with a free People we do not inrich my Lord ARCHON but rob him of his whole Estate and â—his immense Glory THESE Particulars had in due deliberation and mature debate according to the Orders of this Commonwealth It is propos'd by Authority of the Senat to you my Lords the People of Oceana I. THAT the Dignity and Office of ARCHON or Protector of the Commonwealth of Oceana be and is hereby confer'd by the Senat and the People of Oceana upon the most Illustrious Prince and sole Legislator of this Commonwealth OLPHAUS MEGALETOR Pater Patriae whom God preserve for the term of his natural Life II. THAT three hundred and fifty thousand pounds per annum yet remaining of the antient Revenue be estated upon the said Illustrious Prince or Lord ARCHON for the said term and to the proper and peculiar use of his Highness III. THAT the Lord ARCHON have the reception of all foren Embassadors by and with the Council of State according to the Orders of this Commonwealth IV. THAT the Lord ARCHON have a standing Army of twelve thousand men defray'd upon a monthly Tax during the term of three years for the protection of this Commonwealth against dissenting Partys to be govern'd directed and commanded by and with the advice of the Council of War according to the Orders of this Commonwealth V. THAT this Commonwealth make no distinction of Persons or Partys but every man being elected and sworn according to the Orders of the same be equally capable of Magistracy or not elected be equally capable of Liberty and the injoyment of his Estate free from all other than common Taxes VI. THAT a man putting a distinction upon himself refusing the Oath upon Election or declaring himself of a Party not conformable to the Civil Government may within any time of the three years standing of the Army transport himself and his Estate without molestation or impediment into any other Nation VII THAT in case there remains any distinction of Partys not conforming to the Civil Government of this Commonwealth after the three years of the standing Army be expir'd and the Commonwealth be therby forc'd to prolong the term of the said Army the pay from thenceforth of the said Army be levy'd upon the Estates of such Partys so remaining unconformable to the Civil Government THE proposer having ended his Oration the Trumpets sounded and the Tribuns of the Horse being mounted to view the Ballot caus'd the Tribe which thronging up to the Speech came almost round the Gallery to retreat about twenty paces when LINCEUS DE STELLA receiving the Propositions repair'd with BRONCHUS DE RAUCO the Herald to a little Scaffold erected in the middle of the Tribe where he seated himself the Herald standing bare upon his right hand The Ballotins having their Boxes ready stood before the Gallery and at the command of the Tribuns march'd one to every Troop on Horseback and one to every Company on Foot each of them being follow'd by other Children that bore red Boxes now this is putting the Question whether the Question should be put And the Suffrage being very suddenly return'd to the Tribuns at the Table and number'd in the view of the Proposers the Votes were all in the Affirmative wherupon the red or doubtful Boxes were laid aside it appearing that the Tribe whether for the Negative or Affirmative was clear in the matter Wherfore the Herald began from the Scaffold in the middle of the Tribe to pronounce the first Proposition and the Ballotins marching with the Negative and Affirmative only BRONCHUS with his Voice like Thunder continu'd to repeat the Proposition over and over again so long as it was in Ballotting The like was don for every Clause till the Ballot was finish'd and the Tribuns assembling had sign'd the Points that is to say the number of every Suffrage as it was taken by the Secretary upon the tale of the Tribuns and in the sight of the Proposers for this may not be omitted it is the pulse of the People Now wheras it appertains to the Tribuns to report the Suffrage of the People to the Senat they cast the Lot for this Office with three silver Balls and one gold one and it fell upon the Right Worshipful ARGUS DE CROOKHORN in the Tribe of Pascua first Tribun of the Foot ARGUS being a good sufficient man in his own Country was yet of the mind that he should make but a bad Spokesman and therfore became somthing blank at his luck till his Collegues perswaded him that it was no such great matter if he could but read having his Paper before him The Proposers taking Coach receiv'd a Volly upon the Field and return'd in the same order save that being accompany'd with the Tribuns they were also
as in that case is necessary are very few as the Counsillors the Savi the Provosts Wherever a Commonwealth is thus propos'd to the Balance or Popular Assembly will do her duty to admiration but till then never Yet so it has bin with us of late years that altho in Royal Authority there was no more than the right of Proposing and the King himself was to stand legibus consuetudinibus quas vulgas elegerit to the result of the People yet the popular Council has bin put upon Invention and they that have bin the prevailing Party have us'd means to keep the Result to themselves quite contrary to the nature of Popular Administration Let one speak and the rest judg Of whatever any one man can say or do Mankind is the natural and competent Judg in which is contain'd the very reason of Parlaments thro the want of understanding this came in confusion Man that is in Honor and has no understanding is like the Beasts that perish Nor can we possibly return to Order but by mending the Hedg where it was broken A prudent intire and sit Proposition made to a free Parlament recovers all To them who are of the greatest Eminency or Authority in a Commonwealth belongs naturally that part of Reason which is Invention and using this they are to propose but what did our Grandees ever invent or propose that might shew so much as that themselves knew what they would be at and yet how confidently do they lay the fault upon the People and their unfitness forsooth for Government in which they are wondrous wise For this I will boldly say Where there was an Aristocracy that perform'd their duty there never was nor ever can be a People unfit for Government but on the contrary where the Aristocracy have fail'd the People being once under Orders have held very often But while they are not under Orders if they fail it is not their fault but the fault of the Aristocracy for who else should model a Government but men of Experience There is not in England I speak it to their shame one GRANDEE that has any perfect knowlege of the Orders of any one Commonwealth that ever was in the World Away with this same grave complexion this huff of Wisdom maintain'd by making faces The People cannot do their duty consisting in Judgment but by virtue of such Orders as may bring them together and direct them but the duty of the Aristocracy consisting in Invention may be don by any one man and in his study and where is that one man among all the Grandees that studys They are so far from knowing their own duty that a man for proposing that in which none can find a flaw has don enough to be ridiculous to them who are themselves ridiculous to the whole World in that they could never yet propose any thing that would hold BVT if this amounts to a Demonstration it amounts to a clear detection of your profound Grandees and a full proof that they are Phanatical Persons State Jesuits such as have reduc'd the Politics to mental Reservation and implicit Faith in their nods or nightcaps GOD to propose his Commandments to the People of Israel wrote them on two Tables the Decemviri to propose their Commandments to the People of Rome wrote them on twelve Tables the Athenians propos'd in writing sign'd with the name of the particular Inventor after this pattern do the Venetians as was said the same at this day But no Goosquill no Scribling Your Grandees are above this MOSES who was the first Writer in this kind shall be pardon'd but MACCHIAVEL the first in later times that has reviv'd his Principles or trod in his steps is deservedly pelted for it by Sermons They are not for the Scripture but the Cabala I WILL tell you a story out of BOCCALINI APOLLO having spy'd the Philosopher and great Master of Silence HARPOCRATES in the Court of Parnassus us'd such importunity with him that for once he was persuaded to speak upon which such apparent discovery was made of the Hypocrite and the gross ignorance he had so long harbor'd under a deceitful silence that he was immediatly banish'd the Court. Were there cause I could be modest but this Virtue to the diminution of sound and wholsom Principles would be none wherfore let a Grandee write and I will shew you HARPOCRATES THVS having sufficiently defy'd Sir GUY I may with the less impeachment of reputation descend to TOM THUM Not that I hold my self a fit Person to be exercis'd with Boys play but that som who should have more wit have so little as to think this somthing A good Rat-catcher is not so great a blessing to any City as a good Jugglercatcher would be to this Nation Now because I want an Office I shall shew my Parts to my Country and how fit I am for the white Staff or long Pole of so worshipful a Preferment Ridiculus ne sis esto THE FIRST BOOK CONTAINING The first Preliminary of OCEANA inlarg'd interpreted and vindicated from all such Mistakes or Slanders as have bin alleg'd against it under the notion of Objections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A full Answer to all such OBJECTIONS as have hitherto bin made against OCEANA NEITHER the Author or Authors of the Considerations upon OCEANA nor any other have yet so much as once pretended one Contradiction or one Inequality to be in the whole Common-wealth Now this is certain That Frame of Government which is void of any contradiction or any inequality is void of all internal causes of Dissolution and must for so much as it imbraces have attain'd to full perfection This by wholesale is a full Answer to the Considerations with all other Objections hitherto and will be with any man that comprehends the nature of Government to thousands of such Books or Myriads of such tittel tattel Nevertheless because every man is not provided with a Sum in the following Discourse I shall comply with them that must have things by Retail or somwhat for their Farthing The PREFACE IT is commonly said and not without incouragement by som who think they have Parnassus by the horns that the University has lash'd me so it seems I have to do with the Vniversity and lashing is lawful with both which I am contented In Moorfields while the People are busy at their sports they often and ridiculously lose their Buttons their Ribbands and their Purses where if they light as somtimes they do upon the Masters of that Art they fall a kicking them a while which one may call a rude charge and then to their work again I know not whether I invite you to Moorfields but difficile est Satyram non scribere all the favor I desire at your hands is but this that you would not so condemn one man for kicking as in the same Act to pardon another for cutting of Purses A Gentleman that commits a fallacious Argument
such an Example are posted As if for a Christian Commonwealth to make so much use of Israel as the Roman did of Athens whose Laws she transcrib'd were against the Interest of the Clergy which it seems is so hostil to popular Power that to say the Laws of Nature tho they be the Fountains of all Civil Law are not the Civil Law till they be the Civil Law or thus that thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal tho they be in natural Equity yet were not the Laws of Israel or of England till voted by the People of Israel or the Parlament of England is to assert Consid p. 35 40. the People into the mighty Liberty of being free from the whole moral Law and inasmuch as to be the Adviser or Persuader of a thing is less than to be the Author or Commander of it to put an Indignity upon God himself In which Fopperys the Prevaricator boasting of Principles but minding none first confounds Authority and Command or Power and next forgets that the dignity of the Legislator or which is all one of the Senat succeding to his Office as the Sanhedrim to MOSES is the greatest dignity in a Commonwealth and yet that the Laws or Orders of a Commonwealth derive no otherwise whether from the Legislator as MOSES LYCURGUS SOLON c. or the Senat as those of Israel Lacedemon or Athens than from their Authority receiv'd and confirm'd by the Vote or Command of the People It is true that with Almighty God it is otherwise than with a mortal Legislator but thro another Nature which to him is peculiar from whom as he is the cause of being or the Creator of Mankind Omnipotent Power is inseparable yet so equal is the goodness of this Nature to the greatness therof that as he is the cause of welbeing by way of Election for example in his chosen People Israel or of Redemption as in the Christian Church himself has prefer'd his Authority or Proposition before his Empire What else is the Book I meaning of these words or of this proceding of his Now therfore if ye will obey my Voice indeed and keep my Covenant ye shall be to me a Exod. 19. 5. Kingdom or I will be your King which Proposition being voted by the People in the Affirmative God procedes to propose to them the ten Commandments in so dreadful a manner that the People being excedingly Exod. 20. 19. afrighted say to MOSES Speak thou with us and we will hear thee that is be thou henceforth our Legislator or Proposer and we will resolve accordingly but let not God speak with us lest we dy From whenceforth God proposes to the People no otherwise than by MOSES whom he instructs in this manner These are the Judgments which thou shalt propose or set before them Wherfore it is said of the Deut. 29. 1. Book of Deuteronomy containing the Covenant which the Lord commanded MOSES to make with the Children of Israel in the Land of Moab besides the Covenant which he made with them in Horeb This is Deut. 4. 44. the Law which MOSES set before the Children of Israel Neither did GOD in this case make use of his Omnipotent Power nor CHRIST in the like who also is King after the fame manner in his Church and would have bin in Israel where when to this end he might have muster'd up Legions of Angels and bin victorious with such Armys or Argyraspides as never Prince could shew the like he says no more Matth. 23. 37. than O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gather'd thee and thy Children as a Hen gathers her Chickens under her wings and ye would not where it is plain that the Jews rejecting CHRIST that he should not reign over them the Law of the Gospel came not to be the Law of the Jews and so if the ten Commandments came to be the Law of Israel it was not only because God propos'd them seeing Christ also propos'd his Law which nevertheless came not to be the Law of the Jews but because the People receiv'd the one and rejected the other It is not in the nature of Religion that it should be thought a profane saying that if the Bible be in England or in any other Government the Law or Religion of the Land it is not only because God has propos'd it but also because the People or Magistrat has receiv'd it or resolv'd upon it otherwise we must set lighter by a Nation or Government than by a privat Person who can have no part nor portion in this Law unless he vote it to himself in his own Conscience without which he remains in the condition he was before and as the Heathen who are a Law to themselves Thus wheras in a Covenant there must be two Partys the Old and New Testament being in sum the Old and New Covenant these are that Authority and Proposition of GOD and CHRIST to which they that refuse their Vote or Result may be under the Empire of a Clergy but are none of his Commonwealth Nor seeing I am gon so far dos this at all imply Freewil but as is admirably observ'd by Mr. HOBBS the freedom of that which naturally precedes Will namely Deliberation or Debate in which as the Scale by the weight of Reason or Passion coms to be turn'd one way or other the Will is caus'd and being caus'd is necessitated When God coms in thus upon the Soul of Man he gives both the Will and the Deed from which like Ossice of the Senat in a Commonwealth that is from the excellency of their Deliberation and Debate which prudently and faithfully unsolded to the People dos also frequently cause and necessitat both the Will and the Deed. GOD himself has said of the Senat that they are Gods an expression tho divine yet not unknown to the Heathens Homo homini Deus one man for the excellency of his Aid may be a God to Chap. 8 another But let the Prevaricator look to it for he that leads the blind out of his way is his Devil FOR the things I have of this kind as also for what I have said upon the words Chirotonia and Ecclesia the Prevaricator is delighted to make me beholden underhand to Mr. HOBBS notwithstanding the open enmity which he says I profess to his Politics As if JOSEPHUS upon that of SAMUEL They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me 1 Sam. 8. 7. that I should not reign over them had not said of the People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they unchirotoniz'd or unvoted God of the Kingdom Now if they unchirotoniz'd or unvoted God of the Kingdom then they had chirotoniz'd or voted him to the Kingdom and so not only the Doctrin that God was King in Israel by Compact or Covenant but the use of the word Chirotonia also in the sense I understand it is more antient than Mr. HOBBS I might add that of CAPELLUS
For remedy wherof or to avoid this there can be no way but to make the Commonwealth very inequal IN answer to this there will need no more than to repeat the same things honestly Mr. HARRINGTON speaks of the national Balance of Empire p. 40. to this sense Where the Nobility holds half the Property or about that proportion and the People the other half the shares of the Land may be equal but in regard the Nobility have much among Few and the People little among Many the Few will not be contented to have Authority which is all their proper share in a Commonwealth but will be bringing the People under Power which is not their proper share in a Commonwealth wherfore this Commonwealth must needs be inequal And except by altering the Balance as the Athenians did by the Sisacthia or recision of Debts or as the Romans went about to do by an Agrarian it be brought to such an equality that the whole Power be in the People and there remain no more than Authority to the Nobility there is no remedy but the one with perpetual feud will eat out the other as the People did the Nobility in Athens and the Nobility the People in Rome Where the Carcase is there will be the Eagles also where the Riches are there will be the Power So if a few be as rich as all the rest a few will have as much Power as all the rest in which case the Common-wealth is inequal and there can be no end of staving and tailing till it be brought to equality Thus much for the national Balance For the provincial there Power dos not follow Property but the contrary This the Prevaricator having acknowledg'd le ts slip to the end he may take a gripe of Venice which because the three or four thousand of which originally consisted and now consists that whole Government having acquir'd Provinces and increase of their City by later comers do not admit these to participation of Power he says is an inequal Commonwealth He will be a Mill-horse whether the Cake be dow or not for this is to draw in a circle and Rome which by his former Arguments should have bin equal by this again must be inequal seeing Rome as little admitted her Provinces into the body of the Commonwealth as dos Venice This clash is but by way of Parenthesis to return therfore to the business in present agitation THE Estates be they one or two or three are such as was said by virtue of the Balance upon which the Government must naturally depend Wherfore constitutively the Government of France and all other Monarchys of like Balance was administer'd by an Book I Assembly of the three Estates and thus continu'd till that Nation being vanquish'd by the English CHARLES the 7 th was put to such shifts as for the recovery of himself in the greatest distress he could make To which recovery while the Estates could not be legally call'd he happening to attain without them so order'd his affairs that his Successors by adding to his Inventions came to rule without this Assembly a way not suting with the nature of their Balance which therfore requir'd som Assistance by force and other concurring Policys of like nature wherof the foren Guards of that Monarchy are one the great baits alluring the Nobility another and the emergent Interest of the Church a third TO begin with the last of these the Church except it be in a War for Religion as when they join'd with the Princes of Lorrain and what Party of the French Nobility were made or they could make against the King of Navar are not of themselves so hot at hand or promt to Arms but the King being to use their word no Heretic thro their great apprehension of the third Estate as that which is most addicted to the Protestant Religion may be confident they will never side with the People So by this emergent Interest or Accident he has the Church sure enough FOR the Nobility which is exceding gallant this Change has the greatest baits for wheras the Church being not spar'd the third Estate is laden and the Peasant overladen with Taxes the Nobility is not only at better ease in this regard but for the greater or more considerable part receives advantage by it the King having always whether in Peace or War a great Cavalry than which there is no better in the world for the Exercise Entertainment and Profit of the Nobility Governments of Citys Castles Provinces in abundance which he rarely distributes to any other The greater Nobility are Marechals Generals the less Officers in the Armys specially of the Horse the Emoluments wherof they receive also in time of Peace and many of this Order being Pensioners taste of the King's Liberality without taking pains or having any Imployment at all By which both that France is a Monarchy by a Nobility and how she holds her Nobility is apparent NOW the Church and the Nobility standing thus ingag'd to the King by which means he has two parts of the Balance to one it is demonstrable that the Government must be quiet Nor seeing the Church for the reason shewn is sure enough coms the Government since the Protestant Citys and Holds were demolish'd to be otherwise disquieted than by the flying out of the Nobility which whenever it happens in any party considerable either for the Number or the Interest causes the Crown to shake for it seldom coms to pass upon this occasion but the third Estate or som part of it takes Arms immediatly In which place it is worthy to observ'd that Wealth according to the distribution of the Balance has contrary motions The third Estate in France having Riches and those laden with Taxes com to have somthing to lose and somthing to save which keeps them in continual fear or hope The Nobility holding to the King the third Estate has somthing to lose which withholds them from Arms thro fear but the Nobility flying out the third Estate has somthing to save which precipitats them into Arms thro hope wheras the Peasant having nothing to save or to lose to hope or to fear never stirs The case standing thus the sufficiency of the French Chap. 9 Politician since the Masterpiece of Cardinal RICHLIEU in demolishing those Walls of the Protestants which had otherwise by this time bin a Refuge for the third Estate and perhaps overturn'd the Monarchy lys altogether in finding for the Nobility work abroad or balancing them in such sort at home that if a Party flys out there may be a stronger within to reduce it or at least to be oppos'd to it In this case lest the native Interest of the Nobility since the Assemblys of the three Estates were abolish'd might cool the remaining Party or make them slower in the redress of such Disorders or Discontents than were requisit the King is wisely provided of Foren Guards which being always in readiness and not obnoxious to the
of the Magistrat as in Spain But this by making som Familys too secure as those in possession and others too despairing as those not in possession may make the whole People less industrious WHERFORE the other way which by the regulation of Purchases ordains only that a mans Land shall not excede som certain proportion for example two thousand Pounds a year or exceding such a proportion shall divide in descending to the Children so soon as being more than one they shall be capable of such a division or subdivision till the greater share excedes not two thousand pounds a year in Land lying and being within the native Territory is that which is receiv'd and establish'd by the Commonwealth of Oceana BY Levelling they who use the word seem to understand when a People rising invades the Lands and Estates of the richer sort and divides them equally among themselves as for example No where in the World this being that both in the way and in the end which I have already demonstrated to be impossible Now the words of this Lexicon being thus interpreted let us hearken what the Prevaricator will say and out it coms in this manner Consid p. 73. TO him that makes Property and that in Lands the Foundation of Empire the establishing of an Agrarian is of absolute necessity that by it the Power may be fix'd in those hands to whom it was at first committed WHAT need we then procede any further while he having no where disprov'd the Balance in these words gives up the whole Cause For as to that which he says of Mony seeing neither the vast Treasure of HENRY the 7 th alter'd the Balance of England nor the Revenue of Book I the Indys alters that of Spain this Retrait except in the Cases excepted is long since barricado'd But he is on and off and any thing to the contrary notwithstanding gives you this for certain THE Examples of an Agrarian are so infrequent that Mr. HARRINGTON is constrain'd to wave all but two Commonwealths and can find in the whole extent of History only Israel and Lacedemon to fasten upon A MAN that has read my Writings or is skill'd in History cannot chuse but see how he slurs his Dice nevertheless to make this a Pol. L. 2. C. 5. little more apparent It has seem'd to som says ARISTOTLE the main point of Institution in Government to order Riches right whence otherwise derives all civil Discord Vpon this ground PHALEAS the Chalcedonian Legislator made it his first work to introduce equality of Goods and PLATO in his Laws allows not increase to a possession beyond certain bounds The Argives and the Messenians had each their Agrarian after the manner of Lacedemon If a man shall translate the words Plut. Lycurg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 virtus facultas civilis Political Virtue or Faculty where he finds them in ARISTOTLE'S Politics as I make bold and appeal to the Reader whether too bold to do by the words Political Balance understood as I have stated the thing it will give such a light to the Author as will go nearer than any thing alleg'd as before by this Prevaricator to deprive me of the honor Pol. L. 3. C. 9. of that invention For example where ARISTOTLE says If one man or such a number of men as to the capacity of Government com within the compass of the Few excel all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in balance or in such a manner that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Political Facultys or Estates of all the rest be not able to hold weight with him or them they will never condescend to share equally with the rest in power whom they excel in Balance nor is it to any purpose to give them Laws who will be as the Gods their own Laws and will answer the People as the Lions are said by ANTISTHENES to have answer'd the Hares when they had concluded that every one ought to have an equal Portion For this cause he adds Citys that live under Popular Power have instituted the Ostracism for the preservation of Equality by which if a man increase in Riches Retinue or Popularity above what is safe they can remove him without loss of Honor or Estate for a time IF the Considerer thinks that I have strain'd courtesy with ARISTOTLE who indeed is not always of one mind further than is warrantable in relation to the Balance be it as he pleases I who must either have the more of Authority or the less of Competition in the point shall lose neither way However it is in this place enough that the Ostracism being of like nature was that which supply'd the defect in the Grecian Citys of an Agrarian To procede then to Rome that the People there by striving for an Agrarian strove to save their Liberty is apparent in that thro the want of such a Law or the nonobservance of it the Commonwealth came plainly to ruin If a Venetian should keep a Table or have his House furnish'd with Retainers he would be obnoxious to the Council of Ten and if the best of them appear with other State or Equipage than is allow'd to the meanest he is obnoxious to the Officers of the Pomp which two Orders in a Commonwealth where the Gentry have but small Estates in Land are as much as needs be in lieu of an Agrarian But the German Republics have no more to supply the place of this Law than that Estates descending are divided among the Children which sure no man but will say must needs be Chap. 11 both just and pious and we ask you no more in Oceana where grant this and you grant the whole Agrarian Thus had I set him all the Commonwealths in the World before and so it is no fault of mine that he will throw but at three of them These are Israel Lacedemon and Oceana Consid p. 77. FIRST at Israel Mr. HARRINGTON says he thinks not upon the Promise of GOD to ABRAHAM whence the Israelites deriv'd their Right to the Land of Canaan but considers the division of the Lands as a Politic Constitution upon which the Government was founded tho in the whole History of the Bible there be not the least footstep of such a design WHAT means the man the Right of an Israelite to his Land deriv'd from the Promise of GOD to ABRAHAM therfore the Right of an Oceaner to his Land must derive from the Promise of GOD to ABRAHAM Or why else should I in speaking of Oceana where Property is taken as it was found and not stirr'd a hair think on the Promise to ABRAHAM Nor matters it for the manner of division seeing that was made and this was found made each according to the Law of the Government But in the whole Bible says he there is not the least footstep that the end of the Israelitish Agrarian was Political or that it was intended to be the Foundation of the Government THE
Footsteps of God by the Testimony of DAVID may be seen in the deep Waters much more by the consent of the whole Bible in Land or in the foundation of Empire unless we make the Footsteps of God to be one thing and his ways another which as to Government are these Grot. ad Numb 26. 53. GOD by the Ballot of Israel more fully describ'd in the next Book divided the Land som respect had to the Princes and Patriarchs for the rest to every one his inheritance according to the number of names which were drawn out of one Urn first and the Lots of Land the measure with the goodness of the same consider'd drawn afterwards out of the other Urn to those names Wherfore God ordaining the Cause and the Cause of necessity producing the Effect God in ordaining this Balance intended Popular Government But when the People admitting of no Nay would have a King God therupon commanding SAMUEL to shew them the manner of the King SAMUEL declar'd to the People concerning the manner or policy of the King saying He will take your Fields and your Vinyards and your Oliveyards even 1 Sam. 8. the best of them and give to his Servants which kind of proceding must needs create the Balance of a Nobility over and above this he will take the tenth of your Seed and of your Vinyards and of your Sheep by way of Tax for the maintenance of his Armys and thus your Daughters shall com to be his Cooks and Confectioners and your Sons to run before his Chariot There is not from the Balance to the Superstructures a more perfect description of a Monarchy by a Nobility For the third Branch the People of Egypt in time of the Famin which was very sore com to JOSEPH saying Buy us and our Land Gen. 47. 19 20. for Bread and we and our Land will be Servants to PHARAOH And JOSEPH bought all the Land of Egypt except that of the Priests for PHARAOH So the Land became PHARAOH'S who lest the remembrance of their former Property by lively marks and continual remembrancers should stir them up as the Vandals in Africa strip'd in Grot. ad Gen. 47. like manner of their Property and yet remaining in their antient Book I Dwellings were stir'd up by their Women to Sedition remov'd the People thus sold or drave them like Cattel even from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end therof In which you have the Balance of a sole Landlord or absolute Prince with the miserable and yet necessary consequence of an inslav'd People Now the Balance of Governments throout the Scriptures being of these kinds and no other the Balance of Oceana is exactly calculated to the most approv'd way and the clearest Footsteps of God in the whole History of the Bible and wheras the Jubile was a Law instituted for preservation of the popular Balance from alteration so is the Agrarian in Oceana BUT says the Prevaricator Hocus Pocus or in the name of Wonder how can this Agrarian be the Foundation of that Government which had subsisted more than forty five years without it For they were so long after the giving of this Law for the division of the Land before they had the Land to divide WHICH is as if one should say upon that other Law of the like date Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates Hocus Pocus or in the name of Wonder how should the Children of Israel make them Judges and Officers in their gates before they had any gates to make them in fine sport to be play'd by an Attorny for the Clergy with Scripture where it is plain enough that the Laws of a Commonwealth were given by MOSES to an Army to be put in execution when that Army should becom a Commonwealth as happen'd under JOSHUA BUT no saying will serve his turn If this Agrarian were meant as fundamental to the Government the Provision he will have it was weak and not proper for attaining the end propos'd there being nothing in the nature of the Agrarian to hinder but that the whole Country might for the space of near fifty years that is the time between the two Jubiles have com into the hands of one man and so have destroy'd Balance Agrarian Government and all THIS they that boast of their Mathematics might have taken the pains before they had bin so confident to have demonstrated possible as how or by what means one Lot could com in fifty years to be multiply'd six hundred thousand times and that without Usury which bar the Israelits being no Merchants was thought sufficient to be given or thus to call the Prudence of God by their impracticable Phansys in question is abominable I WOULD have Divines as this Prevaricator persuades and it should seem has persuaded som of them to overthrow the Commonwealth of Israel for otherwise I will give them my word they shall never be able to touch that of Oceana which except in the hereditary Succession and Dignity of the Princes of the Tribes and the Patriarchs and that the Senat was for life differs not from the former for as to the divers working up of the Superstructures in divers Commonwealths according to the diversity of occasions it coms to no accountable difference and much I conceive of this carving or finishing in Israel which had it bin extant would perhaps have shewn a greater resemblance is lost For the Senats as to their numbers that of the 300 in Oceana considering the bulk of the People excedes not that of the Seventy in Israel the Succession and Dignity of the Princes of the Tribes and of the Patriarchs was ordain'd for the preservation of the Pedigrees which CHRIST being born are not any more to be of like consequence and that the Senators were for life deriv'd from a Chap. 11 former Custom of such a number of Elders exercising som Authority in Egypt tho not that of the Senat till it was instituted by God from the descent of the Patriarchs into that Land who being at their descent seventy Persons and governing their Familys by the right of Paternity as the People increas'd and they came to dy had their Successors appointed in such a manner that the number of Seventy in remembrance of those Patriarchs was diligently preserv'd And forasmuch as the Patriarchs governing their own Familys which at first were all in their own right were consequently for life this also pleas'd in the substitution of others These things rightly consider'd I have not vary'd from the Authority of Israel in a tittle there being neither any such necessary use of Pedigrees nor uninterrupted Succession of Elders for life in Oceana and unless a man will say That we ought to have the like Effect where there is not the like Cause which were absurd the Authority of a Commonwealth holds no otherwise than from the Cause to the Effect OCEANA I say cannot be wounded but by piercing the
Authority of Israel with which she is arm'd Cap a Pe. It is true as the Prevaricator says in another place that Law can oblige only those Consid p. 36. to whom it was given and that the Laws of Israel were given as to the Power or Obligation of them only to the Children of Israel But the Power as has bin shewn of a Commonwealth and her Authority are different things her Power extends no further than her own People but her Authority may govern others as that of Athens did Rome when the latter wrote her twelve Tables by the Copy of the former In this manner tho a Man or a Commonwealth writing out of antient Governments have liberty to chuse that which sutes best with the occasion out of any yet whether we consider the Wisdom and Justice of the Legislator supremely good or the excellency of the Laws the Prerogative of Authority where the nature of the thing admits it must needs belong to Israel That this opinion should go sore with Divines is strange and yet if there be any feeling of their pulse by this their Advocat or Attorny it is as true In his Epist FOR while he finds me writing out of Venice he tells me I have wisely put my self under her Protection or Authority against whom he dares not make War lest he should take part with the Turk Consid p. 39. BUT when he finds me writing out of Israel he tells me that he is not aware of any Prerogative of Authority belonging to the Israelitish more than any other Republic which is to take part with the Devil SO much for Israel Now for Lacedemon but you will permit me to shake a Friend or two by the hand as I go THE first is ARISTOTLE in these words Pol. L. 5. c. 3. INEQUALITY is the source of all Sedition as when the Riches of one or the few com to cause such an Overbalance as draws the Common-wealth into Monarchy or Oligarchy for prevention wherof the Ostracism has bin of use in divers places as at Argos and Athens But it were better to provide in the beginning that there be no such Disease in the Commonwealth than to com afterwards to her Cure Book I THE second is PLUTARCH in these words Plut. Lycur LYCURGUS judging that there ought to be no other inequality among Citizens of the same Commonwealth than what derives from their Virtues divided the Land so equally among the Lacedemonians that on a day beholding the Harvest of their Lots lying by Cocks or Ricks in the field he laughing said that it seem'd to him they were all Brothers THE third should have bin the Considerer but he is at feud with us all Consid p. 78. THE Design of LYCURGUS he professes was not so much to attain an Equality in the frame of his Government as to drive into exile Riches and the effects of them Luxury and Debauchery GENTLEMEN What do you say you have the Judgment of three great Philosophers and may make your own choice only except he that has but one hundred pounds a year can have Wine and Women at as full command and Retainers in as great plenty as he that has ten thousand I should think these advantages accru'd from Inequality and that LYCURGUS had skill enough in a Commonwealth to see as much No says the Prevaricator it appears far otherwise in that he admitted of no Mony but old Iron a Cartload of which was worth little Well but in Israel where Silver and Gold was worth enough my Gentleman would have it that one man in the compass of fifty years might purchase the whole Land tho that Country was much larger than this and yet where if the People had us'd Mony they would have us'd Trade and using both such a thing thro the straitness of the Territory might have happen'd he will not conceive the like to have bin possible No tho he has an example of it in LYSANDER who by the spoil of Athens ruin'd the Agrarian first by the overbalance that a mans Mony came to hold to his Lot then by eating out the Lots themselves and in those the Equality of the Commonwealth But these things he interprets pleasantly as if the Vow of voluntary Poverty so he calls it being broken the Common-wealth like a forsworn Wretch had gon and hang'd her self a Phansy too rank I doubt of the Cloyster to be good at this work BUT wheras PLUTARCH upon the narrowness of these Lots which had they bin larger must have made the Citizens fewer than thirty thousand and so unable to defend the Commonwealth and use of this same old and rusty Iron instead of Mony observes Plut. Lycur it came by this means to pass that there was neither a fine Orator Fortuneteller Baud nor Goldsmith to be found in Lacedemon our Considerer professes THAT it is to him as strange as any thing in History that LYCURGUS should find credit enough to settle a Government which carry'd along with it so much want and hardship to particular men that the total absence of Government could scarce have put them into a worse condition the Laws that he made prohibiting the use of those things which to injoy with security is that only to other men that makes the Yoke of Laws supportable HERE he is no Monk again I would ask him no more than that Chap. 11 he would hold to somthing be it to any thing It is true we who have bin us'd to our Plumpottage are like enough to make faces as did the King of Pontus at the Lacedemonian black broth But who has open'd his mouth against Plumpottage gilded Coaches Pages Lacquys fair Mannorhouses good Tables rich Furniture full Purses Universitys good Benefices Scarlet Robes square Caps rich Jewels or said any thing that would not multiply all this Why says he you are so far right that the Voice of LYCURGUS'S Agrarian was Every man shall be thus poor and that of yours is That no man shall be more than thus rich This is an Argument an 't please you by which he thinks he has prov'd that there is no difference between the Agrarian that was in Lacedemon and that which is in Oceana For Sir whatsoever is thus and thus is like But the Agrarian of Lacedemon was thus A man could have no Mony or none that deserv'd that name and the Agrarian of Oceana is thus A mans Mony is not confin'd Therfore the Agrarian of the one and of the other are like Was it not a great grievance in Lacedemon think you that they had no such Logic nor Logician Be this as it will It had bin impossible says he for LYCURGUS to have settl'd his Government had he not wisely obtain'd a Response from the Oracle at Delphos magnifying and recommending it After which all resistance would have bin downright Impiety and Disobedience which concerns Mr. HARRINGTON very little The Bible then is not so good an Oracle as was that
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to give the People by Placarts notice when the Judicatorys were to assemble that is when the People were to assemble in that capacity and to judg according to the Law made or when the Senat or the People were to assemble upon an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Crime that was not provided against by the Law as that of ALCIBIADES the Wits about that time in Athens being most of them Atheists for laughing at CERES discovering her Secrets and shaving of the MERCURYS If an Archon or Demagog was guilty of such a Crime it belong'd to the cognizance of the Senat otherwise to that of the People whom the Thesmothetae were also in like manner to warn L. 8. c. 16. when they were to com to the Suffrage THESE six like the Electors in Venice presided at all Elections of Magistrats whether made by the Lot as the Judges or by Suffrage as the new Archons the Strategus or General and most of the rest They also had the hearing and introducing of all Causes into the Judicatorys BUT the right of assembling the Ecclesia or Congregation belong'd to the Prytans by whom the Senat propos'd to the People THE Congregation consisted of all them that were upon the Roll of the Lexiarcha that is to say of the whole People having right to the City The Prytans seated upon a Tribunal were Presidents of this Assembly the Assembly having sacrific'd and made Oath of Fidelity to the Commonwealth the Proedri or Presidents of the Prytans Book I propos'd by Authority of the Senat to the People in this manner July the 16th POLICLES being Archon and the Tribe of Pandion in the Prytaneat DEMOSTHENES PAEANEUS thought thus or was of this opinion The same Custom wherby the first Proposer subscribes his Opinion or Part with his Name is at this day in Venice Proposition being made such of the People as would speak were call'd to the Pulpit they that were fifty years of Age or upwards were to com first and the younger afterwards which custom of prating in this manner made excellent Orators or Demagogs but a bad Common-wealth FROM this that the People had not only the Result of the Commonwealth but the Debate also Athens is call'd a Democracy and this kind of Government is oppos'd to that of Lacedemon which because the People there had not the power of Debate but of Result only was call'd an Aristocracy somtimes an Oligarchy thus the Greecs commonly are to be understood to distinguish these two while according to my Principles if you like them Debate in the People makes Anarchy and where they have the Result and no more the rest being manag'd by a good Aristocracy it makes that which is properly and truly to be call'd Democracy or Popular Government Neither is this Opinion of mine new but according to the Judgment of som of the Athenians themselves for says ISOCRATES in his Oration to the Areopagits for Reformation of the Athenian Government I know the main reason why the Lacedemonians flourish to be that their Commonwealth is popular But to return As many of the People as would having shew'd their Eloquence and with these the Demagogs who were frequently brib'd conceal'd their Knavery the Epistata or Provost of the Proedri put the Decree or Question to the Vote and the People gave the Result of the Commonwealth by their Chirotonia that is by holding up their hands the Result thus given was the Law or Psephisma of the People Dem. Phil. 1. NOW for the Functions of the Congregation they were divers as first Election of Magistrats 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely the Archons the Strategus or General the Field Officers the Admirals with divers others all or the chief of them annual and commonly upon Terms and Vacations tho it be true as PLUTARCH has it that PHOCION was Strategus four years together having that Honor still put upon him by the Congregation without his seeking The next Office of this Assembly was to elect Judges into five Courts or Judicatorys for the People being in the Bulk too unweildy a Body for the performance of this duty they exercis'd the supreme Judicature by way of Representative into which Election was made by Lottery in such a manner that five hundred one thousand or 1500 of them according to the importance of the occasion being above thirty years of Age and within the rest of the Qualifications in that case provided by the Law became the Soverain Judicatory call'd the Heliaea In all Elections whether by Lot or Suffrage the Thesmothetae were Presidents and order'd the Congregation Furthermore if they would amend alter repeal or make a Law this also was don by a Representative of which no man was capable that had not bin of the Heliaea for the rest elected out of the whole People this amounting to one thousand was call'd the Nomothetae or Legislators No Law receiv'd by the People could be abrogated but Chap. 12 by the Nomothetae by these any Athenian having obtain'd leave of the Senat might abrogat a Law provided withal he put another in the place of it These Laws the Proedri of the Prytans were to put to the Suffrage FIRST the old whether it agreed with the Athenian People or not then the new and whether of these happen'd to be chirotoniz'd or voted by the Nomothetae was ratify'd according to that piece of the Athenian Law cited by DEMOSTHENES against TIMOCRATES 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What has bin said of the Commonwealth of Athens in relation to the present purpose amounts to thus much That not only the Senat and the Magistracy in this Policy was upon Rotation but even the People also at least as to the Nomothetae or their Legislative Power and the Supreme Judicatory of the Heliaea each of these being a Representative constituted of one thousand or fifteen hundred Citizens BUT for what follows in the second Book it is necessary that I observe in this place the proceding of certain Divines who indeavor to make use of this Commonwealth for ends of their own as particularly Dr. SEAMAN who in his Book call'd Four Propositions argues after this manner CHIROTONIA as SUIDAS has it signifys both Plebiscitum a Law made by the People and Psephisma Now says he Psephisma is the ordinary word us'd in the Attic Laws and in DEMOSTHENES for Senatusconsultum a Law made by the Senat whence he draws this Conclusion As when the People make a Law they are said to Chirotonize so may the Rulers in like manner in those Laws that are made by themselves alone THESE ways with Divines are too bad The words of SUIDAS are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chirotonia is Election or Ratification by the Many which expresly excludes the Few or the Senat from being otherwise contain'd by the word Chirotonia than a part is by the whole Nor has the Author the word Psephisma or Plebiscitum in the place I would fain know what other word there is
before for so sure had PAUL at least However that which is offer'd by this Narrative to present consideration is no more than the bare Story CHAP. II. That the Citys or most of them nam'd in the Perambulation of the Apostles PAUL and BARNABAS were at that time under popular Government In which is contain'd the â—dministration of a Roman Province THE Romans of all Nations under Heaven were indow'd as with the highest Virtues so with the greatest human Glory which proceded from this especially that they were in love with such as were in love with their Liberty To begin with their dawn the Privernates a free People inhabiting the City and Parts adjoining which at this day is call'd Piperno som fifty miles from Rome and five from Sesse being the second time conquer'd by the Romans it was consulted in the Senat what course should be taken with them where while som according to the different temper of men shew'd themselves hotter and others cooler one of the Privernates more mindful Liv. l. 8. c. 21. of the condition wherin he was born than of that wherin he was faln happen'd to render all more doubtful for being ask'd by a Senator of the severer judgment what Punishment hâ— thought the Privernates might deserve Such says he as they deserve who believe themselves worthy of Liberty At the courage of which answer the Consul perceiving in them that had bin vehement enough before against the Privernates but the greater animosity to the end that by a gentler Interrogatory he might draw som softer answer from him reply'd And what if we inflict no punishment at all but pardon you what Peace may we expect of you Why if you give us a good one said the other a steady and perpetual Peace but if an ill one not long At which a certain Senator falling openly upon ruffling and threatning the Privernat as if those words of his tended to som practice or intention to stir up the Citys in Peace to Sedition the better part of the Fathers being quite of another mind declar'd That they had heard the voice of a Man and of a Freeman For why said they Book II should it be thought that any Man or People will remain longer under such a Burden as they are not able to bear than till they can throw it down There a Peace is faithful where it is voluntary if you will have Slaves you are not to trust them but their Fetters To this opinion the Consul especially inclining inclin'd others while he openly profest That they who had no thought but upon their Liberty could not but be thought worthy to be Romans wherupon the Decree past by Authority of the Fathers which was afterwards propos'd to the Congregation and ratify'd by the Command of the People wherby the Privernates were made Citizens of Rome Such was the Genius of the Roman Commonwealth where by the way you may also observe the manner of her Debate and Result Authoritate Patrum Jussu Populi by the Advice of the Senat and the Chirotonia of the People BUT that which in this place is more particularly offer'd to consideration is her usual way of proceding in case of Conquest with other Nations for tho bearing a haughty brow towards such as not contented to injoy their Liberty at home would be her Rivals abroad she dealt far otherwise as with Carthage this case excepted and the pilling and polling of her Provinces which happen'd thro the Avarice and Luxury of her Nobility when the Balance of popular Power being broken her Empire began towards the latter end to languish and decline the way which she toâ—k with the Privernates was that which she usually observ'd with others throout the course of her Victorys and was after the Change of Government made good at least in som part by the Roman Emperors under whom were now those Citys mention'd in the present Perambulation of the Apostles PAUL and BARNABAS STRABO for his credit among human Authors is equal to any he liv'd about the time of this Perambulation and being a Greec is less likely to be partial Of that therfore which I have affirm'd to have bin the course of the Romans in their Victorys I shall make choice of this Author for a witness first where he epitomizes the Story of Strab. 1. 9. Athens after this manner When the Carians by Sea and the Boeotians by Land wasted Attica CECROPS the Prince to bring the People under shelter planted them in twelve Citys Cecropia Tetrapolis Epacrea Decelea Eleusis Aphydna Thoricus Brauron â—ytherus Sphettus Cephissia Phalerus which THESEUS is said to have contracted into one call'd Athens The Government of this City had many changes at first it was Monarchical then Popular This again was usurp'd by the Tyrants PISISTRATUS and his Sons whence recover'd it fell afterwards into the hands of the Few as when the four hundred once and again the thirty Tyrants were impos'd by the Lacedemonians in the War of Peloponnesus which Yoke the Athenians by means of their faithful Army shaking off restor'd their popular Government and held it till the Romans attain'd to the Dominion of Greece Now tho it be true that they were not a little disturb'd by the Kings of Macedon to whom they were forc'd to yield som kind of obedience they nevertheless preserv'd the form of their Common-wealth so intire that there be who affirm it never to have bin better administred than at such time as Macedon was govern'd by CASSANDER for this Prince tho in other things more inclining towards the Tyrant having taken Athens by surrender us'd not the People ill but made DEMETRIUS PHALEREUS the Disciple of THEOPHRASTUS the Philosopher chief Magistrat among them a man so far from ruining their popular State as in the Commentarys he wrote upon this kind of Government is attested that he repair'd it Nevertheless whether suspected Chap. 2 or envy'd for his Greatness without support by the Macedonians after the death of CASSANDER he fled into Egypt while his Enemys breaking down his Statues as som say made homely Vessels of them But the Romans having receiv'd the Athenians under their popular form left them their Lavs and Libertys untouch'd till in the war with MITHRIDATES they were forc'd to receive such Tyrants as that King was pleas'd to give them wherof ARISTION the greatest when the Romans had retaken the City from him being found trampling upon the People was put to death by SYLLA and the City pardon'd which to this day he wrote about the Reign of TIBERIUS not only injoys her Libertys but is high in honor with the Romans This is the Testimony of STRABO agreing with that of CICERO where disputing of Divine Providence he says that to affirm the World to be govern'd by Chance or without God is as if one should say that Athens were not govern'd by the Areopagits Nor did the Romans by the deposition of the same Author or indeed of any other behave themselves worse
is nevertheless Phil. 1. shewn by POLLUX to have bin the peculiar Office of the Thesmothetae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to chirotonize the Magistrats For as the Proedri were Presidents of the People in their Legislative Capacity so were the Thesmothetae upon occasion of Elections thus the Chirotonia L. 8. c. 8. of the Proedri or of the Thesmothetae signifys nothing else but the Chirotonia of the People by which they enacted all their Laws and elected all their Civil or Ecclesiastical Magistrats or Priests as the Rex Sacrificus and the Orgeones except som by the Lot which Ordination as is observ'd by ARISTOTLE is equally popular This whether ignorantly or wilfully unregarded has bin as will be seen hereafter the cause of great absurdity for who sees not that to put the Chirotonia or Soverain Power of Athens upon the Proedri or the Thesmothetae is to make such a thing of that Government as can no wise be understood Book II WHAT the People had past by their Chirotonia was call'd Psephisma an Act or Law And because in the Nomothetae there were always two Laws put together to the Vote that is to say the old one and that which was offer'd in the room of it they that were for the old Law were said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pronounce in the Negative and they that were for the new 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pronounce for the Affirmative THESE Laws these Propositions or this frame of Government having bin propos'd first by SOLON and then ratify'd or establish'd by the Chirotonia of the Athenian People ARISTOTLE says of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he instituted or constituted the popular Government which Constitution implys not any Power in SOLON who absolutely refus'd to be a King and therfore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to him implys no more than Authority I have shew'd you the Words in controversy and the Things together in the Mint now whether they that as to Athens introduc'd them both understood either I leave my Reader by comparing them to judg IT is true that the Things exprest by these Words have bin in som Commonwealths more in others less antient than the Greec Language but this hinders not the Greecs to apply the Words to the like Constitutions or Things wherever they find them as by following HALICARNASSAEUS I shall exemplify in Rome Lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ROMULUS when he had distributed the People into Tribes and Parishes proceded to ordain the Senat in this manner the Tribes were three and the Parishes thirty out of every Tribe he elected three Senators and out of every Parish three more all by the Suffrage of the People These therfore came to ninety nine chosen by the Chirotonia to which he added one more not chosen by the Chirotonia but by himself only Which Election we may therfore say was made by the Chirothesia for as in this Chapter I am shewing that the Chirotonia is Election by the Many so in the next I shall shew that the Chirothesia is Election by One or by the Few But to keep to the matter in hand the Magistrat thus chosen by ROMULUS was praefectus urbi the Protector of the Commonwealth or he who when the King was out of the Nation or the City as upon occasion of war had the exercise of Royal Power at home In like manner with the Civil Magistracy were the Priests created tho som of them not so antiently for the Pontifex Maximus the Rex Sacrificus and the Flamens were all ordain'd by the Suffrage of the People Pontifex Tributis Rex Centuriatis Flamines Curiatis the latter of which being no more than Parish Priests had no other Ordination than by their Parishes All the Laws and all the Magistrats in Rome even the Kings themselves were according to the Orders of this Commonwealth to be created by the Chirotonia of the People which nevertheless is by APPIAN somtimes call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chirotonia of the Tribuns whether these Magistrats were Presidents of the Assemblys of the People or elected by them Sic Romani Historici non raro loquuntur Consulem Calv. Inst l. 4. cap. 3. â— 15. qui comitia habuerit creasse novos Magistratus non aliam ob causam nisi quia suffragia receperit Populum moderatus est in eligendo WHAT past the Chirotonia of the People by the Greecs is call'd Dion Hal. l. 8. Psephisma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the Congregation of the People was to be dismist MARCUS standing up said Your Psephisma Chap. 3 that is your Act is exceding good c. THIS Policy for the greater part is that which ROMULUS as was shewn is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have instituted or ordain'd tho it be plain that he ordain'd it no otherwise than by the Chirotonia of the People THUS you have another example of the three words in controversy Chirotonia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psephisma still apply'd in the same sense and to the same things Have I not also discover'd already the original Right of Ordination whether in civil or religious Orders This will be scandalous How derive Ordination as it is in the Church of CHRIST or as it was in the Church of the Jews from the Religion or rather Superstition of the Heathens I meddle not with their Religion nor yet with their Superstition but with their Ordination which was neither but a part of their Policy And why is not Ordination in the Church or Commonwealth of CHRIST as well a political thing as it was in the Churches or Commonwealths of the Jews or of the Heathens Why is not Election of Officers in the Church as well a political thing as Election of Officers in the State and why may not this be as lawfully perform'd by the Chirotonia in the one as in the other Philo de Inst Princ. THAT MOSES introduc'd the Chirotonia is expresly said by PHILO tho he opposes it to the Ballot in which I believe he is mistaken as not seeing that the Ballot including the Suffrage of the People by that means came as properly under the denomination of the Chirotonia as the Suffrage of the Roman People which tho it were given by the Tablet is so call'd by Greec Authors All Ordination of Magistrats as of the Senators or Elders of the Sanhedrim of the Judges or Elders of inferior Courts of the Judg or Suâ—fes of Israel of the King of the Priests of the Levits whether with the Ballot or viva voce was perform'd by the Chirotonia or Suffrage of the People In this especially if you admit the Authority of the Jewish Lawyers and Divines call'd the Talmudists the Scripture will be clear but their Names are hard wherfore not to make my Discourse more rough than I need I shall here set them together The Authors or Writings I use by way of Paraphrase upon the Scripture are the Gemara Babylonia Midbar Rabba Sepher
Siphri Sepher Tanchuma Solomon Jarchius Chiskuny Abarbanel Ajin Israel Pesiktha Zotertha These and many more being for the Election of the Sanhedrim by the Ballot I might have spoken them more briefly for the truth is in all that is Talmudical I am assisted by SELDEN GROTIUS and their Quotations out of the Rabbys having in this Learning so little Skill that if I miscall'd none of them I shew'd you a good part of my acquaintance with them NOR am I wedded to GROTIUS or SELDEN whom somtimes I follow and somtimes I leave making use of their Learning but of my own Reason As to the things in this present Controversy they were no other in Athens and Rome than they had bin in the Common-wealth of Israel Numb 11. v. 16 24. WHEN MOSES came to institute the Senat he ask'd counsil of God And the Lord said Gather to me seventy men of the Elders of Israel and MOSES went out and told the People the words of the Lord that is propos'd the Dictat of the supreme Legislator to the Chirotonia of the Congregation What else can we make of these words of MOSES Book II to the People Take ye wise men and understanding and known among Deut. 1. v. 13 14 15. your Tribes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I will constitute them Rulers over you Now how the People could otherwise take or chuse these Rulers or Magistrats thus propos'd than by their Chirotonia let Divines shew or notwithstanding the constitution of MOSES both the Senat of Israel and the inferior Courts were decreed by the Chirotonia of the People For the People upon this Proposition resolv'd in the Affirmative or answer'd and said The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do This then was the Psephisma or Decree of the People of Israel wherupon says MOSES 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I constituted or ordain'd them Governors In which example you have the three words or the three things again nor as to the things is it or ever was it otherwise in any Commonwealth Whence it is admirable in our Divines who will have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constituted to be the word of Power that they do not see by this means they must make two Powers in the same Government the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Constitution of the Legislator and the Chirotonia or Suffrage of the People or else say that the Commonwealth of Israel was instituted by the Power of the Legislator and the Authority of the People than which there is nothing more absurd But the People staid not upon their first Psephisma or Result that the thing was good for them to do but did accordingly The manner of their proceding at different times was somwhat different for it was somtimes viva voce somtimes by the Lot without the Suffrage and somtimes by the Ballot which confisted not of the Lot only but of the Suffrage Each of these are equally popular for neither of them gives an advantage to any Person or Party but not equally prudent ways of proceding the Lot committing too much to Fortune except in som kinds of businesses as first in the division of Lands whence the Suffrage was properly excluded for the Divisions being made by three Deputys out of each Tribe if there happen'd to fall som advantage or disadvantage to any man by the Lot it was equal or impartial wheras if it had fallen by the Suffrage it must have bin inequal or partial Such was the cause why the Lot in the Division of the Land of Canaan was us'd without the Suffrage In case of a Crime committed by an unknown Author but among many of whom som one or more must have bin guilty as in the cases of ACHAN and JONATHAN the Lot was also us'd without the Suffrage somwhat after the manner of Decimation in an Army when many that are guilty throw the Dice and he on whom the Lot falls is punish'd yet with considerable difference for wheras Decimation is not us'd but for punishment where the Persons are as well known as the Guilt this use of the Lot in Israel was for the discovery of the unknown Author of som known Crime that som one of many being put to the question who if either by his own confession or other proof he were found guilty was punish'd accordingly otherwise not Men might have less incouragement that their Crimes would be the more hidden or less punishable for company or the shadow of it WHEN the People were set upon the introduction of a new Magistracy and car'd not at all who should be the man as in the Election of SAUL at which time the Phitistins lay hard upon them and they look'd upon the Ease they hop'd from a King without coveting the trouble which he was like to have it seems to me there was a third use of the Lot without the Suffrage BUT that the common use of the Lot in Israel imply'd also the Chap. 3 Suffrage and was of the nature of the Ballot at this day in Venice is little to be doubted or you may satisfy your self when you have consider'd the manner how the Senat or Sanhedrim was first elected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or constituted by MOSES UPON the Psephisma or decree of the Legislator and the People The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do they proceded to election of Competitors in this manner Each of the twelve Tribes to be hereafter as well locally as they were yet but genealogically divided were to make the Election not excluding the Thirteenth nor yet nominally taking it in for LEVI tho genealogically as distinct a Tribe as any of them yet was not design'd locally so to be but to have the right of promiscuous Inhabiting Cohabiting or Marriage with all or any of the rest and with right of Suffrage accordingly for this cause the Tribes being Thirteen are reckon'd but Twelve So each of the twelve Tribes elected among themselves by their Suffrages six wise men and understanding and known among them who being elected were written and being written were deliver'd each in a several Scrol to MOSES MOSES having receiv'd all the Scrols had seventy two Competitors which caus'd a Fraction for the Senat as is plain by the Text gather me seventy men that they may stand with thee was to consist but of Seventy with MOSES that is in all of seventy one So MOSES having two Competitors more than he needed caus'd two Urns to be brought into one of which he cast the seventy two Competitors or Names written in the Scrols and into the other seventy two Scrols of which two were blanks and seventy were inscrib'd with the word Presbyter This being don the whole Congregation pray'd and when they had pray'd gave forth their Lots THE Lots were given forth after this manner First a Lot was drawn out of the Urn of the Magistracys then another out of the Urn of the Competitors The Competitor to whose name a Blank was
have their Liberty not in word but in deed but that is Heathenism that 's CICERO well this is Christian if there will bâ— no such saying I would there might be no swearing Feb. 6. 1659. THE HUMBLE PETITION OF DIVERS Well affected Persons Deliver'd the 6 th day of July 1659. With the PARLAMENT'S Answer therto TO THE SUPREME AUTHORITY THE Parlament of the Commonwealth of England The Humble Petition of divers well affected Persons SHEWS THAT your Petitioners have for many years observ'd the breathings and longings of this Nation after Rest and Settlement and that upon mistaken grounds they have bin ready even to sacrifice and yield up part of their own undoubted right to follow after an appearance of it AND your Petitioners do daily see the bad effects of long continu'd Distractions in the ruins and decays of Trade foren and domestic and in the advantages that are taken to make Confederacys to involve the Nation in Blood and Confusion under pretence of procuring a Settlement THAT it has bin the practice of all Nations on the subversion of any form of Government to provide immediatly a new Constitution sutable to their condition with certain Successions and Descents that so both their Lawgivers and Magistrats might use their several Trusts according to the establish'd Constitution and the Peoples minds be settl'd secure and free from attemts of introducing several forms of Government according to the variety of their Fancys or corrupt Interests THAT God has preserv'd this Nation wonderfully without example many years since the dissolution of the old form of Government by King Lords and Commons there having bin no fundamental Constitutions of any kind duly settl'd nor any certain Succession provided for the Legislative Power but even at this instant if by any sudden sickness design or force any considerable numbers of your Persons should be render'd incapable of meeting in Parlament the Commonwealth were without form of successive Legislature or Magistracy and left to the mercy of the strongest Faction Yet we have reason to remember in these years of unsettlement the inexpressible sufferings of this Nation in their Strength Wealth Honor Liberty and all things conducing to their welbeing and we have like reason now sadly to apprehend the impending ruin And we cannot discern a possibility of your Honors unanimous and expeditious procedings towards our Countrys preservation and relief from its heavy pressures while your minds are not settl'd in any known Constitution of Government or fundamental Orders according to which all Laws should be made but divers or contrary Interests may be prosecuted on different apprehensions of the Justice and Prudence of different forms of Government tho all with good intentions YOVR Petitioners therfore conceiving no remedy so effectual against the present Dangers as the settlement of the Peoples minds and putting them into actual security of their Propertys and Libertys by a due establishment of the Constitution under which they may evidently apprehend their certain injoyment of them and therupon a return of their Trade and free Commerce without those continual fears that make such frequent stops in Trade to the ruin of thousands AND your Petitioners also observing that the Interest of the late King's Son is cry'd up and promoted daily upon pretence that there will be nothing but Confusion and Tyranny till he com to govern and that such as declare for a Commonwealth are for Anarchy and Confusion and can never agree among themselves what they would have VPON serious thoughts of the Premises your Petitioners do presume with all humility and submission to your Wisdom to offer to your Honors their Principles and Proposals concerning the Government of this Nation Wherupon they humbly conceive a just and prudent Government ought to be establish'd viz. 1. THAT the Constitution of the Civil Government of England by King Lords and Commons being dissolv'd whatever new Constitution of Government can be made or settl'd according to any rule of Righteousness it can be no other than a wise Order or Method into which the free Peoples Deputys shall be form'd for the making of their Laws and taking care for their common safety and welfare in the execution of them For the exercise of all just Authority over a free People ought under God to arise from their own Consent 2. THAT the Government of a free People ought to be so settl'd that the Governors and Govern'd may have the same Interest in preservâ—ng the Government and each others Propertys and Libertys respectively that being the only sure foundation of a Commonwealth's Unity Peace Strength and Prosperity 3. THAT there cannot be a Union of the Interests of a whole Nation in the Government where those who shall somtimes govern be not also somtimes in the condition of the Govern'd otherwise the Governors will not be in a capacity to feel the weight of the Government nor the Govern'd to injoy the advantages of it And then it will be the interest of the major part to destroy the Government as much as it will be the interest of the minor part to preserve it 4. THAT there is no security that the Supreme Authority shall not fall into Factions and be led by their privat Interest to keep themselves always in power and direct the Government to their privat advantages if that Supreme Authority be settl'd in any single Assembly whasoever that shall have the intire power of propounding debating and resolving Laws 5. THAT the Soverain Authority in every Government of what kind soever ought to be certain in its perpetual Successions Revolutions or Descents and without possibility by the judgment of human Prudence of a death or failure of its being because the whole form of the Government is dissolv'd if that should happen and the People in the utmost imminent danger of an absolute Tyranny or a War among themselves or Rapin and Confusion And therfore where the Government is Popular the Assemblys in whom reside the Supreme Authority ought never to dy or dissolve tho the Persons be annually changing neither ought they to trust the Soverain care of the strength and safety of the People out of their own hands by allowing a Vacation to themselves lest those that should be trusted be in love with such great Authority and aspire to be their Masters or else fear an Account and seek the dissolution of the Commonwealth to avoid it 6. THAT it ought to be declar'd as a Fundamental Order in the Constitution of this Commonwealth that the Parlament being the Supreme Legislative Power is intended only for the exercise of all those Acts of Authority that are proper and peculiar to the Legislative Power and to provide for a Magistracy to whom should appertain the whole Executive Power of the Laws and no Case either Civil or Criminal to be judg'd in Parlament saving that the last Appeals in all Cases where Appeals shall be thought fit to be admitted be only to the Popular Assembly and also that to