at the Tropick of four Knights being trienniall Magistrates out of the Region of the Senate whose terme expireth and of one Knight out of the same Region to be Strategus or Generall of the Province which Magistracy is annuall The Strategus or Magistrate thus chosen shall be as well President of the Provinciall Council with power to propose unto the same as Generall 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 whereas all Provinciall Councils are members of the Council of State they may and ought to keep diligent correspondence with the same which is to be done after this manner Any opinion or opinions Legitimately proposed and debated at a Provinciall Council being there upon signed by the Strategus or any two of the Provosts may be transmitted unto the Council of State in Oceana and the Council of State proceeding upon the same in their naturall Course whether by their own Power if it be a matter within their instructions or by authority of the Senate thereupon consulted if it be a matter of State which is not in their instructions or by authority of the Senate and Command of the People if it be a matter of Law as for the Levys of Men or Money upon common use and safety shall returne such answers advice or Orders as in any of the ways mentioned shall be determined upon the Case The Provinciall Councils of Marpesia and Panopea respectively shall take especiall care that the Agrarian Laws as also all other Laws that be or shall from time to time be enacted by the Parliament of Oceana for either of them be duely put in execution They shall mannage and receive the Customs of either Nation for the Shipping of Oceana being the Common Guard they shall have a care that moderate and sufficient pay upon the respective Province be duely raysed for the support and maintenance of the Officers and Souldiers or Army of the same in the most effectuall constant and convenient way They shall receive the Regalia or publique Revenues of those Nations out of which every Counsellor shall have for his terme and unto his proper use the Summe of 500 l. per annum and the Strategus 500. l. as President besides his pay as Generall which shall be 1000 pounds the remainder to go unto the use of the Knights and Deputies of the respective Provinces to be paid if it will reach according unto the rates of Oceana if not by an equall distribution respectively or the overplus if there be any to be returned unto the Treasury of Oceana They shall mannage the Lands if there be any such holden in either of the Provinces by the Common-wealth of Oceana in Dominion and return the Rents into the Exchequer If the Commonwealth come to be possessed of richer provinces the pay of the Generall or Strategus and of the Council is may be respectively encreased The People for the rest shall elect their own Magistrates and be governed by their own Lawes having power also to appeale from their Native or Provinciall Magistrates if they please unto the People of Oceana And whereas there may be such as receiving Injury are not able to prosecute their appeales at so great a distance Eight Serjants at Law being sworne by the Commissioners of the Seale shall be sent by foure into each Province once in two yeares who dividing the same by Circuits shall heare such Causes and having gathered and introduced them shall returne unto the severall Appellants Gratis the Determinations and Decrees of the People in their severall Cases The terms of a Knight in a Provinciall Orbe as to domestick Magistracies shall be esteemed a Uacation and no barr unto present Election into any other Honour his Provinciall Magistracy being expired The Quorum of a Provinciall Council as also of every other Council or Assembly in Oceana shall in time of health consist of two parts in thrée of the whole number proper unto that Council or Assembly and in a time of Sicknesse of one part in three But of the Senate there can be no Quorum without thrée of the Signory nor of a Councill without two of the Provosts The Civil part of the Provinciall Orbe being declared by the foregoing Order The military part of the same is constituted by order 29 The Twenty Ninth Order Whereby the Stratiots of the third Essay having drawn the Gold Balls marked with the Letter M. and being ten Horse fifty Foot in a Tribe that is to say five hundred Horse and two thousand five hundred Foot in all the Tribes shall be delivered by the respective Conductors unto the Provinciall Strategus or Generall at such a time and place or Rendevouz as he shall appoint by Order and Certificate of his Election and the Strategus having received the Horse and Foot mentioned which are the third Classis of his Provinciall Guard or Army shall forthwith lead them away unto Marpesia where the Army consisting of thrée Classes each Classis containing thrée thousand Men whereof five hundred are Horse and receiving the new Strategus with the third Classis the old Strategus with the first Classis shall be dismist by the Provinciall Council The same method with the Stratiots of the Letter P. is to be observed for the Provinciall Orbe of Panopea and the Common-wealth coming to acquire new Provinces the Senate and the People may erect new Orbs in like manner consisting of greater or lesse numbers according as is required by the respective occasion If a Stratiot have once served his terme in a Provinciall Orbe and happen afterwards to draw the Letter of a Province at the Election of the second Essay he may refuse his Lot and if he refuse it the Censor of that Urn shall cause the files balloting at the same to make an hault and if the Stratiot produce the Certificate of his Strategus or Generall that he hath served his time accordingly the Censor throwing the Ball that he drew into the Urn againe and taking out a blank shall dismisse the Youth and cause the Ballot to procéed To perfect the whole structure of this Common-wealth some drections are given unto the third Essay or Army marching in order 30 The Thirtieth Order When thou goest to battel against thine enemies and seest Horses and Chariots and a people more then thou be not affraid of them for the Lord thy God is he that goeth with thee to fight for thee against thine enemies And when thou dividest the spoile it shall be as a statute and an Ordinance unto thee that as his part is that goeth down to the battle so shall his part be that tarryeth by the Stuffe that is as to the Commonwealth of Oceana The spoile taken of the enemy except Clothes Armes Horses Ammunition and Uictuall to be divided unto the Souldiery by the Strategus and the Polemarchs vpon the place according unto
without encouragement by the Roman way of proceeding much lesse that which is proposed But whereas the Roman Legions in all amounted not in one Army to above 30000 Men or little more you have here Fourty thousand and whereas they added Auxiliaries in this regard it is that Marpesia will be of greater Revenue unto you then if you had the Indies for whereas heretofore She hath brought you forth nothing but her native Thistle ploughing out the ranknesse of her Aristocracy by your Agrarian you will find her an inexhaustible Magazine of Men and to her own advantage who will make a far better Accompt by the Arms then by the Pins of Poland Wherefore as a Consular Army consisted of about an equall number of Auxiliaries added unto their Legions by their Latine or Italian Associates you may adde unto a Parliamentary Army an equall number of Marpesians or Panopeans as that Colony shall hereafter be able to supply you By which means the Common-wealth will be able to go forth to Battail with Fourscore thousand Men. To make Wars with small Forces is no Husbandry but a waste a disease a lingring and painful Consumption of Men and Money the Romans making theirs thick made them short and had little regard unto money as that which they who have men enow can command where it is fittest that it should be Levied All the ancient Monarchies by this means got on wing and attain'd unto vast Riches Whereas your Modern Princes being dear Purchasers of small parcels have but empty Pockets But it may be that some will accuse the Order of rashnesse in that it committeth the sole Conduct of the War unto the General and the Custom of Venice by her Proveditori or Checks upon her Commanders in Chief may seem to be of greater Prudence but in this part of our Government neither Venice nor any Nation that maketh use of mercenary Forces is for our Instruction A mercenary Army with a standing Generall is like the fatall Sister that Spins But proper Forces with an annuall Magistrate are like Her that cuts the thread Their Interests are quite contrary and yet you have a better Proveditor then the Venetian another Strategus sitting with an Army standing by him whereupon that which is marching if there were any probability it should would find as little possibility that it could recoyl as a Forraign Enemy to invade you These things considered a War will appear to be of a contrary nature unto that of all other reckonings in as much as of this you must never look to have a good accompt if you be strict in imposing Checks Let a Council of Hunts-men assembled before-hand tell you which way the Stagg 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 colours are his Counsel he must be like the eye that maketh not the scene but hath it so soon as it changes That in many Counsellors there is strength is spoken of civill Administrations As to those that are Military there is nothing more certain then that in many Counsellors there is weaknesse Joynt Commissions in Military affairs are like hunting your Hounds in their Couples In the Attick War Cleomenes and Demaratus Kings of Lacedemon being thus coupled tugg'd one against another and while they should have joyn'd against the Persian were the Cause of the calamity whereupon that Common-wealth took better Counsel and made a Law whereby from thenceforth there went at once but one of her Kings unto Battail The Fidenati being in rebellion and having slain the Colony of the Romans four Tribunes with Consular power were created by the people of Rome whereof one being left for the guard of the City the other three were sent against the Fidenati who through the division that happened among them brought nothing home but dishonour whereupon the Romans created the Dictator and Livy gives his judgment in these words Tres Tribuni potestate Consulari documento fuêre quà m plurimum imperium bello inutile esset tendendo ad sua quisque consilia cum alii aliud videretur aperuerunt ad occasionem locum hosti When the Consuls Quictius and Agrippa were sent against the Aequi Agrippa for this reason refused to go forth with his Colleague saying Saluberrimum in administratione magnarum rerum summam imperii apud unum esse And if the ruine of Modern Armies were well considered most of it would be found to have fallen upon this Point it being in this case far safer to trust unto any one Man of common Prudence then to any two or more together of the greatest Parts The Consuls indeed being equal in Power while one was present with the Senate and the other in the Field with the Army made a good Ballance 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 Whereby the Elders in case of Invasion are obliged unto equall duty with the Youth and each upon their own Charge is suitable unto reason for every Man defends his own Estate and unto our Copy as in the War with the Samnites and Tuscans Senatus justitium indici delectum omnis generis hominum haberi jussit nec ingenui modo et juniores Sacramento adacti sunt sed seniorum etiam cohortes factae This Nation of all others is the least obnoxious unto Invasion Oceana saith a French Polititian is a Beast that cannot be devoured but by her Self Neverthelesse 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 Common-wealth invaded gathers strength like Antaeus by her fall whilst the whole number of the Elders consisting of five hundred thousand and the Youth of as many being brought up according unto the Order give twelve Successive Battels each Battel consisting of Eighty thousand Men half Elders and half Youth And the Common-wealth whose Constitution can be no stranger unto any of those virtues which are to be acquired in humane life growes familiar with Death ere She dye If the hand of God be upon her for her transgressions She shall mourn for her sins and lye in the dust for her iniquities without losing of her manhood Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidam ferient ruinae The remaining part being the Constitution of the Provinciall Orbe is partly Civill or consisting of the Elders and partly Military or consisting of the Youth The Civil part of the Provincial Orbe is directed by order 28 The Twenty-Eighth Order Whereby the Council of a Province being constituted of twelve Knights divided by four into thrée Regions for their terme and revolution conformable unto the Parliament is perpetuated by the annuall election
his Embroidery My Lord Archons arrivall being known the Signory acompanyed by the Tribunes repaired unto him with the newes he had already heard by the Herrauld to which my Lord Strategus added That his Highnesse could not doubt upon the Demonstrations given but the minds of men were firme in the opinion that he could be no seeker of himselfe in the way of earthly Pompe and Glory and that the Gratitude of the Senate and the People could not therefore be understood to have any such reflection upon him But so it was that in regard of dangers abroad and Parties at home they durst not trust themselves without a standing Army nor a standing Army in any mans hands but those of his Highnesse The Archon made answer that he ever expected this would be the sense of the Senate and the People and this being their Sence he should have been sorry they had made choice of any other then himselfe for a standing Generall First because it could not have been more unto their owne safety and secondly because so long as they should have need of a standing Army his worke was not done That he would not dispute against the Judgement of the Senate and the People nor ought that to be Neverthelesse he made little doubt but experience would shew every Party their owne Interest in this Government and that better improved then they could expect from any other that mens animosityes should over ballance their Interest for any time was impossible that humor could never be lasting nor through the Constitution of the Govermment of any effect at the first charge For supposing the worst and that the People had chosen none other into the Senate and the Prerogative then royalists a matter of Fourteen hundred men must have taken their Oaths at their Election with an intention to go quite contrary not only to their Oaths so taken but to their own Interest for being estated in the Soveraign Power they must have decreed it from themselves such an example as for which there was never any experience nor can be any reason or holding it it must have done in their hands as well every whit as in any other Furthermore they must have removed the Government from a Foundation that apparantly would hold to set it upon another which apparantly would not hold which things if they could not come to passe the Senate and the People consisting wholly of Royallists much lesse by a parcel of them elected But if the feare of the Senate and of the People derived from a party without such an one as would not be elected nor engage themselves unto the Common-wealth by any oath this againe must be so Large as would go quite contrary to their owne Interest they being as free and as fully estated in their liberty as any other or so narrow that they could do no hurt while the People being in Arms and at the beck of the Strategus every Tribe would at any time make a better Army then such a Party and there being no parties at home fears from abroad would vanish But seeing it was otherwise determined by the Senate and the People the best course was to take that which they held the safest in which with his humble thanks for their great bounty he was resolved to serve them with all duty and obedience A very short time after the Royallists now equall Citizens made good the Archons Judgement there being no other that found any thing near so great a sweet in the Government For he who hath not been acquainted with affliction saith Seneca knoweth but half the things of this world Moreover they saw plainly that to restore the ancient Government they must cast up their Estates into the hands of three hundred men wherefore in case the Senate and the Prerogative consisting of thirteen hundred men had been all Royallists there must of necessity have been and be for ever one thousand against this or any such Vote But the Senate being informed by the Signory that the Archon had accepted of his Dignity and Office caused a third Chair to be set for his Highness between those of the Strategus and the Orator in the House the like at every Council to which he repaired not of necessity but at his pleasure being the best and as Argus not vainly said the greatest Prince in the World for in the Pomp of his Court he was not inferiour unto any and in the Field he was followed with a force that was formidable unto all Nor was there a cause in the Nature of this constitution to put him unto the charge of Guards spoyle his stomack or his sleep Insomuch as being handsomely disputed by the wits of the Academy whether my Lord Archon if he had been ambitious could have made himself so great it was carried clear in the Negative not only for the Reasons drawn from the present ballance which was Popular but putting the case the ballance had been Monarchicall For there be some Nations whereof this is one that will bear a Prince in a Common-wealth far higher then it is possible for them to bear a Monarch Spain looked upon the Prince of Aurange as her most formidable Enemy but if ever there be a Monarch in that Country he will be her best friend For whereas a Prince in a Common-wealth deriveth his greatnes from the root of the People a Monarch deriveth his from one of those ballances which nip them in the root by which means the Low Countreyes under a Monarch were poor and inconsiderable but in bearing a Prince could grow unto a miraculous height and give the glory of his actions by far the upper hand of the greatest King in Christendome There are Kings in Europe to whom a King of Oceana would be but a Petit Companion But the Prince of this Common-wealth is the terror and the Judge of them all That which my Lord Archon now minded most was the Agrarian upon which debate he uncessantly thrust the Senate and the Council of State to the end it might be planted upon some firm root as the main point and Basis of perpetuity unto the Common-wealth And these are some of the most remarkable Passages that happened in the first year of this Government About the latter end of the second the Army was disbanded but the Taxes continued at thirty thousand pounds a month for three years and an half By which means a piece of Artigliery was Planted and a portion of Land to the value of 50. l. a year purchased for the maintenance of the Games and of the Priz-arms for ever in each Hundred With the eleventh year of the Common-wealth the terme of the Excise allotted for the mayntenance of the Senate and the People and for the raysing of a Publique Revenue expired By which time the Exchequer over and above the annuall Sallaryes amounting unto three hundred thousand pounds accumulating every year out of one Million income Seaven hundred thousand pounds in Bancho brought it