there reigned any King over the Children of Israel And these are the Names of the Dukes that came of Esau according to their Families after their Places by their Names And Verse the last These be the Dukes of Edom according to their Habitations in the Land of their Possessions he is Esau the Father of the Edomites Now what can be more particular or express than what I have here produc'd Or what can he mean by tracing the Foundation of Polities which are or ever came to our Knowledge since the World began if these will not pass for such He cannot pretend that we should bring a long Roll of Parchment like a Welch Pedigree ap Shinkin ap Morgan and so from the Son to the Father untill we arrive at ap Ismael ap Esau ap Magog ap Javan and so forth that would be too childish to imagine of him for we know very well that all the Kingdoms upon the Earth have oftentimes chang'd their Masters and Families But if he means as surely he must if he mean any thing that we cannot name any such Kingdom or Government that hath been so begun then he is grosly mistaken for the Assyrians the Medes the Ethiopians or Cusoei the Lydians the Jones or Greeks and very many others are sufficiently known and preserve to this day the very names of their first Founders who as is made appear were all Fathers of Families Mer. Cousin I begin to be very weary of this rambling Author Pray therefore let us go on as fast as we can Trav. Read then what follows Mer. As for Abraham whilst he liv'd as also his Son Isaac they were but ordinary Fathers of Families and no question govern'd their Housholds as all others do What have you to say to this Holy Patriarch and most excellent Man Trav. I say we are beholden to our Author that he did not call him a Country Farmer some such a one it may be as in his new Model of the Government is to share the Royal Authority Indeed it is hard that whom the declar'd Enemies to the Hebrew People have thought fit to call a King we who adore the Son of Abraham will not allow to be better than a common Housholder Mer. I confess my Reading is not great but as far as the Bible goes I may adventure to give my Opinion And if I mistake not the Children of Heth own'd him to be a mighty Prince among them Trav. Yes Sir and the Prophet David in the hundred and fifth Psalm calls him the Lords Anointed But because I perceive the Word of God is too vulgar a Study for our Learned Statesman I have found out a Prophane Author who concurs with the History of the Bible And first Justin makes no Scruple to call him in plain Words a King Post Damascum Azillus Mox Adores Abraham Israel Reges fuere lib. 36. Josephus also and Grotius who are Men of no small Repute even amongst the most Learned have quoted Nicolaus Damascenus to vindicate the Regal Authority of Abraham His Words are very intelligible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And tells us moreover that in his Days which was in the Reign of Augustus the Fame of Abraham was much celebrated in that Country and that there was yet a little Town remaining which was called by his Name Mer. I perceive when Men grow fond of their own Imaginations they run over all and neither Reason nor Religion have any Power to stop them Trav. Then he introduceth Samuel upon the Stage chiefly I suppose to insinuate that the People had a Power and did choose themselves a King which is so notoriously false that they never had the least share or pretended any in the election of Saul It is true they chose rather to be govern'd by a temporal King who was to live amongst them and rule as other Kings did than continue under the Government of the King of Heaven and Earth and so the Word chose relates wholly to the Government but not to the Person of the Governour For which Samuel also reproves them and accordingly they acted no farther leaving the Election of their new King wholly to God and their Prophet and God did particularly choose him from the rest of their People and Samuel actually anointed him before the People knew any thing of the matter Afterwards lest some might have accus'd Samuel of Partiality in the Choice he order'd Lots to be cast which in the Interpretation of all men is leaving the Election to God and Saul was again taken What Junius Brutus another old antimonarchical seditious Brother objects concerning renewing the Kingdom at Gilgal where it is said And all the People went to Gilgal and there they made Saul King before the Lord will serve very little to prove any Right of Power in the People no not so much as of Election for confirming and renewing the Kingdom and such like Expressions signifie no more than the taking by us the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which I think were never thought to give the King any Right to the Crown but only a just Right to punish us for our Perjury as well as Disobedience in Case of Rebellion So renewing the Covenant with God as particularly a little before the Death of Joshuah cannot be supposed to give a greater right of Power to God Almighty than what he had before but is only a stricter Obligation for the Peoples Obedience that they might be condemned out of their own Mouths And Joshuah said unto the People See ye are Witnesses against your selves So Samuel makes the People bind themselves to God to their King and to their Prophet that they would faithfully obey him whom the Lord had set over them And behold saith Samuel the Lord hath set a King over you But having spoke more to this purpose elsewhere and the Case being most clear as well by the History it self as by the Authority of Grotius and other learned Men that Saul and the rest of the Hebrew Kings did not in the least depend upon their People but received all their Right of Power wholly from God we will proceed with our Author Only I must note by the way that with the learned Gentleman's leave neither the Sanhedrim the Congregation of the People nor the Princes of the Tribes had any manner of Power but what was subordinate and that only to judge the People according to the Laws and Institutions of Moses And so they continued to the Babylonish Captivity Grotius only observing in favour of the Sanhedrim that they had a particular Right of judging concerning a whole Tribe the High Priest and a Prophet Mer. Well Sir we are now come to our modern despotical Power What say you to Mahomet and Cingis Can. Trav. Prethee Cousin let 's not trouble our selves with those Turks and Tartars they are yet â—ar enough off and not like to trouble us nor does their Government much concern us we have Laws of our own sufficient which
necessary Blessings which Mankind enjoys that Government cannot subsist without Power and that Power is originally in God who is the Fountain of all Power nothing seems more reasonable than that we should deduce all humane Authority from that inexhaustible Source and respect it accordingly I have only one Argument against what you have propos'd which however it may seem strange yet I must beg leave to offer it to you And it is this That I have heard some Learned Men both Ancient and Modern seem to maintain That although God may possibly be the universal Governour of the World or governs the Universe in general as the Sun Moon and Stars and so forth yet that he doth not as being beneath so great a Majesty inspect or mind the little particular Governments of our small Globe of Earth Trav. This is indeed the pernicious Doctrine of the Epicureans which with its Disciples ought to be banish'd all good Governments Qui ex bene moratis urbibus ejecti sunt as Grotius tells us cap. de poenis Ita coerceri posse arbitror nomine humanae Societatis quam sine ratione probabili violant Gassendus I confess in his Treatise de Vita Moribus Epicuri seems too much to favour this Opinion But Grotius whose Judgment I prefer before the Philosophy of both and St. Paul whom we Christians ought to respect before all three tells us Heb. 11. v. 6. That he who cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of those who diligently search him Grotius also in the same Chapter says farther That that Religion which in all Ages has been accounted true is chiefly grounded upon four Principles the third of which he says is this That God takes Care of humane Affairs and determines them according to his most just Decrees à Deo curari res humanas aequissimis Judiciis dijudicari And after he hath quoted to the same purpose Cicero Epictetus Lactantius and others he concludes That Revera negare Deum esse aut negare à Deo curari actiones humanas si moralem effectum respicimus tantundem valet That to deny there is a God or to deny that he regulates humane Affairs is in Effect the same thing And particularly in the same Chapter Sect. 44. he tells us farther that Epicurus when he took away the Providence of God in the Government of the World he left nothing of Justice but the empty Name That Justice is no farther necessary than profitable and that we ought to abstain from hurting one another out of no other Consideration than the Fear that those whom we offend should revenge themselves Epicurus cum Divinam providentiam sustulisset Justitiae quoque nihil reliquit nisi nomen inane c. But these and many other of the Epicurean Principles are rather plausible than solid witty than judicious and striking the Senses are rejected by a sober Vnderstanding Besides Cousin we Christians are obliged by a truer and much more Divine Philosophy to which we have all subserib'd and which is become a publick Law and Rule amongst us and with good Reason for nothing is more dangerous in all Governments than to regulate Publick Actions according to Private Opinions Publick Actions must have Publick Rules and publick Obedience must have Publick Laws under which we must acquiesce untill they be alter'd by Publick Authority otherwise we may eternally wander after the false Lights of foolish Men who from their Extravagancies would be accounted witty Mer. Sir I shall not dispute any farther either your Reasons or your Authorities both which I allow as most authentick pray therefore proceed Trav. Having told you then what Power is I come now to Force and as the first is the spiritual part of Government so the latter is the material part Force is the Arm and Nerve which being animated by lawful Authority produces Power in the general Acceptation which is properly and in a good Sense the Vnion of both Force without this Right is Vis injusta or Violence With it it becomes the just Defence which Nature hath given all Creatures as well as Man to preserve to themselves their Lives Liberties and Possessions Without it that is when we invade the Possessions of another it becomes Robbery and Rapine and is no more excusable in Alexander than the Pyrate Tully de Officiis 3. and Grotius who cites him besides many others tell us the same Truths in plain Words Vt quisque malit sibi quod ad vitae usum pertineat quam alteri acquiri concessum est non repugnante natura Illud natura non patitur ut aliorum spoliis nostras facultates opes copias augeamus And Grotius adds this Consequence Non est ergo contra Societatis naturam sibi prospicere atque consulere dum jus alienum non tollatur Ac proinde nec vis quae jus alterius non violat injusta est It is Right of Power therefore which makes Force justifiable both according to the Laws of Nature and the Laws of Man To conclude Power or Authority and Force are generally so united that they oftentimes are mistaken and pass for one another But they are also sometimes separated as a Right may be from the Possession and by this Instance we may easily distinguish them A lawful Prince hath first Power and Authority to which Force is added A Rebel first procures a Force or Strength and afterwards usurps a Power Mer. This is plain enough and I have nothing to reply Trav. Having then made these necessary Distinctions I affirm That the People which is the Force and Strength of all Kingdoms by how much their Strength is great whether in Land or Personal Estate by so much their Power which is Authority or Right of Government ought to be the less And this not only because it is incongruous and unnatural that the Governed should become their own Governours or that the several destructive Appetites of the Members should train after them the Reason which ought to regulate all but it is also very imprudent and against all the Rules of true Polity and Government For it hath been ever the Rule and Endeavour of wise Men so to ballance Power and Force that neither may offend the other but that by the harmonious Accord of just Commands and faithful Obedience a State may become most happy invincible and eternal Hence Power never ought to assume an adventitious Force such as Mercenary Souldiers which have generally prov'd destructive both to Prince and People nor the People usurp a Power which belongs not to them such as the Seditious Tribunes of Rome often pretended to which lost them both that Power and Liberty which they had Government consists in Command and Obedience whence Empire is defin'd by some to be certus ordo in jubendo parendo Command is the Effect of Power Obedience the Result of both and Peace Happiness and Security the end of all The general Interruption proceeds from
were to protect them not only in all Law Suits but in what other occurrences might happen to them The Plebeians also were styled Clientes or their Clients who besides the Protection of their Patrons received also Lands from them under certain conditions which remained many years inviolable for example in case the Patron should be taken by the Enemy the Client was to contribute towards his Ransome as also towards the advancement of their Daughters in their Marriages they were not to inform or give testimony against their Patrons or if they did they were accursed and condemned as Traitors Diis inferis devovebantur proditionis erant rei besides many other obsequious duties and respects so we read that Appiuâ— Claudius gave Lands to his Clients even in the very Infancy of the Roman Government Nor was this jus tutelare personal only but it was also Gentilitium that is it extended it self into whole families as for instance some of them with their whole Generation were Clients under the protection of the Aemilian some under the Julian and others under the Claudian Families This constitution was of great use to the Common-wealth for the credit which the Patricii had with their Clients was sufficient oftentimes to appease their popular disturbances who yielding either to the Authority or Entreaties of their Patrons were brought to acquiesce though with some little prejudice to their own right and this continued many Ages until the ambition of the Tribunes interrupted this good correspondence between the Princes and the People and so honourable did the name of Client grow that many States and Governments who have voluntarily committed themselves to the fidelity or protection of the Romans did not disdain that Title Thus we see the Lands even within the narrow compass of the first Roman Monarchy divided amongst the Princes and the People which Lands so given to the latter were called Clientela's and accordingly we may observe under Servius Tullius their sixth King a Register of their particular Estates Regis solertia ita est ordinata respublica ut omnia Patrimonii dignitatis aetatis artium officiorumque discrimina in tabulas referrentur Flor. c. 6. So we read of the Confiscation of the particular lands of Tarquinius superbus and yet Romulus and his successors were as absolute Monarchs as any of the Caesars have been and Julius Caesar himself by Will deviseth part of his own private estate to the Romans Thus was property or the possession of Lands divided amongst the people during the first Roman Monarchy thus it continued under the Roman as well as Graecian Empire thus it remains at present in the German Empire and thus it is established in all the most Christian Monarchies upon earth and not to forget our own Country I must observe out of a learned Author that our ancient British Kings who were as absolute as any made distribution also of their Land amongst their Subjects after this manner one paâ—t they gave to the Archflamens to pray for the Kings and their posterity a second part to the Nobility to do them Knights service a third to the Husbandmen to hold of them in Sâ—â—â—age and a fourth to the Mechanicks to hold in Bâ—rgage l. MS. Hâ—st Brit. And yet Plato Red. dares obtrude this proposition upon us p. 40. That in all states if the King had no Companions in the Soveraign Power he had no sharers likewise in the Dominion or possession of the Lands But for further satisfaction let us consider the Government of Gods people or the Kingdom of the Jews I think all will agree that the Hebrews were proprietors of their Lands and held them upon as good a Title as the people of England do theirs even at this day We find in that History a particular account of the distribution of the Lands according to their Tribes who were at that time under a Monarchical Government whether we look upon God Almighty as their King who according to Grotius Hobbs Junius Brutus and all good Authors was Rex peculiaris Israelitarum or as Brutus tells us De jure Mag. p. 226. Ab initio Deus ipse aternus ejus Monarcha fuit non eo tantum nomine quod ipse rerum omnium supremum dominium obtinuit sed singulari quodam modo nempe c. Or whether under their High Priest who was Gods vicegerent except when he raised them up a Judge We hear of no Tenures or services amongst them other than such as all Subjects upon earth are oblig'd to perform for the honour of the King and publick safety It is plain from the story of Ahab in the case of Naboth's vineyard that Naboth had a clear right and property in the possession of his lands and that their Kings had no authority in their private capacities to force any Subject so much as to sell his land upon reasonable conditions Yet nevertheless neither the Kings of Persia nor of Egypt nor of any part of the East were more absolute than the Kings of Israel were and yet none had a less proportion in the possession of the lands Mer. Sir I shall grant you all except this That the Kings of Israel were absolute which I can hardly believe especially since our Author tells us the contrary and instances in the Sanhedrim the Assembly of the Tribes and Congregation of the Lord who all had a share in the Government as they had in the property Trav. I confess several zealous Commonwealths men have asserted this false doctrine and amongst others their old Coryphaeus Junius Brutus But I find no colour of pretence for this their assertion but we will examine the case as fully as this occasion will permit and refer you afterwards to what I have writ more at large concerning this point elsewhere And first it is necessary that we should agree what we mean by an absolute Monarch which is indeed a point rather controverted than clearly decided by any Author that I have yet met withal Sallust thinks it consists in an exemption from all humane jurisdiction Impune quidvis facere hoc est Regem esse Others that to be absolute a Prince ought to govern peremptorily according to his will So Juvenal Sic volo sic jubeo stat pro ratione voluntas A third sort have declar'd that King truly absolute who giving Laws to others is subject to none himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to command without being oblig'd to give a reason why or wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aeschylus saith and again Rex est suo utens jure nulli obnoxius Hobbs will have it consist in the subjection of our wills to that of the Prince Homo ille vel concilium illud cujus voluntati singuli suam voluntatem subjecerunt summam potestatem sive summum imperium sive dominium habere dicitur Grotius whose opinion I must always esteem very much tells us that the most absolute or highest power is of that Prince whose actions are not accountable
us Trav. Sir you may easily believe that if the people were Masters of the Government they would not fail to give themselves large proportions of the lands But this made their Government so irregular and subject to so many inconveniencies that instead of being setled according to the exact rules of the Polities as our Author thinks it was most insupportable and not capable of any long subsistence And in effect we see both their name and government so totally extinct that those people who possessed almost all Europe are not now to be found in any part of it Such was the case of the once flourishing Kingdom of the Jews which when the Seditious people as Menahemus Eliazarus and others endeavoured to set up a popular Government was utterly destroy'd and of two such mighty Nations nothing is left but some few wandring remains or old rustick monuments which serve only to testifie that they once have been I confess had the authority of the Gothick Kings been Absolute and Independent I know no great inconvenience that their distribution of the lands could have produced Yet that too ought to be done with discretion and good consideration or many mischiefs and ruine in the end may ensue To this purpose our Author I thank him hath put us in mind of a memorable example For Plutarch tells us that Cleomenes King of Sparta endeavouring to make himself Absolute slew the Ephori And the better to ingratiate himself with the people divided the lands amongst them But being desperately attack'd by Antigonus King of Macedon before he had well established his Soveraign Authority he could not raise money to pay either his Mercenary soldiers or his own Citizens Whence for want of that power he was totally routed Lacedemon sack'd and the whole Kingdome became a Province to the Macedonians Mer. Without doubt many Contingencies may happen in which an Absolute Power in the Prince may prove the greatest security to a Kingdom against a Foreign Invasion For whilst the people are consulted withal or intreated to contribute toward the necessary expences of war by an untimely frugality and indiscreet husbandry the whole may be lost I remember a story very apposite to this purpose in the wars between the Greeks and Turks under Constantine the Fifteenth and last Christian Emperour of Greece The numerous Army of the Turks had so wasted the besieged in Constantinople that Constantine had no hopes of preserving the City but by a supply of Mercenary Soldiers To procure these a considerable sum of mony was requisite But the brutal and covetous Greeks would not be prevail'd upon to part with any thing at present though they had no other hopes to preserve all for the future So the unfortunate Emperour was slain and the City taken and sack'd from top to bottom with all the insolences that might be expected from a Pagan Conquerour Among the Greeks the Admiral Notaras was accounted the most rich and had been the most solicited by the Emperour to prevent by a chearful contribution and his good example the fatal hour of the Grecian Empire But cursed avarice doth often blind our reason so much that we are forc'd to yield That to our enemies which might have once preserv'd our friends And so it happened For Notaras burying all his Treasure whilest the Siege endured at last to preserve his life and complement the New Emperour Mahomet the second he raised his dead money from the grave and presenting iâ— with himself at the Emperour's feet offer'd the one to secure the other But the generous Turk looking sternly upon him Thou dog said he I take thy Treasure not as thy gift but as my due by right of conquest Which hadst thou in time given to thy poor Prince whom thou hast perfidiously betray'd thou mightest have preserv'd both thy Country and thy King Go then with a mischief and receive the just reward due to thy Treachery So he commanded him to be executed with no less severity than if he had been a Traytor even to Mahomet himself But Sir Begging your pardon for this Digression let us return to the Goths of whom I think you were saying That they have left little behind them which retains the memory that they once have been Pray what say you to those Tenures which are yet extant in many parts of Europe Were they not of the Gothick institution and do they not sufficiently testifie not only that they were but that they were also a wise people since their Government has remain'd so long after them Trav. Sir I perceive you use the word Government promiscuously as indeed our Author himself does Sometimes he makes it signifie the Supreme right of power sometimes the Subordinate and sometimes neither but only the effects of Government as in this case Now though these Tenures have remained in some Kingdoms yet they prove little of the wisdom and nothing of the excellent Government of those Goths For the last it is either totally lost or else so changed that it is not any more to be known For I do not hear or read of any such precarious Kingdom as theirs was extant at this day in Europe Nor is it probable there should for as hath been already observed such a constitution is so irregular and contrary to the nature of Government that it cannot continue long in that neutrality For either the people will take all the power into their hands whence some little Commonwealths have sometimes sprung up or else the King will by degrees become absolute and independent such as most of the Monarchs are at present throughout the whole world And for their Tenures you will easily find how they were continued if you consider that many little Kingdoms have been built upon the ruines of the declining Roman Empire which had been overrun by the Goths and Vandalls Roman paulatim coepit minui jam gentes quae Romanorum provincias non regna habitabant Râ—ges creare jam ex illorum potestate subduci in proprii arbitrii authoritate stare discunt These new Princes thought nothing more conducible to the establishment of their new Governments than to make as little innovation as they could but rather leave the conquered who were afterwards to become their Subjects in the same condition as they found them And those Tenures having no great matter of ill in them provided their Lords had no right in the Soveraign Authority as they had not many of them have continued with little alteration to this day This Cousin is I think sufficient to prove that contrary to our Author's proposition most Kings which have been in the world though they had an absolute and an independent right of power yet they have permitted the Lands to be divided and in the possession of the people And that though in the mixt Monarchy of the barbarous Goths and Vandalls some part of the power as well as possessions were in the Commonalty yet that is no reason to us why
it we will suppose that by his Goths and Northern people he means the Saxons for the Danes were but a very little while I think not thirty years masters of England and so what may be gather'd in favour of his popular Government from them if any thing could would not be much material We will imagine then that our Saxons were of the race of the Goths and that retaining their customs They introduc'd many of them amongst us such as might be the division of the lands into several Feuds which they called Thane lands and were like our Mannors or Lordships under certain Tenures or Services Many also they might have found amongst the Britains and retain'd them under their own Government for it is certain the Britains held lands by several Tenures but whether they were originally of their own Institution or the remains of the Roman Clientela's and Praeda militaria I will not determine I have already told you that the Goths upon their first Transplantation and after they were setled in their new possessions were govern'd by Kings whose power encreas'd despotically according as the people grew secure and civiliz'd and so they continued above a thousand years nor do I find that the people in all this time pretended to any other share in the government than to meet in General Councils when the affairs of the Kingdom oblig'd their King to assemble them And truly I ever thought such National Assemblies when well regulated very conducible to the security and happy subsistence of all Governments and such our antient Monarchs have thought fit to make use of and have transmitted the custom of convoking such Councils which we not call Parliaments even to our days But that these Counsellors should have any right of command is so contrary to the design of their Institution that as this must needs be dangerous to the Government it self so they make their good Institution useless by rendring themselves suspected to the King who alone hath the right to assemble them For what wise Magistrate would by his own authority raise a power which he apprehends might shock his own The sad effects of this we have seen of late days among our selves when our Commoners in Parliament who were meer Counsellors and no more or Representatives with a power to consent have arrogated to themselves a Soveraign authority and under that pretence have forceably and violently subverted our antient Government and destroyed our Lawful and Natural Governour himself and have besides of late spent so much time in unnecessary new disputes concerning their own rights and prerogatives which really do not much concern us that they have totally neglected those main ends of their meeting which are the Security of our Government under our Lawful Soveraign and the peace and happiness of his people and which are the only blessings and benefits which we desire of them Nay they have been so far from procuring those advantages for us to which purposes they have been solely entrusted by us that their disputes concerning the Succession to the Crown of England which is indisputable The Right which the King hath to borrow money upon good Security which was never taken from the poorest of his Subjects shewing mercy upon unfortunate offenders which is his Nature as well as undoubted Prerogative and several such other irregular Heats and Animosities are the most apparent causes of our present horrid Conspiracies troubles and distractions But to return to our Goths I have told you that after their division those that spread toward the West and Southern parts of Europe were in a continual state of war and so their King was but their General whom sometimes they did depose or continue according as they found him capable of that great employment upon whose conduct in their dangerous circumstances their Lives and Fortunes did chiefly depend and such in some respects was the case of our Saxons under their Heptarchy here in England All the world knows that they invaded us without any pretence of title being only call'd in as friends by Vortigern the British King to assist him against the Scots and by degrees encroaching upon the Britains they erected several Kingdoms until at length the Native Inhabitants were totally over-power'd But this made very little alteration in their affairs for wanting a common enemy they were always quarrelling amongst themselves usurping upon one another untill their several little Governments were united under one Soveraign Monarch who was Egbert as some write or Alfred the eighteenth King of the West-Saxons ` T is true that during Vide Chron. Sir R Baker their Heptarchy they chose one amongst themselves who was the Supreme head of the rest and was call'd King of Engle-lond And it is recorded that eight of the Mercian Kings in a continued succession kept the Imperial Crown of the Heptarchy But it was rather a titular honour than a Soveraign right of Government and I do not find but that every particular King in his own Province did generally exercise those two great Regalities of making Laws and levying Taxes by vertue of his own authority But whether they did or not it is little to our purpose since we have no reason to follow the examples of those petty Kings and Vsurpers especially when we consider their circumstances But if we must lay aside the form of Government since the Norman conquest from whence our Aera begins and concerning which our Histories are more certain and Authentick let us then rather consult the Administration of those West-Saxons who solely and Soveraignly enjoy'd the Crown of England And not to be too tedious we will six upon King Edward the Confessor the last except Harold of our English Saxon Kings I shall not trouble you with much neither concerning him because you may find at large whatever can be said of him in our own English Histories I shall only therefore make this remark that we have had no Kings since William the Conqueror nor was he himself more absolute than King Edward the Confessor was I remember nothing of his impositions but rather believe there might have been none during his reign because I find that he remitted to his people the yearly Tribute of 40000 l. that had been gathered by the name of Danegelt But for Laws which now are made by Act of Parliament I observe no such Parliamentary way of proceedings in his days It is true that he called a Councel or Wittena Gemote which some call very improperly a Parliament especially as it is now understood in the second year of his Reign but the Commoners were so far from having any right of power that their presence was not really necessary Minores laici non sammoneri debent sed si eorum praesentia necessaria fuerit c. Which shews plainly that they might be omitted Nay although they were summoned and did not appear nevertheless the Parliament was taken to be full without them Which is a sufficient proof that the Commons
and Honour in the Governour and Right of Priviledge and Protection in the Governed that the one may be secur'd against Oppression and the other from Violation And in this it was that Solon having probably in his Travels perused Part it not all the Law of Moses and nicking the Circumstances of the troublesome Affairs in Attica succeeded so well that as hath been said he had the Fortune to make such Laws and contrive such a Form of Government as for a time pleas'd both Parties Mer. Pray How did Athens prosper under these new Laws and this Innovation in the Government Trav. As for the Laws they continued in Force for many Years but for the Form of Government it succeeded as generally all Innovations do especially such as are popular for his mingled Democracy became even in his own Days a perfect Monarchy under the Reign of Pisistratus to whom even Solon himself was a constant Privy Councillor Mer. It surprises me extreamly that so wise a Man as Solon should fail so grosly in so material a Point as the Establishment of his new Government Trav. Sir you will cease to wonder when I shall tell you how the Case and his Circumstances stood Attica was divided into three principal Factions according to the three different Situations of the Country The Mountaineers were all for a Popular Government those of the plain or low Country affected an Aristocracy the Coasters and those who liv'd near the Sea-side desir'd rather a mix'd Government but all the People and poorer sort were so generally indebted to the Rich that they paid annually no less than the sixth part of all they had to their Creditors whence they were call'd Hectemorâ—i and many were so desperately engag'd that they were forc'd to sell their Children In these Distractions and Afflictions the more sober part did believe That nothing could so truly heal their Grievances as returning again under the Government of a Monarch whose Power being despotical might according as himself should think most just end all their Differences by easing the Poor without exasperating the Rich. In this Conjuncture Solon being a rich Merchant and a wise Man and living splendidly enough grew so popular that the common People invited him to take the Government wholly upon himself Two of the Parties were very zealous in it and the third seem'd well enough satisfy'd that the Management of all should be in the Hands of so prudent a Man as he was thought to be But Solon very unadvisedly refusing what was offer'd him suffer'd himself to be chosen after Philombrotus their Archon and then to gratifie the People who had been so respective to him he abolisheth their Debts and gave them a greater share in the Government than in good reason and Policy they ought to have had All their Law-givers and Politicians after Draco as Josephus cont App. observes aut Civitatem laudantes aut Reges that is affected according to their Circumstances or Inclinations a Popular or a Monarchical Government Mer. But this sure should rather have strengthned their popular Government than introduced another so contrary to it Trav. No Sir that 's a Mistake for when Men are unduely raised to the Helm who are born to obey or as Agrippa observes Qui hoereditariam obedientiam susceperunt their new Power like Strong Liquors intoxicates them their Heads grow giddy and they become more insolent and unsupportable even to their Fellows for whose sakes they receiv'd their Honours than the most absolute Monarchs generally have been This makes them easily shake off the servile Yoke and return to the Obedience of their natural Prince or else some aspiring Man amongst them usurps all So the popular Sedition of the Gracchi and some others of the Tribunes confirm'd the Authority of the Consuls and introduc'd at last even by the Consent of the People a Monarchical Government Mer. This Observation is most just and common enough amongst us nothing being more ridiculously proud and insolent than a Clown in Office But what became afterwards of Athens Trav. Pisistratus having govern'd very well about thirty five Years left the Kingdom to his Son Diocles who being murther'd by one of his Subjects the other Son Hippias was banish'd by the Rebellious Multitude and the Government fell again into the Hands of the People Then it became an Aristocracy and was governed wholly by the Senate Permittente populo imperium ad Senatum transfertur Then a Tyranny under thirty Governours each of which was more cruel than any of their former Kings had been Then they reduc'd the thirty to ten Tyrants then the Government came to the People again and in a Word passing through all the Changes and Forms which they could invent they had nothing certain and establish'd but continual Wars which lasted untill they became Slaves to the Macedonian Conquerour and at last remain'd Subjects to the Roman and Grecian as at present to the Turkish Emperours Mer. And was this the Condition of the celebrated Athenian Governments are their Wars and Changes the admirable Blessings which we are encouraged to seek after Trav. Sir I relate only matter of Fact as you will find at large in Thucydides Justin Plutarch and several other Authors make what use of it you think fitting Mer. The Use is plain which is To seek after Peace while I live and by the Grace of God endeavour as far as belongs to a Man of my Profession to support the present Government by Law established that we may avoid the Plague of Innovation and the Slavery of some Macedonian Conquerour One Word more dear Cousin How came Athens to produce such excellent Wits as it seems it did in those troublesome Days Trav. As our Miseries under the Tyranny of the rebellious House of Commons and Usurpation of a Plebeian produced several most learned Works or as the Persecution of the Primitive Church procur'd the excellent Volumes of many Holy Fathers and Martyrs Besides you must believe â—â—at Athens had some Intervals of Prosperity but that is still little to our purpose for I cannot think it reasonable that we in this Age should be oblig'd â—â— inâ—ur all the Misfortunes which Innovation generally produces in hopes that the next Age may be if possible more happy and flourishing tâ—â—n we are at present Mer. Sir I am hitherto perfectly well satisfied and â—eg your Pardon for the Trouble which I have given you but it will shorten our way very much in our Discourse hereafter One word concerning the famous Sparâ—â—â— Commonwealth and then I have done Trav. That will not cost us much time You must know then that Sparta was govern'd originally by Kings as Athens was They reckon nine successively to Lycurgus whose Power was also most arbitrary But then the Kingdom falling by Right of Succession to Charyllus Posthumate Son to Polybita Lycurgus his Uncle taking the Advantage of his Nephew's Minority gave the People Laws and made some Alteration in the Government which consisted principally in the
The Cappaâ—ocians would not accept of the Liberty which the Romans offer'd them Negantes vivere se posse sine Rege The same Philostratus tells us of the Thracians Scythians and those Mysians which inhabited about the Hellespont that they had no manner of Satisfaction in the Proposition of a Liberty which they car'd not for And the Tarks at this day being so taught by their Prophet and their Alcoran think it an Honour to dye by the Command of their Emperour Mer. This I comprehend well but why may not those Slaves be made free Trav. That indeed they may But then they come under the third Consideration which is That our Emperour may People his Country with Free-Men whom he is supposed to carry over with him But then I must ask you Whether you imagine That Men who are Free at home will become Subjects in a Foreign uncultivated Country unhealthful it may be and dangerous and very remote from all their Friends and Relations and whatever else they once esteemed without the Hopes of some Recompence and considerable Advantage Mer. Without doubt they will not But why may not the Proprietor of the Land grant such Proportions of it to these Free-men as may encourage them to transplant themselves and Families as they do at present to Carolina and other Colonies Trav. This is and may be done but then Sir you must observe that according to our Authors Aphorism part of his Empire must go for it whence will arise the most ridiculous Soloecism that ever was heard of which is That by how much he encreaseth in Subjects by so much he decreaseth in Empire Which is as much as to say That by how much he becomes powerful and rich and strong by so much he becomes less an Emperour Nay and in process of time when his Lands shall happen to be all peopled he shall be no Emperour at all Mer. But Sir Why may he not retain suppose half the Lands to his own use Trav. He may Sir Yet still the Empire being founded upon the Possession of the Land he is but half so great an Emperour now his Empire is half peopled and begins to be supply'd with all Necessaries as he was when no humane Creature besides himself did inhabit it Which is so absurd that nothing can be invented more unreasonable Mer. I know not what to say against this but must only ask you one Question more Whether you pretend to make an Emperour without Land Trav. I do not say I would nor was there it may be any such Emperour ever known Yet I must tell you that it is more rational to affirm That a Man may be an Emperour without Land than without People So many of the Roman Generals were called Emperours when they had little to fix their Empire on besides their Army But this also we shall illustrate by this following Case Suppose then That after the Death of this present Emperour of Germany the Princes Electors should think fit to choose this present King of France in his stead I do not know that he hath any Lands in Germany yet nevertheless what kind of Emperour do you suppose he might prove Mer. Without doubt as great as his Predecessor Trav. Truly I believe as great and as perfect an Emperour to all Intents and Purposes as ever enjoyed that August Title since Charlemaigne Which sure is an Argument most demonstrable that Empire is not founded according to our Authors erroneous Aphorism in the Possession of Lands The wise Queen Eliz. understood this Truth well enough when she us'd to say That she car'd not to rule in her Subjects Purses but in their Hearts And the truly politick Church of Rome knew most assuredly that they should raise their temporal Empire to the utmost height that their Ambition could suggest not when they invaded some few Territories belonging to some of their neighbour Counts and Princes but when they could fix their Empire in Mens Minds perswading them that they had a Right of Power over their Souls and Bodies the Lands followed then of Course and you find them presently deposing Emperours and disposing of Kingdoms and other temporal Possessions with no less Freedom than they did their spiritual Benefices And to comply with our Author's Country Comparison of a Carter and his Teem let him command his Waggon or his Cart with all the Rhetorick and Artifice he can see whether all his Endeavours would not prove ineffectual to obtain the least Motion and whether himself would not look ridiculous Besides could the Cart obey and drag the Teem after it where could we see a more irregular and preposterous Sight But by governing well and commanding his Horses the Cart will certainly follow with ease and both arrive safely and happily at their Journeys end Whence it is easie to infer That Empire is always founded upon Living Bodies and not upon Lands or Things insensible Mer. Pray give me leave to ask you Whether you think this Aphorism of our Authors false in it self or by him ill understood Trav. Sir I am not oblig'd to defend another Man's Proposition It is sufficient for me if I prove that it is false according to his own Interpretation But however that I may give you all the Satisfaction which you can reasonably desire I will so far comply with you as to tell you That Empire may be well enough said to be founded in Property but by no means when he constrains Property to signifie the Possession of Lands Mer. Dear Cousin I must entreat you that you will give me your own Interpretation especially since the true understanding where Empire ought to be fix'd will be a â—arther Light to me Trav. Sir If you can have Patience I shall endeavour to satisfie you as briefly as the Subject will permit And first I must again remind you that the formal part of all Empire is Power or a Sovereign Right of Government whether residing in one or more is not material Power thus fix'd in some Person hath for his Objects first the Persons to be govern'd secondly the Territory containing them The first is sometimes alone sufficient to create an Empire the second may be divided or chang'd the Empire remaining still entire Imperium says Grotius Dâ— Jure B P. l. 2. c. 3. duas solet habere materias sibi subjacentes Primariam personas quoe materia sola interdum sufficit Secundariam locum qui territorium dicitur This second Matter Grotius calls Dominium as it is distinguish'd from Imperium Ideóque saith he Dominium non in cives tantum sed in extraneos transit manente penes quem suit imperio These rightly understood it will be no difficult Matter to affirm That Empire is founded in a Sovereign Right of Command or Government or Power over Persons and Men which that we may bring under the Term of Property we will say That Empire consists in holding this Government or Power as Grotius expresses it In pleno
disposing of the Treasury whether it be his own particular Revenue or such as may be granted for the Defence and Security of the Kingdom and such other Prerogatives as Sovereign Princes generally pretend to And after all he obligeth all his Subjects generally and in particular to pay him Homage and Fealty for the Land and Priviledges which they hold or have receiv'd from him and to bind themselves and their Heirs for ever to become true and faithful Subjects unto him their Liege Lord his Heirs and Successors for ever as may be seen at large in the Form of our general Oath of Allegiance and this under no less Penalty than the loss of our Lives Honour and Estates whatever they be Now Cousin after the Disposition of the Lands as hath been here suppos'd and this Establishment of the Government according to the good Will and Pleasure of him who is Master of all and the Consent and Confirmation of the People who have receiv'd those Lands and Priviledges can you believe that our Conquerour is less an Emperour than he was when he kept all the Lands in his own Hands and undistributed Mer. Methinks in good Reason in Justice and in Gratitude he should lose nothing of the Power which he hath reserv'd by reason of the Graces and Priviledges which he hath granted Trav. No sure Sir he rather acquires another Right and becomes doubly their Soveraign that is to say both King and Father of his Country for since Government is agreed even by our Author to have been instituted for the Good of Man certainly that Governour who doth the greatest Good is by consequence the greatest Emperour So Josephus in the Speech which Judah makes in the Behalf of his Brother Benjamin to his unknown Brother Joseph chief Minister of the Egyptian Kingdom observes That Power was given Men to do Good And by how much we extend our Bounty by so much we enlarge our Empire Ad servandos homines potentiam datam existimare quô pluribus salutem dederis hôc te ipsum illustriorem fore Mer. Cousin all this is very fine and seems indeed most reasonable and most just But I perceive we are not yet come to a right Understanding of the Case For if a Prince or Sovereign Monarch shall out of a Principle of Goodness or what you please entrust Part of his Power in the hands of the People let the Conditions be what they will when they are once possessed of that Power most likely they will think it reasonable to share the Government also or to use our Author's Expression p. 45. if the People have the greatest Interest in the Property they will and must have it in the Empire So if a Master of a Family shall think fit to arm his Servants to the Intent only and upon the express Condition that they shall never use them but in Defence of their Master and Family and that only according to his own Commands yet nevertheless if in process of Time the Servants shall believe that the Master doth not govern his Family for their mutual Advantage and Security it is ten to one but that having the Power in their Hands they will pretend to govern the Family as well as the Master nay and if the Master prove too obstinate turn even himself out of the Government and Family too Trav. Very well I did indeed expect that at last we should come to Club Law and that your convincing Arguments would end in the invincible Force of Powder Ball and Musket Pardon me Sir I do not speak this of your self for I know that according to our Agreement and for the Support of our Discourse you only personate our Author whose Words are They will and must have it in the Empire Now though will and must are not proper Terms amongst civiliz'd and reasonable Men yet nevertheless since we know that Deformity in some Countries and when in Vogue passeth for Beauty and a Disease grown Epidemical assumes the Name of Health according to that of Seneca Recti locum tenet error ubi fit publicus I shall endeavour to pull off the ugly Vizard and unmask our ignorant State-Physician and demonstrate first That it is not reasonable that those who have the greatest Interest in the Property or the Possession of the Lands according to our Author's Interpretation should have any Right of Power in the Government otherwise than what is subordinate and deriv'd from the Supream Magistrate Secondly That by having this Interest in the Property they have not thereby more Right no nor more Power than if they had it not Thirdly That all Sovereign Princes have a Right of Power over the Lands themselves notwithstanding the Property be divided amongst the People Fourthly That most Kings who have had the Sovereign Power have yet had many Companions and Sharers in the Possession of the Land And lastly I shall give an Answer to your Instance which you have produc'd concerning a Master and his Servant Mer. Dear Cousin Excuse the Liberty I take since you know we at first granted it to each other Besides the deciding these main Points will be in a great measure ending the Trouble which I give you And being confident that you will be able to make good what you have promis'd I shall reap the Advantage of your Pains and you the Honour and Satisfaction of confirming me and it may be many others in an Opinion which we were rather willing to believe than able to justifie Trav. Sir not to lose Time I shall begin with the first That it is not reasonable that those who have the greatest Interest in the Property should have any Right of Power in the Government except what is subordinate and deriv'd from the supream Magistrate To prove this we must make these two general Distinctions which are and ever were in all Governments whatever That is to say between the Governour and the Governed which must of necessity be two different Persons for as Plutarch observes in his Introduction to the Lives of Agis and Cleomenes one Man cannot be Master and Servant nor can he who commands be able at the same Time to obey So Grotius tells us Quod cogens coactum requirunt distinctas personas neque sufficiunt distincti respectus I never heard but that the People were always taken for the Governed To moderate and regulate whose unruly Passions and inclinations Government it self has been hitherto continued in the World and they are generally call'd the Body of the Kingdom The Governour has been ever understood to be a single Person or Counsel or more who are likewise properly call'd the Head Both form the Body Politick Right of Power is like the Soul and is seated in the Head whence dispersing itsvital Heat through proper Arteries and Veins it nourisheth and gives Motion to all the Body and every part of it The Body thereby is enabled to preserve the Head from Violence The Head alone commands and the Body performs
at that time saying c. Here you see the authority proceeding wholly from himself and for its extent you read immediately after that Moses reserves all appeals to himself which is the undoubted mark of Supreme Authority And the cause which is too hard for you bring it unto me and I will hear it And so you see in the forementioned cases of David Jehosaphat Zedekiah and others that the practice was conformable to the institution where the Kings of Judah exercised their Soveraign power even in those cases which belonged most particularly to the knowledge of the Sanhedrim This Brutus confesses in express words who contradicts himself as such false men do in most that he says Propterea boni Reges quales David Jehosaphat caeteri quia omnibus jus dicere ipsi non potuissent etsi in gravioribus causis ut è Samuele apparet supremum sibi judicium recipiebant nil prius vel antiquius habuerunt quam ut Judices bonos peritos ubique locorum constituerent q. 3. p. 89. Of these Judges the greater Court was call'd Sanhedrim Gedola the Supreme Senate the lesser Sanhedrim Ketanna the lesser and inferiour Court The lesser was again subdivided and out of these were Judges distributed into most of the Cities for the ease of the people From them appeal might be made to the Court or Sanhedrim Gedola which always was at Jerusalem and who had many priviledges above the others possibly not much unlike our House of Lords at this day Now Cousin if I understand Latin and English I think the case is plain that the Hebrew Kings notwithstanding the Sanhedrim had the sole Soveraign right of power But I refer all to your better Judgment Mer. I have nothing to reply against Scripture arguments especially when they are so clear as these seem to be I am only afraid that this great trouble which I have given you hath taken away the pleasure you might have had in viewing our Country and talking of some other more diverting subject But presuming still upon your goodness I must desire that you would compleat the Reformation which you have more than begun in me and by giving me some account of the Gothick Government which it seems hath prevail'd in a great part of Europe you may make me capable of defending the doctrine and the good constitution of our Government against all hot-brain'd and ambitious innovators Trav. Sir I have no greater pleasure than in obeying your commands nor have I lost thereby the advantage of this fine evening The Goths therefore if we may believe Jordanes who was himself of that race and whom Procopius writing only of the latter Goths no where contradicts broke out of the Island Scanzia or Scandinavia and with all their substance men women and children advanc d south-east And after several Skirmishes and Victories by the way they at last sat down about the palus Moeotis Here they inhabited many years and following the warmth of the Sun spread Eastwards towards the South of Scythia and the lower Asia Their Government all this while which lasted many hundred of years was an absolute Monarchy and the Tenth part of the lands were generally appropriated to the support of their Prince who descended from father to son as at this day amongst us and in Ottofrising you have a long catalogue of their names and an account of their memorable actions But in process of time those Northern people propagating very much under a warmer climate than their own a great detachment past over into Europe whence came the distinction of the Visigoths and Ostrogoths which is as much as to say the Southern and the Western Goths The latter spread themselves over Germany and France and erected several Kingdoms Their Government was Arbitrary enough and somewhat more than that of the Germans Paulo jam addictius regnantur quam caeterae Germanorum gentes saith Tacitus de moribus Germ. Yet we find the Germans themselves under a Kingly Government the lands divided and yet neither their Noblemen nor people had any other share in the Government than by way of Council or a subordinate authority for the Administration of Justice whch is much different from a right of Power or Command Agri pro numero cultorum ab universis per vices occupantur quos mox inter se secundum dignitatem partiuntur These were like great Farms which they chose according as the situation pleas'd them Colunt discreti ac diversi ut fons ut nemus ut campus placuit Their Councils were compos'd of the Commoners and of the Nobility but were distinct and the Noblemen had the greatest interest De minoribus rebus Principes consultant de majoribus omnes Ita tamen ut ea quoque quorum penes plebem arbitrium est apud Principes pertractentur But in all these elder Governments we must consider their circumstances which were confus'd and much different from those which are at this day established generally all the world over The people were more barbarous than now they are unsetled and much addicted to wars Whence they appear'd more like the children of Israel in the Wilderness than the people of God in Jerusalem And I cannot think that their polities though they make little against us ought to be propos'd by any sober man as examples for our imitation We come now to the Ostrogoths as nearer to our time and purpose A great body then of these passing the Danube possessed themselves of Hungary or Pannonia and some of Thrace where they inhabited sorty eight years In Hungary they had their Kings and paid them too such an awful obedience that they esteemed it the greatest impiety so much as to whisper any thing that detracted from their honour Solummodo susurris lacerare nefas ducunt And if by chance any of the Noblemen should have offended their King though in never so small a matter and even unjustly accus'd yet the poorest Scullion belonging to and sent by the King had a power though alone to seize that Nobleman encompassed and guarded by all his friends and adherents And thus without Messenger or Serjeant both imprisoneth or otherwise punisheth the unhappy offender according to the Order of the Prince whose Will passeth amongst all for an unquestionable Law Quod si aliquis ex comitum ordine regem vel in modico offenderit quando etiam iniustè infamatus fuerit quilibet infimae conditionis lixa a Rege missus Comitem licet satelliâ—ibus suis stipatum solus comprehendit c. Sola Principis voluntas apud omnes pro ratione habetur Ottofris de reb gest Fred. primi lib. 1. ca. 31. Now if Plato Redivivus will needs produce ancient customs among the Goths and impose them without any farther consideration upon us I hope he will give me leave also to offer the example of these Loyal Ostrogoths which I am sure if duly followed would prove a better cure for us whatever our disease be than
our Doting Mountebank impudently proposed From these Ostrogoths and Gepidae sprang the Lombards whom Narses the Roman Patrician inviting into Italy and shewing them the goodness of the Soyl and warmth of the climate by the richness of the Wines and pleasantness of the Fruit which he sent them as a Present to encourage their remove at last they undertook the journey and finding the Countrey fully answer their expectation from guests as they were intended they became masters And having introduced several of their own Laws and Customs have left many of them remaining even to this day with the name of Lombardy to one of the most fertile Provinces of Italy Merch. Pray what kind of Government did they settle amongst themselves Trav. The most popular that could be contrived For hating the Roman Emperors from whom they had usurped those Lands which they did possess as the offender is oftentimes the last reconciled they set up a Government as contrary to Monarchy as they could invent For obtaining leave to use their own form under certain conditions and restrictions they chose to be governed under Consuls which they elected annually for the most part out of three orders which they distinguished into Captains Vaivods and the Commonalty And that they might secure themselves from the ambition of the great ones they made no scruple to choose into the most honourable employments the most mercenary Tradesmen and Artificers Inferioris conditionis juvenes vel quoslibet contemptibilium etiam mechanicarum artium opifices quos caeterae gentes ab honestioribus liberioribus studiis tanquam pestem propellunt ad militis cingulum vel dignitatum gradus assumere non dedignentur Merch. What was the effect of this their Popular Government Trav. The same which generally happens in all such low irregular constitutions that is to say defection from their Soveraign and division amongst themselves so that every Town became a different Commonwealth and were never united or friends but when they were to oppose the Emperor and that they seldom fail'd to do as often as occasion happened For instance the Emperors always reserved a certain tribute which they called Fodrum to be payed them as often as they should pass out of Germany into Italy The denial of this Fodrum produced most desperate Wars insomuch that the Emperors were generally forced to fight their passage to Rome through their own Dominions At last under Frederick the first most of those Corporation Towns were utterly destroyed Amongst these Milan was the chief seat of Rebellion then Brescia Bergamo and several others shared in the same fate as they had done in the same fault Merch. I thought there had been several Imperial feuds in Lombardy as you lately observed and Counties what became of them did they follow the Government of those great Towns Trav. Sir there were several Marquisses and Counts who had great priviledges and possessions But in the absence of the Emperor they were in a manner necessitated to acquiesce under the irresistible force of an insolent people Vixque aliquis nobilis vel vir magnus tam magno ambitu inveniri queat qui civitatis suae non sequatur imperium But many times upon the return of the Emperor into those parts they have been established in their Dominions and the Rebells severely punished as in the case of William Marquiss of Monferat and the Bishop of Aste to whom when the Citizens of Aste and Quiere the chief Towns belonging to them had refused to do justice concerning their rights and priviledges the Emperor Frederick the first punished those Citizens most severely as Revells and his declared enemies Now Sir if you have observed any thing in the Government of those Lombards which either makes for our Authors proposition or pleases your self let me know it and I shall shew you all the farther satisfaction I can Merch. I have nothing more to offer concerning them I hate their Government which I think makes little for us But I would gladly hear somewhat more of the Goths and Vandals because t is said they lived under a Monarchy though limited Trav. The later Goths which were of the race of the Visigoths being much weakned and harrassed by the Romans at last under their King Alaric obtained permission from the Emperor Honorius to retire into Spain But being treacherously pursued by Stilico whom they overcame were so incensed against the Romans that they immediately returned and sacking Rome again set down in that part of France which they call Provincia or Gallia Narbonensis There being again beaten they entred into Spain and possessed it which happened about the year of our Lord 412. Here they setled a Monarchical Government but not so absolute as formerly it had been before their separation a great part both of the power as well as the possessions being in the people Much such was the case of the Vandals who after they had run over almost all Italy taken Rome and Naples and had spread themselves all over Campania follow'd the Goths into Spain whence being invited by Bonifacius General to the Emperour Valentinian they pass'd the Streights at Cadiz into Africa which they possess'd near 100 years according to Procopius his account until Belisarius General to the Emperour Justinian routed them and restor'd the Province to the Roman Empire This happened about the year Five hundred and thirty Now Cousin you must observe that though both these Goths and Vandals instituted a kind of Kingly Government yet their Prince was rather a General than a Monarch and their affairs were for the most part so turbulent that they were in a continual state of war Sometimes their success was good but generally bad And as the honour of Victory is given to the chief Commander so the ill fortune falls heaviest upon his head who governs Hence those insolent people might possibly as our Author says beat the Kings brains out or commit many outrages upon his person who was indeed in some things accountable to his people and held a Kingdom so precarious that Grotius thinks them not worthy of the name or title of Kings But no man sure that had not his hands in some measure already dy'd with the blood of one of the best Kings could have commended a people for beating out the brains of their Soveraign nor imagined that some excellent person as he says contriv'd a Government in which the people have ever been call'd and accounted most barbarous by all the most civiliz'd Monarchies and learned men in Europe and even by Procopius himself He tells us that nothing remains that may give us any great light in what their excellencies consisted Truly our Author seems to have grop'd in the dark for all the arguments and authorities which he hath produc'd to favour his innovation But no wonder men avoid the light when their deeds and principles are evil Mer. But what say you to the possession of lands and share in the Government which are the points that chiefly concern
he perswades them to unite under one Government knowing that they would become thereby like a bundle of Arrows much the stronger And that the name of Tyrant might not affright them or the loss of their fond power and freedom discourage them he promised to abate so much of his own Soveraign right of Government as to consult with them and take their opinions in weighty affairs as he did in a common Hall or meeting place called Asty In this method things went prosperously on until one Mnesteus a factious and an ambitious Prince of the house of Ericthonius insinuating to the people that Theseus intended at last to enslave them he caused the Athenians to rebell Theseus retired to the Island Sâ—yros where he ended his days Mnesteus usurped the Kingdom but having held his ill gotten honour but a little while the sons of Theseus were remitted to the Throne of their father and Theseus was ever after adored amongst them as a God Now if there be any thing in this story which makes for our Author much good may it do him And lastly Romulus cannot sure be said to have instituted the Common-wealth of Rome any more than Charles the Fifth the Republick of Holland from whose successors those people rebelled Tacitus says most clearly That Rome was governed in the beginning by Kings and that their liberty was procured by L. Brutus Vrbem Romam à principio reges habuere Libertatem consulatum L. Brutus instituit And to shew the extent of his power he tells us Ann. lib. 3. that Romulus governed them according to his will Romulus ut libitum nobis imperaverat Plutarch calls the Government all along a Monarchy and after Romulus had instituted the Senate composed of the Patricii or chief Citizens whensoever he appointed them to meet they were obliged says he to observe his orders and commands without making any reply Constat initio civitatis Reges omnem potestatem habuisse says Pomponius That in the beginning of the City of Rome their Kings enjoyed intirely the whole Soveraign Authority But not to multiply Authorities to prove such vulgar truths I shall refer you to our Authors chief Divine I mean the Divine Machiavel as he stiles him more than once his words are full and very intelligible where he calls all three Princes and their Governments Kingdoms Verum ut ad eos qui non fortuna sed singulari virtute in Principes sunt evecti veniamus speaking all the while of Kings excellentiores dico fuisse Mosen Cyrum Romulum Theseum and again which puts all out of dispute At qui Cyrum reliquos qui Regna sibi pepererunt constituerunt c. And farther of Romulus quo Romano imperio potiretur de Principe ca. 6. And yet Plato Red. hath the confidence to affirm p. 31. that Romulus himself was no more than the first officer of the Common-wealth and chosen as the Doge of Venice is for life But if Plato's Divine were not an ignorant Ass then our Author is certainly a very impudent impostor Merch. Indeed Cousin I have great reason to believe that Plato's authorities and examples are as false as his principles absurd Besides supposing these great men had instituted popular Governments as I am fully convinced they did not what doth that concern us Is there no difference between the foundation of a new Government and the continuation of an old one Is there no distinction between the Roman State in its infancy which extended not for several years above fifteen Miles beyond their Walls and the Empire of great Britain and Ireland We know that many priviledges may be granted to the people at first for encouragement which afterwards may be inconsistent with the safety of the Government And is there no regard to be had to different circumstances but let us proceed In p. 62. we read That it is not dangerous to a City to have their people rich but to have such a power in the Governing part of the Empire as should make those who manage the affairs of the Commonwealth depend upon them which came afterwards to be that which ruined their libertie and which the Gracchi endeavoured to prevent when it was too late What means he by this Trav. Sir We will preserve his sence but giving other names to the Country People and Governours we shall see more plainly how it runs Let us say then that it is not dangerous for England to have their people rich even in land for he speaks immediately before of the Romans purchasing lands but to have such a share in the right of Government as should make the King who manages the affairs of the Kingdom depend upon them methinks it is very clear and it has ever been my judgment that the people might have what proportion their industry could procure them in the lands provided they did not pretend to any share in the Soveraign authority Mer. But this is directly contrary to his own beloved Aphorism Sure there must be somewhat more in it or else you will make him contradict himself Trav. Faith Sir I cannot help that Truth will come out sometimes in spite of the Devil Nor know I how to mend his sense except I should make him appear at the same time the most false partial and prejudiced scribler that ever wrote Mer. No matter Sir let us if we can preserve his sense which I believe he values himself most upon and let his honestly and honour take their chance Trav. Let us then see what follows Which says he came afterwards to be that which ruin'd their liberty and which the Gracchi endeavour'd to prevent Pray Cousin what is the antecedent to which in these two places Mer. Sure Sir that is most plain and according to my understanding it is that power in the governing part of the Empire c. Trav. You are right without doubt and I dare affirm that Q. Ennius himself could not make any other construction of it And if so then the whole sentence runs thus It was not dangerous to the Commonwealth of Rome to have their Subjects rich but it was dangerous that the Subject should have such a power in the governing part of the Empire as should make their Governours depend upon them which power of the people in the governing part of the Empire came afterwards to be that which ruin'd the peoples liberty And which power for all the world knows that and in this place is a conjunction copulative the Gracchi endeavour'd to prevent c. Now Sir the first part of this Sentence is most really sound doctrine and truth though diametrically opposite to Plato's grand proposition upon which undeniable Aphorism as he says he is to build most of his subsequent reasoning For indeed the people though never so rich are by no means to be trusted with a right of power but as I have said rather the contrary lest they should confound government or set it upon its head with its feet uppermost And
support of our English families so that there is no Cadet of a house ennobled who had not rather trail a pike than be an apprentice to the greatest Merchant in France All these Cadets our Author hath brought to Court and made them the chief props of the present French Government and greatness But he hath forgot That as the young French Nobility are very numerous so the vast number of Ecclesiastical Preferments Monasteries and Temporal offices depending eternally and at all times upon the Crown do entertain so many of these young Cadets that I am confident at least two thirds of the younger children are provided for after this manner without depending immediately upon the King's Purse As to the division of the Paternal estate amongst the Cadets except the principal house which he calls Vol de chapon our Buzzardly Author of a French Capon hath made a long-wing'd Hawk For what he calls most part of the Kingdom is particular to Paris only as with us in London and Kent formerly I suppose by reason of the Traders the Isle of France Limousin Xantonge and it may be some one Province more which possibly I have not remembred Thus you see Cousin how our Author augments or diminisheth changetth or disguiseth the truth of things as they make most convenient for his purpose and what little credit ought to be given to him We shall therefore take no more notice of France For his premises being demonstrably false his consequence whatsoever it be cannot hold good Mer. Sir I never thought all to be Gospel that hath been preached by our divine Plato But now we come to the Clergy let us see what respect he hath for the Spiritual Government since the Temporal doth so much offend him He tells us then very sincerely and frankly that he could wish there never had been any Clergy amongst us c. For you know the Northern people did not bring Christianity into these parts but found it here Trav. Most excellent You may perceive how happy we are like to be under the New Government of our infamous Author who rebelling against God and Man appointed to rule over us by Gods authority hath left nothing that I know of to set up for but Hâ—ll and the Devil But his argument is very strong for the Northern people did not bring Christianity into these parts Indeed it is great pity that we have not retain'd the Gothick or Saxon and Northern Paganism with the Gothick Polities But our learned Historian should have had at least so much respect for Antiquity as to have consider'd that the Ecclesiastical Government or Clergy was establish'd here according to his own confession even before the barbarous Northern people came here themselves and I thank God it still continues in a great measure amongst us even at this day and I hope is like to do so notwithstanding the Fanatical and pernicious doctrine of Plato and his hellish disciples And for the institution of our Ecclesiastical government and foundation of our Bishopricks and many of our Monasteries which our Author ascribes to most villanous causes 't is certain from the best Histories extant among us that King Lucius about the year 180. converted no less than thirty one of the Temples of the Heathenish Flamins and Arch-flamins into so many Christian Bishopricks whereof London York Caerlyon now S. Davids were made the Metropolitans of the Province But our Pagan Politician hating Christianity it self hates no less the establishment of the Christian Religion which he vilifies with notorious slanders and falsities And as for Monasteries not to give a particular account of all their several beginnings which were generally from the benevolence of most pious men and women and too many to be numbred we read that King Edgar the peaceable founded no less for his own share than forty seven Mer. Sir I concur with you both in your History and your hopes and shall ever add my most hearty prayers and wishes But our Author proceeds and in the next page had he had wit enough he would have turn'd the whole order into ridicule But knowing well that his strongest arguments and chiefest talent consists in opprobrious language the foul-mouth'd Fanatick is not asham'd to call our Christian Ancestors barbarous and those good men who at the expence of their blood and livâ—s plaâ—ted and propâ—gated the Christian Faith amongst â—s Vipers Trav. He is equally mistaken in both For not six pages farther that is in p. 106. he there is pleas'd to give our Ancestors the title of a plain-hearted and well-meaning people who were barbarous before in p. 100. But to call a man a Saint or a Devil is indifferent to him and promiseuously us'd according as either serves best for his purpose For the Ecclesiastical Vipers I do not think indeed that his wit has furnish'd him with a character answerable to the design of his malice For a Viper is known to be an Animal much more useful and valuable than our Author himself is like to be For although that God and Nature have given it a sting or teeth if you will to defend it self from violence and punish such as offend it yet we know that of its body are compos'd the most Soveraign Cordials Such are the excellent Works of our Learned Clergy which are found to be the most effectual Antidotes against the poysonous Blasphemies and Heresiâ—s of our Schismatical Dissenters Besides Naturalists assure us that the Viper hath such a care and tender affection for its young that upon any pressing danger she receives them again into her own body and charged with the load and safety of what her self gave life to suffers no injury to approach them until first it hath passed through her own body and she destroyed But our unnatural sneaking and malicious worm and good besides for nothing is barbarous enough to tear out the bowels of his indulgent mother the Holy Church I mean even whilst those very bowels are yearning to see the sad condition of her desperately abandoned Son and in the height of his wickedness opens her tender arms to receive this child of perdition into her Sacred bosome But the Prodigal will never return and so let us leave him whilst our Church of England wanting as little my defence as apprehending his reproaches will still remain firm upon the rock secure though sadly lamenting those miserable shipwracks which storms of our own rasing have procured Merch. And may the providence of Heaven preserve her until from militant she becomes triumphant In the mean time I perceive we are like to have more work about the civil Government For in p. 103 our Author tells us that the Soveraign power of England is in King Lords and Commons Trav. Right Sir when there is a Parliament in being and as it is taken for one intire body of which the King is Principium caput finis But there is no Soveraign power in the house of Commons neither is there a
Fourth of Edward the Third and the words of it are these It is accorded that a Parliament shall be holden every year once and more often if need be Now Sir you must observe that this Act was made whilst the King was but Nineteen years of age and both himself and Kingdom under the care of Twelve Governours His Mother Queen Isabel and Roger Mortimer very powerful the Governours of the Pupil King divided amongst themselves and many other pressing affairs of the Nation oblig'd most people to propose that expedient of frequent Parliaments as the most probable means to secure the peace and prosperity of the Kingdom at least until the King should come of riper years and thereby many differences be reconciled After this in the Thirty sixth year of his Reign he called a Parliament and wanting money as generally he did the Parliament would grant nothing until an Act passed for maintenance of former Articles and Statutes there expressed And that for redress of divers mischiefs and grievances which daily happen a Parliament shall be holden every year as another time was ordained by Statute These are the two Statutes intended by our Author when he tells us that the Statute of Edward the first was confirmed by that glorious Prince Edward the third Whereas in truth they were both made by the same King and both in a great measure revoked in his own time Having declared after the making this last Act that he yielded to it only to serve his own turn This Sir is the matter of Fact upon which our Author builds his great pretensions to the old constitutions of Annual Parliaments The first Act was made whilst the King was very young the second when he wanted money and had Twenty six shillings and eight pence granted him upon every sack of wool transported for three years And both first and second Acts were broken by several intermissions before he died Besides we must make this remark that a Parliament seldom met without giving the King some money which might encourage those Kings to assemble them oftner than lately they have done But the truth is Annual Parliaments were lookt upon as so great a grievance to the Nation that we find that about the Tenth year of Richard the Second his Successor it was thought a great Prerogative in the King that he might call a Parliament once a year And both Houses appointed the Duke of Glocester and Thomas Arundell Bishop of Ely to acquaint the King that by an old Statute the King once a year might lawfully summon his Court of Parliament for reformation of corruptions and enormities within the Realm And if we consider with our selves we shall find that if yearly Parliaments were imposed upon us they would become grievances equally insupportable as to have no Parliaments at all For if the Knights Citizens and Burgesses be chosen out of the Countrey Gentlemen and Merchants inhabiting those Countries where they are elected as sure they ought to be what inconvenience if not ruin must it bring upon their affairs when they shall be forced to run every year a hundred or two hundred Miles from their particular domestick affairs to serve in a formal Parliament in which it may be the greatest business will be to make business for the next Indeed for idle persons who live about Town and have nothing to do but to scrible knavish politicks to the disturbance of honest men such a constitution might do well enough if they could get to be chosen members But we find from experience and History that in those days when Ambition and Faction were not so much in vogue as at present men were so far from making parties to get into the Parliament that many Commoners and Lords too have petitioned and been excused their attendance The King 's Queen's and Prince's Servants have stood upon their priviledge of exemption So James Barner was discharged by the King's command Quia erat de retinentia Regis 7. R. 2 and the Lord de Vessey in Edward the Fourths time obtained Licence not to serve in Parliament during his life Rex concessit Henrico Bromflet Dom. de Vessey quod ipse durante vita sit exoneratus de veniendo ad Parl. Besides the very Writ of Summons shews that in the original institution and design of Parliaments a frequent meeting could not be necessary For they were only to treat concilium impendere de magnis arduis negotiis Now God help us if every year should produce such magna ardua negotia such difficult and weighty affairs that the King with his Judges and â—rivy Council could not determine them without assembling his great Council the Parliament I confess in our Authors Chimerical model I am perswaded our circumstances would be bad enough but I thank God we are not gotten there yet Thus you see Sir that this grievance in not having annual Parliaments is become no grievance at all Mer. I begin Cousin to lose all manner of respect for this mistaken Mountebank For I perceive notwithstanding his great words and pretences all is but wind emptinâ—ss and cheat Having therefore fully satisfieâ— me concerning our liberties properties and Parliaments pray forget not to say somewhat of our Religion Trav. Sir I shall not presume to meddle with the Doctrinal part of any Religion that being none of my Province Nor shall I say much concerning the Ceremonial part or discipline of our own that is to say the Church of England It is sufficient to mind you that both the Doctrine and Discipline in Church Government have been established and confirm'd by several Acts of Parliament and Statutes Which Parliaments being the most Soveraign power that our Author himself pretends to set up amongst us we ought all to acquiesce in and be concluded by what they have done until an equal authority shall repeal those Acts or otherwise determine concerning us Mer. There is no objection can be made against this answer But Sir since the difference in our Religion seems manifestly to occasion most of our troubles why may not the King by his own authority dispence with the penal part of these Laws or grant a toleration especially to Protestant Dissenters or encourage an Act of Parliament for uniting them into the Church of England or else why might not the same Church release some part of the rigour of the Discipline and Ceremony since 't is agreed on all hands that the observance or non-observance of them are not points necessary or absolutely conducing to Salvation Trav. Cousin I shall answer you all these questions as plain as I can And first I shall never believe that true and unfeigned Religion especially amongst men where the Doctrine agrees is ever the real cause of any troubles disturbance or disobedience to lawful authority such as is that which produces an Act of Parliament even in our Authors sence being so contrary to the Doctrine and Principles of Christian Religion that I may confidently affirm where
Institution of a Senate composed of twenty eight of his own chiefest Friends The Kingdom he deliver'd to his Nephew assoon as he came of Age. Mer. What kind of Government do you call that Trav. Monarchy without doubt It is true their Senate had given to them a greater Right of Power than ours have who enjoy only a Right of Counsel and Consent or a subordinate Power for the Dispensation of Justice and the People had Liberty to choose their Senators But the Right of making Peace and War vvith several other Prerogatives together vvith the Right of Succession continued alvvays in the Prince Mer. I have heard much talk of the Ephori Were not they created on purpose to abate the Authority of their Kings Trav. Sir they were not created until about an Hundred and thirty years after the death of Lycurgus And then if we may believe their Kings Agis and Cleomenes whom our Author hath mention'd their Authority was only to do justice whilst their Kings were absent in the Wars and were properly the Kings Ministers they usurped indeed afterwards a Soveraign Authority and dar'd to depose the Kings themselves for which Usurpation Cleomenes who divided again the Land among the People slew them publickly as enemies to the ancient Government and present prosperity and peace of Sparta Mer. Pray Cousin what new Laws did Lycurgus institute with his new Government Trav. Many Sir but sure not much to our purpose or fit for our imitation for at first they had none Non habentibus Spartanis leges instituit c. Their Prince's will being as I have already observ'd the only rule But Lycurgus considering I imagin the greatness of the Spartan name fram'd Laws most proper for the encouraging War and educating the People from their infancy in a military kind of Discipline Amongst other Laws he totally forbad the use of Gold and Silver Auri argentique usum velut omnium scelerum materiam sustulit he forbad traffick but encourag'd idleness and stealing He commended parsimony and hardship and order'd that all the People of Sparta should always eat together that none should eat at his own house except upon great occasion That the young Women should dance and exercise publickly without any manner of covering upon them and many such too long to repeat at present Judge then how ridiculous and unpracticable and unnecessary these Laws would appear in our age and in our climate and circumstances To conclude let me refer you to two sufficient Authors concerning the Spartan Laws The first is Aristotle in his 7. Pol. cap. 14. who tells us that the cheif admirers of the Spartan Commonwealth have plac'd its sole excellency in having Laws adapted most Particularly for War and Victory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The other is Euripides in his Andromache His Words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si vis Martia Vobis lacones absit et ferri decus Spectatur ultra quid sit eximium nihil What can ye boast ye Spartans if ye cease To fight like Dogs and live like Men in Peace Add to all this single Consideration That Lacedemonia was but as a small Province in Comparison of the Kingdom of Great Britany and Sparta no more than a Corporation Town And when you have done this let their Law or Form of Government be what it will I dare undertake to make it appear that they are so far from being made an Example for our Imitation that our own Government as distemper'd as our Author would have it even at this time while we are discoursing is a more excellent Form and the Laws more just and reasonable and conducing more to the Safety and Perpetuity of the Government and Peace and happy Subsistence of the People than either Sparta or Athens ever enjoyed or any other part of Greece or Government in the World except that Monarchy which God himself was pleas'd to institute and which above any other ours does most particularly imitate And this I hope is a sufficient Answer to whatsoever our Author hath offer'd concerning Greece Mer. Dear Cousin You have more than perform'd your Promise and that my Pleasure as well as Profit may be compleat pray let us proceed with our Author Trav. Assoon as you please Mer. What say you then to the first Day Trav. Very little save only that I never knew a Day worse spent in my Life nothing being more nauseous than to read the impertinent Complements of three Fools extolling one anothers great Parts and Learning when if we may believe the Publisher who comes in like Sapientum octavus the eighth wise Man the whole Triumvirate or if you will Quatrumvirate are included in the politick individuum of the English Gentleman Mer. Really I was almost deceiv'd at first and did begin to fancy that I knew the Physician Trav. It was without doubt his Design to deceive all Men. Mer. To what Purpose Trav. That he might make the credulous Reader believe that there were more learned Men of his Opinion besides himself But truly I think that neither the State of Venice nor Colledge of Physicians are much oblig'd to him for picking out two of their Societies to make up so ridiculous a Comedy Mer. Is that way of writing Ancient or Modern Trav. Dialogue was oftentimes very properly used among the Ancients but they seldom introduc'd more than two if the Subject of their Discourse were grave and serious Mer. Why then hath our Author made choice of three Trav. I suppose the noble Venetian wanted Learning enough to comprehend so profound a Discourse and the Physician we must imagine had not anatomiz'd or studied the Body Politick so throughly as he had done the Body Natural and so could not see so far into a Milstone as a Venetian Statesman can who as our Nobleman tells us will sometimes discover a State Marasmus breaking out two hundred Years after the passing an indigested Law and this without the help of any Telescope both therefore possessing separately these eminent Qualifications became joyntly an Auditory worthy of Sir Politick Wouldbee's Doctrine Besides you know the number Three is most perfect But had I been advis'd withall I could have shewn our Author this Number of Three so ingeniously and politically plac'd that our Medicopolitico-Venetian Publisher might have born a better part than he does in his Book without either altering the Number or spoiling the Figure But to be serious I must confess Cousin that I have sometimes heard two or three Fools cogâ—â—onaring one another as our Author calls it and it hath been pleasant enough But that one Coglione should presume to coglionare three Kingdoms impose upon His Majesty despise the Wisdom of the Lords and Commons His Majesty's Privy Council and Learned Judges of the Land and last of all to give the Fool to all our Worthy Ancestors who have liv'd within the Compass of four hundred years according to his Account