by Passion is another thing but not alwaies another Government as a body that is alive is one thing and a body that is dead is another thing but not alwaies another Creature though the corruption of one come at length unto the generation of another The corruption then of Monarchy is called Tyranny that of Aristocracy Oligarchy and that of Democracy Anarchy But Legislators having found these three Governments at the best to be naught have invented another consisting of a mixture of them all which onely is good this is the doctrine of the Ancients But Leviathan is positive that they are all deceived and that there is no other Government in Nature then one of the three as also that the flesh of them cannot stink the names of their corruptions being but the names of mens phansies which will be understood when we are shown which of them was Senatus Populusque Romanus To go mine own way and yet to follow the Ancients The Principles of Governments are twofold Internal or the goods of the Mind and External or the goods of Fortune The goods of the mind are natural or acquired virtues as Wisdom Prudence and Courage c. The goods of Fortune are Riches There be goods also of the Body as Health Beauty Strength but these are not to be brought unto account upon this score because if a man or an Army acquire Victory or Empire it is more from their Discipline Arms and Courage then from their natural health beauty or strength in regard that a people conquered may have more of natural strength beauty and health and yet find little remedy The Principles of Government then are in the goods of the mind or in the goods of fortune To the goods of the mind answers Authority to the goods of fortune Power or Empire Wherefore Leviathan though he be right where he saith that Riches are Power is mistaken where he saith that Prudence or the reputation of Prudence is power for the learning or prudence of a man is no more power then the learning or prudence of a book or Authour which is properly Authority a learned Writer may have authority though he have no power and a foolish Magistrate may have power though he have otherwise no esteem or authority the difference of these two is observed by Livy in Evander of whom saith he regebat magis Authoritate quà m Imperio he ruled rather by authority then power To begin with Riches in regard that men are hung upon these not of choice as upon the other but of necessity and by the teeth for as much as he who wanteth bread is his servant that will feed him if a man thus feed an whole people they are under his Empire Empire is of two kinds Domestick and National or Forrain and Provinciall Domestick Empire is founded upon Dominion Dominion is Propriety reall or personall that is to say in Lands or in money and goods Lands or the parts and parcels of a Territory are held by the Proprietor or Proprietors Lord or Lords of it in some proportion and such except it be in a City that hath little or no Land and whose revenue is in Trade as is the proportion or ballance of dominion or property in Land such is the nature of the Empire If one man be sole Landlord of a Territory or overballance the people for example three parts in four he is Grand Signior for so the Turk is called from his Property and his Empire is absolute Monarchy If the Few or a Nobility or a Nobility with the Clergy be Landlords or overballance the people unto the like proportion it makes the Gothick ballance to be shewn at large in the second part of this Discourse and the Empire is mixed Monarchy as that of Spain Poland and late of Oceana And if the whole people be Landlords or hold the Lands so divided among them that no one man or number of men within the compasse of the Few or Aristocracy overballance them the Empire without the interposition of foree is a Common-Wealth If force be interposed in any of these three cases it must either frame the Government unto the foundation or the foundation unto the Government or holding the Government not according unto the ballance it is not natural but violent and therefore if it be at the devotion of a Prince it is Tyranny if at the devotion of the Few Oligarchy or if in the power of the People Anarchy each of which confusions the ballance standing otherwise is but of short continuance because against the nature of the ballance which not destroyed destroyeth that which opposeth it But there be certain other confusions which being rooted in the ballance are of longer continuance and of greater horror as first where a Nobility holdeth half the Property or about that proportion and the people the other half in which case without altering the ballance there is no remedy but the one must eat out the other as the people did the Nobility in Athens and the Nobility the people in Rome Secondly when a Prince holdeth about half the Dominion and the people the other half which was the case of the Roman Emperours planted partly upon their military Colonies and partly upon the Senate and the people the Government becometh a very shambles both of the Princes and the people Somewhat of this nature are certain Governments at this day which are said to subsist by confusion In this case to fix the ballance is to entail misery But in the three former not to fix it is to loose the Government Wherefore it being unlawfull in Turky that any should possesse Land but the Grand Signior the ballance is fixed by the Law and that Empire firm Nor though the Kings often fell was the Throne of Oceana known to shake untill the Statute of Alienations broke the pillars by giving way unto the Nobility to sell their Estates Si terra recedat Jonium Aegaeo frangat mare Lacedemon while she held unto her division of Land made by Lycurgus was immoveable but breaking that could stand no longer This kind of Law fixing the ballance in Lands is called Agrarian and was first introduced by God himself who divided the Land of Canaan unto his people by Lots and is of such virtue that where ever it hath held that Government hath not alter'd except by consent as in that unparallell'd example of the people of Israel when being in liberty they would needs choose a King But without an Agrarian Government whether Monarchical Aristocraticall or Popular hath no long Lease For Dominion personal or in money it may now and then stir up a Metius or a Manlius which if the Common-wealth be not provided with some kind of Dictatorian power may be dangerous though it have been seldom or never successefull because unto propriety producing Empire it is required that it should have some certain root or foot-hold which except in Land it
that the points of my Lords arrowes are directed at no other white then to shew the excellency of our Government above others which as he proceeds farther is yet plainer while he makes it appear that there can be no other elected by the people but Smiths Brontesque Steropesque et nudus membra Pyracmon Othoniel Aod Gideon Jephtha Samson as in Israel Miltiades Aristides Themistocles Cimon Pericles as in Athens Papyrius Cincinnatus Camillus Fabius Scipio as in Rome Smiths of the fortune of the Common-wealth not such as forg'd hobnails but Thunder-bolts Popular Elections are of that kind that all the rest of the world is not able either in number or glory to equal those of these three Common-wealths These indeed were the ablest Cudgel and Foot-ball players bright Armes were their Cudgels and the World was the Ball that lay at their Feet Wherefore we are not so to understand the Maxime of Legislators which holdeth all men to be wicked as if it related to mankind or a Common-wealth the interests whereof are the only streight lines that they have whereby to reform the crooked but as it relates unto every man or party under what colour soever he or they pretend to be trusted apart with or by the whole Hence then it is derived which is made good in all experience that the Aristocracy is ravenous and not the People Your high-way-men are not such as have Trades or have been brought up unto industry but such whose education hath pretended unto that of Gentlemen My Lord is so honest he doth not know the Maxims that are of absolute necessity unto the arts of wickednesse for it is most certain if there be not more purses then Thieves that the thieves themselves must be forced to turn honest because they cannot thrive of their Trade but now if the people should turn thieves who sees not that there would be more theeves then purses wherefore that an whole People should turn robbers or Levellers is as impossible in the end as in the means But that I do not think your Artist mention'd Astronomer or Arithmetician which he be can tell me how many barly corns would reach unto the Sun I could be content he were called unto the account with which I shall conclude this Point when by the way I have chidden my Lords the Legislators who as if they doubted my tackling would not hold leave me to flag in a perpetual calm but for my Lord Epimonus who breathes now and then into my sayles and stirs the waters A Ship maketh not her way so briskly as when she is handsomely brushed by the waves and tumbles over those that seem to tumble against her in which case I have perceived in the dark that light hath been stricken even out of the Sea as in this place where my Lord Epimonus faining to give us a demonstration of one thing hath given it of another and of a better For the people of this Nation if they amount in each Tribe unto two thousand Elders and two thousand Youth upon the annual Roll holding a fifth unto the whole Tribe then the whole of a Tribe not accounting women and children must amount unto twenty thousand and so the whole of all the Tribes being fifty unto one million Now you have ten thousand Parishes and reckoning these one with another each at one thousand pounds a year dry rent the Rent or Revenue of the Nation as it is or might be let to farm amounteth unto ten millions and ten millions in revenue divided equally unto one million of men comes but to ten pounds a year unto each whereupon to maintain himself his Wife and Children But he that hath a Cow upon the Common and ernes his shilling by the day at his labour hath twice as much already as this would come unto for his share because if the Land were thus divided there would be no body to set him on work my Lord Epimonus's Footman who costs him thrice as much as one of these could thus get would lose by this bargain What should we speak of those innumerable Trades whereupon men live not only better then others upon good shares of Lands but become also purchasers of greater Estates Is not this the demonstration which my Lord meant that the Revenue of Industry in a Nation at the least in this is three or four-fold greater then that of the meer rent If the people then obstruct Industry they obstruct their own livelihood but if they make a War they obstruct Industry Take the bread out of the peoples mouthes as did the Roman Patricians and you are sure enough of a War in which case they may be Levellers but our Agrarian causeth their Industry to flow with milk and honey It may be answer'd O fortunati nimiùm bona si sua nôrint Agricolae That this is true if the people were given to understand their own happinesse but where do they that Let me answer with the like question Where do they not They do not know their happinesse it should seem in France Spain and Italy teach them what it is and try whose sense is the truer But as to the late Wars in Germany it hath been affirmed unto me there that the Princes could never make the people to take Arms while they had bread and have therefore suffer'd Countreys now and then to be wasted that they might get Souldiers This you will find to be the certain pulse and temper of the people and if they have been already proved to be the most wise and constant order of a Government why should we think when no man can produce one example of the common Souldiery in an Army mutinying because they had not Captains pay that the Prerogative should jole the heads of the Senate together in regard that these have the better Salaries while it must be as obnoxious unto the People in a Nation as to the Souldiery in an Army that it is no more possible their emoluments of this kind should be afforded by any Common-wealth in the world to be made equal with those of the Senate then that the Common Souldiers should be equall with the Captains it is enough to the common Souldier that his virtue may bring him to be a Captain and more unto the Prerogative that each of them is nearer to be a Senator If my Lord think our Salaries too great and that the Common-wealth is not Houswife enough whether is it better huswifery that she should keep her family from the snow or suffer them to burn her house that they may warm themselves for one of these wil be do you think that she came off at a cheaper rate when men had their rewards by a thousand two thousand pounds a year in Land of Inheritance If you say that they will be more godly then they have been it may be ill taken and if you cannot promise that it is time we find out some way of stinting at least if not curing them of that
have no sense of honour or concernment in the sufferings of others But as the Aetolians a state of the like fabrick were reproached by Phillip of Macedon prostrate themselves by letting out their arms unto the lusts of others while they have their own liberty barren and without legitimate issue I do not defame the people the Switz for valour have no superior the Hollander for industry no equal but themselves in the mean time shall so much the less excuse their Governments seeing that unto the Switz it is well enough known that the Ensigns of his Common-wealth have no other Motto then in te converte manus and that of the Hollander though hee swear more gold than the Spaniard digs let 's him languish in debt for shee her self lives upon charity these are dangerous unto themselves precarious governments such as do not command but beg their bread from Province to Province in Coats that being patched up of all colours are of none That their Cantons and Provinces are so many arrows is good but they are so many bows too which is naught Like unto these was the Commonwealth of the ancient Tuscans hung together like Bobbins without an hand to weave with them therefore easily overcome by the Romans though at that time for number a far lesse considerable people If your liberty be not a root that grows it will be a branch that withers which consideration brings mee unto the Paragon the Common-wealth of Rome The ways and means whereby the Romans acquired the Patronage and in that the Empire of the world were different according unto the different Condition of their Commonwealth in her rise and in her growth in her rise shee proceeded rather by Colonies in her growth by unequal Leagues Colonies without the bounds of Italy shee planted none such dispersion of the Roman Citizen as to plant him in forreign parts til the contrary interest of the Emperors brought in that practice was unlawful nor did shee ever demolish any City within that Compass or divest it of liberty but whereas the most of them were Commonwealths stirred up by emulation of her great felicity to war against her if shee overcame any she confiscated some part of their Lands that were the greatest incendiaries or causes of the trouble upon which shee planted Colonies of her own people preserving the Lands and Liberties for the rest unto the natives or inhabitants By this way of proceeding that I may bee brief as is possible she did many and great things For in confirming of Liberty shee propagated her Empire in holding the inhabitants from rebellion shee put a curb upon the incursion of Enemies in exonerating her self of the poorer sort shee multiplied her Citizens in rewarding her veterans shee rendered the rest lesse seditious and in acquiring unto her self the reverence of the Common parent shee from time to time became the Mother of New-born Cities In her farther growth the way of her propagation went more upon Leagues which for the first division were of two kindes Social and Provincial Again Social Leagues or Leagues of Society were of two kindes The first called Latinity or Latine The second Italian Right The League between the Romans and the Latins or Latine Right approached nearest unto Jus Quiritium the right of a native Roman The Man or the City that was honoured with this Right was Civitate donatus cum suffragio adopted a Citizen of Rome with the right of giving suffrage with the people in some cases as those of Confirmation of Law or Determination in Judicature if both the Consuls were agreed not otherwise wherefore that coming to little the greatest and most peculiar part of this Priviledge was that who had born Magistracy at least that of Aedile or Quaestor in any Latine City was by consequence of the same a Citizen of Rome at all points Italian Right was also donation of the City but without Suffrage they who were in either of these Leagues were governed by their own Laws and Magistrates having all the Rights as to liberty of Citizens of Rome yeelding and paying to the Commonwealth as head of the League and having the Conduct of all Affairs appertaining to the Common Cause such aid of Men and Monies as were particularly agreed upon the merit of the cause and specified in their respective Leagues whence such Leagues came to be called equal or unequal accordingly Provincial Leagues were of different extention according unto the Merit and Capacity of a conquered people but of one kinde for every Province was governed by Roman Magistrates as a Praetor or a Consul according to the dignity of the Province for the Civil Administration and conduct of the Provincial Army And a Quaestor for the gathering of the publick Revenue from which Magistrates a Province might appeal unto Rome For the better understanding of these particulars I shall exemplifie in as many of them as is needful And first in Macedon The Macedonians were thrice conquered by the Romans first under the conduct of T. Quintus Flaminius secondly under that of L. Aemilius Paulus and thirdly under that of Q. Caecilius Metellus thence called Macedonicus For the first time Pax petenti Philippo data Graeciae libertas Philip of Macedon who possessed of Acro Corinthus boasted no less than was true that he had Greece in fetters being overcome by Flaminius had his Kingdome restored unto him upon condition that he should forthwith set all the Cities which he held in Greece and in Asia at liberty and that he should not make war out of Macedon but by leave of the Senate of Rome which Philip having no other way to save any thing agreed should be done accordingly The Grecians being at this time assembled at the Istmian Games where the concourse was mighty great a Cryer appointed unto the office by Flaminius was heard among them proclaiming all Greece to be free to which the people being amazed at so hopeless a thing gave little credit till they received such testimony of the truth as put it past all doubt whereupon they fell immediately on running unto the Proconsul with Flowers and Garlands and such violent expressions of their admiration and joy as if Flaminius a young man about some thirty three had not also been very strong hee must have dyed of no other death then their kindness while every one striving to touch his hand they bore him up and down the field with an unruly throng full of such Ejaculations as these How Is there a people in the world that at their own Charge at their own Peril will fight for the liberty of another Did they live at the next door unto this fire Or what kinde of men are these whose business it is to pass Seas that the World may be governed with righteousness The Cities of Greece and of Asia shake off their Iron fetters at the voyce of a Cryer Was it madness to imagine such a thing and is it done O Vertue O Felicity O
cannot have being otherwise as it were upon the wing Neverthelesse in such Cities as subsist most by Trade and have little or no Land as Holland and Genoa the ballance of Treasure may be equal unto that of Land in the cases mentioned But Leviathan though he seem to scew at Antiquity following his furious Master Carneades hath caught hold of the publick sword unto which he reduceth all manner and matter of Government as where he affirms this opinion that any Monarch receiveth his power by Covenant that is to say upon conditions to proceed from the not understanding the easie truth That covenants being but words and breath have no power to oblige contain constrain or protect any man but what they have from the publick sword But as he said of the Law that without this sword it is but paper so he might have thought of this sword that without an hand it is but cold iron The hand which holdeth this sword is the Militia of a Nation and the Militia of a Nation is either an Army in the field or ready for the field upon occasion But an Army is a beast that hath a great belly and must be fed wherefore this will come unto what pastures you have and what pastures you have will come unto the ballance of propriety without which the publick sword is but a name or meer spit-frog Wherefore to set that which Leviathan saith of Arms and of Contracts a little streighter he that can graze this beast with the great belly as the Turk doth his Timariots may well deride him that imagines he received his power by covenant or is obliged unto any such toy it being in this case onely that covenants are but words and breath But if the propriety of the Nobility stocked with their Tenants and retainers be the pasture of that beast the Ox knowes his Masters Crib and it is impossible for a King in such a constitution to raign otherwise then by Covenant or if he break it it is words that comes to blowes But sairh he when an Assembly of men is made Soveraign then no man imagineth any such Covenant to have past in the Institution but what was that by Publicola of appeal unto the people or that whereby the people had their Tribunes Fy saith he No body is so dull as to say that the People of Rome made a Covenant with the Romans to hold the Soveraignty on such or such conditions which not performed the Romans might depose the Roman people In which there be remarkable things for first he holdeth the Common-wealth of Rome to have consisted of one assembly whereas it consisted of the Senate and the People That they were not upon covenant whereas every Law enacted by them was a covenant between them That the one Assembly was made Soveraign whereas the people who onely were Soveraign were such from the beginning as appears by the ancient style of their Covenants or Laws censuere Patres jussit Populus That a Councill being made Soveraign cannot be made such upon conditions whereas the Decemviri being a Council that was made Soveraign was made such upon conditions That all conditions or covenants making a Soveraign the Soveraign being made are void whence it must follow that the Decemvirs being made were ever after the lawful Government of Rome and that it was unlawful for the Common-wealth of Rome to depose the Decemvirs as also that Cicero if he writ otherwise out of his Common-wealth did not write out of Nature But to come unto others that see more of this ballance You have Aristotle full of it in divers places especially where he saith that Immoderate Wealth as where One man or the Few have greater possessions than equality or the frame of the Common-wealth will bear is an occasion of Sedition which ends for the greater part in Monarchy and that for this cause the Ostracisme hath been received in divers places as in Argos and Athens But that it were better to prevent the growth in the beginning then when it hath gotten head to seek the remedy of such an evil Machiavill hath missed it very narrowly and more dangerously for not fully perceiving that if a Common-wealth be galled by the Gentry it is by their overballance he speaks of the Gentry as hostile to popular Governments and of popular Governments as hostile unto the Gentry and makes us believe that the people in such are so enraged against them that where they meet a Gentleman they kill him which can never be proved by any one example unlesse in civill Warr seeing that even in Switz the Gentry are not onely safe but in honour But the ballance as I have laid it down though unseen by Machiavill is that which interpreteth him and that which he confirmeth by his Judgment in many other as well as in this place where he concludes That he who will go about to make a Common-Wealth where there be many Gentlemen unlesse he first destroy them undertakes an impossibility and that he who goes about to introduce Monarchy where the condition of the people is equal shall never bring it to passe unlesse he cull out such of them as are the most turbulent and ambitious and make them Gentlemen or Noblemen not in name but in effect that is by enriching them with Lands Castles and Treasures that may gain them power amongst the rest and bring in the rest unto dependence upon themselves to the end that they maintaining their ambition by the Prince the Prince may maintain his power by them Wherefore as in this place I agree with Machiavill that a Nobility or Gentry overballancing a popular Government is the utter bane and destruction of it so I shall shew in another that a Nobility or Gentry in a popular Government not overballancing it is the very life and soul of it By what hath been said it should seem that we may lay aside farther disputes of the publick Sword or of the right of the Militia which be the Government what it will or let it change how it can is inseparable from the overballance in dominion nor if otherwise stated by the Law or Custome as in the Common-wealth of Rome Consules sine lège Curiata rem militarem attingere non potuerunt where the people having the sword the Nobility came to have the overballance availeth it unto other end than destruction for as a building swaying from the foundation must fall so the Law swaying from reason and the Militia from the ballance of Dominion And so much for the ballance of Nationall or Domestick Empire which is in Dominion The ballance of Forraign or Provincial Empire is of a contrary nature A man may as well say that it is unlawfull for him who hath made a fair and honest purchase to have tenants as for a Government that hath made a just progresse and inlargement of it self to have Provinces But how a Province may be justly acquired
people either without mention of a Colony in which case they were not obliged to change their abode or with mention and upon condition of a Colony in which case they were to change their abode and leaving the City to plant themselves upon the Lands so assigned The Lands assigned or that ought to have been assigned in either of these wayes were of three kinds Such as were taken from the enemy and distributed unto the people or such as were taken from the enemy and under colour of being reserved unto the publick use were by stealth possessed by the Nobility or such as were bought with the publick Money to be distributed Of the Lawes offer'd in these cases those which divided the Lands taken from the Enemy or purchased with the publick money never occasioned any dispute but such as drove at dispossessing the Nobility of their Usurpations and dividing the common purchase of the sword among the people were never touched but they caused Earthquakes nor could ever be obtained by the people or being obtained be observed by the Nobility who not onely preserved their prey but growing vastly rich upon it bought the people by degrees quite out of those shares that had been conferred upon them This the Gracchi coming too late to perceive found the Ballance of the Common-wealth to be lost but putting the people when they had least force by forcible means unto the recovery of it did ill seeing it neither could nor did tend unto any more then to shew them by worse effects that what the Wisdome of their Leaders had discovered was true for quite contrary unto what hath happened in Oceana where the ballance falling unto the people they have overthrown the Nobility the Nobility of Rome under the conduct of Sylla overthrew the people and the Common-wealth seeing Scylla first introduced that new ballance which was the Foundation of the succeeding Monarchy in the plantation of Military Colonies instituted by his distribution of the conquered Lands not now of Enemies but of Citizens unto fourty seven Legions of his Souldiers so that how he came to be DICTATOR PERPETUUS or other Magistrates to succeed him in like power is no Miracle These Military Colonies in which manner succeeding Emperours continued as Augustus by the distribution of the Veterans whereby he had overcome Brutus and Cassius to plant their Souldiery consisted of such as I conceive were they that are called Milites beneficiarii in regard that the Tenure of their Lands was by way of Benefices that is for life and upon condition of duty or service in the War upon their own charge These Benefices Alexander Severus granted unto the Heirs of the Incumbents but upon the same conditions And such was the Dominion by which the Roman Emperours gave their Ballance But to the Beneficiaries as was no lesse than necessary for the safety of the Prince a matter of eight thousand by the Example of Augustus were added which departed not from his sides but were his perpetuall guard called Pretorian Bands though these according to the incurable flaw already observed in this kind of Government became the most frequent Butchers of their Lords that are to be found in Story Thus far the Roman Monarchy is so much the same with that at this day in Turky consisting of a Camp and an Horse-quarter a Camp in regard of her Spahies and Janizaries the perpetuall Guard of the Prince except they also chance to be Liquorish after his blood and an Horse-quarter in regard of the distribution of his whole Land unto Tenants for life upon condition of continuall service or as often as they shall be commanded at their own charge by Timars being a word which they say signifies Benefices that it shall save me a labour of opening the Government But the Fame of Mahomet and his Prudence is especially founded in this That whereas the Roman Monarchy except that of Israel was the most imperfect the Turkish is the most perfect that ever was Which happened in that the Roman as the Israelitish of the Sanhedrim and the Congregation had a mixture of the Senate and the people and the Turkish is pure and that this was pure and the other mixed happened not through the wisdome of the Legislators but the different Genius of the Nations the people of the Eastern parts except the Israelites which is to be attributed to their Agrarian having been such as scarce ever knew any other condition than that of Slavery And these of the Western having ever â—ad such a Relish of liberty as through what despair soever could never be brought to stand still while the Yoke was putting on their Necks but by being fed with some hopes of reserving unto themselves some part of their Freedome Wherefore Julius Caesar saith Suetonius comitia cum populo sortitus est contented himself in naming half the Magistrates to leave the rest unto the Suffrage of the people And Moecenas though he would not have Augustus to give the people their liberty would not have him take it away for saith he Neque id existimare debes autorem me tibi esse ut tyrannidem in S.P. Q.R. in servitutem redactum teneas quod neque dicere meum neque facere tuum est whence this Empire being neither Hawk nor Buzzard made a flight accordingly and having the avarice of the Souldiery on this hand to satisfie upon the people and the Senate and the people on the other to be defended from the Souldiery the Prince being perpetually tossed seldom dy'd any other death than by one Horn of this Dilemma as is noted more at large by Machiavill But the Pretorian Bands those Bestiall executioners of their Captains Tyranny upon others and of their own upon him having continued from the time of Augustus were by Constantine the Great incensed against them for taking part with his Adversary Maxentius removed from their strong Garrison which they held in Rome and distributed them into divers Provinces The Benefices of the Souldiers that were hitherto held for life and upon duty were by this Prince made Hereditary so that the whole Foundation whereupon this Empire was first built being now removed sheweth plainly that the Emperours must long before this have found out some other way of support and this was by Stipendiating the Gothes a people that deriving their Roots from the Northern parts of Germany or out of Sweden had through their Victories obtained against Domitian long since spread their branches unto so near Neighbourhood with the Roman Territories that they began to Overshade them for the Emperours making use of them in their Arms as the French do at this day of the Switz gave them that under the notion of stipend which they received as Tribute coming if there were any default in the payment so often to distrein for it that in the time of Honorius they sacked Rome and possessed themselves of Italy And such was the transition of Ancient into Modern prudence or
that breach which being followed in every part of the Roman Empire with inundations of Vandals Huns Lombards Franks Saxons have overwhelmed ancient Languages Learning Prudence Manners Cities changing the Names of Rivers Countries Seas Mountains and Men Camillus Caesar and Pompey being come to Edmund Richard and Geoffrey To open the ground-work or ballance of these new Polititians Feudum saith Calvine the Lawyer is a Gothick word of divers significations for it is taken either for War or for a possession of conquered Lands distributed by the Victor unto such of his Captains and Souldiers as had merited in his Wars upon condition to acknowledge him to be their perpetuall Lord and themselves to be his Subjects Of these there were three kinds or orders The first of Nobility distinguished by the Titles of Dukes Marquesses Earls and these being gratify'd with Cities Castles and Villages of the Conquered Italians their Feuds participated of Royall dignity and were called Regalia by which they had right to coyn Mony create Magistrates take Tole Customs Confiscations and the like Feuds of the second order were such as with the consent of the King were bestowed by these Feudatory Princes upon men of inferiour Quality called their Barons on condition that next unto the King they should defend the Dignities and Fortunes of their Lords in Arms. The lowest order of Feuds were such as being confer'd by those of the second Order upon private men whether Noble or not Noble obliged them in the like duty unto their Superiors these were called Vauosors And this is the Gothick Ballance by which all the Kingdoms this day in Christendome were at first erected for which cause if I had time I should open in this place the Empire of Germany and the Kingdomes of France Spain and Poland but so much as hath been said being sufficient for the discovery of the principles of Modern Prudence in general I shall divide the remainder of my Discourse which is more particular into three parts The first shewing the Constitution of the late Monarchy of Oceana The second the Dissolution of the same And the third the Generation of the present Common-wealth The Constitution of the late Monarchy of Oceana is to be considered in relation unto the different Nations by whom it hath been successively subdu'd and govern'd The first of these were the Romans the second the Teutons the third the Scandians and the fourth the Neustrians The Government of the Romans who held it as a Province I shall omit because I am to speak of their Provincial Government in another place onely it is to be remembred in this that if we have given over running up and down naked and with dappled hides learn't to write and read to be instructed with good Arts for all these we are beholding to the Romans either immediately or mediately the Teutons for that the Teutons had the Arts from no other hand is plain enough by their language which hath yet no word to signifie either writing or reading but what is derived from the Latine Furthermore by the help of these arts so learn't we have been capable of that Religion which we have long since received wherefore it seemeth unto me that we ought not to detract from the Memory of the Romans by whose means we are as it were of Beasts become Men and by whose means we might yet of obscure and Ignorant men if we thought not too well of our selves become a wise and a great People The Romans having govern'd Oceana Provincially the Teutons were the first that introduced the form of the late Monarchy to these succeeded the Scandians of whom because their Raign was short as also because they made little alteration in the Government as to the Form I shall take no notice But the Teutons going to work upon the Gothick Ballance divided the whole Nation into three sorts of Feuds that of Ealdorman that of Kings-Thane and that of Middle-Thane When the Kingdom was first divided into Precincts will be as hard to shew as when it began first to be governed it being impossible that there should be any Government without some Division The Division that was in use with the Teutons was by Counties and every County had either his Ealdorman or high Reeve The title of Ealdorman came in time to Eorl or Erle and that of high Reeve to high Sheriff Earl of the Shire or County denoted the Kings Thane or Tenant by Grand Serjeantry or Knights Service in chief or in Capite his possessions were sometimes the whole Territory from whence he had his Denomination that is the whole County sometimes more then one County and sometimes lesse the remaining part being in the Crown He had also sometimes a third or some other Customary part of the profits of certain Cities Boroughs or other places within his Earldom For an Example of the possessions of Earls in ancient times Ethelred had unto him and his Heirs the whole Kingdom of Mercia containing three or four Counties and there were others that had little lesse Kings Thane was also an honorary Title unto which he was qualify'd that had five Hides of Land held immediately of the King by service of personal attendance insomuch that if a Churle or Country Man had thriven unto this proportion having a Church a Kitchin a Bell-house that is an Hall with a Bell in it to call his Family to Dinner a Borough-gate with a seat that is a Porch of his own and any distinct office in the Kings Court then was he the Kings Thane But the proportion of an Hide-Land otherwise called Caruca or a Plough-land is difficult to be understood because it was not certain neverthelesse it is generally conceived to be so much as may be managed with one Plough and would yield the Maintenance of the same with the appurtenances in all kinds The Middle-Thane was feudall but not honorary he was also call'd a Vavosor and his Lands a Vavosory which held of some Mesne Lord and not immediately of the King Possessions and their tenures being of this Nature shew the Ballance of the Teuton Monarchy wherein the riches of Earles was so vast that to arise from the Ballance of their Dominion unto their power they were not onely called Reguli or little Kings but were such indeed their jurisdiction being of two sorts either that which was exercised by them in the Court of their Counties or in the high Court of the Kingdom In the Territory denominating an Earl if it were all his own the Courts held and the profits of that Jurisdiction were to his own use and benefit But if he had but some part of his County then his Jurisdiction and Courts saving perhaps in those possessions that were his own were held by him to the Kings use and benefit that is he commnoly supply'd the Office which the Sheriffs regularly executed in Counties that had no Earls and whence they came to be
called Vice-comites The Court of the County that had an Earl was held by the Earl and the Bishop of the Diocesse after the manner of the Sheriffs Turns unto this Day by which means both the Ecclesiasticall and Temporal Lawes were given in charge together unto the Country the causes of Vavosors or Vavosories appertained to the Cognizance of this Court where Wills were proved Judgment and Execution given cases criminall and civill determined The Kings Thanes had like jurisdiction in their thain-Thain-Lands as Lords in their Manours where they also kept Courts Besides these in particular both the Earls and Kings-Thanes together with the Bishops Abbots and Vavosors or Middle-Thanes had in the High Court or Parliament of the Kingdome a more publick jurisdiction consisting first of Deliberative power for advising upon and assenting unto new Lawes Secondly of giving Counsel in matters of State and thirdly of Judicature upon Suits and Complaints I shall not omit to enlighten the obscurity of these times in which there is little to be found of a Methodical constitution of this High Court by the addition of an Argument which I conceive to bear a strong testimony unto it self though taken out of a late Writing that conceals the Authour It is well known saith he that in every quarter of the Realm a great many Boroughs do yet send Burgesses unto the Parliament which neverthelesse be so anciently and so long since decayed and gone to naught that they cannot be shew'd to have been of any reputation since the Conquest much lesse to have obtained any such priviledge by the grant of any succeeding King wherefore these must have had this right by more ancient usuage and before the Conquest they being unable now to shew whence they derived it This Argument though there be more I shall pitch upon as sufficient to prove First that the lower sort of the people had right unto Session in Parliament during the time of the Teutons Secondly that they were qualify'd unto the same by election in their Boroughs and if Knights of the Shire as no doubt they are be as ancient in the Countries Thirdly if it be a good Argument to say that the Commons during the raign of the Teutons were elected into Parliament because they are so now and no man can shew when this custom began I see not which way it should be an ill one to say that the Commons during the reign of the Teutons constituted also a distinct house because they do so now unlesse any man can shew that they did ever sit in the same House with the Lords Wherefore to conclude this part I conceive for these and other reasons to be mentioned hereafter that the Parliament of the Teutons consisted of the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of the Nation notwithstanding the style of divers Acts of Parliament which runs as that of Magna Charta in the Kings name only seeing the same was neverthelesse enacted by the King Peers and Commons of the Land as is testified in those words by a subsequent Act. The Monarchy of the Teutons had stood in this posture about two hundred and twenty years when Turbo Duke of Neustria making his claim to the Crown of one of their Kings that dyed Childlesse followed it with successeful Arms and being possessed of the Kingdom used it as conquered distributing the Earldomes Thane Lands Bishopricks and Prelacies of the whole Realm amongst his Neustrians From this time the Earl came to be called Comes Consul Dux though Consul Dux grew afterward out of use The Kings Thanes came to be called Barons and their Lands Baronies the Middle-Thane holding still of a mean Lord retained the name of Vavosor The Earl or Comes continued to have the third part of the pleas of the County paid unto him by the Sheriff or Vice-comes now a distinct Officer in every County depending upon the King saving that such Earls as had their Counties to their own use were now Counts-Palatine and had under the King Regal Jurisdiction insomuch that they constituted their own Sheriffs granted Pardons and issued Writs in their own names nor did Kings Writ of ordinary Justice run in their Dominions till a late Statute whereby much of this priviledge was taken away For Barons they came from henceforth to be in different times of three kinds Barons by their estates and Tenures Barons by writ and Barons created by Letters Pattents From Turbo the first to Adoxus the seventh King from the Conquest Barons had their Denomination from their Possessions and Tenures and these were either Spiritual or Temporal for not onely the Thane Lands but the possessions of Bishops as also of some twenty six Abbots and two Priors were now erected into Baronies whence the Lords Spiritual that had Suffrage in the Teuton Parliament as Spiritual Lords came to have it in the Neustrian Parliament as Barons and were made subject which they had not formerly been unto Knights service in chief Barony comming henceforth to signifie all honorary possessions as well of Earls as Barons and Baronage to denote all kinds of Lords as well Spiritual as Temporal having right to sit in Parliament the Baronies in this sense were sometimes more and sometimes fewer but commonly about 200 or 250 containing in them a matter of sixty thousand feuda militum or Knights fees whereof some twenty eight thousand were in the Clergy It is ill luck that no man can tell what the land of a Knights fee reckoned in some Writs at 40 l. a year and in others at 10. was certainly worth for by such an help we might have exactly demonstrated the Ballance of this Government But sayes Cook it contained twelve plough lands and that was thought to be the most certain account but this again is extreamly uncertain for one Plough out of some Land that was fruitfull might work more than ten out of some other that was barren Neverthelesse seeing it appeareth by Bracton that of Earldoms and Baronies it was wont to be said that the whole Kingdome was composed as also that these consisting of 60000 Knights fees furnisht 60000 men for the Kings service being the whole Militia of this Monarchy it cannot be imagined that the Vavosories or Freeholds in the people amounted to any considerable proportion Wherefore the Ballance and Foundation of this Government was in the 60000 Knights fees and these being possest by the 250 Lords it was a Government of the Few or of the Nobility wherein the people might also assemble but could have no more than a meer name And the Clergy holding a third to the whole Nation as is plaine by the Parliament Rolle it is an absurdity seeing the Clergy of France came first through their riches to be a state of that Kingdome to acknowledge the people to have beene a state of this Realme and not to allow it unto the Clergy who were so much more weighty in
the Ballance which is that of all other whence a state or order in a Government is denominated wherefore this Monarchy consisted of the King and of the three Ordines Regni or Estates the Lords spirituall and temporall and the Commons It consisted of these I say as to the ballance though during the raigne of some of these Kings not as to the administration For the ambition of Turbo and some of those that more immediately succeeded him to be absolute Princes strove against the nature of their Foundation and in as much as he had divided almost the whole Realme among his Newstrians with some incouragement for a while But the Neustrians while they were but forraigne Plants having no security against the Natives but in growing up by their Princes sides were no sooner well rooted in their vast Dominions than they came up according to the infallible consequence of the Ballance Domesticke and contracting the Nationall interest of the Baronage grew as fierce in the Vindication of the Auncient rights and liberties of the same as if they had beene alwaies Natives Whence the Kings being as obstinate on the one side for their absolute power as these on the other for their immunities grew certaine Wars which tooke their Denomination from the Barons This fire about the middle of the raigne of Adoxus began to break out And whereas the predecessors of this King had diverse times beene forced to summon Councills resembling those of the Teutons unto which the Lords only that were Barons by Dominion and Tenure had hitherto repaired Adoxus seeing the effects of such Dominion began first not to call such as were Barons by Writs for that was according to the practice of antient times but to call such by Writes as were otherwise no Barons by which meanes striving to avoid the consequence of the Ballance in coming unwillingly to set the Government streight he was the first that set it awry For the Barons in his raigne and his successours having vindicated their antient Authority restored the Parliament with all the rights and Priviledges of the same saving that from thenceforth the Kings had found out a way whereby to help themselves against the mighty creatures of their own and such as had no other support but by their favour By which meanes this Government being indeed the Master-piece of Moderne Prudence hath beene cry'd up to the Skyes as the only invention whereby at once to maintaine the soveraignty of a Prince and the liberty of the people whereas indeed it hath beene no other than a wrestling match wherein the Nobility as they have been stronger have thrown the King or the King if he have been stronger hath thrown the Nobility or the King where he hath had a Nobility and could bring them to his party hath thrown the people as in France and Spain or the people where they have had no Nobility or could get them to be of their party have thrown the King as in Holland and of latter times in Oceana But they came not to this strength but by such approaches and degrees as remain to be further opened For whereas the Barons by Writs as the sixty four Abbots and thirty six Priors that were so called were but pro tempore Dicotome being the twelfth King from the Conquest began to make Barons by Letters Patents with the Addition of honorary Pensions for the Maintenance of their Dignities to them and their Heirs so that they were hands in the Kings Purse and had no shoulders for his Throne Of these when the house of Peers came once to be full as will be seen hereafter there was nothing more empty But for the present the Throne having other supports they did not hurt that so much as they did the King For the old Barons taking Dicotome's prodigality to such creatures so ill that they deposed him got the trick of it and never gave over setting up and pulling down of their Kings according to their various interests and that faction of the White and Red into which they had been thenceforth divided till Panurgus the eighteenth King from the Conquest was more by their favour than his right advanced unto the Crown This King through his naturall subtilty reflecting at once upon the greatnesse of their power and the inconstancy of their favour began to find another flaw in this kind of Government which is also noted by Machiavill namely that a Throne supported by a Nobility is not so hard to be ascended as kept warm Wherefore his secret jealousie lest the Dissention of the Nobility as it brought him in might throw him out travelled in wayes undiscover'd by them unto ends as little foreseen by himself while to establish his own safety he by mixing water with their Wine first began to open those Sluces that have since overwhelmed not the King onely but the Throne For whereas a Nobility striketh not at the Throne without which they cannot subsist but at some King that they do not like Popular power striketh through the King at the Throne as that which is incompatible with it Now that Panurgus in abating the power of the Nobility was the cause whence it came to fall into the hands of the people appears by those severall Statutes that were made in his raign as that for Population those against Retainers and that for Alienations By the Statute of Population All houses of husbandry that were used with twenty Acres of ground and upwards were to be maintained and kept up for ever with a competent proportion of Land laid to them and in no wise as appears by a subsequent Statute to be severed By which means the houses being kept up did of necessity inforce dwellers and the proportion of Land to be tilled being kept up did of necessity inforce the dweller not to be a beggar or Cottager but a man of some substance that might keep friends and servants and set the Plough on going this did mightily concern saith the Historian of that Prince the might and manhood of the Kingdom and in effect amortize a great part of the Lands unto the hold and possession of the Yeomanry or middle people who living not in a servile or indigent fashion were much unlinked from dependance upon their Lords and living in a free and plentifull manner became a more excellent Infantry but such an one upon which the Lords had so little power that from henceforth they may be computed to have been disarmed And as they lost their Infantry after this manner so their Cavalry and Commanders were cut off by the Statute of Retainers for whereas it was the Custome of the Nobility to have younger Brothers of good houses metall'd fellows and such as were knowing in the feats of Arms about them they who were longer followed with so dangerous a train escaped not such punishments as made them take up Henceforth the Country-lives and great tables of the Nobility which no longer nourished
upon the tale of the Tribunes and in the sight of the Proposers for this may not be omitted it is the pulce of the People Now whereas it appertaineth unto the Tribunes to report the Suffrage of the people unto the Senate they cast the Lot for this Office with three silver Balls and one gold one and it fell upon the R t Worshipfull Argus de Crookhorne in the Tribe of Pascua first Tribune of the Foot Argus being a good sufficient Man in his own Country was yet of the mind that he should make but a bad spokes man and therefore became something blank at his Luck till his colleagues perswaded him that it was no such great matter if he could but read haveing his Paper before him The Proposers takeing Coach received a volley upon the Field and returned in the same Order save that being accompanied with the Tribunes they were also attended by the whole Praerogative unto the Piazza of the Pantheon where with another volley they took their leaves Argus who had not thought upon his Wife and Children all the way went very gravely up and every one being seated the Senate by their silence seemed to call for the Report which Argus standing up delivered in this wise Right Honourable Lords and Fathers Assembled in Parliament SO it is that it hath falne unto my Lot to report unto your Excellencies the Votes of the People taken upon the third instant in the first year of this Common-wealth at the Halo the R t Honourable Phosphorus de Auge in the Tribe of Eudia Dolabella d' Enyo in the Tribe of Turmae and Linceus de Stella in the Tribe of Nubia Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal of Oceana and Proposers pro temporibus Together with my Brethren the Tribunes and my Self being present Wherefore these are to certifie unto your Fatherhoods that the said Votes of the People were as followeth that is to say Unto the first Proposition Nomine Contradicante Unto the second Nomine Contradictante Unto the third the like Unto the fourth 211 above half Unto the fifth 201 above half Unto the sixth 150 above half in the Affirmative Unto the seaventh Nomine again and so forth My Lords it is a Language that is out of my Prayers and if I be out at it no harm But as concerning my Lord Archon as I was saying these are to signifie unto you the true-heartednesse and good will which is in the People seeing by joyning with you as one Man they confesse that all they have to give is too little for his Highnesse For truly Fathers if he who is able to doe harm and doth none may well be called honest What shall we say unto my Lord Archon's Highnesse who having had it in his power to have done us the greatest mischief that ever befell a poor Nation so willing to trust such as they thought well of hath done us so much good as we should never have known how to doe our selves which was so sweetly delivered by my Lord Chancellor Phosophorus unto the People that I dare say there was never an one of them could forbear to doe as I doe An 't please your Fatherhoods they be tears of Joy Ah my Lord Archon shall walk the streets an it be for his ease I mean with a Switch while the People run after him and pray for him he shall not wet his foot they will strew flowers in his way he shall sit higher in their hearts and in the judgement of all good Men then the Kings that goe up stairs unto their seats and one of these had as good pull two or three of his Fellowes out of their great Chaires as wrong him or meddle with him he ha's two or three hundred thousand Men that when you say the word shall sell themselves unto their shirts for him and dye at his foot His Pillow is of Down and his grave shall be as soft over which they that are alive shall wring their hands And to come unto your Fatherhoods most truly so called as being the loving Parents of the People truly you doe not know what a feeling they have of your Kindnesse seeing you are so bound up that if there come any harm they may thank themselves And alasse poor souls they see that they are given to be of so many minds that though they always mean well yet if there come any good they may thank them that teach them better Wherefore there was never such a thing as this invented they doe verily believe that it is none other then the same which they always had in their very heads if they could have but told how to bring it out As now for a sample My Lords the Proposers had no sooner said your minds then they found it to be that which heart could wish And your Fatherhoods may comfort your selves that there is not a People in the world more willing to learn what is for their own goods nor more apt to see it when you have shew'd it them Wherefore they doe love you as they doe their own selves Honour you as Fathers resolve to give you as it were Obedience forever and so thanking you for your most good and excellent Lawes they doe pray for you as the very Worthies of the Land Right Honourable Lords and Fathers assembled in Parliament Argus came off beyond his own expectation for thinking right and speaking as he thought it was apparent by the House and the thanks they gave him that they esteemed him to be absolutely of the best sort of Orators upon which having a mind that till then misgave him he became very Crounse and much delighted with that which might goe down the next week in Print unto his Wife and his Neighbours Livy makes the Roman Tribunes to speak in the same stile with the Consuls which could not be and therefore for ought in him to the contrary Volero Canuleius might have spoken no otherwise forth their stile then Argus However they were not created the first year of the Common-wealth and the Tribunes of Oceana are since become better Orators then were needfull But the Lawes being Enacted had the Preamble annexed and were delivered unto Bronchus who loved nothing in the Earth so much as to goe staring and bellowing up and down the Town like a Stagg in a Forrest as he now did with his Fraternity in their Coats of Arms and I know not how many Trumpets Proclaiming the Act of Parliament when meeting my Lord Archon who from a retreat that was without Affectation as being for Devotion only and to implore a blessing by Prayer and Fasting upon his labours now newly Arrived in Town the Herault of the Tribe of Bestia set up his throat and having chaunted out his Lession past as haughtily by him as if his own had been the better Office which in this place was very well taken though Bronchus for his high mind happened afterwards upon some disasters too long to tell that spoyled much of