Case in Debate is the stronger and if the People have Riches that is Clothe or Mony of their own they must rise out of the Propriety or Cultivation of Land and so the Ballance of Land must of Necessity be in the People themselves who having that will never give their H. p. 16. Clothes or Mony or Obedience unto a single Person or a Nobility though these should be the richer in Mony whence it is evident that in such a Territrry as England or Spain Mony can never come to overballance Land A fine Modest Argument this which though it be called a Demonstration I should never suspected to have been meant for a Mathematicall One but that I find it going upon certain Data or Postulata two of which by Misfortune happen to be the very things which were to be proved As first that if the People have Riches they must rise out of the Propriety or Cultivation of Land And then that Ready Mony though in never so great a Quantity cannot outweigh the Ballance in Land To speak freely This whole Passage has so little Affinity with sense that I must believe Mr Harrington was in Choler and intended it as a Piece of Revenge against the Considerer for having dared to put a Supposition that any Man could be Wiser then the Author of Oceana His second Argument and that 's called a Demonstration too is that Henry the seventh ibid. though the richest in Mony of English Princes did by making Farms of a Standard and cutting of Retainers begin that Breach in the Ballance of Land which hath since ruin'd the Government But did that Ruine swallow up the Government while that ready mony was in being Or did not his Son Henry the eight by his Pleasures and unprofitable Wars exhaust all that Treasure in a few of the first years of his Reign I may with Modesty and Truth enough let Mr Harrington know that if the Exchecquer had eighteen years agoe been as well furnisht as Henry the seventh left it He might now probably have wanted the Occasion of shewing his Skill in Modelling a Commonwealth The third Argument is That the Monarchy of Spain since that King had the Indies stands upon the same Ballance in the Lands of the Nobility on which it alwaies stood This it seems We must believe for Mr Harrington's sake without any further Proof though the Opposite Assertion That it does not stand upon the same Ballance was profered as an Instance against him by the Consider Who can now fortify his Side by this Observation That from the Discovery of the American Mines to the yeare 1640 a Tract of time of more then 120 years the Crown of Spain has not been disturbed by any Domestick sedition of the Nobility for which there cannot any so Probable Reason be assigned as the Increase of the King's Revenue in ready Mony by which he is inabled to maintain a Force that overballances their Estates in Land Mr Harrington's Arguments being thus fitted with Replies it will be expedient to resume the Consideration of those waies by which a Revenue both Private and Publique may be raised that so We may the better judge Whether in such a Territory as Spain or England Mony may not come to over-ballance Land But I do not think it belongs to Me to do this with the Accurateness either of a Philosopher who discourses as Aristotle does in the second of his Oeconomicks of all the severall possible waies of managing an Estate Or of a Financier who makes a Proposition for the raising a present summe of Ready Mony It will be enough to observe in generall the most ready and Naturall Methods by which a Considerable Revenue may be obtained The First of these is by the Propriety and Cultivation of Lands which is a very generall Way and the sole Considerable One in such Places where the Methods hereafter exprest are not practicable Out of this in some Places a certain Tax or Proportion is payable to the Sovereign Power by which the Owner looses no part of his Propriety yet has as it were a Rent Charge laid upon his Estate The second is taken from the Bowels of the Earth which in some Parts are fertile of those Metals that need only the stroke of an Hammer to make them Current Mony These are either belonging solely to the Supream Power though taken out of other Men's Ground as here in England Or at least a great share of them belongs to the Prince as it is with the King of Spain in respect of all the Gold and Silver of America The third is by Traffique and Commerce And that either Private and Domestick as carrying the Commodities of a Man 's own Grouth to Market and Mean Artisans selling their Work to the Neighbourhood which are often charged by the Publique with some Excise or Gabell Or else Publique and Forreign when by Publique Authority Companies are formed for the better Exportation and Importation of Goods and Manufacture And out of these some considerable Duties and Customes do almost every where issue to the Publique Revenue The fourth and last is from the Profit of Mony by Usury And that also either Private when every Man puts out his own Mony upon which some Assessement payable by the Lender to the Publique ought in all Reason to be imposed Usurers being otherwise very unprofitable Members of a State and the only Men who contribute nothing to the Publique Charge Or else Publique under the Inspection and Security of the Supream Power commonly known by the name of Banks by which no small Revenue uses to accrue to the Publique Now to shew that in Spain or England the three last waies of raising a Revenue may be more considerable then the first Or which is all One that Mony may overballance Land will not be difficult if We consider that Spain And if Henry the seventh had given eare to Columbus his Profer England had been Mistress of the same Treasures is possest of all the Bullion of the West Indies amounting annually not to mention greater Summes gained at the first Discovery of those Countries to 3 or 4 millions of our Mony which is by Mr Harrington's Calculation a full third of all the Land in England Next Spain or England are either of them by Nature endowed with all Advantages for taking the whole Traffique of the World into their Hands and are inferiour to the Dutch who injoy it in nothing but Industrie What the Importance of this is or might be the Dutch will best help Us to Understand Who by that alone without any considerable Land have been able to baffle Spain and contest with England And if Spain or England have or may have such a Traffique They may also when they please erect a Bank for any the Greatest summe of Mony Against this Mr Harrington has but One Objection in store which is That the Purse of a Prince never yet made a Bauke nor till Spending H. p.
Supream Magistrate to be as it were a Publique Arbitrator to whom the Decision of all Controversies among his Subjects is referred and We know that in an Arbitrator it is not Riches but Integrity and Ability that Men look after Nor have I heard any reason why a Poore Man if known to be honest may not be trusted to keep stakes in a Wager for more then his Estate comes to Yet because the Actions of a Prince though in themselves just may though Mistake or Malice not be considered as such by a People I do not meane that a Prince should be devested of all Power but what He gains by the Opinion of his Justice and Innocence And therefore in the third Place I descend to examine how far Riches conduce to Sovereign Power and Whether an Estate in Land is naturally Productive of Empire more then any other Revenue The Reparation of our Substance by continuall Supplies of Meat and Drink And the Defence of our Bodies in cold Countreys especially from the Injuries of the Weather by Garments and Habitations are the first and most Naturall Cares of Mankind We did not long continue satisfied with what was purely necessary of this Sort but soon grew up to desire Convenience and the Reall pleasing our Senses And at last came to seek after things of Luxurie and Vanity which depend altogether upon Opinion And because no Man by his single Power could be secure in the Possession of any of these Things there was an early Willingness in Men to submit to Empire that by their United Force which is that We call Sovereign Power They might be maintained upon such Terms as the Sovereign Power pleased to establish in the Acquiring and Possessing such Things as tended to the Ends already mentioned This was the Introduction of Propriety At first this consisted only in the Fruits of the Earth and Cattle And He who had Land enough to bring forth more of these then He could consume was a Rich Man and might with the Superfluity drive some little Commerce by way of Exchange with the Neighbourhood But after that Men had found out a way of Entercourse with People far remote and a more considerable Traffique began to be set on foot Something was fixed upon by generall Consent which might be the Common Measure of the Value of all Things needfull to Man This is called Mony which by it's Portability and Currentness having a great Advantage in the Use of it a Value came also to be put upon That known by the Name of Usury or Interest And now He that abounds with Mony need not be in want of such Things as are Usefull to him because other Men will for his Mony be glad to let him have part of their Superfluity Out of this We may infer That since the Establishment of Propriety by the Sovereign Power has rendred it neither Free nor Safe for particular Men to make Use of Force in gaining such Things as they stand in need of Riches do highly conduce to Power For Men that are unprovided of other meanes of acquiring such Things as They can not want are faine to apply themselves to the Rich for obtaining of them Who do not use to part with them but in Exchange of some Service or Subjection by which they grow Powerfull Yet this Power gained by Riches is alwaies dependant upon the Sovereign Power which Institutes and preserves Propriety For against a Force strong enough such as are Conquests and succesfull Rebellions to overthrow the setled Propriety by the Subversion of the Sovereign Power Riches are not of any Defence but rather matter of Invitation to an Enemy by the greatness of the Booty We may also infer That where there is no Traffique or Mony as in new Plantations the Riches which conduce to Power consist in Dominion of Land able to produce such Things as are necessary or Convenient to Subsistence But in other Places where the Estimate and Purchase of all usefull things is reduced to Mony there the Influence which Riches have upon Power flows not from an Estate in Land only but principally and immediatly from ready Mony Or to make use of Mr Harrington's Words The Ballance of Dominion in Land is not the Naturall Cause of Empire This was of old known to Aristotle who having related the Project of Phaleas the Chalcedonian to settle a Government by reducing Estates to an Equality with the expedient invented by him to bring it to pass At last He rejects it for this Reason chiefly That He had not considered aright of Arist Polit. lib. 2. cap. 7. this equality having only indeavoured to introduce it in Land What is this but Mr Harrington's Ballance in Land Whereas Riches consisted as well in Slaves and Cattle and Mony and Furniture in all of which He ought to have setled the same Equality or Moderate Proportion or else altogether to have omitted that Phansie In this Particular also Mr Harrington seems to have lost ground to the Considerer for whereas He at first maintained that the Ballance Oceana p. 5. in Mony can be equall to that of Land only in Places of great Trade and little no Land as H. p. 14. Holland and Genoa He is now faine to confess that in Israel and Lacedaemon too the Countreys being narrow and the Lots at a low scantling if Usury in the One and in the other Mony had not been forbid Mony would have eaten out the Ballance of Land This is upon the Matter to surrender the whole Question and to Allow that in all Places where there is mony enough to hold any considerable Proportion to the Land And the Considerer was not so senseless to think there could be weight in empty Bags There the Ballance in Mony does concur to Empire as much as that in Land So then Mr Harrington's Assertion is not a little streightned and He that undertook to make good in the Generall that Empire rests upon the Ballance in Land is content it should prove so only in a Territory of such extent as H. p. 15. Spain or England where the Land can not be overballanced by Mony For this He offers three Arguments the first of which belongs not it seems to the Matter but the Man The Considerer had said that to make Wisedome or Riches the first Principle of Government were as unjust as it would be to oblige Mr Harrington to give his Cloths or Mony to ibid. the next Man he meets Wiser or Richer then himself If he had said stronger saies Mr Harrington he had spoiled all T is very true the Considerer knew that and therefore did not say so Is that a Crime He has in more then one place of the Considerations made appeare what Influence He thinks force had Originally upon Government and therefore there is no Reason to take it ill that He did not in this place contradict his own Opinion But Mr Harrington continues to urge The Richer as to the
17. and Trading Mony be all one ever shall Where there is a Bank Ten to One there is a Commonwealth This does Us no hurt For if England or Spain were a Commonwealth their Ballance in Mony might then outweigh that in Land which is the Thing contended for But He will be in Danger to loose his Wager and his Credit to boot For some Monarchs have been as great Traders as any Commonwealths The example of the Medices he yields Me to that I will adde the Crown of Portugall which presently after the Discovery of the Cape of good Hope did manage that mighty Lucrative Traffique which now the Dutch and English share with them The Examples of the Mogor and other Eastern Princes may also be alledged who though Monarchs are very great Traders And where there is a Traffique it is undeniable but that if it be found expedient there may be a Bank Or is Antwerp a Commonwealth or the Monti at Rome planted in a Popular Government It would not be unfit also that before We consent to resolve that in such a Territory as England Mony can never overballance Land We did a little reflect upon the Successes of our last Wars and inquire Whether it was not the Mony of the City of London which turned the Scales Having thus examined what the Influence of Riches is upon Empire What the Importance of Propriety in Land and What that of ready Mony in such a Territory particularly as Spain or England I may with reason expect not to be thought to have strained very much at the H. p. 18. Doctrine of the Ballance much less to have been choaked with it I consess I cannot swallow it so fast as Mr Harrington but that it may be does not hinder Me from digesting it better At least I have leisure to observe that while He attributes so much to the Ballance He commits an Error in making an Army depend meerly upon the Riches of those who have the Disposing of it For though it be true That an Army is a Beast with a great Belly which subsisteth not without very large Pastures It is as true that this Beast is none of those tame Ones that are kept within Fences or imprisoned in a Severall When an Army is once on foot the Inclosure of the Law is too weak to hold it in And Propriety is no better then an Hedge of rotten Sticks It was the Observation of Him who had Wit and Experience enough to be the Founder of the Roman Monarchy That Men Dion Cass lib. 42. and Mony are the two Things by which Power is acquired and preserved And that these two do mutually support One another For as by Mony an Army is brought together So He that has Arms in his hand need not want Mony Thus even after the Settlement of Propriety by Government and Lawes Force goes a share with Riches and is not wholly excluded from concurring to the Establishment of Empire Nay further If there comes to be a Contest between Gold and Iron the Advantage generally remains with the harder Metall And He that has Arms in his Hand may when He pleases both command the Mony in his Neighbours Pocket and also gather the Rents of his Lands As it of old fell out among the Thurians Where the Nobility had ingrost all Offices and Magistracy into their own Hands and had bought though against the Law the Lands of the Arist Polit. whole Country Yet the People being exercised inured to the Wars proved too hard for the Nobility and their Guard And dismissed them of their Power and excessive Possessions in Land From which Example these two Corollaries are evidently deduceable That an Agrarian Law is not a sufficient Provision for fixing the Ballance And that the Conformity of the Ballance to the establish't Government does not necessarily secure a State from Changes and Revolutions One thing more remains to dispatch this Question of the Ballance And that is to produce Examples of such Governments as have been setled contrary to the Ballance in Land But I find by the whole Course of Mr Harrington's Reply to Me that this way of arguing is of no great Efficacy with Him For either He takes no Notice of such Examples or by some pitifull unmanly Cavill seeks to elude them Wherefore I am put to make use of another Method that is to bring him as a Witness against himself and to prove this Point by the Authority of his own Assertions In the 73 page of his Discourse concerning Ordination against Dr Hamond He has imparted this Lesson to Us The People of Egypt till having sold their Lands they came to loose their Popular Ballance were not servants unto Pharaoh wherefore when Joseph was made Governour over all Egypt they were Free. And in Consequence to this We are told by him H. p. 56. in another Place That the Ballance of absolute Monarchy or of a Nobility came into Egypt by the Purchase of Joseph But it is evident that the Exercise of Sovereign Power was before belonging to the Kings of Egypt in a most Absolute manner seeing the People when not only their whole Fortunes and Estates but their very Lives also lay at stake by the Extremity of the Famine had not force enough to break open the Granaries and take out Corne for their sustenance but were faine to buy it of the King at his own Price And if the People of Egypt had not in the Case of extream hunger which uses to inrage the most abject and slavish People of the whole World Power enough to serve themselves when there was enough of Corne in the Land It is ridiculous to think they could retain any Power or Liberty in reference to the Government Wherefore the Ballance of Egypt being Popular and the Government Absolute Monarchy Mr Harrington himself has furnished Us with a cleare Example of a Government that has been setled contrary to the Ballance in Land I might by this time lawfully hope for a Release from this Dispute of the Ballance if I were not ingaged by my Promise in the first Chapter to examine that place of Thucydides which by diverting the Discourse gave Mr Harrington the Opportunity of saying something upon a Subject in which He must otherwise have been silent But what He has there said is so extravagant and wandering from the true meaning of Thucydides that I must needs think either He has parted with his own Understanding or believes his Readers willing to part with theirs Let the first 12 or 14 Pages of Thucydides which serve as an Introduction to his Historie be considerately perused And it will be found to be the Author's aime to make it appear That the Actions he goes about to describe were more great and considerable then any had formerly been performed by the Graecians To this end He relates That of old Greece was not constantly Thucyd. p. 2. inhabited but that at first there were often Removals every
Word I thought the Probation of it must lye in the Resemblance of Aristotle's and Livie's Books of Government with Harveys of Circulation But this was an Error in Me and an Injury to Mr Harrington For in his last book He has assured H. p. 9. Me that He produced it only as a Similitude and never intended that any Man should look for Reason or Argument in it I heartily crave his Pardon and by way of Reparation to him I make here a solemn Declaration That for the future He shall have no Cause to accuse Me for expecting Reason or Argument in any of his Discourses CHAP. III. Whether the Ballance of Dominion in Land be the Naturall Cause of Empire I Shall lye under a very great Discouragement in the Prosecution of this Contest with Mr Harrington unless some such Rules may be establish't between Us as are observed by the Champions at a Country Wake That He who gets a broken Head is for that Time Hors du jeu and must not take up the Cudgels any more For if Mr Harrington may continue the Liberty of repeating notwithstanding my Answers whole Pages of his Oceana without any Addition of Argument It will be easy for him every Month to impregnate the Press with a New great Book Of this his Repitition I give Notice once for all being unwilling to be so frequent in the Admonition as He is in the Practise of it Yet We are not to think that there is nothing New in his last Book for though his Reasons stand at a stay his Confidence improves hugely and He now tels Us that in Despight of Mathematiques by the Doctrine of the Ballance He H. p. 11. has made the Politiques the most Demonstrable of any Art whatsoever I am sorry I have so little Credit with Him else I should soberly advise him to obtain from this Word Demonstration for though it fiils his Mouth admirably some have taken Occasion to doubt it has left a great dealeof empty roome in his Head The Invention of the Ballance He jealously asserts to be his own Though in another place he begins to doubt that Phaleas the Chalcedonian may dispute it with Him And that with great Reason seeing it is evident out of Aristotle though it be rejected by him as I shall hereafter discover that Phaleas did many Ages since light upon the same Phansie I feare also that He will in another Respct prove of the younger house for many Months before the Publication of his Oceana there came forth a Letter pretended to be sent from an Officer of the Army in Ireland to his Highness the LORD PROTECTOR concerning his changing of the Government in which the Doctrine of the Ballance was not obscurely hinted But this last will it may be trouble Mr Harrington but little since it is not unlikely the Author of that Letter goes a share in the Commonwealth of Oceana However I shall not make my selfe Judge of this Controversie but rather being Mr Harrington has thought fit to walk over the same Ground again in this Chapter of the Ballance take that Occasion to apply my selfe to a more accurate Discussion of the whole Question then I before thought Necessary Which will be best performed by these Graduall Assertions First That Dominion in Land is a meere Effect of Empire and therefore cannot be the Cause of it unless to be the Cause and the Effect be but one and the same thing Originally every man had Right to every thing and no One Man had more Title to one Piece of Land then He had to any other Piece and then Every Man had to the same Piece Or if this Assertion be thought too large at least There was no setled Propriety before the Establishment of Empire nor could any Man be said to have the Dominion of that Land from whence He might be immediatly ejected by the Violence of the next Invader But after the Establishment of Empire when the United Force of those who became Subject to One Sovereign Power was grown greater then could be resisted by Particular Men Then and not before was Propriety and Dominion in Land fixed according to such Rule and Proportion as the Sovereign Power thought Requisite As for those two waies of Naturall and Violent Revolution by which Mr Harrington imagines Propriety may come to have a being before Empire they are not to be admitted further then in Reference to this or that particular Empire and so indeed Propriety may be said to be before Empire as the Propriety of the Families of Nassau or Brederode to their Lands was before the Empire of the States of Holland But then this Propriety depended upon some former Empire and would no longer continue to be Propriety if the succeeding Empire be it either by Naturall or Violent Revolution did not allow and Authorize it Wherefore it is evident That seeing Dominion in Land depends meerly upon Empire it must needs be a gross Absurdity to say That the Ballance of Dominion in Land is the Naturall Cause of Empire If notwithstanding this it can be made out that there is such a Complication of Empire with the Ballance in Land that the Conformity of the Ballance is necessary to the health and long Life of Empire To fit Empire to the Ballance is to set the Sun by the Clock The Dominion in Land being in that Case to be reduced to such a Ballance as best sutes with the Empire Which inverts the Aime and at once overthrows the whole Modell of the Commonwealth of Oceana But in the second Place This Illation need not be persued because I think it may with very good Reason be asserted That Justice is that by which all Empires subsist and come to be as far as humane Instability permits Eternall It is an Error to think as has been already touched that the Generality of a People are infected with a Desire of Sovereign Power and will not be satisfied with Protection in their present Possessions and Incouragement in Acquiring more by the way of a Regular Industrie The Multitude Arist Polit. lib. 4. cap. 13. lib. 4. cap. 8. saies Aristole are not disgusted at being excluded from the Government but rather are very well pleased to sit Quiet and be at leasure to follow their own Business unless they are opprest and see their Governours make havock of the Publique If a Prince be carefull of the Administration of Justice and do not by any Publique or signall private Violation of it exasperate his Subjects He need not fear the want of their Assistance for the Defence of his Throne All Popular Commotions that happen in a Nation being grounded upon Pretence at least of some Injustice in the Governour And though this Prince be overballanced in Land by any Part of the People it does not therefore follow That they will refuse to continue under his Government as long as it is administred with Justice For it is a chief Part of the Function of the
One easily leaving the place of his Abode to the Violence of some greater Number Every Man so husbanded the Ground as but barely to live upon it without any stock of Riches and planted Nothing but made account to be Masters in any Place of such necessary Sustenance as might serve from day to day And for this Cause Id. p. 3. they were of no Ability at all either for greatness of Cities or other Provision And the Imbecillity of Antient Times is not a little demonstrated also by this That before the Trojan War nothing appeareth to have been done by Greece in Common This then is Manifest to have been the oldest Condition of Greece That though the People were not absolutely destitute of Civill Society yet those Societies being of very small Numbers were too weak to improve by Plantation or Traffique but were forced to abandon their Habitations to the Violence of such whom the fatness of the Soile invited thither And as these Societies of Men were of themselves weak and inconsiderable so were they without any League or Union in Common by which this their Imbecillity might have received a Cure Sutable to their Condition was their manner of living To weare Iron or be alwaies in Arms Id. p. 4. and to count Theeving the best means of their living being a Matter at that time no where in Disgrace but rather carrying with it something of Glory But Minos having built a Navy Navigators had the Sea more free For He expelled the Malefactors out of the Islands and in most of Id. p. 5. 6. them planted Colonies of his own By which meanes They who inhabited the Sea coasts becoming more addicted to Riches grew more constant to their dwellings Of whom some grown now Rich compassed their Towns about with Wals. For out of desire of gaine the meaner sort underwent Servitude with the Mighty And the Mighty with their Wealth brought the lesser Cities into Subjection It appeares by this that the first considerable increment of Greece was by King Minos who having supprest the Pirates and render'd Navigation safe the Maritime Cities by their Traffique soon began to grow Rich and for their Security fortified themselves and by these Advantages People in want flocking to their Service they prevailed over the lesser Cities and grew up to some indifferent Force with which the War of Troy was undertaken Which Enterprize though of greater Name then any before it was through want of Mony but weake and Id. p. 8. in fact beneath the Fame and report which by meanes of the Poets now goeth of it After the Trojan War also the Graecians continued still their Shiftings and Transplantations insomuch as never resting they improved not their Power But after a long time Greece had constant Rest and shifting their seats no longer at length sent Colonies Id. p. 9. ahroad When the Power of Greece was now improved and the desire of Mony withall their Revenues being inlarged in most of the Cities there were erected Tyrannies For before that time Kingdomes with Honours limited were Hereditary And the Graecians built Navies and became more seriously addicted to the Affaires of the Sea Yet was not their Navall force very great for having spoken of such Fleets as had been brought together either by Tyrants or Cities and of the Actions performed by them He concludes That if Men consider of the War he describes by the Acts done in the same It will manifest it self to be greater then any of those before mentioned These Id. p. 13. are the Passages of Thucydides out of which Mr Harrington goes about by an unheard of Chymistry to extract the Doctrine of the Ballance But He must give Me leave to observe these Errors and False Consequences in his Operation First He saies that When out of desire of gain the Meaner Sort underwent Servitude with the Mighty It caused Hereditary Kingdomes with Honours limited As happened also with Vs since the times of the Goths and Vandals Good So H. p. 2â— We will be content to acknowledge this imaginary Force of the Ballance that Prudence which He himself cals Modern and will have to be first introduced into the World after the breaking of the Roman Empire shall be allowed to be more ancient then the most ancient Republiques But I beseech him Where does He find that the Servitude the meaner Sort underwent with the Mighty caused Hereditary Kingdomes Thucydides owns no such Causality Nor do those two passages of His thus joyned together by Mr Harrington appear to have any Reference to one another Nay on the contrary it is manifest that Hereditary Kingdomes were before that Servitude seeing that Servitude happened not till after Minos who was a King had by scouring the Seas of Pirates and destroying their Nests given Security to Traffique by which and not by the Ballance of Land these Cities grew Potent In the second Place He attributes the Power of Pelops to the Ballance in Land Whereas Thucydides saies expresly He obtained this Power by the abondance of Wealth He brought with him out of Asia to Men in want Did He transport his Land with Him Or is not this a cleare Instance of the Prevalence of Mony against the Ballance in Land But then thirdly He at the same time supposes no Propriety in Land till after the Trojan War And yet makes before that War the Over-ballancing of the Mighty to be the Cause of Hereditary Kingdomes This has the aspect of a Contradiction into which it is likely he slipt by not having a true apprehension of Thucydides who does not affirm there was in those remote Ages He treats of a time when there was no Propriety but only that Men being not yet united into great Nations but living in small Clans there joynt Force was not sufficient to defend them against the Violence of such who had any small oddes in Number which was the Cause of so frequent Transmigrations Fourthly He will have the Revenues of Greece which were inlarged about the Time of erecting the Tyrannies to consist only in Land unless forsooth We can shew there was Usurie at that Time He must pardon Me for this also It is enough that there then began to be great Trading which is plainly testified by Thucydides where He saies That the Graecians became more seriously addicted to the Affaires of the Sea Fifthly He imagines the difference between the old Hereditary Monarchies and the new erected Tyrannies to have been only in the Peoples Apprehension of them who being grown Rich called that Government Tyrannie which before during their Poverty They had been content to own for a lawfull Monarchy This is indeed to be a true Servant to his own Supposition but not to be a faithfull Historian of the Actions of other Men For in some of these Tyrannies the change from Monarchy must be attributed to the Princes themselves Who upon Arist Polit. lib. 3. cap. 15. lib. 5. cap. 10. the increase
Other Commonwealths have not been raised upon the greatness of one City but have consisted of the Confederacy or League of many of which sort so many examples occur among the Grecians it is needlesse to name any Of Modern ones the Union of the Netherlandish Provinces is of this Nature And in this case no one City can acquire an extraordinary Greatness without danger to the Liberties of all the rest or at least of Dissolution to the Union Thus the City of Thebes being grown Powerfull took away the Liberty of the Boeotians their Confederates And thus the Elians being inrich't by the Conflux of People to the Olympian Games incroch't upon the Privileges of the Neighbouring Towns That Amstredam of late yeares hugely advanced by Traffique is in a Condition to do as much for the United States and has in part attempted it was intimated by the Considerer The Actions are fresh and those Relations and Discourses which are Published make every man a judge If Mr Harrington be satisfyed that their actions resisted not H. p. 98. the Interest of Liberty but of a Lord He may deserve a pension in communicating this satisfaction to them of Zealand Frizeland and Overyssell A third sort of Commonwealths are those which consist not of Leagues or Unions neither are seated in some one great City but are diffused through a whole Nation and are not to be assembled but by the Mediation of a Representative Body Of this kind you are not to expect many Examples Israel when it shall be evinced to have been a Commonwealth must needs have been such an one and such an one is the proposed Modell of a Commonwealth for Oceana In these the disproportionate Greatness of any one City becomes still more dangerous for now this City is no longer to be reputed the Head or Heart but the Spleen or Liver whose overgrowth brings the rest of the Body to Decay or Ruine Any one City so overtopping the Rest constitutes Rem-publicam in Republica and the Inhabitants of it will alwaies stand united in reference to their own Interest even when it looks a squint upon that of the Commonwealth In Israel indeed they need not to feare this Inconvenience for it does not appeare that before the establishment of the Monarchy any one City had so much advantage over the rest as to claim the Dignity of a Metropolis But in Monarchies the Mischief has been frequent Paris both formerly and in our time has been the Rise and Retreat of severall Rebellions Ghendt and Liege have more then once done as much for their Princes In Spain the War de las Communidades took its beginning from Toledo Valladolid Valentia and two or three more great Towns And that the mischief should be multiplyed in a Commonwealth I have one reason more to think wch is that a Monarch can by the Residence of his Court that brings so ample profit to a City lay an obligation upon them which in a Commonwealth can amount to very little or rather Nothing To make an end the City of Emporium is already so Potent That it may will be doubted whether she will be content with that portion Mr Harrington has allowed her in his Commonwealth of Oceana and whether when she looses the Honor of obeying a Prince she will not think her Common Councell as good as the Prerogative Tribe and her Commander in Chiefe as the Strategus of Oceana Therefore those of the Nobility who have disposed of their Sons in the City may fairely expect to see them Princes The rest may doe well to consider whether the Beare 's skin will keep them warme while it is upon the Beares back and whether they can live upon the reversion of those Estates Mr Harrington has promised H. p. 100. them in the first Provinces his Common-wealth conquers The fourth Argument was taken from the difficulty of making the Agrarian equall and steddy in reference to the inconstant value of mony But this saies He was sufficiently provided for H. p. 101. where it is said that a new survey at the present Rent being taken the Agrarian should ordain that no man should thenceforth hold above so much Land as there is valued at the rate of 2000l per an Though this was omitted in the Order I deny not that it was hinted in one of the speeches but this is to recompence one errour by committing another that is greater or to cure an Ague by a Feavour The value of mony'tis true is alwaies in motion but not in so swift and irregular one as the Improvement of Land I speak not of the improvement of Rent or the advantage the Landlord makes upon the Farmer but of that Naturall one which sometimes consist in the Meliorating of the soile it self as by derivation of Water Sometimes in the Discovery of a profitable Minerall And sometimes by imploying the ground to a new Husbandry as the planting Tabacco Hops and many other things which have already and may for the future be invented By all these waies the value of Land may come to be many times multiplyed and consequently the Agrarian notwithstanding this Provision must soon recede from the first Design of its institution He need not now have been put in mind of this if he would have learn't this Lesson of Aristotle That those Orders in a Commonwealth Pol. lib. 5. cap. 8. which relate to the Census or Valuation of Estates must be renewed and adapted continually to the Census through all its shiftings and Changes and this at furthest once in five yeares That the Agrarian does not stem but follow the Tide of Custome in this Nation will scarse meet with Belief notwithstanding Mr Harrington's undertaking as long as We have before our eyes so many examples of Elder Brothers and great Purchasers But I mean not to trouble him with any Discourses about keeping or breaking old Customes That would be as to this subject but a Common place of talke and if the Agrarian be a thing so customary his paines in discovering of it merit the less of thanks from the Publique For thogh we usually give Mony to those who shew Us an Hare or Patridge it has not been made a fashion to reward such as bring Us to a Crow or a Jack-Daw After all this that an Agrarian is necessary H. pag. 102. unto Government be it what it will and as much to Kings as unto Commonwealths I can not give my assent The Reasons of my not doing so have been made out abundantly unless I have had the ill fortune to throw away all that has been said in this Chapter and that of the Ballance I doe not deny that these Notions are of good concernment if taken in generall and without this severe Restriction to Estates in Land I lay it for a ground that Princes ought to consider Riches as one of the principall instruments of Governing That in order to this They should not think a Crown worth wearing unless