Democracy hath therefore two exceffes to avoid, the fpirit of inequality which leads to ariftocracy or monarchy; and the fpirit of extreme equality, which leads to defpotic power, as the latter is completed by conqueft.

True it is, that those who corrupted the Greek republics did not become tyrants. This was because they had a greater paffion for eloquence than for the military art. Befides, there reigned an implacable hatred in the hearts of the Greeks against those who fubverted a republican government; and for this reafon anarchy ended in total diffolution, instead of being changed into tyranny.

But Syracufe, which was fituated in the midft of a great number of petty tates, whofe government had been changed from oligarchy to tyranny *; Syracufe, which had a fenate + fcarce ever mentioned in history, was exposed to fuch miferies as are the confequences of a more than ordinary corruption. This city, continually in a state of licentioufnefs or oppreffion, equally labouring under liberty and fervitude, receiving always the one and the other like a tempeft, and, 'notwithstanding its external ftrength, conftantly determined to a revolution by the leaft foreign power: this city, I fay, had in its bofom an immenfe multitude of people, whofe fate it was to have always the cruel alternative, of either giving themfelves a tyrant, or of being the tyrant themselves.

*See Plutarch in the lives of Timoleon and Dio.

+ It was that of the six hundred, of whom mention is made by Diodorus.

Upon the expulfion of the tyrants,"they made citizens of ftrangers and mercenary troops, which produced civil wars. Arift. Polit. lib. v. cap. 3. The people having been the caufe of the victory over the Athenians, the republic was changed, ibid. cap. 4. The paffion of two young magiftrates, one of whom carried off the other's boy, and the other in revenge debauched his wife, produced a change in the form of this republic. Ibid. lib. vii. cap. 4.

CHA P. III.

Of the fpirit of extreme equality.

AS S diftant as heaven is from earth, fo is the true fpirit of equality from that of extreme equality. The former does not confift in managing fo that every one fhould command, or that no one should be commanded; but in obeying and commanding our equals. It endeavours not to be without a mafter, but that its mafters should be none but its equals.

In the ftate of nature, indeed, all men are born equal; but they cannot continue long in this equality. Society makes them lofe it, and they recover it only by means of the laws.

Such is the difference between a well-regulated demoeracy and one that is not fo; that in the former men are equal only as citizens, but in the latter they are equal alfo as magiftrates, as fenators, as judges, as fathers, as hufbands, or as masters.

The natural place of virtue is near to liberty; but it is not nearer to extreme liberty than to fervitude.

CHAP. IV.

Particular caufe of the corruption of the people.

GRE

REAT fuccefs, especially when chiefly owing to the people, fwells them to high with pride, that it is impoffible to manage them. Jealous of their magiftrates, they foon become jealous likewife of the magiAtracy; enemies to thofe that govern, they foon prove enemies alfo to the conftitution. Thus it was the victory over the Perfians obtained in the Streights of Salamis, that corrupted the republic of Athens *, and thus the defeat of the Athenians ruined the republic of Syracufe +.

* Ariftot. Polit. lib. v. cap. 4.

+ Ibid.

Marseilles never experienced thofe great tranfitions from lowness to grandeur: This was owing to the prudent conduct of this republic, which always preserved her principles,

CHAP. V.

Of the corruption of the principle of ariftocracy.

ARISTOCRACY is corrupted, if the power of

the nobles becomes arbitrary; when this is the cafe, there can no longer be any virtue either in the governors, or the governed.

If the reigning families obferve the laws, it is a monarchy with several monarchs, and in its own nature one of the most excellent: for almoft all these monarchs are tied down by the laws. But when they do not observe them, it is a defpotic Atate governed by a great many defpotic princes.

In this laft cafe the republic confifts only in the nobles. The body governing is the republic; and the body governed is the defpotic ftate; which forms two of the most heterogeneous and divided bodies in the world.

The extremity of corruption is when the power of the nobles becomes hereditary; for then they can hardly have any moderation. If they are few in number, their power is greater, but their fecurity lefs; if they are a larger number, their power is lefs, and their fecurity greater: infomuch that power goes on increafing, and fe curity diminishing, up to the very defpotic prince, whofe head is encircled with excefs of power and danger.

The great number therefore of nobles in an hereditary ariftocracy renders the government lefs violent: but as there is lefs virtue, they fall into a fpirit of fupineness and negligence, by which means the ftate lofes all its ftrength and activity |.

The aristocracy is changed into an oligarchy.

Venice is one of those republics that has beft corrected by its laws the inconveniencies of hereditary ariftocracy.

An ariftocracy may maintain the full vigour of its conftitution, if the laws be fuch as tend to render the nobles more fenfible of the perils and fatigues, than of the pleasure of command; and if the government is in fuch a fituation as to have fomething to dread, while fecurity fhelters under its protection, and uncertainty threatens from abroad.

As a certain kind of confidence forms the glory and ftability of monarchies, republics, on the contrary, muft have fomething to apprehend *. A fear of the Perfians fupported the laws of Greece. Carthage and Rome were alarmed, and ftrengthened by each other. Strange, that the greater fecurity thofe ftates enjoyed, the more, like ftagnated waters, they were subject to corruption!

CHAP. VI.

Of the corruption of the principle of monarchy.

S democracies are deftroyed when the people de spoil the fenate, the magiftrates, and judges, of their functions; fo monarchies are corrupted when the prince infenfibly deprives focieties or cities of their privileges. In the first case, the multitude ufurp a defpotic power; in the fecond, it is ufurped by a fingle perfon. "The deftruction of the dynasties of Tfin and Soili," (fays a Chinese author,) 66 was owing to this: The "princes, instead of confining themselves, like their an"ceftors, to a general infpection, the only one worthy "of a fovereign, wanted to govern every thing imme"diately by themselves +." The Chinese author gives us here the caufe of the corruption of almost all: monarchies.

*

Juftin attributes the extinction of Athenian virtue to the death of Epaminondas. Having no further emulation, they spent their revenues in feafts, "frequentius cænam quam caftra vi"fentes." Then it was that the Macedonians emerged out of obfcurity. Lib. vi.

Compilement of works made under the Mings, related by Father Du Halde.

Monarchy is destroyed, when a prince thinks he fhews a greater exertion of power in changing, than in conforming to the order of things; when he deprives fome of his fubjects of their hereditary employments to bestow them arbitrarily upon others; and when he is fonder of being guided by fancy than judgment.

Monarchy is deftroyed, when the prince directing every thing to himself, calls the ftate to his capital, the capital to his court, and the court to his own perfon.

Monarchy is deftroyed, in fine, when the prince Imiftakes his authority, his fituation, and the love of his people; and when he is not fully perfuaded that a monarch ought to think himself fecure, as a defpotic prince ought to think himself in danger.

CHAP. VII.

The fame fubje& continued.

THE principle of monarchy is corrupted, when the firft dignities are marks of the firft fervitude, when the great men are ftripped of popular refpect, and rendered the low tools of arbitrary power.

It is ftill more corrupted, when honour is fet up in oppofition to honours, and when men are capable of being loaded at the very fame time with infamy ✶ and with dignities.

It is corrupted, when the prince changes his juftice into feverity; when he puts, like the Roman emperors,

* Under the reign of Tiberius, ftatues were erected to, and triumphal ornaments conferred on informers; which debased these honours to fuch a degree, that thofe who really merited them difdained to accept of them. Fragm. of Dio, Book Iviii. taken from the "Extract of virtues and vices by Conftantine Porphy"rog." See in Tacitus, in what manner Nero, on the discovery and punishment of a pretended confpiracy, beftowed triumphal ornaments on Petronius Turpilianus, Ñerva, and Tigellinus. An nal, Book xiv. See likewife how the generals refused to serve, because they contemned the military honours, "pervifigatis tri"umphi infignibus." Tacit. Annal. Book xiii.