have granted: even under public calamities they do not accuse his perfon; they are apt to complain of his being mifinformed, or befet by corrupt men: "did the prince "but know," say the people; these words are a kind of invocation, and a proof of the confidence they have in kis perfon.

THE

CHA P. XXIV.

Of anonymous letters.

* 19

'HE Tartars are obliged to put their names to their arrows, that the arm may be known that shoots them. When Philip of Macedon was wounded at the fiege of a certain town, these words were found on the javelin, "After has given this mortal wound to Philip If they who accufe a perfon did it merely to ferve the public, they would not carry their complaint to the prince, who may be easily prejudiced, but to the magifrates, who have rules that are formidable only to calumniators. But, if they are unwilling to leave the laws open between them and the accufed, it is a prefumption they have reafon to be afraid of them; and the leaft punishment they ought to fuffer is not to be credited. No notice therefore fhould ever be taken of thofe letters but in cafes that cannot admit of the delays of the ordinary courfe of juftice, and where the prince's welfare is concerned. Then it may be imagined that the accufer has made an effort, which has untied his tongue and made him speak. But in other cafes one ought to say with the Emperor Conftantius, "We cannot fufpect a perfon who has wanted an accufer, whilft he did not want an "enemy +.".

Plutarch's morals, comparison of fome Roman and Greek hiftories, tome ii. p. 487.

+ Leg. 6. cod. Theod. de famof. libellis.

CHAP. XXV.

Of the manner of governing in monarchies.

THE 'HE royal authority is a great spring that ought to move eafily and without noife. The Chinese boast of one of their emperors, who governed, they fay, like Heaven, that is, by his example.

There are fome cafes in which a fovereign ought to exert the full extent of his power, and others in which he ought to reduce it within its proper limits. The fublimity of administration confifts in knowing perfectly the proper degree of power that fhould be exerted on different occafions.

The whole felicity of our monarchies confifts in the opinion people have of the lenity of the government. A wrong-headed minifter always wants to remind us of our flavery. But, granting even that we are flaves, he ought to endeavour to conceal our miferable condition from us. All he can fay or write is, that the prince is uneafy, that he is furprised, and that he will fet things to rights. There is a certain eafe in commanding; the prince ought only to encourage, and leave the menacing part to the laws *.

CHAP. XXVI.

That in a monarchy the prince ought to be of eafy access.

'HE utility of this maxim will appear better from

THE

the inconveniency attending the contrary practice. "Czar Peter I. (fays the Sieur Perry +), has published "a new edict, by which he forbids any of his fubjects "to offer him a petition, till after having prefented two "to his officers. In cafe of refufal of juftice, they may

• Nerva, fays Tacitus, increased the eafe of the empire. State of Ruffia, p. 173. Paris edition, 1717,

"present him a third, but upon pain of death, if they "are in the wrong. After this, no one ever prefumed "to offer a petition to the Czar."

THE

'HE manners of a prince contribute as much as the laws themselves to liberty; like these he may trans form men into beafts, and beafts into men. If he likes free and noble fouls, he will have fubjects; if he likes bafe daftardly spirits, he will have flaves. Does he want to know the great art of ruling? let him call honour and virtue around his perfon; let him invite personal merit. He may even fometimes caft an eye on talents and abilities. Let him not be afraid of thofe rivals who are called men of merit; he is their equal as foon as he loves them. Let him gain the hearts of his people without bringing their spirits into fubjection. Let him render himself po pular; he ought to be pleafed with the affection of the loweft of his fubjects, for they too are men. The com mon people require fo very little deference, that it is fit they should be honoured; the infinite diftance between the fovereign and them will furely prevent them from giving him any uneafiness. Let him be exorable to fupplication, and refolute againft demands; let him be fenfible, in fine, that his people have his refusals, while his courtiers enjoy his favours.

CHAP. XXVIII.

Of the regard which monarchs owe to their fubjects.

PRINCES ought to be extremely circumfpect in point of raillery. It pleafes when moderate, because it opens the way to familiarity; but a biting raillery is lefs excufable in them than in the meaneft of their fubjeets, for it is they alone that give a mortal wound.

Much lefs ought they to offer a notorious infult to any of their fubjects; kings were inftituted to pardon, and to punish, but never to infult.

When they infult their fubjects, their treatment is more cruel than that of the Turk or the Muscovite. The infults of the latter are a humiliation, not a difgrace; but both must follow from the infults of the former.

Such is the prejudice of the eastern nations, that they look upon an affront coming from the prince, as the effect of paternal goodnefs; and fuch, on the contrary, is our way of thinking, that, to the cruel vexation of being affronted, we join the defpair of ever being able to wipe off the difgrace.

Princes ought to be overjoyed to have fubjects to whom honour is dearer than life, an incitement to fidelity as well as to courage.

They should remember the misfortunes that have hap pened to princes for infulting their fubjects, the revenge of Chærea, of the eunuch Narfes, of Count Julian, and in fine of the Duchess of Montpenfier, who, being enraged against Henry III. for having published fome of her private failings, plagued him all his life.

Of the civil laws proper for mixing a little liberty in a def patic government.

THOUGH defpotic governments are of their own nature every where the fame, yet from circumftances, from an opinion of religion, from prejudice, from received examples, from a particular turn of mind, from manners or morals, it is poffible they may admit of a confiderable difference.

It is useful that fome particular notions fhould be eftablished in thofe governments. Thus in China the prince is confidered as the father of his people, and at the

commencement of the empire of the Arabs, the prince was their preacher *.

It is proper there should be fome facred book to serve for a rule, as the Koran among the Arabs, the books of Zoroafter among the Perfians, the Vedam among the Indians, and the claffic books among the Chinese. The religious code fupplies the civil one, and directs the ar bitrary power.

It is not at all amifs, that in dubious cafes the judges fhould confult the minifters of religion †.. Thus in Turkey the Cadis confult the Mollachs. But, if it is a capital crime, it may be proper for the particular judge, if fuch there be, to take the governor's advice, to the end that the civil and ecclefiaftic power may be temper. ed alfo by the political authority.

CHAP. XXX.

The fame fubje& continued.

NOTHING but the very excefs and fury of de fpotic power ordained, that the father's difgrace fhould drag after it that of his wife and children. They are wretched enough already without being criminals: befides, the prince ought to leave fuppliants or mediators, between himself and the accufed, to affuage his wrath, or to inform bis juftice.

It is an excellent cuftom of the Maldivians*, that when a lord is difgraced, he goes every day to pay his Court to the king till he is taken again into favour: his prefence difarms the prince's wrath.

In fome defpotic governments † they have a notion,

.

Hiftory of the Tartars, part 3. p. 277. in the remarks.

* See Francis Pirard.

As at prefent in Perfia, according to Sir John Chardin. This custom is very ancient. They put Cavades, fays Procopius, in