in revenge. Every avenue to the throne is fhut up. He oppreffes, and ruins the people, whilst he perfuades the prince, that those murmurs raised by his own oppreffion are the effects of difaffection to the prince's government. Then is the natural violence of defpotifm inflamed, and aggravated by hatred and revenge. To deferve well of the ftate is a crime against the prince. To be popular, and to be a traitor, are confidered as fynonymous terms. Even virtue is dangerous, as an afpiring quality, that claims an esteem by itself, and independent of the countenance of the court, What has been faid of the chief, is true of the inferiour officers of this fpecies of government; each in his province exercising the fame tyranny, and grinding the people by an oppreffion, the more feverely felt, as it is near them, and exercised by base and fubordinate perfons. For the gross of the people; they are confidered as a mere herd of cattle; and really in a little time become no better; all principle of honeft pride, all fenfe of the dignity of their nature, is loft in their flavery. The day, fays Homer, which makes a man a flave, takes away half his worth; and in fact, he loses every impulse to action, but that low and bafe one of fear. In this kind of government human nature is not only abused, and infulted, but it is actually degraded and funk into a species of brutality. The confideration of this made Mr. Locke fay, with

great juftice, that a government of this kind was worse than anarchy; indeed it is fo abhorred, and detefted by all who live under forms that have a milder appearance, that there is fcarce a rational man in Europe, that would not prefer death to Afiatick defpotifm. Here then we have the acknowledgment of a great philofopher, that an irregular state of nature is preferable to fuch a government; we have the confent of all fenfible and generous men, who carry it yet further, and avow that death itself is preferable; and yet this fpecies of government, fo juftly condemned, and fo generally detefted, is what infinitely the greater part of mankind groan under, and have groaned under from the beginning. So that by fure and uncontested principles, the greatest part of the governments on earth must be concluded tyrannies, impostures, violations of the natural rights of mankind, and worse than the moft diforderly anarchies. How much other forms exceed this, we shall confider immediately.

In all parts of the world, mankind, however debafed, retains ftill the fenfe of feeling; the weight of tyranny, at laft, becomes infupportable; but the remedy is not fo eafy; in general, the only remedy by which they attempt to cure the tyranny, is to change the tyrant. This is, and always was the cafe for the greater part. In fome countries, however, were found men of more penetration;

who

who discovered, "that to live by one man's will, was "the cause of all men's mifery." They therefore changed their former method, and affembling the men in their several focieties, the moft refpectable for their understanding and fortunes, they confided to them the charge of the publick welfare. This originally formed what is called an ariftocracy. They hoped, it would be impoffible that fuch a number could ever join in any design against the general good; and they promifed themfelves a great deal of fecurity and happiness, from the united councils of fo many able and experienced perfons. But it is now found by abundant expe rience, that an aristocracy, and a defpotifm, differ but in name; and that a people, who are in general excluded from any fhare of the legislative, are to all intents and purpofes, as much flaves, when twenty, independent of them, govern, as when but one domineers. The tyranny is even more felt, as every individual of the nobles has the haughtiness of a fultan; the people are more miferable, as they feem on the verge of liberty, from which they are for ever debarred; this fallacious idea of liberty, whilft it presents a vain fhadow of happiness to the fubject, binds fafter the chains of his fubjection. What is left undone, by the natural avarice and pride of those who are raised above the others, is compleated by their fufpicions, and their dread of lofing an authority, which has

no

no fupport in the common utility of the nation. A Genoese, or a Venetian republick, is a concealed defpotifm; where you find the fame pride of the rulers, the fame base subjection of the people, the fame bloody maxims of a fufpicious policy. In one respect the aristocracy is worse than the def potifm. A body politick, whilft it retains its authority, never changes its maxims; a defpotifm, which is this day horrible to a fupreme degree, by the caprice natural to the heart of man, may, by the fame caprice otherwife exerted, be as lovely the next; in a fucceffion, it is poffible to meet with some good princes. If there have been Tiberius's, Caligula's, Nero's, there have been likewife the ferener days of Vefpafian's, Titus's, Trajan's, and Antonine's; but a body politick is not influenced by caprice or whim; it proceeds in a regular manner; its fucceffion is infenfible; and every man as he enters it, either has, or foon attains the spirit of the whole body. Never was it known, that an aristocracy, which was haughty and tyrannical in one century, became eafy and mild in the next. In effect, the yoke of this species of government is fo galling, that whenever the people have got the leaft power, they have shaken it off with the utmost indignation, and established a popular form. And when they have not had ftrength enough to fupport themselves, they have thrown themselves into the arms of defpotifm, as

the

the more eligible of the two evils. This latter was the cafe of Denmark, who fought a refuge from the oppreflion of its nobility, in the ftrong hold of arbitrary power. Poland has at prefent the name of republick, and it is one of the ariftocratick form; but it is well known, that the littlefinger of this government, is heavier than the loins of arbitrary power in moft nations. The people are not only politically, but personally flaves, and treated with the utmost indignity. The republick of Venice is fomewhat more moderate; yet even here, so heavy is the aristocratick yoke, that the nobles have been obliged to enervate the fpirit of their fubjects by every fort of debauchery; they have denied them the liberty of reason, and they have made them amends, by what a base foul will think a more valuable liberty, by not only allowing, but encouraging them to corrupt themselves in the moft fcandalous manner. They confider their fubjects, as the farmer does the hog he keeps to feaft upon. He holds him fast in his ftye, but allows him to wallow as much as he pleases in his beloved filth and gluttony. So fcandalously debauched a people as that of Venice, is to be met with no where else. High, low, men, women, clergy, and laity, are all alike. The ruling nobility are no lefs afraid of one another, than they are of the people; and for that reason, politically enervate their own body by the fame effe