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GOVERNMENT.

In

LOOK upon it as a peculiar happiness, that were I to choose of what religion I would be, and under what government I would live, I fhould moft certainly give the preference to that form of religion and government which is eftablifhed in my own country. this point I think I am determined by reafon and conviction; but if I fhall be told that I am actuated by prejudice, I am fure it is an honeft prejudice, it is a prejudice that arifes from the love of my country, and therefore fuch a one as I will always indulge. I have in feveral papers endeavoured to exprefs my duty and efteem for the church of England, and defign this as an effay upon the civil part of our conftitution, having often entertained myfelf with reflections on this fubject, which I have not met with in other writers.

That form of government appears to me the most reasonable, which is moft conformable to the equality that we find in human nature, provided it be confift ent with public peace and tranquility. This is what may properly be called liberty, which exempts one man from fubjection to another fo far as the order and ceconomy of government will permit.

Liberty fhould teach every individual of a people, as they all fhare one common nature; if it only fpreads among particular branches, there had better be none at all, fince fuch a liberty only aggravates the misfortune of those who are deprived of it, by fetting before them a dilagreeable fubject of comparison.

This liberty is beft preferved where the legislative power is lodged in feveral perfons, efpecially if those perfons are of different ranks and interefts; for where they are of the fame rank, and confequently have an intereft to manage peculiar to that rank, it differs but little from a defpotical government in a fingle perfon. But the greateft fecurity a people can have for their liberty, is when the legislative power is in the hands of perfons fo happily diftinguifhed, that by providing for the particular interefts of their feveral ranks, they are providing for the whole body of the people; or in

other words, when there is no part of the people that has not a common interest with at least one part of the legiflators.

If there be but one body of legiflators, it is no better than a tyranny: If there are only two, there will want a cafting voice, and one of them muft at length be fwallowed up by difputes and contentions that will neceffarily atife between them. Four would have the fame inconvenience as two, and a great number would caufe too much confufion. I could never read a pasfage in Polybius, and another in Cicero, to this purpose, without a fecret pleasure in applying it to the English conftitution, which it fuits much better than the Roman. Both thefe great authors give the pre-eminence. to a mixt government, confifting of three branches, the regal, the noble, and the popular. They had doubtless in their thoughts the conftitution of the Roman commonwealth, in which the conful repréfented the king, the fenate the nobles, and the tribunes the people. This divifion of the three powers in the Roman conftitution was by no means fo diftinct and natural, as it is in the English form of government. Among feveral objections that might be made to it, I think the chief are thofe that affect the confular power, which had only the ornaments without the force of the regal authority. Their number had not a casting voice in it; for which reason, if one did not chance to be employed abroad, while the other fat at home, the public bufinefs was fometimes at a stand, while the confuls pulled two different ways in it. Befides, I do not find that the confuls had ever a negative voice in the paffing of a law, or decree of fenate, fo that indeed they were rather the chief body of the nobility, or the first minifters of state, than a distinct branch of the fovereignty, in which none can be looked upon as a part, who are not a part of the legislature. Had the confuls been invefted with the regal authority to as great a degree as our monarchs, there would never have been any occafions for a dictatorship, which had in it the power of all the three orders, and ended in the fubverfion of the whole conftitution.. L2

VOL. II.

Such an history as that of Suetonius, which gives us a fucceffion of abfolute Princes, is to me an unanswerable argument against defpotic power. Where the Prince is a man of wisdom and virtue, it is indeed happy for his people that he is abfolute; but fince in the common run of mankind, for one that is wife and good you find ten of a contrary character, it is very dangerous for a nation to ftand to its chance, or to have its public happiness or mifery depend on the virtues or vices of a fingle perfon. Look into the hiftory I have mentioned, or into any series of abfolute Princes,. how many tyrants must you read through, before you come to an emperor that is fupportable? But this is not all; an honeft, private man often grows cruel and abandoned, when converted into an abfolute Prince. Give a man power of doing what he pleases with impunity, you extinguifh his fear, and confequently overturn in him one of the great pillars of morality. This too we find confirmed by matter of fact. How many hopeful heirs apparent to grand empires, when in poffeffion of thein, have become fuch monsters of luft and cruelty as are a reproach to human nature?

Some tell us we ought to make our governments on earth like that in heaven, which, fay they, is altogether monarchical and unlimited. Was man like his Creator in goodness and juftice, I fhould be for fol lowing this great model; but were goodnefs and justice are not effential to the ruler, I would by no means. put myself into his hands to be difpofed of according to his particular will and pleafure.

It is odd to confider the connections between def potic government and barbarity, and how the making of one perfen more than man, makes the reft lefs.. About nine parts of the world in ten are in the lowest ftate of flavery, and confequently funk in the most grofs and brutal ignorance. European flavery is indeed a ftate of liberty, if compared with that which prevails in the other three divifions of the world; and therefore it is no wonder that thofe who grovel under it have many tracts of light among them, of which the others are wholly deftitute.

Riches and plenty are the natural fruits of liberty, and where there abound, learning and all the Feral arts will immediately lift up their heads and flourish.. As a man must have no flavish fears and apprehenfiens hanging upon his mind, who will indulge the flights of fancy or fpeculation, and puth his researches into all the abftrufe corners of truth, fo it is neceffary for him to have a competency of all the conveniences of life..

The first thing every one looks after, is to provide himself with neceffaries. This point will engross our thoughts till it be fatisfied. If this is taken care of to our hands, we look out for pleasures and amusements; and among a great number of idle people,, there will be a great many whofe pleasures lie in reading and contemplation. These are the two great fources of knowledge, and as men grow wife, they naturally love to communicate their discoveries; and others feeing the happiness of fuch a learned life, and improving by their conversation, emulate, imitate, and furpafs one another, till a nation is filled with a race. of wife and understanding perfons. Eafe and plenty, are therefore the great cherishers of knowledge, and as most of the defpotic governments of the world have neither of them, they are naturally over-run. with ignorance and barbarity. In Europe, indeed,, notwithstanding feveral of its princes are abfolute, there are men famous for knowledge and learning, but the reason is because the subjects are many of them rich and wealthy, the prince not thinking fit to. exert himself in his full tyranny like the princes of the eastern nations, left his fubjects fhould be invited, to new-mould their conftitution, having fo many prof pects of liberty within their view. But in all defpotic governments, though a particular prince may fa vour arts and letters, there is a natural degeneracy of mankind, as you may obferve from Augustus's reign, how the Romans loft themselves by degrees till they fell to an equality with the most barbarous nations. that furrounded them. Look upon Greece under its free states, and you would think its inhabitants lived

in different climates, and under different heavens, from thofe at prefent; fo different are the geniufes which are formed under Turkish flavery, and Grecian liberty.

Befides poverty and want, there are other reafons that debafe the minds of men, who live under flavery, though I look on this as the principal. This naturaltendency of defpotic power to ignorance and barbarity, though not infifted on by others, is, I think, an unanfwerable argument against that form of government, as it fhews how repugnant it is to the good of mankind, and the perfection of human nature, which ought to be the great ends of all civil inftitutions.

SPECTATOR, Vol. IV. No. 287.

GRATITUDE.

THERE is not a more pleafing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with fuch an inward fatisfaction, that the duty is fufficiently rewarded by the performance. It is not like the prac tice of many other other virtues, difficult and painful, but attended with fo much pleasure, that were there no pofitive command which enjoined it, nor any recompence laid up for it hereafter, a generous mind. would indulge in it, for the natural gratification that accompanies it.

If gratitude is due from man to man, how much more from man to his Maker? The Supreme Being does not only confer upon us thofe bounties which proceed more immediately from his hand, but even thofe benefits which are conveyed to us by others. Every bleffing we enjoy, by what means foever it may be derived upon us, is the gift of him who is the great Author of good, and Father of mercies.

If gratitude, when exerted towards one another naturally produces a very pleafing fenfation in the mind of a grateful man; it exalts the foul into rapture, when it is employed on this great object of gratitude; on this beneficent Being who has given us every thing

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