to view befides the general Good, unless another Law fhall at the fame time pass with no other view but that of advancing the Power of one Party alone; What is this but to claim a positive Voice as well, as a negative? To pretend that great Changes and Alienations of Property have created new and great dependences, and confequently new additions of Power, as fome Reafoners have done, is a moft, dangerous Tenet: If Dominion must follow Property, let it follow in the fame pace: For Changes in Property thro' the Bulk of a Nation make flow Marches, and its due Power always attends it. To conclude that whatever attempt is begun by an Affembly, ought to be pursued to the end, without regard to the greatest incidents that may happen to alter the Cafe; To count it mean, and below the Dignity of a House to quit a Profecution; To refolve upon a Conclufion before it is poffible to be apprifed of the Premilles; To act thus, I fay, is to affect not only absolute Power, but Infallibility too. Yet fuch unaccountable Proceedings as thefe

have

have Popular Affemblies engaged in, for want of fixing the due Limits of Power and Privilege.

GREAT Changes may indeed be made in a Government, yet the Form continue, and the Balance be held; but large Intervals of Time muft pafs between every fuch Innovation, enough to melt down and make it of a Piece with the Conftitution. Such we are told were the Proceedings of Solon, when he Modelled anew the Athenian Commonwealth: And what Convulfi ons in our own as well as other States have been bred by a neglect of this Rule, is fresh and notorious enough; 'Tis too foon in all confcience to repeat this Error again.

HAVING fhewn that there is a natural Balance of Power in all free States, and how it has been divided fometimes by the People themselves, as in Rome, at others by the Inftitutions of Legislators, as in the feveral States of Greece and Sicily: The next thing is to examine what Methods have been taken to break or overthrow this Ballance

Balance; which every of the three Parties have continually endeavour'd, as opportunities have ferv'd; as night appear from the Stories of moft Ages and Countries. For, Abfolute Power in a particular State, is of the fame nature with univerfal Monarchy in feveral States adjoyning to each other. So endless and exorbitant are the defires of Men, whether confider'd in their Persons or their States, that they will grafp at all, and can form no Scheme of perfect Happiness with lefs. Ever fince Men have been united into Governments, the Hopes and Endeavours after univerfal Monarchy have been bandied among them, from the Reign of Ninus to this of the Most Chriftian King; in which pursuits Commonwealths have had their share as well as Monarchs: So the Athenians, the Spartans, the Thebans and the Achaians, did at feveral times aim at the univerfal Monarchy of Greece; So the Commonwealths of Carthage and Rome affected the univerfal Monarchy of the then known World. In like manner has abfolute Power been pursued by the feveral Parties of each particular State; C wherein

wherein fingle Perfons have met with moft Success, tho' the endeavours of the Few and the Many have been frequent enough; But, being neither fo uniform in their Designs, nor fo direct in their Views, they neither could manage nor maintain the Power they had got; but were ever deceived by the Popularity and Ambition of fome fingle Perfon. So that it will be always a wrong step in Policy, for the Nobles or Commons to carry their Endeavours after Power fo far, as to overthrow the Balance: And it would be enough to damp their warmth in fuch Pursuits, if they could once reflect, that in fuch a Course they will be fure to run upon the very Rock they meant to avoid, which I fuppofe they would have us think is the Tyranny of a fingle Perfon.

MANY Examples might be produced of the Endeavours from each of these three Rivals, after abfolute Power; But I fhall fuit my Difcourse to the Time I am Writing it, and Relate only fuch Diffentions between the Nobles and Commons, with the Confé

quences

quences of them, in Greece and Rome, wherein the latter were the Aggreffors.

I fhall begin with Greece, where my Obfervations fhall be confin'd to Athens, tho' feveral Inftances might be brought from other States thereof.

CHAP. II.

Of the Diffentions in Athens, between the Few and the Many.

T

HESEUS is the first who is Recorded with any appearance of Truth to have brought the Grecians from a barbarous manner of Life among scattered Villages, into Cities: and to have eftablish'd the Popular State in Athens, affigning to himself the Guardianship of the Laws, and chief Command in War.

C 2

He was

forced