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Greek cities of Italy, for the copies of the best laws, chofe ten legiflators to put them into form; and, during the exercise of their office, fufpended the confular power, leaving the adminiftration of affairs in their hands. Thefe very men, though chofen for fuch a work, as the digefting a body of laws for the government of a free ftate, did immediately ufurp arbitrary power; ran into all the forms of it, had their guards and fpies, after the practice of the tyrants of thofe ages, affected kingly state, destroyed the nobles, and oppreffed the people; one of them proceeding so far, as to endeavour to force a lady of great virtue: the very crime, which gave occafion to the expulfion of the regal power but fixty years before, as this attempt did to that of the Decemviri.

The Ephori in Sparta, were at first only certain perfons deputed by the kings to judge in civil matters, while they were employed in the wars. These men, at several times, ufurped the abfolute authority, and were as cruel tyrants, as any in their age.

Soon after the unfortunate expedition into Sicily, the Athenians chofe four hundred men for administration of affairs, who became a body. of tyrants, and were called, in the language of thofe ages, an oligarchy, or tyranny of the fews under which hateful denomination they were foon after depofed in great rage by the people.

When Athens was fubdued by Lyfander, he appointed thirty men for the adminiftration of VOL. II.

* Thucyd. lib. 8.

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† Xenoph. de Rebus Græc. lib. 2.

that city, who immediately fell into the rankest tyranny but this was not all; for, conceiving their power not founded on a bafis large enough, they admitted three thousand into a share of the government; and thus fortified, became the cruelleft tyranny upon record. They murdered, in cold blood, great numbers of the beft men, without any provocation, from the mere luft of cruelty, like Nero or Caligula. This was fuch a number of tyrants together, as amounted to near a third part of the whole city; for Xenophon tells us, that the city contained about ten thoufand houses; and, allowing one man to every houfe, who could have any fhare in the government, (the rest confifting of women, children, and fervants) and making other obvious abatements, these tyrants, if they had been careful to adhere together, might have been a majority even of the people collective.

In the time of the second Punic war, † the balance of power in Carthage was got on the fide of the people, and this to a degree, that fome authors reckon the government to have been then among them a dominatio plebis, or tyranny of the commons; which it feems they were at all times apt to fall into, and was at laft among the causes that ruined their ftate: and the frequent murders of their generals, which, Diodorus ‡ tells us, was grown to an established cuftom among them, may be another inftance, that tyranny is not confined to numbers.

I fhall

Memorab. lib. 3.

Polyb. Frag. lib. 6.

-Lib. 20.

I fhall mention but one example more, among a great number that might be produced; it is related by the author laft cited. * The orators of the people at Argos (whether you will ftyle them, in modern phrase, great speakers of the house, or only, in general, representatives of the people collective) stirred up the commons against the nobles, of whom 1600 were murdered at once; and at last, the orators themselves, because they left off their accusations, or, to speak intelligibly, because they withdrew their impeachments; having, it seems, raised a spirit they were not able to lay. And this laft circumftance, as cafes have lately stood, may perhaps be worth noticing.

From what hath been already advanced, feveral conclufions may be drawn:

ift, That a mixed government, partaking of the known forms received in the schools, is by no means of Gothic invention, but hath place in nature and reason; feems very well to agree with the sentiments of most legiflators, and to have been followed in moft ftates, whether they have appeared under the name of monarchies, ariftocracies, or democracies: for, not to mention the feveral republics of this compofition in Gaul and Germany, defcribed by Cæfar and Tacitus, Polybius tells us, the best government is that which confifts of three forms, regno, optimatium, et populi imperio; + which may be fairly tranflated, the King, Lords, and Commons. Such was that of Sparta, in its primitive inftitution by Lycurgus;

Polyb. Frag, lib. 15.

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+ Lib. 6.

who,

who, obferving the corruptions and depravations to which every of these was subject, compounded his scheme out of all; fo that it was made up of reges, feniores, et populus. Such alfo was the state of Rome under its confuls: and the author tells us, that the Romans fell upon this model purely by chance, (which I take to have been nature and common reason) but the Spartans by thought and defign. And fuch at Carthage was the fumma reipublicæ, * or power in the last resort; for they had their kings called fuffetes, and a senate which had the power of nobles, and the people had a fhare established too.

2dly, It will follow, that those reasoners, who employ fo much of their zeal, their wit, and their leifure, for the upholding the balance of power in Chriftendom, at the fame time that, by their practices, they are endeavouring to deftroy it at home, are not fuch mighty patriots, or fo much in the true intereft of their country, as they would affect to be thought; but feem to be employed like a man, who pulls down with his right hand, what he has been building with his left.

3dly, This makes appear the error of those who think it an uncontrollable maxim, that power is always fafer lodged in many hands, than in one for, if these many hands be made up only from one of the three divifions before mentioned, it is plain, from thofe examples already produced, and easy to be paralleled in o

Polyb. Frag. lib. 6.

ther

ther ages and countries, that they are as capable of enflaving the nation, and of acting all manner of tyranny and oppreffion, as it is poffible for a fingle perfon to be, though we fhould fuppofe their number not only to be of four or five hundred, but above three thousand.

Again, It is manifeft, from what has been faid, that, in order to preferve the balance in a mixed ftate, the limits of power depofited with each party, ought to be ascertained, and generally known. The defect of this is the cause that introduces those strugglings in a state about prerogative and liberty, about encroachments of the few upon the rights of the many, and of the many upon the privileges of the few, which ever did, and ever will conclude in a tyranny; first, either of the few, or the many, but at last infallibly of a fingle perfon: for, whichever of the three divifions in a state is upon the fcramble for more power than its own, (as one or other of them generally is) unless due care be taken by the other two, upon every new question that arises, they will be fure to decide in favour of themfelves, talk much of inherent right; they will nourish up a dormant power, and referve privileges in petto, to exert upon occafions, to ferve: expedients, and to urge upon neceflities; they will make large demands, and scanty conceflions, ever coming off confiderable gainers: thus, at length, the balance is broke, and tyranny let in; from which door of the three, it matters not. To pretend to a declarative right, upon any occafiom

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