Ufurpation in a State, are by no means confined to any Number, as might eafily appear from Examples enough: and because the Point is material, I fhall cite a few to prove it.

THE Romans having fent to Athens, Dionyf and the Greek Cities of Italy, for the Hal. 1.10. Copies of the beft Laws, chofe Ten Legiflators to put them into Form, and during the Exercife 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 State, did immediately ufurp Arbitrary Power, ran into all the Forms of it, had their Guards and Spies, after the Practice of the Tyrants of thofe Ages, affected Kingly State, destroy'd the Nobles, and oppreft the People; One of them proceeding fo 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

B 4

lib. 8.

THE Ephori in Sparta were at first only certain Perfons deputed by the King to judge in Civil Matters, while They were employ'd in the Wars. These Men at feveral times, ufurp'd the abfolute Authority, and were as cruel Tyrants as any in their Ages.

SOON after the unfortunate ExThucid pedition into Sicily, the Athenians chofe four hundred Men for Adminiftration of Affairs, who became a Body of Tyrants, and were called in the Language of thofe Ages, an Oligarchy, or Tyranny of the Few; under which hateful Denomination, they were foon after depofed in great Rage by the People.

Xenop.de

Rebus

Græc. I. 2.

WHEN Athens was fubdued by Lifander, he appointed thirty Men for the Adminiftration of 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, be

came

came the cruelleft Tyranny upon Record. They murder'd, in cold Blood, great numbers of the best Men, without any Provocation, from the meer Luft of Cruelty, like Nero or Caligula. This was such a Number of Tyrants together, as mounted to near a third part of the whole City. For Xenophon Memorab tells us, that the City contain'd about lib. 3. ten thousand Houfes, and allowing one Man to every Houfe, who could have any Share in the Government (the reft confifting of Women, Children, and Servants) and making other obvious Abatements, thefe Tyrants, if they had been careful to adhere together, might have been a Majority even of the People Collective.

IN the time of the fecond Punick Polyb.

War, the Balance of Power in Carthage Frag.1.6 was got on the fide of the People,

and that to a Degree, that fome Au

thors reckon the Government to have been then among them a Dominatio Plebis, or Tyramny of the Commons, which it seems they were at all times apt to fall into, and was at last among the Causes that ruin'd their State:

And

1

And the frequent Murders of their GeLib. 20. nerals, which Diodorus tells us was grown to an establish'd Custom among them, may be another Inftance that Tyranny is not confined to Numbers.

I fall mention but one Example more among a great Number that might be produced; It is related by Lib. 15. the Author laft cited, the Orators of the People at Argos (whether you will ftile them in modern Phrafe, Great Speakers in the Houfe, or only in general, Reprefentatives of the People Collective) ftirred up the Commons against the Nobles; of whom 1600 were Murdered at once, and at laft, the Orators themselves, because they left off their Accufations, or to speak Intelligibly, because they withdrew their Impeachments; having, it feems, raifed a Spirit they were not able to lay. And this laft Circumftance, as Cafes have lately stood, may perhaps be worth noting.

FROM what hath been already advanced, feveral Conclufions may be drawn.

Firft, THAT a mixt Government partaking of the known Forms received in the Schools, is by no means of Gothick Invention, but hath place in Nature and Reafon, feems very well to agree with the Sentiments of moft Legiflators, and to have been follow'd in moft States, whether they have appear'd under the name of Monarchies, Ariftocracies, or Democracies. For not to mention the feveral Republicks of this Compofition in Gaul and Germany, defcribed by Cafar and Tacitus; Polybius tells us, the best Government is that which confifts of three Forms, Regno, Optimatium, & Populi imperio. Which may be Fragm fairly Tranflated, the Kings, Lords lib. 6: and Commons. Such was that of Sparta in its Primitive Inftitution by Lycurgus; who obferving the Corruptions and Depravations to which every of these was fubject, compounded his Scheme out of all; fo that it was made up of Reges, Seniores, & Populus: Such alfo was the State of Rome, under its Confuls; And the Author

tells