dy of a People, is what the Legiflators of all Ages have endeavour'd, in their feveral Schemes or Inftitutions of Government, to depofit in fuch Hands as would preferve the People from Rapine and Oppreffion within, as well as Violence from without. Moft of them feem to agree in this, that it was a Trust too great to be committed to any one Man or Affembly, and therefore they left the Right ftill in the whole Body, but the Adminiftration or Executive part, in the hands of One, the Few, or the Many, into which Three Powers all independent Bodies of Men feem naturally to divide; for by all I have read of thofe innumerable and petty Common-wealths in Italy, Greece and Sicily, as well as the great ones of Carthage and Rome; it feems to me, that a free People met together, whether by Compact or Family Government, as foon as they fall into any Acts of Civil Society, do of themselves divide into Three Powers. The first is that of fome one eminent Spirit, who having fignaliz'd his Valour and Fortune in Defence of his Country, or by the Practice of Popular Arts at home, becomes to have great Influence on the People, to grow their Leader in Warlike Expeditions, and to prefide, after a fort, in their Civil Affemblies: And this is grounded upon the Principles of Nature and common Reafon, which in all Difficulties or Dangers, where Prudence or Courage are required, do rather incite us to fly for Counsel or Affiftance to a fingle Perfon than a Multitude. The fecond natural Divifion of Power, is of fuch Men who have acquired large Poffeffions, and confequently Dependances, or defcend from Ancestors, who have left them great Inheritances, together with an Hereditary

Authority

Authority. Thefe eafily uniting in Thoughts and Opinions, and acting in Concert, begin to enter upon Measures for fecuring their Properties, which are beft upheld by preparing against Invafions from abroad, and maintaining Peace at home: This commences a great Council or Senate of Nobles for the weighty Affairs of the Nation. The laft Divifion is of the Mafs or Body of the People, whofe Part of Power is great and undifputable, when ever they can unite either collectively or by Deputation to exert it. Now the Three Forms of Government fo generally known in the Schools, differ only by the Civil Adminiftration being placed in the Hands of One, or fometimes Two (as in Sparta) who were call'd Kings, or in a Senate, who were call'd the Nobles, or in the People Collective or Reprefentative, who may be call'd the Commons: Each of these had frequently the Executive Power in Greece, and fometimes in Rome : But the Power in the laft Refort was not always meant by Legiflators to be held in Balance among all Three. And it will be an eternal Rule in Politicks among every Free People, That there is a Balance of Power to be carefully held by every State within it felf, as well as among feveral States with each other.

THE trueMeaning of a Balance of Power,either without or within a State, is beft conceived by confidering what the nature of a Ballance is. It fuppofes three Things. First, the Part which is held, together with the Hand that holds it; and then the two Scales, with whatever is weighed therein. Now confider feveral States in a Neighbourhood: In order to preferve Peace between thefe States, it is neceffary they fhould Bà

be

Xenoph. de Rebus Grac. 1.2.

WHEN Athens was fubdued by Lyfander, he appointed thirty Men for the Adminiftration of that City, who immediately fell into the rankeft Tyranny; but this was not all: For conceiving their Power not founded on a Bafis large enough, they admitted three thoufand into a fhare of the Government; and thus fortified, became the crueleft 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 fuch a Number of Tyrants together, as amounted to near a third part of the whole City. For Xenophen tells us, that the Memorab. City contain'd about ten thoufand Houfes, and allowing one Man to e

lib. 3.

very House, who could have any Share in the Government (the rest 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.

Polyb. Frag. lib. 6.

In the time of the fecond Punick War, the Balance of Power inCarthage was got on the fide of the People, and that 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 State: And lib. 20. the frequent Murders of their Generals, which Diodorus tells us, was grown to an eftablish'd Custom among them, may be another

Inftance

Inftance that Tyranny is not confined to Numbers.

I fhall mention but one Example more among a great Number that might be produc'd; It is related by the Author Taft cited, the

Orators of the People at Arges (whe- Lib. 15. ther you will ftile them in modern

Phrafe, Great Speakers in the House, 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 quithdrew their Impeachments; having, it feems, raifed a Spirit they were not able to lay. And this laft Circumftance, as Cafes have lately ftood, may perhaps be worth nothing. 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 has 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 Cefar and Tacitus; Polybius tells us, the best Government is that which confifts of Three Forms, Regno, Optimatium,& Populi Imperia. Which may be fairly Tranflated, the Kings, Lords, and Commons. Such was that of Sparta in its Primitive Inftitution by Lycurgus; who obferving the Corruptions and Depravations to which every of thefe was fubB 4 ject,

ject, 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 us, that the Romans fell upon this Model purely by chance, (which I take to have been Nature and common Reafon) but the Spartans by Thought and Defign. And fuch at Carthage was the Summa Reipublice, or Power in the laft Refort: For they had their

Kings call'd Suffetes, and a Senate which Id. ibid. had the Power of Nobles, and the People had a Share establish'd too.

Secondly, Ir will follow, That thofe Reafoners, who employ fo much of their Zeal, their Wit and their Leifure for 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.

Thirdly, THIS makes appear the Error of thofe, who think it an uncontroulable Maxim, that Power is always fafer lodged in many Hands than in one. For if thofe many Hands be made up only of one of the Three Divifions before mentioned, 'tis plain from thofe Examples already produc'd, and eafie to be parallel'd in other 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 should fuppofe their number to be not only of Four or Five Hundred, but above Three Thousand.