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* of power, ought indeed to be a stranger to envy; "but we know, by fatal experience, that the contrary happens. We know alfo, that the wor"thieft citizens excite the jealoufy of tyrants, who are pleased only with the most abandoned: they are ever prompt to liften to the voice of calumny. "If we pay them temperate respect, they take umbrage, that we are not more profufe in our atten"tions: if the refpect with which they are treated "feem immoderate, they call it adulation. The "fevereft misfortune of all is, that they pervert the "inftitutions of their country, offer violence to our females, and put thofe whom they diflike to death, without the formalities of juftice. But a "democracy in the firft place bears the hoñotirábie

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89

name of an equality 9; the diforders which pre"vail in a monarchy cannot there take place.

The magiftrate is appointed by lot, he is ac"countable for his 'administration, and whatever is "done, must be with the general confent. I am,

89 Equality.]-The word in the original is on, which means equality of laws. M. Larcher tranflates it literally ifonomie; but in English, as we have no authority for the use of it, ifonomy would perhaps feem pedantic. The following paffage from lord Shaftlbury fully explains the word in question.-→→ Speaking of the influence of tyranny on the arts," The high fpirit of tragedy," fays he, "can ill fubfift where the spirit of liberty is wanting." The genius of this poetry confifts in the lively representation of the diforders and mifery of the great ; tɔ the end that the people, and those of a lower condition, may be taught the better to content themfelves with privacy, enjoy their fafer ftate, and prize the equality and juftice of their guardian laws.-7.

VOL. II.

H

<< therefore,

1

306

376 386

"therefore, of opinion, that monarchy fhould be "abolished, and that, as every thing depends on "the people", a popular government fhould be. eftablifhed."-Such were the fentiments of Ota

nes.

LXXXI. Megabyzus, however, was inclined to an oligarchy; in favour of which he thus expreffed himfelf: All that Otanes has urged, concerning "the extirpation of tyranny, meets with my entire

approbation; but when he recommends the fu(i preme authority to be entrusted to the people,

"he feems to me to err in the extreme. Tumul-
tuous affemblies of the people are never diftin-
guifhed by wifdom, always by infolence; nei- ·
ther can any thing be poffibly more prepofte-
cc rous, than to fly from the tyranny of an indivi
"dual to the intemperate caprice of the vulgar.
"Whatever a tyrant undertakes, has the merit of
previous concert and defign; but the people are
always rafh and ignorant. And how can they
be otherwife, who are uninftructed, and with no

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90 Every thing depends on the people.J-In this place the favourite adage of Vox populi vox Dei, muft occur to every reader; the truth of which, as far as power is concerned, is certainly indifputable; but with refpect to political fagacity, the fentiment of Horace may be more fecurely vindicated :

Interdum vulgus rectum videt, eft ubi peccat.

Which Pope happily renders,

The people's voice is odd;

It is, and it is not, the voice of God.

T.

internal

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internal fenfe" of what is good and right? Def titute of judgment, their actions refemble the violence of a torrent 2. To me, a democracy feems to involve the ruin of our country let us; there

92

91 No internal fenfe.]-The original is fomewhat perplexed; but the acute Valcnaer, by reading oxov for oixion, at once removes all difficulty.-T.

92 Their actions resemble the violence of a torrent.]-Upon the fubject of popular affemblies, the following remarks of M. de Lolme feem very ingenious, as well as just.

"Thofe who compofe a popular affembly are not actuated, in the course of their deliberations, by any clear or precife view of any prefent or pofitive perfonal intereft. As they fee themfelves loft as it were in the crowd of those who are called upon to exercife the fame function with themfelves; as they know that their individual vote will make no change in the public refolution, and that to whatever fide they may incline, the general refult will nevertheless be the fame, they do not undertake to enquire how far the things propofed to them agree with the whole of the laws already in being, or with the prefent circumstances of the state. As few among them have previously confidered the fubjects on which they are called upon to determine, very few carry, along with them any opinion or inclination of their own, and to which they are refolved to adhere. As, however, it is neceffary at laft to come to fome refolution, the major part of them are determined, by reafons which they would blufh to pay any regard to on much lefs ferious occafions: an unusual fight, a change of the ordinary place of affembly, a fúdden difturbance, a rumour, are, amidft the general want of a spirit of decifion, the fufficiens ratio of the determination of the greateft part; and from this affemblage of feparate wills, thus formed, haftily and without reflection, a general will refults, which is alfo without reflection."-Conflitution of England, 250, 251. /

Quod enim fretum, quem Euripum, tot motus tantas et tam varias habere putatis agitationes futtium quantas perturbationes et quantos æftus habet ratio comitiorum.Cicero Orat. pro Mu

rna.

H 2

fore,

"fore, entrust the government to a few individu"als, felected for their talents and their virtues. "Let us conftitute a part of these ourselves, and "from the exercise of authority fo depofited,

4

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we may be juftified in expecting the happiest " events."

LXXXII. Darius was the third who delivered his opinion. "The fentiments of Megabyzus," he obferved," as they relate to a popular govern"ment, are unquestionably wife and juft; but "from his opinion of an oligarchy, I totally dif "fent. Suppofing the three different forms of "government, monarchy, democracy, and an oligar

chy, feverally to prevail in the greatest perfec"tion, I am of opinion that monarchy has great

ly the advantage. Indeed nothing can be bet"ter than the government of an individual eminent for his virtue. He will not only have re

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gard to the general welfare of his fubjects, but "his refolutions will be cautiously concealed from "the public enemies of the ftate. In an oligar

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chy, the majority who have the care of the ftate, "though employed in the exercife of virtue for the

public good, will be the objects of mutual envy "and diflike. Every individual will be anxious "to extend his own perfonal importance, from " which will proceed faction, fedition, and blood"fhed. The fovereign power coming by these "means to the hands of a fingle perfon, constitutes "the strongest argument to prove what form of "government is beft. Whenever the people pof

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"fels

"fefs the fupreme authority, diforders in the state "are unavoidable: fuch diforders introduced in a "republic do not separate the bad and the profligate

from each other, they unite them in the clofeft "bonds of connection. They who mutually injure "the state, mutually fupport each other; this " evil exists till fome individual, affuming authoIrity, fuppreffes the fedition; he of courfe ob"tains popular admiration, which ends in his becoming the fovereign"; and this again tends to prove, that a monarchy is of all governments the "moft excellent. To comprehend all that can be "faid at once, to what are we indebted for our "liberty; did we derive it from the people, an "oligarchy, or an individual? For my own part,

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હું

as we were certainly indebted to one man for "freedom, I think that to one alone the govern"ment fhould be intrufted. Neither can we with"out danger change the customs of our coun« try."

LXXXIII. Such were the three different opinions delivered, the latter of which was approved by four out of the feven 94. When Otanes faw his

defire

93 Ends in his becoming the fovereign.j-It is probable that the afcendant of one man over multitudes began during a state of war, where the fuperiority of courage and of genius difcovers itfelf moft vifibly, where unanimity and concert are most requifite, and where the pernicious effects of disorder are most sensibly felt.-Hume.

94 Four out of the seven.]—This majority certainly decided in favour of that fpecies of government which is moft fimple and

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