Dionyf. 5 in ATHENS and ROME. THE Romans having fent to Athens, and the Greek Cities of Italy, for the Copies of the best 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. These very Men, although chofen for such a Work, as the digesting 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, deftroyed the Nobles, and oppreffed 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 Ephori in Sparta were, at first, only certain Perfons deputed by the King to judge in Civil Matters, while They were employed in the Wars. These Men, at several Times, ufurped the absolute Authority, and were as cruel Tyrants as any in their Age. Thucid. Soon after the unfortunate Expedition into Sicily, the Athenians chofe four hundred lib. 8. Men for Administration of Affairs, who became a Body of Tyrants, and were called in the Language of those Ages, an Oligarchy, or Tyranny of the Few; under which hateful Denomination, they were foon after deposed in great Rage by the People. Græc. 1.2. WHEN Athens was fubdued by Lyfan. Xenoph. der, he appointed Thirty Men for the Ad- de Rebus ministration of that City, who immediately fell into the rankeft Tyranny: But this was not B 3 all: all: For, conceiving their Power, not founded on a Bafis large enough, they admitted three Thoufand into a Share of the Government; and thus fortified, became the cruelleft Tyranny upon Record. They murdered, in cold Blood, great Numbers of the best 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 thousand Houses, and allowing one Man to every House, 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. Memorab. lib. 3. lib. 6. IN the Time of the fecond Punick Polyb. Frag. War, the Ballance of Power in Carthage was got on the Side 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 seems, they were at all Times apt to fall into, and was at laft among the Causes that ruined their State: And the frequent Murders of their Generals, which Diodorus tells us, was grown to an established Custom among them, may be another Inftance, that Tyranny is not confined to Numbers. lib. 20. I SHALL mention but one Example more among a great Number that might be produced; it is related by the Author laft cited. The lib. 15. Orators of the People of Argos, (whether you will file them in modern Phrafe, Great Speakers in ATHENS and ROME. 7 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 last, the Orators themselves, because they left off their Accufation; 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 ftood, may perhaps be worth noting. FROM what hath been already advanced, several Conclufions may be drawn. FIRST, 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 Legislators, and to have been followed in moft States, whether they have appeared under the Name of Monarchies, Ariftocracies, or Democracies. For, not to mention the several Republicks of this Compofition in Gaul and Germany, defcribed by Cæfar and Tacitus; Polybius tells us, the beft Government is that which confifts of three Forms, Regno Optimatium, & Populi Imperio: Which Frag. lib, 6. 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 these were fubject, compounded his Scheme out of all; so 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 Design. And And fuch at Carthage was the Summa Reipublice, or Power in the laft Refort; for they had their Kings called Suffetes, and a Senate which Id. ib. had the Power of Nobles, and the People had a Share established too. SECONDLY, It will follow, That thofe Reafoners, who employ fo much of their Zeal, their Wit, and their Leifure for the upholding the Ballance of Power in Christendom, at the fame Time that by their Practices they are endeavouring to destroy 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 hath been building with his left. THIRDLY, This makes appear the Error of those, who think it an uncontroulable 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 produ ced, and easy to be parallelled 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; although we should fuppofe their Number not only to be of four or five Hundred, but above three Thousand. AGAIN, It is manifeft from what hath been faid, that in order to preferve the Ballance in a mixed State, the Limits of Power deposited with each Party ought to be ascertained, and generally known. The Defect of this is the Cause that introduces thofe Strugglings in a State about Prerogative and Liberty, about Encroachments of the Few, upon the Rights of the Many, and of the Many upon and ever will conclude in a Tyranny; Firft, either of the Few, or the Many, but at last infallibly of a fingle Perfon. For, which ever of the three Divifions in a State is upon the Scramble 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 arifes, they will be fure to decide in favour of themselves, 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 Neceffities. They will make large Demands, and fcanty Conceffions, ever coming off confiderable Gainers: Thus at length the Ballance is broke, and Tyranny let in; from which Door of the three it matters not. To pretend to a declarative Right upon any Occafion whatsoever, is little less than to make Use of the whole Power; that is, to declare an Opinion to be Law, which hath always been contefted, or perhaps never started before fuch an Incident brought it on the Stage. Not to confent to the enacting of fuch a Law, which hath no 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 Dependencies, and confequently new Additions of Power, as fome Reafoners have done, is a moft dangerous Tehet: If Dominion must follow Property, let it follow in the fame Pace: For Changes in Property through the Bulk of a Nation make flow Marches, and its due Power always attends it. To conclude, that what |