none which has been produced in any wife forced or ftrained, while thousands have, for brevity, been omitted; after fo candid a difcuffion in all refpects; what flave fo paffive, what bigot fo blind, what enthusiast so headlong, what politician fo hardened, as to ftand up in defence of a fyftem calculated for a curfe to mankind? a curfe under which they smart and groan to this hour, without thoroughly knowing the nature of the disease, and wanting understanding or courage to apply the remedy.

I need not excufe myfelf to your Lordship, nor, I think, to any honest man, for the zeal I have fhewn in this caufe; for it is an honeft zeal, and in a good caufe. I have defended natural religion against a confederacy of atheists and divines. I now plead for natural fociety against politicians, and for natural reason against all three. When the world is in a fitter temper than it is at prefent to hear truth, or when I fhall be more indifferent about its temper; my thoughts may become more publick. In the mean time, let them repose in my own bofom, and in the bofoms of fuch men as are fit to be initiated in the fober myfteries of truth and reafon. My antagonists have already done as much as I could defire. Parties in religion and politicks make fufficient difcoveries concerning each other, to give a fober man a proper caution against them all. The monarchick, aristocratical, and popular partizans have been jointly laying their axes to the root of all government, and have in their turns proved each other abfurd and inconvenient. In vain you tell me that artificial government is good, but that I fall out only with the abuse. The thing! the thing itself is the abufe! Obferve, my Lord, I pray you, that grand error upon which all artificial legislative power is founded. It was obferved, that men had ungovernable paffions, which made it neceffary to guard against the vio

lence

lence they might offer to each other. They appointed governors over them for this reafon; but a worfe and more perplexing difficulty arifes, how to be defended against the governors? Quis cuflodiet ipfos cuflodes? In vain they change from a fingle perfon to a few. Thefe few have the paffions of the one, and they unite to ftrengthen themselves, and to secure the gratification of their lawless paffions at the expence of the general good. In vain do we fly to the many. The cafe is worfe; their paffions are lefs under the government of reason, they are augmented by the contagion, and defended against all attacks by their multitude.

I have purposely avoided the mention of the mixed form of government, for reafons that will be very obvious to your Lordship. But my caution can avail me but little. You will not fail to urge it against me in favour of political fociety. You will not fail to fhew how the errors of the several simple modes are corrected by a mixture of all of them, and a proper ballance of the several powers in fuch a state. I confefs, my Lord, that this has been long a darling mistake of my own; and that of all the facrifices I have made to truth, this has been by far the greatest. When I confefs that I think this notion a mistake, I know to whom I am speaking, for I am fatisfied that reasons are like liquors, and there are fome of fuch a nature as none but ftrong heads can bear. There are few with whom I can communicate fo freely as with Pope. But Pope cannot bear every truth. He has a timidity which hinders the full exertion of his faculties, almost as effectually as bigotry cramps thofe of the general herd of mankind. But whoever is a genuine follower of truth, keeps his eye steady upon his guide, indifferent whither he is led, provided that she is the leader. And, my Lord, if it be properly confidered, it were infinitely better to remain poffeffed by

the whole legion of vulgar mistakes, than to reject some, and at the fame time to retain a fondness for others altogether as abfurd and irrational. The firft has at leaft a confiftency, that makes a man, however erroneously, uniform at leaft; but the latter way of proceeding is fuch an inconfiftent chimæra and jumble of philosophy and vulgar prejudice, that hardly any thing more ridiculous can be con ceived. Let us therefore freely, and without fear or prejudice, examine this laft contrivance of policy. And without confidering how near the quick our inftruments may come, let us search it to the bottom.

First then, all men are agreed, that this junction of regal, aristocratick, and popular power, must form a very complex, nice, and intricate machine, which being compofed of fuch a variety of parts, with fuch opposite tendencies and movements, it must be liable on every accident to be disordered. To speak without metaphor, fuch a government must be liable to frequent cabals, tumults, and revolutions, from its very constitution. These are undoubtedly as ill effects, as can happen in a fociety; for in such a case, the clofenefs acquired by community, instead of serving for mutual defence, ferves only to increase the danger. Such a fyftem is like a city, where trades that require conftant fires are much exercised, where the houfes are built of combuftible materials, and where they ftand extremely close.

In the second place, the feveral conftituent parts having their diftinct rights, and thefe many of them fo neceffary to be determined with exactnefs, are yet fo indeterminate in their nature, that it becomes a new and conftant fource of debate and confufion. Hence it is, that whilst the business of government should be carrying on, the question is, Who has a right to exercise this or that function of it, or what

men

men have power to keep their offices in any function? Whilft this conteft continues, and whilst the ballance in any fort continues, it has never any remiffion; all manner of abufes and villanies in officers remain unpunished, the greatest frauds and robberies in the publick revenues are committed in defiance of justice; and abufes grow, by time and impunity, into customs; until they prescribe against the laws, and grow too inveterate often to admit a cure, unless fuch as may be as bad as the disease.

Thirdly, the several parts of this fpecies of government, though united, preferve the spirit which each form has separately. Kings are ambitious; the nobility haughty; and the populace tumultuous and ungovernable. Each party, however in appearance peaceable, carries on a defign upon the others; and it is owing to this, that in all queftions, whether concerning foreign or domeftick affairs, the whole generally turns more upon fome party-matter than upon the nature of the thing itself; whether such a step will diminish or augment the power of the crown, or how far the privileges of the subject are like to be extended or restricted by it. And these questions are conftantly refolved, without any confideration of the merits of the cause, merely as the parties who uphold these jarring interests. may chance to prevail; and as they prevail, the ballance is overfet, now upon one fide, now upon the other. The government is one day, arbitrary power in a single perfon; another, a juggling confederacy of a few to cheat the prince and enflave the people; and the third, a frantick and unmanageable democracy. The great inftrument of all these changes, and what infuses a peculiar venom into all of them, is party. It is of no confequence what the principles of any party, or what their pretenfions are; the spirit which actuates all parties is the fame; the fpirit of ambition, of

felf

felf-intereft, of oppreffion, and treachery. This spirit entirely reverses all the principles which a benevolent nature has erected within us; all honesty, all equal juftice, and even the ties of natural fociety, the natural affections. In a word, my Lord, we have all feen, and if any outward confiderations were worthy the lafting concern of a wife man, we have fome of us felt, fuch oppreffion from party government as no other tyranny can parallel. We behold daily the most important rights, rights upon which all the others depend, we behold thefe rights determined in the laft refort, without the least attention even to the appearance or colour of justice; we behold this without emotion, because we have grown up in the constant view of fuch practices; and we are not surprised to hear a man requested to be a knave and a traitor, with as much indifference as if the most ordinary favour were afked; and we hear this request refused, not because it is a most unjust and unreafonable defire, but that this worthy has already engaged his injuftice to another. Thefe and many more points I am far from spreading to their full extent. You are fenfible that I do not put forth half my ftrength; and you cannot be at a lofs for the reason. A man is allowed fufficient freedom of thought, provided he knows how to chuse his fubject properly. You may criticife freely upon the Chinese conftitution, and obferve with as much feverity as you please upon the abfurd tricks, or deftructive bigotry of the bonzees. But the fcene is changed as you come homeward, and atheism or treafon may be the names given in Britain, to what would be reafon and truth if afferted of China. I fubmit to the condition, and though I have a notorious advantage before me, I wave the purfuit. For elfe, my Lord, it is very obvious what a picture might be drawn of the exceffes of party even in our own nation. I could fhew,