alifornia! 
 
 ional 
 
 ility
 
 r 
 
 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 FREDERIC THOMAS BLANCHARD 
 ENDOWMENT FUND

 
 32- S 
 
 ESSAYS 
 
 O N 
 
 IMPORTANT SUBJECTS, 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 JOHN TRENCHARD, Efq; 
 
 Never before PUBLISHED, 
 
 LONDON, 
 
 Printed for A. MILLAR, in the Strand. 
 MDCCLV.
 
 
 ADVERT I SEME NT. 
 
 TH E following ESSAYS were found in 
 the ftudy of the late JOHN MILKER, 
 Efq; and were communicated to the EDI- 
 TOR, at his earneft requeft. 
 
 83378^
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 ESSAY I. 
 On MIRACLES, p. ii 
 
 ESSAY II. 
 On TREATIES, p. 22. 
 
 ESSAY III. 
 On ELECTIONS, p. 39. 
 
 ESSAY IV. 
 On CONTROVERTED ELECTIONS, p. 55. 
 
 ESSAY V. 
 
 On OFFICES and CORRUPTION, p. 63. 
 
 ESSAY VI. 
 
 On PRACTICABLE MEN, p. 78. 
 
 ESSAY VII. 
 On FRUGALITY, p. 90.
 
 [ 1 ] 
 ESSAY I. 
 
 On MIRACLES. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 IH A V E lately entered into difpute 
 with a roman catholick, (whom I 
 fufpected to be a prieft) at the defire 
 and in the prefence of a lady, that he had 
 been long endeavouring to pervert ; and 
 having, as I thought, unanfwerably 
 fhewn the monftrous abfurdities of the 
 religion he owned, how all its doctrines 
 were folely calculated for the advantage 
 of the priefts, the ruin of people, and the 
 deftruflion of every thing that is good ; 
 and that he was no ways able, either from 
 reafon or fcripture, to defend any one 
 doctrine wherein he differed from proteft- 
 ants : then his next defence was to de- 
 B preciate
 
 2 MIRACLES; 
 
 predate reafon, and to fhew the infufH- 
 ciency of fcripture without human aid and 
 tradition. Upon which^ I demonftratively 
 proved to him, that when he had taken 
 away the only ftandards by which we 
 could come to a certainty of the truth of 
 the chriftian religion, it would ftand upon 
 the fame foot of evidence with the hea- 
 then fuperftitions ; which he vainly en- 
 deavoured to refute. And when he found 
 that he made no impreflion upon the lady 
 he propofed to convert, his laft retreat 
 was to Miracles, where he thought him- 
 felf impregnably intrenched. 
 
 HE faid, Miracles were the firfl proofs 
 of the jewilh and chriftian religions ; and 
 that they were as neceflary now in this 
 age of infidelity, herefy, andfchifm, as they 
 were in the firft ages of chriftianity ; and 
 the power of effecting them continued 
 flill in the romifh church, and no other, 
 which he offered as an undeniable argu- 
 ment that the fpirit of God alone infpired 
 
 that
 
 MIRACLES. 5 
 
 that church. And when I fmiled at the 
 impudence of the pretence, he immediately, 
 in a paffion, bolted out feveral abfurd 
 ftories of Miracles, which he pretended 
 had been lately done by friars and nuns 
 in Spain and Italy, and with a dogmati- 
 cal air declared, that they were attefted 
 by fo many living witnefles, examined 
 upon oath by perfons of that candour and 
 authority, and recorded with that exact- 
 nefs, that it was impoflible to reject them 
 but upon principles which would deftroy 
 all Miracles whatfoever. 
 
 ALL the objections I could make,' 
 arifing from the improbability of the fto- 
 ries themfelves, the partiality of the re- 
 lators, and the appearing marks of fraud 
 (as that they were done only amongft 
 themfelves ; that thofe who firft told 
 them, or afterwards approved them, were 
 not competent witnefles, having an in- 
 tereft in the fraud ; and that they were 
 not done in the fight of thofe who were 
 B 2 to
 
 4 MIRACLE S. 
 
 to be converted by them) were wholly 
 loft upon him : he ftill infifted upon mat- 
 ter of fact ; and afked me, if I refufed to- 
 believe a fact done in my own age, and in 
 a neighbouring country, attefted by many 
 living witnefles, and examined and ap- 
 proved in the moft folemn manner, by 
 bifhops and laymen of the firft character 
 and diftinction ? How could I pretend to 
 belkve matters faicl to be done in diftant 
 ages and in diftant countries, liable to all 
 thefe objections, and many more, arifmg 
 from the uncertainty of written tradition, 
 as well in relation to the perfons who wrote 
 k, as the candour and accuracy of tran- 
 fcribcrs, editors, and tranflators ? 
 
 To put an end, therefore, to thefe 
 foolifh pretences and idle legends, I mail 
 endeavour, in this paper, to (hew the nature 
 of Miracles, that none have been per- 
 formed fince the firft ages of chriftianity, 
 and that they can be a proof of nothing 
 which is ngainft virtue and the good of 
 
 man-
 
 MIRACLE S. 5 
 
 mankind , and, in order to it, fliall be- 
 gin with fhewing the difference between 
 a natural action and a miraculous one. 
 By nature, I mean that fituation or order 
 God placed things in at the creation, 
 and that motion or operation he gave 
 them to preferve and continue that order , 
 and this was certainly a Miracle at firft. 
 
 A Miracle, or atlio miralilis^ is an 
 action to be wondered at , as when God 
 Almighty interpofes, and by his omnipo- 
 tent power alters the order he at firft 
 placed the univerfe in, or enables or em- 
 powers other beings to do fb : but fome 
 other appearances are Miracles to us, 
 though, properly fpeaking, they are not 
 fo in themfelves ; as when he has difpofed 
 things fo at the beginning that fome events 
 mail happen but very rarely, and has hid 
 the immediate caufes of them fo far from 
 human fight and enquiry, that we cannot 
 trace them to any fuperior caufe but to 
 Jiimfelf alone, and confequently cannot 
 B 3 avoid
 
 6 MIRACLES. 
 
 avoid believing them to be the immediate 
 productions of his omnipotence. Both 
 thefe muft appear to be equally Miracles 
 to us, and we cannot diftinguifh one from 
 the other without a new revelation, which 
 is alfo a Miracle of the firft fort. 
 
 BUT the truth of a Miracle's being 
 done, and the divine authority by which 
 it was done, cannot appear equally to any, 
 as to thofe who received and faw it : for 
 others can have only their words that they 
 did receive or fee it ; and this information 
 will appear more or lefs credible to them, 
 according to the opinion they have of the 
 veracity or judgment of thofe who tell it, 
 or convey it to them ; and this will de- 
 pend much upon the knowledge they have 
 of the relators, and the means they have 
 and ufe, to acquire that knowledge, which 
 can never give equal evidence to what the 
 perfons received who felt or faw it, for 
 they could only be deceived by their fen- 
 fes, which might have been depraved by 
 i ficknefs,
 
 MIRACLES. 7 
 
 ficknefs, fear, melancholy, or furprize ; 
 or they might have dreamed without ob- 
 ferving that they flept, or might fancy 
 they faw it between deeping and waking ; 
 but any other perfon that one of them tells 
 it to, has a further chance of being de- 
 ceived, becaufe he cannot be fure that the 
 other did not tell him a lye j and if the 
 fecond tells it to a third, the laft is ftill 
 at a greater uncertainty, becaufe either of 
 the other may be deceived themfelves, or 
 may have a defign to deceive him. 
 
 BY the fame reafon, the further it goes, 
 the uncertainty is ftill greater, becaufe the 
 more relators there are who receive it one 
 from the other, the more chances there 
 are that fome of them may miftake or 
 pervert the ftory, or make a new one. If 
 the Miracle was faid to be done in a for- 
 mer age, and is conveyed down by books, 
 then the uncertainty muft be yet greater, 
 becaufe thefe books may have been cor- 
 rupted by fraud, ignorance, or negli- 
 B 4 gence 5
 
 S MIRACLES, 
 
 gence ; perhaps, wrong tranfcribed by 
 clerks, perverted by editors, miftaken by 
 tranflators -, or the books themfelves might 
 have been foifted upon the world under 
 venerable names, as we lee many books 
 often are and always have been. 
 
 WE can only have the authority of 
 thofe we perfonally know nothing of, that 
 they were wrote by others of whom we 
 know nothing neither ; and can have no 
 greater affurance of the truth of the mat- 
 ters conveyed in them, than we have of 
 the candour, judgment, or accuracy of 
 thofe through whofe hands thofe things 
 are conveyed to us ; and if it does not ap- 
 pear that they had candour, judgment, 
 and accuracy, our belief muft be propor- 
 tionable. If thofe books are tranflated in- 
 to other languages, then the fkill, care, 
 and integrity of the tranflators, muft alfo 
 fall under confideration. If any perfon 
 cannot read or underiland either of the 
 languages, then he can know no more 
 
 than
 
 MIRACLES. 9 
 
 than what other people tell him, and his 
 belief depends upon their honefty and 
 knowledge ; but if any one underftands 
 one or both the languages, then his be- 
 lief depends upon his conception of things 
 conveyed in them, in which, experience 
 tells us, that men differ very widely. If 
 thofe languages have been long dead and 
 out of common ufe, it will be very diffi- 
 cult, in many inftances, to come at their 
 true meaning , becaufe, the time of fpeak- 
 ing, the perfon who fpoke, his manner of 
 life and education, and many other things, 
 fall into confideration : language, like 
 every thing elfe in nature, being in per- 
 petual rotation, and conftantly varying, 
 infomuch that if two people of the fame 
 country who lived at fome hundred of 
 years diftance, could rife again, they 
 would not, in many inftances, underftand 
 one another. 
 
 WE are told in fcripture, that falfe pro- 
 phets mall arife and do wonders, which 
 
 (hall
 
 io MIRACLES. 
 
 fhall almoft deceive the elect, but we are 
 forbid to believe them by Chrift, if they 
 preach any doctrine contrary to his : it is 
 certain they cannot be true Miracles, for 
 then we could not difbelieve them, with- 
 out rejecting all Miracles. Therefore it is 
 plain that he meant there would be fuch 
 impoftures and juggles carried on by con- 
 federacy, that people that were moft up- 
 on their guard, would be liable to be 
 deceived by them, if they did not wholly 
 difbelieve them. And it feems as if he di- 
 rectly levelled at the many forgeries which 
 he forefaw would be ufed in the church 
 of antichrift -, and therefore he, in effect, 
 told his hearers, that Miracles fliould ceafe 
 in the world upon the eftablimment of 
 chriftianity. They were necefiary at his 
 firft coming to make his doctrine receiv- 
 ed , and all who faw them could not but 
 believe them and the doctrine which he 
 taught ; and when that was thoroughly 
 eftablifhed, there was no further need of 
 them ; and we are forbid to believe any, 
 
 how
 
 MIRACLES. it 
 
 how great foever they may appear to us, 
 which are brought to prove a contrary re- 
 ligion ; and there is no need of any more 
 to prove what is fo fully proved already. 
 
 BUT, on the contrary, the pretences to 
 them has done great mifchief to the 
 world : the papifts, as has been faid, 
 pretend to have done numerous Miracles 
 in their church, and ftill pretend to do 
 them i and, as I have fhewn you in one 
 inftance, when they are driven out of all 
 other arguments by fair reafoning, have 
 recourfe to a Miracle-working power a- 
 mongft themfelves. And I neither know 
 nor have heard of any other way of an- 
 fwering that argument, but by rejecting 
 and wholly diibelieving it j for if we will 
 enter into the detail, and appeal to human 
 evidence, they can bring fo many witnef- 
 fes and fo many records, with all Mr. 
 Leiley's four marks, and fourfcore more, 
 if neceflary, that it will be next to impof- 
 fible that way to difprove them ; and I 
 
 conceive
 
 12 MIRACLE S. 
 
 conceive we have nothing left to fay, but 
 that their witneflcs were deceived or fub- 
 orned, or, fince their deaths, belied ; 
 that their records were forged, or com- 
 piled fraudulently ; and that all their 
 transactions of that kind have been car- 
 ried on by juggling and confederacy, 
 amongil thofe, who gained power and 
 wealth by impofing upon the ignorance 
 and credulity of the people ; and that 
 thofe few who faw the cheat, durft not 
 oppofe prieftly power, fupported by pub- 
 lic authority; and fo by time, and by 
 being often told, and never contradicted, 
 the Miracles which at firft were laughed 
 at by many, came to be believed by all, 
 or almoft all. 
 
 I BELIEVE there has been no new reli- 
 gion ever advanced in the world, but the 
 founder of it either pretended to do Mi- 
 racles, or Miracles were faid to be done 
 by him, by his followers, and believed by 
 them ; and I do not fee how they can be 
 
 difproved
 
 MIRACLES. i jf 
 
 difproved by any one who offers Miracles 
 alone for the truth of his own religion, 
 though they are ever fowell proved. If 
 you tell him that he is impofed upon, he 
 will certainly retort the fame upon you, 
 and will prefer the authority of his own 
 anceftors, and their records, before yours. 
 If you tell him that his priefts have an 
 intcreft, and get riches and authority by 
 telling the ftory, he will tell you the 
 fame. If you tell him that all other nations 
 and feels who were cotemporary with his 
 founder, laughed at the cheat, and difbe- 
 lieved his Miracles, which were related 
 only by his own followers, he will have 
 the fame anfwer ready , for the Miracles 
 of all religions are denied by all who are 
 not of that religion, or whofe religion is 
 not founded upon it. If you afk him to 
 produce a new Miracle to convince pre- 
 fent disbelievers, he will afk the fame of 
 you , and perhaps tell you, that there are 
 enough done already ; and if you will not 
 credit the old ones, you will not believe 
 
 the
 
 i4 MIRACLES. 
 the new. So that I cannot fee how it is 
 poflible for any perfon in one church, to 
 convince another of the truth of a Mira- 
 cle done in it or for it, without concur- 
 rent infpiration from above, which is a 
 new Miracle. 
 
 BUT though the papifls alone, of all 
 fefts amongft chriftians, pretend to the 
 power of doing Miracles, yet all feels in 
 their turns pretend that Miracles are done 
 for them : there is fcarce a battle, a plen- 
 tiful year, a lucky efcape of a great man, 
 an unexpected recovery from a fit of fick- 
 nefs, or any unufual phenomenon of na- 
 ture, but is made a Miracle of by one 
 party or other, and attributed to an im- 
 mediate interpofition of providence, which 
 is certainly a Miracle. Eclipfes, meteors, 
 earthquakes, great inundations, great 
 thunder and lightning, and common as 
 well as uncommon appearances of nature, 
 have been in many ages thought to be 
 Miracles, or the fupernatural productions 
 
 of
 
 MIRACLES. 15 
 
 of intelligent beings ; and are thought fo 
 Hill by many nations, and by many peo- 
 ple in' all nations, who do not know the 
 canfes of them , and fo are a great varie- 
 ty of actions done by leger-de-main and 
 jugling. 
 
 UNDER this great uncertainty of what 
 is a Miracle, and what not, I conceive 
 there can be no way in nature to put 
 mankind enough upon their guard, a- 
 gainfl the numerous frauds, impofitions, 
 delufions, and pretences, of enthufiaftical 
 impoftors and pretenders to infpiration, 
 and the power of doing Miracles, but to 
 convince them that they all ceafed at the 
 eftablifliment of the chriftian religion ; 
 and that all the extraordinary and uncom- 
 mon phenomena of nature (which muft 
 fometimes happen) are the productions of 
 that order and difpofition which God gave 
 to it at the beginning. Allow one thing 
 to be a Miracle, and Miracles will be 
 multiplied as faft as new pafiions, preju- 
 dices,
 
 i6 MIRACLES. 
 
 dices, fears or frauds; and I think 
 there can be no pofllble criterion in na- 
 ture, by which we can diftinguifh the or- 
 dinary from the extraordinary works of 
 providence. 
 
 IT can be no criterion that an event 
 happens but feldom ; for it is undoubted- 
 ly pofllble in the nature of things, that 
 an action may happen but once, and yet 
 have a proper caufe ; and we know that 
 fome comets do not make their revolu- 
 tion in five hundred years, and yet their 
 motions are as regular as thofe of the fun 
 and moon. No man can tell what the 
 powers of nature are ; and it would ap- 
 pear to us no more a Miracle for a mare 
 to fole a baboon than a colt, if it hap- 
 pened fo often ; or than there is if me 
 now foaled a monfter, as females of all 
 kinds fometimes do. We are wholly igno- 
 rant of the firft principles of animals, as 
 whether they receive their formation in 
 the womb, or in the body of the male, 
 2 and
 
 MIRACLES. 17 
 
 and have exifted from the beginning of 
 the world, and paffing through the body 
 of the male, are conveyed into the eggs of 
 the female for expanfion , and we cannot 
 be fure that they may not find other ma- 
 trixes to bring them to perfection ; and 
 have no reafon to think otherwife, than 
 that we do not fee it -, and from any thing 
 that can appear to the contrary, it might 
 have been fo in the primaeval flate of the 
 earth, which probably was much more 
 prolific than the prefent. 
 
 EXPERIENCE mews us, that infinite 
 millions of animals are produced and 
 brought to life by particular winds and 
 feafons, and fometimes thofe which have 
 not been obferved for ages before ; but 
 whether they are produced by eggs, 
 which for many years have borne the ex- 
 tremities of heat and cold, or by any other 
 means, we are wholly ignorant. We daily 
 fee ftrange mutations of bodies, as grafs 
 and corn into flefh and blood, flefh and 
 C blood
 
 i8 MIRACLES. 
 
 blood into earth, and earth into corn and 
 grafs again , wood into (lone ; and water, 
 as it is faid, into cryftal ; and thefe 
 things we do not wonder at, becaufe we 
 every day fee them : but if we fhould fee 
 any tranfmutation that we are not ufed to, 
 we are amazed, and ready to think it a 
 Miracle, though it may pofiibly have na- 
 tural caufes, which we know nothing of. 
 We have an inftance ir> fcripture of the 
 magicians of Egypt pretending to Mira- 
 cles, and great ones too ; for it certainly 
 appeared to be as great a Miracle to turn 
 a flick into a ferpent, as for one ferpent 
 to eat another ; and it is plain they de- 
 ceived Pharaoh, who was not convinced 
 by Mofes's fuperior Miracle, and would 
 not let the children of Ifrael go. This is 
 an undeniable inftance how great the pow- 
 ers of nature or delufion are , for the ac- 
 tions of the magicians certainly were not 
 done by the power of God ; and we are 
 not told in fcripture that they were done 
 by the power of demons, as without doubt 
 
 we
 
 M'l R A C L E S. 19 
 
 we mould have been, if that was the cafe ; 
 and though we ufe the word magician 
 now to fignify conjurers, yet then the 
 word fignified only wife-men and philo- 
 fophers. 
 
 I THINK, therefore, from all which has 
 been before faid, that fo many queftions 
 will naturally arife about the validity of 
 Miracles, what are Miracles, as well as 
 the nature of the proof neceflary to coerce 
 belief, that I may fafely fay, that no evi- 
 dence of their being done can be fufftcient 
 of itfelf to eftablifh any doctrine, or to 
 prove the orthodoxy of any church, and 
 much Icfs can they prove the truth of any 
 thing which has a direct tendency to de-> 
 ftroy righteoufnefs and virtue ; and confe- 
 quently we muft look out for fome other 
 refting-place, which our Saviour has giv- 
 en us in thefe words, (viz.) If any man 
 will do the will of God y he will knoiu of 
 the dottrine whether it be of God: he hath 
 given us all faculties and lights to diftin- 
 C 2 guifh
 
 so MIRACLES. 
 
 guifti natural right from wrong, to know 
 that every man has a right to his own ac- 
 tions, when he does not injure another, 
 and confequently to the fruits of his in- 
 vention and induftry ; that every one 
 ought to ufe another as he would be ufed 
 himfelf ; that we ought to afilft our neigh- 
 bours, as we ourfelves would be affifted ; 
 that we ought to be grateful to thofe from 
 whom we have received benefits ; and 
 above all, to himfelf, from whom we 
 have received our beings, and every thing 
 we enjoy ; and a thoufand pretended re- 
 velations, confirmed by as many pretend- 
 ed Miracles, cannot efface thefe plain 
 truths out of minds which are not per- 
 verted by fraud or education. 
 
 IT is a common, as well as an unanfvver- 
 able, argument made ufe of againft the pa- 
 pifts, when they would perfuade us to believe 
 in tranfubftantiation, that they deftroy the 
 evidence they appeal to ; for thofe to 
 whom our Saviour fpoke, and who faw 
 
 him
 
 MIRACLES. 21 
 
 him break bread and drink wine, and 
 heard him fay that they were his body and 
 blood, could have no other evidence but 
 their ears and their eyes ; and we can have 
 no more evidence now, that fuch words 
 are in fcripture, but our eye-fight ; and 
 we have not only the evidence of thofe 
 fenfes, but of all our fenfes, that there is 
 no tranfmutation of the elements. The 
 fame may be faid in the matter I treat 
 about, (viz.) That we have nothing but 
 our reafon whereby we can know that 
 there is a God ; that that God is true, 
 and that he has given revelations to men : 
 and the fame reafon tells us, that he is 
 the beft being in the univerfe ; that he 
 cannot aft foolifhly, capricioufly, or cru- 
 elly towards his creatures, nor give fome 
 of them a power to injure or opprefs the 
 reft ; and confequently any revelation to 
 that purpofe cannot come from him ; and 
 that all Miracles which are brought to 
 prove it, are impoftures. 
 
 C 3 ESSAY
 
 [ 22 ] 
 
 ESSAY II. 
 
 On TREATIES. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 TH E Gothic inftitution of mo- 
 narchical government (which by 
 their conquefts upon the Roman empire 
 was fettled in moft parts of Europe) was 
 calculated to give all powers to the crown 
 which were necefifary to protect and de- 
 fend the people, and to reftrain all fuch 
 powers as could be made ufe of to opprefs 
 them , but fmce, from the nature of power 
 itfelf, the prince in pofieffion, had often, 
 if not always, the means to do one or the 
 other, it therefore intended, by amply pro- 
 viding for the dignity and fplendour of his 
 throne, and by making him perfonally 
 
 eafy,
 
 TREATIES. 23 
 
 eafy, to leave him under no temptation to 
 abufe his power. All marks of grandeur 
 were heaped upon him, all homage and 
 refpect paid to his perfon, and all the lef- 
 ier errors of government, though dictated 
 by his will, were never fuppofed to ue 
 done by his authority , but thofe who 
 did them were anfwerable for them. The 
 laws were called his laws, though made 
 by his ftates, and he had only a bare li- 
 berty of rejecting, without altering them. 
 They were likewife fuppofed to be exe- 
 cuted by him, though he could not de- 
 termine judicially one fmgle cafe. His 
 equitable confcience was directed by his 
 keeper or chancellor ; his laws were exe- 
 cuted by his judges ; his fleet command- 
 ed by his lord high admiral ; and he had 
 a council to advife him in fuch matters of 
 government as depended upon his difcre- 
 tion. All thefe were anfwerable, in their 
 feveral ftations, for fuch defects in the ad- 
 miniftration as fell under their cognizance 
 and execution. 
 
 4 IN
 
 24 TREATIES. 
 
 IN this kind of government, for the 
 moft part, the king had a power of de- 
 claring war and peace, and confequently 
 of making Treaties about both , but as 
 he could not, in fact, make the firft, with 
 any hopes of fuccefs, without the concur- 
 rence of his ftates, who muft have afiift- 
 ed him to do it, fo he could not expect 
 any reafonable effects from the peace and 
 Treaties he made, unlefs thefe too met 
 with the fame concurrence and approba- 
 tion ; the confent of the ftates being oft- 
 en, if not always, neceflary to enable 
 him to perform them. For if he could 
 have engaged them in wars, and obliged 
 them to fupport thefe wars with conftant 
 fupplies, he had virtually the power of 
 raifing money -, fince there can be no dif- 
 ference in .raifing it immediately, by a . 
 prince's fmgle authority, or of command- 
 ing or obliging others to raife it for him ; 
 the fame reafoning is true in relation to 
 the making and executing of Treaties ; fo 
 that in effect, though not in name, the 
 i people
 
 TREATIES. 25 
 
 people were parties to all Treaties which 
 concerned their happinefs and fecurity. 
 And I fhall here beg leave to offer my rea- 
 fons how far this was efiential to that 
 form of government. It is certain no wife 
 ftate, or fcarce any other, would depend 
 upon Treaties, made with a government 
 fo conftituted, upon any other foot, and 
 fuch were ever accounted the king's 
 leagues, and not the people's. 
 
 THE power committed to one or more 
 perfons to make Treaties, is a truft given 
 for the public advantage : but if the per- 
 fons fo entrufted, combine with thofe 
 they negociate with, to betray the intereft 
 of their principals, or to ferve any intereft 
 different from theirs, the fame is a breach 
 of this high truft, and void of itfelf, they 
 having no fuch powers committed to 
 them. If king Charles the firft had, as 
 he was charged (I hope unjuftly) entered 
 into a Treaty with the duke of Lorrain, 
 for troops to infult his people : or, if the 
 
 late.
 
 26 TREATIES. 
 
 late king James had agreed with his bro- 
 ther of France for twenty thoufand men, 
 to bring popery and flavery upon us, will 
 any one fay, that England would have 
 been bound by thefe Treaties made againft 
 themfelves ? If the general of an army is 
 conftituted a plenipotentiary, with full 
 powers to conclude his principals, and he 
 fhould fign a Treaty, by virtue of which, 
 the ftate he contracts with, is to affift him 
 in making himfelf prince over his ma- 
 fters ; is this Treaty a valid Treaty ? 
 
 SUCH as is the conftitution of any coun- 
 try, fuch muft be all the powers which 
 are derived from it , and confequently all 
 powers which are inconfiftent with the na- 
 ture of it, and which would deflroy that 
 conftitution, muft be void in themfelves. 
 If in old Rome, for inftance, where the 
 fovereignty was divided between the lords 
 and commons, the lords had figned a 
 league with any foreign ftate, concerted 
 and intended for their own obvious advan- 
 4 tage
 
 TREATIES. 127 
 
 tage and feparate grandeur, and for the 
 depreffion, deftruction, or apparent difad- 
 vantage of the commons i or if their pa- 
 trician dictators or confuls had figned it ; 
 What would the plebeians have faid to 
 fuch a Treaty ? Undoubtedly they womcl 
 have told the authors of it, that they v.cre 
 trufted to make Treaties for the publ c 
 advantage, and not for their own ; and 
 that capital punifhment was the propereft 
 recompence for fuch capital treachery : 
 and probably they would have told the 
 ftate treated with, that, inftead of con- 
 cluding the old war, they had given a 
 juft provocation for a new, by combining 
 with their fervants, and corrupting them. 
 Agreeably to this fpirit, they acted to- 
 wards thofe generals of theirs, who, hav- 
 ing fuffered themlelves to be furprize^l and 
 befet by the enemy, at a pafs, made an ig- 
 nominious Treaty of peace for themfelves, 
 by which the Roman army was obliged to 
 pafs, difarmed, under a gallows. The 
 Romans were fo far from thinking them- 
 felves
 
 2& TREATIES, 
 
 felvcs bound by this infamous Treaty, that 
 they delivered up to the enemy the fhame- 
 lefs and cowardly authors of it, and went 
 on with the war, and did juftice, by this 
 conduct, both to themfelves and their ene- 
 mies. An example fit for all wife nations 
 to follow. 
 
 I WOULD not furmife, that Treaties, 
 which feem to be folemnly made, ought 
 to be broken upon light pretences. For 
 when proper negociators are fairly chofen, 
 and make ufe of their beft difcretion to 
 ferve their prince and country, and yet 
 are over-reached by the addrefs and fubtle- 
 ty of thofe they negociate with, it would 
 be abfnrd to fay, that a nation mould fly 
 off from its engagements upon no better 
 pretence. But if the power of a ftate 
 fhould get into hands, that carried all 
 things by caballing, that employed none 
 in its councils or negotiations, but fuch 
 as were pre-engaged to act with them up- 
 on any terms ; that fhould afterwards 
 make pocket-leagues, apparently againft 
 
 the
 
 TREATIES. 29 
 
 the intereft of that ftate, or without any 
 view to its intereft, and then keep them 
 in hugger-mugger, to defend themfelves, 
 and juftify unwarrantable actions, by pro- 
 ducing them upon occafion : and if this 
 too mould happen in a ftate, fo confti- 
 tuted as before , as for example, in Po- 
 land, where all leagues that bind them, 
 ought to be entered upon record, that 
 every perfon whatfoever, at leaft every 
 perfon trufted with the fafety of the coun- 
 try, may have ready accefs to them 5 and 
 yet thofe, who made them, mould refufe 
 or decline to (hew them, or ufe any arts 
 to evade mewing them , I fay, in fuch 
 a cafe as this, What ought to be thought 
 of fuch leagues ? Are they to be confirm- 
 ed, or ought fuch leagues, and fuch league- 
 makers, to have another fort of fate ? 
 Ought they to be thought Treaties between 
 nation and nation, or a combination of 
 traitors ? And mall they make their crime 
 their reafon and defence j and tell their 
 principals that, becaufe they are made 
 
 knavilh-
 
 #f T R E A T I E S. 
 
 knavimly, they ought therefore to be N 
 kept faithfully. 
 
 TREATIES are laws of friendfhip, and 
 mutual advantages between nation and 
 nation, whilft their intereft continues the 
 fame, and whilft the benefits they receive 
 from each other, are greater than the dan- 
 gers they apprehend ; as municipal laws 
 are treaties between fubject and fubjecl, 
 and between magiftrate and fubjecl:, for 
 the mutual fupport and convenience of 
 themfelves and of each other. And as free 
 ftates make laws for their own, that is, 
 the general advantage ; fo they make pub- 
 lic treaties, by the fame rule, for the pub- 
 lic good. Arbitrary princes, indeed, who 
 make laws for themfelves, againft their 
 fubjefts, make treaties with the fame 
 view, and keep them private, or make 
 them public, as they think fit ; and no 
 other can be expected from thofe fort of 
 governors, who live in a (late of hoftility 
 with their own people : but, in a free 
 
 country,
 
 TREATIES. 31 
 
 country, where the meafures of equity 
 and common fenfe are obferved, and where 
 the fubjects are bound by nothing but 
 known law, it is a monftrous infult upon 
 them, a bold denial of their liberty, and 
 robbing them of their birth-right, to in- 
 volve them in dangerous and chargeable 
 Treaties, of which they know nothing, 
 and from which they can only reap lofles 
 and expence. This is to execute laws be- 
 fore they are publilhed, and to draw a na- 
 tion, by the means of its own power and 
 money, into a fnare againft itfelf ; it is 
 a ready way to make a nation weak enough, 
 and a government ftrong enough to feize 
 its liberties. 
 
 To truft any perfons with making 
 Treaties, and acting in purfuance of them, 
 without telling what they are, is as abfurd 
 and dangerous as trufting them with great 
 fums of money, without knowing why; 
 nay; it is much the fame thing. Every 
 one knows, that one of the greateft proofs 
 
 and
 
 3 z TREATIES. 
 
 and barriers of public liberty, is the peo- 
 ple's holding their own purfe, and open- 
 ing it as they fee caufe, for their own pro- 
 tection and fecurity ; but if they give 
 their money blindfold, it may as well, 
 and indeed more probably, be employed 
 againft them, as for them. Nor is it 
 enough to tell them, that fuch a fum is 
 to make good fuch a Treaty, if they know 
 nothing of that Treaty, or if that Treaty 
 is nothing to them. A court may, with 
 the fame art and modefty, afk them for 
 two millions extraordinary, and tell them 
 it is all for their protection ; and then raife 
 an arrriy of an hundred thoufand men to 
 protect them accordingly. 
 
 THE nature of Treaties, as well as all 
 other laws, calls for their being made 
 public, elfe they look more like Confpira- 
 cies than Treaties ; and two courts, under 
 the equivocal and fallacious name of a 
 Treaty, may be engaged, and have been 
 engaged, in black defigns, to enflave their 
 
 own
 
 TREATIES. $$ 
 
 own people as well as their neighbours ; 
 and then indeed they have very great rea- 
 fon for making a very great fecret of thefe 
 their public tranfac"lions. But firft to 
 make a public Treaty, for the good of 
 a nation, and then keep it a fecret, for 
 fear of the nation, is a contradiction that 
 argues great guilt. 
 
 WHEN a Treaty is made evidently for 
 the honour and advantage of a nation, it 
 is evidently for the honour and advantage 
 of thofe who make it, to render it as pub- 
 lic as they can. When men deferve well 
 of a nation, they do not ufe to be afraid 
 of receiving its thanks j but when they 
 have wronged, facrificed, or betrayed it, 
 it is as natural to cover their deeds, as 
 far as they can, with darknefs. It is cer- 
 tain, nothing concerns a nation more, than 
 to know its own Treaties, by which it 
 muft reap fo much good or evil. The 
 pretence of keeping them a fecret, from 
 foreign nations, is a jeft, after they are 
 D made,
 
 5 4 TREATIES. 
 made, who will have an hundred ways to 
 know them ; and to keep them a fecree 
 from the nation, who is bound by them, 
 and is to execute them, is fomething for 
 which we cannot find a name bad enough 
 in language. What mail we fay of Trea- 
 ties, which would coft a nation ten or 
 twelve millions, for purpofes, which could 
 never have brought ten groats to that na- 
 nation , but, on the contrary, very pro- 
 bably, peril ? What (hall we fay of king 
 Charles the fecond's Treaties with his 
 brother of France, which fo aggrandized 
 that haughty monarch, that all Europe 
 could not fecure themfelves from his ufur- 
 pations and defigns, but at the expence of 
 a war, which has almoft bankrupt all 
 Europe. Thefe bleifed Treaties, mod of 
 -them fecret ones, have coft England, in 
 particular, near an hundred millions of 
 money, too much of it yet unpaid, but 
 hanging, like a terrible cfoud, over our 
 heads, and threatening .us with ruin. I 
 hope this dreadful inftance, fo well known 
 
 to
 
 TREATIES. 35 
 
 *o every body, will prove a fufficient 
 example and warning to us. 
 
 IF it is the bufinefs of one nation to 
 watch the fteps and behaviour of another, 
 to be acquainted with its interefts and 
 views, and to difcover every Treaty it 
 makes, I think every nation ought, with 
 greater reafon, to be made acquainted 
 with the Treaties made in its behalf with 
 other nations, and Treaties to be executed 
 at its own expence. Even England has 
 paid very dear for clandefline Treaties, 
 and had like to have paid (till dearer, 
 even her religion and liberties, for fecret 
 combinations, or Treaties, made between 
 her governors and thole of France and 
 Rome. 
 
 A FREE people, while they truft their 
 fervants to propofe proper Treaties for 
 them, muft ftill referve a right to them- 
 felves, to judge afterwards whether they 
 are proper Treaties or no, and to receive 
 Dz or
 
 %6 TREATIES. 
 
 or reject them accordingly ; and no mi- 
 niiler, confcious of his own duty and in- 
 nocence, but will ftand the public judg- 
 ment ; and whoever denies to do fo, de- 
 nies his own innocence, and becomes ob- 
 noxious to public difpleafure and enquiry. 
 
 IT is therefore the intereft and duty 
 of every nation, when any amongft them 
 would draw them into wild and chimeri- 
 cal wars, upon pretence of Treaties made 
 without their knowledge, or againft their 
 intereft and confent, to value them only 
 as wafte paper, and to tell the contractors 
 roundly, that no Treaty can be made in 
 behalf of any ftate, without taking in the 
 interefts of that ftate -, and that if it does 
 not, it is nudum pattum, a blank Treaty, 
 or rather a confpiracy againft that ftate -, 
 that the authors and advifers ought to be 
 delivered up, or punifhed at home, and 
 and the partial and treacherous contract 
 declared void. 
 
 i No
 
 TREATIES. 37 
 
 No country ever did, or ever can, 
 give a power to act againft the appa- 
 rent intereft of that country; and even 
 Treaties, made with the utmoft circum- 
 fpection, and founded upon the beft rea- 
 fons, muft ceafe, when thofe reafons 
 ceafe ; otherwife all treaties muft fubfift 
 to the end of the world. Treaties may 
 wear out, and die, as well as every thing 
 elfe in nature. If England, for example, 
 enters into a league offenfive and defen- 
 five with Spain, Will any man fay, that 
 that Treaty ought to fubfift, if France 
 and Italy fall into the hands of Spain ? 
 The power and intereft of empires are 
 perpetually floating; and every Treaty 
 with any of them has this tacit condition 
 annexed to its continuance,, namely, that 
 the feveral interefts of each, continue in 
 the fame fituation, or, at leaft, that they 
 ^e not directly different. 
 
 I HAVE heard of a country, where a 
 
 fubject grew in great favour and autho- 
 
 D 3 rity,
 
 3 S TREATIES, 
 
 rity, by rummaging fuccefsfully for old 
 dead Treaties, amongft duft and worms. 
 It feems he at laft found one for his pur- 
 pofe, but fuch a one as neither he, nor 
 any body elfe, durft advife the making of 
 at that time : but I humbly conceive, he 
 and his Treaty ought to have been com- 
 mitted together, to duft and worms again. 
 
 lam, Sir, 
 
 Tours, &c. 
 
 ESSAY
 
 [ 393 
 
 S S A Y III. 
 
 On ELECTIONS. 
 
 S i R, 
 
 NO fubject, at prefent, fills the mouths 
 of all parties, and of all men in all 
 parties, fo much as frequent parliaments, 
 frequent Elections of thofe parliaments, 
 and to have the Elections free, unbiaffed, 
 and incorrupt : and, without doubt, the 
 liberty, the happinefs, and fecurity of all 
 England, as well as every man's private 
 property, depends upon thefe firfl princi- 
 ples of all good government. But it is 
 of no confequence who are elected, or 
 how they are elected, if the choice, when 
 fairly made, is not to be valid ; or if one 
 part of thofe who are chofen, or perhaps 
 D 4 not
 
 46 ELECTIONS. 
 
 not chofen, but only returned, fhall choofe 
 over again the others : this ftrikes at the 
 fundamentals of liberty , and, inftead of 
 calling together the reprefentatives of a 
 free nation, to fpeak the fenfe of the 
 whole, and act for their general intereft, 
 fubjects their fate to be determined by a 
 cabal, or a party faction, under the direc- 
 tion of the worft men amongft them. 
 
 ALL parties, in their turns, have com- 
 plained of this enormous evil ; and I wifh 
 I could fay, that all parties too had not 
 given occafion to this complaint ; which, 
 I believe, no party have ever yet found 
 their account in, upon ballancing profit 
 snd lofs, -or ever will do, unlefs fuch who 
 intend to opprefs them all. It is high time, 
 therefore, to put an end to this dreadful 
 and threatning mifchief. Let not the 
 found of liberty be profaned any more by 
 thofe who would deitroy all liberty. Let 
 us not talk any more about corruption 
 amongft the inferior part of mankind, 
 
 and
 
 ELECTIONS. 41 
 
 and the many abufes differed by it, till 
 the fountains of all juftice are cleared 
 from corruption. Such as is the fpring's 
 head, fuch will be the ftream which flows 
 from it. 
 
 LET us mend ourfelves, and every 
 thing elfe will be mended of courfe : but 
 with what grace can any one complain of 
 want of juftice, who will do none ? Or 
 who, without contempt and indignation, 
 can hear an affected pretender to patriot- 
 ifm, hold forth upon public honefty, or, 
 indeed, any fort of honefty ; hear him ha- 
 rangue againft courtiers, flock-jobbers, 
 bribery, rapine, or any forts of corrup- 
 tion, whilft he himfelf is undermining 
 the foundations and pillars of fociety -, 
 and, perhaps, for fome petty and trifling 
 confideration, will deny to his fellow- 
 member, and to his country, common 
 juftice, and thereby render juftice itfelf, 
 (which is the only fupport of all govern- 
 ment)
 
 42 ELECTIONS. 
 
 ment) the tool and lacquey of ambition 
 and knavery. 
 
 THIS is an abufe that few men have 
 owned the defence of, and yet fewer have 
 endeavoured to remedy. But upon the 
 prefumption, or hopes, that the prevailing 
 parties in England, will fee a neceffity to 
 unite for their common intereft, and con- 
 fequently do to one another that juftice, 
 which they hope to receive j I mail offer 
 a few thoughts which would influence my 
 own refolutions, whatever effect they may 
 have upon other people's ; and will firft 
 obferve, that though no man, or body 
 of men, are, or can be, fo very great, 
 as to be above governing their actions by 
 the ftrict and impartial rules of honour 
 and juftice j yet, in all circumftances., 
 they are not alike obliged to direct them- 
 felves by the fame rules of evidence, and 
 of coming at that juftice. 
 
 THE
 
 ELECTIONS. 43 
 
 THE end of evidence is to know the 
 truth, and whatever will contribute to 
 Ihew the truth, is evidence ; though it 
 may be not be legal and regular evidence 
 in inferior courts, which are, and ought 
 to be, tied up by Uriel: and pofitive laws, 
 as well in refpect of the manner as the 
 reafons of their judgments ; and if any 
 inconvenience arifes from fuch reftrictions, 
 the legiflature will be at hand to remedy 
 it ; whereas, if they were left entirely 
 loofe, it is to be feared they would never 
 let bounds to themfelves. There is an 
 odd fort of maxim in law-books, and in 
 the mouths of many lawyers, viz. Boni 
 judicis eft ampliare jurifdiEtionem ; which 
 in Englifh, is, That it is the duty of a 
 pood judge to ufurp more authority than 
 he has a right to, and than the law gives 
 him. 
 
 BUT this is not the cafe of a houfe of 
 commons ; for in all circum fiances there 
 muft be a formal refource fomewhere. I 
 
 confefs,
 
 44 ELECTIONS. 
 
 confefs, it appears to me to be a folecifm 
 in politics, in the common determination 
 of property, to place it any where but in 
 the legiilature ; or, which is the fame 
 thing, in a power accountable to the le- 
 gidature ; there cannot be two omni- 
 potent powers in earth, any more than in 
 heaven ; and every power which is not fo, 
 muft be accountable to that which is ; for 
 a court which can judge of laws, by its 
 own authority, and without appeal, or 
 being anfwerable for their judgments, can 
 make laws. I dare fay his' holinefs will 
 afk no more of the chriftian world, than 
 to confent to allow him to be infallible .in- 
 terpreter of fcripture, and judge of what 
 is fcripture, and then it will be his own 
 fault if he does not make it a nofe of wax, 
 and to fignify what he pleafes. 
 
 THEREFORE, I conceive, it would be a 
 blunder in government, to make the houie 
 of commons the final judges of other 
 men's property j for that would be to 
 
 make
 
 ELECTIONS. 45 
 make part of the legiflature the whole le- 
 giflature, and would be inconfiftent withi 
 our fpecies of government; and confe- 
 quently, no prefcription could give them 
 a power which would deftroy the conftitu- 
 tion they acted under. And though they 
 might, for fome time, temporize witlj 
 the people's fears, and manage fuch a ju- 
 rifdiction with caution, till it was well 
 eftablifhed ; yet, from the nature of men, 
 and of power itfelf, our government mull 
 at laft centre in a democracy -, for all power 
 is of a growing nature, and men will al- 
 ways do what they can do, when they can 
 meet no reftraints, but what they put 
 upon themfelves. 
 
 BUT however abfurd, and inconfiftent 
 with our conflitution, it is for them to be 
 the laft judges of other men's property, 
 yet they muft be fole judges of their own 
 privileges, the orders of their houfe, the 
 legality of their Elections, and the righrs 
 of their members to fit, unlefs they fub- 
 
 jed
 
 46 ELECTIONS. 
 
 jec~t themfelves, and their being, to a de- 
 pendence upon collateral or inferior pow- 
 ers ; and as they are unaccountable to any- 
 regular authority for their judgments in 
 thefe matters, fo they are to judge only 
 by the general rules of good fenfe and ho- 
 nefty, and by fuch methods as they pre- 
 fcribe to themfelves, which is called lex 
 parliament aria. The eflential and feparate 
 privileges each houfe has, as a houfe, 
 muft be derived from the original confti- 
 tution of our government, and not from 
 pofitive laws made under that conftitu- 
 tion ; for there muft have been powers 
 qualified to make laws, before laws could 
 be made ; and if thofe powers mould 
 abufe their truft, and encroach upon one 
 another, there can be no regular authority 
 to determine between them, but they muft 
 recur to the firft principles of all govern- 
 ment ; nor can there be any provifion 
 againft this evil in mixt forms of fove- 
 reignty. 
 
 4. A LE-
 
 ELECTIONS. 4; 
 
 A LEGISLATIVE power, therefore, or, 
 Which is the fame thing, a power which 
 is the laft refource, and is accountable to 
 ho other, muft a<5l according to difcretion, 
 though they ought to take efpecial care 
 that their actions are difcreet and juft. 
 To apply this to the jurifdi&ion of the 
 houfe of commons, over their own mem- 
 bers, and, particularly, in relation to E- 
 leclions, it would be abfurd to fuppofe 
 they can be tied to any other rules than 
 good fenfe and integrity. They have, un- 
 doubtedly, a liberty to come at the truth, 
 by all means, which do not intrench upon 
 private men's rights : and fince fome peo- 
 ple tell us, that they are not allowed to 
 make ufe of the word of God, to deter 
 man from difobeying God (I confefs, I 
 cannot tell why) they are the more con- 
 cerned to think of all other methods 
 by which they can regulate their judg- 
 ments. 
 
 Now
 
 48 ELECTIONS. 
 
 Now it is moft certain, that a number 
 of concurring circumftances, tending to 
 prove one point, is a much (Ironger evi- 
 dence than the affirmation of one or two 
 men, efpecially when they cannot be fub- 
 jefted to the penalties of perjury, in which 
 confifts the efTence and terror of legal per- 
 jury , for, without doubt, a folemn affir- 
 mation is equally binding in confcience. 
 Every honeft man's word is his oath, and 
 muft be made in the pre fence of God, 
 whether he declares it fo or not ; and the 
 declaring what every one knows before, 
 does not add to the folemnity, unlefs a man 
 wants to be put in mind of it. 
 
 'Tis a misfortune to live in an age, 
 when we muft make ufe of diftinctions 
 about bribery, which, in any fhape, muft 
 appear deteftable to an honeft man, even 
 though he mould think it neceffary to his 
 country's fafety, to make ufe of it , but 
 it muft be obvious to all mankind, in the 
 prefent corrupt ftate of boroughs, if any 
 
 number
 
 ELECTIONS. 49 
 
 number of men have the means of getting 
 money enough, at any price, to bribe the 
 Electors to vote contrary to their inclina- 
 tions and their duty, and no gentlemen 
 have generofity and public fpirit enough, 
 to offer to them proper inducements to 
 make them vote according to them, that 
 one parliament may put an end to the free- 
 dom and profperity of England. 
 
 I HOPE foon to fee an end put to this 
 great and enormous grievance, which lub- 
 verts the foundations of all government, 
 and, if not remedied, mud foon caufe 
 its diiTolution ; but till fornething of this 
 kind can be done by the whole legislature 
 effectually, I conceive it to be, in fome 
 meafure, in the power of the houfe of 
 commons, to remedy a grievance, under 
 which the greatefl part of the gentlemen 
 of England fuffer, by being bought out 
 of their neighbouring boroughs, by cour- 
 tiers, company-men, brokers, or grocers, 
 and fuch like heroes , many of whom 
 E would
 
 50 ELECTIONS. 
 
 would find better employment in cheating 
 in the alley, or in their mops, than in 
 pretending to govern nations, which they 
 are wholly unqualified to do. 
 
 Now, as I have faid before, there are 
 many ways to come at the knowledge of 
 thefe corruptions, though pofitive witnef- 
 ies are wanting, and which carry in them 
 much ftronger proof than the affirmation 
 of fingle perfons. If, for example, a 
 man, whofe face is not known in any bo- 
 rough, or his name has never been heard 
 of there, but with deteftation, oppofes, 
 with fuccefs, a neighbouring gentleman, 
 of known reputation, character, and in- 
 tereft, this is prefumptive bribery, and 
 carries in itfelf much ftronger evidence 
 than ten pofitive witnefles ; and no honeft 
 man can lay his hand upon his heart, and 
 fay that he is not fatisfied, next to demon- 
 ftration, that fuch a man obtained his Elec- 
 tion by bribes or promifes.
 
 ELECTIONS. 51 
 
 IT is ridiculous to expeft farther evi- 
 dence, to prove a thing which proves it- 
 felf. If a man has no charafter, credit, 
 or fuitable fortune, to induce or enable 
 him to get into the houfe of commons, 
 and yet expends a great fum of money, 
 to obtain a feat there, it is plain, that he 
 intends corruption, muft have ufed cor- 
 ruption, and will endeavour to make his 
 reprizals upon the public. If the money 
 is his own, he will be paid it again, with 
 large intereft ; and, if it is not his own, 
 it is eafy to know, by knowing his patrons 
 and dependencies, whofe jobbs he is to 
 ferve, and who fet him to work. Afk, 
 Cut bono ? that is, who is to receive bene- 
 fit, befides himfelf, by his unfeafonable 
 zeal ? and you will know who gave him 
 the money, and for what reafons he 
 gave it. 
 
 I mall take the liberty, therefore, to 
 
 make the fame diftinctions here, about 
 
 bribery, as the lawyers ufe about killing 
 
 2 a man.
 
 52 ELECTIONS. 
 
 a man. If one kills another, unprovok- 
 ed, it is murther, and the murtherer is 
 hanged. If two quarrel together, and 
 one is {lain, it is manflaughter in the fur- 
 vivor, and he is burnt in the hand : but 
 if one man kills another, to prevent his 
 killing him, it is fe defendendo, and the 
 manflayer is acquitted : So a man, who is 
 guilty of voluntary and unprovoked bri- 
 bery, ought to be caft out of the houfe 
 with fhame and indignation, and the 
 other's Election declared good. If two 
 men engage in a bribing-match, viz. who 
 fhall offer moft, the Election ought to 
 be void, and neither ought to take ad- 
 vantage of the other's corruption, 
 
 BUT if a country gentleman propofes 
 to {land upon his natural intereft and me- 
 rit, in a borough, and, perhaps, is called 
 thither by the voice of the people, and 
 the country round, and yet, if the awe 
 and apprehenfions of his virtue and fteddy 
 refolutions, to oppofe all corruption, mail 
 
 animate
 
 ELECTIONS. 53 
 
 animate and provoke public oppreflbrs to 
 oppofe him, and to bribe the Electors 
 from their inclinations and their intereft, 
 then, I think, if this gentleman, at his 
 own expence, will endeavour to fecure art 
 intereft, which he had, at firft, without 
 any, and which he ftill wiflies to be his, 
 with no other view, but to ferve his 
 country, and difappoint thofe who hav 
 no other view but to betray it ; I fay then, 
 if this is bribery, it is bribery fe defen- 
 dendo ; and I mall always think myfelf at 
 liberty to call it excufeable, if not com- 
 mendable bribery ; for it would be a 
 flrange flory, if any fet of men mould be 
 fuffered, by outrageous and exorbitant 
 bribery, to drive all the gentlemen of 
 England into great expences, to qualify 
 themfelves to ferve the public, and hinder 
 others from ruining it, and then to Jet 
 them take advantage, from thofe expences, 
 to hinder them from doing fo. 
 
 E 3 WHEN
 
 54 ELECTIONS. 
 
 WHEN Caefar joined his intereft with 
 L. Luceius, to obtain the confulate againft 
 Bibulus, and was determined to carry it, 
 the only way he could carry it, viz. by 
 bribery, the great men and fenators of 
 Rome, refolved to oppofe him with the 
 fame weapon, as knowing well the def- 
 perate defigns of that parricide againft the 
 commonwealth, Ac flerique pecunias con- 
 tulerunt, ne Catone quidem abnuente illam 
 largitionem ea republic a feri, fays Sueto- 
 nius. ' The nobles raifed large fums out 
 of their own fortunes, even Cato himfelf 
 contributing his lhare, to ferve the re^ 
 public, and fave his country. 
 
 / am, Sir, 
 
 Tours, &c. 
 
 ESSAY
 
 L 55 J 
 
 E S S A Y IV. 
 
 On CONTROVERTED ELECTIONS. 
 
 S i R, 
 
 I ME AN to confider, in this paper, one 
 branch of parliamentary juftice, that 
 of hearing undue returns, and making 
 void unjuft Elections ; and I do it the 
 more chearfully, becaufe the prefent par- 
 liament has already, given proofs of emi- 
 nent candour and impartiality that way, 
 beyond any pad parliament that I can re- 
 member. 
 
 COMMITTEES of Elections have been 
 
 commonly called committees of Affections; 
 
 and the members often went to them with 
 
 E 4 their
 
 5 6 CONTROVERTED 
 their votes in their mouths, not to hear 
 and be convinced, but to determine. The 
 iuftice of the caufe, and their own opinion, 
 were out of the queftion j they found it 
 agreeable to their directors, to turn out 
 one man, right or wrong, and bring in 
 another, by the fame meafures ; a com- 
 mand, or a nod, or a hint, fuperfeded 
 their faculties j and their place, or their 
 pay, or their hopes, left them not free 
 agents. I have fometimes confidered 
 them as puppets, pulled backwards and 
 forwards, and contrary ways, by a ftring, 
 guided by a hand which every one knew, 
 though nobody faw it ; and when I have 
 feen them renouncing their underftanding, 
 and all honefty, and making flourimes, 
 and uttering fpeeches, which contradicted 
 both, I could not help imagining, that I 
 beheld a great man's hands bufily em- 
 ployed in managing the wires, and go- 
 verning the motion of the machines. At 
 other times I have compared them to 
 \vind-inftruments, which founded, or were 
 
 filent,
 
 ELECTIONS. 7 
 
 filent, juft as the matter blowed into 
 them ; and have heard them utter at 
 night, the breath with which he had rilled 
 and endowed them in the morning. In 
 another view, they have Teemed to me, a 
 band of armed mercenaries, fighting or 
 retreating, wounding or giving quarter, 
 at the word of command ; falling upon 
 friend and foe, without knowing the caufc 
 of quarrel, venturing their lives and their 
 fouls for fo much a day, invading for pay, 
 and befieging for plunder, and going up- 
 on the moft defperate attack, for piftoles 
 and fair promifes. 
 
 THESE gentlemen did not feem to 
 know their own value, or rather valued 
 themfelves at no more than they were 
 really worth , a way of judging by no 
 means natural, nor indeed much prac- 
 tifed. They mould have at lead capitulated 
 for two or three days of liberty, during 
 a whole feffion of fervitude, or rather for 
 a propriety in their own fouls and confci- 
 4 ences,
 
 5 S CONTROVERTED 
 
 ences, one day in feven. It was a con- 
 feflion that a man was little worth, when, 
 in the difpofal of himfelf, he muft either 
 lofe his price, or make no referve of 
 body, mind, or integrity, in any inftance, 
 but go roundly into the chain, and wear it 
 without grumbling. Now it would have 
 been a greater proof of their importance, 
 if they would have preferved ever fo 
 fmall a mare of their fpirit, free for their 
 own ufe, and that of their friends : an 
 independent action, now and then, would 
 have done them credit, and left them at 
 leaft a pretence to fay that they were fui 
 juris, and their followers of their own 
 opinion. But to fell all, even to the very 
 breath that they blowed, and to be ready, 
 at all calls, to fay, and fign, and fwear, 
 and to forfwear, counterfign, and unfay, 
 in ftrict conformity to the word and poli- 
 tics of the day, was a feverer bondage, 
 and much more mameful and comprehen- 
 five, than that of the oar ; and, in truth, 
 ought to have ended in it, 
 
 BUT,
 
 ELECTIONS. 59 
 BUT, with pleafure I fay it, we have 
 now a parliament of another ftamp and 
 genius , a parliament zealous to fupport 
 the court, without forgetting that they 
 reprefent their country ; a necefiary and 
 reafonable diftinction, which all parlia- 
 ments have not made j but, on the con- 
 trary, fome of them have unnaturally op- 
 prefied the fubject, by ferving the falfe 
 interefts of the crown, and by tamely 
 complying with its enormous demands. 
 
 THIS temperate and impartial fpirit in 
 this parliament, gives us an agreeable af- 
 furance, that as in all other things, fo 
 particularly in the bufmefs of petitions, 
 they will hear equitably, and determine 
 juftly. They will confider themfelves in 
 the fituation of judges, who ought to be 
 diverted of all pafilons, but for truth and 
 equal juftice, and come prepared to hear 
 evidence, without a bias to this man's 
 name, or that man's intereft : or, if there 
 be any partiality, it ought to go no fur- 
 ther
 
 o CONTROVERTED 
 
 thrr than wilhes, that the beft man may 
 
 have the beft caufe. 
 
 WHILE they are examining difputed 
 Elections, a matter of the greateft mo- 
 ment is before them ; not only the cafes 
 of particular men, and the privileges of 
 particular boroughs, to which, however, 
 all juftice is due, and every juft man will 
 do it, but their judgment upon particular 
 men, may affect all men ; and their deter- 
 mining the rights of fingle towns, may 
 eftablifh or deftroy the rights of England. 
 
 INJUSTICE is not to be done, even to 
 criminals -, and, perhaps, there is more 
 mifchief and danger to be apprehended 
 from doing violence, to an obnoxious 
 man, than to a man perfectly unexception- 
 able, whom every man will be ready to 
 defend and take part with ; but while the 
 moft, or the beft, are indifferent how an 
 ill man is ufed, a precedent is made, and 
 a gap is opened, toufe all men ill. The 
 
 word
 
 ELECTIONS. 61 
 
 worft men have a right to be ufed well, 
 in inftances where they do no ill. A pick- 
 pocket is not to be punifhed as a rebel ; 
 and it is murder in any private man, to 
 kill a murderer, unlefs for felf-defence. 
 
 FOR a houfe of commons to expel a 
 man, becaufe fome, or the mod, or even 
 all of them, do not like him, would be 
 as manifeft injuftice as to take away his 
 life, or his eftate, which they may think 
 another deferves better. 
 
 IT is an alarming precedent of corrup- 
 tion and partiality, to inferior tribunals, 
 to fee the firft and the higheft, act par- 
 tially, wantonly, and corruptly : and the 
 laws are like to be but negligently execu- 
 ted, or rather fadly perverted, when thofe 
 who make them, act againft them. If 
 bad examples, in the loweft life, are but 
 too catching and diffu five, how fatal and 
 univerfal mud be their influence, when 
 they come from the directors of the public 
 
 in
 
 62 CONTROVERTED, etc. 
 
 in the face of the public ? when they 
 who govern all men's aflions, do them- 
 felves the moft abandoned actions , and 
 they who make laws againft opprefiion, 
 are, even in their Jegifiative capacity, 
 opprefibrs ? It is an old obfervation, That 
 when the fountain is muddy, the ftreams 
 Cannot be pure. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Tours, &c. 
 
 ESSAY
 
 [63 3 
 
 ESSAY V. 
 
 On OFFICES and CORRUPTION. 
 
 S i R, 
 
 IT is a pretty amufcmcnt, in difcourfes 
 about morality and juftice, to talk of 
 the virtue of former times, and of the 
 degeneracy and corruption of our own. 
 Such fpeculations do well fill the mouths 
 of preceptors, and the harangues of ora- 
 tors, and fall, properly, from the pens of 
 poets and efiay-writers : but wife men 
 will know, that mankind are always the 
 fame in the fame circumftances ; and, if 
 they are more virtuous in one age, or in 
 one country, than in another, it is owing 
 to the different relations they ftand in to- 
 wards each other. It is certain fact, that 
 2 in
 
 6 4 OFFICES AND 
 
 in all times, and countries, almofl every 
 one will purfue what appears to him to be 
 his own intereft, and make all others fub- 
 fervient to it, if he can. Here, there- 
 fore, is the fingle reafon of entering into 
 fociety, which is a common agreement to 
 preferve mutual interefts : and if any 
 man, or any number of men, can find 
 leparate advantages, in abufing the reft of 
 the fame fociety, common experience 
 mews us that, for the moft part, they 
 will ever purfue them ; and honour, con- 
 fcience, and public good, will either fig- 
 nify nothing at all, or only what he or 
 they mall pleafe to make them fignify. 
 Power fanclifies all meafures ; and as the 
 ftrongeft will give the laws of right and 
 wrong, the weakeft muft fubmit to them , 
 and in fubmitting to them, will, by de- 
 grees, think them juft, or, at leaft, not 
 dare to fay the contrary. 
 
 LIBERTY was never better underftood, 
 nor could have more pretended advocates 
 
 for
 
 CORRUPTION. 65 
 
 for it, than when the Romans loft theirs: 
 every party had it in their mouths, and 
 were as ready to defend itagainft others, 
 as to take it away themfelves. It accom- 
 plifhed oratory, excellent difcourfes, ex- 
 prefs laws, and a few bold patriots, could 
 have defended it, it had been defended : 
 but the public treafure had got into the 
 hands, or under the direction of a few 
 men; and with that treafure they corrupt- 
 ed fome, and enflaved all : and it is foo- 
 lifh to hope that men, when they have 
 money enough to give, will not give it 
 for their own advantage, and get others 
 to take it upon their own terms. Csefar 
 might have held forth long enough, upon 
 the fervices which he had done to the 
 common-wealth, upon the jufcice of his 
 caufe, and upon the injuries received from 
 Pompey, if he had not had the plunder of 
 Gaul, and the public money to have 
 backed his pretenfions. He knew himfclf 
 a violent traitor, and therefore bribed e- 
 very confiderable man in the city, and 
 F fenatc
 
 66 'OFFICES AND 
 
 fenate of Rome, and was every year brib- 
 ing them, not to call him to an account 
 for his outragious rapine and abufe of po- 
 wer ; and at length having long prepared 
 his way by a courfe of unprecedented cor- 
 ruption and exceffes, for many years, he 
 laid violent hands at once upon Rome, 
 and the world. There is no argument fo 
 heavy and convincing as a purfe of gold, 
 which, as blunt as it is, will make its way 
 through towns and afiemblies, and pene- 
 trate into cabinets, and into flubborn as 
 well as into tender confciences. 
 
 LAWS can fignify nothing, unlefs they 
 are executed ; nor, as I have faid once al- 
 ready, will they ever be executed, uniefs 
 thofe intruded with them have an intereil 
 in their execution. People are never the 
 better for having a right, if they cannot 
 corae at that right ; and they are never to 
 truft it in the power of thofe, who have 
 an intereft to take it away. Who will put 
 a fword into the hands of a known aflaffin, 
 
 and
 
 CORRUPTION. 67 
 
 and then preach to him againft the wick- 
 ednefs of committing murther ? or, what 
 virtuous lady will deliver herfelf into the 
 power of a ravifher, and depend upon 
 her intreaties and tears to avoid vio- 
 lence ? 
 
 BUT, bleflfed be God, this is not our cafe, 
 for where is there a man amongft us, who is 
 not an advocate for general liberty ? the 
 courtiers mean nothing elfe : the whigs 
 and tories accufe one another with want of 
 zeal for the publick good, or with not 
 having enough of it ; and even the Jaco- 
 bites fay they mean the fame thing by en- 
 deavouring to bring in the pretender. And 
 fure, when there is fo favourable and uni- 
 verfal a difpofition towards liberty, fafe 
 muft be the word, and we can be in no 
 danger of lofing fo precious a jewel, when 
 every party is determined to defend it : 
 and if it mould appear, after all, that we 
 are not altogether fo fafe, as fo much vir- 
 tue ought to make us, we have this com- 
 F 2 fort
 
 68 'OFFICES AND 
 
 fort left, that we are allured that thefe 
 feveral fets of patriots will unanimoufly 
 concur in all further meafures neceflary to 
 make us fo. 
 
 Thefe meafures fhall be the fubject 
 of this paper. It is certain, that many 
 attempts have been made in former 
 reigns, againft the liberties of England, 
 but the undertakers went prepofteroufly 
 to work. 
 
 Firft they would bribe us without pence, 
 Deceive us without common fenfe, 
 And without power enflave. 
 
 Sometimes they hoped to win us with 
 pulpit oratory, and univerfity diftindion ; 
 fometimes by party animofities, and by 
 playing thefe parties upon one another : 
 often by the corruptions of Weftminfter- 
 hall; often by bluftering and bullying; 
 once or twice by getting together troops 
 without money to pay them ; at other 
 
 times
 
 C O R R U P T I O N. 69 
 
 times by wheedling us and telling us, it 
 was for our good to be enflaved, and by 
 calling all thofe who had no fancy to it, 
 Republicans ; and in order to render that 
 fort of government odious, they chriftened 
 all defigns and attempts to make the 
 people happy, and to fecure the rights 
 they were born to, by the name of a 
 common-wealth, or the fpirit of a com- 
 mon-wealth : and then, that their hands 
 might not be looked into, whilft they 
 were playing this worthy game, they have 
 declined to call parliaments for years to- 
 gether , and fo they thought they might 
 rule unmolefted. 
 
 BUT all thefe were the doughty fchemes 
 of fhallow politicians j for, men will not 
 be long prated, and diftinguimed, and 
 bullied out of their fenfes and eftates. 
 Parties will at laft understand one another 
 and unite againft their common enemies. 
 Judges are tied up to known rules, and, 
 when ihey tranfgrefs them, caufe univerfal 
 F 3 refent-
 
 70 OFFICES AND 
 
 refentment. Impotent threats create only 
 jeft and laughter : troops will not fight 
 without pay, and they muft get a fort of 
 eftablifhment, before they will have gal- 
 lantry enough to force it. Good words 
 will buy no bargains , nor will people 
 think it their intereft ttfbe undone. The 
 word Common-wealth has been found out 
 to fighify the common benefit , and the 
 people of England have thought that their 
 own government, when duly adminiflered, 
 provided better for it, than any other tfiat 
 they knew -, and always refufed to pay any 
 taxes, but what were given by parliament ; 
 or paid them fo unwillingly, that the 
 court was never the better for them, fince 
 it wanted power to force them effectually. 
 So that all thefe methods have proved in- 
 effectual, and have produced new privi- 
 leges to the people, and new reftraints 
 upon their governors, who never under- 
 mined the root of liberty, but they made 
 it thrive the better, by jogging and open- 
 ing 'the ground, and letting in the fun 
 
 and
 
 CORRUPTION. 71 
 
 and refrefhing (bowers upon its fibres, and 
 by given hints and opportunities to better 
 eitablifh it. 
 
 BUT after many vain and fruitlefs ef- 
 forts, the ax was laid at laft to the root of 
 the tree. The whole people of England 
 were found too many to be deceived or 
 corrupted, nor could the majority of them 
 be made to confpire againft themfelves; 
 but being too many alfo to meet together, 
 and take care of their own affairs, they 
 have been obliged by their confcitution to 
 truft the fame to thehonefty and direction 
 of a few : and it was found much eafier 
 to corrupt thefe few, than to perfuade, de- 
 ceive, or frighten all. Our governors, fome 
 ages fmce, had not found out the fecret 
 of bribing the people's reprefentatives, 
 with the people's money, nor had they -e- 
 nough of their own to do it ; but that dif- 
 covery was referved for the reiteration of 
 king Charles the fecond, whofe minifters 
 made the parliament, their jackalls to hunt 
 F 4 down
 
 72 OFFICES AND 
 
 down the lion's prey, only for the pick- 
 ing of the bones. This coft the court no- 
 thing, but got for them a great (landing 
 revenue, and frequent and exorbitant fup- 
 plies, a fmall part of which, thefe worthy 
 patriots had for betraying their principals, 
 even all the people of England ; and the 
 reft was given to the court-ladies, pock- 
 eted by the minifters, or fpent to keep 
 up troops, and in other projects further 
 to enflave the people, who paid the whole 
 reckoning, we may be fure. 
 
 IT is a great blefiing to thefe poor nati- 
 ons, that this dreadful pradice is not now 
 followed: but fmce human affairs are fub- 
 je<5r, to perpetual rotation and everlafting 
 viciflitude, we ought to take all advan- 
 tages in a good reign, to hinder the mif- 
 chiefs, which may happen in a bad , and 
 I think I may venture to fay, that there is 
 no way in nature, to hinder one fort of 
 men from giving money, and another 
 from taking it, but by letting them have 
 
 none
 
 CORRUPTION. 7? 
 
 none to give or take ; or by appropriating 
 it in fuch a manner, and annexing fuch 
 difficulties to the difpofal, that no one will 
 dare to offer it, or to take it when 'tis 
 offered ; and all who do not hope to get 
 any of it, will certainly, if they have any 
 wit, join in meafures to hinder others from 
 getting it, who have no more right to 
 expect it, than they themfelves have. 
 
 I SHOULD be very glad if gentlemen, bet- 
 ter verfed in this fort of traffick, who have 
 formerly gained great experience in the 
 fcience of difpofing of the publick money 
 ufefully, and at prefent have the ill luck 
 to get none for thernfelves, would afiift us 
 under our prefent difficulties, and fhevv 
 the world, that they know how to Hive their 
 country, as well as how to ruin it. But 
 for fear, that we may be fo unfortunate 
 as not to have the advantage of their fkill 
 and acquired knowledge, I mall offer my 
 own thoughts, for want of better, how, in 
 fome meafure, to prevent this great evil. 
 
 I HUM-
 
 74 OFFICES AND 
 
 I HUMBLY propofe, that all public 
 money hereafter given fhould be ftricliy 
 appropriated to the ufes for which it is 
 given, and that a flanding committee be 
 regularly appointed (of which no mem- 
 ber to have a place, or 'a penfion) to en- 
 quire, whether it has been difpofed of 
 accordingly. 
 
 NEXT I offer, with all fubmifllon, that 
 it be a capital crime, for any perfon to give 
 to a member of the houfe of commons, 
 or for any member to receive, any pen- 
 fion, gratuity, or reward from the crown, 
 or from any perfon acting under the crown, 
 or the miniflry, or employed by them, 
 directly or indirectly, unlefs the faid pen- 
 fion, &c. be entered, within fo many 
 days, in a publick office, (there named) 
 to which every perfon may have refort ; 
 or for any perfon to give^ or take any 
 .office or penfion, in truft for another, 
 or to pay any part of it to another, with- 
 out entering the fame as before i and eve- 
 ry
 
 CORRUPTION. 75 
 
 ry perfon difcovering, and making full 
 proof, to have his pardon, and to hold the 
 faid office, fo purchafed or procured, qiiam- 
 diu fe bene gefferit. 
 
 THIRDLY, that it mall be capital for 
 any perfon, or perfons, to take a fum of 
 money, gratuity, or promife, in order to 
 obtain, or to ufe their intereil to obtain, 
 any office, or preferment from the 
 crown, or from any officer or minifter 
 afling under it, with a proper reward for 
 difcovery. 
 
 WHETHER any thing like this will 
 meet the approbation of wifer men, I can- 
 not be a competent judge; but I have 
 fome private reafons to fufpect fnrewdly, 
 that I have not offered a toothfome expe- 
 dient : however, fuch as it is, you have it, 
 and if people will not come into it, we 
 can eafily guefs why. And indeed, with my 
 weak underftanding, I cannot find one 
 reafon, why any man who defigns to take 
 4 no
 
 76 O F F I C E S A N D 
 
 no money, but what he may own, fliould 
 decline to own it ; nor can I fee how ho- 
 ned miniflers can fuffer by being hindered 
 from doing what they ought not to do. 
 If there fhould be occafion to t,ud any 
 member of the houfe of commons, with a 
 fum of money for fecret ferviccs ; this 
 provifion will neither hinder thofe fervices, 
 nor difcover what they are , and if, by dif- 
 covering the perfon employed, there fliould 
 be any danger of pointing out what he is 
 to do, there are able men enough in the 
 kingdom to be found out without the doors 
 of St. Stephen's chapel ; and I dare fay 
 thofe within will have employment left for 
 all their honed abilities. 
 
 IN fhort, there is but one of two things 
 to be done, if ever we iliould have a cor- 
 rupt court, and a corrupt miniftry: the 
 fir ft is, to be undone by letting the corrup- 
 tion go on: and the other is, to endeavour 
 to hinder it , and if we will not do the lad, 
 we mud fubmit to the firft. 
 
 BUT
 
 CORRUPTION. 77 
 
 BUT fuppofe fome fhould fay, For what 
 have we taken all this pains, made all this 
 buftle, and fpent all this money? have 
 other people gorged themfelves with deli- 
 cacies and fumptuous banquets, and mufb 
 we come at lad only to the hare's foot, 
 and be forced to make good our promifes 
 whether we will or not? 
 
 I CONFESS, fir, I cannot anfwer thefe 
 arguments, and therefore it is high time 
 to conclude. 
 
 y &c. 
 
 ESSAY
 
 [78] 
 
 ESSAY VI. 
 
 On PRACTICABLE MEN. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 AMBITIOUS men, when they have any 
 thing to do, will employ in it, fuch 
 who are fit for it j fome to flatter, others 
 to frighten ; fome to lie and betray for 
 them in private, others to harangue and 
 defend them in publick. All thefe are a 
 neceflfary fort of Swifs, or rather knights 
 of the poft, without the formality of fwear- 
 ing-, and accordingly as men are difpofed, 
 or not difpofed, for thefe laudable employ- 
 ments, they are called Practicable or Im- 
 practicable men. 
 
 Br
 
 PRACTICABLE MEN. 79 
 By this rule, he who has a judgment, 
 a foul, and a conference of his own, is a 
 humourift, and unfit for bufinefs ; he is 
 an Impracticable Man : but he who has a 
 prudential fpirit, pliable enough to take 
 the impreffions of the times, and to fup- 
 port the language and livery of the day, 
 is worth having, or even buying ; he is a 
 Practicable Man. Thefe are the men, 
 who, like the inferior actors at the play- 
 houfe, chufe no parts, but take their 
 parts from the managers, and are politi- 
 cians, officers, fidlers, orators, poets, and 
 buffoons, at the difcretion and command 
 of their fuperiors. 
 
 IT is indeed to be owned, that fome 
 men mud have their knaves, as well as 
 their fools, and that the honefteft of them 
 cannot be without them, no more than a 
 fheriff can be without his hangman. I 
 would only contend, that it is needlefs 
 that all their people,, and followers mould 
 be knaves, unlels they themfelves are the 
 
 greateft.
 
 80 PRACTICABLE MEN. 
 
 greateft. Why all hangmen, unlefs all 
 their work be hanging work ? they fhall 
 have a neceffary number of rogues, or if 
 they pleafe, Practicable Men, and I hope 
 no body will lay that there is any great 
 want of them. However neceflary fmall 
 rogues have formerly been to fave great 
 rogues ; it is certain, that honeft men are 
 always neceffary to fave a nation, when- 
 ever the faving of a nation happens to 
 beany part of the bufmefs, which is to be 
 done. 
 
 I WILL further own, that there are men 
 in the world, men of parts and virtue, 
 utterly unfit to do bufmefs in concert, 
 from a fpirit ot impatience or jealoufy, 
 which never leaves them, and renders 
 them incapable of giving up honeft points 
 to gain knavim ones ; a compliance abfo- 
 lutely neceffary in the tranfaftion of fome 
 forts of affairs. The doing of good, as 
 valuable a thing as it is, will find but few 
 patrons and undertakers, unicfs they find 
 
 their
 
 PRACTICABLE MEN. 81 
 their own good in it, and therefore to en- 
 gage them to ferve others, they rauft be 
 allowed to ferve themfelves; nor would 
 any reafonable man deny them, that advan- 
 tage ; but their ferving thofe who employ 
 them, with themfelves, is a condition that 
 every honeft man ought to exact from them. 
 This is more eminently true, in thofe 
 whofe bufmefs and duty it is to ferve the 
 public ; I fay for fuch efpecially, to ferve 
 themfelves, without ferving the publick, 
 or at the expence of the public, and to 
 facrifice a nation to their own ambition 
 and fecurity ; are fufficient reafons to ren- 
 der every man of common honefty, im- 
 practicable to their defigns. And yet there 
 have been, in former reigns, fbch men as 
 thefe, that moft wanted Practicable men of 
 the vileft ftamp, who would ad for them, 
 without reafon, or againft reafon, or for 
 an ill reafon ; and all men who would not be 
 willing traitors, and ready proftitutes, were 
 forfooth, Impracticable Men, 
 
 G MOST
 
 82 PRACTICABLE MEN. 
 
 MOST men are governed by ambition, 
 vanity, avarice, or fome other appetite; 
 and therefore money, title, pleafure, and 
 power, will render them Practicable to 
 the terms upon which they are to be had, 
 let the terms be what they will. No mo- 
 ney, no Swifs, but any Swifs for money. 
 Honour is often fought, and come at ^by 
 the moft infamous means ; for fuch is the 
 crookednefs of the human mind, that ho- 
 nour and honefty in the mouth of the vi- 
 left man, fignify no more than the two 
 chief ingredients in his own character ; 
 and men generally aflume as much merit 
 from their being faithful in the greateft 
 rogueries, as from being faithful in the 
 proper place, and often more. 
 
 WE rarely meafure the merits or deme- 
 rits of men by any other rule, than as they 
 are for us, or againft us, no matter whe- 
 ther right or wrong; and when one knave 
 calls another a Practicable Man, he means 
 him a complement i as much as to fay, 
 - he
 
 PRACTICABLE MEN. 83 
 
 he is one of us, he will flick at no- 
 
 thing. 
 
 ONE of thefe Practicable Men has for 
 his condu6t but one fixt rule, and that is 
 an implicit, and ready fubmiffion to the 
 word of command, and even to the nod 
 of thofe who give it. He is bound to like 
 and approve every thing that comes from 
 his directors, or is done by them, and 
 muft help in doing it. He muft fign a 
 blank to efpoufe no opinion ; but be ready 
 to entertain all, and to oppofe all. He is 
 to practice contradictions, and to find 
 reafons for them, and againft them, at 
 the word of command : he muft therefore 
 defend or oppofe the fame thing, be it good 
 or bad, if there be occafion, as there oftenis. 
 He is to facrifice all for hire, hisconfcience, 
 time, friendfhip, veracity, health and all ; 
 and yet ftill remains obliged ; and perhaps 
 next day, he muft tread backwards, and 
 facrifice all thefe againft that very thing, for 
 which he facrifked them all the day before. 
 G 2 Now
 
 *4 PRACTICABLE MEN. 
 
 Now any worthy gentleman, who is 
 accomplifhed this way, and can do and 
 undo all thefe things, is in a fair road to 
 get riches, and will keep them, when he 
 gets them, as feveral in my time have 
 done. Turnfpits and mill-horfes are very 
 Practicable creatures, and therefore are 
 well fed, and feldom turned out of their 
 pofts, till through age they can turn 
 round no longer ; and then indeed they 
 are left to contempt or ftarving, or per- 
 haps knocked on the head, by thofe 
 whom the poor flaves had ferved fo faith- 
 fully. 
 
 ONE certain mark, among many others, 
 by which one might have known one fort 
 of thefe Practicable Men, in fome former 
 reigns, was his violent attachment to the 
 firft minifter. With them every upper- 
 moft man was the greateft man that ever 
 lived, and perhaps, when he ceafed to be 
 the uppermoft, the worft. When he was 
 in power, he was almoft omnipotent; and 
 
 when
 
 PRACTICABLE MEN. 85 
 when out of it, was fcarce endowed with 
 common faculties. A certain very great 
 perfon, formerly loft a vaft deal of his 
 bright character by dying, even among 
 thofe, who while he kept his life and 
 power, gave him the higheft. I was once 
 vifiting a gentleman in a confiderable fla- 
 tion, when he received the news that this 
 grandee was taken ill. He fetched a deep 
 figh and faid, that we could better bear 
 the lofs of Scotland or Ireland, than the 
 lofs of that great man : but meeting him 
 in the park three days afterwards, and 
 condoling with him upon the aforefaid 
 great lofs, he fhook his head, and faid 
 angrily, // bad been happy for this poor na- 
 tion if he had never lived. Then he went 
 on to call him names, and to fay things of 
 him, which, in great tendernefs to his me- 
 mory, and in obedience to a judicious re- 
 folution, I forbear to repeat. 
 
 NOTHING is a greater jeft to a Practi- 
 cable Man, than a concern for the pub- 
 G 3 lie,
 
 ^PRACTICABLE MEN. 
 lie, or even the name of public virtue. 1 
 This is not ftrange, but it is extremely pro- 
 voking. For though it would be down- 
 right impudence inthefe Practicable knaves 
 to pretend any zeal for a caufe which they 
 betray ; yet it is ftill more unpardonable 
 impudence in them, to laugh at that 
 which every man living ought to reve- 
 rence ; and that which every man, who 
 has either religion or common honefty, 
 and either fears God, or regards man, will 
 reverence ; and their doing fo, is declaring 
 to all the world, that they are worfe than 
 wolves and tigers, and greater enemies 
 to mankind ; and it is calling upon man- 
 kind to fpurn them out of fociety, and 
 out of the world, which cannot fubfift in 
 any manner of felicity, but by preferving 
 thofe facred bonds of public honefty, and 
 publick virtue, which thefe profligate trai- 
 tors mew themfelves bent to break, or not 
 to defend. 
 
 AND
 
 PRACTICABLE MEN. 87 
 
 AND yet to fhew what a creature man 
 is, there have been too many inftances 
 of men, who were famous for public 
 fpirit, while they were out of power, and 
 grew more infamous for want of it, when 
 they had no longer any occafion for it. 
 Nay, fome of them could hardly hear the 
 word mentioned, without being affronted. 
 But it is too common for men, when their 
 own condition is mended, to grow very 
 eafy as to the public, about which 
 they were fo anxious before ; and they 
 have often wondered, that people will 
 never be fatisfied, when they had not 
 one reafon to be fatisfied, whatever the 
 faid wonderers might have had. 
 
 BY the fame means, that men become 
 Practicable to thofe, whom they hate; 
 boroughs become Practicable to fuch as 
 they never faw. The city knight had 
 nothing to do, but to knock upon the 
 bottom of his hog-trough Cby which, I 
 fuppofe, he meant his own pocket) and 
 G 4 pre-
 
 88 PRACTICABLE MEN. 
 prefently a whole corporation grewpracti- 
 cable to the found. 
 
 BUT there is lefs jeft than melancholy 
 in the purpofe, and method of making 
 men Practicable, when they who do fo, 
 are gone fo far as to declare (as it is faid, 
 fome of them have, more than once, un- 
 warily but truly declared) that men of 
 virtue, are not the men they want. Such 
 men will not be led blindly, nor act rafhly 
 and wickedly, nor be bought ilavifhly, 
 nor driven tamely : but rogues have a 
 price, which they know how to give, 
 and for that price they will bear any bur- 
 then, and go any length. 
 
 GREAT men have had often, from 
 cuftom, figure, and impunity, a fort 
 of a wrong right to laugh at public 
 fpirit ; but for every little dirty hire- 
 Jing, who will be any man's dog for 
 porridge, to join in the laugh, calls aloud 
 for the whip from every porter in the 
 
 flreet i
 
 PRACTICABLE MEN. 89 
 ftreet; unlefs he is protected by thofe, 
 who muft either protect their rogues, 
 or they will get nobody to ferve 
 
 them. 
 
 o/r, 
 
 Tour bumble Servant 
 
 CATO. 
 
 ESSAY
 
 [ 90] 
 
 ESSAY VII. 
 
 On FRUGALITY. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 PARCIMONIA magnum eft vefligal. A 
 frugal adminiftration of the publick 
 treafure is one fign of a well governed 
 (late, which can never be well governed 
 where the publick treafure is ill admini- 
 ftered. When it is thrown away lavifli- 
 ly, ill courfes, lying pretences, and op- 
 prefliive methods are generally taken to 
 get more : and as ill practices muft be 
 Supported by worfe, that which the people 
 give for their prefervation, will be probably 
 turned to their ruine ; and when they have 
 given more than they can fpare, part of 
 it may be wickedly applied to force them, 
 or to bribe thofe intruded with the difpofaj 
 of their wealth, to give all that remains ; 
 and thusaconfpiracy may be formed againft 
 a country with its own money. Where- 
 
 ever
 
 FRUGALITY. 91 
 ever, therefore, meafures are evidently 
 taken in any country, which tend to im- 
 poverifh a people, and to rob them in effect 
 of their property ; we may eafily guefs 
 what the authors of fuch meafures aim at, 
 though they fwear the contrary till they 
 are black in the face. 
 
 WHEN the publick money is not ap- 
 plied as it was intended, what fecurity 
 can a people have that any other part of 
 the government will be adminiftered as 
 they intended it mould ? It is too true that 
 he who does what he pleafes with the 
 money of a nation, may do what he 
 pleafes with a nation ; and there is all the 
 probability in the world that he who throws 
 away public money will throw away 
 public liberty, which public money was 
 given to preferve. 
 
 The liberty of a country is founded 
 upon the limitations and reftraints put by 
 it upon it magiftrates ; and no magis- 
 
 ftracy
 
 92 FRUGALITY. 
 
 tracy can be limited without limiting their 
 revenue and expence : as money is the 
 meafure of every thing, a power that wants 
 no money, need want nothing elfe. 
 Money creates fleets, armies, confede- 
 rates, dependents, and obedience. Nor is 
 it much alleviation to fay, that it muft be 
 afked before it is given. If whatfoever 
 is afked is given, and no account is re- 
 quired of the application ; fome of the 
 moft arbitrary princes in Europe obferve 
 ftill the form of calling the dates and 
 afking fupplies. Thus a very great 
 prince abroad, convenes the Hates of his 
 feveral dominions, and demands a fupply, 
 which is juft as much as the courtiers have 
 a mind to, that is to fay, all that the poor 
 people have without their bellies. A 
 popifh elector, too, calls occafionally the 
 fame fort of mock parliament, and what 
 he takes from his fubjecls, is forfooth the 
 gifts of the ftates, who give what they 
 cannot help giving. Nay his highnefs of 
 Mofcovy has lately had a meeting with a 
 2 very
 
 FRUGALITY. 93 
 
 very ftrange afiembly in that country, a 
 parliament of Ruffes, where great civilities 
 pafled between them and their prince 
 whom they faluted emperor. 
 
 BUT nothing of all this is fo fliamelefs 
 as was the bufinefs of loan money in king 
 Charles the firil's time. His miniftry had 
 not found the parliament fo complaifant 
 as others have been, and fo refolving to 
 have no more, iffued a proclamation for- 
 bidding people to talk of parliaments, 
 which indeed had made them tremble, by 
 looking into their hands, and taking care 
 of liberty and the nation. They there- 
 fore determine to make ufe of their own 
 power and their matter's name to raife 
 money, and took methods fuitable to fo 
 worthy a defjgn ; many illegal, many 
 oppreflive, and all fcandalous* as my lord 
 Clarendon exprefles it. One of their 
 methods was that of loan- money, or of 
 obliging every man whom they thought 
 fit to lend them what fum they thought 
 
 fit;
 
 94 FRUGALITY. 
 
 fit ; and if he refufed to part with his 
 money againft law to their banditti, he 
 was fent to goal. This was called a free 
 gift. The bufmefs of fhip money was 
 not more modeft, or lefs arbitrary. 
 Every county in England was to pay them 
 as much money as would build a mip ; 
 and the money was exacted, and the navy 
 not the better for it. 
 
 HERE was money raifed by violence 
 againft law and confent ; and the raifing 
 of money with the confent of the people 
 and then applying it afterwards contrary 
 to their intention and intereft, is the next 
 worft thing. They who have a right to 
 give money, have a right to direct the 
 application of it in general, and in parti- 
 culars, as far as they can fbrefee them. I 
 know but one inftance in England, where 
 the commons of England ever gave a fum 
 of money without directing which way it 
 was to go j which example, I hope, will 
 -never be repeated. I know not what is 
 
 high
 
 FRUGALITY. 95 
 
 hightreafon, if mifapplying public money, 
 upon which every thing in every (late does 
 ib manifcftly depend, be not high treafon. 
 He who deceives me out of my money, by 
 getting it from me for fuclva purpofe, 
 which he mentions and I approve, and 
 afterwards applies it to purpoies which he 
 does not declare, and which I condemn, 
 does as effectual ly rob me as if he bound 
 me and took it by force ; with this 
 further aggravation, that he adds treachery 
 to plunder -, as he does impudence more 
 provoking than all the reft, if he comes 
 and afks me for more, or expects to be ufed 
 like a friend by me, whom he has ufed as 
 an enemy. 
 
 Ir a Father allows a fon fo much a year 
 to maintain himfelf, and a couple of 
 fervants , and he throws away that allow- 
 ance upon miftreffes, race-horfes, or game- 
 fters, and comes and defires more of his 
 father, for that he has fpent his allowance, 
 without ownkig upon what, or denying 
 i that
 
 9 6 FRUGALITY. 
 
 that it was enough, would fuch a father 
 be juftified in giving him any other treat- 
 ment than that due to a prodigal, and 
 ftriking him out of his will ? I mould 
 think the father as mad and inexcufable as 
 the fon, if to fupply the wild and debauch- 
 ed expences of a profligate, he mortgaged 
 from year to year till he had left nothing 
 to mortagage, but was reduced to beg- 
 gary and a goal. 
 
 Ira general is trufled with an army for 
 the defence of his country, and throws 
 away his men in mad vagaries of his own , 
 or employs them at home merely to keep 
 up his own power and figure ; or abroad to 
 draw foreign powers into a treafonable 
 confederacy with him ; or puts the money 
 given him for the fupport of his army 
 into his own pocket ; or lofes it by gaming, 
 and then comes and defires more , would 
 not this behaviour of his appear fuch a 
 mixture of ma^nefs, impudence, and 
 
 treafon,
 
 FRUGALITY. 97 
 
 treafon, as both entitled him to Bedlam 
 and Newgate ? 
 
 OR if any man trufted with publick 
 money, for fuch and fuch purpofes ex- 
 prefsly mentioned, applies none of it, or 
 little of it, towards thofe purpofes, and 
 cannot pretend that is not fufficient for 
 them ; and yet comes boldly and afks for 
 more, without telling what is become of 
 the Jaft , is not his guilt, impudence, and 
 phrenzy the fame with that of the above 
 general, and deferving as fevere a 
 fate? 
 
 THE ftate of Athens was fo fenfible 
 of the danger of mifapplying public 
 money, that, to prevent it, they made the 
 following awful and noble law ; " That 
 " whereas a thoufand talents were affigned 
 " yearly for the defence of Athens againft 
 * foreign invafions; if any perfon pre- 
 ' fumed to lay out, or but propofed to 
 H " lay
 
 98 FRUGALITY. 
 
 " Jay out that money, or any part of it, on 
 " any other defign, he Ihould fuffer death." 
 By the law of Athens no free Athenian 
 could be fent in bonds ; and yet they who 
 had embezeled or mifapplied the public 
 money, were excepted out of this law, 
 and denied the benefit of it. It was 
 capital there for any man to enter upon 
 any office or magiftracy, if he was not 
 able to pay his debts ; becaufe they pre-- 
 fumed he would rob the Hate to pay 
 them : Nor couJd he fue for another 
 office, till he had made up his accounts for 
 the laft ; nor till he had done this, was he 
 luffered to travel abroad, or to fell or 
 give away by will any part of his eftate. 
 So exad: were the Athenians about their 
 civil lift, fo frugal of the public money, 
 and fo careful of preferving liberty, by the 
 only ways it could be preferved. 
 
 THE ftate of Venice is famous for her 
 Frugality : the magiftrates, who manage 
 her publick treafures, are obferved by fo 
 
 many
 
 FRUGALITY. 99 
 
 many eyes, and muft pafs their accounts 
 before fo many judges (even as many as 
 there are nobles) that it is impofiible for 
 them to cheat the publick, with any fafety. 
 The Doge himfelf has but about three 
 thoufand pounds a year, and fpends al- 
 moft half of that, at the four great annual 
 feafts, at which he muft be prefent ; and 
 his children after him, are anfwerable for 
 his adminiftration. It was therefore na- 
 tural for the procurator Nani to fay, as 
 he does in the account of his embafly in 
 France, That the French king, if he could, 
 would tax the fun and the air, and that 
 therefore the people are under unfpeakable 
 calamities from the infatiablcnefs of their 
 governors : bat this, fays Nani, is not 
 the king's fault, but that of his minifters, 
 who do all the mifchief without him. I 
 fhall only add here, as to Venice, that the 
 ieaft mifmanagement in the ftate is unpar- 
 donable in the council of ten. 
 
 H 2 NATIONS
 
 ioo FRUGALITY. 
 
 NATIONS, as well as families, are un- 
 done by profufenefs, and paying their fer- 
 vants bills without examination. Is it to be 
 imagined, that a fteward will not put half, 
 or all of his matter's eftate, in his pocket, or 
 wafte it in his pleafures, if he may ? The moil 
 generous people in the world, whatever they 
 give towards the glory, fortunes, or mag- 
 gots of their governors, ought, in com- 
 mon fenfe, to referve fomething for their 
 own fubfiftence, and prefervation : it is 
 madnefs to give all away, and worfe to 
 give more than they have; a cafe which, 
 however, is not without a precedent. A 
 nation may give away fo long and fo faft, 
 to fatisfy the wantonnefs, greedinefs, or ill 
 xlefigns of their governors, till in the end 
 they have nothing left for their own de- 
 fence; or at leaft fo little, that enabled by 
 their liberality, their governors may take 
 what remains without afking. 
 
 WORDS cannot exprefs the horrid bar- 
 barity of ftarving a nation to gorge a 
 court. Even every the leaft tax has fuch 
 i hard
 
 FRUGALITY. ibf 
 
 hard confequences, that nothing but har- 
 der necefiity, the neceflity of a country, 
 mould create a new one, or continue an 
 old. It is fomething very mournful and 
 affecting, that in moft countries, a poor 
 woman, who by hard labour earns eigh- 
 teen pence, or two millings a week, to. 
 maintain herfelf, and perhaps four or rive 
 fmall children, or is maintained at that 
 expence by the charity of others, who can 
 fcarce maintain themfelves, muft yet, out 
 of that poor fum,pay a fifth or a fixth part 
 towards a tax, which perhaps is applied 
 to maintain idlers and debauchees : that 
 honeft country-men, with large families 
 and mortgaged eftates, muft. pay a fourth 
 part of what remains, towards wild expe- 
 ditions, or penfions paid to intruders, 
 miftreffes, tools, and traitors : that young 
 virtuous ladies, of good blood and breed- 
 ing, muft marry as they can, far beneath 
 themfelves : that a clan of vultures, beg- 
 gars and ftock-jobbers, juft rifen out of 
 the earth, may mount unnaturally into 
 H 3 coaches
 
 io2 FRUGALITY, 
 coaches and fine equipages : and that ho- 
 neft tradesmen muft be vigilant and indu- 
 ftrious in vain, and break without their 
 own fault, becaufe the money of their na- 
 tion is gone another wayj and yet this is 
 often the cafe in enflaved countries, and 
 eminently fo in a neighbouring one. 
 
 IT muft therefore affect every honeft 
 and tender heart, when he is raifmg a tax, 
 even the moft neceflary tax, to remember, 
 that he is adding to a burthen, which is 
 already breaking the backs of his country- 
 men. But what a hard and brutifh fpirit 
 muft that man have, who, while his coun- 
 try is gafping under its many preffures, 
 can add a frefh one to them, becaufe out 
 of it he is to have a fowl and a bottle j and 
 can for a drunken night, add years of mi- 
 fery to his country, and to his own po- 
 fterity. 
 
 METHINKS it is worth the while of a 
 government, as it is in the fecond place, 
 
 agreeable
 
 FRUGALITY. iog 
 
 agreeable to their duty, to enquire how 
 much a nation is able to pay, and yet con- 
 tinue a nation ? If it owes any debts and 
 can pay them, why are they not paid ? If 
 it cannot, why fhould they be increafed? 
 Why new demands made, and new bur- 
 thens added ? It feems but injudicious in 
 any government to make their demands 
 fo excefilve, that they cannot come twice. 
 Some fort of governors are for ftripping 
 the people at once, and go on, where they 
 have power, till they have left neither 
 money nor people. Such a father of his 
 country, takes all he can, and by all the 
 methods he can. But princes who may 
 be or are fafe in the affections of their peo- 
 ple, (as in all limited monarchies they un- 
 doubtedly may be) will lofe much more 
 than they get by fuch cruel and unreafon- 
 able extortions ; fmce it is certain, that 
 more is to be got yearly from a people 
 well ufed, for an hundred years together, 
 than can be got from the fame people op- 
 prefied, for five years together. But alas 
 H 4 too
 
 104 FRUGALITY. 
 
 too many princes and governors, like other 
 men, are governed by prefent appetite. 
 
 PROFUSENESS creates want, and want 
 which tempts private men to be knaves, 
 makes publick men oppreflbrs : Henry 
 the fecond, and third of France were 
 good-natured princes, but prodigal and 
 expenfive, and to fupply themfelves, took 
 all violent and oppreflive methods to 
 fqueeze money from their people. We 
 had a prince once amongft us, who, though 
 he had not fpirit enough to fet up openly 
 for lawlefs power, as well as he loved it ; 
 yet was lavim to extremity, and being 
 always in neceffity, was ever hunting after 
 new refources for money, and refufed none 
 that were offered : hence fo many com- 
 panies and monopolies to the ruin of trade, 
 and fo many vexatious profecutions and 
 arbitrary fines in the ftar-chamber : the 
 blood-fuckers who were about him, and 
 conftantly preying upon him, put him 
 upon preying upon the publick. 
 
 THER*
 
 FRUGALITY. 105 
 THERE is no end of the mifchiefs of 
 publick prodigality, nor of inftances which 
 Ihew them. Every nation will find fuf- 
 ficient caufes of neceflfary expence, with- 
 out feeking want only after new ones j and 
 it is misfortune enough to a nation to run 
 in debt, and be reduced to great hardmips 
 for its own prefervation ; but for nations 
 to be beggared, mortgaged, pillaged, and 
 undone for Prefter John, or the man in 
 the moon, or for the bleak and blood- 
 lefs provinces of Lapland, and Nova 
 Zembla, is beyond all human patience : 
 and yet great kingdoms have often been 
 exhaufted and ruined, by being forced or 
 deceived by their governors into endlefs 
 wars, about dry titles, barren iQands, and 
 pitiful towns. 
 
 ROME was long famous for an ho- 
 ned and frugal management of the pub- 
 lick money, and for a difmterefled ma- 
 giftracy -, till both fenate and people were 
 corrupted with their own money by thofe, 
 
 who
 
 io6 FRUGALITY. 
 
 who by that pernicious means cnflaved 
 them , and afterwards they paid a thou- 
 fand times more for their oppreffion, 
 than ever their protection had coft them. 
 Ipfa Roma fui merces erat , the Romans 
 were bribed and bought with the money 
 of Rome. Whoever reads the 26 th , 27 th , 
 28 th , 29 th , and 54 th chapters of Sueto- 
 nius, in the life of Casfar, will fee how 
 he came by his power ; by what incre- 
 dible rapine he was enabled to bribe j and 
 with what an amazing profufion of bribes, 
 he efcaped the early and legal death of a 
 traitor, which was preparing for him. He 
 corrupted his country with its own money, 
 and opprefled it with its own arms. 
 
 I AM charmed with a fay ing of Gracchus 
 in the better times of that great ftate. 
 He had been a great minifter and go- 
 vernor of Sardinia, and could fay for 
 himfelf, when he left it ; Zcnas quas ple- 
 nas argenti extuU^ eas ex provincia inanes 
 retuli. " I fpent my own money in 
 a " my
 
 FRUGALITY. 107 
 
 * c my employment, and the coffers 
 *' which I carried full thither, I brought 
 ' empty back." A rare example, and 
 a precious fervant in a ftate ! How ami- 
 able muft be the charafler of fuch a 
 governor, in the eyes of the governed. 
 There is a good deal of analogy, be- 
 tween a family and a ftate; and if a 
 gentleman need defire no other caufe 
 to turn off his fteward, than that he 
 will bring no vouchers for his bills ; 
 that he finds his eftate continually waft- 
 ing under him, and his tenants mife- 
 rably ufed, and their hearts eftranged 
 from him ; a prince, who has either 
 his own, or his peoples interefts to 
 ferve, need be at no lofs in the like 
 circumftances, what counfels- to pur- 
 fue. 
 
 / iim, Sir, &c. 
 
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