from Subjection to another fo far as the Order and Oeconomy of Government will permit. LIBERTY fhould reach every Individual of a People, as they all share one common Nature; if it only spreads among particular Branches, there had better be none at all, fince fuch a Liberty only aggravates the Misfortune of those who are deprived of it, by setting before them a disagreeable Subject of Comparifon. THIS Liberty is best preserved, where the Legislative Power is lodged in feveral Perfons, especially if those Perfons are of different Rank, and Interefts; for where they are of the fame Rank, and confequently have an Intereft to manage peculiar to that Rank, it differs but little from a Despotical Government in a fingle Perfon. But the greatest Security a People can have for their Liberty, is when the Legislative Power is in the Hands of Perfons fo happily distinguished, that by providing for the particular Intereft of their feveral Ranks, they are providing for the whole Body of the People; or in other Words, when there is no Part of the People that has not a common Intereft with at least one Part of the Legiflators. If there be but one Body of Legiflators, it is no better than a Tyranny; if there are only two, there will want a cafting Voice, and one of them muft at length be fwallowed up by Difputes and Contentions that will neceffarily arife between them. Four would have the fame Inconvenience as two, and a greater Number would caufe too much Confufion. I could never read a Paffage in Polybius, and another in Cicero, to this Purpose, without a fecret Pleasure in applying it to the English Conftitution, which it fuits much bettter than the Roman. Both these great Authors give the Pre-eminence to a mixt Government, confifting of three Branches, the Regal, the Noble, and the Popular. They had doubtlefs in their thoughts the Conftitution of the Roman Common-wealth, in which the Conful represented the King, the Senate the Nobles, and the Tribunes the People. This Divifion of the three Powers in the Roman Conftitution was by no means fo distinct and natural, as it is in the English Form of Government. Among feveral Objections that might be made to it, I think the Chief are those that affect the Confular Power, which had only the Ornaments without the the Force of the Regal Authority. Their Number had not a cafting Voice in it; for which Reason, if one did not chance to be employed Abroad, while the other fat at Home, the Publick Bufinefs was fometimes at a Stand, while the Confuls pulled two different Ways in it. Befides, I do not find that the Confuls had ever a Negative Voice in the paffing of a Law, or Decree of Senate, fo that indeed they were rather the chief Body of the Nobility, or the first Ministers of State, than a distinct Branch of the Sovereignty, in which none can be looked upon as a Part,who are not a Part of the Legislature. Had the Confuls been invested with the Regal Authority to as great a Degree as our Monarchs, there would never have been any Occafions for a Dictatorship, which had in it the Power of all the three Orders, and ended in the Subverfion of the whole Conftitution. SUCH an Hiftory as that of Suetonius, which gives us a Succeffion of abfolute Princes, is to me an unanfwerable Argument againft Defpotick Power. Where the Prince is a Man of Wisdom and Virtue, it is indeed happy for his People that he is Abfolute; but fince in the common Run of Mankind, for one that is Wife and Good you find ten of a contrary Character, it is very dangerous for a Nation to ftand to its Chance, or to have its publick Happiness or Mifery to depend on the Virtues and Vices of a fingle Perfon. Look into the Hiftory I have mentioned, or into any Series of Abfolute Princes, how many Tyrants muft you read through, before you come at an Emperor that is supportable. But this is not all; an honeft private Man often grows cruel and abandoned, when converted into an absolute Prince. Give a Man Power of doing what he pleafes with Impunity, you extinguish his Fear, and confequently over-turn in him one of the great Pillars of Morality. This too we find confirmed by Matter of Fact. How many hopeful Heirs apparent to great Empires, when in the Poffeffion of them, have become fuch Monsters of Luft and Cruelty as are a Reproach to human Nature? SOME tell us we ought to make our Governments on Earth like that in Heaven, which, fay they, is altogether Monarchical and Unlimited. Was Man like his Creator in Goodness and Juftice, I fhould be for following this great great Model; but where Goodness and Juftice are not effential to the Ruler, I would by no Means put myself into his Hands to be difpofed of according to his particular Will and Pleasure. It is odd to confider the Connection between defpotic Government and Barbarity, and how the making of one Perfon more than Man, makes the reft lefs. Above nine Parts of the World in ten are in the lowest State of Slavery, and confequently funk into the most grofs and brutal Ignorance. European Slavery is indeed a State of Liberty, if compared with that which prevails in the other three Divifions of the World; and therefore it is no Wonder that those who grovel under it have many Tracks of Light among them, of which the others are wholly deftitute. RICHES and Plenty are the natural Fruits of Liberty, and where these abound, Learning and all the Liberal Arts will immediately lift up their Heads and flourish. As a Man must have no flavifh Fears and Apprehenfions hanging upon his Mind, who will indulge the Flights of Fancy or Speculation, and push his Refearches into all the abftrufe Corners of Truth, fo it is neceffary for him to have about him a Competency of all the Conveniencies of Life. THE first Thing every one looks after, is to provide himself with Neceffaries. This Point will engross our Thoughts 'till it be fatisfied. If this is taken Care of to our Hands, we look out for Pleasures and Amusements; and among a great Number of idle People, there will be many whofe Pleasures will lie in Reading and Contemplation. These are the two great Sources of Knowledge, and as Men grow wife they naturally love to communicate their Discoveries; and others feeing the Happiness of fuch a Learned Life, and improving by their Converfation, emulate, imitate, and furpafs one another, 'till a Nation is filled with Races of wife and understanding Perfons. Eafe and Plenty are therefore the great Cherifhers of Knowledge; and as moft of the Defpotic Governments of the World have neither of them, they are naturally over-run with ignorance and Barbarity. In Europe, indeed, notwithstanding feveral of its Princes are abfolute, there are Men famous for Knowledge and Learning. Learning, but the Reason is because the Subjects are many of them rich and wealthy, the Prince not thinking fit to exert himself in his full Tyranny like the Princes of the Eastern Nations, left his Subjects should be invited to new-mould their Conftitution, having fo many Profpects of Liberty within their View. But in all Defpotic Governments, tho' a particular Prince may favour Arts and Letters, there is a natural Degeneracy of Mankind, as you may obferve from Auguftus's Reign, how the Romans loft themselves by Degrees till they fell to an Equality with the most barbarous Nations that furrounded them. Look Greece under its free States, and you would think its Inhabitants lived, in different Climates, and under different Heavens, from those at prefent; fo different are the Genius's which are formed under Turkih Slavery, and Grecian Liberty. upon BESIDES Poverty and Want, there are other Reasons that debase the Minds of Men, who live under Slavery, though I look on this as the Principal. This natural Tendency of Defpotic Power to Ignorance and Barbarity, tho' not infifted upon by others, is, I think, an unanswerable Argument against that Form of Government, as it fhews how repugnant it is to the Good of Mankind and the Perfection of human Nature, which ought to be the great Ends of all Civil Inftitutions. L No. 288. Wednesday, January 30. -Pavor eft utrique moleftus. Mr. SPECTATOR, WH Hor. HEN you spoke of the Jilts and Coquets, you then promised to be very impartial, and not to fpare even your own Sex, fhould any of their fecret or open Faults come under your Cognizance; which has given me Encouragement to defcribe a cer⚫tain Species of Mankind under the Denomination of Male Filts. They are Gentlemen who do not defign VOL. IV. 6 G to ་ . No. 288. to marry, yet, that they may appear to have fome Senfe of Gallantry, think they must pay their Devoirs to one particular Fair; in order to which they fingle out from amongst the Herd of Females her to whom they defign to make their fruitlefs Addreffes. This done, they first take every Opportunity of being in her Company, and then never fail upon all Occafions to be particular to her, laying themselves at her Feet, protefting the Reality of their Paffion with a thousand Oaths, folliciting a Return, and faying as many fine Things as their Stock of Wit will allow; and if they are not deficient that way, generally speak fo as to admit of a double Interpretation; which the credulous Fair is too apt to turn to her own Advantage, fince it ⚫ frequently happens to be a raw, innocent, young Creature, who thinks all the World as fincere as herself; and fo her unwary Heart becomes an eafy Prey to thofe deceitful Monsters, who no fooner perceive it, but immediately they grow cool, and fhun her whom they before seemed fo much to admire, and proceed to act the fame common-place Villany towards another. A Coxcomb flushed with many of these infamous Victories fhall fay he is forry for the poor Fools, proteft and vow he never thought of Matrimony, and ⚫ wonder talking civilly can be fo strangely mif-interpreted. Now, Mr. SPECTATOR, you that are a profeffed Friend to Love, will, I hope, obferve upon those who abufe that noble Paffion, and raise it in innocent Minds by a deceitful Affectation of it, after which they defert the Enamoured. Pray beftow a little of your Counsel to those fond believing Females, who already have or are in Danger of broken Hearts; in which you will oblige a great Part of this Town, but in a particular Manner, 6 SIR, Your (yet Heart whole) Admirer, MELAINIA's Complaint is occafioned by fo general a Folly, that it is wonderful one could fo long overlook it. But this falfe Gallantry proceeds from an Impotence of Mind, which makes those who are guilty of it inca pable |
