purchase some of those employments, to which privileges and honours are annex'd. SINCE I am upon this head of the alterations which time has produc'd, or may produce in politics, I muft obferve, that all kinds of government, free and defpotic, feem to have undergone, in modern times, a great change to the better, with regard both to foreign and domestic management. The balance of power is a fecret in politics fully known only to the present age; and I must add, that the internal POLICE of the ftate has alfo receiv'd great improvements within the laft century. We are inform'd by Salluft, that Cataline's army was much augmented by the acceffion of the highwaymen about Rome; tho' I believe, that all of that profeffion, who are at prefent difpers'd over Europe, would not amount to a regi In Cicero's pleadings for Mile, I find this-argument, among others, made ufe of to prove, that his client had not affaffinated Clodius. Had Milo, fays he, intended to have kill'd Clodius, he had not attack'd him in the day-time, and at such a distance from the city: He had way-laid him at night, near the fuburbs here it might have been pretended, by robbers; and the frequency of have favour'd the deceit. This is of the loofe police of Rome, and of force of thefe robbers; fince Claled with thirty flaves, that h the BUT tho' all kinds of government be much improv'd in modern times, yet monarchical government seems to have receiv'd the moft confiderable improvements. It may now be affirm'd of civiliz'd monarchies, what was formerly faid in praise of republics alone, that they are a government of Laws, not of men. They are found fufceptible of order, method, } and conftancy, to a furprizing degree. Property is there fecure; induftry encourag'd; the arts flourish; and the prince lives fecure among his fubjects, like a father among his children. There are perhaps, and have been for two centuries, near two hundred abfolute princes, great and fmall, in Europe; and allowing twenty years to each reign, we may fuppofe, that there have been in the whole two thousand monarchs or tyrants, as the Greeks would have call'd them: Yet of these there has not been one, not even Philip the IId of Spain, fo bad as Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, or Domitian, who were four in twelve amongst the Roman emperors. It muft, however, be confeft, that tho' monarchical governments have approach'd nearer to popular ones, in gentleness and stability; they are still much inferior. Our modern education and customs inftil more humanity and moderation than the ancient; but have not as yet been able to overcome entirely the disadvantages of that form of govemment. BUT here I must beg leave to advance a conjecture, which feems to me very probable, but which pofterity alone can fully judge of. I am apt to think, that in monarchical governments there is a fource of improvement, provement, and in popular governments a fource of degeneracy, which in time will bring these species of government ftill nearer an equality. The greates abufes, which are in France, the med perfect model of pure monarchy, proceed not from the number or weight of the taxes, beyond what are to be met with in free countries; but from the expenfive, unequal, arbitrary, and intricate method of levying them, by which the industry of the poor, cfpecially of the peafants and farmers, is, in a great meafare, difcourag'd, and agriculture render`d a beggarly and a flavish employment. But to whofe advantage do these abuses tend? If to that of the nobility, they might be efteem'd inherent in that form of govern ment; fince the nobility are the true fupports of monarchy; and 'tis natural their interest should be more confulted, in fuch a conftitution, than that of the people. But the nobility are, in reality, the principal lofers by this oppreffion; fince it ruins their eftates, and beggars their tenants. The only gainers by it are the Financiers, a race of men despis'd and hated by the nobility and the whole kingdom. If a prince or a minister, therefore, should arise, endow'd with fufficient difcernment to know his own and the public intereft, and with fufficient force of mind to break thro' ancient customs, we might expect to fee thefe abufes remedy'd; in which cafe, the dif. ference betwixt their abfolute government and our fice one, would not appear fo confiderable as at prefent. THE fource of degeneracy, which may be remark'd in free governments, confifts in the practice of con tracting tracting debt, and mortgaging the public revenues, by which taxes may, in time, become altogether intolerable, and all the property of the state be brought into the hands of the public. This practice is of modern date. The Athenians, tho' govern'd by a republíc, paid near two hundred per Cent. for those fums of money, which any emergent occafion made it neceffary for them to borrow; as we learn from Xenophon. Among the moderns, the Dutch first introduc'd the practice of borrowing great fums at low intereft, and have well nigh ruin'd themfelves by it. Abfolute princes have alfo contracted debt; but as an abfolute prince may play the bankrupt when he pleases, his people can never be oppreft by his debts. In popular governments, the people, and chiefly thofe who have the highest offices, being always the public creditors, 'tis impoffible the state can ever make ufe of this remedy, which, however it may be sometimes neceffary, is always cruel and barbarous. This, therefore, feems to be an inconvenience, which nearly threatens all free governments; especially our own, at the prefent jun&ture of affairs. And what a strong motive is this, to increase our frugality of the public money; left, for want of it, we be reduc'd, by the multiplicity of taxes, to curfe our free government, and wish ourfelves in the fame ftate of fervitude with all the nations that furround us? : * Κτῆσιν δὲ ἀπ ̓ ἐδενὶς ἂν ἔτω καλὴν κτήσαιντο ὥσπερ ἀφ' οὗ ἂν προτελέσωσιν εἰς τὴν ἀφορμὴν. · οἱ δέ γε πλείςοι Αθην ναίων πλείονα λήψονται κατ' ἐνιαυτὸν ἢ ἴσα ἂν εἰσενέγκωσιν, οἱ γὰρ μνᾶν προτελέσαντες, ἐγγὺς δυοῖν μναῖν πρόσοδον ἔξωσι ὁ δίκαι τῶν ἀνθροπίνων ἀσφαλέςατον τε καὶ πολυχρονιώτατον είναι. ΞΕΝ. ΠΟΡΟΙ, ESSAY |