If they were unsuccessful, in stead of growing wiser by their misfortune, they threw the whole blame of their own misconduct on the min isters who had advised, and the generals who had conducted, those wars ; until by degrees they had cut off all who could serve them in their
councils
or their battles.
Edmund Burke
But with respect to you, ye legislators, ye civilizers of mankind!
ye Orpheuses, Moseses, Minoscs, Solons, Theseuses, Ly curguses, Numas!
with respect to you be it spoken, your regulations have done more mischief in cold blood, than all the rage of the fiercest animals in their greatest terrors, or furies, has ever done, or ever could do!
These evils are not accidental. Whoever will take the pains to consider the' nature of society will find that they result directly from its constitution. For as subordination, or, in other words, the reciprocation of tyranny and slavery, is requisite to support these societies; the interest, the ambition, the malice, or the revenge, nay, even the whim and caprice of one ruling man among them, is enough to arm all the rest, without any private views of their own, to the worst and blackest purposes: and what is at once lamentable, and ridiculous, these wretches engage
? ? ? ? 28 A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
under those banners with a fury greater than if they were animated by revenge for their own proper wrongs.
It is no less worth observing, that this artificial division of mankind into separate societies is a perpetual source in itself of hatred and dissension among them. The names which distinguish them are enough to blow up hatred and rage. Examine history; consult present experience; and you will find that far the greater part of the quarrels between several nations had scarce any other occasion than that these nations were different combinations of peo ple, and called by different names: to an English man, the name of a Frenchman, a Spaniard, an Italian, much more a Turk, or a Tartar, raises of course ideas of hatred and contempt. _ If you would inspire this compatriot of ours with pity or regard for one of these, would you not hide that distinction? You would not pray him to compassionate the poor Frenchman, or the unhappy German. Far from it; you would speak of him as a foreigner; an accident to which all are liable. You would represent him as a man ; one partaking with us of the same common nature, and subject to the same law. There is some thing so averse from our nature in these artificial political distinctions, that we need no other trumpet to kindle us to war and destruction. But there is something so benign and healing in the general voice of humanity that, maugre all our regulations to pre vent the simple name of man applied properly, never fails to work salutary effect.
This natural unpremeditated effect of policy on the
unpossessed passions of mankind appears on other occasions. The very name of politician, states
? ? ? a
a
a
it,
? A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
man, is sure to cause terror and hatred; it has always connected with it the ideas of treachery, cru elty, fraud, and tyranny ; and those writers who have faithfully unveiled the mysteries of state-freemasonry, have ever been held in general detestation, for even knowing so perfectly a theory so detestable. The case of Machiavel seems at first sight something hard in that respect. He is obliged to bear the iniquities of those whose maxims and rules of government he
published. His speculation is more abhorred than their practice.
But if there were no other arguments against arti ficial society than this I am going to mention, me thinks it ought to fall by this one only. All writers on the science of policy are agreed, and they agree with experience, that all governments must frequent ly infringe the rules of justice to support themselves; that truth must give way to dissimulation;
to convenience; and humanity itself to the reigning interest. The whole of this mystery of iniquity is called the reason of state. It is a reason which I own I cannot penetrate. What sort of a protection is this of the general right, that is maintained by infringing the rights of particulars? What sort of
justice is this, which is enforced by breaches of its own laws? These paradoxes I leave to be solved by the able heads of legislators and politicians. For my part, I say what a plain man would say on such an occasion. I can never believe that any institution, agreeable to nature, and proper for mankind, could find it necessary, or even expedient, in any case whatsoever, to do what the best and worthiest in stincts of mankind warn us to avoid. But no won der, that what is set up in opposition to the state of
? honesty
? ? ? 30 A VINDIOATION or NATURAL SOCIETY;
nature should preserve itself by trampling upon the law of nature.
To prove that these sorts of policed societies are a violation offered to nature, and a constraint upon the human mind, it needs only to look upon the sangui nary measures, and instruments of violence, which are everywhere used to support them. Let us take a review of the dungeons, whips, chains, racks, gibbets, with which every society is abundantly stored; by which hundreds of victims are annually offered up to support a dozen or two in pride and madness, and millions in an abject servitude and dependence. There was a time when I looked with a reverential awe on these mysteries of policy ; but age, experience, and philosophy, have rent the veil; and I view this sanctum somctorum, at least, without any enthusiastic admiration. I acknowledge, indeed, the necessity of such a proceeding in such institutions; but I must have a very mean opinion of institutions where such proceedings are necessary.
It is a misfortune that in no part of the globe nat ural liberty and natural religion are to be found pure, and free from the_ mixture of political adultera tions. Yet we have implanted in us by Providence, ideas, axioms, rules, of what is pious, just, fair, hon est, which no political craft, nor learned sophistry can entirely expel from our breasts. By these we judge, and we cannot otherwise judge, of the several artificial modes of religion and society, and deter mine of them as they approach to or recede from this
? standard.
The simplest form of 'government is
despotism, where all the inferior orbs of power are moved merely by the will of the Supreme, and all that
? ? ? A VINDICATION or NATURAL SOCIETY. 31
are subjected to them directed in the same manner, merely by the occasional will of the magistrate. This form, as it is the most simple, so it is infinitely the most general. Scarcely any part of the world is exempted from its power. And in those few places where men enjoy what they call liberty, it is continu ally in a tottering situation, and makes greater and greater strides to that gulf of despotism which at last swallows up every species of government. The manner of ruling being directed merely by the will of the weakest, and generally the worst man in the society, becomes the most foolish and capricious thing, at the same time that it is the most ter rible and destructive that well can be conceived. In a despotism, the principal person finds that, let the want, misery, and indigence of his
? subjects be what they will, he can yet possess abundantly of everything to gratify his most insatiable wishes.
He does more. He finds that these gratifications in crease in proportion to the wretchedness and slavery of his subjects. Thus encouraged both by passion and interest to trample on the public welfare, and by his station placed above both shame and fear, he pro ceeds to the most horrid and shocking outrages upon mankind. Their persons become victims of his sus
The slightest displeasure is death; and a disagreeable aspect is often as great a crime as high treason. In the court of Nero, a person of learning, of unquestioned merit, and of unsuspected loyalty, was put to death for no other reason, than that he had a pedantic countenance which displeased the emperor. This very monster of mankind appeared in the beginning of his reign to be a person of vir tue. Many of the greatest tyrants on the records of
picions.
? ? ? 32 A VINDIGATION or NATURAL SOCIETY.
history have begun their reigns in the fairest manner. But the truth is, this unnatural power corrupts both the heart and the understanding. And to prevent the least hope of amendment, a king is ever sur rounded by a crowd of infamous flatterers, who find their account in keeping him from the least light of reason, till all ideas of rectitude and justice are ut terly erased from his mind. When Alexander had in his fury inhumanly butchered one of his best friends and bravest captains; on the return of reason he began to conceive an horror suitable to the guilt of such a murder. In this juncture his council came to his assistance. But what did his council? They found him out a philosopher who gave him comfort. And in what manner did this philosopher comfort him for the loss of such a man, and heal his con science, fiagrant with the smart of such a crime? You have the matter at length in Plutarch. He told him, " that let a sovereign do what he will, all his actions are just and lawful, because they are his. " The pal aces of all princes abound with such courtly philoso phers. The consequence was such as might be ex pected. He grew every day a monster more aban
doned to unnatural lust, to debauchery, to drunken ness, and to murder. And yet this was originally a great man, of uncommon capacity, and a strong pro pensity to virtue. But unbounded power proceeds step by step, until it has eradicated every laudable principle. It has been remarked, that there is no prince so bad, whose favorites and ministers are not worse. There is hardly any prince without a favor ite, by whom he is governed in as arbitrary a manner as he governs the wretches subjected to him. Here the tyranny is doubled. There are two courts, and
? ? ? ? A VINDICATION or NATURAL socmrr.
33
two interests; both very different from the interests of the people. The favorite knows that the regard of a tyrant is as unconstant and capricious as that of a woman ; and concluding his time to be short, he makes haste to fill up the measure of his iniquity, in rapine, in luxury, and in revenge. Every avenue to the throne is shut up. He oppresses and ruins the people, whilst he persuades the prince that those mur murs raised by his own oppression are the effects of disaffection to the prince's government. Then is the natural violence of despotism inflamed and aggra vated by hatred and revenge. To deserve well of the state is a crime against the prince. To be popu lar, and to be a traitor, are considered as synonymous terms. Even -virtue is dangerous, as an
? aspiring quality, that claims an esteem by itself, and indepen
dent of the countenance of the court. What has been said of the chief, is true of the inferior officers of this species of government; each in his province exercising the same tyranny, and grinding the people by an oppression, the more severely felt, as it is near them, and exercised by base and subordinate persons. For the gross of the people, they are considered as a mere herd of cattle; and really in a little time be come no better; all principle of honest pride, all sense of the dignity of their nature, is lost in their slavery. The day, says Homer, which makes a man a slave, takes away half his worth; and, in fact, he loses every impulse' to action, but that low and base one of fear. In this kind of government human nature is not only abused and insulted, but it is actually degraded and sunk into a species of brutal ity. The consideration of this made Mr. Locke say,
with great justice, that a government of this kind VOL. I. 3
? ? ? 34; A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
was worse than anarchy: indeed it is' so abhorred and detested by all who live under forms that have a milder appearance, that there is scarcely a rational man in Europe that would not prefer death to Asi atic despotism. Here then we have the acknowledg ment of a great philosopher, that an irregular state of nature is preferable to such a government; we have the consent of all sensible and generous men, who carry it yet further, and avow that death itself is preferable ; and yet this species of government, so
justly condemned, and so 'generally detested, is what infinitely the greater part of mankind groan under, and have groaned under from the beginning. So that, by sure and uncontested principles, the greatest part of the governments on earth must be concluded tyrannies, impostures, violations of the natural rights of mankind, and worse than the most disorderly anarchies. How much other forms exceed this we shall consider immediately.
In all parts of the world, mankind, however de based, retains still the sense of feeling; the weight of tyranny at last becomes insupportable ; but the remedy is not so easy: in general, the only remedy by which they attempt to cure the tyranny is to change the tyrant. This and always was, the case for the greater part. In some countries, however, were found men of more penetration, who discovered " that to live one man's will was the cause all men's misery. " They therefore changed their former method, and assembling the men in their several societies the most respectable for their understanding and fortunes, they confided to them the charge of the public welfare. This originally formed what called an aristocracy. They hoped would be impossible
? ? ? it
is
by
of
is,
? A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
that such a number could ever join in any design against the general good; and they promised them selves a great deal of security and happiness from the united counsels of so many able and experienced per sons. But it is now found by abundant experience, that an aristocracy, and a despotism, diifer but in name ; and that a people who are in general excluded from any share of the legislative, are. to ail intents and p\n'poses, as much slaves, when twenty, indepen dent of them, govern, as when but one domineers. The tyranny is even more felt, as every individual of
the nobles has the haughtiness of a sultan; the peo ple are more miserable, as they seem on the verge of liberty, from which they are forever debarred; this fallacious idea of liberty, whilst it presents a vain shadow of happiness to the subject, binds faster the chains of his subjection. What is left undone by the natural avarice and pride of those who are raised above the others, is completed by their suspicions, and their dread of losing an authority, which has no sup port in the common utility of the nation. A Genoese or a Venetian republic is a concealed despotism; where you find the same pride of the rulers, the same base subjection of the people, the same bloody maxims of a suspicious policy. In one respect the aristocracy is worse than the despotism. A body politic, whilst it retains its authority, never changes its maxims ; a despotism, which is this day horrible to a supreme de gree, by the caprice natural to the heart of man, may, by the same caprice otherwise exerted, be as lovely the next; in a succession, it is possible to meet with some good princes. Ifthere have been Tiberiuses, Caligulas, Neros, there have been likewise the serener days of Vespasians, Tituses, Trajans, and Antonines;
? ? ? ? 36 A vINn1cAT1oN or NATURAL SOCIETY.
but a body politic is not influenced by caprice or whim, it proceeds in a regular manner, its succession is insensible; and every man as he enters eithe1 has, or soon attains, the spirit of the whole body. Never was known that an aristocracy, which was
haughty and tyrannical in one century, became easy and mild in the next. In effect, the yoke of this spe cies of government so galling, that whenever the people have got the least power, they have shaken
oif with the utmost indignation, and established popular form. And when they have not had strength enough to support themselves, they have thrown themselves into the arms of despotism, as the more eligible of the two evils. This latter was the case of Denmark, who sought refuge from the oppression of its nobility, in the strong hold of arbitrary power. Poland has at present the name of republic, and
one of the aristocratic form but well known that the little finger of this government heavier than the loins of arbitrary power in most nations. The people are not only politically, but personally slaves, and treated with the utmost indignity. The republic of Venice somewhat more moderate; yet even here, so heavy the aristocratic yoke, that the nobles have been obliged to enervate the spirit of their subjects by every sort of debauchery they have denied them the liberty of reason, and they have made them amends by what base soul will think more valua ble liberty, by not only allowing, but encouraging them to corrupt themselves in the most scandalous manner. They consider their subjects as the farmer does the hog he keeps to feast upon. He holds him fast in his sty, but allows him to wallow as much as he pleases in his beloved filth and gluttony. S0
? ? ? is is a
it is
a
;
it is is
a ;
it is
a it
it,
? A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
scandalously debauched a people as that of Venice is to be met with nowhere else. High, low, men, women, clergy, and laity, are all alike. The ruling nobility are no less afraid of one another than they are of the people; and, for that reason, politically enervate their own body by the same efieminate lux ury by which they corrupt their subjects. They are impoverished by every means which can be invented; and they are kept in a perpetual terror by the horrors of a state inquisition. Here you see a people deprived of all rational freedom, and tyrannized over by about two thousand men; and yet this body of two thou sand are so far from enjoying any liberty by the sub
jection of the rest, that they are in an infinitely severer state of slavery; they make themselves the most degenerate and unhappy of mankind, for no other purpose than that they may the more eifectu ally contribute to the misery of a whole nation. In short, the regular and methodical proceedings of an aristocraqy are more intolerable than the very excesses of a despotism, and, in general, much further from any remedy.
Thus, my lord, we have pursued aristocracy through its whole progress; we have seen the seeds, the
and the fruit. It could boast none of the advantages of a despotism, miserable as those advan tages were, and it was overloaded with an exuberance of mischiefs, unknown even to despotism itself. effect, no more than disorderly tyranny. This form, therefore, could be little approved, even in speculation, by those who were capable of thinking, and could be less borne in practice by any who were capable of feeling. However, the fruitful policy of man was not yet exhausted. He had yet anothei
? growth,
? ? it is
a
'In
? 38 A v1NmoAT1oN
or NATURAL SOCIETY.
farthing candle to supply the deficiencies of the sun. This was the third form, known by political writers under the name of democracy. Here the people transacted all public business, or the greater part of
in their own persons; their laws were made by themselves, and, upon any failure of duty, their offi
to themselves, and to them In all appearance, they had secured by this method the advantages of order and good government,
cers were accountable only.
without paying their liberty for the purchase. Now, my lord, we are come to the masterpiece of Grecian refinement, and Roman solidity, -- popular govern ment. The earliest and most celebrated republic of this model was that of Athens. It was constructed. by no less an artist than the celebrated poet and philosopher, Solon. But no sooner was this political vessel launched from the stocks, than overset, even in the lifetime of the builder. A tyranny immedi ately supervened; not by foreign conquest, not by accident, but by the very nature and constitution of
? An artful man became popular, the people had power in their hands, and they devolved a
democracy.
share of their power upon their favorite and the only use he made of this power was, to plunge
considerable
into slavery. Accident restored their liberty, and the same good fortune produced
men of uncommon abilities and uncommon virtues
them. But these abilities were suffered to be of little service either to their possessors or to the state. Some of these men, for whose sakes alone we read their history, they banished; others they impris oned, and all they treated with various circumstances of the most shameful ingratitude. Republics have many things in the spirit of absolute monarchy, but
those who gave
amongst
? ? it
;
a
it,
a
it
a
? A VINDICATION or NATURAL socmrx.
39
none more than this. A shining merit is ever hated or suspected in a popular assembly, as well as in a court; and all services done the state are looked upon as dangerous to the rulers, whether sultans or senators. The ostracism at Athens was built upon this principle. The giddy people whom we have now under consideration, being elated with some flashes of success, which they owed to nothing less than any merit of their own, began to tyrannize over their equals, who had associated with them for their com mon defence. With their prudence they renounced all appearance of justice. They entered into wars rashly and wantonly.
If they were unsuccessful, in stead of growing wiser by their misfortune, they threw the whole blame of their own misconduct on the min isters who had advised, and the generals who had conducted, those wars ; until by degrees they had cut off all who could serve them in their councils or their battles. If at any time these wars had a happier issue, it was no less difficult to deal with them on account of their pride and insolence. Furious in their adversity, tyrannical in their successes, a commander had more trouble to concert his defence before the people, than to plan the operations of the campaign.
It was not uncommon for a general, under the horrid despotism of the Roman emperors, to be ill received in proportion to the greatness of his services. Agri cola is a strong instance of this. No man had done greater things, nor with more honest ambition. Yet, on his return to court, he was obliged to enter Rome with all the secrecy of a criminal. He went to the palace, not like a victorious commander who had merited and might demand the greatest rewards, but like an offender who had come to supplicate a pardon
~
? ? ? ? 40 A T/'INDICATION or NATURAL SOCIETY.
for his crimes. His reception was answerable ; " Exceptusque brevi osculo et nullo sermone, turboe ser vientiurn immixtas est. " Yet in that worst season of this worst of monarchical* tyrannies, modesty, dis cretion, and a coolness of temper, formed some kind of security, even for the highest merit. But at Athens, the nicest and best studied behavior was not a sufficient guard for a man of great capacity. Some of their bravest commanders were obliged to fly their country, some to enter into the service of its enemies, rather than abide a popular determination on their conduct, lest, as one of them said, their giddiness might make the people condemn where they meant to acquit ; to throw in a black bean even when they intended a white one.
The Athenians made a very rapid progress to the most enormous excesses. The people, under no re straint, soon 'grew dissolute, luxurious, and idle. They renounced all labor, and began to subsist them selves from the public revenues. They lost all con cern for their common honor or safety, and could bear no advice that tended to reform them. At this time truth became offensive to those lords the people, and most highly dangerous to the speaker. The ora tors no longer ascended the rostrum, but to corrupt them further with the most fulsome adulation. These orators were all bribed by foreign princes on the one side or the other. And besides its own parties, in this city there were parties, and avowed ones too, for the Persians, Spartans, and Macedonians, supported each of them by one or more demagognes pensioned and bribed to this iniquitous service. The people,
* Sciant quibus moris illicita mi|'m'i, posse etiam sub malis prin cipibus magnos viros, &c. Sec 42, to the end of it. .
? ? ? ? A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIIJTY.
forgetful of all virtue and public spirit, and intoxi cated with the flatteries of their orators (these court iers of republics, and endowed with the distinguishing characteristics of all other courtiers), this people, I say, at last arrived at that pitch of madness, that they coolly and deliberately, by an express law, made it capital for any man to propose an application of the immense sums squandered in public shows, even to the most necessary purposes of the state. When you see the people of this republic banishing and murder ing their best and ablest citizens, dissipating the pub lie treasure with the most senseless extravagance, and spending their whole time, as spectators or actors, in playing, fiddling, dancing, and singing, does it not, my lord, strike your imagination with the image of a sort of complex Nero? And does it not strike you with the greater horror, when you observe, not one man only, but a whole city, grown drunk with pride and power, running with a rage of folly into the same mean and senseless debauchery and extravagance? But if this people resembled Nero in their extrava gance, much more did they resemble and even exceed him in cruelty and injustice. In the time of Pericles, one of the most celebrated times in the history of that
commonwealth, a king of Egypt sent them a donation of corn. This they were mean enough to accept. And had the Egyptian prince intended the ruin of this city of wicked Bedlamites, he could not have taken a more effectual method to do it than by such an ensnaring largess. The distribution of this bounty caused a quarrel; the majority set on foot an inquiry
into the title of the citizens; and upon a vain pre tence of illegitimacy, newly and occasionally set up, they deprived of their share of the royal donation no
? ? ? ? 4:2 A VINDIGATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
less than five thousand of their own body. They went further; they disfranchised them; and, having once begun with an act of injustice, they could set no bounds to it. Not content with cutting them off from the rights of citizens, they plundered these unfortu nate wretches of all their substance; and, to crown this masterpiece of violence and tyranny, they actu ally sold every man of the five thousand as slaves in the public market. Observe, my lord, that the five thousand we here speak of were cut oif from a body of no more than nineteen thousand; for the entire number of citizens was no greater at that time. Could the tyrant who wished the Roman people but one neck; could the tyrant Caligula himself
? have done, nay, he could scarcely wish for, a greater mis
chief than to have cut off', at one stroke, a fourth of his people? Or has the cruelty of that series of san guine tyrants, the Caesars, ever presented such a piece of flagrant and extensive wickedness? The whole history of this celebrated republic is but one tissue of rashness, folly, ingratitude, injustice, tumult, violence, and tyranny, and, indeed, of every species of wicked ness that can well be imagined. This was a city of wise men, in which a minister could not exercise his functions; a warlike people, amongst whom a gen eral did not dare either to gain or lose a battle; a learned nation, in which a philosopher could not ven ture on a free inquiry. This was the city which ban ished Themistocles, starved Aristides, forced into ex
ile Miltiades, drove out Anaxagoras, and poisoned Socrates. This was a city which changed the form of its government with the moon; eternal conspirm cies, revolutions daily, nothing fixed and established. A republic, as an ancient philosopher has observed, is
? ? ? A VINDICATION or NATURAL socmrr. _ 43
no one species of government, but a magazine of every species ; here you find every sort of and that in the worst form. As there perpetual change, one ris ing and the other falling, you have all the violence and wicked policy by which beginning power must always acquire its strength, and all the weakness by which falling states are brought to complete de struction.
Rome has more venerable aspect than Athens; and she conducted her affairs, so far as related to the ruin and oppression of the greatest part of the world, with greater wisdom and more uniformity. But the domestic economy of these two states was nearly or altogether the same. An internal dissension con stantly tore to pieces the bowels of the Roman com monwealth. You find the same confusion, the same factions, which subsisted at Athens, the same tu mults, the same revolutions, and, in fine, the same slavery; perhaps, their former condition did not deserve that name altogether as well. All other re publics were of the same character. Florence was
transcript of Athens. And the modern republics, as they approach more or less to the democratic form, partake more or less of the nature of those which have described.
We are now at the close of our review of the three simple forms of artificial society and we have shown them, however they may differ in name, or in some slight circumstances, to be all alike in effect: in effect, to be all tyrannies. But suppose we were inclined to make the most ample concessions; let us concede Athens, Rome, Carthage, and two or three more of the ancient, and as many of the mod ern, commonwealths, to have been, or to be, free
? ? ? ;
a '
Ia
if,
a
a
it,
is a
? 44: A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
and happy, and to owe their freedom and happiness to their political constitution. Yet, allowing all this, what defence does this make for artificial society in general, that these inconsiderable spots of the globe have for some short space of time stood as exceptions to a charge so general? But when we call these governments free, or concede that their citizens were happier than those which lived under different forms, it is merely ex abundanti. For we should be greatly mistaken, if we really thought that the majority of the people which filled these cities enjoyed even that nominal political freedom of which I have spoken so much already. In reality, they had no part of it. In Athens there were usually from ten to thirty thousand freemen; this was the utmost. But the slaves usually amounted to four hundred thousand, and sometimes to a great many more. The freemen of Sparta and Rome were not more numerous in pro portion to those whom they held in a slavery even more terrible than the Athenian. Therefore state the matter fairly: the free states never formed, though they were taken altogether, the thousandth part of the habitable globe; the freemen in these states were never the twentieth part of the people, and the time they subsisted is scarce anything in that immense ocean 'of duration in which time and slavery are so nearly commensurate. Therefore call these free states, or popular governments, or what you please; when we consider the majority of their inhabitants, and regard the natural _rights of man kind, they must appear, in reality and truth, no bet ter than pitiful and oppressive oligarchies.
After so fair an examen, wherein nothing has been exaggerated; no fact produced which cannot
? ? ? ? A VINDICATION or NATURAL SOCIETY. 45
be proved, and none which has been produced in any wise forced or strained, while thousands have, for brevity, been omitted; after so candid a discus sion in all respects; what slave so passive, what bigot so blind, what enthusiast so headlong, what politician so hardened, as to stand up in defence of a system calculated for a curse to mankind? a curse under which they smart and groan to this hour, without thoroughly knowing the nature of the disease, and wanting understanding or courage to supply the remedy.
I need not excuse myself to your lordship, nor, I think, to any honest man, for the zeal I have shown in this cause;'f0r it is an honest zeal, and in a good cause. I have defended natural religion against a confederacy of atheists and divines. I now plead for"natural society against politicians, and for natural reason against all three. When the world is in a fitter temper than it is at present to hear truth, or when I shall be more indifferent about its temper, my thoughts may become more public. In the mean time, let them repose in my own bosom, and in the bosoms of such men as are fit to be ini tiated in the sober mysteries of truth and reason. My antagonists have already done as much as I could desire. Parties in religion and politics make suffi cient discoveries concerning each other, to give a sober man a proper caution against them all. The monarchic, and aristocratical, and popular partisans, have been jointly laying their axes to the root of all government, and have, in their turns, proved each other absurd and inconvenient. In vain you tell me that artificial government is good, but that I fall out only with the abuse. The thing! the thing itself is
? ? ? ? 4:6 A VINDICATION OF' NATURAL SOCIETY.
the abuse! Observe, my lord, I pray yon, that grand error upon which all artificial legislative power is founded. It was observed, that men had ungovern able passions, which made it necessary to guard against the violence they might offer to each other. They appointed governors over them for this reason. But a worse and more perplexing difficulty arises, how to be defended against the governors? eustodiet ipsos custodes? In vain they change from a single person to a few. These few have the passions
of the one ; and they unite to strengthen themselves, and to secure the gratification of their lawless pas sions at the expense of the general good. In vain do we fly to the many. lThe case is worse; their passions are less under the government of reason, they are augmented by the contagion, and defended against all attacks by their multitude.
Qais
? I have purposely avoided the mention of the mixed form of government, for reasons that will be very obvious to your lordship. But my caution can avail me but little. You will not fail to urge it against me in favor of political society. You will not fail to
show how the errors of the several simple modes are corrected by a mixture of all of them, and a proper balance of the several powers in such a state. I confess, my lord, that this has been long a darling mistake of my own; and that of all the sacrifices I have made to truth, this has been by far the greatest. When I confess that I think this notion a mistake, I know to whom I am speaking, for I am satisfied that reasons are like liquors, and there are some of such a nature as none but strong heads can bear. There are few with whom I can communicate so freely as with Pope. But Pope cannot bear every truth. He
? ? ? A VINDICATION or NATURAL socmrr. 47
has a timidity which hinders the full exertion of his faculties, almost as effectually as bigotry cramps those
of the general herd of mankind.
genuine follower of truth keeps his eye steady upon his guide, indifferent whither he is led, provided that she is the leader. And, my lord, if it be properly con sidered, it were infinitely better to remain possessed by the whole legion of vulgar mistakes, than to re ject some, and at the same time to retain a fondnws for others altogether as absurd and irrational.
first has at least a consistency, that makes a man,
however erroneously, uniform at least; but the latter way of proceeding is such an inconsistent chimera and jumble of philosophy and vulgar prejudice, that hardly anything more ridiculous can be conceived. Let us therefore freely, and without fear or prejudice, examine this last contrivance of policy. And, with out considering how near the quick our instruments
may come, let us search it to the bottom.
First, then,'all men are agreed that this junction of
regal, aristocratic, and popular power, must form a very complex, nice, and intricate machine, wl. . c'h being composed of such a variety of parts, with such opposite tendencies and movements, it must be liable on every accident to be disordered. To speak with out metaphor, such a government must be liable to frequent cabals, tumults, and revolutions, from its very constitution. These are undoubtedly as ill effects as can happen in a society; for in such a case, the closeness acquired by community, instead of serv ing for mutual defence, serves only to increase the
danger. Such a system is like a city, where trades that require constant fires are much exercised, where the houses are built of combustible materials, and where they stand extremely close.
But whoever is a
The
? ? ? ? 48 A v1NmcAT1oN or NATURAL SOCIETY.
In the second place, the several constituent 'parts having their distinct rights, and these many of them so necessary to be determined with exactness, are yet so indeterminate in their nature, that it becomes a new and constant source of debate and confusion. Hence it that whilst the business of government should be carrying on, the question Who has right to exercise this or that fimction of or what men have power to keep their ofiices in any function? Whilst this contest continues, and whilst the balance in any sort continues, has never any remission all manner of abuses and villanies i11 officers remain un
? the greatest frauds and robberies in the public revenues are committed in defiance of justice; and abuses grow, by time and impunity, into cus toms; until they prescribe against the laws, and grow too inveterate often to admit cure, unless such as may be as bad as the disease.
Thirdly, the several parts of this species of govern ment, though united, preserve the spirit which each form has separately. Kings are ambitious; the no bility haughty; and the populace tumultuous and ungovernable. Each party, however in appearance peaceable, carries on design upon the others and
owing to this, that in all questions, whether con cerning foreign or domestic affairs, the whole gener
ally turns more upon some party-matter than upon
the nature of the thing itself; whether such
will diminish or augment the power of the crown, or how far the privileges of the subject are likely to be extended or restricted by it. And these questions are constantly resolved, without any consideration of the merits of the cause, merely as the parties who uphold these jarring interests may chance to prevail
punished;
step
? ? is
a
it
;
is, it,
a
; it a
a
;
is,
? A VINDICATION or NATURAL SOCIETY. 49
and as they prevail, the balance is overset, now upon one side, now upon the other. The government one day, arbitrary power in single person another,
juggling confederacy of few to cheat the prince and enslave the people and the third, frantic and unmanageable democracy. The great instrument of all these changes, and what infuses peculiar venom into all of them, party. It of no consequence what the principles of any party, or what their preten sions are the spirit which actuates all parties the same; the spirit of ambition, of self-interest, of op pression and treachery. This spirit entirely reverses all the principles which benevolent nature has erected within us all honesty, all equal justice, and even the ties of natural society, the natural affections. In word, my lord, we have all seen, and, any out ward considerations were worthy the lasting concern of wise man, we have some of us felt, such oppres sion from party government as no other tyranny can parallel. Webehold daily the most important rights, rights upon which all the others depend, we behold these rights determined in the last resort, without the least attention even to the appearance or color of jus
tice; we behold this without emotion, because we have grown up in the constant view of such practices; and we are not surprised to hear man requested to be knave and traitor, with as much indifference as the most ordinary favor were asked; and we hear this request refused, not because most unjust and unreasonable desire, but because this Worthy has already engaged his injustice to another. These and many more points am far from spreading to their full extent. You are sensible that do not
put forth half my strength; and you cannot be at vot. 1.
? ? ? 4
I a
it is a
if
a
;
I
a
a
a
if a
a
a
a
;
is
a
is
a
;
is
;
a
is,
? 50 VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
loss for the reason. A man is allowed sufficient free dom of thought, provided he knows how to choose his subject properly. You may criticise freely upon the Chinese constitution, and observe with as much severity as you please upon the absurd tricks, or de structive bigotry of the bonzees. But the scene is changed as you come homeward, and atheism or trea son may be the names given in Britain, to what would be reason and truth if asserted of China. I submit to the condition, and though I have a notorious ad vantage before me, I waive the pursuit. For else, my lord, it is very obvious what a picture might be drawn of the excesses of party even in our own na tion. I could show, that the same faction has, in one reign, promoted popular seditions, and, in the next, been a patron of tyranny: I could show that they have all of them betrayed the public safety at
all times, and have very frequently with equal perfidy made a market of their own cause and their own associates. I could show how vehemently they have contended for names, and how silently they have passed over things of the last importance. And I could demonstrate that they have had the opportunity of doing all this misclnef, nay, that they themselves had their origin and growth from that complex form of government, which we are wisely taught to look upon as so great a blessing. Revolve, my lord, our history from the Conquest. We scarcely ever had a prince, who, by fraud or violence, had not made some infringement on the constitution. We scarcely ever had a Parliament which knew, when it attempted to
set limits to the royal authority, how to set limits to its own. Evils we have had continually calling for reformation, and reformations more grievous than any
? ? ? ? A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
evils. Our boasted liberty sometimes trodden down, sometimes giddily set up, and ever precariously fluctu ating and unsettled ; it has only been kept alive by the blasts of continual feuds, wars, and conspiracies. In no country in Europe has the scaffold so often blushed with the blood of its nobility. Confiseations, banish ments, attainders, executions, make a large part of the history of such of our families as are not utterly extinguished by them. Formerly, indeed, things had a more ferocious appearance than they have at this day. In these early and unrefined ages, the jarring part of a certain chaotic constitution supported their several pretensions by the sword. Experience and policy have since taught other methods.
At nunc res agitur tenui pulmone rubetm.
? But how far corruption, vcnality, the contempt of honor, the oblivion of all duty to our country, and the most abandoned public prostitution, are prefer able to the more glaring and violent effects of faction, I will not presume to determine. Sure I am that they are very great evils.
These evils are not accidental. Whoever will take the pains to consider the' nature of society will find that they result directly from its constitution. For as subordination, or, in other words, the reciprocation of tyranny and slavery, is requisite to support these societies; the interest, the ambition, the malice, or the revenge, nay, even the whim and caprice of one ruling man among them, is enough to arm all the rest, without any private views of their own, to the worst and blackest purposes: and what is at once lamentable, and ridiculous, these wretches engage
? ? ? ? 28 A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
under those banners with a fury greater than if they were animated by revenge for their own proper wrongs.
It is no less worth observing, that this artificial division of mankind into separate societies is a perpetual source in itself of hatred and dissension among them. The names which distinguish them are enough to blow up hatred and rage. Examine history; consult present experience; and you will find that far the greater part of the quarrels between several nations had scarce any other occasion than that these nations were different combinations of peo ple, and called by different names: to an English man, the name of a Frenchman, a Spaniard, an Italian, much more a Turk, or a Tartar, raises of course ideas of hatred and contempt. _ If you would inspire this compatriot of ours with pity or regard for one of these, would you not hide that distinction? You would not pray him to compassionate the poor Frenchman, or the unhappy German. Far from it; you would speak of him as a foreigner; an accident to which all are liable. You would represent him as a man ; one partaking with us of the same common nature, and subject to the same law. There is some thing so averse from our nature in these artificial political distinctions, that we need no other trumpet to kindle us to war and destruction. But there is something so benign and healing in the general voice of humanity that, maugre all our regulations to pre vent the simple name of man applied properly, never fails to work salutary effect.
This natural unpremeditated effect of policy on the
unpossessed passions of mankind appears on other occasions. The very name of politician, states
? ? ? a
a
a
it,
? A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
man, is sure to cause terror and hatred; it has always connected with it the ideas of treachery, cru elty, fraud, and tyranny ; and those writers who have faithfully unveiled the mysteries of state-freemasonry, have ever been held in general detestation, for even knowing so perfectly a theory so detestable. The case of Machiavel seems at first sight something hard in that respect. He is obliged to bear the iniquities of those whose maxims and rules of government he
published. His speculation is more abhorred than their practice.
But if there were no other arguments against arti ficial society than this I am going to mention, me thinks it ought to fall by this one only. All writers on the science of policy are agreed, and they agree with experience, that all governments must frequent ly infringe the rules of justice to support themselves; that truth must give way to dissimulation;
to convenience; and humanity itself to the reigning interest. The whole of this mystery of iniquity is called the reason of state. It is a reason which I own I cannot penetrate. What sort of a protection is this of the general right, that is maintained by infringing the rights of particulars? What sort of
justice is this, which is enforced by breaches of its own laws? These paradoxes I leave to be solved by the able heads of legislators and politicians. For my part, I say what a plain man would say on such an occasion. I can never believe that any institution, agreeable to nature, and proper for mankind, could find it necessary, or even expedient, in any case whatsoever, to do what the best and worthiest in stincts of mankind warn us to avoid. But no won der, that what is set up in opposition to the state of
? honesty
? ? ? 30 A VINDIOATION or NATURAL SOCIETY;
nature should preserve itself by trampling upon the law of nature.
To prove that these sorts of policed societies are a violation offered to nature, and a constraint upon the human mind, it needs only to look upon the sangui nary measures, and instruments of violence, which are everywhere used to support them. Let us take a review of the dungeons, whips, chains, racks, gibbets, with which every society is abundantly stored; by which hundreds of victims are annually offered up to support a dozen or two in pride and madness, and millions in an abject servitude and dependence. There was a time when I looked with a reverential awe on these mysteries of policy ; but age, experience, and philosophy, have rent the veil; and I view this sanctum somctorum, at least, without any enthusiastic admiration. I acknowledge, indeed, the necessity of such a proceeding in such institutions; but I must have a very mean opinion of institutions where such proceedings are necessary.
It is a misfortune that in no part of the globe nat ural liberty and natural religion are to be found pure, and free from the_ mixture of political adultera tions. Yet we have implanted in us by Providence, ideas, axioms, rules, of what is pious, just, fair, hon est, which no political craft, nor learned sophistry can entirely expel from our breasts. By these we judge, and we cannot otherwise judge, of the several artificial modes of religion and society, and deter mine of them as they approach to or recede from this
? standard.
The simplest form of 'government is
despotism, where all the inferior orbs of power are moved merely by the will of the Supreme, and all that
? ? ? A VINDICATION or NATURAL SOCIETY. 31
are subjected to them directed in the same manner, merely by the occasional will of the magistrate. This form, as it is the most simple, so it is infinitely the most general. Scarcely any part of the world is exempted from its power. And in those few places where men enjoy what they call liberty, it is continu ally in a tottering situation, and makes greater and greater strides to that gulf of despotism which at last swallows up every species of government. The manner of ruling being directed merely by the will of the weakest, and generally the worst man in the society, becomes the most foolish and capricious thing, at the same time that it is the most ter rible and destructive that well can be conceived. In a despotism, the principal person finds that, let the want, misery, and indigence of his
? subjects be what they will, he can yet possess abundantly of everything to gratify his most insatiable wishes.
He does more. He finds that these gratifications in crease in proportion to the wretchedness and slavery of his subjects. Thus encouraged both by passion and interest to trample on the public welfare, and by his station placed above both shame and fear, he pro ceeds to the most horrid and shocking outrages upon mankind. Their persons become victims of his sus
The slightest displeasure is death; and a disagreeable aspect is often as great a crime as high treason. In the court of Nero, a person of learning, of unquestioned merit, and of unsuspected loyalty, was put to death for no other reason, than that he had a pedantic countenance which displeased the emperor. This very monster of mankind appeared in the beginning of his reign to be a person of vir tue. Many of the greatest tyrants on the records of
picions.
? ? ? 32 A VINDIGATION or NATURAL SOCIETY.
history have begun their reigns in the fairest manner. But the truth is, this unnatural power corrupts both the heart and the understanding. And to prevent the least hope of amendment, a king is ever sur rounded by a crowd of infamous flatterers, who find their account in keeping him from the least light of reason, till all ideas of rectitude and justice are ut terly erased from his mind. When Alexander had in his fury inhumanly butchered one of his best friends and bravest captains; on the return of reason he began to conceive an horror suitable to the guilt of such a murder. In this juncture his council came to his assistance. But what did his council? They found him out a philosopher who gave him comfort. And in what manner did this philosopher comfort him for the loss of such a man, and heal his con science, fiagrant with the smart of such a crime? You have the matter at length in Plutarch. He told him, " that let a sovereign do what he will, all his actions are just and lawful, because they are his. " The pal aces of all princes abound with such courtly philoso phers. The consequence was such as might be ex pected. He grew every day a monster more aban
doned to unnatural lust, to debauchery, to drunken ness, and to murder. And yet this was originally a great man, of uncommon capacity, and a strong pro pensity to virtue. But unbounded power proceeds step by step, until it has eradicated every laudable principle. It has been remarked, that there is no prince so bad, whose favorites and ministers are not worse. There is hardly any prince without a favor ite, by whom he is governed in as arbitrary a manner as he governs the wretches subjected to him. Here the tyranny is doubled. There are two courts, and
? ? ? ? A VINDICATION or NATURAL socmrr.
33
two interests; both very different from the interests of the people. The favorite knows that the regard of a tyrant is as unconstant and capricious as that of a woman ; and concluding his time to be short, he makes haste to fill up the measure of his iniquity, in rapine, in luxury, and in revenge. Every avenue to the throne is shut up. He oppresses and ruins the people, whilst he persuades the prince that those mur murs raised by his own oppression are the effects of disaffection to the prince's government. Then is the natural violence of despotism inflamed and aggra vated by hatred and revenge. To deserve well of the state is a crime against the prince. To be popu lar, and to be a traitor, are considered as synonymous terms. Even -virtue is dangerous, as an
? aspiring quality, that claims an esteem by itself, and indepen
dent of the countenance of the court. What has been said of the chief, is true of the inferior officers of this species of government; each in his province exercising the same tyranny, and grinding the people by an oppression, the more severely felt, as it is near them, and exercised by base and subordinate persons. For the gross of the people, they are considered as a mere herd of cattle; and really in a little time be come no better; all principle of honest pride, all sense of the dignity of their nature, is lost in their slavery. The day, says Homer, which makes a man a slave, takes away half his worth; and, in fact, he loses every impulse' to action, but that low and base one of fear. In this kind of government human nature is not only abused and insulted, but it is actually degraded and sunk into a species of brutal ity. The consideration of this made Mr. Locke say,
with great justice, that a government of this kind VOL. I. 3
? ? ? 34; A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
was worse than anarchy: indeed it is' so abhorred and detested by all who live under forms that have a milder appearance, that there is scarcely a rational man in Europe that would not prefer death to Asi atic despotism. Here then we have the acknowledg ment of a great philosopher, that an irregular state of nature is preferable to such a government; we have the consent of all sensible and generous men, who carry it yet further, and avow that death itself is preferable ; and yet this species of government, so
justly condemned, and so 'generally detested, is what infinitely the greater part of mankind groan under, and have groaned under from the beginning. So that, by sure and uncontested principles, the greatest part of the governments on earth must be concluded tyrannies, impostures, violations of the natural rights of mankind, and worse than the most disorderly anarchies. How much other forms exceed this we shall consider immediately.
In all parts of the world, mankind, however de based, retains still the sense of feeling; the weight of tyranny at last becomes insupportable ; but the remedy is not so easy: in general, the only remedy by which they attempt to cure the tyranny is to change the tyrant. This and always was, the case for the greater part. In some countries, however, were found men of more penetration, who discovered " that to live one man's will was the cause all men's misery. " They therefore changed their former method, and assembling the men in their several societies the most respectable for their understanding and fortunes, they confided to them the charge of the public welfare. This originally formed what called an aristocracy. They hoped would be impossible
? ? ? it
is
by
of
is,
? A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
that such a number could ever join in any design against the general good; and they promised them selves a great deal of security and happiness from the united counsels of so many able and experienced per sons. But it is now found by abundant experience, that an aristocracy, and a despotism, diifer but in name ; and that a people who are in general excluded from any share of the legislative, are. to ail intents and p\n'poses, as much slaves, when twenty, indepen dent of them, govern, as when but one domineers. The tyranny is even more felt, as every individual of
the nobles has the haughtiness of a sultan; the peo ple are more miserable, as they seem on the verge of liberty, from which they are forever debarred; this fallacious idea of liberty, whilst it presents a vain shadow of happiness to the subject, binds faster the chains of his subjection. What is left undone by the natural avarice and pride of those who are raised above the others, is completed by their suspicions, and their dread of losing an authority, which has no sup port in the common utility of the nation. A Genoese or a Venetian republic is a concealed despotism; where you find the same pride of the rulers, the same base subjection of the people, the same bloody maxims of a suspicious policy. In one respect the aristocracy is worse than the despotism. A body politic, whilst it retains its authority, never changes its maxims ; a despotism, which is this day horrible to a supreme de gree, by the caprice natural to the heart of man, may, by the same caprice otherwise exerted, be as lovely the next; in a succession, it is possible to meet with some good princes. Ifthere have been Tiberiuses, Caligulas, Neros, there have been likewise the serener days of Vespasians, Tituses, Trajans, and Antonines;
? ? ? ? 36 A vINn1cAT1oN or NATURAL SOCIETY.
but a body politic is not influenced by caprice or whim, it proceeds in a regular manner, its succession is insensible; and every man as he enters eithe1 has, or soon attains, the spirit of the whole body. Never was known that an aristocracy, which was
haughty and tyrannical in one century, became easy and mild in the next. In effect, the yoke of this spe cies of government so galling, that whenever the people have got the least power, they have shaken
oif with the utmost indignation, and established popular form. And when they have not had strength enough to support themselves, they have thrown themselves into the arms of despotism, as the more eligible of the two evils. This latter was the case of Denmark, who sought refuge from the oppression of its nobility, in the strong hold of arbitrary power. Poland has at present the name of republic, and
one of the aristocratic form but well known that the little finger of this government heavier than the loins of arbitrary power in most nations. The people are not only politically, but personally slaves, and treated with the utmost indignity. The republic of Venice somewhat more moderate; yet even here, so heavy the aristocratic yoke, that the nobles have been obliged to enervate the spirit of their subjects by every sort of debauchery they have denied them the liberty of reason, and they have made them amends by what base soul will think more valua ble liberty, by not only allowing, but encouraging them to corrupt themselves in the most scandalous manner. They consider their subjects as the farmer does the hog he keeps to feast upon. He holds him fast in his sty, but allows him to wallow as much as he pleases in his beloved filth and gluttony. S0
? ? ? is is a
it is
a
;
it is is
a ;
it is
a it
it,
? A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
scandalously debauched a people as that of Venice is to be met with nowhere else. High, low, men, women, clergy, and laity, are all alike. The ruling nobility are no less afraid of one another than they are of the people; and, for that reason, politically enervate their own body by the same efieminate lux ury by which they corrupt their subjects. They are impoverished by every means which can be invented; and they are kept in a perpetual terror by the horrors of a state inquisition. Here you see a people deprived of all rational freedom, and tyrannized over by about two thousand men; and yet this body of two thou sand are so far from enjoying any liberty by the sub
jection of the rest, that they are in an infinitely severer state of slavery; they make themselves the most degenerate and unhappy of mankind, for no other purpose than that they may the more eifectu ally contribute to the misery of a whole nation. In short, the regular and methodical proceedings of an aristocraqy are more intolerable than the very excesses of a despotism, and, in general, much further from any remedy.
Thus, my lord, we have pursued aristocracy through its whole progress; we have seen the seeds, the
and the fruit. It could boast none of the advantages of a despotism, miserable as those advan tages were, and it was overloaded with an exuberance of mischiefs, unknown even to despotism itself. effect, no more than disorderly tyranny. This form, therefore, could be little approved, even in speculation, by those who were capable of thinking, and could be less borne in practice by any who were capable of feeling. However, the fruitful policy of man was not yet exhausted. He had yet anothei
? growth,
? ? it is
a
'In
? 38 A v1NmoAT1oN
or NATURAL SOCIETY.
farthing candle to supply the deficiencies of the sun. This was the third form, known by political writers under the name of democracy. Here the people transacted all public business, or the greater part of
in their own persons; their laws were made by themselves, and, upon any failure of duty, their offi
to themselves, and to them In all appearance, they had secured by this method the advantages of order and good government,
cers were accountable only.
without paying their liberty for the purchase. Now, my lord, we are come to the masterpiece of Grecian refinement, and Roman solidity, -- popular govern ment. The earliest and most celebrated republic of this model was that of Athens. It was constructed. by no less an artist than the celebrated poet and philosopher, Solon. But no sooner was this political vessel launched from the stocks, than overset, even in the lifetime of the builder. A tyranny immedi ately supervened; not by foreign conquest, not by accident, but by the very nature and constitution of
? An artful man became popular, the people had power in their hands, and they devolved a
democracy.
share of their power upon their favorite and the only use he made of this power was, to plunge
considerable
into slavery. Accident restored their liberty, and the same good fortune produced
men of uncommon abilities and uncommon virtues
them. But these abilities were suffered to be of little service either to their possessors or to the state. Some of these men, for whose sakes alone we read their history, they banished; others they impris oned, and all they treated with various circumstances of the most shameful ingratitude. Republics have many things in the spirit of absolute monarchy, but
those who gave
amongst
? ? it
;
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it,
a
it
a
? A VINDICATION or NATURAL socmrx.
39
none more than this. A shining merit is ever hated or suspected in a popular assembly, as well as in a court; and all services done the state are looked upon as dangerous to the rulers, whether sultans or senators. The ostracism at Athens was built upon this principle. The giddy people whom we have now under consideration, being elated with some flashes of success, which they owed to nothing less than any merit of their own, began to tyrannize over their equals, who had associated with them for their com mon defence. With their prudence they renounced all appearance of justice. They entered into wars rashly and wantonly.
If they were unsuccessful, in stead of growing wiser by their misfortune, they threw the whole blame of their own misconduct on the min isters who had advised, and the generals who had conducted, those wars ; until by degrees they had cut off all who could serve them in their councils or their battles. If at any time these wars had a happier issue, it was no less difficult to deal with them on account of their pride and insolence. Furious in their adversity, tyrannical in their successes, a commander had more trouble to concert his defence before the people, than to plan the operations of the campaign.
It was not uncommon for a general, under the horrid despotism of the Roman emperors, to be ill received in proportion to the greatness of his services. Agri cola is a strong instance of this. No man had done greater things, nor with more honest ambition. Yet, on his return to court, he was obliged to enter Rome with all the secrecy of a criminal. He went to the palace, not like a victorious commander who had merited and might demand the greatest rewards, but like an offender who had come to supplicate a pardon
~
? ? ? ? 40 A T/'INDICATION or NATURAL SOCIETY.
for his crimes. His reception was answerable ; " Exceptusque brevi osculo et nullo sermone, turboe ser vientiurn immixtas est. " Yet in that worst season of this worst of monarchical* tyrannies, modesty, dis cretion, and a coolness of temper, formed some kind of security, even for the highest merit. But at Athens, the nicest and best studied behavior was not a sufficient guard for a man of great capacity. Some of their bravest commanders were obliged to fly their country, some to enter into the service of its enemies, rather than abide a popular determination on their conduct, lest, as one of them said, their giddiness might make the people condemn where they meant to acquit ; to throw in a black bean even when they intended a white one.
The Athenians made a very rapid progress to the most enormous excesses. The people, under no re straint, soon 'grew dissolute, luxurious, and idle. They renounced all labor, and began to subsist them selves from the public revenues. They lost all con cern for their common honor or safety, and could bear no advice that tended to reform them. At this time truth became offensive to those lords the people, and most highly dangerous to the speaker. The ora tors no longer ascended the rostrum, but to corrupt them further with the most fulsome adulation. These orators were all bribed by foreign princes on the one side or the other. And besides its own parties, in this city there were parties, and avowed ones too, for the Persians, Spartans, and Macedonians, supported each of them by one or more demagognes pensioned and bribed to this iniquitous service. The people,
* Sciant quibus moris illicita mi|'m'i, posse etiam sub malis prin cipibus magnos viros, &c. Sec 42, to the end of it. .
? ? ? ? A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIIJTY.
forgetful of all virtue and public spirit, and intoxi cated with the flatteries of their orators (these court iers of republics, and endowed with the distinguishing characteristics of all other courtiers), this people, I say, at last arrived at that pitch of madness, that they coolly and deliberately, by an express law, made it capital for any man to propose an application of the immense sums squandered in public shows, even to the most necessary purposes of the state. When you see the people of this republic banishing and murder ing their best and ablest citizens, dissipating the pub lie treasure with the most senseless extravagance, and spending their whole time, as spectators or actors, in playing, fiddling, dancing, and singing, does it not, my lord, strike your imagination with the image of a sort of complex Nero? And does it not strike you with the greater horror, when you observe, not one man only, but a whole city, grown drunk with pride and power, running with a rage of folly into the same mean and senseless debauchery and extravagance? But if this people resembled Nero in their extrava gance, much more did they resemble and even exceed him in cruelty and injustice. In the time of Pericles, one of the most celebrated times in the history of that
commonwealth, a king of Egypt sent them a donation of corn. This they were mean enough to accept. And had the Egyptian prince intended the ruin of this city of wicked Bedlamites, he could not have taken a more effectual method to do it than by such an ensnaring largess. The distribution of this bounty caused a quarrel; the majority set on foot an inquiry
into the title of the citizens; and upon a vain pre tence of illegitimacy, newly and occasionally set up, they deprived of their share of the royal donation no
? ? ? ? 4:2 A VINDIGATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
less than five thousand of their own body. They went further; they disfranchised them; and, having once begun with an act of injustice, they could set no bounds to it. Not content with cutting them off from the rights of citizens, they plundered these unfortu nate wretches of all their substance; and, to crown this masterpiece of violence and tyranny, they actu ally sold every man of the five thousand as slaves in the public market. Observe, my lord, that the five thousand we here speak of were cut oif from a body of no more than nineteen thousand; for the entire number of citizens was no greater at that time. Could the tyrant who wished the Roman people but one neck; could the tyrant Caligula himself
? have done, nay, he could scarcely wish for, a greater mis
chief than to have cut off', at one stroke, a fourth of his people? Or has the cruelty of that series of san guine tyrants, the Caesars, ever presented such a piece of flagrant and extensive wickedness? The whole history of this celebrated republic is but one tissue of rashness, folly, ingratitude, injustice, tumult, violence, and tyranny, and, indeed, of every species of wicked ness that can well be imagined. This was a city of wise men, in which a minister could not exercise his functions; a warlike people, amongst whom a gen eral did not dare either to gain or lose a battle; a learned nation, in which a philosopher could not ven ture on a free inquiry. This was the city which ban ished Themistocles, starved Aristides, forced into ex
ile Miltiades, drove out Anaxagoras, and poisoned Socrates. This was a city which changed the form of its government with the moon; eternal conspirm cies, revolutions daily, nothing fixed and established. A republic, as an ancient philosopher has observed, is
? ? ? A VINDICATION or NATURAL socmrr. _ 43
no one species of government, but a magazine of every species ; here you find every sort of and that in the worst form. As there perpetual change, one ris ing and the other falling, you have all the violence and wicked policy by which beginning power must always acquire its strength, and all the weakness by which falling states are brought to complete de struction.
Rome has more venerable aspect than Athens; and she conducted her affairs, so far as related to the ruin and oppression of the greatest part of the world, with greater wisdom and more uniformity. But the domestic economy of these two states was nearly or altogether the same. An internal dissension con stantly tore to pieces the bowels of the Roman com monwealth. You find the same confusion, the same factions, which subsisted at Athens, the same tu mults, the same revolutions, and, in fine, the same slavery; perhaps, their former condition did not deserve that name altogether as well. All other re publics were of the same character. Florence was
transcript of Athens. And the modern republics, as they approach more or less to the democratic form, partake more or less of the nature of those which have described.
We are now at the close of our review of the three simple forms of artificial society and we have shown them, however they may differ in name, or in some slight circumstances, to be all alike in effect: in effect, to be all tyrannies. But suppose we were inclined to make the most ample concessions; let us concede Athens, Rome, Carthage, and two or three more of the ancient, and as many of the mod ern, commonwealths, to have been, or to be, free
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and happy, and to owe their freedom and happiness to their political constitution. Yet, allowing all this, what defence does this make for artificial society in general, that these inconsiderable spots of the globe have for some short space of time stood as exceptions to a charge so general? But when we call these governments free, or concede that their citizens were happier than those which lived under different forms, it is merely ex abundanti. For we should be greatly mistaken, if we really thought that the majority of the people which filled these cities enjoyed even that nominal political freedom of which I have spoken so much already. In reality, they had no part of it. In Athens there were usually from ten to thirty thousand freemen; this was the utmost. But the slaves usually amounted to four hundred thousand, and sometimes to a great many more. The freemen of Sparta and Rome were not more numerous in pro portion to those whom they held in a slavery even more terrible than the Athenian. Therefore state the matter fairly: the free states never formed, though they were taken altogether, the thousandth part of the habitable globe; the freemen in these states were never the twentieth part of the people, and the time they subsisted is scarce anything in that immense ocean 'of duration in which time and slavery are so nearly commensurate. Therefore call these free states, or popular governments, or what you please; when we consider the majority of their inhabitants, and regard the natural _rights of man kind, they must appear, in reality and truth, no bet ter than pitiful and oppressive oligarchies.
After so fair an examen, wherein nothing has been exaggerated; no fact produced which cannot
? ? ? ? A VINDICATION or NATURAL SOCIETY. 45
be proved, and none which has been produced in any wise forced or strained, while thousands have, for brevity, been omitted; after so candid a discus sion in all respects; what slave so passive, what bigot so blind, what enthusiast so headlong, what politician so hardened, as to stand up in defence of a system calculated for a curse to mankind? a curse under which they smart and groan to this hour, without thoroughly knowing the nature of the disease, and wanting understanding or courage to supply the remedy.
I need not excuse myself to your lordship, nor, I think, to any honest man, for the zeal I have shown in this cause;'f0r it is an honest zeal, and in a good cause. I have defended natural religion against a confederacy of atheists and divines. I now plead for"natural society against politicians, and for natural reason against all three. When the world is in a fitter temper than it is at present to hear truth, or when I shall be more indifferent about its temper, my thoughts may become more public. In the mean time, let them repose in my own bosom, and in the bosoms of such men as are fit to be ini tiated in the sober mysteries of truth and reason. My antagonists have already done as much as I could desire. Parties in religion and politics make suffi cient discoveries concerning each other, to give a sober man a proper caution against them all. The monarchic, and aristocratical, and popular partisans, have been jointly laying their axes to the root of all government, and have, in their turns, proved each other absurd and inconvenient. In vain you tell me that artificial government is good, but that I fall out only with the abuse. The thing! the thing itself is
? ? ? ? 4:6 A VINDICATION OF' NATURAL SOCIETY.
the abuse! Observe, my lord, I pray yon, that grand error upon which all artificial legislative power is founded. It was observed, that men had ungovern able passions, which made it necessary to guard against the violence they might offer to each other. They appointed governors over them for this reason. But a worse and more perplexing difficulty arises, how to be defended against the governors? eustodiet ipsos custodes? In vain they change from a single person to a few. These few have the passions
of the one ; and they unite to strengthen themselves, and to secure the gratification of their lawless pas sions at the expense of the general good. In vain do we fly to the many. lThe case is worse; their passions are less under the government of reason, they are augmented by the contagion, and defended against all attacks by their multitude.
Qais
? I have purposely avoided the mention of the mixed form of government, for reasons that will be very obvious to your lordship. But my caution can avail me but little. You will not fail to urge it against me in favor of political society. You will not fail to
show how the errors of the several simple modes are corrected by a mixture of all of them, and a proper balance of the several powers in such a state. I confess, my lord, that this has been long a darling mistake of my own; and that of all the sacrifices I have made to truth, this has been by far the greatest. When I confess that I think this notion a mistake, I know to whom I am speaking, for I am satisfied that reasons are like liquors, and there are some of such a nature as none but strong heads can bear. There are few with whom I can communicate so freely as with Pope. But Pope cannot bear every truth. He
? ? ? A VINDICATION or NATURAL socmrr. 47
has a timidity which hinders the full exertion of his faculties, almost as effectually as bigotry cramps those
of the general herd of mankind.
genuine follower of truth keeps his eye steady upon his guide, indifferent whither he is led, provided that she is the leader. And, my lord, if it be properly con sidered, it were infinitely better to remain possessed by the whole legion of vulgar mistakes, than to re ject some, and at the same time to retain a fondnws for others altogether as absurd and irrational.
first has at least a consistency, that makes a man,
however erroneously, uniform at least; but the latter way of proceeding is such an inconsistent chimera and jumble of philosophy and vulgar prejudice, that hardly anything more ridiculous can be conceived. Let us therefore freely, and without fear or prejudice, examine this last contrivance of policy. And, with out considering how near the quick our instruments
may come, let us search it to the bottom.
First, then,'all men are agreed that this junction of
regal, aristocratic, and popular power, must form a very complex, nice, and intricate machine, wl. . c'h being composed of such a variety of parts, with such opposite tendencies and movements, it must be liable on every accident to be disordered. To speak with out metaphor, such a government must be liable to frequent cabals, tumults, and revolutions, from its very constitution. These are undoubtedly as ill effects as can happen in a society; for in such a case, the closeness acquired by community, instead of serv ing for mutual defence, serves only to increase the
danger. Such a system is like a city, where trades that require constant fires are much exercised, where the houses are built of combustible materials, and where they stand extremely close.
But whoever is a
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? ? ? ? 48 A v1NmcAT1oN or NATURAL SOCIETY.
In the second place, the several constituent 'parts having their distinct rights, and these many of them so necessary to be determined with exactness, are yet so indeterminate in their nature, that it becomes a new and constant source of debate and confusion. Hence it that whilst the business of government should be carrying on, the question Who has right to exercise this or that fimction of or what men have power to keep their ofiices in any function? Whilst this contest continues, and whilst the balance in any sort continues, has never any remission all manner of abuses and villanies i11 officers remain un
? the greatest frauds and robberies in the public revenues are committed in defiance of justice; and abuses grow, by time and impunity, into cus toms; until they prescribe against the laws, and grow too inveterate often to admit cure, unless such as may be as bad as the disease.
Thirdly, the several parts of this species of govern ment, though united, preserve the spirit which each form has separately. Kings are ambitious; the no bility haughty; and the populace tumultuous and ungovernable. Each party, however in appearance peaceable, carries on design upon the others and
owing to this, that in all questions, whether con cerning foreign or domestic affairs, the whole gener
ally turns more upon some party-matter than upon
the nature of the thing itself; whether such
will diminish or augment the power of the crown, or how far the privileges of the subject are likely to be extended or restricted by it. And these questions are constantly resolved, without any consideration of the merits of the cause, merely as the parties who uphold these jarring interests may chance to prevail
punished;
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and as they prevail, the balance is overset, now upon one side, now upon the other. The government one day, arbitrary power in single person another,
juggling confederacy of few to cheat the prince and enslave the people and the third, frantic and unmanageable democracy. The great instrument of all these changes, and what infuses peculiar venom into all of them, party. It of no consequence what the principles of any party, or what their preten sions are the spirit which actuates all parties the same; the spirit of ambition, of self-interest, of op pression and treachery. This spirit entirely reverses all the principles which benevolent nature has erected within us all honesty, all equal justice, and even the ties of natural society, the natural affections. In word, my lord, we have all seen, and, any out ward considerations were worthy the lasting concern of wise man, we have some of us felt, such oppres sion from party government as no other tyranny can parallel. Webehold daily the most important rights, rights upon which all the others depend, we behold these rights determined in the last resort, without the least attention even to the appearance or color of jus
tice; we behold this without emotion, because we have grown up in the constant view of such practices; and we are not surprised to hear man requested to be knave and traitor, with as much indifference as the most ordinary favor were asked; and we hear this request refused, not because most unjust and unreasonable desire, but because this Worthy has already engaged his injustice to another. These and many more points am far from spreading to their full extent. You are sensible that do not
put forth half my strength; and you cannot be at vot. 1.
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loss for the reason. A man is allowed sufficient free dom of thought, provided he knows how to choose his subject properly. You may criticise freely upon the Chinese constitution, and observe with as much severity as you please upon the absurd tricks, or de structive bigotry of the bonzees. But the scene is changed as you come homeward, and atheism or trea son may be the names given in Britain, to what would be reason and truth if asserted of China. I submit to the condition, and though I have a notorious ad vantage before me, I waive the pursuit. For else, my lord, it is very obvious what a picture might be drawn of the excesses of party even in our own na tion. I could show, that the same faction has, in one reign, promoted popular seditions, and, in the next, been a patron of tyranny: I could show that they have all of them betrayed the public safety at
all times, and have very frequently with equal perfidy made a market of their own cause and their own associates. I could show how vehemently they have contended for names, and how silently they have passed over things of the last importance. And I could demonstrate that they have had the opportunity of doing all this misclnef, nay, that they themselves had their origin and growth from that complex form of government, which we are wisely taught to look upon as so great a blessing. Revolve, my lord, our history from the Conquest. We scarcely ever had a prince, who, by fraud or violence, had not made some infringement on the constitution. We scarcely ever had a Parliament which knew, when it attempted to
set limits to the royal authority, how to set limits to its own. Evils we have had continually calling for reformation, and reformations more grievous than any
? ? ? ? A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY.
evils. Our boasted liberty sometimes trodden down, sometimes giddily set up, and ever precariously fluctu ating and unsettled ; it has only been kept alive by the blasts of continual feuds, wars, and conspiracies. In no country in Europe has the scaffold so often blushed with the blood of its nobility. Confiseations, banish ments, attainders, executions, make a large part of the history of such of our families as are not utterly extinguished by them. Formerly, indeed, things had a more ferocious appearance than they have at this day. In these early and unrefined ages, the jarring part of a certain chaotic constitution supported their several pretensions by the sword. Experience and policy have since taught other methods.
At nunc res agitur tenui pulmone rubetm.
? But how far corruption, vcnality, the contempt of honor, the oblivion of all duty to our country, and the most abandoned public prostitution, are prefer able to the more glaring and violent effects of faction, I will not presume to determine. Sure I am that they are very great evils.
