N° 286 The Unchafte are provoked to see their Vice expofed, and the Chafte cannot rake into fuch Filth without Danger of Defilement; but a meer SPECTATOR may look into the Bottom, and come off without partaking in the Guilt. The doing fo will convince us you purfue publick Good, and not merely your own Advantage: But if your Zeal flackens, how can one help thinking that Mr. Courtly's Letter is but a Feint to get off from a Subject, in which either your own, or the private and bafe Ends of others to whom you are partial, or thofe of whom you are afraid, would not indure a Reformation? I am, Sir, your humble Servant and Admirer, fo long as you tread in the Paths of Truth, Virtue and Honour. 'Mr. SPECTATOR, Trin. Coll. Cantab. Jan. 12. 1711-12) IT is my Fortune to have a Chamber-Fellow, with whom, tho' I agree very well in many Sentiments, yet there is one in which we are as contrary as Light and Darknefs. We are both in Love; his Mistress is a lovely Fair, and mine a lovely Brown. Now as the Praife of our Miftreffes Beauty employs, much of our Time, we have frequent Quarrels in entring upon that Subject, while each fay's all he can to defend his Choice. For my own Part, I have racked my Fancy to the utmoft; and fometimes, with the greateft Warmth of Imagination, have told him, That Night made before Day, and many more fine Things, tho without any effect: Nay, laft Night I could not forbear faying, with more Heat than Judgment, that the Devil ought to be painted white. Now my Defire is, Sir, that you would be pleafed to give us in Black and White your Opinion in the Matter of Difpute between us; which will either furnish me with fresh and prevailing Arguments to maintain my own Tafte, or make me with lefs Repining allow that of my Chamber-Fellow. I know very well that I have Jack Cleaveland and Bond's Horace on my Side; but then he has fuch a Band of Rhymers and Romance-Writers, with which he oppofes me, and is,fo continually chiming to the Tune of was Golden Golden Treffes, yellow Locks, Milk, Marble, Ivory, Silver, Swans, Snow, Dazies, Doves, and the Lord knows what, which he is always founding with fo much Vehemence in my Ears, that he often puts me into a brown Study how to anfwer him, and I find that I'm in a fair Way to be quite confounded, without your timely Affiftance afforded to, SIR, Your Humble Servant, Philobrune, No 287. Tuesday, January 29. I Ὦ φιλτάτη γῆ μῆτερ, ὡς σεμνὸν σφόδρα Menand. Look upon it as a peculiar Happiness, that were I to chufe of what Religion I would be, and under what Government I would live, I fhould most certainly give the Preference to that Form of Religion and Government which is eftablifhed in my own Country. In this Point I think I am determined by Reafon and Conviction; but if i fhall be told that I am acted by Prejudice, I am fure it is an honeft Prejudice, it is a Prejudice that arifes from the Love of my Country, and therefore fuch an one as I will always indulge. I have in feveral Papers endeavoured to exprefs my Duty and Efteem for the Church of England, and defign this as an Effay upon the Civil Part of our Conftitution, having often entertained my felf with Reflections on this Subject, which I have not met with in other Writers, THAT Form of Government appears to me the most reafonable, which is moft conformable to the Equality that we find in human Nature, provided it be confiftent with publick Peace and Tranquility. This is what may properly be called Liberty, which exempts one Man from Subjection Subjection to another fo far as the Order and Oeconomy of Government will permit. LIBERTY fhould reach every Individual of a People, as they all fhare one common Nature; if it only fpreads among particular Branches, there had better be none at all, fince fuch a Liberty only aggravates the Misfortune of those who are deprived of it, by fetting before them a difagreeable Subject of Comparison THIS Liberty is beft preferved, where the Legislative Power is lodged in feveral Perfons, efpecially if thofe Perfons are of different Ranks and Interests; for where they are of the fame Rank, and consequently have an Intereft to manage peculiar to that Rank, it differs but little from a Defpotical Government in a fingle Perfon. But the greateft Security a People can have for their Liberty, is when the Legislative Power is in the Hands of Perfons fo happily diftinguished, that by providing for the particular Intereft of their feveral Ranks, they are providing for the whole Body of the People; or in other Words, when there is no Part of the People that has not a common Interest with at least one Part of the Legislators. IF there be but one Body of Legislators, it is no better than a Tyranny; if there are only two, there will want a cafting Voice, and one of them muft at length be fwallowed up by Difputes and Contentions that will neceffarily arife between them. Four would have the fame Inconvenience as two, and a greater Number would cause too much Confufion. I could never read a Paffage in Polybius, and another in Cicero, to this Purpose, without a fecret Pleasure in applying it to the English Conftitution, which it fuits much better than the Roman. Both thefe great Authors give the Pre-eminence to a mixt Government confifting of three Branches, the Regal, the Noble, and the Popular. They had doubtlefs in their Thoughts the Constitution of the Roman Common-wealth, in which the Conful reprefented the King, the Senate the Nobles, and the Tribunes the People. This Division of the three Powers in the Roman Conftitution was by no means fo distinct and natural, as it is the English Form of Government. Among feveral Objections that might be made to it, I think the Chief are thofe that affect the Confular Power, which had only the Ornaments without the Force of the Regal Authority. Their Number had not a cafting Voice in it; for which Reafon, if one did not chance to be employed Abroad, while the other fat at Home, the Publick Bufinefs was fometimes at a Stand, while the Confuls pulled two different Ways in it. Befides, I do not find that the Confuls had ever a Negative Voice in the paffing of a Law, or Decree of Senate, fo that indeed they were rather the chief Body of the Nobility, or the firft Minifters of State, than a diftin&t Branch of the Sovereignty, in which none can be looked upon as a Part, who are not a Part of the Legiflature. Had the Confuls been invefted with the Regal Authority to as great a Degree as our Monarchs, there would never have been any Occafions for a Dictatorship, which had in it the Power of all the three Orders, and ended in the Subverfion of the whole Conftitution. SUCH an History as that of Suetonius, which gives us a Succeffion of Abfolute Princes, is to me an unanfwerable Argument against Defpotick Power. Where the Prince is a Man of Wisdom and Virtue, it is indeed happy for his People that he is Abfolute; but fince in the common Run of Mankind, for one that is Wife and Good you find ten of a contrary Character, it is very dangerous for a Nation to ftand to its Chance, or to have its Publick Happinefs or Mifery depend on the Virtues and Vices of a fingle Perfon. Look into the Hiftory I have mentioned, or into any Series of Abfolute Princes, how many Tyrants muft you read through, before you come at an Emperor that is fupportable. But this is not all; an honeft private Man often grows cruel and abandoned, when converted into an Abfolute Prince. Give a Man Power of doing what he pleafes with Impunity, you extinguish his Fear, and confequently overturn in him one of the great Pillars of Morality. This too we find confirmed by Matter of Fact. How many hopeful Heirs apparent to great Empires, when in the Poffeffion of them, have become fuch Monsters of Luft and Cruelty as are a Reproach to Human Nature? SOME tell us we ought to make our Government on Earth like that in Heaven, which, fay they, is altogether Monarchical and Unlimited. Was Man like his Creator in Goodness and Juftice, I fhould be for following this great great Model; but where Goodness and Justice are not effential to the Ruler, I would by no means put my felf into his Hands to be difpofed of according to his particular Will and Pleasure. IT is odd to confider the Connection between Defpotic Government and Barbarity, and how the making of one Person more than Man, makes the rest less. Above nine Parts of the World in ten are in the lowest State of Slavery, and confequently funk into the moft grofs and brutal Ignorance. European Slavery is indeed a State of Liberty, if compared with that which prevails in the other three Divisions of the World; and therefore it is no Wonder that thofe who grovel under it have many Tracks of Light among them, of which the others are wholly -deftitute. RICHES and Plenty are the natural Fruits of Liberty, and where thefe abound, Learning and all the Liberal Arts will immediately lift up their Heads and flourish. As a Man must have no flavish Fears and Apprehenfions hanging upon his Mind, who will indulge the Flights of Fancy or Speculation, and push his Refearches into all the abftrufe Corners of Truth, fo it is neceffary for him to have about him a Competency of all the Conveniencies of Life. THE first thing every one looks after, is to provide himfelf with Neceffaries. This Point will engross our Thoughts 'till it be fatisfied. If this is taken Care of to our Hands, we look out for Pleafures and Amusements; and among a great Number of idle People, there will be many whofe Pleafures will lie in Reading and Contemplation. Thefe are the two great Sources of Knowledge, and as Men grow wife they naturally love to communicate their Discoveries; and others feeing the Happiness of fuch a Learned Life, and improving by their Converfation, emulate, imitate, and furpafs one another, till a Nation is filled with Races of wife and understanding Perfons. Eafe and Plenty are therefore the great Cherifhers of Knowledge; and as moft of the Defpotic Governments of the World have neither of them, they are naturally over-run with Ignorance and Barbarity. In Europe, indeed, notwithstanding several of its Princes are abfolute, there are Men famous for Knowledge and Learning, 5 |