us; but at the long run it will be found that a people working upon a
foreign commodity does but farm the manufacture, and that it is really
entailed upon them only where the growth of it is native; as also that
it is one thing to have the carriage of other men’s goods, and another
for a man to bring his own to the best market. Wherefore (nature having
provided encouragement for these arts in this nation above all others,
where, the people growing, they of necessity must also increase) it
cannot but establish them upon a far more sure and effectual foundation
than that of the Hollanders. But these educations are in order to
the first things or necessities of nature; as husbandry to the food,
manufacture to the clothing, and merchandise to the purse of the
commonwealth.
“There be other things in nature, which being second as to their order,
for their dignity and value are first; and such to which the other
are but accommodations; of this sort are especially these: religion,
justice, courage, and wisdom.
“The education that answers to religion in our government is that of the
universities. Moses, the divine legislator, was not only skilful in
all the learning of the Egyptians, but took also into the fabric of his
commonwealth the learning of the Midianites in the advice of Jethro; and
his foundation of a university laid in the tabernacle, and finished in
the Temple, became that pinnacle from whence (according to many Jewish
and Christian authors) all the learning in the world has taken wing; as
the philosophy of the Stoics from the Pharisees; that of the Epicureans
from the Sadducees; and from the learning of the Jews, so often quoted
by our Saviour, and fulfilled in him, the Christian religion. Athens
was the most famous university in her days; and her senators, that is to
say, the Areopagites, were all philosophers. Lacedaemon, to speak truth,
though she could write and read, was not very bookish. But he that
disputes hence against universities, disputes by the same argument
against agriculture, manufacture, and merchandise; every one of these
having been equally forbid by Lycurgus, not for itself (for if he had
not been learned in all the learning of Crete, and well travelled in the
knowledge of other governments, he had never made his commonwealth),
but for the diversion which they must have given his citizens from their
arms, who, being but few, if they had minded anything else, must have
deserted the commonwealth. For Rome, she had ingenium par ingenio, was
as learned as great, and held our College of Augurs in much reverence.
Venice has taken her religion upon trust. Holland cannot attend it to
be very studious. Nor does Switzerland mind it much; yet are they all
addicted to their universities. We cut down trees to build houses; but
I would have somebody show me, by what reason or experience the cutting
down of a university should tend to the setting up of a commonwealth.
Of this I am sure, that the perfection of a commonwealth is not to be
attained without the knowledge of ancient prudence, nor the knowledge of
ancient prudence without learning, nor learning without schools of good
literature, and these are such as we call universities.
“Now though mere university learning of itself be that which (to speak
the words of Verulamius) ‘crafty men contemn, and simple men only
admire, yet is it such as wise men have use of; for studies do not
teach their own use, but that is a wisdom without and above them, won by
observation. Expert men may execute, and perhaps judge, of particulars
one by one; but the general councils and the plots, and the marshalling
of affairs, come best from those that are learned.’ Wherefore if you
would have your children to be statesmen, let them drink by all means of
these fountains, where perhaps there were never any. But what though the
water a man drinks be not nourishment, it is the vehicle without which
he cannot be nourished.
“Nor is religion less concerned in this point than government: for
take away your universities, and in a few years you lose it. “The holy
Scriptures are written in Hebrew and Greek; they that have neither of
these languages may think light of both; but find me a man that has one
in perfection, the study of whose whole life it has not been. Again,
this is apparent to us in daily conversation, that if four or five
persons that have lived together be talking, another speaking the same
language may come in, and yet understand very little of their discourse,
in that it relates to circumstances, persons, things, times and places
which he knows not. It is no otherwise with a man, having no insight
of the times in which they were written, and the circumstances to which
they relate, in the reading of ancient books, whether they be divine or
human. For example, when we fall upon the discourse about baptism and
regeneration that was between our Saviour and Nicodemus, where Christ
reproaches him with his ignorance in this matter. ‘Art thou a doctor in
Israel, and understandest not these things?’ What shall we think of it?
or wherefore should a doctor in Israel have understood these things more
than another, but that both baptism and regeneration, as was showed at
large by my Lord Phosphorus, were doctrines held in Israel? I instance
in one place of a hundred, which he, that has not mastered the
circumstances to which they relate, cannot understand. Wherefore to
the understanding of the Scripture, it is necessary to have ancient
languages, and the knowledge of ancient times, or the aid of them who
have such knowledge; and to have such as may be always able and ready to
give such aid (unless you would borrow it of another nation, which would
not only be base, but deceitful) it is necessary to a commonwealth that
she have schools of good literature, or universities of her own.
“We are commanded, as has been said more than once, to search the
Scriptures; and which of them search the Scriptures, they that take
this pains in ancient languages and learning, or they that will not,
but trust to translations only, and to words as they sound to present
circumstances? than which nothing is more fallible, or certain to lose
the true sense of Scriptures, pretended to be above human understanding,
for no other cause than that they are below it. But in searching
the Scriptures by the proper use of our universities, we have been
heretofore blest with greater victories and trophies against the purple
hosts and golden standards of the Romish hierarchy than any nation; and
therefore why we should relinquish this upon the presumption of some,
that because there is a greater light which they have, I do not know.
There is a greater light than the sun, but it does not extinguish the
sun, nor does any light of God’s giving extinguish that of nature,
but increase and sanctify it. Wherefore, neither the honor bore by the
Israelitish, Roman, or any other commonwealth that I have shown,
to their ecclesiastics, consisted in being governed by them, but in
consulting them in matters of religion, upon whose responses or oracles
they did afterward as they thought fit.
“Nor would I be here mistaken, as if, by affirming the universities to
be, in order both to religion and government, of absolute necessity, I
declared them or the ministry in any wise fit to be trusted, so far
as to exercise any power not derived from the civil magistrate in the
administration of either, if the Jewish religion were directed and
established by Moses, it was directed and established by the civil
magistrate; or if Moses exercised this administration as a prophet, the
same prophet did invest with the same administration the Sanhedrim, and
not the priests; and so does our commonwealth the Senate, and not the
clergy. They who had the supreme administration or government of
the national religion in Athens, were the first Archon, the rex
sacrificulus, or high-priest, and a polemarch, which magistrates
were ordained or elected by the holding up of hands in the church,
congregation, or comitia of the people. The religion of Lacedaemon was
governed by the kings, who were also high-priests, and officiated at the
sacrifice; these had power to substitute their pythii, ambassadors,
or nuncios, by which, not without concurrence of the Senate, they
held intelligence with the oracle of Apollo at Delphos. And the
ecclesiastical part of the Commonwealth of Rome was governed by the
pontifex maximus, the rex sacrificulus, and the Flamens, all ordained
or elected by the people, the pontifex by the tribes, the King by the
centuries, and the Flamens by the parishes.
“I do not mind you of these things, as if, for the matter, there were
any parallel to be drawn out of their superstitions to our religion,
but to show that for the manner, ancient prudence is as well a rule in
divine as human things; nay, and such a one as the apostles themselves,
ordaining elders by the holding up of hands in every congregation, have
exactly followed; for some of the congregations where they thus ordained
elders were those of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, the countries of
Lycaona, Pisidia, Pamphilia, Perga, with Attalia. Now that these cities
and countries, when the Romans propagated their empire into Asia, were
found most of them commonwealths, and that many of the rest were endued
with like power, so that the people living under the protection of the
Roman emperors continued to elect their own magistrates, is so known
a thing, that I wonder whence it is that men, quite contrary to the
universal proof of these examples, will have ecclesiastical government
to be necessarily distinct from civil power, when the right of the
elders ordained by the holding up of hands in every congregation to
teach the people, was plainly derived from the same civil power by which
they ordained the rest of their magistrates. And it is not otherwise in
our commonwealth, where the parochial congregation elects or ordains its
pastor. To object the Commonwealth of Venice in this place, were to show
us that it has been no otherwise but where the civil power has lost the
liberty of her conscience by embracing popery; as also that to take away
the liberty of conscience in this administration from the civil power,
were a proceeding which has no other precedent than such as is popish.
“Wherefore your religion is settled after the following manner: the
universities are the seminaries of that part which is national, by which
means others with all safety may be permitted to follow the liberty of
their own consciences, in regard that, however they behave themselves,
the ignorance of the unlearned in this case cannot lose your religion
nor disturb your government, which otherwise it would most certainly do;
and the universities with their emoluments, as also the benefices of
the whole nation, are to be improved by such augmentations as may make
a very decent and comfortable subsistence for the ministry, which is
neither to be allowed synods nor assemblies, except upon the occasion
shown in the universities, when they are consulted by the Council
of State, and suffered to meddle with affairs of religion, nor to be
capable of any other public preferment whatsoever; by which means the
interest of the learned can never come to corrupt your religion, nor
disturb your government, which otherwise it would most certainly do.
Venice, though she does not see, or cannot help the corruption of her
religion, is yet so circumspect to avoid disturbance of her government
in this kind, that her Council proceeds not to election of magistrates
till it be proclaimed fora papalini, by which words such as have
consanguinity with red hats, or relation to the Court of Rome, are
warned to withdraw.
“If a minister in Holland meddles with matter of state, the magistrate
sends him a pair of shoes; whereupon, if he does not go, he is driven
away from his charge. I wonder why ministers, of all men, should be
perpetually tampering with government; first because they, as well as
others, have it in express charge to submit themselves to the ordinances
of men; and secondly because these ordinances of men must go upon such
political principles as they of all others, by anything that can be
found in their writings or actions, least understand: whence you have
the suffrage of all nations to this sense, that an ounce of wisdom is
worth a pound of clergy. Your greatest clerks are not your wisest men:
and when some foul absurdity in state is committed, it is common
with the French, and even the Italians, to call it ‘pas de clerc,’
or ‘governo de prete.’ They may bear with men that will be preaching
without study, while they will be governing without prudence. My lords,
if you know not how to rule your clergy, you will most certainly, like
a man that cannot rule his wife, have neither quiet at home nor honor
abroad. Their honest vocation is to teach your children at the schools
and the universities, and the people in the parishes, and yours is
concerned to see that they do not play the shrews, of which parts
does consist the education of your commonwealth, so far as it regards
religion.
“To justice, or that part of it which is commonly executive, answers the
education of the inns of court and chancery. Upon which to philosophize,
requires a public kind of learning that I have not. But they who take
upon them any profession proper to the educations mentioned--that is,
theology, physic, or law--are not at leisure for the essays.
Wherefore the essays, being degrees whereby the youth commence for all
magistracies, offices, and honors in the parish, hundred, tribe, Senate,
or prerogative; divines, physicians, and lawyers not taking these
degrees, exclude themselves from all such magistracies, offices, and
honors. And whereas lawyers are likest to exact further reason for
this, they (growing up from the most gainful art at the bar to those
magistracies upon the bench which are continually appropriated to
themselves, and not only endowed with the greatest revenues, but also
held for life) have the least reason of all the rest to pretend to
any other, especially in an equal commonwealth, where accumulation of
magistracy or to take a person engaged by his profit to the laws, as
they stand, into the power, which is legislative, and which should keep
them to what they were, or ought to he, were a solecism in prudence.
It is true that the legislative power may have need of advice and
assistance from the executive magistracy, or such as are learned in
the law; for which cause the judges are, as they have heretofore been,
assistants in the Senate. Nor, however it came about, can I see any
reason why a judge, being but an assistant or lawyer, should be member
of a legislative council.
“I deny not that the Roman patricians were all patrons, and that the
whole people were clients, some to one family and some to another,
by which means they had their causes pleaded and defended in some
appearance gratis; for the patron took no money, though if he had a
daughter to marry, his clients were to pay her portion, nor was this so
great a grievance. But if the client accused his patron, gave testimony
or suffrage against him, it was a crime of such a nature that any man
might lawfully kill him as a traitor; and this, as being the nerve of
the optimacy, was a great cause of ruin to that commonwealth; for
when the people would carry anything that pleased not the Senate, the
senators were ill provided if they could not intercede-that is, oppose
it by their clients; with whom, to vote otherwise than they pleased,
was the highest crime. The observation of this bond till the time of the
Gracchi--that is to say, till it was too late, or to no purpose to break
it--was the cause why, in all the former heats and disputes that had
happened between the Senate and the people, it never came to blows,
which indeed was good; but withal, the people could have no remedy,
which was certainly evil. Wherefore I am of opinion that a senator
ought not to be a patron or advocate, nor a patron or advocate to be a
senator; for if his practice be gratis it debauches the people, and if
it be mercenary it debauches himself: take it which way you will, when
he should be making of laws, he will be knitting of nets.
“Lycurgus, as I said, by being a traveller became a legislator, but in
times when prudence was another thing. Nevertheless we may not shut
out this part of education in a commonwealth, which will be herself
a traveller; for those of this make have seen the world, especially
because this is certain (though it be not regarded in our times, when
things being left to take their chance, it fares with us accordingly)
that no man can be a politician except he be first a historian or a
traveller; for except he can see what must be, or what may be, he is no
politician. Now if he has no knowledge in history he cannot tell what
has been, and if he has not been a traveller, he cannot tell what is;
but he that neither knows what has been, nor what is, can never tell
what must be, or what may be. Furthermore, the embassies-in-ordinary by
our constitution are the prizes of young men, more especially such as
have been travellers. Wherefore they of these inclinations, having leave
of the censors, owe them an account of their time, and cannot choose but
lay it out with some ambition of praise or reward, where both are open,
whence you will have eyes abroad, and better choice of public ministers,
your gallants showing themselves not more to the ladies at their balls
than to your commonwealth at her Academy when they return from their
travels.
“But this commonwealth being constituted more especially of two
elements, arms and councils, drives by a natural instinct at courage and
wisdom; which he who has attained is arrived at the perfection of human
nature. It is true that these virtues must have some natural root in him
that is capable of them; but this amounts not to so great a matter
as some will have it. For if poverty makes an industrious, a moderate
estate a temperate, and a lavish fortune a wanton man, and this be
the common course of things, wisdom then is rather of necessity than
inclination. And that an army which was meditating upon flight, has been
brought by despair to win the field, is so far from being strange,
that like causes will evermore produce like effects. Wherefore this
commonwealth drives her citizens like wedges; there is no way with them
but thorough, nor end but that glory whereof man is capable by art or
nature. That the genius of the Roman families commonly preserved itself
throughout the line (as to instance in some, the Manlii were still
severe, the Publicolae lovers, and the Appii haters of the people) is
attributed by Machiavel to their education; nor, if interest might add
to the reason why the genius of a patrician was one thing, and that of
a plebeian another, is the like so apparent between different nations,
who, according to their different educations, have yet as different
manners. It was anciently noted, and long confirmed by the actions of
the French, that in their first assaults their courage was more
than that of men, and for the rest less than that of women, which
nevertheless, through the amendment of their discipline, we see now to
be otherwise. I will not say but that some man or nation upon an equal
improvement of this kind may be lighter than some other; but certainly
education is the scale without which no man or nation can truly know
his or her own weight or value. By our histories we can tell when one
Marpesian would have beaten ten Oceaners, and when one Oceaner would
have beaten ten Marpesians. Marc Antony was a Roman, but how did that
appear in the embraces of Cleopatra? You must have some other education
for your youth, or they, like that passage, will show better in romance
than true story.
“The custom of the Commonwealth of Rome in distributing her magistracies
without respect of age, happened to do well in Corvinus and Scipio; for
which cause Machiavel (with whom that which was done by Rome, and that
which is well done, are for the most part all one) commends this course.
Yet how much it did worse at other times, is obvious in Pompey and
Caesar, examples by which Boccalini illustrates the prudence of Venice
in her contrary practice, affirming it to have been no small step to the
ruin of the Roman liberty, that these (having tasted in their youth
of the supreme honors) had no greater in their age to hope for, but by
perpetuating of the same in themselves; which came to blood and ended in
tyranny. The opinion of Verulamius is safe: ‘The errors,’ says he, ‘of
young men are the ruin of business; whereas the errors of old men amount
but to this, that more might have been done, or sooner.’ But though
their wisdom be little, their courage is great; wherefore (to come to
the main education of this commonwealth) the militia of Oceana is the
province of youth.
“The distribution of this province by the essays is so fully described
in the order, that I need repeat nothing; the order itself being but a
repetition or copy of that original, which in ancient prudence is of all
others the fairest, as that from whence the Commonwealth of Rome more
particularly derived the empire of the world. And there is much more
reason in this age, when governments are universally broken, or swerved
from their foundations, and the people groan under tyranny, that the
same causes (which could not be withstood when the world was full of
popular governments) should have the like effects.
“The causes in the Commonwealth of Rome, whereof the empire of the
world was not any miraculous, but a natural (nay, I may safely say a
necessary) consequence, are contained in that part of her discipline
which was domestic, and in that which she exercises in her provinces or
conquest. Of the latter I shall have better occasion to speak when we
come to our provincial orbs; the former divided the whole people by
tribes, amounting, as Livy and Cicero show, at their full growth to
thirty-five, and every tribe by the sense or valuation of estates into
five classes: for the sixth being proletary, that is the nursery, or
such as through their poverty contributed nothing to the commonwealth
but children, was not reckoned nor used in arms. And this is the first
point of the militia, in which modern prudence is quite contrary to the
ancient; for whereas we, excusing the rich and arming the poor, become
the vassals of our servants, they, by excusing the poor and arming
such as were rich enough to be freemen, became lords of the earth. The
nobility and gentry of this nation, who understand so little what it is
to be the lords of the earth that they have not been able to keep their
own lands, will think it a strange education for their children to be
common soldiers, and obliged to all the duties of arms; nevertheless it
is not for four shillings a week, but to be capable of being the best
man in the field or in the city the latter part of which consideration
makes the common soldier herein a better man than the general of any
monarchical army.
“And whereas it may be thought that this would drink deep of noble
blood, I dare boldly say, take the Roman nobility in the heat of their
fiercest wars, and you shall not find such a shambles of them as has
been made of ours by mere luxury and slothfulness; which, killing the
body, kill the soul also: Animasque in vulnere ponunt. Whereas common
right is that which he who stands in the vindication of, has used that
sword of justice for which he receives the purple of magistracy. The
glory of a man on earth can go no higher, and if he falls he rises
again, and comes sooner to that reward which is so much higher as heaven
is above the earth. To return to the Roman example: every class was
divided, as has been more than once shown, into centuries, and every
century was equally divided into youth and elders; the youth for foreign
service, and the elders for the guard of the territory. In the first
class were about eighteen centuries of horse, being those which, by
the institution of Servius, were first called to the suffrage in the
centurial assemblies. But the delectus, or levy of an army, which is the
present business, proceeded, according to Polybius, in this manner:
“Upon a war decreed, the Consuls elected four-and-twenty military
tribunes or colonels, whereof ten, being such as had merited their tenth
stipend, were younger officers. The tribunes being chosen, the Consuls
appointed a day to the tribes, when those in them of military age were
to appear at the capitol. The day being come, and the youth assembled
accordingly, the Consuls ascended their tribunal, and the younger
tribunes were straight divided into four parts after this manner: four
were assigned to the first legion (a legion at the most consisted of
6,000 foot and 300 horse), three to the second, four to the third, and
three to the fourth. The younger tribunes being thus distributed, two of
the elder were assigned to the first legion, three to the second, two to
the third, and three to the fourth; and the officers of each legion thus
assigned, having drawn the tribes by lot, and being seated according to
their divisions at a convenient distance from each other, the tribe of
the first lot was called, whereupon they that were of it knowing the
business, and being prepared, presently bolted out four of their number,
in the choice whereof such care was taken that they offered none that
was not a citizen, no citizen that was not of the youth, no youth that
was not of some one of the five classes, nor any one of the five classes
that was not expert at his exercises. Moreover, they used such diligence
in matching them for age and stature, that the officers of the legion,
except they happened to be acquainted with the youth so bolted, were
forced to put themselves upon fortune, while they of the first legion
chose one, they of the second the next, they of the third another and
the fourth youth fell to the last legion; and thus was the election (the
legions and the tribes varying according to their lots) carried on till
the foot were complete.
“The like course with little alteration was taken by the horse officers
till the horse also were complete. This was called giving of names,
which the children of Israel did also by lot; and if any man refused to
give his name, he was sold for a slave, or his estate confiscated to the
commonwealth. ‘When Marcus Curius the Consul was forced to make a sudden
levy, and none of the youth would give in their names, all the tribes
being put to the lot, he commanded the first name drawn out of the urn
of the Pollian tribe (which happened to come first) to be called; but
the youth not answering, he ordered his goods to be sold; which was
conformable to the law in Israel, according to which Saul took a yoke
of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout the tribes,
saying, ‘Whosoever comes not forth to battle after Saul and Samuel, so
shall it be done to his oxen.’ By which you may observe also that they
who had no cattle were not of the militia in Israel. But the age of
the Roman youth by the Tullian law determined at thirty; and by the law
(though it should seem by Machiavel and others that this was not
well observed) a man could not stand for magistracy till he was miles
emeritus, or had fulfilled the full term of his militia, which was
complete in his tenth stipend or service, nor was he afterward obliged
under any penalty to give his name, except the commonwealth were
invaded, in which case the elders were as well obliged as the youth. The
Consul might also levy milites evocatos, or soldiers, commanded men
out of such as had served their turn, and this at his discretion. The
legions being thus complete, were divided by two to each consul, and
in these no man had right to serve but a Roman citizen; now because two
legions made but a small army, the Romans added to every one of their
arms an equal number of foot, and a double number of horse levied among
their Latin or Italian associates; so a consular army, with the legions
and auxiliaries, amounted to about 30,000, and whereas they commonly
levied two such armies together, these being joined made about 60,000.
“The steps whereby our militia follows the greatest captain, are the
three essays; the first, elected by a fifth man in the parishes,
and amounting in the whole to 100,000, choose their officers at the
hundreds, where they fall also to their games or exercises, invited by
handsome prizes, such as for themselves and the honor of them will be
coveted, such as will render the hundred a place of sports, and exercise
of arms all the year long, such as in the space of ten years will equip
30,000 men horse and foot, with such arms for their forge, proof, and
beauty, as (notwithstanding the argyraspides, or silver shields of
Alexander’s guards) were never worn by so many, such as will present
marks of virtue and direction to your general or strategus in the
distribution of his army, which doubles the value of them to the
proprietors, who are bound to wear them, and eases the commonwealth of
so much charge, so many being armed already.
“But here will be the objection now. How shall such a revenue be
compassed? Fifty pounds a year in every hundred is a great deal, not so
easily raised; men will not part with their money, nor would the sum,
as it is proposed by the order of Pompey, rise in many years. These
are difficulties that fit our genius exactly, and yet £1,000 in each
hundred, once levied, establishes the revenue forever. Now the hundreds
one with another are worth £10,000 a year dry-rent, over and above
personal estates, which bring it to twice the value, so that a twentieth
part of one year’s revenue of the hundred does it, if you cannot afford
this while you pay taxes, though from henceforth they will be but small
ones, do it when you pay none, if it be then too much for one year, do
it in two; if it be too much for two years, do it in four. What husbands
have we hitherto been? what is become of greater sums? My lords, if you
should thus cast your bread upon the waters, after many days you shall
find it; stand not huckling when you are offered corn and your money
again in the mouth of the sack.
“But to proceed: the first essay being officered at the hundreds, and
mustered at the tribes (where they are entertained with other sports,
which will be very fine ones), proceeds to the election of the second
essay, or standing army of this nation, consisting of 30,000 foot and
10,000 horse; and these, upon a war decreed, being delivered at the
rendezvous of Oceana to the strategus, are the third essay, which
answers to the Roman legions. But you may observe, that whereas the
consuls elected the military tribunes, and raised commanded men out of
the veterans at their own discretion, our polemarchs, or field officers,
are elected by the scrutiny of the Council of War, and our veterans
not otherwise taken on than as volunteers, and with the consent of the
polemarchs, which may serve for the removal of certain scruples which
might otherwise be incident in this place, though without encouragement
by the Roman way of proceeding, much less by that which is proposed.
But whereas the Roman legions in all amounted not in one army to above
30,000 men, or little more, you have here 40,000; and whereas they
added auxiliaries, it is in this regard that Marpesia will be a greater
revenue to you than if you had the Indies; for whereas heretofore she
has yielded you nothing but her native thistles, in ploughing out the
rankness of her aristocracy by your agrarian, you will find her an
inexhaustible magazine of men, and to her own advantage, who will make a
far better account by the arms than by the pins of Poland. Wherefore as
a consular army consisted of about an equal number of auxiliaries added
to their legions by their Latin or Italian associates, you may add to a
parliamentary army an equal number of Marpesians or Panopeans, as
that colony shall hereafter be able to supply you, by which means the
commonwealth will be able to go forth to battle with 80,000 men.
“To make wars with small forces is no husbandry, but a waste, a disease,
a lingering and painful consumption of men and money the Romans making
theirs thick, made them short, and had little regard to money, as that
which they who have men enough can command where it is fittest that it
should be levied. All the ancient monarchies by this means got on wing,
and attained to vast riches. Whereas your modern princes being dear
purchasers of small parcels, have but empty pockets. But it may be some
will accuse the order of rashness, in that it commits the sole conduct
of the war to the general; and the custom of Venice by her proveditori,
or checks upon her commanders-in-chief, may seem to be of greater
prudence; but in this part of our government neither Venice nor any
nation that makes use of mercenary forces is for our instruction. A
mercenary army, with a standing general, is like the fatal sister that
spins; but proper forces, with an annual magistrate, are like her that
cuts the thread. Their interests are quite contrary, and yet you have a
better proveditor than the Venetian, another strategus sitting with an
army standing by him; whereupon that which is marching, if there were
any probability it should, would find as little possibility that it
could recoil, as a foreign enemy to invade you. These things considered,
a war will appear to be of a contrary nature to that of all other
reckonings, inasmuch as of this you must never look to have a good
account if you be strict in imposing checks. Let a council of huntsmen,
assembled beforehand, tell you which way the stag shall run, where you
shall cast about at the fault, and how you shall ride to be in at the
chase all the day; but these may as well do that, as a council of war
direct a general. The hours that have painted wings, and of different
colors, are his council; he must be like the eye that makes not the
scene, but has it so soon as it changes. That in many counsellors there
is strength, is spoken of civil administrations; as to those that are
military, there is nothing more certain than that in many counsellors
there is weakness. Joint commissions in military affairs, are like
hunting your hounds in their couples. In the Attic War Cleomenes and
Demaratus, Kings of Lacedaemon, being thus coupled, tugged one against
another; and while they should have joined against the Persian, were the
cause of the common calamity, whereupon that commonwealth took better
counsel, and made a law whereby from henceforth there went at once but
one of her kings to battle.
“‘The Fidenati being in rebellion, and having slain the colony of the
Romans, four tribunes with consular power were created by the people of
Rome, whereof one being left for the guard of the city, the other three
were sent against the Fidenati, who, through the division that happened
among them, brought nothing home but dishonor, whereupon the Romans
created the Dictator, and Livy gives his judgment in these words: “The
three tribunes with consular power were a lesson how useless in war
is the joint command of several generals; for each following his own
counsels, while they all differed in their opinions, gave by this
opportunity an advantage to the enemy.” When the consuls Quintus and
Agrippa were sent against the AEqui, Agrippa for this reason refused
to go with his colleague, saying: “That in the administration of great
actions it was most safe that the chief command should be lodged in one
person.” And if the ruin of modern armies were well considered, most of
it would be found to have fallen upon this point, it being in this case
far safer to trust to any one man of common prudence, than to any two or
more together of the greatest parts.’ The consuls indeed, being equal in
power, while one was present with the Senate, and the other in the field
with the army, made a good balance; and this with us is exactly followed
by the election of a new strategus upon the march of the old one.
“The seven-and-twentieth order, whereby the elders in case of invasion
are obliged to equal duty with the youth, and each upon their own
charge, is suitable to reason (for every man defends his own estate) and
to our copy, as in the war with the Samnites and Tuscans. ‘The Senate
ordered a vacation to be proclaimed, and a levy to be made of all sorts
of persons, and not only the freemen and youths were listed, but cohorts
of the old men were likewise formed.’ This nation of all others is the
least obnoxious to invasion. Oceana, says a French politician, is
a beast that cannot be devoured but by herself. Nevertheless, that
government is not perfect which is not provided at all points; and in
this (ad triarios res rediit) the elders being such as in a martial
state must be veterans, the commonwealth invaded gathers strength like
Antaeus by her fall, while the whole number of the elders, consisting
of 500,000, and the youth of as many, being brought up according to the
order, give twelve successive battles, each battle consisting of
80,000 men, half elders and half youth. And the commonwealth, whose
constitution can be no stranger to any of those virtues which are to be
acquired in human life, grows familiar with death ere she dies. If the
hand of God be upon her for her transgressions, she shall mourn for
her sins, and lie in the dust for her iniquities, without losing her
manhood.
“‘Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidam ferient ruinoe.’”
The remaining part, being the constitution of the provincial orb, is
partly civil, or consisting of the elders; and partly military, or
consisting of the youth. The civil part of the provincial orb is
directed by--
The twenty-eighth order, “Whereby the council of a province being
constituted of twelve knights, divided by four into three regions (for
their term and revolution conformable to the Parliament), is perpetuated
by the annual election at the tropic of four knights (being triennial
magistrates) out of the region of the Senate whose term expires; and
of one knight out of the same region to be strategus or general of the
province, which magistracy is annual. The strategus or magistrate thus
chosen shall be as well president of the provincial council with power
to propose to the same, as general of the army. The council for the
rest shall elect weekly provosts, having any two of them also right
to propose after the manner of the senatorian councils of Oceana. And
whereas all provincial councils are members of the Council of State,
they may and ought to keep diligent correspondence with the same, which
is to be done after this manner: Any opinion or opinions legitimately
proposed and debated at a provincial council, being thereupon signed
by the strategus or any two of the provosts, may be transmitted to the
Council of State in Oceana; and the Council of State proceeding upon
the same in their natural course (whether by their own power, if it be
a matter within their instructions; or by authority of the Senate
thereupon consulted, if it be a matter of state which is not in their
instructions; or by authority of the Senate and command of the people,
if it be a matter of law, as for the levies of men or money upon common
use and safety) shall return such answers, advice, or orders as in any
of the ways mentioned shall be determined upon the case.
“The provincial councils of Marpesia and Panopea respectively shall take
special care that the agrarian laws, as also all other laws that be
or shall from time to time be enacted by the Parliament of Oceana, for
either of them, be duly put in execution; they shall manage and receive
the customs of either nation for the shipping of Oceana, being the
common guard; they shall have a care that moderate and sufficient
pay upon the respective province be duly raised for the support and
maintenance of the officers and soldiers, or army of the same, in the
most effectual, constant, and convenient way; they shall receive
the regalia, or public revenues of those nations, out of which every
councillor shall have for his term, and to his proper use, the sum of
£500 per annum, and the strategus £500 as president, beside his pay as
general, which shall be £1,000, the reminder to go to the use of the
knights and deputies of the respective provinces, to be paid, if it
will reach, according to the rates of Oceana; if not, by an equal
distribution, respectively, or the overplus, if there be any, to be
returned to the Treasury of Oceana. They shall manage the lands (if
there be any such held in either of the provinces by the commonwealth
of Oceana, in dominion) and return the rents into the Exchequer. If the
commonwealth comes to be possessed of richer provinces, the pay of
the general or strategus, and of the councils, may be respectively
increased. The people for the rest shall elect their own magistrates,
and be governed by their own laws, having power also to appeal from
their native or provincial magistrates, if they please, to the people of
Oceana. And whereas there may be such as receiving injury, are not
able to prosecute their appeals at so great a distance, eight
sergeants-at-law, being sworn by the commissioners of the seal, shall
be sent by four into each province once in two years; who, dividing
the same by circuits, shall hear such causes, and having gathered and
introduced them, shall return to the several appellants, gratis, the
determinations and decrees of the people in their several cases.
“The term of a knight in a provincial orb, as to domestic magistracies,
shall be esteemed a vacation, and no bar to present election to any
other honor, his provincial magistracy being expired.
“The quorum of a provincial council, as also of every other council
or assembly in Oceana, shall in time of health consist of two parts in
three of the whole number proper to that council or assembly; and in a
time of sickness, of one part in three; but of the Senate there can be
no quorum without three of the signory, nor of a council without two of
the provosts.”
The civil part of the provincial orb being declared by the foregoing
order, the military part of the same is constituted by--
The twenty-ninth order, “Whereby the stratiots of the third essay having
drawn the gold balls marked with the letter M, and being ten horse and
fifty foot in a tribe, that is to say, 500 horse and 2,500 foot in
all, the tribes shall be delivered by the respective conductors to
the provincial strategus or general, at such a time and place, or
rendezvous, as he shall appoint by order and certificate of his
election, and the strategus having received the horse and foot
mentioned, which are the third classes of his provincial guard or army,
shall forthwith lead them away to Marpesia, where the army consists of
three classes, each class containing 3,000 men, whereof 500 are horse;
and receiving the new strategus with the third class, the old strategus
with the first class shall be dismissed by the provincial council. The
same method with the stratiots of the letter P, is to be observed for
the provincial orb of Panopea; and the commonwealth coming to acquire
new provinces, the Senate and the people may erect new orbs in like
manner, consisting of greater or less numbers, according as is required
by the respective occasion. If a stratiot has once served his term in a
provincial orb, and happens afterward to draw the letter of a province
at the election of the second essay, he may refuse his lot; and if he
refuses it, the censor of that urn shall cause the files balloting at
the same to make a halt; and if the stratiot produces the certificate of
his strategus or general, that he has served his time accordingly, the
censor throwing the ball that he drew into the urn again, and taking out
a blank, shall dismiss the youth, and cause the ballot to proceed.”
To perfect the whole structure of this commonwealth, some directions are
given to the third essay, or army marching, in--
The thirtieth order. “‘When thou goest to battle against thy enemies,
and seest horses and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not
afraid of them, for the Lord thy God is he that goes with thee to fight
for thee against thy enemies. And when thou dividest the spoil, it shall
be as a statute and an ordinance to thee, that as his part is that goes
down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarries by the stuff;
that is (as to the commonwealth of Oceana) the spoil takin of the enemy
(except clothes, arms, horses, ammunition, and victuals, to be divided
to the soldiery by the strategus and the polemarchs upon the place
according to their discretion) shall be delivered to four commissaries
of the spoils elected and sworn by the Council of War, which
commissaries shall be allowed shipping by the State, and convoys
according as occasion shall require by the strategus, to the end that
having a bill of lading signed by three or more of the polemarchs,
they may ship and bring, or cause such spoils to be brought to the
prize-office in Oceana, where they shall be sold, and the profit arising
by such spoils shall be divided into three parts, whereof one shall go
to the Treasury, another shall be paid to the soldiery of this nation,
and a third to the auxiliaries at their return from their service,
provided that the said auxiliaries be equal in number to the proper
forces of this nation, otherwise their share shall be so much less as
they themselves are fewer in number; the rest of the two-thirds to go
to the officers and soldiers of the proper forces. And the spoils so
divided to the proper forces, shall be subdivided into three equal
parts, whereof one shall go to the officers, and two to the common
soldiers, the like for the auxiliaries. And the share allotted the
officers shall be divided into four equal parts, whereof one shall go to
the strategus, another to the polemarchs, a third to the colonels, and a
fourth to the captains, cornets, ensigns, and under-officers,
receiving their share of the spoil as common soldiers, the like for the
auxiliaries. And this upon pain, in the case of failure, of what the
people of Oceana (to whom the cognizance of peculation or crimes of this
nature is properly appertaining) shall adjudge or decree.”
Upon these three last orders the Archon seemed to be haranguing at the
head of his army in this manner:
“MY DEAR LORDS AND EXCELLENT PATRIOTS:
“A government of this make is a commonwealth for increase. Of those for
preservation, the inconveniences and frailties have been shown: their
roots are narrow, such as do not run, have no fibres; their tops weak
and dangerously exposed to the weather, except you chance to find
one, as Venice, planted in a flower-pot, and if she grows, she grows
topheavy, and falls, too. But you cannot plant an oak in a flowerpot;
she must have earth for her root, and heaven for her branches.
“‘Imperium Oceano, famam quoe terminet astris.’
“Rome was said to be broken by her own weight, but poetically; for that
weight by which she was pretended to be ruined was supported in her
emperors by a far slighter foundation. And in the common experience of
good architecture, there is nothing more known than that buildings stand
the firmer and the longer for their own weight, nor ever swerve through
any other internal cause than that their materials are corruptible; but
the people never die, nor, as a political body, are subject to any other
corruption than that which derives from their government. Unless a man
will deny the chain of causes, in which he denies God, he must also
acknowledge the chain of effects; wherefore there can be no effect in
nature that is not from the first cause, and those successive links of
the chain without which it could not have been. Now except a man can
show the contrary in a commonwealth, if there be no cause of corruption
in the first make of it, there can never be any such effect. Let no
man’s superstition impose profaneness upon this assertion; for as man is
sinful, but yet the universe is perfect, so may the citizen be sinful,
and yet the commonwealth be perfect. And as man, seeing the world is
perfect, can never commit any such sin as shall render it imperfect,
or bring it to a natural dissolution, so the citizen, where the
commonwealth is perfect, can never commit any such crime as will render
it imperfect, or bring it to a natural dissolution.
“To come to experience: Venice, notwithstanding we have found some flaws
in it, is the only commonwealth in the make whereof no man can find
a cause of dissolution; for which reason we behold her (though she
consists of men that are not without sin) at this day with 1,000 years
upon her back, yet for any internal cause, as young, as fresh, and free
from decay, or any appearance of it, as she was born; but whatever in
nature is not sensible of decay by the course of 1,000 years, is capable
of the whole age of nature; by which calculation, for any check that
I am able to give myself, a commonwealth, rightly ordered, may for any
internal causes be as immortal or long-lived as the world. But if
this be true, those commonwealths that are naturally fallen, must have
derived their ruin from the rise of them. Israel and Athens died, not
natural, but violent deaths, in which manner the world itself is to
die. We are speaking of those causes of dissolution which are natural to
government; and they are but two, either contradiction or inequality. If
a commonwealth be a contradiction, she must needs destroy herself; and
if she be unequal, it tends to strife, and strife to ruin. By the former
of these fell Lacedaemon, by the latter Rome. Lacedaemon being made
altogether for war, and yet not for increase, her natural progress
became her natural dissolution, and the building of her own victorious
hand too heavy for her foundation, so that she fell, indeed, by her own
weight. But Rome perished through her native inequality, which how it
inveterated the bosoms of the Senate and the people each against other,
and even to death, has been shown at large.
“Look well to it, my lords, for if there be a contradiction or
inequality in your commonwealth, it must fall; but if it has neither of
these, it has no principle of mortality. Do not think me impudent; if
this be truth, I shall commit a gross indiscretion in concealing it.
Sure I am that Machiavel is for the immortality of a commonwealth upon
far weaker principles. ‘If a commonwealth,’ says he, ‘were so happy
as to be provided often with men, that, when she is swerving from
her principles, should reduce her to her institution, she would be
immortal.’ But a commonwealth, as we have demonstrated, swerves not from
her principles, but by and through her institution; if she brought no
bias into the world with her, her course for any internal cause must
be straightforward, as we see is that of Venice. She cannot turn to the
right hand nor to the left, but by some rub, which is not an internal,
but external, cause: against such she can be no way fortified but
through her situation, as is Venice, or through her militia, as was
Rome, by which examples a commonwealth may be secure of those also.
Think me not vain, for I cannot conceal my opinion here; a commonwealth
that is rightly instituted can never swerve, nor one that is not
rightly instituted be secured from swerving by reduction to her
first principles; wherefore it is no less apparent in this place that
Machiavel understood not a commonwealth as to the whole piece, than
where having told you that a tribune, or any other citizen of Rome,
might propose a law to the people, and debate it with them, he adds,
‘this order was good while the people were good; but when the people
became evil, it became most pernicious.’ As if this order (through
which, with the like, the people most apparently became evil) could ever
have been good, or that the people or the commonwealth could ever have
become good, by being reduced to such principles as were the original of
their evil.
“The disease of Rome was, as has been shown, from the native inequality
of her balance, and no otherwise from the empire of the world, than as,
this falling into one scale, that of the nobility (an evil in such a
fabric inevitable) kicked out the people. Wherefore a man that could
have made her to throw away the empire of the world, might in that have
reduced her to her principles, and yet have been so far from rendering
her immortal that, going no further, he should never have cured her. But
your commonwealth is founded upon an equal agrarian; and if the earth be
given to the sons of men, this balance is the balance of justice, such a
one as in having due regard to the different industry of different men,
yet faithfully judges the poor’ And the king that faithfully judges
the poor, his throne shall be established forever;, much more the
commonwealth, seeing that equality, which is the necessary dissolution
of monarchy, is the generation, the very life and soul, of a
commonwealth. And now, if ever, I may be excusable, seeing my assertion,
that the throne of a commonwealth may be established forever, is
consonant to the holy Scriptures.
“The balance of a commonwealth that is equal is of such a nature that
whatever falls into her empire must fall equally; and if the whole
earth falls into your scales, it must fall equally, and so you may be
a greater people and yet not swerve from your principles one hair. Nay,
you will be so far from that that you must bring the world in such a
case to your balance, even to the balance of justice. But hearken, my
lords; are we on earth, do we see the sun, or are we visiting those
shady places which are feigned by the poets?
“‘Continuo auditoe voces, vagitus et ingens.’
“These Gothic empires that are yet in the world, were at the first,
though they had legs of their own, but a heavy and unwieldy burden; but
their foundations being now broken, the iron of them enters even into
the souls of the oppressed; and hear the voice of their comforters:
‘My father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with
scorpions.’ Hearken, I say, if thy brother cries to thee in affliction,
wilt thou not hear him? This is a commonwealth of the fabric that has
an open ear and a public concern; she is not made for herself only, but
given as a magistrate of God to mankind, for the vindication of common
right and the law of nature. Wherefore says Cicero of the like, that of
the Romans, ‘We have rather undertaken the patronage than the empire of
the world.’ If you, not regarding this example, like some other nations
that are upon the point to smart for it, shall, having attained to your
own liberty, bear the sword of your common magistracy in vain, sit still
and fold your arms, or, which is worse, let out the blood of your people
to tyrants, to be shed in the defence of their yokes like water, and
so not only turn the grace of God into wantonness, but his justice into
wormwood: I say if you do thus, you are not now making a commonwealth,
but heaping coals of fire upon your own heads. A commonwealth of this
make is a minister of God upon earth, to the end that the world may be
governed with righteousness. For which cause (that I may come at length
to our present business) the orders last rehearsed are buds of
empire, such as with the blessing of God may spread the arms of your
commonwealth, like a holy asylum, to the distressed world, and give the
earth her sabbath of years, or rest from her labors, under the shadow
of your wings. It is upon this point where the writings of Machiavel,
having for the rest excelled all other authors, come as far to excel
themselves.
“Commonwealths, says he, have had three ways of propagating themselves:
One after the manner of monarchies, by imposing the yoke, which was the
way of Athens, and, toward the latter times, of Lacedaemon; another by
equal leagues, which is the way of Switzerland (I shall add of Holland,
though since his time); a third by unequal leagues, which, to the shame
of the world, was never practised, nay, nor so much as seen or minded,
by any other commonwealth but that only of Rome. They will each of them,
either for caution or imitation, be worthy to be well weighed, which
is the proper work of this place. Athens and Lacedaemon have been the
occasion of great scandal to the world, in two, or at least one of two
regards: the first, their emulation, which involved Greece in perpetual
wars; the second, their way of propagation, which by imposing yokes upon
others, was plainly contradictory to their own principles.
“For the first: governments, be they of what kind soever, if they be
planted too close, are like trees, that impatient in their growth to
have it hindered, eat out one another. It was not unknown to these in
speculation, or, if you read the story of Agesilaus, in action, that
either of them with 30,000 men might have mastered the East; and
certainly, if the one had not stood in the other’s light, Alexander had
come too late to that end, which was the means (and would be if they
were to live again) of ruin, at least to one of them; wherefore with any
man that understands the nature of government this is excusable. So
it was between Oceana and Marpesia; so it is between France and Spain,
though less excusable; and so it ever will be in the like cases. But to
come to the second occasion of scandal by them given, which was in the
way of their propagation, it is not excusable; for they brought their
confederates under bondage, by which means Athens gave occasion of
the Peloponnesian War, the wound of which she died stinking, when
Lacedaemon, taking the same infection from her carcass, soon followed.
“Wherefore, my lords, let these be warnings to you not to make that
liberty which God has given you a snare to others in practising this
kind of enlargement to yourselves.
“The second way of propagation or enlargement used by commonwealths is
that of Switzerland and Holland, equal leagues; this, though it be
not otherwise mischievous, is useless to the world, and dangerous to
themselves: useless to the world, for as the former governments were
storks, these are blocks, have no sense of honor, or concern in the
sufferings of others. But as the AEtolians, a state of the like fabric,
were reproached by Philip of Macedon to prostitute themselves; by
letting out their arms to the lusts of others, while they leave their
own liberty barren and without legitimate issue; so I do not defame
these people; the Switzer for valor has no superior, the Hollander for
industry no equal; but themselves in the meantime shall so much the less
excuse their governments, seeing that to the Switz it is well enough
known that the ensigns of his commonwealth have no other motto than in
te converte manus; and that of the Hollander, though he sweats more gold
than the Spaniard digs, lets him languish in debt; for she herself lives
upon charity. These are dangerous to themselves, precarious governments,
such as do not command, but beg their bread from province to province,
in coats that being patched up of all colors are in effect of none. That
their cantons and provinces are so many arrows, is good; but they are so
many bows too, which is naught.
“Like to these was the commonwealth of the ancient Tuscans, hung
together like bobbins, without a hand to weave with them; therefore
easily overcome by the Romans, though at that time, for number, a far
less considerable people. If your liberty be not a root that grows,
it will be a branch that withers, which consideration brings me to the
paragon, the Commonwealth of Rome.
“The ways and means whereby the Romans acquired the patronage, and in
that the empire, of the world were different, according to the different
condition of their commonwealth in her rise and in her growth: in her
rise she proceeded rather by colonies, in her growth by unequal leagues.
Colonies without the bounds of Italy she planted none (such dispersion
of the Roman citizen as to plant him in foreign parts, till the contrary
interest of the emperors brought in that practice, was unlawful), nor
did she ever demolish any city within that compass, or divest it of
liberty; but whereas the most of them were commonwealths, stirred ‘up by
emulation of her great felicity to war against her, if she overcame
any, she confiscated some part of their lands that were the greatest
incendiaries, or causes of the trouble, upon which she planted colonies
of her own people, preserving the rest of their lands and liberties for
the natives or inhabitants. By this way of proceeding, that I may be as
brief as possible, she did many and great things. For in confirming
of liberty, she propagated her empire; in holding the inhabitants from
rebellion, she put a curb upon the incursion of enemies; in exonerating
herself of the poorer sort, she multiplied her citizens; in rewarding
her veterans, she rendered the rest less seditious; and in acquiring to
herself the reverence of a common parent, she from time to time became
the mother of new-born cities.
“In her further growth the way of her propagation went more upon
leagues, which for the first division were of two kinds, social and
provincial.
“Again, social leagues, or leagues of society, were of two kinds:
“The first called Latinity or Latin, the second Italian right.” The
league between the Romans and the Latins, or Latin right, approached
nearest to jus quiritium, or the right of a native Roman. The man or
the city that was honored with this right, was civitate donatus cum
suffragio, adopted a citizen of Rome, with the right of giving suffrage
with the people in some cases, as those of conformation of law, or
determination in judicature, if both the Consuls were agreed, not
otherwise; wherefore that coming to little, the greatest and most
peculiar part of this privilege was, that who had borne magistracy (at
least that of oedile or quoestor) in any Latin city, was by consequence
of the same a citizen of Rome at all points.
“Italian right was also a donation of the city, but without suffrage:
they who were in either of these leagues, were governed by their own
laws and magistrates, having all the rights, as to liberty, of citizens
of Rome, yielding and praying to the commonwealth as head of the league,
and having in the conduct of all affairs appertaining to the common
cause, such aid of men and money as was particularly agreed to upon the
merit of the cause, and specified in their respective leagues, whence
such leagues came to be called equal or unequal accordingly.
“Provincial leagues were of different extension, according to the merit
and capacity of a conquered people; but they were all of one kind, for
every province was governed by Roman magistrates, as a praetor or a
proconsul, according to the dignity of the province, for the civil
administration and conduct of the provincial army, and a quaestor for
the gathering of the public revenue, from which magistrates a province
might appeal to Rome.
“For the better understanding of these particulars, I shall exemplify in
as many of them as is needful, and first in Macedon:
“The Macedonians were thrice conquered by the Romans, first under the
conduct of Titus Quintus Flaminius; secondly, under that of Lucius
AEmilius Paulus; and, thirdly under that of Quintus Caecilius Metellus,
thence called Macedonicus.
“For the first time Philip of Macedon, who (possessed of Acrocorinthus)
boasted no less than was true, that he had Greece in fetters, being
overcome by Flaminius, had his kingdom restored to him, upon condition
that he should immediately set all the cities which he held in Greece
and in Asia at liberty, and that he should not make war out of Macedon
but by leave of the Senate of Rome; which Philip (having no other way to
save anything) agreed should be done accordingly.
“The Grecians being at this time assembled at the isthmian games, where
the concourse was mighty great, a crier, appointed to the office by
Flaminius, was heard among them proclaiming all Greece to be free;
to which the people being amazed at so hopeless a thing, gave little
credit, till they received such testimony of the truth as put it past
all doubt, whereupon they fell immediately on running to the proconsul
with flowers and garlands, and such violent expressions of their
admiration and joy, as, if Flaminius, a young man, about thirty-three,
had not also been very strong, he must have died of no other death than
their kindness, while everyone striving to touch his hand, they bore him
up and down the field with an unruly throng, full of such ejaculations
as these: How is there a people in the world, that at their own charge,
at their own peril, will fight for the liberty of another? Did they
live at the next door to the fire? Or what kind of men are these, whose
business it is to pass the seas, that the world may be governed with
righteousness? The cities of Greece and of Asia shake off their iron
fetters at the voice of a crier was it madness to imagine such a thing,
and is it done? O virtue! O felicity! O fame!
“In this example your lordships have a donation of liberty or of Italian
right to a people, by restitution to what they had formerly enjoyed; and
some particular men, families or cities, according to their merit of the
Romans, if not upon this, yet upon the like occasions, were gratified
with Latinity.” But Philip’s share by this means did not please him,
wherefore the league was broken by his son Perseus; and the Macedonians
thereupon for the second time conquered by AEmilius Paulus, their King
taken, and they some time after the victory summoned to the tribunal of
the general; where, remembering how little hope they ought to have of
pardon, they expected some dreadful sentence: when AEmilius, in the
first place, declared the Macedonians to be free, in the full possession
of their lands, goods, and laws, with right to elect annual magistrates,
yielding and paying to the people of Rome one-half of the tribute which
they were accustomed to pay to their own kings. This done he went on,
making so skilful a division of the country in order to the methodizing
of the people, and casting them into the form of popular government,
that the Macedonians, being first surprised with the virtue of the
Romans, began now to alter the scene of their admiration, that a
stranger should do such things for them in their own country, and with
such facility as they had never so much as once imagined to be possible.
Nor was this all; for AEmilius, as if not dictating to conquered
enemies, but to some well-deserving friends, gave them in the last place
laws so suitable, and contrived with such care and prudence, that long
use and experience (the only correctness of works of this nature) could
never find a fault in them.
“In this example you have a donation of liberty, or of Italian right,
to a people that had not tasted of it before, but were now taught how to
use it.
“My lords, the royalists should compare what we are doing, and we what
hitherto we have done for them, with this example. It is a shame that
while we are boasting up ourselves above all others, we should yet be
so far from imitating such examples as these, that we do not so much as
understand that if government be the parent of manners, where there are
no heroic virtues, there is no heroic government.
“But the Macedonians rebelling, at the name of a false Philip, the third
time against the Romans, were by them judged incapable of liberty, and
reduced by Metellus to a province.
“Now whereas it remains that I explain the nature of a province, I shall
rather choose that of Sicily, because, having been the first which the
Romans made, the descriptions of the rest relate to it.
“‘We have so received the Sicilian cities into amity,’ says Cicero,
‘that they enjoy their ancient laws; and upon no other condition than of
the same obedience to the people of Rome, which they formerly yielded to
their own princes or superiors.’ So the Sicilians, whereas they had been
parcelled out to divers princes, and into divers states (the cause of
perpetual wars, whereby, hewing one another down, they became sacrifices
to the ambition of their neighbors, or of some invader), were now
received at the old rate into a new protection which could hold them,
and in which no enemy durst touch them; nor was it possible, as the
case then stood, for the Sicilians to receive, or for the Romans to give
more.
“A Roman province is defined by Sigonius as a region having provincial
right. Provincial right in general was to be governed by a Roman
praetor, or consul, in matters at least of state, and of the militia;
and by a quaeStor, whose office it was to receive the public revenue.
Provincial right in particular was different, according to the different
leagues or agreements between the commonwealth, and the people reduced
into a province. ‘Siculi hoc jure sunt, ut quod civis cum cive agat,
domi certet suis legibus; quod siculus cum siculo non ejusdem civitatis,
ut de eo proetor judices, ex P. Rupilii decreto, sortiatur. Quod
privatus a populo petit, aut populus a privato, senatus ex aliqua
civitate, qui judicet, datur, cui alternoe civitates rejectoe sunt. Quod
vivis Romanus a siculo petit, siculus judex datur quod siculus a cive
Romano, civis Romanus datur. Coeterarum rerum selecti judices ex civium
Romanorum conventu proponi solent. Inter aratores et decumanos lege
frumentaria, quam Hieronicam appellant, judicia fiunt.’ Because the
rest would oblige me to a discourse too large for this place, it shall
suffice that I have showed you how it was in Sicily.
“My lords, upon the fabric of your provincial orb I shall not hold you;
because it is sufficiently described in the order, and I cannot believe
that you think it inferior to the way of a praetor and a quaestor. But
whereas the provincial way of the Roman Commonwealth was that whereby it
held the empire of the world, and your orbs are intended to be capable
at least of the like use, there may arise many controversies, as whether
such a course be lawful, whether it be feasible; and, seeing that the
Romans were ruined upon that point, whether it would not be to the
destruction of the commonwealth.
“For the first: if the empire of a commonwealth be an occasion to ask
whether it be lawful for a commonwealth to aspire to the empire of the
world, it is to ask whether it be lawful for it to do its duty, or to
put the world into a better condition than it was before.
“And to ask whether this be feasible, is to ask why the Oceaner, being
under the like administration of government, may not do as much with
200 men as the Roman did with 100; for comparing their commonwealths in
their rise, the difference is yet greater: now that Rome (seris avaritia
luxuriaque), through the natural thirst of her constitution, came at
length with the fulness of her provinces to burst herself, this is no
otherwise to be understood than as when a man that from his own evil
constitution had contracted the dropsy, dies with drinking, it being
apparent that in case her agrarian had held, she could never have been
thus ruined, and I have already demonstrated that your agrarian being
once poised, can never break or swerve.
“Wherefore to draw toward some conclusion of this discourse, let me
inculcate the use, by selecting a few considerations out of many. The
regard had in this place to the empire of the world appertains to a
well-ordered commonwealth, more especially for two reasons:
“1. The facility of this great enterprise, by a government of the model
proposed;
“2. The danger that you would run in the omission of such a government.
“The facility of this enterprise, upon the grounds already laid, must
needs be great, forasmuch as the empire of the world has been, both in
reason and experience, the necessary consequence of a commonwealth of
this nature only; for though it has been given to all kinds to drive at
it, since that of Athens or Lacedaemon, if the one had not hung in the
other’s light, might have gained it, yet could neither of them have held
it; not Athens, through the manner of her propagation, which, being
by downright tyranny, could not preserve what she had, nor Lacedaemon,
because she was overthrown by the weight of a less conquest. The
facility then of this great enterprise being peculiar to popular
government, I shall consider it, first, in gaining, and secondly, in
holding.
“For the former, volenti non fit injuria. It is said of the people under
Eumenes, that they would not have changed them no their subjection for
liberty; wherefore the Romans gave disturbance. If a people be contented
with their government, it is a certain sign that it is good, and much
good do them with it. The sword of your magistracy is for a terror to
them that do evil. Eumenes had the fear of God, or of the Romans, before
his eyes; concerning such he has given you no commission.
“But till we can say, here are the Romans, where is Eumenes? do not
think that the late appearances of God to you have been altogether for
yourselves; ‘He has surely seen the affliction of your brethren,
and heard their cry by reason of their task masters.’ For to believe
otherwise is not only to be mindless of his ways, but altogether deaf.
If you have ears to hear, this is the way in which you will certainly be
called upon; for if, while there is no stock of liberty no sanctuary
of the afflicted, it be a common object to behold a people casting
themselves out of the pan of one prince into the fire of another, what
can you think, but if the world should see the Roman ‘eagle again, she
would renew her age and her flight? Nor did ever she spread her wings
with better omen than will be read in your ensigns; which if, called in
by an oppressed people they interpose between them and their yoke, the
people themselves must either do nothing in the meantime or have no more
pains to take for their wished fruit than to gather it, if that be not
likewise done for them. Wherefore this must needs be easy, and yet you
have a greater facility than is in the arm of flesh; for if the cause of
mankind be the cause of God, the Lord of Hosts will be your captain, and
you shall be a praise to the whole earth.
“The facility of holding is in the way of your propagation; if you take
that of Athens and Lacedemon, you shall rain snares, but either catch or
hold nothing. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord: if setting up
for liberty you impose yokes, he will infallibly destroy you. On the
other side, to go about a work of this nature by a league without a
head, is to abdicate that magistracy wherewith he has not only endued
you, but whereof he will require an account of you; for, ‘cursed is he
that does the work of the Lord negligently.’ Wherefore you are to take
the course of Rome: if you have subdued a nation that is capable of
liberty, you shall make them a present of it, as did Flaminius to
Greece, and AEmilius to Macedon, reserving to yourselves some part of
that revenue which was legally paid to the former government, together
with the right of being head of the league, which includes such levies
of men and money as shall be necessary for the carrying on of the public
work.
“For if a people have by your means attained to freedom, they owe both
to the cause and you such aid as may propagate the like fruit to the
rest of the world. But whereas every nation is not capable of her
liberty to this degree, lest you be put to doing and undoing of things,
as the Romans were in Macedon, you shall diligently observe what nation
is fit for her liberty to this degree, and what not; which is to be done
by two marks, the first if she be willing to ‘help the Lord against the
mighty;’ for if she has no care of the liberty of mankind she deserves
not her own. But because in this you may be deceived by pretences,
which, continuing for a while specious, may afterward vanish; the other
is more certain, and that is if she be capable of an equal agrarian;
which that it was not observed by excellent AEmilius in his donation of
liberty, and introduction of a popular state among the Macedonians, I
am more than moved to believe for two reasons; the first, because at the
same time the agrarian was odious to the Roman patricians; the second,
that the pseudo-Philip could afterward so easily recover Macedon, which
could not have happened but by the nobility, and their impatience,
having great estates, to be equalled with the people; for that the
people should otherwise, at the mere sound of a name, have thrown away
their liberty, is incredible. Wherefore be assured that the nation where
you cannot establish an equal agrarian, is incapable of its liberty
as to this kind of donation. For example, except the aristocracy in
Marpesia be dissolved, neither can that people have their liberty there,
nor you govern at home; for they continuing still liable to be sold
by their lords to foreign princes, there will never (especially in a
country of which there is no other profit to be made) be want of such
merchants and drovers, while you must be the market where they are to
receive their second payment.
“Nor can the aristocracy there be dissolved but by your means, in
relation whereto you are provided with your provincial orb; which, being
proportioned to the measure of the nation that you have vindicated or
conquered, will easily hold it: for there is not a people in the
world more difficult to be held than the Marpesians, which, though by
themselves it be ascribed to their own nature, is truly to be attributed
to that of their country. Nevertheless, you having 9,000 men upon the
continual guard of it, that, threatened by any sudden insurrection, have
places of retreat, and an army of 40,000 men upon a day’s warning ready
to march to their rescue, it is not to be rationally shown which way
they can possibly slip out of your hands. And if a man should think that
upon a province more remote and divided by the sea, you have not the
like hold, he has not so well considered your wings as your talons,
your shipping being of such a nature as makes the descent of your armies
almost of equal facility in any country, so that what you take you hold,
both because your militia, being already populous, will be of great
growth in itself, and also through your confederates, by whom in taking
and holding you are still more enabled to do both.
“Nor shall you easier hold than the people under your empire or
patronage may be held. My lords, I would not go to the door to see
whether it be close shut; this is no underhand dealing, nor a game at
which he shall have any advantage against you who sees your cards, but,
on the contrary the advantage shall be your own: for with 18,000 men
(which number I put, because it circulates your orb by the annual change
of 6,000) having established your matters in the order shown, you will,
be able to hold the greatest province; and 18,000 men, allowing them
greater pay than any prince ever gave, will not stand the province in
£1,000,000 revenue; in consideration whereof, they shall have their
own estates free to themselves, and be governed by their own laws and
magistrates; which, if the revenue of the province be in dry-rent (as
there may be some that are four times as big as Oceana) £40,000,000,
will bring it with that of industry, to speak with the least, to twice
the value: so that the people there, who at this day are so oppressed
that they have nothing at all whereon to live, shall for £1,000,000 paid
to you, receive at least £79,000,000 to their proper use: in which place
I appeal to any man, whether the empire described can be other than the
patronage of the world.
“Now if you add to the propagation of civil liberty (so natural to this
commonwealth that it cannot be omitted) the propagation of the liberty
of conscience, this empire, this patronage of the world, is the kingdom
of Christ: for as the kingdom of God the Father was a commonwealth, so
shall the kingdom of God the Son; ‘the people shall be willing in the
day of his power.’
“Having showed you in this and other places some of those inestimable
benefits of this kind of government, together with the natural and
facile emanation of them from their fountain, I come (lest God who
has appeared to you, for he is the God of nature, in the glorious
constellation of these subordinate causes, whereof we have hitherto been
taking the true elevation, should shake off the dust of his feet against
you) to warn you of the dangers which you, not taking the opportunity,
will incur by omission.
“Machiavel, speaking of the defect of Venice, through her want of proper
arms, cries out, ‘This cut her wings, and spoiled her mount to heaven.’
If you lay your commonwealth upon any other foundation than the people,
you frustrate yourself of proper arms, and so lose the empire of the
world; nor is this all, but some other nation will have it.
“Columbus offered gold to one of your kings, through whose happy
incredulity another prince has drunk the poison, even to the consumption
of his people; but I do not offer you a nerve of war that is made
of purse-strings, such a one as has drawn the face of the earth into
convulsions, but such as is natural to her health and beauty. Look you
to it, where there is tumbling and tossing upon the bed of sickness, it
must end in death or recovery. Though the people of the world, in the
dregs of the Gothic empire, be yet tumbling and tossing upon the bed of
sickness, they cannot die; nor is there any means of recovery for them
but by ancient prudence, whence of necessity it must come to pass that
this drug be better known, if France, Italy, and Spain were not all
sick, all corrupted together, there would be none of them so; for the
sick would not be able to withstand the sound, nor the sound to preserve
their health, without curing of the sick. The first of these nations
(which if you stay her leisure, will in my mind be France) that recovers
the health of ancient prudence, shall certainly govern the world; for
what did Italy when she had it? and as you were in that, so shall you in
the like case be reduced to a province; I do not speak at random. Italy,
in the consulship of Lucius AEmilius Papus and Caius Attilius Regulus,
armed, upon the Gallic tumult that then happened of herself, and without
the aid of foreign auxiliaries, 70,000 horse and 700,000 foot; but as
Italy is the least of those three countries in extent, so is France now
the most populous.
“‘I, decus, I, nostrum, melioribus utere fatis.’
“My dear lords, Oceana is as the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the
valley. As the lily among thorns, such is my love among the daughters.
She is comely as the tents of Kedar, and terrible as an army with
banners. Her neck is as the tower of David, builded for an armory,
whereon there hang 1,000 bucklers and shields of mighty men. Let me hear
thy voice in the morning, whom my soul loves. The south has dropped,
and the west is breathing upon thy garden of spices. Arise, queen of the
earth, arise, holy spouse of Jesus; for lo, the winter is past, the
rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth, the time for the
singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our
land. Arise, I say, come forth, and do not tarry: ah! wherefore should
my eyes behold thee by the rivers of Babylon, hanging thy harps upon the
willows, thou fairest among women?
“Excellent patriots, if the people be sovereign, here is that which
establishes their prerogative; if we be sincere, here is that which
disburdens our souls, and makes good all our engagements; if we be
charitable, here is that which embraces all parties; if we would be
settled, here is that which will stand, and last forever.
“If our religion be anything else but a vain boast, scratching and
defacing human nature or reason, which, being the image of God, makes
it a kind of murder, here is that empire whence ‘justice shall run down
like a river, and judgment like a mighty stream.’ Who is it then that
calls us? or, what is in our way? A lion! Is it not the dragon, that old
serpent? For what wretched shifts are these? Here is a great deal; might
we not have some of this at one time, and some at another?
“My lords, permit me to give you the sum, or brief:
EPITOME OF THE WHOLE COMMONWEALTH
“The centre or fundamental laws are, first, the agrarian, proportioned
at £2,000 a year in land, lying and being within the proper territory of
Oceana, and stating property in land at such a balance, that the power
can never swerve out of the hands of the many.
“Secondly, the ballot conveying this equal sap from the root, by an
equal election or rotation, into the branches of magistracy or sovereign
power.
“The orbs of this commonwealth being civil, military, or provincial,
are, as it were, cast upon this mould or centre by the divisions of
the people; first, into citizens and servants; secondly, into youth
and elders; thirdly, into such as have £100 a year in lands, goods, or
moneys, who are of the horse; and such as have under, who are of the
foot; fourthly, they are divided by their usual residence into parishes,
hundreds, and tribes.
“The civil orbs consist of the elders, and are thus created: every
Monday next ensuing the last of December, the elders in every parish
elect the fifth man to be a deputy, which is but half a day’s work;
every Monday next ensuing the last of January, the deputies meet at
their respective hundred, and elect out of their number one justice of
the peace, one juryman, one coroner, and one high constable of the foot,
one day’s work.
“Every Monday next ensuing the last of February, the hundreds meet
at their respective tribe, and there elect the lords high sheriff,
lieutenant, custos rotulorum, the conductor, the two censors out of
the horse, the magistrates of the tribe and of the hundreds, with the
jurymen constituting the phylarch, and who assist in their respective
offices at the assizes, hold the quarter-sessions, etc. The day
following the tribe elects the annual galaxy, consisting of two knights
and three deputies out of the horse, with four deputies out of the foot,
thereby endued with power, as magistrates of the whole nation, for the
term of three years. An officer chosen at the hundred may not be elected
a magistrate of the tribe; but a magistrate or officer either of the
hundred or of the tribe, being elected into the galaxy, may substitute
any one of his office in the hundred or in own order to his magistracy
or office in the hundred or in the tribe. This of the muster is two
days’ work. So the body of the people is annually, at the charge of
three days’ work and a half, in their own tribes, for the perpetuation
of their power, receiving over and above the magistracies so divided
among them.
“Every Monday next ensuing the last of March, the knights, being 100
in all the tribes, take their places in the Senate. The knights, having
taken their places in the Senate, make the third region of the same, and
the house proceeds to the senatorian elections. Senatorian elections are
annual, biennial, or emergent.
“The annual are performed by the tropic.
“The tropic is a schedule consisting of two parts; the first by which
the senatorian magistrates are elected; and the second, by which the
senatorian councils are perpetuated.
“The first part is of this tenor:
The lord strategus,
The lord orator,
The first censor,
The second censor,
“Annual magistrates and therefore such as may be elected out of any
region; the term of every region having at the tropic one year at the
least unexpired.
The third commissioner of the seal,
The third commissioner of the Treasury.
“Triennial magistrates, and therefore such as can be chosen out of the
third region only, as that alone which has the term of three years
unexpired.
“The strategus and the orator sitting, are consuls, or presidents of the
Senate.
“The strategus marching is general of the army, in which case a new
strategus is to be elected in his room.
“The strategus sitting with six commissioners, being councillors of the
nation, are the signory of the commonwealth.”
The censors are magistrates of the ballot, presidents of the Council for
Religion, and chancellors of the universities.
“The second part of the tropic perpetuates the Council of State, by the
election of five knights out of the first region of the Senate, to be
the first region of that council consisting of fifteen knights, five in
every region.
“The like is done by the election of four into the Council of Religion,
and four into the Council of Trade, out of the same region in the
Senate; each of these councils consisting of twelve knights, four in
every region.
“But the Council of War, consisting of nine knights, three in every
region, is elected by and out of the Council of State, as the other
councils are elected by and out of the Senate. And if the Senate add a
juncta of nine knights more, elected out of their own number, for the
term of three months, the Council of War, by virtue of that addition, is
Dictator of Oceana for the said term.
“The signory jointly or severally has right of session and suffrage in
every senatorial council, and to propose either to the Senate, or any of
them. And every region in a council electing one weekly provost, any
two of those provosts have power also to propose to their respective
council, as the proper and peculiar proposers of the same, for which
cause they hold an academy, where any man, either by word of mouth or
writing, may propose to the proposers.
“Next to the elections of the tropic is the biennial election of one
ambassador-in-ordinary, by the ballot of the house, to the residence
of France; at which time the resident of France removes to Spain, he
of Spain to Venice, he of Venice to Constantinople, and he of
Constantinople returns. So the orb of the residents is wheeled about in
eight years, by the biennial election of one ambassador-in-ordinary.
“The last kind of election is emergent. Emergent elections are made by
the scrutiny. Election by scrutiny is when a competitor, being made by
a council, and brought into the Senate, the Senate chooses four more
competitors to him, and putting all five to the ballot, he who has most
above half the suffrages is the magistrate. The polemarchs or
field officers are chosen by the scrutiny of the Council of War; an
ambassador-extraordinary by the scrutiny of the Council of State; the
judges and sergeants-at-law by the scrutiny of the seal; and the barons
and prime officers of the Exchequer, by the scrutiny of the Treasury..
“The opinion or opinions that are legitimately proposed to any council
must be debated by the same, and so many as are resolved upon the debate
are introduced into the Senate, where they are debated and resolved, or
rejected by the whole house; that which is resolved by the Senate is
a decree which is good in matters of state, but no law, except it be
proposed to and resolved by the prerogative.
“The deputies of the galaxy being three horse and four foot in a tribe,
amount in all the tribes to 150 horse and 200 foot; which, having
entered the prerogative, and chosen their captains, cornet, and ensign
(triennial officers), make the third class, consisting of one troop
and one company; and so, joining with the whole prerogative, elect four
annual magistrates, called tribunes, whereof two are of the horse and
two of the foot. These have the command of the prerogative sessions,
and suffrage in the Council of War, and sessions without suffrage in the
Senate.
“The Senate having passed a decree which they would propose to the
people, cause it to be printed and published, or promulgated for the
space of six weeks, which, being ordered, they choose their proposers.
The proposers must be magistrates, that is, the commissioners of the
seal, those of the Treasury, or the censors. These being chosen, desire
the muster of the tribunes, and appoint the day. The people being
assembled at the day appointed, and the decree proposed, that which is
proposed by authority of the Senate, and commanded by the people, is the
law of Oceana, or an act of Parliament.
“So the Parliament of Oceana consists of the Senate proposing, and the
people resolving.
“The people or prerogative are also the supreme judicatory of this
nation, having power of hearing and determining all causes of appeal
from all magistrates, or courts provincial or domestic, as also to
question any magistrate, the term of his magistracy being expired, if
the case be introduced by the tribunes, or any one of them.
“The military orbs consist of the youth, that is, such as are from
eighteen to thirty years of age; and are created in the following
manner:
“Every Wednesday next ensuing the last of December, the youth of
every parish, assembling, elect the fifth of their number to be their
deputies; the deputies of the youth are called stratiots, and this is
the first essay.
“Every Wednesday next ensuing the last of January, the stratiots,
assembling at the hundred, elect their captain and their ensign, and
fall to their games and sports.
“Every Wednesday next ensuing the last of February the stratiots are
received by the lord lieutenant, their commander-in-chief, with the
conductors and the censors; and, having been disciplined and entertained
with other games, are called to the urns, where they elect the second
essay, consisting of 200 horse and 600 foot in a tribe; that is, of
10,000 horse and 30,000 foot in all the tribes, which is the standing
army of this nation, to march at any warning. They also elect at the
same time a part of the third essay, by the mixture of balls marked with
the letter M and the letter P, for Marpesia and Panopea; they of either
mark being ten horse and fifty foot in a tribe, that is, 500 horse and
2,500 foot in all the tribes, which are forthwith to march to their
respective provinces.
“But the third essay of this nation more properly so called, is when the
strategus with the polemarchs (the Senate and the people or the Dictator
having decreed a war) receive in return of his warrants the second essay
from the hands of the conductors at the rendezvous of Oceana; which
army, marching with all accommodations provided by the Council of War,
the Senate elects a new strategus, and the lords-lieutenant a new second
essay.
“A youth, except he be an only son, refusing any one of his three
essays, without sufficient cause shown to the phylarch or the censors,
is incapable of magistracy, and is fined a fifth part of his yearly
rent, or of his estate, for protection. In case of invasion the elders
are obliged to like duty with the youth, and upon their own charge.
“The provincial orb consisting in part of the elders, and in part of the
youth, is thus created:
“Four knights out of the first region falling, are elected in the Senate
to be the first region of the provincial orb of Marpesia; these, being
triennial magistrates, take their places in the provincial council,
consisting of twelve knights, four in every region, each region choosing
their weekly provosts of the council thus constituted. One knight more,
chosen out of the same region in the Senate, being an annual magistrate,
is president, with power to propose; and the opinions proposed by the
president, or any two of the provosts, are debated by the council, and,
if there be occasion of further power or instruction than they yet have,
transmitted to the Council of State, with which the provincial is to
hold intelligence.
“The president of this council is also strategus or general of the
provincial army; wherefore the conductors, upon notice of his election,
and appointment of his rendezvous, deliver to him the stratiots of his
letter, which he takes with him into his province; and the provincial
army having received the new strategus with the third class, the council
dismisses the old strategus with the first class. The like is done for
Panopea, or any other province.
“But whereas the term of every other magistracy or election in this
commonwealth, whether annual or triennial, requires an equal vacation,
the term of a provincial councillor or magistrate requires no vacation
at all. The quorum of a provincial, as also that of every other council
and assembly, requires two-thirds in a time of health, and one-third in
a time of sickness.
“I think I have omitted nothing but the props and scaffolds, which
are not of use but in building. And how much is here? Show me another
commonwealth in this compass? how many things? Show me another entire
government consisting but of thirty orders. If you now go to law with
anybody, there lie to some of our courts 200 original writs: if you stir
your hand, there go more nerves and bones to that motion; if you play,
you have more cards in the pack; nay, you could not sit with your ease
in that chair, if it consisted not of more parts. Will you not then
allow to your legislator, what you can afford your upholsterer, or to
the throne, what is necessary to a chair?
“My lords, if you will have fewer orders in a commonwealth, you will
have more; for where she is not perfect at first, every day, every hour
will produce a new order, the end whereof is to have no order at all,
but to grind with the clack of some demagogue. Is he providing already
for his golden thumb? Lift up your heads; away with ambition, that
fulsome complexion of a statesman, tempered, like Sylla’s, with blood
and muck. ‘And the Lord give to his senators wisdom; and make our faces
to shine, that we may be a light to them that sit in darkness and the
shadow of death, to guide their feet in the way of peace.’--In the name
of God, what’s the matter?”
Philadelphus, the secretary of the council, having performed his task
in reading the several orders as you have seen, upon the receipt of
a packet from his correspondent Boccalini, secretary of Parnassus, in
reading one of the letters, burst forth into such a violent passion of
weeping and downright howling, that the legislators, being startled with
the apprehension of some horrid news, one of them had no sooner snatched
the letter out of his hand, than the rest crying, “Read, read,” he
obeyed in this manner:
“The 3d instant his Phoebean majesty having taken the nature of free
states into his royal consideration, and being steadily persuaded that
the laws in such governments are incomparably better and more surely
directed to the good of mankind than in any other; that the courage of
such a people is the aptest tinder to noble fire; that the genius of
such a soil is that wherein the roots of good literature are least
worm-eaten with pedantism, and where their fruits have ever come to the
greatest maturity and highest relish, conceived such a loathing of
their ambition and tyranny, who, usurping the liberty of their native
countries, become slaves to themselves, inasmuch as (be it never so
contrary to their own nature or consciences) they have taken the earnest
of sin, and are engaged to persecute all men that are good with the same
or greater rigor than is ordained by laws for the wicked, for none ever
administered that power by good which he purchased by ill arts--Phoebus,
I say, having considered this, assembled all the senators residing in
the learned court at the theatre of Melpomene, where he caused Caesar
the Dictator to come upon the stage, and his sister Actia, his nephew
Augustus, Julia his daughter, with the children which she had by
Marcus Agrippa, Lucius and Caius Caesars, Agrippa Posthumus, Julia,
and Agrippina, with the numerous progeny which she bore to her renowned
husband Germanicus, to enter. A miserable scene in any, but most
deplorable in the eyes of Caesar, thus beholding what havoc his
prodigious ambition, not satisfied with his own bloody ghost, had made
upon his more innocent remains, even to the total extinction of his
family. For it is (seeing where there is any humanity, there must
be some compassion) not to be spoken without tears, that of the full
branches deriving from Octavia the eldest sister, and Julia the daughter
of Augustus, there should not be one fruit or blossom that was not cut
off or blasted by the sword, famine, or poison.
“Now might the great soul of Caesar have been full; and yet that which
poured in as much or more was to behold that execrable race of the
Claudii, having hunted and sucked his blood, with the thirst of tigers,
to be rewarded with the Roman Empire, and remain in full possession
of that famous patrimony: a spectacle to pollute the light of heaven!
Nevertheless, as if Caesar had not yet enough, his Phoeban majesty
caused to be introduced on the other side of the theatre, the most
illustrious and happy prince Andrea Doria, with his dear posterity,
embraced by the soft and constant arms of the city of Genoa, into whose
bosom, ever fruitful in her gratitude, he had dropped her fair liberty
like the dew of heaven, which, when the Roman tyrant beheld, and how
much more fresh that laurel was worn with a firm root in the hearts of
the people than that which he had torn off, he fell into such a horrid
distortion of limbs and countenance, that the senators, who had thought
themselves steel and flint at such an object, having hitherto stood
in their reverend snow-like thawing Alps, now covered their faces with
their large sleeves.”
“My lords,” said the Archon, rising, “witty Philadelphus has given us
grave admonition in dreadful tragedy. Discite justitiam moniti, et non
temnere divos. Great and glorious Caesar the highest character of flesh,
yet could not rule but by that part of man which is the beast; but a
commonwealth is a monarchy; to her God is king, inasmuch as reason, his
dictate, is her sovereign power.” Which said, he adjourned the Council.
And the model was soon after promulgated. Quod bonum, foelix, faustumque
sit huic reipublicoe. Agite quirites, censuere patres, jubeat populus.
(The sea roared, and the floods clapped their hands.)
LIBERTAS
The Proclamation of his Highness the Lord Archon of Oceana upon
Promulgation of the Model,
“Whereas his Highness and the Council, in the framing of the model
promulgated, have not had any private interest or ambition but the fear
of God and the good of this people before their eyes; and it remains
their desire that this great work may be carried on accordingly. This
present greeting is to inform the good people of this land, that as the
Council of Prytans sat during the framing of the model, to receive from
time to time such propositions as should be offered by any wise-hearted
or public-spirited man, toward the institution of a well-ordered
commonwealth, so the said Council is to sit as formerly in the great
hall of the Pantheon during promulgation (which is to continue for
the space of three months) to receive, weigh, and, as there shall be
occasion, transmit to the Council of Legislators, all such objections
as shall be made against the said model, whether in the whole or in any
part. Wherefore that nothing be done rashly or without the consent of
the people, such, of what party soever, with whom there may remain any
doubts or difficulties, are desired with all convenient speed to address
themselves to the said prytans; where, if such objections, doubts, or
difficulties receive solution to the satisfaction of the auditory,
they shall have public thanks, but if the said objections, doubts, or
difficulties receive no solution to the satisfaction of the auditory,
then the model promulgated shall be reviewed, and the party that was the
occasion of the review, shall receive public thanks, together with
the best horse in his Highness’s stable, and be one of the Council of
Legislators. And so God have you in his keeping.”
I should now write the same Council of the Prytans, but for two reasons:
the one, that having had but a small time for that which is already
done, I am over-labored; the other, that there may be new objections.
Wherefore, if my reader has any such as to the model, I entreat him to
address himself by way of oration, as it were, to the prytans, that
when this rough draught comes to be a work, his speech being faithfully
inserted in this place, may give or receive correction to amendment; for
what is written will be weighed. But conversation, in these days, is a
game at which they are best provided that have light gold; it is like
the sport of women that make flowers of straws, which must be stuck
up but may not be touched. Nor, which is worse, is this the fault of
conversation only: but to the examiner I say if to invent method and
teach an art be all one, let him show that this method is not truly
invented, or this art is faithfully taught.
I cannot conclude a circle (and such is this commonwealth) without
turning the end into the beginning. The time of promulgation being
expired, the surveyors were sent down, who having in due season made
report that their work was perfect, the orators followed, under the
administration of which officers and magistrates the commonwealth was
ratified and established by the whole body of the people, in their
parochial, hundred, and county assemblies. And the orators being, by
virtue of their scrolls or lots, members of their respective tribes,
were elected each the first knight of the third list, or galaxy;
wherefore, having at their return assisted the Archon in putting the
Senate and the people or prerogative into motion, they abdicated the
magistracy both of orators and legislators.