FOR the rest (says Plutarch, closing up the story of Lycurgus) when he
saw that his government had taken root, and was in the very plantation
strong enough to stand by itself, he conceived such a delight within
him, as God is described by Plato to have done when he had finished the
creation of the world, and saw his own orbs move below him: for in the
art of man (being the imitation of nature, which is the art of God)
there is nothing so like the first call of beautiful order out of chaos
and confusion, as the architecture of a well-ordered commonwealth.
Wherefore Lycurgus, seeing in effect that his orders were good, fell
into deep contemplation how he might render them, so far as could be
effected by human providence, unalterable and immortal. To which end he
assembled the people, and remonstrated to them: That for aught he could
perceive, their policy was already such, and so well established, as was
sufficient to entail upon them and theirs all that virtue and felicity
whereof human life is capable: nevertheless that there being another
thing of greater concern than all the rest, whereof he was not yet
provided to give them a perfect account, nor could till he had consulted
the oracle of Apollo, he desired that they would observe his laws
without any change or alteration whatsoever till his return from
Delphos; to which all the people cheerfully and unanimously engaged
themselves by promise, desiring him that he would make as much haste
as he could. But Lycurgus, before he went, began with the kings and the
senators, and thence taking the whole people in order, made them all
swear to that which they had promised, and then took his journey. Being
arrived at Delphos, he sacrificed to Apollo, and afterward inquired
if the policy which he had established was good and sufficient for a
virtuous and happy life?
By the way, it has been a maxim with legislators not to give checks to
the present superstition, but to make the best use of it, as that which
is always the most powerful with the people; otherwise, though Plutarch,
being a priest, was interested in the cause, there is nothing plainer
than Cicero, in his book “De Divinatione” has made it, that there was
never any such thing as an oracle, except in the cunning of the priests.
But to be civil to the author, the god answered to Lycurgus that
his policy was exquisite, and that his city, holding to the strict
observation of his form of government, should attain to the height of
fame and glory. Which oracle Lycurgus causing to be written, failed not
of transmitting to his Lacedaemon. This done, that his citizens might
be forever inviolably bound by their oath, that they would alter nothing
till his return, he took so firm a resolution to die in the place, that
from thenceforward, receiving no manner of food, he soon after performed
it accordingly. Nor was he deceived in the consequence; for his city
became the first in glory and excellency of government in the whole
world. And so much for Lycurgus, according to Plutarch.
My Lord Archon, when he beheld not only the rapture of motion, but
of joy and harmony, into which his spheres (without any manner of
obstruction or interfering, but as if it had been naturally) were
cast, conceived not less of exultation in his spirit; but saw no more
necessity or reason why he should administer an oath to the Senate and
the people that they would observe his institutions, than to a man
in perfect health and felicity of constitution that he would not kill
himself. Nevertheless whereas Christianity, though it forbids violent
hands, consists no less in self-denial than any other religion, he
resolved that all unreasonable desires should die upon the spot; to
which end that no manner of food might be left to ambition, he entered
into the Senate with a unanimous applause, and having spoken of his
government as Lycurgus did when he assembled the people, he abdicated
the magistracy of Archon. The Senate, as struck with astonishment,
continued silent, men upon so sudden an accident being altogether
unprovided of what to say; till the Archon withdrawing, and being almost
at the door, divers of the knights flew from their places, offering as
it were to lay violent hands on him, while he escaping, left the Senate
with the tears in their eyes, of children that had lost their father and
to rid himself of all further importunity, retired to a country house of
his, being remote, and very private, insomuch that no man could tell for
some time what was become of him.
Thus the law-maker happened to be the first object and reflection of the
law made; for as liberty of all things is the most welcome to a people,
so is there nothing more abhorrent from their nature than ingratitude.
We, accusing the Roman people of this crime against some of their
greatest benefactors, as Camillus, heap mistake upon mistake; for being
not so competent judges of what belongs to liberty as they were, we take
upon us to be more competent judges of virtue. And whereas virtue, for
being a vulgar thing among them, was of no less rate than jewels are
with such as wear the most, we are selling this precious stone, which
we have ignorantly raked out of the Roman ruins, at such a rate as the
Switzers did that which they took in the baggage of Charles of Burgundy.
For that Camillus had stood more firm against the ruin of Rome than her
capitol, was acknowledged; but on the other side, that he stood as firm
for the patricians against the liberty of the people, was as plain;
wherefore he never wanted those of the people that would die at his foot
in the field, nor that would withstand him to his beard in the city.
An example in which they that think Camillus had wrong, neither do
themselves right, nor the people of Rome; who in this signify no less
than that they had a scorn of slavery beyond the fear of ruin, which is
the height of magnanimity.
The like might be shown by other examples objected against this and
other popular governments, as in the banishment of Aristides the Just
from Athens, by the ostracism, which, first, was no punishment, nor
ever understood for so much as a disparagement; but tended only to the
security of the commonwealth, through the removal of a citizen (whose
riches or power with a party was suspected) out of harm’s way for the
space of ten years, neither to the diminution of his estate or
honor. And next, though the virtue of Aristides might in itself be
unquestioned, yet for him under the name of the Just to become universal
umpire of the people in all cases, even to the neglect of the legal ways
and orders of the commonwealth, approached so much to the prince, that
the Athenians, doing Aristides no wrong, did their government no more
than right in removing him; which therefore is not so probable to have
come to pass, as Plutarch presumes, through the envy of Themistocles,
seeing Aristides was far more popular than Themistocles, who soon after
took the same walk upon a worse occasion. Wherefore as Machiavel,
for anything since alleged, has irrefragably proved that popular
governments are of all others the least ungrateful, so the obscurity,
I say, into which my Lord Archon had now withdrawn himself caused a
universal sadness and clouds in the minds of men upon the glory of his
rising commonwealth.
Much had been ventilated in private discourse, and the people (for
the nation was yet divided into parties that had not lost their
animosities), being troubled, bent their eyes upon the Senate,
when after some time spent in devotion, and the solemn action of
thanksgiving, his Excellency Navarchus de Paralo in the tribe of Dorean,
lord strategus of Oceana (though in a new commonwealth a very prudent
magistrate) proposed his part or opinion in such a manner to the Council
of State, that, passing the ballot of the same with great unanimity
and applause, it was introduced into the Senate, where it passed with
greater. Wherefore the decree being forthwith printed and published,
copies were returned by the secretaries to the phylarchs (which is the
manner of promulgation) and the commissioners of the seal, that is
to say, the Right Honorable Phosphorus de Auge in the tribe of Eudia,
Dolabella d’Enyo in the tribe of Turmae, and Linceus de Stella in the
tribe of Nubia, being elected proposers pro tempore, bespoke of the
tribunes a muster of the people to be held that day six weeks, which was
the time allowed for promulgation at the halo.
The satisfaction which the people throughout the tribes received upon
promulgation of the decree, loaded the carriers with weekly letters
between friend and friend, whether magistrates or private persons. But
the day for proposition being come, and the prerogative upon the place
appointed in discipline, Sanguine de Ringwood in the tribe of Saltum,
captain of the Phoenix, marched by order of the tribunes with his troop
to the piazza of the Pantheon, where his trumpets, entering into the
great hall, by their blazon gave notice of his arrival; at which the
sergeant of the house came down, and returning, in formed the proposers,
who descending, were received at the foot of the stairs by the captain,
and attended to the coaches of state, with which Calcar de Gilvo in
the tribe of Phalera, master of the horse, and the ballotins upon their
great horses, stood waiting at the gate.
The proposers being in their coaches, the train for the pomp, the same
that is used at the reception of ambassadors, proceeded in this order.
In the front marched the troop with the cornet in the van and the
captain in the rear; next the troop came the twenty messengers or
trumpets, the ballotins upon the curvet with their usher in the van,
and the master of the horse in the rear; next the ballotins, Bronchus de
Rauco, in the tribe of Bestia, king of the heralds, with his fraternity
in their coats-of-arms, and next to Sir Bronchus, Boristhenes de
Holiwater in the tribe of Ave, master of the ceremonies; the mace and
the seal of the chancery went immediately before the coaches, and
on either side, the doorkeepers or guard of the Senate, with their
pole-axes, accompanied with some 300 or 400 footmen belonging to the
knights or senators, the trumpeters, ballotins, guards, postilions,
coachmen and footmen, being very gallant in the liveries of the
commonwealth, but all, except the ballotins, without hats, in lieu
whereof they wore black velvet calots, being pointed with a little peak
at the forehead. After the proposers came a long file of coaches full of
such gentlemen as use to grace the commonwealth upon the like occasions.
In this posture they moved slowly through the streets (affording, in the
gravity of the pomp and the welcomeness of the end, a most reverend and
acceptable prospect to the people all the way from the Pantheon,
being about half a mile) and arrived at the halo, where they found the
prerogative in a close body environed with scaffolds that were covered
with spectators. The tribunes received the proposers, and conducted them
into a seat placed in the front of the tribe, like a pulpit, but that it
was of some length, and well adorned by the heralds with all manner of
birds and beasts, except that they were ill-painted, and never a one of
his natural color. The tribunes were placed at a table that stood below
the long seat, those of the horse in the middle, and those of the foot
at either end, with each of them a bowl or basin before him, that on the
right hand being white, and the other green: in the middle of the table
stood a third, which was red. And the housekeepers of the pavilion, who
had already delivered a proportion of linen balls or pellets to
every one of the tribe, now presented boxes to the ballotins. But the
proposers as they entered the gallery, or long seat, having put off
their hats by way of salutation, were answered by the people with a
shout; whereupon the younger commissioners seated themselves at either
end; and the first, standing in the middle, spoke after this manner:
“MY LORDS, THE PEOPLE OF OCEANA:
“While I find in myself what a felicity it is to salute you by this
name, and in every face, anointed as it were with the oil of gladness,
a full and sufficient testimony of the like sense, to go about to feast
you with words, who are already filled with that food of the mind which,
being of pleasing and wholesome digestion, takes in the definition of
true joy, were a needless enterprise. I shall rather put you in mind
of that thankfulness which is due, than puff you up with anything that
might seem vain. Is it from the arms of flesh that we derive these
blessings? Behold the Commonwealth of Rome falling upon her own
victorious sword. Or is it from our own wisdom, whose counsels had
brought it even to that pass, that we began to repent ourselves of
victory? Far be it from us, my lords, to sacrifice to our own nets,
which we ourselves have so narrowly escaped! Let us rather lay our
mouths in the dust, and look up (as was taught the other day when we
were better instructed in this lesson) to the hills with our gratitude.
Nevertheless, seeing we read how God upon the neglect of his prophets
has been provoked to wrath, it must needs follow that he expects
honor should be given to them by whom he has chosen to work as his
instruments. For which cause, nothing doubting of my warrant, I shall
proceed to that which more particularly concerns the present occasion,
the discovery of my Lord Archon’s virtues and merit, to be ever placed
by this nation in their true meridian.
“My lords, I am not upon a subject which persuades me to balk, but
necessitates me to seek out the greatest examples. To begin with
Alexander, erecting trophies common to his sword and the pestilence: to
what good of mankind did he infect the air with his heap of carcasses?
The sword of war, if it be any otherwise used than as the sword of
magistracy, for the fear and punishment of those that do evil, is as
guilty in the sight of God as the sword of a murderer; nay more, for if
the blood of Abel, of one innocent man, cried in the ears of the Lord
for vengeance, what shall the blood of an innocent nation? Of this kind
of empire, the throne of ambition, and the quarry of a mighty hunter, it
has been truly said that it is but a great robbery. But if Alexander
had restored the liberty of Greece, and propagated it to mankind, he had
done like my Lord Archon, and might have been truly called the Great.
Alexander cared not to steal a victory that would be given; but my Lord
Archon has torn away a victory which had been stolen, while we went
tamely yielding up obedience to a nation reaping in our fields,
whose fields he has subjected to our empire, and nailed them with his
victorious sword to their native Caucasus.
“Machiavel gives a handsome caution: ‘Let no man,’ says he, ‘be
circumvented with the glory of Caesar, from the false reflection of
their pens, who through the longer continuance of his empire in the name
than in the family, changed their freedom for flattery. But if a man
would know truly what the Romans thought of Caesar, let them observe
what they said of Catiline.’” And yet by how much he who has perpetrated
some heinous crime is more execrable than he who did but attempt it, by
so much is Caesar more execrable than Catiline. On the contrary, let
him that would know what ancient and heroic times, what the Greeks and
Romans would both have thought and said of my Lord Archon, observe what
they thought and said of Solon, Lycurgus, Brutus, and Publicola. And yet
by how much his virtue, that is crowned with the perfection of his work,
is beyond theirs, who were either inferior in their aim, or in their
performance; by so much is my Lord Archon to be preferred before Solon,
Lycurgus, Brutus, and Publicola.
“Nor will we shun the most illustrious example of Scipio: this
hero, though never so little less, yet was he not the founder of a
commonwealth; and for the rest, allowing his virtue to have been of the
most untainted ray in what did it outshine this of my Lord Archon? But
if dazzling the eyes of the magistrates it overawed liberty, Rome might
be allowed some excuse that she did not like it, and I, if I admit not
of this comparison: for where is my Lord Archon? Is there a genius, how
free soever, which in his presence would not find itself to be under
power? He is shrunk into clouds, he seeks obscurity in a nation that
sees by his light. He is impatient of his own glory, lest it should
stand between you and your liberty.”
Liberty! What is even that, if we may not be grateful? And if we may, we
have none: for who has anything that he does not owe? My lords, there be
some hard conditions of virtue: if this debt were exacted, it were not
due; whereas being cancelled, we are all entered into bonds. On the
other side, if we make such a payment as will not stand with a free
people, we do not enrich my Lord Archon, but rob him of his whole estate
immense glory.
“These particulars had in due deliberation and mature debate, according
to the order of this commonwealth, it is proposed by authority of the
Senate, to you my lords the people of Oceana:
“I. That the dignity and office of Archon, or protector of the
commonwealth of Oceana, be and are hereby conferred, by the Senate
and the people of Oceana, upon the most illustrious Prince and sole
legislator of this commonwealth, Olphaus Megaletor, pater patrioe, whom
God preserve, for the term of his natural life, yet remaining of the
ancient.
“II. That £350,000 per annum revenue, be estated upon the said
illustrious Prince, or Lord Archon, for the said term, and to the proper
and peculiar use of his Highness.
“III. That the Lord Archon have the reception of all foreign ambassadors,
by and with the Council of State, according to the orders of this
commonwealth.
“IV. That the Lord Archon have a standing army of 12,000 defrayed upon a
monthly tax, during the term of three years, for the protection of this
commonwealth against dissenting parties, to be governed, directed, and
commanded by and with the advice of the Council of War, according to the
orders of this commonwealth.
“V. That this commonwealth make no distinction of persons or parties,
but every man being elected and sworn, according to the orders of the
same, be equally capable of magistracy, or not elected, be equally
capable of liberty, and the enjoyment of his estate free from all other
than common taxes.
“VI. That a man putting a distinction upon himself, refusing oath upon
election, or declaring himself of a party not conformable to the civil
government, may within any time of his the three years’ standing of
the army transport himself and his estate, without molestation or
impediment, into any other nation.
“VII. That in case there remains any distinction of parties not
conforming to the civil government of this commonwealth, after the
three years of the standing army being expired, and the commonwealth
be thereby forced to prolong the term of the said army, the pay from
henceforth of the said army be levied upon the estates of such parties
so remaining unconformable to the civil government.”
The proposer having ended his oration, the trumpets sounded; and the
tribunes of the horse being mounted to view the ballot, caused the tribe
(which thronging up to the speech, came almost round the gallery)
to retreat about twenty paces, when Linceus de Stella, receiving the
propositions, repaired with Bronchus de Rauco the herald, to a little
scaffold erected in the middle of the tribe, where he seated himself,
the herald standing bare upon his right hand. The ballotins, having
their boxes ready, stood before the gallery, and at the command of the
tribunes marched, one to every troop on horseback, and one to every
company on foot, each of them being followed by other children that bore
red boxes: now this is putting the question whether the question should
be put. And the suffrage being very suddenly returned to the tribunes at
the table, and numbered in the view of the proposers, the votes were all
in the affirmative, whereupon the red or doubtful boxes were laid aside,
it appearing that the tribe, whether for the negative or affirmative,
Was clear in the matter. Wherefore the herald began from the scaffold
in the middle of the tribe, to pronounce the first proposition, and the
ballotins marching with the negative or affirmative only, Bronchus, with
his voice like thunder, continued to repeat the proposition over and
over again, so long as it was in balloting. The like was done for every
clause, till the ballot was finished, and the tribunes assembling, had
signed the points, that is to say, the number of every suffrage, as it
was taken by the secretary upon the tale of the tribunes, and in the
sight of the proposers; for this may not be omitted: it is the pulse
of the people. Now whereas it appertains to the tribunes to report the
suffrage of the people to the Senate, they cast the lot for this office
with three silver balls and one gold one; and it fell upon the Right
Worshipful Argus de Crookhorn, in the tribe of Pascua, first tribune of
the foot. Argus, being a good sufficient man in his own country, was
yet of the mind that he should make but a bad spokesman, and therefore
became something blank at his luck, till his colleagues persuaded him
that it was no such great matter, if he could but read, having his paper
before him. The proposers, taking coach, received a volley upon the
field, and returned in the same order, save that, being accompanied with
the tribunes, they were also attended by the whole prerogative to the
piazza of the Pantheon, where, with another volley, they took their
leaves. Argus, who had not thought upon his wife and children all the
way, went very gravely up: and everyone being seated, the Senate by
their silence seemed to call for the report, which Argus, standing up,
delivered in this wise:
“RIGHT HONORABLE LORDS AND FATHERS ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT:
“So it is, that it has fallen to my lot to report to your excellencies
in the votes of the people, taken upon the 3d instant, in the first year
of this commonwealth, at the halo; the Right Honorable Phosphorus de
Auge in the tribe of Eudia, Dolabella d’Enyo in the tribe of Turmae,
and Linceus de Stella in the tribe of Nubia, lords commissioners of the
great seal of Oceana, and proposers pro temporibus, together with my
brethren the tribunes, and myself being present. Wherefore these are to
certify to your fatherhoods, that the said votes of the people were as
follows, that is to say:
To the first proposition, nemine contradicente;
To the second, nemine contradicente;
To the third, the like;
To the fourth, 211, above half;
To the fifth, 201, above half;
To the sixth, 150, above half, in the affirmative;
To the seventh, nemine contradicente again, and so forth.
“My Lords, it is a language that is out of my prayers, and if I be out
at it, no harm--
“But as concerning my Lord Archon (as I was saying) these are to signify
to you the true-heartedness and goodwill which are in the people, seeing
by joining with you, as one man, they confess that all they have to give
is too little for his highness. For truly fathers, if he who is able to
do harm, and does none, may well be called honest; what shall we say to
my Lord Archon’s highness, who having had it in his power to have done
us the greatest mischief that ever befell a poor nation, so willing
to trust such as they thought well of, has done us so much good, as
we should never have known how to do ourselves? Which was so sweetly
delivered by my Lord Chancellor Phosphorus to the people, that I dare
say there was never a one of them could forbear to do as I do-and, it
please your fatherhoods, they be tears of joy. Aye, my Lord Archon shall
walk the streets (if it be for his ease I mean) with a switch, while the
people run after him and pray for him; he shall not wet his foot; they
will strew flowers in his way; he shall sit higher in their hearts,
and in the judgment of all good men, than the kings that go upstairs
to their seats; and one of these had as good pull two or three of his
fellows out of their great chairs as wrong him or meddle with him; he
has two or three hundred thousand men, that when you say the word, shall
sell themselves to their shirts for him, and die at his foot. His pillow
is of down, and his grave shall be as soft, over which they that are
alive shall wring their hands. And to come to your fatherhoods, most
truly so called, as being the loving parents of the people, truly you
do not know what a feeling they have of your kindness, seeing you are so
bound up, that if there comes any harm, they may thank themselves. And,
alas! poor souls, they see that they are given to be of so many minds,
that though they always mean well, yet if there comes any good, they
may thank them that teach them better. Wherefore there was never such a
thing as this invented, they do verily believe that it is no other than
the same which they always had in their very heads, if they could
have but told how to bring it out. As now for a sample: my lords the
proposers had no sooner said your minds, than they found it to be that
which heart could wish. And your fatherhoods may comfort yourselves,
that there is not a people in the world more willing to learn what is
for their own good, nor more apt to see it, when you have showed it
them. Wherefore they do love you as they do their own selves; honor you
as fathers; resolve to give you as it were obedience forever, and so
thanking you for your most good and excellent laws, they do pray for
you as the very worthies of the land, right honorable lords and fathers
assembled in Parliament.”
Argus came off beyond his own expectation; for thinking right, and
speaking as he thought, it was apparent by the house and the thanks they
gave him, that they esteemed him to be absolutely of the best sort of
orators; upon which having a mind that till then misgave him, he became
very crounse, and much delighted with that which might go down the next
week in print to his wife and neighbors. Livy makes the Roman tribunes
to speak in the same style with the consuls, which could not be, and
therefore for aught in him to the contrary, Volero and Canuleius might
have spoken in no better style than Argus. However, they were not
created the first year of the commonwealth; and the tribunes of Oceana
are since become better orators than were needful. But the laws being
enacted, had the preamble annexed, and were delivered to Bronchus, who
loved nothing in the earth so much as to go staring and bellowing up
and down the town, like a stag in a forest, as he now did, with his
fraternity in their coats-of-arms, and I know not how many trumpets,
proclaiming the act of parliament; when, meeting my Lord Archon, whom
from a retreat that was without affectation, as being for devotion only
and to implore a blessing by prayer and fasting upon his labors, now
newly arrived in town, the herald of the tribe of Bestia set up his
throat, and having chanted out his lesson, passed as haughtily by him as
if his own had been the better office, which in this place was very well
taken, though Bronchus for his high mind happened afterward upon some
disasters, too long to tell, that spoiled much of his embroidery.
My Lord Archon’s arrival being known, the signory, accompanied by the
tribunes, repaired to him, with the news he had already heard by the
herald, to which my lord strategus added that his highness could not
doubt upon the demonstrations given, but the minds of men were firm in
the opinion that he could be no seeker of himself in the way of earthly
pomp and glory, and that the gratitude of the Senate and the people
could not therefore be understood to have any such reflection upon him.
But so it was, that in regard of dangers abroad, and parties at home,
they durst not trust themselves without a standing army, nor a standing
army in any man’s hands but those of his highness.
The Archon made answer, that he ever expected this would be the sense
of the Senate and the people; and this being their sense, he should have
been sorry they had made choice of any other than himself for a standing
general; first, because it could not have been more to their own safety,
and secondly because so long as they should have need of a standing
army, ‘his work was, not done, that he would not dispute against
the judgment of the Senate and the people, nor ought that to be.
Nevertheless, he made little doubt but experience would show every party
their own interest in this government, and that better improved
than they could expect from any other; that men’s animosities should
overbalance their interest for any time was impossible, that humor could
never be lasting, nor through the constitution of the government of any
effect at the first charge. For supposing the worst, and that the people
had chosen no other into the Senate and the prerogative than royalists,
a matter of 1,400 men must have taken their oaths at their election,
with an intention to go quite contrary not only to their oaths so taken,
but to their own interest; for being estated in the sovereign power,
they must have decreed it from themselves (such an example for which
there was never any experience, nor can there be any reason), or holding
it, it must have done in their hands as well every wit as in any other.
Furthermore, they must have removed the government from a foundation
that apparently would hold, to set it upon another which apparently
would not hold; which things if they could not come to pass, the Senate
and the people consisting wholly of royalists, much less by a parcel of
them elected. But if the fear of the Senate and of the people derived
from a party without, such a one as would not be elected, nor engage
themselves to the commonwealth by an oath; this again must be so large,
as would go quite contrary to their own interest, they being as free and
as fully estated in their liberty as any other, or so narrow that they
could do no hurt, while the people being in arms, and at the beck of the
strategus, every tribe would at any time make a better army than such
a party; and there being no parties at home, fears from abroad would
vanish. But seeing it was otherwise determined by the Senate and the
people, the best course was to take that which they held the safest, in
which, with his humble thanks for their great bounty, he was resolved to
serve them with all duty and obedience.
A very short time after the royalists, now equal citizens, made good
the Archon’s judgment, there being no other that found anything near so
great a sweet in the government. For he who has not been acquainted with
affliction, says Seneca, knows but half the things of this world.
Moreover they saw plainly, that to restore the ancient government they
must cast up their estates into the hands of 300 men; wherefore in case
the Senate and the prerogative, consisting of 1,300 men, had been all
royalists, there must of necessity have been, and be forever, 1,000
against this or any such vote. But the Senate, being informed by the
signory that the Archon had accepted of his dignity and office, caused
a third chair to be set for his Highness, between those of the strategus
and the orator in the house, the like at every council; to which he
repaired, not of necessity, but at his pleasure, being the best, and as
Argus not vainly said, the greatest prince in the world; for in the
pomp of his court he was not inferior to any, and in the field he was
followed with a force that was formidable to all. Nor was there a cause
in the nature of this constitution to put him to the charge of guards,
to spoil his stomach or his sleep: insomuch, as being handsomely
disputed by the wits of the academy, whether my Lord Archon, if he had
been ambitious, could have made himself so great, it was carried
clear in the negative; not only for the reasons drawn from the present
balance, which was popular, but putting the case the balance had been
monarchical. For there be some nations, whereof this is one, that will
bear a prince in a commonwealth far higher than it is possible for them
to bear a monarch. Spain looked upon the Prince of Orange as her most
formidable enemy; but if ever there be a monarch in Holland, he will
be the Spaniard’s best friend. For whereas a prince in a commonwealth
derives his greatness from the root of the people, a monarch derives his
from one of those balances which nip them in the root; by which means
the Low Countries under a monarch were poor and inconsiderable, but in
bearing a prince could grow to a miraculous height, and give the
glory of his actions by far the upper hand of the greatest king in
Christendom. There are kings in Europe, to whom a king of Oceana would
be put a petit companion. But the Prince of this commonwealth is the
terror and judge of them all.
That which my Lord Archon now minded most was the agrarian, upon which
debate he incessantly thrust the Senate and the Council of State, to the
end it might be planted upon some firm root, as the main point and basis
of perpetuity to the commonwealth.
And these are some of the most remarkable passages that happened in the
first year of this government. About the latter end of the second, the
army was disbanded, but the taxes continued at £30,000 a month, for
three years and a half. By which means a piece of artillery was planted,
and a portion of land to the value of £50 a year purchased for the
maintenance of the games, and of the prize arms forever, in each
hundred.
With the eleventh year of the commonwealth, the term of the excise,
allotted for the maintenance of the Senate and the people and for the
raising of a public revenue, expired. By which time the Exchequer, over
and above the annual salaries, amounting to £300,000 accumulating every
year out of £1,000,000 income, £700,000 in banco, brought it with a
product of the sum, rising to about £8,000,000 in the whole: whereby at
several times they had purchased to the Senate and the people £400,000
per annum solid revenue; which, besides the lands held in Panopea,
together with the perquisites of either province, was held sufficient
for a public revenue. Nevertheless, taxes being now wholly taken off,
the excise, of no great burden (and many specious advantages not vainly
proposed in the heightening of the public revenue), was very cheerfully
established by the Senate and the people, for the term of ten years
longer, and the same course being taken, the public revenue was found in
the one-and-twentieth year of the commonwealth to be worth £1,000,000
in good land. Whereupon the excise was so abolished for the present,
as withal resolved to be the best, the most fruitful and easy way of
raising taxes, according to future exigencies.
But the revenue being now such as was able to be a yearly purchaser,
gave a jealousy that by this means the balance of the commonwealth,
consisting in private fortunes, might be eaten out, whence this year is
famous for that law whereby the Senate and the people, forbidding any
further purchase of lands to the public within the dominions of Oceana
and the adjacent provinces, put the agrarian upon the commonwealth
herself. These increases are things which men addicted to monarchy
deride as impossible, whereby they unwarily urge a strong argument
against that which they would defend. For having their eyes fixed upon
the pomp and expense, by which not only every child of a king, being
a prince, exhausts his father’s coffers, but favorites and servile
spirits, devoted to the flattery of those princes, grow insolent and
profuse, returning a fit gratitude to their masters, whom, while they
hold it honorable to deceive, they suck and keep eternally poor:
it follows that they do not see how it should be possible for a
commonwealth to clothe herself in purple, and thrive so strangely upon
that which would make a prince’s hair grow through his hood, and not
afford him bread. As if it were a miracle that a careless and prodigal
man should bring £10,000 a year to nothing, or that an industrious and
frugal man brings a little to £10,000 a year. But the fruit of one man’s
industry and frugality can never be like that of a commonwealth; first,
because the greatness of the increase follows the greatness of the stock
or principal; and, secondly, because a frugal father is for the most
part succeeded by a lavish son; whereas a commonwealth is her own heir.
This year a part was proposed by the Right Honorable Aureus de Woolsack
in the tribe of Pecus, first commissioner of the Treasury, to the
Council of State, which soon after passed the ballot of the Senate
and the people, by which the lands of the public revenue, amounting
to £1,000,000, were equally divided into £5,000 lots, entered by their
names and parcels into a lot-book preserved in the Exchequer. And if
any orphan, being a maid, should cast her estate into the Exchequer for
£1,400, the Treasury was bound by the law to pay her quarterly £200 a
year, free from taxes, for her life, and to assign her a lot for her
security; if she married, her husband was neither to take out the
principal without her consent (acknowledged by herself to one of the
commissioners of the Treasury, who, according as he found it to be free,
or forced, was to allow or disallow of it), nor any other way engage
it than to her proper use. But if the principal were taken out, the
Treasury was not bound to repay any more of it than £1,000, nor might
that be repaid at any time, save within the first year of her marriage:
the like was to be done by a half or quarter lot respectively.
This was found to be a great charity to the weaker sex, and as some say,
who are more skilful in the like affairs than myself, of good profit to
the commonwealth.
Now began the native spleen of Oceana to be much purged, and men not to
affect sullenness and pedantism. The elders could remember that they had
been youths. Wit and gallantry were so far from being thought crimes in
themselves, that care was taken to preserve their innocence. For which
cause it was proposed to the Council for Religion by the Right Honorable
Cadiscus de Clero, in the tribe of Stamnum, first censor, that such
women as, living in gallantry and view about the town, were of evil
fame, and could not show that they were maintained by their own estates
or industry, or such as, having estates of their own, were yet wasteful
in ‘their way of life, and of ill-example to others, should be obnoxious
to the animadversion of the Council of Religion, or of the censors: in
which the proceeding should be after this manner. Notice should be first
given of the scandal to the party offending, in private: if there were
no amendment within the space of six months, she should be summoned
and rebuked before the said Council or censors; and, if after other six
months it were found that neither this availed, she should be censored
not to appear at any public meetings, games, or recreations, upon
penalty of being taken up by the doorkeepers or guards of the Senate,
and by them to be detained, till for every such offence £5 were duly
paid for her enlargement.
Furthermore, if any common strumpet should be found or any scurrility
or profaneness represented at either of the theatres, the prelates for
every such offence should be fined £20 by the said Council, and the
poet, for every such offence on his part, should be whipped. This law
relates to another, which was also enacted the same year upon this
occasion.
The youth and wits of the Academy having put the business so home in the
defence of comedies that the provosts had nothing but the consequences
provided against by the foregoing law to object, prevailed so far that
two of the provosts of the Council of State joined in a proposition,
which after much ado came to a law, whereby £100,000 was allotted for
the building of two theatres on each side of the piazza of the halo: and
two annual magistrates called prelates, chosen out of the knights,
were added to the tropic, the one called the prelate of the buskin,
for inspection of the tragic scene called Melpomene; and the other the
prelate of the sock, for the comic called Thalia, which magistrates had
each £500 a year allowed out of the profits of the theatres; the rest,
except £800 a year to four poets, payable into the Exchequer. A poet
laureate created in one of these theatres by the strategus, receives
a wreath of £500 in gold, paid out of the said profits. But no man
is capable of this creation that had not two parts in three of the
suffrages at the Academy, assembled after six weeks’ warning and upon
that occasion.
These things among us are sure enough to be censured, but not know the
nature of a commonwealth; that they are free, and yet to curb the genius
in a lawful recreation to which they are naturally is to tell a tale of
a tub. I have heard the Protestant ministers in France, by men that
were wise and of their own profession, much blamed in that they forbade
dancing, a recreation to which the genius of that air is so inclining
that they lost many who would not lose that: nor do they less than blame
the former determination of rashness, who now gently connive at that
which they had so roughly forbidden. These sports in Oceana are so
governed, that they are pleasing for private diversion, and profitable
to the public: for the theatres soon defrayed their own charge, and
now bring in a good revenue. All this is so far from the detriment
of virtue, that it is to the improvement of it, seeing women that
heretofore made havoc of their honor that they might have their
pleasures are now incapable of their pleasures if they lose their honor.
About the one-and-fortieth year of the commonwealth, the censors,
according to their annual custom, reported the pillar of Nilus, by
which it was found that the people were increased very near one-third.
Whereupon the Council of War was appointed by the Senate to bring in a
state of war, and the treasurers the state of the Treasury. The state of
war, or the pay and charge of an army, was soon after exhibited by the
Council in this account:
THE FIELD PAY OF A PARLIAMENTARY ARMY
The lord strategus, marching £10,000
Polemarches--
General of the horse... 2,000
Lieutenant-general... 2,000
General of the artillery.... 1,000
Commissary-general... 1,000
Major-general.... 1,000
Quartermaster-general... 1,000
Two adjutants to the major-general... 1,000
Forty colonels..... 40,000
100 captains of horse, at £500 a man... 50,000
300 captains of foot, at £300 a man... 90,000
100 cornets, at £100 a man.... 10,000
300 ensigns, at £50 a man.... 15,000
800 Quartermasters, Sergeants, Trumpeters,
Drummers, 20,000
10,000 horse, at 2s 6d per day each... 470,000
30,000 foot, at 1s per day each.... 500,000
Chirurgeons... 400
40,000 auxiliaries, amounting to within a
little as much... 1,100,000
The charge of mounting 20,000 horse.. 300,000
The train of artillery, holding a 3d to
the whole 900,000
Sum total £3,514,400
Arms and ammunition are not reckoned, as those which are
furnished out of the store or arsenal of Emporium: nor wastage,
as that which goes upon the account of the fleet, maintained by
the customs; which customs, through the care of the Council for
Trade and growth of traffic, were long since improved to about
£1,000,000 revenue. The house being thus informed of a state of
war, the commissioners brought in--
THE STATE OF THE TREASURY THIS PRESENT YEAR, BEING THE
ONE-AND-FORTIETH OF THE COMMONWEALTH
Received from the one-and-twentieth of the commonwealth:
By £700,000 a year in bank, with the product of the sum
rising..............
£16,000,000
Expended from the one-and-twentieth of this commonwealth:
Imprimis, for the addition of arms for 100,000 men to
the arsenal, or tower of Emporium.........
£1,000,000
For the storing of the same with artillery...
300,000
For the storing of the same with ammunition...
200,000
For beautifying the cities, parks, gardens, public walks,
and places for recreation of Emporium and Hiera, with
public buildings, aqueducts, statues,
and fountains, etc......
1,500,000
Extraordinary embassies...
150,000
Sum........
£3,150,000
Remaining in the Treasury, the salaries of the
Exchequer being defalked.......
£12,000,000
By comparison of which accounts if a war with an army of 80,000 men were
to be made by the penny, yet was the commonwealth able to maintain such
a one above three years without levying a tax. But it is against all
experience, sense, and reason that such an army should not be soon
broken, or make a great progress; in either of which cases, the charge
ceases; or rather if a right course be taken in the latter, profit comes
in: for the Romans had no other considerable way but victory whereby to
fill their treasury, which nevertheless was seldom empty. Alexander
did not consult his purse upon his design for Persia: it is observed by
Machiavel, that Livy, arguing what the event in reason must have been
had that King invaded Rome, and diligently measuring what on each
side was necessary to such a war, never speaks a word of money. No
man imagines that the Gauls, Goths, Vandals, Huns, Lombards, Saxons,
Normans, made their inroads or conquests by the strength of the purse;
and if it be thought enough, according to the dialect of our age, to say
in answer to these things that those times are past and gone: what money
did the late Gustavus, the most victorious of modern princes, bring out
of Sweden with him into Germany? An army that goes upon a golden leg
will be as lame as if it were a wooden one; but proper forces have
nerves and muscles in them, such for which, having £4,000,000 or
£5,000,000, a sum easy enough, with a revenue like this of Oceana, to be
had at any time in readiness, you need never, or very rarely, charge the
people with taxes. What influence the commonwealth by such arms has had
upon the world, I leave to historians, whose custom it has been of old
to be as diligent observers of foreign actions as careless of those
domestic revolutions which (less pleasant it may be, as not partaking
so much of the romance) are to statesmen of far greater profit; and this
fault, if it be not mine, is so much more frequent with modern writers,
as has caused me to undertake this work; on which to give my own
judgment, it is performed as much above the time I have been about it,
as below the dignity of the matter.
But I cannot depart out of this country till I have taken leave of my
Lord Archon, a prince of immense felicity who having built as high with
his counsels as he digged deep with his sword, had now seen fifty years
measured with his own unerring orbs.
Timoleon (such a hater of tyrants that, not able to persuade his brother
Timophanes to relinquish the tyranny of Corinth, he slew him) was
afterward elected by the people (the Sicilians groaning to them from
under the like burden) to be sent to their relief: whereupon Teleclides,
the man at that time of most authority in the Commonwealth of Corinth,
stood up, and giving an exhortation to Timoleon, how he should behave
himself in this expedition, told him that if he restored the Sicilians
to liberty, it would be acknowledged that he destroyed a tyrant; if
otherwise, he must expect to hear he had murdered a king. Timoleon,
taking his leave with a very small provision for so great a design,
pursued it with a courage not inferior to, and a felicity beyond, any
that had been known to that day in mortal flesh, having in the space
of eight years utterly rooted out of all Sicily those weeds of tyranny,
through the detestation whereof men fled in such abundance from their
native country that whole cities were left desolate, and brought it
to such a pass that others, through the fame of his virtues and the
excellency of the soil, flocked as fast from all quarters to it as to
the garden of the world: while he, being presented by the people of
Syracuse with his town-house and his country retreat, the sweetest
places in either, lived with his wife and children a most quiet, happy,
and holy life; for he attributed no part of his success to himself, but
all to the blessing and providence of the gods. As he passed his time
in this manner, admired and honored by mankind, Laphistius, an envious
demagogue, going to summon him upon some pretence or other to answer for
himself before the assembly, the people fell into such a mutiny as could
not be appeased but by Timoleon, who, understanding the matter, reproved
them, by repeating the pains and travel which he had gone through, to
no other end than that every man might have the free use of the laws.
Wherefore when Daemenetus, another demagogue, had brought the same
design about again, and blamed him impertinently to the people for
things which he did when he was general, Timoleon answered nothing,
but raising up his hands, gave the gods thanks for their return to his
frequent prayers, that he might but live to see the Syracusans so free,
that they could question whom they pleased.
Not long after, being old, through some natural imperfection, he fell
blind; but the Syracusans by their perpetual visits held him, though he
could not see, their greatest object: if there arrived strangers, they
brought him to see this sight. Whatever came in debate at the assembly,
if it were of small consequence, they determined it themselves; but if
of importance, they always sent for Timoleon, who, being brought by his
servants in a chair, and set in the middle of the theatre, there ever
followed a great shout, after which some time was allowed for the
benedictions of the people; and then the matter proposed, when Timoleon
had spoken to it, was put to the suffrage; which given, his servants
bore him back in his chair, accompanied by the people clapping their
hands, and making all expressions of joy and applause, till, leaving him
at his house, they returned to the despatch of their business. And this
was the life of Timoleon, till he died of age, and dropped like a mature
fruit, while the eyes of the people were as the showers of autumn.
The life and death of my Lord Archon (but that he had his senses to the
last, and that his character, as not the restorer, but the founder of a
commonwealth, was greater) are so exactly the same, that (seeing by men
wholly ignorant of antiquity I am accused of writing romance) I shall
repeat nothing: but tell you that this year the whole nation of Oceana,
even to the women and children, were in mourning, where so great or
sad a funeral pomp had never been seen or known. Some time after the
performance of the obsequies a Colossus, mounted on a brazen horse of
excellent fabric, was erected in the piazza of the Pantheon, engraved
with this inscription on the eastern side of the pedestal:
HIS NAME
IS AS
PRECIOUS OINTMENT
And on the wester with the following:
GRATA PATRIA
Piae et Perpetuae Memorie
D.D.
OLPHAUS MEGALETOR
LORD ARCHON, AND SOLE LEGISLATOR
OF
OCEANA
PATER PATRIAE
Invincible in the Field The Greatest of Captains
Inviolable in his Faith The Best of Princes
Unfeigned in his Zeal The Happiest of Legislators
Immortal in his Fame The Most Sincere of Christians
Who setting the Kingdoms of Earth at Liberty,
Took the Kingdom of the Heavens by Violence.
Anno AEtat. suoe 116
Hujus Reipub. 50
DESCRIPTION OF OCEANA
OCEANA is saluted by the panegyrist after this manner: “O the most
blessed and fortunate of all countries, Oceana! how deservedly has
nature with the bounties of heaven and earth endued thee! Thy ever
fruitful womb not closed with ice nor dissolved by the raging star;
where Ceres and Bacchus are perpetual twins: thy woods are not the
harbor of devouring beasts, nor thy continual verdure the ambush of
serpents, but the food of innumerable herds and flocks presenting thee,
their shepherdess, with distended dugs or golden fleeces. The wings of
thy night involve thee not in the horror of darkness, but have still
some white feather; and thy day is (that for which we esteem life) the
longest.” But this ecstasy of Pliny, as is observed by Bertius, seems
to allude as well to Marpesia and Panopea, now provinces of this
commonwealth, as to Oceana itself.
To speak of the people in each of these countries. This of Oceana, for
so soft a one, is the most martial in the whole world. “Let States that
aim at greatness,” says Verulamius, “take heed how their nobility and
gentlemen multiply too fast, for that makes the common subject grow to
be a peasant and base swain driven out of heart, and in effect but a
gentleman’s laborer; just as you may see in coppice woods, if you leave
the staddels too thick, you shall never have clean underwood, but shrubs
and bushes; so in countries, if the gentlemen be too many, the commons
will be base; and you will bring it to that at last, that not the
hundreth poll will be fit for a helmet, specially as to the infantry,
which is the nerve of an army, and so there will be great population and
little strength. This of which I speak has been nowhere better seen than
by comparing of Oceana and France, whereof Oceana, though far less in
territory and population, has been nevertheless an overmatch, in regard
the middle people of Oceana make good solders, which the peasants in
France do not.” In which words Verulamius, as Machiavel has done before
him, harps much upon a string which he has not perfectly tuned, and that
is, the balance of dominion or property, as it follows more plainly, in
his praise “of the profound and admirable device of Panurgus, King of
Oceana, in making farms and houses of husbandry of a standard; that is,
maintained with such a proportion of land to them as may breed a subject
to live in convenient plenty, and no servile condition, and to keep the
plough in the hands of the owners, and not mere hirelings. And thus,
indeed,” says he, “you shall attain to Virgil’s character which he gives
of ancient Italy.” But the tillage, bringing up a good soldiery, brings
up a good commonwealth; which the author in the praise of Panurgus did
not mind, nor Panurgus in deserving that praise; for where the owner of
the plough comes to have the sword, too, he will use it in defence of
his own; whence it has happened that the people of Oceana, in proportion
to their property, have been always free. And the genius of this nation
has ever had some resemblance with that of ancient Italy, which was
wholly addicted to commonwealths, and where Rome came to make the
greatest account of her rustic tribes, and to call her consuls from the
plough; for in the way of parliaments, which was the government of this
realm, men of country lives have been still intrusted with the greatest
affairs, and the people have constantly had an aversion to the ways of
the court. Ambition, loving to be gay and to fawn, has been a gallantry
looked upon as having something in it of the livery; and husbandry, or
the country way of life, though of a grosser spinning, as the best stuff
of a commonwealth, according to Aristotle, such a one being the most
obstinate assertress of her liberty and the least subject to innovation
or turbulency. Wherefore till the foundations, as will be hereafter
shown, were removed, this people was observed to be the least subject
to shakings and turbulency of any; whereas commonwealths, upon which
the city life has had the stronger influence, as Athens, have seldom or
never been quiet, but at the best are found to have injured their own
business by overdoing it. Whence the urban tribes of Rome, consisting
of the Turba forensis, and libertines that had received their freedom by
manumission, were of no reputation in comparison of the rustics. It
is true that with Venice it may seem to be otherwise, in regard
the gentlemen (for so are all such called as have a right to that
government) are wholly addicted to the city life; but then the Turba
forensis, the secretaries, Cittadini, with the rest of the populace,
are wholly excluded. Otherwise a commonwealth consisting but of one city
would doubtless be stormy, in regard that ambition would be every man’s
trade; but where it consists of a country, the plough in the hands of
the owner finds him a better calling, and produces the most innocent and
steady genius of a commonwealth, such as is that of Oceana.
Marpesia, being the northern part of the same island, is the dry-nurse
of a populous and hardy nation, but where the staddels have been
formerly too thick, whence their courage answered not their hardiness,
except in the nobility, who govern much after the manner of Poland, but
that the King was not elective till the people received their liberty;
the yoke of the nobility being broken by the commonwealth of Oceana,
which in grateful return is thereby provided with an inexhaustible
magazine of auxiliaries.
Panopea, the soft mother of a slothful and pusillanimous people, is a
neighbor island, anciently subjected by the arms of Oceana; since almost
depopulated for shaking the yoke, and at length replanted with a new
race. But, through what virtues of the soil or vice of the air soever it
be, they come still to degenerate. Wherefore seeing it is neither likely
to yield men fit for arms, nor necessary it should, it had been the
interest of Oceana so to have disposed of this province, being both rich
in the nature of the soil, and full of commodious ports for trade, that
it might have been ordered for the best in relation to her purse, which
in my opinion, if it had been thought upon in time, might have been best
done by planting it with Jews, allowing them their own rites and laws;
for that would have brought them suddenly from all parts of the world,
and in sufficient numbers. And though the Jews be now altogether for
merchandise, yet in the land of Canaan (except since their exile
from whence they have not been landlords) they were altogether for
agriculture; and there is no cause why a man should doubt, but having a
fruitful country and excellent ports, too, they would be good at both.
Panopea, well peopled, would be worth a matter of £4,000,000 dry-rents;
that is, besides the advantage of the agriculture and trade, which,
with a nation of that industry, come at least to as much more. Wherefore
Panopea, being farmed out to the Jews and their heirs forever, for the
pay of a provincial army to protect them during the term of seven years,
and for £2,000,000 annual revenue from that time forward, besides the
customs, which would pay the provincial army, would have been a bargain
of such advantage, both to them and this commonwealth, as is not to be
found otherwise by either. To receive the Jews after any other manner
into a commonwealth were to maim it; for they of all nations never
incorporate, but taking up the room of a limb, are of no use office to
the body, while they suck the nourishment which would sustain a natural
and useful member.
If Panopea had been so disposed of, that knapsack, with the Marpesian
auxiliary, had been an inestimable treasure; the situation of these
countries being islands (as appears by Venice how advantageous such a
one is to the like government) seems to have been designed by God for
a commonwealth. And yet that, through the straitness of the place
and defect of proper arms, can be no more than a commonwealth for
preservation; whereas this, reduced to the like government, is a
commonwealth for increase, and upon the mightiest foundation that any
has been laid from the beginning of the world to this day.
“Illam arcta capiens Neptunus compede stringit:
Hanc autem glaucis captus complectitur ulnis.”
The sea gives law to the growth of Venice, but the growth of Oceana
gives law to the sea.
These countries, having been anciently distinct and hostile kingdoms,
came by Morpheus the Marpesian, who succeeded by hereditary right to the
crown of Oceana, not only to be joined under one head, but to be cast,
as it were by a charm, into that profound sleep, which, broken at length
by the trumpet of civil war, has produced those effects that have given
occasion to the preceding discourse, divided into four parts.
End of Project Gutenberg’s The Commonwealth of Oceana, by James Harrington