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this country; and thefe offices fhall furnish, at a certain rate, pilots well versed in the route, and that know all the rocks, shelves, quickfands, &c. that fuch pilgrims and travellers may be exposed to. Of these he knows a great number ready inftructed in most countries: but the whole scheme of this matter he is to draw up at large, and communicate to his friend.

Here ends the Manufcript,

THE following discourse is a kind of remonftrance in behalf of king William and his friends, against the proceedings of the house of commons; and was published during the recefs of parliament in the fummer of 1701, with a view to engage them in milder measures, when they fhould meet again.

At this time Lewis XIV. was making large ftrides towards univerfal monarchy, plots were carrying on at St. Germains; the Dutch had acknowledged the Duke of Anjou as king of Spain; and king William was made extremely uneafy by the violence with which many of his minifters and chief favourites were pursued by the commons. The king, to appease their refentment, had made feveral changes in his ministry, and removed fome of his most faithful fervants from places of the highest truft and dignity: this expedient, however, had proved ineffectual, and the commons perfifted in their oppofition. They began by impeaching William Bentinck, earl of Portland, groom of the ftole; and proceeded to the impeachment of John Somers, baron Somers of Evesham, firft lord-keeper, afterwards lord chancellor; Edward Ruffel, ear! of Orford, lord treasurer of the navy, and one of the lords commiffioners of the admiralty; and Charles Mountague, earl of Halifax, one of the commiffioners of the treafury, and afterwards chancellor of the exchequer. Its general purport is to damp the warmth of the commons, by fhewing that the measures they purfued had a direct tendency to bring on the tyranny, which they profeffed to oppofe; and the particular cafes of the impeached lords are paralleled in Athenian characters,

1

A

DISCOURSE

OF THE

CONTESTS and DISSENTIONS

BETWEEN THE

NOBLES and the COMMONS

IN

ATHENS and ROME;
;

With the Consequences they had upon both those STATES.

Si tibi vera videtur,

Dede manus, fi falfa eft, accingere contra.

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Written in the Year 1701.

CHAP. I.

LUCR.

Tis agreed, that in all government there is an abfolute unlimited power, which naturally and originally feems to be placed in the whole body, wherever the executive part of it lies. This holds in the body natural; for wherever we place the beginning of motion, whether from the head, or the heart, or the animal spirits in general, the body moves and acts by a confent of all its parts. This unlimited power, placed fundamentally in the body of a people, is what the best legislators of all ages have endeavour

ed,

ed, in their several schemes or inftitutions of government, to depofite in fuch hands as would preferve the people from rapine and oppreffion within, as well as violence from without. Moft of them seem to agree in this, that it was a trust too great to be committed to any one man or affembly, and therefore they left the right still in the whole body; but the adminiftration or executive part, in the hands of the one, the few, or the many; into which three powers all independent bodies of men feem naturally to divide: for, by all I have read of those innumerable and petty commonwealths in Italy, Greece, and Sicily, as well as the great one of Carthage and Rome, it seems to me, that a free people met together, whether by compact, or family-government, as foon as they fall into any acts of civil fociety, do of themfelves divide into three powers. The firft, is that of fome one eminent fpirit, who, having fignalized his valour and fortune in defence of his country, or by the practice of popular arts at home, comes to have great influence on the people, to grow their leader in warlike expeditions, and to prefide, after a fort, in their civil affemblies; and this is grounded upon. the principles of nature and common reafon, which in all difficulties or dangers, where prudence or courage is required, rather incite us to fly for counsel or affistance to a single perfon, than a multitude. The fecond natural divifion of power is, of such men, who have acquired large poffeffions, and confequently dependancies, or defcend from ancestors who have left them great inheritances, together with an hereditary antho

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