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ng else but nobility; by which; whatever their estates suck from the people; especially if it comes equally; is digested into the better blood of that commonwealth; which is all; or the greatest; benefit they can have by accumulation。 For how unequal soever you will have them to be in their incomes; they have officers of the pomp; to bring them equal in expenses; or at least in the ostentation or show of them。 And so unless the advantage of an estate consists more in the measure than in the use of it; the authority of Venice does but enforce our agrarian; nor shall a man evade or elude the prudence of it; by the authority of any other commonwealth。     〃For if a commonwealth has been introduced at once; as those of Israel and Lacedaemon; you are certain to find her underlaid with this as the main foundation; nor; if she is obliged more to fortune than prudence; has she raised her head without musing upon this matter; as appears by that of Athens; which through her defect in this point; says Aristotle; introduced her ostracism; as most of the democracies of Greece。 But; not to restrain a fundamental of such latitude to any one kind of government; do we not yet see that if there be a sole landlord of a vast territory; he is the Turk? that if a few landlords overbalance a populous country; they have store of servants? that if a people be in an equal balance; they can have no lords? that no government can otherwise be erected; than upon some one of these foundations? that no one of these foundations (each being else apt to change into some other) can give any security to the government; unless it be fixed? that through the want of this fixation; potent monarchy and commonwealths have fallen upon the heads of the people; and accompanied their own sad ruins with vast effusions of innocent blood? Let the fame; as was the merit of the ancient nobility of this nation; be equal to or above what has been already said; or can be spoken; yet have we seen not only their glory but that of a throne; the most indulgent to and least invasive for so many ages upon the liberty of a people that the world has known; through the mere want of fixing her foot by a proportionable agrarian upon her proper foundation; to have fallen with such horror as has been a spectacle of astonishment to the whole earth。 And were it well argued from one calamity; that we ought not to prevent another? Nor is Aristotle so good a commonwealths man for deriding the invention of Phaleas as in recollecting himself; where he says that democracies; when a less part of their citizens overtop the rest in wealth; degenerate into oligarchies and principalities; and; which comes nearer to the present purpose; that the greater part of the nobility of Tarentum coming accidentally to be ruined; the government of the few came by consequence to be changed into that of the many。     〃These things considered; I cannot see how an agrarian; as to the fixation or security of a government; can be less than necessary。 And if a cure be necessary; it excuses not the patient; his disease being otherwise desperate; that it is dangerous; which was the case of Rome; not so stated by Machiavel; where he says; that the strife about the agrarian caused the destruction of that commonwealth。 As if when a senator was not rich (as Crassus held) except he could pay an army; that commonwealth could expect nothing but ruin whether in strife about the agrarian; or without it。 'Of late;' says Livy; 'riches have introduced avarice; and voluptuous pleasures abounding have through lust and luxury begot a desire of lasting and destroying all good orders。' if the greatest security of a commonwealth consists in being provided with the proper antidote against this poison; her greatest danger; must be from the absence of an agrarian; which is the whole truth of the Roman example。 For the Laconic; I shall reserve the further explication of it; as my lord also did; to another place; and first see whether an agrarian proportioned to a popular government be sufficient to keep out monarchy。 My lord is for the negative; and fortified by the people of Israel electing a king。 To which I say that the action of the people therein expressed is a full answer to the objection of that example; for the monarchy neither grew upon them; nor could; by reason of the agrarian; possibly have invaded them; if they had not pulled it upon themselves by the election of a king。 Which being an accident; the like whereof is not to be found in any other people so planted; nor in this till; as it is manifest; they were given up by God to infatuation (for says he to Samuel; 'They have not rejected thee; but they have rejected me; that I should not reign over them;); has something in it which is apparent; by what went before; to have been besides the course of nature; and by what followed。     〃For the King having no other foundation than the calamities of the people; so often beaten by their enemies; that despairing of themselves they were contented with any change; if he had peace as in the days of Solomon; left but a slippery throne to his successor; as appeared by Rehoboam。 And the agrarian; notwithstanding the monarchy thus introduced; so faithfully preserved the root of that commonwealth; that it shot forth oftener and by intervals continued longer than any other government; as may be computed from the institution of the same by Joshua; 1;465 years before Christ; to the total dissolution of it; which happened in the reign of the emperor Adrian; 135 years after the incarnation。 A people planted upon an equal agrarian; and holding to it; if they part with their liberty; must do it upon good…will; and make but a bad title of their bounty。 As to instance yet further in that which is proposed by the present order to this nation; the standard whereof is at ?;000 a year; the whole territory of Oceana being divided by this proportion; amounts to 5;000 lots。 So the lands of Oceana being thus distributed; and bound to this distribution; can never fall to fewer than 5;000 proprietors。 But 5;000 proprietors so seized will not agree to break the agrarian; for that were to agree to rob one another; nor to bring in a king; because they must maintain him; and can have no benefit by him; nor to exclude the people; because they can have as little by that; and must spoil their militia。 So the commonwealth continuing upon the balance proposed; though it should come into 5;000 hands; can never alter; and that it should ever come into 5;000 hands is as improbable as anything in the world that is not altogether impossible。     〃My lord's other considerations are more private; as that; this order destroys families; which is as if one should lay the ruin of some ancient castle to the herbs which usually grow out of them; the destruction of those families being that indeed which naturally produced this order。 For we do not now argue for that which we would have; but for that which we are already possessed of; as would appear if a note were but taken of all such as have at this day above ?;000 a year in Oceana。 If my lord should grant (and I will put it with the most) that they who are proprietors in land; exceeding this proportion; exceed not 300; with what brow can the interest of so few be balanced with that of the whole nation? or rather; what interest have they to put in such a balance? they would live as they had been accustomed to do; who hinders them? they would enjoy their estates; who touches them? they would dispose of what they have according to the interest of their families; it is that which we desire。 A man has one son; let him be called; would he enjoy his father's estate? it is his; his son's; and his son's son's after him。 A man has five sons; let them be called; would they enjoy their father's estate? It is divided among them; for we have four votes for one in the same family; and therefore this must be the interest of the family; or the family knows not its own interest。 If a man shall dispute otherwise; he must draw his arguments from custom and from greatness; which was the interest of the monarchy; not of the family; and we are now a commonwealth。 If the monarchy could not bear with such divisions because they tendered to a commonwealth; neither can a commonwealth connive at such accumulations because they tend to a monarchy。 If the monarchy might make bold with so many for the good of one; we may make bold with one for the good of so many; nay; for the good of all。     〃My lords; it comes into my mind; that which upon occasion of the variety of parties enumerated in our late civil wars; was said by a friend of mine coming home from his travels; about the latter end of these troubles; that he admired how it came to pass; that younger brothers; especially being so many more in number than their elder did not unite as one man against a tyranny; the like whereof has not been exercised in any other nation。 And truly; when I consider that our countrymen are none of the worst…natured; I must confess I marvel much how it comes to pass that we should use our children as we do our puppies  take one; lay it in the lap; feed it with every good bit; and drown five; nay; yet worse; forasmuch as the puppies are once drowned; whereas the children are left perpetually drown

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