Knowledge of every Individual's particulars Wants. If a Father alone be unequal to thefe Duties, much lefs can a fingle King attend to the innumerable Concerns of a People. Qui ni mis probat, nihil probat. Every Father, who has but common Senfe, fatisfactorily discharges all his Duties with any fmall Affiftance; and every wife Sovereign, with a little more Affift ance, does the like: So what becomes of this Argument?

BUT, adds another, to provide for the Ne ceffaries and Conveniencies of his Family, is not the whole Compafs of a Father's Duties: He is to instruct, encourage and

reprove them, both by Word and Example. Now, when Old-Age comes on, how fit is a Father for all this, in which troublesome Affiduity and bo dily Labour is called for, when he stands in Need of Reft and Indulgence?

ALLOW him to be in the Vigour of Life, and of a healthy Conftitution, ftill is he not a Match for fuch a Multiplicity of Calls; there is no holding out long under perpetual Labour and Solicitude. However, Nature inclines a Father to grapple with thefe Difficulties, which

are

are/alfor confiderably alleviated by the Sweetnefs which parental Fondness finds in the most industrious Provision for Children; and they, together with the Grand-children, have a natural Principle of Dependance and Submission, inclining them to a ready Obedience to all his Directions. A King, it is faid, has no fuch Helps; there is no natural Tie betwixt him and his Subjects, and what Care he takes of them muft arise from interested or moral Confiderations: But, what is ftill more, be the King's Intentions the moft gracious, his Meafures the most falutary, the Subjects will be dreaming that Encroachments on their natural Liberties are intended; and this, together with the self-interested Views of Individuals, will always produce fome murmuring or Oppofition.

In fine, urge fome, how many Princes, who, upon their Acceffion, to the Throne, have determined to behave like true Fathers to their People, have yet been the Dupes of all their benevolent Intentions? And, after no long Trial, thefe Fathers, carried away by a kind of Neceffity, annexed to the Impropriety of their Station, or misled by Minifters, are seen gradually to make their good Pleasure the

Founda

Foundation, Meafure, and Law of the Actions, Honour, Property, and Life of all their Subjects.

THIS is no more than what the best Monarch in the World muft at laft come to: All Monarchy degenerates into Defpotism, as the foft modern Term is; or into Tyranny, according to the Expreffion of the middle Ages. The Greeks, in their nobleft State of Virtue, indifcriminately gave the Name of Tyrants to all Kings, whether lawful or Ufurpers, whether good or bad. It is faid, that Monarchy, does not lay a Coercion upon Kings, and bind them to a good Behaviour; but that all depends on natural Difpofition, or the Circumftances in which a Prince may find himself.

WITHOUT dwelling on a Confutation, of all these Paralogifms, I fhall only observe, that all this has not hindered the Continuation of Monarchy: And, if in fome Place it may have been interrupted, that Example cannot put in the Balance against the other Parts of the World: And even where the Republican Government had taken Root, foon or late it was found neceffary to return to Monarchy.

be

LET

LET it not be faid, that this was brought about by fome external Violence, Republics, confeffedly, having brought on their own Ruin; and their inteftine Corruption has been a Handle to Foreigners for their final Demolition: For, as we have beforementioned, an Ariftocracy may very well be a real and good Government; efpecially when built on the wife Foundations of the Venetian, where the Excellency of its incomparable Laws feems to forbid any Apprehenfion that it should ever become extinct. Whether confidered in the Perfection of its Political Maxims, or in the Arrangements to confolidate its Perfection, it must appear a Mafterpiece, as we shall have Occafion further to illuftrate: None of the moft antient Republics can be faid to come up to it. And here we cannot fufficiently lament the Weakness of human Nature, which is not able to prevent fuch Negligences and Defects from infinuating themselves, as in the End are productive of the greatest Misfortunes: And the Remedies are fo violent, that the Application of them is equally difficult and dangerous: An Alteration in the Form of the Government

never fails to be the Confequence, as we fee in the Establishment of the Dictatorship at Rome.

Now, Monarchy has nothing of this Kind to fear; it knows no fuch Paroxyfms. Upon the Death of the most execrable Tyrant, it is only filling his Place with a worthier Succef for; and every Thing is again fet to Rights, without any Prejudice to People, or Government. And this I And this I may fet down as one of the greatest Advantages of monarchical Go

vernment.

IN

CHAP. X.

N the foregoing Reflections, it is far from my Meaning, that human Reasoning is to be abfolutely rejected; for it is by this fame Reasoning that I have acquired all this Knowledge, and been enabled to throw it into a coherent Difcourfe. But, at the fame Time, I think, we should be taught by what we have of it, that it is not to be trufted as a fole Guide and Arbiter; as, there is always

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