N° 371. SATURDAY, Aug. 11, 1733. Furono veramente tutti i Rè principio Capi, non Rè, di Republiche, e non di regni. Ma poi il lungo ufo bà fatto che i Popoli fi fiano difpofti et anuezzati all' habito dell' intiera ubbidienza, come apunto fuole affuefarfi una pianta, & un corpo bumano a viuere, in terreno, e sotto clime diuerfo dal fuo naturale. Card. Bentivoglio Relatione delle Ardinal BENTIVOGLIO, from whofe Writings I have taken the Motto to C this Paper, was a Man on all Accounts little to be fufpected of favouring the Caufe of Liberty; much lefs of writing ftrongly and boldly for it. But, the Love of it is innate in the Mind of every Man; and however we may be depraved by bad Education, however inflamed by Party, Intereft, or the Spirit of Oppofition, yet whenever we grow cool, and are not immediately agitated by our Paffions, that Spirit breaks out, and fhews itself even in Thofe, who are the greatest Abettors of arbitrary Power. Thus the Cardinal, borne down by the Force of Reason, and the Influence of this Principle of Nature, expreffes in this Sentence not only his own Opinion, but That of all Mankind, though private Reafons may induce many to profefs themfelves of contrary Senti-." ments; nor is it impoffible for fome Men, weak in their Natures and warm in their Tempers, to be either fo far far feduced by the Arguments of defigning Men, or fo heated by political Contentions, as even to become in fome Manner convinced, that They have no natural Right to Liberty; and that their Princes are born with a juft Title to that arbitrary Power, which is always the Child of Fraud, or Ufurpation. It is our great Happiness that his prefent Majesty's Dominion is founded upon a better Title than either the Jus divinum, or bereditary Right. He owes it purely to the Voice of the People in Parliament. He got it by their Favour, and will keep it by their Affection; nor is it lefs for the Advantage of his Family, or for That of the Nation, that He came to the Throne upon these Terms. The Limitations and Conditions, by the due Obfervance of which He is entitled to it, will ferve as a certain Rule to his Pofterity, by which if They guide Themselves, They may depend upon the Hearts and Purfes of their Subjects to all Eternity. His Predeceffors had not the fame Advantages. They were bred up in a Notion that their Prerogative entitled Them to do what They pleased; nor were the Privileges of the People fo firmly afcertain'd. This occafion'd perpetual Jealoufies, gave Opportunities for evil Minifters to impofe upon the Prince, and for feditious Perfons to inflame the People. It often gave Rife to unwarrantable Acts of Power; and thus frequently expofed both the royal Family and the Nation to the utmoft Confufion. Machiavel, in his political Difcourfes, lays down this Pofition; that no Government can long enjoy Liberty, unless it be frequently brought back to its first Principles. It is the Nature of all Government to degenerate. As it grows older, it gradually deviates and flies farther from its firft Intention, which is fingly the Advantage of Society; 'till at laft it attains fuch a Degree of Corruption, that its Order becomes intirely inverted; and that Inftitution, by which the Prince was first only the Servant of the Publick, obliges the Pub lick to be Slaves to the Prince. For this Reason, he recommends a frequent Renewal of the Conftitution. The various Revolutions in this Kingdom have, in a great Measure, answer'd this End. They have purged off the Luxuriances of Power; and tho' few of them have gone fo deep as to bring us back to the primitive Purity of our Conftitution, yet they have still preserved us a free People, when Liberty is loft in almost every other Part of Europe. The laft Revolution has done more for us than any of the reft. I would not be underflood to speak of That, which was brought about in Favour of our great Deliverer the Prince of Orange. I mean That, by which the prefent royal Family were feated upon the Throne. This happy Change in our Government, tho' it is not marked out by any fuch Appellation, is the most important we have had. It has amounted within a few Degrees of that Reduction to the first Principles of Government, which Machiavel recommends. Our Constitution has received a new Spring from it; and had we taken Care to guard against a few Inconveniences, as we might have done, or ufed the fame Caution to prevent new Dangers, as to redrefs old Grievances, our Liberties had been deliver'd down to our Pofterity, after a thousand Years, more secure and with a greater Profpect of long Duration, than at the very Beginning of the Commonwealth. The Sentence prefix'd to this Paper contains an Account of the firft Powers, with which Princes were invested. It alledges, that the prefent Power of unlimited Monarchs owes its Rife only to an Abuse of the firft Truft repofed in Them; to which (tho' repugnant to human Nature) by gradual Steps and long Ufe, Men were infenfibly habituated. The original State of Monarchy is justly defcribed very different from what it is now in all arbitrary Governments. Kings were then no more than Chiefs, or principal Magiftrates, in States Republican and free. It It ought to give every Englishman the greatest Satisfaction to find the Conftitution we now live under, fince its laft Renewal, bearing fo near a Refemblance to primitive Liberty. Our Princes are now, in a great Measure, upon the fame Foot with thefe Chiefs, or principal Magiftrates of old. They have Authority given Them to defend the Laws of the Land, but not to break them. They have too lately received their Crown from the Hands of the Nation to forget that it is to Them, only They owe it, and that confequently They can be entitled to no Powers but what are granted by Them. The People must fill remember that their own Hands adorn'd the Temples of their Kings, and can have Recourse to known and pofitive Laws, if P rivilege and Prerogative fhould ever clafh. They are no longer to be abufed by the Sound of Words; nor will They fuffer Themselves any longer to be duped into an Opinion, because most of Thofe, who have enjoy'd the Title of King, have also enjoy'd an arbitrary Sway, that therefore regal Authority must inevitably import an abfolute Dominion. They justly look upon this Word as one of the many, which have different Meanings; and fignifies with us no other than a third Eftate, fuperior to every Individual, yet inferior to the collective Body of the People, whofe Advantage and Profperity were the only Caufes of its Existence. The Art of Settlement has obtain'd all these great Advantages for us. That Compact between Prince and People, which has been formerly treated by fome Perfons as a mere Chimæra, is now no longer to be difputed. In that Act are contain'd certain Stipulations and Conditions, under which the Prince has confented to accept, and by which Tenure only he holds his Crown. By thefe Means every Subject in the Nation may know the precife Extent of his Prince's Power, and the Measures of his own Allegiance; how far and how long he is bound to obey. It would be tedious to enumerate the many wife and prudent Restrictions of this our fecond Magna-Charta. I shall only mention two of the fundamental Points in this publick Act, which fufficiently evince the Care and Zeal, with which the Parliament, on this Occasion, purfued the Intereft of the Nation. They even feem, if we may judge from what has fince happen'd, to have carry'd their Caution beyond the Bounds of absolute Neceffity, or Prudence. Being apprized that the Dominions of the prefent royal Family were very confiderable abroad, and not knowing how far their Tenderness for their native Country might carry Them to the Prejudice of this Kingdom, They made thefe two Points the principal Conditions of their Government; first, that the King should never leave his British Dominions without Confent of Parliament; and fecondly that He should never engage England in any Broils re lating to his foreign Territories. I think I may venture to fay, without any Reflection upon the Prudence of the Parliament, who infifted upon thefe Conditions, that They were, upon this Occafion, a little deficient in good Manners; but this Error may be forgiven, as it proceeded from their Zeal, and We have fince corrected it, by abandoning those two Points, of which I have been speaking; the firft foon after his late Majefty's Acceffion to the Throne; the other not long ago, in that juft, honourable, and ever-memorable Refolution of the House of Commons, by which we engaged to Support and maintain his Majefty's German Dominions, with the utmost Efforts of Great Britain. The remaining Articles of the Act of Settlement are of fuch a Nature, that we have no Reafon to fear they will be difpenfed with. I have already fhewn how much it is the Intereft of the Prince, as well as the People, to maintain them. I have mention'd many Advantages arifing from a Settlement establish'd on the Foot of Liberty. They are fuch, that I think any Man, who endeavours to raise the Prerogative one Step higher |