gone abroad, we have actually destroyed, to prevent all poffibility of the like treatment. Thefe volumes likewife will contain all the papers, wherein we have cafually had any thare; particularly those written in conjunction with our friends, Dr. Arbuthnot and Mr. Gay; and laftly, all this fort compofed fingly by either of thofe hands. The reader is therefore defired to do the fame juftice to these our friends, as to us; and to be affured that all the things, called our miscellanies (except the works of Alexander Pope, published by B. Lintot, in quarto, and folio, in 1717; those of Mr. Gay by J. Tonfon, in quarto, in 1720; and as many of these miscellanies as have been formerly printed by Benj. Tooke) are abfolutely fpurious, and without our confent impofed upon the public. Twickenham, JONAT. SWIFT. THE B 4 THE following difcourfe 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 meafures 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 exfremely uneafy by the violence with which many of his minifters and chief favourites were purfued by the commons; the king, to appeafe their refentment, had made feveral changes in his miniftry, 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, earl 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. A DISCOURSE OF THE CONTESTS and DISSENTIONS BETWEEN THE NOBLES and the COMMONS IN ATHENS and ROME; With the Confequences they had upon both thofe STATES. Si tibi vera videtur, Dede manus,& fi falfa eft, accingere contrà. Written in the Year 1701. СНАР. І. LUCR. T is agreed, that in all government there turally 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 fpirits in general, the body B 5 moves 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 legiflators of all ages have endeavoured, in their feveral fchemes or inftitutions of government, to depofit in fuch hands as would preferve the people from rapine and oppreffion within, as well as violence from without. Moft of them feem to agree in this, that it was a truft too great to be committed to any one man or affembly, and therefore they left the right still in the whole body; but the administration 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 ones 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 first is that of fome one eminent fpirit, who, having fignalised 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 preside, after a fort, in their civil affemblies; and this is grounded upon the principles of nature and common reason, which in all difficulties or dangers, where prudence or courage is required, do rather incite us to fly for counsel or affistance to a fingle perfon, than a multitude. The fecond natural divifion of power is of fuch men, who have acquired large poffeffions, and confequently dependencies, or defcend from anceftors who have left them great inheritances, together with an hereditary authority. These eafily uniting in thoughts and opinions, and acting in concert, begin to enter upon meafures for fecuring their properties, which are beft upheld by preparing againft invasions from abroad, and maintaining peace at home; this commences a great council or fenate of nobles for the weighty affairs of the nation. The laft divifion is of the people, whofe part of power is great and indifputable, whenever they can unite either collectively, or by deputation, to exert it. Now the three forms of government, fo generally known in the fchools, differ only by the civil administration being placed in the hands of one, or fometimes two, (as in Sparta) who were called kings; or in a fenate, who were called the nobles; or in the people collective or reprefentative, who may be called the commons. Each of thefe had frequently the executive power in Greece, and fometimes in Rome : but the power in the laft refort was always meant by the legiflators to be held in balance among all three. And it will be an eternal rule in politics among every free people, that there is a balance of power to be carefully held by every ftate within itf.lf, as well as among feveral states with each other. B 6 ད The |