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I charts.
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R1
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ARTES
LIBRARY
1817
VERITAS
SCIENTIA
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
TUEBOR
BE QUA HIS PENINSULAM AMŒNAM
CIRCUMSPICE
་
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:
1
B 362017
ABR
7949
2 libis Bution
LECTURES
O N
HIS T TOR Y,
AND
GENERAL POLICY;
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED,
AN ESSAY ON A COURSE OF LIBERAL EDUCATION
FOR CIVIL AND ACTIVE LIFE.
By JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, LL.D. F.R.S.
AC. IMP. PETROP. R. PARIS. HOLM. TAURIN. AUREL. MED. PARIS,
HARLEM. CANTAB. AMERIC. ET PHILAD. SOCIUS.
JUVAT EXHAUSTOS ITERARE LABORES,
ET SULCATA MEIS PERCURRERE LITORA REMIS.
BUCHANANI FRANCISCANUS.
BIRMINGHAM,
PRINTED BY PEARSON AND ROLLASON, FOR J. JOHNSON, Nº 72,
ST. PAUL' CHURCH-YARD, LONDON.
MDCCLXXXVII
1780
THE
[
3
DEDICATION.
I
7
1.
!
1
TO
}
1
BENJAMIN VAUGHAN, Eſq.
DEAR SIR,
THESE
'HESE Lectures were formerly addreffed to
you ás a pupil; and I fhall think myſelf
happy if what you fay you heard with pleaſure
formerly, do not diſappoint you now; which is
often the caſe with the objects of our fond admi-
ration in younger years. Confider, however, that
thefe Lectures were not intended for proficients but
for fludents, unfurniſhed with the very rudiments
of hiſtorical and political knowledge, and that you
attended them at the age of fixteen.
With this allowance, it may give you pleaſure
(as the motto from my favourite Latin poet expreffes
A 2
it)
iv
DEDICATIO N.
it) to go over the ground you have formerly trodden.
Remember, then, that you are now to read for
amitſement, and not for inftruction; and I fhall be
happy if the ſcenes which I may bring to your
recollection give you as much fatisfaction as they
do me. For I never experience greater, than when
I find young men of ability formed to virtue, and
uſefulneſs in life, under my inftructions.
My obligations to your father, to yourſelf, and
to the whole of your large and refpectable family,
will always be a fubject of pleafing recollection
to me; and this is a circumftance that greatly
heightens the fatisfaction I have in ſubſcribing
'myſelf on this occafion,
Dear Sir,
BIRMINGHAM,
JAN. 1, 1788.
}
Your affectionate Friend,
J. PRIESTLEY.
+
English
Julafton
1-4€33
27334
THE
CE.
PREF FAC E.
T the requeſt of many of my former pupils, I now publiſh the
heads of the Lectures on History and general Policy, which
I compoſed for their uſe when I was tutor at Warrington, and
which I promiſed to do when I publiſhed my Eſſay on the firſt
principles of Government. I prefix to them an Eſſay on a courſe
of liberal Education for civil and active Life, which has been
long out of print, and which will no more accompany my
Miſcellaneous Obfervations relating to Education. It will be very
evident that it has a much nearer connexion with thefe lectures,
which were compofed in purſuance of the ideas which I have
there enlarged upon. The following circumftance gave birth
to them both.
On my accepting the office of Tutor in the Languages and
Belles Lettres in that academy, I found that the far greater part
of the ſtudents were young gentlemen defigned for civil and
active life, whereas the courſe of ftudy, as in all other places
of liberal education, was almoſt intirely adapted to the learned
profeſſions; and it occurred to me that, befides the lectures which
they had been uſed to attend, other courfes might be introduced,
which would bring them acquainted with fuch branches of
knowledge as would be of more immediate ufe to them when
they ſhould come into life. With this view I planned and
compofed three courfes, one on hijlory in general, another on the
biftory of England, and a third on the laws and conftitution of
England, fyllabuſes of which will be feen on my former Fay
on Education.
5
The
vi
PREFACE.
1
The publication of Blackftone's Commentaries, and of Sullivan's
Law Lectures, have made it unneceffary to publiſh the third of
theſe courſes, and Henry's history of England has fuperfeded the
fecond, though my plans will be ſeen to be, in feveral refpects,
more comprehenfive than theirs, eſpecially than that of Dr.
Blackstone. But no publication that I have yet feen will
probably be thought to fuperfede the lectures contained in this
volume. For befides what relates to history, I endeavoured to
bring into it as many articles of mifcellaneous knowledge as I
could, in order to enlarge the minds of young men, and to
give them liberal views of many important fubjects, and fuch
as could not fo well be brought before them in any other courſe.
So far, therefore, was I from endeavouring to keep ftrictly to
the title which I first gave theſe lectures, viz. on Hiftory, that
I ftudied to exceed thofe bounds as much as, with any propriety,
I poffibly could; and I foon found that, under the head of
objects of attention to an hiftorian, or a reader of history, I could
eafily bring the very important ſubject of general policy, or an
account of thoſe things which principally contribute to render
the great focieties of mankind happy, numerous, and fecure,
with which young men of fortune cannot be too well acquainted.
The reader muſt not, however, expect to find any thing more
than the outline of this branch of knowledge. For general
principles are all that can be taught at a place of education.
The details of things must be left to men's reſearches afterwards.
Through the whole I hope I have kept in mind, that the moſt
important object of education is to form the minds of youth to
virtue; and therefore I have made a point of omitting no fair
opportunity of introducing fuch obfervations and reflections as
appeared to me to have that tendency, eſpecially at the beginning
and the clofe of the courſe.
I must
یے
PREFACE.
vii
#
I muſt alſo remind the reader, that all he is to expect from
theſe lectures is a judicious felection, and arrangement, of the
knowledge that was to be collected from books which were
extant at the time when they were compofed. Many of the
obſervations, however, are, as far as I know, original; but, at
this diſtance of time, it is not in my power to diſtinguiſh thoſe
that are fo from thoſe which I collected from other writers. I
cannot in all cafes even diftinguiſh my own compofition from
the extracts which I made from the works of others; and not
having at firſt any intention of publishing theſe Lectures, I
neglected to take notes of the books that I quoted. But this
is of little confequence to the reader; it being fufficient for
him if the facts may be depended upon, and the obfervations
just. It will be found, however, that I have enlarged this
courſe fince the fyllabus of it was first printed, with many
valuable articles, collected from works which have been pub-
liſhed fince, eſpecially Dr. Smith on the Wealth of Nations, and
Stuart's Principles of Political Oeconomy; and my wifh is, that
by the illuſtration of fome general principles in fuch works as
thefe, I may excite in youth a defire to become better acquainted
with them.
Theſe lectures will be found to be of very unequal lengths, and
the reaſon of this will not always appear. But this circumſtance
is of little confequence, either to the reader, or to any perfon who
may think
proper to make uſe of them in his own lecturing.
My method, as in all my other lectures, was to read the text,
and illuftrate it by a familiar addrefs, queftioning the pupils
very particularly on the ſubject of the former lecture before I
proceeded to a new one; and on fome of the fubjects I happened
to have much more to fay to them, and to enquire of them,
than on others. Alfo, in going over the lectures a ſecond time,
I paid
vin
PREF A CE.
I paid little regard to the divifions I had first made, but took
in more or less matter, as I found convenient at the time, and
this I would adviſe other lecturers to do.
The only courfe of lectures, compofed and delivered while I
was at Warrington, that I have any thoughts of publisking
beſides this, is one on the Theory of Language and Univerfal
Grammar, which was printed for the use of the students, but
not published. If this be done at all, it will be in conjunction
with the additions that Dr. Kippis made to it, when he did me
the honour to make it his text-book at the Academy in Hoxton.
This joint work I wish to remain as a monument of our friend-
fhip, and eſpecially of the gratitude I owe him for his kindness
to me in a period in which I wanted a friend. He and
Dr. Benfon were fome of the first whom I could truly place in
that clafs.
The lectures on Oratory and Criticism, which I compofed at
Warrington, have been fome time before the Public. In them
I have made great ufe of Dr. Hartley's doctrine of affociation
of ideas, which appears to me to fupply an eafy folution of
almoſt all the difficulties attending this curious fubject, and
gives us folid'maxims, inſtead of arbitrary fancy. In this ex-
tenfive application of the doctrine of affociation to the bufinefs
of criticifin, I think I have fome claim to merit.
!
THE
THE
CON
CONTENTS.
:1
LECTURER
THE INTRODUCTION
Page 1
PART I. General Ufe of Hiſtory
4
Virtue, &c.
$
Lecture II. Hiſtory tends to strengthen the Sentiments of
Lecture III. Hiſtory teaches Virtue by exhibiting the Conduct
of Divine Providence, &c.
PART II. Of the Sources of Hiftory
Lecture IV. Of Oral Tradition, &c.
Lecture V. Of hiftorical Poems, and hiftorical Customs, &c.
•
15
25
38
ibid.
47
Lecture VI. Of Coins and Medals, &c.
53
Lecture VII. Of written Hiftories, &c.
62
Lecture VIII. Of the indirect Methods of collecting the
Knowledge of paft Events
68
Lecture IX. Connexion of History and Law, &c.
75
Lecture X. The Use of Obfervations on the Intervals between
the Generations of Men and Succeffions of Kings, to ascertain
the Dates of paft Events, &c.
80
Lecture XI. The Time of paft Events afcertained by Means
of celeftial Appearances
b
90
Lecture XII.
X
CONTENT S.
!
Lecture XII. Of the Ufe which Newton has made of Ob-
fervations on the Preceffion of the Equinoxes in rectifying
ancient Chronology
r
PART III. What is Neceffary, or Uſeful, to be known
previous to the Study of Hiftory
Lecture XIII. Uſe of the Sciences derived from Hiftory to
the Study of Hiftory. Of Chronology. Of Weeks
Lecture XIV. Months and Cycles, &c.
Lecture XV. Of the Methods of eftimating the Riches and
Power of ancient and remote Nations
Lecture XVI. Of the English and French Money, &c.
7
PART IV. Directions for facilitating the Study of
Hiſtory
Lecture XVII. Of chronological Fables, &c.
94
102
ibid.
109
IZI
133
145
ibid.
Lecture XVIII. Gharts of History and Biography, &c.
Lecture XIX. Of the Terms of Fortification
153
159
Lecture XX. The Order in which ancient general Hiftories
may moft conveniently be read. Of Herodotus
ibid.
Lecture XXI. Of Thucydides, Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus,
Quintus Curtius, Arrian, Justin, Plutarch, and Cornelius
Nepos
162
Lecture XXII. Of Dionyfius Halicarnaffenfis, Livy, Poly-
bius, and Appian.
168
Lecture XXIII. Of Salluft, Cafar, Hirtius, Dio Caffius,
Suetonius, and Tacitus
174
Lecture XXIV. Of Aurelius Victor, Herodian, Scriptores
Romani, Eutropius, &c.
Hiftory, &c.
&c. Of modern Compilations of
182
Lecture XXV. Of the Method of studying the Engliſh Hiſtory 188
Lecture XXVI.
CONTENT OS. '
xi..
Lecture XXVI. The Engliſh Hiſtorians from the Conqueft to
Edward IV.
?
Lecture XXVII. The Remainder of original Engliſh Hiftori-
ans, and Compilers of the Hiftory
198
206
Lecture XXVII. Hiftories of particular Lives and Reigns 212
Lecture XXIX. Of the Ecclefiaftical Writers and the old
English Law-books, &c..
215
Lectures XXX. and XXXI. Of the English Records, 223-229
Lecture XXXII. Hiftorians of other Nations
1 1
{
238
243
PART V. Of the most important Objects of Attention
to a Reader of Hiſtory
Lecture XXXIII. Different Objects to different Perfons, &c. ibid.
Lecture XXXIV. General Obfervations on political Mea-
fures. Periods of Hiftory more particularly worthy of
Attention
252
{
{
Lecture XXXV. The Rife and Declension of the Roman
Empire. The Time when the Hiftory of feveral European -
Countries begins to be interefting to the rest of Europe.
Lecture XXXVI. The moſt remarkable Periods in the English
and Scotch Hiftory. The most interefting Periods in the
Hiftory of Literature and the Arts
Lecture XXXVII. The most important Periods in the Hiftory
of Manufactures and Commerce
Lecture XXXVIII. Every Thing worthy of Attention in
Hiftory which contributes to make a Nation happy, populous,
or fecure. Of Government in general.
256
262
267
271
Lecture XXXIX. Of Political and Civil Liberty, &c.
Lecture XL. Of Defpotic Government
281
289
Lecture XLI. Of Democracy
296
12
Lecture XLII. Of Aristocracy. Of the prefent European
Monarchies
306
b 2
Lecture LXIII.
xii
CONTENT S.
Lecture XLIII. Of the Permanence of Governments, &c.
Lecture XLIV. Of a State of Barbarifm. The European
Governments (and. particularly the English) traced from
their firft Rife in Germany to their prefent. Form
Lecture XLV. Of the Feudal System, &c.
Lecture XLVI. Rife of Corporations. The Rife of the
· English Commons. The Declenfion of the Feudal Syftem not
equal in all Parts of Europe
Criminal Lares, &c.
Lecture XLVII. Of Laws.
Lecture XLVIII. The Theory of the Progrefs of Law
Lecture XLIX. Of an Attention to Agriculture, &c.
Lecture L.. Of Arts and Manufactures
Lecture LI. Of Commerce.
J
Lecture LII. Ufe of Colonies to a commercial State. Maxims
with respect to Money
Lecture LIII. Of the Intereft of Money. Of Paper-money.
312
323
333
339
345
359
364
$74
386
400
Of Exchange
Lecture LIV. Of Luxury, &c.
Lecture LV. Of Politeness, &c.
410
417
424
!
Lecture LVI. Of the Influence of Religion on civil Society 43.3
Lecture LVII. Of civil Establishments of Religion. The
Influence of Philofophy on civil Affairs
447
1
Lectures LVIII. and LIX. Of the Populouſneſs of Nations.
456---463
Lectures LX. LXI. and LXII. Of the Strength of Nations
471---483---491
Lecture LXIII. Of the Expences of Government
Lecture LXIV,.. Of National Debts
500
509
Lecture LXV. Of Science, &c. &c.
518
Lectures LXVI. LXVII. and LXVIII. Of an Attention to
Divine Providence in the Conduct of Human Affairs
527-537-543
}
E S S
A N
S A Y
ON A COURSE OF
LIBERAL
EDUCATION
FOR CIVIL AND ACTIVE LIFE.
FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1764.
IT
T ſeems to be a defect in our preſent ſyſtem of public education,
that a proper courſe of ſtudies is not provided for gentlemen who
are defigned to fill the principal ſtations of active life, diftinct from thofe
which are adapted to the learned profeffions. We have hardly any medium
between an education for the counting-houfe, confifting of writing,
arithmetic, and merchants'-accounts, and a method of inftitution in the
abſtract ſciences: fo that we have nothing liberal, that is worth the
attention of gentlemen, whofe views neither of theſe two oppofite plans
may fuit.
Formerly, none but the clergy were thought to have any occafion for
learning. It was natural, therefore, that the whole plan of education,
from the grammar-ſchool to the finishing at the univerſity, fhould be
calculated for their ufe. If a few other perfons, who were not defigned
for holy orders, offered themſelves for education, it could not be ex-
pected
xiv
AN ESSAY ON
$
pected that a courſe of ſtudies ſhould be provided for them only. And,
indeed, as all thoſe perſons who fuperintended the buſineſs of education
were of the clerical order, and had themſelves been taught nothing but
the rhetoric, logic, and ſchool-divinity, or civil law, which comprized
the whole compaſs of human learning for feveral centuries, it could not
be expected that they fhould entertain larger, or more liberal, views of
education, and ſtill lefs, that they ſhould ſtrike out a courſe of ſtudy,
for the uſe of men who were univerfally thought to have no need of ſtudy;
and, of whom, few were fo fenfible of their own wants as to defire any
ſuch advantage.
Befides, in thoſe days, the great ends of human fociety feem to have
been but little understood. Men of the greateft rank, fortune, and
influence, and who took the lead in all the affairs of ftate, had no idea
of the great objects of wife and extenfive policy; and therefore could
never apprehend that any fund of knowledge was requifité for the moſt
eminent ſtations in the community. Few perfons imagined what were
the true fources of wealth, power, and happinefs, in a nation. Com-
merce was little underſtood, or even attended to; and fo flight was the
connexion of the different nations of Europe, that general politics were
very contracted. And thus, men's views being narrow, little previous
furniture of mind was requifite to conduct them.
The confequence of all this was, that the advances which were made
to a more perfect and improved ſtate of ſociety were very flow; and the
preſent happier ſtate of things was brought about, rather by an accidental
concurrence of circumftances, than by any efforts of human wisdom and
forefight. We ſee the hand of Divine Providence in thoſe revolutions
which have gradually given a happier turn to affairs, while men have
been the paffive and blind inftruments of their own felicity.
But the fituation of things at preſent is vaftly different from what it
was two or three centuries ago. The objects of human attention are pro-
digiouſly multiplied; the connexions of ſtates are extended; a reflection
upon our preſent advantages, and the fteps by which we have arrived to
the degree of power and happineſs we now enjoy, has fhewn us the true
fources of them; and fo thoroughly awakened are all the ſtates of Europe
6
to
EDUCATION.
XV
to a fenfe of their true interefts, that we are convinced, the fame fupine
inattention with which affairs were formerly conducted is no longer fafe;
and that, without fuperior degrees of wisdom and vigour in political
meafures, every thing we have hitherto gained will infallibly be loft,
and be quickly transferred to our more intelligent and vigilant neigh-
bours. In this critical pofture of affairs, more lights, and fuperior
induſtry, are requifite, both to miniſters of ſtate, and to all perfons who
have any influence in fchemes of public and national advantage; and
confequently a different and a better furniture of mind is requifite to be
brought into the bufinefs of life.
This is certainly a call upon us to examine the ſtate of education in
this country, and to confider how thofe years are employed which men
paſs previous to their entering into the world: for upon this their future
behaviour, and ſucceſs, muſt, in a great meaſure depend. A tranſition,
which is not eafy, can never be made with advantage; and therefore it
is certainly our wifdom to contrive, that the ftudies of youth fhould tend
to fit them for the buſineſs of manhood; and that the objects of their
attention, and turn of thinking in younger life, ſhould not be too remote
from the deſtined employment of their riper years. If this be not attended
to, they must neceffarily be mere novices upon entering the
great world,
be aloft unavoidably embarraffed in their conduct, and, after all the
time and expence beftowed upon their education, be indebted to a feries
of blunders for the moſt uſeful knowledge they will ever acquire.
In what manner foever thofe gentlemen who are not of any learned
profeffion, but who, in other capacities, have rendered the moſt im-
portant fervices to their country, came by that knowledge which made
them capable of it, I appeal to themfelves, whether any confiderable
ſhare of it was acquired till they had finiſhed their ftudies at the univerſity.
So remote is the general courfe of ſtudy at places of the moſt liberal
education among us from the bufinefs of civil life, that many gentlemen,
who have had the moſt liberal education their country could afford, have
looked upon the real advantage of fuch an education as very proble-
matical, and have either wholly diſpenſed with it in their own children;
or, if they have ſent their fons through the ufual circle of the fchools, it
has
xvi
AN ESSAY ON
has been chiefly through the influence of cuftom and faſhion, or with a
view to their forming connexions which might be uſeful to them in
future life. This appears by the little folicitude they fhow about their
fons being grounded in thoſe ſciences, in which they themſelves might
poffibly have been confiderable proficients, when they applied to them;
but which, from their being foreign to the buſineſs of life in which they
were afterwards engaged, they have now wholly forgotten.
Indeed, the fevere and proper difcipline of a grammar-ſchool is become
a common topic of ridicule; and few young gentlemen, except thoſe
who are defigned for fome of the learned profeffions, are made to fubmit
to the rigours of it. And it is manifeft, that when no foundation is laid
in a grammatical knowledge of the learned languages (which, in a large
or public ſchool, cannot be done without very ftrict diſcipline, and a
fevere application on the part both of the mafter and ſcholar) youth can
be but ill qualified to receive any advantage from an univerſity education.
Young gentlemen themſelves fo frequently hear the learning which is
taught in ſchools and univerſities ridiculed, that they often make them-
felves eaſy with giving a very ſuperficial attention to it; concluding, from
the turn of converſation in the company they generally fall into, and
which they expect to keep, that a few years will confound all diftinction
of learned and unlearned, and make it impoffible to be known whether
a man had improved his time at the univerſity or not.
Theſe evils certainly call for redreſs; and let a perſon be reckoned a
projector, a viſionary, or whatever any body pleaſes, that man is a friend
of his country who obferves, and endeavours to fupply, any defects in
the methods of educating youth. A well-meaning and a fenfible mán
may be miſtaken, but a good intention, eſpecially if it be not wholly
unaccompanied with good fenfe, ought to be exempted from cenfure.
What has occurred to me upon this fubject I fhall, without any farther
apology, propofe to my fellow-citizens, and fellow-tutors, hoping that
it will meet with a candid reception. It is true, I can boaſt no long or
extenſive experience in the buſineſs of education, but I have not been a
mere ſpectator in this ſcene; which, I hope, may exempt me from the
ridicule and contempt which have almoſt ever fallen upon the ſchemes of
thofe
་
EDUCATION.
xvii
thoſe perſons who have written only from their cloſets, and, without any
experience, have rafhly attempted to handle this fubject, in which, of
all others, experiments only ought to guide theory; upon which hardly
any thing worth attending to can be advanced a priori; and where the
greateſt geniuſes, for want of experience, have been the greateſt vifiona-
ries; laying ſchemes the leaft capable of being reduced to practice, or
the moſt abfurd if they had been put in practice.
Let it be remembered, that the difficulty under prefent confideration
is, how to fill up with advantage thoſe years which immediately precede
a young gentleman's engaging in thofe higher fpheres of active life in
which he is deſtined to move. Within the departments of active life, I
fuppofe to be comprehended all thofe ftations in which a man's conduct
will confiderably affect the liberty and the property of his countrymen,
and the riches, the ftrength, and the fecurity of his country; the firſt
and moſt important ranks of which are filled by gentlemen of large
property, who have themſelves the greateſt intereſt in the fate of their
country, and who are within the influence of an honourable ambition to
appear in the character of magiftrates and legiflators in the ftate, or of
ſtanding near the helm of affairs, and guiding the fecret fprings of
government.
The profeffion of Law, alfo, certainly comes within the above de-
ſcription of civil and active life, if a man hope to be any thing more
than a practiſing attorney; the profeſſion of arms, too, if a gentleman
have any expectation of arriving at the higher ranks of military prefer-
ment; and the bufinefs of merchandife, if we look beyond the fervile
drudgery of the warehouſe or counting-houſe. Divines and phyficians
I confider to be intereſted in this fubject, only as gentlemen and general
ſcholars, or as perfons who converfe, and have influence, with gentlemen
engaged in active life, without any particular view to their reſpective
profeffions.
That the parents and friends of young gentlemen deſtined to act in
any of theſe important fpheres, may not think a liberal education un-
neceffary to them, and that the young gentlemen themſelves may enter
C
with
xviii
AN ESSAY ON
with fpirit into the enlarged views of their friends and tutors; I would
humbly propofe fome new articles of academical inftruction, fuch as have
a nearer and more evident connexion with the buſineſs of active life,
and which may therefore bid fairer to engage the attention, and rouſe
the thinking powers, of young gentlemen of an active genius. The
fubjects I would recommend are CIVIL HISTORY, and more efpecially,
the important objects of CIVIL POLICY; fuch as the theory of laws,
government, manufactures, commerce, naval force, &c. with whatever
may be demonſtrated from hiſtory to have contributed to the flouriſhing
ftae of nations, to rendering a people happy and populous at home, and
formidable abroad; together with thofe articles of previous information
without which it is impoffible to underſtand the nature, connexions, and
mutual influences, of thofe great objects.
To give a clearer idea of the fubjects. I would propofe to the ſtudy of
youth at places of public and liberal education, I have fubjoined plans
of three diſtinct courfes of lectures, which, I apprehend, may be fubfer-
vient to this defign, divided into fuch portions as, experience has taught
me, may be conveniently difcuffed in familiar lectures. of an hour each.
The first courfe is on the STUDY OF HISTORY in general, and in its
moſt extenſive fenfe. It will be feen to conſiſt of ſuch articles as tend to
enable a young gentleman to read hiftory with underſtanding, and to
reap the moſt valuable fruits of that engaging ſtudy. I fhall not go
over the particulars of the courſe in this place: let the fyllabus fpeak,
for itſelf. Let it only be obſerved, that my view was, not merely to
make hiſtory intelligible to perſons who may chufe to read it for thei
amuſement; but principally, to facilitate its fubferviency to the higheſt
uſes to which it can be applied; to contribute to its forming the able
ftateſman, and the intelligent and uſeful citizen. It is true, that this is
comprizing a great deal more than the title of the courfe will fuggeft.
But under the head of objects of attention to a reader of hiftory, it was
found convenient to difcufs the principal of thofe fubjects which every
gentleman of a liberal education is expected to underſtand, though they
do not generally fall under any divifion of the ſciences in a courſe of
5
academical
EDUCATION.
xix
*
academical education: and yet, without a competent knowledge of thefe
fubjects, no perfon can be qualified to ferve his country except in the
loweſt capacities.
This courſe of lectures, it is alſo prefumed, will be found to contain
a comprehenſive ſyſtem of that kind of knowledge which is peculiarly
requifite to gentlemen who intend to travel. For, fince the great object
of attention to a reader of hiſtory, and to a gentleman upon his travels,
are evidently the fame, it muſt be of equal ſervice to them both, to have
their importance, and mutual influences, pointed out to them.
It will likewife be evident to any perfon who infpects this fyllabus,
that the ſubject of COMMERCE has by no means been overlooked. And it
is hoped, that when thoſe gentlemen, who are intended to ſerve themſelves
and their country in the refpectable character of merchants, have heard
the great maxims of commerce difcuffed in a fcientifical and connected
manner, as they deferve, they will not eafily be influenced by notions
adopted in a random and haſty manner, and from fuperficial views of
things whereby they might, otherwife, be induced to enter into
meaſures ſeemingly gainful at preſent, but in the end prejudicial to their
country, and to themſelves and their pofterity, as members of it.
The next courſe of lectures, the plan of which is briefly delineated, is
upon the HISTORY OF ENGLAND, and is deſigned to be an exemplification
of the manner of ſtudying hiſtory recommended in the former courſe; in
which the great uſes of it are ſhown, and the actual progreſs of every
important object of attention diſtinctly marked, from the earlieſt accounts
of the iſland to the preſent time.
To make young gentlemen ftill more thoroughly acquainted with
their own country, a third courfe of lectures (in connexion with the two
others) is fubjoined, viz. on its PRESENT CONSTITUTION AND LAWS.
But the particular ufes of theſe two courfes of lectures need not be
pointed out here, as they are fufficiently explained in the introductory
addreffes prefixed to each of them.
That an acquaintance with the fubjects of thefe lectures is calculated
to form the ſtatefman, the military commander, the lawyer, the mer-
chant, and the accompliſhed country gentleman, cannot be difputed.
C 2
The
XX
AN ESSAY ON
The principal objection that may be made to this fcheme, is the intro-
duction of theſe fubjects into academies, and fubmitting them to the
examination of youth, of the age at which they are ufually fent to fuch
places of education. It will be faid by fome, that theſe ſubjects are too
deep, and too intricate, for their tender age and weak intellects; and
that, after all, it can be no more than a fmattering of theſe great
branches of knowledge that can be communicated to youth.
To prevent being mifunderstood, let it be obferved, that I would not
propoſe that this courfe of ftudies fhould be entered upon by a young
gentleman till he be fixteen or feventeen years of age, or at leaſt, and
only in fome particular cafes, fifteen years; at which time of life, it is
well known to all perfons concerned in the education of youth, that their
faculties have attained a confiderable degree of ripeneſs, and that, by
proper addrefs, they are as capable of entering into any fubject of ſpecu-
lation as they ever will be. What is there in any of the fubjects men-
tioned above, which requires more acuteness, or comprehenfion, than
algebra, geometry, logic, or metaphyfics; to which ſtudents are generally
made to apply about the fame age?
And if it be only a finattering of political and commercial knowledge,
&c. that can be acquired in the method I propofe; let it be obferved,
that it is nothing more than the rudiments of any fcience which can be
taught in a place of education. The mafter of ſcience is a character of
which nothing more than the outline is ever drawn at an Academy, or
the Univerſity. It is never finifhed but by affiduous and long-continued
application afterwards. And fuppofing that only the firſt rudiments, the
grand, plain, and leading maxims of policy, with refpect to arts, arms,
commerce, &c. be communicated to a young gentleman, if they be
fuch maxims as he is really deftined to purſue in life, is it not better that
he have ſome knowledge of them communicated early, and at a time
when it is likely to make the deepeſt and moſt lafting impreffion, than
to be thrown into the practice without any regular theory at all? It is
freely acknowledged, that the man of bufinefs is not to be finished at
an academy, any more than the man of fcience. This character is not
the child of inftruction and theory only; but, on the other hand, neither
is
EDUCATION.
xxi
is it the mere offspring of practice without inftruction. And, certainly,
if a knowledge of theſe ſubjects be of any uſe, the earlier they are attended
to (after a perfon be capable of attending to them to any purpoſe) and
the more regular is the method in which they are taught, the greater
chance there is for their being thoroughly underſtood.
When fubjects which have a connexion are explained in a regular
fyftem, every article is placed where the moſt light is reflected upon it
from the neighbouring fubjects. The plaineft things are difcuffed in the
first place, and are made to ferve as axioms, and as the foundation of
thoſe which are treated of afterwards. Without this regular method of
ſtudying the elements of any ſcience, it ſeems impoffible ever to gain a
clear and comprehenfive view of it. But after a regular inſtitution, any
particular part of a plan of inſtruction may be enlarged at any time, with
eaſe, and without confufion. With how much more eaſe and diſtinctneſs
would a perfon be able to deliver himſelf upon any ſubject of policy, or
commerce, who had had every thing belonging to it explained to him.
in its proper connexion, than another perſon of equal abilities, who ſhould
only have confidered the fubject in a random manner, reading any
treatiſe that might happen to fall in his way, or adopting his maxims
from the company he might accidentally keep, and, confequently, liable
to be impoſed upon by the intereſted views with which men very often
both write and fpeak. For theſe are fubjects, on which almoſt every
writer or ſpeaker is to be ſuſpected; ſo much has party and intereſt to
do with every thing relating to them.
Since, however, thefe fubjects do enter into all fenfible converfation,
eſpecially with gentlemen engaged in civil life, it is a circumſtance
extremely favourable to the ſtudy of them, that converfation will come,
greatly in aid of the lectures the young gentlemen hear upon them. It
cannot fail to roufe their attention, and increaſe their application to their
ſtudies, when they hear the fubjects of them difcuffed by their fathers,
and the elder part of their friends and acquaintance, for whofe under-
ſtanding and turn of thinking they have conceived a great efteem.
They will liften with greater attention to grave and judicious perfons,
and become much more fond of their company, when they are able to
underſtand
xxii
:
AN ESSAY ON
*
underſtand their converfation, and to enter occafionally into it; when
they can fay, that fuch a fentiment, or fact, was advanced in their
lectures, and that one of their fellow-pupils, or themſelves, made fuch'
a remark upon it. It is no wonder that many young gentlemen give
but little attention to their prefent ftudies, when they find that the
fubjects of them are never difcuffed in any fenfible converfation, to which
they are ever admitted. If ftudying thefe fubjects only ferve to give
the generality of young gentlemen a tafte for converfing upon them,
and qualify them to appear to tolerable advantage in ſuch converſations,
the variety of lights, in which they are viewed upon thofe occafions,
cannot fail to make them more generally underſtood: and the better
theſe fubjects are underſtood by the bulk of the nation, the more
probable it is that the nation will be benefited by fuch knowledge.
If I were aſked what branches of knowledge a young gentleman
fhould, in my judgment, be mafter of, before he can ſtudy this courfe
with advantage; I would anfwer, that a knowledge of the learned
languages is not abfolutely neceffary, but is very defirable; eſpecially
fuch an infight into Latin as may enable a perfon to read the eaſier
claffics, and ſuperfede the uſe of a dictionary, with reſpect to thoſe
more difficult English words which are derived from the Latin. The
ftudént of this courfe fhould underſtand French very well, he ſhould
alſo be a pretty good accomptant, be acquainted with the more uſeful
branches of practical mathematics; and, if poffible, have fome knowledge
of algebra and geometry, which ought to be indifpenfable in every plan
of liberal education.
Some will be ready to object to thefe ſtudies, that a turn for fpeculation
unfits men for bufinefs. I anfwer, that nothing is more true, if thoſe
fpeculations be foreign to their employment. It is readily acknowledged,
that a turn for poetry and the Belles Lettres might hurt a tradeſman,
that the ſtudy of natural philofophy might interfere with the practice of
the law, and metaphyfics and the abftract fciences with the duty of a
foldier. But it can never be faid that a counfellor can be unfitted for
bis practice by a tafte for the ftudy of the law; or that a commander
would be the worfe foldier for ftudying books written on the art of war:
nor
+
EDUCATIO N..
xxiii
nor can it be fuppofed that a merchant would do leſs buſineſs, or to
worfe purpofe, for having acquired a fondneſs for fuch writers who have
beſt explained the principles of trade and commerce, and for being qua-
lified to read them with underſtanding and judgment.
It muſt be allowed, that the mechanical parts of any employment will
be beft performed by perfons who have no knowledge, or idea, of any
thing beyond the mere practice. When a man's faculties are wholly
employed upon one fingle thing, it is more probable that he will make
himſelf compleatly mafter of it; and, having no farther or higher views,
he will more contentedly, and more chearfully, give his whole time to his
proper object. But no man who can afford the expence of a liberal
education, enters upon any buſineſs with a view to ſpend his whole life
in the mere mechanical part of it, and in performing a taſk in-
poſed on him. A man of ſpirit will laudably afpire to be a mafter
in his turn; when he must be directed by his own lights, and when
he will find himſelf miferably bewildered, if he have acquired no more
knowledge than was fufficient for him while be followed the direction
of others. Beſides, in the cafe of merchandiſe, if one branch fail,
there is no refource but in more extenfive knowledge. A man who
has been uſed to go only in one beaten track, and who has had no
idea given him of any other, for fear of his being tempted to leave it,
will be wholly at a lofs when it happens that that track can be no
longer uſed; while a perſon who has a general idea of the whole courfe
of the country may be able to ſtrike out another, and perhaps a better
road than the former.
I am aware of a different kind, of objection, from another quarter,
which it behoves me not to over-look. The advocates for the old plan.
of education, and who diflike innovations in the number, or the
diftribution, of the fciences in which lectures are given, may object to
the admiffion of thefe ftudies, as in danger of attracting the attention
of thoſe ſtudents who are defigned for the learned profeffions; and
thereby interfering too much with that which has been found, by the
experience of generations, to be the beſt for ſcholars, the proper fub-
jects of which are fufficient to fill up all their time, without theſe fu-
pernumerary
*
xxiv
AN ESSAY ON
pernumerary articles. I anfwer, that the fubjects of theſe lectures are by
no means neceffary articles of a mere fcholaftic education; but that
they are ſuch as ſcholars ought to have fome acquaintance with; and
that without fome acquaintance with them, they muft, upon many occa
fions, appear to great diſadvantage in the prefent ftate of knowledge.
Time was when ſcholars might, with a good grace, diſclaim all pre-
tenfions to any branch of knowledge but what was taught in the uni-
verfities. Perhaps they would be the more revered by the vulgar on
account of fuch ignorance, as an argument of their being more ab-
ſtracted from the world. Few books were written but by critics and
antiquaries, for the uſe of men like themſelves. The literati of thofe
days had comparatively little free intercourſe but among themſelves;
the learned world, and the common world, being much more distinct
from one another than they are now. Scholars by profeffion read,
wrote, and converſed in no language but the Roman. They would
have been afhamed to have expreffed themſelves in bad Latin, but
not in the leaſt of being guilty of any impropriety in the ufe of their
mother tongue, which they confidered as belonging only to the vulgar,
But thoſe times of revived antiquity have had their uſe, and are now
no more. We are obliged to the learned labours of our forefathers for
fearching into all the remains of antiquity, and illuftrating valuable
ancient authors; but their maxims of life will not fuit the world as it
is at prefent. The politeness of the times has brought the learned and
the unlearned into more familiar intercourfe than they had before.
They find themſelves obliged to converfe upon the fame topics. The
fubjects of modern hiftory, policy, arts, manufactures, commerce,
&c. are the general topics of all fenfible converfation. Every thing
is faid in our own tongue, little is even written in a foreign or dead lan-
guage; and every British author is ftudious of writing with propriety
in his native English, Criticifm, which was formerly the great bufi-
nefs of a ſcholar's life, is now become the amufement of a leafure hour,
and this but to a few; fo that a hundredth part of the time which was
formerly given to criticism and antiquities is enough, in this age, to
gain a man the character of a profound fcholar. The topics of fenfible
converfation
6
EDUCATION.
XXV
converfation are likewife the favourite fubjects of all the capital writ-
ings of the preſent age, which are read with equal avidity by gentle-
men, merchants, lawyers, phyficians, and divines,
Now, when the courfe of reading, thinking, and converfation, even
among ſcholars, is become fo very different from what it was, is it not
reaſonable that the plan of even fcholaftic education ſhould, in ſome
meaſure, vary with it? The neceffity of the thing has already, in many
inftances, forced a change; and the fame increafing neceffity will either
force a greater and more general change, or we muſt not be ſurpriſed
to find our ſchools, academies, and univerfities, deferted, as wholly
unfit to qualify men to appear with advantage in the preſent age,
In many private fchools and academies, we find feveral things taught
now, which were never made the fubjects of ſyſtematical inſtruction in
former times; and in thoſe of our univerſities, in which it is the intereft
of the tutors to make their lectures of real ufe to their pupils, and
where lectures are not mere matters of form; the profeffors find the
neceffity of delivering themſelves in Engliſh. And the evident pro-
priety of the thing muft neceffarily make this practice more general,
notwithſtanding the moſt fuperftitious regard to eſtabliſhed cuftoms.
But let the profeffors conduct themſelves by what maxims they pleaſe,
the ſtudents will, of courfe, be influenced by the taste of the company
they keep in the world at large, to which young gentlemen in this age
have an earlier admiffion than they had formerly. How can it be
expected that the preſent ſet of ſtudents for divinity fhould apply to the
ſtudy of the dead languages with the affiduity of their fathers and grand-
fathers, when they find fo many of the ufes of thofe languages no
longer fubfifting? What can they think it will avail them to make the
purity of the Latin ſtyle their principal ſtudy, for feveral years of the
moſt improveable part of their life, when they are fenfible, that they
fhall have little more occafion for it than other gentlemen, or than
perfons in common life, when they have left the univerfity? And how
can it be otherwife, but that their private reading and ftudies fhould
fometimes be different from the courfe of their public inftructions,
d
when
1
xxvi
ON
AN
ESSAY
i
1
when the favourite authors of the public, the merits of whom they hear
difcuffed in every company, even by their tutors themselves, write upon
quite different fubjects?
In fuch a ſtate of things, the advantage of a regular fyftematical
inſtruction in thoſe ſubjects, which are treated of in books that in fact
engage the attention of all the world, the learned leaft of all excepted,
and which enter into all converfations, where it is worth a man's while
to bear a part, or to make a figure, cannot be doubted. And I am of
opinion, that theſe ſtudies may be conducted in fuch a manner, as will
interfere very little with a fufficiently clofe application to others.
Students in medicine and divinity may be admitted to thefe ftudies later
than thoſe for whofe real ufe in life they are principally intended; not
till they be fufficiently grounded in the claffics, have ftudied logic,
oratory, and criticifm, or any thing elfe that may be deemed ufeful,
previous to thoſe ftudies which are peculiar to their refpective profeffions;
and even then, thefe new ftudies may be made a matter of amuſement,
rather than an article of buſineſs.
With refpect to Divines, it ought moreover to be confidered, that the
fame revolutions in the ſtate of knowledge, which call their attention to
thefe new ſtudies have, in a great meaſure, furnished them with time
for their application to them; by releafing them from ſeveral ſubjects,
the ſtudy of which was formerly the great bufinefs of divines, and
engroffed almoft their whole time. And though new fubjects have
been ſtarted within the province of divinity, it does not appear to me,
that they require ſo much time and application as was uſually given to
thofe other ftudies, the ufe of which is now fuperfeded. I mean,
principally, fchool-divinity, and the canon law; not to mention logic
and metaphyſics, which were formerly a more intricate bufinefs, and
took up much more time, than they do now.
Let a perfon but look over the table of contents to the works of
Thomas Aquinas, which were read, ftudied, or commented upon, by
all divines a few centuries ago, and he will be convinced, that it muſt
have required both more acutenefs to comprehend the ſubjects of them,
2
and
EDUCATIO N.
xxvii
and more time to ſtudy and digeft them in any tolerable manner, than
it would require to become exceedingly well verfed in all the branches
of knowledge I would now recommend.
The canon law was not lefs complex than both the common and
ftatute law of England, and every clergyman of eminence was under a
neceffity of underſtanding, not only the general principles and theory
of that ſyſtem, but even the minutia of the practice. Good fenfe, and
a free acceſs to the fcriptures, have at length (affifted, perhaps, by an
averſion to abſtract fpeculations) thrown down the whole fabric of ſchool-
divinity, and the rife of the civil above the ecclefiaftical power in this
realm has reduced the theory and practice of the English canon law
within very narrow bounds. And as to the little that now remains in
ufe, very few clergymen need trouble themſelves about it.
It is acknowledged, that the attention of ſtudents in theology, and
other learned profeffions, is much engaged by mathematical and philo-
fophical ftudies which have been much cultivated of late years. I
rejoice in ſo valuable an acceffion to human fcience, and would be far
from ſhortening the time that is given to them in places of liberal
education. I rather with there were more room for thoſe ſtudies in
fuch places, and better provifion for teaching them. But, notwith-
ſtanding this, there is room enough for a ſmall portion of time and
attention to be given to the ſubjects I would here recommend; and it
is not much of either that I would plead for, in the cafe of gentlemen
intended for the learned profeffions.
The method in which thofe lectures may be taught to the moſt
advantage, I apprehend to be the following; and experience has in
fome meaſure formed my judgment in this cafe.
Let the lecturer have a pretty full text before him, digeſted with care,
containing not only a method of difcourfing upon the ſubjects, but alſo
all the principal arguments he adduces, and all the leading facts he makes
uſe of to ſupport his hypotheſes. Let this text be the fubject of a
regular, but familiar diſcourſe, not exceeding an hour at a time; with
a clafs not exceeding twenty, or thirty. Let the lecturer give his pupils
all encouragement to enter occafionally into the converſation, by pro-
'
d 2,
pofing
xxviii
ESSAY ON
AN
pofing queries, or making any objections, or remarks, that may occur
to them. Let all the ftudents have an opportunity of perufing this
text, if not of copying it, in the intervals between the lectures, and
let near half of the time for lecturing be spent in receiving from the
ſtudents a minute account of the particulars of the preceding lecture,
and in explaining any difficulties they might have met with in it; in
order that no fubject be quitted, till the tutor be morally certain that his.
pupils thoroughly underſtand it.
Upon every ſubject of importance, let the tutor make references to
the principal authors who have treated of it; and if the fubject be a
controverted one, let him refer to books written on both fides of the
queftion. Of theſe references, let the tutor occafionally require an
account, and fometimes a written abftract. Laftly, let the tutor ſelect
a proper number of the moſt important queftions that can arife from the
ſubject of the lectures, and let them be propofed to the ſtudents as
exerciſes, to be treated in the form of orations, thefes, or differtations,
as he ſhall think fit. Moreover, if he judge it convenient, let him
appoint rewards to thofe who fhall handle the fubject in the moſt.
judicious manner.
Young gentlemen defigned for the learned profeffions need not be put
upon theſe exerciſes, or reading all the authors referred to. It may be
fufficient for them to attend the lectures as they are delivered. And as
I would not adviſe that the lectures be given with fhorter intervals.
between them than three days, they cannot interfere much with their
application to their proper
ſtudies.
I think I could affign very fatisfactory reafons for each of the directions
I have laid down above, but I flatter my felf they will fuggeft themſelves;
if not upon the bare perufal, at leaſt upon any attempt to reduce them
to practice. I fhall only take notice of an objection that may be made
to one particular article in this method..
Some may object to the encouragement I would give the ftudents.
to propofe objections at the time of lecturing. This cuftom, they may
fay, will tend to interrupt the course of the lecture, and promote a ſpirit
of impertinence and conceit in young perfons. I anfwer, that every
inconvenience
=
EDUCATION.
xxix
inconvenience of this kind may be obviated by the manner in which a
tutor delivers himſelf in lecturing. A proper mixture of dignity and
freedom (which are fo far from being incompatible, that they mutually
fet off one another) will prevent, or reprefs, all impertinent and un-
feaſonable remarks, at the fame time that it will encourage thofe which
are modeſt and pertinent.
But ſuppoſe a lecturer fhould not be able immediately to give a
fatisfactory anſwer to an objection that might be ſtarted by a fenfible
ſtudent. He must be confcious of his having made very ridiculous
pretenfions, and having given himſelf improper airs, if it give him any
pain to tell his clafs, that he will reconfider a ſubject; or even to
acknowledge himſelf miſtaken. It depends wholly upon a tutor's general
diſpoſition, and his ufual manner of addreſs, whether he loſe, or gain,
ground in the eſteem of his pupils by fuch a declaration. Every tutor
ought to have confidered the fubjects on which he gives lectures with
attention; but no man can be expected to be infallible. For my own.
part, I would not forego the pleaſure, and advantage, which accrue,
both to my pupils and to myſelf, from this method, together with the
opportunity it gives me of improving my lectures, by means of the many
ufeful hints which are often ſtarted in this familiar way of difcourfing
upon a fubject, for any inconvenience I have yet found to attend it, or
that I can imagine may poffibly attend it.
I cannot help flattering myfelf, that were the ſtudies I have here
recommended generally introduced, into places of liberal education,
the confequence might be happy for this country in fome future period.
Many of the political evils, under which this, and every country in the
world, labours, are not owing to any want of a love for our country, but
to an ignorance of its real conftitution and interefts. Befides, the very
circumſtance of giving that attention which I would recommend to its
conſtitution and interefts, would unavoidably beget a love and affection.
for them; and might, perhaps, contribute more to produce, propagate,,
and enflame, a fpirit of patriotiſm than any other circumftance. And
certainly, if there be the moſt diftant profpect of this valuable end
being gained by an application to theſe ſtudies, it cannot fail to recom-
mend
XXX
ON
AN ESSAY
mend them to every true lover of his country, in an age in which the minds
of ſo many are blinded, and miſled, by a ſpirit of faction; and, what
is more alarming, when a tafte for luxury and expence is fo high, that
there is reafon to fear it may, in many cafes, be fuperior to all other
regards; and when, in many breafts, it already apparently threatens,
the utter extinction of a fpirit of patriotifm.
What was it that made the Greeks, the Romans in early ages, and
other nations of antiquity, fuch obftinate patriots, that they had even
no idea of any obligation fuperior to a regard for their country, but
that the conſtant wars they were obliged to maintain with the neigh-
bouring nations kept the idea of their country perpetually in view, and
always oppofed to that of other nations? It is the fame circumftance
that gives our common foldiers and feamen more of the genuine fpirit
of patriotism than is felt by any other order of men in the community,
notwithſtanding they have the leaſt intereſt in it. Now the courſe of
inftruction I would introduce, would bring the idea of our country
more early into the minds of Britiſh youth, and habituate them to a
conſtant and cloſe attention to it. And why fhould not the practice of
thinking, reading, converfing, and writing about the intereft of our
country, anſwer the ſame purpoſe with the moderns, that fighting for
it did among the ancients?
It is a circumſtance of particular confequence, that this enthufiaftic
love for our country would by this means be imbibed by perfons of
fortune, rank, and influence, in whom it might be effectual to the moſt
important purpoſes; who might have it in their power, not only to wiſh
well to their country, but to render it the greatest real fervices. Such
men would not only, as is the cafe with private foldiers or feamen, be
able to employ the force of a fingle arm in its defence, but might
animate the hearts, and engage the hands, of thouſands in its cauſe.
Of what unspeakable advantage might be one minifter of ftate, one
military commander, or even a ſingle member of parliament, who
thoroughly understood, the intereſts of his country, and who poftponed
every other intereft and confideration to it!
This
:
EDUCATION.
xxxi
This is not teaching politics to low mechanics and manufacturers, or
[ encouraging the ftudy of it among perfons with whom it could be of no
fervice to their country, and often a real detriment to themſelves;
though we may fee in thoſe perfons, how poffible it is for the public
pffions to fwallow up all the private ones, when the objects of them
are kept frequently in view, and are much dwelt upon in the mind.
The fame zeal that is the fubject of ridicule in perfons of no weight or
influence in the ſtate, would be moſt glorious and happy for their country
in a more advantageous fituation.
Some may perhaps object to theſe ſtudies, as giving too much en-
couragement to that turn for politics, which they may think is already
immoderate in the lower and middle ranks of men among us. But
muft not political knowledge be communicated to thofe to whom it
might be of real uſe, becauſe a fondneſs for the ftudy might extend
beyond its proper bounds, and be catched by fome perfons who had
better remain ignorant of it? Befides, it ought to be confidered, that
how ridiculous fo ever fome may make themfelves by pretenfions to
politics, a true friend of liberty will be cautious how he difcourages a
fondness for that kind of knowledge, which has ever been the favourite
fubject of writing and converfation in all free ftates. Only tyrants, and
the friends of arbitrary power, have ever taken umbrage at a turn for
political knowledge, and political difcourfes, among even the loweſt of
the people. Men will ſtudy, and converſe about what they are intereſted
in, efpecially if they have any influence; and though the afs in the fable
was in no concern who was his mafter, fince he could but carry his
uſual load; and though the ſubjects of a defpotic monarch need not
trouble themſelves about political difputes and intrigues, which neve.
terminate in a change of meaſures, but only of men; yet, in a free
country, where even private perfons have much at ſtake, every man is
nearly intereſted in the conduct of his fuperiors, and cannot be an
unconcerned ſpectator of what is tranfacted by them. With refpect to
influence, the fentiments of the loweſt vulgar in England are not wholly
infignificant, and a wife miniſter will ever pay fome attention to them.
It
xxxii
AN ES SAY, &c.
1
It is our wiſdom, therefore, to provide that all perfons who have any
influence in political meaſures be well inftructed in the great and leading
principles of wife policy. This is certainly an object of the greateſt
importance. Inconveniences ever attend a general application to any
kind of knowledge, and no doubt will attend this. But they are incon-
veniences which a friend to liberty need be under no apprehenfions about.
I may poffibly promife myſelf too much, from the general intro-
duction of the ſtudies I have recommended in this Effay into places of
liberal education; but a little enthufiafm is always excufeable in perfons
who propofe and recommend. uſeful innovations. I have endeavoured to
repreſent the ſtate of education in this view as clearly and as fully as I
have been able; and I defire my propoſals for emendations to have no
more weight than the faireſt repreſentation will give them, in the minds
of the cool and the unbiaffed.
ERR A T A.
N. B. (b) fignifies from the bottom of the page.
Page 6.1. 14. for those, read and thɔfe.
9. 1. 15. (b) for procuring, read promoting.
34. 1. 15. (6) for in, read and in.
50. 1. 10. for bows, read boughs.
61. 1. 6. (b) after mentioned, add excepting this
of coats of arms.
74. 1. 9. for them, read the Romans.
75. 1. 15. dele owing to.
77.1. 14. (b) for nations, read notions.
85. 1. 10. (b) after family, add and, according
to Thucydides, the fiege of Troy was about
eighty years before the return of the Heraclidæ.
93. 1. 9. for he, read the moon.
115. 1. 6. (b) for two, read ſeven.
118. 1. 15. for what, read or ruhat.
128. l. 10. (b) for corn, read flour.
166. 1. 11. for young, read younger.
186. 1. 12. (b) dele like.
2c6. 1. 4. (b) far affairs but, read tongue and.
214. 1. laft. for Boyle, read Bayle.
215.1. 10. for Wood's Institute, read Black-
Stone's Commentaries,
224 1. 11. (b) for characters, read charters.
226. 1. 9. lor of reftitution, 1ead reftitutions.
Page 265. 1. 3. (b) dele owing to.
266. 1. 14. dele by.
299. 1. 13. for numbers, read members,
304. 1. 16. for to, read in.
329. 1. 6. for tything, read trything,
406. 1. laſt. dele they can.
430. 1. 12. read their original institutions.
450. 1. 3. for they, read diffenters.
462. 1. 13. far not for, read not the.
467.1. 12. (6) Juftiman, read Juftinian.
472. 1. 2 dele of
1. 15. for inland, read island.'
492. I. 13. (6) dele and particularly the def
perate refolution of attacking them at home.
499. 1. 14. for they, read laws of war.
501. 1. 9. (b) for richness, read riches.
507.1. 3. (b) for they would do, read would be.
514. 1. 4. for and, read or.
521. 1.15. (b) for that the, read that of the
525. 1. 8. for under the, read the under.
526. 1. 9. for that upon, read as far as.
528. 1. 4 and 6. for former, read latter, and
vice versa.
546. 1. 11. (b) for that, read the French.
•
N. B. A few Eirata in fome well known proper names, and other ſmall inaccuracies, I leave to the
candour of my readers.
་
}
1
A
LECTURE L
Why History is fo generally pleafing and interefting. Hiftory ferves
to amufe the Imagination, and intereft the Paffions. Advantage
of History above Fiction. It improves the Underſtanding, and
fits Men for the Business of Life. Some Advantages of Hif
tory above Experience. Peculiarly useful to Princes. Facts
eſſential to all Knowledge. Political Knowledge useful in every
Station of Life. Hiftory frees the Mind from many Prejudices,
and particularly national Prejudices. The Ufe of Hiſtory to
the Ladies. All Improvement in the Science of Government de
rived from Hiftory.
the
T
THE
INTRODUCTION.
HE ftudy of Hiftory is more or lefs the employ-
ment of all perfons of reading and education. This
was, indeed, the earlieſt uſe that was made of let-
ters. For the most ancient poems were almost entirely hiſ-
torical; and verfe was firft cultivated in preference to profe
(which feems to be the most natural vehicle of hiftory) as the
beſt, becauſe the moſt fecure, method of tranfmitting to pof-
terity the knowledge of past events. In all
In all ages the writing of
hiſtory has employed the ableft men of all nations; and to this
B
day
1
2
LECT. I.
LECTURES ON
day hardly any writer enjoys a greater, a more extenfive, and
what will probably be a more lafting reputation, than a good
hiftorian.
The infinite variety there is in the ſubjects of hiſtory, makes
it inviting to perfons of every difpofition. It may be either
trifling, or ſerious. It fupplies materials with equal eaſe, and
equal copiouſnefs, for the fallies of mirth, and the graveft dif-
quifitions of philofophy. As every thing comes under the de-
'nomination of hiftory, which informs us of any fact which is
too remote in time, or place, to be the fubject of our perfonal
knowledge; it is calculated for the uſe of perfons of both
fexes, and of men of all ranks and of all profeffions in life.
Becauſe it cannot be prefumed that a perfon, of any profeffion,
or in any fituation, can, of himſelf, come at the knowledge of
every fact which it is for his advantage to be acquainted with.
Hiſtory is fo connected with, and effential to, all kinds of
knowledge, that the moſt fuperficial effay upon any ſubject what-
ever, is hardly tolerable, unleſs ſome kind of hiftorical facts be
introduced, or alluded to in it. The neceffity of facts to moral
writers, or thoſe who write upon the theory of human nature, I
need not mention. And certainly no perfon can be a good divine,
much lefs undertake any part of the controverſy with unbe-
lievers unleſs he be very well acquainted with hiſtory, civil as
well as ecclefiaftical. Indeed, more than half of the books of
fcripture confift of hiſtory. And as all the prophecies of the
Old and New Teftament must be verified by hiſtory, none but
a good hiſtorian can be a judicious commentator upon fuch
important parts of the facred writings.
Befides, an acquaintance with hiſtory is agreeable to us as
fociable and converfable creatures; fince it may be confidered
as a means of extending the power of converfation, and making
the
J
་
LECT.I..
3
HISTORY.
the dead of the party equally with the living. Nay, as things are
circumſtanced, the dead contribute more largely to gratify our
natural and eager curiofity to be informed of paſt and remote
tranfactions.
In this field of hiftory, therefore, which is open to every man
of letters, and in which every man of taſte and curioſity cannot
fail to paſs a great part of his leifure hours, it cannot but be
defirable to have a guide (at leaſt upon a perſon's firſt intro-
duction into it) left he ſhould loſe himſelf in the boundleſs
variety it affords, and not be able to find thofe convenient
eminences from which he will have the moſt eaſy and agreeable
view of the objects it contains. In the character of this
guide, Gentlemen, I now offer you my best affiſtance.
The courſe of lectures we are now entering upon is in-
tended to facilitate the ſtudy of hiſtory, both by directing you
to the eaſieſt methods of acquiring and retaining the knowledge
of it, and making the proper uſe of it when you are poffeffed
of it.
That the obfervations I have collected for this purpoſe may
be the moſt intelligible and uſeful, I fhall difpofe of them in
the following method; confidering,
I. The general uſes of hiſtory.
II. The fources of hiſtory.
III. What is neceffary, or uſeful, to be known previous to
the ſtudy of hiftory.
IV. Directions for the more eaſy acquiring and retaining a
knowledge of hiſtory.
V. Proper objects of attention to an hiftorian. And under
this head I fhall confider the feveral fubjects of general policy,
or the circumſtances that chiefly contribute to render civil
focieties
B 2
'
•
A
PART. L
LECTURES ON
:
7
focieties fecure, numerous, and happy, as being the most im--
portant of all objects of attention to readers of hiftory.
VI. In the laft place I would give you a general view of
hiſtory civil and ecclefiaftical, but ſhall content myſelf with re-
ferring to Holberg, or fome other epitome of general hiftory..
PA ART
CCORDING to the method above laid down, I am firft
to confider the general uſes of hiftory.Thefe may be ex-
hibited under three heads. 1. Hiftory ferves to amuſe the
imagination, and intereft the paffions in general. 2. It improves
the understanding. And 3. It tends to ftrengthen the fentie
ments of virtue.
The firft and loweſt ufe of hiftory, is that it agreeably amufes-
the imagination, and intereſts the paffions. With thefe charms
hiſtory captivates the generality of readers;, and though I fhall:
chiefly recommend it in another and an higher view, I think this
is an advantage of hiſtory which is by no means inconfiderable,
and by which a reader of the fevereft philofophy, need not be
afhamed to acknowledge himſelf influenced. To amufe the
imagination, and give play to the paffions in general, is almoft
the only and avowed fcope of all works of fiction, both in profe
and verfe; and men of great genius and abilities are not thought
to have thrown away their time to no purpoſe upon them.
Whatever exerciſes, does likewife. improve; and invigorate our
faculties,
:
*
L'ECT. 1.
5
HISTORY.
4
faculties, and difpoſe them for the more free and perfect dif-
charge of their proper functions. Admitting, therefore, that the
hiftories of Alexander the Great, of Charles XII. of Sweden,
or the conquest of Mexico, be read with no other view than the
adventures of Telemachus, of Amadis de Gaul, or the conqueſt
of Jerufalem; or that the voyages of Dampier, Sir Francis
Drake, and Captain Cooke, be put upon the fame footing with
thofe of Gulliver, I would not fay the time spent in reading
them was wholly loft: Whatever valuable impreffions are made
upon the mind by fictitious adventures, the fame, in kind,
though perhaps, generally, not equal in degree, are made by real
adventures; and facts with whatever view, and in whatever
manner, treaſured up in the mind, are ready to be applied to any
farther and higher uſes that they are capable of, whenever the
perſon who is poffeffed of them is difpofed to view them in any
other light.
A
In this view all true hiftory has a capital, advantage over
every work of fiction. Works of fiction are not, in their nature,
capable, in general, of any other ufes than the authors of them
had in view, which must neceffarily be very limited; whereas
true hiſtory, being an exhibition of the conduct of divine Pro-
vidence; in which every thing has, perhaps, infinite relations
and uſes, is an inexhaustible mine of the most valuable know-
ledge. Works of fiction resemble thofe machines which we con-
trive to illuſtrate the principles of philofophy, ſuch as globes, and
orreries, the ufes of which extend no farther than the views of
human ingenuity; whereas seal hiftory resembles the experiments
made by the air pump, the condensing engine, or electrical
machine, which exhibit the operations of nature, and the God
of nature himſelf, whofe works are the nobleft fubject of con-
templation to the human mind, and are the ground work and
materials of the moſt extenfive and uſeful theories.
I
But,
6
PART I.
LECTURES ÖN
But, independent of any farther ufe, we have many well.
written hiftories, which, I think, are calculated to give as much
pure entertainment, eſpecially to a perfon of a reaſonable age
and experience, as the generality of novels and romances. Let
a perſon of taſte, and juft fentiment, read the history of the life
of Cicero written by Middleton, the conqueft of Mexico, or the
voyage of Commodore Anfon, or even fuch larger works as the
hiſtory of Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, Philip de Commines,"
&c. and then judge. If the amazing and intereſting ſcenes of
fiction be worked up with more art, be more happily diſpoſed
to excite and intereft the paffions, and be more agreeably di-
verfified with proper epifodes, the very thought that it is fiction
(the influence of which grows with our years) makes that artful
diſpoſition, thoſe embelliſhments, neceffary; whereas the mere
thought that we are liftening to the voice of truth is able to
keep the attention awake through many a dry and ill digefted'
narrative of facts.
The next, and higher ufe of hiftory is to improve the under-
ſtanding, and ſtrengthen the judgment, and thereby fit us for
entering upon life with advantage. "By ſtudying history," as
Lord Bolingbroke well obferves," and examining all kinds of
"cauſes and effects, a man may fharpen his penetration, fix the
"attention of his mind, and ftrengthen his judgment. Thus
he acquires a faculty and habit of difcerning quicker, and
"learns how to exert that flexibility and fteadineſs, which are
neceffary to be joined in the conduct of all affairs that depend.
“ on the concurrence, or oppofition, of other men." Judgment,
as well as our other powers, muft improve by exercife. Now
hiſtory preſents us with the fame objects which we meet with in
the buſineſs of life. They muft confequently excite the fame
kind of reflections, and give the fame exercife to our thoughts,
and thus produce the fame turn of mind. Hiftory, therefore,
may
W
1
LECT. I.
7
HISTORY.
may be called anticipated experience. By this means we begin our
acquaintance with mankind ſooner, and bring into the world,
and the bufinefs of it, fuch a caft of thought, and temper of
mind, as is acquired by paffing through it; which will make us
appear to more advantage in it, and not fuch mere novices, upon
our introduction into it, as we ſhould otherwife be. As Lord
Bolingbroke again obferves, " He who ftudies hiftory as he
"would philofophy, will diſtinguiſh and collect certain general
"principles, and rules of life and conduct, which always muſt
"be true; becauſe they are conformable to the invariable na-
"ture of things; and by doing fo he will foon form to himſelf
"a general, ſyſtem of ethicks and politicks on the ſureſt foun-
dations, on the trial of theſe principles and rules in all ages,
and on the confirmation of them by univerfal experience."
""
The impreffions which this anticipated knowledge of the
world makes upon us, it is certain, will not be fo deep as thoſe
which are the refult of our own perfonal acquaintance with it;
and our judgment of things, and maxims of conduct, formed in
this manner, will not be fo firmly riveted in our minds. But
then they will have the advantage of being more correct, and of
being a better guide to us, than any thing we could have learned
from our own random experience, upon our entering the world.
The reafon is, that the examples which hiftory prefents to us are
generally complete.. The whole is before us. We fee men and
things at their full length, as we may fay; and we likewife
generally fee them through a medium which is lefs partial than
that of experience. Whereas in real life every, ſcene opens very
Howly, we fee therefore but a very ſmall part of a thing at one
time; and are confequently liable to be deceived into a very
fallacious judgment of it; particularly confidering how dif-
torted even thoſe imperfect views of things are by the re-
lation
1
18
PART I.
"
ON
LECTURES
<
·
lation of every thing to felf, which it is impoffible to keep out
of fight in things in which we ourſelves are concerned.
In this view, hiftory is generally the only faithful instructor
of princes, particularly abfolute princes. It is fo much the
intereſt of abler men than themfelves to impofe upon them,
and to fwell their ideas of their own importance, that, without
the aid of hiſtory, it is almoft impoffible they ſhould ever form
any juſt notion of men, or things, at all. But in hiſtory princes
may ſee their predeceffors treated without flattery or ceremony;
and therefore, by the help of common fenfe they may fee, as
in a glafs, in what light their own characters and conduct
will appear to pofterity. "Nay, they may depend upon it, that
fome hiſtorians will rate them as much too low, as their co-
temporaries have rated them too high. Of what avail have
been the fulfome flatteries of Velleius Paterculus to the cha-
racter of Tiberius, or his favourite Sejanus; or even the refined
praiſes of Virgil and Horace to the character of Auguftus him-
felf? Pofterity at length fees their real characters, through all
their artful diſguifes, and only thinks the worſe of men for
laying perfons of wit and ingenuity under a neceffity of acting a
part fo unworthy of themfelves. All future kings of France
may fee many very free cenfures upon the character and con-
duct of their predeceffor Louis XIV. written by Voltaire, not-
withſtanding the writer cannot conceal his partiality for his
hero and his nation.
1
1
1 !.
But, indeed, to men in all stations inftructions for their own
conduct may be conveyed, in the cleareft and most cogent
manner, through the example of others. Suetonius relates
that Auguftus uſed to tranſcribe inftructive paffages of hif-
torians, and ſend them to thofe of his officers who had need of
admonition.
We
LECT. I.
9
HISTORY.
We may eafily be fenfible of the importance of hiſtory to the
advancement of knowledge in general, as well as of polítical
knowledge in particular, if we confider that the moft exalted
underſtanding is nothing more than a power of drawing con-
clufions, and forming maxims of conduct, from known facts and
experiments, of which neceſſary materials of knowledge the mind
itſelf is wholly barren. How then can knowledge be gained with-
out experience? And very fcanty and dear bought, would be the
wiſdom that was the refult of the experience of one man, or of
one age only. How flow then muſt have been the progreſs that
mankind would have made in wiſdom, and improvements of all
kinds, before, by fome means or other, one age could be made
acquainted with the obſervations of their anceſtors.
It was requifite, therefore, in order to the improvement of
human kind, and of human conduct, and to give mankind clear
and comprehenfive views of their intereft, together with the
means of procuring it, that the experience of fome ages fhould
be collected and compared, that diftant events fhould be brought
together; and fo the firſt riſe, entire progreſs, and final conclu-
fion, of fchemes, tranfactions, and characters fhould be ſeen, as
it were, in one unbroken view, with all their connexions and
relations. Without this, no adequate judgment could be formed
of them, ſuch as would enable an intelligent perfon to determine
how far the fame, or the like, undertakings would bear to be
repeated, or amended. Without theſe advantages, therefore, the
improvements of human life, notwithſtanding the greateſt perfec-
tion and extent of our intellectual powers, would be at a ſtand.
There might be conjecture, and enterprize, but there could be
no certainty, or rational expectation of fuccefs."
Confequently, without hiſtory, the advantages of our rational
nature muſt have been rated very low and the more complete,
1
C
the
10
PART I.
LECTURES ON
the more exact, and comprehentive is our furniture of hiftorical
facts, the more materials of knowledge, and confequently of power
and happiness, are we poffeffed of. For Lord Bacon has juftly
remarked, that " knowledge is power;" and certainly all the
excellence of human nature, all the advantage we have above the
brutes, is derived from the uſe of our intellectual powers. Since,
with respect to the powers of body, and an inſtinctive capacity of
defending and providing for themſelves, they have greatly the
advantage of us.
Political knowledge, it will be faid, is uſeful only to poli-
ticians, and minifters of ftate. But befides that it is a matter
of reaſonable curiofity, to examine into the fprings of the
great wheel of government, on the juft balance, and regular
motions, of which our temporal ſecurity and happineſs depend;
and though political affairs be almoſt wholly, but not en-
tirely, out of the fphere of private perfons under an arbitrary
government; yet in free governments, as it is admirably faid by
Lord Bolingbroke, "the public fervice is not confined to thoſe
"whom the prince appoints to the feveral pofts in the adminif
"tration under him. Men of all degrees ought to inftru&
"themſelves in thoſe affairs wherein they may be actors them-
felves, or judges of thoſe who act, or controllers of thoſe who
judge;" and from fome one or other of theſe claffes no fubject
of Great Britain is wholly excluded
""
""
It is not unworthy of our notice, when we confider in what
reſpects the knowledge of hiſtory improves the underſtanding,
that it tends to free the mind from many foolish prejudices, par-
ticularly an unreasonable partiality for our own country, merely
as our own country, which makes a people truly ridiculous in
the eyes of foreigners. It was a want of acquaintance with
hiſtory that made the Chineſe Mandarines expreſs their aſtoniſh-
4
ment
LECT.I.
II
HISTORY.
ment to find their country make ſo ſmall a figure in a map of the
world, which the Jefuits fhewed them. And through the fame
ignorance, the Samoedes, a people inhabiting the northern parts
of Siberia, whom Le Bruyn defcribes as the loweft and worst
provided for, of all the human race, wondered that the Czar of
Muſcovy did not chufe to live among them.
National prejudices likewife produce a most unreaſonable
averfion to foreign nations and foreign religions, which nothing
but an acquaintance with hiſtory can cure. The misfortune is,
that it is too often the intereſt of particular perfons, and parties,
to promote thoſe prejudices. The Moors of Africa were fur-
prized to find their firſt chriſtian captives in the ſhape of men;
and our very figns do to this day bear the traces of the extrava-
gant opinion of the fize and the ftrength of the Saracens, which
they who returned from the crufades propagated among their
ignorant countrymen.
The knowledge of hiſtory operates no leſs favourably, and
effectually, in removing the prejudices that may have been en-
tertained in favour of ancient or modern times, by giving a
juſt idea of the advantages and diſadvantages of mankind in
all ages.
Far am I, however, from imagining that the conſequence of
ſtudying hiſtory will be an indifference to our own country.
On the contrary, I think it one of the greateſt advantages ariſing
from the ſtudy of hiſtory, to an inhabitant of Great Britain, that
he will generally lay down his book more thoroughly ſatisfied
with his own fituation; and will be, from rational conviction,
and not from blind prejudice, a more zealous friend to the in-
tereſt of his country than before.
Indeed, ſo apparent are the fuperior advantages of our confti-
tution, and laws, if not of our manners and cuſtoms, over thoſe
C 2
of
}
12
PART I.
LECTURES ON
of moſt other nations, that there are few foreigners who do
not give ours the preference to their own. Montefquieu, one
of the firſt of philofophical politicians, that is, thoſe who
have treated of laws and government with a juſt regard to the
principles of human nature, and the fituation and wants of
mankind, is in raptures, and almoſt quits the ftyle of philoſophy,
whenever he treats of our conftitution. And Voltaire, who is
exceedingly partial to the power and glory of France, cannot
help doing the fame juftice to the fuperior excellence of our
government. Indeed, as a man of a free and bold turn of think-
ing, you will be fenfible that he could not have done otherwiſe,
when we come to analize the British conftitution, and to fhew
from what its excellence refults; though, at the fame time, I
hall not fail to point out fome radical and very confiderable
defects in it*.
Under the head of prejudices, I fhall juft mention a pleaſant,
but not unimportant obfervation of Mr. Hume, viz. that the fair
Sex may learn in hiſtory that love is not the only, nor always the
moſt governing, principle in the hearts of men; which from
the reading of novels, frequenting the theatre, and even the
general turn of polite converfation, they might otherwiſe ima-
gine.
But the capital advantage we derive from hiſtory under this
head is, that from this fource only can be derived all future im-
provements in the ſcience of government. And if the well being
of fociety be our object, this is, after all, the moſt important of
all fciences. For certainly more fubftantial benefit refults to
fociety from the proper balance of the feveral powers of a ſtate,
or even from one wife law, reſpecting the liberties and properties
*This refers to a courſe of lectures, which I do not publiſh, but of which a
a Syllabus may be ſeen in my Eſſay on Education.
of
LECT.I.
13
HISTORY.
of men, than could be derived from all the other fciences put
together. I except, however, the fciences, if they may be fo
called, of morality and religion.
Human nature, with the various interefts and connexions of
men in a ſtate of fociety, is fo complex a fubject that nothing
can be fafely concluded a priori with refpect to it. Every thing
that we can depend upon must be derived from facts. All the
plans of government laid down by the wifeft of the ancients,
as Plato, Ariſtotle, and Cicero, are, without exception, de-
fective in many capital inftances and notwithſtanding the far-
ther lights that More and Harrington might have derived from
the hiſtory of many centuries after them, neither the Utopia
of the former, nor the Oceana of the latter, would bear to be
reduced to practice. The former is vifionary even to a proverb,
;!
This grand ſcience is ſtill in its infancy. Men of the greateſt
reflection and experience could not pretend to pronounce, with
any degree of certainty, what, for inftance, would be the con-
fequence of any confiderable change in our own conftitution
and government, or that of other nations. And do we not fre-
quently fee that our ableft minifters of ftate, who give the
cloſeſt attention to the internal policy of the kingdom, are
obliged to change their meaſures, in confequence of their being
diſappointed in their expectations from them. This makes
it fo extremely hazardous to introduce any material change into
an eſtabliſhed form of government. No human fagacity can
foreſee what inconvenience might arife from it.
So important is this fcience of government, that nothing can
be more worthy of the study of thofe who have fufficient abili-
ties, and who are friends of mankind; and the only foundation
on which men who think, and who are not carried away by
their
14
PART I.
LECTURES ON
their own imaginations, will build any conclufions is hiftorical
facts. Hypothefes built upon arguments a priori are leaſt of all
tolerable. Here obfervation and experience are the only ſafe
guides.
As all other ſciences have made very rapid advances in the
prefent age, the fcience of government bids fair to keep pace with
them. Many ingenious men have of late turned their thoughts
to this ſubject, and valuable treatifes upon it have been pub-
liſhed both in this country and abroad. But what is of much
more value, we have now a vaſt ſtock of important facts before
us, for our contemplation. The old governments of Europe are
arrived to a confiderable degree of maturity. We may rather
ſay they are growing into decay; fo that their ſeveral advantages
and defects are become fufficiently confpicuous, and the new
governments in North America are fo many new experiments,
of which political philofophers cannot fail to make the
greateſt uſe. Time has alfo weakened, and removed, many
prejudices in favour of pretended rights to power, and peculiar
modes of government; fo that the only proper object of govern-
ment, the happiness of the people, is now almoſt univerſally ſeen,
and alone attended to.
For want of acquaintance with hiftory, we are apt to pro-
nounce a priori many things to be impoffible, which in fact
really exiſt, and are very fafe. Thus the King of Siam could
not be made to believe that the Venetians had no king, any
more than that water could have the hardneſs of ſtone, and bear
men and carriages.
I fhall conclude this head with adding, that the knowledge
of hiſtory contributes to enlarge the mind by the acquaintance
we are thereby enabled to form with all thofe objects which,
in
LECT. II.
15
HISTORY.
in the courſe of theſe lectures, will be pointed out as worthy
of peculiar attention to an hiftorian, the knowledge of which
is equally uſeful for fpeculative or practical purpoſes; fo that
philofophers and politicians may equally avail themſelves of it.
.
LECTURE IF
Hiftory tends to frengthen the Sentiments of Virtue: Shown from'
the Manner in which virtuous Impreffions are actually made upon:
the Mind. Advantage of the Study of History previous to a
Perfon's being introduced into the World. Why the Reprefen--
tations of Hiftorians are almoft univerfally favourable to Virtue..
What kind of Scenes Hiftory actually exhibits which are favourable
to Virtue. A View of the Sentiments and Conduct of great
infpires the Mind with a Tafte for folid Glory and true Greatness.
Hiſtory enables us to form juft Ideas both of the Strength and
Weakness of human Nature. Inftances of both, with Reflections.
TH
三
​Men
HE third ufe of hiſtory is, that it tends to ftrengthen the
fentiments of virtue. That this is the tendency of an
acquaintance with hiftory will be evident, if we confider in what
manner virtuous impreffions are actually made upon the mind.
How do we acquire a love for virtue; but by frequently view-
ing it in thoſe points of light in which it appears defirable
to us, and in a fituation of mind in which no bias is laid upon
us in favour of vice ?
*
1
vita
It
16
PART I.
LECTURES ON
It cannot be denied by any who maintain that virtue is its
own fufficient reward in this life, that even a juft and well-
conducted knowledge of the world would have this happy
effect. It is only a partial acquaintance with it, feeing things
in an unfair point of light, and with minds prejudiced by
profpects of pleaſure, intereft, or falſe notions of honour, that
prevents that happy confequence from taking place univerfally.
Now, to ſtudy hiſtory is to come at the knowledge of the world
in the moſt favourable circumftances. Hiftorians are the beſt
guides and tutors we can take with us in our travels. They
fhow us the whole of tranſactions and characters, before a
partial view of them can have had time to make any unfavour-
able impreffions on our minds; and all the reflexions they
make upon men and things are uniformly dictated by a ſenſe
of virtue and honour. Even Machiavel himfelf, though his
very name conveys the idea of bafenefs and villany as a
politician, difcovers, as Mr. Hume obferves, true fentiments
of virtue in his hiftory of Florence.
J.
In ſuch company, and in the hands of fuch able and faithful
conductors, what reafon have we to be alarmed to ſee our friends
introduced to a knowledge of mankind? There is certainly a
great difference between a perfon's being admitted to fee the
figure which Alexander the Great, or Charles XII. made at
the head of their conquefts; to view the court of Dionyfius,
of Nero, or of Lewis XIV. in all their splendour, and ſeeing
the figure their whole lives make in the annals of hiſtory.
In the former fituation the uncautious mind of a young man
might be in danger of being captivated with the charms of
ambition, voluptuoufnefs, or magnificence; but looking upon
the fame objects from the more advantageous fituation in which
hiſtory places us, we muft certainly be equally ftruck with
their
LECT.II.
17
HISTORY.
their vanity and folly, and conceive a diſguſt and averfion to
them. It is with the knowledge of the world as Pope fays it
is with learning.
Here ſmaller draughts intoxicate the brain,
But drinking largely fobers us again.
The only reaſon why a young perfon cannot be fafely trufted
with viewing the vices, as well as the virtues, that are in the
world is that, if left to himſelf in real life, vice may be
fo circumſtanced, as to be but too inviting to his unexperienced
mind. But in hiſtory vice never appears tempting. Indeed,
whatever be the difpofition of hiftorians them felves, if they
give a faithful view of things, as they have really come to
pafs, they cannot help giving a repreſentation favourable to
virtue. So confiftent is the order of Divine Providence, that,
if the ſcheme be fairly and compleatly reprefented, we may
depend upon it that nothing will be exhibited from which it
may be fairly concluded, that vice is eligible upon the whole.
Contrary, therefore, to what may he apprehended from a pro-
mifcuous acquaintance with the world, through the glaſs of
history, vices may be viewed as fafely as virtues. Nay, they
both equally teach wiſdom and good morals. It is even im-
poffible to ſay which of them inculcate the important leffon
with more force. The exceffes of a Nero, and the goodneſs of
a Marcus Aurelius, have the fame good effect in hiſtory.
Thus it appears, by arguing as it were a priori, from the
lights in which characters and events are feen in hiſtory, that
it must have an effect that is favourable to virtue.
I fhall now
demonftrate the fame thing more particularly, by fhowing
what ſcenes hiftory actually exhibits that have this happy
tendency.
D
In
1,8
PART I.
LECTURES ON
In the first place, hiftory by difplaying the fentiments and
conduct of truly great men, and thofe of a contrary character,
tends to inſpire us with a taſte for folid glory and real greatneſs;
and convinces us that it does not confift in what the generality
of mankind are fo eager in the purſuit of
We can never imagine, if we derive our inftruction from.
hiſtory, that true greatnefs confifts in riches; when we fee
that fome of the moft diftinguished characters in the annals of
mankind were formed, and lived, in poverty; men who fhewed
their contempt of riches by refuſing to improve the opportunities
they had of amaffing wealth. Not to mention. Cincinnatus,
Fabricius, and other Romans in the early ages of that city,
honoured for their poverty, but who had no: opportunity of
acquiring what we fhould call riches; Scipio Emilianus, who
might have engroffed almoſt all the wealth of Carthage, never
made a ſingle acquifition in all his life. The great Philopamen
generally went in a very plain drefs, and without any fervant
or attendants. The Emperors, Nerva, Trajan, Antoninus, and
Aurelius, fold their palaces, their gold and filver plate, their
valuable furniture, and all the fuperfluities they could diſpenſe
with, which their predeceffors had heaped up, and baniſhed all ex-
pences and delicacies from their tables with the greateſt ſeverity..
Theſe princes, together with Vefpafian, Pertinax, Alexander.
Severus, Claudius the fecond, and Tacitus, who were raiſed
to the empire by their merit, and whom all ages have admired
as the greateſt and the beft of princes, were ever fond of the
greatest, plainnefs in their apparel, furniture and outward ap-
pearance. The ruins of Adrian's country feat are fill to be feen,..
and it does not appear to have exceeded the bigness of one of.
our common houfes. Even Auguftus himself, during a reign
of near fifty years, never changed his apartment, or furniture.
We
LECT.II.
rg
HISTORY.
We ſee the fame juft turn of thinking in the famous Cornelia,
daughter of the great Scipio. When a lady of her acquaintance
defired very importunately to ſee her toilet, ſhe deferred ſatisfy-
ing her curiofity till her children, who were the famous
Gracchi, came from ſchool, and then only faid En! hæc ornamenta
mea funt. These are my ornaments.
When temperance, frugality and a juſt ſenſe of greatneſs
are graced with fuch names as thefe I have mentioned, fhall
we be in any danger of abandoning ourſelves to excefs in
imitation of the infamous Nero, whofe golden palace, Herodian
fays, was as large as all the reſt of the city of Rome, and whoſe
extravagance in other refpects was in proportion to it; of
Caligula, of the beaſtly Commodus, or the mad Heliogabalus?
Do we admire Lucullus the more for the idea that Cicero gives
us of his expenfive table? Or can we think Marc Antony to
be commended for having a fucceffion of grand entertainments
always ready, that whenever he was difpofed to eat he might
never wait half an hour?
•
Can we think that honours and preferment conftitute true
greatneſs, when we fee in hiftory that the most worthy men
have generally declined them? Tacitus and Probus, who did
fo much honour to their ſtations, were both advanced to the
empire against their inclinations and in how much fairer a
point of light do their characters ftand than that of thoſe fons
of ambition, who waded through ſeas of blood to come at it?
The extravagances of Alexander the Great in killing his beſt
friends, the cruelties of the Spaniards in America, the ruin of
Sweden by Charles XII. are certainly more proper to fhew the
folly and madneſs of unbounded ambition, than their victories
are to dazzle our minds with their glare. How we regret that
unhappy turn of mind when we confider what valuable members
D 2
of
20
PART I.
LECTURES ON
of fociety their abilities would have rendered fuch men as
Julius Cæfar, and Pompey, had they jointly employed them to
raiſe the glory of their country; and that the expences of Lewis
XIV. in preparations for deſtruction, were more than fufficient
to have founded many numerous colonies, and to have put them
into a flourishing condition.
Nothing fo effectually cures a man of the abfurd pride of
birth and family as feeing fome of the greateſt men in history,
fuch as Tamerlane, Cardinal Ximines, and Pope Sixtus the
fifth, riſe from low beginnings; and we are always charmed
to fee truly great men, who were poffeffed of the advan-
tages of birth, wave all pretences to merit on that account.
Even Vefpafian laughed at thofe who pretended to derive his
defcent from Hercules.
An exceffive paffion for fame, as an end of action, reduces
a man very low in the light of hiftory. How much does
the letter which Cicero wrote to Lucceius, and which, un-
fortunately for him, yet remains (in which he almost infifts
upon his praifing him at the expence of truth, in the
hiſtory of his confulfhip) fink that great man in our ef
teem. On the contrary, how prodigiously does the charac-
ter of Cato rife` upon us by a few words of Salluft, Maluit
effe, quam videri, bonus: He rather chofe to BE, than to
SEEM, good. And the vanity of Nero upon his excelling in
mufic, and of Commodus on his dexterity in killing wild beafts,
completely expoſes the affectation of excelling in what is out of
our proper fphere. The fame maxim is conveyed by Philip,
when he asked his fon Alexander, if he was not ashamed to
play on a muſical inſtrument fo well as he did.
In how different a light do thoſe men appear in hiſtory who
are greedy to engroſs all praiſe to themſelves, and thoſe who
contribute
3
LECT.II.
21
HISTORY.
contribute heartily to the reputation of others? An inftance of
the former we ſee in Claudius, who made an idle expedition to
finiſh the conqueft of Britain; of the latter in M. Aurelius,
who denied himſelf the pleaſure of attending his fifter Lucilla
(whom he had married to L. Verus) into the Eaſt, left his pre-
fence ſhould give a check to the growing reputation of his fon-
in-law, and ſeem to draw upon himſelf the honour of putting
an end to an important war, to the other's prejudice. And
hiſtory does the moſt ample recompence to thoſe who have
generoufly facrificed their own reputation to the public good.
Thus Fabius Maximus, to his immortal honour, notwithſtand-
ing the provoking infults he received from Minucius, reſcued
him from the hands of Hannibal, fetting afide his refentment,
and confulting only his zeal for the intereft of his country.
We conceive more clearly what true greatneſs of mind is, at
the fame time that our hearts are more filled with admiration of
it, and burn with a ſtronger paffion for it, by a ſimple narration
of fome incidents in hiftory, than by the most elaborate and
philofophically exact deſcription of it. What can give us a clearer
idea of the noble fentiments of ftrict honour and integrity than
Marſhal Turenne's refufing a fum of money, which was offered
him if he would not march his army through a certain terri-
tory, becauſe he had not intended to march that way. Does
not every perfon's heart ftrongly feel the fentiments of be-
nevolence, when he hears the good Titus exclaiming that he had
loft a day, becaufe he had done no perſon a good office in it? If
a perfon be capable of forming any idea of greatnefs of mind in
forgiving injuries, he will do it from hearing the following reply
that Lewis XII. made to a courtier, who preffed him to puniſh a
perfon who had offended him before he came to the throne: "It
belongs not to the king of France to revenge the injuries
"offered
64
22
PARTI.
LECTURES ON
"offered to the Duke of Orleans." Or, laftly, what can give fo
juſt an idea of the true fpirit and magnanimity of a foldier, as the
reply that Viſcount Dorée made to Charles IX. of France, when
he received an order from him to maffacre the Hugonots,
"I defire your majeſty would employ me in what is poſſible.”
The laſt example leads me to a ſecond obfervation, which is,
that hiſtory enables us to form juft ideas of the dignity and the
weakneſs of human nature, both of which are extremely uſeful
to us in life. The one infpires us with the noble ambition of
rifing above the level of our fpecies; and the other view, with-
out deſtroying, tempers, that ambition with no more than a due
degree of humility and diffidence; which in fact equally contri-
butes to the fame end. What I mean will be more clearly un-
derſtood by a few examples.
How can we conceive a more juft, or a more exalted idea
of a ſenſe of true honour and heroiſm, than by reading fuch
ftories as that of the behaviour of the Earl of Peterborough at
the famous fiege of Barcelona. While he was ſettling the terms
of capitulation with the Spaniſh commander, news was brought
that, contrary to the ſuſpenſion of arms agreed upon between
them, a party of the allied troops had broke into the town.
The Earl told the Spanish general, that if he would give him
leave to enter the town with his English troops, he would
drive out his allies, and then return to finiſh the capitulation,
which he actually performed.
I fhall fay nothing of the fabulous story of Curtius, who is
faid to have leaped into a gulph, or of Codrus, who procured his
own death to fave his country, fince inftances of equal courage in
braving death are by no means uncommon in our own times.
At the fiege of Turin one Mica fired a mine, and purpoſely de-
ſtroyed himſelf with the enemy. And how many commanders
of
LECT. IT
2*3*
HISTORY.
of ſhips have purpoſely blown them up rather than ftrike their
colours. Thefe, it may be faid, are the effects of a refined fenfe
of honour, which is acquired in a highly improved ftate of
fociety. But we may fee what may be called the native ftrength
of the mind in the North American Indians, with whom, when
priſoners, it is very common to refufe dying by their own hands,
on purpoſe to ſhew the honour of their country, in ſupporting
the tortures which they know are prepared for them..
Facts like theſe, together with thoſe which ſhow the ex-
tent of genius in fuch men as Ariftotle, Archimedes, and Sir
Laac Newton, give us high ideas of the dignity of human na-
ture, and the capacity of the human mind. But the other
fide of the picture, which hiſtory with equal faithfulneſs pre-
fents to us, gives us a moft affecting, and equally inftructive
view, of our deplorable weakneſs and frailty, exemplified in the
greateſt of men.
Hardly any thing gives us a more affecting view of the weak-
nefs and inconſiſtency to which the mind of man is liable, than
to ſee men of found and clear underſtandings, in moſt reſpectš,.
and of upright honeft hearts, fall into fentiments that lead to
grofs and painful fuperftitions. A moft remarkable inftance of
this was Pafcal; one of the greateſt geniuſes, and beſt men,
that ever lived. He entertained a notion that God madė
men miferable here in order to their being happy here--
after; and in confequence of this he impofed upon himfelf the
moſt diſagreeable mortifications. He even ordered a wall to
be built before a window of his ftudy, from which he thought
he had too agreeable a profpect. He also wore a girdle full of
harp points next to his ſkin, and while he was eating or drink--
ing any thing that was grateful to his appetite, he was con-
ftantly pricking himſelf, that he might not be fenfible. of
any
pleafure..
24
PART I.
LECTURES ON
;
pleafure. His fifter too, who was a woman of fine fenfe and
great piety, actually died of thirft, as fhe thought, to the glory
of God. It was certainly through a weakneſs of the fame
nature in the ingenious and excellent Fenelon, that he ſub-
mitted without referve to the arbitrary fentence of the Pope,
when he condemned a book that he publiſhed. He even preached
to condemn his own book, and forbad his friends to defend it.
They have not only been good men, and of a truly religious
turn of mind, who have been fubject to fuch groundleſs fuper-
ftitions, but the moſt vicious and abandoned alfo. Both kinds
of inftances fhew the weakneſs to which human nature is liable.
But whereas a good man who is a flave to fuperftition is an
object of the greateſt compaffion, a wicked man in the fame
fituation is rather a ſubject of ridicule. What, for instance,
can be more completely ridiculous than Lewis XI. of France,
a man who made no confcience of any villany, going always
covered with relics, and wearing a leaden image of the Virgin
Mary in his hat, of which it is faid he aſked pardon for his.
murders before they were committed. The fame prince made
a deed of the earldom of Bolloigne to the Virgin Mary.
Even the fentiments of morality, which of all others one
would expect to find the moſt invariable and uncorrupted, are
found greatly perverted, and intermixed with notions that are
foreign, and even contrary, to morality, in the minds of fome
whole nations. Thus the Tartars, with whom it is a fin and
a capital crime, as Voltaire fays, to put a knife in the fire, to
lean againſt a whip, to beat a horſe with a bridle, or to break
one bone with another, think it no fin, in fome cafes, to break
their word, to plunder, and commit murder. The fame Arab
who, if he find you at his door claiming hofpitality, would
receive
LECT. III.
25
HISTORY.
receive you as his brother, and conduct you the next day, would
not have ſcrupled to rob and murder you, as his lawful prey,
if he had met you in the defert an hour before.
To give
inſtances of the weakneſs and inconfiftency in the human mind,
which hiſtory prefents us with, were endleſs. Theſe are fuffi-
cient to give us an idea how affecting and uſeful fuch views are,
and at the ſame time how entertaining to a ſpeculative mind.
LECTURE
III.
Hiftory tends to strengthen the Sentiments of Virtue by the Variety
of Views in which it exhibits the Conduct of Divine Providence,
fhowing important Events brought about by inconfiderable Means,
or contrary to the Intention of thofe Perfons who were the prin-
cipal Agents in them. A Regard to Divine Providence heigh-
tens our Satisfaction in reading Hiftory, and tends to throw an
agreeable Light upon the most gloomy and difgufting Parts of it.
Hiftory, in the Misfortunes and Hardſhips to which the most
diftinguished Perfonages have been reduced, gives a deep Con-
viction of the Inftability of all human Things, prepares our Minds
to fubmit to Adverfity with Refignation, and makes us acquiefce
in the more humble Stations of Life. Laftly, the most common
Obfervations on the Tempers and Manners of Men, fuch as we may
collect every Day from common Life, affect us much more ſtrongly
when we fee them exemplified in the Hiftory of great Perfonages.
At what Age Hiftory ought to be read. In what Senſe proper
for every Age.
ΤΗ
HIRDLY, Hiftory tends to ftrengthen the fentiments of
virtue, by the variety of views in which it exhibits the
conduct of divine providence, and points out the hand of God,
E
in
26
PART I.
LECTURES O N
in the affairs of men. For certainly whatever ſuggeſts to us
the idea of a divine Being, either in the end, or means, of great
events, muſt be favourable to piety and virtue.
That the world has a governor, or fuperintendant, is just as
evident as that it had a maker. For no perfon does any thing
without fome defign, or without intending to make ſome uſe of
it. A teleſcope is made to be uſed for the better diſtinguiſhing
diftant objects, the eye itfelf for feeing things at a moderate
diſtance from us, and no doubt, men, and the world, for fome end.
or other.
66
And as the fame Being that made the greateſt things, made
the ſmalleſt things alſo, all being parts of the ſame ſyſtem, ſome
ufe, no doubt, is made of every thing, even what appears to us
the moſt inconfiderable; ſo that, as our Saviour obſerved, “a
fparrow falls not to the ground without God, and the very hairs
"of our heads are numbered." Alfo, as nothing was made, fo
nothing can come to pass without the knowledge, the appoint-
ment, or permiffion of God. Something, therefore, is intended
by every thing that happens, as well as by every thing that is
made. But in little things a defign is not fo apparent as in
greater and more ftriking things. Though, therefore, the hand
of God be really in every thing that happens, and that is re-
corded in hiftory, our attention is more forcibly drawn to it in
great events, and eſpecially in things which happen in a manner
unexpected by us.
How can we help acknowledging the hand of God when we
fee great and important events brought about by feemingly
trifling and inconfiderable means; or by means which feem to
have little or no relation to the end; as when our king James and
both houſes of parliament were reſcued from deſtruction, by a
letter which a confpirator fent with a view to fave one of the
members of the Houfe of Lords for whom he had a friendship?
4
Who
LECT. III.
27
HISTORY.
Who would have imagined that the defire which Henry VIII.
had to be divorced from his wife, would have brought about the
reformation in England? The indifcretion of a Portugueſe
prieft, who would not give place to one of the king's officers in
Japan, and the obftinacy of the jefuits, in refufing to give up the
houſe which a nobleman had given them, when his fon claimed
it back again, occafioned the extirpation of the Roman catholic
religion in that country.
But what moft of all fhews the hand of Providence, and the
weakneſs and ſhort fightedneſs of men, are great events being
brought about contrary to the intention of the perfons who were
the chief inftruments of them, and by the very means which
were intended to produce a contrary event. Thus perfecution
has always been the means of promoting the perfecuted religion;
infomuch, that it is become a common proverb, that "the
"blood of the martyrs is the feed of the church." Thus, like-
wife, Athens, Lacedæmon, Carthage, Rome, and many other
ftates have been ruined by their own fucceffes. Philip II. of
Spain, by his intolerable oppreffion, was the cauſe of the free-
dom of the ſtates of Holland. Such has often been the confe-
quence of wicked men over-acting their parts. Thus alfo the
ſenate of Rome was once faved by Catiline's making the fignal
for the maffacre too foon.
With what fatisfaction may a perſon who has an eye to divine
Providence read fuch a paffage as the following in Machiavel,
that Borgia had fo well conducted his meaſures, that he muſt
have been maſter of Rome, and of the whole ecclefiaftical eſtate,
after the death of his father, but that it was impoffible for him
to foreſee that he himſelf would be at the point of death at the
very time that Alexander his father finiſhed his life. They were
both poiſoned at an entertainment, by a miſtake of the waiter,
E 2
who
•
28
PART I.
LECTURES
ON
who ferved them with the wine which was to have taken off
their enemies.
It is no uncommon thing, in the hiftory of divine Providence,
that perfons being known to have abilities fhall have been the
means of keeping them in obfcurity, while others have been
advanced in confequence of their feeming infignificance. lf
Auguſtus had ſhown any capacity, as a ſtateſman or general, any
greatneſs of foul, or any thing in the leaft enterprizing, at firſt,
he would probably never have been mafter of the Roman empire.
But while Cicero, and Antony, in their turns, thought to make
a tool of him, they, unknown to themſelves, increaſed his
power and influence, at the expence of their own.
In this view it is very amufing, and uſeful, to confider to
what a different purpoſe, the labour, powers, and works of men,
and nations, have been employed from what was originally
thought of and intended; as that the Romans, after all their
conqueſts of other nations, ſhould be often governed by favage
and tyrannical barbarians, ſuch as Maximin and others; and that
that city, the miſtreſs of the world, which was built by Romulus,
and whoſe power was enlarged by fuch men as Camillus, Scipio
Africanus, Marius, Sylla, Cæfar, Pompey, and Trajan, ſhould
now be in ſubjection to the Pope, and the feat of a power to-
tally different from what had before refided in it, and of which
the founders could have no conception. How far was Conftan-
tine from foreſeeing, that Conftantinople would be the capital
of the Turkish empire, and the principal fupport of a reli-
gion oppofite to that which he eſtabliſhed. How far, alfo,
were the heads of the Grecian commonwealths from foreſeeing,
that their country, the feat of arts and liberty, would ever be-
come the moſt ignorant, and enflaved of all the ſtates of Europe.
A regard
LECT. III.
29
HISTORY.
A regard to divine providence,, is, likewife, extremely useful
to heighten our fatisfaction in reading hiſtory, and throw an
agreeable light upon the most gloomy and difgufting parts of it.
With a view to this, the moſt diſagreeable objects in hiftory
will bear to be looked upon with fatisfaction. And could we
fee every event, in all its connexions, and moft diftant influ-
ences, we ſhould, no doubt, perfectly acquiefce in every thing
that comes to paſs under the government of God; in feeing
that all evils, lead to, and terminate in a greater good. But in
many cafes, we fee events which give us pain at firſt fight, and
which occafion much regret and diſappointment,, to those who
give more fcope to their paffions than to their reflection while
they are reading; which, if we look no farther than the next
and immediate confequences, we fhall be thoroughly fatisfied
and pleaſed with.
No perfon converfant with, the ancient claffical hiftorians,
and who has thereby acquired a claffical tafte, and claffical
notions of liberty, but regrets that Rome, in the height of its
glory, fhould fall under the power of mafters. But it is becauſe
he does not confider that all the provinces of the vaſt Roman
empire were moft miferably oppreffed and plundered by the
republican governors, who had little to fear from courts of
justice; but were relieved and happy under the government of
perfons who lived in conftant fear of being accufed of mal-
adminiſtration, to an inexorable maſter. Nay the provinces
were not much less happy under Tiberius and Nero, than under
Trajan and the Antonines.
A reader of Thucydides is apt to be extremely mortified at
the ill-treatment of Alcibiades, and the defeat of the Athenians
before Syracufe. But it is becauſe he does not think what
would probably have been the confequence of the fucceſs of that
expedition;
30
PART I.
LECTURES ON
1
expedition; namely, the flavery of Greece, and, from the
nature of its government, the confufion and flavery of Athens
too. As fuccefs naturally points out our favourite hero to us,
we cannot help conceiving a violent indignation againſt Hanno,
for taking no more care to fend recruits to Hannibal, after the
battle of Cannæ. But justly did he, and all Carthage, dread
the power of Hannibal, when mafter of Rome, who was able
to change the whole form of their government, even when he
was conquered.
Theſe obvious remarks I mention here, to fhow the neceffity
of thought and reflection in reading hiſtory. Farther obferva-
tions of this kind, and fuch as are lefs obvious, I fhall
referve for another part of this courfe of lectures, in which I
fhall endeavour to enter a little farther into the views and con-
duct of divine providence, in the government of the world.
In the fourth place, hiftory, in the misfortunes and hard-
ſhips to which the most diftinguiſhed perfonages have been
reduced, gives us a deep conviction of the inſtability of all
human things, and prepares our minds, to fubmit to adverfity
with more patience and refignation, as to a condition from
which we ſee none are exempt. Even the misfortunes and
diſappointments of brave and good men, who have brought
themſelves into difficulties, in confequence of their generous
attempts, in favour of the liberties and beft interefts of mankind,
do not as exhibited in hiſtory, in the leaſt tend to flacken our
zeal in the fame glorious caufe; at the fame time that they
make us more prudent in the choice and profecution of our
meaſures, to attain the fame end, and difpofe us to yield to
diſappointment with a better grace. That an acquaintance with
hiſtory has this effect, I appeal to what any perſon feels after
reading of the untimely end of Agis, Cato, Brutus, Hampden,
and
•
LECT. III
3. ॐ
HISTORY.
1
A
and the great Algernon Sydney. The honourable mention that
will, to the end of the world, be made of ſuch glorious, though
unfortunate men as theſe, and their noble ends, will raiſe more
friends to the fame great interefts; while their misfortunes
will only ferve to make thofe friends more prudent, and there-
fore probably more fuccefsful in their endeavours.
But, independent of theſe martyrs of liberty raifing up more,
and more ſucceſsful patrons of it, the remarkable reverſes of
fortune in the hiſtory of confiderable perfonages, has a fine
effect upon the human mind.
the human mind. It wonderfully foftens and calms
it, and gives it an excellent temper for encountering with the
viciffitudes of life. What other fenfations do we feel, while we
read that Henrietta, daughter of Henry IV. of France, and
wife to Charles I. of England, was reduced to the utmoſt
extremity of poverty; and that her daughter, who was after-
wards married to a brother of Lewis XIV. is faid to have lain
in bed for want of coals to keep her warm, while the people
of Paris, blind with rage, paid no attention to their fufferings.
The fame kind of fenfations we feel, when we read of the
great and fucceſsful general Belifarius (if the ſtory be true)
begging his bread; of Cortez, the renowned
of Cortez, the renowned conqueror of
Mexico, living unknown and in difgrace in Spain, and ſcarce
able to get to ſpeak to his maſter Charles V. though when the
king aſked, who the fellow was that was ſo clamorous to ſpeak
to him, he cried out, "I am one who have got your majeſty
"more provinces, than your father left you towns." He
afterwards ferved in a rank little higher than that of a common
foldier on the coaft of Barbary.
Fifthly, Theſe great reverfes of fortune, and calamities of
men in high ftations, at the fame time that they are hardly ever
known to diſcourage men of ability and fpirit. from undertaking
1
the
32
PART I.
LECTURES ON
the public fervice, when regularly called to it may justly make
perfons who are born to private ftations, and who have no
opportunity of rifing above them, content with their fituation.
The many who have abdicated royalty, as Chriſtina queen of
Sweden, Charles V. emperor of Germany, Victor Amadeus,
king of Sardinia, John Cafimer, king of Poland, and others,
convince us that crowns do not always fit eaſy; and that per-
fons in high ftations have need of a strong fenfe of honour
and integrity to make their fatigues and misfortunes tolerable.
It is no unuſeful fentiment that we collect from reading that
Richlieu fhortened his days by the uneafinefs with which he
was devoured in the fulneſs of his power. What Voltaire ſays
of Lewis XIV. is an excellent momento to the ambitious; that
he faw all his family perifh by premature deaths; that though
towards the cloſe of his life, he appeared.in public as uſual, in
private the pain of his many misfortunes pierced him to the
heart, and threw him into convulfions; that he met with
domeftic loffes at the conclufion of an unfuccefsful war, and
before he was fure of obtaining a peace, and at a time when a
famine had wafted his kingdom; and that he loft in the minds
of his fubjects, during the last three years of his life, all the
reſpect and eſteem he had gained by his great actions.
The advantage of preferring a private fituation, efpecially to
entering into the views of faction, we fee in the fecurity and
long life of Atticus, in the most distracted times of the Roman
hiftory; and in Richard Cromwell, who lived to a great age
contented and happy, whereas his father never knew what happi-
neſs was. The hiſtory of very few great itateſmen can match that
of Cardinal Fleury, of whom we read, that his ſchemes were
crowned with fuccefs from the year 1726 to 1742; that he
lived ninety years, and preferved his faculties unimpaired to
3
the
LECT. III.
33
HISTORY.
the laft; which makes his hiftorian ſay, that, if ever there was
a happy man upon earth, it was doubtlefs Cardinal Fleury.
Laftly, Thofe obfervations on the tempers and man-
ners of men, which, we may collect every day from com-
mon life, affect us much more ftrongly when we fee them
exemplified in the hiftory of great perfonages. We fee, for
inftance, every day, that almoft all perfons who are intrufted
with power abuſe it. But this is better exemplified in kings,
and miniſters of ſtate. We fee again that men in low circum-
ſtances are apt to be deſpiſed, and that court is always paid to
the great and the powerful. But this maxim receives a ſtronger
confirmation, and makes a deeper impreffion, than any occurrence
in private life could occafion, when we think what court was
paid to Oliver Cromwell, by all the princes of Europe, while
Charles II. then in exile, could not obtain an interview with
the miniſters of either France or Spain, at the treaty of the
Pyrenees, though he made a journey on purpoſe to obtain it.
It is a common and juft obfervation, that, through the
inconftancy of our nature, men are liable to conceive hafty and
unreaſonable difguft at their fituation, and yet, when they have
changed it, wish to refume it; and this we fee exemplified in
private life almoſt every day. But ever fo many examples of
this kind do not make fo great an impreffion upon us, as the
history of Victor Amadeus king of Sardinia, who abdicated the
crown through mere caprice, but found, as fome hiftorian
fays, that the company of his miſtreſs, who was become his
wife, devotion, and the tranquility of retirement, could not
fatisfy a foul occupied during fifty years with the affairs of
Europe. He was defirous of regaining the throne even by
force, and afterwards died in confinement.
F
How
34
PART I.
LECTURES ON
How incapable riches and power are to fatisfy the mind of
man, is an obſervation which few perfons, in the courſe of their
own experience, have not feen occafion to make. But the
fentiment makes a deeper impreffion upon us when we fee it
exemplified in the hiſtory of ſtateſmen and conquerors; and as it
is beautifully exhibited in a converfation which paffed between
Pyrrhus and his minifter Cyneas, before their expedition into
Italy. The miniſter aſked the king what he propofed to do
when he had fubdued the Romans? He anfwered; pafs into
Sicily. What then? faid the minifter. Conquer the Car-
thagenians, replies the king. And what follows that? fays
the minifter. Be fovereign of Greece, and then enjoy our-
felves, faid the king. And why, replied the fenfible minifter,
can we not do this laſt now?
To add one inftance more: we fee the vanity of the living
in their boundless provifion for futurity, in the diffipation of
the large fortunes of covetous perfons, by the extravagance
of their heirs. But it does not affect us near fo much as when
we are reading in hiftory, that the riches which Sixtus V.
amaffed in his pontificate, and thoſe which Henry IV. of
France, had with great difficulty faved, were fquandered away
within less than a year after their deaths; alfo that the treaſure
which Henry VII. of England, had raiſed by every art of
extortion went alinoft as faſt.
Thus, we have ſeen how, by hiſtory, our minds are agree-
ably entertained, our paffions are exerciſed, and our judgments
are formed, fo as either to fit us for the bufinefs of life, or
furnish us with materials for fcience; how fentiments of virtue
are acquired, and the beſt moral maxims of conduct are moſt
deeply impreffed upon our minds: All theſe advantages refult
3
from
LECT. II.
35
HISTORY.
from hiſtory as a study. There are other advantages refulting
to mankind from it, in a different manner, as only one inftru-
ment of recording tranfations. How imperfect, for inſtance,
without history, would be our knowledge of genealogies, and
confequently of the order of important fucceffions, and how
precarious would be the advantage, refulting from conven-
tions and treaties of all kinds, if all the articles of them were
repofited only in the memory of the contracting parties. We
read that the boundaries of fome of the Grecian ftates were
once determined by a verſe of Homer, who, in his deſcription
of Greece, relates what they were in his time.
The preceding account of the ufes of history will affift us
ip determining what has formerly been a fubject of debate
among the critics, namely, at what age hiftory is proper to
be read.
Confidering the various ufes to which the ſtudy of hiſtory
has been shown to be fubfervient, I fee no reaſon why we
ſhould hesitate to pronounce, that it can neither be begun
too early, nor continued too late. If hiſtory amuſe the
imagination, exercife and improve the paffions, infpire a
taſte for true glory, juft fentiments of, and a love for, virtue,
and thereby form the temper, and prepare men for converſ-
ing with the world; what can be more proper for young
perfons? And fince the mind cannot be too well furniſhed in
theſe reſpects, and men cannot have too large a flock of this
anticipated experience, the ſtudy of it muſt be uſeful while
there remains any thing of the part we have to act on the theatre
of the world. Moreover, fince hiſtory furniſhes materials for
the fineſt ſpeculations, and the moſt important fciences, it can-
not but be of ſervice while we make any uſe of our intellectual
faculties.
F 2
Since
36
PART I.
LECTURES ON
1
Since history may be confidered as containing examples of
the ſciences of morals and politics chiefly, no doubt a perſon
who has ſtudied thoſe ſciences, is qualified to read hiſtory with
more pleaſure and advantage. But then it must likewife be
confidered, that it is impoffible to be mafter of thefe fciences
without a knowledge of hiftory. Their influences and ufes
are reciprocal. Thus the perfon who has ftudied the
grammar
of
any language will read authors who have written in it with
more eaſe and advantage. But grammars could never have
been made without a previous knowledge of the languages for
which they were made, nor even learned, without the ufe of
examples borrowed from thofe languages.
That young perfons are not capable of making a right uſe
of historical examples in a moral refpect was obviated when the
advantages of hiftory above experience were mentioned. If
what was faid there be confidered, it will appear much fafer
for a child to be trufted with a piece of hiſtory than to hear the
common news of the town he lives in. It is certain that neither
in the one nor the other is exact juftice done to the characters of
men in the events of their lives. But in hiſtory it is done
much more completely than it is within the compaſs of any
particular perſon's obfervation.
A proper regard, no doubt, ought to be had to the age,
experience, and previously acquired knowledge, as well as the
intended fphere of life, of the perfon to whom particular hiſtories
are recommended. It would be very prepofterous to adviſe any
perfon to begin the ftudy of hiftory with fuch writers as
Polybius or Tacitus, and to end with Livy, Quintus Curtius,
or Cornelius Nepos. Common fenfe will direct that hiftories
which tend chiefly to amufe the imagination, or inforce the
plaineft inftructions in morals, ought rather to be recommended
to
LECT. III.
37
HISTORY.
to young perfons, who will both have the most relish for fuch
works, and to whom they will be of the greateſt uſe; and that
hiſtories which furniſh more exerciſe for the judgment fhould
be reſerved for an age in which the judgment is riper. How-
ever, there can be no great inconvenience in young perfons being
indulged in reading almoſt all hiftories promifcuously. Their
natural difpofition, and previous acquirements, will diret them
to what they are moſt capable of profiting by, and the higher
ufes of the fame works may be fafely left to be reaped at a
fecond perufal, in a more advanced ſtate of life. No general
history is better calculated for the ufe of young perfons than
that of Rollin.
PART
38
PART II.
LECTURES ON
PART
II.
OF THE SOURCES OF HISTORY.
LECTURE IV.
1
Importance of Records. What have been the principal Methods
of tranfmitting to Pofterity the Knowledge of Events, with
the Advantages and Imperfections of each. Oral Tradition.
Dependent and independent Evidence. To efiimate the Value of
Single Evidences. Hiftorical Examples. The Corruption of
Tradition exemplified in ecclefiaftical Hiftory, and the ancient
Hiftory of Egypt. Difference between ancient and modern
Times with Refpect to the Communication of Intelligence.
T
HOUGH it cannot be fuppofed that mankind, in very
early and rude ages, could be aware of any of the advan-
tages which arife from Hiftory as a fudy, or that they could
even have much occafion to tranfmit the knowledge of any of
their tranſactions to pofterity; yet it muſt be acknowledged
that the apprehenfion of the uſefulneſs of fome contrivance for
this purpoſe muſt very foon have ariſen in the minds of a people
who were forming themſelves into any kind of fociety. No
fociety,
LECT. IV.
39
HISTORY.
!
fociety, for instance, can fubfift without compacts and agree-
ments; and theſe are fo manifeftly liable to be forgotten, or
evaded (particularly as the obligation of keeping a promiſe is
feldom found to have much force among barbarians) that it muſt
have immediately appeared defirable to have ſome ſtanding me-
morials of them, as a better fecurity for their obfervance than
the memory, or the honour, of the contracting parties. Various
other more extenfive ufes of records could not fail to occur in a
more improved ſtate of fociety; and with the improvements of
fociety, and the multiplied uſes of records, it may reaſonably be
fuppofed that the methods of recording would likewiſe im-
prove. Accordingly we find that theſe have been various; and
the traces of past events which the practice of theſe methods
has left in the world, are the chief fources to which all hif
torians must have recourfe for their materials.
Under this fecond head, of the fources of history, I propoſe to
enumerate all, or at least the principal, methods that have been
made uſe of for tranfmitting to pofterity the knowledge of paſt
events; and I fhall treat of them in what I apprehend to be
their natural order, beginning with the firft and leaft perfect,
and ending with the laft and most perfect, that human inge-
nuity has yet invented. Under each head I fhall confider the
nature of the evidence on which it refts, and give a general ac-
count of the information we may expect from it. After theſe
direct fources of hiſtory, I fhall mention the principal of thofe
means by which we are able indirectly to aſcertain, and tranſmit
the knowledge of important facts.
Before the invention of the arts of writing and carving,
Oral Tradition must have been the only vehicle of hiſtorical
knowledge; and, with refpect to this, it is well worth our
notice, that the wisdom of Providence has made provifion for
the
40
ON PART. H.
LECTURÉS
the inſtruction of youth in the difpofitions and circumſtances of
their aged parents. When the active ſcenes of their lives are
cloſed, their activè powers being ſpent, but the active paffions
of their nature ftill fo much awake, as deeply to intereft them
in public tranſactions, fince they can have but little fhare in,
and enjoyment of, the prefent, they are perpetually reviewing,
and taking pleaſure in relating, the paft fcenes of their lives;
which, being impreffed when their minds were vigorous and
retentive, are faithfully retained in memory. Thus the natural
talkativeneſs of old age, meeting with the natural inquifitivenefs
and curiofity of youth, makes a happy coincidence of circum-
ftances, very favourable to the propagation of knowledge and
inftruction.
It must be confeffed, and it is obvious to conceive, that this
method of conveying hiſtorical knowledge muſt have been very
imperfect, and inadequate for ſeveral important uſes of hiſtory.
But, notwithſtanding this, it might have been much more ex-
tenfive and exact than we, who chiefly make uſe of different and
more perfect methods, can well imagine. It is univerfally true,
that when any art has been long difufed, it grows lefs perfect,
and more infufficient, than when mankind, through want of any
other, were obliged to make the moſt of it; and it is therefore apt
to fuffer more upon compariſon with a new, and more cultivated
art than, in the nature of things, it ought to do. Thus we
fee that perfons who have no knowledge of written numbers
are much readier in mental computation, than thoſe who have
been uſed to have recourſe to their pen upon every occafion.
It is very poffible, therefore, that we may entertain too
mean an opinion of the ftate of hiftorical knowledge before the
invention of the prefent arts of recording events; fince perfons
who had no hiftories to read would make more enquiries, and
take
4
1
:
LECT. IV.
41
HISTORY.
7
take more pains to procure information from all quarters, and
would, of courſe, be more capable of informing others than any
perfons now living could be with refpect to what they have not
learned from books. It is not improbable but that, in thofe un-
lettered ages, every elderly person would be poffeffed of a little
treaſure of hiſtory; which would not confift of his own family
ſtories only, but contain many particulars relative to the general
ſtate of his country, and other neighbouring nations.
Thefe informations were the fources from which Herodotus
derived the greateſt part of his hiſtory; and the growing reputa-
tion of that author demonftrates how much real and uſeful
knowledge a man of fenfe and enquiry may get from fuch
channels.
To fecure the remembrance of very important facts, particu-
·larly of compacts and treaties, we find it to have been the custom
in all nations before the uſe of letters, and even continued long
after their introduction, to recite them before large ſtated affem-
blies of people. Hereby, both an air of importance was given
to them, and a greater number of witneffes provided for them.
For many ages in this country, every contract of importance was
made in fome public court; and no bargain or fale of goods was
valid unleſs made in the open market. It is not wholly im-
probable, but that it might be in confequence of ſuch cuſtoms
as theſe that Herodotus was led to recite his written hiſtory be-
fore the general affembly of Greece at the Olympic games.
It is a very good method which the Indians of North Ame-
rica uſe, to enable them to retain in memory all the articles of a
complex treaty. The public orator delivers to one of his at-
tendants a ftring of wampum upon the recital of every ar-
ticle; fo that each is intrufted to a different perfon, and he is
provided with a memorial of it, that may frequently remind
G
him
42
PART II.
LECTURES ON
him of it, and thereby the more deeply imprefs it on his
memory.
The paintings of the Mexicans anfwered the fame purpoſe
much better, and contained a pretty full hiftory of the nation
from a very early period. They confifted of the figures of na-
tural objects, fometimes contracted into hieroglyphics, mixed
with many fymbolical characters; and the names of perfons and
places were diſtinguiſhed by the figures of the objects which the
names expreffed. Thus, with the help of tradition (there being
perfons whoſe bufinefs it was to explain thefe pictures) they con-
veyed to future ages a very competent knowledge of the paft.
But, notwithſtanding every method of improving merely oral
tradition, it ſeems to have been not without reaſon, that Sir Iſaae
Newton lays it down as a general maxim, that things faid to
have been done above a hundred, or two hundred, years before the
ufe of letters are worthy of little credit. And if we confider the
nature of evidence, the reaſonableneſs of this affertion will be
more apparent; and particularly if we attend to the great dif-
ference there is between dependent and independent evidence.
If the evidence of a fact depend upon a number of original
witneſſes, no way connected with one another, ſo that the infuf-
ficiency of one fhall not at all affect the reft, the fact will not be
improbable unleſs the deficiency of credibility in them all be very
great. But, if the evidence be fupported by a number of wit-
neffes dependent upon one another, fo that the infufficiency of
any one ſhall wholly invalidate that of all who come after, the
credibility of each ſeparately taken muſt be very great, to make
the evidence of the whole authentic. In the former cafe, the
more witneſſes there are the better. For each evidence, though
ever ſo weak, increaſes the probability, and brings us nearer to
certainty. But in the latter caſe the fewer there are the better
2
for
LECT. IV.
43
HISTORY.
for each evidence, though ever fo ftrong, leffens the probability,
and makes the fact more uncertain.
This fubject Dr. Hartley has illuftrated by the mathematical
doctrine of chances, in the following manner; putting & for the
abfolute value of each dependent evidence, or the infufficiency of
each independent evidence, abfolute certainty in the former caſe,
and abfolute uncertainty in the latter being equal to unity, and
making the number of witneffes the power of a in both. From
this it will be manifeft, upon a little attention, that provided the
power (n) be confiderable (a) may be very little without greatly di-
miniſhing the value of the expreffion; that is, without greatly lef
fening the probability in the one cafe, or the improbability in the
other. For example, let a=3 and n=10; then a
which, in independent evidence, will be little lefs than abfolute
certainty; and in dependent evidence, little lefs than abfolute
uncertainty.
I
I
z 30,000,000,000
The value of each feparate evidence muſt be eſtimated from
confidering the opportunity any perfon had of knowing the
truth, and his fidelity in communicating it. In hiſtorical evi-
dence, where an author's moral character is not known, his ve-
racity will be judged of according to his fituation, by confidering
whether it was fuch as would lay him under any bias to falfify,
or not.
From the firſt of theſe confiderations we infer that the hif-
tories of England, Scotland, and other European ſtates, before
the Roman conquefts, and the introduction of letters (as they
are grounded chiefly upon oral tradition) muſt be very uncertain:
and hence the marks of fable in fome of the first books of almoſt
all very ancient hiſtories. From the ſecond confideration we
are led to give little credit to the accounts of either friends or
enemies in the hiftories of rival nations, and particularly of
G 2
oppofite
44
PART II.
LECTURES ON
J
}
oppofite fects or parties, unless we have an opportunity of com-
paring the accounts of both fides. Thus the character which
the Romans have given of the Carthaginians; and even their
accounts of facts in their intercourfe with them will be for
ever reckoned dubious; whereas the most exact and impartial
hiftory of their tranfactions with the Grecian Rates may be
extracted from the accounts of both nations. And from both
confiderations is founded the great degree of credit that is univer-
fally given to the hiftories of Thucydides and Xenophon.
Both theſe authors lived in the times of which they write
both, though Athenians, and employed in public characters
by their country, were ill-ufed by their countrymen, and
obliged to take refuge among the Lacedemonians; fo that it
may be pretty fairly prefumed, that one prejudice would
nearly balance another, and their minds be left, as near as
poffible, in a ſtate of abfolute impartiality.
¿
The comparifon of the Egyptian hiftories of Herodotus,
Diodorus Siculus, and what Plato relates from a poem of
Solon's, fhews the natural progrefs of fiction in hiſtory, where
there are no records to curb and reftrain the invention of a
people bent upon magnifying their antiquities. After Cambyfes
had deſtroyed the records of Egypt, the prieſts of that
country were continually adding to the catalogue of their
kings, and carrying more backward the dates of paft tranf-
actions, as appears by the following circumftances. Solon;
Herodotus, and Diodorus, all travelled into Egypt at different
and fucceffive periods of time, and all had their information
from the priests of that country. According to Solon, who
was the first of the three that vifited Egypt, the wars of the
great gods happened in the days of Cecrops, but accord-
ing to Herodotus they muſt have been more ancient; and
Diodorus
t..
LECT. IV.
45
HISTORY.
1.
Diodorus, who wrote four hundred years after Herodotus, inferts
many namèleſs kings between thofe whom he placed in con-
tinual fucceffion; fo that their earlieſt hiſtory was then removed
into the remoteft antiquity.
The credibility of hiftorians who treat of their own times,
and do not compile from the writings of others, particularly
of thoſe who themſelves bore a part in public affairs, as
Thucydides, Xenophon, Cæfar, Clarendon, Sully, &c. come
under the confideration of original evidences. With reſpect to
writers of this claſs, it is obvious to remark, that the ancients
were in circumſtances in which it was much leſs eaſy to receive
information than the moderns, by reafon of their want of the
methods which are now in ufe for the ſpeedy conveying of
intelligence. For theſe we are indebted to that freer intercourfe
which more extenfive politics and commerce have promoted
between different ſtates, and eſpecially the eſtabliſhment of poſts
in all the civilized countries of Europe.
In ancient times a nation might be fubdued, and hardly any
but its next neighbours hear of it. This may be the reafon
why fo little notice is taken of the wars of the Romans and
Carthaginians by the cotemporary Greek writers, who do not
fo ftrictly confine themfelves to their fubject, as purpofely to
decline the mention of foreign incidents that would embelliſh
their works. For a like reafon it is remarkable that all the
Rates of Europe were long ignorant both of Jenghis Khan and
his conqueſts. But fince commerce and navigation have been
fo much extended, nothing can happen in the moſt remote parts.
of the civilized world but the knowledge of it is immediately
communicated to all the reft.
•
It is a pretty juft obfervation of Mr. Hume, that, in general,
there is more candour and fincerity in the ancient hiftorians,
but leſs exactneſs and care than in the moderns. The reaſon
I
of
46
PART II.
LECTURES ON
of the latter may be, that the first writers of hiſtory could not
be aware of the ufe of fuch minute exactneſs in relating a
variety of hiſtorical circumftances. For example, not having
obferved, or fufficiently attended to, fuch fubjects as govern-
ment, laws, manners, arts, &c. they were not aware that the
progrefs of them would ever become a matter of fuch general
and reaſonable curiofity as it is now. Alfo having feen no
important end anſwered by chronological exactneſs, and having
no fixed æras to guide them, they would naturally not be fo
attentive to fix the precife dates of events, as the more extenfive
views of modern hiftorians makes it defirable that they had been.
On the other hand, the ancient and claffical hiftorians had
an advantage in the subject of their hiftories, with respect to
the certainty of intelligence, concerning the objects and motives
of ſchemes and tranfactions. They treat chiefly of the politics
and wars of republican ftates, in which nothing can be kept
fecret. For befides that modern politics are much more com-
plex and refined than the ancient, more pains are taken to
conceal them; which, in European courts and monarchies, or
ftates in which the executive power is lodged in one hand or a
few hands, it is more eafy to do. Notwithſtanding this, fo much
are the methods of coming at intelligence multiplied, and
improved, in the more connected modern ftates of Europe, that
the fagacity even of fome cotemporary writers has arrived at
remarkable certainty and exactneſs in their accounts of public
meaſures; and even with respect to thofe nations which are
the most famed for the intricacy of their politics. Gerard,
fecretary to the Duke d'Epernon, relates, that when Davila's
hiſtory was read by that old man, who had been a principal
actor in that age, he expreffed his wonder how the author could
be fo well informed of the moft fecret councils and meaſures
of those times.
LECT. V.
LECT.V.
4+7
HISTORY.
LECTURE
V.
Of hiftorical Poems.
Thofe of Homer. Public Monuments
with traditional Explications. Hiftorical cuſtoms. Hiſtorical
Names of Perfons, Countries and Towns, &c. Monuments
with emblematical and alphabetical Infcriptions.
A
METHOD of tranfmiting the knowledge of important
events with greater accuracy than by fimple narration
would be by hiftorical poems, with which few barbarous nations
have been long wholly unprovided. A ſtory reduced to any
kind of metre would fuffer little by repetition; and it can hardly
be ſuppoſed that any variation in the repetition would be of
ſuch a nature as to affect the general facts it contained. Con-
fidering that all the learning of thoſe nations must neceffarily
confift of thoſe poems, and that, being compofed chiefly in
honour of their founders and heroes, they would be conftantly
fung in religious ceremonies, and on feftivals inftituted to their
memory (which circumftances would greatly contribute to
extend and perpetuate them) it is eafily conceived what ufe an
hiftorian, who could come at the knowledge of fuch poems,
might make of them.
The bards among the Britons and ancient Germans, and the
Scaldri among the Scandinavians, are moft worthy of our notice
in this reſpect, as they were an order of men whofe fole em-
ployment it was to compofe and repeat thofe poems.
poems. Olaus
Magnus has been much indebted to the poems of the Scaldri
in his hiſtory of one of the northern nations. It were to be
wished that the poems of the Welsh and Irish were better known.
:
Even:
48
PART II.
LECTURES
ON
This
Even the poems of Homer (particularly the Iliad) bear evi-
dent marks of their being founded on fact, notwithſtanding the
mixture of the abfurd Grecian mythology with them.
author is much more circumftantial than a mere writer of fiction,
particularly fo ancient a writer, would ever have thought of being.
The remarkable diftinctnefs of his characters is likewife no bad
foundation for fuppofing that they were copied from real life. In
both theſe reſpects the Æneid of Virgil is very defective. The
hiſtorical part of that work is neither fo circumftantial, nor are
the characters introduced into it fo diftinctly marked. It has,
therefore, much more the air of a romance.
Particularity in facts and characters neceffarily belong, and
cloſely adhere, to whatever has actually happened. It is therefore
almoft impoffible to exclude the mention of the particular cir
cumftances of time, place, and character in a relation of facts;
whereas theſe being fuperfluous in the views of a writer of fiction,
and not neceffarily obtruding themſelves into the ſtory, they are
generally omitted. Befides, fuch ftories are commonly more
agreeable to the trite maxims of criticiſm, as being free from
every thing that is not effential to the main ftory. But this kind
of correctneſs is purchaſed at the expence of what is one of the
beſt characteriſtics of truth. And happy has it been for the cauſe
of truth that the importance of introducing fuch a number of
feemingly unneceffary particulars into narrations was not more
early attended to, as hereby it is much more eaſy to diſtinguiſh
truth from fiction in ancient writings.
Another means of preferving traditions, which has been more
general than hiftorical poems, is by visible monuments, ſuch as
pillars, edifices, or mere heaps of ftones, erected upon occation of
any remarkable event. Theſe monuments, engaging the atten-
tion of the rifing generation, would occafion fuch a fucceffion of
enquiries
:
LECT.V.
49
HISTORY.
enquiries and informations, concerning the origin and ufe of
them, as would long preferve the knowledge of the tranfactions
they were connected with. Of this nature probably was the
tower of Babel, as well as the pillar that Jacob erected at He-
bron, and the heap of ſtones jointly raiſed by him and Laban
as a memorial of their mutual reconciliation and covenant.
As theſe monuments had no infcriptions, their explanation
muft only have been traditional; but as the facts were con-
nected with viſible and ſtriking affociated circumftances, they
would have a great advantage over thoſe conveyed by mere oral
tradition. The fight of the monument could not fail to revive,
in the minds of all who lived in the neighbourhood, the remem-
brance of the uſe and defign of it: and while the monument
fubfifted, it can hardly be ſuppoſed that even a migration of
the people would be followed by an abſolute loſs of the hiſtory.
For the new-comers, though not equally intereſted in the events
referred to with the late inhabitants, could not help being in-
duced, by principles common to human nature, to get what
information they could procure with reſpect to fuch curiofities
in the countries they fettled in.
Giving names to countries, towns, &c. has been made ufe of
as an expedient for perpetuating the memory of their planters
or founders, from times of the earlieſt antiquity to the preſent
age; from Enoch, which had its name from the fon of Cain,
down to Pitsbury, which was fo called in the late war. Indeed
there is hardly a name given either to a perfon, or place in the
Old Teftament without an hiſtorical reafon for it. And where
tranſactions would not be to the honour of the perfons con-
cerned in them, the officious zeal of their enemies has fome-
times affixed opprobious names and epithets to the places which
were the theatre of them, which bid equally fair to adhere to
*
H
them.
50
PART II.
LECTURES ON
!
them. Thus the field in which Pope Gregory treated with
Lewis the feeble, when they were both known to enter
into the negociation with a view to deceive one another, went
for a long time, and is perhaps to this day known, by the name
of the field of lies.
Of the fame nature with public monuments and traditional
explanations, are national customs, in commemoration of re-
markable hiſtorical events; fuch as the Athenians; fending an-
nually a ſhip to Delos, the pafchal fupper among the Jews, the
Lord's fupper among Chriftians, our making bonfires on the
fifth of November, and carrying oak bows on the twenty-ninth
of May.
The philofopher Anaximander effectually provided for his
not being forgotten; when, being afked by the magiftrates at
Lampfacum, where he had refided, what they fhould do to
honour his memory, he made the feemingly ſmall and fimple
request, that the boys might have leave to play on the anni-
verſary of his deceaſe...
-
#
Thefe hiftorical cuftoms would not, indeed, like hiftorical
monuments, remain in the country where they were firft efta-
bliſhed, and thereby come to the knowledge of the new inha-
bitants; but, which is an equivalent advantage, they are eafily
transferred with the people that migrate, wherever they go; and
in another reſpect they are more uſeful to an hiftorian, as they
affift him in tracing the original of colonies, which would
naturally retain the cuftoms of their mother country. Thus
Newton infers from what we read of the practice of circum-
cifion in Colchis and Iberia, that the inhabitants of thoſe
countries were probably a colony of Egyptians, and perhaps
left there in the expedition of Sefoftris. By the fame manner
of reaſoning the Chineſe have alſo of late been fufpected to have
been
LECTAV.
51
TCH IS TO RY
been a colony of Egyptians, and the prefent inhabitants of
North America to be of the race of the ancient Sarmatians, in-
habiting the north eastern parts of Afia.
It is not improbable but that the corruption which the tra-
ditional explanations of naked monuments is unavoidably liable
to, might firſt fuggeft to mankind the expediency of fome con-
trivance to make them their own interpreters; either by the
form, or fituation of them, as in the pyramids of Egypt, tro-
phies of victory, &c. or by engraving upon them fame emblems,
or device's, expreffive of the ufes they were intended to anfwer.
Thus, Sefoftris is faid to have erected pillars in the countries he
fubdued, and to have engraved upon fome of them emblems
expreffive of the cowardice or weakneſs of the inhabitants, upon
others fymbols of the vigour and ſpirit with which they had op-
pofed his invafion.
As the names of men, in all original languages, were borrowed
from thofe of things, the figures of thofe things which bore the
fame name with any perfon, engraved upon his fepulchre, was
no bad method of expreffing to whom it belonged. This me-
thod might have been uſed before alphabetical writing was in-
vented, and as the bishop of Clogher ingenioufly conjectures,
may eafily be fuppofed to have given rife to the worſhip of ani-
mals and vegetables among the Egyptians.
+
As, in after ages, improvements were made in this method by
the Greeks who fettled in Egypt,, who erected ftatues holding in
their hands the things which the former inhabitants had been
fatisfied with pourtraying upon the fepulchres, the fame learned
perfon, with great appearance of reafon, conjectures that the
ſtatue of Jupiter Cafius holding a pomegranate in his hand was
originally deſigned for Caphtor, who is mentioned by Moſes,
and whoſe name fignifies a pomegranate in Hebrew, which was
H 2
the
..
:
52
PART II.
LECTURES
"
ON
་
the original language of that country. This conjecture receives
additional confirmation from confidering that this Caphtor, who
ſeems to have come along with his great grandfather Ham into
Egypt, was the firft Egyptian warrior that we meet with any
account of in real history, who extended his conquefts beyond
the boundaries of Egypt, and, in company with his brethren the
Philistines, difpoffeffed the Avim of that part of the land of Canaan
which was afterwards called Philiftia, and was in after times
deified. Nor is it improbable that he might have been the fame
perfon alſo with Dionyfus the elder, or the great Bacchus.
The apparent convenience of thoſe monuments to receive
infcriptions would probably fet mens ingenuity to work, and
greatly accelerate the invention of writing, both hieroglyphical
and alphabetical. And there is reafon to believe that letters,
and characters of all kinds, were made upon wood, ftone, metal,
and fuch like durable materials, long before they were made
ufe of in common life.
The imperfection of monuments, even with infcriptions, is
that they could record only a few events, in a manner deftitute
of circumſtances, and that they are not eafily multiplied, fo that,
remaining fingle, and little care being taken to renew them,
the materials would in time moulder away, and the infcription
become effaced. And the attention which was not fufficient to
keep them in repair, would hardly fuffice for the preſervation
of the traditional explications. The Arundelian marbles, which
contain all the leading events of the Grecian hiftory till fixty
years after the death of Alexander the Great; and the Capitoline
marbles, which contain a catalogue of the Roman magiftrates,
and the principal events of their hiftory, during the time of the
commonwealth are justly reckoned among the most valuable
remains of monumental infcriptions.
"
LECT
LECT. VI.
53
HISTORY.
4
LECTURE VI.
Of Coins and Medals. Their Origin and Ufe in Hiftory. The
principal Information we receive from them. The Progrefs of
Letters traced by their Means. Addifon's Ufe of Medals. An-
cient and modern Coins compared, with a View both to Hiftory
and Tafte. Of the Origin and Ufe of Heraldry.
C
OINS and medals, with refpect to their Ufes in Hiſtory,
may be confidered as a kind of portable monuments. The
materials of both are fimilar, and the events they record are
fingle, and remarkable. The ſmall ſize of a coin does not even
admit of its being fo circumftantial as a monument; and
though, for the fame reafon, it be more liable to be loft, it is alſo
more capable of being concealed, and is not expofed to the in-
juries of the weather. And as great numbers are ſtruck at the
fame time, they are easily multiplied, fo that, upon the whole,
they ftand a much fairer chance of being feen by pofterity.
Accordingly, we have innumerably more coins that were ſtruck
in ancient times than there are ancient monuments ſtanding in
the world; and though we may be more liable to be impoſed
upon by pretended antiques, this confideration affects the virtuofo
more than the hiftorian. For if the new ones be exact copies
of ancient coins, they corrupt no hiſtory, and it can hardly
be worth any perfon's while to coin a piece whofe known
exiſtence has acquired it no degree of reputation.
If
فتن
54
PART II,
LECTURES
ON
}
If we attend only to the original, and primary, ufe of coins,
we ought to make no mention of them among the direct methods
of recording events. For all the ancient coins, which have now
obtained the name of medals, were nothing more than the ſtamped
money of ancient nations. Yet as the monumental uſe of ſuch
portable pieces of metal, ftruck by the direction of a ſtate, were
fo very obvious; it was not long before this double ufe of them
was attended to. We know nothing of the impreffion of the
Crefii (fo called from Crafus, who is the first prince in the
world whofe coined money is mentioned by hiftorians, and
which were afterwards recoined by Darius the Mede, and from
him received the name of Darics) but the Latins coined their
firft money with the head of Saturn on one fide, and the figure of
a fhip on the other, in memory of his coming into Italy by fea;
and upon every new event, or the acceffion of a new magiftrate
in the Roman empire, the dies of their coins were changed, to
take proper notice of that new circumftance. No anecdotes,
indeed, of a private nature are found on them. For though
ſome few pieces under the emperors were coined in honour of
the fenate, the army, or the people; no private perfons had that
honour, except they were related to the emperor.
Such a number of events have been recorded by ancient
medals, and fo great has been the care of the moderns, in col-
lecting and preferving them, that they now give great light to
hiſtory; in confirming ſuch paffages as are true in old authors,
in aſcertaining what was before doubtful, and in recording ſuch
as were omitted. It is remarkable that
It is remarkable that hiftory fcarce makes
"
any mention of Balbec, or Palmyra, whofe ruins are fo fa-
mous; and we have little knowledge of them but what is
fupplied by inſcriptions. It is by this means that Mr. Valliant
has difembroiled a hiſtory which was loft to the world before
his
LECT. VI.
55
HISTORY.
1
his time. For out of a ſhort collection of medals he has given
us an entire chronicle of the kings of Syria; though it will
hardly be regarded as fupplying any important defect in hiſtory,
that medals inform us of wives and children of emperors, which
have not been taken notice of by any perfon whatever.
All the principal events of the reign of Lewis XIV. have
been recorded in a fet of medals, ftruck for that very purpoſe:
But the inconvenience attending modern medals is, that, not
being uſed as the current coin of any ſtate, and being made of
very coftly materials, they are confined to the cabinets of a few
perfons. This was not the cafe of any of the ancient medals,
except a few of a larger fize, and more curious workmanship,
which were ſtruck by the emperors for preſents to their friends,
foreign princes, or ambaffadors, &c. and which we now diftin-
guifh by the name of medallions.
But medals are not only, or perhaps chiefly, valuable as they
are a means of preſerving the knowledge of the leading events in
hiſtory; they have likewiſe been a means of tranfmitting to us
a more perfect knowledge of many things which we are defirous of
forming an idea of, than any hiſtory, by means of verbal deſcrip-
tion, could poffibly give us. We find upon them traces of customs
and manners, the figures of ancient buildings, inftruments, habits,
and of a variety of things which fhew the ſtate of the arts and
conveniencies of life, in the age wherein the medals were ftruck;
many things in nature which hiftorians have paffed unnoticed,
as being familiar in the times in which they wrote, or have
omitted, as not being aware that they would ever engage the
curiofity of after ages.
It is alſo very amuſing to view upon medals the features of
the great men of antiquity; which, if they were ſtruck in an age
in which the arts flourished, as is the cafe with many of the Ro-
..man,,
5.6
PART II.
LECTURES ON
man, and particularly of the Grecian medals, we can have no
doubt but that they are fufficiently exact. And even if they
were ſtruck in an age which did not excel in the arts of painting,
ftatuary, and carving; yet, as faces are chiefly drawn in profile
upon coins, any perfon who has taken notice of fhadows, may
conceive that a very ſtriking likeneſs may easily be hit off in that
way. However, in general, fo extremely exact are the drawings
of moſt ſingle objects upon the old medals of the beſt
ages, that
even thoſe famous painters Raphael, Le Bruyn, and Rubens,
thought it worth their while thoroughly to study them, and
preſerve cabinets of them. And indeed the generality of figures
on many of the Grecian medals have a deſign, an attitude, a force,
and a delicacy, in the expreffion even of the muſcles and veins of
human figures, and they are fupported by fo high a relief, that
they infinitely ſurpaſs both the Roman medals, and moſt of the
moderns. The only defect in the drawing upon old medals is, that
buildings, and other objects, are feen only in front, and never in
perſpective, an art with which the ancients were but little ac-
quainted.
Upon medals are feen plans of the moſt confiderable buildings
of ancient Rome. One might make an entire galley, fays Mr.
Addiſon, out of the plans that are to be met with on the re-
verſes of ſeveral old coins. We ſee alſo the habits, and dreſſes
of different perfons, in different ages; and moreover not only
things but customs, civil and religious, are preſerved upon coins,
as facrifices, triumphs, congiaries, allocutions, decurfions, lecti-
fterniums, and many other antiquated names and ceremonies,
that we ſhould not have had fo juft a notion of, were they not
ftill preſerved on coins. Without the help of coins, as the ſame
author prettily obferves, we ſhould never have known which of
the emperors was the firſt that wore a beard, or rode in ſtirrups.
4
Old
鳖
​$
LECT. VI.
HIST OR Y.
57
Old coins exhibit likewife the general character and tafte
of the feveral Emperors. Thus we fee Nero with his fiddle,
and Commodus dreffed in his lion's fkin; though we are not to
truft to coins for the characters of princes. If fo, Claudius
would be as great a conqueror as Julius Cæfar, and Domitian
as good a man as Titus. For though the coinage at Rome
was fubject to the direction of the fenate, there is no doubt
but that in this, as in every thing elſe, they confulted the taſte
and pleaſure of the Emperors.
!
Several of theſe advantages medals poffefs in common with
fome monumental infcriptions. They alfo agree in this,, that
from medals and infcriptions only we can, form any idea of the
progress of the art and manner of writing in different nations
and ages. Writing upon other materials could not be expected
to be fo durable. In fact, the oldeft manufcripts are few, and
modern, in compariſon of thouſands of coins and inſcriptions..
Upon medals are preferved the entire forms of many ancient
edifices, and probably, the attitudes of famous ftatues, and copies
of celebrated paintings, of which there are now no other re-
mains. What confirms this conjecture is, that four of the
moſt beautiful ftatues extant, viz. Hercules of Farnefe, Venus
of Medicis, Apollo of Belvedere, and the famous Marcus
Aurelius on horfeback, do all of them make their appearance
on ancient medals; though this was not known till the ſtatues
themſelves were diſcovered.
On the fubject of the ufe of ancient medals (though
it be an uſe of them that has little relation to hiſtory). I
ſhall juſt mention the principal fubject of Mr. Addifon's
ingenious treatife on medals, viz. that ancient medals and
ancient poetry throw great light upon one another. He has
there exhibited a variety of examples, in which the artist who
Ꮮ
made:
58
PART II.
LECTURES
ON
made the medal, and the poet have had the fame thought,
or copied from the very fatne common original; the very
fame thing being defcribed in verfe, and expreffed in fculpture.
He has likewife prefented us with a curious fet of medals which
clear up feveral difficult paffages in old authors, and he has
produced many paffages from the poets, which explain the
reverſes of ſeveral medals; fo that the fcience of medals makes
no inconfiderable figure in the Belles Lettres.
What the ancients made a fecondary and fubordinate ufe of
their coins, modern Europeans ftates have attended to, as a
primary and direct object. They have ſtruck a variety of medals
with no other view than to celebrate fome illuftrious perſon,
or perpetuate the knowledge of fome memorable event. For
modern medals do not pafs current in payment, as money; but
at the fame time that they anſwer this their primary uſe more
compleatly, by containing more circumftances of a tranfaction,
and being furnished with more precife dates; in every other
reſpect they ſhow a manifeft want of judgment and true tafte;
and, but that it is impoffible we fhould be deceived in the
manners and cuftoms of our own times, they might greatly
miſlead us in thoſe refpects.
With the method of coining, we have flavifhly copied the
manners, cuſtoms, habits, and even the religion, of the ancients,
with the fame abfurdity, and in the fame degree, as we have
done in our poetry. This, from the nature of things, muſt
ever be the fate of all imitations, that are not made immediately
from nature. If we copy from other imitations, we fhall
always copy too much, an error which the inventors of any
art, who copy only from nature and real life, are not liable
to. For this reafon every borrowed art will always betray its
original. Thus, though, in ancient medals, we may trace
2
all
LECT. VI.
59
HISTORY.
all the variations of mode in drefs, in the modern we cannot;
all perfons without diſtinction, being commonly feen in a Roman
habit. From the ancient medals we may form fome idea of
the cuſtoms and religion of the country in which they were
ftruck; but we might conclude all the modern European ftates
to be, in part at leaſt, Heathen from their medals. Had the
Greeks and Romans been guilty of the fame extravagance, we
fhould not have found half the ufes of their medals that we
now do. It is impoffible to learn from the French medals, either
the religion, the customs, or the habits of the French nation.
With regard to taste in medals, the moderns, attending
principally to their historical ufes, have crouded them too
much with infcriptions; fometimes for want of room, putting
a part of the legend upon the external edge of the piece;
whereas the infcriptions upon moft ancient medals are ex-
tremely concife, and elegant. We even find entire copies of
verfes on fome modern medals, and on others fo abfurd and
extravagant a tafte is fhown, that the year of our Lord is
diſtinguiſhed by the letters in the infcription which denote
it being raiſed above the reft. Laftly, which is very remark-
able, confidering the great improvement of the arts in general;
many of the ancient medals, as was hinted before, particularly
thofe of the kings of Macedon, are faid by the connoiffeurs to
exceed any thing of modern date in the beauty of their work-
manſhip, and the delicacy of expreffion. During the time of
the early Roman Emperors, the medals had a more beautiful
relief than the modern. But about the time of Conftantine
they became quite flat, as thofe of all European ftates, which
imitated them, likewife were, till of late years. We likewiſe
copied the Conftantinopolitan coinage in England till about
the reign of Henry VII. in drawing a full face; whereas all
I 2
faces
}
i
60
PART II.
LECTURES ON
:
faces were drawn in profile, (which is, on many accounts; far
the moſt proper for a coin) till the end of the third century. ⠀⠀
Confidering the principal hiftorical ufes of medals, without
entering into all the fanciful views of a virtuofo, intent upon
compleating his feveral fuites, it will appear no paradox that
the value of a medal is not to be eſtimated either from the fize,
or the materials of it; but from what is curious in the head,
the reverſe, or the legend of it; from its rarity, from the
fineness of its workmanship, or from the goodneſs of its
prefervation. Thus an Otho in filver is common and cheap
but an Otho in bronze is very fcarce, and bears an immenfe
price.
In modern times coats of arms have been made uſe of to
diſtinguiſh families. They must therefore be of great ufe in
tracing pedigrees, and confequently in afcertaining perfons and
events in hiftory..
The origin of armories feem, to be afcribed with the greateſt
probability to the ancient tournaments. Henry the Fowler, who
regulated the tournaments in Germany, was the firft who
introduced theſe marks of honour. Coats of arms were then a
kind of livery, compofed of feveral bars, filets, and colours,
to diftinguish the combatants, whofe features could not be
feen during the engagement. And thofe who had not been
concerned in any tournaments had no arms, though they were
gentlemen.
}
Such of the nobility and gentry as croffed the fea, in the
expedition to the holy land, alfo affumed theſe tokens. of
honour, to diftinguish themſelves.
Before thoſe times we find nothing upon ancient tombs but
croffes, with gothic infcriptions, and reprefentations of the
perfons deceaſed. The tomb of Pope Clement IV. who died
in
i
LECT. VI.
61
HISTORY.
in one thouſand two hundred and fixty-eight, is the firft
whereon we find any arms; nor do they appear on any coin.
ftruck before the year one thouſand three hundred and thirty-
fix. We meet with figures, it is true, much more ancient
both in ſtandards and on medals; but neither princes nor cities
ever had arms in form, nor does any author make mention of
blazoning before that time.
Originally, none but the nobility had the right of bearing
arms. But Charles V. king of France, having ennobled the
Parifians, by his charter, in one thouſand three hundred and
feventy-one, permitted them to bear arms. From their ex-
ample, the moſt eminent citizens of other places did the like.
Camden ſays the uſe of arms was not eſtabliſhed till the
reign of Henry III. and he inftances in ſeveral of the moft
confiderable families in England; whereas till that time the
fon always bore arms different from thoſe of the father. About
the fame time it became the cuftom in England for private
gentlemen to bear arms, borrowing them from the lords of
whom they held in fee, or to whom they were the moſt
devoted.
Arms at prefent are of the nature of titles, being both alike
hereditary, and the marks for diftinguiſhing families and kin-
dred, as names are of perfons and individuals.
All the methods of tranfmitting the knowledge of events to
pofterity which have hitherto been mentioned, being more
fimple, and requiring lefs ability, would probably precede
biftories, or narratives written upon light and portable materials;
though thefe, no doubt, would be very fhort, plain, and
devoid of ornament at first. The traces of facts left by the
practice of preceding methods muſt alſo have been the only
fources
62
PART II.
LECTURES ON
fources from which the first hiftorians could derive their
And fince all nations,
degrees, its probable
with or without in-
materials for the hiftories of times paft.
and all arts, approach to perfection by
that traditional poems and monuments,
fcriptions, &c. would abound in thofe countries which
duced the first hiftorians:
pro-
•
LECTURE VII.
The tranfition from public Monuments to written Hiftories. Re-
cords and Archives of States. At what Time Chronology began
to be attended to. Early Methods of noting the Intervals of
Time. At what Time the Hiftory of this western Part of the
World begins to be credible. Ancient Hiftorians to be preferred,
who write of the Events of their own Times. Modern Hiſtory
best understood a confiderable Time after the Events.
T¹
HE tranfition from public monuments to written hiſ
tories may eafily be conceived to have been gradual,
and almoft infenfible. For the firft writings, or records in
an hiſtorical form, were not the work of private perfons, who
wrote either for their own reputation, or the fervice of the
public; but were made under the direction of fome public
magiſtrate; and, like the Capitoline tables, contained little
more than a catalogue of the chief magiftrates, and the bare
mention of the principal events which happened under their
adminiſtration.
LECT. VII.
63
HISTORY.
adminiſtration. Such, probably, were the records of the Ar-
chons of Athens, the catalogue of the prieſteffes of Juno Ar-
giva, and not much more, probably were the chronicles of the
kings of Judah, Ifrael and Perfia, of which mention is made in
the Scriptures.
Few attempts were made by private perfons to compofe
hiſtory in the Greek language (in which the oldeſt writings
now extant, except thoſe of the old Teftament, are contained)
before Herodotus, who is therefore ftiled the father of history,
and who wrote about four hundred and fifty years before Chriſt.
Hiftory never contained any variety of intereſting and curious
particulars, nor received any of thoſe graces and ornaments,
which render the ſtudy of it liberal, and engaging to the per-
fons not concerned in the tranfactions it records, till men of
literature and leiſure gave their time and abilities to the ſubject.
As but few tranſactions could be tranfmitted by all the methods
in uſe for recording them before the writing of hiſtory, and as
hiftorians themſelves afford no fufficient dates for meaſuring the
intervals of paſt time without chronology; it will be uſeful, in
order to form a general idea about what time the bulk of hiſtory
begins to be worthy of credit, to give fome account of the
time when hiſtory began to be written, and chronology to be at-
tended to, in fome countries of principal note. In this I ſhall
chiefly follow Sir Ifaac Newton.
The Europeans had no chronology before the time of the
Perfian Empire, and whatever chronology they now have of
more ancient times has been framed fince, by reafoning and con-
jecture. What they call the hiftorical age wants a good chrono-
logy for fixty or feventy olympiads, and from fuch wandering
people as were formerly in Europe, there could be no memory of
things done three or four generations before the uſe of letters.
Cadmus
64
LECTURES ON PART. II.
'
Cadmus Milefius, and Acufilaus, the oldeft hiftorians among
the Greeks. Jofephus fays, were but a little before the expedition
of the Perfians againſt the Greeks. Hellanicus was twelve years
older than Herodotus, and digefted his hiftory by ages, or the
fucceffion of the prieſteffes of Juno and Argiva. Others digeſted
theirs by the archons of Athens, or the kings of Lacedæmon.
Herodotus himſelf ufes no particular æra. Thucydides makes
ufe of the commencement of the Peloponnefian war, which
is the fubject of his hiftory, as an æra to which he refers
all the events he mentions. Ephorus, who brought his hiftory
to the twentieth year of Philip of Macedon, digefted things by
generations. The reckoning by olympiads, or any other fixed
era, was not yet in ufe among the Greeks. The Arundelian
marbles were compofed fixty years after the death of Alexander
the Great, and yet mention not the olympiads, nor any other
ſtanding æra, but reckon backward from the time then pre-
fent. In the next olympiad, Timæus Siculus wrote a hiſtory
down to his own times, according to the olympiads. Era-
tofthenes wrote about one hundred years after the death of Alex-
ander the Great, and was followed by Apollodorus; and theſe
two have been followed by all chronologers.
As Cambyfes deſtroyed all the records of Egypt, ſuch as they
were, we have no account of that people which can be de-
pended upon before their intercourfe with the Greeks, from
whom, indeed, is derived all that we know of them, and that
was not before the time of Pfammeticus, who began his reign
in the year fix hundred and fixty-one before Chrift. This we
learn from Herodotus, who, when he is fpeaking of thofe Gre-
cians who had helped to fet Pfammeticus on the throne of
Egypt, ſays that the Ionians and Carians continued for a long
time to inhabit thoſe parts which lay near the ſea, below the
city
LECT. VII.
65
HISTORY.
city of Bubaſtis, in the Pelufiac branch of the Nile, till in fuc-
ceeding times Amafis king of Egypt caufed them to abandon
their habitations, and fettle at Memphis, to defend him againſt
the Egyptians. But from the time of their eſtabliſhment, he
fays, they had ſo conſtant a communication with the Greeks,
that one may juſtly ſay we know all things that paffed in Egypt
from the reign of Pfammeticus to our age.
The chronology of the Latins is ftill more uncertain than
that of the Greeks. Both Plutarch and Servius repreſent great
uncertainty in the originals of Rome; and no wonder, confider-
ing that the old records of the Latins were burned by the
Gauls, one hundred and twenty-fix years after the Regifuge, and
one hundred and fixty years before the death of Alexander the
Great. Quintus Fabius Pictor, the oldeſt hiftorian of the La-
tins, lived one hundred years later than Alexander, and took
almoſt every thing from Diocles Peparethus, a Greek..
y
When the Greeks and Latins were forming their technical
chronology, there were great difputes about the antiquity of
Rome. The Greeks made it much older than the Olympiads.
Some of them faid it was built by Eneas; others by Romus,
the fon or grandſon of Æneas; others by a Romus, the fon or
grandfon of Latinus, king of the Aborigines; others by Ro-
mus the fon of Ulyffes, or of Afcanius, or of Italus; and fome
of the Latins at first fell in with the opinion of the Greeks,
faying that it was built by Romulus the fon, or grandſon, of
Æneas. Timæus Siculus repreſents it as built by Romulus the
grandfon of Æneas, above one hundred years before the Olym-
piads, and fo did Nævius the poet, who was twenty years older
than Ennius, ferved in the first Punic war, and wrote a hif-
tory
of that war. Hitherto nothing certain was agreed upon;
but about a hundred and forty, or one hundred and fifty years
after the death of Alexander the Great, they began to fay that
Rome
K
66
PART 11.
LECTURES MON
Rome was built a fecond time by Romulus, in the fifteenth age
after the deſtruction of Troy, meaning by ages, the reigns of
the kings of the Latins at Alba*.
Scythia beyond the Danube had no letters before Ulphilas
their bishop introduced them, fix hundred years after the death
of Alexander; and the Germans had none till they received
them from the weſtern empire of the Latins, about feven hun-
dred years after the death of that king. The Huns had none
in the days of Procopius, who flourished eight hundred and
fifty years after the death of that king, and Sweden and Nor-
way received them ſtill later †.
With regard to our own country, the Romans are the firft na-
tion from whom we learn any account of ourſelves, and
had no writers of our own till the planting of chriſtianity, in the
time of the Saxon heptarchy. But from this time the church
and the cloyfters furniſhed a conftant fucceffion till the refor
mation; after which, and the revival of letters in the weft,
there can be no complaint of, want of writers; of any kind, or
party. And as to the bulk of modern hiſtory in general, and
indeed a great part of what is how called ancient too; Lord
Bolingbroke juftly obferves, that fince ancient memorials have
been fo critically examined, and modern memorials have been
fo multiplied, it contains fuch a probable feries of events, 'eafily
diſtinguiſhable from improbable, as forces the affént of every
man who is in his fenfes, and is fufficient to anfwer all the pur-
poſes of the ſtudy of hiſtory.
It may not be amifs to cloſe this account of hiftorians pro-
perly fo called, with obferving, that, of ancient hiftorians, a
côtemporary writer is to be preferred; but that among the
moderns, a later writer is almoft univerfally preferable. The
*Newton's Chron. p. 125.7
I
nyl+Ibidem, p. 50.
ancients
LECT. VII.
1867
MHISTORY.
•
ancients we credit in proportion to the merit of their evi-
dence for what they relate. The moderns we chiefly regard
according to their accuracy and diligence::in comparing and
afcertaining the evidence they can collect from others. The
difference is founded on this confideration, that for want of
memorials of ancient tranfactions, the more time has elapfed
after they happened, the more dubious the hiſtory grows.
Whereas in modern times, every event of confequence is in-
ftantly committed to writing, in fome form or other, by a
thouſand hands. Theſe are brought to light only by degrees;
and confidering that no perfon, or thoſe immediately connected
with him, can know the whole of any very complex tranf-
action, and moreover that no perſon who writes the hiſtory of
his own times can efcape the influence of prejudice, for or
againſt particular perfons and fchemes; a later writer, who
views things with more coolness, and has a greater variety of
materials to compare, has certainly a great advantage over any
that went before him..
..
Our own hiſtory till the reformation, there can be no doubt,
is far better understood this century than it was the laſt; and
every year brings us acquainted with ſome new memoir con-
cerning the tranſactions of the middle of that, and the beginning
of the preſent century.. Nay, fo much weight is due to this
confideration, that we hardly need fcruple to fay, notwith-
standing the lofs of many valuable hiftories, that we have
almoſt as perfect a knowledge of the most important events of
feveral periods even in the claffical hiſtory as the generality of the
Greeks and Romans who lived in thofe periods could attain to.
However, with regard to modern times, a cotemporary writer
were he entirely free from prejudice, writes under great diſada
vantages, in point of intelligence only in compariſon with one
K 2
who
68
PART II.
LECTURES ON
3
who comes after him; who, with inferior qualifications, will
eafily be able to fupply his deficiences, if not correct his miſ-
takes. And it can only be with respect to times in which
there is a great ſcarcity of materials, and where thoſe have been
tranſmitted through the hands of feveral dependent evidences,
that a contrary rule is to be obſerved.
LECTURE VIII. .
}
Of the indirect Methods of collecting the Knowledge of past Events.
The Ufe of Books not properly historical. The Works of Poets,
and Orators, and the Remains of Artifts of all Kinds. Diffi-
culty of a Writer's concealing his Age and Country from a faga-
cious Reader. The Fictions of Annius of Viterbo. The bifto
rical Use of Cicero's Letters. Several Inftances of Newton's
Sagacity in tracing Events by Means of connected Circum-
fances. Use of Language to an Hiftorian, in tracing Re-
volutions in a State. How far any Circumftances in the Lan-
guage of a Country may be a Guide in judging of the original
Genius and Manners of the People; exemplified in the He-
brew and Roman Tongues. A curious Obfervation of Mr.
Hume's on the Ufe of correlative Terms in Languages. Of
Simplicity or Refinement in Languages.
TH
HE methods of recording events which have hitherto
been mentioned may be termed direct, becauſe they were.
contrived, and made uſe of, for that purpoſe; and the notices of
paſt events with which they furniſh us are the moſt copious' fource
of
LECT. VIII.
69
HISTORY.
of Hiſtory in after ages.
But there is a variety of other me-
thods in which the knowledge of events, and of the fituation of
things in times paft, is communicated to ús indirectly; as from
many circumstances, which do not at all partake of the nature
of records, perfons of fagacity and attention will be able to form
an idea of the ſtate of things, and to diſtinguiſh the intervals
of time, in paſt ages. I fhall mention a few of theſe, in order
to give you fome idea what a variety of things an accurate hif-
torian muſt attend to, and from what unexpected quarters he
may fometimes receive the greateſt light and information.
In the first place, it will eafily be apprehended, that in order
to form a complete idea of characters and events which occur
in any period of hiftory, we are not to confine ourſelves to books
profeffedly hiſtorical. For fo extenfive is the connexion of
things with one another, that every thing written or done, in
any period of time, is neceffarily related, in a thoufand ways,
to many other things that were tranfacted at the fame time; and
therefore cannot help bearing fome marks and traces of thoſe
related particulars; and by thefe a perfon of fagacity will be
led to the knowledge of more things than he who tranfmitted
the accounts of them intended to fignify. For this reafon, to
form as complete an idea as poffible of the ſtate of things in any
period of paſt time, we muſt carefully ftudy all the remains of
that time, how foreign foever they may at first fight appear to
be to our main purpoſe. In this ſenſe, even poets and orators
may be confidered as hiftorians, and every law and cuſtom as a
piece of hiſtory.
To ſo great perfection are men arrived in diſtinguiſhing things
that have any real connexion, that the age of almoſt every
writing that remains of ancient times is determined with great
exactneſs. Indeed, a writer who has no particular defign to con-
ceal
70
PART II.
LECTURES ON
ceal the time in which he writes, can hardly avoid introducing
(in one manner or other) the mention of fuch particulars as will
direct to it; or if he intend to impofe upon the world, it is a
thouſand to one but, if nothing elfe, his language and ftyle be-
tray him. Theſe are things which are perfectly mechanical,
and leaſt of all at a perfons command; or, however, what few
perfons ever think of diſguifing.
There is no doubt, in particular, but that all the pieces
which Annius of Viterbo endeavoured to palm upon the world as
ancient writings have been expofed; the innumerable fabulous
legends about our Saviour, the apostles, and many of the popiſh
faints, which long paffed current, are now no longer regarded;
and the famous Decretals, of which the popes availed themſelves
fo much in dark ages, are now acknowledged to be forgeries,
even by the papifts themſelves; while the real productions of
antiquity ſtand their ground the firmer from theſe critical exa-
minations; and all the arguments of Pere Harduin (who from
ſeeing numberlefs forgeries was led to fufpect forgery every
where) has not probably been able to make one genuine claffic
author fufpected.
2
A few examples will more clearly fhow what ufe an attentive
hiſtorian may make of books not properly hiſtorical. No hif
torian now extant, or probably that ever was extant, will give
a perſon ſo much infight into the real characters, and views,
of thoſe great men who diftinguished themſelves in the time of
Cicero, as he may get from that collection of letters between
Cicero and his friends, which pafs under his name, and parti❤
cularly from his correfpondence with Atticus. Thefe letters,
indeed, are written with fo few interruptions, and with ſo much
freedom, that they contain a pretty regular, and very faithful hif-
tory of the moſt active and critical part of his life. They fhow
us,
LECT. VIII.
71
HISTORY.
us, at leaſt, in what light Cicero himſelf, who was a principal
actor in that important period, viewed the characters and events
of his time. And private diaries, and letters, written by
perfons who were the chief actors on the theatre of European
politics in the last century, are daily coming to light, and
fupplying great defects in all our hiftorians.
Sir Ifaac Newton, from two paffages in the poems of
Theognis of Megara, collects both the age of that writer and
the fituation of the Greeks in his time. That poet exhorts
his companions to be unanimous, and to drink and be merry,
without fear of the Medes; and he fays that Magnefia,
Colophon, and Smyrna, Grecian cities of Afia Minor, were
deſtroyed by diſcord. From thefe circumſtances he infers that,
in the time of this author, Cyrus had conquered thoſe cities
of the Greeks in Afia, that the ftates of Greece in Europe
were under great apprehenfion of being invaded, and that the
Perfians had not then affumed the fuperiority over the Medes,
which they afterwards did.
The language of a people is a great guide to an hiſtorian,
both in tracing their origin, and in diſcovering the ſtate of
many
other important circumſtances belonging to them. Of
all cuſtoms and habits, that of Speech, being the moſt fre-
quently exercised, is the most confirmed, and leaft liable to
change. Colonies, therefore, will always fpeak the language
of their mother country, unleſs fome event produce a freer
intercourſe with people who ſpeak another language; and even
the proportion of that foreign intercourfe may in fome meaſure
be eſtimated by the degree of the corruption of the language.
A few facts will clearly explain theſe pofitions.
}
The confiderable change which the Hebrew language under-
went at the time of the Babyloniſh captivity would be fufficient
to
72
PART II.
LECTURES O N
to inform us, without the aid of any other circumftance, that
few of the old inhabitants remained in the country, and that
thoſe who were carried away captive were either much feparated
from one another, or did not return in great numbers. The
few and inconfiderable remains of the British language in the
prefent English demonftrates, beyond all contradiction, the
havock that was made of the Britons by our Saxon anceſtors,
amounting almoft to a total extirpation and expulfion. And
the Saxon language spoken in the lowlands of Scotland is a
greater proof that they were conquered by the Saxons, than the
imperfect and fabulous annals of the Scotch hiftorians are of
the contrary..
But the uſe of language to an hiftorian is by no means confined
to diſcover the origin of a nation, or the greater revolutions that
have befallen it. Language takes a tincture from the civil
policy, the manners, cuftoms, employment, and taſte, of the
nation that uſes it, by means of which a perfon well verſed in the
theory of language will be able to make many curious dif-
coveries. An example or two will make this obfervation alſo
pretty plain.
A
It has been obſerved that the frequent allufions to military
affairs, or concealed metaphors borrowed from the art or practice
of war in the common forms of fpeech in the Roman tongue
(fuch as intervallum, a term fignifying distance fimply, though
borrowed from fortification) and a great many others of the
like nature, clearly inform us that the Romans were a people.
originally addicted to war. Like traces of a paftoral life, and
the buſineſs of huſbandry, are found in the Hebrew language,
which is therefore equally characteriſtic of the genius and
manner of life of that people. And if we only confider that
all people muſt be under the greateſt neceflity of inventing
terms
LECT. VIII.
73
HISTORY.
terms to express the ideas of things about which they are the
moft early and the most frequently converfant, and that theſe
terms, preferably to others, are univerfally transferred to things
analogous to them (becauſe moſt allufions will neceffarily be
made to things of the most frequent occurrence) this method of
tracing the original genius, manners, and employment of a
nation, fubtle as it may at firft fight appear, will eaſily be perceiv-
ed to have a foundation in nature; and we may fee that, were a
language thoroughly examined in this view, many clear and un-
questionable conclufions of this kind might be drawn from it.
It is obfervable that the word in the Hebrew which fignifies
a ſtranger, is derived from another word which fignifies to fear,
and that hoftis in Latin originally fignified both a ſtranger and an
enemy. Are not both theſe circumſtances plain indications that,
in the times when thofe languages were formed, there was
little intercourfe between different nations, and that travelling
was very hazardous ?
From the following curious obfervation on the nature and
progreſs of language, Mr. Hume, with great ingenuity, and
appearance of reaſon, argues that population was little encou-
raged by the Romans among their flaves. In all languages,
when two related parts of a whole bear any fenfible proportion
to each other, in numbers, rank, or confideration, there are
always correlative terms invented, which anſwer to both of the
parts, and exprefs their mutual relation; whereas if they bear
no fenfible proportion to each other, a name is invented for the
leſs only, and no particular term is thought of to diftinguish
the more confiderable part from the other. Thus man and
woman, mafter and fervant, prince and ſubject, ſtranger and
citizen, are correlative terms in all languages, indicating that
each part fignified by them bears a confiderable proportion to
L
the
74
PART II.
LECTURES ON
B
the other, that both are frequently mentioned in oppofition to
one another, and are often compared together. But Verna,
the Latin name for a flave born in the family, has no correlative;
which clearly indicates that. that fpecies of flaves bore no
fenfible proportion to the reft, and would not bear to be com-
pared with them.
By the fame method of reafoning, we infer that the military
part of ancient Rome bore a greater proportion to the huſbandmen
than they do among us, becauſe with them the terms miles and
paganus were correlative; and that the priests of Rome were
never confidered as a part of the community diftinct from the
reft, becauſe there is not in Latin any term to denote the laity,
in oppofition to the clergy, as there is in all chriftian countries.
It may juſt be mentioned in this place, that copiouſneſs and
refinement in language always keep pace with improvements
in the arts and conveniencies of life, and with the progrefs of
ſcience in a country. Diſcoveries of other kinds, made by the
medium of language might be mentioned, but thefe are fuf-
ficient to fhow of what importance the ftudy of language may
be to a perſon who would get a thorough infight into the
hiſtory, the genius, and the manners of a people.
+
$
}
LECT.
LECT. IX.
から
​H I SAT OR Y.
A
P
1
• 3
LECTURE
A
IX.
Connexion of Hiftory, and Law. The ftate of paternal and filial
Affection among the Romans, as feen by the Tenor of the Civil
Law. Cuftoms and general Maxims of the fame Ufe as Laws.
Ufe of Laws in tracing the original Genius and Manner of Life
of a People. Change in Laws correfponding with a Change
of Manners, exemplified in the feudal Syftem in England. Sim-
plicity or intricacy of Law. Hale's Inferences from a Law
of Canute's.
1
3
1
THE laws of a country are neceffarily connected with every
thing belonging to the people of it; fo that a thorough
knowledge of them, and of their progrefs, would inform us
of every thing that was moſt uſeful to be known about them
and one of the greateſt imperfections of hiftorians in general is
owing to their ignorance of law. Indeed hardly any perfon,
except a native, can come at an intimate knowledge of the laws
of any country. But it is greatly to be lamented that things
fo nearly connected as law and history ſhould have been fo
feldom Joined. For though the hiftory of battles and ſtate
intrigues be more engaging to the bulk of readers, who have
no reliſh for any thing but, what intereſts the paffions; from the
knowledge of the progrefs of laws, and changes of conftitution,
in a ſtate, a politician' may derive more uſeful information, and
a philofopher more rational entertainment, than from any other
object he can attend to. I fhall mention a few particulars, by
way of illuſtration of what I have now advanced.
L 2
As
76
PART II.
LECTURES
ON
As every new law is made to remove fome inconvenience the
ſtate was ſubject to before the making of it, and for which no
other method of redrefs was effectual, the law itſelf is a ftand-
ing, and the most authentic, evidence we can require of the
ſtate of things previous to it. Indeed, from the time that
laws began to be written in fome regular form, the preamble
to each of them is often an hiftorical account of the evil
intended, to be remedied by it, as is the cafe with many of our
ftatutes. But a fagacious hiftorian has little occafion for any
preamble to laws. They ſpeak fufficiently plain of themſelves.
When we read that a law was made by Clothaire king of
France, that no perfon fhould be condemned without being
heard, do we need being told that before the time of the
enacting that law the adminiftration of juſtice was very irregu-
lar in that country, and that a man could have little fecurity
for his liberty, property, or life? Is it not a proof that
the ſpirit of hoſpitality began to decline among the Burgun--
dians as they grew more civilized, when there was occafion
for a law to puniſh any Burgundian who ſhould ſhow a ſtranger
to the houſe of a Roman, inftead of entertaining him himſelf.
It is but an unfavourable idea that we form of the ftate of
paternal and filial affection among the Romans, from the
tenor of their laws, which fhow an extreme anxiety to reſtrain
parents from doing injuſtice to their own children. Children
(ſay their laws) are not to be difinherited without juft cauſe,
chiefly that of ingratitude, the cauſe muſt be fet forth in
the teſtament; it muſt be tried by the judge, and verified by
witneffes, if denied. Whereas among other nations natural
affection, without the aid of law, is a fufficient motive with
parents to do no injuftice to their children. A knowledge of
another part of the political conftitution of the Romans will
probably
LECT. IX.
77
HISTORY.
probably help us to a reafon for the uncommon defect of natural
affection among them. The Patria Poteftas was in reality the
power of a maſter over a flave, the very knowledge, and idea, of
which, though it were not often exerciſed, was enough to pro-
duce ſeverity in parents, and fear and diffidence in children,
which must deftroy mutual confidence and affection.
Cuſtoms, and general maxims of conduct, being of the nature
of unwritten laws, give us the fame infight into the ftate of
things in a country. The high eſteem in which hoſpitality is
held by the Arabs, and the religious, and even ſuperſtitious prac-
tice of it by them, and by other favage nations, fhews the great
want there is of that virtue in thoſe countries, and that travel-
ling is particularly dangerous in them.
The laws and cuſtoms of a country fhow clearly what was the
manner of living and the occupation of the original inhabitants
of it. Thus where we find that the eldeſt fons fucceed to the
whole, or the greateſt part of the eftate, we may be fure that we
fee traces of feudal nations, of a military life, and a monarchical
government; in which a prince is better ferved by one power-
ful vaffal than by feveral weak ones. Where the children fuc-
ceed equally, it is a mark of a ftate having been addicted to
huſbandry, and inclined to a popular equal government. And
where the youngest fucceeds, we may take it for granted that
the people formerly lived a paftoral and roving life, in which it
is natural for the oldeſt to be provided for, and difpofed of, the.
firſt, and the youngeſt to take what is left; a manner of life
which requires, and admits of, little or no regular government.
The change of manners, and way of living, may be traced in
the changes of the laws. Thus the change from a military to a
commercial ſtate may be traced in England by the progress of
our laws, particularly thofe relating to the alienation of landed
property;
78
PART II.
LECTURES ON
property; a thing abfolutely inconfiftent with ftrict feudal no-
tions, and for a long time impracticable in this country; but
which took place by degrees, as the interefts of commerce
were perceived to require, that every thing valuable ſhould cir-
culate as freely as poffible in a ftate. It muſt, however, be
confidered, that the change of laws does not keep an equal pace
with the change of manners, but follows fometimes far behind.
In almoſt every cafe, the reafon and neceffity of the thing firft
introduces a change in the practice, before the authority of law
confirms and authoriſes it. This too is eaſy to be traced in a
great many of our English laws, and particularly thoſe which
relate to the eaſy transferring of property, for the purpoſe of trade
and commerce.
Without entering into particular laws, we may obſerve of the
ſtate of laws in general, as was obferved with regard to language,
that copiouſneſs and refinement in them, and even intricacy and
tediouſneſs in the adminiſtration of them, is an indication of free-
dom, and of improvements in civilized life; and that few laws,
and an expeditious adminiſtration, are marks either of the con-
nexions of perſons being very few, and little involved (which is
a neceffary confequence of improvements) that the rights of per-
fons have not been attended to, and that the nation is but little
advanced in the knowledge or poffeffion of thoſe things on which
their happineſs and fecurity chiefly depend; or that too arbitrary
a power is lodged in fome hands or other; it being well ob-
ferved by Montefquieu, that the tediouſneſs and expence of law
fuits is the price of liberty.
To make you fentible with what attention laws fhould
be confidered, and how many diftinct circumftances a perfon
of fagacity may learn from them; I fhall quote the obferva-
tions which Lord Chief Juftice Hale, makes upon a law of
king
I
LECT. IX.
79
HISTORY.
king Canute, which is as follows in Lambard's collection: Sive
quis incuria, five morte repentina fuerit inteftato mortuus, dominus
tamen nullam rerum fuarum partem, preter eam quæ jure debetur
hereoti nomine, fibi aſſumito; verum eas, juditio fuos, uxori, liberis,
et cognationi proximis jufte, pro fuo cuique jure, diftribuito. "If any
perfon dying by accident, or fuddenly, fhall be inteftate, let
"not the lord take any part of his goods, except what may be
"due to him as a beriot; but let him, ufing his best judgment,
"diſtribute them to his wife, children, and neareſt relations,
according to their reſpective claims."
66
66.
Upon this he obferves five things, 1. That in thoſe times
the wife had a ſhare as well of the lands, as of the goods for
her dower; 2. That, in reference to hereditary fucceffions, there
ſeemed to be little difference between lands and goods; for this
law makes no diftinction; 3. That there was a kind of fettled
right of fucceffion with reference to proximity and remoteneſs of
blood or kin; 4. That with reſpect to children, they all feemed:
to fucceed alike without any diftinction between males and fe-
males;
; 5. That the anceſtor, however, might difpofe of his
lands, as well as goods, by will.
LECT.
80
PART II.
LECTURES ON
ļ
LECTURE X.
The Use of Obfervations on the Intervals between the Generations of
Men and Succeffions of Kings, to afcertain the Dates of past
Events.
The Antiquity of thefe Methods of noting Intervals of
Time. Fallacious Method of computing by them. Eafy Cor-
rection of that Fallacy; by which Newton has amended the
Chronology of ancient Kingdoms and Nations. The Interval be-
tween the Return of the Heraclida and the Battle of Thermopyla
determined by Succeffions: The fame Interval afcertained by Ge-
nerations. The Time of the Argonautic Expedition determined
by two Courſes of Generation. Extravagance of the Greek
Chronology. Improbable Circumftances in the commonly received
Chronology of Rome. The Time of the Siege of Troy comes to be
the fame, computing by Succeffions in Italy, and by Succeffions and
Generations in Greece; and is agreeable to what Appian writes
from the Archives of Carthage.
MA
ANY Obfervations on the common courfe of human life
will enable us to determine the intervals of time within
which events connected with them have happened. Thoſe
of which the moſt uſe has been made are obfervations on ge-
nerations of men, and fucceffions of kings. For instance, when we
read in hiſtory, or collect from circumſtances, that a certain num-
ber of generations intervened between any two events, or that a
certain number of kings reigned in the interval, we ſhall be able
to fix the date of the former with reſpect to the latter, if we have
carefully obſerved (from comparing a fufficient number of facts)
what
1
}
LECT. X.
81
HISTORY.
what has been the mean length of a generation, and the mean
length of a reign; or at what age men taken, one with another,
have had children, and how long kings, in general, have
actually reigned.
The uſe of theſe mediums of proof has been acknowledged
from the earlieſt writing of hiſtory; and, indeed, ſo obvious is
the thought, that the chronology of all the ancient times of the
Grecian hiſtory was adjuſted by their oldeft writers upon theſe
principles alone. The misfortune is, that they took their mean
length of a generation, and alſo that of a fucceffion from mere ran-
dom and fanciful conjectures and not from a careful obſervation of
facts. But it is happy that, though theſe writers have fixed the
chronology of ancient times by a fallacious theory, a ſufficient
number of the facts, to which their theory ought to have corre-
fponded, ftill remains; by means of which it is eafy to reform
their theory, and rectify their chronology. Indeed, it is a happy
circumftance, that every theory drawn from the fituation of
things in buman life, is always open to confutation or cor-
rection, while the courſe of human life remains the fame. It
is but obferving how things really are, and whether the theory
in queſtion actually correfpond to it, or not.
It is upon theſe principles chiefly that Sir Ifaac Newton has
undertaken to rectify the chronology of ancient ſtates and
kingdoms; and for examples to thefe obfervations, I fhall
lay before you the evidence on which his admirable theory
reſts. In order to this, I ſhall ſtate the principal of thoſe facts
the chronology of which has been fo variouſly repreſented;
ſhowing how incompatible with the courſe of nature are the
dates that have formerly been affigned to them, and which paffed
without examination till the time of this great author, and
M
upon
J
82
PART II.
LECTURES ON
1
upon what principles he has reduced their extravagant chrono-
logy within the bounds of nature and probability..
In order to have a clearer idea of the connexion of his proofs, I
muſt obſerve that the great events, the intervals of which he endea-
vours to aſcertain, fucceeded each other in the following order:
The Argonautic expedition.
The fiege of Troy.
The return of the Heraclide into Peloponnefus.
The first Meffenian war.
The expedition of Xerxes.
The Peloponnefian war.
Between the return of the Heraclidæ into Peloponnefus and
the battle of Thermopyla (of the time of which there is no
controverſy) there reigned, of one race the following kings of
Lacedæmon, Eurifthenes, Agis, Echeftratus, Labotas, Doria-
gus, Agefilaus, Archelaus, Teleclus, Alchimenes, Polidorus,
Euricrates, Anaxander, Euricratides, Leon, Anaxandrides, Cleo-
menes, and Leonidas, feventeen in all, and along with theſe was
a fucceffion of feventeen alfo in the other race. In this inter-
val, therefore, we have a double fucceffion of feventeen kings.
Now, by comparing the chronology of almoſt all the fucceffions
which have been perfectly afcertained, Sir Ifaac Newton finds.
that kings have reigned one with another eighteen or twenty
years a piece; and if in any cafe they have exceeded that num-
ber of years, it was not in fuch unfettled times as were thofe
of the Grecian monarchies.
The ſeventeen princes, therefore, according to this computa-
tion, allowing them twenty years a piece, which is quite as
much as the nature of things will admit of, muſt have reigned.
three hundred and forty years. Thefe, counted backwards from
the
LECT. X.
83
HISTORY.
the fixth year of Xerxes, and allowing one or two years more
for the war of Heraclidæ, and the reign of Ariftodemus, the
father of Euristhenes and Proclus, will place the return of the
Heraclidæ into Peloponnefus one hundred and fifty-nine years
after the death of Solomon, and forty-fix before the firft Olym-
piad in which Chorebus was victor. But Timæus and his
followers have taken the reigns of kings for generations, and
reckoned three generations at one hundred, and ſometimes one
hundred and twenty years; and fo have affigned thirty-five or
forty years to each king, and accordingly have placed the return
of the Heraclidæ two hundred and eighty years earlier than
the nature of things can poffibly admit.
Other facts, with which we are furniſhed by thefe very chro-
nologers, and other ancient writers, enable us to confirm the
truth of the preceding interval of time by a different medium of
proof. If we confider the courſe of deſcent in a ſufficient num-
ber of families, we fhall find that the interval from father to
fon, is one with another, thirty-three or thirty-four years a piece,
and that the intervals between the eldeſt fons and chiefs of fa-
milies (fuch as are moſt taken notice of by hiftorians) are not
more than twenty-eight or thirty years, one with another.
}
The reaſon why a longer interval is affigned to generations of
men than to fucceffions of kings, is becauſe kings are fucceeded not
only by their fons, but fometimes by their brothers; and fome-
times they are flain or depofed, and are fucceeded by others of an
equal age, or even a greater age than themſelves, and eſpecially
in elective or turbulent kingdoms.
4
Admitting the above to be the mean length of generations,
if we multiply the number of generations which intervened be-
tween any two events by thirty-three or thirty-four, for gene-
rations in general, and by twenty-eight or thirty for generations
M 2
i
by
84
PART H.
LECTURES ON
by the eldeſt fons, we ſhall probably determine the interval with
tolerable exactneſs: and when conclufions from this method of
computation coincide with thoſe from the other by fucceffions
of kings, they cannot but be allowed to confirm one another.
This we are able to do with refpect to the greater part of the
preceding interval.
From the return of the Heraclidæ to the beginning of the
firft Meffenian war, there reigned ten kings of Sparta in one race,
nine in the other, ten of Meffene, and nine of Arcadia. Theſe
fucceffions, if reduced to the courfe of nature, in the method
directed above, will ſcarce take up one hundred and eighty, or one
hundred and ninety years; whereas according to chronologers in
general, they took up a ſpace of three hundred and feventy-nine
years. But that one hundred and eighty, or one hundred and
ninety years, is the moſt probable interval, appears by an argument
drawn from a courfe of generations during the very fame period.
Euryleon the fon of Eugeus commanded the main body of the
Meffenians, in the fifth year of the firſt Meffenian war, and he
was in the fifth generation from Oiolochus the fon of Theras,
brother-in-law of Ariftodemus, and tutor to his fons Euristhenes.
and Proclus, as Paufanias relates. Confequently from the re-
turn of the Heraclidæ, which was in the days of Theras, to the
battle, which was in the fifth year of this war, there were fix
generations, which being (as is most probable) chiefly by the
eldeft fons, will fcarce exceed thirty years to a generation, and
fo may amount to one hundred and feventy, or one hundred and
eighty years. That war lafted nineteen or twenty years, of
which add the laſt fifteen years to the five mentioned before, and
there will be about one hundred and ninety years to the end of
that war; the very length of the fame interval, as determined
by the preceding obfervations on the fucceffions of kings. But
2
the
LECT. X.
85
HISTORY.
the followers of Timæus, by making this interval about three
hundred and feventy-nine years, muft allow above fixty years
to a generation, which can by no means be fuppofed.
To illuftrate more at large the method of arguing from
generations, and at the fame time to proceed a little farther in
giving the outlines of this author's great reformation in ancient
chronology, I fhall relate two other courfes of generations,
which fix the time of the Argonautic expedition, an event,
which is the grand hinge on which all the chronology of
ancient Greece turns, and the date of which, as determined by
generations, you will preſently fee confirmed by another method.
of inveſtigation on very different principles.
One of theſe courfes of generations extends backwards from
the return of the Heraclidæ, where our laft courfe began, to
the expedition, and the other from the Peloponnefian war to
the fame event, Hercules the Argonaut was the father of Hillus,
the father of Cleodeus, the father of Ariftomachus, the father
of Temenus, Crefphontes, and Ariftodemus, who led the Hera-
clidæ into Peloponnefus; whence their return was four genera-
tions later than the Argonautic expedition; and thefe generations.
were ſhort ones, being by the chief of the family. Count:
therefore eighty years backward, from the return of the
Heraclide to the Trojan war, and the taking of Troy will be:
about ſeventy-fix years after the death of Solomon; and the
Argonautic expedition, which was one generation earlier, will
be about forty-three years after it.
Efculapius and Hercules were Argonauts, and Hippocrates-
was the eighteenth inclufively, by the father's fide, from Æfcu-
lapius, and the nineteenth from Hercules by the mother's fide;
and becauſe theſe generations, being taken notice of by writers,,
were moſt probably by the principal of the family, and fo for
the:
86
PART II.
LECTURES ON
the most part by the eldeſt fons, we may reckon about twenty-
eight, or at the most about thirty years to a generation; and
thus the feventeen intervals by the father's fide, and the eighteen
by the mother's, at a middle reckoning, amount to about five
hundred and feven years; which, counted backwards from the
beginning of the Peloponnefian war, at which time Hippocrates
began to flouriſh, will reach up to the forty-third year after the
death of Solomon, and there place the Argonautic expedition;
the very year in which we were led to place it by following the
former courſe of generations.
The fame great author aſcertains this, and feveral other capital
events in the Grecian hiftory, by fuch a variety of independent
arguments, drawn from the fame and different mediums, all fo
agrecable to the prefent courſe of nature, that it feems impoffi-
ble for a perfon who pays a fufficient regard to it not to be de-
termined by them. It is ſurpriſing, indeed, that the manifeſt
inconfiftencies of the commonly received chronology with the
courſe of nature ſhould not have prevented the eſtabliſhment of
it; and it is abfolutely unaccountable, but upon the willing-
neſs of all men, to admit of any hypothefis which tends to
give dignity to their nations and families, by adding to the
antiquity of them. But muſt it not be a more unaccountable
attachment to eſtabliſhed hypothefes which can induce any
perfons of the preſent age, after theſe inconfiftencies have been
fo clearly pointed out, ftill to adhere to a chronology, which,
in thoſe turbulent unfettled times, fuppofes kings to have
reigned one with another in fome fucceffions thirty-five, in
fome thirty-eight, in fome forty, in fome forty-two, in fome
forty-four, and in fome forty-fix years a piece; and which
generally allows about fixty years to a generation, and in one
inftance eighty-five?
4
With
;
LECT. X.
87
HISTORY.
With respect to the chronology of the kings of Rome,
Mr. Hooke has fhown by feveral independent arguments,
drawn from the connexion of events in the hiſtory of their
reigns, that to fuppofe them to have reigned one with another
nineteen or twenty years makes a more confiftent ſeries of facts,
than to imagine them to have reigned thirty-five years a piece,
which is the common hypothefis.
The chief inconveniences attending the old chronology in
the Roman hiſtory are, that it fuppofes an interval of fixty-
three years of peace in that reftlefs nation before the acceffion
of Tullus Hoftilius. It makes the reign of Servius Tullius
fo long in proportion to the few Cenfufes, which (according
to the moſt authentic records were taken in his reign) as would
argue a moft unaccountable neglect of his own favourite infti-
tution. It obliges us to fuppofe Tarquinius Superbus not to
have been the fon of Tarquinius Prifcus, Dido not to have
been cotemporary with Enas, or Numa with Pythagoras, as-
well as Solon with Croefus in the Grecian hiftory; all which
have the unanimous voice of all tradition in their favour, and
which Dionyfius Halicarnaffenfis, Livy, and Plutarch exprefs
their extreme unwillingness to give up, but that they were
compelled to it by a regard to a chronology which in their
times was unqueftioned. Indeed, the congrefs of Solon and
Croefus Plutarch expreffes his determination not to give up,
notwithstanding his general attachment to a theory which
would not admit of it, and the fallacy of which he did not
fufpect. His words are fo remarkable, and fhow fo clearly on
how precarious a footing that chronology ftands, that I ſhall
recite them, "The congrefs of Solon with Croefus fome think
they can confute by chronology. But a hiftory fo illuftri-
ous, verified by fo many witneffes, and, which is more, fo
C
"
agreeable
88
PART II.
LECTURES ON
•
66
agreeable to the manner of Solon, and worthy of the great-
"nefs of his mind and of his wifdom, I cannot perfuade
"myſelf to reject becauſe of fome chronological canons, as
they call them; which an hundred authors correcting, have
"not been able to conftitute any thing certain, and have not
"been able to agree amongst themſelves about repugnances."
Befides, to return to the Roman hiftory; if the number of
kings that reigned at Alba be joined to thoſe who reigned at
Rome, and they be allowed to have reigned nineteen or twenty
years a piece, they will place the coming of Æneas into Italy,
and the fiege of Troy, exactly in the time in which arguments
drawn from generations and fucceffions in Greece, as well as
aftronomical calculations (as will hereafter appear) place that
event, which is a reciprocal confirmation of the juft correction
both of the Greek and Latin chronology. For from Latinus
to Numitor are fixteen kings, who reigned at Alba; Romulus
was contemporary with Numitor, and after him Dionyfius and
other hiftorians reckon fix kings more at Rome to the begin-
ning of the confuls. Now thefe twenty-two reigns, at about
eighteen years to a reign one with another (for many of theſe
kings were flain) took up three hundred and ninety-fix years,
which counted back from the confulfhip of J. Brutus and
Valerius Poplicola, the two firſt confuls, place the Trojan war
feventy-eight years after the death of Solomon.
This computation likewiſe agrees with what Appian in his
hiftory of the Punic wars relates, out of the archives of Carthage,
which came into the hands of the Romans, viz. that Carthage
ſtood ſeven hundred years. This is a round number, but Solinus
adds the odd years when he fays, Carthago poft annos 737
quam fuerat extructa exciditur, which places Dido, the foun-
der of Carthage, about feventy-fix years after the death of
Solomon.
LECT.X.
89
HISTORY.
Solomon. It likewife agrees with the Arundelian Marbles,
which fay that Teucer came to Cyprus feven years after the
deſtruction of Troy, and built Salamis, in the days of Dido.
Indeed, it is an argument greatly in favour of Newton's
computations, that they agree very nearly with all the moſt
ancient monuments, the most current traditions of antiquity,
and the oldest hiftorians; particularly Herodotus and Thucydides,
who wrote before chronology was corrupted by the vanity of
their nation, or the abfurd fyſtems of later hiftorians.
It is an argument greatly in favour of the credibility of the
Old Teſtament history, that the courfes of generations and de-
ſcents which are mentioned in it, parallel to thofe in the fabulous
period of the Grecian hiſtory, fall within the fame intervals of
time with thoſe which have been meaſured fince hiftory has
been authentic. Confequently, it is another argument in favour
of Newton's correction of the ancient Greek chronology, that
it brings the courfes of generations and fucceffions in the one
to correſpond to thofe in the other. Befides, in feveral other
reſpects it brings them to a greater harmony than can be made
out upon any other principles. Particularly it places the
expedition of Sefoftris (who as it is highly probable from
ſeveral circumſtances, was the fame perſon with Sefac) in the
very time in which it is ſpoken of in the ſcriptures.
N
1
LECT.
>
90
PART II.
LECTURES ON
LECTURE
XI.
The Time of past Events afcertained by Means of celeftial Ap-
pearances.
The certainty of the Method of Computation by
Eclipfes. A few ancient Eclipfes enumerated. The Use of
them exemplified in the Calculation of an ancient Eclipfe of the
Moon.
OF
F all the incidental circumſtances by which ancient writers
enable us, in an indirect manner, to afcertain the time of
events, none give occafion to more clear and undeniable con-
clufions than the mention they make of celestial appearances, on
account of the regularity and conftancy of the revolutions of
the heavenly bodies, and becauſe the laws of their motions
are fo exactly known to us. In this refpect much are modern
chronologers and hiftorians obliged to the fuperftition with
which the ancients regarded unuſual appearances in the heavens.
It was their imagined portentous nature that firft drew upon
them the attention of mankind, who dreaded their unknown
influences and effects. It was on this account,
and not
becauſe they were confidered as proper fubjects of philofophical
inquiry, or of any ufe in chronology, that they have engaged
the notice of hiftorians. And fortunately for us, the catalogue
of ancient eclipfes, not obſerved by philofophers, but gazed at
24
by
*
LECT. XI.
91
HISTORY.
by the fuperftitious vulgar, is pretty full. Along with the
hiftory of many remarkable revolutions, and critical fitu-
ations in the hiftory of ftates, the eclipfes which preceded,
or accompanied them, are faithfully tranfmitted to us; and
where the time, the place, and quantity of an eclipfe are
mentioned, though not with aftronomical exactneſs, it is very
eafy, by the rules of calculation, to fix the very year and day
when the event happened. For confidering the prodigious
variety which the three circumftances of time, place, and
quantity occafion in the appearance of eclipfes, there is no room
to ſuſpect that any two, happening within a moderate diſtance
of one another, can be in the leaſt danger of being confounded.
For the entertainment of thoſe who take pleaſure in calcu-
lations of this kind, I ſhall juſt quote, from Mr. Ferguſon's
aftronomy, fome of the principal eclipfes that have been taken
notice of by hiftorians, that you may verify them at your
leifure.
Before Chrift 585 May 28, an eclipſe of the fun, foretold
by Thales, by which a peace was brought about between the
Medes and the Lydians.
B. C. 523 July 16, an eclipfe of the moon, which was
followed by the death of Cambyfes.
B. C. 481 April 19, an eclipfe of the fun, on the failing
of Xerxes from Sardis.
B. C. 463, an eclipfe of the fun followed by the Perfian
war, and the falling off of the Egyptians from the Perfians.
B. C. 431 Auguft 31, a total eclipfe of the fun, and a comet;
followed by a plague at Athens.
B. C. 413 August 27, a total eclipfe of the moon, when
Nicias was defeated at Syracufe.
N 2
B. C.
!
92
PART II.
LECTURES ON
B. C. 394 Auguft 14, an eclipſe of the fun, when the Perfians
were beaten by Conon in a fea engagement.
B. C. 168 June 21, a total eclipfe of the moon, and the
next day Perfeus king of Macedonia was conquered by Paulus
Æmilius.
After Chriſt 59 April 30, an eclipfe of the fun, reckoned
by Nero among the prodigies on account of the death of
Agrippina.
A. C. 306 July 27, an eclipfe of the fun; the ftars were
feen and the Emperor Conftantius died.
A. C. 840 May 4, a great eclipfe of the fun, and Lewis
the Pius died within fix months after it.
A. C. 1009 an eclipſe of the fun, and Jerufalem taken by
the Saracens.
To exemplify the uſe of eclipfes for the purpoſes of chro-
nology, I ſhall felect from the above-mentioned, one of the
moon, and ſhow how the date of the event which accompanied
it is afcertained by the help of it.
7.
The eclipfe of the moon, which I fhall felect, and the cir-
cumſtances attending it are thus related by Thucydides, L.
fect. 50. Upon the arrival of Gylippus to the affiſtance of the
Syracufans, the Athenians, finding they were no match for
the united force of their enemies, repented that they had not
quitted their fituation (in which it was no longer ſafe for them
to continue) before, and immediately came to a reſolution to
fail out of the harbour as fecretly as poffible. But when every
thing was ready for failing the moon was eclipfed, for it was
then full moon. Upon this, moft of the Athenians, alarmed
at the omen, defired their commanders to proceed no farther;
and Nicias, being himſelf a fuperftitious obferver of fuch pro-
digies,
LECT. XI.
93
HISTORY.
►
digies, declared that he would not come to any final refolution
about quitting the place till they had ftaid three days longer,
according to the advice of the foothfayers. This occafioned the
Athenians to ſtay in the place, which they had never after an
opportunity of leaving, and in which they almoſt to a man
periſhed.
This event is placed by hiftorians in the year B. C. 413,
and upon looking into the aſtronomical tables, it appears that,
fhe was at the full about midnight at London, or one o'clock in
the morning at Syracuſe on the 27th of Auguft in that year;
when the fun was only forty degrees forty-eight minutes from
the node, far within twelve degrees the limit of Lunar eclipſes;
and when, confequently, there must have been a total eclipfe
of the moon, which would be visible to the Athenians from
the beginning to the end of it, and may therefore reaſonably
be ſuppoſed to have produced the effect afcribed to it by the
hiftorian.
A history which contains an account of a fufficient number
of theſe phænomena furniſhes us with the fureft teft of its
authenticity. Almoſt all the credit which is given to the
Chineſe hiſtory is derived from this confideration. The eclipfes
there mentioned to have. happened, aftronomers fay, did really
happen at the times affigned to them*.
The theory of comets is not fufficiently aſcertained to enable
us to make much uſe of their revolutions for hiſtorical purpoſes ;-
nor indeed are there any events they accompanied, which we
cannot determine much more nearly by other mediums of proof,.
* I made this lecture a ſhort one, becauſe I uſed to produce in the courſe of it
calculations of ſeveral paſt eclipſes, to illuſtrate the principles of it.
than,
**
94
PART II.
LECTURES ON
than, it is probable, we could have done by the help of co-
mets, were their theory ever fo well aſcertained. Their re-
turns are probably, not fufficiently regular, nor if they were,
are the accounts of them in hiftorians fufficiently exact for that
purpoſe.
LECTURE
XII.
Of the Ufe which Newton has made of Obfervations on the Pre-
ceffion of the Equinoxes in rectifying ancient Chronology. The
Time of the Argonautic Expedition determined by that Means.
The Date of Several fubfequent Events determined by the fame
Means, in perfect Confiftence with one another. A Conjecture
concerning the Age of an old Sphere in the Museum of the Far-
nefian Palace. The Age of Hefiod determined pretty nearly
from his Account of the heliacal rifing and ſetting of fome Stars.
The Ufe of the Books of the Old Teftament for rectifying the
Heathen Chronology. The Ufe it was of to Newton in par-
ticular.
T
1
HE calculations of eclipfes are of great uſe in aſcertain-
ing particular events, if they have been previouſly deter-
mined within a moderate diſtance; but the grand aftronomical
medium which Sir Ifaac Newton has fo fuccefsfully employed
in rectifying the whole fyftem of ancient chronology, is the
preceffion of the equinoxes. The quantity of this preceffion is
known,
LECT. XII.
95
HISTORY.
any
known, by a ſeries of the moft accurate obfervations, to be one
degree backwards in feventy-two years; that is, the fun croffes
the eclyptic fo much more to the weft every year, that at the
end of feventy-two years his progrefs weftward amounts to one
degree, whereby the places of the equinoxes are continually re-
ceding from the conftellations, in the middle of which they were
originally placed. Whenever, therefore, the fituation of the
equinoctial or folftitial points, or any appearance depending
upon them, is mentioned, it is eafy to afcertain the time of
event with which fuch an appearance was connected. It is
done by obferving how many degrees the equinoctial points have
receded from the fituation they then had to that which they
have at prefent, and allowing ſeventy-two years to every degree.
That the conftellations were first invented at the time of the
Argonautic expedition, is pretty evident from a variety of con-
fiderations. We have not only the teftimony of feveral ancient
writers for the fact, but the conftellations themſelves feem very
plainly to declare as much. For the old conftellations men-
tioned by Aratus, do all of them relate either to the Argonauts
themſelves, and their cotemporaries, or to perfons one or two
generations older; and nothing later than that expedition was
delineated there originally. It is, therefore, very probable (as
feveral ancient writers affert) that the firft fphere was invented
by Chiron and Mufæus for the uſe of the Argonauts.
We have, moreover, the teftimony of feveral ancient writers
that the equinoctial and folftitial points in this old ſphere were
placed upon the middle of the conftellations that give names
to them; namely, that the equinoctial colure was made to pafs
through the middle of the conftellation Aries, and the folftitial.
Golure through the middle of Cancer. Befides, the reafon of
the
A
196
PART II
LECTURES
ON
the thing might reafonably lead us to imagine, that the an-
cients would place the equinoxes and folftices as nearly in the
midst of their respective conſtellations as their coarſe obſerva-
tions would enable them to determinate. For fince the firft
month of their lunar-folar year, by reaſon of their intercalary
month, began fometimes a week or a fortnight before the equi-
nox or folſtice, and fometimes as much after it, the firſt aſtro-
nomers, who formed the afterifms, would naturally endeavour
to place thoſe grand divifions of the year, the equinoxes and
folftices, as near as they could in the middle of the conftella-
tions Aries, Cancer, Chelæ, and Capricorn.
Admitting the colures to have paffed through the middle of
thoſe conftellations at the time of the Argonautic expedition, Sir
Ifaac Newton finds that the equinoctial and folftitial points
had gone back thirty-fix degrees forty-four minutes at the end
of the year one thouſand fix hundred and eighty-nine; which, al-
lowing feventy-two years to each degree, would have been accom-
pliſhed in the ſpace of two thouſand fix hundred and forty-five
years. This number, counted back from the year one thoufand
fix hundred and eighty-nine, will place the Argonautic expe-
dition about twenty-five years after the death of Solomon.
This computation proceeds upon the fuppofition that the
middle of the conftellation is exactly the middle point between
the two ſtars called prima Arietis, and ultima Cauda, but if we
fix the cardinal points by the ftars through which the colures
paffed in the primitive ſphere, as defcribed by Eudoxus, which
ſeems to be better, the equinoctial points will have receded
thirty-fix degrees twenty-nine minutes, which anſwers to two
thouſand fix hundred and twenty-feven years, and places the
expedition forty-three years after the death of Solomon, very
near
LECT. XII.
97
HISTORY.
!
1
near the fame year to which it was referred by the other pre-
ceding, and very different, methods of computation; the very
near and remarkable coincidence of which is the greateft con-
firmation of the certainty of both thoſe methods of inveſti-
gation.
What gives great weight to this argument from the pre-
ceffion of the equinoxes is, that if we reckon from whatever
time the pofition of the equinoctial points hath been mentioned
by aſtronomers whofe age is known, this motion, counted
backwards, fixes that great event in the fame year. It likewife
demonftrates that the obſervations of the ancients, though coarſe
enough, as Sir Ifaac acknowledges, are fufficiently exact for the
purpoſe. As this circumftance is pretty remarkable, I fhall
mention the particulars of it.
According to Pliny, and the calculations of Petavius, Thales,
who wrote a book of the tropics and equinoxes, fixed the equi-
noxes and folftices in the eleventh degree of their reſpective
figns; fo that they had receded four degrees twenty-fix
minutes and fifty-two feconds, from their original place at the
time of the Argonautic expedition. This answers to three
hundred and twenty years, and calculated backwards from the
forty-firft Olympiad (when Thales was a young man, fit to apply
to aſtronomical ſtudies) will place that event forty-four years
after the death of Solomon.
1
According to Columella, Meton, and Eutemon, who pub-
liſhed the lunar Cycle of nineteen years, and for this purpofe
obferved the fummer folftice in the year of Nabonaffar three
hundred and fixteen, the year before the Peloponnefian war
began, placed the fummer folftice in the eighth degree of Can-
cer, which is at leaſt feven degrees more backwards than at
O
firft
:
.98
PART II.
LECTURES ON
firft. This ſpace anſwers to five hundred and four years,
which, counted backwards from the year of obfervation, makes
the expedition fall upon the forty-fourth year after the death
of Solomon.
Laftly, Hipparchus, who firft diſcovered that the equinoxes
had a regular motion backwards, made his obfervations about the
year
of Nabonaffar fix hundred and two, and fixed the vernak
equinox in the fourth degree of Aries. Confequently, the
equino&ial points had gone back eleven degrees fince the Ar-
gonautic expedition, which is equivalent to feven hundred and
ninety-two years, and which counted backwards places the
expedition in the forty-third year after the death of Solomon.
Theſe four coincidences are remarkable, and could not have
placed the fame event fo near the fame year, unless all the ob-
fervations had been fufficiently exact. And when we confider
the coincidencies of a great many more independent evidences,
derived from the courſe of generation, and the order of fucceffion,
with thoſe which are borrowed from aftronomical principles,
nothing feems to be better eſtabliſhed, than that the Argonautic
expedition, an event on which all the Greek chronology de-
pends, really happened about forty-three years after the death of
Solomon, and not in the days of Gideon, above three hundred
years before, as has been the common opinion:
It may be obferved in this place, that the error of Hip-
parchus with refpect to the quantity of the preceffion, is a
proof that the chronology of Greece before his time was
erroneous, and wanted correction. He makes it to be one
degree in about one hundred years, which he was neceffarily
led to conclude from the lengthening of the intervals of
obſervation by the received chronology; and therefore the
24
diſcovery
LECT. XII.
99
HISTORY.
11
diſcovery that the preceffion of the equinoxes is only at the
rate of ſeventy-two years to a degree, furniſhes us with a good
reaſon why we ought to ſhorten the time before Hipparchus
in about the ſame proportion.
By arguments drawn from the rate of the preceffion of the
equinoxes we can nearly determine the age of an old globe
found in the ruins of ancient Rome, and which is now pre-
ferved in the muſeum of the Farnefian palace, as one of the
moſt curious monuments of antiquity. On this globe the
equinoctial colure paffes through the right horn and right foot
of Aries, and is about five degrees diftant from the equi-
noctial point laid down on the globe. From theſe circum-
ftances it will appear, that this globe was made about forty
years before
before Chrift; and, it is moreover probable, from
the conftruction of this globe, that the colure paffed through
the bright ftar of Aries about four hundred years before
Chrift.
The rifing and ſetting of the ſtars with respect to the rifing
and ſetting of the fun depends alfo upon the preceffion of the
equinoxes. Any writer, therefore, who mentions the rifing or
ſetting of any ſtar, at any particular time of the year, with reſpect
to the fun, furniſhes us with data. fufficient to determine the time
in which he wrote. Thus Hefiod tells us that fixty days after
the winter folftice the ftar arcturus rofe juft at fun fet; from
which circumſtance it is eaſily calculated that Hefiod flouriſhed
about one hundred years after the death of Solomon, or in the
generation, or age, next to the Trojan war, as Hefiod himſelf
declares; which is another independent argument for the date
before affigned to that war, and all the Greek chronology con-
nected with it.
O 2
Many
+
1
100
PART II.
LECTURES ON
Many other circumftances which Hefiod occafionally men-
tions, relating to the ftate of the heavens in his time, con-
cur in leading us to the fame conclufion. Virgil too,
1
if his age had not been afcertained in another manner, has
given us data of the fame kind fufficient to determine it pretty
nearly..
I cannot conclude thefe obfervations on the chronology of the
earlieſt ages of the heathen world better than by reminding you,
that, the truth of the fcripture hiftory, being unquestionable, and
relating to times prior to the age in which hiſtory began to be
written by any other people than the Jews, it is the beſt guide to the
knowledge of prophane antiquity. It was in purfuing this plan
that Newton was led to correct the ancient technical chronology
of the Greeks by itſelf. The principles on which he reduces
their accounts are founded on nature, and independent on any
arguments drawn from fcripture. But it is more than probable
that, feeing reafon to think, from fimilar circumstances, that
Sefoftris muſt have been the fame perfon with Sefac, of whom
we have an account in the hiftory of Rehoboam, he firſt
of all fixed the date of that. expedition according to the fcrip-
tures, and that afterwards, from confidering the fubject in
various points of light, he was led to the other arguments
which have been mentioned; by which he was able to confirm
the fcriptural date of that event, and alſo the dates of the prin-
cipal facts in the hiftory of Greece connected with it, in a
manner independent of the authorities on which he first
founded his opinion. Then having, by the joint helps of
ſcripture and reaſon, rectified the chronology of the Greeks,
he made uſe of this rectified chronology to adjuſt the cotem-
porary affairs of the Egyptians, Affyrians, Babylonians, Medes,
and Perfians.
If
LECT. XII.
101
HISTORY.
If this analyſis of the method of reafoning, fo fuccessfully
uſed by Sir Ifaac Newton in rectifying the chronology of an-
cient times, induce any of you who are intended for a learned
profeffion to ſtudy fo excellent and important a work, and be
any help to you in underſtanding it, and I fhall thus contri-
bute to the more general reception of the great outlines of
this ſyſtem, I fhall think that I have rendered an important
fervice to the learned world.
PART
i
102
PART III.
LECTURES ON
t
PART
III.
WHAT IS NECESSARY, OR USEFUL, TO BE KNOWN
PREVIOUS TO THE STUDY OF HISTORY,
LECTURE
XIII.
Use of the Sciences derived from Hiftory to the Study of Hiftory.
The Knowledge of human Nature. Philofophical Knowledge in
general. Geography.
Geography. Chronology. The Method of reckoning
by Weeks. Divifion of the Day.
EFORE we enter upon the third divifion of our ſubject,
BE
which comprizes what is neceffary, or peculiarly uſeful, to
be known previous to the ſtudy of hiſtory, it is proper to ob-
ferve, that it muſt be taken in very different degrees of extent,
according to the views with which hiſtory is read; and that
this, as was obſerved before, depends very much upon the age
and fituation of the perfon who applies to it.
If particular portions of hiſtory be recommended to young
perfons, with a view to amuſe their imaginations, to engage
their paffions, to diſcover their difpofitions and genius, or form
them to juft and manly fentiments, in order to fit them for
acting
LECT. XIII.
103
HISTORY.
acting in the common fpheres of life with more propriety and
dignity, no previous qualifications at all are neceffary. Let
youth have hiſtory put into their hands as foon as they
are capable of reading, provided that paffages be felected
with a view to their age and capacity. The uſes above-
mentioned (which after all, are the nobleft that can be made
of hiſtory) may be derived from it though many particular
paffages in hiftorians be unintelligible, and the reader be not
capable of applying history to thefe purpoſes of ſcience, to
which it has been shown to be fubfervient.
But if a perfon have farther and fcientific views in the ftudy
of hiftory, he will find feveral branches of knowledge, and
fome articles of previous information, extremely uſeful, and in
a manner neceffary. It is true that thofe fciences, and thofe
articles of information, were originally derived from hiftory;
and therefore that thoſe who firſt applied to the ſtudy of it had
not theſe helps. But the fame may be ſaid of grammars, which
were made after the perfons who wrote them had formed an
acquaintance with the languages which they were defigned to
explain; but which are univerfally eſteemed to be, in a manner,
neceffary to be underſtood by any perſon who would obtain,
at leaſt an eaſy and fpeedy acquaintance with theſe languages
afterwards. I ſhall therefore, in this part of my ſubject, point
out thoſe branches of fcience, and give the principal of thoſe
articles of information, which are peculiarly uſeful to a perſon
who applies to the ſtudy of hiſtory. And, indeed, if a perſon
have no thought of eſtabliſhing or confirming any principles
of ſcience by his ftudy of hiſtory, it muſt greatly contribute to
his pleaſure in reading, to underſtand his author perfectly, and
have a clear idea of every thing which is prefented to him in
the theatre he is viewing.
Confidering
104
PART III
LECTURES ON
Confidering the extenfive nature of history, there is no
branch of ſcience which it may not be of advantage for a perſon
to furniſh himſelf with, preparatory to the ftudy of it. But
it muſt be obſerved that an accurate and extenfive knowledge
of thoſe ſciences cannot be attained without fome knowledge
of hiftory. Indeed their aid is mutual, juſt as the knowledge
of grammar, as was obferved before, qualifies a perfon for
the reading of authors, and the reading of authors enlarges and
perfects his acquaintance with grammar. There is no occafion
therefore for a perſon who propoſes to ſtudy hiſtory ſcientifically
to defer his application to it till he be completely mafter of the
fciences I fhall recommend, as peculiarly uſeful to his purpoſe.
If he come to the reading of hiſtory furniſhed with the firſt
principles of them, he will find his knowledge of them grow
more perfect as he proceeds; particularly if he attend to the
facts he becomes acquainted with, with that view.
For inſtance, the knowledge of human nature is of univerfal
and conftant ufe in confidering the characters and actions of
men; yet a very moderate knowledge of this important fubject
is the refult of all our reading, of all our experience, and of all
the obſervations we can make upon mankind. A general idea,
however, of the principles of human nature will be an excellent
guide to us in judging of the confiftency of human characters,
and of what is within, and what without, the reach of human
powers; and without fome attention to this fubject we might
embrace all the fables of Grecian mythology, and all the ex-
travagancies of books of chivalry, as undoubted truth; or
admit it to be poffible, that the real heroes of antiquity might
have been the fame perfons with thoſe who bore their names in
the moſt abfurd of the modern plays and romances which are
founded on their history.
Philofophical
1
1
!
LECT. XIII.
105
HISTORY.
!
Philofophical knowledge in general is of the most extenfive ufe
to all perfons who would examine with accuracy the atchieve-
ments of ancient nations in peace or war, or who would
thoroughly weigh the accounts of any thing in which the
powers of nature are employed. Without fome acquaintance
with philofophy it will be impoffible to diftinguish between
the moſt abfurd chimeras of eaſtern romance, and the moſt
natural historical relations. Who but a philofopher, or a
perfon acquainted with the powers of nature and art, could
form any judgment of what the ancients relate concerning the
prodigious machines of Archimedes in the defence of Syracufe;
or know what to think of the accounts of omens, oracles, and
prodigies, which occur in fuch grave hiftorians as Livy, Taci-
tus, Jofephus, &c ?
Without ſome knowledge of philoſophy a perfon might even
admit what many authors have related one after another, that
the famous Otho, Archbiſhop of Mayence, was befieged and
devoured by an army of rats in the year fix hundred and ninety-
eight, that Gafcony was deluged with fhowers of blood in
one thouſand and feventeen, or that two armies of ferpents
fought a battle near Tournay in one thouſand and fifty-nine.
It particularly requires a confiderable acquaintance with feveral
branches of philofophy, to diſtinguiſh between truth and
falfhood, probability and improbability, in the hiſtory of the
cuſtoms and manners of ancient and remote nations.
5
Aftronomy, though ſeemingly very remote from this fubject
of civil hiſtory, has been shown, in à proceeding lecture, to
inftruct us in the bufinefs of chronological calculations; and
mathematical Science in general is uſefully applied in meaſuring
the greatneſs, and confequently in determining the probability,
of many human works.
P
But
:
106
PART III.
LECTURES ON
1
But thofe ſciences which are of the moſt conftant and general
uſe to an hiftorian, fo as to have deferved to be called the
two eyes of history, are geography and chronology. Without
geography, or a knowledge of the fituation and relative magni-
tude of the ſeveral countries of the earth, no reader of history
can have any clear and diftinct idea of what he reads, as being
tranſacted in them. Befides, he would be liable to the groffeft
impofitions, and might even be led to think, for inftance, from
the common editions of Shakeſpeare, that ſhips might come to an
harbour in Bohemia. Moreover, by a knowledge of geography
we are able to verify many paft tranfactions, which, if they ever
happened, muſt have left indelible traces upon the face of the
earth. Many curious examples of this nature may be ſeen in
Addiſon's, Maundrell's and Shaw's travels. The fiffure in the
rock of Mount Calvary, which was made when our Saviour
was crucified, and a large fragment of the rock of Rephidim
near mount Sinai, are remarkable facts of this nature.
This ſcience of geography, being perfectly diſtinct from
history, civil or ecclefiaftical, though abfolutely neceffary to
the knowledge of it, I fhall not enter upon; but chronology, the
other eye of hiſtory, as it confifts chiefly of a knowledge of the
artificial divifions of time, and partakes more of the nature of
hiſtory, I fhall explain as briefly as poffible; eſpecially as much
of the principles of it as I apprehend to be of the moſt uſe in
the ſtudy of hiſtory.
The uſe of chronology (though it may have been fometimes
handled too minutely for the purpoſe of hiſtory) cannot be
denied. We can form but very confuſed notions of the inter-
vals of time, of the riſe and fall of empires, and of the fucceffive
eftabliſhment of ftates, without fome fuch general comprehenfion,
as we may call it, of the whole current of time, as may enable
us
LECT. XIII.
107
HISTORY.
us to trace out diſtinctly the dependence of events, and diſtribute
them into fuch periods and divifions, as fhall lay the whole
chain of paſt tranfactions in a juft and orderly manner before us;
and this is what-chronology undertakes to affift us in.
The divifions of time which are confidered in chronology
relate either to the different methods of computing days,
months, and years, or the remarkable æras or epochas from
which any year receives its name, and by means of which
the date of any event is fixed.
Time is commodiouſly divided by any equal motions, or the
regular return of any appearances, in the heavens or on the
earth, that ſtrike the fenfes of all perfons; and there are three
of theſe, fo particularly confpicuous, that they have been made
ufe of for this purpoſe by all mankind. They are the changes
of day and night, the courſe of the moon, and the return of
the feafons of the year.
The firſt of theſe is produced by the revolution of the earth
about its axis, and is called a day; the fecond is the period
that elapfes between one new moon and another, called a month;
and the third is the time in which the earth completes its
revolution about the fun, called a year.
Were these three periods commenfurate to one another,
that is, did a month confift of any equal number of days, and
the year of a certain number of lunar months, a great part of
the bufinefs of chronology would have been exceedingly eafy.
All the embarraffment of the ancient aftronomers, in fettling
their periods, and all the difficulty that attends the acquiring
the knowledge of them, have been owing to the methods that
mankind have been compelled to adopt in order to accommodate
the three methods of computing time, viz. by days, months,
and years, to one another, fo as to make ufe of them all at the
fame time.
P 2
Befides
108
PART III.
LECTURES
ON
Befides theſe three natural divifions of time, there is another
that may be called artificial, viz. into weeks, or periods of feven
days, which took its rife from the Divine Being having com-
pleted the creation of the earth in feven days. But this divifion
of time, though ufed by Jews, Chriftians, and Mahometans,
and by almost all the people of Afia and Africa, was not ob-
ſerved by the Greeks or Romans.
To give as diftinct a view of this ſubject as I am able, I fhall
firſt give ſome account of each of thefe divifions of time,
noting all the principal fub-divifions or diftributions that have
been made of them, and then defcribe the methods of accom
modating them to one another.
Days have been very differently terminated and divided by
different people in different ages, which it is of fome importance
to a reader of history to be acquainted with. The ancient
Babylonians, Perfians, Syrians, and moft other eaftern nations,
with the preſent inhabitants of the Balearic iſlands, the Greeks,
&c. began their day with the fun's rifing. The ancient
Athenians and Jews, with the Auftrians, Bohemians, Mar-
comanni, Silefians, modern Italians and Chinefe, reckon from
the fun's fetting; the ancient Umbri and. Arabians, with
the modern aftronomers, from noon; and the Egyptians and
Romans, with the modern English, French, Dutch, Germans,
Spaniards, and Portugueſe, from midnight.
The Jews, Romans, and moſt other ancient nations divided:
the day into twelve hours, and the night into four watches.
But the cuſtom which prevails in this weſtern part of the world
at preſent is, to divide the day into twenty-four equal portions,.
only with ſome the twenty-four are divided into twice twelve
hours; whereas others, particularly the Italians, Bohemians,,
and Poles, count twenty-four hours without interruption.
Zan
t
LECT
LECT. XIV.
109
HISTORY
LECTURE
XIV.
Months, Lunar and Solar. Difference in Beginning the Year.
Intercalation. Cycles. Old and new Style. The Solar Cycle.
Cycle of Indiction. Julian Period. Era's or Epocha's. The
Era of Nabonaffar. Of the Seleucida. Of the Birth of
Chrift. Of the Hegira. Of the Era ufed formerly in Spain.
Æra
Of the Battle of Actium. Of the Era of Dioclefian and that
of Yeldejerd. Cautions in comparing them with one another.
As
S a complete lunation confifts of about twenty-nine
days and an half, and the changes of the moon are very
vifible, there could be no great difficulty in accommodating
them to each other, or in fixing what number of days fhould
be allowed to a month. In general the ancients made them
to confift of twenty-nine and thirty days alternately; and they
could never make a mistake of a day without being able to
rectify it (provided the view of the heavens was not obſtructed)
by ocular obfervation.
When months came to be reckoned not by lunations, but:
were confidered as each the twelfth part of a year, confifting
of three hundred and fixty-five days and fome hours, it became
neceffary to allow fometimes thirty and fometimes thirty-one:
days to a month, as in the Roman calendar.
Whenever months are mentioned as divided by days in the
books of fcripture, they are fuppofed to confift of thirty days
each;
and twelve months, or three hundred and fixty days,
make the year. This is particularly to be obferved in inter--
preting the prophetical books of Daniel and St. John.
Different:
8
110
PART III.
LECTURES ON
Different people have made their years to begin at different
times, and have uſed a variety of methods to give names to them,
and diſtinguiſh them from one another.
The Jews began the year for civil purpoſes in the month of
Tizri, which anfwers to our September; but for ecclefiaftical
purpoſes with Nifan, which anfwers to our April, at which time
they kept the paffover.
The Athenians began the year with the month Hecatombaon,
which began with the first new moon after the fummer folftice.
The Romans had at firſt only ten months in their year, which
ended with December, but Numa added January and February.
At preſent there are in Rome two ways of reckoning the year.
One begins at Chriſtmas on account of the nativity of our
Saviour, and the notaries of Rome úfe this date, prefixing to
their deeds A nativitate; and the other at March, on account of
the incarnation of Chrift, and therefore the pope's bulis are
dated anno incarnationis.
The ancient French hiftorians began the year at the death of
St. Martin, who died in the year four hundred and one, or four
hundred and two; and they did not begin in France to reckon
the year from January till one thouſand five hundred and fixty-
four, by virtue of an ordinance of Charles IX. Before that
time they began the day next after Eafter, about the twenty-
fifth of March.
In England alſo, till of late, we had two beginnings of the
year, one in January, and the other in March 25; but by
act of parliament in one thouſand ſeven hundred and fifty-two,
the firſt day in January was appointed to be the beginning of the
year for all purpofes.
Moſt of the eaſtern nations diftinguish the year by the reigns
of their princes. The Greeks alſo had no better method,
giving
1
LECT. XIV.
III
HISTORY.
giving names to them from the magiftrates who prefided in them,
as in Athens from the Archons. The Romans alſo named the
year by the confuls.
And it was a long time before any people
thought of giving names to the years from any particular æra, or
remarkable event. But at length the Greeks reckoned from the
inſtitution of the Olympic games, and the Romans from the
building of Rome. They did not, however, begin to make
thefe computations till the number of years that had elapfed
fince thofe events could not be computed with exactneſs, and
therefore, they have greatly antedated them.
About A.D. 360, the chriftians began to reckon the years
from the birth of Chrift, but not time enough to enable the
chronologers of that age, to fix the true time of that event.
The Greeks diftributed their years into fyftems of four, calling
them Olympiads, from the return of the Olympic games every
four years. And the Romans fometimes reckoned by Luftra,.
or periods of five years. The word comes from luo, which
Varro fays fignifies to pay, becauſe every fifth year they paid a.
tribute impoſed by the Cenfor, at the folemn purification infti-
tuted by Servius Tullius.
:
The greateft difficulty in chronology has been to accommo
date the two methods of computing time by the courſe of the
moon and that of the fun to each other; the neareſt divifion of the
year by months being twelve, and yet twelve lunar months falling
eleven days ſhort of a complete year. This gave birth to many
cycles in ufe among the ancients, the principal of which I fhail
explain.
It appears from the relation which Herodotus has given of
the interview between Solon and Cræfus, that, in the time of
Solon, and probably that of Herodotus alſo, it was the cuſtom
with
II 2
PART III.
LECTURES ON
with the Greeks to add, or, as it is termed, to intercalate, a
month every other year; but as this was evidently too much, they
probably rectified it, by omitting the intercalation whenever
they obferved, by comparing the feafons of the year with their
annual feſtivals, that they ought to do it. If, for inftance, the
firſt fruits of any kind were to be carried in proceffion on any
particular day of a month, they would fee the neceffity of in-
tercalating a month, if according to their ufual reckoning, thoſe
fruits were not then ripe, or they would omit the intercalation
if they were ready. And had no other view interpofed, their
reckoning could never have erred far from the truth. But it
being fometimes the intereſt of the chief magiftrates to lengthen
or ſhorten a year, for the purpoſes of ambition, every other con-
fideration was often facrificed to it, and the greateſt confuſion
was introduced into their computations.
Finding themſelves, therefore, under a neceffity of having
fome certain rule of computation, they first pitched upon four
years, in which they intercalated only one month. But this
producing an error of fourteen days in the whole cycle, they in-
vented the period of eight years, in which they intercalated three
months, in which was an exceſs of only one day and fourteen
hours, and therefore this cycle continued in uſe much longer
than either of the preceding.
But the moſt perfect of thefe cycles was that which was
called the Metonic, from Meton, an Athenian aftronomer, who
invented it. It confifted of nineteen years, in which feven
months were intercalated. This brought the two methods to
ſo near an agreement, that after the expiration of the period, not
only do the new and full moons return on the fame day of the
year, but very nearly on the fame hour of the day.
This
1
:
LECT. XIV.'
113
HISTORY.
1
This cycle was adopted by the chriftians at the council of
Nice, for the purpoſe of ſettling the time for keeping Eaſter, and
other moveable feafts. This period, however, falling ſhort of
nineteen years almoſt an hour and a half, it has come to paſs,
that the new and full moons in the heavens have anticipated the
new and full moons in the calendar of the book of common
prayer
four days and a half. Theſe laſt are called Calendar new moons,
to diſtinguiſh them from the true new moons in the heavens.
It has not been without difficulty and variety, that the com-
putation by years has been accommodated to that by days; fince
a year does not confiſt of any even number of days, but of three
hundred and fixty-five days five minutes and forty-nine feconds.
It will appear from what has been obferved, that ſo long as
mankind computed chiefly by months, it was not of much confe-
quence to determine with exactneſs the number of days in the
year; and this method fufficiently anſwered every civil and reli-
gious purpoſe. But the Egyptians, and other nations addicted to
aftronomy, were not ſatisfied with the method of computing by
lunar months, the days of which varied fo very much from one
another in different years. They therefore made the year the
ſtandard, and dividing that into days, made uſe of months only as
a commodious intermediate divifion, and, without regard to the
courfe of the moon, diſtributed the days of the year into twelve
parts, as nearly equal as they conveniently could. By this
means the fame day of the month would fall on the fame
part
of
the fun's annual revolution, and therefore would more exactly
correfpond to the ſeaſons of the year. The Mexicans divided
their year into eighteen parts.
The Egyptians, as alſo the Chaldeans and Affyrians, reckoned
at firſt three hundred and fixty days to the year, but afterwards
three hundred and fixty-five. The confequence of this was
Q
that
A
114
PART III
LECTURES ON
that the beginning of their year would go back through all thé
feaſons, though flowly; namely, at the rate of about fix-hours
every year. Of this form too were the years, which took their
date from the reign of Nabonaffar of Babylon, Yefdigerd of Per-
fia, and the Seleucide of Syria.
It muſt be obſerved, however, that the people who reckoned.
their year from theſe epochas, namely, the Egyptians, Perfians,
and Jews; as alfo the Arabians, had a different and more fixed
form of the year for aftronomical purpoſes; but as no uſe was
made of it in civil hiftory, the account of it is omitted in this
place.
ነ
The inconvenience attending the form of the year above-
mentioned was in a great meaſure remedied by the Romans, in
the time of Julius Cæfar, who added one day every fourth year
which (from the place of its infertion, viz. after the fixth of the
calends of March) was called biſſextile, or leap year. This form
of the year is ſtill called the Julian year. But the true length
of the year being not quite fix hours more than the three hun-
dred and fixty-five days, this allowance was too much; and
pope Gregory XIII. întroduced another amendment in the
year
one thouſand five hundred and eighty-two, by ordering that
once in one hundred and thirty-three years a day fhould be taken
out of the calendar, in the following manner, viz. from the year
one thouſand fix hundred every hundreth year (which according
to the Julian form is always biffextile, or leap year) was to be
common, but every four hundreth year was to continue biffextile,
as in the Julian account. As this pope made allowance at once
for all the alteration that his method would have made in the
courſe of the year from the time of the council of Nice, the new
Stile (for fo his regulation of the year is called) differed from the
old ſtile ten days at the very commencement of it, and is now
eleven
:
2.
LECT. XIV.
115
HISTORY..
1
-
1
eleven days different from it. The new ftile was adopted in
England in one thouſand ſeven hundred and fifty-two.
'The Mahometans make their year to confiſt of lunar months
only, without endeavouring to adapt it to the courſe of the fun ;
ſo that with them the beginning of the year goes through all the
ſeaſons at the rate of about eleven days every year.
But fince the exact time of twelve moons, befides the three
hundred and fifty-four whole days, is about eight hours, and
forty-eight minutes, which make eleven days in thirty-fix years,
they are forced to add eleven days in thirty years, which they do
by means of a cycle, invented by the Arabians, in which there
are nineteen years with three hundred and fifty-four days only,
and eleven intercalary of three hundred and fifty-five days, and
they are thoſe in which the number of hours and minutes more
than the whole days in the year is found to be more than half a
day, ſuch as two, five, ſeven, ten, thirteen, fixteen, eighteen,
twenty-one, twenty-four, twenty-fix, and twenty-nine, by which
means they fill up all the inequalities that can happen.
It has been of fome confequence to chriftians to adjuſt the
days of the week to the days of the month, and of the year, in
order to get a rule for finding Sunday. Had there been no hif-
fextile, it is evident that, fince the year confifts of fifty-two
weeks, and one day, all the varieties would have been comprized
in feven years.
But the biffextile returning every fourth year,
the ſeries of dominical letters fucceeding each other is inter-
rupted, and does not return in order, but after four times two
years, or twenty-eight years, which is therefore commonly called
the folar cycle, ferving as a rule to find Sunday, and confequently
all the days of the week of every month and year.
Beſides the above mentioned periods of years, called cycles,
there are fome other combinations, or fyftems of
years,
that are
of
!
}
116
PART III
LECTURES ON
}
of uſe in chronology, as that called the indiction, which is a
period of fifteen years, at the end of which a certain tribute
was paid by the provinces of the Roman empire, and by which.
thé emperors ordered public acts to be dated.
But the moſt remarkable of all the periods in chronology is
that called the Julian period, invented by Jofeph Scaliger, and
called Julian, from the years of which it confiſts being Julian
years. His object was to reduce to a certainty the different
methods of computing time, and fixing the dates of events, by
different chronologers. For this purpofe nothing was neceffary
but a feries of years fome term of which was fixed (that, for
inftance, by which the prefent year fhould be denominated) com-
prehending the whole extent of time. Since, if each chrono-
loger would apply that common meaſure to his particular
fcheme, they would all perfectly underſtand one another..
To accompliſh this, he combined the three periods of the fun,
the moon, and the indiction, together, that is, multiplying the
numbers twenty-eight, nineteen, and fifteen into one another,
which produces feven thoufand nine hundred and eighty, after
which period, and not before, all the three cycles will return in.
the fame order every year, being diftinguiſhed by the fame num-
ber of each.
In order to fix the beginning of this period, he took the
cycles as he then found them fettled in the Latin church; and
tracing them backwards through their ſeveral combinations, he
found that the year in which they would all begin together
was the year before the creation feven hundred and fourteen, ac-
cording to Uſher, and that the first year of the chriſtian æra
would be four thoufand feven hundred and fourteen of this
period.
:
There
LECT. XIV.
117
HISTORY.
There is a farther convenience in this period, viz. that if
any year be divided by the number compofing the cycles, viz.
twenty-eight, nineteen, or fifteen, the quotient will fhew the
number of the cycles that have elapfed fince the commence-
ment of it, and the remainder will give the year of the cycle,
correſponding to the year given.
I cannot help obferving that this boafted period feems to
have been unneceffary for the chief purpoſe for which it was
invented, viz. to ferve as a common language for chronologers,
and that now little ufe is made of it, notwithſtanding all writers
ſtill ſpeak of it in the fame magnificent terms. The vulgar
chriſtian æra anfwers the fame purpofe as effectually.
All that can be neceffary for chronologers to ſpeak the fame
language, and be perfectly underſtood by one another, and by
all mankind, is to give every year the ſame name or defignation,
which is moſt conveniently done by expreffing them in a feries
of numbers in arithmetical progreffion, any one term of which
they ſhall agree to affix to the fame year, a year in which any
well known event happened. Let it, for example, be that in
which the peace of Paris was made, and let it be called one
thouſand ſeven hundred and fixty-three. If, befides this, it be
only agreed in what part of the revolution of the fun, or in
what month and day, the year begins, there can be no difficulty
in giving a name to every other year preceding or following it,
and thereby aſcertaining the interval between all tranfactions.
For all the events that took place the year before that peace
will be referred to the year one thouſand ſeven hundred and
fixty-two, and all in the year after it to one thouſand feven
hundred and fixty-four. This period having had a com-
mencement fince the date of hiſtory is no inconvenience; for
whenever we have gone back to number one of this period, the
1
year
118
PART III
LECTURES
ON
year preceding it may be called one before its commencement, the
year preceding that two before it, &c. and thus proceding
ad infinitum both ways.
That Chriſt might not have been born in the firſt of that
fyftem of years to which it ferves to give a name, is no incon-
venience whatever; fince, whatever differences of opinion there
may be among chronologers about the time when Chrift was
born, they all agree in calling the prefent year, and confequently
every other year, by the fame name, and therefore they have
the fame idea of the interval between the preſent year
and any
year and
other year in the fyftem. The real time of Chrift's birth can
no more affect the proper ufe of this fyftem than that of any
other indifferent event; fince, ufing the fame fyftem of dates,
they may fay Chrift was born in the third, fourth, fifth, or
fixth, what I think to be the cafe, in the feventh year before
the chriſtian æra.
Whenever, therefore, chronologers ceafed to date events
from the creation, which was very abfurd (fince they did not
agree in fixing the interval between the prefent year and the
date of that event, and therefore gave all the years different
names) they had no occafion to have recourfe to any fuch
period as the Julian; fince another, capable of anſwering
the fame purpofes, was already in common uſe, ſupplying
them with a language which they all equally understood.
Era's or Epocha's, are memorable events from which time
is reckoned, and from which any ſubſequent year receives its
denomination. The Greeks for a long time (as I obferved
before) had no fixed æra, afterwards they reckoned by Olym
piads, which were games celebrated in honour of Jupiter once
in four years, and began in Midfummer, feven hundred and
feventy-fix years before Chrift.
before Chriſt. The Athenians gave names
to
1
LECT. XIV.
119
HISTORY.
;
to their years from their archons. The Romans called their
years from the names of the confuls who prefided in them, and
afterwards they dated events from the building of their city,
ſuppoſing it to have been built feven hundred and fifty-three
years before Chrift.
Some hiſtories are regulated by the year of Nabonaffer, who
began his reign in the year feven hundred and forty-feven before
Chrift, of the Julian period three thoufand eight hundred and
fixty-feven. It is fuppofed to have commenced on the twenty-
fixth of February in the afternoon.
The Jews before Chrift reckoned by the year of the Seleucidæ,
fometimes called the year of the contracts, which began in the
year three hundred and twelve before Chriſt, of the Julian
period four thousand four hundred and two, fometime in the
fpring.
The Chriftians, about three hundred and fixty years after
the birth of Chrift, began to make ufe of that æra, which is
now uſed in all chriftian countries.
:
:
The Mahometans reckon their years from the flight of
Mahommed from Mecca. This æra is called the Hegyra. It
began in the year fix hundred and twenty-two after Chrift, of
the Julian period five thousand three hundred and thirty-five,
on the fixteenth of July.
The old Spaniſh æra is dated from the year thirty-eight
before Chrift, about the time when they were fubdued by the
Romans. It was uſed till the year one thouſand three hundred
and thirty-three, under John I. of Caftile.
The Egyptians long reckoned from the battle of Actium,
which happened in the year thirty-one before Chrift, of the
Julian period four thouſand fix hundred and eighty-three, on
the third of September.
Before
120
LECTURES ON PARTIIL
i
}
Before the Chriftian æra was ufed, the Chriftians for fome
time made uſe of the Dioclefian æra, which took its rife from
the perfecution by Dioclefian, in the year two hundred and
eighty-four after Chrift.
The era of Yerdigerd is dated from the laft king of Perfia
who was conquered by the Saracens, in the year fix hundred
and thirty-two after Chrift, of the Julian period five thousand
three hundred and forty-five, on the fixteenth of June.
With regard to all thefe methods of denominating time,
care muſt be taken that the year be reckoned according to the
method of computation followed by the people who uſe it.
Thus, in reckoning from the Hegyra, a perfon would be led
into a mistake who fhould make thofe years correfpond to
Julian years. He must deduct eleven days from every year
which has elapfed fince the commencement of it. Thus,
though the first year of this æra correfponded to the year fix
hundred and twenty-two after Chrift, and began on the fixteenth
of July; the year three hundred and twenty-fix of the Hegyra
correſponded to the year nine hundred and thirty-feven of
Chrift, and began November eight. And the year of the
Hegyra fix hundred and fifty-five commenced on the nineteenth
of January, one thouſand two hundred and fifty-feven.
This compendium of chronology is fufficient for the purpoſe
of reading hiſtory, but is by no means a complete account of
the methods of computing time in every particular country
which has been mentioned. To have done this, would have
carried me beyond my prefent purpoſe, and too far into the
customs of particular countries. For a fuller account I refer
you to Strauchius, and other chronologers.
LECT.
LECT. XV.
121
HISTORY,
!
LECTURE XV.
Of the Methods of eftimating the Riches and Power of ancient
and remote Nations. Sources of Miftake on this Subject. Change
in the Standard of Coin. Upon what the Price of Commodities
depends. Of the Changes which the Grecian Coins underwent,
Of the Proportion between Silver, Gold, and Copper, in ancient
Times. Of the Changes in the Roman Coins. Of the Pro-
portion of Money to Commodities in different Periods of the
Grecian and Roman Hiftory. Of the Intereft of Money in
Greece and at Rome.
A¹
N article of information the moſt immediately neceſſary
to a reader of hiſtory, is how to make a juſt eſtimate of
the riches and power of ancient and remote nations, and to
compare them with thoſe of our own age and nation, by
means of the expreffions which hiftorians have used to
denote the riches and power of ftates, and particularly by the
fums of money which are occafionally mentioned in their
writings. The true ftate of the riches of nations, in the
feveral periods of their hiſtory, will be pointed out as an
object of the firſt importance to an hiſtorian. On this account
it is of confequence that every reader of hiſtory have it in his
power to form a juft idea of them from the data he finds in
hiftorians, and that he be guarded against the miſtakes which,
without fome previous inftruction, he would unavoidably fall
into with reſpect to them.
!.
R
I shall
122
PART III.
LECTURES ON
}
I fhall therefore endeavour to explain the fources of un-
certainty, and ambiguity, that every circumftance in our
fituation can occafion to us, in interpreting the fums of money
which are mentioned in the hiftories of the most confiderable
nations, and I fhall then give fuch a collection of facts, collected
from history, as fhall fhew us the true ftate of every thing
connected with money in the most remarkable fucceffive periods
of time in thofe countries. By this means it will be eafy to
make every neceffary allowance for the difference of circum-
ftances between us and them, and thus exhibit whatever accounts
we meet with of the riches and power of ancient times and
nations, in a fair contraft with the riches and power of our cwn
age and nation, and fo to form the cleareft idea we can get
of them.
In order to this, it must be confidered, that money is only a
commodious, reprefentative of the commodities which may be
purchaſed with it; and we fhall have the eafieft view of this fub-
ject if we, moreover, confider filver as the only ſtandard of money,
and gold and copper, as fubftitutes for filver, or as com-
modities which are reprefented, and may be purchaſed, by
filver. Now, there are two things which may make an alteration
in the repreſentative power of money. The one is a change
of the idea annexed to any common name of a piece, or a fum
of money, and the other is an alteration of the proportion
between the quantity of money in a ftate, and the com-
modities repreſented by it. I fhall explain each of theſe
more particularly.
If a change be made in the ftandard of a coin, which con-
tinues to go by the fame name, it is plain that the fame name no
longer expreffes the fame idea, and therefore, if we be not aware
of this change, we fhall be misled by the expreffions. For
1
instance,
"
LECT. XV.
123
HISTORY.
inftance, if the quantity of filver which we call a pound be at
this time but half the quantity which was formerly called by
that name, it is plain that, if we would form a juft idea of the
value of a pound in times previous to the alteration we muſt
fuppofe it to be two of our prefent pounds, instead of one;
for fo in fact it is.
The tables of our coin only ſhow the proportion which fums
denoted by particular names, as pounds, fhillings, pence,
&c. bear to one another; and though thefe fums may have
always kept the fame proportion, the abfolute value of them
all may have changed. And tables, which fhew the value of
ancient or foreign money, are always calculated according to
to the laſt ſtandard of both, which is generally the loweſt.
The preſent tables, therefore, are not fufficient to inform a
reader of hiſtory of the true value of fums of money expended,
He must alfo have an hiſtorical
or acquired, in early times.
account of thofe changes in the value of coin, which alter the
quantity of metal contained in it, either by diminiſhing the
fize of the current pieces, or leffening the fineness of the metal
by a greater proportion of alloy.
-
As the generality of hiſtorians take no notice of changes, in
the value of money, but content themſelves with mentioning
fums by their common names, I fhall endeavour (as far as the
materaials I have been able to collect will enable me) to fupply
this defect with refpect to thofe hiftories which are moſt
intereſting to us.
As it is a maxim in trade, that every thing will find its value
(and indeed the value which the exchange of any thing, in
buying and felling, has is its real value, that is, its true relative
value with reſpect to other things) the accounts of fums ex-
changed for commodities in hiſtory are the only data we have
R 2
given
124
PART III.
LECTURES ON
1
given us, to determine this relative value of money; and if we
have enow of thefe accounts, they will be abundantly fufficient
for the purpoſe.
To judge of the proportion between the quantity of circu-
lating cafh in different nations, or different periods of the
fame nation, it is evident that we must not be guided by the
price of any fingle article, particularly an article of luxury;
becauſe the prices of thefe things depend upon fancy and
caprice, which are continually changing. The beſt guide upon
the whole ſeems to be the price of mere labour, eſtimated by
the wages given to perfons of the loweft occupations. For
thefe have been obferved, in all ages and nations, to be little
more than a bare fubfiftence, and the articles of their expence
muſt be the neceffaries of life.
Befides, it is felf-evident, that the man who can command
the moſt of the labour of his fellow creatures is the richest,
and the most powerful. For this, in fact, is all that wealth
and power can procure a man. If it be faid that what is
neceffary in fome countries is fuperfluous in others, as cloaths
in hot climates, bread or flesh meat in countries where each
of thofe articles may not be uſed, and the like, it is ftill
obvious, that the lefs money will purchaſe neceſſaries, what-
ever they be, the more value it is of, and the more a perſon
may fpare out of the fame fum for the conveniencies and
fuperfluities of life, by purchafing the labour of his fellow
creatures.
We are not, however, to judge of a man's wealth by the
number of perfons he can maintain, unleſs thofe perfons con-
tribute nothing by their labour towards their own maintenance.
He muft, by commanding the labour of others (for it cannot
be done in any other way) maintain them. But if they be a
continual
4
LECT. XV.
125
HISTORY.
continual expence to him, as if they were employed in building,
or other great works, in the army, or kept upon charity, it
ſeems to be a very fair medium of computation. If therefore,
for inftance, we read that one perfon was impoverished by
employing one thouſand labouring men upon any piece of work,
and that another was able to keep two thoufand at work, we
need not trouble ourſelves to confider the fituation of their
different countries, and times, the prices of proviſion, man--
ner of living, &c. but may very fairly conclude, that the one
was twice as rich and powerful as the other.
Under the ſecond head, therefore, I fhall endeavour to find
the proportion between money and the neceffaries of life in the
different periods of thofe hiftories with which a gentleman and
ſcholar would chooſe to be beft acquainted. And at the fame
time that I endeavour, in this manner, to determine the pro-
portion which the quantity of current money has borne to
vendible commodities, I fhall, likewife, take notice of the
price of money with regard to itſelf, that is, the intereft it has
borne. It is true that the intereft of money has been very.
justly called the barometer of ſtates with reſpect to other things
than thoſe I am now confidering, and which may be the ſubject
of a future lecture; but in the mean time it may not be amifs
to take notice of it, at prefent, as a commodity and on many
occafions one of the most neceffary. For fince money may be
of ufe like any other commodity which a perfon may make
advantage of, he is the richest man (cæt. par.) whofe ftated.
revenues can purchaſe the moſt extenſive uſe of it..
Having explained the nature of this fubject, I ſhall enter
upon it, by giving the beſt account that I have been able to
collect (taken almoſt wholly from Arbuthnot) of the fucceffive
changes which have taken place in the value of nominal fams
of money among the Greeks and Romans, with the proportion
which
126
LECTURES ON · PART III.
T
which they bore to commodities, and then give a more par-
ticular account of the like changes and proportions in Engliſh
and French money, and to each I ſhall ſubjoin an account of
the changes in the rate of intereft; not that I fhall perhaps
keep all theſe articles perfectly diftin&t, fince very little incon-
venience, and perhaps fome advantage, may ariſe from oc-
cafionally mixing them.
The Greek coins underwent very little change compared
with that of the Roman money, or of the money of modera
European ſtates, and therefore is the lefs worthy of our notice.
All the allowance we are to make for the changes of value in
the Drachma (a coin equal to the Roman Denarius, and worth
about eight-pence of our prefent money) and to which the
changes of value in the rest of their money correſponded is,
that from Solon to the time of Alexander we must reckon
fixty-feven grains for the weight of it, from thence to the
fubjection of Greece by the Romans fixty-five, and under the
Romans fixty-two and an half, a change which is very in-
confiderable.
The conftant and ſtated rate of the value of gold to filver
among the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, in the whole period
of ancient times, was ten to one, with very little variation, and
the rate of filver to Cyprian brafs one hundred to one; and the
general fuppofition is, that there was one fiftieth part of alloy
in the gold coins of the ancients. At prefent gold is to filver
as about fifteen to one, and filver to copper as feventy-three
to one.
Numa, or Servius Tullius, firft ftamped brafs money among
the Romans, filver was not ftamped by them till the year of
the city four hundred and eighty-five, the time of their war
with Pyrrhus, and gold not till fixty-two years after.
The
LECT. XV.
127
HISTORY.
:
{
The As, from being a pound weight averdupois, fell to two
ounces in the first Punic war, in the fecond Punic war to
one ounce, and prefently after it was fixed by the Papyrian law
to half an ounce. Thefe alterations were occafioned by the
neceffities of the commonwealth; but as Arbuthnot obſerves, the
plenty of gold and filver would have done the fame thing, and
have brought down fuch an enormous brafs coin; or rather filver
coins of an equal value, and of lefs weight would have been
introduced.
It may eafily be imagined how fcarce filver was at Rome
when, in all the early times of the Roman hiftory, eight hun-
dred and forty pounds of brafs were equivalent to one of filver.
Some fay the proportion between theſe two metals before the
firſt Punic war was nine hundred and fixty to one. The
different proportion which was juſt now obſerved to have taken
place in Greece, during the fame period, fhows how little
communication there was between Greece and Rome in thoſe
times. Indeed the commonwealth gradually reduced this:
proportion, probably in confequence of a freer intercourſe
with other nations, which would neceffarily be attended with.
the introduction of filver where it was fo fcarce.
The adulteration of the Roman coin in fome periods of their
hiftory exceeds any thing we read of with refpect to other
countries. The money of Caracalla had more than one half
alloy, that of Alexander Severus two thirds, and under Gallienus:
it was nothing more than gilt copper.
To enable us to judge of the proportion of money to com-
modities, I have felected fome of the accounts that I have met
with concerning the moft neceffary articles of confumption in
the feveral countries and ages which I have propoſed to confider.
Corn
128
PART III.
LECTURES ON
1
Corn was commonly reckoned in Greece at a drachma the
medimnus, which, reduced to our computation, is four ſhillings
and fix-pence per quarter. In Demofthenes's time it was much
higher; being five drachmas the medimnus, which is about
one pound two fhillings and ſeven-pence per quarter. In times
of plenty in Greece the price of a sheep was eight-pence, of a
hog two fhillings, an ox three pounds three fhillings; and a
foldier ferved for a drachma a day, which is about eight-pence.
Upon the whole, we may perhaps allow that the proportion of
money to commodities in the most flourishing time of Greece,
or the time in which the claffical hiftorians wrote, was about
one-third leſs than it is at prefent with us; which was about
the fame that it was in Europe before the diſcovery of America.
The
As the common people of Rome lived very much upon bread
corn, the price of that article will be a better guide to us than
any other fingle circumftance in judging of the proportion
between money and the neceffaries of life among them.
them.
ancient price of corn in Rome, and to which it was reduced at
the burning of Rome by Nero, was three nummi the modius,
that is three-pence three-farthings the peck. According to
Pliny, the coarfeft bread was made of corn worth forty afes,
equal to two fhillings and fix-pence three-farthings a peck;
of wheaten bread forty-eight afes, equal to three fhillings and
three-farthings; and the finest of all eighty afes, or five fhillings
and one-penny farthing; fo that about the time of Pliny, corn
was confiderably dearer in Rome than it is commonly at London.
The article which ſtands next to bread corn among the
neceffaries of life is cloathing. Common wearing cloaths, made
of wool, fuch as were always worn at Rome, we ſhould not
think very dear. For Cato the elder never wore a fuit worth
above
LECT. XV.
129
HISTORY.
above one hundred drachms, equal to three pounds four fhillings
and ſeven pence; and we muſt confider that the Roman cloaths
were not made clofe, but large, and loofe, and therefore would
Taft longer than our clofe garments. This article is likewife
to be underſtood of plain undyed cloth, which was white; for
the expence of dying, particularly purple, which the Romans
and the ancients in general, most of all affected, was prodigious.
Pelagium, one fpecies of that dye, was worth fifty nummi,
equal to eight fhillings and eleven-pence, per pound. The buc-
einum, another fpecies of it, was double that value; the violet
purple was three pounds ten fhillings and eleven pence per
pound, and the Tyrian double dye could fcarcely be bought for
thirty-five pounds nine fhillings and one penny farthing per
pound. There muft alfo have been a great difference in the
fineness of their wool, and confequently in the price of it. For
a Roman pound of Padua wool, the fineſt of all (though indeed
when it was rather dear) fold for one hundred nummi, at which
rate the English pound troy comes to feventeen fhillings and
eight pence three, farthings.
i
Wine feems always to have been cheap at Rome. For, ac-
cording to Collumella, the common fort was worth eight pounds
per ton.
In the early times of Rome, the price of a good calf was
twenty five afes, equal to one fhilling and feven-pence three-
eighths. The price of a sheep a denarius, or eight-pence, and
the price of an ox ten times as much. Theſe articles Arbuthnot
quotes from Pliny, who, no doubt, makes allowance for the
alteration in the coin. Otherwiſe they must have been much
dearer than we can reaſonably fuppofe in the early times of the
commonwealth. According to Varro, ſheep, in his time, were
commonly worth twenty-five fhillings each, a bullock twelve
$
pounds
30
PART III.
LECTURES
ON
pounds ten fhillings, and a calf three pounds two fhillings and
fix-pence. This makes the price of butcher's meat nearly the
fame as in London.
An Engliſh acre of middling land, for a vineyard, was worth
according to Collumella, fourteen pounds fifteen fhillings and
three-pence, and the Jugerum was to the English acre as ten
to fixteen. According to the fame author, the common mean
rent of an acre of paſture ground was one pound eight fhil-
lings and ten-pence. Lands were commonly reckoned at
twenty-five years purchaſe. For the lands of the government
were fo let, paying according to the rate of four pounds per
cent.
The price of land was confiderably increaſed by the great trea-
fures brought to Rome in Auguſtus's reign. An acre of the
beſt ground in the city of Rome, under the emperors, may be
reckoned to have brought in a ground rent of five pounds per
annum.
?
The price of an ordinary flave, in Cato major's time, was
three hundred and feventy-feventy drachms, equal to forty-
eight pounds eight ſhillings and nine-pence.
Before Domitian, the Roman foldiers ferved for under five-
pence, and afterwards for about fix-pence a day; fo that if we
take the price of day labour from the pay of a foldier (which in
moſt countries, and particularly ancient nations, it hardly ever
exceeds) it will not make it much higher in Rome than in our
own country.
From the prices of all theſe articles taken together, we
fhould conclude that the proportion which money bore to
commodities in the moſt flourishing times of the common-
wealth, and under the firft emperors, was rather higher than it
bears at prefent with us. But this could only be the cafe at
Rome,
!
LECT. XV.
131
HISTORY.
Rome, and the neighbourhood of it. All the neceffaries of
life were confiderably cheaper in Greece. Polybius, who lived
in the time of the third Punic war, fays that provifions were fo
cheap in Italy in his time, that, in fome places, the ftated club
in the inns was a femis a head, which is but little more than
a farthing. And under the later emperors the prices of all ne-
ceffaries were certainly nearly the fame that they were in this
part of Europe before the diſcovery of America.
All the articles mentioned above relate to what may be called
the neceſſaries of life. How extravagant the Romans were in en-
tertainments and the elegancies of life, we may form fome idea of
from the following circumſtance, that Rofcius the actor (whoſe
profeffion was lefs refpectable at Rome than it is even with us)
could gain five hundred feftertia, equal to four thousand and
thirty-fix pounds nine fhillings and two-pence per annum; and
per day when he acted one thoufand nummi, equal to thirty-
two pounds five fhillings and ten-pence. Various curious in-
ſtances of Roman luxury may be ſeen in Arbuthnot.
The most moderate intereft at Athens was twelve per cent.
paid monthly, and according to Ariftophanes it was fome-
what more. The rent of other things, likewife, was very high
in proportion to their value. Antidorus, fays Demofthenes,
paid three talents and an half for a houfe, which he let for a
talent a year. If this were true, admitting it to have been an
extraordinary cafe, it is no wonder that the hire of money bore
ſo extraordinary a price in proportion to its value. Such cir-
cumſtances as theſe are a demonftration of the precarious ftate of
property. For both with regard to money, and every thing elſe,
the more fecure it is ſuppoſed to be, the lefs annual intereſt is
required in proportion to its value.
S 2
In
132
LECTURES ON PART III.
In the early times of the Roman commonwealth too, in-
tereſt was, at a medium, twelve per cent. In the flourishing
times of the commonwealth it was at fix, and though it was
fuddenly reduced to four upon the conqueft of Egypt, it pre-
fently roſe to its old ſtandard; and in Pliny's time fix
per cent.
was the public cuftomary intereft of money; Juftinian reduced
it to four per cent. and money lent to mafters of ſhips to one per
cent. per month. This kind of intereft had before been two
per cent. per month.
But there was a peculiarity in the Roman method of putting
out money to intereft, which must be explained, as we have
nothing like it with us. With them it was customary after
one hundred and one months to add fix per cent. to the prin-
cipal, befides the fimple intereft which was due upon the fum.
This they called anatocifmos, fo that their ufual rate for long
intereſt was neither fimple nor compound, but fomething be-
tween both.
५
}
24
LECT.
LECT. XVI.
133
HISTORY.
LECTURE XVI.
Of the English Coins. Saxon and Norman Coins compared.
When Gold and Copper began to be coined by our Kings. A
Table of all the Changes in the Value of English Coins.
The Proportion between Gold and Silver, and between Coin
and Commodities in different Periods of our Hiftory. A
Table of all the Changes of the French Coins from the Time of
Charlemaigne. A general Idea of the Proportion it has, at
different Times, borne to Commodities in France.
of the
different Rates of Interest in Europe in different Periods. The
Number and Riches of a People to be confidered in computing
the proportional Quantities of the Money they raife.
TH
HE English money, though the fame names do by no
means correſpond to the fame quantity of precious metal
as formerly, has not changed fo much as the money of moſt
other countries. In this part of my ſubject I am ſo happy as
to be able to give a much more complete deduction of the
changes both in the value of money, and the proportion it has
borne to commodities, than in the preceding. A view of all
the changes which the ſtandard of our money has ever under-
gone, I fhall preſent to you at once, in a table extracted from
the account lately publiſhed of English coins by the fociety of
antiquaries. But previous to this it will be proper to inform
you, that, in the Saxon times, a fhilling (at one time at leaſt)
was reckoned to contain five-pence, or pennyweights, and
4
one
134
PART III.
LECTURES ON
one pound contained forty-eight fhillings, which is the fame
number of pence that a pound contains now.
However, the proportion between the filling and either the
penny on the one hand, or the pound on the other, feems not to
have been fo conftant and uniform as that between the penny
and the pound. During the first race of the kings of France,
the French fou, or fhilling, appears, upon different occafions, to
have contained five, twelve, twenty, and forty pennies. From
the time of Charlemagne among the French, and from that of
William the Conqueror among the Engliſh, the proportion be-
tween the pound, the filling, and the penny, feems to have been
uniformily the fame as at prefent*.
Though a different diftribution of the fubdivifions of a pound
was introduced with the Normans, yet William the Conqueror
brought no new weight into his mint; but the fame weight
ufed there fome ages after, and called the pound of the tower of
London, was the old pound of the Saxon moniers before the
conqueft. This pound was lighter than the pound troy by
three ounces. It was divided into two hundred and forty-
pence, and confequently the intrinfic value of that fum in weight
was the fame as the value of fifty-eight fhillings and three half-
pence of our prefent coined money.
It may not be improper alfo to premife, that Edward III.
was the firſt of our kings who coined any gold; and that no
copper was coined by authority before James 1. Theſe pieces
were not called farthings, but farthing tokens, and all people were
at liberty to take or refuſe them. Before the time of Ed-
ward III. gold was exchanged, like any other commodity, by its
weight; and before the time of James I. copper was ſtamped
by any perſon who choſe to do it.
* Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 40.
The
LECT. XVI.
135
HISTORY.
The following table exhibits, at one view, the ſtandard of our
filver money as to goodneſs, together with the true weight of
two hundred and forty pence, fixty groats, or twenty fhillings,
making the pound ſterling in tale, and the preſent intrinfic value
of fo much filver as was refpectively contained in the fame pound
fterling at the feveral times there noted in the first column.
To this is alfo added, in the laft, the fame intrinfic value of the
nominal pound fterling, expreffed in decimals of our preſent
fterling pound; whereby the proportion of the intrinfic value of
any fum of money mentioned in books, to the intrinfic value
of ſo much money as it is now called by the fame appella-
tion, may immediately be known, and the prices of proviſions,
labour, and materials in former times, may readily be compared
with the different prices which the like provifions, labour, and
materials, are found to bear at this day.
The meaning of the term old fterling, in the ſecond column of
the following table, is that eleven ounces two pennyweights of
fine filver, were contained in twelve ounces of old coin. The
numbers which expreſs the alterations made afterwards fhow the
additional quantity of alloy uſed in fome reigns.
TABLE
136
PART III.
LECTURES ON
TA
A B L
E.
Year of the king's reign,
and A. D..
Standard of
Silver.
Weight of zos. Value of the fame
in tale. in prefent money.
Proportion.
0%.
douts. gri.
4.
5.
d.
Conqueft
1066 Old fterling 11
5
2
18
2,906
28 Edward I.
1300 Ditto
I 1
2
5 2
17
5
2,871
18 Edw. III.
1344 Ditto
ΤΟ
3
о
2
12
5
2,621
20 ditto
1346 Ditto
10
2
11
8
2,583
27 ditto
1353 Ditto
9
2
6
6
2,325
13 Henry IV.
1412 Ditto
7
IO
I
18
9
1,937
Edw. IV.
1464 Ditto
6
I
11
O
1,55
18 Hen. VIII. 1527 Ditto
5
6 16
I
7 623/23
F,378
34
ditto
1543 w. 1oz. 2dw.
5
I
3
3
1/
1,163
36 ditto
1545
37 ditto
1546
3 Edw. VI.
5 ditto
1549
1551
6750O
8
6 ditto
1552
I
2 2 2 2.7
Ditto
13 11/1
0,698
Ditto
9
3/2/2
0,466
3
6 16 Ditto
Ditto
Ditto
4
4
O
I
I Mary
1553
2
Ditto
1
2 Eliz.
1560 Old fterling
Ditto
1
O 8
mit mit mit ∞
0,232
1,028
1,024
1,033
43 ditto
1601 Ditto
3 17
17 10
I
O
1,000
It
that in the twenty-feventh year of king Edward
appears that in the
But even
III. 1353, when the firft confiderable coinage of gold was made
in England, fine gold was rated in our coins at eleven times
and about one-fixth part as much as fine filver.
this value of gold was thought too great in the time of
Henry IV. and the fame being complained of, by the regu-
lations made in his thirteenth year, 1412, gold came to be
exchanged for ten times and about a third of an equal quan-
tity of filver. In the fourth year of Edward IV. 1464,
gold was again valued at a little more than eleven times the
price of filver.
During one hundred and forty years next
following there was fcarce any alteration made in the pro-
portional value of the two metals, excepting only in the times
of confufion, between the thirty-fourth year of Henry VIII. and
the
j
LECT. XVI.
137
HISTORY.
the laſt of Edward VI. and by the indentures of the forty-
third year of queen Elizabeth, and thoſe of the firſt of
king James, 1603, the pound weight of fine gold in the
coin was yet rated at fomewhat less than eleven pounds
weight of filver. But foon after that time the price of gold
was fenfibly advanced, the pound weight of it being valued
in the indentures of the fecond year of king James at more
than twelve pounds and an ounce; and in the ſeventeenth
year of the fame king, at more than thirteen pounds four
ounces and three penny weights of fine filver. When guineas
came first to be coined for twenty fhilling pieces, in the
fifteenth year of Charles II. 1663, the pound of fine gold
was made equivalent to fourteen pounds five ounces fixteen
pennyweights and nine grains of fine filver; which value
(by the running of guineas as they now do for twenty-
one fhillings each) is yet farther advanced to fifteen pounds two
ounces ten pennyweights and feven grains of the fame filver.
The Scots money pound contained, from the time of Alex-
ander the Firſt, to that of Robert Bruce, a pound of filver
of the fame weight and fineness with the English pound ſterling.
Their pound and penny now contain about a thirty-fixth part
of their original value*.
Having thus exhibited a view of the fucceffive changes of
the English coin to the preſent time, I fhall endeavour to
afcertain the proportion that money has from time to time
borne to commodities, by means of the prices of things taken
at proper intervals, from the times of the Saxons down to
our own.
In the year 712 and 727 an ewe and lamb were rated at one
fhilling Saxon money till a fortnight after Eafter. Between 900
* Smith on the Wealth of Nations, vol. I. p. 39. 41.
T
and
1
138
PART III.
LECTURES ON
and 1000,
two hydes of land, each containing about one
hundred and twenty acres, were fold for one hundred fhillings.
In 1000, by king Ethelred's laws, a horfe was rated at
thirty fhillings, a mare, or a colt of a year old, at twenty
ſhillings, a mule, or young afs, at twelve fhillings, an ox at
thirty pence, a cow at twenty-four pence, a ſwine eight-
pence, a fheep-at one fhilling. In 1043, a quarter of wheat
was fold for fixty pence. From theſe, and fome other
fimilar facts, it is computed that in the Saxon times, there
was ten times lefs money in proportion to commodities than
at preſent. Their nominal fpecies, therefore, being about
three times higher than ours, the price of every thing, accord-
ing to our prefent language, must be reckoned thirty times
cheaper than it is now.
In the reign of William the Conqueror commodities were
ten times cheaper than they are at prefent; from which we
cannot help forming a very high idea of the wealth and power
of that king. For the revenue of William the Conqueror was
four hundred thousand pounds per annum, every pound being
equal to that weight of filver. Confequently the whole may be
eſtimated at one million two hundred thousand pounds of the
preſent computation; a fum which, confidering the different
value of money between that period and the preſent time, was
equivalent to twelve millions of modern eſtimation.
The moſt neceffary commodities do not ſeem to have advanced
their price from William the Conqueror to Richard I.
The price of corn in the reign of Henry III. was near
half the mean price in our times. Biſhop Fleetwood has
ſhown that in the year 1240, which was in this reign,
four pounds thirteen fhillings and nine-pence was worth
about fifty pounds of our prefent money. About the latter
end
}
LECT. XVI.
139
HISTORY.
end of this reign Robert de Hay, rector of Souldern, agreed to
receive one hundred fhillings to purchaſe to himſelf and fucceffor
the annual rent of five fhillings, in full compenfation of an
acre of corn.
Butchers meat, in the time of the great fcarcity in the reign
of Edward II. was, by a parliamentary ordinance, fold three
times cheaper than our mean price at prefent; poultry fomewhat
lower, becauſe being now confidered as a delicacy, it has rifen
beyond its proportion. The mean price of corn in this period was
half the preſent value, and the mean price of cattle one-eighth.
In the next reign, which was that of Edward III. the moſt
neceffary commodities were, in general, about three or four
times cheaper than they are at prefent.
In theſe times knights, who ferved on horſeback in the army,
had two fhillings a day, and a foot archer fix-pence; which
laſt would now be equal to a crown a day. This pay has
continued nearly the fame nominally (only that in the time of
the commonwealth the pay of the horſe was advanced to two
ſhillings and fix-pence, and that of the foot to one fhilling;
though it was reduced again at the reſtoration) but foldiers
were proportionably of a better rank formerly.
In the time of Henry VI. corn was about half its prefent value,
other commodities much cheaper. Bishop Fleetwood has de-
termined, from a most accurate confideration of every circum-
ftance, that five pounds in this reign was equivalent to twenty-
eight, or thirty, now.
In the time of Henry VII. many commodities were three times
as cheap here, and in all Europe, as they are at prefent, there
having been a great increaſe of gold and filver in Europe fi..ce
his time, occafioned by the diſcovery of America.
The commoditics whofe price has riſen the moſt fince before
the time of Henry VII. are butcher's meat, fowls and fih;
T 2
especially
140
LECTURES ON PART III.
eſpecially the latter. And the reaſon why corn was always
much dearer in proportion to other eatables, according to
their prices at prefent, is, that in early times agriculture
was little understood. It required more labour and expence,
and was more precarious than it is at preſent. Indeed,
notwithſtanding the high price of corn in the times we
are fpeaking of, the raifing of it fo little anfwered the ex-
pence, that agriculture was almoft univerfally quitted for
grazing; which was more profitable, notwithſtanding the low
price of butcher's meat. So that there was conftant occafion
for ftatutes to reftrain grazing, and to promote agriculture;
and no effectual remedy was found till the bounty upon the
exportation of corn; fince which, above ten times more corn
has been raiſed in this country than before.
The price of corn in the time of James I. and confequently that
of other neceffaries of life, was not lower, but rather higher,
than at preſent; wool is not two-thirds of the value it was then;
the finer manufactures having rather funk in price by the
progrefs of art and induftry, notwithstanding the increaſe of
money. Butcher's meat was higher than at preſent. Prince
Henry made an allowance of near four-pence per pound for all
the beef and mutton uſed in his family. This may be true
with reſpect to London; but the price of butcher's meat in the
country, which does not even now much exceed this price at a
medium, has certainly greatly increafed of late
of late years, and
particularly in the northern counties.
The FRENCH money has fuffered much more by the di-
minution of its value than the Engliſh. Voltaire gives the fol-
lowing general account of it. The numerary pound in the
time of Charlemagne was twelve ounces of filver. This pound
was divided into twenty fols, and the fols into twelve deniers.
In Europe that fol, which was equal to a crown at prefent, is
4
now
LECT. XVI.
141
HISTORY.
now no more than a light piece of copper with a mixture of at
moſt one-eleventh of filver. The livre which formerly repre-
fented twelve ounces of filver, is in France no more than twenty
copper fols, and the denier is one-third of that baſe coin we
call a liard. Whereas a pound fterling is worth about twenty-
two francs of France, and the Dutch pound is nearly equal
to twelve. But the following table will exhibit all the fuc-
ceffive changes of the French livre in a more particular and
diftinct manner.
REIGNS.
Charlemagne from
Lewis VI. VII.
Phillip Auguftus
DATES.
763 to 1113 66 Livres.
Value of the Money in the preſent
Money of France.
8 Sols. o Den.
1113 to 1158 18
13
6
1222 19
18
44
St. Lewis and Phil. the7
1226 18
Hardy
4
II
Phil the Fair
1285 17
19
the Long
Lewis Hutin and Philip}
1313 18
8
ΙΟ
Charles the Fair
1321 17
3
7
Philip de Valois
1344 14
II
IO
John
Charles V.
Charles VI.
Charles VII.
1364
9
19
1380 9
9
8
1422 7
2
1461 5
13
Lewis XI.
1483 4
19
Charles VIII.
1497 4
10
Lewis XII.
1514 3
19
Francis I.
1546 3
II
2∞ 3a778 2
23
9
Henry II. and Francis II.
1559 3
6
Charles IX.
1574 2
18
7
Henry III.
1589 2
12
I I
Henry IV.
1611 2
8
Lewis XIII.
1642 I
15
3
Lewis XIV.
1715 I
4
II
Lewis XV.
1720
Prefent Livre
1720
I
Voltaire
142
PART III.
LECTURES ON
Voltaire alſo gives us the following uſeful caution with reſpect
to the computations made by feveral confiderable French wri-
ters. Rollin, Fleury, and all the moſt uſeful writers, when
they would expreſs the value of talents, minæ and fefterces, com-
pute by an eſtimate made before the death of Colbert. But the
mark of eight ounces, which was then worth twenty-fix franks,
ten fols, is now worth forty-nine livres ten fols; a difference
which amounts to near one half. Without remembering this
yariation, we ſhould have a very erroneous idea of the ſtrength
of ancient ſtates, &c.
The changes in the proportion between money and commo-
dities in France may eafily be imagined to have kept pace
pretty nearly with thofe in England, and therefore need not
be particularly pointed out. Accordingly, Voltaire obferves
that all proviſions were eight or ten times cheaper in propor-
tion to the quantity of money in Charlemagne's time; but he
cannot be ſuppoſed to ſpeak very accurately, when he ſays that
in the reign of Lewis XI. who was cotemporary with Edward
IV. money, meaning of the fame ftandard, was worth about
double of what it is at prefent, and alſo that it was of the fame
value in the reign of Lewis XIII. who reigned in the laſt year
of James I. and the beginning of Charles I. For betwixt thoſe
two reigns was an interval of one hundred and fifty years, in
which was the difcovery of America, which occafioned the
greateſt general alteration of the proportion between money and
commodities that ever was made in this part of the world. In
the former reign, therefore, the value of money must have been
much greater, and perhaps in the latter reign lefs, than he makes it.
At preſent the prices of commodities are higher in England than
in France, befides that the poor people of France live upon much
lefs than the poor in England, and their armies are maintained at
lefs
LECT. XVI.
143
HISTORY.
lefs expence. It is computed by Mr. Hume, that a Britiſh army
of twenty thousand men is maintained at near as great an expence
as fixty thouſand in France, and that the English fleet in the
war of 1741 required as much money to fupport it as all the
Roman legions in the time of the emperors. However, all that
we can conclude from this laft article, is that money is much
more plentiful in Europe at preſent than it was in the Roman
empire.
In the thirteenth century the common intereſt which the Jews
had for their money, Voltaire fays, was twenty per cent. But
with regard to this we must confider the great contempt that
nation was always held in, the large contributions they were
frequently obliged to pay, the rifk they run of never receiving
the principal, the frequen't confifcation of all their effects, and
the violent perfecutions to which they were expoſed; in
which circumſtances it was impoffible for them to lend money
at all unleſs for a moft extravagant intereft, and much diſ-
proportioned to its real value. Before the diſcovery of Ame-
rica, and the plantation of our colonies, the intereſt of money
was generally twelve per cent. all over Europe; and it has
been growing gradually lefs fince that time till it is now gene-
rally about four or five.
When fums of money are faid to be raiſed by a whole people,
in order to form a juft eſtimate of it, we muſt take into con-
fideration not only the quantity of the precious metal accord-
ing to the ſtandard of the coin, and the proportion of the
quantity of coin to the commodities, but alfo the number and
riches of the people who raiſe it. For admitting the two cir-
cumſtances which have been already explained to be the fame;
ftill populous and rich countries will much more cafily raiſe
any certain fum of money than one that is thinly inhabited, and
chiefly
144
ON PART III.
LECTURES
chiefly by poor people. This circumstance greatly adds to our
furpriſe at the vaſt ſums of money raiſed by William the Con-
queror, who had a revenue nearly in value equal to twelve
millions of pounds of our money (allowance being made for the
ftandard of coin and the proportion it bore to commodities)
from a country not near fo populous or rich as England is at
prefent. Indeed the accounts hiftorians give us of the revenues
of this prince, and the treaſure he left behind him, are barely
credible.
Next to judging of the real value of fums of money men-
tioned by hiſtorians, it is of importance to have juſt ideas of
the measures of length and capacity, which occur in them. But
theſe are ſubject to little variation, fo that the common tables of
thoſe things, whether adapted to the prefent or former times ;
to our own or remote nations, are fufficient for the purpoſe of
reading hiſtory, and require no illuftration.
PART
:
LECT. XVII.
145
HISTORY.
PART IV.
DIRECTIONS FOR FACILITATING THE STUDY
OF HISTORY,
LECTURE XVII.
Use of Compendiums. The beft Epitomes of Hiftory. Mechanical
Methods which have been used to facilitate the Study of Hif
tory. Chronological Tables. Character of different Tables.
Sturt's Tables. Genealogical Tables.
IN the fourth divifion of our fubject, which we are now en-
téring upon, I propoſed to give you fome directions for faci-
litating the ſtudy of hiſtory; both that it may more effectually
anfwer the end propoſed by it, and that you may purſue it
with more fatisfaction.
One of the moſt uſeful directions I can give you is to begin
with authors who prefent you with a compendium, or general
view of the whole ſubject of hiſtory, and afterwards to apply to
the ftudy of any particular hiftory with which you chufe to be
more thoroughly acquainted. This is like fketching an entire
U
outline
146
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
↑
outline before you finiſh any part of a picture, and learning the
grand divifions of the earth before you ſtudy the geography of
particular countries; and feveral very obvious advantages attend
this method, to whatever it be applied.
The principal advantage of this method in ftudying hiſtory
is, that you have hereby a clear idea what figure the history to
which you propofe to give more particular attention makes in
the hiſtory of the world; and by this means are enabled to
judge, in fome meaſure, of the importance of it. Befides, it
will contribute greatly to your fatisfaction in reading hiſtory,
and anſwer ſome uſeful purpoſes in the ftudy of it to have
fome idea of the preceding, the cotemporary, and (if it be an-
cient hiftory) of the fucceeding ftate of the world in general,
and of that particular part of the world of which you are read-
ing. Whereas that knowledge can be but very limited, and
fcanty, which is derived from ever ſo minute an inſpection of any
fingle portion of hiftory. As well might we expect a good
judgment of the regularity and beauty of an extenfive building
from viewing a fmall part of it. We are only mifled by fuch
a method of ſtudy. But a clofe examination of particular parts
very uſeful after a general view of the whole of any thing.
is
For this reaſon, the hiftory of our own country, though the
moft worthy of a particular ſtudy, is not proper to begin with.
We can form no idea of the English nation in general, and the
hiftory of it, with regard to the reft of the world, unlefs we
can compare an idea of the whole compaſs of it with a like
idea of the whole compaſs of hiſtory in general, or that of other
particular nations. But, when once we have got a general
idea how the whole courfe of hiftory, as we may fay, lies, we
apply with pleaſure and advantage to the more minute con-
fideration
LECT. XVII.
147
HISTORY.
}
fideration of our own country, and prevent any prejudice or in-
convenience of any kind, which we ſhould be expoſed to from a
cloſe attention to ſo ſmall a portion of hiſtory, without know-
ing its relation to the whole of hiſtory, of which it is a part.
This fame advice is applicable to a perfon who, after hav-
ing gained a knowledge of the hiftory of a particular country,
propoſes to ſtudy any particular period of it. Let him firſt
make himſelf acquainted with the hiftory of the country
in general, and then ftudy the hiftory of the particular period.
It is but a very imperfect idea that a perfon could get of
the hiftory of the civil wars in England during the reign of
Charles I. for inftance, from reading fuch a fingle hiſtory as
that of Clarendon, were the performance ever ſo excellent,
while confined to the occurrences of that time. We ought to
go very far back in our history to have a juft idea of the true
ſtate of the parties that exifted in thofe times, and the oppofi-
tion of which occafioned fuch a dreadful convulfion in the Eng-
lith government.
I may add, that it is men's forming their notions of fuch
times as thefe from detached pieces, particularly fuch as are
written by the known friends of one or other of the parties,
from profeffed panegyricks or invectives, or from fermons
(which are always one or the other of them, and generally the
extremes of the one or the other) that they are more than miſled
in their ideas of thefe times. From this method of forming
ideas of hiſtory is derived much of the bigotry, and ſpirit of
faction, which has prevailed in this, or any other nation. This
advice, therefore, to perufe fome account of the whole of history
before you apply to any particular hiftory, and the whole of
any particular hiſtory before you ftudy any particular period of
it, is of more importance than at firft fight it appears to be.
U 2
This
**
148
LECTURES ON PART IV.
This general acquaintance with the whole courfe of hiſtory
will make it leſs neceffary to attend to the order in which par-
ticular hiſtories are read; becauſe a perfon thus prepared will be
able to refer any particular hiftory he takes up to its proper place
in univerſal hiſtory. And though particular hiſtories be read
without any regard to the order of time or place, they will
eafily range themſelves, as we may fay, without any confufion
in their proper place in his mind.
Beſides, univerſal hiſtory is an immenfe field, with which the
compaſs of no fingle life is fufficient to bring a man even toler-
ably acquainted. Since, therefore, it is only a part of hiſtory
that any perſon can propofe to make himſelf intimately ac-
quainted with, it is of advantage to be able to chufe the moſt
important part, and what is moſt worthy of his attention,
which he will be able to do from having a general idea of the
whole fubject of hiſtory in its proper order and connexion.
The moſt celebrated epitome of univerſal hiſtory written in
Latin is Turfelin's, which is read in moſt of the foreign univerfi-
ties. It is indeed a judicious and elegant performance; but in al-
moſt every page of the modern parts there are fuch marks of
ftrong attachment to the principles of Popery as cannot but
give diſguſt to a zealous proteftant. Boffuet's epitome of
univerfal hiſtory is greatly and defervedly admired in France;
but it brings the hiftory no lower than the time of Charle-
magne. One of the moſt uſeful epitome's, upon the whole, is
that written by Baron Holberg in Latin, and tranflated with
improvements into Engliſh by Gregory Sharpe. The princi-
pal defect in it is, that too little notice is taken of the hiftory of
Greece. The moſt valuable of the larger kind of epitomes are
Rollin's of the ancient hiſtory, and Puffendorf's of the modern.
4.
One
LECT. XVII.
149
HISTORY.
One of the most obvious contrivances to reduce. hiftory into
a fhort compafs, and to make an entire courſe of it easy to be
comprehended, and at the fame time to obferve a proper diftinc-
tion between the parts of it, has been by CHRONOLOGICAL
TABLES; and if they confiſt of nothing more than an enumera-
tion of the capital events in hiftory, thrown together promif-
cuouſly, without any diſtinction of kingdoms, regard being only
had to the order of time in which the events happened, they
have their uſe. We thereby fee the principal things that hif-
tory exhibits, and from the dates annexed to each article, may
form an idea of the interval of time between each of them.
Such tables as thefe are publiſhed along with a variety of fingle
hiftories, to which, indeed, they are particularly fuited.
is the Short Chronicle prefixed to Newton's Chronology.
Such
But when a hiſtory is very complex, it may eafily be con-
ceived to be a great advantage to have the feparate parts kept
diftinct, by being arranged in different columns.
By this
means we have a diftinct idea of the courfe of any fingle hiftory,
and at the fame time a clear comparative view of the cotem-
porary ftate of any other hiſtory which runs parallel with it.
The confufion attending the neglect of this method may be ſeen
in the chronological tables publiſhed with the Univerfal Hif-
tory, and the advantage of adopting it in fuch tables as Marshall's
Tallents, &c. Indeed thofe adapted to the Univerſal Hiſtory,
could not have been brought into any tolerable compafs on a
more diftinct and and perfect plan.
Befides a diftinct view of the fucceffion of events in different
hiſtories, it is an advantage to have, in feparate columns, an ac-
count of the great men, in arts or arms, which each age has
produced. This has been exhibited by the laſt mentioned au-
thors
150
LECTURES ON PART IV.
thors and others. Two columns are quite fufficient for this
purpoſe; one for ftatesmen and warriors, and the other for men
of learning.
Another improvement in chronological tables has been to
annex a variety of dates, in diftin&t columns, to every event, to
ſave the reader the trouble of reducing the different methods of
computation to one another. But many chronologers have
multiplied theſe different epochas far beyond any real uſe, ſo as
greatly to encumber their page, and leave little room for more
valuable matter. Helvicus, among others, is an example of
this. Four æras are abundantly fufficient, namely, the year
before and after Chrift, and the Julian period to run through
the whole extent of the work; the Olympiads for the courſe of
the Grecian hiſtory, and the year of the city for the Roman.
Theſe are uſed by Blair.
The laft and capital improvement in chronological tables,
which has been effected in ſome meaſure by Tallent, and Mar-
ſhall, more perfectly in Helvicus, but moſt completely by Blair,
is to diſpoſe the events in fuch a manner, as that the diſtance
at which they are placed, without attending to the date in the
margin, ſhall give a juſt idea of the real interval of time between
them. This is done by having a fingle line, or any fet ſpace,
appropriated to any certain period of time, or number of years.
In the chronological tables engraved by Sturt we ſee a great
deal of matter, by a fingular method, and the help of arbitrary
and ſymbolical characters, crouded into a fhort compafs; fo
that we ſee the ſtate of the feveral kingdoms of Europe for any
century fince the Chriftian era in a fingle page. This author
has alſo annexed an alphabetical index to his work, in which,
by the help of fymbols, he has expreffed the character of every
Prince
LECT. XVII.
151
HISTORY.
Prince mentioned in his tables, and the principal events of his
life. This fmall work is valuable for its concifenefs, but is
not fo much recommended by its diftinctneſs.
Very much of the perfpicuity of hiſtory depends on conceiving
clearly the order of generations and the right of fucceffion in regal
and other families, i. e. in what manner the great perfonages
who have been competitors for crowns, or rivals in power, were
related to one another. In this refpect GENEALOGICAL
TABLES are of unfpeakable ufe. Indeed it is not poffible, by
words, to give fo eafy and perfect a view of the defcent of
families, as by the help of lines and figures. For local pofition
is apprehended entirely, with whatever can be reprefented by
it, at one view, and without the leaft danger of miſtake;
whereas if the hiftory of family connexions, which is neceffarily
a very complex and intricate thing, be expreffed in words, we
fee only a part at a time; and before the whole can be laid
before us, in this flow manner, fome effential circumſtance
will have been forgotten.
The most natural order of genealogical tables feems to be
to place the common stock at the head of the table, and the
feveral defcents, or fucceeding generations, each in a lower
line appropriated to it; and not to make the order of generations
proceed from the left hand to the right, as is done by fome.
But every diſtinct generation fhould by all means be placed in a
line, or fpace, appropriated to itſelf: otherwife, our ideas will
be greatly confuſed. The order of birth in the fame generation
may eaſily be obferved (as is done in fome of our beſt tables)
by placing the firſt-born to the left hand in the table, and the
reft, according to the order of birth, to the right.
There are a variety of other relations, befides mere natural
defcent, which it is very uſeful to have a clear idea of, as the
connexion
152
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
།
connexion by marriage, by adoption among the Romans, &c.
by which different families are intermixed. And it is poffible,
by different kinds of lines, joining the names fo connected,
how remote foever, in the table of generation, to exprefs all
theſe relations, without the uſe of words. But as the attempt
to express them all by characters disfigures the table with a
great variety of lines, many of them of confiderable length,
and extending themſelves in every direction, it feems moft
convenient to exprefs natural defcent only by characters, and
to fubjoin to each name an account, in words, of all its other
connexions, referring at moſt from one to another by marks
contrived for that purpoſe. This method Rapin has taken, in
the excellent genealogical tables in his hiftory of England.
Some valuable tables of genealogy may be feen at the end of
Petavius's Chronology; but the largeſt and moſt compleat body
of genealogies is that publiſhed by Anderson; which, in one
large volume folio, contains all the genealogies he could collect
from the whole body of history, ancient and modern.
LECT.
LECT. XVIII. HISTORY.
153
LECTURE
XVIII.
Chart of Hiftory. Chart of Biography. Grey's Memoria Tech-
nica. The Method of a common Place-Book for the Purpoſe
of History.
TH
}
HE moſt ingenious and uſeful contrivance to facilitate
the ſtudy of hiftory, and to aid the imagination in conceiv-
ing diftinctly, and comprehending the whole courfe of it, in all
its parts, co-exiftent and fucceffive, is the chart of history lately
imported from France. This is properly a picture of all
hiftory, and is made by fuch natural methods of expreffion,
that it renders vifible to the eye, without reading, the whole
figure and dimenfions of all hiftory, general and particular;
and fo perfectly fhows the origin, progrefs, extent, and dura-
tion, of all kingdoms and ſtates that ever exifted, at one view,
with every circumſtance of time and place, uniting chronology
and geography, that it not only, in the moſt agreeable manner,
refreſhes the memory, without the fatigue of reading; but a
novice in hiſtory may learn more from it by a mere attentive
inſpection of a few hours, than he can acquire by the reading
of many weeks or months.
This chart will not, indeed, give a perfon the knowledge
of any thing that paffed within a kingdom, and which produced
no actual alteration in the extent of its territories, or of the
manner in which conquefts were made or loft. But a perſon
may by the help of it gain a clearer idea when, and by what
nations conqueſts were made, how far they extended, and how
long they continued, than he could ever get by reading..
X
It
154
PART IV,
LECTURES ON
}
It is obvious to remark, that this chart muft anfwer, in
the compleateſt manner imaginable, almoſt every ufe of a
compendium of hiftory, proper to be read before a larger
and fuller courſe be entered upon; and it will prevent any
confufion which might arife from reading particular hiftories
without a regard to their proper order of time or place, better
than any abſtract of univerfal hiſtory whatever. For it is but
caſting our eye for a minute upon this chart, and we ſee, at one
glance, the cotemporary ſtate of the whole world at the period of
which we are reading, and the preceding and fucceeding ſtate of
the particular country, the hiſtory of which we are ſtudying.
It is an inconvenience in this particular chart that different
fcales are made ufe of to reprefent the fame number of years
in different parts of it; fo that the fame diſtance, as feen by
the eye, does not repreſent the fame portion of time in every
part of it.
of it. This might eafily have been obviated by doubling
the width of the chart, or at moft, by omiting the earlier and
obfcure part of the hiftory*.
The ſtate of the world with reſpect to the perfons who have
made the greateft figure in it, may be exhibited with much
more eaſe and advantage by means of lines and Space, than the
ſtate of the world even with refpect to the different powers to
which the parts of it have been fubject. For whereas, in this,
regard muſt be had to both the circumftances of time and place
(not to ſay that, in many cafes, it is not eaſy to determine when
territories were really acquired or loft) with regard to fingle
lives, the circumftance of time only is to be taken in.
* Since this was written, I have publifhed a new Chart of History, in which I
have avoided the faults above-mentioned, and have introduced feveral improvements.
It is of the fame fize with my Chart of Biography, drawn upon the fame fcale, and
made to correfpond to it in all reſpects.
If,
A
CH
OF
UNIK
600.
S+Priestley LLD FR.S. invʻat dol.
os
50
·:500
50
400
Sophocles
Thales
Anacreon
Pythagorus
Thucydides
Herodotus
Pindur
Demosthenes
Xenophon
Aristophanes
Plato
Euclid
Epicnews
Zeno Stoicus
Aristotle
Hippocrates
Socrates
Agesilaus
Cyrus
Pericles
Philip
Miltiades
Alcibiades
Alexander
Solon
Themistocles
Dionysius
Cimon
millusas
Pyrrhus
500
•
50
•
400.
+
50
A Specimen of
Chart of Biography.
50
·300
•50
•200
50
Theocritus
Polybius
Aristarchus
Plasitus
Terence
Ennius
Sallust
Liw
Ovid
Virgil
Horace
Lucretius
Catullus
Arutus
Mithridates
Philopomen
Agis Cato
Cato Censor
Vicero
Pompey
J. Cæsar
TGracchus
Brutus
Scipio A
Sylla
Augustus
Hannibal
Marius
300
200
50
100
50
STATESMEN MEN of LEARNING
•
善
​LECT. XVIII.
155
HISTORY.
If, therefore, every man's life be expreffed by a line pro-
portioned to the length of it, and all the lines be adapted to
the ſame ſcale, and terminated in their proper places with
regard to univerfal time, fuch a chart of biography will exhibit,
in the cleareſt manner imaginable, without reading, the entire
fucceffion of great men in every age and of every profeffion,
with the relative length of their lives. So that if we attend
to any period of time, we not only fee who flouriſhed in it, but
how all their ages ſtood with refpect to one another; whereby
we not only fee who were a man's cotemporaries, but alſo how
far any of them was before him, or how far after him, in the
order of their births or deaths; which will be of ufe to affift
us in judging of the advantages or diſadvantages they re-
fpectively lay under with regard to knowledge and inftruction.
How much more readily, and with how much leſs fatigue
of the imagination, lines thus difpofed will fuggeft the idea
of the relative length of men's lives, may be conceived from
this circumſtance, that the names of the numbers which exprefs
the time of a perſon's birth and death, do not ſuggeſt a definite
idea of the interval between them, till they be reduced to the
idea of extenfion; an expedient which, I believe, all perfons
naturally and mechanically, have recourfe to. Our idea of
time is always that of a line, and a longer or fhorter ſpace of
time is reprefented in our minds by the idea of a longer or
fhorter line; fo that, in this method, the proceſs of the mind,
of reducing intervals of time to lines, is fuperfeded, and done
in a more accurate manner than any perfon could do it in his
own mind for himſelf.
Moreover, a biographical chart of this kind, filled with
names properly felected, in every kind of eminence, will exhibit
what ages have abounded moſt with great men, and what were
X 2
barren
156
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
barren of them; and this in a more comprehenfive and diſtinct
manner than can be acquired by reading; a view which cannot
fail agreeably to amuſe a ſpeculative mind.
It will be a neceffary, and remedilefs defect in every chart
of this nature, that the time of the death, and eſpecially of
the birth of many perfons cannot be found, But then it
will be eaſy to contrive proper characters to exprefs the uncer-
tainty there may be with respect to either of theſe particulars.
It hardly need be mentioned, that it cannot be expected that
ſuch a chart as this fhould be drawn up according to the real
merit of the perfons inferted in it. Befides, it is a regard to
celebrity only that can make it of any uſe to a reader of hiſtory.
A chart of real merit would, no doubt, be very different from
this. Many names which make the greatest figure in the
tablet of fame would not be found in that of merit; and again,
many names would be ſeen in that of merit, which no perſon
who became acquainted with men by fame only, would have
any knowledge of *.
In this enumeration of the methods to illuftrate and retain
hiſtory, we muſt by no means forget the ingenious Mr. Grey's
memorial lines, of fuch admirable ufe to recollect dates with
exactneſs. Of all things,
Of all things, there is the greateft difficulty in
retaining numbers. They are like grains of fand, which will
not cohere in the order in which we place them; but by
tranfmuting figures into letters, which eafily cohere, in every
form of combination, we fix and retain numbers in the mind
with the fame eafe and certainty with which we remember
words. Thus when Mr. Grey, in his Memoria Technica,
annexes a chronological date to the termination of the name, it
* Such a Chart of Biography as this I have drawn up and publiſhed, and a
fpecimen of it, and alfo one of the Chart of Hiflory, are given with this work.
is
Apecimen of
a New Chart of History.
SUEVI
Alans
THE
ROMAN
EMPIRE
Vandals
GOTHS
NAVARRE
SARACENS
Muries & Castile.
Biscay
BRITONS
Wessex
Sufser
SAXONS
Kent
Efsex
Mercia
•
Eaſt Anglia
Northumberland
CALEDONIANS
Scots
Picts
IRISH
Arragon
Welch
Saxons
Danes
vides
Almora
Canada
Nova Scotia
French
New England & New York Dutch
Pefilvania Maryland & Virginia
Carolina & Georgia
Morida
ENGLISH
Spaniards
Frend
Louisiana
SPANISHI
Chili
Kingdom of Peru founded
Empire of Mexico Founded
Terra Furma
Brasil
Por• Dutch Fuguese
Kingdom of Navarre
Arragon
Granada
Murcia
Seville
Almo
he des
Vallentia
Cordoua
CASTILE and LEON
Kingdom of Portugal
NORMAN'S
Leon&Arragon
united
SPANIARDS
Portuguese
ENGLISH
SCOTS
Danes
ENGLISH
SCOTS
ENGLISH
Krüh
600 700 8 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 g 1500 g 1600 g 1700 %
8 400
500
J. Prieſtley LLD. F.RS. inv! et del.
United States
Tolley fe. Birming
GREAT BRITA IN
SPAIN
AMERICA
to face p.this.
LECT. XVIII.
157
HISTORY..
is only pronouncing it with his variation, and we inſtantly re-
collect its proper date. For example, if we can remember that
Mr. Grey calls Rome Romput (which the very oddneſs of the
variation will make us lefs liable to forget) fince he makes (p)
to ſtand for ſeven (u) for five, and (t) for three, we imme-
diately recollect, that feven hundred and fifty-three before
Chriſt is the date ufually affigned to the building of Rome.
If, moreover, we can learn to repeat the names of kings in the
order in which he has digeſted them (which his verſes, rough
as they are, make it pretty easy to do) we ſhall have not only
the years when each of them began their reigns, but alſo the
order of their fucceffión.
As this method is fo eafily learned, and may be of ſo much
ufe in recollecting dates, when other methods are not at hand,
particularly in converfation upon the fubject of hiftory, when
dates are often wanted, I think all perfons of a liberal educa-
tion inexcufable, who will not take the ſmall degree of pains
that is neceffary to make themſelves maſters of it; or who
think any thing mean, or unworthy of their notice, which is fo
uſeful and convenient.
Mr. Grey's attempt to apply this method to the numbers which
occur in aftronomy, tables of weights and meaſures, &c. is
likewiſe extremely uſeful; but his application of it to geography
is unnatural and ufelefs.
In order to fecure the most valuable fruits of hiſtory, it is
abfolutely neceffary that they be repofited in a common-place
book. For the memory of no perfon whatever, who reads much
hiſtory, is fufficient to retain all he reads, or even the moſt va-
luable part of it. The eaſieſt method I can direct you to for
making a common-place book for this purpofe is the following.
Whenever
}
158
LECTURES ON PARTIV.
1
.
Whenever you meet with any fact which you wish to preſerve,
put
it down under fome general head, as religion, government,
commerce, war, &c. referving every two oppofite pages in your
book for one of theſe heads, and note it in a ſeparate place at
the end, or beginning of the book, with the page in which it
may be found; and when any two pages are filled, either open
two other pages with the fame title; or, if you perceive that
the title you firſt began with was too comprehenfive, divide it
into whatever parts you think moft convenient. If theſe titles
ſhould grow fo numerous as that any of them cannot eafily be
found in the promiscuous manner in which they were firſt ſet
down, it will be eaſy, at any time, to reduce them to the order
of the alphabet, in another page; and the former, which will
then be fuperfluous, may be cancelled.
N. B. Let the person who gives this Lecture and the preceding,
come to his class prepared to exhibit the different TABLES, &c.
explained, or mentioned in it.
1
1
LEC-
LECT. XX.
159
HISTORY.
{
M
LECTURE XIX.
The Terms of Fortification explained, by the Help of a Model of all
its Varieties cut in Wood; to enable young Gentlemen to under-
ftand modern Hiftory, and the News-Papers, and to judge of
the Progress of a Siege*,
>
LECTURE XX.
A regular Progress in Hiftory pleafing. The Order in which ancient
general Hiftories may moft conveniently be read, fo as to make them
one continued Series of Hiftory; together with the Character of
the Hiftorians as they are mentioned, and an Account of those
Paffages in other Authors which may ferve to enlarge the Hif
tory of the feveral Periods of which they treat. Of Herodotus.
AS a regular progreffion in any thing is generally agreeable;
and we are carried along the courſe of hiſtory (to uſe a
metaphor) with more pleaſure, when we go uniformly with
the current of time, and are not carried backward and forward,
My cuſtom was to explain the model, without having any thing written to read
on the ſubject. The terms belonging to the art of Fortification are eaſily learned
from books.
in
160
PART IV.
LECTURES
ON
in the courſe of our reading; I fhall for the fake of thoſe who
have opportunity and leiſure to go to the fources of ancient
hiſtory, give, from Wheare's Lectures on Hiftory, publiſhed by
Bohun, a method in which the principal authors of antiquity
may be read, ſo as to collect from them a pretty regular feries
of facts, which will comprize the hiftory of Afia, Africa,
Greece and Rome till the diffolution of the empire of Conftan-
tinople. And for the fake of thoſe who do not chufe to de-
pend on compilers for the hiftory of their own country, I ſhall
likewife name the original authors of the English hiftory in
the order, in which they may be read, according to the time of
which they treat.
I ſhall alſo take this opportunity of noting a few of the
moſt neceffary obfervations on the characters of the principal
hiſtorians; and to the accounts of each author in the regular
ſeries of the ancient hiftorians, I fhall fubjoin an account of
thoſe other authors, and paffages of other hiftorians, which
may be of uſe to enlarge and complete the hiftory of the period
he treats of; that any perfon may either read the principal
authors only, which follow one another, in the order of time,
or may, as he has opportunity, get a fuller and more fatisfactory
knowledge from the other authors of any particular period be-
fore he proceeds to another. I fhall alfo carefully diſtinguiſh
the ſubjects of every hiſtory, and the period of time in which
it falls, compared with the time in which the author lived, as
one circumſtance proper to be taken into confideration in judg-
ing of the credibility of any hiſtorian.
As the hiftories of Greece and Rome have little or no con-
nexion till the final conqueft of Greece by the Romans, I
ſhall often depart from the ſtrict order of time, not to inter-
rupt the order of reading the Grecian and Afiatic hiſtory by a
regard
4
LECT. XX.
161
HISTORY.
regard to the cotemporary hiſtory of Rome, but begin the
Roman hiſtory after the conquest of Greece.
The oldeſt hiſtory extant, next to the hiftorical books of the
Old Teftament, is that of. Herodotus of Halicarnaffus, who
flouriſhed about four hundred and fifty years before the chrif-
tian æra, a little after the invaſion of Greece by Xerxes. His
hiſtory compriſes probably every thing he had an opportunity
of learning concerning the hiſtory of the Lydians, Ionians, Ly-
cians, Egyptians, Perfians, Greeks, and Macedonians. Com-
puting from the earlieft of his accounts to the lateſt, his hif-
tory may be reckoned to commence about feven hundred and
thirteen years before Chriſt, and to reach to about the year
479 before Chrift; a period of about two hundred and thirty-
four years.
.
This author was never charged with partiality except by
Plutarch with regard to the Baotians only, which is not worth
our notice, fince the Baotians were Plutarch's countrymen,
and he could not bear that any reflection, though ever ſo juſt,
ſhould be caft upon them. But he is generally thought to be
too fond of the marvellous. It is certain that he has inferted
many fabulous things in his hiftory, though very often with
fufficient intimations of his own disbelief, or fufpicion of
them. And it is an argument greatly in favour of this ancient
writer, that his chronology requires lefs correction, according
to Newton's canons, than that of any ſubſequent Greek hiſtorian.
The greateſt inconvenience attending the reading of him ariſes
from his method, which is the moſt irregular and digreffive that
can be conceived; fome entire hiftories coming in as it were
by way of parentheſis in the bodies of others. But with all his
faults he is a moſt pleaſing writer.
Y
A more
1
162
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
A more particular account of feveral things in the period
of which Herodotus treats may be extracted from the following
authors. Juftin, book i. ii. iii. and vii. Xenophon's Cyropa-
dia. The lives of Ariftides, Themistocles, Cimon, Miltiades,
and Paufanias written by Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos.
And thofe of Anaximander, Zeno, Empedocles, Heraclitus, and
Democritus by Diogenes Laertius.
}
LECTURE XXI.
Of Thucydides, Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, Quintus Curtius, Ar-
rian, Justin, Plutarch, and Cornelius Nepos.
EXT to Herodotus, Thucydides is to be read. He propoſed
NE
to write the hiſtory of the Peleponnefian war; but intro-
ductory to this, his principal and profeffed fubject, he gives a
fummary view of the hiftory of Greece from the departure of
Xerxes to the coinmencement of that war, which connects his
hiftory with that of Herodotus. His hiftory, however, reaches
no farther than the twenty-first year of the Peloponnefian war.
Thucydides was an Athenian, and employed by his country
in fome command in the war of which he treats; but not
being crowned with fuccefs, in an undertaking to which the
forces he was entrusted with were not equal, he was deprived
of his command by that inconftant people, and obliged to take
refuge among the Lacedæmonians.
It
L
LECT. XXI.
163
HIST Q R Y.
It is impoffible to difcover any marks of partiality in this
writer, notwithſtanding we cannot read him without making
ourſelves a party with the Athenians. There is all the
appear-
ance imaginable of the ftricteft fidelity, and the moſt punctual
adherence to truth in his hiſtory; notwithſtanding he was pro-
bably the firſt hiftorian who introduced the unnatural cuſtom of
putting rhetorical and fictitious harangues into the mouths of
his principal actors. For the fpeeches which occur in Hero-
dotus, who wrote before him, are more like converfation than
formal harangues, and compared with thefe, deſerve not the
name of Speeches.
The exactness of Thucydides, in obferving chronological
order, in his hiſtory of the events of a very various and complex
ſcene of actions, obliges him to interrupt the thread of his nar-
ration in a method that is very painful and diſagreeable to a
reader. But notwithſtanding this, his hiſtory is extremely
intereſting.
To complete the period of the hiſtory of which Thucydides
treats, after his firft book let the eleventh and twelfth of Dio-
dorus Siculus be read, together with Plutarch's Themistocles,
Ariftides, Paufanias and Cimon, and the fecond and third books
of Juftin. And after the whole of Thucydides read the lives of
Alcibiades, Chabrias, Thrafybulus, and Lyfias, written by Plu-
tarch or Cornelius Nepos, the fourth and fifth books of Juſtin,
and the first book of Orofius.
Next to Thucydides, let the first and fecond books of Xeno-
phon's history of Greece be read. This completes the hiſtory of
the Peloponnefian war, with the cotemporary affairs of the Medes
and Perſians. After this let him proceed to the expedition of Cyrus,
and the return of the Greeks; and laftly, the remainder of his
hiſtory
Y 2
164
PART IV.
LECTURES
ON
hiftory of Greece, which contains an account of the affairs of the
Greeks and Perfians to the battle of Mantinæa, which happened
in the year 363 before Chriſt; ſo that all the hiſtorical books of
Xenophon comprize a period of about forty-eight years.
Xenophon's hiſtory is properly that of his own times, and as
he was the firſt general and philofopher, as well as beſt hiſto-
rian of his age, he had the beſt opportunity of being acquainted
with, and the beſt capacity of judging of, every thing of which
he writes. With regard to his country, he was in circum-
ſtances very ſimilar to thoſe of Thucydides, and he appears
to be equally impartial. But he is much happier in the fim-
plicity, as well as true elegance, of his ftyle and manner. He
ſeems to keep a medium between the loofe excurfive man-
ner of Herodotus, and the extreme rigour of Thucydides,
whoſe formal harangues he has likewife, in a great meaſure,
dropped. But a barrenneſs of remarkable events in the hiftory
of Greece of which he treats, as well as the mangled ftate in
which his works have come down to us, makes his hiſtory lefs
engaging, and I believe lefs generally read, than either of the
fore-mentioned authors. But his Anabafis, in which he relates
the adventures of a body of ten thouſand Greeks, under his own
command, in their return to Greece from the very heart of the
Perfian empire, is highly engaging. As for his hiſtory of Cyrus
the Elder, it has all the appearance of being compoſed with a
view to exhibit the moſt perfect idea he could conceive of an
accompliſhed prince, both with refpect to the arts of peace and
war.
To complete the hiftory of all that period of which Xeno-
phon treats, read the lives of Lyfander, Agefilaus, Artaxerxes,
Thrafybulus, Chabrias, Conon, and Datames written by Plu-
2
*
tarch,
LECT. XXI.
165
HISTORY.
tarch, or Cornelius Nepos; the fourth, and fifth books of Juf-
tin, and the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth of Diodorus
Siculus.
After Xenophon's works read the fifteenth and fixteenth books
of Diodorus Siculus, which contain the hiftories of Greece and
Perfia from the battle of Mantinæa to the beginning of the reign
of Alexander the Great, in the year 336 before Chriſt.
Diodorus flouriſhed in the time of Julius Cæfar and Auguftus.
He ſpared no pains, or expence, in reading or travelling, to
collect materials for an univerfal hiftory, from the earlieſt ac-
count of things to his own times; and the ſmall remains we
have of it bear fufficient marks of his great labour and fidelity.
But the merit of that part of his immenfe and valuable work
which has come down to us, is that of a faithful compiler. For
all the laſt books of his hiſtory are, in all probability, irrecover-
ably loft; though there are fome who pretend that they ſtill
may be extant in fome obfcure part of Sicily. Of forty books,
of which the entire work confifted, the five firft, which bring
the hiſtory of the world to the Trojan war, are entire. The next
five are wanting; but from the eleventh to the twentieth in-
cluſive, the work is complete. The hiftory of thoſe two books
of Diodorus will be more complete by reading the lives of Cha-
brias, Dion, Ephicrates, Timotheus, Phocion and Timoleon,
written by Cornelius Nepos.
After theſe two books of Diodorus Siculus, read Arrian's hif-
tory of Alexander. To make this hiſtory more complete read
alfo Quintus Curtius, the tenth and eleventh books of Juſtin,
and Plutarch's life of Alexander.
As great an encourager as Alexander the Great was of learned
men, in an age which abounded with them, he has been fo un-
fortunate, that none of the many hiftories of his exploits which
werc
166
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
were written by his cotemporaries have reached our times; a
misfortune which, it is remarkable, he fhares in common with
Auguſtus and Trajan, who were nearly in the fame circumftances.
The oldeſt of the hiſtories of Alexander now extant are thoſe
of Quintus Curtius, and Arrian, who lived four hundred years
after his death. The hiftory of Arrian is an evident, and in all
appearance, a faithful compilation from authors of the beſt au-
thority, and who lived neareſt the times of Alexander; particu-
larly from the commentaries of Ariftobulus and Ptolemy Lagus.
He has fo happily fucceeded in a ſtudied imitation of the ftyle
and manner of Xenophon, that he is often called the
young Xeno-
phon. There is alfo extant an hiftory of India by this author.
The leaſt praiſe of Arrian, is that of an hiftorian. His Enchi-
ridion, which is a compendium of Epictetus's philofophy, has
ever been acknowledged to be the most beautiful piece of ancient
heathen morality.
The hiftory of Quintus Curtius is, upon the whole, an agree-
able performance; but there appears to be too great a diſplay of
oratory, an affectation of fine thoughts, fhining expreffions,
and eloquent ſpeeches upon every occafion, to make it thoroughly
fatisfactory as a hiſtory.
After Arrian read the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth
books of Diodorus Siculus, which contain the hiftory of Greece
from the year 323 before Chrift to the year 301; and to com-
plete this period read alfo the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth
books of Juftin, and the Demetrius and Eumenes of Plutarch.
After the above mentioned books of Diodorus, read from the
fixteenth to the twenty-ninth book inclufive of fuftin, which
brings down the hiſtory to about the year 195 before Chrift,
Juftin lived under Antoninus Pius about the year 150 after Chrift.
His hiſtory is only an abridgment, and as it were the contents of
4
what
LECT. XXI.
167
HISTORY.
what muſt have been an immenfe and valuable work of Trogus
Pompeius; being a complete univerfal hiftory, from the earlieſt-
account of things to his own time, which was that of Auguftus.
Juſtin has drawn up his compendium with a great deal of pro-
priety and elegance, and it is a very proper book to introduce
young perfons to the knowledge of hiftory.
After the forementioned books of Juftin, read Plutarch's
lives of Pyrrhus, Aratus, Agis, Cleomenes and Philopœmen.
The lives of illuftrious men written by Plutarch, who
flouriſhed under the emperor Adrian, about the year 130 after
Chriſt, make an excellent fupplement to univerfal hiftory. Being
more a philofopher than an hiftorian, his lives of illuftrious
men confift chiefly of fuch particular incidents as lead us to
form the cleareſt idea of their tempers, characters, and views.
Cornelius Nepos, a writer of the Auguſtian age, who pre-
ceded Plutarch nearly in the fame plan, exhibits an agreeable
compendium of the chief tranfactions, and a clear view of the
characters, of the principal heroes of ancient times, and, like
Plutarch, is alſo uſefully read by way of fupplement to more
regular hiftories.
To complete the history contained in thofe lives of Plutarch,
read the fragments of Diodorus.
Laftly, in the regular order of hiftory, read the thirtieth
book of Juftin, and all that follow till the two laſt, which
completes the hiftory of Greece, till it mixes with that of the:
Romans.
All the hiftories mentioned in this lecture are written in
Greek, except thofe of Justin, Quintus Curtius, and Cor-
nelius Nepos, which are in Latin.
LECT.
168
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
LECTURE XXII.
Of Dionyfius Halicarnaffenfis, Livy, Polybius, and Appian.
As
S the authors of whom an account was given in the
pre-
ceding lecture contain not only the hiftory of Greece,
but that of all the nations of the world that were known
to the hiſtorians; fo the following courfe of Roman history muſt
likewiſe be confidered as comprehending all that is now to be
learned of the ſubſequent ancient hiftory of all other nations.
Indeed, the connexions of the Romans were fo extenfive, that
a compleat hiſtory of their affairs could be nothing lefs than a
hiftory of the world; at leaſt of that part of it which is moft
worth our notice. In reality, we know nothing of the
hiftory of any ancient nations after the eſtabliſhment of the
Roman empire, but in confequence of their connexion with the
Romans. The writers of the Roman hiftory I fhall give an
account of in the order in which they are to be read, without
any formal tranfition from one to another.
The writer who treats of the early part of the Roman hiftory,
in the fulleſt and moſt ſatisfactory manner, is Dionyfius of Hali-
carnaffus, an excellent rhetorician, as well as hiftorian. He
came to Rome in the reign of Auguftus, and ſpent twenty-two
years there, principally with a view to acquaint himſelf, from
the fource of information, with the antiquities and cuſtoms of
the Romans. His entire work confifted of twenty books, and
brought down the hiftory of Rome as far as the beginning of
the firſt Punic war. But, of theſe only the eleven firſt are now
extant,
!
LECT. XXII.
169
HISTORY.
extant, and the end at the year of the city 412, before Chriſt
341, the time when the confuls refumed the chief authority in
the Republic after the diffolution of the decemvirate.
This writer was furnished with all the lights that could be
procured to conduct him through his undertaking, having the
affiſtance of the moſt learned and eminent of the Romans in
every thing in which they could be ferviceable to him; and he
is generally thought to have made the moſt of the authorities
he could procure, in the great fcarcity of ancient records which
we have before obferved to have been at Rome. But what we
are moſt indebted to Dionyfius for, is the deſcription he has
given of the manners, cuſtoms, and laws of the Romans, as
obſerved by himſelf, and which no Roman writers have men-
tioned. Indeed, fuch particulars as thefe we could not fo
reaſonably expect from a native, writing for the ufe of his
countrymen (who must have been as well acquainted with
them as himself) as from a foreigner, writing for the uſe of
foreigners, to whom every thing of that kind would be new
and entertaining.
Notwithstanding Dionyfius lived in an enlightened age, and
he feems defirous to tranfmit nothing but well attefted
facts, he has not eſcaped the charge of the moſt egregious
credulity in his account of fome of the prodigies, with which
all the Roman hiftories abound, particularly when he tells us,
that, by the command of Nævius Actius the Augur, a razor
cut a whetstone; that Caftor and Pollux fought in perfon for
the Romans against the Latins, that two rivers turned their
courſe to favour the inhabitants of Cumæ, and that a ſtatue
of fortune ſpoke certain words twice over.
The ſtyle of this author, though his language be truly Attic,
does not quite anſwer the expectations he naturally raiſes by his
Z
criticiſms
170
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
2
criticiſms on the ftyle of other hiftorians, and his rules for the
proper ftyle of history. For though his Attic phrafes are
allowed to be elegant, the beft critics complain of a fingu-
larity, and a particular roughnefs, in the general turn of his
fentences.
To compleat the history of the period of which Dionyfius
treats, read Livy, book I. II. and III. Plutarch's Romulus,
Numa Pompilius, Valerius Poplicola, Coriolanus, and Camillus.
After Dionyfius, read from the fourth to the tenth book,
inclufive, of Livy, which brings the hiftory of Rome to the
451 of the building of the city, and 292 before Chrift.
Livy was a native of Padua, but upon undertaking to write
the Roman history (a work in which he was wholly employed
for more than twenty-two years) he came, in the reign of
Auguftus, to live at Rome, for the convenience of having
recourſe to the moſt proper materials for his work, particularly
thoſe records which were preſerved in the Capitol; and having
collected every thing which he thought to his purpofe, he
retired to Naples, that he might profecute his ftudies without
interruption.
All the time he was engaged in this work he lived a retired
fedentary life. But though we never read either of his having
ever travelled, or being employed in any command in the army,
or any other department of public bufinefs, it is remarkable
that this defect is not perceived in his hiftory. His defcription
of places is as exact as if he had visited them himſelf; and he
defcribes a fiege, and the arrangement of an army, with the
greatest propriety and judgment. It is not improbable but he
might be affiſted in thoſe parts of his work by perfons who
were better acquainted with the fubjects of them than he
himſelf could be. When he was at Rome, he enjoyed the
favour
3
LECT. XXII.
171
HISTORY.
favour of Auguftus, who gave him every opportunity of fur-
nishing himſelf with the knowledge neceffary to his defign.
The entire work of Livy confifted of one hundred and forty-
two books; but of thefe only thirty-five are left, viz. the firft,
the third, the fourth, and half of the fifth decad; but the
epitome of them all by another hand is extant.
All the ancients are unanimous in giving the moſt ample
teſtimony to the noble and generous impartiality of this writer;
who, though he lived in the reign of Auguftus, had the courage
to do juftice to the characters of Pompey, Cicero, Brutus, and
Caffius. But, probably with a view to add to the folemnity
of his history, he takes every opportunity of inferting accounts
of omens and prodigies, and fome, as they appear to us of the
loweſt and moſt ridiculous nature. Indeed, with refpect both
to the materials of his hiftory, and the ftyle and manner of
compofition, Livy feems to have ftudied grandeur and mag-
nificence. With all the marks of real modefty, and greatneſs
of mind, he every where preferves an uniform energy and
majeſty of ſtyle, to which the length and fulneſs of his periods
does not a little contribute; and every part is as elaborate and
highly finiſhed as poffible.
To fupply the chaẩm between the tenth and twentieth books
of Livy, read Polybius, particularly books first and fecond,
which treat chiefly of the firſt Punic war; the epitome of the
fecond decad of Livy, Juftin, book feventeenth, eighteenth,
twenty- fecond, and twenty-third, fourteen chapters of the
fourth book of Orofius, the fourth and fifth of the third book
of the biftoria mifcellanea of Paulus Diaconus, Plutarch's Marcel-
lus, and Fabius Maximus; the fecond tome of the annals of
Zonaras, and Appian's Punic, and Illyrian wars.
Z 2
Polybius
:
172
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
Polybius was an Arcadian. He flouriſhed in the year 216
before Chrift, and was of the first note in his age as a foldier,
ftateſman, and philofopher. He came to Rome on an embaffy,
and there became very intimate with Scipio Africanus the
younger, and Lælius, whofe infeparable companion he was in
all their expeditions.
His hiftory confifted originally of forty books, of which the
the eighth part only is remaining to us entire, and comprehends
a ſpace of fifty-three years, the greateſt part of it employed in
the hiſtory of thofe events of which he was an eye witnefs, and
in the conduct of which he had a confiderable ſhare.
The pains which this writer took to inform himſelf of the
things and places of which he writes was prodigious. He
croffed the Alps, and traverſed one part of Gaul, on purpoſe to
repreſent truly Hannibals paffage into Italy; and fearing to
omit the leaft circumftance of Scipio's actions, he travelled all
over Spain, and ſtopped particularly at New Carthage, that he
might carefully ſtudy the fituation of it; and even uſed Scipio's
authority to procure veffels to fail upon the Atlantic ocean,
with fome view to the history he was writing. He learned the
Roman tongue, and obtained a perfect knowledge of their
laws, their rites, their customs and antiquities; and having
gained permiffion from the fenate to fearch the Capitol, he
made himſelf familiar with their records, and tranflated them
into his mother tongue.
However, though in a perfect acquaintance with his fubject,
and eſpecially as a judge of every thing relating to it, he was
fuperior to almost all other ancient hiftorians, he is inferior to
moft of them in point of eloquence; and it appears not to have.
been without juftice that Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus calls him
unpolite,
2
LECT. XXII.
173
HISTORY.
unpolite, and reproaches him with negligence, both in the
choice of his words, and the ftructure of his periods. His
obfervations and reflections (which frequently interrupt the
courſe of his narration, and take up great part of his work
appear tedious to thofe who are impatient to go on with the
hiſtory, but are univerfally admired by the thoughtful and
judicious.
Orofius was a Chriftian Prefbyter, who flouriſhed about A.D.
416, and wrote ſeven books of hiſtory againſt the Pagans.
Appian was defcended from one of the chief families of
Alexandria. He came to Rome in the time of the emperor
Trajan, where he practifed the law, and diftinguiſhed him-
ſelf ſo much as a pleader, that he was advanced to fome
office in the government; and by the fucceeding emperors
Adrian and Antoninus Pius, to the highest dignities of the
empire.
Of the many works which he compofed, there remain at
this time but the leaft part, viz. his hiſtory of the Punic,
Syrian, Parthian, Mithridatic, and Spaniſh wars, the fifth book
of the civil wars, and thoſe of Illyricum.
Whatever reflection it may be upon him as a man, it ought
to be no objection with us to the hiftory of Appian, that he has
been fufpected of copying a good deal from the Commentaries
of Auguftus, and other writers whofe works are now loft;
and this circumftance may have occafioned fome little in-
equality in his ftyle. This, however, is only what fome critics
pretend to have obferved, and his ftyle is allowed to be,
upon the whole, very plain and fuited to his fubject. His
method of preferving the tranfactions of every particular country
diſtinct from thofe of every other is thought to have fome
advantages, and he is allowed to be particularly happy in his
defcriptions
174
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
defcriptions of battles, and in every refpect to have given the
greateſt proof of his knowledge in the art of war.
After Appian, fhould be read the remainder of Livy, from
the twenty-first book to the end, which brings the hiftory to
the
year of the city 587, before Chriſt 166, and the epitome
of Livy to the end.
To compleat the laſt books of Livy, read Plutarch's Han-
nibal, Scipio Africanus, Quintus Flamininus, Paulus Emilius,
and Cato Major. After this read his Gracchi, Marius, Sylla,
Cato Minor, Sartorius, Lucullus, Pompey, and Brutus.
LECTURE XXIII.
Of Salluft, Cafar, Hirtius, Dio Caffius, Paterculus, Suetonius,
and Tacitus.
T¹
HE reader of hiſtory must now proceed to Salluft's hiſtory
of the war of Jugurtha, which happened one hundred
years before Chrift, and of the confpiracy of Catiline, which
happened fixty-two years before Chrift.
Salluft was a Roman, defcended of a family which had long
made a figure in the equeftrian order. He was a man of profli-
gate morals, and the early part of his life was ſpent in the
purſuits of ambition; but not fucceeding ia his attempts to be
a leading man in the government of the ſtate, he retired with
a difcontent which fhows itſelf, both in the general feverity
of his language, and his frequent keen invectives againſt the
times
LECT. XXIII.
175
HISTORY.
times in which he lived. He was a great enemy of Cicero (whoſe
wife Terentia he married after Cicero had divorced her) and the
friend of Cæfar, who was a great admirer of him. By Cæfar
he was entrusted with the command of fome forces, and a pro-
vince, in which, by his exceffive rapacioufnefs, he grew fo rich,
that, upon his return, he purchaſed one of the nobleſt manſions
in Rome, which to this day is called the gardens of Salluft.
The hiſtory of the war of Jugurtha, and of the Catilinarian.
confpiracy are all that we have left of this hiftorian. Nothing
at all is left of that excellent hiſtory which procured him the title
of the prince of hiſtorians, except four orations and two epiſtles;.
collected by the ancient grammarians.
It is remarkable that, notwithſtanding the profligacy of this
writer's morals, and his particular attachments in life, thoſe
things feem to have laid no bias upon him as a writer. He
does juſtice both to Cicero and Cæfar in his hiſtory of the Catili-
narian confpiracy; and he is ſaid to have taken uncommon pains
to get well informed in the particulars of his hiftory. With re-
gard to the Punic wars in particular, we are told that he not only
examined the memoirs and writings of thofe countries, but vifited
many places in perfon, to avoid miſtakes in his defcriptions.
Salluft falls far fhort of the majeſty of Livy, but he is re-
markably happy in a peculiar concifenefs, fulneſs and energy of
expreffion, for which he is faid to have particularly ftudied
Thucydides. His harangues are extremely elaborate, but much
too long in proportion to the hiſtory, and they have every appear-
ance of being purpoſely introduced to fhew his own eloquence
on a variety of occafions.
A fondneſs for theſe fet declamations has ftrangely feized al-
moſt all the hiſtorians of antiquity who are famous for their ſtyle
and manner of compofition. It may perhaps be, in part, ac-
counted
176
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
counted for by confidering that they were almost all educated
pleaders; and that propriety of addrefs on every occafion was
fo much ſtudied by the Romans, that it was the conftant exer-
cife of youth at fchools, as we learn from Juvenal, to make
fpeeches for the heroes of hiſtory; and one great and happy
example would occafion many imitations of that unnatural
manner. It must be acknowledged, however, that they tend
to make hiſtory much more interefting, by obliging the reader
to dwell longer on the ſtate of things in important fituations.
Julius Cæfar's Commentaries of his own wars, and the fupple-
ments by Hirtius and others.
Julius Cæfar was a man who, by the arts of popularity, ac-
quired great afcendancy over the people at Rome. Being en-
truſted with the command of an army in Gaul, he reduced all
that country into fubjection to the Romans, and by the fame
good fortune, and his own excellent conduct, he made himſelf
maſter of the commonwealth; but fell a facrifice to the fpirit
of liberty, which was not yet fufficiently quelled in that brave
and high ſpirited people.
The title of Cæfar's Commentaries does not promiſe a regular
and compleat hiſtory of the wars of which they treat.
But
fo maſterly is the performance, that none of the ancients ever
attempted to improve upon them. Though Cæfar is the hero
of his own hiſtory, he always fpeaks of himſelf in the third
perſon; and he gives an account of the prodigious ſucceſs he met
with, with the greateſt delicacy, and with as much coolneſs and
impartiality, as if he were writing the hiftory of any other
perfon.
In this Cæfar exactly reſembles Xenophon. Indeed, there
are few perſons whofe circumſtances, and manner of writing,
admit of a nearer compariſon. They have the fame advantage in
the
LECT. XXIII.
177
HISTORY.
the clearness of their defcriptions of things relating to war
from having been generals themſelves. They have the fame
fimplicity and eaſe in their ſtyle, and both are equally fparing in
introducing fet fpeeches. Of the two, Cæfar keeps nearer to
nature and probability in this reſpect. Perhaps he might chuſe
to ſtyle his work Commentaries, rather than lay himſelf under a
kind of neceffity of fwelling a regular biflory, with ornaments
fo unſuitable to a work which ought to be the exact copy of
truth and real life.
Hirtius, who wrote fome of the books which are generally
joined with Cæfar, was a man intimately acquainted with the
tranſactions of thoſe times. After the death of Cæfar he was
made conful, and together with his colleague Panfa died glo-
riouſly at the battle of Mutina, fighting againſt Antony. His
ſtyle, and manner of compofition, as well as the ſubject of his
hiſtory, juſtly entitle him to a place next to Cæfar. The other
pieces commonly annexed to Cæfar are greatly inferior to theſe.
To obtain a clear idea of the hiftory of this important period
of time, Cicero's epiflles, eſpecially thofe to Atticus, ought by no
means to be overloked. Cicero feldom departed from Rome, was
a principal actor in all the great affairs tranſacted in his time;
of which he writes almoſt an uninterrupted account to his friend
Atticus, who lived a retired life, remote from all affairs of ſtate.
So great is the frankneſs of this writer, that we ſee the moſt
fecret motions of his heart, and how he was affected upon
every emergence. He alfo fhews us, as far as he himſelf was
able to penetrate, the hearts of all thofe men who make ſo great
a figure in the hiftory of thofe times.
Dio Caffius was a native of Bythinia, whither alfo he retired to
paſs the concluſion of his life, after having been twice conful at
Rome, and been intrufted with the government of feveral pro-
A a
vinces
178
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
vinces under Alexander Severus, and feveral of the preceding
emperors.
His hiftory comprized all the time from the building of
Rome to the reign of Alexander, which he wrote in eighty
books, divided into eight decads, of which few are ſaved
from that cataſtrophe which has been fatal to many admirable
works of this nature, through the ignorance and incurfions
of barbarous nations. At preſent the thirty-fifth book is the
firſt of thoſe that remain entire. For we have only fome frag-
ments of the thirty-fourth. His progreſs to the fixtieth is
compleat enough, but inſtead of the last twenty we muſt be
content with what Xiphilinus, a monk of Conftantinople, who
wrote in the year 1050 after Chrift, has given us, in a compen-
dium of them. That which we now have of this author, com-
prehending the events of three hundred years at leaſt, begins at
the time when Lucullus had his great commands, and ends with
the death of the emperor Claudius. We are as unfortunate with
reſpect to this author as to Livy; fince the hiftory of the laft
forty years, of the tranfactions of which he was an eye witneſs,
is entirely loſt.
This writer has by no means avoided the charge of partiality,
from his favouring the party of Cæfar and Antony, and his
invective againſt Pompey and Cicero, particularly the latter,
whom he treats in the moft fcurrilous and indecent manner;
and perhaps it is not fo much an argument of the prudent
conduct of Dio, as of a criminal complaifance in him, that he
could paſs through fuch dangerous times as thofe of Commodus,
Caracalla and Heliogabalus, without any riſk of his life or for-
But on the other hand, it is an argument in favour of his
character, that he was efteemed by that excellent prince Alex-
ander Severus, with whom he once had the honour of being con-
tune.
ful,
LECT. XXIII.
179
HISTORY.
་་
ful, and under whom he publiſhed his hiſtory. This writer,
however, has certainly fallen into a greater excefs of fuperftition
and credulity with reſpect to prodigies and miracles than Livy.
From Livy's manner of introducing thofe things it cannot at
all be inferred that he believed them. He feems rather to have
brought them in to add to the folemnity and dignity of his hif
tory; but they make a very different appearance in Dio. The
ſpeeches of this writer, which take up whole books, are infuf-
ferably tedious; but his ftyle in general is rather admired than
otherwife. He was a great imitator of Thucydides, and is not
fo obfcure as he was.
The period of which Dio Caffius treats will be made more
complete by Velleius Paterculus, who lived under Tiberus. He
was a perfon of noble extraction, and had confiderable employ-
ments in the Roman ftate. His work is an epitome of the Ro-
man hiſtory to his own times, upon which he is more large;
and he tranſmits to us feveral particulars which we ſhould not
otherwiſe have known. Excepting the grofs flatteries of Ti-
berius and Sejanus, Paterculus's work is a faithful and elegant
compendium of Roman hiſtory; but it is in ſeveral places im-
perfect. This writer excels in drawing characters; and if his
work be thought too rhetorical, it muſt be acknowledged
that his rhetoric is more that of the gentleman than of the
fcholar.
Suetonius's lives of the twelve Cæfars. This author was a
Roman born, had been employed in the army, and at the bar in
the reign of Trajan; and under Adrian he was for fome time
what we may call fecretary of ſtate; but being obliged to quit
his office, on account of fome difguft which he had given to his
maſter, he retired, and wrote the hiſtory he has left us. Indeed,
his work can hardly be called a hiftory; fince, without any
regard
A a 2
180
LECTURES ON PART IV.
regard to chronological order, he has only thrown together fuch
incidents in the lives of the twelve Cæfars, as he imagined
would reflect the greateft light on their real characters, and has
diſpoſed them in an order which he thought beft adapted to
that purpoſe.
Suetonius has given us the moft undoubted proofs of his
diligence, veracity and freedom, in the execution of his work.
He is even thought to have entered too particularly into the de-
tail of fome unnatural vices. His expreffion is very clear, though
concife: but no writer requires a greater knowledge of the man-
ners, cuſtoms, and antiquities of Rome to make him intelli-
gible; his mention of them, and allufions to them are fo fre-
quent.
· Tacitus's Annals and Hiftory. This author was a Roman,
who was advanced regularly through all the honours of the
ftate, till he was made conful under Nerva. He wrote annals of
the public affairs in fixteen books, which begin at the death of
Auguftus Cæfar, and continue the ftory almoft to the end of
Nero. We have but part of them left; viz. the four firſt
books, a ſmall part of the fifth, all the fixth, from the eleventh
to the fifteenth, and part of the fixteenth. The two laſt years
of Nero, and part of the foregoing year are wanting. Theſe
are the laft books of the work. He has left us a history likewife,
which extends from the beginning of the reign of Galba to the
end of that of Domitian. There are alfo extant of this author,
one book of the Manners of the Germans, and another of the
Life of Agricola.
Tacitus is a moft faithful, grave, and fevere writer. Indeed,
the fubject of his hiftory exhibits the moſt ſhocking fpectacle
of vice which the annals of mankind can fhow; in which cafe
true hiſtory muft neceffarily have all the keennefs of fatire.
This
LECT. XXIII.
181
HISTORY.
This hiftory contains a fund of political knowledge, and on
that account, is very proper to be ſtudied by princes and minif-
ters of ftate.
Nothing can be more oppofite than the ftyle of Tacitus
and that of Cæfar; yet each may be called excellent in their
kind. Tacitus has not the beautiful fimplicity and eaſy flow
of Cæfar, but his language has equal precifion and more force.
He is not ſo eaſy to be underſtood, but he does not pleaſe leſs
when he is understood. It is hardly credible that fo much
fentiment ſhould be crowded into fo fmall a compafs as is
done by Tacitus. Cæfar will perhaps have more charms for
a young gentleman, but Tacitus will give more fatisfaction to a
perfon of age and experience.
Indeed both Sueto-
what is called the
Tacitus is the laft Roman hiftorian who is worth reading
except barely for the fake of thoſe facts which we have no
other method of getting acquainted with.
nius and Tacitus are generally placed in
filver age of the Latin tongue; but all the fucceeding writers
are univerfally thrown into the brazen or iron age. I fhall,
therefore, content myfelf with a flighter mention of them, in
the order in which they ought to be read, without diſtinguiſh-
ing them into primary and ſecondary writers.
1
}
LECT.
182
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
1
LECTURE
XXIV.
Of Aurelius Victor, Herodian, Scriptores Romani, Eutropius, Zozi-
mus, Zonaras, fornandes, Ammianus Marcellinus, Procopius, Aga-
thias, Nicetas Acominatus, Nicephorus Gregoras, and Johannes
Cantacuzenus. Ufe of Books of Antiquities, Writers who have
explained Coins and Infcriptions. Use of a Knowledge of the
Civil Law. Of modern Compilations of Hiftory. The Univer-
fal Hiftory. Hooke's Roman Hiftory.
THE
HE lives of Nerva and Trajan written by Aurelius Victor
or Xiphilin. Aurelius Victor, was a perfon of mean birth,
but on account of his learning and abilities, was advanced by
Conftantius, the fon of Conftantine the Great, to feveral con-
fiderable employments in the ſtate. Among other works he
wrote a hiſtory of the Cæfars, from Auguftus down to Con-
ftantius his patron.
Spartians Adrian, and Capitolinus's Antoninus.
Herodian. This author was a Greek grammarian of Alex-
andria in the ſecond century, but he ſpent most of his time at
Rome in the court of the Emperors, where he wrote his hif-
tory. It confifts of eight books, from the death of Antoninus
Philofophus to Balbinus and Pupienus, in the year 238, which
is the hiftory of his own times.
Few authors have ever had a happier and more engaging
manner of writing than this. He prefents every ſcene with its
cauſes and effects in the cleareſt and eaſieſt point of view; and
2.
his
LECT. XXIV.
183
HISTORY.
his ftyle, without the leaft appearance of labour, has all the
charms of fimplicity and elegance.
After Herodian must be read what has not been already directed
to out of the fix following writers, commonly known by the
name of Scriptores Romani, or Hiftoria Auguftæ fcriptores, viz.
Spartianus, Lampridius, Capitolinus, Vulcatius, Trebellius Pol-
lios, and Vopifcus. They are published altogether by Cafaubon
and Salmafius. They all flouriſhed about the time of Diocle-
fian, or Conſtantine, and their works are not eaſily diſtinguiſhed
from one another. But there is a chafm in thefe writers, be-
tween Gordian III. and Valentinian, which may be ſupplied
from Aurelius Victor. By the help of this fupplement, the
above-mentioned writers bring down the history to the year of
the city 1036, of Chrift 283.
If any perſon would chufe to ſee an epitome of the Roman
hiſtory till about this time, Eutropius will furnish him with a
pretty good one in Latin. He was an Italian fophiſt, and ſe-
cretary to Conſtantine the Great, but more particularly trufted
by Julian. By the exprefs order of the Emperor Valens he
wrote a compendium of the Roman hiſtory to the death of Jo-
vian, in the year of the city 1119, of Chrift 366. All the
writers of the Roman history from this time are Greek, except
Ammianus Marcellinus.
Zozimus wrote the hiſtory of the declension of the empire in
fix books, beginning with Auguftus, giving a fuller account of
things from the reign of Dioclefian, and ending with the tak-
ing of Rome by the Goths under Alaric. In the firſt book he
runs through all the firft emperors to Dioclefian with great
brevity; but in the other five books he gives a larger and
fuller account.. He lived in the time of Theodofius the
younger, who began his reign in the year 507. Zozimus was
a pagan, and therefore very often reflects upon the chriftian
princes;
184
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
princes; notwithstanding which, his fidelity is not eafily to be
called in queftion.
Zonaras wrote a general hiftory, from the beginning of the world
to the death of the emperor Alexius Comnenus in the year 1119,
in whofe time he lived. He divided his work into three tomes.
In the first he gives a brief hiftory of the world from the crea-
tion to the deftruction of Jerufalem; in the fecond he writes
the Roman hiftory from the building of Rome to Conftantine.
the Great, but very briefly; and in the third tome, he gives an
account of the actions of all the chriftian emperors from Con-
ftantine the Great to the death of Alexius Comnenus.
This hiſtory and that of Zozimus will be made more com-
pleat by Jornandes's hiſtory of the fucceffions of kingdoms and
times, and his hiftory of the Goths. He flouriſhed about the
year of Chrift 540. He was himſelf a Goth, or an Alan, and
as he fays, joined the Gothic hiftorians with the Greek and
Latin writers, in order to compile his hiftory.
Ammianus Marcellinus flouriſhed in the year of Chrift
375, and was a foldier under Conftantine and Julian. He
wrote thirty-one books from the beginning of Nerva to the
death of Valens in whofe court he lived: but of thoſe the firſt
thirteen have perished. In thoſe which are extant he begins
with Gallus Cæfar about the year of Chrift 353, and largely
deſcribes the actions and lives of Conftantius Cæfar, Julian,
Jovian, Valentinian, and Valens. He was an eye witneſs of a
great part of what he writes, and he brings the hiftory to the
year of Rome 1128, of Chrift 378.
In the miſcellaneous hiftory of Paulus Diaconus, beginning
with book xii. will be found a compleat hiftory from Valen-
tinian to the depofition of Michael Curopalates, in the year of
Chrift 812, in which time this author lived.
Procopius
LECT. XXIV.
185
HISTORY.
Procopius flouriſhed in the year 502, and wrote feven books
of the Perfian, Gothic, and the Vandalic wars, undertaken by
Juftinian, and conducted by his general Belifarius.
Agathias lived about the year of Chrift 567. He was a lawyer
by profeffion, of Smyrna in Afia; he wrote five books of the
reign and actions of Juftinian, and begins his hiſtory where
Procopius ended. He was a pagan.
If any perfon chufe to omit theſe laſt mentioned writers, and
go on with the third tome of Zonaras, he may paſs on from
Zonaras to Nicetas Acominatus, or Chonites, who begins where
Zonaras ends, and continues the hiftory pretty largely for
eighty-five years, to the taking of Conftantinople by Baldwin
the Flandrian, in the year of Chrift 1203. This writer was
born at Chonis, a town in Phrygia, from whence he took his
name.
After Nicetas, follows Nicephorus Gregoras, who wrote a
history of one hundred and forty-five years, from Theodo-
rus Lafcares the firft to the death of Andronicus Poleologus
the latter, in the year of Chrift 1341, about which time he
flouriſhed.
But whereas the fidelity of this writer is called in queſtion,
particularly his hiftory of Andronicus and Paleologus, it may
not be amifs to take in here Johannes Cantacuzenus, who of an
emperor became a monk, and wrote an excellent hiftory, under
the title of Chriftodulus. This royal hiftorian flouriſhed about
the year of Chrift 1350. His hiftory confifts of fix books, of
which the two firft treat of the reign of Andronicus, the re-
maining four of his own reign, and what he did after the death
of Andronicus. He was made a monk in the year of Chriſt
1360, when he took the name of Jofaaphus.
B b
The
186
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
The conclufion of the hiftory of Conftantinople, with the
rife and progreſs of the Turks, may be learned from Laonicus
Chalchondiles, who put an end to it. He begins his hiſtory
with Ottoman the fon of Orthogul, who began to reign about
the year of Chrift 1300. His work confiſts of ten books, and
brings the hiftory to the year 1453, in which Conftantinople
was taken by Mahomet II.
That you may not be diſappointed in your expectations from
thoſe hiſtorians who wrote after the removal of the feat of the
empire from Rome to Conftantinople, I muft inform
you that,
as from that time the grandeur of the empire began to decline,
the bounds of it to be contracted, and confequently the con-
nexions of the Romans to be lefs extenfive than before; the
Byzantine hiftorians, as thofe writers are called, are very much
confined to the affairs of the empire and court of Conftanti-
nople, which for feveral centuries before the final diffolution of
the empire was very inconfiderable. This part therefore of the
preceding courſe is by no means to be called general hiſtory, as
the earlier part of it, but, on the contrary, like it is very
much limited and particular.
Of all the modern compilations, derived from theſe ſources of
hiftorical knowledge, none are fo ufeful as thoſe which treat of
the manners, customs, and laws of the Greeks and Romans.
The moſt complete body of Greek and Roman antiquities is
that which has been collected from the united labours of all
the beſt critics and antiquaries by Grævius and Gronovius.
But this is an immenfely voluminous work, which few perfons
can purchaſe, or perufe. A perfon may acquire knowledge
enough of this kind for the purpoſe of reading the Greek and
and Latin hiſtorians in Potter's excellent and compendious ſyſ-
tem
LECT. XXIV.
187
HISTORY.
tem of Greek antiquities and in Kennet's antiquities of Rome;
but without an acquaintance with theſe at leaſt, a perfon will
find himſelf greatly at a loſs in reading the courſe, or any part of
the courſe, of hiſtory recommended above.
Books which contain collections of coins and inſcriptions
ſhould by no means be neglected by a perfon who is defirous of
receiving all the lights he can get into the tranfactions of any
period of paſt times. The principal collectors of theſe kinds of
records are Gruter, Lipfius, Chifhul, Montfaucon, Prideaux,
Mazochius, and Fleetwood for infcriptions; and Spanheim,
Urfinus, Patin, Vaillant, Hardouin, and Goltzius for coins.
With regard to the Roman hiſtory, no perſon can be a com-
petent judge of many important things relating to it, who is
not verfed in the civil law, which contains the hiftory of the
domeſtic policy of that great people. Let every perſon there-
fore who propoſes to study the Roman hiſtory by all means
make himſelf maſter of Juſtinian's Inſtitutes at leaſt, which con-
tain an authentic outline of their policy; and this indeed is
fufficient for the purpoſe of reading their history.
It would be endleſs to enumerate all the modern compila-
tions of ancient hiftory. The most complete body of hiſtory
ancient and modern is the Univerfal, and it is the more conve-
nient for the ſtudy of hiſtory, as the references in it to original
authors are very large and particular on every paragraph of it;
ſo that it is at leaſt a full index to univerfal hiftory, and fur-
niſhes the reader with the means both of enlarging the ftory,
and correcting any mistakes the authors may have fallen into.
The performance is certainly a very unequal one, with reſpect
both to judgment and style, and the chronology of it is various,
as might be expected from a work which could not have been
completed at all but by a great number of hands. It is to be
B b 2
regretted
188
LÈCTURES ON PARTIV.
regretted that the chronological tables adapted to it are drawn
up upon the old exploded fyftem. But among a few inftances
of inaccuracy, there are numberless marks of the greateſt la-
bour and impartiality.
Of the compilers of the Roman hiftory in particular, Hooke
feems far preferable to any other in French or English. He
has fhewed the greateft fagacity in tracing the rife, progrefs,
and conduct of that people, and in penetrating into the cha-
racters of their principal heroes.
LECTURE XXV.
Of the Method of studying the English Hiftory. Original Writers
recommended. Gildas. Bede. Nennius. Hoel Dha's laws.
Geoffrey of Monmouth. Caradocus.
Caradocus. Roman writers of Eng-
lifh Affairs. Their Defects how fupplied. Fulness of English
Iliflory from the Time of Chriflianity accounted for. Saxon
Recorders. Saxon Chronicle. Affer Menevenfis. Ethelward.
Verftegan. Sheringham. What Foreign Hiftories are uſeful to a
Knowledge of the English Affairs in early Times. Of the
Danish, Ilandic, German, and Norwegian Antiquities.
As
S the hiſtory of our own country is both more intereſting
to us, and on every account, of the most confequence for us
to be thoroughly acquainted with, I ſhall be more particular in
my directions to acquire a thorough knowledge of it than I
have been with refpect to ancient hiftory. To do this in as
complete
LECT. XXV.
189
HISTORY.
complete a manner as the bounds of my defign will admit, I
fhall firft deduce a regular feries of hiftorians, from the earlieſt
account of our nation to what may be called our own times,
and then give fome account of the records which our coun-
try affords of a different nature, but which a careful hif-
torian ought to avail himſelf of, and alſo of the places where it
is faid fuch records are to be met with. A great part of what
I fhall advance upon this laft head in particular will be ex-
tracted from Nicholfor's English Hiftorical Library, to which I
would refer thofe perfons who are defirous of farther informa-
tion with respect to the ſubject of this Lecture. I fhall how-
ever ſo far depart from his method as to give all I have to fay
concerning the Britons, Saxons, and all the earlier part of our
hiftory, by itſelf.
Imperfect as what I have collected on this fubject may be, it
will at leaſt ſuffice to give you an idea what care, labour, and
fagacity are neceffary to compile a good hiſtory of our country,
from the vast variety of materials which it affords for that pur-
pofe; which will make us more fenfible of the obligations we
are under to thoſe diligent hiſtorians and antiquarians who have
taken the pains requifite for that purpoſe, and increaſe our
contempt for thoſe writers, who, without ftirring from their
closets, or perufing one ancient original author, affume the
name of hiftorians, and publish pompous accounts of their
works; when they have done nothing more than republish, in
a new, and perhaps no better form, the information that had
been collected by others. Of theſe ſecond and third hand
compilers no nation perhaps furniſhes a greater number than
our own. If fuch works be recommended by greater fymmetry
in the arrangement of their parts, and a better ftyle and manner
of compofition, it cannot be denied but that the authors of
them
190
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
them have their merit; but then it is a merit of a different
kind from that of the laborious inveſtigators of hiſtorical truth,
and ought not to be confounded with it.
I must admoniſh you, however, that you must not promiſe
yourſelves much entertainment from the language and ſtyle of
the original hiſtorians of our nation. The bulk of our ancient
hiftories are only to be confidered as repofitories of facts. It
has only been of late years that history has been written with
the leaft degree of elegance by the natives of this country; and
even now we can fhow but very few maſterly compofitions
of this kind; perhaps none which have united with the merit
of writers that of diligent inveſtigators of hiftorical truth.
Indeed, theſe qualifications in modern times are rarely united,
though in ancient times they often were.
The most ancient Britiſh hiftorian now extant is Gildas.
He was a monk of Baagor about the middle of the fixth century,
a forrowful fpectator of the miferies, and almoft utter ruin, of
his countrymen the Britons, by a people under whoſe banners
they expected protection and peace. His lamentable hiftory
De excidio Britannia is all that is printed of his writing, and
732 perhaps all that is any where extant.
- Cotemporary with Gildas was Bede, who was a Saxon; and
though his hiftory of the English nation is chiefly ecclefiafti-
cal, he has intermixed ſeveral particulars of the civil ſtate of
when the Britons and Saxons.
A
The next Britiſh hiftorian of note is Nennius, a monk, who
flouriſhed in the year 830. He is ſaid to have left behind him
feveral treatiſes, whereof all that is published is his Hiftoria
Britonum.
The next remains of the Britons, are Hoel Dha's Laws, which
were enacted about the middle of the tenth century. Of thefe
there
4
LECT. XXV.
191
HISTORY.
there are ſeveral copies, both in Welch and Latin, ftill extant;
among which is a very old one, written on parchment in Jefus
College, at Oxford.
We are not to expect any fuch affiftance for aſcertaining the
hiſtory of theſe times as after ages afford us from charters,
letters patent, &c. It is very doubtful whether thofe times
ever produced fuch materials for hiſtory; if they did, they have
all perished. Neither can we expect any affiftance from the
medals, or coins, of the ancient Britons. The money uſed
here in Cæfar's time was nothing more than iron rings, and
fhapeleſs pieces of brafs; nor does it well appear that their
kings did afterwards introduce any of another fort.
The firſt perſon that attempted the writing of the old Britiſh
history after the conqueft was Jeffery, archdeacon of Mon-
mouth. This author lived under king Stephen, about the
year 1150. He feems particularly fond of ftories which have
the air of romance, which led him to pitch upon king Arthur's
feats of chivalry, and Merlin's prophecies, as proper ſubjects
for his pen; but his most famous piece is his Chronicon, five
biftoria Britonum. In this he has given a genealogy of the kings
of Britain from the days of Brutus, the fuppofed fon of Æneas,
containing a catalogue of above ſeventy monarchs, who reigned
in this iſland before Julius Cæfar landed in it. The firft ftone
of this fabric was laid by Nennius, but the fuperſtructure is
this author's own. Notwithſtanding this author has not been
without his advocates, particularly the famous J. Leland, his
hiſtory is now univerfally regarded in no other light than that
of a romance.
Contemporary with this Jeffery was Caradocus, a monk of
Lancarvan, who wrote a hiftory of the petty kings of Wales
after they were driven into that corner of the iſland by the
Saxons.
192
LECTURES ON PART IV.
Saxons. This hiſtory which was written originally in Latin,
and brought as low as the year 1156 by its author, was after-
wards tranflated into English by Humphry Lluid, and en-
larged and publiſhed by Dr. Powel, and again by W. Wyn,
with a learned preface.
After king Charles's reſtoration Mr. R. Vaughan, a learned
gentleman of Merioneth fhire, publiſhed his British antiquities
revived, wherein are many curious remarks and difcoveries.
This author was well known to archbishop Ufher, by whom
he was much countenanced and encouraged in theſe ſtudies.
The Roman writers treat of the affairs of this island, both
antecedent to their conqueft of it, and during their ſtay in it,
only occafionally. Cæfar may be depended upon for an authentic
account of his own expedition, and the manner in which he
was received by the natives; but it is certain he could have but
little opportunity of being acquainted with the manners and
cuſtoms of the people, or any thing relating to the internal
ftate of the nation. As the Romans were afterwards better
acquainted with the island, we have more reafon to depend
upon the little that we find of our hiſtory in Tacitus, Dio
Caffius, Suetonius, Eutropius, and the Scriptores Romani, who
may all be fuppofed to have had the perufal of fuch memorials
as were from time to time fent to the emperors from their
- lieutenants in this province. A great deal of caution is necef-
fary in reading fome of the laft-mentioned authors; but their
defects are well fupplied by the famous Mr. Dodwell, in his
Prælectiones Camdenian, which will be highly ferviceable to
all perfons who engage in thefe ftudies. Tacitus's life of
Agricola has all the appearance of being a faithful account of
that general's conduct in this island. He fpeaks of the natives
with great impartiality.
Many
LECT. XXV. H IS TO RY.!
1193
t
Many defects in the Roman accounts have been fupplied by
infcriptions and coins, found in feveral parts of our ifland; and
there are daily new diſcoveries of both. The Roman comman-
ders in this ifland affected to celebrate their exploits on the
reverfes of their coins, whence may be collected feveral good
illuſtrations of that part of our hiſtory. Thoſe preſerved in
Camden's Britannia are very valuable. ·
•
We are much more happy with refpect to the hiftory of the
Saxon times, particularly the end of them, than thoſe pre-
ceding. It is remarked by all writers, that there is not in the
world a hiſtory lefs obfcure than that of England after the
ninth century. Nor can we be at a lofs to account for this,
when we are informed by Matthew Paris, that there was a
custom in England, that, in each mitred abbey of the order
of St. Benedict, fome perfons of the fraternity, of ability and
care, were appointed to regiſter the moft confiderable events;
and after the death of every king theſe different memoirs were
laid before a chapter of the order, to be reduced to a body of
hiftory, which was preferved in their archives for the inftruction
of pofterity.
We have likewife other remains of the Saxon times, which
may be of great uſe to an hiftorian. In feveral libraries, and
in many regiſter books of our oldeft monafteries, we have
many charters granted by our Saxon kings, but they are to
be admitted with great caution. The records of the church
of Canterbury affure us that Withered, who reigned about the
year 700, was the first who gave out charters in writing, his
predeceffors thinking their bare word fufficient to fecure any
of their gifts and benefactions.
Many of the Saxon laws have been publiſhed. The firſt
attempt of this kind was made by L. Nowel, who collected all
Cc
he
· 194
ON PART IV.
LECTURES
he could find, and left them to be tranflated by his friend W.
Lambard. Mr. Somner corrected the errors of Lambard, adding
feveral laws omitted by him, and giving a double tranſlation,
in Latin and English, to the whole. And there have been
fome ftill later additions and improvements by other hands.
There is not much to be learned from the coins of any of our
Saxon kings; their filver ones being generally of the ſame ſize,
and very flovenly minted.
The oldeſt hiſtory of the Saxon affairs is the Saxon Chronicle,
firſt publiſhed by Abraham Wheelock, who tranflated it, and
cauſed it to be printed at the end of his Saxon Bede. The
author, or authors, of this work are unknown. Some copies
of it end with the year 977, another brings down the hiſtory to
1001, another to the year 1070, and another to 1154.
The earlieſt account we have of the reign of Alfred is that
of Alferius Menevenfis, who lived in his court, and is faid to
have been promoted by him to the bishoprick of Sherborn.
This treatiſe was first publiſhed by Archbishop Parker in the
old Saxon character, at the end of his edition of Thomas Wal-
fingham's hiſtory. Afferius wrote his fovereign's life no farther
than the forty-fifth year of his age, which, according to his
computation, fell in the year of our Lord 893; but the work
is continued by other hands to the death of Alfred.
The next Saxon hiftorian is Ethelward, or Elward Patritius,
defcended of the blood royal, who lived in the year 1090, but
he continued his chronicle of the Saxon kings no farther than
Edgar. Indeed, the whole is faid to be a tranflation of an
imperfect copy of the Saxon chronicle, and in a very bad
ftyle.
:
Many things relating to the civil government of theſe times
are difperfed in fome particular lives of their faints and kings,
particularly
LECT. XXV.
195
HISTORY.
particularly thofe of Offa, Olwin, Ethelwolf, and Edward
the Confeffor.
Of the later writers of the Saxon affairs, Verftegan must be
first mentioned. His reftitution of decayed intelligence in an-
tiquities relates particularly to the language, religion, manners,
and government of the ancient English Saxons. This writer
has fallen into many miſtakes; but fome of them have been
noted by Mr. Sheringham, and the reft have been carefully
corrected by Mr. Somner.
Mr. Selden was a perfon of vaft induſtry, and his attainments
in most parts of learning were fo extraordinary, that every
thing that came from him is highly admired; but Mr. Nichol-
fon is by no means fatisfied with the account he gives, in his
Analeta, of the religion, government, and revolutions of ftate
among our Saxon anceſtors.
On the contrary, Mr. Nicholfon fays, that the beſt per-
formance he knows of, relating to the prime antiquities of the
Saxons is Mr. Sheringham's treatiſe De Anglorum gentis origine.
Our civil wars fent this author into the low countries, where
he had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with Dr. Mar-
fham and the Dutch language, both inclining him to fuch
ftudies as this book hows him to have delighted in. He
appears to have been a perfon of great modefty, as well as
induſtry and learning. His collections from the Greek, Ronin,
and particularly from the northern writers, are exceedingly
valuable.
Our Saxon antiquary ought alfo to be fkilled in the wrings
of thofe learned Germans who have made collections of hour
own laws, or have written fuch gloffaries, or grammatica) de
courſes, as may bring him acquainted with the many anglery
dialects of our anceſtors and kinfmen in that part of the woL › - 5
particulary
,"
Cc 2
196
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
!
particularly the Sachfen Spiegel, or Speculum Saxonicum, which
is an excellent manuel of the old laws of the ancient Saxons. ;
In order to understand the Danish period of our history, the
Daniſh antiquities must be fearched into, and the Runic character
understood; for in this character the Danes regiſtered: all their
more confiderable tranfactions upon rocks, and ftones hewn into
various fhapes and figures. On theſe they engraved fuch
inſcriptions as were proper for their heathen altars, triumphal
arches, fepulchral monuments, and the genealogical histories
of their anceſtors. Their writings of lefs.concern, as letters,
almanacks, &c. were engraven upon wood; and becaufe beech
was the most plentiful in Denmark, and moſt commonly
employed for thofe purpoſes, from the Danish name of that
tree, which is bog, they, and all other northern nations, have
the name of book.
Our Danish antiquary fhould alfo be acquainted with the
beſt Iſlandic hiftorians; the most ancient whereof is Aras
Frode, cotemporary with Sæmond, about the year, 1114. He
firſt wrote a regular hiftory of Iceland from the firſt planting
of his country down to his own time, wherein he gives an
account of the affairs of Norway, Denmark, and England,
intermixed with thofe of his own nation. Part of this work
happily fell into the hands of Thomas Bartholine's friend, the
biſhop of Skalholt, who took care to have it publiſhed in the
year 1689.
1
傀
​There is likewife extant a couple of Norwegian hiftories of
good credit which explain many particulars of the exploits
relating to the Danish kings of Great-Britain, which our own
hiftorians have either wholly omitted, or recorded imperfectly.
The former of theſe was written foon after the year 1130, by
one Theoderic, a monk. The other was compiled by. Snorrø
Sturlefonius.
LECT. XXV.
197
THIS TOR Y.,
Sturlefonius. Both drew their materials from the ballads of the
Scaldri, whofe hiftorical poems, it is generally thought, may
be depended upon. Arngrim Jonas, who lived about thofe
times, affures us that theſe Scaldri were far from flattering,
and knew nothing of the modern poetical fable. This book
was tranflated into the vulgar English by Peter Undallenfis, and
publiſhed by Wormius.
Only two Daniſh hiftorians, Mr. Nicholſon fays, are necef-
fary to the Engliſh antiquary's library; namely Saxo Grammati-
cus, and his cotemporary and fellow fervant Sweno Agonis, of
both which we have an excellent edition by Stephanus. Saxo
is commonly reckoned the most ancient, as well as the moſt
polite, hiftorian of Denmark, dying provoft at the cathedral
church at Rofchild in the year 1204. Saxo himſelf fays that
he compiled his hiftory out of the Icelandic ballads, and Sweno
declares that he compiled his from the traditions of old people;
yet the former is thought by Arngrim Jonas, and J. Lyfcander,
not to have made good ufe of his authorities.
The great reſtorer of the decayed antiquities of Denmark was
Olaus Wormius, who has alfo enabled us to make many new
diſcoveries in thoſe of our own nation. His Literatura Runica
was the firft happy attempt towards the right explanation of the
old Cimbrian monuments, which till his time had lain ne-
glected, and unknown to the learned world, not only in theſe
northern kingdoms, but in ſeveral parts of Italy, Spain, and
other European countries, where the Gothic arms and letters
had gained a footing. His Monumenta Danica is alſo of fingular
ufe to a perſon who pretends to write upon any branch of our
Engliſh antiquities; fome of which are particularly illuftrated
by the author himſelf. Thomas Bartholine, fon to the famous
phyfician of that name, has given us an addition to Wornius's
diſcoveries.
LECT.
198
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
!
}
LECTURE XXVI.
The English History from the Conqueft. Ingulphus of Croiland,
Marianus Scotus. Florentius Bravonius, Eadmerus, William of
Malmbury, Simeon of Durham, Ealred, Henry of Hunting-
don, William of Newbury. Gervafe of Canterbury, Roger de
Hoveden, Ralph de Diceto, Matthew Paris, Chronicle of Mail-
ros, Thomas Wicks, Nicholas Trivet, Roger Ceftrenfis, John
Brompton, Walter of Hemmingford, Ralph Higden, John Vicar
of Tinmouth, Matthew of Westminster, Henry Knighton, Froif-
fart, Thomas of Walfingham, William Caxton, and John Rofs.
FTER the conqueft (as Sir William Temple obferves)
AFTER
though the hiſtory of England was not for a long time
written by one ſkilful hand, yet it is reprefented in fo clear a
light, as leaves very little either obfcure or uncertain in the hif-
tory of our kingdom, or the fucceffion of our kings; and for this
advantage we are indebted to our monafteries. I ſhall only give
an account of the principal of our hiftorians fince that period,
and this as briefly as poffible, ranking them in the feveral cen-
turies wherein they wrote.
The first of our English hiftorians after the conqueft was
Ingulphus of Croyland. He wrote the hiftory of his monaftery,
and in it relates many things concerning the kings of England.
He begins in the year of Chrift 626, with Penda king of Mer-
cia, and ends at the year 1089, which was the third year of
William Rufus. This author was the fon of a courtier of Ed-
4
ward
LECT. XXVI.
199
HISTORY.
ward the laſt king of the Saxon race. He was reckoned an ex-
cellent Ariftotelian philofopher. He was counſellor to William
duke of Normandy, and after the conqueſt of England was by
him made abbot of Croyland. The relation this author bore to
king William does manifeftly bias him in the account he gives
of Harold.
About the fame time wrote Marianus Scotus, a monk of
Mentz in Germany, who brought down our Engliſh hiſtory,
interwoven with the more general one of Europe, as low as the
year 1083. He was reckoned an elegant writer for the times,
and his work met with fuch univerfal applauſe in our monaf-
teries, that there was hardly one in the kingdom that wanted
a copy of it, and fome had ſeveral. The beſt and moſt com-
plete manuſcript of it is in the public library at Oxford.
The earlieſt hiftory in the twelfth century was written by
Florentius Bravonius, a Monk of Worcester, who in many
places of his work has almoſt tranſcribed Marianus, but he has
added a great deal out of the Saxon chronicle, and other writers.
His book ended with his life, in the year 1119; but it was
continued fifty years farther by another monk of the fame mo-
naſtery.
-
Eadmerus, a monk of Canterbury, is our next hiſtorian, whoſe
hiftoria novorum, &c. was publiſhed by Mr. Selden, and con-
tains the hiſtory of the two Williams, and Henry I. from the
year 1066, to the year 1122. Mr. Nicholſon fays this work is
of great gravity, and unquestionable authority. The intimate
acquaintance the author had with archbiſhop Anfelm did not
bias him in favour of the clergy. The character which Selden
gives of him is that his ſtyle equals that of William of Malmſ-
bury, and that his matter and compofition exceed him.
William
200
PART IV.
LECTURES ON.
,
William of Malmbury has had the higheſt commendations ima-
ginable given him by fome of our beft critics in English hif
tory. He wrote De geftis regum Anglorum in five books, with
an appendix in two more, which he ftyles novellæ hiftoria. In
theſe we have a judicious collection of whatever he found on
record touching the affairs of England, from the firſt arrival
of the Saxons, concluding his work with the reign of king
Stephen, to whom he ſhows himſelf to have been a hearty
enemy.
:
Simeon Dunelmenfis, and Ealred Abbot of Rievaulx are our next
hiſtorians of note in this century. The former was monk and
precentor of Durham in the year 1164, and may justly be
reckoned one of the moſt learned men of his age. But his
two books De geftis regum are not his maſter-pieces. His hif-
tory begins at the death of Bede in 732, and ends in the year
1129. Abbot Ealred gives us a fhort genealogy of our kings to
Henry II. but enlarges chiefly on the praiſes of David king of
Scots, founder of many abbeys of the Ciftercians.
About the ſame time flourished Henry Archdeacon of Hunt-
ington, whofe eight books, concluding with the reign of king
Stephen, were publiſhed by Sir Henry Savil. After Bede's
time he has many particulars out of the Saxon chronicle, which
had been omitted by our hiftorians before him. He acknow-
ledges, and very juftly, that his hiſtory is very confufed.
William of Newberry was fo called from a monaftery of that
name, whereof he was a member. His hiftory begins at the
death of Henry I. and ends in the year 1097, though he is faid.
to have been alive in the year 1120. He has with great keen-
nefs expoſed the fables of Jeffrey of Monmouth, for which he
is blamed by Leland.
f
1
}
The
LECT. XXVI.
201
H IS TO RY.
HISTO
The thirteenth century begins with Gervafe a monk of Can-
terbury, who is reported to have been a moft judicious anti-
quary, and methodical historian, and to have made an excellent
collection of the British and Engliſh hiſtory from the coming in
of the Trojans to the year 1200. All that is extant of his
works begins with the year 112, which was the twelfth year
of Henry I. and ends with the death of Richard I. It is faid
to be done with great judgment.
Cotemporary with theſe two, and as Nicholfon fays, as great
an hiſtorian as both of them joined together, was Roger de Hove-
den, who ſeems to have been chaplain for fome time to king
Henry II. He has deduced our hiſtory to the year of Chrift
1202, the fourth year of king John's reign.
The next hiſtorian of note is Ralph de Diceto, dean of London;
who wrote about the year 1210. He compoſed two treatiſes,
one called abbreviationes chronicorum, and the other Imagines bif-
toriarum. The former contains an abftract of our history, but
chiefly of church affairs, down to the conqueft. In the latter
he gives the hiftory of fome of our kings more at length, end-
ing with the firſt years of king John's reign. Selden is a great
admirer of this author and his works.
•
Soon after theſe writers appeared Matthew Paris, a monk of
St. Alban's, one of the most renowned hiftorians of this king-
dom. His hiftoria major contains the annals at large of eight
of our kings, from the beginning of the reign of William I. to
the conclufion of that of Henry III. From the year 1259,
in which this author died, to the death of king Henry III. it
was continued by William Rifhanger, a monk of the fame fra-
ternity. The whole book ſhows a great deal of candour and
exactneſs. It furniſhes us with ſo particular a relation of the
brave oppofition made by many of our princes to the ufurpations
Dd
of
202
PART IV.
LTE C TURES ON
•
of the pope, that it is a wonder how fuch an heretical history
came to furvive thus long. The fame author wrote an abftract
of the fore-mentioned book, to which he gave the title of chro
nica, and which Lambord firft called hiftoria minor. It con-
tains ſeveral particulars of note omitted in the larger hiftory.
The fairest copy of this book, fuppofed to be written by the
author's own hand, is in the king's library at St. James's.
The chronicle of Mailros, though its title may feem to rank it
among the records of another kingdom, may justly challenge a
place among our Engliſh hiftorians, fince it chiefly infifts upon
the affairs of this nation. The abbot, or prior, of Dundranard
in Galloway, a nurſery under Mailrofs, is thought to have been
the first compiler of this work; but it was afterwards continued
by feveral hands down to the year 1270.
71
The fourteenth century begins with Thomas Wikes. His
hiſtory begins at the conqueft and ends at the death of Henry I.
in the year 1304. The author was canon regular of Ofney near
Oxford, and writes as clearly and fully, eſpecially fome paffages
relating to the wars of the barons, as fo compendious a chro-
nicle as his is would allow him to do; his ftyle is elegant for
the times.
•
Nicholas Trivet, fon of Sir Thomas Trivet, Lord Chief Juf-
tice, was prior of a monaftery of Dominican friars in London,
where he was buried in the year 1328. His hiftory is in French,
and bears the title of Les geftes des apoftoiles, empereurs, e roïs, an
excellent copy. of it is in Merton college at Oxford.
Roger Ceftrenfis, who was a benedictine monk of St. Wer-
borges of Chefter, was Trivet's. cotemporary, and wrote a large
account of the affairs of this nation. His work he entitled
polychronicon temporum, and began it at the coming in of the
Romans. He continued it at first no farther than the year 1314,
:
but
LECT XXVI. VH là ở 1 0 R Y.
203
<but afterwards added a fupplement of fixteen years more. There
are many manuſcripts of this work in the Harleian library.
About the fame time, as Mr. Selden with probability con-
jectures, lived the author of that chronicle which goes by the
name of John Brompton, fometime abbot of Joreval in the
county of York, which begins with the coming in of Auguftin
the monk, in the year 528, and ends with the death of Richard
I. in the year 1198. This author is particularly valuable for
the collection, and verfion, which he has given us of the Saxon
laws, in Latin, made in the time of Edward III.
The chronicle of Walter Hemmingford, who flouriſhed in the
reign of Edward III. (whofe reign he has more largely defcribed)
begins in the year 1066, and ends with the year 1308. He
was a monk of Glaftonbury, a perfon of great induſtry, and a
very
learned man for the times in which he lived.
Ralph Higden, a monk of St. Werburgs in Chefter, wrote a
hiſtory which he ftyles polychronicon, compiled chiefly from the
writings of others, particularly from fome ancient chronicles
which are now wholly loft. He died very old, in the year
1377.
John, vicar of Tinmouth, and afterwards a monk of St. Alban's,
in the year 1366, was a great collector of Engliſh hiftories,
which he left digefted in three very large volumes, of which
there are now fair copies in the libraries at Oxford, Lambeth,
&c. They relate chiefly to the miracles of our Engliſh faints.
Matthew, a benedictine monk of Westminster, was a great col-
lector of former hiftorians, from which he is uſually ſtyled flori-
legus. His history ends at the year 1307, which it is not pro-
bable he long furvived. The most eminent of his continua-
tors was Adam Merimuth, canon regular of St. Paul's, and a
great civilian. He begins his work at 1302, and his firſt part
reaches
Dd2
204
PÁRT IV.
LECTURES
[
ON
•
reaches only to 1343, but the fecond continues the hiſtory to
the year 1380, in which it is probable he died.
Henry Knighton, one of the canons of Leiceſter, in this cen-
tury, wrote a chronicle of the events of England, as he ftyles it.
In his first books he gives us fome account of the Saxon and
Norman affairs, from the time of Edgar, who began his reign in
958 to William the Conqueror; and then he writes more largely
to the year 1395, which was the nineteenth year of Richard
II. in whoſe times he lived.
The fifteenth century was one of the moft rude and illiterate
ages. Among the few who were eminent for learning in it was
Sir John Froifart, fome time canon and treaſurer of Chimay in
the dioceſe of Liege. His work contains indeed a general hif-
tory of the affairs of France, Spain, and other parts of Europe;
but he chiefly infifts on thoſe of this nation, and particularly the
wars between the English and French from the year 1335 to
1400. This author was a Frenchman born, but was brought
up in the court of king Edward III. and many years was fa-
miliarly converfant in that of Richard II. His account of
things feems to be plain and honeft, and perhaps no perfon
gives a better account of the affairs of thofe two princes. He
wrote in his own native language, which in his time was the
court language in England.
Paffing by a ſet of very ordinary writers, the next hiftorian
worthy of our notice is Thomas Walfingham, a benedictine monk
of St. Alban's, and very probably regius profeffor of hiſtory in
that monaftery, about the year 1440. His short history begins
at the conclufion of Henry III.'s reign, where Matthew Paris
ends, and continues the hiftory to the end of Henry V. 'His Hypo-
digma Neuftria has a more particular regard to the affairs of Nor-
mandy, giving a full account of that dukedom, from the time
that
LECT. XXVI.
205
HISTORY.
that it firſt came into the hands of Rollo, down to the fixth
year of Henry V. in which are many occurrences not elsewhere
to be met with.
William Caxton, who was a menial fervant for thirty years to-
gether to Margaret duchefs of Burgundy (fifter to our king
Edward IV.) in Flanders, continued a hiftory begun by the
monks of St. Alban's, which commenced with the first inha-
biting this iſland, to the last year of Edward IV. 1483. The
whole work bears the title of fructus temporum. This author
had certainly a good opportunity of being acquainted with the
court tranſactions of his time.
John Rofs, with the account of whom we fhall clofe this
century, was a man of good parts and fingular induftry. He
travelled over the greateft part of England, and made large
collections out of the libraries where he came, relating to
the hiſtory and antiquities of this kingdom. His hiſtory of our
kings is ftill extant in the Cotton library, lately removed to the
British mufeum. It contains many collections illuftrating the
antiquities of our univerſities.
1
LEC-
206
LECTURES ON PART IV.
LECTURE XXVII.
Robert Fabian, Polidore Virgil, Edward Hall, Hollingshead,.
Stow, Speed, Baker, Clarendon,
Baker, Clarendon, Whitlocke, and Ludlow.
Burnet, Rapin, Hume, Robertfon. Parliamentary History.
Grey's Debates. Use of private Letters, Memorials, and
other Remains of Men in public Characters.
THE
HE firft writer worthy of our notice in the fixteenth
century is Robert Fabian, an eminent merchant, and
ſome time ſheriff of London, where he died in the year 1512.
His Hiftoriarum Concordantia confifts of ſeven parts, of which
the fix firft bring down the hiftory from Brutus to William
the Conqueror, and in the feventh he gives the hiftory of our
kings from the Conqueror to Henry VII. He is very par-
ticular in the affairs of London, many things concerning the
government of that great city being noted by him which are
not to be met with any where elfe. He mixes all along, the
French hiſtory with the English, but in different chapters.
In the beginning of the feventh part he obferves Higden's
method, of making his years commence at Michaelmas.
Polydore Virgil was the most accomplished writer, for ele-
gance and clearneſs of ſtyle, that this age afforded. He wrote
the hiſtory of our nation in Latin to Henry VIII. He was
much unacquainted with Engliſh affairs, but being a Catholic, he
gives a very unfair account of the reformation, and of the con-
duct of the Proteftants. His work however is neceffary to
ſupply a chaſm of almoſt ſeventy years in our hiſtory, including
particularly
LECT. XXVII.
207
HISTORY.
!
particularly the lives of Edward IV. and Edward V. which
period is hardly to be found in Latin in any other author.
Edward Hall, who was fome time recorder of London, where
he died in the year 1547, wrote a large account of the wars
between the houfes of York and Lancaster, which he dedicates.
to Henry VIII. If the reader defires to know what fort of
cloaths were worn in each king's reign, and how the faſhions
altered, this is the author for his purpoſe. In other refpects
his information is not very valuable.
The Chronicle written by William Harrison and Ralph
Hollingshead, two obfcure clergymen, was well received, and
is ftill greatly esteemed. Hollingshead frequently owns the
great affiftance he had from Francis Thynne, fome time Lan-
caſter herald, and an eminent antiquary in the reign of queen
Elizabeth. The fecond edition of this hiftory was continued
to the year 1586 by John Hooper, alias Vowel.
The firſt author we meet with in the feventeenth century
is John Stow. He was a member of the merchant taylors'
company in London. He travelled through a good part of
England in fearch after manufcript hiftorians, in the libra-
ries of our cathedral churches, and was very exact and critical
in his collections. Having spent above forty years in theſe
ftudies, he was put upon the correction and publishing of
Reyne Wolf's Chronicle by Archbiſhop Whitgift, and he had
fairly tranſcribed his work, and made it ready for the prefs,
when he died, in the year 1605. Upon his death the revifing
and continuation of his work was committed to Edward Hows,
who fays he beſtowed thirty years in bringing it into that good
order and method in which we now fee it.
The chronicle of John Speed is the largeſt and beft, fays
Mr. Nicholſon, that is extant. It begins with the first in-
habitants
208
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
habitants of the iſland, and ends with the union of the two
kingdoms under king James, to whom it is dedicated.
The chronicle of Richard Baker, who died in the Fleet in
the year 1644, met with very great fuccefs. The author himſelf
wrote the hiftory of our kings from the Romans down to the end
of the reign of James I. and it was continued to the reſtoration
by Edward Philip, who having the perufal of fome of the duke
of Albemarle's papers might have fet that great revolution in
its true light, had not ambition and flattery carried him beyond
the truth, and his copy.
In latter times we have had no want of hiftorians, at leaft
of compilers of history. The misfortune is that too many of
them have been misled by fome favourite hypothefis, which
they ſeem to have written to fupport. To pafs by therefore,
fuch writers as Sir Winston Churchill, Sandford, Brady, Tyr-
rel, Echard, Carte, and Guthrie, which are either faid to fall
under the former cenfure, or are too voluminous, or ill digeſted,
to be read with much pleaſure or improvement, 1 fhall give a
ſhort view of the more confiderable that remain.
Clarendon, who accompanied Charles II. in his exile, who
was afterwards his chancellor, and laft of all difcarded by him,
wrote a full and pretty faithful hiftory of the civil wars in the
reign of Charles I. But as he is thought to adhere too much
to the royal party, it will be neceffary for the reader to com-
pare his account of things with thoſe of Whitlocke and Lud-
low, who were of the oppofite party; of whom the one was a
zealous Preſbyterian and the other an Independent; and who,
on account of the rank and employments they bore under the
commonwealth, had no leſs advantage than Clarendon of being
well informed of what they wrote. Clarendon is the firſt
Englishman who feems to have attempted to write hiſtory with
4
any
LECT. XXVII.
209
HISTORY.
2
any degree of dignity; and confidering how bad a tafte for
compofition prevailed at this time, his fuccefs was confiderable.
But the length of his periods, and his long and frequent
parentheses are very tirefome.
Few writers have ever had a Letter opportunity of procuring
information than Bishop Burnet, and the history he has left us
of his own times is certainly a valuable work. But being a
zealous advocate for the houfes of Orange and Hanover, he is
charged with great partiality, and perhaps not wholly without
reaſon, by the party whofe principles he oppofed.
Of all the general hiftories of our nation till the revolution
none are ſo full, and fo impartial, as that written by Rapin, a
Frenchman, who came over with king William from Holland,
and after having ferved under him in Ireland, and travelled as
tutor to fome of our Engliſh nobility, retired again to Holland,
where he ſpent twenty years in the compofition of this excellent
hiftory. If this writer be thought tedious in fome parts of his
work, it is owing to his extreme care to omit no circumftance
of any important tranfaction, and to his fidelity in keeping
cloſe to his authorities. The notes of Tindal, who tranſlated
this work, are an uſeful fupplement to it, and a correction of it
in feveral places. The fame author has written a continuation
of Rapin to the reign of George II.
A more entertaining hiftory of the fame period, and much
fuperior in point of compofition, is that of Mr. Hume. For a
judicious choice of materials, and a happy difpofition of them,
together with perfpicuity of ſtyle in recording them, this writer
was hardly ever exceeded; efpecially in the latter part of his
work, which is by far the moſt elaborate. The earlier part
of his history is too fuperficial. He has endeavoured to
trace the progrefs of our conftitution, and has defcended
E e
more
210
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
more into the internal ſtate of the nation, in exhibiting a view
of the manners and fentiments of each age, the ftate of property
and perfonal fecurity, with the improvements in the con-
veniences of life, than moſt other writers; but he has reprefented
the ancient government as much more arbitrary than it really
was, as will appear by the much more accurate accounts of
Dr. Sullivan, and eſpecially Mr. Millar, whofe work on the
Engliſh conftitution. I cannot too ftrongly recommend. Some
great faults in Mr. Hume's hiſtory were well pointed out by
Dr. Towers. Mr. Hume is alfo thought by many to have
given too favourable an idea of the characters of our princes of
the Stewart family, by omitting to mention thoſe particulars
in their conduct which have been moſt objected to; and it was
probably with a view to exculpate them, that he has taken fo
much pains to give the colour that he has done to the preceding
periods of our hiftory. A good antidote to what is unfavour-
able to liberty in Mr. Hume will be found in the very mafterly
hiftory of Mrs. Macaulay. Though the ftyle of Mr. Hume is,.
upon the whole excellent, yet he has departed more than any
other writer of the prefent age from the true English idiom,.
and leaned more to that of the French +.
Dr. Robertfon's hiftory of Scotland throws great light upon
the reign of queen Elizabeth, and in point of compofition is
not inferior to Hume.
A valuable treaſure of materials for the conftitutional hiſtory
of England is contained in the parliamentary hiftory lately pub-
liſhed, and in the journals and debates in the houſe of Commons
+ This I pointed out in the Notes and obfervations, fubjoined to my English.
Gramn ar.
To a common friend he acknowledged the juftnefs of my remarks,
and promiſed to correct his ftyle in future editions of his work; and I believe he
has in a great meaſure done it,
ļ
by
LECT. XXVII.
211
HISTORY.
by various hands, among which thofe taken by Mr. Grey are
the most valuable; relating to the times before and after the
important period of the revolution.
It is in fuch large works as theſe, and the letters and
journals of eminent men, who had a confiderable ſhare in the
tranfactions of their times, as thofe of Melville, Henry Lord
Clarendon, and others, that we are tranfported as it were into
thoſe paſt times. Theſe give us an infight into the manners.
and turn of thinking, which prevailed in them, and bring us
intimately acquainted with the perſons who made the greateſt
figure in them. Hereby we are enabled to enter into their
fentiments and views, and have a clear idea of their peculiar
character, temper and manner. In fuch works as theſe the
men themſelves are ſeen acting and ſpeaking; whereas in general
hiſtory we are, at beft, only told how they ſpoke and acted,
which is a thing very different from the former. Of fuch
books as theſe there has been no want fince the introduction
of printing into England, particularly from the reign of Henry
VIII. fo that a very fatisfactory idea of our hiſtory from that
time may be had by any perfon who will take the requifite
pains for it.
E e 2
LECT.
212
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
!
LECTURE
XXVIII.
Hiftories of particular Lives and Reigns. Of William the Con-
queror by William of Poitiers. Of Edward II. by Thomas de
la More. Of Henry V. by Titus Livius. Of Edward IV.
by Haddington. Of Edward V. by Sir Thomas Moore. Of
Henry VII. by Sir Francis Bacon. Of Henry VIII. by Lord
Herbert of Cherbury. Edward VIth's own Diary. Of
Elizabeth by Camden. Lives written by Harris and others.
To
O the former writers of general history, or of the hiſtory of
their own times, we fhall find our account in adding thofe
who have confined themfelves to the hiftory of particular mo-
narchs; fince from thefe, if not manifeſtedly under fome preju-
dices, we may expect the fulleft and moſt fatisfactory accounts.
I fhall therefore fubjoin a brief account of the most valuable
writers of this clafs.
The life of William the Conqueror was written by William
ef Poitiers. Though he was a foreigner, and under fome
obligations to the king, he has acquited himself with great
impartiality. There is alfo a fhort anonymous hiftory of his
reign published by Silas Taylor at the end of his treatiſe of
Gavelkind. This writer lived in the reign of Henry I. fo that
he might be fufficiently informed of the truth of all that he
relates. But Sir William Temple has given us the moſt excel-
lent and judicious account of this king's reign and policy.
King Stephen's memoirs were collected by Richard Prior
of Hexham, and are printed among the decem fcriptores.
}
The
LECT. XXVIII.
213
HISTORY.
The hiſtory of Henry II. has of late been very elaborately
written by lord Littleton.
The expedition of Richard I. into the Holy Land was cele-
brated by Joseph Ifcanus, in a poem intitled Antiocheis. It is
in heroic verfe, and in a ftyle much fuperior to what might be
expected from his age. This author was one who accompanied
his hero into the Holy Land.
The life of Edward II. was accurately written by Sir Thomas
De la More, who was knighted by Edward I. was counſellor
of Edward II. and lived to the beginning of the more profperous
reign of Edward III. It was firft tranflated from French into.
Latin by Walter Baker, a canon of Ofney, near Oxford, and
has frequently been publiſhed in English. Sir Henry Cary
has alfo written the hiftory of this unfortunate prince, with
political obfervations on him, and his unhappy favourites
Gavefton and Spencer.
The life of Henry V. was written at large by one who
called himself Titus Livius, and under that name dedicated it to
king Henry VI. We have two good copies of this work, one in
Sir John Cotton's library, the other in that of Bennet College.
The life of Edward IV. has been written by Mr. Haddington,
as well as could be expected from one who lived at fo great a
diſtance from him.
The ſhort and lamentable hiftory of Edward V. was largely
and elegantly defcribed by the famous Sir Thomas Morè, lord
chancellor of England, who alfo began, but did not finiſh,
the hiſtory of Richard III.
The hiftory of Henry VII. has been written in an excellent
manner by Sir Francis Bacon. He has entered as it were into
all his councils, has largely defcribed every thing of importance,
and dwelt upon nothing trivial.
T'he
1.
214
LECTURES ON PART IV.
The hiftory of Henry VIII. has been written by Edward
Lord Herbert of Cherbury, with almoſt as much reputation
as lord chancellor Bacon gained by that of Henry VII. This
author, however, has dwelt chiefly on affairs of war and
policy, and has not entered far into the ecclefiaftical hiftory
of that reign, which is nevertheleſs the most important and
interefting.
The most confiderable tranfactions of the reign of Edward VI.
are well regiſtered by the young king himſelf, in the diary
written by his own hand, which is ftill preferved in the Cotton
library, from which Bishop Burnet tranfcribed and pub-
lifhed it.
The long and profperous reign of queen Elizabeth was writ-
ten by Mr. Camden, by the ſpecial direction and command of
lord Cecil. It has gone through ſeveral editions, and in ſeveral
languages, though it is pity, Nicholfon fays, it should be read
in any other than its author's polite original Latin. The fame
reign has likewiſe been written lately by Mr. Birch.
The hiftory of the laſt century has been very much illuſtrated
by ſeveral fingle lives lately publiſhed, particularly thofe of
James I. Charles I. and Oliver Cromwell, by Mr. Harris, in
the way of text and notes, after the manner of Boyle*.
As hiſtories of particular reigns and lives are continually multiplying, I leave
this lecture a ſhort one, to give room for an account of them.
1
LECT.
LECT. XXIX.
215
HISTORY.
!
!
LECTURE XXIX.
Light thrown upon the Civil Hiftory of England by the ecclefiafti-
cal Writers. Odericus Vitalis, &c. Burnet's Hiftory of the Re-
formation. Cranmer's Memorials published by Strype. An Ac-
quaintance with the old English Law-books useful to an English
Hiftorian. Cuftumier de Normandy. Glanville, Bracton, Fleta,
Hengham, Horn's Mirroir de Justice, Breton, Novæ Narra-
tiones, Fortescue de Laudibus legam Angliæ, Statham's Abridg-
ment of Reports, Littleton and Coke, Doctor and Student,
Fitzherbert de Natura Brevium. Year Books, Reports, &c.
Wood's Inflitute.
IN
N order to obtain a complete knowledge of the political
affairs of this nation, it will be neceffary to attend to the
Ecclefiaftical Hiftory of it; particularly as before and during
the reformation, the affairs of the church and ftate were fo
intimately united, that no writer can give a complete idea of
either of them feparately. Even thofe writers who confined
themſelves the moft to ecclefiaftical matters never fail to intro-
duce a good deal of political hiſtory. Thus Odericus Vitalis, who
wrote thirteen books of church hiſtory, in his firſt and ſecond
books treats pretty largely of the military actions of the Nor-
mans, in France, England, and Apulia, to the year 1141
about which time he lived.
Of ecclefiaftical hiftorians there has been no failure fince the
first introduction of chriftianity into this ifland, quite down to
the
216
PART IV,
LECTURES ON
3
the reformation. Of theſe fome have written general ecclefiaf-
tical hiftory, others the particular hiftories of certain bishoprics
and biſhops, of particular orders of monks and faints; but for
thefe I refer you to Nicholfon, who has treated very largely
of all the moft confiderable of them; it not being my bufi-
neſs to take notice of church hiſtory, any farther than it is ne-
ceffarily connected with civil. In this view, however, I must
not fail to mention Burnet's Hiftory of the Reformation. For
never were the affairs of church and ftate fo intimately con-
nected as during that period. This hiftorian gives us a parti-
cular account of all the affairs of the reformation, from its
first beginning in the reign of Henry VIII. till it was finally
fettled and completed by queen Elizabeth in the year 1559.
The collection of records which he gives in the conclufion of
each volume ſupplies good vouchers of the truth of all he ad-
vances in the body of his hiftory, and are much more perfect
than could reaſonably be expected, after the pains taken in
queen Mary's time to fupprefs every thing that carried the
marks of the reformation upon it.
The Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer have been publiſhed
by Mr. Strype, who has adhered to Burnet's method, giving his
own hiſtorical account in three books; the first of which ends
at the death of Henry VIII. the ſecond at the death of Edward
IV. and the third at that of Cranmer himſelf. In the conclu-
fion there is a good collection of records, among which are fe-
veral authentic letters, and other papers of value then firſt made
public.
Of all the books not directly hiſtorical, none are of ſuch im-
mediate ufe, for the moſt valuable purpoſes of hiftory, as LAW
Books. In theſe we may trace both the greater and more minute
changes
4
3
LECT. XXIX.
217
HISTORY.
changes in the internal conſtitution of the nation, with innu-
merable other important articles of which general hiftorians
take but little notice. I fhall therefore give a brief account of
all our most ancient law books, nearly in the order in which
they were written.
The first book of laws which draws our attention is that
which is entitled Couftumier de Normandy, and would do much
more fo, if it were, as fome have imagined, an ancient formulary
drawn up by the firft princes of that country, and brought in
hither by the conqueror. But though it contains many particu-
lars which prove it not to be of fo great antiquity, it would ſtill
be of confiderable value, if it were compiled, as the author him-
felf hints, forty years after the acceffion of king Richard.
There are in it many of the laws of Edward the Confeffor,
and other Saxon kings, but mixed with Norman cuſtoms
that are no way related to them. Though a great part of
this compilation is very ancient, feveral paragraphs are tranf-
lated almoft verbatim out of Glanville; yet fome of his courts
of juſtice, original writs, &c. are not fo much as named in it.
The next author is Rainulph de Glanville, who was chief justice
in the reign of Henry II. The book that now bears his name
(though there have been ſome diſputes about the author of it)
was firſt publiſhed by the perfuafion and procurement of Sir
William Stamford, and has fince had feveral editions. Its title
is Tractatus de legibus et Confuetudinibus Regni Anglia, &c. It is
divided into fourteen books, each of which relates to a diftinct
divifion of the law, as it ftood in his time; and in all theſe he
gives the forms of fuch writs as were then, and are moſtly ſtill
in ufe, upon all the feveral occafions that are treated of.
John Bracton, the author of a treatiſe which goes by his
name, was judge itinerant in the latter end of the reign of Henry
Ff.
III.
218
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
III. and the beginning of Edward I. This truly venerable
code of our ancient common law confifts of five books, which
begin with the feveral legal ways of procuring property, and
proceed to thoſe of the juft maintaining or recovering it. This
method is very conformable to that of the emperor Juſtinian,
whofe laws are alfo fometimes quoted as familiarly as if they
were part of the known common law of this kingdom. On
every head this author interfperfes a regiſter of proper writs, and
reports of adjudged cafes in both benches, as alfo of fuch as
had been tried before the judges in Eyre, affize, &c.
The author of that methodical and learned treatiſe which
bears the name of Fleta, wrote in the reign of one of the Ed-
wards, moſt probably the fecond or third. In his first book
he infifts chiefly upon the pleas of the crown, in the ſecond he
gives a moft full and curious account of all the affairs of the king's
houſhold, with many other particulars that greatly illuſtrate the
hiſtory of thoſe times; and in the four following he ſhews the
practice of our courts of judicature, the forms of writs, ex-
plication of law terms, &c. He fometimes tranfcribes the very
words of Bracton, and fometimes has the fame things that we
find in one of Bracton's epitomizers, Gilbert de Thornton.
The laſt mentioned writer modelled his abftract of the com-
mon law as he thought would be moſt uſeful in explaining acts
of parliament. He frequently quits Bracton's method, and
makes uſe of one which looks more confuſed.
Sir Ralph de Hengham was chief juſtice of the king's bench
and of the common pleas in the reign of Edward I. His
Summa's have always paft under the titles of Hingham Magna,
and parva, and have both the fame common fubject, treating of
the ancient and now obfolete forms of pleading in effoins and
defaults. They were long fince tranflated into English; but
that
LECT. XXIX:
219
HISTORY.
t
1
that being done in the language of Edward II.'s or III.'s time,
it was thought moft adviſeable to print them in their original
Latin. This was done by Mr. Selden, who publifhed them
with Fortescue, adding a few notes of his own in English.
Befides thefe, there were many more treatiſes on matters
of law, written in the time of Edward I. wherein the prac-
tice of the bar began firft to flourish; but not being much
conducive to the purpoſe of hiſtory, the mention of them is
omitted in this place.
were.
Andrew Horn, the author of the Mirroir de Justice, lived in
the reign of Edward II. His defign was to give the judges of
his time a view of what they ſhould have been, and what they
He frequently quotes the rolls of the Saxon times, and
even their very year books, which are now vanished; which hews
that we have loft many of our beft helps to the knowledge of the
hiſtory of thoſe ages. He pretends to have perufed all the laws
of this iſland ever fince the reign of king Arthur. The English
edition differs very much from the French, and yet the tranf-
lator pretends that he kept cloſe to the words and meaning of
his author.
That-excellent French manual of our laws which bears the
name of Briton, Mr. Nicholſon thinks was written by that
John Breton, whom, we find one of the king's juſtices together
with Ralph and Roger de Hengham, in the first year of Edward
II. Wingate's edition is juftly commended for the care and
judgment of the publisher; fuch various readings being added
in the appendix as ferve very much to fupply the defects of the
former impreffion. The language is the true old French of the
thirteenth century, as appears from the authentic inftruments
of thoſe days, and differs confiderably from that of Littleton in
the fifteenth. The whole book runs in the name and ftile of
Ff2
the
-
220
PART IV
LECTURES
ON
the king himſelf, as a fummary of all the laws then in force
within the kingdom of England and dominion of Ireland.
It is generally agreed that the art of pleading was brought to
its perfection in the reign of Edward III. when the little manual
of entries which bears the name of Nova Narrationes was
first collected and publiſhed. It gives us fuch forms of courts,
declarations, defenfors, pleas, &c. as were then in ufe. Tọ
which are added the articuli ad novas narrationes, being a com,
mentary or fome fhort rules upon them. But all theſe are few
and defective in compariſon with what we have in thoſe books
of entries which are the work of later times, the chief whereòf
are thoſe by William Raftal, Sir Edward Coke, and Sir Humphry
Winch.
Sir John Fortefcue was chief juftice of the king's bench
during half the reign of Henry VI. In his book, which is en-
titled De Laudibus Legum Anglia, and which is written by
way of dialogue between the prince and himſelf, he proves that
all kings are under obligation to be converfant in the laws of
their own realms; that our laws are not alterable at the fole
will of our monarchs; that our conftitution, or common law, is
the moſt reaſonable, as well as the most ancient in Europe, and
more equitable in many things, in which he inftances, than even
the civil law, or the laws of neighbouring nations, and that our
kings are greater and more potent in the liberties and proper-
ties of their own people, than arbitrary tyrants in the vaffalage
of their flaves. This book was firft tranflated and publiſhed,
together with its English verfion, by R. Mulcafter, and was af-
terwards reviſed and improved with a few curfory notes, by
Mr. Selden.
Nicholas Statham, one of the barons of the exchequer in the
time of Edward IV. was the first who reduced the larger ar-
3
guments
LECT. XXIX.
221
HISTORY.
guments and tedious reports of the year books into a ſhort
fyftem under proper heads and common places, which he did as
low as the reign of Henry VI. His example has been followed
by many other perfons.
Sir Thomas Littleton was one of the juftices of common
pleas in the reign of Edward IV. His book of Tenures is ſtudied
by every body who pretends to any acquaintance with the mu-
nicipal law of this kingdom, and has been more frequently
printed than any other law book whatever; though many
particulars of his common law are altered by acts of parlia-
ment, and others are difufed and grown obfolete. Sir Edward
Coke fays that this is the moft perfect and abfolute work that ever
was written in any human fcience. The first volume of Coke's
Inftitutes is only a tranflation and comment upon this book. Sir
Edward's Complete Copyholder, may alſo be read as a fecond
commentary on Littleton's tenures; and together with thefe, it
will be highly convenient to perufe Sir Henry Spelman's trea-
tife on the original growth, propagation, and condition of
lands and tenures by knight's fervice in England.
The dialogue in two parts, which goes by the name of the
Dector and Student, was written by one Chriftopher St. Ger-
main, barrister of the Inner Temple, who died in the year 1540.
The defign of the book was to enquire into the grounds and
reaſons of the common law of England, and to fhew how con-
ſiſtent every one of its precepts is with right reafon and a good
confcience.
Sir Anthony Fitzherbert was one of the justices of the com-
mon pleas in the reign of Henry VIII. and was author of the
New Natura brævium, which was carefully reviewed by William
Raftal, who added a table and fome other proper ornaments to
what its excellent author feems to have left unfinished.
There
222
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
There were ten volumes of the year books printed by fubfcrip-
tion in the year 1679. Theſe began with the reign of Edward
III. and ended with that of the reign of Henry VIII. To theſe
were afterwards added the caſes adjudged in the time of Edward
II. collected by Serjeant Mainard, out of feveral ancient manu-
fcripts.
Anciently judgments at the common law were recorded with
the reaſons and cauſes of ſuch judgments, and the cuſtom was
continued during the whole reign of Edward I. and a great
part of that of Edward II. But this cuftom ceafed in Edward
III.'s time, when caufes were numerous, and the practice of the
law was brought to its full perfection. Hence aroſe the trouble
of thoſe reporters of cafes, who from the beginning of that reign
have ſupplied the defects of the records, and not only afford,
us, as theſe do, the final determination of the judges in each
cafe, but alſo the intermediate reafonings and debates on which
fuch judgment was founded. The authors of theſe reports
are very numerous, and are daily increafing.
The preceding writers are neceffary to be ſtudied by a perſon
who would enter minutely into the ftate of the kingdom with
reſpect to thoſe things to which they relate; but a perfon may
underſtand our general hiftorians very well if he be mafter of
Blackstone's Commentaries, for the prefent ftate of the law, Sulli-
van's Lectures, and Dalrymple on feudal property, together with
ſome of Lord Kaim's law tracts, for the ancient ſtate of it, and
the capital changes it has undergone to the prefent time. Jacob's
Law Dictionary is likewife a very uſeful book to be confulted oc-
cafionally, in reading a courfe of English hiftory; as alfo Brady's
Gloffary, fubjoined to his Introduction to the old English Hif-
tory. But without fome knowledge of the English law, it can
be but a very lame and imperfect idea that any perſon can get of
the English hiftory.
4
LEC-
!
FLECT. XXX.
223
HISTORY.
E
LECTURE
XXX.
Of the English Records. Royal Proclamations. Difpatches and
Inftructions for Foreign Minifters. Leagues, Treaties, Memo-
rials, &c. where to be found. Records of the Old Court of Chi-
valry. Agard's Collections.
Cotton's Library. Records of
Foreign States. Rymer's Fadera.
Parliament. Raftal's Collection.
others. Journals of both Houses.
Dugdale. Records in the Courts of Westminster. Difpofition
of the Records in the Tower.
FRO
The Green Cloth. Acts of
Prynne's Abridgment, and
Summons of the Nobility in
·
ROM books and writings which have been publiſhed, I
proceed to give fome account of the various kinds of records
which our country affords, and which a diligent hiftorian may
greatly avail himself of. Of theſe records, fome or other
are daily publiſhed, but many are of fuch a nature that we
can never expect there will be any, other than fingle copies of
them extant; or at moft but a few copies of each. Theſe
therefore cannot be confulted without having recourfe to the
places where they are preferved, of which I fhall give the beſt
information I can collect from Nicholſon and other writers.
To preſerve as much diſtinctneſs as poffible in this account,
I ſhall firſt give an account of thoſe records which are preſerved
within the verge of the king's Court and Palace Royal; fe-
condly, of thoſe which relate to the two houſes of parliament,
thirdly, thoſe of the courts of Weſtminſter, &c. and laftly,
thoſe of an ecclefiaftical nature. Articles of lefs note will
be
224.
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
be introduced occafionally, where the mention of them will
appear the moſt natural.
The fociety of antiquaries projected by Sir Robert Cotton,
Mr. Camden, and others, took particular care to make it one of
the rules and ſtatutes of their community, that all the proclama-
tions of our kings and queens fhould be preferved in their
library. Theſe are the more valuable, becaufe general hiſto-
rians, although they take notice of what is commanded or pro-
hibited by royal authority, feldom give us the reafons of fuch
public edicts, which are always expreffed in the inftrument
itſelf, and are much more valuable than it, as they often con-
tain a good part of the hiftory of the times.
Charters, and letters patent, making grants of privileges,
offices, and penfions are at this day enrolled in chancery; but
as they formerly took their rife at the king's Court of Re-
fidence they are to be looked for in the paper office.
To diſtinguiſh thofe that are truly ancient and genuine from
fuch as are counterfeit, it will be requifite to be perfectly well
ſkilled in the feveral changes that have been made in the kings
feals and titles, of which Nicholfon gives a particular account.
For ancient and modern precedents of characters confult Shep-
herd's treatiſe of corporations, fraternities and gilds.
Occafional proclamations with all difpatches and inftruc-
tions for foreign minifters, letters of intelligence, and other
public papers which are communicated to the two fecretaries.
of ſtate, are tranfinitted to the paper office, wherein they are all
diſpoſed by way of library, in a place of good fecurity and
convenience within the king's Royal Palace at Whitehall.
There are like wife the credentials of ambaffadors, the letters of
foreign princes and ftates, leagues, treaties, memorials, &c. Of
what great ufe to any hiftorian a free access to this trea-
fure
LECT. XXX.
225
HISTORY.
fure may be, appears from Burnet's hiftory of the Reformation.
Beſides theſe affiftances, the inquifitive hiftorian will here find
a great variety of papers relating to the decrees and tranfactions
of feveral of our ancient as well as modern palace courts.
The court of chivalry has been long difcontinued, but fome of
its records that relate to the proceedings in the Marſhalfea are ſtill
in the Paper-office. There is however little in them to an hiftori-
an's purpoſe. What is moft confiderable in this rich treaſure is
the vaft collection we here meet with of memorials, inftructions,
plenipotentiary powers, granted in ſeveral reigns and on feveral
occafions to our ambaffadors and envoys, or papers of the like
kind preſented by the minifters of foreign princes and ſtates
refiding in England. That great light in hiftory may be had
from thefe is evident from Diggs's complete Ambaſſador, the
hiſtory of Sir Thomas Randolf's embaffy to the emperor of
Ruffia, and many other works.
In the Receipt-office in the Exchequer there is a fhort
collection of all leagues, treaties of peace, intercourfes and
marriages with foreign nations, compiled by the induftrious
antiquary Agard; but this falls infinitely fhort of that immenfe
ſtore which Sir John Cotton's library will afford of thefe mat-
ters. We have there no lefs than forty-three volumes of
treaties between the English, Scotch, and French, in a fair and
regular method, befides many more of the like kind in a more
looſe and difperfed condition.
H
Nor are the memoirs of our own ambaffadors only of great
uſe to an Engliſh hiftorian; thoſe of our neighbouring nations
are no lefs fo; thofe eſpecially with which this kingdom has'
maintained the greateft correfpondence in treaties of peace and
commerce; as France and Holland, from which countries we
are often obliged to fetch our information in fome articles,
concerning
G g
226
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
:
concerning which our own hiftorians afford us no fatisfaction.
The like may be faid of Denmark, Sweden, &c. whenever we
find our own affairs interwoven with thofe of other countries.
This want is in part fupplied by Rymer's Fœdera, an immenſe
work, undertaken by the command, and at the expence of queen
Anne. It contains not only finished treaties, but letters of
great princes, and their chief ministers of ſtate, inftructions to
ambaffadors, and other minifters refiding in foreign courts,
Papal bulls of all kinds, congé d'elires, and of reftitution of
temporalities, royal mandates to the clergy for commemorative
maſſes, faſts, and thankſgivings, &c. fculptures of ancient
hands and feals, and many other curious pieces of antiquity.
There is another repofitory of court records which is com-
monly known by the name of the green cloth. In this office
are not only preferved the accounts of the king's houfhold ex-
pences, but alſo fuch orders as have from time to time been
given by the lord ſteward, chamberlain, comptroller, &c. for
the more regular behaviour of the inferior fervants. There
likewife (and not in Chancery) were commonly inrolled all
letters and writings concerning fuch matters of ftate as were
not fit to be made public.
A collection of the laws before Magna Charta was made by
Sir Henry Spelman, and is now among the many choice manu-
fcripts in the Bodleian library.
Acts of parliament often give hints of the manners and cuf-
toms which prevailed at the time of their being enacted, fo
that many parts of our hiftory may be recovered from them;
eſpecially if compared with the writers either in divinity or
morality about the fame date. Thus the ftatute against the mul-
tiplication of metals fhows the attention which was given to
chemical experiments in order to diſcover the philofopher's.
4
ſtone ;
LECT. XXX.
227
HISTORY.
ftone; and Chaucer's tale of the cannon yeomen confirms the
fame fact.
The putting of marginal notes to the ftatutes at large was
first begun by William Raftal, who collected all in force from
Magna Charta to the fourth year of Philip and Mary. Theſe
collections have been carried on by different hands to the prefent
time. But fince theſe collections are in many refpects deficient,
the diligent hiſtorian will be obliged to have recourſe to the
original records.
Before the uſe of printing, and till the reign of Henry
VII. the ftatutes were all engroffed on parchment, and pro-
claimed openly in every county; but this cuftom has fince
been difcontinued. In theſe parliamentary rolls are many
decifions of difficult points in law, in which we have not only
the final reſolution and judgment of the court, but alſo the
reafons of it.
An exact abridgment of as many of the parliamentary records
as were to be had in the Tower of London, from the reign of
Edward II. to that of Richard III. was made by Sir Robert
Cotton, and publiſhed by William Prynne. There is a fair
tranſcript of thoſe from the first of Edward III. to the forty-
third of queen Elizabeth in the Cotton library, where there
are alſo two volumes of indexes to the Tower records.
The laſt fort of parliamentary records are the journals of the
lords and commons, wherein every vote that paffes is carefully
regiſtered by the clerks of the feveral houfes. A complete
journal of the tranfactions of both houfes, from the first of
Henry VIII. to the feventh of Edward VI. was drawn up by
Robert Boyer, and is now in the Cotton library; but the
fureft fountain is that of the original records themſelves in the
Tower and Parliament-office. Theſe journals have lately been
printed.
G g 2
Sir
228
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
Sir William Dugdale has given us a perfect copy of all the
fummons's of the nobility to all the great councils and parlia-
ments of this realm, from the forty-ninth of Henry III. to the
preſent times, wherein we likewife find the like mandates to
the clergy and commons.
3
The records of the king's courts at Weſtminſter are firſt
depofited in the chapel at the rolls, and as that grows full
and overstocked, they are removed to the Tower; where,
in two ſeveral apartments, they are methodically arranged
according to their various kinds and ufes. In Wakefield Tower
are the inrollments of leagues and treaties with foreign princes,
the original laws as they paffed the royal affent, authentic
memoirs of the English atchievements in France and other
nations, forms of homage from the kings of Scotland, the
eſtabliſhment and laws of Ireland, liberties, and privileges
granted to cities, corporations, and private ſubjects, tenures
and ſurveys of lands and manures, infpeximus's of charters and
deeds, made before and foon after the Norman conquest, boun-
daries of all the forefts in England, &c. In short, we have
here, according to the petition of the commons in parliament,
the perpetual evidence of every man's right, without which no
ſtory of the nation (to ufe Dr. Chamberlain's words) can be
written or proved. In Julius Cæfar's chapel in the White
Tower there is another vaft collection of records, out of which
the indefatigable William Prynne collected his four large
volumes. Any of theſe may be ſeen and perufed by thoſe who
have occafion to confult them, there being a perſon appointed
to attend for that purpoſe, eight hours every day in fummer,
and fix in winter.
In the records of the courts of King's-bench we are to look
for all judgments upon notorious treafons, breaches of the
peace, &c. as alfo for the like upon common pleas, by bill
for
}
LECT. XXXI.
229
HIST O'R Y...
for debt, covenant, promife, &c...againſt the immediate officers
of the King's court. The public records of this court, as well
as thoſe of the Common Pleas, preceding the first year of
Henry VI. are in the chapter-houſe of the church of Weſtmin-
fter; but thoſe of that year and downwards are kept in the
upper treaſury, adjoining' to Weſtminſter-hall; fuch only
excepted as are of daily uſe, and not above ten years old, which
are in the cuſtody of the clerks in the lower treaſury.
}
LECTURE
XXXI.
The petty Bag-office. The Master of the Rolls. Regiftrum de
Cancellaria. Lower Exchequer. The Pipe-office. The ſeveral
Remembrancers. Doomsday Book: The red Book of the Ex-
chequer. The black Book. Tefta Nevilli. Records of the
inferior Courts. Thofe kept by the Secretary of the Admiralty.
The Office of Ordnance. The Libraries and Mufeum's of Noble-
men and private Gentlemen. Use of the Britif Muſeum.
What Records have been published. Formulare Anglicanum:
Pedigrees of ancient Families. Old Accounts of Expences and
Difburſements in Families. Ledger Books, and other Domeftic
Records. Monafticum Anglicanum by Dugdale. Notitia Mo-
naftica by Tanner. Univerfity Monuments. Hiftoriola Ox-
onienfis. Wood's Hiftory and Antiquities of Oxford. Black
Book of Cambridge. Lives of English Writers by Leland and
others. Regifters in Ecclefiaftical Courts.
THE
=
HE records of that court of Chancery wherein the pro-
cefs runs fecundum legem et confuetudinem Anglia are filed
up in the petty bag-office. The chief clerk of this court is the
mafter
239
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
;
mafter of the Rolls. In his keeping are the inrollments of all
letters patent, treaties, and leagues, deeds, and purchaſes,
recognizances, commiffions of appeal, oyer and terminer, &c.
ever fince the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. the reft.
having been tranſmitted to the Tower. Moſt of the Chancery
records were deftroyed by the rebels under Wat Tyler in the
țime of Richard II.
There are feveral repofitories of the records belonging to the
high court of Chancery, all of which are under the immediate
care and inſpection of the mafter of the Rolls. First, In the
chapel of the Rolls, the oldeft record is a patent roll of Edward V.
thofe that bear any higher date being long fince depofited in
the Tower. Thofe of the following reigns to the end of queen
Elizabeth, and fomewhat lower, are ftill kept here in good
order. Secondly, The petty Bag-office firft receives the enroll-
ments of patents with the privy feals and eftreats from the fix
clerks, but is obliged to tranfmit the former to the chapel,
and the latter to the Exchequer; fo that nothing ancient is to
be looked for here. Thirdly, In the Examiner's-office are de-
pofitions of witneffes, from the beginning of the reign of
Edward VI. and fome few that are higher. Fourthly, The
moſt noble repofitory of the ancient records in Chancery is in
the Tower, under the ultimate infpection of the mafter of the
Rolls. The principal treaſuré under his charge lies in feveral
preffes within that part of the palace which bears the name of
Wakefield Tower. The contents of thefe are very large. A
general account of them in alphabetical order may be ſeen in
Nicholfon.
Another confiderable treaſure of records within the precincts
of the Tower of London, and under the fame inſpection with
the former, is in that part which is called Cafar's Chapel. There
is a large collection of proceedings in Chancery as high as the
times
LECT. XXXI.
231
HISTORY.
times of Henry IV. together with regular bills, anſwers and
depofitions, from the fift year of queen Elizabeth, privy feals,
manucaptions, &c. from the days of Edward I. and feveral
other particulars.
There is one famous monument of antiquity belonging to
this court which they call Regiftrum de Cancellaria, or the
regiſter of writs, containing the form of writs at the common
law. Theſe have often been printed.
In the hands of the two chamberlains of the lower Exchequer
there are many ancient records, leagues, and treaties with
foreign princes, ftandards of money, weights, and meaſures,
&c. There were anciently four feveral apartments wherein
the records of the Exchequer were kept, being all in the
cuftody and under the charge of the chamberlains of that court.
A particular account of thefe with their contents may be ſeen
in Nicholfon.
Of the other repofitories of exchequer records the principal
is the Pipe-office, wherein are kept the great rolls of the Exche-
quer, that is one bundle for every year, from the reign of king
Henry II. to the prefent time. In theſe are ſtated the accounts
of the royal revenue, whether certain or cafual. The moſt'
ancient récord in this office is that which bears the name of
king Stephen.:.:
: ni bail
There are alfo other offices belonging to this high court not to be
overlooked by an hiftorian, which are known by the name of their
ſeveral. remembrancers, as first, that of the Queen's Remembranèer..
ſecondly, of the Lord Treaſurer's Remembrancer; thirdly, the
Office of Pleas; and fourthly, the Office of Remembrancer of first
Fruits and Tenths. To thefe are to be added the Courts of Wards,-
the records of which now make part of the treafury of the
Queen's-
X
232
ON PARTIV.
LECTURES
Queen's-bench. There is alfo an apartment in the Exchequer
bears the name of the Augmentation-office. For the contents
of thefe I refer to Nicholfon..
Among all the ancient records in the Exchequer, Doomf
day book is defervedly of the greateſt reputation and value.
It is a tax book made by the commiffioners of William the
Conqueror, wherein is an exact ſurvey of all the cities, towns,
and villages in England. It does not only account for the
feveral baronies, knights fees, and plough lands, but gives
alfo the number of families, men, foldiers, hufbandmen, fer-
vants, and cattle; what rent, how much meadow, pafture,
woods, tillage, common heath, marsh, &c, every one poffeffed:
It is in two volumes, whereof the former gives a fuccinct de-
fcription of thirty-three counties, and the latter a fomewhat
larger account of Effex, Norfolk, and Suffolk. In the front
of each county ftands a lift of the lords of the foil; that is, the
king and a few of his nobles. Sir Henry Spelman, has given
us a fample of the book, but it is faid that the fociety of anti-
quaries are about undertaking the publication of the whole.
There is alſo in the keeping of the king's remembrancer a miſ-
cellany of ancient treaties, which go by the name of the red book,
of the Exchequer. It has fome things (as the number of the hides.
of land in many of our counties) relating to the times, before thei
conqueft, and the ceremonies ufed at the coronation of queen
Eleanor wife to king Henry III. There is likewiſe an exact›
collection of the efcuages under
king John.
Henry II. Richard I. and
}
}
鼎
​• The black book is fuppofed to have been compiled by Gervaſe of
Tilbury, nephew to king Henry II. In this we have the hiſtory
of the firſt inſtitution of the court of the king's Exchequer; the
11.
manner
4
LECT. XXXI.
233
HISTORY.
of
manner of ſtating the accounts of thofe times, and the way
collecting the rents, both in money and purveyances of victuals,
&c.
The great roll which bears the name of Tefta Nevilli was
compiled in the reign of Henry III. and contains an account of
all the lands held in grand or petty fergeantry within the county
of Hereford.
The Engliſh hiſtorian will alſo find his account in confulting
occaſionally the records of affize, feffions of the peace, and other
inferior courts in England, and in Wales. He ought alfo to
look into the navy office, and the abftracts of accounts, lifts of the
old and new ſhipping, from the feveral yards at Deptford,
Woolwich, Chatham, &c. all which may be ſeen in the cuſtody
of the ſecretary of the admiralty.
For a juſt eſtimate of the military force in England, there are
feveral repofitories of papers and rolls, with which an hiftorian
fhould be acquainted. But above all the office of ordnance will
afford him the beſt acquaintance with the provifions of war.
All orders and inftructions for the government of this office, as
likewiſe all patents, and grants to the many officers, arti-
ficers, attendants, and labourers, with the quarter books for
falaries, ledgers, receipts, and returns of his majeſty's ſtores, &c.
are in the cuftody of the clerk of the ordnance; as thofe for the
giving out of any provifions, or ftores, either at the Tower or
any other of the king's magazines, are under the care of the clerk
of the delivery.
To underſtand the hiftory of our trade and commerce, it will
be neceffary to confult the accounts of exports and imports of all
our fea ports; with the amount of the duties paid for them,
which will be found with the officers who have the inſpection
Hh
of
234
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
of the excife and cuftoms, and alfo in the journals of the Houſe
of Commons.
The libraries and mufeums of many noblemen and private
gentlemen are able to afford a good fupply of materials to an
hiſtorian who can procure intelligence of them, and have acceſs
to them. And fince the opening of the British Muſeum many
perfons are daily contributing to that immenfe and valuable col-
lection, by fending ancient writings and manufcripts; which are
much more uſeful when they are thus made the property of the
public, than they could be while they were in their own private
cuſtody.
A great number of conveyances, deeds, and other papers and
records, in the hands of private ſubjects, were deftroyed in the civil
wars; but the fubverfion of monafteries deſtroyed the greateſt
number of thofe ufeful materials for hiftory; fince many of the
moft confiderable English families had committed their moft
valuable writings to the cuftody of the monks, in whofe hands
they thought them fafer than at home. The fmall ſcraps of
parchment and of paper, on which they were commonly written,
were more liable to be loft than the more bulky inſtruments
of our days.
Many collections of theſe private records have been publiſhed.
Particularly we have a very valuable and judicious collection
of contracts, grants, and other evidences gathered chiefly out of
the augmentation office by Mr. Maddox, who has placed them
in a methodical order, and afcertained the age of every fingle
inftrument, from the Norman conqueft to the end of the reign
of Henry VIII. under the title of Formulare Anglicanum. The
general heads of this work are certificates, confirmations, com-
pofitions, feoffments, letters of attorney, releaſes, wills, &c.
the
LECT. XXXI.
235
HISTORY.
the greatest part of which are certainly genuine; and notice is
given when there feems to be reafon for fufpecting any of them.
Had pedigrees been carefully preferved in all the great fa-
milies in England, they would have been of excellent fervice to
an hiftorian, fince the most remarkable circumftances in the
lives of eminent perfons are uſually recorded in them. But few
of thefe pedigrees are to be met with.
Old accounts of expences and difburfements in the families
of noblemen and perfons of quality will be of fingular uſe to an
hiftorian, who cannot but be fenfible of what importance it is to
take notice of the prices of food, cloaths, and other conveniences
of life, the wages of fervants, and day-labours, &c.
It is needleſs to obferve what advantage may accrue to hiſtory
from the epiftolary correspondence, and private journals, of eminent
ſtateſmen, as alſo from the lives of fuch perfons, in which the
moſt important part of the hiftory of their times is neceffarily
introduced.
The ufe of the ledger-books, and other monaftic records is
very apparent. The moſt eminent of our hiſtorians are greatly
indebted to them. Hence they are enabled to clear the deſcents
and pedigrees of many noble families, the tenures of eſtates, the
ancient cuſtoms of counties, cities, and great towns, the founda-
tions and endowments of churches, &c. For how ſparing
or defective foever the monks might be in recording the
public affairs of ftate, we are fure they were extremely dili-
gent in noting thoſe of their own monafteries; whence it
is, that the hiftories of thoſe cathedrals which were an-
ciently in their poffeffion are the most entire of any in the
kingdom.
Hh z
The
236
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
The greateſt treaſure of this kind of ecclefiaftical records is
contained in the famous Monafticon Anglicanum, publiſhed in three
volumes folio by Sir William Dugdale, and Mr. Dodsworth.
Great are the advantages which all branches of our hiftory,
both ecclefiaftical and civil, will derive from this work; and
there is hardly a private family of any confideration in the king-
dom but will here meet with fomething of its genealogy and
pedigree. They are moft fcrupulouſly exact in tranfcribing the
ancient records; fo that the bad Latin, barbarous expreffions,
and other deformities of the monkiſh ſtyle, are to be reckoned
beauties in them.
Tanner's Notitia Monaftica is a valuable addition to the Mo-
nafticon. It not only contains a ſhort hiſtory of the foundation
and chief revolutions of all our religious houfes, but prefents, us
with a catalogue of ſuch writers (noting the places where we may
find them) as will abundantly furniſh us with ſuch farther par-
ticulars as we may have occafion for.
Our two univerſities furniſh ſeveral records worthy to be con-
fulted by our hiftorians. There are no less than twenty-one
volumes relating to the antiquities of the univerfity of Oxford,
as charters, orders, ftatutes, decrees, letters, &c. all in manu-
fcript. Of thoſe which have been printed, the Hiftoriola Oxo-
nenfis is reckoned the moſt authentic. It is only a ſhort frag-
ment of a ſingle page in octavo, wherein we are told that the
Britons began, an univerſity at Grekelade,, which the Saxons re-
moved to Oxford. Anthony Wood has publiſhed a valuable.
work under the title of The History and antiquities of the Univer-
fity of Oxford..
:
The black book of Cambridge makes as confiderable a figure
there as any of the old ftatute books can do at Oxford, and it
has
}
LECT. XXXI.
237
HISTORY.
1
has alſo its hiftoriola, which is equal both for matter and autho-
rity to the other. The whole volume is a collection of ancient
charters and privileges.
The lives of English writers have been written by John Bof-
ton, John Leland, J. Pitts, A. Wood, and John Tanner, all
proper to be confulted by an English hiftorian. For the cha-
racter of theſe works, I refer to Nicholſon.
The regiſters of ecclefiaftical courts can be but of little uſe
to a writer of civil hiſtory, eſpecially fince the reformation. It
may not, however, be improper to obſerve that regiſters in
churches, of marriages, chriftenings, and burials, were firſt ap-
pointed to be kept in the year 1538, juſt upon the diffolution
of the monafteries.. Theſe have been of ſome uſe, and might
be of more if care were taken to regiſter other remarkable oc-
currences relating to the public concerns of the feveral pariſhes.
(.
LEC-
238
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
LECTURE XXXII.
Hiftorians of other Nations. Where Accounts of them are to be
looked for.
What fufficient for an Englishman. Henault's
Hiftory of France. Use of the Univerfal History, Thuanus,
Guicciardini, Davila, Voltaire. Lives. Voyages and Travels.
Suites of Hiftories.
H
AVING treated fo largely of the hiſtory of our own
nation, I fhall refer you to fuch writers as Wheare and
Rawlinfon for the hiftorians of other particular countries. In-
deed, confidering the time it will neceffarily require to get toler-
ably well acquainted with the hiftory of our own country (which
it is certainly of the most importance for us to be acquainted
with) it will be quite fufficient for any perfon, let him have
ever ſo much leiſure for hiſtorical purſuits, to take the hiſto-
ries of other countries from compilers of the beſt repute; and
even, of theſe, the moſt voluminous may very well be dif-
penſed with. Engliſhmen, in general, for inftance, hardly need
to defire a better acquaintance with the hiſtory of France than the
abridgment of Henault will fupply them with. It were greatly
to be wished that the hiftories of other nations were drawn up
in the fame compendious manner, and with the fame judgment.
We ſhould then have, as we may call it, the marrow of hiſtory
difencumbered of that load of fuperfluous matter, which makes
the reading of hiftory as it is generally written, extremely tire-
ſome and diſguſting. But if a perfon be poffeffed of the Univer-
fal Hiſtory, he will generally have it in his power to inform
himſelf
4
LECT. XXXII.
239
HISTORY.
himſelf of as much of the hiſtory of any foreign country or
people, as he can have occafion for, or defire.
There are ſome particular hiſtories, however, which are fo
excellently written, and the ſubjects of which are ſo generally
intereſting, that though little notice be taken of the affairs of
our own country in them, no perfon of a liberal education ought
to be unacquainted with them. The principal of theſe are,
Thuanus's hiſtory of his own times, a work almoſt equal to any
production of the claffical ages. Guicciardini's hiſtory of Italy,
Davila's of the civil wars in France, Bentivoglio's of thofe of
the Netherlands, and Giannone's hiftory of Naples. The firſt of
theſe was written originally in Latin, and the four laſt in
Italian.
No writer whatever can excel Vertot in the happy art of
making hiſtory entertaining; but it is generally thought that he
has facrificed more than he ought to the graces.
Voltaire's general hiſtory confifts of little more than obſerva-
tions on a courſe of hiftory. In general they are certainly juft,
and, to a perſon who is previously acquainted with the hiftories
to which his obſervations are adapted, nothing can be more
entertaining; and to this his lively manner of writing not a little
contributes.
But though the title of his work promiſes a compendious.
view of univerſal hiſtory, and therefore might feem to be in-
tended for perſons who are beginning the ſtudy of hiſtory, it
would be wholly unintelligible without a previous acquaintance
with the ſubject; not to ſay that it requires a good ſtock of
general knowledge to guard the mind againſt his prejudices,
and the errors into which his writings in general would in many
refpects betray his readers.
{
Time
24.0
PART IV.
LECTURES ON
}
Time is continually producing other hiftorical productions of
great excellence, with which, as they gain the attention of gen-
tleman and ſcholars, it will become all readers of hiftory to
make themſelves acquainted. The recommendation of theſe
muſt be left to the lecturer of the day.
Befides more general hiſtories, many fingle lives are fo well
written, and are fo peculiarly intereſting and inſtructive, that they
force an almoſt univerſal attention; as that of Sixtus V. by Leti,
that of Gustavus Adolphus by Hart, and many others. Voyages and
Travels are alfo works of an hiftorical nature that are univerfally
pleafing, and of thofe every year never fails to produce ſeveral
that give the moſt valuable information, and convey it in the
moſt pleaſing manner. The moſt generally intereſting are the
the voyages of the circumnavigators, as that of Lord Anfon, and
eſpecially the late ones conducted by Captain Cook.
It is a particular fatisfaction, after reading a diſtinct and in-
terefting hiſtory of any particular period, to find another hif
torian whofe account fhall begin about the fame time that the
preceding leaves off. I fhall mention two courfes of this kind
which I have perufed with much fatisfaction.
Philip De Comines, a ferious and excellent hiftorian, has
left fuch an account of the affairs of Charles the Bold, duke
of Burgundy, and of Lewis XI. of France, together with many
particulars of Edward IV. of England, as is in the higheſt de-
gree intereſting and improving. Had I the education of a prince,
he fhould get many parts of this hiftory almoft by heart. It
ends with the famous expedition of Charles VIII. into Italy, and
with this expedition the hiftory of Guicciardini, another very
exact and copious hiftorian begins, and where he ends, viz. a
little after the year 1530, the ftill more celebrated, and more
general history of Thuanus commences, ending near the death of
5
Henry
}
LECT. XXXII.
241
HISTORY.
Henry IV, of France; including the civil wars of that country,
every thing that is intereſting on the theatre of Europe, and even
in the more diſtant parts of the world, for the ſpace of about
half a century, comprizing events of the greateſt magnitude and
importance.
If a perſon cannot read Latin, or French (in which there is
a good tranflation of Thuanus) he may, after Guicciardini, take
up the hiſtory of Charles V. by Robertſon, and with much fa-
tisfaction read that work, and after it the hiftories of Philip II.
and III. by Dr. Watſon.
A method of making history particularly interefting and
uſeful, is to make the object of it fome particular perfon of dif-
tinguiſhed eminence, whoſe hiſtory has a connexion with al-
most every thing of importance in the age in which he lived;
and in writing his hiftory to omit no tranfaction of any mo-
ment. Such a work is the Memoirs of Petrarch in three yo-
lumes quarto, which I have read feveral times with fingular
fatisfaction. This work gives a diſtinct view of the most im-
portant affairs of Europe for the ſpace of near feventy years,
ending A.D. 1374, and including almoft the whole period of the
refidence of the popes at Avignon. As very little is faid
in this work of the civil tranfactions of France or England
during the reign of Edward III. the defect may be fupplied
from Froiffart, whofe manner of writing is very natural and
pleafing, reſembling that of Philip de Comines; and in a
feries it may with great propriety be read immediately before
that work, though there is an interval of near half a century
between them, which muſt be ſupplied from other hiſtories.
Immediately after the time of Petrarch was the grand fchifm,
the hiftory of which is largely written by L'Enfant, in his
Hiftory of the Councils, of Pifa, and Conftance; which to perfons
I i
who
242
ON PART IV.
LECTURES
·
who do not diflike church history will be very interefting; and
after this he may read in the fame author, the hiftory of the
Council of Bafil, which will bring him to about the time of
Philip de Comines.
If a perfon finds himſelf intereſted in theſe hiftories of coun-
cils (which indeed comprize almost every tranfaction of import-
ance, civil as well as ecclefiaftical, in the period of which they
treat) he will have equal fatisfaction and advantage in reading
Father Paul's History of the Council of Trent, a work of extraor-
dinary merit in its kind, eſpecially in the French tranflation
with notes by Courrayer.
It would by highly intereſting to find a feries of the lives of
great men which might, in fucceffion, and without interruption,
carry us down the ſtream of time till we come to the period of
our own recollection. As Mr. Berington has begun in fo early
a period as the life of Abelard, and has written it in a manner
that makes it highly interefting, I cannot help wiſhing that we
had other works of a fimilar conftruction, to bring us from
thence to the age of Petrarch.
Voyages have lefs connexion with each other than hiftories of
tranfactions by land, but thoſe of great confequence have often
fome relation to each other, and therefore are read with particu-
lar fatisfaction, in fucceffion, as in the collection of Harris, and
others. The voyages of Captain Cook, which will always
make, a moſt intereſting period in the hiftory of navigation,
will clofe this lift with great advantage. There are few
voyages the objects of which were fo great, and none that were
fo ably and fuccefsfully conducted; and they have every ad-
vantage of illuſtration by means of maps and cuts..
}
PART
LECT. XXXIII. HISTORY,
243
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Different Objects to different Perfons. An acquaintance with the
Hiſtory of our own Country.useful to Perfons in all Ranks of
Life. Peculiar Ufe of Biography. Biographia Britannica,
¡¡¡and other Biographical. Writings. We ought particularly to
attend to the Connexion of Cause and Effect in all the Changes
of human Affairs. What prejudices to be more particularly
guarded against. Afcribing too much, or too little to general, or
particular Cauſes; too many, or too few Cauſes. Inconveniences
of both..
WE
E are now advanced to the laſt divifion of our ſubject,
namely, to point out the most proper objects of attention,
either to an hiftorian, or a reader of hiftory, that is to direct a
perſon to thoſe parts of hiſtory which will moſt tend to form
his judgment and direct his conduct; which was one of the
ufes which history was shown to anſwer in the beginning of this
courſe, and the only one with which we have any concern at
Ii2
prefent.
244
PART V.
LÈCTURES ON
prefent. What objects thofe are that amufe the imagination,
and intereft the paffions, are confidered in another courſe of
lectures, viz. that on philofophical criticifm.
Since there is an infidite variety in the bufinefs of human
life, different claffes of men require different kinds of infor-
mation, according to their different ftations in life. It were
vain, therefore, to preferibe one fcope, or view, to every hif-
torian. He may, if he pleafes, write for one clafs of men
only, and therefore, with great propriety and advantage, întro-
duce that kind of information only which is peculiarly adapted
to them; or, writing for the uſe of mankind in general, con-
fifting both of the fpeculative and practical part of them, he
may compoſe a hiftory of fuch materials as promiſe to be of the
moft general üſe; containing maxims and examples both for
the direction of the more active part of mankind, and alfo the
moft rational entertainment for the fcholar and the gentleman.
With respect to a reader of hiſtory, it is obvious to remark,
in the first place, as has been mentioned more than once already,
that every perſon will beft find his account in ſtudying the
hiſtory of his own country, or profeffion, and that both in a
ſpeculative and practical view.
If a perfon be called to bear an active part in the tranfactions
of his country, either by prefiding in its councils, directing its
force, or performing any thing which will probably enter into
the hiftory of his 'country; as his particular conduct is only
a part, and a continuation, of a feries of councils, and a train of
exploits, which began before he was born, all the parts of which
are ſtrictly connected in an infinite variety of ways, no fuc-
ceeding part, fuch as he is acting, can be well conducted
without a regard to the preceding. For inftance, how ill-
qualified would a general be to conduct a future war againft
France
4
LECT. XXXIII.
245
HISTORY.
:
France who was unacquainted with the conduct of the laſt war;
when every new expedition and ftratagem would neceffarily
have fome kind of reference to, or be guided by, a former
expedition or stratagem. But the laft war could not be
thoroughly underſtood without fome knowledge of thoſe pre-
ceding it. In the fame manner we may argue the neceffity of,
at leaſt, a general knowledge of the whole of the Engliſh hiſtory
to every Engliſh commander.
But the knowledge of hiſtory is ftill more neceffary to a
miniſter of ſtate. For every treaty that is made with
any nation,
and every meaſure that is taken with reſpect to it, muſt neceffarily
be adapted to the preceding tranfactions of every kind with
that nation.
An intimate acquaintance with the hiftory of our country
is no lefs neceffary to every perfon who is concerned in the
enacting or in the adminiſtration of our laws. The conduct of
a divine too, whether of the eſtabliſhment, or a non-conformist,
fhould, in many particulars, be directed by a knowledge of the
hiſtory of our country, both ecclefiaftical and civil; and the
like is neceffary, or uſeful, in a greater or leſs degree, to every
inhabitant of the country. Befides, what more inviting ſubject
of contemplation can a reclufe perfon make choice of, than
to trace the revolutions in church and ſtate which his own
country has undergone, to enter into the caufes of them, and
ſee the manner of their operation.
If a perfon read hiſtory for real uſe, and the direction of his
conduct in his own profeffion, biography will anfwer his purpoſe
more effectually than general hiftory. Lives have been pub-
lifhed of particular perfons of every ſtation and profeffion,
princes, generals, ftatefmen, divines, philofophers, and even
artiſts of every kind, which are of excellent ufe to inſpire a
fpirit
246
PART V
LECTURESI ON
1
ſpirit of emulation in perfons of the fame ſtation and pro-
feffion. Thoſe in the Biographia Britannica are excellently
adapted to this purpofe, but the General Biographical Dic
tionary, though exceedingly useful, will not completely anfwer
this end. The accountsuit contains of the perfons whoſe
lives are introduced into it are too concife: And we cannot
become fufficiently intereſted in any character, fo as to have
our emulation and other generous paffions excited by it, unleſs
we have an opportunity of ſeeing it in a variety of lights, and
thereby forming a pretty particular and intimate acquaintance
with it.
},
;
A ſhort defcription in a few words. (fuch as is given of great
men in many general hiftories) is not fufficient to give a clear
idea of a character. It muſt be dwelt upon a confiderable time
before it can affect the imagination, and intereſt the paffions.
Indeed, this effect cannot be produced by any general and abſtract
deſcription whatever. Thoſe characters only affect the imagi-
nation, and intereft the paffions, which we form to ourſelves
from the repreſentation of a detail of actions, and a courfe of
.conduct of fome extent.?}=%
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It is almoſt needlefs to obferve (though it be of the utmoſt
importance to attend to it) that in propofing to ourſelves the
imitation of any perfon or action, we should take care that the
circumſtances of the two cafes be perfectly alike. Otherwife a
fimilar conduct will have very different confequences. Yet the
circumſtances of human conduct are fo various, and changes
are fo imperceptible' in a courfe of time, that men of the
greateſt fagacity are often deceived by fimilar appearances, and
betrayed by them into great abfurdities in their conduct. Thus
pope Paul V. in the year 1606, thought to imitate Gregory
VII. in laying the whole ſtate of Venice under an interdict.
1
*
:
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​But
LECT: XXXIII. . H HISTORY;
247
But time had greatly leffened the terror of papal menaces. The
Venetians prohibited the reading of the mandate...
Secondly, if we read hiftory-like philofophers, we muſt
principally attend to the connexion of cause and effect, in all the
great changes of human affairs. We ought never to be fatisfied
with barely knowing an event, but endeavour to trace all the
circumſtances in the fituation of things, which contributed
either to produce, or facilitate; to haften, or to retard it, and
clearly ſee the manner of their operation; by which we ſhall
be better able to form a judgment of the ſtate of political affairs
in future time, and take our meafures with greater wifdom, and
a more reaſonable profpect of fuccefs.
Thus a perſon who confines himſelf ſtrictly to natural hiſtory
contents himſelf with giving a faithful account of the appear-
ances of nature; but a philofopher employs himſelf in obſerving
the analogies of thefe appearances, in order to difcover the
general laws of nature, and, produce future appearances from
known preceding circumſtances.i
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In this cafe alfo the political philofopher has the fame preju
dices to guard againſt that phifofophers in general have;
particularly the two extremes of fimplicity and refinement,
Some, not confidering the vaft variety there, is in the fprings of
human conduct,, are never induced to go beyond one-obvious
reaſon of a great event.. Others again affign fo many; reafons
for the rife and fall of ftates, that we are fo far from wondering
that they rofe fo early, or fell fo foon as they did, that we
cannot help being furpriſed that they rofe no earlier, higher,,95
fafter, and that they fell no lower,: or fooner, than they did.
When hiftorians, like Mr. Hume, affign a great number of
reafons for every political meaſure, there is this advantage in it,
that though it be highly improbable that all of them ſhould
have
5.
248
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
2
have been actually thought of at the time, yet, of fo many,
fome would probably have been attended to, and have had real
weight with the perfons concerned; and the reader in this cafe
may chuſe what reaſons he thinks did moft probably contribute
to bring about the event. This method is certainly fairer and
better then pronouncing dogmatically that this or the other
circumftance was the true caufe of the event, when it could
not have produced it fingly, though its operation was neceffary;
or when it was the laft in operation of a train which gave birth
to the event, and in refpect of which it was no more than a
fecondary cauſe, and therefore not fo deferving of notice as the
primary cauſe.
I ſhall endeavour to make myſelf underſtood by a few ex-
amples of the principal of theſe cafes. Montefquieu is one
of the moſt excellent of all political writers, but his lively
manner of expreffion is very apt to lead his readers into mif-
takes, if they do not make uſe of ſome parts of his works
to explain others. Thus it is too peremptory to fay, as he
does, that the blood of Lucretia put an end to kingly power
at Rome; that the debtor appearing covered with wounds
made a change in the form of the republic; that the fight of
Virginia put an end to the power of the Decemvirs, and that
the fight of the robe and body of Cæfar enflaved Rome. This
is certainly afcribing too much to spectacles, without telling us
what was the reaſon why ſuch ſpectacles, in thoſe particular
circumſtances, had fo much influence. For, as he himſelf
excellently obſerves, if a particular event, as the lofs of a
battle, be the ruin of a ftate, there must have been a more
general reaſon, why the lofs of a battle would ruin it. The
fame remark may be applied here.
•
Bollingbroke
LECT. XXXIII.
249
HISTORY.
Bolingbroke excellently fhows, in a familiar and ſtriking
inftance, that we muſt endeavour to look farther than the neareſt
cauſe in politics. The miſery of England, he ſays, under
James II. was owing to his bigotry, that to the exile of the
royal family, that to the ufurpation of Cromwell, that to the
civil wars, and that to oppreffion.
But
Writers who, with ſo poſitive an air, affect to afcribe the
greatest events to fingle caufes are very apt to ſeem to contradict
themſelves when, in feparate parts of their works, they have
occafion to ſpeak of two or more caufes which were equally
neceffary to the event. Thus Montesquieu fays in one place,
that whatever Charles II. of England meant, certain it is that
his conduct eſtabliſhed the fuperiority of France in Europe; in
another place, that a numerous nobility without eſtates has
been a great cauſe of the grandeur and power of France.
in other places he very justly affigns other reaſons for the
amazing increaſe of the French power. And though in the
paffage quoted above, he feems to afcribe too much to mere
fpectacles, in the revolutions of the Roman ftate; yet in his
treatiſe on the rife and fall of the empire, he gives a moſt
judicious detail of many cauſes which concurred to produce
thofe events. Indeed, many circumſtances are really neceffary
to almoft: every event; and, as was obſerved in a former part
of this courfe, it is very useful to reflect on what minute
incidents the greateſt events do often abfolutely depend, not-
withſtanding the acknowledged influence of general caufes. 1
ſhall juſt add a few more examples of this kind here to thoſe
mentioned in another view before.
Mr. Hume obferves that pope Clement would probably have
confented to the divorce of Henry VIII. and confequently that
the reformation would have been prevented from taking place
K k
in
250
PART VZ
LECTURES ON
ON.
in England, at leaſt at that time, and in that manner, if a
perfon who carried a particular, letter from Henry to the pope
had not been detained by an unforeſeen accident beyond the
day appointed. Voltaire fomewhere fays, that a ſtone thrown a
little harder, in a battle in which Mahomet was tunned with
a blow from one, would have given a different turn to the
hiſtory of all the caft; and that a pair of gloves of a particular
fashion, which the duchefs of Marlborough refufed queen Ann,
and a glaſs of water which, by an affected mistake, fhe let fall in
her prefence upon lady Mafham's gown, changed the face of
affairs in Europe. And it is certain, notwithſtanding all the
folid reaſons which are given for the rife of the French, and the
declenfion of the Spaniſh power after the diſcovery of America,
that had Henry IV. Richlieu, and Lewis XIV. been Spaniards,
and Philip II. and his fucceffors been French, the hiftory of
thoſe two nations, as Mr. Hume fays, would have been entirely
reverſed.
66
Voltaire, juftly ridiculing the manner in which fome poli-
ticians reafon after events, fays, that "if Germany in the time
fucceeding Charles V. had fallen to decay; had the Turks
"invaded one part of it; and had the other called in foreign
"maſters, politicians would not have failed to declare, that
"Germany, already torn in pieces by inteftine divifions, could
not have ſubſiſted any longer; and would have demonſtrated
"from the peculiar form of its government, that the great
"number of its princes, and a plurality of religions, had
neceffarily prepared the way for its ruin and inevitable flavery.
"And, indeed,” he adds, "as far as human forefight could
*༩
"reach, the caufes of the decline of the Roman empire were
"not fo obvious."
An
LECT. XXXIII.
251
H
ISTORY.
An opinion of the profound policy of particular perfons is
often the occafion of great miſtakes with reſpect to the cauſes
of important events. How many extravagant things are aſcribed
to the intelligence and fchemes of Cromwell; and how abfurd
is the opinion which was common in France, that Richlieu was
the only perſon who cauſed Guftavus the Great to turn his
arms against Germany.
It is very poffible that the affairs of empires are in fact
conducted with no deeper policy, or greater reach of thought
than mankind in general exert in the management of their own
private affairs; only the things themſelves are more important,
and therefore make a greater figure in the eye of the world.
Voltaire well obferves that it is not a fuperior ſhare of
pene-
tration that makes ſtateſmen. All men that have any tolerable
degree of underſtanding can nearly difcern what is their intereſt.
A common citizen of Amſterdam or Bern, he ſays, knows as
much on this head as Sejanus, Ximines, Buckingham, Richlieu,
or Mazarine. This is certain, that all the capital events in
this world, which have contributed to bring about a better ſtate
of things in general, all the fituations in human affairs favourable
to liberty, virtue, and happineſs, were brought about in a
manner independent of the policy, the deſigns, or even the
wiſhes, of all human beings, and muſt be aſcribed wholly to
the good providence of God, wifely over-ruling the paffions
and powers of men to his own benevolent purpoſes.
A
LECT.
:
Kk 2
252
PART V.
LECTURES ON
LECTURE XXXIV.
General Obfervations on political Measures. When perfonal Con-
fiderations may be fuppofed to influence public Meaſures, and
when not: Difference between the true, and the declared
Motives to Tränfactions, Wars, &c. All just reaſoning on the
Connexion of Cause and Effect capable of being reduced to
Periods of History more particularly worthy of
Attention. The Connexion of Sacred and Prophane Hiftory.
The Succeffion of the four Monarchies. Hiftory of the Grecian
Commonwealths, why interefting, and what to be learned
from it.
Practice.
NOTWITHSTANDING
>
JOTWITHSTANDING the propriety of affigning political
reafons for political meaſures, there is no doubt but
that where they depend upon one perſon, or a few,' perfonal
confiderations enter very much into them. Princes, though
politicians, are ftill men. In abfolute monarchies, and par-
ticularly in Eaſtern countries, almoſt every great event is afcribed
by the most judicious hiftorians to the effects of private paffions;
and queen Elizabeth, though, no doubt, fhe had political
reafons for the unnatural part she acted towards Mary queen
of Scots, is not without reafon thought to have been determined
to it, in fome meaſure, by her envy of her beauty and ac
compliſhments.
4
It is a good general rule, that whatever depends upon a few
perfons may often be ascribed to unknown cauſes, but that
what depends upon a great number is beſt accounted for by
determinate
1
F
LECT. XXXIV.
253
HISTORY.
determinate and known cauſes. Individuals may eſcape the
influence of general paffions, but multitudes are actuated by
grofs and fenfible motives. Befides, multitudes are not aſhamed
of being governed by a regard to the intereft of the whole
body; whereas fuch motives may influence the conduct of
particular perfons, as they will not avow, and which there are
no means of difcovering.
We find in Polybius that in his time the declared reaſons
of the conduct of princes and ſtates were different from the true
motives of their conduct. But even this author could have no
conception, from any thing he had ſeen, of the great refinement
of modern politics in this refpect. To ſee the ſpirit of be-
nevolence, tenderneſs, equity and honour, that appears in all
our declarations of war, and the manifefto's which are pub-
liſhed upon entering an enemy's country, a common reader
would think that the princes of Europe were more than men ;
but then he would be furpriſed that when all princes entertained
thoſe excellent pacific fentiments, they ſhould be obliged to
have recourſe to fanguinary methods in order to terminate their
differences. He would think that when all parties concerned
were fo happily difpofed, they would bear every thing from
one another rather than go to war.
This attention to the connexion of cause and effect ought by
no means to be confined to philofophers. It is the intereft of
the active ſtateſmen cloſely to study it. For, as Bolingbroke
obferves, the great benefit we ought to derive from the ftudy of
hiſtory cannot be reaped, unless we accuftom ourselves to com-
pare the conduct of different governments, and to obferve the
methods they did purfue, and the meaſures they might have
purſued; with the actual confequences that followed the one;
and the probable or poffible confequences of the other.
Befides
254.
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
Befides, in politics, as in every other branch of study, all juft
reafoning on the connexion of caufe and effect is capable of
being reduced to practice. A theory, or a general rule of
conduct, can only be derived from the obſervation of a train
of cauſes and effects in real life; and all acting is at random
without regard to fome theory. Indeed, it is impoffible to
act at all without fome view, and that view directed by ſome
hypothefis, to which the event is expected to correfpond. Is
it not then better to form to ourſelves the beft hypothefis about
human actions that we can collect from reading and obfervation,
than to act abfolutely at random; and is it not better, and ſafer,
to follow a more perfect theory, than a more imperfect one?
:
Thirdly, there are certain periods in the hiftory of power,
of knowledge, and of commerce, which are more deferving of a
cloſe attention than others, which I ſhall endeavour to point
out to you.
}
The first thing deferving in an efpecial manner the notice
of a divine, is the connexion of facred and profane hiftory, in the
fucceffion of the four great monarchies, the Babylonian, Per-
fian, Grecian, and Roman; in order to ſee the accompliſhment
of the prophecies of Daniel and John. The whole of this
fubject is treated very largely, and in a judicious manner by
Prideaux, in his excellent treatiſe on this ſubject. Rollin, and
Boffuet, have alſo taken particular notice of it.
Paffing by ecclefiaftical hiſtory, unlefs where it is particularly
connected with civil, the next period worthy of our notice is
that which contains the hiſtory of the Grecian commonwealths;
every ſtage of which we have fo fine an opportunity of tracing
in the admirable Grecian hiftorians, who adorned that period;
by means of which the hiſtory of ſo inconfiderable a people,
with reſpect to numbers, and extent of territory, has attracted
4
the
LECT. XXXIV.
2:55
HISTORY.
*
the attention of all civilized nations and ages, and will be the
ſubject of diſcourſe and of writing to the end of the world, or
fo long as a tafte for knowledge, and a fpirit of liberty and
magnanimity, ſhall fubfift. Here we have an opportunity of
obferving with the greateſt clearneſs, and with every variety of
circumſtance, all the advantages and diſadvantages of a popular
government, both in their ſtruggles for common liberty with
a foreign power, and in their contefts for fuperiority among
themſelves.
This period is the more worthy of our notice on account of the
great reſemblance it bears, though in miniature, to the preſent
ftate of Europe. The power both of the Grecian and European
ftates was greatly increaſed in confequence of mutual emulation,
and domeſtic wars; but whereas theirs were fo obſtinate as
greatly to weaken one another, and give a foreign power an
opportunity to crush them all; Europe has hitherto only been
exerciſed to the uſe of arms, and the power of the whole has
been increaſed, by the wars which the ſeveral ſtates of it have
maintained with one another. The wars between the Athenians
and Lacedemonians, particularly the great Peloponnefian war,
which is the ſubject of Thucydides's hiſtory, afford an excellent
leffon to the Engliſh in their wars with the French, exhibiting
in the cleareſt light all the advantages of a maritime force, and
the rifk that is run by a popular government (or a government
inclining to that form) from aiming at extenſive conqueſts.
!
LECT.
256
PART V.
LECTURES ON
LECTURE
:
You
XXXV.
1.
The Rife and Declension of the Roman Empire. What Inftruction
it affords. The Settlement of the Northern Nations in the Dif
membered Provinces of the Roman Empire, with their orignal
Laws and Customs, as the Foundation of the prefent European
Governments. What Circumstances contributed to render the Hif
tory of Europe from the Clofe of the fifteenth Century much more in-
terefting, and more deferving of Attention, than before. The Time
when the Hiftory of Spain begins to be interefting to the rest of Eu-
rope. The fame with Refpect to France. The Northern Crowns.
Ruffia, Prufia. Into what Parts the whole Period, from the
Clofe of the fifteenth Century to the prefent Times, may be divided.
What are the most striking Objects of Attention in other Parts of
the World, in the Interval between the Irruption of the Northern
Barbarians and the Clofe of the fifteenth Century. The Hiftory
of Afia; and of Germany.
THE rife and declenfion of the Roman Empire is a vaſt and
worthy object of contemplation. For great power rifing
from low beginnings, for extent of empire, and the duration of
it, it will probably be always the greateſt object that univerfal
hiſtory can exhibit. Never can we ſee more clearly demon-
ftrated the advantages which accrue to a people from tem-
perance, valour, difcipline, juftice, and emulation, in the ear-
lier part of their history; and never, on the theatre of this
world, did luxury, a ſpirit of faction, violence, and lawleſs
power,
LECT. XXXV.
257
HISTORY.
A
*
power, reign more uncontrouled then when the empire was
fully established.
No hiſtory furnishes fo ftriking an example how incompa-
tible extenfive empire is with political liberty, or difplays
in a more confpicuous light the wiſdom of Divine Providence,
in appointing that that form of government which is, in
a manner, neceffary for extenfive dominion, fhould be the
happieſt for the fubjects of it. As to the latter part of the
Roman history, were it not for the remains of the Grecian
arts and ſciences (which never entirely quitted Conftantinople,
till the final diffolution of the empire) no hiſtory can exhibit a
more diſagreeable ſpectacle, though it is not an uſeleſs one.
For never were revolutions, attended with acts of the baſeſt
treachery, and the moft ftudied cruelty more frequent; nor did
any nation ever fink lower into the moſt deſpicable fuper-
ftition.
A lefs grand object of contemplation indeed, but a more
uſeful and interefting one to the northern inhabitants of Europe,
is the invaſion of the Roman empire by the Goths, Vandals,
Huns, Franks, and other northern nations, and their fettle-
ment in thoſe parts of it in which they laid the foundations
of the prefent European monarchies, with their laws and cuf-
toms antecedent to their migrations. In them will be found
the ftamina of the conftitutions of the feveral European govern-
ments, and of the feveral fyftems of laws now in force. From
that period every kingdom held on in a regular, but ſeparate
progrefs, of internal changes and revolutions, till about the end
of the fifteenth century, when the power of the greater barons
(derived from the feudal inftitutions) was broken in different
manners, and with different confequences, in feveral of the
principal ftates of Europe.
L 1
From
258
PART V.
LECTURES ON
From this time, domeftic tranquility being in a good mea,
fure fecured, and power being lodged in fewer hands, the am-
bition of princes began to awake, and confequently ſyſtems of
politics began to extend themſelves, ſo that the moſt diſtant con-
nexions of kingdoms and nations took place. The balance of
power was then more attended to, and nothing which could.
throw the leaſt weight into the ſcale, though fituated in the re-
moteſt part of Europe, or even in ſtill more diſtant parts of the
world, was overlooked.
There was likewife a concurrence of a variety of other cir-
cumſtances which contributed to render this part of hiftory
particularly illuftrious, and more diftinguiſhable, as a period,
than any other in the whole courfe of hiftory; according to
the ideas of Bolingbroke, who defines a period in hiſtory to be
"the commencement of a new fituation, new interefts, new
"maxims, and new manners."
;;
About this time the invention of gun-powder made an entire,.
but gradual, revolution in the whole fyftem of war; which
made it more complex as a ſcience than it had ever been before
in compariſon of which former battles had been little more than
the fighting of wild beafts, in which force is of more conſe-
quence than ſkill.
Commerce became vaftly more extenfive;:
the naval power of Europe greatly increaſed, in confequence of
the diſcovery of a paffage round the Cape of Good Hope by the
Portugueſe, and of America by the Spaniards, with the plant-
ing of European colonies in thoſe new diſcovered worlds. About
this time alſo happened the taking of Conftantinople by the
Turks, which was attended with the flight of ſeveral men of learn-
ing into Italy, who promoted the revival of letters in Europe:
an event which contributed greatly to break the prodigious
power of the pope, and to haften the reformation. Now alſo
manufactures
O
LECT. XXXV.
259
HISTORY.
manufactures began to be multiplied, the arts of life were
brought to a greater degree of perfection, luxury was beyond
conception increaſed; and at this time politeneſs and humanity
are improved to ſuch a degree as diftinguiſhes the prefent race of
Europeans from their anceſtors, almoft as much as men in general
are diſtinguiſhed from brute beafts. I may add, that, in confe-
quence of theſe improvements, happineſs is vaftly increaſed, and
this part of the world is now a paradife in compariſon with what
it was.
Every circumstance which contributed to bring about this
remarkable and happy change certainly deſerves the attention of
a politician, a philofopher, and a man. For the events of this
period are of more ufe than any thing that the whole field of
hiſtory furniſhes, to account for prefent appearances, which is
naturally the first thing which excites our curiofity, and engages
our fpeculation. Felix qui potuit rerum cognofcere caufas.
I ſhall juſt mention the principal of thoſe ſtates which have
fince appeared the moſt formidable to the liberties of Europe.
Spain, which firft rofe to fo dangerous a height, made no figure
till the union of the two crowns of Caftile and Leon, about
the time above-mentioned; when the difcovery of America, the
politics of Ferdinand, and Charles V. and the conqueſt of Por-
tugal, advanced that nation to be by far the moſt confiderable
power in Europe; but which the abfurd politics of Philip II.
and the weakneſs of his fucceffors; reduced to its former infig-
hificance:
France had no opportunity of fhewing itſelf to the reſt of Europe
before the reign of Lewis XI. Till that time, its princes were
wholly employed either in recovering their difmembered country
from the English, or in their ftruggles with their own nobles.
L12
Alfo
260
PART V.
LECTURES O N
1
!.
Alfo the fuperior power and politics of Spain prevented the
French from appearing with that prodigious luftre with which
they were diſtinguiſhed in the reign of Lewis XIV. for which
however they were prepared by their expeditions into Italy, by
their contefts with Germany,, and by their own civil wars.
Since the reign of Lewis XIV. the affairs of France have been
very fenfibly upon the decline.
The hiftory of the northern crowns likewife deferves little
attention till about the fame period. Before Frederic I. was
elected to the crown of Denmark, and that wonderful revolu-
tion which Guſtavus I. brought about in Sweden, the hiftory of
thoſe crowns is nothing more than a confuſed rhapsody of
events, in which the rest of Europe had little concern.
Ruffia was hardly ſo much as known to the reſt of Europe
till the important reign of Peter the Great; and Pruffia, which
is now, one of the firſt powers in Europe, had no being, as we
may fay, till within the memory of man.
The whole of this period Bolingbroke fays may be commo-
diouſly divided into three parts, forming three leffer periods in
politics the first from the fifteenth to the fixteenth century,
the fecond from thence to the Pyrenean treaty, and the third
from thence to his own times. The ambition. of Charles V.
and the bigotry of Philip II. he fays, were the object of the
firft; the ambition of Ferdinand II. and III. the object of the
fecond, and the oppofition to the growing power of France was
the object of the third. For by the Pyrenean treaty not only
was the fuperiority of the houſe of Bourbon over the houſe of
Auftria completed and confirmed, but the great defign. of unit-
ing the Spaniſh and French monarchies under the former was
laid.
During
LECT. XXXV.
261
HISTORY.
During all the period which intervened between Charle-
magne (in whoſe time the European ftates firſt began to fettle
into fome tolerable form, after the confufion attending the mi-
grations of the northern nations) and the period above-men-
tioned, namely, about the end of the fifteenth century, Germany
(next to the exorbitant power of the popes in temporal as well
as ecclefiaftical affairs) would make the greateſt figure in the eye
of a perfon unconnected with any particular country of Europe.
But indeed Europe itſelf during all that period would ſcarce at-
tract the notice of a fpectator of the affairs of men, who had no
European connexions. For feveral centuries before and after the
reign of Charlemagne, Afia exhibited the most inviting fpectacle,
namely, from the rife of the Saracens in the feventh century, to
the eſtabliſhment of the Turkiſh empire by the taking of Con-
ftantinople. For rapid and extenfive conquefts, following clofe
upon one another, nothing in hiſtory can be compared to the
fucceffive victories of the Saracens, under their firft Caliphs,
thofe of the Tartars under Jenghis Khan and Timur Bek,
commonly called Tamerlane, and of the Turks till they were:
checked by the rife of the European powers in the circum
ftances above-mentioned.
}.
:
LEC-
262
PART V
LECTURES ON
LECTURE
XXXVI.
The most remarkable Periods in the English History. When the
Hiftory of Scotland begins to be interesting. The most interesting
Periods in the Hiftory of Literature and the Arts, from the
earliest Antiquity to the prefent Time.
TH
+
HE earlier periods in the English history are the conqueft
of the ifland by the Romans, our fubjection to the Saxons,
the diffolution of the heptarchy, the reign of Alfred, and the
Norman conqueft, by which the feudal tenures were eſta-
bliſhed, and the whole fyftem of the feudal law compleated.
Thence our attention is drawn to the gradual declenfion of that
fyftem till the reign of Henry VII. and especially the more ef-
fectual blow that was given to the tottering remains of it in
that and the following reigns, attended with the extenfion of
our commerce, the increaſe of our naval force, and the growing
power of the commons, who availed themſelves of every altera-
tion in the laws and conftitution of the country. Thence we
are led to view the ineffectual oppofition which our imprudent
princes of the family of Stewart made to the power of the
people, till it ended in a temporary diffolution of the monarchy,
and abfolute anarchy and confufion. Monarchy, however, was
reſtored again with Charles II. in whofe reign almoſt all the
remains of the feudal fyftem, except the forms of law, were
aboliſhed by act of parliament.
>
5
But
LECT. XXXVI.
263
HISTORY.
as
But the moſt important period in our history is that of, the
revolution under King William. Then it was, that our confti-
tution, after many fluctuations, and frequent ftruggles for power
by the different members of it (ſeveral of them attended with
vaſt effufion of blood) was finally fettled. A revolution fo re-
markable, and attended with fuch happy confequences, has per-
haps no parallel in the hiftory of the world. This it was,
Mr. Hume fays, that cut off all pretenfions to power founded
on hereditary right; when a prince was chofen who received.
the crown on exprefs conditions, and found his authority eſ-
tabliſhed on the fame bottom with the privileges of the people;
fo that there have been no differences between our kings and par-
liament fince. Indeed all the danger we have reaſon to appre-
hend fince that period feems to be from the aid which the par-
liament itſelf may be induced, by indirect methods, to give the
Court, to encroach upon the liberties of the people.
The hiſtory of Scotland is hardly worth the notice of an
Englishman till the reign of queen Elizabeth, the period which
is excellently treated by Dr. Robertſon..
The remarkable periods in the hiftory of the arts and Sciences.
are firit that of Greece, which was in its greateſt glory about the
time of Alexander the Great. His age excelled in archi--
tecture, fculpture, poetry, eloquence, and metaphyfical philo-
fophy. It also produced a great many excellent writers, whofe
works have greatly contributed to civilize and poliſh all ages
and nations, which ever after arrived at any degree of refine-
ment..
·
When the Grecian orators began to fail, the arts and
ſciences, conducted by the Grecian mafters, took up their refi-
dence for a ſhort ſpace of time at Rome, namely, about the end
of the commonwealth, and till a little after the reign of Auguftus;
though
264
PART V.
LECTURES ON
though architecture and ftatuary were in their greateft perfec-
tion during the reign of Trojan: The Roman arts and fciences
were the fame that had flourished in Greece, to which they
retired again after the expiration of the Auguftan age; and the
remains of this kind of learning at length took up their refi-
dence at Conſtantinople. A few learned men being obliged to
fly from this city when it was taken by the Turks, took re-
fuge in Italy, about the middle of the fourteenth century,
where they were received, protected, and encouraged by the
houſe of Medici, and contributed greatly to revive a taſte for
the learning and fciences they brought with them in the wef-
tern parts of Europe.
While the fmall remains of the arts and ſciences were
confined within the walls of Conftantinople, all the reſt of
Europe was involved in the most deplorable ignorance and
barbarity; except that faint glimmerings of learning were
ftill to be found in the cloifters of the monks, the only ſafe
afylum it had in thoſe ages of violence and confufion.
But while fo little attention was given to matters of fcience
in Europe, their former feat, they were cultivated with the
greateſt affiduity and confiderable fuccefs where they were leaſt
expected, namely, by the fucceffors of the eaſtern conquerors
above-mentioned. The Saracens, by their conqueft of Egypt,
and ſeveral territories of the Greek empire in Afia, became at
length enamoured of their fciences, and tranflated almoſt all
their valuable writings, particularly the works of Ariftotle, into
their own language.
The later Greeks had likewife many alchemical writers,
from whom the Saracens acquired a tafte for that ſtudy, and
natural philoſophy. From the people of India it is fuppofed
they borrowed the nine digits in arithmetic. However they
applied
*
LECT. XXXVI,
265
HISTORY.
!
applied diligently to the mathematical ſciences, and aftronomy.
They compofed tables for the purpoſe of calculation, and the
rudiments of algebra were their own invention. They alſo
made confiderable proficiency in medicine, and anatomy; and
their poets and hiftorians were numerous and excellent in their
kinds...
Theſe ſciences, as has been the fate of fcience almoft uni-
verfally, were both extended with their conquefts, and adopted
by their conquerors. The Tartars, a barbarous and untractable
people, adopted both their religion and their learning, in which,
fo long as their empire continued, they diftinguished them-
ſelves, though not ſo much as the people whom they had fub-
dued, and who had inftructed them.
;
But what is most memorable in the learning of the Saracens
is, that it was brought by them (by the way of Spain) into
Christendom, and excited a thirst for knowledge, and particu-
larly a confiderable application to medicine, chymiſtry, and
natural philofophy, long before the Greek fugitives from Con-
ftantinople promoted a tafte for eloquence and the belles lettres.
The Saracens occafioned the revival of the Ariftotelian philo-
fophy in Europe, which no perſon had the courage to controvert
before Defcartes, who died about the time that Newton was
born. In his time, however, the foundations of the true philo-
ſophy were laid by Lord Bacon, the work was profecuted with
much affiduity by Boyle, and carried by Newton to a great de-
gree of perfection.
The chief reaſon why knowledge is prodigiously more dif-
fuſed among all ranks of men in the prefent age, as well as
carried to a much, greater height than it ever was in any former,
is owing to the invention of printing, which first appeared in
Germany about the year 1450, a little before the taking of
Conftantinople by the Turks. This art multiplies books to a
M m
degree
:
266.
PART V.
LECTURES ON
degree of which the ancients could have formed no idea, and
at very little expence; whereas, in former ages, learning was
neceffarily confined to the wealthy. This circumftance ac-
counts for the greater proportion of authors among the higher
ranks of life among the ancients than among the moderns; but
then it was a much greater chance with them than with us,
that a genius for learning might arife who would never have it
in his power to come at the neceffary materials for improve-
ment in fçience.
•
}
f
•
The firft: dawning of a polite tafté in compofition appeared in
Provence, about the time of the crufades, which expeditions!
furniſhed a fine fubject for poetry. From Provence it paffed-
into Italy, where it flouriſhed under the protection of the Ita-
lian princes and ftates, more especially by the Florentines, an
induſtrious, rich, enterprizing, and free people, a confiderable
time before the taking of Conftantinople, as is evident from
the hiſtory and writings of Petrarch. Together with the belles
lettres, the Italians excelled in mufic, painting, and architecture..
From them theſe arts and ſciences paffed into France. This
nation, however, was much behind the English in poetry and
the belles lettres in the age of Shakespeare and Milton, but far
outftripped us in the reign of Lewis XIV. They were however
far behind us in the more manly ftudies of the mathematics and
philofophy. Of the prefent times I fay nothing. The generous
emulation by which we are actuated can only produce good
effects.
It is needlefs, indeed, to fay any thing more of the progrefs
which the arts and ſciences have made in the laſt age, when I pro-
pofe no more, in this place, than just to point out the greater pe-
riods in which particular attention hath been paid to them. It
may not be improper, however, before I cloſe this ſubject juft to
mention the Chineſe who from the earliest antiquity attained
5
to
LECT. XXXVII.
267
HIST OR Y.
to a mediocrity in almoſt all the fciences, beyond which they
ſeem incapable of advancing. Being fo remote from us, they
contributed nothing to enlighten theſe parts of the world, and
their attachment to their own claffical books, cuſtoms, and
the honour of their own nation is fo great, that it is not probable
they will ever receive much advantage from European dif-
coveries.
LECTURÊ XXXVII.
The most important Periods in the Hiftory of Manufactures and
Commerce pointed out.
IF.
F we would mark the ſeveral periods, and countries, in which
manufactures and commerce have flouriſhed, we muſt follow
the courſe of the arts, which commerce has always accom-
panied, and in a great meaſure that of power, which feldom fails
to attend it; and the progrefs of all the three has been from
east to west, beginning near the land of Paleſtine.
The firſt people who were induced by their fituation to apply
to arts and commerce were thoſe who inhabited the coafts of
the Red Sea and the Arabic Gulph, fo convenient for tranf-
porting goods from the Indies; though it is moſt probable
that goods were firft carried by land on camels. Thefe people
were the Arabians or Ifhmaelites, and eſpecially the Edomites.
Their trade was chiefly with Egypt, which by that means grew
rich and populous.
M m 2
Upon
268
PART V.
LECTURES ON
•
Upon the conquest of Idumea by David, the fcattered remains
of that induftrious people fled to the coafts of the Mediterranean
fea, where, as Sir Ifaac Newton conjectures, they took Sidon, the
inhabitants of which built Tyre, which being found more com-
modiously fituated for traffic, préfently became more famous
than its mother country. The Tyrians finding an immenſe
vent for their commodities along all the coafts of the Mediterra-
nean ſea, among people who had juſt begun to be civilized (and
whom their intercourfe with them, more than any other cir-
cumſtance, contributed to civilize) grew rich, populous and
powerful to an incredible degree; and notwithstanding they were
fubdued by Nebuchadnezzar they were only driven from the con-
tinent. For they built a city equal, or fuperior, to the former
on an iſland oppofite to it, where they continued their commerce
with the fame advantages, till they were finally fubdued by
Alexander the Great.
·
Before this fatal event, the Tyrians had founded many colo-
nies on the coafts of Europe and Africa, particularly Carthage,
which by the intimate connexion it always kept up with its
mother country, and the free acceſs the Carthaginians had to
the remoter parts of Europe, grew to a far greater heighth of
'opulence and power than commerce had ever advanced
tion before them.
!
any na-
The taking of Tyre removed the feat of the fame commerce
to Alexandria, where the Ptolemys were great encouragers of
commerce, and found their advantage in it. For the produce:
of the cuſtoms of Alexandria is faid to have been two millions
of our money annually. Alexandria maintained the fame rank
in point of trade and commerce during the earlier period of the
Roman empire, but yielded to Conftantinople on the removal
of
LECT. XXXVII.
269
HISTORY.
of the feat of government to that place. At Conftantinople the
riches acquired by commerce long preferved the remains of that
power which had a very different origin.
During the ravages committed by the northern barbarians in
their invafion of the Roman empire, two rival ſtates, Venice and
Genoa, rofe from the moft inconfiderable beginnings, and by their
commerce with Conftantinople and Alexandria on the one hand,
and the weſtern ftates of Europe on the other, arrived at im-
menfe riches and power; fo as to be a match for the Turks
when they had put an end to the Conftantinopolitan empire.
!
Within this period, viz. in the thirteenth century, the bu-
finefs of exchange and banking was begun by the Lombards
and Jews'; an invention of infinite advantage to the trading part
of the world, which was now become very extenfive. For be-
fore this time, commerce had made a confiderable progreſs weft-
wards, and many towns in Germany, England, the low countries,
and France, called the Hanfe towns, entered into a league for
carrying on a very extenfive commerce, which they did with vaft
advantage, till their haughtiness and warlike enterprizes gave
umbrage to the powers of Europe, and engaged them to put an
end to their confederacy.
Venice and Genoa were ruined in part by their mutual jealoufy
and wars; but what diverted almoft the whole courfe of trade out
of its former channel, and which makes the moſt remarkable re-
volution in the whole hiſtory of commerce, was the diſcovery of
a paffage to the Eaft Indies round the cape of Good Hope by
the Portugueſe, and of America by the Spaniards. Theſe dif-
coveries they were enabled to make by means of the compass,
which then firſt began to be applied to navigation; though that
property of the loadſtone, on which the uſe of it depends, had
been known a confiderable time before.
For
270
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
For about a century and a half theſe were the only confider-
able naval powers in the world; but the arrogance and ambi-
tion of the Spaniards after the conqueft of Portugal, excited the
hatred and induftry of the Dutch and Engliſh. The former
firſt became a free, then a commercial, and then, in a remarkably
ſhort ſpace of time, a rich and potent ſtate, and much ſuperior
to their former mafters. The Engliſh in the reign of Elizabeth
began to follow their footsteps, and by a steady perfeverance, and
the help of many natural advantages, they have been continually
increafing their commerce and naval force, till it is at this day
far fuperior to that of the Dutch, or that of any other ſtate in
the world.
fo
܂܂
OP
The ſucceſs of the Dutch and English has excited all the
ftates of Europe, in proportion to their abilities and opportunities,
to engage in commerce. This emulation has raifed fuch a fpirit
of induſtry, promoted fo many new manufactures, occafioned the
eſtabliſhment of ſo many new colonies in all parts of the known
world, and brought fuch an amazing acceffion of riches and
power to the ſtates of Europe in general, as muſt have appeared
incredible but a few centuries ago. And little did the ancient
Greeks and Romans imagine that the Divifi toto orbe Brittanni,
and the poor barbarous and ignorant neighbouring nations, would
ever make the figure they now do, and go fo infinitely beyond
whatever they had attained to in refpect to fcience, commerce,
riches, power, and I may add,
add, happineſs.
!
As to the commerce of England, though it was by no means
inconfiderable in feveral periods of the more early part of our
history, that were particularly favourable to it, and though it was
encouraged by feveral of our wifer princes in thofe times; yet, till
the period in which I have introduced the mention of it, it never
was ſo confiderable as to deferve being taken notice of in this
very general view of the progreſs and revolutions of commerce.
LEC-
i
LECT. XXXVIII.
271
GENERAL POLICY.
!
LECTURE
XXXVIII.
Every Thing worthy of Attention in Hiftory which contributes to
make a Nation happy, populous, or fecure. Government an ef-
Sential Article. Nature and Objects of Civil Government.
How far the Provifions of Government ſhould extend. Liberty
of Speaking and writing. Public Inftruction. The Power of
Individuals and of the State in the Difpofal of Property. Pro-
vifion for the Poor..
ASTLY, every thing is worthy of the attention both of
a philofophical and political reader of hiſtory which can
contribute to make a people happy at home, formidable abroad,
or increaſe their numbers; becaufe a numerous, a fecure, and a
happy fociety is the object of all human policy.
This view opens a new field of the moſt important objects of
attention to a reader of hiſtory, which it cannot be expected that
I ſhould confider very minutely. I think, however, that I ſhall not
fulfil my engagement to point out the proper objects of attention
to a reader of hiſtory (which implies that I ſhould demonſtrate
the things I point out to be proper objects of attention) unleſs I
explain the great leading principles of wife policy, in an account
of thofe circumftances which contribute to the flouriſhing ſtate
of focieties, and the mutual connexions and influences of thoſe
circumftances. Indeed, the bare mention of them will in fome
meaſure anſwer my purpoſe, as it will make the reader attend
to
272
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
to the things I point out, as of principal confequence to pro-
mote the happineſs of fociety, and obferve their effects in the
courfe of his reading, which certainly leads to the best practi-
cal uſe that can be made of this ſtudy.
Of all the things which contribute to the domeftic happineſs
and fecurity of ftates, GOVERNMENT, with the various forms of
it, is the first that offers itſelf to our notice, and this is in fact
the moſt ſtriking object in every hiftory. To this, therefore,
and to every circumſtance relating to it, a reader of hiftory
ought particularly to attend.
C
Man is focial beyond any other animal, and the connexions
which men are difpofed to form with one another are infinitely
more various and extenfive; becauſe they are capable of doing
much more for one another than any other animals are. The
principle which leads men to form themſelves into thofe larger
focieties which we call ftates, is the defire of fecuring the
undisturbed enjoyment of their poffeffions. Without this the
weak would always be at the mercy of the ftrong, and the ig-
norant of the crafty. But by means of government the ftrength
and wiſdom of the whole community may be applied to redreſs
private wrongs, as well as to repel a foreign invader.
It cannot, indeed, be faid that the proper ufe of fociety (or
that which we may fuppofe a number of perfons, at firſt uncon-
nected together, and of courfe at the mercy of their neighbours,
would first think of, in forming a fociety) is any thing more
than mere fecurity. But as they would foon find, when thus
united, that it was in their power to derive much positive
advantage from their union, this may alfo be confidered as a
juft end of fociety. The danger, and it is a very great one,
is, left by aiming at too much pofitive advantage, great num-
bers
"
LECT. XXXVIII.
273
GENERAL POLICY.
7
bers may be deprived even of that negative advantage which
they firſt propoſed to themſelves, viz. fecurity from injury
and oppreffion, fo that they fhall be more incommoded than
benefited by the connexion. It may even happen that a great
majority of the community, and ultimately the whole of it,
may make fuch regulation's as, inftead of being uſeful, may
eventually be the cauſe of much evil to them. Societies of
men, as well as individuals, not being omnifcient, may not
confult the beſt for themſelves, but mifs of the very advantage
they aim at, and by the very means by which they think to
gain it.
It would be well if the power of government was confined
not only to thofe things in which the whole fociety are inte-
reſted, but to thoſe in which the power of the whole can be
brought to act to the most advantage, as in defence from ex-
ternal injuries, which neceffarily requires union; adminiſtering
juftice, which requires impartiality, and in which the parties
themſelves are not to be trufted, as alfo in erecting ſome public
works, and forming public inftitutions, ufeful to the whole
and to pofterity.
Since all men naturally wish to be at liberty to ferve them-
felves in things in which others are not concerned, and the
good of the whole is the great rule by which every thing re-
lating to fociety ought to be regulated, it is evidently defireable
that recourſe ſhould not be had to the power of the fociety, except
where it can be applied with advantage; and fince experience
is our beft guide in things of fo complex a nature as the intereſts
of large bodies of men, it is moſt adviſeable to leave every man
at perfect liberty to ferve himſelf, till fome actual inconvenience
be found to refult from it.
N n
As
.: .
274
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
n
As there are cafes in which numbers can easily, and con-
veniently, affift individuals, fo there are others in which par-
ticular individuals are best qualified to affift numbers. In the
former cafes there is, therefore, a propriety in the interference
of government, but certainly not in the latter; and in this
claſs we muſt rank every thing that relates to the inveftigation
of truth, and the progress of knowledge, as medicine, phi-
lofophy, theology, &c. and every thing in practice depending
upon them, in which any number of the, fociety may voluntarily
join without diſturbing others. The reafon is, that in every
thing of this nature, ingenious and fpeculative individuals will
always be the firſt to make diſcoveries, and it will require time
to communicate them to the reft. Confequently, if the prefent:
opinions and practices of the majority of any fociety were
impoſed upon all the reft, no improvements could ever take place;
and the moſt ingenious members of the community, thoſe who
would be the beſt qualified to ſerve it, by adding to the general
ftock of knowledge, would always be fubject to be diftreffed,
and to have their generous endeavours thwarted, by the inter-
ference of the more bigotted part of the community, whofe
prejudices, againft what would ultimately be for their own.
advantage, might in time be overcome, provided that perfect
liberty was given to all perfons to fpeculate, and to act as they
fhould judge proper. Different ſchemes would then be propoſed.
by different perfons, the fociety would have the benefit of all.
the experiments they would make; and that fcheme would at:
length be generally and univerfally adopted, which ſhould
appear to be moft conducive to the good of the whole.
•
Indeed, one of the most valuable rights of men, as individuals,.
and the most important to the ftate itſelf, is that of giving
their
LECT. XXXVIII.
275
GENERAL POLICY.
their opinions, and endeavouring to inform others, where either
their own intereft, or that of the public, is concerned. It is
the only method of collecting and increafing the wisdom of the
nation. It is therefore for the intereft of the whole that, in a
ſtate of fociety, every man retain his natural powers of fpeak-
ing, writing, and publiſhing his fentiments on all fubjects,
eſpecially in propofing new forms of government, and cenſuring
thoſe who abuſe any public truft. It is the eafieft and beſt
method of checking abuſes. Perfons may certainly do miſchief
by this, as well as by every other power of doing good; but it
will be fufficiently checked if every man be puniſhed for any
injury that he can be proved to have done to others in his
property, good name, &c. But if this extend to his public
character, and the emoluments of public offices, the great uſe
of liberty of ſpeech and of writing will be prevented. If any
officer be traduced as an officer, let him vindicate himſelf in
the fame way in which he was injured, or employ his friends.
to do it. He has the fame accefs to the public opinion that
other perfons have, and he ought to be contented with it.
Of thoſe ſervices in which it is neceffary for numbers to
give their aid to individuals, it is not neceffary that all of them
ſhould be performed by the whole fociety, fome of thoſe ſervices'
being more conveniently performed by a particular part of it.
Thus a public road, or bridge, may be moſt conveniently made
by the diſtrict in which it is wanted; but the power of the
ſtate may be neceffary to compel the inhabitants of that diftrict
to do it, or to direct the mode in which it ſhould be done;
whether, for example, by a general contribution, or by tolls
upon the use of the road or bridge. Where the latter can be
done, it is the most reaſonable, because every perfon pays in
proportion to the benefit he receives.
Nn 2
Public
276
PART V.
LECTURES ON
Public inftruction is an object in which the whole fociety is
intereſted. It may therefore be proper that the government give
fome attention to it. But as individuals are ftill more intereſted
in it, it may be best for the ſtate to do no more than appoint
ſchools in every diſtrict, or direct in what manner the teachers
may be induced, by fufficient falaries, or the uſe of proper
rooms, &c. to inftruct all that offer themſelves; leaving them to
derive the chief part of their maintenance from their fees for
teaching. As the arts of reading and writing are of particular
importance to all perfons, it ſhould ſeem that effectual provifion
ought to be made, either by rewards or puniſhments, that all
fhould be inſtructed in them.
In a very improved ſtate of ſociety, the occupation of each
perfon is fo limited, that in order to attain perfection in it, he
muſt in a manner facrifice every thing elſe. Confequently, men
would be little more than machines without fome knowledge of
letters, and an opportunity of improving themfelves by reading.
In Scotland, and in North America, the judicious eſtabliſhment.
of pariſh ſchools has enabled all the common people to read,
and a great proportion of them to write and caft accompts.
The provifions of government are always fuppofed to ex-
tend beyond the prefent day, the laws of fociety being a rule.
for our own future conduct and that of our pofterity; but it
becomes men, as knowing themſelves to be fhort fighted, not
to pretend to look very far into futurity, but to make provifion.
for rectifying their miſtakes whenever they fhall be diſcovered,
and to make the rectification as eafy as poffible. For when
mankind find themſelves aggrieved by any regulations of their
ancestors, they will, no doubt, relieve themfelves; but, in.
confequence of the injudicious provifions of paft ages, they may
fuffer extremely before they can do this..
It
LECT. XXXVIII.
277
GENERAL POLICY.
It is wife, therefore, in focieties, if not exprefly to ap-
point a formal revifion of their whole conftitution after a
certain time, at leaſt to do this with respect to ſubordinate
parts, and by all means to prevent individuals from making
fuch a difpofal of their property as fhall be manifeftly in-
jurious in future ages. If the English law had not interfered
in former times, fuch was the fuperftition of the people, and
their ſubjection to the prieſts, that the greateſt part of the
landed property of this kingdom would have been given to the
church, and the prefent generation would not have had the
diſpoſal of any part of it.
All alienation of property to thoſe who have not the power
of alienating it again fhould be carefully watched in every
country, whether lands appropriated to religious or charitable.
ufes, or any other object that refpects future time. Otherwife,
the best intentioned, and the moſt enlightened perfons may do
harm when they mean to do good. For want of
For want of proper care
in the management of any fund for future ufe, the deſign of it
is liable to be perverted, thoſe who fuperintend it not having
the fame upright views with thoſe who appointed them; fo
that a very ſmall advantage may be procured at a very great
expence. If the provifion was intended to remedy any evil,
the evil itſelf may ceafe, and the fund become ufelefs. The
Crufades brought the leprofy into Europe, and charitable per-
fons founded a great number of lazarettos for the reception.
and cure of lepers. But the leprofy is not fo common at this
day as many other difeafes, and therefore it does not require
any particular provifion.
When revenues are left to the diſpoſal of truſtees, they will,
directly or indirectly, find a benefit to themſelves, or their
friends, in the truft; and fo many perſons will become intereſted
in
278
PART V.
LECTURES ON
in the continuance of it, that, let the abufe of property be ever
fo great, a powerful intereft will be formed against any re-
formation; and fuch inftitutions may do much harm, before
it be difcovered that they even do no good.
In moſt caſes it would certainly be much better to provide
temporary remedies for inconveniences, fuch as the relief of
the poor, the maintenance of places of education, &c. If they
be ſupported by the voluntary contributions of the living, they
will be properly fuperintended, and they will not be continued
longer than they will be found to be uſeful. Why fhould we
preſume that our pofterity will not be as wife and as generous
as ourſelves? There is the greateſt certainty that they will be
wifer, and therefore the faireft prefumption that they will be
better than we are. But all perpetuities go upon the idea of
there being a want of wiſdom, or of generofity, in our de-
fcendants.
The ſafe transferring, as well as the fecure poffeffion of
property, is a privilege which we derive from fociety. But it
is a queſtion among politicians, how far this privilège ſhould
extend? That all perfons fhould have the abfolute difpofal
of their property during their own lives, and while they have
the uſe of their underſtanding, was never difputed. But fome, and
among them is Mr. Turgot, ſays there ſhould be no teſtament,
a man ſhould have no power of difpofing of his property after
his death, but it fhould be diftributed by the law, according
to the degrees of confanguinity. But in moft, if not all the
civilized ſtates of Europe, every man has an indefinite power
over his property, fo that he can direct the enjoyment of it in
ail future time.
Perhaps a medium would be the moſt convenient in this
cafe. There may be good reafons (of which private perfons
5
are
LECT. XXXVIII. 279
:
GENERAL POLICY.
are the best judges) why, in particular cafes, their property
fhould not defcend to their children, or neareſt relations. But
as no man can look into futurity, and therefore he cannot judge
what would be the beſt uſe of his property in generations yet
unborn, and they who furvive him will have a much better
opportunity of judging, there is the fame reaſon why it fhould
then be at their diſpoſal, as that for the prefent it ſhould be at
his. Let every perfon, therefore, bequeath his property to
thoſe perſons in whoſe wiſdom he can moſt confide, but not.
pretend to direct them in circumftances which he will never
know, and therefore cannot judge of. Indeed the wifdom of
all ftates is frequently obliged to interfere, and to check the
caprice of individuals in the difpofal of their property.
A difference in induſtry and good fortune will introduce a
difference in the conditions of men in fociety, fo that in time
fome will become rich, and others poor; and in caſe of extreme
old age, and particular accidents, many of the latter must perish.
without the affiftance of the former. On this account wife
ſtateſmen will take the ſtate of the poor into confideration. But
in this reſpect there will be great danger of their attempting too-
much, and thereby encumbering themſelves without remedying
the evil.
If every man who is reduced to poverty, by whatever means, be:
allowed to have a claim upon the common ſtock for fubfiftence,
great numbers, who are indifferent about any thing beyond a
mere ſubſiſtence, will be improvident, ſpending every thing they
get in the moſt extravagant manner, as knowing that they have
a certain refource in the provifion which the law makes for
them; and the greater is the proviſion that is made for the poor,
the more poor there will be to avail themſelves of it; as, in.
general, men will.not. fubmit to labour if they can live without it.
By
280
PART V.
LECTURES ON
f
By this means man, inftead of being the moft provident of
animals, as he naturally would be, is the moſt improvident of
them all. Having no occafion for forefight, he thinks of
nothing beyond the prefent moment, and thus is reduced to a
condition lower than that of the beafts.
This is now become very much the cafe in this country,
and the evil is fo great and inveterate, that it is not eafy to find
a remedy. Better, certainly, would it have been if government
had not interfered in the cafe of the poor at all, except to
relieve thoſe who are reduced to poverty, or were become
difabled, in the fervice of their country, as foldiers, feamen,
&c.
In this cafe there would, no doubt, be inftances of great
diftrefs; but fo there are at prefent, and generally of the moſt
deferving, who decline the relief of the parith; while the idle,
the impudent, and the clamorous will have it.
In general,
if no provifion was made for the poor by law, thoſe who are the
moſt truly deſerving of relief would find it
now do, in the charity of the well-difpofed.
no doubt would give nothing to the poor.
fomething would be got even from them by fhame; and by no
means can all men be made to bear an equal fhare of any
burthen whatever. The truly
The truly well-difpofed would not com-
plain of the opportunity of doing more good than others, being
content with looking for their reward in a future ftate.
ſooner than they
In this cafe many
But in urgent cafes
The best method would perhaps be to oblige the poor to
provide for themſelves, by appropriating a certain proportion
of their wages to that ufe, as is done in the cafe of foldiers
and feamen. As they muſt have a prefent fubfiftence, this
would only be giving the poorer fort of them a better price for
their labour, and would ultimately be a tax on the produce
of that labour. But it would be a much better tax, and far
lefs
LECT. XXXIX.
281
GENERAL POLICY.
1
*
lefs expenſive, than the prefent poor rates. If this was not
done by a general law, but left to the difcretion of particular
towns, &c. it might be regulated fo as to enforce greater in-
duſtry, the appropriation being varied according to the gains
of workmen...LA).
The idea of not having a perfect command of their own money
would, no doubt, at first give labourers and manufacturers much
difguft, and might prevent fome from engaging in manufac-
tures. But when the regulation was fully eftablished, that
averfion might vanish. At all events we muft, out of a num-
ber of evils, chooſe the leaft.
:
LECTURE
XXXIX.
Of Political and Civil Liberty. Particular Objects of particular
Governments. Forms of Government, fimple or complex.
Its conftituent Parts.
A
S it is always convenient to have different terms to expreſs
different things, it may not be amifs to diftinguiſh the
different kinds of power, or privileges, that men in a ſtate of ſo-
ciety enjoy in the following manner. The power which the
community leaves him poffeffed of with refpect to his own con-
duct, may be called his civil liberty, whereas the ſhare that he
may have in directing the affairs of the fociety may be called
Oo
his
¿
282
PART V.
LECTURE 9 ON
his political liberty. Both the terms being in the language, it
will be better to affign them thefe diftinct fignifications than to
uſe them promifcuously, as is commonly done. In a ftate of
civil liberty a man retains the most important of his natural
rights. In a ftate of political liberty, he moreover acquires a
controul over the conduct of others. It is for his advantage,
therefore, to lofe as little of the former, and to gain as much of
the latter as he can.
There may be ſtates in which all the members of the com
munity ſhall be politically free, or have an equal power of maki
ing laws (or of appointing thoſe who fhall make them) and yet
thoſe laws may be very oppreffive, leaving individuals little
power over their own actions. As, on the other hand, men
may enjoy much civil liberty, being left in the undisturbed uſe
of their faculties to think and act for themſelves, and yet be ex-
cluded from all fhare in the government. But in this cafe
their civil liberties, or private rights, will be precarious, being
at the mercy of others. Political liberty is therefore the only
fure guard of civil liberty, and it is chiefly valuable on that
account.'
is
It may appear, at firft fight, to be of little confequence
whether perfons in the common ranks of life enjoy any fhare
of political liberty or not. But without this there cannot be
that perſuaſion of fecurity and independence, which alone can
encourage a man to make great exertions. A man who
fenfible that he is at the difpofal of others, over whofe conduct
he has no fort of controul, has always fome unknown evil to
dread. He will be afraid of attracting the notice of his fupe-
riors, and muſt feel himſelf a mean and degraded being. But
a fenfe of liberty, and a knowledge of the laws by which his
conduct muſt be governed, with fome degree of control over
thofe
LECT. XXXIX.
283
GENERAL POLICY.
་་་
{
thoſe who make and adminifter the laws, gives him a conſtant
feeling of his own importance, and leads him to indulge a free
and manly turn of thinking, which will make him greatly fu-
perior to what he would have been under an arbitrary form of
government.
Under every form of government we find men united for their
common advantage, and ſubmitting to fuch reſtraints upon their
natural liberty as their common good requires. But though
this be the general and ultimate object of every government,
yet, the whole form of particular governments has fome more
immediate object, to which the principal parts of it are more.
particularly adapted, and this ought to be attended to in reading
the hiftories of all ftates. Thus, according to Montefquieu, war,
but rather confined to felf defence, was the object of the Spar-
tan government; conqueft that of ancient Rome, religion that of
the Jews, commerce that of Marſeilles, tranquility that of China,
&c. The reafon is that different nations have formed different
notions of happineſs, or have been led by their fituations to pur-
fue it in different ways.
Governments; and ſyſtems of laws adapted to them, are more
Simple or complex, according to the variety and connexion of the
interefts of the members of the community. Thus fince the
members of a fociety which fubfifts by hunting interfere but
little with one another, few regulations are fufficient for them.
A paftoral life brings mankind nearer together, agriculture
nearer ftill, and in a ſtate addicted to commerce, the connexions of
individuals are the most intimate and extenfive, and confequently
their intereſts the moft involved that any fituation of human affairs.
can make them. Whereas, therefore, in the former circumſtances
of mankind, government is of lefs confequence, and for that
reafon
002
284
PART¡V..
7
LECTURES O N
reaſon there is less occafion for accuracy in'adjuſting the ſeveral
parts of it, in the latter, the fmallest part of fo complex a ma-
chine, as their government muſt neceffarily be, has a variety of
connexions, and the most important effects, and therefore re-
quires to be adjufted with the utmost care.
A
*
!
}
{ 114
In the flighter connexions of mankind, the parts of their
forms of government are fcarcely diftinguishable; whereas
when government is grown to its full fize and dimenfions, in
circumstances which require it in its maturity, its parts are
eafily and diftinctly perceived. They are then plainly feen to
be the following, a power of making the neceffàry regulations,
or laws, if the legislative authority;, a power of determining
when thofe laws are violated, or of taking cognizance, concern-
ing crimes. e. the judicial power, and a power of enforcing
the fanctions of the laws, or the executive power of the ſtate.;
I
އ
If we confider the vast variety of ways in which it is poffible
to difpofe of theſe effential parts of government, both with
respect to the number of hands in which the feveral powers
may be lodged, the fubdivifion of thefe powers, and the feveral
powers which may be trufted in the fame hands, we fhall not be
furprized, at the prodigious diverfity of the forms under which
government has appeared, and that no two, which ever exifted
in any part of the world, fhould have been the fame; though
fome of them may have borne confiderable refemblance to one
another. Our furprize will ftill be leffened. if we confider the
diverfity that, will be occafioned in, forms of government by
individuals retaining more or..fewer of their natural and per-
fonal rights under each of them; that is the more or fewer
reftrictions men are put under by the legiſlative power, in what
ever hands it be lodged.
Befide
LECT. XXXIX.
285
GENERAL POLICY.
Befide the number of hands in which the fupreme power is
lodged, it will be of great confequence that, in reading hiſtory, we
attend to the diftribution of the powers among all thoſe mem-
bers of the ſtate who have the common name of magistrates.
I ſhall just mention a few particulars, to fhew that this object
is of importance.
No fingle hiſtory ſhows the importance of this remark more
clearly than the Roman, in whoſe constitution there were the
moft capital defects. What, for inftance, could be a greater
contradiction than this, that the people could, in latter times,
make laws independent of the fenate, and without the inter-
vention of any patrician; and yet that the fenate could create a
dictator, who was abfolute mafter of the whole ftate. The people,
by their tribunes, could put a negative upon the proceedings of
the fenate, but that ſenate had no negative on the votes of the
people; which, Montefquieu fays, was the caufe of a change
of government in Rome; and not only could the tribunes put
a ſtop to the legislative power, but to the executive alfo, which
produced the greateſt evils.
Nothing could have preſerved that ſtate in the form of a re-
public fo long, but that the power was lodged in the hands of
fo many perfons, who, with the fame authority, had different
views, and who checked one another. It was likewiſe happy for
the Romans that the people did not generally interfere in mili-
tary affairs, but allowed the fenate to have the fupreme direc-
tion of all things relating to peace and war; whereas, at Car-
thage, the people would do every thing themſelves.
It is a capital difference between ancient and modern mo-
narchies, that the kings of the heroical ages had the executive
power and alſo the power of judging, and the people the legifla-
tive
286
PART V.
LECTURES ON
tive power; whereas in the prefent monarchies, though the
prince has the executive, and a fhare of the legislative power,
he is no judge. Such a difpofition of power as the former
will make the government tyrannical, whatever be the form of
it. For, as Montefquieu fays, there can be no liberty unlefs
the power of judging be feparate from the legiſlative and execu-
tive power.
power. In Italy, where they are united, there is lefs li-
berty than in monarchies.
A
It is alſo an effential maxim in every government (in order to
prevent the executive power from engroffing the whole autho-
rity of the ſtate) that the forces they are entruſted with the
command of, be of the body of the people, or have the fame
intereſt with the people, as it was in Rome till the time of
Marius.
1
The legiſlative is properly the fupreme authority in the ſtate.
For to make and alter laws is to model the conftitution. But
if the perfons deputed to make laws have no power of execut
ing them, they will be careful to make none but fuch as they
believe will be generally approved, and ſuch as they are willing
to ſubmit to themſelves. But the greateſt danger would ariſe
from the fame perfons having the power of making laws, of
applying them to particular cafes, and of executing the ſentence
of the law. This it is, as I have obferved, that conftitutes ab-
folute tyranny, whether it be lodged in more, or in fewer
hands.
If the executive power, without having the controul of the
legiſlative, ſhould only interfere in the judicial office, indivi-
duals would live in continual dread of the caprice of the court;
fince the beſt laws may be tortured to favour fome and injure
athers. But the great body of the people of England, who
effectually
4
LECT. XXXIX.
28-7
GENERAL POLICY.
effectually controul the legislative power, and who will not
fuffer their property to be fported with at the pleaſure of the
crown, apply the fame means to preſerve the judicature uncor-
rupt. It is a common concern, and no man would wish to
eſtabliſh a ſyſtem of adminiftration by which himſelf might
ultimately be a fufferer. Confequently, every man's perfonal
intereſt leads him to provide for that kind of adminiftration by
which the general good will be moſt effectually fecured.
The various forms of government have generally received
their denominations from the number of perfons to whom the
legiſlative power, and confequently the regulation of every part
of the conftitution (which is the moſt ſtriking circumftance
in every government) has been intrufted. If it be in one per-
fon, it is commonly called a monarchy, eſpecially if the chief
magiftrate lie under confiderable reftrictions; whereas if he
lie under fewer, the government is called defpotic. If the fu-
preme power be lodged in a limited number of perfons, the
government is called an oligarchy, or an aristocracy; and if all
the citizens have an equal vote in making laws and appointing
magiftrates, it is called a democracy.
I
From this method of defining the various forms of govern-
ment, it is obvious to remark, that the diftinctions must run
into one another; but it is not material to have terms appro-
priated to any more accurate divifion. fhall just mention fo
much of the peculiar advantages and difadvantages of each of
theſe forms of government, as I think will be fufficient to
excite the attention of a reader of hiftory to the fubject,
and make him confider their effects in the courfe of his
reading.
To
288
PART V.
LECTURES ON
•
To enable you to form. fome idea of the low ftate of this
ſcience of government in ancient times, only confider how im-
perfect Ariftotle's ideas muft have been of the conftitution of
ſtates, when as Montefquieu obferves, he claffes Perfia and
Sparta under the fame head of monarchy. In fact, the ancients
can hardly be faid to have an idea of what we now mean by the
word monarchy. Arribas king of Epirus, in order to temper the
government of one perfon, could hit upon nothing, but a repub-
lic, and the Moloffi, to bound the fame power, made two kings.
It is a known fact that the ancient ftates, though founded many
of them by philofophers, did not contain that provifion for the
freedom and happineſs of the ſubjects of them which has been
the natural reſult of the random governments of fome of the
northern nations.
}
{
T
LEC-
LECT. XL.
289
GENERAL POLICY.
LECTURE
XL.
Reafons for the Prevalence of Despotism in early Times. Ad-
vantages of Monarchy. Difadvantages of it. What Circum-
ftances make the Situation of a People most happy in Defpotic
States. What Circumstances always more or less controul
Defpotifm. Attachment of fome Nations to Defpotism. Danger
*of Libels. Importance of a fixed Law of Succefion. Profligacy
of Morals in arbitrary Governments. True Seat of Power
in them.
TH
HE moſt fimple of all governments is abfolute monarchy:
and this is the reafon why it has generally been the firſt
form of government in all countries. It requires great fkill
and experience to balance the feveral powers of a free ftate.
The great advantage of a monarchy is, that refolutions may
be taken with fecrecy, and executed with difpatch: a thing of
the utmoſt confequence, particularly in time of war, and for
this reafon this form of government is almoſt neceffary to ex-
tenfive empire. But the great difadvantage of this government
is, that property is fo precarious, that no body has any ſpirit to
apply to commerce, or dare affect any appearance of riches and
fplendor. Alfo the high intereft of money, which neceffarily
rifes with the hazard that is run in lending or poffeffing it,
is an additional difcouragement to traffic. No perfon there-
fore, in countries fubject to defpotic government, lays him-
Telf out in projects which would benefit poflerity, but, every
perfon
Pp
i
A
PART V.
290
ON
LECTURES
perfon being intent upon enjoying the prefent hour, a rapacious
mercenary ſpirit prevails among all ranks and degrees of men.
Another great unhappineſs in countries whofe government
is ftrictly defpotic is, that, there being no fundamental laws,
the order of fucceffion is not always accurately fixed. Con-
fequently, every branch of the royal family being equally
capable of being elected king, it occafions frequent civil wars,
and bloody revolutions. This is the reafon why in Turky,
and many other Eaftern ftates, the emperor, immediately upon
his acceffion to the throne, either puts to death, impriſons for
life, or puts out the eyes of, all his brothers and near relations.
Clovis alfo, king of France, though the government was not
defpotic, exterminated all his family, left any of them should
be chofen king. His children and fucceffors did the fame.
4.
Thoſe countries which are fo unhappy as to be governed in
a defpotic manner, Mr. Montefquieu fays, are the happieſt that
their condition will admit of, when all ranks of men ftand moſt
in fear of their fuperiors; and a wife prince, in ſuch a ſtate, will
incline rather to ſeverity than lenity. In Perfia he fays Mereveis
faw the ftate perish becauſe he had not fhed blood enough;
and the Roman empire enjoyed the moſt happineſs under
Tiberius, Nero, and Domitian. For this reafon it is confiftent
with fuch governments that all decrees fhould be irrevocable.
Thus Ahasuerus could not revoke the edict he had once paffed
for exterminating the Jews. To render it of no effect they
were allowed to ſtand upon their defence.
Even that law, or cuftom, which obliges every perfon
to continue in the profeffion to which he was born fuits very
well with defpotic governments, where every fpark of emu-
lation is dangerous, and where the moſt watchful eye, ought
to be kept over every thing that may poffibly disturb the public
tranquility.
LECT. XL:
291
GENERAL POLICY.
}
{
tranquility. In no ſtate whatever is tranquility more effectually
preferved, by every thing being invariable, than in China.
There manners, morals, and laws are equally fixed; and youth
are inftructed in the forms of falutation, and all the common
rules of life, in the fame regular manner as in the moſt
important ſciences.
}
L
In fome defpotic governments, not only is the life of the
prince in continual danger, either from competitors to power,
or the difcontents of injured ſubjects, but the country itſelf is
more expofed to invafion. The princes are jealous of fortified
places, and will not, except in cafes of the greateſt neceffity,
admit of them; fo as to be obliged to truft any perſon with the
government of them.
Notwithstanding the opinion of a right to power be very
common, this prepoffeffion has generally given way to ſuch an
abhorrence of theſe tyrannical governments, that the very
names which have been uſed to exprefs them have grown in the
highest degree odious; as Tyrant among the Greeks, and Rex
among the Romans; infomuch that it has frequently been more
afe to ufurp the power itſelf than to affume the title of it.
It was reckoned virtuous in Greece and Rome to kill kings
and tyrants, though in the latter emperors were reípected.
We are not, however, to conclude that becauſe there are no
regular laws in defpotic governments, and no perfon inveſted
with power to controul the fovereign, every man's life and
property are abfolutely unfafe. Manners, customs, prevailing
ſentiments, and eſpecially religion, are great and often effectual
reſtraints upon the exercife of feemingly unlimited power.
The Grand Seignior can neither touch the public treafure,
break the Janizaries, interfere with the Seraglios of any of his
fubjects, nor impofe a new tax.
P p 2
Notwithſtanding
292
PART V.
LECTURES ON
་
Notwithſtanding the abhorrence we have entertained of def-
potic governments, from ftudying the republican claffical writers
of antiquity, and from our living under a more happy con-
ſtitution, there are not wanting examples of people being
ftrongly attached to defpotifm. The Cappadocians are faid to
have refuſed their freedom when the Romans would have given
it them. In the Eaſt there is no idea of the poffibility of any
other kind of government. A Venetian being introduced to
the king of Pegu, and faying that there was no king at Venice,
the prince burst into a fit of laughter.
As the profpect of honour is a great inftrument of govern-
ment, the fear of fhame is no less powerful. No man can bear
univerfal or very general cenfure, efpecially if he has necef-
fary intercourfe with thofe who diflike his conduct. On this
account, no country can fuffer much, or long, whatever be its
form of government, if the people have the liberty of ſpeaking
and writing, and have an unrestrained right of petitioning and
remonftrating. In this cafe juftice and truth, being often
preſented to view, will at length be heard and attended to.
This is a great fecurity in the English government, and prevents
many abuſes which would otherwife take place in it.
Arbitrary governors, aware of this, take the greatest care.
to prevent the people from publiſhing their thoughts on mat-
ters of government, and fometimes even forbid their meeting
together. But this is running the riſk of a greater evil in order
to avoid a lefs. The people, not having the liberty of ſpeech,
by which they might give vent to, and footh, their complaints,
fmother their refentment for a time, and then break out into
the greateſt outrages. Tyrants who would not bear to be
cenfured have often been fuddenly dragged to death.
1
The
LECT. XL.
293
GENERAL POLICY.
The capital advantages of monarchy, with respect to internal
quiet, is that, when the law of fucceffion is fixed, and univerſally
refpected, and when the executive power is lodged in the
hands of the fovereign, no fubject can have the leaft proſpect
of transferring it to himſelf. It will therefore be the intereſt
of all to keep within due bounds, that power in which they
can never ſhare, and to fee that it be employed for the public
good. This is the capital advantage attending the conſtitution
of this country, as it is explained at large by Mr. De Lolme.
All watch the monarch, but none endeavour to fupplant him.
In confequence of this, all ftruggles between the prince and
the people have terminated in ſome advantage, which has been
common to all the ſubjects, and not to any one claſs of them
in particular. The executive power being fo great, the affiſt-
ance of all ranks has been neceffary to curb it.
Many of the eſtabliſhed maxims of politicians the moſt
celebrated for their fagacity, are exceedingly fallacious, in
confequence of being drawn from a few facts only. Machia-
vel, one of the moſt famed of them fays, that if ever a prince
confides in one able minifter, he will be dethroned by him.
But, as Mr. Hume juftly replies, would Fleury, one of the
moſt abfolute minifters in France, though ever fo ambitious,
while in his fenfes, entertain the leaft hope of difpoffeffing
the Bourbons? Nor, we may add, is it poffible that the moſt
able, the moſt ambitious, and the moft abfolute of our minifters
of ſtate, ſhould fupplant the houſe of Hanover. But becauſe
the contrary had happened in ancient times, when the rule
of hereditary right was not fo firmly eſtabliſhed, it was con-
cluded that it would always happen.
The only danger arifing to a people from the executive
power being lodged in one hand, is that of its becoming
independent
294
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
independent of the people. But this is happily guarded againſt
in the Engliſh conftitution, in which the king is entirely
dependant upon the people for all his fupplies. He is therefore
obliged to reſpect the privileges of the people, and he cannot
involve them in a war in which they are unwilling to fupport
him. This, at leaſt, would be the cafe, if the houſe of com-
mons was the true reprefentative of the people. But as things
actually are, the influence of the court on the members of this
houſe is ſo great, that they are often induced to give their
fanction to meaſures which their conftituents would not approve.
If the monarch be wholly dependant upon the people for his
fupplies, it is of the greateſt importance that thoſe be granted
by them in one great body, as in England. If the ſupplies be
voted by feparate diftricts, they will have jealoufies among
themſelves. Some will give more, and others lefs, than their
due proportion; and it will be in the power of the court to
gain their ends with them all, by playing one againſt another.
On this circumftance Mr. De Lolme lays great ſtreſs.
One of the greateſt evils attending monarchy, is the diffo-
lutenefs of morals almoft neceffarily incident to a ſplendid court.
A family poffeffed of great power will, on fome pretence or
other, amaſs great wealth; and the young princes being brought
up with an idea of their own importance, they will indulge
themſelves at the expence of the public. They will alfo have
many dependants, whofe intereft it will be to enlarge their
power, and increaſe their wealth, that they may be benefited
by the difperfion of it. The perfons next in power will imitate
the manners of the princes, and they will be envied and
imitated by others. And as the means to gain their end,
will be recommending themſelves to their fuperiors (and
not their inferiors) they will ftudy the gratification of their
wiſhes,
4
t
LECT. XL.
295
GENERAL POLICY.
wiſhes, that is, they will adminifter to their vices; and thus a
general profligacy of manners will be the confequence. Perfons
educated monarchs, and who ſhould have virtue enough both to
fet a good example themfelves, and to diſcourage vice in others,
would be prodigies. It cannot be expected but that monarchs
in general will have fome objects befides the public good, and
that they will employ thofe perfons whom they deem the beſt
qualified to ſerve them, whether they be men of private virtue
or not.
The real power of a country is feldom in thofe hands in
which the conſtitution feems to have placed it; fo that if thoſe
who have buſineſs to do with any ſtate apply in the firſt inſtance
to thoſe whoſe office it is to receive them, they will feldom
gain their point. They muft apply to thoſe who by their
talents or affiduity, have recommended themſelves to the govern-
ing powers, fo as to eaſe them of the burthen of public affairs.
This is more particularly the cafe in defpotic governments, in
which princes are ſo educated as to be ſeldom capable of buſineſs.
It will therefore be done by thoſe who are about them, and
who have infinuated them felves into their favour; and theſe,
being chiefly actuated by their private paffions, and eſpecially
their affection or diflike to particular perfons, the intereſt of the
ftate will be little confulted by them. How often have generals
been appointed, and even wars engaged in, at the caprice of
women.
LEC-
296
PART V.
LECTURES ON
*
}
LECTURE
XLI.
Advantages of Democracy. Connexion of Liberty and Science.
Situation of Republics with respect to defence. Severity of
Manners in Republics. Severe Punishments dangerous. The
true Supports of Republican Government. Danger of Luxury.
Equality of Fortunes. Exorbitant Power in Magiftrates dan-
gerous. Number of Voters. Rotation of Offices.
Refolution of Multitudes. Ufe of Reprefentatives.
A
Uncertain
Perfect democracy is an extreme directly oppofite to abſo-
lute monarchy, and, next to it, is the eafieft to be fallen
into, particularly by fmall ftates. Hence all the petty ſtates
of Greece, without exception, when they put down their
tyrants, fell into fome kind of democracy, though no two
of their forms of government were exactly the fame.
The capital advantage of this form of government is, that as
there is the fame free accefs to honour and employments to
every member of the ftate, free fcope is given to the exertion
of every man's abilities. Here, therefore, we may naturally
expect the utmoſt efforts of the human faculties, eſpecially in
thofe talents which are moſt calculated to ftrike the vulgar,
and acquire general applaufe.
The art of haranguing is above all others a neceffary qualifi-
cation, being almoft the only road to preferment. Hence arifes
eloquence, and thoſe other branches of the belles lettres and
politer arts which are connected with it, and are not of the
effeminate and unmanly kind. For the eloquence of a free
ftate
LECT. XLI.
297
GENERAL POLICY.
ftate muſt be adapted to affect the paffions and imaginations of
men of a natural and uncorrupted tafte. Otherwiſe it would
have no effect.
Beſides, in a republic the neceffity of reftraining the magiftrates
muft give rife to general laws, and from law arifes fecurity,
from fecurity curiofity, and from curiofity knowledge, as Mr.
Hume (who ſeems particularly fond of this kind of government)
marks the gradation. But a commonwealth is certainly un-
favourable to politeneſs, and ſoftneſs of manners. This kind of
refinement grows more naturally from that fpirit of fervility
which is the effect of defpotic government.
With reſpect to defence, we fee, in the hiftory of the earlier
period of Greece, that an enthuſiaſtic love of liberty, in an union
of ſeveral free ſtates, has fome advantages which may compenfate
for
any inconvenience that may attend the want of an abfolute
commander; though we can hardly fay with Montefquieu, that
republics in a league enjoy all the advantages of a common-
wealth within themſelves, and the advantages of a monarchy
with respect to defence.
It will be a great miftake to conclude that where there is no
defpotic fovereign, the people, being free from that reſtraint upon
their conduct, may fafely indulge themfelves in greater liberty.
For in no form of government whatever is a perfect fubjection
more neceffary. All the members of a republic must live in
the ſtrictest obedience; but then it is to their equals, and to the
laws. Xenophon obferves a great difference between the rever-
ence and obfervance of the laws in the Lacedæmonians and
Athenians, to the difadvantage of the latter.
When the laws ceaſe to be executed in a republic, Montel-
quieu fays all is loft. This can only happen from the corruption
૦ ૧
of
298
PART V.
LECTURES ON
of the republic, and there is no power to remedy the evil,
as in monarchy. Hence, in all republics, pardon is with diffi-
culty obtained, if at all. In moſt of them, if this power ſub-
fifts at all, it is ſo reſtrained, and ſo difficultly exerted, as almoſt
to make good the complaint of the young man in Livy, that a
man muſt fola innocentia vivere. In Holland, without a Stadt-
holder, there is no fuch power as pardoning, notwithſtanding it be
effential to policy, and in ſome caſes as neceffary as juſtice itſelf.
A love of power produces more inconveniences in republics.
than in monarchies, becauſe places of power and truft are within
the reach of greater numbers, they are to be obtained by making
intereft with the common people, and their refolutions, having
no controul, are apt to be fudden and violent. The Gre-
cian ſtates, and alfo the republics of Italy in later times, were
expoſed to perpetual diſtractions and revolutions in confequence
of it; there being always a confiderable number of baniſhed
perfons, their friends and partiſans, who threatened an invaſion.
Virtue and public fpirit are the neceffary fupports of all re-
publican governments. Hence it was morally impoffible that
Rome ſhould have continued free in the time of Cæfar; and the
oppofition to monarchial power by a few of the better citizens
only made the dying ſtruggles of liberty more violent, and more
deſtructive to the ſtate. Public fpirit makes the riches of in-
dividuals to become the riches of the public: but when public
ſpirit is loft, the riches of the public become the riches of indi-
viduals; and in this cafe, an increaſe of numbers, and of wealth,.
may be attended with a diminution of power. Athens had as
many citizens when Demetrius Phalerius numbered them as
they had in their moſt flouriſhing ſtate, and it is certain they
were not lefs rich; but public ſpirit was gone, and with that
all
LECT. XLI.
299
GENERAL POLICY.
f
all their former power and importance, and yet that policy is
violent which aggrandizes the public by the poverty and diftrefs
of individuals.
From the neceffity of virtue and public ſpirit in repub-
lics arifes the extreme caution of all wife legiflators to keep
luxury out of them, and to preferve as great an equality in the
riches and the power of all the members of the ſtate as pof-
fible; and hence, indeed, the precarious fituation of all popular
governments, and their neceffary diffolution, whenever conqueft,
or commerce, and arts fhall have taken away that equality.
The Roman commonwealth was ruined by the exceffive riches
and
power of individuals, and the wealth of the Medici made them
mafters of Florence. Moreover, when the numbers of republics
become indolent and luxurious, they will make uſe of the public
treaſure for improper purpoſes; ſo that the nearer they ſeem to
be to derive the greatest advantages from their liberty, the nearer
they fometimes are to ruin. Witneſs Athens in the time of De-
mofthenes. Commerce therefore, which never fails to introduce
luxury and inequality into men's circumftances, does not perfectly
fuit with the true fpirit of a commonwealth.
If the republic be a trading one, it is an excellent law, that
every fon ſhould be alike ſharer in his father's inheritance; and
a boundleſs permiffion to diſpoſe of eſtates by will, deſtroys by
degrees that equality which is neceffary to a republic.
Hence alſo the neceffity of having methods of difperfing im-
menſe eſtates in republics. In the beſt Grecian republics, the
rich were under a neceffity of ſpending their money in feſtivals,
choirs of mufic, chariot and horfe-races, expenfive magiftracies,
and building ſhips; and at Rome the great people bore all the
expenfive offices, and the poor paid nothing.
Quq z
Nothing
:
300
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
Nothing can give us a clearer idea of the ſtate of things at
Athens in this reſpect than a paffage in the banquet of Xeno-
phon, in which Charmidas is introduced making the following
fpeech, "I am content with my poverty. When I was rich, I
"was obliged to make my court to informers, the ftate was
always laying fome new burthen upon me, and I could not
"abſent myſelf from it: fince I am become poor, I have ac-
quired authority; nobody threatens me, I threaten others, and
go
where I pleaſe; the rich rife and give place to me.
king, I was a flave. I paid tribute to the republic, now it
"nouriſhes me."
46
46
6.6 I
""
I am
Great rewards for fervices, even in monarchies, much more
in democracies, are figns of their decline. It fhews that men
are not fufficiently actuated by a fenfe of virtue and honour,
Demofthenes, Æſchines, and eight more ambaffadors to the king
of Macedon, received leſs than a drachma a day, though a com-
mon foldier received one and fometimes two drachmas a day;
and yet
Demofthenes calls this a confiderable fum. Caligula
and Nero gave the moſt, and the Antonines the leaft, of all the
Roman emperors.
Exorbitant power is ſtill more immediately threatening to a re-
public than exorbitant riches. The perfons poffeffed of it are
far more dangerous than in lawful monarchies, becauſe there
is no law to controul them. Confidering this, we ſhall not
wonder at the oppoſition made by Hanno to Hannibal In what
danger would the republic of Carthage have been if Hannibal
had taken Rome, when he made fo many alterations in its con-
ftitution after his defeat ? At Ragufa, the chief magiftrate of
the republic is changed every month. This is proper only in a
fmall ftate, furrounded by enemies who might corrupt their
chiefs.
>
LECT. XLI. ; GENERAL POLICY.
30.1
chiefs. The keeping of the public treafure. at Athens was
intrufted with no perſon for more than a fingle day.
It is of great confequence that the number of voters in a
republic be fixed. At Rome, fometimes all the citizens were
out of the walls, at other times almoſt all Italy was within
them; which was one principal cauſe of the fall of the repub-
lic. For by that means men of power and ambition were never
at a loſs for the means of paffing any law, or gaining any parti-
cular point, that they had occafion for. Secret fuffrages are
alfo faid by Montefquieu to have been one means of the ruin
of Rome for the common people, then very corrupt, were
then under no restraint from fhame. The diffolution of a re-
public by luxury and refinement, he fays, is the true euthanafia
of that form of government. For thofe manners prepare them
to fubmit to monarchy with lefs reluctance; but the convulfions
of dying liberty in a rough, a brave, and an enterprising people,
are dreadful.
For this reaſon, and becauſe the clergy are not powerful
enough to reſtrain arbitrary power in England, it is ſaid by him
that if ever the English be flaves, they will be the greateſt, and
moft miferable of all flaves.
The prefervation of republican forms of government requires
that no important offices continue long in the fame hands.
In general, men are lovers of power, as well as of wealth,
becauſe they can make the power of which they are poffeffed
fubfervient to moſt of their purpoſes, and they will purfue their
own gratification at the expence of that of others. In the dif
tribution of power, therefore, care ſhould be taken that no per-
fons have an opportunity of poffeffing it any longer than it may
be for the advantage of the whole, and that all powers be eafily
revocable, whenever it fhall be perceived that they are abused.
For
302
PART V.
LECTURES ON
For this purpofe it ſeems moft convenient that all offices of
great truft and power be held by rotation. Becauſe it will not
be for the intereſt of any man to add to the power of an office,
to which he must himſelf foon become fubject. While he
enjoys it he will confider not fo much his condition for a ſhort
time, as for the greater part of his life, and that of his children
and pofterity after him. Whereas, if any power, or honour be
hereditary, it will be his intereft to take every opportunity of
enlarging it, at the expence of the rest of the community.
It is very poffible, however, that the prejudices of fome
people in favour of monarchical government, and of the rights
of certain families to kingly power, may be fo ftrong, as that it
will be better to risk every thing, than change the form of govern-
ment; becaufe civil wars, the greateft of all evils, might be the
confequence of it. When almoft the whole power of the ſtate is
lodged in one hand (as in thoſe governments which are termed
defpotic, or which approach to it) there is the greateſt probability
that, educated as fuch princes will be, they will make a very
abfurd uſe of their power, fuch as will by no means be for the
intereft of the community; and if a fucceffion confiits of able
men, their power will continually grow more exorbitant. But
whilft the people choose to be governed in that mode, and con-
ceive, for whatever reaſon, that a certain family has a right fo
to govern them, it would be wrong to attempt a change in the
government, and ſtill more fo to deprive any particular perfon,
or family, of thoſe rights, of which, with the confent of the
people, they have been long poffeffed. All that can be done
in fuch a cafe is to define with the greatest accuracy the law
of fucceffion to power, that there may be no difpute about the
perfon entitled to it, and to prevent as far as poffible all increaſe
of it.
3
All
?
LECT. XLI.
30.3
GENERAL POLICY.
{
All perfons who are acquainted with any kind of public
buſineſs, in which numbers of people give their opinions and
decide upon the fpot, well know with what difficulty it is con-
ducted, and how uncertain the decifions are. Few think before
hand, many are fond of diftinguiſhing themſelves, and numbers
never confider the queftion before them, but who are for it, and
who against it. If a number of the more intelligent of the
people prepare matters before-hand, bufinefs may be done with
tolerable eafe; but then it is in reality tranfa&ted by thofe few,
and the reſt are taken by furprize. For in the fame manner
they might have been induced to adopt any meaſures, not mani-
feftly contrary to their intereſt.
Where great numbers of perfons are concerned, it is of infinite
advantage that they do not deliberate and decide themselves, but
chuſe a few to act for them. Theſe having a truſt, and know-
ing that the eyes of the whole community are upon them, will
be defirous of diſcharging their truft with reputation to them-
felves, and confequently with advantage to their conftituents.
It will be their bufinefs to confider all public meafures, and to
fettle a regular method of doing buſineſs. A crown, or a
court, having to treat with theſe repreſentatives, chofen out of the
people for their wiſdom and reſpectability, will find that they
have to do with their equals, and will not expect to cajole and
deceive them, as they might have done the collective body of
the people. It is abfolutely neceffary, however, that theſe re-
preſentatives of the people be confined to that office, and always
feel themfeves to be a part of the community which they reprefent.
Otherwife, the people, in chufing them, will chufe their own
mafters. If, in confequence of reprefenting the people, they
have an opportunity of acquiring advantages to which the reſt
of
304
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
:
*
of the community have no accefs, they will have a different in-
tereſt from that of their conftituents, and will, no doubt, con-
fult it.
In a ſtate of political liberty, the people must have a con-
troul over the government, by themſelves or their reprefentatives.
In large ſtates this can only be done in the latter method, and
then it comes to be confidered who are proper to repreſent the
nation, in order to make laws for their countrymen and to dif-
pofe of their property. I own I fee no occafion for any re-
ftriction whatever, as it cannot be fuppofed that, if people be
left to themſelves, they will chufe improper reprefentatives. If
they do, it is fit that they fhould learn by experience to make
a better choice on a future occafion. If the repreſentative body
be large, like our Houfe of Commons, the worst choice of a
few members can be but of little confequence..
Leaſt of all ſhould people be limited to their choice by a
regard to fortune. For they may have the juſteſt reaſons to put
the greatest confidence in perfons who have little or no pro-
perty; and in general they will of themſelves be fufficiently
influenced by this confideration, without any interference of
the law. If a regard to wealth be any rule, it ſhould not ex-
tend to very great fortunes. For in general perfons of moderate
fortunes are better educated, have fewer artificial wants, and are
more independent than thoſe who are born to great eftates.
Beſides, they are more natural reprefentatives of the middle
clafs of people, they are more likely to feel for them, and to
confult their intereſt.
It is of the greateſt importance that thoſe who repreſent any
nation be of the fame clafs and rank in life with thofe by whom
they are appointed, and that they have frequent intercourſe with
them.
*
LECT. XLI.
305
GENERAL POLICY.
them. By this means they will catch their fpirit, and enter
into their views. They will also be reftrained by a fenfe of
fhame from propofing, or confenting to, any thing that they know
their electors would not approve. They could not fhew them-
felves in public company after any conduct of this kind. On
the other hand, the members of an aristocracy, fufficiently
numerous to have fociety among themfelves, would feel only
for themſelves, and would have no reſtraint on their meaſures
reſpecting the lower ranks of the community. They might
even make it a point of honour to preferve and enlarge their
privileges, at the expence of thoſe beneath them.
It is alſo of great importance that, in an affembly of re-
preſentatives, property only, or reputed understanding, be con-
fidered and not claffes, or denominations of men.
If the clergy
be admitted as clergy, lawyers as lawyers, foldiers as foldiers, &c.
they will have what the French call the efprit de corps. They
will unite to confult their own intereft, and fome of the bodies
will make conceffions to others, at the expence of the reſt of the
community. Whereas when they are chofen merely becauſe the
people at large think them the beſt qualified to provide for their
general interefts, they will confult the wiſhes of thoſe who
appoint them, and the intereſt of each part will be attended to
in proportion to its importance to the whole.
From the remains of fuperftition, the clergy are ſtill confidered
as a diſtinct order of men in this country, and they are in a man-
ner repreſented in parliament, by the biſhops having ſeats in the
houfe of lords. It is alleged that this is neceffary in order to take
care of their interefts. But on the fame principle phyſicians,
lawyers, diffenters, and all other claffes of men, ought to have
feats in parliament. If the clergy recommend themſelves to
the people by making their office uſeful, they will have fuf-
ficient
Rr
$
i
306
PARTV.
LECTURES
ON
ficient influence, without any of their body having feats in
parliament; and if they come to be confidered in an offenfive
light, the number of the bishops by whom they are repreſented
is too ſmall to prevent the paffing of any law, even to exclude
them. If they had a juft fenfe of the nature of their office,
and confulted their true dignity, they would retire of their own
accord. At preſent, their ſeat in the houſe only flatters their
pride, and gives the miniſter ſo many more votes.
嘻
​LECTURE
LXII.
Ariftocracy how different from Defpotifm. What depends upon
the Number of its Members. Libels peculiarly Obnoxious in
this Government. In what Refpects the prefent European
Monarchies differ from the ancient Monarchies.
Their Rife.
Peculiar Advantage of them. Nobility. Thefe Governments
promife to be lafting. Different Situation of the Female Sex in
theſe Governments and those which are Defpotic. The Nature'
of the Roman Government. The Happiness of having the Order
of Succeffion in Monarchies fixed: European Monarchies not
proper for extenfive Empire.
IT
T is eaſy to fee that all other forms of government muſt be
fomewhere in a medium between the extremes of defpotifm
and democracy, and that they muft, confequently, partake of
the advantages, and diſadvantages of both; according as they
J
approach
?
LECT. XLII.
307
GENERAL POLICY:
approach towards them. The moft diftinguiſhed mediums in
the difpofition of power are in the aristocracies of ſome ancient
and modern ftates, and the prefent European monarchies.
An aristocracy, however, differs nothing from a defpotiſm,
except that the fame abfolute power is lodged in a few more
hands. All the rest of the people are as much at their mercy;
and as the people have more maſters; they are generally more
oppreffed.
The more are the members of an aristocracy, the leſs is their
power, and the greater their fafety; the fewer they are, the
greater is their power, and the lefs their fafety, till we come to
pure defpotiſm, where there is the greateſt power and the leaft
fafety. If the members of the aristocracy enter into trade, and
confequently the riches, as well as the power, of the ftate center
in themfelves, they will opprefs the poor, to the diſcourages
ment of all induftry. For the fame reafon, it is ftill worfe
when an arbitrary fovereign applies to trade; for trade, of all
things, requires to be conducted by perſons who are upon terms
of equality.
In proportion to the numbers of the ariftocracy, they ought
to relax of the rigour of defpotifm; and when they are pretty'
numerous, the greateſt moderation ought to be their principle.
They ought to affect no unneceffary diftinctions, leaft of alf
thoſe which are honourable to themſelves in proportion as they'
are difgraceful to the common people; as the patricians of
Rome did when they reftrained themfelves from marrying with
the Plebeians.
Perſonal privileges and immunities, which are not neceſſary for
the good of the whole, are always juftly offenfive. To a perfon
in an office which has for its object the public good, deference
will eaſily be paid; but in all other cafes a diftinction of rank
Rr 2
naturally
308
PART V.
LECTURES ON
naturally excites jealoufy. It creates pride in the one, and
fervility in the other, which debaſes the characters of both.
It is well obferved by Mr. Turgot, that all hereditary dif-
tinctions, if they have any civil effect, and confer any right,
and all perfonal prerogatives, if they are not the neceffary con-
fequence of exercising a public function, are a diminution of
the natural rights of other men, a proceeding contrary to the
primitive end of ſociety, and of conſequence a real injuſtice*
In the eaſtern monarchies there are no hereditary nobles.
In China the grand-children of the greateſt mandarins are
generally on a level with the common people.
How galling the power of the nobility is to the common
people, we ſee in the preference which fome nations have given
to pure monarchy, or defpotiſm, to thoſe forms of government
in which the nobility had the chief power. This was con-
ſpicuous in the late revolutions in Denmark, and Sweden; in
which, with the hearty concurrence of the people, the
of the nobility was transferred to the king. It was alſo con-
fpicuous in the part which the commons of England took, in
concurrence with the king, to leffen the power of the ancient
barons.
power
From the diftribution of power into fo many hands, libels
are moſt liable to be reftrained in this kind of governments;
becauſe the magiftrates are neither too high, nor too low, to
be hurt by them. Contrary to the maxims of a republic, all
the fuffrages in an aristocracy, fays Montefquieu, ought to be
fecret, to prevent cabals.
Poland is the worst conftituted aristocracy, where the people
are flaves to their nobility.
*Life of Mr. Turgot, p. 307.
+ Memoirs fur les Chinois, vol. iv. p. 311.
2
The
LECT: XLII.
309
GENERAL POLICY.
\
The prefent European monarchies are fyftems of government
totally different from any thing of which the ancients could
form an idea. Every thing they ſay about monarchies is every
day contradicted in them.. They were formed in the following
manner.
·
The German nations were in general free, and voted every
thing in perfon. When they were diſperſed in their conqueſts
they could not do this, but ſent deputies, and hence aroſe the
cuſtom of repreſentation, by means of which equal political
liberty may be made confiftent with the moſt extenfive govern-
ments.
The common people were originally vaſſals, or flaves, and were
confidered as belonging to the lands on which they were fettled,
and they were transferred with them from one proprietor to
another, which is the cafe in many parts of the continent to
this day. But chriſtianity, and feveral other circumſtances,
contributed to better the condition of flaves in the western parts
of Europe, and by degrees they all obtained their liberty. Not
having been uſed to arms, as the free men had all been, they
became addicted to arts and trade, by which they acquired con-
fiderable property, and with that influence and power.
At
length, and by degrees, they fent their reprefentatives to the
great council of the nation, and thus the civil liberty of the
people, the prerogatives of the nobility, and clergy, together
with the, power of the king, who was originally nothing more
than their general, was fo tempered, that it is aftonishing that
the regulations made by a conquering people, fhould have
terminated in a better form of government than any thing that
had ever been devised by man before.
Theſe governments have the advantage of defpotifm in time
of war, and property is as fecure in them as it can be in any
republic.
310
LECTURES ON ALPART V.
republic. The ancients, fays. Montefquieu, could never have
imagined what we now fee; that monarchy is capable of order,
method, and conftancy to fo furprizing a degree, property
fecured, industry encouraged, the arts flourishing, and the prince
living fecure among his fubjects, like a father among his
children.
malo od9
The nobility being the defcendants of the greater barons, or
freemen, makes a diftinct order of men in this kind of monarchy,
and having been accustomed to arms, and not to tradeja fenfe
of honour is the grand fpring of action in them. If commerce
decay in theſe monarchies, it is not becauſe property is lefs
fecure, but becauſe the profeffion is lefs honourable.
"Y
Theſe governments promife to be the moſt lafting of all
others; becauſe, confifting of fo many parts, each of which
has a negative on all refolutions of confequence, they are a
check upon, and balance, one another; and every public meaſure
has the opportunity of being repeatedly and thoroughly difcuffed.
According to Montefquieu, the power and happineſs of
monarchical ſtates is in a great meaſure independent both of
public ſpirit, and of a principle of virtue. Nay, the very vices
of the members of them (at leaſt thoſe things which would be
vices in a republic) are, he ſays, fubfervient to their welfare.
In a monarchy there is at leaft lefs to be apprehended from
luxury, and the chief promoter of it, a free intercourfe between
the two fexes. The Suions a German nation, Tacitus fays,
honoured riches, and lived under the government of one perfon.
It is curious to fee, in Dio Caffius, with what art Auguftus
evaded the request of the fenators to stop the progrefs of luxury,
which was become neceffary at Rome, when a monarchy. In
a republic candidates for offices look downward, and ftudy the
ufeful arts; but in a monarchy they look upwards, and ſtudy to
make
LECT, XLII.
311
GENERAL POLICY.
make themſelves agreeable. Though, therefore, ſtrong ſenſe
may fucceed beſt in republics, refinement of taſte may be ex-
pected in greater perfection in monarchies.
Befides, where there is a free intercourſe between the fexes,
the mutual defire of pleafing produces a continual change of
faſhions, and manners, very confiftent with monarchy, but
incompatible with defpotifm. Moreover, whereas, in a món-
archy, women are the promoters of luxury; in defpotic govern-
ments they are merely the objects of it. Were women to
behave with that freedom and fpirit of intrigue in Afia, that
they are remarkable for in Europe, and particularly in France,
the government, would foon be obliged to take notice of it.
Republics alfo are obliged to put great reftraints upon the
incontinence of women, in order to fecure public virtue, which
is fo effential to them; whereas, in monarchies, though thoſe
vices have the fame ill confequences in private families, the
miſchiefs they produce are leſs extenſive.
The Roman government never was properly monarchical. It
was fometimes chiefly republican, and, in fome periods of the
empire, in fact, a military republic. Sometimes it was arifto-
cratical, and fometimes defpotic; but never any thing like an
European monarchy. And the true fpirit of politeness and
gallantry, which took their rife in modern monarchies, was
unknown among them.
Stability could not be preſerved in monarchical governments,
any more than in defpotie ftates, unless the fubjects of them
had a paffionate regard for the true heir of the royal family; and
the great happineſs of European monarchies arifes from the
order of facceffion being abfolutely fixed, and univerſally
known. While, in the progrefs of our ideas, in this northern
part of the world, we were fluctuating between the right of
reprefentation,
4
312
PART V.
LECTURES ON
reprefentation, and nearness of blood; that is, whether, for
inſtance, a younger fon, or a minor grandfon by an elder fon
ſhould fucceed to an inheritance (which was not generally fet-
tled, as it now is, in favour of the latter, that is of the right
of repreſentation, as it is called, till about the twelfth century)
every part of Europe was torn to pieces by civil wars.
j
It ſhould ſeem that monarchies, fuch as fubfift in Europe,
are not proper for very extenfive dominion, though they admit
a greater extent of territory than republics. Though the French
nobility, fired with glory and emulation, can bear the fatigues
and dangers of war, they would hardly, fays Voltaire, fub-
mit to languish in the garrifons of Hungary or Lithuania,
forgotten at court, and facrificed to the intrigues of every
minion, or miſtrefs, who approached the throne.
i
:
...64
+
L E C T U RE XLIII.
The Balance of Power in
Different Causes of Civil
Right of Refiftance. Extent
Of the Permanence of Governments.
States, particularly in England.
Wars. Hazard in Revolutions.
of States. General Character of Statesmen.
'
T
THE prefervation of any conftitution of government muft
depend upon the reſpect which the people have for it;
and it cannot be overturned till thofe who have the power of
doing
LECT. XLIII:
313
GENERAL POLICY.
doing it are both difpofed to do it, and have an opportunity of
effecting their purpoſe. But the common people, who have other
objects to attend to, will, in general, bear a great deal before
they feel themselves difpofed to take the trouble, and run the
riſk, of redreffing public wrongs; and if they were fo difpofed,
they might be incapable of union. Whereas the governors of
a country, being few, and having a common intereft, can
readily affemble; and take meaſures to keep themſelves in power.
There are, therefore, few rebellions that fucceed; and when
they do, thoſe who have felt the grievance have ſeldom thought
of the proper method of redreſs, or prevention; fo that the
chance of being well ſettled after a violent revolution is very
fmall. The people may be careful enough to avoid one ex-
treme, but they will be in great danger of falling into another.
Thus the rebellions againſt monarchy in Greece ended in re-
publican forms of government, fo ill conftructed, that they fuf-
fered more under them than in the preceding tyrannies. The
fame was the cafe with many of the fmall ftates of Italy, when
they emancipated themſelves from the authority of the German
emperors. On the contrary, the fubverfion of republics has
generally produced tyrannies.
i
When a ſtate cannot be preferved by the univerfal, or very
general, defire of the people, it may be faved by the balancing
of thoſe powers which would tend to deſtroy it; and as all the
different orders of men naturally wish for more power, and
every individual wishes to rife above his neighbour, all govern-
ments may, in fact, be confidered as in this ftate. It is there-
fore of importance fo to arrange the different parts of the con-
ftitution, as that a ftruggle for power may be prevented from
having any dangerous effect. And perhaps it may be afferted,
that the more diftinct interefts there are in à ftate, the eaſier it
will
s f
314
JPÄRT VÄ
LECTURES
ON
!
辈
​}
1
will be to preferve the balance of power within it! For when
there are only two interefts, they will each have but one object,
and any advantage they fecure will not only be permanent, but be
the means of gaining fome farther advantage, till the whole be
on one fide. Whereas a third intereft may preferve the balance,
if no one of the three be able, to overpower the other two. In
this cafe any one can give a decided fuperiority to either of the
other two parties, and yet may find its intereft in preferving, its
independence, and not uniting with either of them. cu di
Our conftitution is faid to have this advantage, as the power
of the ftate is lodged in the king, lords, and commons. We
are not, however, to be governed by names, but by things.
Real power depends upon opinion, or intereft. Regal power
depends upon both. The mere respect for a king, in confe-
quence of his perfon being held facred, does alone, in fome
countries, render his perfon and his power inviolate, whatever
exceffes he be guilty of, as we may fee in the hiftory of the kings
of Morocco. Something of this fuperftitious refpect for royalty
is found in this country, though there is much more of it in
France. But befides this, the power of our kings depends upon
the power they have of attaching perfons to them by the dif
pofal of honours and lucrative offices, as well as by the wealth,.
of which, as individuals, they may be poffeffed. Thefe are
the chief ſupports of the power of the crown in this country.
If the king had nothing but his nominal right, of a negative on
the votes of both houfes of parliament, it would fignify nothing,.
He would not be a king one day after he fhould infift upon it..
But his influence is fuch by other means, that nothing: is ever
preſented to him for his confirmation, which he is not previouſly
acquainted with, and approves..
}
The
ཝཱ
LECT. XLIII.
GENERAL POLICY.
་་་
3+5
The power of the lords is better founded, as they have more
real property, and more natural dependants. But in this
country the property of the lords is now but little compared.
with that of the commons; and fhould they take any part againſt
the people, their privileges would foon be abolished. But
their influence in the houſe of commons, directly or indirectly,
on the one hand, and with the king on the other, is ſuch, that
there is no great danger of any bill being brought before them
which they would find it their intereft violently to oppofe.
Befides, bodies of men will always concede to each other rather
than rifk the confequence of an open rupture.
The people in general, having had long experience of the
benefit of this form of government, though great numbers of
them are often aggrieved, and complain of the privileges of the
nobility, or of the power of the crown; yet their repreſentatives
being by no means unanimous, and the majority of them gene-
rally with the court, nothing can easily be effected in their
favour.
As fo much depends upon the houfe of commons, and fo great a
part of the real power of the crown itſelf depends upon its influence
among them, it might feem to be in the power of the members
to arrogate more to themfelves, and to exerciſe the very powers
that they beſtow on others. Had they the power of perpetuat-
ing themſelves, there would be great danger of their attempting
fomething of this kind. But befides that their power as indi-
viduals would be fmall, and of no long continuance, they are
only the deputies of the great body of the people, who refpect
the government as it is; fo that however willing the members
of the houſe of commons might be to take more power into
their own hands, they could not do it. The fenfe of the people,
as we call it, though no nominal part of the conftitution, is
Sf 2
often
316
¡¡ PART V₁
LECTURES
QN
often felt to be a real check upon public meaſures by whomſo-
ever they are conducted; and though it is only expreffed, by
talking, writing, and petitioning, yet tumults and infurrections
ſo often arife, when the voice of the people is loud, that the
most arbitrary governments, dread the effects of them.
When governments are of long-standing, the acquiefcence in
them is fo general, that abufes in them may rife to a much
greater height without endangering the conftitution, than in
new ones, which can have acquired no refpect but from the
perfuafion of their utility; fo that when forms of government
have begun to change they have often gone on to change, and
the country has been a long time in an unfettled ftate, till the
people, being weary of changes, from which they have derived
no benefit, are difpofed to acquiefce in any thing that is
tolerable.
JOV
い
​111
[1
11.
A great means of preventing abufes of government, and
thereby leffening the danger of a fubverfion of it, is the liberty
of ſpeaking and writing. By this means the public opinion
being known in good time, the abuſe will not rife fo high as to
require a violent remedy. Governors may be teized by libels;
but this is better than to be liable to be feized and ftrangled
before any danger be apprehended, which is the cafe in Turky
and the Eaft. There actions often precede words.
Tot
(0 V
Contentions for power may be as diftreffing to a country as.
attempts to change its form of government. Such are all civil:
wars in the Eaft, and fuch were thofe between the houfes of York
and Lancaſter in this country, by which it fuffered more than in
the civil wars in the time of Charles I. the object of which was
the redreſs of national grievances, and which terminated in a
fubverſion of the government in which they rofe.
"In
LECT. XLIII.
317
GENERAL POLICY.
In the former cafe it is the ambition of individuals that is
the ſpring of action, and this could not operate unless there
were ſuch ſtations of wealth and power in a country, as would
furniſh an object for fuch ambition. In a country, therefore,
in which there are no fuch ſtations (in which a man can enjoy
for himſelf, and tranfmit to his pofterity, advantages much
fuperior to thoſe of the reſt of the community) the only object
of ambition must be to create fuch fituations, by perfuading the
people of the neceffity, or the uſe, of them. For even force
implies the voluntary concurrence of great numbers, who muft
have a profpect of being gainers by a change, and with the ad-
vantage of force it will be more or leſs difficult, in proportion
to the general prepoffeffion in favour of the prefent government.
In the monarchical ftates of Europe it is highly improbable
that any form of properly equal government ſhould be eſtabliſhed
for many ages; the people in general, and eſpecially in France,
being proud of their monarchs, even when they are oppreffed
by them. On the contrary, in North America, there ſeems to
be no profpect of the peaceable eſtabliſhment of any form of
government, befides one in which the rights of all ſhall be
equal. The attachment of that country to the houſe of Han-
over was formerly much ftronger than that of this country in
general. But the fenfe of the whole country is now ftrongly
against monarchy in any form. They will hardly receive a
ftranger in the character of king, and there are no families of
fufficient diftinction among themſelves.
A fufficient degree of reverence for any form of government
in the body of the people will fecure the continuance of it.
For a few could never overpower the many, and make any
change which the great body of the people ſhould diſapprove
of.. But a government ought to be formed in fuch a manner as
fhould
318
PART V.
LECTURES ON
ſhould be most likely to gain, and to preferve, that degree of
reſpect which will infure its continuance. It should provide
against any man gaining that degree of power or influence,
which would enable him to leffen the refpect for the confti-
tution in the minds of his countrymen, and induce any confi-
derable number of them, from a regard to their perfonal intereft,
to favour his ſchemes of innovation. For whenever any perſon
fhall be in a fituation in which he can make it the intereft of
others to encreaſe his power, at the expence of the reft of the
community, we may prefume that he will fucceed; fince the
generality of mankind will prefer their private intereft to the
public good. No government, therefore, can be expected to
ftand, the conftitution of which does not make it the intereft of
the
great body of the people to preſerve it, and even to watch
over it, in order to prevent any encroachment upon it.
So much does the ftability of government depend upon opi-
nion, and fo many are the elements, as we may fay, that enter
into the compofition of ſuch opinions as thefe, that no wife
man will pretend to foreſee the confequences of any great change
in a complex form of government; becauſe he could not tell
how far the minds of great numbers of people would go along
with his own in their approbation of it. This makes it pru-
dent, when any great changes are made, to retain at leaſt the
ancient forms, and names of offices. For to thefe it is, in a great
meaſure, that the public opinion is attached. Though Cæfar
and Auguftus could fafely affume the title of emperor, with the
most defpotic power, they did not dare to take that of king;
and in this country Oliver Cromwell was contented with the
ſtile of protector. In the Roman empire all the forms of the
ancient free government were kept up, and it was always called
a republic.
So
LECT. XLIII.
319
GENERAL POLICY.
So much attached does the body of a people get to the forms
of government, to which they have been long accuſtomed, that
it will be impoffible for them all at once to exchange a worſe
for a better, and even which by its effects ſhould be acknow-
ledged to be a better.
Though the governments of France and England were ori-
ginally the fame, or very nearly fo, they are now become fo
different, and have been ſo long fo, that it would be abfolutely
impoffible for the Engliſh conftitution to be received in France,
or the French in England. If the experiment could be made,
the two nations would feel as aukwardly as would two men of
a different make of body on exchanging clothes. If the change
extended to the minutia of things, the new officers would not
be able to act their parts without conftant prompting; and to
teach the people in general a knowledge of their new laws,
would be no lefs difficult than teaching them a new language.
It is of the greatest confequence, therefore, that no change of
importance be attempted in any long eſtabliſhed government,
till the minds of the people be prepared for it by the expe-
rience of fome inconvenience in the old one; fo as to have
produced a general wish for a change; and, if poffible, it should.
be made partially, and for a time, before it be finally eſtabliſhed.
An old and complex conftitution of government may be com-
pared to a part of the conftitution of nature; fince thofe who
are the moſt converfant with it may not fully underſtand it. As
the oldeſt phyſician is not always able to preſcribe for himſelf, ſo
the whole legiſlative body of any country are not to be truſted
in their ſchemes of improvement. How many fingle laws,
paffed with univerfal approbation, are obliged to be repealed,
and in a very ſhort time, on account of inconveniences which the
wifeft men could not forefee? The operation of particular-
law Si
1
320
PART V.
LECTURES ON
laws, and much more the influence of a whole ſyſtem of go-
vernment, depends upon the principles of human nature, which
are as yet but imperfectly underſtood. ·
There can be no doubt, however, but that every nation has a
right to make whatever changes they pleaſe in the conftitution
of their government, and therefore to difplace, and even to
puniſh any governors, who are only their fervants, for their
abuſes of power, in whatever manner they may have been ap-
pointed. There cannot be a greater abfurdity than to fuppofe
that the happineſs of a whole nation fhould be facrificed to that
of any individuals.
individuals. It only behoves them, as they muſt necef-
farily be judges in their own cauſe, and as they would confult their
own future advantage, to proceed with great caution in any at-
tempts to change their mode of government, or to punish their
governors. The notion that kings reign by a divine right, in-
dependently of the defignation of the people, and therefore that
they are not accountable to them for the exerciſe of their power,
is now univerſally and defervedly exploded.
Provided ſtates be well conftituted, and wifely governed, it
does not ſeem to be of much importance whether they be of
great or ſmall extent; but if they be ill conftituted, a country
divided into ſmall ones will in general be a fcene of the greateſt
mifery. As it requires no more hands to direct the affairs of
large ſtates than thoſe of ſmall ones, and great bodies of men
are not eafily put in motion, there is but little room for am-
bition in great empires. Confequently individuals apply them-
felves to their own affairs, and confult their own happineſs,
and never think of taking any part in public meaſures but on
great emergencies, fuch as may not occur in any one country
in feveral centuries. But when ſtates are fmall, many more
perfons are within the influence of ambition, factions are formed,
animofity
5
LECT. XLIII.
321
GENERAL POLICY.
!
animofity is inflamed, and one party is feldom content, without
the deſtruction or banishment of the other; as is abundantly
exemplified in the hiftory of the ſmall ftates of Greece and Italy.
If a great empire be tolerably well governed, private perfons have
long intervals of peace, it being not fo eafy for ambitious and
intereſted perfons to make a commotion, or a civil war, as in a
fmall ftate.
1
If men underſtood their real intereft, and confequently faw it
to confift in living on good terms with their neighbours, fmall
ftates might find no inconvenience even with refpect to great
undertakings. For where the wealth of one ſtate was not equal
to any public work, in which a number was intereſted, they
might all join to defray the expence. But while mankind are
difpofed to national jealoufy and hoftility, it is fometimes of con
fequence to extend the bounds of a ftate; as for inftance that of
England over the whole ifland, including Wales and Scotland;
becauſe it brings an increaſe of ſtrength, and, what is more, cuts
off occafions of war.
In all governments, the largeſt as well as the ſmalleſt, public
buſineſs, as has been obſerved, will be done by a few, who have,
either nominally the power of the ſtate in their hands, or who
have gained the confidence of thoſe who have. The real effec
tive perfons in the vaſt empire of Perfia, or of Rome, were not
more in number than thoſe who tranfact the fame kind of bufi-
neſs in Holland or Venice, or even in fmall towns and corpora-
tions } and thoſe who do this buſineſs are not always thoſe who
are eſteemed to be the wifeft, or the most upright, but generally
the moſt ambitious and bustling. Intelligent and well difpofed
perfons will not always give themſelves the trouble which fta-
tions of public truft neceffarily require, and therefore eaſily give
T t
way
322
PART V.
LECTURES ON
•
way to those who are willing to take it upon them, and whofe
intereſt or ambition puſhes them on to do it,
Confidering how much intereft and ambition are gratified by
directing the affairs of nations, and how much more violently
and ſteadily mankind in general are impelled by theſe principles
than by any other, we cannot be furprized to find hardly any
other than men of theſe characters in places of truft and power;
and of the two, ambition certainly makes a better ſtateſman than
avarice. The views of the former muft have a connexion with
the good of his country, though it be not his proper object; but
the views of the latter may be the very reverſe of it. No
country, therefore, ought to complain if they have nothing to
lay to the charge of their governors befides ambition, or the
defire of diſtinguiſhing themſelves and their families, and eſta-
bliſhing a name with diſtant nations and poſterity, provided
the rights of individuals be not facrificed to it.
}
*
'
}
!
1
•
1
.
117
}
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*
LEC-
F
LECT. XLIV.
323
GENERAL POLICY.
LECTURE
XLIV..
How much Government under any Form is preferable to a
State of Barbarifm. Refinement in Men's Ideas keeping Pace
with Improvements in Government. The European Govern-
ments (and particularly the English) traced from their first
Rife in Germany to their prefent Form. The Conftitu-
tion of the ancient German States. State of their Armies.
Divifion of the conquered Lands. Upon what Terms held. How
Feuds became bereditary. How the Clergy became an effential
Part of the State. Upon what Terms the great Lords difpofed
of their Lands. Taxes of the feudal Times. Power of a Lord
over his Vaffals. Why allodial Eftates became converted into
Feudal. When this took place in England. The Method of ad-
miniftering Justice. Where the fupreme Power was lodged.
THERE
HERE can be no doubt but that government under any of
the before-mentioned forms is infinitely preferable to a ſtate
of barbariſm and anarchy. Idleneſs, treachery and cruelty are
predominant in all uncivilized countries; notwithſtanding the
boaſts which the poets make of the golden age of mankind, be-
fore the erection of empires: and their vices and bad habits loſe
ground in proportion as mankind arrive at fettled and regular
forms of government. There is no borrowing in barbarous
countries, fays Montefquieu, but upon pledges; fo little in-
fluence have ideas of property, and a fenfe of honour, over un-
civilized people. Never were treachery and cruelty more fla-
Tt 2
grant
324
PART V.
LECTURES ON
grant than in thofe unfettled times of the Saxon government in
England, during the ravages of the Danes, and particularly in
the long reign of Ethelred. Whatever vices civilized countries
may abound in, there is no man, fays Voltaire, who would think.
his life and property ſo ſecure in the hands of a Moor, or a Tar-
tar, as in thoſe of a French or English gentleman.
*
That mankind have not naturally any high ideas of the forms
of Juſtice is evident, fays Montefquieu, from many facts in hif-
tory. Nothing was more infupportable to the Germans than
the tribunal of Varus; and Mithridates, haranguing againſt the
Romans, reproached them with the formalities of their law.
As to idleness, all uncivilized nations are notorious for it. The
barbarous troops which the Romans hired could not without great
difficulty be brought to ſubmit to the Roman diſcipline and fatigue.
Till about the time of the reformation, the Scotch, as they were
the moſt uncivilized, were the moſt indolent people in Europe,
and thoſe people that are called the wild Iriſh are to this day ex-
tremely averse to all kinds of labour. Hence it is that in all
uncivilized countries cattle, which propagate of themſelves, bear
a much lower price than corn, which requires more art, labour,.
and ſtock to raiſe it than fuch people are poffeffed of.
We are not, however, to confider all countries as barbarous,
that are not policied as ours, and other great nations, are.
Where there are no regular laws; eſtabliſhed cuftoms may have
the fame effect, and be as much reſpected. And in countries
where there is but little property, the inconvenience of this
more free mode of life is very flight. As the neceffary attendant
on having little property is little labour, many perſons are par-
ticularly pleaſed with it.
The North American Indians are remarkably fond of their
roving way of life, in which, though they occafionally make
4
the
LECT. XLIV.
325
GENERAL POLICY.
the greateſt exertions, they are not obliged to conftant labour.
"Nor can we ſay," fays Mr. Charlevoix, "that this is owing
"to their not being acquainted with our modes of life. Many
Gib
Frenchmen have tried their way of life, and were ſo pleaſed
"with it, that feveral of them, though they could have lived
as very comfortably in the colonies, could never be prevailed:
upon to return to it. On the contrary, there never was ſo
much as a fingle Indian that could be brought to relish our
"way of living. Children have been taken, and have been
brought up with a great deal of care, nothing had been
"omitted to hinder them from having any knowledge of their
parents; yet the moment they have found themſelves at
liberty, they have torn their cloaths to pieces, and have gone
* across the woods in queft of their countrymen. An Iroquois
“was even a lieutenant in our army, yet he returned to his
"own nation, carrying with him only our vices, without cor-
61;
recting any of thofe which he brought along with him*.”
The roving life of the Tartars is peculiarly pleafing to them..
It is entertaining, fays Mr. Bell, to hear them commiferate
thoſe who were confined to one place of abode, and obliged to
fupport themſelves by labour.
1
There can hardly be a more entertaining object to a ſpecu-
lative mind than to mark the progress of refinement in the ideas
of a people emerging from a ſtate of barbarifm, and advancing
by degrees to a regular form of government. There is, in par-
ticular, a natural connexion between government and ideas of
property. From the weak and infantine ftate in which both
are originally found, both of them have arrived, by equal de-
Charlevoix, vol. ii. p. 109,5
4. Travels, vol. i. p. 450.-
grees
326
PART V.
LECTURES ON
grees of improvement, at the ftability and perfection which they
enjoy at prefent.
!
↑
•
A knowledge of this fubject enables us to account for many
facts in ancient history. In ancient times, the property of land
was not ſo valuable a right as it is at prefent. It was little
better than a right of ufufruct, or a power of uſing the fruits
for the fupport of the poffeffor and his family. And as the
manner of living in ancient times' was much more fimple than
it is now, the accounts we read of the divifion of lands by
Lycurgus, and other ancient legiſlators, are more credible than
they would appear from judging according to the preſent ideas
of mankind. Timoleon, when he fettled the affairs of the
Syracufans and Selinuntians, whofe country was greatly de-
populated, invited over forty thouſand men from Greece, and
diſtributed ſo many lots of land among them, to the great fatif-
faction of the old inhabitants.
Whenever we read of great fimplicity in the manner of tranf-
mitting land property, we may pronounce with certainty, that
the people are not far advanced in the arts of life. A more
particular account will be given of the progreſs of men's ideas
and cuſtoms with reſpect both to this fubject and fome others,
when we come to treat of laws. In this account of the ſtate
of barbarous nations we must not omit obferving, that it is a
ſtrong indication of the approach of the northern nations towards
humanity and politenefs, that their compofitions for injuries
done to women were generally double.
The progrefs and revolutions of government itself, after it is
once eſtabliſhed, is an object very deferving of the cloſeſt atten-
tion. No government ever underwent more revolutions than
the Roman, and hiſtory affords the fairest opportunity of tracing
2
them
LECT. XLIV.
327
GENERAL POLICY.
them in all their caufes and effects; as has been done in an
excellent manner by Montefquieu, in his treatiſe on the riſe
and declenfion of the Romans.
It is no leſs entertaining to trace the European monarchies,
particularly the English, from their firft rudiments in the
woods of Germany, to their prefent ftate. But hiftory affords
little light for this purpoſe, and therefore learned men have
adopted different hypotheſes about feveral particulars relating
to it; and the reigning party prejudices have made them enter
with too much keennefs and animofity into a ſubject which
exhibits a moft agreeable profpect to a philofopher living under
thofe governments.
1
As an example of the progress of government, Ihall trace
as briefly as poffible all the capital changes in the conftitution
of the principal European governments, and particularly the
Engliſh, beginning with their firft rude ftate in their native
country, and comprehending the rife, progrefs, and decline of
the feudal fyftem, which prevailed wherever thofe barbarous
invaders fettled. Ifhall not stop to prove, or to refute, any
particular hypothefis, but proceed without interruption in that
account which to me appears the most probable.
Germany was formerly divided into nations, and the nations
into pagi, each of which had its own prince,, judge, or general.
The power of each of the pagi was lodged in the affembly of
all the freemen of the pagus, and the power of the whole nation
in the general affembly of that nation.
Every man's own family and flaves, were entirely fubject to
him. All the lands were annually divided among all the free-
men, who parcelled it out to their flaves and dependants upon
certain conditions, always referving enough of the yearly, pro-.
duce to maintain their own families in abundance.
Each
4
328
PART V.
·LECTU'R E'S TO N
Each prince was attended by an indefinite number of freemen
volunteers, who were maintained at his expence, and fought
with him in battle. The fons alfo of thoſe who had diſtinguiſhed
themſelves by acts of valour had the like attendants. They
were called companions, or ambacti; in the fouthern parts of Gaul
Soldurii, and afterwards in England Thanes, and they lived
fcattered up and down the country. When they went to war,
the troops of every tribe and province fought under the famo
ſtandard, divided, probably, into thousands, hundreds, fifties,
and tens, each of which companies had its own commander.
The prince, where there was one, Had a larger divifion of
land, and a greater proportion of all fines, which were impofed
for all crimes except treafon and adultery. His office was
for life.
1
+
1!::
T
At the general affembly, every freeman had an equal vote.
Upon ordinary occafions the pagi might fend their leaders, but
upon extraordinary occafions every freeman was obliged. 'to Bé
prefent under the fevereft penalties. Then peace and war were
proclaimed, ambaffadors fent, and the common general chofen,
and to this affembly all inferior officers were accountable for
their behaviour. No perfon could bear arms for the public
till he had been prefented here. The princes of each diftrict
prepared matters for this affembly, as a standing' council of
ſtate, and to them all ambaffadors, &c. applied. The Druids,
who were the only priests, and the chief nobility, in the country,
and who were exempt from all fecular incumbrances, and main-
tained at the common charge, prefided in the affembly!
4
•
All the freemen ſerved in the army without pay, and the
general was not quite abfolute, being often reftrained by his'
council, and by his companions.
When
LECT. XLIV.
329
GENERAL POLICY.
When a conqueft was made, the general and council divided
the land into as many parts as there were pagi in the army.
Thefe again were divided by their proper chiefs among the
feveral families, according to their rank and eſteem. Some
fuppofe that the lands of the pagi became counties, the ſhare
of a thouſand a tything, the fhare of one hundred an hundred,
and that of ten a tything; each under its own eoldorman. But
Mr. Millar feems to have proved that a tything was the fame
thing with a village, and did not comprehend any preciſe num-
ber of perfons or families. This however might come to be
the cafe in a courfe of time, though the original diftribution
might be according to the number of perfons or families.
:
So long as their conquefts were in the leaft infecure, and con-
ſequently they had occafion for the continual exerciſe of arms,
the whole body of the migrating people preferved the idea of
the encampment of a large army. The office of general, from
being occafional, became of courſe perpetual, that is, he was
a king, but elective, as before. Every freeman was ready at
the military call, and every grant of lands was upon condition.
of military fervice.
Land thus diftributed was called thane land, or bock land, the
poffeffors, Thanes; and every particular inheritance, a feoh or
feud,in Latin beneficium.
As long as the moſt diſtant view to their native country re-
mained to thefe Germans, in theſe foreign fettlements, poffeffions
could not regularly defcend to a man's heirs, who might not
be able to defend them; but by degrees, as valour ceafed to be
neceffary, from the fecurity of their conquefts, feuds became
hereditary. Then thoſe who held immediately of the king were
called tenants in capite, and were obliged to attend the king's
courts, in the fame manner as every perfon who held land of
another attended the court of his immediate fuperior.
U u
When
330
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
{
When chriſtianity was introduced among these nations, grants
of land were made to the church, and the bishops held them
as all other tenants did, upon condition of military fervice.
But afterwards they held lands in what was called frankal
moigne, when only alms to the poor, and prayers, were required
of them. Thoſe of the ſuperior clergy who held lands imme-
diately of the king were tenants in capite, and obliged, as fuch,
to give attendance in the king's courts.
The greater Thanes granted lands out of their divifion to their
immediate friends and followers, in the fame manner as they
received them, and their beneficiaries were called vaffals. Of thefe,
however, only fome received grants upon condition of military
ſervice, others (though theſe were probably fuch as had been in
a ftate of fervitude) chofe to follow hufbandry, and were called
Jockmen. Theſe held their lands upon condition of affiſting
their lord in his ploughing and reaping. But afterwards, inſtead
of the actual fervice of the plough, they fupplied their lord
with corn, cattle, and clothes, and lastly money, as an equivalent
for them.
1
The ground which lay neareſt to the habitation of every free-
man was given to the care of his own flaves, who tilled the
ground for him. Theſe were called villeins, and went with the
foil, having no liberty either to leave their maſters, or quit
the place.
All the taxes which the feudal laws obliged vaffals to pay to
their fuperiors, Thanos to the king, and their vaffals to them,
were upon the three following occafions; when his eldeft fon
was made a knight, when his eldeſt daughter was married, and
to ranfom him when he was taken prifoner.
Every lord was fupreme judge of his own vaffals, and always
their general in time of war. When his power of judge was
abuſed, all capital cafes were referred to fuperior juriſdiction, or to
fuch
1
LECT. XLIV.
331
GENERAL POLICY.
fuch perfons as the king fent from time to time to affift the
great men in the diftribution of juſtice, and to ſee that he was
not wronged in his ſhare of the fines, which was generally one
third.
Lands which were not diftributed to the free foldiers, but
which were left in the hands of the old inhabitants, or were
occupied by new comers, were called allodial, or folk lands, and
the occupiers were governed by the king who fent a rive, or
eoldorman, who was always to be a proprietor of bock land, to
prefide over them. To him was afterwards added another ſtand-
ing magiftrate, called the heterock, whofe office refembled that of
lord lieutenant in the county; whereas the office of our prefent
Jheriff's was derived from the other. This rive, or sheriff, held
the rive mote, Scyre mote, or folk mote, and thane land is fome-
times called rive land.
Both the king's vaffals, and thoſe of the greater lords had
greater privileges than the poffeffors of allodial eſtates. Among
others, their lives were rated higher. Wherefore thoſe perſons
who poffeffed allodial eſtates often chofe, for their greater fe-
curity, to put themfelves under the protection of fome powerful
lord. When this was done univerfally, the feudal fyftem may
be faid to be fully eſtabliſhed; which was not the cafe in
England till the time of William the Conqueror. Then, too,
eftates firft defcended entire to the eldest fon, whereas before
they had been equally divided among all the fons.
An equal
diviſion did not fuit the intereſt of the great feudatorial lords,
who were more effectually and expeditiously ferved by one power-
ful vaffal, or a few fuch, than by many weak ones, depending
immediately upon themſelves.
In the Saxon times, the landholders of every province met at
leaſt twice every year in the fryre mote. In this court caufes
2
U u 2
of
1
332
PART V.
LECTURES ON
;
of religion were first heard, then pleas of the crown, and laſtly
private caufes; and fentence was given by the prefidents, who
were the earl, the bishop, and the king's deputy.
In the time of Alfred juries were introduced into the Engliſh
courts. He alfo completed the divifion of the country into
counties, tythings, and hundreds, and made other excellent
regulations for the more effectual adminiſtration of justice.
>
The legislative power of the whole community, and alfo the
power of peace and war was, in the Saxon times, lodged in the
affembly of the whole nation, called the folkmote, or mycelgemote,
in which every proprietor of land, at leaſt to the amount of
five hides, had a power of voting. To this there was a wit-
tenagemote, confifting of the king's companions, or thanes, the
governors of the feveral counties, and after the introduction
of chriſtianity, bishops, and others of the fuperior clergy..
Probably, however, the mycelgemote and wittenagemote might
confift of the fame perfons; the former being the regular affembly
of the whole body at ftated times, and the latter thoſe who
uſually attended on any particular call; and thofe would be fuch
as were neareſt the king, perfons in whoſe wiſdom and ex-
perience the greateſt truft was repofed, by himself, and the
nation at large.
The change of allodial into feudal eſtates made a change in
the great council of the nation. In the former cafe the land-
holders affembled in their own right, in the latter as the depen-
dants on the crown. But the change having been gradual, and
thoſe who affembled by different rights probably meeting at
the fame fame time and place, it is not particularly noticed
by hiftorians.
1
The mycelgemote, it is faid, fometimes altered the fucceffion
to the crown. It is certain that the Saxon kings had not the
fame
:
LECT. XLV.
333
GENERAL POLICY.
fame power that was afterwards acquired by our princes. Their
lives were rated no higher than thofe of any other freeman.
The king affembled the mycelgemote upon extraordinary occa-
fions, and ordinarily that affembly met in the fpring. The moft
confiderable branch of the royal office was the appointing the
chief offices of church and ſtate, as governors of counties,
bishops, abbots, &c.
It is alſo ſaid by fome, that, upon particular occafions, there
was alſo a pananglicum in the Saxon heptarchy, when comman-
ders in chief of the whole nation were chofen.
1
LECTURE XLV.
Inconfiftent with Com-
In what Circumstances the Feudal Syftem acquired Strength. The
Violence and Infecurity of thofe Times.
merce. Balance of Power of thofe Times.
Private Confederacies. Knight Errantry.
cline of the Feudal Syftem. Expenfive Wars.
Arts. Improvements in the Art of War.
IN
Wager of Battle.
Caufes of the De-
Progress of the
N countries which were perpetually in a ftate of war, the
feudal fyftem acquired ftrength, and became more analogous
to itſelf in all its parts. Thus, in England, during the Saxon
times, we fee only the general outlines of it, but in Normandy,
about the time of William the Conqueror, it was in its per-
fection,
1
334
PARTV
LECTURES ON
•
fection, and in that ſtate it was by him introduced into England.
Then, when the intereft of the lord was the ſtrongeſt in his
fief (except that it was hereditary, and he could not refufe en-
trance to the proper heir) it could not be alienated without his
confent; becauſe it was unreafonable that he fhould have a
vaffal who was difagreeable to him obtruded upon him. The
heireſs could not marry without his confent for the fame rea-
fon. Upon theſe, and a variety of other occafions, the fuperior
lord (who is generally called lord paramount) infiſted upon large
fines from his vaffals, which kept the common people in a ſtate
of the moſt abject dependence upon a few great land-holders.
It is not to be wondered, therefore, that no flouriſhing cities,
no extenfive commerce, no encouragement for the polite arts,
was ever found under governments purely feudal. Indeed, the
whole ſcene of the feudal times was too full of war and confufion
to admit of thefe improvements. The different orders of vaf-
falage gave rife to numberless quarrels and proceffes, which
could only be decided by force of arms.
Every lord in thoſe days, having independent juriſdiction,
and his own vaffals immediately devoted to him, was in fact a
petty fovereign; and a few of theſe in a country were gene-
rally an over-match for the king, and often occafioned the
greateſt diſorders. Perhaps never was there a worſe govern-
ment, or a government in which there was lefs provifion, for
the fecurity and happineſs of the bulk of people, than in this.
Had not religion, or rather ſuperſtition, provided an aſylum to a
few, thoſe times in which the feudal fyftem was at its height,
would have been nothing more than perfect anarchy, and confu-
fion. Thefts, rapine,, murders and diforders of all kinds, pre-
vailed in every kingdom of Europe to a degree almoft incre-
dible,
LECT. XLV.
335.
GENERAL POLICY.
dible, and ſcarce compatible with the fubfiftence of civil ſo-
ciety. Every offender fheltered himſelf under fome chieftain,
who ſcreened him from juſtice *.
Many of the most renowned commanders in the reign of
Edward III. and the following reigns, had been leaders of ban-
ditti; and it was ufual for princes who could not fubdue them,
to enter into treaties with them, and to be ſupplied by them with
many thouſands of men. A great part of the Engliſh forces in
France were generally of this kind of men. When Edward III..
commanded an army of an hundred thouſand men in Flanders,
they were faid to have been chiefly foreigners.
Voltaire fays that about the time of Otho, every caſtle was a
capital of a ſmall ſtate of banditti, and every monaftery an armed
garriſon; the harveſts were either burnt, cut down before the
time, or defended fword in hand; the cities were reduced in a
manner to deferts, and the country depopulated by frequent and.
long famines.
A circumftance which kept things tolerably well balanced,
with refpect to public liberty, and which prevented the power of
any one from oppreffing the reſt, was the number of
powers and
intereſts which were perpetually ftruggling for fuperiority. The
* The power of the great feudal lords arefe from the great numbers of perfons
who were attached to them; and this attachment aroſe from their being wholly
dependent upon them. They were either their tenants, or were kept without labour
by their liberality. An ancient baron could make no other uſe of his fuperfluity.
At preſent an Engliſh nobleman may be richer than any ancient baron, being. able
to command the labour of more perfons, by paying them wages; but as theſe per-
fons are only employed by him occafionally, and they all ferve others as well as
him, they have no attachment to him in particular. If he did not employ them,
they would not.ftarve, and therefore they feel themselves as independent of him, as
he is of them. In fact, no perfons are more independent than thoſe who are willing
to labour, and are fure of finding employment.
4.
king
336
PART V.
LECTURES •
ON
king conducted himſelf by one ſet of principles, the barons by
another, the clergy by a third, and the commons by a fourth.
All their views were incompatible, and each prevailed accord-
ing as incidents were favourable to it. The clergy in general
held a very uſeful middle place, checking the power of the king,
or of the barons, according as either of them prevailed too much,
and threatened their privileges, and the general liberty of the
ftate; though it was the former only that they were concerned
about.
When the feudal ſyſtem had taken place, and not before; and
confequently when (there being no effectual proviſion to reſtrain
violence) it had been fo cuftomary for people to terminate their
differences by the fword, and even law-fuits had fo often ter-
minated in this, which, according to the barbarous notions of
thoſe times, was deemed the moſt honourable way of deciding
them, that the laws themſelves were obliged to adopt that me-
thod of decifion. It came into England with William the
Conqueror, and prevailed for ſeveral centuries in all parts of
Europe; and it was certainly better to reſtrain, and ſubject to
the rules of a court, that fword which would have raged, and
have committed greater devaftation elſewhere.
The civil union in thefe feudal times being weak, private
confederacies were entered into, to fupply its place. At length
knight errantry arofe in thoſe days of univerfal danger. When
all travelling was unfafe, and particularly no women could ap-
pear abroad without being raviſhed or murdered, fome perfons
of ſpirit and humanity, and deeply tinctured with the reli-
gion of the times, devoted themſelves to the public good, and
particularly to the fervice of the ladies. This profeffion födn
becoming honourable, and great numbers engaged in it, which
contributed greatly to foften the rigour of the times.
I
As
LECT. XLI.
337
GENERAL POLICY.
•
As the moſt remarkable inftances of hofpitality are ſeen in the
moſt inhospitable and barbarous countries, fo thofe times of uni-
verfal anarchy produced the greateſt exceffes of heroifm, fuch,
indeed, as could only exift in thofe circumftances. For theſe
flights of heroism are ufelefs, and therefore checked, in well
regulated governments.
The practice of tilts and tournaments, which gave a dignity
to the order of knighthood, and afforded the fineſt field for the
exerciſe of valour, were introduced from the gallant courts of the
Moorish kings in Spain.
So deep rooted was the paffion for chivalry, that it infected
the writings, converſation, and behaviour of men for ſome ages;
and when the ideas belonging to it vaniſhed, as government
grew more perfect, and learning and true tafte revived, it left
modern gallantry and the point of honour, which ftill main-
tain their influence, and are the genuine offspring of thofe
cuſtoms. The fuperftition and valour of the knights errant
were of excellent fervice in the wars of the Holy Land, and
againſt the Saracens in Spain.
1
We have now advanced to the full growth of the feudal
fyftem. Let us from hence mark the feveral fteps by which
it declined, and fee how order rofe out of this chaos and confu-
fion. And here the principal circumſtance to be attended to is
the diminution of the power of the aristocratical feudal lords, by
the difinembering of their eftates, and the more equal diftribu-
tion of property among the lower orders of the people, with
the gradual acquifition of power by the feveral fovereigns of
Europe.
One confiderable means of bringing about this great event
was the expenfive wars which were carried on in thoſe days,
particularly the expeditions to the Holy Land, which made the
X x
great
}
338
Part V.
LECTURES ON
great lords and land-holders willing to fell their lands for large
fums of ready money; and by degrees they obtained ftatutes to
favour theſe alienations.
Moreover, when, in confequence of the progrefs of arts, in-
duſtry, and manufactures, the feudal manners gave way to ſome
degree of luxury, fuperiors were willing to give lands at very
low rents, in confideration of large fums delivered at one pay-
ment. Theſe rents became lower and lower, till at laſt nothing
but a fimple acknowledgment was made for them.
Improvements in the art of war made the whole ſyſtem of
the feudal government, as adapted to military affairs, entirely
ufelefs. The hereditary lords were not always found to be the
moft proper commanders, nor their vaffals the beſt diſciplined
troops. It was therefore eafily agreed on both fides, to fend
deputies inſtead of perfonal fervice, and at laſt to commute for
a fum of money. This practice gave riſe to ſtanding armies,
which threw a vaſt weight of power into the hands of the fove-
reign, which was before entirely in the hands of the lords.
Lewis XIV. once in his reign fummoned the nobility to ap-
pear in arms, according to the feudal fyftem, but the troops
they brought were fo ignorant of difcipline, that the cuſtom
was for ever after laid afide in France. By this means tenures
by knights fervice finking, and, in confequence of the progreſs
of arts and induſtry, that of villeinage rifing; both came gra-
dually to the medium of fockage tenures, which extended
themſelves continually over landed property in Great Britain.
LEC-
LECT. XLVI.
339
GENERAL POLICY.
LECTURE
XLVI.
Rife of Corporations. Greater and leffer Barons. State of Land
Property and the Alienation of it. When, and by what Means,
the great Blow was given to the Feudal Syftem by the Diminu-
tion of the Power of the greater Barons in different Parts of
Europe. The Rife of the Engliſh Commons. The Declenfion of
the Syftem not equal in all Parts of Europe. Not the fame in
Scotland as in England. The Reasons for it. The Remains of
it at preſent in different Parts of Europe, and with us. Gene-
ral Obfervations on the Progrefs and Termination of the Feudal
Syftem.
IN N proceſs of time, focieties of artifans, which originally
were confidered as belonging to the lord of the ſoil on which
they lived, taking advantage of the neceffity of the times, and
their own increaſing riches, gained certain privileges and im-
munities from their lords, till at length they became inde-
pendent of them. Theſe corporations are faid to have been the
invention of Lewis le Gros, to free the people from the flavery
to their lords, and to give them protection by means of cer-
tain privileges, and a ſeparate juriſdiction.
Philip Le Bel, king of France, was the firft who in 1301,
admitted with great policy the inhabitants of cities to have
a feat in the ftates of the kingdom, after the clergy and
nobility. His view was to facilitate the juriſdiction which he
wanted to eſtabliſh over thofe cities, and to engage them to
confent to the impofition of a tax for carrying on his wars in
X X 2
Flanders,
1.
340
PART V.
LECTURES ON
Flanders, and for oppofing the ambitious views of Boniface
VIII. Accordingly, Sir Jam. Stewart ſays *, the people began
to pay willingly, when they found they had a vote in what
concerned them.
In England theſe corporations grew to great confideration,
and many of them coming to hold lands of the king by a tenure
called burgage, became of courſe tenants in capite, and, as ſuch,
were fummoned to appear by their deputies at the great council
of the nation, along with the reprefentatives of the leffer
barons; that is, thofe perfons who had purchaſed parts of ba-
ronies, but were not able to bear the expence of attending the
king's courts. The greater barons were perfons of ancient fa-
milies, who kept their original fiefs in a great meaſure undivided.
The titles which theſe greater barons obtained, as of dukes,
earls, viſcounts, and marquiffes were introduced by degrees,
and were all originally official and territorial, though afterwards
they became perſonal, and, like the feuds, hereditary; even the
the term baron itſelf, came at length to be merely honorary.
*
In the ſtruggle between the crown and the barons, the con-
ftitutional rights of the commons feem to have received a tem-
porary interruption; their affembling in parliament being lefs
frequent and lefs effectual, and at length altogether fufpended.
Under our king John and Henry III. their privileges were re-
vived, and the forty-ninth of Henry III. and the twenty-
third of Edward I. which have been confidered as æras of the
eſtabliſhment of the commons, Dr. Stewart fays, were only
memorable epochas in their history.
It was among the corporations above-mentioned that focial
and civil connexions firft extended themſelves in the feudal
* Vol. ii. p. 355.
+ Effay on the Conftitution of England, p. 17.
times.
LECT. XLVI.
341
GENERAL POLICY.
times. The people who were members of theſe communities,
being moſt remote from a military life and military notions,
first found the advantage of a more extenfive power over their
property than the feudal cuſtoms admitted. It was confequently
with them that alienation of property, both in lands and goods,
in all its varieties and forms, both during the life, and after
the death of the proprietor, firſt took place; and other laws
adapted to a more perfect ſtate of ſociety were firſt enacted for
their uſe, long before the rest of the nation had the benefit of
them; though, at length, after their example, they prevailed
univerfally. But through the whole ftate, the intereſt of
the fuperior lord in the fief grew gradually lefs and leſs. For
whereas, at firft, fiefs reverted to their lord after the death of
the proprietor, then, after that of his fon, and then of his
grandfon; by practice, without public ordinance, it crept into
the law of all nations, that in all fiefs a man's collateral rela-
tions, as well as his direct defcendants, ad infinitum, ſhould fuc-
ceed him; and though the progreſs of alienation was fometimes
checked by laws relating to entails, yet methods were ſtill found
out, and connived at, to elude thofe ftatutes; and all attempts
to prevent the progreſs of the free alienation of landed property
was ftriving againſt the torrent.
In this train things continued for feveral centuries, till to-
wards the end of the fifteenth century, and the beginning of the
fixteenth, almoſt all the princes in Europe, as if by confent, at-
tacked the power of the nobles. Lewis XI. of France added
to the crown what he wrefted from the lords, but Henry VII.
threw it into the hands of the commons of England.
Some of the means which Henry ufed were paffing an act
which allowed lords to fell or mortage their lands, without
paying any fines for alienation, and the reftraining them from
keeping
342
PART V.
LECTURES ON
keeping a great number of idle retainers about them, who were
men who lived at their expence, were entirely devoted to them,
and ready to engage in all their quarrels.
But little of the merit of thefe laws is due to him. He
meant only to leffen the exorbitant power of the barons, which
was formidable to the crown: and the circumftances of the
times were quite ripe for every alteration which he made for
that purpoſe. The barons themſelves wanted to diſpoſe of
their lands for money, to enable them to live with more ele-
gance, and to enjoy more of the conveniences of life, which
were then firſt introduced; and their idle retainers were be-
come a burden to them, while the country ftood in great need
of their labour, when agriculture began to be attended to.
The benefit of thefe ftatutes was not fenfibly perceived in
England till the reign of queen Elizabeth, though the commons.
had availed themfelves greatly of the fale of thoſe lands which
had belonged to the monafteries in the preceding reign. But
it was in the reign of Elizabeth that the commons first ventured
to approach the throne of their own motion, and give advice to
the crown. Unhappily, the attempts of our princes to opprefs
this rifing power occafioned fuch a ſtruggle between them and
the people as ended in a temporary anarchy. At the reſtoration
king Charles was induced to remit fome of his feudal claims,
but the conftitution was not fettled; and perhaps it never would
have been done effectually, had not the bigotry of James II.
engaged him in the fruitless attempt to fubvert the religion and
liberty of his country. This happily ended in his abdication,
and the fettlement of the crown on the more diſtant branches of
the family upon new and furer principles, as was taken notice of
before.
The
LECT. XLVI.
343
GENERAL POLICY.
The feudal ſyſtem did not, however, decline equally faſt in
all parts of Europe. It generally loft ground in time of peace,
and ſometimes rather gained in time of war; though in ſome
cafes the fovereigns, preffed by the neceffity of foreign wars,
were induced, in confideration of preſent ſupplies, to grant im-
portant privileges to the people, and particularly to the bo-
roughs. Theſe neceffities of the princes were the occaſion of
many equitable laws and popular conceffions.
The feudal fyftem did not decline ſo faſt in Scotland as in
England, nor, while it was a ſeparate kingdom, did their com-
mons ever acquire the fame power. The reafons of this were,
that the Scots had little commerce, induſtry, and arts. All
their members met in the fame houſe, and the kings vaffals were
not increased upon the difmembering a royal fief, as was the
cuſtom in England. Befides, none could vote but thoſe who
had much more fortune than was required in England, and the
election of reprefentatives was in the common council, and not
in the whole body of the burgeffes. Heritable jurifdictions
were not entirely aboliſhed in Scotland till the end of the laft
rebellion.
There are confiderable remains of the feudal fyftem at this
day in Europe. In Germany it fubfifts, in many refpects, as
much as ever.
The huſbandmen of Poland are confined to the
glebe; as they are alfo in Bohemia, in Suabia, and in other parts
of Germany; and even in France, in fome provinces remote from
the capital, we ſee, ſays Voltaire, fome remains of this flavery.
There are ſome chapters and monks who claim a right to all
the goods of the deceafed peafants, and the barbarous right of
aubeine, by which a ftranger beholds his father's eftate go to
the king's treaſury ſtill fubfifts in fome chriſtian ſtates, unleſs
where it is otherwiſe provided for by private conventions.
2
The
344
PART V.
LECTURES ON
The moſt viſible traces of this fyftem in England are in the
forms of law. The feudal law carried with it a ſyſtem of private
rights, which ſwallowed up all others wherever it came, and
involved likewife, in giving effect to theſe rights, a fyftem of
forms, which remain even when the original rights are no
more.
What is particularly worthy of our notice, with reſpect to
the feudal ſyſtem, is that a form of government fo uniform in its
principles fhould have branched out, as it were, under different
circumſtances, into other forms fo totally different from one
another as are the conftitutions of the feveral European ftates;
which were almoft all originally equally feudal, and therefore
neceffarily fimilar to one another.
66
That the kings of Arragon were originally little more than
members of an equal ariftocracy, is evident from the very form
of their inauguration, which was this, We," (viz. the lords)
"who are equal with yourfelf, do conftitute you our king, on
"condition that you maintain our privileges." The French
government, it is certain, differed in nothing material from the
Engliſh, during the whole period of our ancient wars with that
nation, and their affembly of the ftates, as it was called, had as
much power as our parliament. The laft affembly of this kind
in France was held fo late as the year 1614. On the other
hand, the Poliſh lords have rather gained than loft any power;
and in this country, were it not that neigbouring nations are
more improved, and that the progrefs of fcience has foftened the
manners and cuftoms of all the nations of Europe, we fhould
ſee all the miſery and diftraction of the feudal times. Still
they often fight over their deliberations; and the election of a
king frequently occafions both civil and foreign wars.
But
LECT. XLVII.
345
GENERAL POLICY.
But what is most of all remarkable with refpect to the feudal
fyftem is, that a form of government fo ill calculated to ſecure
the most valuable ends of fociety; a conftitution fo totally incon-
fiftent with fecurity and liberty, and fo unfriendly to commerce
and ſcience, ſhould, in feveral inftances, have terminated, by
the natural courfe of things, in governments in which men enjoy
the greateſt ſecurity, together with all defirable liberty; and
where the utmoſt fcope is given to the genius of man in the
extenfion of arts, manufactures, commerce, and ſcience.
dane
}
:
1
LECTURE
L
XLVII.
Of Laws. Multiplicity of them. Uniformity of them. Force
of Cuftom. Criminal Law. Difference in Crimes. Liberty
Sometimes unfavourable to perfonal Security. Punishments. Speedy
Executions. Prevention of Crimes. Lenity and Severity.
Proper Objects of criminal Law. Profecutors.
Evidence. Wager of Battle. False Accufation.
IN
Judges.
N confidering what contributes to the happineſs of a ſociety
at home, the ſubject of laws ought principally to be attended
to by an hiftorian; as being certainly next, in point of im-
portance, to the form and conftitution of government, which
may be faid to comprize the greater laws of the ſtate.
The great difference between a country governed by laws,
and one governed by men, is that in the former every man knows
}}
Y y
what
!
346
PART V.
LECTURES ON
what he has to expect. Laws bear a fixed and definite ſenſe, ſo
that all men are punifhed or rewarded alike in the fame circum-
ftances; but men are ſubject to caprice, fo that it cannot be
known before hand how the fame judge will be difpofed to
decide, and much lefs will one man's conduct be a rule for that
of another.
1
A multiplicity of laws is a certain attendant upon an im
proved ftate of fociety. For the more multiplied and intimate
are the connexions of men with one another, the more laws are
neceffary to regulate their mutual tranſactions. When men's
interefts frequently interfere, difputes muft frequently happen;
and if the ſubjects of the difputes be various, the laws which
are introduced to adjust them muſt be various too. Nor is
there any method of obviating this but the arbitrary and
ſpeedy decifion of all differences by defpotic power, as in Perfia,
and other parts of Afia, where juftice has ever been adminiftered
in the moſt expeditious manner. But this, as was fhewn
before, is a very unhappy and imperfect ftate of fociety. It is
a famous obſervation of Montefquieu, that the tediouſneſs and
expence of law fuits are the price of liberty. He adds, that
whenever any perſon makes himſelf abfolute, he begins to fim-
plify the laws.
It is poffible, however, that this price of liberty itſelf may
be too dear; for when law fuits are very expenfive, they are
ineffectual. In that cafe differences must be decided at random,
men being not able to know what the law is; or both parties
may be ruined while they are examining it: and what is this
better than a ſociety without law, or a perfect anarchy.?:
It is hardly neceffary to obferve, that the laws of every coun-
try ſhould be free from the leaft contradiction or uncertainty,
and that both the practice and the theory of them should be
uniform.
LECT. XLVIr.
347
GENERAL POLICY.
uniform. The ufe of laws depends fo much upon the unifor-
mity of them, in order that juftice be adminiſtered to all perfons
alike, that it is highly convenient that the fame forms be kept
up as much as poffible in all courts of juftice. Lord Kaims
has largely demonftrated the inconvenience attending the intro-
duction of fome parts of the civil law into the old feudal law
of Scotland; whereas the English are remarkably tenacious of
their customs, and have preferved their forms entire, with little
or no variation, from the earlieſt times. This is certainly,
upon the whole, very laudable; yet there feems to be an ab-
furdity in the theory, how uſeful foever the general rule may
be in practice, to adhere to ancient forms, when the very ideas
and maxime of law on which they were founded are vanished.
There are many fignal inftances of this in the English law.
Thus in England, land, generally ſpeaking, is abfolutely under
the power of the proprietor, and yet the ancient practice ftill
fubfifts, which confines the execution to one half, precifely as
in the early feudal times, when the debtor could diſpoſe of no
more than half his land. Means, however, have been con-
trived, indirect, indeed, to fupply this palpable defect. Any
other creditor is authorized to feize another half of the land
left out of the firft execution, and fo on without end. But the
worſt conſequences of thefe practices are, that by thus ftrictly
adhering to the form without regarding the fubftance, law,
inftead of a rational fcience, becomes a heap of fubterfuges,
which tend infenfibly to corrupt the morals of thoſe perſons
who make it their profeffion.
}
I ſhall conclude this fubject of laws with juft obferving, that
cuftom has in all countries the force of law; and indeed it is
cuſtom that gives to all laws their greatest force. An attempt to
change à mere cuſtom, though in fact an inconvenient one,
Y y 2
and
348
PART V.
LECTURES O N
1
+
and at leaſt a very infignificant one, has frequently met with
the greateſt oppofition. There was nothing in all the alterations
which Peter the Great made in the conftitution of Ruffia more
diſliked, and which met with more violent, and general op-
pofition, than his orders to all the people who came to town
to cut off their beards, and wear fhort garments.
After theſe obſervations concerning laws in general, I fhall
recite the more important maxims of criminal law in particular,
as a moſt important object of attention in ftudying the confti-
tution and police of different countries.
The object of criminal law is to leffen the number of crimes
in future, and thereby to give every man a fenfe of his perfonal
fecurity; and if this could be done without the actual punish-
ment of
any criminal, fo much evil would be prevented as his
puniſhment implies. Confequently, punishment has no re-
ference to the degree of moral turpitude in the criminal. It
has been justly obferved that, properly fpeaking, a man is not
hanged for ſtealing a fheep in this country, but that by the
terror of his punishment sheep may not be ftolen; and that,
without any anxiety, perfons may leave their ſheep in the
fields unguarded.
Crimes committed by violence,, and alfo by night, ought to
be puniſhed with more ſeverity than thofe committed by ſtealth,
or in the day; becauſe the apprehenfion of the former fubjects
men to greater dread, and their greater vigilance avails them but
little; whereas in cafes in which their own care can fecure
them from injury, the ftate has lefs occafion to interfere.
Very ftrict notions of liberty may be unfavourable to a great
degree of fecurity. It is, no doubt, a capital advantage to this
country, that our lives, our liberties, and our properties, are
not at the mercy of men, and that we cannot be deprived of
t
them
LECT. XLVII. GENERAL POLICY.
349
them but by exprefs law, rigorously conftrued. But this cir-
cumſtance makes the proof of a crime fo difficult, that many
criminals eſcape for one who ſuffers the puniſhment which the
laws inflict. In this caſe, the chance of impunity being fo
very great, there is too much encouragement to crimes. It is
commonly faid with us, that it is better that a hundred crimi-
nals ſhould eſcape, than that one innocent perfon fhould fuffer.
But what the innocent daily fuffer by the hundred criminals
who eſcape ſhould be taken into the account, as well as the
chance of an innocent man fuffering as a criminal. In this
cafe he ought to confider his life as facrificed to the ſecurity
of the rest of his countrymen. However, the chance of lofing
truly upright and worthy characters by feverity in the ad-
miniſtration of justice is very little. With us fome, no doubt,
do fuffer for crimes which they did not cominit; but they are
generally fuch as have committed other crimes, and who,
on that account, have no character to make their innocence
probable.
In order to prevent the commiffion of crimes, puniſhments,
at the fame time that they ought to be adequate to the offences,
ſhould be ſuch as inſpire the greateſt terror; fo that if flavery
be more dreadful than preſent death, as it is to many, the lives
of criminals ſhould be ſpared, and they ſhould be confined to
hard labour, either at home, or abroad. In this cafe fome
advantage might be derived from them, in compenfation for the
injury they have done to fociety. In this country, however,
there would be great danger of criminals eſcaping from their
confinement to labour, and the lofs to fociety by the deſtruction
of criminals is foon made up by the production of better ſub-
jects. How few die by the hand of the executioner compared
with thoſe who die in confequence of war. Is there, then,
any
350
PART V.
LECTURES ON
1
any mercy in ſparing criminals, when the lives of foldiers are in
a manner fported with? The only inconvenience from fevere
puniſhment is, left criminals, having no hope of eſcaping if they
ſhould be apprehended, fhould be guilty of greater violences in
order to prevent detection.
In order to infpire terror, it is of particular confequence that
puniſhment ſhould immediately follow conviction, which was
the cafe with all the ancient nations. Thus, our Saviour, after
being condemned, was immediately led to execution. Our
mode of refpiting for the fake of benefiting the fouls of the
criminals has arifen from a notion that fuch repentance as that
of a condemned criminal may be of fome avail to him with
reſpect to his future ftate; a notion falfe and dangerous in the
extreme, as it encourages the whole community to perfift in
evil courſes; thinking that a few days, or hours, of repentance,
may cancel all their guilt, and prepare them for future hap-
pineſs.
A wife and prudent legiflature will endeavour to prevent the
commiffion of crimes, as well as to fee to the puniſhment of
them when they are committed. For this purpoſe, it is of
great confequence that every incentive to profligacy and vice be
removed as far as poffible. The profpect of improving men's
fortunes by lotteries diverts them from the purfuit of honeſt
gain, and is the cauſe of making great numbers deſperate. A
multitude of aleboufes, and other places of entertainment, which
tempt men to ſpend their money, when their families are in want
of it, is another great nuifance in this country. And the long
confinement of criminals together, and in fome cafes of debtors
and criminals promifcuouſly, with every means which they
can command of riot and debauch, while they are in prifon,
makes it a perfect fchool of vice. They teach and harden one
another,
3
LECT. XLVII.
351
GENERAL POLICY.
:
another, and as nine out of ten efcape execution, they come
into the world better taught in the arts of villany than before.
Common ſenſe, one would think, fhould have taught us long
ago what the excellent Mr. Howard has taken fo much pains to
inculcate, viz. that every criminal fhould be confined alone, and
be limited to the bare neceffaries of life. Perfect folitude gives
room for reflection, and will often reclaim when nothing elſe
would do it.
Great ſeverity, as well as great lenity, ought to be avoided
in the fanctions of laws. The feverity of laws hinders the
execution of them. Perfons of humanity would rather let a
criminal eſcape than fee him fuffer more than they think he
deferves. When puniſhment bears no proportion to the nature
of the crime, men are puniſhed under the idea of their being
more wicked than they really are, which is contrary to the
ſpirit of a moderate government. Befides, when puniſhments
are very fevere, there can be little room for a difference in the
animadverfions upon offences. Hence perfons who are once
criminal in any degree have nothing left to reſtrain them from
greater exceffes. Thus in countries, where the punishments.
of robbery and murder are the fame, robbers always commit
murder. This inconvenience muft happen unleſs, as it is often
the cafe, and particularly in England, the gentleneſs of the
adminiſtration foften the rigour of the law. But this evidently
tends to introduce the moft lawlefs proceedings. When the
Voconian law at Rome appeared too harth, every prætor decided
according to his own ideas of equity, that is, without law. Of
all
governments the Japanefe is the moſt ſevere. In Japan the
whole diſtrict is punished where the crime was committed; and
thus Alfred was obliged to enact with refpect to England.
!
So
352
PART V.
LECTURES ON
man.
So rigorous are the foreft laws in France, that, as the writer
of the life of Mr. Turgot informs us, a peaſant being accuſed of
killing a wild boar, alleged in his excufe that he took it to be a
But as exceffive ſeverity in laws is apt to beget relaxation
in their execution, fo, on the other hand, their exceffive lenity,
befides giving too much indulgence, and confequently encourage-
ment to offenders, is often the caufe of lawleſs cruelty and bar-
barity. Where there are no legal methods of putting perſons to
death, as in the cafe of Sylla, men will have recourſe to illegal
ones to get rid of their enemies, as he did by profcription.
It ſeems at first fight that it would be better to define every
crime, and to fix every puniſhment with the greateſt precifion,
in order that every man may know with certainty what will be
the confequence of his conviction. But fince no crimes can
be defined with fuch precision, but that the degrees both of
guilt, and of danger to the community, will be very different in
crimes of the fame denomination, ſome think it more convenient,
in countries governed by ftrict law, to appoint heavy punish-
ments for ſmall offences, with a power of pardon, or of miti-
gating the punishment, in ordinary cafes, and of executing the
fentence of the law in cafes of a more atrocious nature.
at least is the practice in England.
This
One reafon why robbers feldom commit murder in England,
is that no mercy is expected in this cafe. But another is
thought to be the horror which people of this country have for
dead bodies, which is ſuppoſed to be owing to their very ſeldom
feeing them; whereas the Italians are faid to be lefs fhocked at
this fight, becauſe it is the cuſtom of the country to carry their
dead to the grave with their faces uncovered.
Neither crimes nor punishments fhould be eſtimated by
money, but rather, if it be poffible, by commodities, unless
the
LECT. XLVII.
353
GENERAL POLICY.
the nominal fum be frequently changed; otherwife great incon-
veriences will follow. Thus in England, a man is liable to be
hanged, according to the letter of the law, if he ſteal any thing
above the value of ten-pence. A fellow at Rome is faid to have
given a box on the ear to all he met, giving them a fmall piece
of money, according to the law of the twelve tables.
Shame is no punishment except upon perfons of ingenuous
difpofitions; and if it extinguiſh a fenfe of fhame, as it tends to
do, a man is thereby made defperate; at leaft he has one im-
portant reſtraint from the commiffion of crimes taken from him.
There are few cafes, therefore, in which it is wife to have
recourfe to it.
It has been a fault in fome governments to make fome things
the object of law of which cognizance cannot be taken, for want
of proper evidence. Thus the Perfians abfurdly made ingrati-
tude a crime to which a punishment was annexed; whereas
nothing of the nature of manners, ought to be comprifed in a
code of civil laws.
Still more abfurd is it to introduce fuch principles into the
adminiſtration of juſtice among imperfect men as are only adapted
to the all-perfect government of God. Thus the tribunal of
inquifition is founded upon the idea of repentance, as a religious
act. Confequently, no perfon has any chance of being abfolved
unleſs he confefs, and be his own accufer: and he who denies
a crime of which the inquifitors think him guilty is always
condemned. The Spaniards hardly acted more abfurdly than
this when they condemned, and executed, the Incha Athualpa
for having had ſeveral wives, which was not contrary to the
Peruvian laws, and for killing fome of his fubjects.
As laws ſhould not contradict themſelves, fo neither ought
they to have any tendency to leffen the obligation of moral duties.
Z z
They
}
354
PART V.
LECTURES ON
They ought rather to enforce them. Thus it was fundamentally
wrong, fays Montefquieu, in Gondebald king of the Burgundians,
to order that the wife, or a fon, of a thief ſhould be made flaves
if they did not reveal the theft.
) 40-
Nothing depending upon a man's felf fhould be admitted as
an excuſe for a crime, not drunkenneſs for inftance, though
madneſs ought. The North American Indians, however, think
differently. Should one of them, fays Mr. Charlevoix *, kill
another when he is drunk (which they often pretend to be
when they harbour any fuch defign) they content themſelves
with bewailing the dead. It was a great misfortune, ſay they,
but as for the murderer, he knew not what he did.
If a murder be committed in cold blood among the North
American Indians, thofe of his own cabin only, fays Mr. Char-
levoix, have the power of punishing him with death. But
this they very rarely do, and then without any form of juſtice;
fo that his death looks not like a legal punishment, but rather
the revenge of fome individual
of fome individual; and fometimes the chief is glad
of this opportunity to get rid of a bad fubject. In a word,
crimes are puniſhed in fuch a manner as neither to fatisfy juſtice,
nor eſtabliſh the public tranquility and fecurity.
All trials ſhould be as public as poffible, that the ſenſe of the
country may be a check upon the proceedings of the court.
៧៩
The good or bad ufe which is made of laws depends very
much on the perfons who are the profecutors, and thoſe who
adminifter them. In Rome there no caluminator publicus,
no advocate or attorney general, every perſon was allowed to pro-
fecute for crimes which had a public bad tendency. This, fays
Montefquieu, was a faulty inſtitution, becauſe ſuch a privilege
*Vol. ii. p. 32.
+ Vol. ii. p. 32,
given
}
LECT. XLVII. GENERAL POLICY.
355
given to individuals could not but be frequently made the in-
ſtrument of venting private ill-will and revenge. In modern
governments, the privilege of profecuting public crimes belongs
to the chief magiftrate. In England, no criminal trial, in the
name of the crown, can proceed till the cafe has firſt been
examined by the grand jury of the county, and their authority
interpofed for the profecution.
In Turkey, fays Lady Wortley Montague*, murder is never
purſued by the king's officers, as with us. It is the buſineſs
of the next relations to revenge the dead perſon, and if they
chufe rather to compound the matter for money, there is no
more faid of it.
It is of the greateft confequence that the judges be perfons
who have no intereft in the event of the proſecution. They
ought therefore, if poffible, to have no part either in the legif-
lative or executive power of a ſtate, or any proſpect of arriving
at greater preferment; and they ſhould alſo be chofen out of the
body of the people. We fee the admirable wisdom of the
Engliſh conſtitution, both in the appointment of juries, and
the fituation of the judges. Claudius, fays Tacitus, by judging
himſelf in all affairs, gave occafion to all kinds of injuſtice;
and Nero when he began his reign, to ingratiate himſelf with
the people, promiſed to have no concern in it. Lewis XIV.
often decided the caufes of his fubjects, and fo did all the ancient
feudal princes. In England Edward III. was the laſt of our
kings who prefided in a court of juſtice.
'
Much of the effect of criminal law depends upon the rules of
evidence, which are very different in different countries. In
England we require the ftricteft evidence, and it muſt in all
* Letters, vol. iii. p. 34.
Z z 2
cafes
356
PART V.
LECTURES ON
cafes be given in open court, and in the preſence of the accufed.
With us, alfo, probabilities are little regarded. But it is not fo
in fome other countries. The parliament of Thouloufe, fays the
author of the Commentaries on Crimes and Punishments*, has a
very fingular cuſtom with reſpect to evidence. In other places
demy proofs are admitted, but at Tholouſe they admit a quarter,
and even an eighth of a proof. For inftance, a hearfay may be.
confidered as a quarter; and another hearfay, more vague than
the former, an eighth; fo that eight hearfays, which in fact may-
be no more than the echo of a groundleſs report, conſtitute a
full proof. On this principle it was that the unfortunate Calas
was condemned to the wheel.
A criminal action may be ascertained either by the pofitive tefti-
mony of perfons who ſaw it committed, or by other circumftances;
and in general the former is much preferred; but it is
but it is upon the
fuppofition that the witneffes will not be deceived themſelves,
or contribute to deceive others; and as there are many cafes in
which one, or both of theſe may be fuppofed, fuch teſtimony
comes under the defcription of a circumftance, by which we are
enabled to judge whether the fact took place or not: and there
are many cafes in which it may have lefs weight than other
circumftances.
In no country do more crimes go unpunished than in Italy,
chiefly on account of their fanctuaries, and alfo on account of their
custom of confining the witneffes along with the criminals.
The moſt atrocious parricides, fays Mr. Sharp, are ſeldom
puniſhed at Naples. If a murderer touch a church wall (and
many walls are church walls in this city) before he is feized by
the officers, holy church will not fuffer him to be hanged, and
}
* Page 77.
+ Travels, p. 136.
if
LECT. XLVII. GENERAL POLICY.
357
if one man ftabs another in the fight of ten witneffes, they all
decamp, and leave the coaft clear to the affaffin.
One method of compelling perfons to give a true evidence
is torture, and in fome cafes, no doubt, it will fucceed; but
in many more a man may be made to fay any thing to relieve
himſelf from extreme pain. The only proper uſe of torture.
is that of puniſhment for atrocious crimes; and it would cer-
tainly ſtrike more terror, which is the end of all punishment, if
in certain caſes recourfe was had to it. It has been ſuggeſted
that there would be no impropriety in condemning murderers
to be thrown to wild beaſts.
One of the moſt abfurd methods of aſcertaining the juſtice.
of a cauſe in the feudal times was that of fighting, either in per-
fon or by champions. This was called wager of battle, or trial
by God, of which our criminals have nominally the option, it
having been imagined that Divine Providence would favour the
righteous cauſe.
Some thing fimilar to the wager of battle was practiſed by
chriſtians, and termed the judgment of the cross. In 1775 a con-
teft aroſe between the Bishop of Paris, and the Abbot of St.
Dennys, concerning the property of a fmall abbey. Each of
them exhibited deeds and records. But instead of trying the
authenticity, or confidering the import, of theſe, the point was
referred to the judicium crucis. Each produced a perſon, who,
during the celebration of maſs, ſtood before the croſs with his
arms expanded, and he whoſe repreſentative firſt became weary,
and altered his poſture, loft his caufe. The Abbot gained it *.
As no perſon ſhould be confidered as guilty till he is proved to
be ſo, no perſon ſhould be deprived of liberty, or confined, ex-
Robertfon's Charles V. vol. i. p. 290.
cept
358
PART V.
LECTURES ON
1
cept the crime of which he is accufed would be puniſhed more
feverely than by banishment and confifcation of goods. Be-
cauſe in this cafe, if he was guilty, it would be in his power to
eſcape puniſhment. The reafon for impriſoning an accuſed
perfon is only to fecure his appearance to take his trial; and he
ought to be indemnified for his confinement, either by the
profecutor, or the country, if it appear that he was innocent.
If an innocent man be charged with a crime, it is reaſonable
that he ſhould have fome compenfation, and in England an
action lies for falfe impriſonment. In France, on the contrary,
an innocent perfon, who has had the misfortune to be thrown
into a dungeon, and tortured almoft to death, has no confola-
tion, no advantage to hope for, no action againſt any one;
and to add to his misfortune, he has for ever loft his reputa-
tion, becauſe his joints have been diflocated, which ought to
have entitled him to compaffion *
* Beccaria on Crimes and Punishment, p. 73.
LEC.
LECT. XLVIII. GENERAL POLICY.
359
LECTURE XLVIII.
7
The Theory of the Progress of Law, exemplified in the Hiftory of
the Criminal law, and in the Progress of Men's Ideas and of
Laws concerning Property. Hiftory of Laws. Profeffion of
Law.
TH
HE theory of the progress of laws is a fine ſubject of ſpe-
culation for a philoſopher and metaphyſician, demonſtrat-
ing how men's ideas enlarge, and grow refined, in proportion to
the improvements of fociety. As a fpecimen of this, I fhall
ſelect the progress of the criminal laws, and of the laws relating
to property, abridged from the ingenious Law Tracts of Lord
Kaims.
The neceffity of applying to a judge where any doubt aroſe
about the author of a crime, was probably, in all countries, the
firſt inſtance of the legislature's interpofing in matters of puniſh-
ment. In the next place, the injured perfon was not to puniſh
at pleaſure. In Abyffinia it was only when a perfon was ad-
judged to die that he was put into the power of the injured.
Pecuniary compofitions were probably firſt eſtabliſhed by
common confent. It was next made unlawful to profecute re-
fentments, without first demanding fatisfaction from the delin-
quent; and the laft ftep was to compel the delinquent to pay,,
and the injured to accept of, a proper fatisfaction.
When compofitions first came into ufe, it is probable they
were authorized in flight delinquencies only, and he only who
3.
wass
360
PART V.
LECTURES ON
was injured had a right to the compofition. But if a man was
killed, any one of his relations was entitled to a fhare, becauſe
they were all fufferers by his death; and in all atrocious crimes
it was foon perceived that the public was injured. A fine must
therefore be paid to the fifc, over and above what the perfons
injured had a right to claim. The magiftrate, having thus ac-
quired fuch influence, even in private punishments, proceeded
naturally to affume the privilege of avenging wrongs done to the
public merely, when no individual was hurt. In this manner
was the power of punishing crimes againſt the ftate eſtabliſhed
in the civil magiftrate.
Compofitions eſtabliſhed in days of poverty bore no propor-
tion to crimes, after nations became rich. Here, then, was a fair
opportunity for the king, or chief magiſtrate, to interpoſe, and
decree an adequate punishment. The firſt inftance of this
kind, it is probable, had the confent of the perfons injured,
and it could not be difficult to perfuade any man of ſpirit, that
it was more for his honour to fee his enemy condignly pu-
nished, than put up with a trifling compenfation in money.
And then, if a puniſhment was inflicted adequate to the crime,
there could be no claim for a compofition. And thus, though
indirectly, an entire end was put to the right of private puniſh-
ment in all matters of importance. Theft probably afforded
the firſt inſtance of this kind of punishment. The option of
inflicting capital puniſhments, or leaving the criminal to com-
mon law, was imperceptibly converted into an arbitrary power
of pardoning, even after fentence; but then the perſon injured
had a right to the compofition.
The trial by battle, introduced by Dogabert, king of Bur-
gundy, being more agreeable to the genius of a warlike people,
was retained much longer than the uſe of fire and water,
another
1
LECT. XLVIII.
361
GENERAL POLICY.
another artificial means of difcovering truth. They were both
confidered as an appeal to the Almighty.
The oath of purgation was fubftituted in the place of
battle, the defendant bringing along with him into the court
certain perfons called compurgators, who, after he had fworn
to his own innocence, all fwore that his oath was true. This
gave the defendant a choice of a wager by battle, or a wager
by law, as the compurgation was called.
Laftly, the oath of compurgation gave place to juries. The
tranfition was cafy, there being no variation in the cuſtom, ex-
cept that the twelve compurgators, formerly named by the de-
fendant, were now named by the judge. The oath of purgation
and juries were in ufe at the fame time, but the two methods
could not long fubfift together.
I now proceed to mark the feveral fteps in the progrefs of
men's ideas concerning property.
In the original conceptions of mankind concerning property,
poffefion was an effential circumftance. It was however a rule
that though property is loft by theft, it is not acquired by theft.
Of all the fubjects of property, land is that which engages.
our affections the moft, and for this reafon the relation of pro-
perty respecting land grew up much fooner to its prefent firm-
neſs and ſtability than the relation of property reſpecting move-
ables. But moveable property led the way in the power of
alienating.
In order to take poffeffion of land, fome overt act was necef-
fary, which was conceived to reprefent poffeffion, and was
termed fymbolical poffeffion.
Property originally limited, beftowing no power of alienation,
carries the mind naturally to the chain of poffeffors, who con-
A a a
tinue
:
362
PART V.
LECTURES ON
tinue the occupant's poffeffion after his death, and who must fuc-
ceed if he cannot alienate.
Donations were of flower growth, being at firft ſmall, and
upon plaufible pretexts. It then grew to be a law that the father
without the confent of his heirs, might give part of his land to
religious uſes, in marriage with his daughter, or in recompence
for fervices.
Donations inter vivos paved way for donations mortis caufa.
The power of teſting was first introduced by Solon, who gave
power to every proprietor who had no children to regulate his
fucceffion by teftament.
When a man died without children, his land originally, fell
back to the common. By degrees, the idea of property began to
fubfift after death; and the perfon might claim who derived
right from the deceaſed. This right was, probably, firſt com-
municated to the children foris familia, eſpecially if all the chil-
dren were in that fituation. Children failing, the eſtate went
to a brother, and fo gradually to more diftant collateral rela-
tions.
The fucceffion of collaterals failing, defcendants produced a
new legal idea, for as they had no pretext of right, independent
of the former proprietor, their privilege of fucceeding could
ſtand on no other ground than the preſumed will of the de-
ceaſed. But the privilege of defcendants, being gradually re-
ſtrained within narrower and narrower bounds, was confounded
in the hope of fucceffion with collaterals.
A man who has amaffed great wealth cannot think of quitting
his hold. To colour the diſmal proſpect, he makes a deed arreſt-
ing fleeting property, fecuring his eſtate to himſelf, and to thoſe
who repreſent him, in an endleſs train of fucceffion. His eftate
and
LECT. XLVIII
36300
GENERAL POLICY.
and his heirs must for ever bear his name, every thing being
contrived to perpetuate his name and his wealth. This gave
rife to entails. Entails in England, favoured by the feudal
ſyſtem, and authoriſed by ftatutes, ſpread every where with great
rapidity, till, becoming a public nuifance, they were checked and
defeated by the authority of the judges, without a ftatute. That
entails are fubverfive of commerce and induftry is not the worſt
that can juſtly be faid of them. They are a fnare to the thought-
lefs proprietor, who, by a fingle act, may be entangled paſt
hope of recovery. To the cautious again, they are a perpetual
cauſe of diſcontent, by fubverting that liberty and independence
to which all men afpire, with reſpect to their poffeffions as well
as their perfons.
The hiſtory of laws, in their progreſs from ſtate to ſtate, is
well worthy of the attention of an hiftorian. Some of the moſt
important changes in human affairs are owing to facts necef-
farily connected with this fubject. No event tended to improve
the weſtern part of the world more than the accidental finding of
a copy of Juftinian's Pandects in 1130 at Amalphi in Italy.
Many things in the preſent ftate of any law are unintelligible
without the knowledge of the hiſtory and progreſs of it. Thus
it may well puzzle a perfon to account for the late Engliſh
practice of cruſhing a perfon to death who will not plead. But
the reaſon is, that the Engliſh adhered to the original notion,
that a proceſs of law implies a judicial contract, and that there
can be no proceſs unleſs the defendant fubmits to have his cauſe
tried. Formerly it was actually at their option, to accept of
the wager of combat, or wager of law, as it was called. In many
parts of Europe no perfon can be executed till he has confeffed
his crime. In this cafe they have recourfe to torture.
Aaa 2
The
364
PART V
LECTURES
O`N
1
The profeſſion of law has always been reckoned honourable in
civilized countries. All the youth of diftinction at Rome
ſtudied the law, and the pleading of caufes was the conftant and
well-known road to popularity and preferment; though perhaps
a regard for eloquence, as much as for law, might be the reaſon of
it. Barbarous nations have ever entertained an averfion to forms
of law, and it is certainly an argument of the barbarity of theſe
northern nations, that the profeffion of law was fo long regarded
as a mean employment. France is the only country in Europe.
where the ancient nobility have often put on the long robe.
LECTURE XLIX.
Neceffity of an Attention to Agriculture. How best encouraged.
Bounties. Public Granaries. Mutual Influences of Agriculture
and Commerce. Circumstances attending the Imperfection of
Agriculture. Imperfect State of it in England a ferv Centuries
ago. The Progrefs of Improvements in Society. Divifion of
Labour. Great Uses of the most common Arts.
SUPE
JPPOSING the things which have the greateſt influence on
human affairs, viz. government and laws, to be properly
adjuſted, the only ftable foundation of moſt of the improvements
in focial life is Agriculture, confidered as including the culti-
vation of all the productions of the earth. It is therefore a ſub-
ject that deſerves very particular attention. I even confider the
3
breeding
LECT. XLIX.
365
}
GENERAL POLICY.
!
breeding of cattle as a part of this fubject, becauſe that employ-
ment (except when it is followed by people who frequently shift
their habitations, as the wandering Tartars) neceffarily implies
the cultivation of grafs, if not of other vegetables.
From the earth it is, ultimately, that all animal life is main-
tained; and from the earth we fetch all the materials for thoſe
manufactures and arts, which improve and embellish human
life; fo that were agriculture, in this extenfive fenfe, not at-
tended to, thofe manufactures and conveniences could not exift.
At least the continuance of them must be very precarious, as
they muſt then be brought from other countries. And if the
produce of the foil of any country be not fufficient to ſupport the
inhabitants, their very fubfiftence muft neceffarily be very pre-
carious. The free intercourfe among nations in modern times
makes fuch a fituation fufficiently fafe; but in many times of
antiquity no fuch a ftate as that of Holland could have exifted.
There was no city in Greece but what was maintained by the
produce of its own adjacent lands, except Athens, which, by its
commerce, and fuperior naval force, commanded fupplies from
all the neighbouring countries.
The only way to encourage agriculture is to excite other kinds
of induſtry, affording a ready market for the exchange of corn
for commodities; that is, to make it fubfervient to com-
merce.
If the inhabitants of any country have no motive to raiſe
more corn that what will be fufficient for their own confump-
tion, they will often not raife even that; and a bad feed time, or
harveft, will be neceffarily followed by a famine. This was
frequently the cafe in England before the bounty was granted
for the exportation of corn; fince which time, viz. in the year
1689, we have had no fuch thing as a famine. And what is
very remarkable, notwithſtanding the increaſe of the proportion
between
366
PART V.
LECTURES ON
between money and commodities, the price of corn has rather
fallen fince that time. For whereas, for forty-three years be-
fore the bounty was granted, the mean price of a quarter of
wheat was two pounds ten fhillings and two-pence; by an exact
calculation of the price of wheat from the year 1689 to the
year 1752, it appeared to be no more than two pounds two fhil-
lings and eight-pence. It does not follow from this that boun-
ties are wife meaſures. They may be ufeful for a time. But
if any commodity cannot be raiſed, or exported, without a
bounty, it ſhould be confidered whether more is not given in the
bounty than is gained by raiſing, or exporting, the commodity.
That the defire of procuring mere fubfiftence, without any
view to ſuperfluity, is not, in all places, a fufficient motive to
perfect the culture of the earth, feems evident from a compari-
fon of the improvement and populoufnefs of countries with, and
without, good roads, or canals. When the produce of land can
be eafily exported and exchanged, there is a great additional
motive to cultivation, though it would yield as much of the
mere neceffaries of life (which did not require to be removed
from the fpot) whether they could be conveyed to a diſtance or
not. It must be obſerved, however, that in fome fituations the
tools, and manure, proper for the foil, muſt be fetched from a
diftance.
Both Florence and Naples are fo far from adopting our prin-
ciples of encouraging agriculture by granting a bounty on the
exportation of corn, that they lay a duty on all exported corn.
So wedded are they to the ancient opinion of preventing the
dearneſs of bread, by keeping the whole growth at home. Some
years ago there was an amazing harvest through the whole
kingdom of Naples. They had upon their lands a quantity to
the amount of two or three hundred thousand pounds in value,
4
which
LECT. XLIX.
367
GENERAL POLICY.
which they could not confume. There was at that time an
application made for an exemption from the duty on exporta-
tion, without which the merchant could not find his account in
fending it abroad. But though the minifter was informed by
feveral perfons that the revenue would certainly feel the good
effects of ſo much more money being brought into the country,
as fully as in the fhape of a duty on exports, he was deaf to all
their reaſonings, and would not eſtabliſh ſo dangerous a prece-
dent as he thought it. The confequence was, that the corn
grew mouldy and perished, the next harveft failed, and a
dreadful dearth enfued *.
Another advantage attending the raifing an extraordinary
quantity of corn is, that by keeping bread at a reaſonable
price, workmen's wages are kept lower, and more fixed ; a
thing of the greateſt conſequence in manufactures. And it is
certain, that neither agriculture, nor trade, can flourish where
the general eafe does not begin with the clafs of labourers.
This, indeed, would be ftill more effectually done by public
granaries; but the large ſtocks of merchants who export corn
ſerve inſtead of granaries, when, upon the apprehenſion of a
dearth, the bounty is taken off, or an embargo laid upon expor-
tation.
The advantages of agriculture and commerce are reciprocal.
For, as Poftlethwaite obferves, whatever hurts trade is in fact
destructive of culture, and confequently the interefts of both
land and trade are beſt promoted by cultivating fuch things as
commerce points out to be the most beneficial. It is his
It is his great
maxim, that the only method of increafing our trade, and
* Sir James Stuart's Obfervations, vol. i. p. 3.
thereby
368
PART V.
LECTURES ON
thereby of augmenting our wealth, is to increaſe our land culti
vations, and enclofe the wafte grounds in the kingdom.
Where there is an uncommon tendency to population in a
country, neceffity will be a ftronger fpur to apply to agriculture
than the advantages expected from commerce. This is the
reaſon why huſbandry has been carried to greater perfection in
China than in any part of Europe, or of the world. The en-
couragement of agriculture is there a juft and neceffary object of
attention to the ftate. The emperor of China, every year, makes
the beft farmer of the empire a mandarin of the eighth order,
It was with the fame view that, among the ancient Perfians,
the king quitted his ftate, and lived with the farmers eight days
in one particular month of the year. Switzerland too, a populous
and barren country, abounds with excellent huſbandmen.
Where agriculture is reckoned a merely laborious, and con-
fequently a mean and ignoble employment, it is certain not to
be understood, nor much practifed. Every man, fays Xeno-
phon, may be a farmer; a ftrong proof, as even Columella
hints, that agriculture was but little known in the age of
Xenophon. Agriculture is yet far from being brought to the
perfection of which it is capable; and nothing but the ſtrongeſt
inducements from commerce, or abfolute neceffity, the mother
of moſt inventions, will enable us to judge of what perfection
it is capable.
1
It was but lately that agriculture was applied to in England.
Before we became a confiderable commercial fate, all the
country was poffeffed by graziers, and the little agriculture
that was underfood, or practifed, among us was confined to:
the article of Corn only. It is but fince queen Elizabeth's
time that we have had any fettled notions about agriculture.
?
Mr.
LECT. XLIX.
369
GENERAL POLICY.
Mr. Hartlib, to whom Milton dedicated his Treatife on Edu-
cation, fays, that old men in his days remembered the firſt
gardeners who came over to Surry, and fold turnips, car-
rots, parfnips, early peas, and rape, which were then a great
rarity, being imported from Helland. They introduced, at
that time, the planting of cabbages, and cauliflowers, and dig-
ging the ground for garden ftuff. We alſo find that cherries
and hops were firſt planted in the reign of Henry VIII. Arti-
chokes firſt made their appearance in the time of queen Eliza-
beth; and we ftill had cherries from Flanders, apples from
France, onions, faffron, and liquorifh from Spain, and hops
from the low countries.
Before we pass from agriculture to commerce, we muſt conſider
the influences and connexions of the arts, manufactures, and
fciènces, things nearly connected, and highly uſeful in convert-
ing the productions of the earth into proper fubjects of com-
merce. But I ſhall firſt give a general view of the progreſs of
men towards wealth, and the claffes into which they became
diſtributed by this means. The progress of fociety, and the
ſteps by which nations advance to opulence and power, is one
of the moſt pleaſing and uſeful objects of ſpeculation.
The only original fource of wealth, and every other advantage
is labour. By this men are enabled to get from the earth, or
the fea, their provifions, materials for their cloathing and habi-
tations, and their comfortable fubfiftence in all other refpects.
By this they make themſelves tools and engines, which ſhorten
labour, and divide it, fo as to enable a few to make fufficient
provifion for a great number.
They who by their induſtry have acquired property, and who
have by the rules of fociety the power of difpofing of it, tranf-
mit the whole ftock of it to their defcendants, fo as to exempt
them
B b b
370
PART V.
LECTURES ON
!
them from labour. For the advantage of cultivating their land,
living in their houfes, or making ufe of their money, others
are willing to maintain them without labour, fo that they can
live upon their rents. They who, by their own labour, or that of
others, are poffeffed of transferable commodities, can fell them
to thoſe who want them, and with the price they get buy
others, gaining ſomething by every transfer; and thus, without
any proper labour, they live by the profits of their trade.
}
Thoſe who by their labour, their rents, or the profits of
trade, have acquired wealth, and want other things, as perfonal
fecurity, perſonal ſervices, inftruction, or amufement, will give
their fuperfluity to others, whoſe buſineſs it will be, without
any productive labour (or fuch as will add to the ſtock and wealth
of the nation) to wait upon them, to fight for them, to in-
struct them, to amufe them, and even to govern them.
thoſe who are employed in this manner may be called the fer-
vants of the public, and are an article of national expence.
All
Thus we have got four claffes of men, the labourers (com-
prizing farmers, and manufacturers, whofe employment alone
is properly productive, adding to the wealth of the nation)
landholders, or moneyholders, who live by giving the uſe of their
land, or money to others, traders, who live by the exchange
of commodities, and laſtly ſervants, ſuch as magiftrates, teachers
of religion and fcience, phyficians, lawyers, foldiers, play-
ers, &c.
As the product of labour, without greater folly and extrava-
gance than mankind in general are difpofed to give into, will
in time of peace accumulate, the clafs of unproductive labourers,
or fervants of all kinds, will increafe; becauſe the labour of a
few will be able to fupport them, and thoſe who have wealth
will derive as much advantage from it as they can.
In
LECT. XLIX.
371
GENERAL POLICY.
In theſe circumſtances, knowledge will alſo increaſe and accu-
mulate, and will diffuſe itſelf to the lower ranks of fociety, who
by degrees will find leiſure for fpeculation; and looking beyond
their immediate employment, they will confider the complex
machine of ſociety, and in time underſtand it better than thoſe
who now write about it. And when mankind in general ſhall be
enlightened with reſpect to the uſe and fubordination of all the
parts of which fociety confift, they will make the beſt regulations
for the good of the whole. Having a great furplus, they will
employ it in the beft manner, procuring real conveniences, and
retrenching uſeleſs expences. If they find they have paid too
much for their government, their defence, their religion, the
care of their health, or property, &c. they will retrench that
expence, and employ it in cultivation, to fupport greater num-
bers, who will continually want more means of fubfiftence,
in manufactures, building bridges, making roads and canals,
&c. More particularly, it may be hoped that focieties, fully
inftructed by experience, will with the utmost care avoid the
ruinous expences and devaſtation of war, which may diffipate
in one year more than they can accumulate in an hundred.
The thriving ſtate of a nation may be judged of by the en-
creaſe of its ſtock, the cultivation of its land, the value of its
manufactures, and the extent of its commerce.
If theſe en-
creaſe, the nation is wife and frugal, and does not fpend more
than it can afford. Individuals, when left to themfelves, are
in general fufficiently provident, and will daily better their
circumftances; and as it may be prefumed that, in confequence
of giving conftant attention to their intereft, they will under-
ſtand it, it is feldom wife in governors to pretend to direct them.
Of all the claffes of men above-mentioned, the governors are,
in general, and of neceffity muft be, the moſt ignorant of their
B b b 2
OWN
372
PART V.
LECTURES ON
own buſineſs, becauſe it is exceedingly complex, and requires
more knowledge and ability than they are poffeffed of. The
waſte of public wealth by them is by far the moft confiderable.
By the fooliſh wars in which they involve nations, and the
endleſs taxes they impofe upon them, governors are continually
pulling down what individuals are building up; fo that as
Dr. Smith justly obſerves *, "it is the higheſt impertinence
"and prefumption in kings, and minifters, to pretend to watch
"over the œconomy of private people, and to reſtrain their
"their expences, either by fumptuary laws, or by prohibiting
"the importation of foreign luxuries. They are themſelves
"always, and without any exception, the greateſt ſpendthrifts
in the fociety. Let them look well after their own expence,
"and they may fafely truft private people with theirs. If their
"own extravagance does not ruin the ftate, that of their fubjects
"never will."
The great advantage of an improved ſtate of the arts arifes
from the divifion of labour, by which means one man, confining
his attention to one thing, or one operation, does it in greater
perfection, and with much greater diſpatch. Dr. Smith ob-
ferves that, in the prefent improved ftate of the manufacture
of pins, ten men will make upwards of forty-eight thouſand
pins in a day; but that if they had all worked feparately, and
without any of them having been educated to that particular
bufinefs, they could not, each of them, have made twenty, or
perhaps not one pin, in a day.
The advantage we derive from the most common of our
arts, in furniſhing us with tools to facilitate labour, as well
as the great uſe of iron, we fee ftrikingly illuftrated in the
* Wealth of Nations, vol. ii. p. 27.
account
LECT. XLIX.
373
GENERAL POLICY.
account which Mr. Charlevoix gives of the method which the
North American Indians took to make a hatchet. Before they
were provided with hatchets, and other inftruments, they were
very much at a lofs in felling their trees, and making them fit
for the uſes for which they intended them. They burned them
near the root; and in order to ſplit, and cut them into proper
lengths, they made uſe of hatchets made of flint, which never
broke, but which required a prodigious time to ſharpen. In
order to fix them in a fhaft, they cut off the top of a young tree,
making a flit in it, as if they were going to graft it, into which
flit they inſerted the head of the axe. The parts of the tree
growing together again, in length of time, held the head of the
hatchet fo firm, that it was impoffible for it to get loofe.
Then they cut the tree of the length they judged fufficient for
the handle*.
* Travels in Canada, vol. ii. p. 126.
LE C-
374
PART V.
LECTURES ON
LECTURE L.
Encouragement of Arts, &c. by Government. Securities neceſſary
to Manufactures, &c. Apprenticeships. Servitude. In what
Manner Arts and Manufactures increase the Power of a State.
Importance of encouraging Labour. Vaft Advantage of Manu-
factures, particularly to England. The Society for the Encou-
ragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. The Con-
nexion between Science and the Arts. On what Circumftances
a Taſte for Science depends. The Confequences of Interruptions
in Science. The ufual Decline of the Arts after they have been
brought pretty near Perfection. Why Science is not fo apt to
decline. Superior Happiness of the prefent, compared with paſt
Ages, in confequence of Improvements in Arts.
THE advantages which men and ſocieties derive from the
arts being fo great, it behoves a wife government to do
every thing they can to facilitate their progrefs. But there is
the greateſt danger of their attempting too much, and being
deceived by appearances.
It has been a pretty common practice to encourage particular
manufactures, and likewife particular kinds of produce, by
giving bounties on the exportation of them. But the wisdom
of this policy may be queftioned.
If the whole property of the nation was in the hand of one
perfon, he would never export any thing that could not find a
gainful market. Though the merchant, therefore, who exports
goods with a bounty may gain by fuch a trade, the nation
evidently
1
LECT. L.
375
GENERAL POLICY.
evidently cannot. In order to favour any particular manufac-
ture, or produce, a bounty muft either be given for the raiſing,
or exporting it, or the importation of the fame muſt be pro-
hibited. But in both cafes it is evident that the intereft of the
confumer is facrificed to that of the raifer of the produce, or the
manufacturer. But theſe are few, and the conſumers many. The
only good reaſon therefore why any particular produce, or manu-
facture, is encouraged, is the accommodation of the conſumer.
What then can be a greater abfurdity than for the conſumers to
tax themſelves in the first place to pay the bounty, and then to
pay the greater price for the commodity, which the raifer of the
produce, or the manufacturer, who have no competitors in the
market, will naturally lay upon his goods.
There is a poffibility, indeed, that favouring a particular
produce, or manufacture, in its infancy, may be a means of
making it beneficial to the community at large in fome future
time. But this infancy muſt have a period. If a man be at the
expence of rearing a calf, or a colt, it is with a view to its
being uſeful to him fome time or another. If a manufacture
cannot be continued without the fupport of government, it is
a proof that it is never worth while to fupport it.. The fituation
of the country is fuch as that the induſtry of its inhabitants
will be better employed fome other way; and when this is dif-
covered, the fooner the bounty is difcontinued, the fooner will
they fall into a more proper mode of induſtry.
Manufactures cannot fubfift without a confiderable degree of
fecurity and independence. Men will not exert themſelves to acquire
much more than a bare fubfiftence without a perfuafion of the
fecurity of their property. In Turky there is very little motive
to induſtry, becauſe there is no fecure poffeffion of any thing.
The
376
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
The inhabitants of Servia, fays Lady Wortley Montague*, are
induftrious, but the oppreffion of the peasants is fo great, that
they are forced to abandon their houfes, and neglect their til-
lage. Sicily, fays Mr. Bridonet, is immenfely rich both in a fine
foil, and in minerals, but the people are grievouſly oppreffed by
"To what end," ſay they,
"ſhould we explore
government.
" the mines. It is not we that ſhould reap the profit.
the profit. Nay, the
diſcovery of any thing very rich might poffibly prove the ruin
"of its poffeffor. Were we happy enough to enjoy the bleffings
"of your conſtitution, you might call us rich, indeed."
66
The law relating to apprenticeships in this country is an
impediment to the improvement of the arts. According to it,
no perſon can exerciſe a trade which exifted at the time when
the ftatute was made, or be employed as a journeyman, till he
has ſerved ſeven years to a mafter in it. In general, much leſs
time is neceffary for the purpofe, and many perfons find them-
felves better qualified to conduct a bufinefs to which they have
not been brought up. The inconvenience of this reftriction
is leffened by methods that are generally practiſed to evade it.
Mankind, naturally averfe to labour, have in all ages endea-
voured to compel others to labour for them, and in Greece and
Rome the manufacturers were generally flaves. In modern
times, though an end has been put to fervitude in the chriſtian
countries of Europe, it has been greatly extended in our colo-
nies, flaves being purchaſed in Africa and tranfported in order
to their being employed in America. But both the injustice
and ill-policy of this fyftem is now pretty generally ac-
knowledged.
* Travels, vol. i. p. 153.
Vol. ii. p. 225.
Servitude.
LECT. L.
377
GENERAL POLICY.
Servitude is the moſt wretched condition of human nature, be-
cauſe man is capable, in a high degree, of enjoying a ſtate of liberty
and felf command, and is therefore more miferable in a ſtate of
fervitude than other animals, many of whom are more happy in
that ſtate than in any other. It is alfo an argument againſt
flavery, that men, ill brooking that condition, and being often
refractory, are expoſed to very cruel treatment, and that the moſt
dreadful precautions are thought neceffary to prevent their
eſcape, or to punish their revolt.
It is another argument
against this practice, that no methods can
with the fame ſpirit and effect as freemen.
fays Dr. Smith*, from the experience of all
that the work done by freemen comes cheaper in the end than
that performed by flaves. It is found to do fo even at Bof-
ton, New York, and Philadelphia, where the wages of common
labour are ſo very high.
make flaves work
Indeed it appears,
ages and nations,
The practiſe of flavery promotes war, and every method of
violence and injuftice by which one man can be brought into
the power of another, in countries where flaves are bought.
The negroes, no doubt, propagate fafter on account of this traf-
fic. For whatever drain be made for men, it will be ſupplied
by the greater encouragement to marry; but they propagate
only for flavery.
Were all thoſe who are concerned in the purchaſe, or em-
ployment, of flaves, and without whofe concurrence the traffic
could not be carried on, apprized of the mifery it is the occa-
fion of, eſpecially in Africa, where princes fell their ſubjects,
parents their children, and individuals any perſon whom they
can trapan or overpower, to ſay nothing of what the poor
* Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 123.
Ccc
wretches
1
378
PART V.
LECTURES ON
wretches (few of whom can be fuppofed to have done any thing
to forfeit their liberty) fuffer at fea, and in America, their
humanity would revolt at the feene, and they would as foon as
poffible employ their capitals in fome other way, though their
gains ſhould be lefs.
It is to be hoped that theſe, and other confiderations, will in
time put an end to this abominable traffic. We fee fome ten-
dency towards it in the conduct of the North American ſtates,
and in this country the humanity of the Quakers is exerting
itſelf greatly for the fame excellent purpoſe.
The manner in which arts and manufactures operate to in-
creaſe the power of a ſtate, is by making a provifion of a fund
of labour for the ufe of the ftate. For fince the labour which
is bestowed on arts and manufactures only contributes to the
greater convenience and ornament of life, it may be ſpared in
cafe of exigence, and converted, in a variety of ways, to the
fervice of the ſtate. Perfons are not eafily brought to labour
who have not been accustomed to it; and where all the labour
in the ftate is employed about the neceffaries of life, there can
be no refource in time of war, there being no fuperfluity of la-
bour in the country, fufficient to maintain an army to fight in
their defence. The only advantage of fuch a people is, that
where there are few fuperfluities, there can be but little to
tempt an invader.
Of ſuch importance is labour to a ſtate, that it would be
better to have mines, which require much labour to extract the
metal from the ore, than to find the precious metal formed by
nature to our hands. In the former cafe, it has all the advan-
tages of a manufacture, in the latter it only raiſes the general
proportion of money to commodities, and in ſuch a manner as
to make it a mere incumbrance.
•
T
Innumerable
LECT. L.
379
GENERAL POLICY.
"
i
Innumerable facts in hiftory exhibit, in the ſtrongeſt light,
the vaſt advantage accruing to a people from manufactures, in
conjunction with commerce, which are in a great meaſure in-
feparable. But the moſt ſtriking example, and the earliest that
appeared in Europe, is furniſhed by the Flemings, who led the
way in improvements of all kinds to this part of the world.
They were the firft people in theſe northern parts who cul-
tivated the arts and manufactures. And, in confequence of
it, the lower ranks of men in Flanders had rifen. to a de-
gree of riches unknown elſewhere to perfons of their ſtation,
in that barbarous age. They had acquired, in the time of our
Edward III. many privileges, and a great degree of indepen-
dence, and had begun to emerge from that ſtate of vaffalage, in
which the common people had been univerfally held by the
feudal conftitutions.
In this cafe, we fee, that the arts of luxury are, to a certain
degree, favourable to liberty. When men, by the practife of
the arts, acquire property, they covet equal laws to fecure that
property. The Houfe of Commons is the fupport of our po-
pular government, and it owed its chief influence to the increaſe
of arts and commerce, which threw ſuch a balance of property
into the hands of their conftituents.
:
To form fome idea of the advantages refulting to this nation
from arts and manufactures, let us confider the numbers of men
who are employed about, and maintained by, our home commo-
dities; fuch as wool, corn, coals, metals, rags, horns, and many
other articles; together with the carriage of goods by land and
water. Confider, alfo, the numbers who are employed in ma-
nufacturing goods imported, as raw-filks, cotton, kid-ſkins,
elephants teeth, hemp, Swedish iron, Spanish wool, dying-
ſtuffs, oil, fulphur, faltpetre, and many more articles.
Ccc 2
The
380
PART V.
LECTURES,
ON
The number of theſe latter articles is every day growing lefs,
by the encouragement that is given to raiſe the materials for
manufactures among ourſelves; that is, either at home, or in
our plantations. In confequence of the excellent methods.
which have been taken by different focieties inftituted for this
purpoſe, ſuch a ſpirit of emulation has been raiſed among manu-
facturers of all kinds, as has already put many of our arts and
trades upon a much better footing than they were before, and
promiſes a far fuperior, and almoſt a new ſtate of things in
future time.
The connexion between arts and Science hardly needs to be
pointed out. It is the fame that holds univerfally between
theory and practice. The great improvements in the arts in
modern times has certainly arifen from the late improvements in
fcience. The fciences which have the moſt immediate con-
nexion with the ufeful arts are natural philofophy and chy-
miftry; but even the more abſtract ſciences have ever been, indi-
rectly, of great ufe to promote a tafte for the finer arts; and,
in fact, the fame ages which have abounded with philofophers,
have uſually abounded with good artiſts. The arts, in return,
promote fociety and humanity, which is fo favourable to the
progreſs of ſcience in all its branches. Mathematical know-
ledge is of principal uſe in the conſtruction of engines, which
fave labour; `and to chymiſtry, we owe the fire engine, our ſkill.
in dying, and many other arts.
It is often, however, a long time before diſcoveries in natural
philofophy or chymistry are applied to any confiderable ufe.
The Chineſe were, for many ages, acquainted with the proper-
ties of the load-ftone, and the compofition and effects of gun-
powder, but never made any uſe of the one in navigation, or of
the other in war.
Few
LECT, L.
381
GENERAL POLICY.
Few obſervations remain to be made on the fubject of
ſcience, as an object of attention to an hiftorian, after the account
which has already been given of the progreſs and revolutions of
it. An hiftorian will foon obferve that, a genius for ſcience by
no means depends upon climate: witneſs the difference between
the ancient and preſent ſtate of Greece. It will, however, ap-
pear that nothing is fo favourable to the rife and progreſs of
learning and the arts, as a number of neighbouring independent
ſtates, connected by commerce and policy. This was the con-
dition of ancient Greece, and it is that of Europe at preſent.
The devaſtations of barbarians, or the perfecution of particu-
lar perfons, whofe interefts are incompatible with thofe of know-
ledge, may deſtroy records and particular monuments, but do
not eaſily deſtroy the fciences. Hoangto was not able to deſtroy
learning in China by ordering all the books to be burned.
They were preſerved with more care, and appeared after he was
dead. Nay even long interruptions in the progrefs of learning
are favourable to knowledge, by breaking the progrefs of autho-
rity. Thus upon the revival of learning in the Weft, the an-
cient Grecian fects of philofophy could gain no credit.
An hiftorian will likewife obferve, that when arts have ar-
rived at a confiderable degree of perfection in any place, they
have generally begun from that period to decline; one reafon
of which may be, that when the general efteen is engaged,
there is little room for emulation. The paintings of Italy left
no room for the ambition of England. The fame was nearly the
cafe with Rome with refpect to Greece; and the finished pro-
ductions of the French language long prevented the German
nation from attending to the cultivation of their own.
However, the extent of Science is a remedy for this incon-
venience. So wide a field is now open to the genius of man, that
2
Ict
382
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
let fome excel ever fo much in one province, there will ſtill be
room for others to fhine in others. And befides, though the
arts, as mufic, painting, and poetry, have perceivable limits, be-
yond which it is almoft impoffible to advance. This is far
from being the cafe with Science, of which the human faculties
cannot conceive the poffibility of any bounds. The difcoveries
of Newton in natural philofophy, fo far from difcouraging other
philofophers, only ferve as an incentive to them in their fearch
after new diſcoveries. And admitting that the reputation of
Pope, and a few others, fhould check the ambition of fucceeding
poets, it is only after fuch a quantity of valuable poems have
been produced, that more are hardly defirable. Few people
have leifure to read, much lefs to read with care, or to ftudy, all
that is really excellent of this kind of the productions of the
laft age.
I cannot conclude this fubject without turning your reflec-
tions on the advantages mankind derive from improvements in
fcience and the arts, compared with the ftate of things in thoſe
ages in which men were deftitute of them; particularly in thoſe
which relate to the food, the dreſs, and the habitations of the
human fpecies. Indeed, nothing can give us a juft idea, and a
lively fenfe, of our happinefs in the conveniences we enjoy, but
a knowledge of the very great diſadvantages which mankind in
former ages have laboured under.
Not to mention the moft credible accounts we have of the
ftate of mankind in the earlieft ages, in almoft all parts of the
world; when they lived in caves, or huts made of the branches
of trees and earth, when they had no cloathing but leaves, or
the raw hides of animals, and no food but the fruits and roots.
which the earth produced of itſelf; or fometimes the flesh of
animals which they might happen to furprize, eaten raw, or
with
1
LECT. L.
383
GENERAL POLICY.
with very little preparation: I fay, not to mention this con-
dition of mankind (which yet is fcarce inferior to that of many
tribes of the human fpecies now exifting) if we only for a mo-
ment imagine ourſelves in the place of our anceſtors, who lived
but a few centuries ago, we cannot help fancying it to be almoſt
impoffible for us to have lived with any comfort; and could
the alteration take place, it would certainly affect us very fen-
fibly, and would no doubt be fatal to many of the more delicate
among us; though it must be allowed that this is no fair method
of judging of the condition of thoſe who never knew a better
ftate, but who were from their infancy inured to all the hardships
they were expofed to. But, admitting this, it is evident the beſt
method of making ourſelves fully fenfible of the real value of
any of the arts of life, is to endeavour to form clear ideas of the
condition of mankind before the knowledge of fuch arts.
few examples will beft illuftrate and enforce this obfervation.
A
Linen, of which we are now fo fond, and without which
we fhould think ourſelves fo uncomfortable, was not uſed, ex-
cept by the Egyptians, and a few people in the Eaft, till a
confiderable time after the reign of Auguftus. The only garb
of the ancients, by whom we mean the Greeks and Romans, in
the times of their greatest riches and luxury, feems to have
been a kind of flannel, which they wore commonly white or
grey, and which they fcoured as often as it grew dirty.
We think ourſelves very happy when we have a comfortable
fire in a private fitting-room, or bed-chamber; but we fhould
think ourſelves much more fo, if we confidered how lately it is
that any fuch convenience could be had, and that in all the
times of antiquity there was only one hearth belonging to any
houſe, placed in the middle of a large hall, from which the
finoke,
384
PART V.
LECTURES ON
1
}
ſmoke, aſcending in the middle, went out at a hole in the top
of the room; and particularly if we confidered that all the ha-
bitations of the English were formerly nothing better than the
huts of the Highlanders and the wild Iriſh at this day. Chim-
neys were not general till about the time of Elizabeth.
By the uſe of glaſs in our windows, we enjoy the light and
exclude the weather, but the wealthieſt of the ancients had no
ſuch advantage. To how many uses does paper now ferve for
which nothing else would be nearly fo convenient? and yet the
ancients were obliged to do without it.
Before the fixteenth century Voltaire fays that above one half
of the globe were ignorant of the ufe of bread and wine, which
is ftill unknown to a great part of America, and the eaſtern
parts of Africa. In the fourteenth century wine was fo fcarce
in England, that it was fold only by the apothecaries as a cor-
dial; at the fame time candles were reckoned an article of
luxury, fhirts were made of ferge, linen worn only by perfons
of diſtinction, and there was no fuch thing as either chimneys
or ftoves.
All the conveniences we derive from a knowledge of the
mechanical powers; as mills, clocks, watches, &c. are compa-
ratively of very modern invention, to fay nothing of printing,
and other arts, which are more remote from the confideration
of neceſſaries; though many things, from being articles of high
luxury, have afterwards come to be generally confidered almoſt
as neceffaries, as tea is at prefent. I fhall just add that the first
coach was ſeen in England in the reign of queen Mary, that
the great convenience of a kitchen garden can hardly be ſaid to
have been known before the reign of Elizabeth, that even pota-
toes, which is ſo conſiderable an article even of the neceffary food
of
LECT. L:
385
GENERAL POLICY.
of the poor in many counties, were only imported fince the
diſcovery of America, and that there was little or po fugar in
all this weſtern part of the world till the fugar cane was culti-
vated in our American plantations.
It is a pleaſure to trace the ſeveral articles of food and dreſs
from the countries where they were first produced, and to go
over the ſeveral ſtages by which they have made their progreſs
to us. This pleaſure we receive in tracing the cherry from
Pontus, linen from Egypt, and filk from China. In short,
nothing that refpects human nature, and the accommodations
of mankind upon this globe is unworthy the notice of a philo-
fopher. Every thing belonging to this ſubject is intereſting to
him, and will yield him matter of entertainment and inſtruc-
tion. With the old man in Terence, he fays, homo ſum, nihil
humani a me alienum puto.
1
Ddd
LEC.
3
386
PART V.
LECTURES ON
LECTURE LI.
The Advantage of Commerce to a State. Its Effects upon the
Minds of Men. Active and paſſive Commerce. What is the
moſt advantageous Kind of Commerce. Of Fisheries. The Im-
portation of unwrought Materials. The Gain of the Merchants
and that of the Country compared. Balance of Trade. In-
fluence of Commerce on the Value of Land, and vice versa.
Interfering of the Legislature in Commerce. The Navigation
A&t. Restrictions upon Commerce. Companies. Alienation of
Land. Lofs of Commerce by Perfecution. Uniformity of Weights
and Meaſures. Fluctuations in Commerce. Jealousy of Trade.
N°
fooner do men find that they can fubfift, than they
diſcover a defire to improve their fituation, and increaſe
their accommodations. If the prefent defideratum be not to be
found at home, they will look for it abroad, and there is no
fituation man ever yet arrived at, or probably ever will arrive at,
in which he can entirely acquiefce, fo as to look out for no
farther improvements. This endless craving, to which the
nature of man is fubject, together with the activity of the hu-
man genius, gave rise to commerce, by which mankind are fup-
plied from abroad with the conveniences which they could not
find at home.
By commerce we enlarge our acquaintance with the terra-
queous globe and its inhabitants, which tends greatly to expand
the mind, and to cure us of many hurtful prejudices, which we
unavoidably contract in a confined fituation at home. The
exerciſe
LECT. LI.
38;
GENERAL POLICY.
exerciſe of commerce brings us into clofer and more extenſive.
connexions with our own fpecies, which muft, upon the whole,
have a favourable influence upon benevolence; and no perſon
can taſte the fweets of commerce, which abfolutely depends
upon a free and undisturbed intercourſe of different and remote
nations, but muſt grow fond of peace, in which alone the ad-
vantages he enjoys can be had.
The punctuality effential to all commercial dealings muſt in-
culcate upon the minds of all concerned in it the principles of
ftrict juftice and honour. The only inconvenience is, left a
conftant attention to gain fhould eftrange the mind from the
fentiments of generofity, and lead to a fordid avarice. But they
are perfons who deal in fmall gains, and who are perfonally con-
cerned in buying and felling, that are moſt liable to this incon-
venience; whereas the large dealings of merchants has often
a remarkably contrary effect. By commerce numbers acquire
both the wealth, and the fpirit, of princes.
Trade and commerce were fo long confined to the lower orders
of fociety, while all the free and the noble were employed in
hunting, or in war, that the idea of the former being mean and
illiberal is ftill annexed to it in many parts of Europe, and ef-
pecially in France. But the wealth and generofity of merchants
have a tendency to change theſe ideas, and the ſentiments of the
majority will always influence the minority. Where the greater
number of rich people are in buſineſs, the reft will be ashamed
of being idle; as they fay is the cafe in Holland; and in time
the buſineſs of a foldier may come to be as difreputable as that
of a public executioner.
The capital, the proper and immediate, advántage of com-
merce is, that it excites induftry, and increafes labour, by the
Ddd 2
fruits
388
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
ON
'
1
fruits of which a nation may procure themſelves the conve-
niences they want, and thus human life be rendered much
happier.
The benefit of commerce arifes from the exchange of what
can be fpared for what is wanted, efpecially that of provifions,
or unwrought materials, raiſed by the farmer, living in the
country, for manufactures produced by thoſe who live in towns,
and the leſs trouble there is in making this exchange the better.
If every thing I want is to be had within the iſland, it is not my
advantage to go abroad for it; and if the exchange could be
made without money, it would be better ftill. For money is
only a convenience in making exchanges.
The foreign conſumption of any commodity occafions the
increaſe of it, by the encouragement given to induſtry at home,
fo that the more there is exported of any commodity, the more
will be raiſed of it at home, which abundantly confirms the
maxim of Sir William Decker that, It is exportation which en-
riches a nation, and demonſtrates, more eſpecially, the wiſdom
of encouraging, as much as poffible, the exportation of necef-
faries. While the Engliſh raife corn fufficient to ſupply other
countries, we can never be in danger of a famine at home.
But before this hiftory informs us that we had frequent fa-
mines.
The abundance which the fcriptures inform us. king Solomon
introduced into the kingdom of Ifrael of filver, and of all things
requifite to form the conveniences and elegancies of life, by.
means of his fleets, both on the Red Sea and on the Mediterra-
nean, is a fact fimilar to innumerable others which hiſtory can
exhibit in favour of commerce. Many of theſe were mentioned
in the fuccinct account which has been given, of the hiftory of
commerce:
LECT. LI.
389.
GENERAL POLICY.
commerce; from which we may conclude univerfally, that com-
merce never fails to make a people wealthy, populous, and
powerful.
Thefe advantages never fail to attend commerce in a greater
or leſs degree, whether it be of that kind which is denominated
active, or whether it be paffive; that is, whether a nation export
their own commodities and manufactures, or the exchange be
made by the ſhipping of thofe countries with which they have
dealings. But an active commerce is by far the moſt ad-
vantageous. The very article of making and managing the
fhips themſelves employs a great number of hands; the gain
arifing from the freight is confiderable, and the naval force it
brings to a ſtate is a vaſt acceffion of power, and a great ſecurity
to it..
On the other hand, a paffive commerce may be of ſuch a
kind as to be of manifeſt prejudice to a ſtate; juſt as a private
perfon may ſpend his fortune in a foolish and extravagant
manner..
That commerce only can be gainful to a nation which pro-
motes induſtry, fo as to enable the people to live in affluence
without exhauſting their revenues. The moft gainful commerce
to a ſtate, therefore, is, of all others, that in which we export
our own manufactures made from home materials. For this
employs the labour which is neceffary to the cultivation of the
unwrought materials, the manufacturing of thofe materials, and
the exportation of the commodities which are made from them.
In this view, alfo fisheries are peculiarly valuable; as, by
means of them, it requires nothing but labour to enable us to
open a very gainful market. Fisheries alfo promote navigation,.
fo as to employ a great number of feamen; and in fact, it is
evident from the hiftory of trade, and of all maritime powers,.
5.
not
390
PART V.
LECTURES ON
not one excepted, that great fisheries have always been epocha's
of a great trade and navigation
Next to the exportation of home manufactures, and fiſheries,
the importation of unwrought materials for manufactures is
valuable to a nation. It is better than the importation of money.
Becauſe the manufacture of thofe foreign materials employs
many of our hands at home, and the goods that are made from
them are fure to bring in, at the leaft, much more than the
price of the raw materials.
The gain of the merchants, it is faid, is not always the gain
of the country in general. If, for inftance, a merchant import
foreign goods, by which the conſumption of national manufac-
tures is hurt, though the merchant should be a gainer by thofe
goods, the ſtate is a lofer. As, on the other hand, a merchant
may export the manufactures of his own country, to his own
lofs, and the nation's gain. But if the merchants be gainers,
the confumers, that is, thofe for whofe ufe manufactures are
eſtabliſhed, having a power of purchaſing or not, at pleaſure,
muſt be ſo too. And if, after fufficient trial, it be found that
merchants importing foreign goods can fell thofe cheaper than
the manufactures can be bought at home, it is an indication
that it is not for the intereft of the nation at large to encourage
fuch manufactures.
Though exportation makes a nation rich, we are not to judge
of the quantity of riches which a nation gains by trade from
exportation only, but the importation muſt alſo be confidered.
If thefe, exactly balance one another, nothing can be faid to be
gained or loft, juſt as a perſon is not the richer for felling a
quantity of goods, if he buy to the fame amount. Nay, though
the exportation be leffened, if the importation be leffened more
than in proportion, it proves an increaſe of gainful trade, not-
withſtanding
4
361
er be
iſtan
LECT. LI.
391
GENERAL POLICY.
withſtanding the decreaſe of exportation. This, however, is
eftimating the value of commerce by the mere increaſe of money.
But a nation may flouriſh by internal commerce only, and what
is external commerce between two nations not united in govern-
ment, would be internal, if they should come under the fame
government. In every fair bargain the buyer and the feller
are equally gainers, whether money be accumulated by either of
the parties, or not.
It is a great miſtake to confound the king's revenue with the
gain a nation makes by its trade. No man would prefume to
fay it is more for the public benefit that the nation ſhould
expend a million or more every year with foreigners, in order to
raiſe a hundred thoufand pounds to the revenue, by the customs,
than to fave that million or more within ourfelves, and to raiſe
only the hundred thousand pounds fome other way. But minif
ters of ſtate are apt to eſtimate the value of every thing to the
country by the gain it brings, and that immediately, to themſelves.
As commerce increaſes the wealth and populoufnefs of a
nation, it cannot fail to raiſe the value of lands; fo that what
is called the landed intereft is nearly concerned in the fupport
of commerce. And it may easily be shown that a decreaſe of
commerce would more fenfibly affect the landed intereft than
even the merchants, traders, and manufacturers themſelves; as
theſe could more eaſily tranſport themſelves and their fortunes
into other countries, than perfons who had eftates in land.
It is true, however, that trade may increafe the value of land,
till the value of land become an obſtruction to the farther
increaſe of trade. For certainly, in a country where the trade
arifes chiefly from its own productions, as is very much the
cafe with England, it cannot exiſt if the price of land be
exorbitant; becaufe that will taife the price of all commodities,
fo
392
PART V.
LECTURES ON
fo that they will not have the ſame advantage as before in foreign
markets. The commerce of Holland is of a different kind, as
the price of their commodities is more independent of their
lands; but then that kind of commerce is very fluctuating and
uncertain, as the materials of their manufactures muſt be ſup-
plied by other nations; who, in procefs of time, may chufe to
manufacture them themſelves.
The legislature of any country has feldom interfered in the
affairs of commerce, but commerce has fuffered in confequence
of it, owing to the ignorance of ſtateſmen, and even of mer-
chants themſelves, concerning the nature of trade. And indeed
the principles of commerce are very complicated, and require
long experience and deep reflection before they can be well
underſtood. But the famous Engliſh navigation act, paſſed in
the time of the commonwealth, is an exception to this remark.
The purport of that act is, that no nation ſhall be permitted to
import into this kingdom any commodities but ſuch as are the
growth of the country which imports them. This act was
chiefly levelled againſt the Dutch, who before fupplied us with
materials for moſt of our manufactures, but fince that time we
have fetched them ourſelves; and the confequence has been
ſuch an increaſe of the ſhipping and commerce of this nation,
as has far exceeded the most fanguine expectations of thoſe
perfons who projected that act. But to make fuch a regulation
as this beneficial to a nation, it must be the intereft of other
nations to trade with us on our own terms, and we muſt take
advantage of their neceffities. The time may come in which it
will be as politic to repeal this act, as it was to make it.
Moſt politicians have injured commerce by reſtricting, con-
fining, or burthening it too much; the confequence of which
has been, that by aiming at great immediate advantage, they
have
LECT. LI.
393
GENERAL POLICY.
have cut off the very fprings of all future advantage. The
inconveniencies which have arifen to a nation from leaving trade
quite open are few, and very problematical, in compariſon of the
manifeſt injury it receives from being cramped in almoſt any
form whatſoever. It may perhaps be admitted as a good general
rule, that no reftrictions upon commerce are uſeful but fuch as
oblige the people to increaſe their own labour, and extend and
improve their own manufactures. When Lewis XIV. was im-
portuned to admit the Engliſh and Dutch herring boats, he ſaid,
No, by no means, if my people will have herrings, why do
they not catch them, as the English and Dutch do?
Mr. Colbert, a man of great probity, knowledge, and induſtry,
was not only diſpoſed, like other European minifters, to encou-
rage the induſtry of the towns, more than that of the country;
but, in order to it, he was willing even to deprefs and keep
down that of the country. In order to render provifions cheap
to the inhabitants of towns, and thereby to encourage manufac-
tures and commerce, he prohibited the exportation of corn,
and thus excluded the inhabitants of the country from every
foreign market for the moſt important part of the produce of
their induſtry*. He would have done better to have liſtened to
the advice of an old merchant, who being confulted by him
about what he ſhould do in favour of trade faid, laiffez nous faire,
leave us to ourselves.
Great concerns, which require large ftocks, and unanimity
in the conduct of them, muft neceffarily be managed by com-
panies, with exclufive privileges.
Companies have doubtlefs
been greatly ferviceable for the advancement of national com-
* Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. p. 3.
I
Eee
merce
1
394
PART V.
LECTURES ON
merce in early times. It feems agreed on all hands, that if the
Eaſt-India and African trades had not been in companies, they
could not have been established. But, notwithſtanding theſe
effects, in procefs of time, commerce is generally able to do better
without them; and the continuance of them often becomes a
great obftruction to the trade being carried on in its full extent.
Private or ſeparate traders are univerfally known to take more
pains, and to manage more frugally, than companies can, or ever
will be able to do. It may, however, be proper to obſerve, in
order to prevent miſtakes, that regulated companies have not
always one joint ftock; but in many of them every member
trades upon his own bottom, under fuch regulations as their
charters empower them to make.
The reaſon why companies are often continued much longer
than the intereft of the trade requires, is that, growing wealthy,
they, by lending money, or other means, become of confequence
to the government, which cannot well do without them.
Exclufive and coercive powers vefted in towns corporate,
and ſubordinate focieties, have all likewiſe been highly uſeful
in the infancy of trade. In the turbulent times of the feudal
fyftem there could have been no fecurity for handicraftſmen
and traders but in privileged places, in which they were pro-
tected by the lord of the foil, and in confideration of the ſervice
they did him. But they are now generally eſteemed an obſtruction
to it, by enabling the members of thoſe corporations to impofe
upon
their fellow ſubjects, and by diſcouraging induſtry.
As commerce confiſts in the exchange of one thing for another,
all the laws which impede the alienation of land, or of any
other commodity, obftru&t commerce; befides, that they fink the
value of land. Commerce never flouriſhed in England, till the
alienation
LECT. LI.
395
GENERAL POLICY.
alienation of land, was made easy, by the difufe or abolition
of the feudal laws and cuftoms, which confined it to the
defcendants of the original poffeffors.
All laws which make the naturalization of foreigners difficult,
are a diſcouragement to commerce. To foreigners England is
indebted for all its manufactures, and for all its wealth. And
as it is by no means fully peopled, naturalization ought certainly
to be made as eaſy as poffible.
No prince can take a more effectual method to ruin the trade
of his dominions in a very ſhort time, than by perfecution on
account of religion. Philip II. of Spain abſolutely ruined the
fine trade of Flanders, and enriched the Dutch and the Engliſh,
by introducing the inquifition into thofe provinces of his empire.
The Proteftant religion is, on many accounts, more favourable
to commerce than the Catholic. In Proteftant countries no
perfons are confined to convents, and a fingle life; and the
manufacturers have not their hands fo much tied up by holidays.
The Japaneſe are great fufferers by confining their trade to the
Chineſe and the Dutch, occafioned by the averfion they have
conceived for the Jefuits. The Chineſe are faid to gain a
thousand per cent. in their trade with Japan, and the Dutch
nearly the fame.
In enumerating the things and circumftances, which are, or
would be, favourable or unfavourable to commerce, it is not
improper to mention, that the uniformity of weights and mea-
fures, as well as of coins, would greatly facilitate general com-
It ſeems impoffible to effect this throughout the world,
or throughout Europe; but one would think, there could be
no very great difficulty to effect it in any particular kingdom.
The uniformity of weights and meaſures would greatly facilitate
merce.
Eee 2
the
396
PART V.
LECTURES ON
1
the internal commerce of Great-Britain, and this of itſelf is
certainly an object of confiderable importance.
As an admonition to the English to preferve and cultivate
their commerce with the utmoſt attention, it may not be im-
proper to give, from Anderfon, a brief account of the principal
fluctuations of commerce, in, modern times. "Who would
"have dreamed three hundred years ago, that thofe ports of the
"Levant, from whence, by means of the Venetians, England,
"and almoft all the reft of chriftendom was fupplied with the
fpices, drugs, &c. of India and China, ſhould one day come
"themſelves to be fupplied therewith by the remote countries
"of England and Holland, at an eafier rate than they were
"wont to have them directly from the Eaft, or that Venice
"ſhould afterwards lofe to Lifbon the lucrative trade of fup-
<f
65
plying the rest of Europe with them? Or laftly, that Liſbon
"fhould afterwards lofe the fame to Amfterdam, or that Amfter-
dam and Haerlem fhould gradually lofe (as in part has already
happened, and is likely more and more to happen) their
"famous and fine linen manufactures to Scotland and Ireland ?
"We need not add the various removes of the ftaple for the
"woollen manufacture, which was firft at Venice, Florence,
"Pifa, and Lucca, upon the early revival of commerce, after
"the fall of the weſtern empire, from whence the bulk of it
" removed about eight hundred years ago to the Netherlands,
"and from the Netherlands about two hundred years ago into
"England; or that the great fupply of fugars to all Europe
"fhould go from Lisbon to London, and fince, in too great
a degree, from London to the ports of France. Fine toys,
haberdashery, jewels, watches, hardware, hats, ftockings,
"&c. from France and Germany into England. The various
.66
""
મ
44 removes
LECT. LI.
397
GENERAL POLICY.
"removes of the herring fiſhery alfo are very remarkable. Theſe
"inftances," as Anderfon juftly fubjoins, " render feveral of the
"axioms of our older writers upon commerce, unfafe to be re-
"lied on. Even that excellent treatife of Sir Jofiah Child
is already fomewhat liable to this caution, eſpecially when he
"is writing on the Dutch commerce, which was then in
"its full perfection, though it has been fince confiderably
eclipfed."
"
Let us not be discouraged by unfuccefsful attempts to extend
our commerce into countries yet unknown. Even the abortive
attempts of the English, French, Dutch, and Danes for the
hitherto impracticable north-west, and north-eaft paffages to
China and India have, nevertheleſs, been productive of ſeveral
new and confiderable fources of commerce, and of the increaſe
of navigation to thofe northern countries, and to the no ſmall
benefit of all the rest of Europe. For to thofe attempts are
owing the Greenland fishery, the Hudfon's-Bay trade, and the
trade to Ruffia and Lapland.
Many of the received maxims of commerce have for their ob-
ject the enriching of one nation at the expence of others, arifing
from national jealoufy, as if the gain of one muft neceffarily be
the lofs of the other. But the maxim is by no means true,
and on the ſame principle every town in the fame country might
be as jealous of its neighbouring towns, as nations are of their
neighbours.
In reality, as I have obferved before, every fair bargain is a gain-
ful tranſaction to both the parties, and confequently all nations
are benefited by their commercial intercourfe. And of the two,
the poor are greater gainers than the rich, becauſe the wants
of the poor are of a more ferious nature than thoſe of the rich.
The
398
PÁRT V.
LECTURES ON
The more wealthy any nation is, the greater power it will have
to purchaſe the commodities of other nations, and no country
has ſo many reſources within itſelf, as not to ſtand in need of
others, at leaſt for fuperfluities.
The happineſs of all nations, therefore, as one great com-
munity, will be beft promoted by laying afide all national
jealousy of trade, and by each country cultivating thoſe pro-
ductions or manufactures which they can do to the moſt advan-
tage; and experience, in a ſtate of perfect liberty, will foon
teach them what thofe are. In this ſtate of things, the only
advantage will be on the fide of induſtry and ingenuity, and no
man, or nation, ought to wish it to be any where elſe.
In this natural course of things, the connexions of mankind,
in confequence of being found advantageous, would be fo multi-
plied, that they would find a common intereſt in being at peace
with one another, and a common lofs in hoftility. When dif-
ferences arofe they would find fome other method of deciding
them than by force, and the world would in time recover its
priſtine paradiſaical ſtate. The prefent commercial treaties be-
tween England and France, and between other nations formerly
hoftile to each other, feems to fhew that mankind begin to be
fenfible of the folly of war, and promife a new and moſt im-
portant æra in the ftate of the world in general, at leaſt in
Europe. Our jealouſy of trade operates to make other nations
poor at our own expence. For if it be the wish of any people
to trade with another nation, it is a proof that they find them-
felves benefited by that trade.
If any reſtriction on commerce was ever for the intereſt of a
nation, it was as I have obferved, that which was in part pro-
cured for this country by the act of navigation. It made it ne-
4
ceffary
LECT. LI.
399
GENERAL POLICY.
ceffary for us to encreaſe our navy, and thereby made us more
formidable in time of war. But this was neceffarily at the ex-
pence of the nation in other refpects. For it is evident that we
were apprehenfive of being ferved with many commodities by
foreigners cheaper than we could be by our own people in the
natural course of things. It was therefore only another mode
of taxing ourſelves for our defence.
•
Dr. Smith justly obferves that no regulation of commerce
can increase the quantity of induſtry, and confequently the
wealth of any fociety, beyond what its capital can maintain.
It can only divert a part of it into a direction into which it
might not otherwife have gone; and it is by no means certain
that this artificial direction will be more advantageous to fociety
than that to which it would have gone of its own accord.
* Wealth of Nations, vol. ii, p. 177.
i
LEC.
:
400
PART V.
LECTURES ON
LECTURE LII.
Ufe of Colonies to a commercial State. Difference between ancient
and modern Colonies. Importance of our American Colonies.
The Subferviency of a Colony to the Mother Country. The Situa-
tion of Ireland. Unreasonable Jealousy of it. Maxims with re-
Spect to Money. Of the Nature of Exchange. In what Cafes a
great Quantity of Money is useful or hurtful to a State, and
how the Increase of it operates to produce an improved State of
Society. The Coinage of English Money free.
A
Great means of the amazing increaſe of ſhipping and com-
merce in modern times is our foreign COLONIES, of the eſ-
tabliſhment of which the ancients had no idea. They only formed
colonies, when they were over-ftocked with people at home;
whereas we almoſt depopulate ourſelves to form them. They
had the advantage of the fettlers only in view; we the advan-
tage of the mother-country chiefly. With the ancients colonies
preſently became independent of their mother-country; with
us, the connexion with their mother-country is ftrictly kept up.
The ancients defended their colonies from their affection and
friendſhip for their former countrymen; we fight for them, as
for our property.
It was the poffeffion of colonies, which gave the princes of
Europe an idea of the importance of trade. Our wars are now
chiefly commercial wars; whereas commerce was never made an
affair
LECT. LII.
401
GENERAL POLICY.
affair of ſtate, before the planting of colonies in the laſt century.
In fact, colonies, conducted according to the modern maxims,
of their entire fubferviency to the mother-country, are diſtant
nations, fupplied with every commodity they want, by their
mother-country, if the can fupply them with it. Accord-
ing to theſe maxims, in which the liberty and happineſs
of coloniſts, are not confidered, a colony muft never interfere
with the manufactures of its mother-country, and all its com-
merce muſt be carried on by the ſhipping of its mother-country.
The inhabitants of colonies must not even fiſh upon their own
coafts. In short, according to thefe maxims, colonies can only
be for culture.
Confidering how induftrious the people of our colonies are,
it is no wonder, if we confider this their fituation, that, as the
fagacious Sir Jofiah Child many years ago obferved, every white
man in our colonies finds employment for four at home. Now
fuppofing, that fince his time, there may be two hundred and
fifty thouſand white men in all our colonies (exclufive of wo-
men and children, and alſo of negroe flaves, and including about
twelve thouſand eight hundred failors employed as well in their
own fisheries as in the coafting trade, and in that alfo about the
continent and ifland colonies in two thouſand veffels of their own
great and ſmall) then is employment given to no fewer than one
million of our own people at home. And as all our commerce
with America, including the negroe trade, may probably em-
ploy one thousand two hundred fail more of our own Britiſh
ſhipping, and twenty thousand failors, it is eafy to conceive how
vaftly profitable theſe our plantations are to us in every view,
whether by fetting on work fuch immenfe numbers of our ma-
nufacturers and artificers of all kinds, or by finding employment
Fff
for
204
PART V.
LECTURES ON
for our failors, fhip-builders, and all the trades depending
thereon*
Whether the maxims of the abfolute fubferviency of colonies
to their mother-country be equitable or not, I do not here con-
fider. But that being allowed, the English are justly charged
with fetting the example of ſeveral wrong fteps with regard to
colonies; as they firſt began to refine fugars at St. Chriftophers.
It is however pretty manifeft, that a mother-country may injure
itſelf by an extreme jealoufy of its colonies. This feems to be
clearly the cafe with refpećt to Ireland, a kingdom dependent
on England, and therefore in fact, much the fame as a colony
to it. Ireland fhould certainly be indulged in thoſe branches of
trade, in which we cannot underfell the French, and they can.
For the Irish, it is faid, can underfell all the world. It feems
likewife to be equally fhort tighted policy, to prohibit the impor-
tation of any Iriſh commodities, as fkins, tallow, butter, &c. on
pretence that the permiffion to do it would hurt the landed intereft
in England; whereas the confequence would plainly be, to
leffen the price of our manufactures; which would increaſe our
exportations, commerce and wealth, and confequently raiſe the
value of land, ſo as to be a much greater advantage in the end,
than any thing that could accrue from the prefent fale of part
of its produce at a little higher price. So that Mr. Poſtle-
thwait feemned with reafon to fay, that preventing the exporta-
tion of cattle from Ireland, in order to encourage home con-
fumption, arifes from miftaking the nature of trade; that this
monopoly of cattle in the hands of the landholders is both un-
* Thefe paragraphs were written long before the late American war, and-were
copied, I believe, from Poftlethwaite. Since that war the ſtate of things in theſe
respects is much changed.
juſt
LECT. LII.
403
GENERAL POLICY.
•
juſt with respect to the rest of the people, and its benefit to the
landholders themſelves only imaginary.
Little did Great-Britain think of the price they were to pay
for their foreign colonies in North America. For to this ac-
count we muſt put, befides the expence of planting them
(which indeed was ſo ſmall as to give this country very little
original claim upon them) both the expence of defending them,
and that of the war in which we loft them. The war before
the laft, which was undertaken on account of the colonies, coſt
Great-Britain upwards of ninety millions. The Spaniſh war
of 1739 was principally undertaken on their account, in which
Great-Britain ſpent upwards of forty millions. If we call the
whole only a hundred millions, and add to it the expence of the
laſt war with the colonies and their allies, we may ſay that they
have been the cauſe of our expending no lefs than two hundred
and fifty millions. Such is the forefight and wiſdom of great
nations!
Money, as a commodity, which is a convenient fubftitute for
other commodities, is of eminent ufe in commerce; and a va-
riety of circumſtances relating to it deſerve the attention both
of the hiftorian, who takes notice of the ftate of trade and com-
merce in different countries, and of the politician, who would
favour commerce.
If all men could conveniently exchange what they have for
what they want, there would be no occaſion for money. But
they fometimes want to purchaſe a little more, and fometimes
a little leſs than any particular quantity that they can conve-
niently part with. Alfo, fometimes they have a fuperfluity,
which would perish in their hands, and they do not care to give
it without fome equivalent.
·
Fff 2
=
In
404
PART V.
LECTURES ON
In this cafe it was very defirable to find fomething that was
not perishable, and of eafy conveyance, which might be con-
fidered as the reprefentative of value in general. But nothing
would have been choſen for this purpoſe at firſt but what had
fome intrinfic value to recommend it, a fubftance which had uſes
of its own. Several things have been applied to this purpoſe
in different countries, and at different times. But the metals
have been generally found preferable to every thing elfe, efpe-
cially copper, filver, and gold. To fave the trouble of weighing
the quantity, and examining the purity, of theſe metals, the
generality of nations have fallen into the method of ſtamping
them; but the Chineſe ſtill take them by weight.
As the price of things cannot rife where there is no defire to
purchaſe, ſo let that defire be ever fo great, the price cannot
exceed what thoſe who want can afford to pay. The price of
the neceffaries of life, therefore, as Mr. Stewart ſays *, muſt
depend upon the faculties of the buyer, that is, of the loweſt
clafs of the people. In the greateſt famine, even bread can
never riſe above that price. For then the common people muſt
actually die.
The price of things does not always depend upon the labour
beſtowed upon them. For fometimes a manufacture is raiſed
by thoſe who only amufe themſelves with it, or who have no
other uſe for their time. Hence the cheapnefs of all forts of
country work in former times, and of the work of nuns at
prefent.
The price of any thing in money, or goods, depends upon
competition, or the demand there is for it. When any thing
is much wanted, a great price will be given for it; but when
* Political Economy, vol. i. p. 397.
few
LECT. LII.
405
GENERAL POLICY.
few want it, and the owner muft part with it, he will be
willing to fell it for little.
Price, however, fuppofes alienation; and a common ſtandard
of value fuppofes a frequent and familiar alienation. What
anſwer, fays Sir James Stewart*, would a Scotch Highlander
have given fifty years ago, if he had been aſked for how much
he fold a quart of his milk, a dozen of his eggs, or a load of
his turf. They bore no determinate price, becauſe they were
not fold. Where the inhabitants are fed almoſt directly from the
earth, the demand for grain in the public market will be little,
and confequently the price low, whether there be little money
in the country, as in Scotland formerly, or much, as in the
Indies.
Let the fpecie of a country be ever fo much augmented or
diminiſhed, commodities will ſtill rife and fall according to the
principles of demand and competition; and thefe will con-
fequently depend upon the inclinations of thoſe who have
property, or any kind of equivalent, to give, but never upon
the quantity of coin they are poffeffed of. At a time when the
Greeks and Romans abounded in wealth,
when every rarity,
and the works of the choiceſt artiſts, was carried to an exceffive
price, an ox was bought for a mere trifle, and grain was cheaper
perhaps than it was ever in Scotland +.
If money be above the proportion of induſtry, it will have
no effect in raiſing prices, nor will it enter into circulation. It
will be hoarded up in treaſure, where it muſt wait not only the
defire of the proprietor to confume, but of the induftrious to
fatisfy that defire. There never can therefore remain in circu-
lation more than a quantity nearly proportionate to the con-
fumption of the rich, and the induſtry of the poor‡.
* Political Economy, vol. i. p. 369.
+ Ibid. p. 403.
↑
Ibid. p. 407.
The
406
PART V.
LECTURES NO
The first maxim with refpect to money, the ſtandard of all
commodities, is, that the nominal fpecies of it ſhould be ſubject
to as little variation as poffible. To raiſe the nominal value of
money may ſerve a particular emergence, within a ſtate, becauſe
people will fell their commodities for the fame words, as it
were, without regard to the meaning of them, at leaſt for ſome
time. Thus, it was obſerved in the laſt year of Lewis XIV.
that when the money was raiſed three-fevenths, the prices of
things augmented only one-feventh. But with regard to foreign
connexions, a prince only cheats himself, by that means.
Foreigners will take advantage of the illufion, whilft it lafts,
and buy their goods with their own bad money; and the par
of
exchange, which regulates the commerce of different countries,
depends entirely upon the relative intrinfic value of the coins
of different nations, without any regard to their currency where
they are coined.
France robs their fubjects by debafing the ftandard of the
coin, and then pays her debts, and afterwards fometimes raifes
the ſtandard again. But, fays Sir James Stewart *, three incon-
veniences follow on this, firft, it diſturbs the ideas of the whole
nation with reſpect to value, and gives an advantage in all
bargains to thoſe who can calculate over thoſe who cannot.
Secondly, it robs the whole clafs of debtors when the ſtandard
is raiſed, and it robs the whole clafs of creditors when it is
debaſed. Thirdly, it ruins credit, becauſe no mán will borrow,
or lend, in a country when he cannot be fure of receiving back
the value of his loan, or of being in a capacity of clearing
himſelf, by paying back the value he had borrowed.
It has been a falfe maxim of many princes and politicians, to
endeavour to keep all the coin they can, within their own
* Political Economy, vol. ii. p. 67.
territories.
}
LECT. LII.
407
GENERAL POLICY.
territories. The attempt is abfolutely fruitless, and if it could
fucceed, would really be prejudicial to commerce, and the true
intereft of the ſtate. Where there is money, and commodities
are wanted, it will be exchanged for them, and there are ſo
many ways of conveying it, that no power on earth can prevent
the circulation. Befides, money can never abandon a nation,
where there are people and induſtry. Induſtry will raiſe
manufactures, and manufactures will command money. Nay,
fince a great accumulation of money, which is the univerfal con-
fequence of an encreaſe of induſtry and manufactures, neceffarily
checks the growth of manufactures, by encreafing the price of
labour, it ought rather to be the aim of good policy, to diminiſh
the quantity of current money in the kingdom, fince otherwiſe,
our poorer neighbours will always be able to underfell us.
The only inconvenience attending a ſmall quantity of current
money in a ſtate will be felt in wars, or travelling abroad,
where money muſt be raiſed at home to be expended abroad.
For it is certain, that were a nation ever. fo rich in commodities,
it could not carry on a foreign war without money: for men
cannot carry commodities for their fubfiftence along with them.
In this cafe, therefore, the more money they can raiſe at home,
and carry along with them, with which to purchaſe thoſe
neceffaries, the more advantage they will have.
For
In this view, therefore, only, viz. in cafe of neceffary ex-
pences abroad, is it of confequence, that what is generally
called the balance of trade ſhould be in favour of a nation.
certainly that nation, which faves the moſt money by its trade
will always be the most powerful. It will have what fome call,
the moſt conventional riches; and hence riches are called the
finews of war. Otherwiſe a nation might be much happier at
home
408
PART V.
LECTURES ON
home if they received no money but only the commodities they
wanted, in return for thoſe they raiſed and exported themſelves.
On the contrary, where there is no induſtry and manufac-
tures, it is impoffible to retain money. For above one thoufand
years, the money of Europe has been flowing to Rome by open
and fenfible currents; but it has been emptied by many fecret
and infenfible ones; and the want of induſtry and commerce
renders the papal territories at prefent the pooreft in all Italy.
Again, what immenfe treaſures have been expended by ſo many
nations in Flanders fince the revolution? More money perhaps
than the half of what is at prefent in Europe. But what is
now, become of it?
It is by the encreaſe or decreaſe of the quantity of money in
a ftate, that the balance of its trade, or its gain or lofs by trade,
is generally estimated; and as fuperior induſtry will draw a
fuperior quantity of money, there feems to be fome foundation
for the maxim. But then, it only fhews the balance, when
left to its natural courfe. The Spanish princes, by prohibiting
the exportation of coin, in fact impoverished their country.
As the Spaniards could not exchange it for commodities, it was
to them an uſeleſs incumbrance. Nay, it was worſe than an
incumbrance; for as it raiſed the price of all things at home,
it made it impoffible for them to eſtabliſh any manufactures,
which could be fold in a foreign market.
The encreaſe of money in a country has a favourable operation
for a time, becauſe it firft comes into the hands of thoſe who
are thereby enabled to purchaſe the produce of the ground, or
manufactures, at a higher price than had been given for them
before; and this enables the farmer and manufacturer to encreaſe
their stock. But when the price of every thing is again fixed,
the
LECT. LII.
4:09
GENERAL POLICY.
the encreaſed quantity of coin only adds to the load of every
man who carries it to market; and if it was a thouſand times
more than it is, it would be only fo much the greater burthen,
unleſs it could be exported for fomething of intrinfic value.
When money begins to leave any country, the preceding
operation is reverfed. The farmer and manufacturer, not being
able to get the ufual prices for their commodities, are difcou-
raged from raifing them, and improvement and population will
for a time go backwards..
The great advantage which accrued to Europe from the
diſcovery of America, aroſe not from the greater quantity of
gold and filver with which it ſupplied us, but from new articles
of conſumption and manufacture, and ftill more from the
ſpirit of induſtry which it excited among the different European
nations, by ſupplying them with a new market for their
commodities.
It is peculiar to this country to charge nothing for the
coinage of money, whereas in France it pays eight per cent.
This is a means of preferving the French coin more than the
English. Nobody, I believe, fays Mr. Stewart *, ever imports
louis d'ors to be coined in the Engliſh mint, notwithſtanding
the benefit there is in importing gold into England from France,
where the proportion of the metals is lower; yet nothing is
more common than to carry guineas to every foreign mint at
the bare price of bullion. This is the reaſon why fo little
Engliſh coin, and fo much French coin, is found in circulation,
in countries foreign to both nations. Louis d'ors, he ſays, in
confequence of the price of coinage, pafs current almost every
* Political Economy, vol. ii. p. 58.
Ggg
where,
410
PART V.
LECTURES ON
1
>
where, for more than their intrinfic value, even when compared
with the coin of the very nation where they circulate without
the fanction of the public authority. Thus no French coin
is melted down, and when the balance of foreign trade is
favourable, it returns home.
It is no manner of difference to France, he fays*, to receive
for the balance of her trade a hundred pounds of her own louis
d'ors, or a hundred pounds of ſtandard gold bullion, at fuch
time as bullion is commonly carried to the mint, becauſe the
one and the other will anfwer the fame occafions, both in the
Paris market and in moft trading towns in Europe.
:
LECTURE
LIII.
Of the Intereft of Money: how its rife or fall is influenced by the
State of Commerce. Of fixing the Rate of Intereft. Of Paper-
money. Paper-credit. State of the North-American Colonies
in this Respect. Of Exchange.
To
O perfons in trade, money yields as proper a produce, as
lands do to hufbandmen. Hence, the uſe of it bears
a price, as well as the ufe of land. And intereft, which is the
price of money, the univerſal repreſentative of commodities, is
* Political Economy, vol. ii. p. 61.
juftly
1
LECT. LIII. GENERAL POLICY.
411
justly called the barometer of a ſtate, fhewing very nearly the
comparative ſtate of the commerce and riches of the nation.
The lowneſs of intereft is almoſt an infallible fign of the
flouriſhing ſtate of a people. It proves the encreaſe of induſtry,
and a good circulation through the whole ftate, to little leſs
than demonſtration. And though a fudden check to commerce
may have a momentary effect of the fame kind, it is eaſily
diſtinguiſhed from the former. Almoſt all other means of
afcertaining the quantity of trade in a nation are very fallacious.
The number of tons of ſhipping, which fome have recourſe to
for that purpoſe, affords a very imperfect rule to judge of the
real riches, or trade, of two nations; for a great deal depends
on the difference of bulk and intrinfic value in commodities.
High intereft of money ariſes from three circumftances; a
great demand for borrowing; little riches to fupply that
demand; and great profits arifing from commerce. All thoſe
circumstances are marks of a fmall advance in commerce and
induſtry. In a ſtate where there is nothing but a landed intereſt
there is little frugality, and therefore borrowers muſt be very
numerous; whereas traders, having gain always before their
eyes, are faving. In a monied intereft, therefore, there is a
great number of lenders, which finks the rate of intereſt.
is needleſs to enquire, with refpect to the third circumſtance,
whether low intereft and low profits, be the cauſe, or which
the effect. They both arife from an extenfive commerce, and
mutually forward each other.
It
This circumftance clearly fhews the low ftate of commerce in
ancient times. We read in Lyfias of one thouſand per cent.
profit being made on a cargo of two talents fent to no greater
a diſtance than from Athens to the Adriatic; nor is it mentioned
as an inftance of exorbitant profit. Agreeably to this, the
Ggg 2
intereft
412-
PART V.
LECTURES ON
intereſt of money was high in ancient times, generally ten or
twelve per cent. Where there is an extenfive trade, merchants
will endeavour to underfell one another, and manage every
thing in the cheapeſt manner poffible, fo as to get handfome
fortunes by ſmall profits, and large dealings.
In China the legal intereft of money is thirty per cent*:
This is faid to be the medium between the rent of good lands,
and the gains of commerce. But the fame authority fays, that
money laid out on lands or houſes, brings at the moſt ten per
cent. Fifty per cent. therefore, muſt be the medium profit
of commerce in that country.
Though an extraordinary quantity of money unemployed,
and particularly a fudden acquifition of money, may for a time
produce a lowness of intereft, as was the cafe in Spain upon
the diſcovery of America, it does not therefore follow, that
where there is much money, intereft will be low. The circum-
ftances mentioned above must be taken into confideration.
Intereſt at Batavia is ten per cent. and in Jamaica fix per cent.
though thoſe places abound more in coin than London or
Amſterdam.
Whatever occafions the hoarding of money tends to leffen
the rate of intereft. General frugality has the fame effect. In
this ſtate of things, many will be able to lend, and few will
be difpofed to borrow.
There does not ſeem to be any more reaſon why government
ſhould fix the intereſt of money, than the price of any other
commodity. The real value of this, as well as of every thing
elfe, is beft found by the want of it; and to this government
itſelf muſt conform. For, by one means or other, the ftate
*Memoirs fur les Chionois, vol. iv. p. 336.
+ Ib. p. 341.
I P. 385.
muft
LECT. LIII.
413
GENERAL POLICY.
muſt always give the price at which the money holder is willing
to part with it. England, towards the clofe of the laft war,
borrowed at much more than legal intereft, though it was no-
minally at leſs; for the miniſters gave various advantages to thoſe
who were willing to lend them money. There may be a con-
venience in having a determinate meaning to the term intereft,
where it is not defined by the parties themfelves; but this
ſhould be as nearly as poffible its actual value, and vary with
it. When perfons want money, and the rate of intereft is low,
they muſt not only pay the real value of it, but they muſt likewiſe
indemnify the lenders for the riſk they run in breaking the law.
As money is a reprefentative of commodities, fo bills are a
reprefentative of money; and as money is of no ufe when it
cannot be exchanged for commodities, fo are bills of no ufe,
when they cannot be exchanged for money. But ſince the va-
lue of bills with respect to money is fixed, every bill reprefents
a certain abfolute fum, and the proportion between money and
bills is not variable, like the proportion between money and com-
modities. There is no danger of a country being overſtocked
with bills; when there is no fraud in drawing them, fince no
bill is drawn unleſs the value expreffed in it be forthcoming.
The only danger, arifes from perſons promifing, in the form of
a bill or note, more than they may be able to pay at the time
promiſed. And while a man's credit, or that of a bank, is
good, their promiffory notes will circulate exactly like caſh,
without any thing being reprefented by them. But, provided
paper credit, public or private, be kept within tolerable bounds,.
and the public or private funds be able to anſwer any de-
mands that may be made upon them, it is fo far from being ant
obftruation to commerce, that it is a great advantage to it. It
operates in the fame manner as the increaſe of money, and hath the-
3
fame
414
LECTURES ON PART V.
fame effects, in promoting induſtry, and bringing about a more
flouriſhing ſtate of the people. But then this can never be the
cafe for any confiderable time, and in any eminent degree, ex-
cept in opulent and commercial countries, and in thofe only in
which the liberty of the whole people is inviolably eſtabliſhed.
Voltaire acknowledges the importance of paper credit, when
he ſays, we, viz. (the French) begin to form funds of mortgage,
as among the English; and if in a ftate purely monarchical,
theſe circulatory notes could be introduced, which at leaſt
double the wealth of England, the adminiſtration of France
would acquire its laft degree of perfection.
The hiſtory of the Miffifippi fcheme in France, and that of
the South Sea. Company in England, demonftrate the ill confe-
quences of the too great extenfion of paper credit. It is not,
however, abfolutely neceffary, though it be convenient, that there
be actual cash in every country, fufficient to anſwer the paper
credit of it. If there be commodities to anſwer it, it is the fame
thing in fact. In that cafe, notes are only a more periſhable
kind of money. They reprefent commodities immediately
without the intervention of real coin. The ftate of our colo-
nies in North America demonftrate this.
It is faid that all the money, which our North American
colonies can poffibly get centers in England; fo that ſcarce
they, or any of our American colonies, know the ufe of gold
and filver paffing in current payment. They have been obliged
to invent a nominal medium of exchange, viz. bills iffued by
public authority, which go as low as fixpence. This paper
money ferves all the common ufes of gold and filver money;
and notwithſtanding this feeming inconvenience, theſe people
increaſe moſt aſtoniſhingly in numbers and riches, being fur-
nished with all the conveniences of life, capable of fitting out
fleets,
LECT. LIII.
415
GENERAL POLICY.
fleets, furniſhing and feeding armies, and all without gold or
filver *. The Portugueſe have gold and diamonds in great
quantities in Brafil, but the people are few, ill fed, and ill
cloathed, nor are they capable of fitting out fleets, furniſhing or
maintaining armies.
It may not be improper in this place, though I be writing
for the uſe of the hiftorian, and not of the merchant, to give
an idea of the general nature of exchange, as the knowledge of
it is neceffary to understand what writers, even in an hiſtorical
view, fay upon the ſubject.
When two countries have equal demands upon one another,
that is, when neither country receives more goods from the
other than what it returns to the amount of in its own com-
modities, the exchange is faid to be at par. There is no occa-
fion for cash in fuch a commerce; a perfon who wants to remit
a fum of money, can eaſily find a perfon at home who owes
that fum abroad; and his correfpondent abroad may draw upon
him payable to his neighbour. The coin of each country in
this cafe only ferves as the medium of computation in adjuſt-
ing the value of commodities, and nothing can be gained or
loft by the different price of money in either country. For
in that caſe, the value of every piece of money is determined by
its own intrinfic goodneſs only.
Suppofing theſe two places to be London and Amfterdam,
and the circumftances of their trade to change, fo that the mer-
chants of one of thefe places, e. g. London, import more com-
modities from Amſterdam than they export to it, a balance of caſh
will be due to Amfterdam, which it may not be eafy to convey ;.
* Theſe paragraphs were written before the American war; but, relating to
a real flate of things formerly exifting, they are of the fame uſe for the purpoſe of
thefe lectures..
and
416
ON PARTV.
LECTURES
and there will always be more merchants in London who have
money to pay at Amſterdam, than there will be who have
money to receive there. Confequently, a merchant at Amfter-
dam, where there are many bills upon London, must pay a pre-
mium to have thofe bills diſcounted; whereas the few bills at
London upon Amſterdam will bear a higher price, than their
real value, on account of the number of perfons who want fuch
bills, having money to pay in Amfterdam. In this cafe, the
exchange is ſaid to be below par at London, and above par at
Amfterdam.
It is plain from thefe principles, that when the exchange is
below par, in any ſtate, that ſtate lofes as debtor or buyer, and
gains as creditor or feller. There is therefore an additional en-
couragement to exportation, where importation has been ex-
ceffive, and therefore a conftant tendency to a balance of the
importation and exportation in the feveral commercial countries
of the world..
Lending of money, as well as paying of debts, equally turns
the exchange againſt a country, which fhews that the exchange
is no rule for judging of the profperity of trade *.
It must be understood that this account of exchange has
nothing to do with the profit of the bankers. They only affift
merchants in negociating their bills, and muſt be paid for their
affiftance, whether the perfons who employ them be gainers or
lofers by their dealings.
* Sir James Stuart's Obfervations, vol, i. p. 36,
LEC-
LECT. LIV.
417
GENERAL POLICY.
LECTURE LIV.
The Confequences of a flourishing State of Society deduced. What
Kinds of Luxury are hurtful. How far the Country in which
Luxury prevails is hereby rendered incapable of Self-defence or
the contrary. The Temper of Mind in luxurious and barbarous
Ages compared. The Mischiefs of Idleness. The State of Virtue
in the earlier and later Periods of moft Hiftories. Effects of
large capital Cities. The dreadful Confequence of a total
depravity of Manners. Gaming. Education.
FTER confidering the attention that an hiftorian ought to
give to agriculture, commerce, and the arts; which are uni-
verfally confidered as the principal means of raiſing all ſtates to
their greateſt perfection, in the poffeffion of all the neceffaries
and conveniences of life, that is, of riches, in the only proper
fenſe of the word; we are naturally led to turn our attention to
the confequences of this happy ſtate, at which all mankind,
and all nations, are aiming, in the influence it has on the
tempers and manners of men with refpect to virtue and vice,
and the reciprocal influence of thefe affections of the mind upon
the outward circumftances of a people. It is only the obferva-
tion of hiſtorical facts that can authorize us to advance any
thing with certainty upon this fubject.
As a rich and flourishing ftate of fociety is the object of all
wife policy, it were abfurd to fuppofe that the proper uſe of
riches was neceffarily, and upon the whole, hurtful to the mem-
Hhh
bers
418
PART V.
LECTURES ON
bers of it. The more conveniences men are able to procure to
themſelves, the more they have it in their power to enjoy life,
and make themſelves and others happy. The only danger to
their virtue, and their intereſt (which always coincide) is, leſt
through an immoderate indulgence of their appetites, men
contract diſeaſes, enfeeble their conftitutions, and fhorten their
lives. The gratification of their tafte for mere ornament in
drefs, equipage, &c. can do no real harm. Wants of this kind,
more than all our other wants, promote induftry, and are a moft
effectual means of circulating wealth. The vanity of the
French makes them induſtrious, whereas the pride of the
Spaniards makes them idle. It is but a little in comparifon.
that any man could expend in the indulgence of his appetite
only. For from this account we ought to exclude thoſe expen-
five diſhes, which vanity, and a tafte for elegance have in-
troduced.
It is faid that the French baubles, modes and follies coft
England, in the time of Colbert, little lefs than eight hundred
thousand pounds a year, and other nations in proportion. But
if the people who bought theſe fuperfluities had money to ſpare
for the purchaſe of them, what harm could there he in indulging
their fancy? Let the people who complain of fuch trifles make
them themſelves, and enjoy the profits of the fale. It was very
abfurd in Philip IV. of Spain, to forbid his fubjects the uſe of
gold and filver ornaments, as if Spain had been an indigent
republic. It is perhaps proper to reftrain luxury in China,
becauſe the lands are barely fufficient to maintain their inha-
bitants. But it were better to have fewer people, and thoſe better
accommodated.
It is faid that living in luxury tends to make men effeminate
and cowardly. But on the other hand a very low and meagre
diet
LECT. LIV.
419
GENERAL POLICY.
diet is incapable of giving that ſtrength of body, and confequently
that firmneſs of mind, which is derived from what is called
better living. Inclemency of weather, extremity of heat and
cold, &c. will certainly be beft borne by thoſe who have been
moſt uſed to bear them. But as natural courage depends on
bodily ftrength, and the motive which men have to exert it,
furely more ſpirit and courage may be expected from a man who
has had good nouriſhment, and who has fomething to defend,
than from one who is almoft ftarved, and who has little or
nothing to fight for. The Engliſh common people may be
termed rich and luxurious in compariſon with thoſe of the fame
rank in France; and it is thought that in general, they have
both more ftrength of body, and more true courage, than they.
Befides, in a country where there are more riches, there may
generally be expected more improvements of all kinds, and
confequently more knowledge. And knowledge employed in
the defence of the ftate is, in effect, an addition of power.
Thus the Romans, by their diſcipline and ſkill in war, held out
many centuries against the hardy, but ignorant, favages of the
North.
High living, indeed, certainly enfeebles the body, and it is
the fource of many other evils. But it is far preferable to a
ſtate of idleness, and barbarity, which is generally the alterna-
tive of it. In a people of the greatest wealth and luxury there
is never found that treachery, and cruelty, which characterize
almoſt all uncivilized and barbarous ftates; but commonly a
a higher and jufter ſenſe of honour, and a greater humanity of
temper. Between the first and fecond Punic wars, when the
conſtitution of Rome was moſt perfect, the practiſe of poiſoning
was fo common, that during one ſeaſon, it is faid, the prætor
puniſhed
Hhh 2
420
PART V.
LECTURES ON
puniſhed capitally for this crime about three thouſand perfons in
one part of Italy.
As to the fondneſs for money, which is one great cauſe
of rapacious and unjuſt methods of obtaining it, and con-
fequently of much vice and wickednefs, that must be equal,
where there are equal opportunities of knowing the uſe of
it. A porter, fays Mr. Hume, is not lefs greedy of money,
which he ſpends on bacon and brandy, than a courtier who pur-
chaſes champaign and ortolans. Nothing can reſtrain a love of
money but a ſenſe of honour and virtue, which may reaſonably
be expected to abound moſt in an age of luxury and knowledge.
In Poland, where there are the feweſt arts and improvements of
any kind, venality and corruption prevail to the greatest degree
imaginable; and in England the electors are more corrupt than
the elected.
With respect even to a taſte for ornament, that innocent and
really uſeful branch of luxury, it appears to be every where equal
to its power of fhewing itſelf. The Hottentot is as proud of his
bladder faſtened to his hair, as the European of any ornament he
can put on. The native Americans carry their tafte for orna-
ment to the moft ridiculous contrivances. Both their women,
and even their men, were found with plates of gold hanging
from their noſes upon their upper lips.
Idleneſs is the great inlet to the most deftructive vices. It
has therefore been the object of every good ſtateſinan to keep
the bulk of the people as much as poffible fully employed.
The Romans always feverely felt the effects of a diſbanded army;
and the prodigious increaſe of robberies, and public violence of
all kinds, is always the confequence of the like event with us.
For the fame reaſon, a great number of livery-fervants, who are
both
4-
LECT. LIV.
421
GENERAL POLICY.
4
•
both idle and vicious, and have little to do, are a great nuifance
to fociety. The unbounded violence of the feudal times was
committed by men who had hardly any thing else to do.
Almoſt all the diforders of the Roman ftate, towards the decline
of the republic, may alſo be aſcribed to the abfolute idleneſs
of most of the inhabitants of Rome. They were maintained
by diftributions of corn, for which they paid nothing. Con-
fequently all tillage and huſbandry was neglected, and they
were at liberty for any act of violence they could be inftigated
to. For the fame reafon many holidays are very hurtful to the
ftate, and it was an excellent law at Athens, that excuſed a
man from maintaining his father if he had taught him no trade.
Many ftates in the early period of their hiſtory have been
remarkable for their frugality and virtue, which, in conſequence
of becoming rich, have become abandoned to vices of all kinds.
The difference may chiefly be aſcribed to their conſtant employ-
ment, and an equality of rank and fortune, in the former caſe.
This latter circumftance is of confiderable confequence. Where
there are no perfons of over-grown fortunes, there is nothing
greatly to excite a fpirit of envy, and emulation, of ambition,
and rapaciouſneſs, through the influence of which men over-
come their natural averfion to other vices. In the early times
of the Roman commonwealth an heirefs might fafely be trufted
with her neareſt relation; but when the manners of the Romans
were changed, they were obliged to alter that law. In the
former, comparatively happy period, the people did not even
make uſe of the power they had contended for, of chufing their
magiſtrates from their own body; but afterwards they abuſed
that, and every power.
Obfervations fimilar to theſe may be
fucceffion of princes in moft empires.
made concerning the
The kings of all the
twenty-
422
PART V.
LECTURE SON
twenty-two dynaftics in China, began with a vigorous appli-
cation to bufinefs; but their fucceffors grew daily more and
more effeminate, till at last they were dethroned by fome enter-
prifing ufurper.
The largenefs of capital cities is alfo a great means of pro-
moting the most deftructive luxury. In fhort, luxury may be
faid to be in proportion to this circumftance, together with
the inequality of fortunes and the riches of a ſtate. When
perfons who have wealth at their command live near together,
they are conftantly and unavoidably actuated by a ſpirit of
emulation to go beyond one another, in every article of extra-
vagance and expence. And confidering how many prudent
methods there are of diftributing money, without encouraging
idleneſs, it is to be lamented that fo much of it ſhould be
fquandered away to fo little purpoſe. The fame care and toil
which would raiſe a difh of peas at Chriſtmas, would give bread
to a whole family during fix months.
The confequence of abfolute corruption and profligacy of
manners is dreadful indeed. It is inconfiftent with the very
being of civil fociety. Where the paffion for wealth, as the
means of luxury, is fuperior to every other affection, it is no
wonder if a man fhould fometimes think it his intereft to
facrifice his country, and every principle of honour and con-
ſcience, to it..
Above all other methods, the practice of gaming is the
greateſt incentive of avarice, profufion, and profligacy of every
kind. A man who has gained an eftate by the turn of a die
cannot be fuppofed to ufe it with the fame moderation and
prudence, as if he had acquired it by his own induftry; and a
man who lofes an eftate by the fame means feldom finds himſelf
diſpoſed to attempt the recovery of it by any other; at leaſt,
any
LECT. LIV.
423
GENERAL POLICY.
A
any more honourable. His mind is then ready to catch at any
method which will enable him to repair his fortune as expe-
ditiouſly as he loft it: and if bribery and corruption be necef-
fary, it is.to be feared, he will not make much fcruple of them.
There is no effectual method of reſtraining vice of all kinds but
by early and deeply inculcating the principles of integrity, honour,
and religion, on the minds of youth in a fevere and virtuous
education. After this they will hardly. be feduced. very foon;
and when fobriety and virtue are become habitual. to them,
they will both find their greateſt fatisfaction in fuch a life here,
and conceive the nobleft and beſt founded hopes of happineſs
from it hereafter. And (notwithstanding the advantages which
indirectly accrue from vice and folly) men of wealth and
influence, who act upon the principles of virtue and religion,
and conſcientiously make their power fubfervient to the good
of their country, are the men who are the greateſt honour to
human nature, and the greateſt bleffing to human ſocieties.
*
ނ
•
LEC
424
PART V.
LECTURES ON
za
LECTURE LV.
The Importance of an Attention to leffer Things than thofe dif
courfed of above. Influence of Politeness in a State. Man-
ners of the Ancients. What Form of Government is most fa-
vourable to Politeness, State of Diverfions among the Greeks
and Romans. The Influence of domeftic Slavery on the Minds
of the Ancients. Manners of the Feudal Times. The Rife
and Progress of Politeness in Europe. The Confequence of
a free Intercourfe between the Sexes. The Reafon of the high
Diftinction with which the Female Sex is treated in Europe.
How far the Laws which regulate the Treatment of Women
depend upon the Climate of Countries. Treatment of Women in
the Eaft, among the Greeks, Romans, and barbarous Nations.
-
THE fources of general happiness in a ſtate muſt not always
be looked for in fuch ftriking circumſtances, as govern-
ment, religion, laws, arts, and commerce, though an attention
to theſe be allowed to be the moſt effential in a well regulated
ſtate. Allowing theſe requifites to profperity to be in the beſt
condition imaginable, we muſt wait till we have taken a nearer
view of a people, in private and domeſtic life, before we can
juſtly pronounce whether they really enjoy their fituation, or
not. We must not infer that becauſe men's liberty and property
are fecure, and in a way of being advanced, that therefore they
are happy. We muſt alſo inſpect their prevailing manners and
cuſtoms, confider the terms upon which common acquaintance
live and converſe together, and particularly in what manner
the
LECT. LV.
425
GENERAL POLICY.
the two fexes behave to one another. Other objects of attention
are ſuch as may more properly be ſaid to guard againſt unhap-
pineſs. Theſe are the things which actually impart the chief
pleaſures that ſweeten the cup of life, which diffuſe a ſpirit
of chearfulneſs over ſociety, and give a reliſh to all the ad-
vantages of it.
Both hiſtory and experience inform us, that mankind are
naturally ſelfiſh, fenfual, haughty, overbearing, and favage;
and yet without a fpirit of moderation, humanity, and con-
defcenfion there can be no good harmony and confidence in
fociety. Society, therefore, can never arrive at perfection till
thoſe viees to which men are moſt prone be either eradicated,
or diſguiſed, and the oppofite virtues either acquired, or counter-
feited. Abfolutely to eradicate vices, and acquire virtues, is
not to be expected from the bulk of mankind. It is happy,
therefore, when, from a ſenſe of decency and honour, they
learn the art of preferving the appearance of virtue. For if
that appearance be habitual, and uniform, it will have nearly
the fame effect in fociety; though the virtues themſelves
would enable a perſon to contribute to the happineſs of others
with far lefs pain, and mortification to himſelf.
True politeness is the art of feeming to be habitually influenced
by thofe virtues, and good difpofitions of mind, which moſt
contribute to the eaſe and the pleaſure of thoſe we converſe
with. And where ever nature has given the mind a propenſity
to any vice, or any quality diſagreeable to others, refined good
breeding has taught them to throw the bias on the oppofite
fide, and to preferve the appearance of fentiments quite contrary
to thofe they are naturally inclined to.
The ancients knew little or nothing comparatively of true
politenefs, and hence we may conclude they had but little
ᏞᎥᎥ
enjoyment
426
PART V.
LECTURES ON
enjoyment of fociety. The fcurrility, and obfcenity, which
appears in the moſt admired Greek and Latin writers is
abominable. That they had no idea of politenefs properly fo
called, may be ſeen by another circumftance. When any thing
is cultivated, whether it be an art, a fcience, or a branch of
virtue, its minute diſtinctions and fubdivifions open themſelves
to view, and are univerfally obferved. Thus with us, a fenfe
of honour and virtue are two things; with the ancients they
were the fame: whence we may conclude, that with them
they were little cultivated or understood; and that politeness,
which depends very much on a nice fenfe of honour, as diftinct
from virtue, could hardly be known to them. All the polite-
nefs and civility which the ancients arrived at was derived from
books and ſtudy. It was a faying of Menander, that it was
not in the power of the gods to make a foldier polite. So
different were their notions of politenefs from ours.
Indeed, the equality of popular ftates is very unfavourable to
politeness. The haughty republican who is conſtantly engaged
in a fierce contention for his own prerogatives, is not likely
to acquire a habit of condefcenfion to others; whereas in
monarchies, where all the members of the ſtate are more de-
pendent on one another, and eſpecially in European monarchies,
where even the prince himſelf is dependent on the people, an
habitual defire of pleafing is naturally generated, in which all
appearance of ſelfiſhneſs, and every unfociable difpofition entirely
vaniſhes, and every one feems to have no other object than the
eaſe and the pleaſure of others.
The perfection of complaifance (though perhaps not proper
politeness) is no where to be feen but in China. There, far from
being confined to the higher ranks of men, even the loweſt
orders of the people are actuated by it. The many forms which
1
muft
LECT. LV.
427
GENERAL POLICY.
3
muſt be obſerved in the common intercourſe of life, and which
muſt be all broken through before perfons can quarrel with one
another, contribute not a little to preferve the profound tran-
quility which reigns through the whole of that vaft empire.
The epocha of all the politeness the Romans ever had was the
ſame with that of the eſtabliſhment of arbitrary power.
Since, however, the members of every republic are, in fact,
cloſely connected with, and dependent upon, one another, and
it is peculiarly the intereſt of all who are candidates for office
and
power to court the good opinion of the loweſt vulgar, I do
not clearly fee why complaifance fhould not gain ground, and
become habitual, in a popular ſtate; though it muſt be acknow-
ledged, that that kind of complaifance which is acquired by
courting, and adapting ones felf to the taſte of the populace,
very different from that complaifance which is acquired by
a man's ſtudying to recommend himſelf to his fuperiors. It is
certain, however, that it was not the form of their government
only that kept the Romans fo long ſtrangers to true politeneſs.
is
The Romans had none of thoſe diverfions and amuſements,
which, though they contribute to the diffipation of our time,
do greatly promote the humanization of our manners. They
had no vifiting days, no balls, no affemblies of noblemen and
perfons of diſtinction at ladies' houſes. The women faw each
other only at the fhews, the theatres, and the entertainments
begun by Nero. Even plays were feldom exhibited at Rome
in compariſon of what they are with us. They were more
frequent indeed at Athens, where gentlemen were not aſhamed
to dance, or even to appear upon the ſtage themſelves; and
where the manners of the people were infinitely more agreeable
than the manners of the Romans, who were aſhamed of dancing,
Iii 2
and
428
PART V.
LECTURES ON
and who took pleaſure in nothing but manly exercifes, fhews
of gladiators, and wild beaſts.
The practice of domeſtic flavery could not fail to give a
favage turn to the difpofition of the free-born antients, and
particularly of the Romans in their later times, when they
made ſo much ufe of flaves. What humanity, and delicacy of
fentiment could be expected from a people who were not
afhamed to fuffer their old and uſeleſs flaves, when worn out
in their fervice, to ftarve on an island in the Tiber, as was
the common practice at Rome? It was a profeffed maxim of
the elder Cato to fell his fuper-annuated flaves at any price,
rather than maintain what he esteemed an uſeleſs burden. A
chained flave for a porter was a common fight at Rome. Vidius
Pollio uſed to throw his flaves who had diſobliged him into his
fiſh-ponds, to be preyed upon by the mullets. In the Roman
laws flaves were always confidered, not as men, having any
rights of their own, but as res, the mere property of their
mafters.
The feudal times, which fucceeded the Roman empire, were
as little favourable to politenefs, and the true enjoyment of
fociety. The firit dawnings of politeness in later times ap-
peared at Florence, about the age of Patrarch. It was more
confpicuous in the family of the Medici, and at Rome in the
age of
pope Leo.
Leo. It then made fome figure at the court of
Spain, during the flouriſhing ſtate of that monarchy; but
received its laſt improvements in France, in the middle and
latter end of the reign of Lewis XIV. and the French are now
thought to have in a great meaſure perfected that art, the moſt
agreeable of all others, l'art de vivre, the art of fociety and
converſation; and they have the fatisfaction of feeing their
4
taf
LECT. LV.
429
GENERAL POLICY.
tafte for politenefs, luxury, and entertainments, followed in
all parts of Europe, which they may look upon as their own
forming.
In the reign of Lewis XIII. Voltaire fays, the minds of men
were generally grofs and uncultivated; a favage pedantry foured
the minds of all the public bodies appointed for the education
of youth, and even thofe of the magiftracy. It was only under
the adminiſtration of Richlieu that the French began to make
themſelves eſteemed every where by their agreeable and polite
manners, though that great minifter himſelf lived to fee but
little more than the dawnings of the prefent fplendor of his
nation. He had given balls, fays the fame writer, but they
were without tafte, as were all the entertainments before his
time. The French, who have fince carried the art of dancing.
to perfection, had only a few Spanish dances in the minority of
Lewis XIV. as the faraband, the courante, &c. though the
French vivacity, and regard for the fair fex, were taken notice of
in a much earlier period. And one may almoft judge of the
politeness of a people, and of all refinements in their behaviour,,
from this fingle circumftance, viz. the treatment of women.
among them.
१,
t
Where the intercourſe between the fexes is open, it is im-
poffible but that there ſhould be a mutual defire to pleaſe, which
will give the male fex a foftnefs of temper, and tenderneſs of
fentiment, which they could never have acquired by converfing.
with their own fex only, and without which, the temper and
manners even of the females could not have been the moft
lovely and engaging. And, indeed, the feeds of politenefs,
though they were long buried in the barbarity of the feudal cuftoms
(when a woman might be feen waiting whole days in a church
till the vaffal, to whom the feudal lord had prefented her, either
married.
430
PART V.
LECTURES ON
married her, or compounded) may be diſcovered in the earlieſt
cuſtoms and laws of the northern nations. The Scythians and
the Goths never thought of depriving women of their liberty,
but made them equal with themſeves. A fine for injuring a
woman was double for the fame injury done to a man.
Some, however, ſay that the very high diftinction with which
the fex is treated in Europe is to be looked for from another
quarter. They ſay, that a notion of African extraction got
footing in Spain, that women, being the ornaments of the
world, were to be adored, and that the ſchools of regulated
gallantry, which among the Arabs and Moors were connected
with the original inftitution, found a ready reception among
the Spaniards, who even improved its forms and ceremonies,
and communicated them to all Europe. It is certain that the
embelliſhments of the Arabian compofitions are adventures,
feſtivals and heroic feaſts, in the cauſe of love.
The laws which regulate and direct the treatment of women
depend very much upon the climate of a country, ſo that ſome
nations are deprived by nature of the very means of politenefs.
In warm climates men's paffions are certainly more violent than
in thoſe which are cold or temperate. This is very evident
with reſpect to Spain, and moſt of the fouthern parts of Afia.
The claffical books of China confider it as a miracle that a man'
ſhould find a woman alone in a remote apartment of a houſe,
and not offer violence to her. And when love goes beyond a
certain pitch it renders men jealous, and cuts off the free
intercourſe between the fexes, on which the politeneſs of a
nation will always depend, fo that nations in temperate climates
ftand the fairest chance for this, as well as for moſt other kinds
of improvement.
It
LECT. LV.
431
GENERAL POLICY.
It must likewife be confidered, that in hot countries women
are marriageable at ten or twelve years of age, which is before
their underſtandings can have ripened, and confequently before
they can have acquired any influence, and that they are generally
paſt child-bearing, and have out-lived all their charms, about
thirty, when their underſtandings are in perfection. The confe-
quence of this is, that women are only confidered as the objects of
pleaſure and luxury, and not as the partakers and promoters of it.
In the East, women, being born flaves, have ſeldom any
education. They never appear at entertainments, they impart
no chearfulness to their mafter's heart, nor introduce gaiety into
the public manners, but are always ftriatly guarded by eunuchs
as the mere property of the men. In Perfia, fays Mr. Chardin,
they give the women their cloaths, as if they were children.
Indeed, it were highly imprudent in thoſe countries to confider
the women in any other light, or to give them more liberty. In
Turky, Perfia, Indoftan, China, and Japan, where the women
are ftrictly confined, their morals are admirable; whereas in the
Indies, and other places where the civil government is not ſo
regular, men cannot attend to the morals of their wives, their
irregularities are ſaid to be very great.
It is a happineſs, fays Montefquieu, to live in a country where
the charms of the fair fex poliſh fociety, and where the women,
preferving themſelves for their huſbands, ferve for the amufe-
ment of all.
The Athenians derived confiderable advantage even from their
courtizans who had had a good education. Their houſes were
reforted to by the first men in the commonwealth, and fome of
their greateſt ſtateſmen, and beft orators, are faid to have derived
their fineſt accomplishments from their converſation. The
hiſtory of Pericles and Afpafia is well known. The like advan-
tages
432
PART V.
LECTURES ON
tages could not be derived from the company of the free-born
Athenians. No woman of character among the Greeks ever
converfed with any perfons but thofe of her own family, and
in that they were confined to the most remote apartment of the
houſe, where the men had no accefs. As for the Romans,
what delicacy could we expect from them, when divorces were
ſo eaſy and cuftomary amongst them, as almoſt amounted to a
lending and exchanging of their wives; as Cato is faid to have
parted with his to Hortenfius. As well almoſt might we expect
delicacy or politenefs from our ancestors the Britons, with
whom it is ſaid to have been cuftomary for ten or a dozen men
to live together, having their wives and children in common.
In all ancient nations, and early times, we read of men giving
money for their wives, inſtead of receiving portions with them;
a plain mark in how unfavourable a light, with reſpect to
politenefs, they were confidered. They were not treated as the
companions, but as the property, and ferving for the convenience,
of their hufbands.
LEC-
LECT. LVI.´
433
GENERAL POLICY.
LECTURE LVI.
The Influence of Religion on Civil Society. In what Circumstances
it has the greatest Force. The Use of it in States. Advantages
refulting from Christianity in Europe. Abufes of Religion. Of
Oaths. Toleration and Perfecution. In what Circumftances
moft violent. Effects of Superftition, eſpecially in uncivilized
Countries. Human Sacrifices. The Connexion of Modes of
Religion with Forms of Government.
NEX
EXT to the forms of government, and the ſubject of laws,
the influence of religion on civil fociety cannot fail to
engage the attention of a reader of hiſtory; and legiſlators, and
minifters of ſtate, have too often found it one of the moſt
powerful inftruments of civil policy; the hiſtory of almoſt every
country affording inftances of its being either an excellent ally
to the power of the civil magiftrate, or the moſt dangerous rival
he can have. By religion I here mean, in general, that principle
by which men are influenced by the dread of evil, or the hope
of reward, from unknown and invifible caufes; whether the
good or the evil be expected to take place in this world, or in
another; which comprehends enthufiafm, fuperftition, and every
other ſpecies of falfe religion, as well as the true.
Hiſtory exhibits the most frequent and the most striking
inftances of the power of this principle in barbarous nations;
and therefore, if properly applied, it comes moſt ſeaſonably in
aid of the imperfect ſtate of government in thoſe countries.
The notion which prevailed in the barbarous times of Greece,
Kkk
that
434
PART V.
LECTURES ON
The
that the ghosts of deceafed perfons haunted their murderers,
muſt have had a confiderable effect to prevent thofe violences.
The fuperftition with which the rights of hofpitality are ob-
ſerved in uncivilized countries, is of the fame nature.
ftrong propensity to fuperftition in the early ages of Rome was
a great means of keeping the boisterous fpirits of the Romans in
tolerable order, in fo ill balanced a conftitution as theirs was.
Of this there are upon record feveral remarkable inftances.
When the tribunes oppofed Q. Cincinnatus in raiſing an army,
contrary to the inclinations of the body of the people, and
with views which were known to be oppofite to the intereft of
the people; the old general cried out, "Let all thoſe who took
"the oath to the conful the preceding year march immediately
"under my ſtandard," and they inftantly obeyed. It was not
even in the power of the tribunes to perfuade them they were
not bound by that oath.
With the Romans, and many other nations in a ftate equally
barbarous, the obligation of religion was generally much
ftronger than that of the plaineſt dictates of morals. When the
Roman commons at one time formed a defign to retire to the
facred mount, in oppofition to the fenate and confuls, they
feriously propofed to kill one of the confuls, becauſe they
imagined that otherwiſe they ſhould be bound by the oath they
had taken to him. The reaſon why people in barbarous countries,
and unformed governments, are more liable than others to the
influence of religion or fuperftition, equally affects all people
who have little knowledge of nature, and are fubject to a great
variety of fortune and unforeſeen ill accidents, depending upon
unknown and uncertain caufes. This may eafily be obſerved
even in gameſters, though the greatest free-thinkers, and the
moſt irreligious of all mankind in moſt reſpects. What is curfing
their
LECT. LVI.
GENERAL POLICY.
435
their ill luck, fo emphatically and earneſtly as they often do,
but a ſpecies of fuperftition?
The uſe of religion to a ftate is moft clearly feen in the
courage of the firft Saracens, who knew not what it was to fear
death, nay exulted in the very face of it, from the belief that
the joys of paradife were the certain and immediate reward of
all who died in battle. The fuperftition of the Lacedemonians
and Romans often checked and reftrained their martial courage
for a time, but it made it regular and firm when it was exerted.
The Lacedemonians would never march till after the full moon,
nor would they fight at the battle of Plateæ till the facrifices
were favourable, though they were drawn up in their ranks
ready for the engagement, and the enemy were ready to cut
them to pieces. But no fooner did the priests allow them the
uſe of their arms, than their fhock was irreſiſtible. In Turkey
it is from religion that the people derive their greateſt reverence
for the prince, which cuts off all hopes from every other family
of fucceeding to the crown, and is a great means of preferving
tranquility in that vaft and ill-governed empire.
Theſe happy effects of religion coincide with, and ſecond,
the views of the civil magiftrate. But religion has often
operated powerfully in favour of the beſt intereſts of mankind,
independently of, and in contradiction to, the views of the
civil magiſtrate. It has been of excellent ufe to reſtrain
the extravagance of defpotic power in all ages and all coun-
tries of the world. What would have become of Spain and
Portugal, fays Montefquieu, if it had not been for religion?
And for this reafon, he fays (what was mentioned before in
another view) that if the English ever be flaves, they will be
the greateſt ſlaves. It is an obſervation of Mr. Hume's, that
the precious fparks of liberty were kindled and preferved by the
puritans
K kk 2
436
PART V.
LECTURES ON
66
puritans in England, and that "it is to this fect, whofe principles
appear fo frivolous, and whofe habits fo ridiculous, that the
Engliſh owe the whole freedom of their conftitution." We
ſhall take the compliment, and defpife the reflection.
The capital advantage derived from christianity in this weftern
part of the world is the total abolition of flavery, in confe-
quence of its raifing men's ideas of the importance of the human
fpecies. After the introduction of chriſtianity into the Roman
empire, every law which was made relating to flaves was in
favour of them, till at laſt all the ſubjects of the empire were
reckoned equally free.
Indeed, chriſtianity is almoft incompatible with abfolute
defpotic power, both in fovereigns and private perfons. It
has, fays Montefquieu, prevented defpotifm from being efta-
bliſhed in Ethiopia, notwithſtanding the heat of the climate,
the largenefs of the empire, and its fituation in the midſt of
African defpotic ſtates.
We may, moreover, fee in the conquefts of Jenghis Khan,
and Timur Bek, what we owe to the equitable rights of nations,
eſtabliſhed by chriftianity, which leave to the conquered life,
liberty, laws, poffeffions, and generally religion.
Some advantages have indirectly arifen from the greateſt cor-
ruptions of chriſtianity, from the exorbitant
power of the
of the pope,
and the ſuperſtition of the popish worship. The union of all
the weſtern churches under one fupreme pontiff facilitated the
intercourfe of nations in barbarous ages, and tended to bind all
the parts of Europe into a clofer connexion with each other; and
thus prevented the feveral governments of it from falling, upon
the diffolution of the Roman empire, into that difjointed ſtate
in which they were found before the eſtabliſhment of it. And
the
pomp of the popish worship contributed greatly to prevent
ོལ་ ་ .
4
the
LECT. LVI.
437
GENERAL POLICY.
+
the fine arts from being totally loft in the barbariſm of Europe,
and to their revival, antecedent to the revival of learning in
this western part of the world.
I would be far, however, from afferting that religion, ac-
cording to the general definition I have given of it, has been
univerfally uſeful in fociety. It has often been greatly and
evidently hurtful, both in the hands of the civil magiftrate,
and out of his hands. The Jewish ftrictnefs in keeping their
fabbath was very near being fatal to them in the beginning of
their wars under the Maccabees; as the fuperftition of the
Egyptians was to them when they were invaded by Cambyfes,
who entirely defeated them, by placing in the front of his
army thoſe animals which the Egyptians thought it impiety to
injure. The religion of the Egyptians was alfo in other reſpects
extremely prejudicial to them. It made them averfe to all
intercourfe with ftrangers, and confequently withheld from
them all the advantages of commerce. The ancient Perfians
were fufferers by their religion in the fame refpect. It made
them to look upon it as a crime to navigate the rivers, for fear
of diſturbing the elements. Even to this day the Perfees
confider thofe perfons as atheiſts who make long voyages.
Ignorance, and fuperftition (which always proceeds from a
want of knowledge, putting imaginary cauſes in the place of
true ones) have been the occafion of the moſt lamentable evils
in the government of ftates. Beccaria fays*, that there has
been above an hundred thoufand witches condemned to die by
chriftian tribunals.
The fubftitution of ceremonial for moral duties is one of the
greateſt abuſes of religion. Things of this kind, fo contrary,.
* Effay on Crimes and Puniſhments, p. 35.
one
438
PART V.
LECTURES ON
one would think, to common fenfe, would not be credible at
this day, but that they are too well authenticated. But we
fee it abundantly exemplified in all religions, and as much in
the abuſes of chriſtianity as in any other. The Mahometans
lay the greateſt ftrefs imaginable on things which have no con-
nexion whatever with moral virtue. Sir James Porter fays*,
there is no command in the Koran more energetic, or held in
greater reſpect by Muffulmen, than the pilgrimage to Mecca.
The pilgrim is always reckoned regenerate. He who has not
been there deplores his own fituation in life, which has not
permitted him to perform this duty, and is anxious for the
flate of his foul.
Falfe principles of religion have encouraged men to commit the
moſt horrid crimes. Jaurigny and Balthazar Gerard, who
affaffinated the prince of Orange, Clement the Dominican,
Chatel, Ravaillac, and all the other paricides of thofe times,
went to confeffion before they committed their crimes †.
The oppofition between ecclefiaftical and civil law has been
the occafion of ſtrange inconfiftencies in the rule of human duty.
The flavery of mankind to their priests in barbarous ages is
hardly credible. Vinegas in his hiftory of California, fays‡, that
the people of that country bring their prieſts the beſt of the fruits
they gather, and of what they catch in fiſhing and hunting; theſe
prieſts terrifying them with threatenings, of fickneſs, difafter and
failure of harveſt; at other times giving them the moſt fanguine
hopes of affluence. For they pretend to be poffeffed of knowledge
and power fufficient to accomplish all this, by means of their inter-
courſe with invifible fpirits. What ſtrengthens their authority
* Obfervations on the Turks, vol. i. p. 19.
+ Beccaria on Crimes, p. 54.
‡
Vol. i. p. 97.
is
LECT. LVI.
439
GENERAL POLICY.
is their being the only phyficians, and all their medicines being
adminiſtered with great oftentation and folemnity.
The hardships that fuperftition leads men to inflict upon
themſelves are fometimes very extraordinary. Charlevoix fays *,
the invitation to hunt the bear by the nations of Canada is made
with great ceremony, and followed by a faft of ten days con-
tinuance; during which it is unlawful to tafte fo much as a
drop of water; yet they fing the whole day through. The
reaſon of this faft is to induce the ſpirit to diſcover the place
where a great number of bears may be found. At their return
from the hunting, the firft difh ferved up is the largeſt bear that
has been killed, and that whole, and with all his entrails. He
is not fo much as flayed, they being fatisfied with having
finged off the hair. This feaft is facred to fome genius,
whofe indignation they apprehend fhould they leave a morfel
uneaten. They must not fo much as leave any of the broth in
which the meat has been boiled, which is nothing but a quan-
tity of liquid fat; and there never happens a feaſt of this fort,
but fome eat themſelves to death, and feveral fuffer feverely.
The tortures which falfe religion makes men inflict upon
themſelves and others are dreadful to think of. To this ac-
count we must put all the human facrifices, and efpecially
the burning of children alive in ancient times, and of women
with their dead huſbands in Indoftan at prefent. In this country
there is an order of men called Faquirs, or Johgies who make
vows of poverty and celebacy, and in order to obtain favour of
their god Brama, ſuffer the most dreadful tortures. Some ſtand for
years on one foot, with their arms tied to the beam of a houſe, or
the branch of a tree, till their arms fettle in that poſture, and
ever after become ufelefs; and fome fit in the fun with their
* Travels, vol. i. p. 181.
faces,
440
PART V.
LECTURES ON
faces looking upwards till they are incapable of altering the
pofition of their heads. Others, it is faid, make a vow never
to fit or lie down, but either walk or lean. Accordingly, a
rope being tied from one bough of a tree to another, a pillow,
or quilt is laid upon it, on which they lean. But theſe are faid
to alter their pofture when they pray, being drawn up by their
heels to the bough of a tree, their head hanging down towards
the earth, as unworthy to look up to heaven. The people, in all
theſe caſes, make a merit of feeding them. Mr. Grofe fays *,
that a Gentoo was near perishing with thirst, though there was
water enough on board, becauſe he would not tafte that which
belonged to a perfon of another religion.
The cruelties of the Mexicans to their prifoners, and alfo their
ſeverities to themſelves, exceed all that we know of in modern
times. At the dedication of the great temple at Mexico Clavi-
gero fays, there were fixty or ſeventy thousand human facri-
fices. The ufual annual amount of them was about twenty
thoufand.
The Mexicans, being accustomed to the bloody facrifices of
their prifoners, ſhed alſo much of their own blood. It makes
one ſhudder, ſays this writer, to read of the aufterities they
exerciſed on themſelves, either in atonement for their offences,
or in preparation for their feftivals. Among other ſeverities,
their priests uſed to thrust fharp inftruments through their
tongues. Among the Tlafcalans few could bear the ſeverities of
their dreadful annual faft‡.
How dreadful the power of religion may be when conducted
by improper hands, may be ſeen in the horrid exceffes of the
* Travels, vol. i. p. 188.
+ Hiftory of Mexico, vol. i. p. 281.
‡ Ibid. vol. i. p. 288.
Anabaptifts
LECT. LVI.
445
GENERAL POLICY.
J
Anabaptifts in Germany about the time of the reformation, of
the levellers in England during the civil wars, and the defpe--
rate courage and ſhocking cruelties of that people in Aſia, from
whom we borrow the term affain. Theſe people were fo
aaſſin.
devoted to their chief, that they esteemed it glorious to die at
his command, and would chearfully engage in any undertaking
which he enjoined them, though they were fure to fuffer the
moſt cruel death in confequence of it. By the hands of theſe
affaffins fell many princes and chiefs of the chriſtian cruſaders in
the holy wars; and no precautions, could be effectual, againſt
their attacks. For almoſt any man may command the life of
another, if he make no difficulty of facrificing his own.
The evils which countries have fuffered in confequence of
the mad fuperftition of their magiftrates are endleſs to enumerate,
and horrible to think of. Above eight hundred perfons were
burned in England for their adherence to the proteſtant religion
in queen Mary's reign; and in the ſeveral perfecutions promoted
by Philip II. no leſs than a hundred thouſand perfons are faid
to have perifhed by the hand of the executioner. Philip III.
from the ſame principle, drove more than nine hundred thouſand
Morifcoes out of his dominions by one edict, with fuch circum-
ſtances of inhumanity in the execution of it as Spaniards alone
could exerciſe, and the inquifition alone approve. This inqui-
fition, as Sir Jofiah Child obferves, has contributed more to
depopulate Spain than all its vaſt ſettlements in the 'Indies.`
Voltaire fays, that no less than fifty thouſand families quitted
France in the ſpace of three years after the revocation of the
edict of Nantes, and were afterwards followed by others who
carried their arts, manufactures, and riches with them into
foreign countries. Thus France loft about five hundred thou-
L11
fand
442
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
fand inhabitants, an immenfe quantity of fpecie, and, what is ftill
more, the arts, with which their enemies enriched themfelves.
Holland gained officers and foldiers. The prince of Orange,
and the duke of Savoy, had three regiments of French refugees.
No ftate ever fuffered more in its conftitution and adminiſ-
tration by the influence of religion than the empire of Con-
ftantinople, for fome centuries before its final diffolution. The
monks interfered with all public bufinefs, and public buſineſs
was often thamefully neglected for the fake of religion. The
emperors would be prefiding in councils, where the idleft of
all controverfies were difcuffed, inftead of confulting about
affairs of ftate in their cabinet, or being at the head of their
armies in the field. They were at one time fo far funk in
fuperftition, that Conftantine Le Barbu took his two brothers
to reign along with him, in imitation of the Trinity.
{
1
·
Thefe evils, and particularly thofe arifing from perfecution,
ought certainly to be taken into the account when we make an
eftimate of the benefits accruing to the world from chriftianity.
The moſt illuftrious examples of toleration are certainly not to
be found among chriftians. Mahometans in general are much
more generous in their fentiments on that head, notwithſtanding
their religion was indebted, for its first propagation and ex-
tenfive fpread, chiefly to the fword. But this difference is
owing to the greater attachment which chriftians have to their
religion, and their belief of the importance of the tenets of it.
If Jenghis Khan, and Timur Bek tolerated all religions by public
edicts, which is certainly much to their honour; it muſt be
confidered, that they were men who payed little regard to re-
ligion themselves, and thought the various modes of it to be a
matter of very little importance to the world. All the people
24
in
LEGT. LVI. GENERAL POLICY,
448
in the east, except the Mahometans, believe all religions to be
in themſelves indifferent.
The religion of the Gentoos is the most tolerant of any.
They think that a diverfity of worship is agreeable, to the God
of the univerſe, and they refufe to admit or make any converts.
With all their religious horror at the killing of an ox, they
have no averfion to others who do it.
}
The Mahometans, though they do not perfecute to death,
yet conceive the greateſt abhorrence of other religions. It is
early inculcated on their children, who are taught to call unbe-
lievers by the moſt approbrious names. Take the moſt miſerable
Turk, fays Sir James, Porter, dependent on a chriftian, one
who lives by him, and ftarves without him; let the chriftian
require of him the falutation of Peace, or peace be with
you, he
would.fooner die than give it. He would think himſelf abomi-
nated by God. The moſt they dare fay, and many think it faying
too much, is good be with your
It is not, however, doing this argument juftice to fuppofe
that there was nothing like perfecution among the ancients:
Laws againſt external fuperftition were of old ftanding, and
very ſevere among the Romans, though, in general, they were
not rigorously executed. Immediately after the conqueft of
Gaul, they forbad any of the natives, under pain of death, to
be initiated in the religion of the Druids. In Greece too a
conformity to the eſtabliſhed religion, and even a reſpect for the
moſt ridiculous traditions belonging to it. (fuch as the magif-
trates themſelves, in the enlightened ages of Greece, cannot be
ſuppoſe to believe) were enforced by fevere civil penalties.
Stilpo was banished by the council of Areopagus for affirming
:
t
*Obfervations, vol. i. p. 15.:
L112
(
4
that
444
PART VA
LECTURES ON
2
that the Minerva in the citadel was not a divinity, but the work-
manſhip of Phidias the fculptor.
:
&
It is obfervable in the hiftory of perfecution, that it is always
the moſt violent between fects which are the moft nearly related.
The greater is their agreement, the more ftriking are the few
points in which they differ; and the more do thofe parties which
approach near, and yet cannot unite, interfere with one another.
In Perfia, all religions are tolerated except the fect of Omar.
The Jews were fpared in queen Mary's perfecution of the
proteſtants, and are to this day tolerated in Rome, and many
popiſh countries.
;
L
A perfecution that is tolerably moderate, either in time or
degree, is certainly favourable to the growth of any religion;
according to the old maxim, that "the blood of the martyrs
"is the feed of the church;" but the fmall number of protef-
tants in Spain and Portugal, fince the erection of the inquifition,
proves beyond all doubt, that long and great hardships are
capable of exterminating a religion. However, in general, as
Voltaire fays, politicians would find that the fureft method of
exterminating religion is by rewards, and not by puniſhments,
to make men forget it, and not to think of it.
In all governments, I believe, 'advantage has been taken of
the general regard to religion, to enforce the obligation of truth;
men being required to make a folemn appeal to God, or other
invifible powers, with an implied imprecation upon themſelves
if they falfified. This practice may have fuited pretty well with
a barbarous and fuperftitious age, but it is now found to be
attended with many inconveniences. Oaths are fo multiplied
in ſome countries, and required in cafes in which the temptation
to violate them is fo great, that the reverence due to them is
much declined, and with that a reſpect for religion and morality
in
•
LECT.LVI.
445
GENERAL POLICY.
in general, which makes the oath itſelf of little effect; ſo that
the interefts, both of religion and of government, are injured
by this connexion.
Much better were it for civil governments to content them-
felves with enforcing the obligation of truth by fuch penalties
as are uſed on other occafions, and to puniſh all falſe affirmations
before a magiftrate as they now do perjury. But, in many
cafes, there can be no occafion to compel any perſon to make a
declaration reſpecting himſelf, or his conduct, as it might be
fufficient to punish him when it could be proved that he was
guilty of any violation of the laws. Oaths of allegiance are un-
neceffary when the puniſhment of treaſon is ſevere, and the
courts of juſtice are open to accufations.
A
In this country we lofe the benefit of the folemn affirmation
of the Quakers in criminal cafes, when no man would doubt
the value of it.
The oaths taken by kings at their inauguration are as incon-
venient, and therefore as improper, as thoſe that are ad-
miniſtered to the ſubjects; and, like other perfons, fovereigns
have had recourfe to very lame expedients in order to evade
them. The kings of France, at their coronation, fwear to
exterminate heretics. But though Lewis XIII. and XIV. took
this oath, they declared that it did not include the proteftants,
though they were the only heretics in the kingdom*.
In confidering the advantages or difadvantages of religion in
a ſtate, the ſuitableneſs of the mode of religion to the form of
government ſhould be attended to. A religion which has no
viſible head agrees beſt with that fpirit of liberty and indepen-
dence which prevails in the north of Europe; though the
*Life of Mr. Turgot, p. 182.
maxim
449
LECTURES ON 1 PART V
maxim of king James, No Bishop no King, is by no means
univerfally true. Superftition is rather favourable to monar-
chical power.
But enthuſiaſm is obferved to be an enemy to all
power in the hands either of civil magiftrates, or ecclefiaftical
perfons. The independents joined the deifts in favour of a
republic during the civil wars in England; and the Quakers,
the most enthufiaftic of all the fects that ever arofe among
chriſtians, have no priests at all, and are likewife thought to
favour an equal republic.
The enormous rife of the papal power is an amazing ex-
ample of the encroachment of the ecclefiaftical upon the civil
authority, and furnishes a warning to all civil magiftrates to
keep a watchful eye upon fo infidious and dangerous a rival. The
rife, progreſs, and declenfion of this power make a moſt im-
portant and intereſting object of attention for many centuries.
And this is fo far from being foreign to civil hiftory, that it is
the principal and almoſt the only ſubject of it. A little before
the reformation, the clergy had engroffed a very large proportion
of the lands of all chriftian countries; and the popes, chiefly
by means of the various fraternities of monks in every kingdom,
who were immediately dependent upon themſelves, had often
equal power, even in temporal things, with the lawful fovereign,
and fometimes fuperior.
LEC-
LECT. LVII.
447
GENERAL POLICY.
LECTURE
LVII.
Of civil Establishments of Religion. Tythes. Statutes of Mort-
main. The Influence of Philofophy on civil Affairs. The Influ-
ence of the different Sects of the Greek Philofophy upon Stateſmen
and their Meaſures in ancient Hiftory.
THE
HE care which civil governors have thought themſelves
bound to take of the intereft of religion, though it has
been productive of fome good, has been the fource of much and
lafting evil in ftates. Naturally there can be no more connexion
between civil government and religion, than between the former
and any thing else that depends upon opinion, lefs than the
buſineſs of philofophy, or medicine. Becauſe theſe reſpect the
prefent life, with which civil governors have to do; whereas
religion reſpects the life to come, with which they have
nothing to do.
Civil governors in general are fo educated, that it cannot be
fuppofed they are able to decide concerning religious truth, or
be the best judges who are qualified to decide concerning it *
"The
*It may be faid that, though the king, and the members of parliament, be not
themfelves theologians, they can call in the affiftance of thofe who are.
But by
what lights muſt they judge, who are the most proper to adviſe them?
"fcience of another," fays the ingenious author of the life of Mr. Turgot, "may
"affift our knowledge; but can never fupply the want of it. For it is impoffible to.
judge rightly through another, of that of which we cannot judge by ourſelves.”
If any religion be already eſtabliſhed, the governors of a country will of courſe adviſe
with the friends of it, and others who are intereſted in its fupport. But they wilk
never in this way be led to reform any great abuſes.
"6
But
448
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
But the principal fufferer by this alliance between the church
and the ſtate is religion itſelf, that is, the members of fociety,
as profeffors of religion, and deriving advantages from it. For
when it is thus guarded by the ſtate, if it be faulty, or wants
reformation, it must long continue fo. The profeffors of it,
being interested in its fupport, will do every thing in their
power to prevent any alteration, though it fhould be ever fo
much wanted.
Accordingly, it was never known that any reformation of
chriſtian eſtabliſhments arofe from the body of the clergy, but
their whole weight was always oppofed to it. Single perfons
having conceived ideas of reformation, have recommended their
opinions to others, and thus by degrees the great body of the
common people have been gained over, and at length the civil
governors have found the call for reformation fo loud, that
they have thought it prudent to comply with it. The clergy
have then turned with the court, and have become (as from
their intereſt it might be expected they would) as zealous for
the new ſtate of things, as they had been for the old.
Theſe facts are too evident to be denied; and yet the intereft
of the clergy, arifing from their emoluments, and that of the
magiftrate, arifing from his wish to keep things quiet, and alfo
the intereft that many of the laity have in the fupport of ecclefi-
aſtical eſtabliſhments, which is various and complicated, ſtill
blind the minds of many, and contribute to keep things as
they are, in the moſt enlightened countries in Europe.
It is alleged in favour of theſe eſtabliſhments, that religion
has an influence on the conduct of men in this life. No doubt
it has, as it connects the hopes of a future life with good
behaviour in this. But this is done in all fects of chriftians,
and as much in thoſe which are reprobated by the ſtate, as thoſe
which
LECT. LVII.
449
GENERAL POLICY.
}
!
which are encouraged by it. Befides, if this was the true cauſe
of attachment to chriftian eſtabliſhments, the friends of them
would be much more jealous of unbelievers than they are of
fectaries, which does not appear to be the cafe.
It is alſo faid, that the fubject of religion is ſo intereſting
to the generality of mankind, that if government did not inter-
fere, the contention about it would be fo violent, that the
public peace could not be preferved. But theſe contentions
are much encreaſed by the favour fhewn to one mode of religion,
and the opprobium which is confequently thrown on the reft;
and where temporal intereſt is not concerned, mere opinions
will not occafion any differences at which government need to
be alarmed. Chriſtianity fubfifted without any favour from the
governing powers for about three hundred years; and there is
no place where there are more forms of religion openly profeffed,
and without the eſtabliſhment of any of them, than Pennſylvania,
and other provinces of North America at this day; and there is
no proſpect of this circumſtance being attended with any danger
to the ſtate.
By undertaking the care of religion, the ftate has taken upon
itſelf a great, a dangerous, and an unneceffary burthen, and from
its jealouſy of fectaries, often deprives itſelf of the fervices of
its beſt and ableſt ſubjects; and at ſome times it has been induced
to perfecute and deſtroy. them, becauſe if they were left alive,
it was apprehended their principles might ſpread, to the endan-
gering of the eſtabliſhment.
The good ſenſe of modern times, though it has not proceeded
fo far as to produce a general conviction of the inexpediency
of church establishments, has fhewn the folly of perfecution,
and has produced a toleration of religion, more or lefs complete.
Mmm
It
450
PART V.
LECTURES ON
It is more imperfect in this country than in most others, even
the catholic ones, becauſe in them proteftants may be admitted
to fuch offices of truft and power as they are excluded from in
this. One would think that chriftian governments might
content themſelves with eſtabliſhing the chriftian religion in
general, without confining themſelves to any particular mode of
it. But fo far is this from being the cafe, that by the prefent
laws of this country, a man who denies the doctrine of the trinity,
which has no more imaginable connexion with the good of the
ſtate than the doctrine of tranfubftantiation, is deemed a blaf-
phemer, and fentenced to fuffer confifcation of goods and
impriſonment..
In this country the care which the government takes of re-
ligion extends itfelf to the bufinefs of education, confining the
univerſities, which are fupported by the national funds, to the
education of the members of the church of England, and
rigorously excluding all fectaries, either by requiring fubfcrip-
tion to the thirty-nine articles at the time of matriculation, or
obliging the ftudents to attend the fervice of the established
church, and to declare that they are bona fide members of it.
In all other countries, the eſtabliſhed religion is that of the
majority of the people, and the writers in defence of it vindicate
it on this principle, viz. that it is the religion of the majority,
whatever that be. But in Ireland we have a moft remarkable
exception to this rule. There the eſtabliſhed religion is not
that of the majority, but of a ſmall minority of the people,
perhaps not more than that of one in ten of the inhabitants.
That ſo flagrant an abuſe of power fhould exift, and under a
government pretending to juftice, and even to liberality, is
barely credible. Yet ever fince the reformation the members
2
}
of
LECT. LVII.
451
GENERAL POLICY.
of the church of England have kept poffeffion of the tythes of
the whole island, when they have long defpaired of bringing
the people over to that religion for which they pay fo dear.
The most equitable eſtabliſhment of christianity (which is
far from wanting any fuch fupport) would be to oblige every
perſon to pay a certain proportion of his income to the mainte-
nance of it, but leave it to himſelf to determine the mode, and
to let his contribution be given to that minifter whom he ap-
proves. This has long been the cuſtom in ſome parts of North
America, and no inconvenience whatever has arifen from it.
But the chief inconvenience which is to be expected from
theſe civil eſtabliſhments of chriſtianity, will be found when the
reformation of abufes in them can be deferred no longer.
What convulfions in ftates were produced at the time of the
reformation, from the obftinacy of the court of Rome, and their
refuſing to alter any thing, though the abufes were ever fo mani-
feft? In theſe caſes ſo many interefts are involved, that though all
may wiſh for ſome change, they may not be able to agree where
to begin. Happy would a fenfible minifter of ftate think
himſelf, if he could get rid of fuch an incumbrance; but he
may not know how to do it. And thus the evil which in the
progrefs of knowledge will every day become more manifeft,
and which muft in the end be redreffed, is continued from year
to year, till that which might have been done by degrees, and
without violence, must be done at once, and with violence.
For the confequences of this the rigid abettors of fuch efta-
bliſhments are anſwerable.
The mode by which chriftianity is fupported in this and fome
other countries, viz. by tythes, or a tenth part of the fruits of
the ground, is peculiarly burthenfome to the country, and in
other refpects highly inexpedient. Confidering that the clergy
Mmm 2
do
452
PART V.
LECTURES ON
do not contribute to the expence of raifing the produce, the
tenth is in fome cafes half the value of an eftate. The far-
mer, or the proprietor of the land, knowing that he muſt
pay fo great a proportion of his produce, is difcouraged from
expenfive culture, naturally grudging the benefit which another
muft derive from it.
Upon the rents of rich lands, the tythes, Dr. Smith fays*,
may fometimes be a tax of no more than one-fifth part, or
four fhillings in the pound; whereas upon that of poorer lands,
it may fometimes be a tax of one-half, or of ten fhillings in the
pound.
We are told in the life of M. Turgot, that in France the
clergy enjoy near one-fifth part of the property of the kingdom.
On the other hand, in 1755 the whole revenue of the
church of Scotland, including their glebe, or church lands,
and the rents of their dwelling-houſes, amounted only to
fixty-eight thouſand five hundred and fourteen pounds; fo
that, Dr. Smith fays, the whole expence of the church,
including occafional buildings and repairs, cannot well be
ſuppoſed to exceed eighty or eighty-five thousand pounds a
year; and he fays the moft opulent church in chriftendom does
not better maintain the uniformity of faith, the fervour of de-
votion, the ſpirit of order, regularity, and auftere morals, in
the great body of the people, than this very poorly endowed
church. He likewife fays, that the greater part of the proteftant
churches in Switzerland, which in general are not better endowed
than the church of Scotland, produce theſe effects in a ſtill
higher degree. I will venture, however, to add, that all
theſe effects, as far as they are defirable, are produced in a yet
* Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. p. 275.
+ Vol. iii. p. 236.
higher
LECT. LVII. GENERAL POLICY.
453
higher degree in the congregations of Diffenters in this country,
who have no eſtabliſhment at all, befides being attended with
other advantages which are neceffarily excluded by eſtabliſh-
ments. I mean particularly the gradual and eaſy progreſs of
truth, and the ſpread of rational religion.
To the whole ſtate, tythes might be a kind of tax not extremely
inconvenient, as, together with having an intereſt in the improve-
ment of the country, it would be able to give effectual attention
to the buſineſs, and promote it; whereas clergymen, though in-
tereſted in the payment of the tythes, can feldom do any thing to-
wards promoting the raifing of the produce that muft fupply them.
Alfo, differences between the clergy and the people are the
unavoidable confequence of this mode of fupporting religion,.
and this muſt greatly leffen the influence of their inftructions.
In Holland the minifters are paid from the funds of the ſtate.
This the English clergy object to, as liable to become of lefs
value, by the finking of the value of money. But if this ſhould
be found infufficient, their falaries may from time to time be
augmented; and what greater fecurity for their maintenance
ought the clergy to require, than that of thofe taxes, from which
all other officers, civil and military, receive their wages.
As the clergy are a body that never dies, their accumulation
of wealth ought to be checked by ftatutes of mortmain. In
Caftile the clergy have feized every thing; but in Arragon,
where there is fomething like an act of mortmain, they have
acquired little, and in France leſs ſtill.
Rich eſtabliſhments of religion are by no means peculiar to
chriſtianity. There are more bonzes of Tao-fee, and of Lama, in
Peking, than there are ecclefiaftics and monks in Paris. There
are more than fix thouſand bonzeries in the city and diftrict of
Peking,
454
PART V.
LECTURES ON
Peking alone, and many of theſe buildings in China are richer,
and more magnificent, than the moſt celebrated abbeys in
Europe *. There could not be less than a million of prieſts in
the empire of Mexico †.
Philofophy, and the various modes and tenets of it, are not to be
wholly overlooked, while we are attending to thoſe things which
have an influence upon the happineſs of fociety. The power
of philofophy, though by no means equal to that of religion,
has yet, in many inftances, appeared to be very confiderable. The
Indian philofophers chufing to throw themſelves into the fire
as the univerſal purifier, inftead of dying a natural death; and
Calanus, agreeable to their cuſtoms, burning himſelf with great
compoſure in the preſence of Alexander the Great, may perhaps
be aſcribed to religious confiderations, and certain expectations
after death. The fame may perhaps alfo be faid of the effects
of the doctrine of Metempfychofis, which is given by Mon-
teſquieu as the reaſon why there are few murders in India, and
alfo for the remarkable care which is obfervable in the fame
people for the ox, a creature very neceffary in that country, and
which multiplies very flowly there.
But nothing can be more certain than that a tafte for phi-
lofophy, and fcience of any kind, tends to foften and humanize
the temper, by providing the mind with other and more agree-
able objects of purſuit than the gratification of the groffer
appetites. It is this which in all ages has diftinguiſhed civilized
nations from thofe which are uncivilized, and muft certainly.
be allowed to put in a juft claim, along with the chriſtian
religion, for a fhare in producing the fuperior humanity of
+ Memoirs fur les Chinois, vol. iv. p. 317.
† Clavigero, vol. i. p. 270.
modern
}
3
LECT. LVII.
455
GENERAL POLICY.
modern times. In China it had for many ages produced nearly
the fame effect, without any foreign aid. All the ancients,
Plato, Ariftotle, Theophraftus, Plutarch, and Polybius, repreſent
mufic as abfolutely neceffary in a ftate. The ftates of Greece,
difdaining mechanic arts, and employed in wreſtling and martial
exercifes, would have been abfolutely fierce and brutal, without
fomething of that nature to foften the mind. The fine arts
ferve as a medium between ſcientifical fpeculation and bodily
exerciſes and gratifications.
It
Philofophy entered not a little into the fecret fprings and
caufes of action in fome very critical periods of the Grecian,
and particularly of the Roman Hiftory, by influencing the temper
and conduct of fome of the principal actors in thoſe times.
is probable that if Brutus had not been a Stoick, he would not
Kave entered fo unfeelingly into the confpiracy against Cæfar
his benefactor. The Stoick philofophy made men defpife life,
and difpofed them to kill themſelves. The diſgrace of being
triumphed over made Cato and Brutus eafily prefer death to it,
as more confiftent with their dignity and honour.
By this philofophy, fays Montefquieu, are made excellent
citizens, great men, and great emperors. Where, fays he, fhall we
find fuch men as the Antonines? In their time the Stoick philo-
fophy prevailed much at Rome. On the contrary, the Epicurean
philoſophy contributed much to corrupt the moral's, and break
the manly ſpirit of the Romans. Fabricius hearing Cyneas
difcourfing about this philofophy at the table of king Pyrrhus,
cried out, May our enemies have thofe notions.
LEC
}
456
PART V.
LECTURES ON
LECTURE LVIII.
Of the Populousness of Nations. The Influence of good Laws and
Government. Eafy Naturalization. What Use of Land will
enable the People to fubfift in the greatest Numbers upon it.
Circumstances by which to judge of the populousness of ancient
Nations. How Trade and Commerce make a Nation populous.
Equal Divifion of Lands. Use of Machines. Of large and
Small Farms, and inclofing Commons.
WE
E have now been taking a view of the principal circum-
ftances which contribute to the flouriſhing and happy ſtate
of ſociety, I come in the next place to direct your attention to
thoſe objects which tend to make a nation populous.
The moſt important obfervation upon this fubject is, that the
ſtate the moſt favourable to populouſneſs, is that in which there
is a concurrence of thofe circumſtances which render a nation
happy. All living creatures abound moſt in thoſe places in
which they can find the moſt plentiful and eaſy fubfiftence.
And, for the fame reafon, where men are governed by good and
equal laws, in which agriculture, commerce, and the arts, are
favoured, and by the exercife of which they can get an eafy
fubfiftence, they are encouraged to enter into thoſe connexions
which are favourable to the propagation of their fpecies. This
is the reaſon why infant colonies generally encreaſe ſo much
fafter than their mother country.
Befides, foreigners, and particularly ingenious foreigners,
will flock to thofe countries which are well governed, and
4
where
LECT. LVIII.
457
GENERAL POLICY.
where they can eafily maintain them felves and their families.
And this inlet to a multitude of inhabitants ought by no means
to be flighted by a wife magiftracy, but ought to be encouraged,
by making naturalization as eaſy as poffible; though it be
acknowledged to be more defirable to fee a people increaſe from
themſelves, by the fole influence of a good internal conftitution,
without the aid of foreign reſources. The attachment of natives
to a country may be more depended upon than that of foreigners,
who may be as enfily induced to leave us, as they were to come
among us.
If a people live upon the produce of their own foil (and it is
not perhaps defirable for a country to be more populous than
that would admit of) they will be able to fubfift in greater
numbers if they confume the produce themſelves, than if they
live upon cattle, which confume the produce firft; that is,
more will fubfift by mere agriculture, than by grazing: And
more will fubfift by grazing (that is, by promoting the growth
of vegetables, in order to feed tame cattle) than could fubſiſt
upon wild cattle roaming at large, in a country upon which no
cultivation is beftowed. Accordingly we find, that thoſe parts
of North America in which the inhabitants live chiefly by
hunting are very thinly peopled.
Theſe circumſtances may be fo much depended upon, that
if we only know the manner of life of any ancient or modern
people, we cannot be very far impofed upon by accounts of
their populoufnefs. Thus we can never think that the northern
parts of Germany were near fo populous in ancient times as they
are at prefent, though they no longer fend forth thofe fwarms
of people upon the ſouthern parts of Europe, which made them
be called the northern hive; when we have the teftimony of all
antiquity, that the country was almoſt one continued wood, and
Nnn
that
:
458
PART V.
LECTURES ON
that the people lived chiefly by feeding cattle; or if they did
live in part upon vegetables, it is allowed that the know-
ledge of agriculture was very low, and therefore they could
raiſe but little from the ground in compariſon of what the
inhabitants do now. Nor is it poffible to believe there ever
ſhould have been four millions of people in Cuba, the greateſt
part of whom the Spaniards are faid to have maffacred, when
the face of the country never had the appearance of being fuf-
ficiently cultivated for that purpoſe.
In a country fully peopled, as few horfes, or other beaſts of
burden, will be uſed as poffible, becauſe if the labour can be
done by men, there will be fo many, that it will be worth their
while to do it rather than want fubfiftence. By this means the
population of any country may be prodigiously increaſed, as
more land is wanted to maintain a horfe than a man. In China
men may be faid to have almoft eaten out the horſes, fo that it is
cuſtomary to be carried along the high roads to the greateſt
diſtances by men. The ingenuity of men alfo enables them to
do more labour by machines, and lefs by horfes, continually.
Of vegetables, the cultivation of rice feems to be the moſt
favourable to population. It employs a great number of men,
and hardly any part of the work can be done by horfes. It is
faid, however, that more ftill may fubfift on potatoes. Hume
fays, that a country whofe foil and climate are fitted for vines
will be more populous than one which produces only corn; but
then it ought to be confidered, that the people cannot live upon
their vines. This cafe, therefore, ought to be regarded in the
fame light as that in which manufactures, trade, and com-
merce, tend to make a country populous. They draw a great
number of people together, to live in one place, but their fub-
fiſtence muſt be brought from other places, and confequently
be
LECT. LVIII.
459
GENERAL POLICY.
be ſomewhat precarious; as being dependent upon thoſe places.
While both thofe places are under the fame government, the
inconvenience is nothing, as that Middleſex fhould be more
populous than any other county in England, and not able to
maintain its inhabitants; but when they are under different
governments, it is poffible the inconvenience may fome time or
other be felt. Where the fea fupplies people with food, they
may fubfift in the greateſt numbers in any given ſpace.
A nearly equal divifion of lands, and thofe divifions fmall,
greatly favours population. In this cafe, a family will raife
only neceffaries, being obliged to make the moſt of their little
This ci cum-
ſpot of ground for their immediate ſubſiſtence.
ftance contributed greatly to the extreme populoufnefs of feveral
of the Grecian republics, and of Rome in the earlieſt times.
Where large portions of land are in the poffeffion of a few, no
more hands will be kept upon them than are fufficient to reap
the produce. Moreover, that produce will confift very much of
fuperfluities, which contribute little to real nouriſhment; or
which is much worſe, will be exchanged for fuperfluities raiſed
in other countries.
This is the only cafe in which machines, as mills, ploughs,
and all contrivances to facilitate the practice of huſbandry, ſo
as to get the ſame labour performed by fewer hands, are hurtful
to population. For by theſe helps a perfon of a large eſtate
will be able to reap the full produce of his lands, with the
expence of few men upon them.
But theſe machines, and this more perfect method of huſ
bandry, is no evil to be complained of, if the produce of the
lands, thus eafily reaped, be difpofed of to purchaſe ſuper-
fluities raiſed at home; efpecially if thoſe fuperfluities confift
not of eatables. For then, the lands yield their full produce
Nnn 2
in
460
PART V.
LECTURES ON
in the neceffaries of life, and all who fubfift upon them live within
the country.
The only difference is, that whereas, in the
former cafe, they were all huſbandmen, and could not be fully
employed (much fewer men than the produce is able to main-
tain being fufficient to reap it) they are now only in part huf-
bandmen, and the reft artifans.
Befides, the fewer husbandmen are neceffary, the more men
may be ſpared for the arts and manufactures, and confequently
the more may be fpared, and with lefs inconvenience, for the
defence of the ſtate, in caſe of a neceffary war. Not to fay that
the proſpect of purchafing manufactures will be a motive with
the huſbandmen to exert themſelves to the utmoſt, to raiſe the
greatest crops, the fale of which will farther promote the manu-
factures, and increaſe the number of manufacturers. In France,
England, and most parts of Europe, half of the inhabitants
live in cities, or pretty large towns, and perhaps above one-third
of thoſe who live in the country are artifans.
If theſe artifans, or manufacturers, can make more goods
than the home confumption requires; that is, more than the
produce of their own country can purchaſe, and they find a
vent for theſe goods abroad, they will have wherewith to pur-
chaſe the produce of other countries, and confequently their
own country will be able to contain more inhabitants than it
would otherwiſe have been. But then, for the reafon given
above, it may not perhaps be deſirable for a country to grow ſo
populous; though it is probable, that no country in the world
was ever in danger of being too populous on that account,
except Holland; and China is perhaps more populous on other
accounts.
Confidering that the greater proportionable populouſneſs of
moſt modern ſtates is owing to manufactures and trade, it is
evident
I
LECT. LVIII.
461
GENERAL POLICY.
evident that countries may be expected to be populous in pro-
portion to the induftry of the inhabitants, and therefore that
without an increaſe of induſtry it will be impoffible to make a
nation populous. Indeed, this maxim is equally true in a country
where there are no manufactures, where the people live by
agriculture only.
All ancient authors tell us that there was a perpetual and pro-
digious conflux of flaves, and indeed of people of all ranks, to
Italy, from the remoter provinces of the Roman empire; par-
ticularly from Syria, Cilicia, Cappadocia, the leffer Aſia, Thrace,
and Egypt, and yet the number of people did not increaſe in
Italy, but was continually diminiſhing; and writers account
for it by their continual complaints of the decay of induſtry and
agriculture. It is remarked by Don Geronimo De Uftariz,
that the provinces of Spain which ſend moſt people to the Indies
are the moſt populous, on account of their induſtry and riches.
When great quantities of land are in few hands, grazing,
and incloſing the grounds for that purpoſe, is peculiarly preju-
dicial to a country, in which there are no manufactures. For
then a very few perfons are fufficient to tend all the cattle that
can live upon it, and confequently, if the produce of the land
in cattle be not expended in purchaſing manufactures raiſed at
home, the country would be in a manner depopulated. To
prevent the depopulation of England from this caufe, frequent
ftatutes were obliged to be made to prevent the inclofing of lands,
in the former periods of the Engliſh hiſtory.
Much has been written on the fubject of large and ſmall farms,
with reſpect to their being more or leſs favourable to population.
In this country great numbers have been advocates for dividing
farms, whereas the economifts in France contend for uniting
them. The queſtion fhould be decided by confidering which
method:
4.62
PART V.
LECTURES ON
method is beſt adapted to raiſe the greateſt quantity of food for
men, Becauſe, if that food be not exported, it muſt be con-
fumed in the country, which implies, if it does not directly
produce, a great number of perſons to confume it, whether they
be employed in agriculture, or not.
If the farms be fo fmall, as that the occupiers can only get a
fcanty fubfiftence from them, both themſelves and their farms
will be impoverished, they will not be able to cultivate them to
advantage, and of courfe they will yield lefs. Whereas the
farmer who is at his eafe, and has always fomething to fpare,
will lay it out in the higher cultivation of his farm, and thereby
enable it to yield more every year. If, however, the conſequence
of enlarging farms be not for raifing food for men, but for cattle,
more than are neceffary to cultivate the ground to the moſt
advantage; or if, not wanting fubfiftence himſelf, the proprietor
leaves it waſte, or ufes it only for his amuſement, in the form of
a park or a foreſt, it had better be divided, becauſe then a greater
number of men will be fubfifted by it.
When corn, or provifions of any kind, which are raiſed within
a country are exported, it is evident that there are not mouths at
home to conſume it, that the goods which are purchaſed by that
corn are made elſewhere, and that if the materials and conveniencies
for thoſe manufactures could be found at home, the manufacturer
might live there. In this cafe fufficient ſkill and induſtry would
encreaſe the population of the country.
Many perſons are alarmed for the population of a country in
confequence of inclofing its common lands, as well as of the
enlarging of farms in it. But if by this, or any other means,
the ground is made more productive, and the produce be
not exported, it muſt be confumed at home. Common rights
to large parcels of land are very injurious to culture, and confe-
·4
quently
LECT. LIX.
463
GENERAL POLICY.
quently to population. The proprietors not being able to
agree in any method of improving their common eftate, prefer a
ſmall preſent advantage to the trouble and riſk of aiming at more,
The population of England fuffers extremely from this fource,
great tracts of the beſt land lying uncultivated in rude paſtures,
which it is no perfon's intereſt even to clear from brambles and
furze. An eafy method of dividing this kind of property, and
thereby encouraging the cultivation of wafte land, would greatly
encreaſe the population of the country.
LECTURE LIX.
Frugality favourable to Population. Polygamy. Temporary De
populations. Influence of Religion. Populoufness of ancient
Nations. Confequences of extreme Population. Rules for
eftimating the Populoufness of Places.
A LONG with induftry, we may juftly reckon frugality to
be another means of making a nation populous. When
people have acquired a tafte for expenfive living, they will not
chufe to take upon them the charge of a family, till they have
acquired a fortune fufficient to maintain it in what they
think a genteel manner. While this is the cafe only with a few,
the evil is inconfiderable, but the fame tafte for expenſive living
will naturally fpread to the lower ranks of the community, and
produce
464
PART V.
LECTURES ON
produce a general difinclination to matrimony. This was the
reaſon why there were fo few marriages at Rome in the reign
of Auguftus, when there were comparatively but few perfons
of fortune married, notwithstanding married perfons had great
privileges, and thoſe that were unmarried were ſubject to many
civil diſadvantages; and notwithſtanding the emperor took
every method he could think of to promote matrimony.. This
cauſe of depopulation begins very ſenſibly to affect this country,
though the lower ranks of people, who by their ſituation in
life have not been led to conceive a taſte for expenſive living,
ftill multiply very faft. It is obfervable that opulent families,
and eſpecially thofe of the nobility, often become extinct.
A country will maintain more or fewer inhabitants according
to their mode of living; one man being able to confume the
produce of vaſtly more land and labour by living on food difficult
to be raiſed, or by eating and drinking more than is neceffary.
Sir James Stuart fays, he believes that no annual produce of
grain ever was fo great in England, as to fupply its inhabitants
fifteen months, in that abundance with which they feed them-
felves in years of plenty; and that there never was a year of
ſuch ſcarcity, as that the lands of England did not produce
greatly more than fix months fubfiftence, ſuch as people are
uſed to take in years of fcarcity*.
The inequality of the ranks and fortunes of men tend to
check population, and in fome countries may for ever prevent
its being confiderable, provided the upper ranks have it in their
power to prevent the combination of the lower, which might
terminate in reducing the inequality. In this cafe, the demand
for animal food, and other things which require a great quantity
* Political Economy, vol. i. p. 110, 111.
of
LECT. LIX.
465
GENERAL POLICY.
of land to raiſe it, may be fo great, as to be made to encroach
very much upon that which is appropriated to the maintenance
of the poor. In fuch a country, therefore, there may be the
extreme of luxury and the extreme of indigence at the fame
time. Some may not know how to fpend their money, while
others may not know how to get any.
It was the inequality of ranks, and luxury the confequence of
it, that in a great meaſure occafioned the depopulation of Italy
in the time of the Roman empire. It was the number of
country feats with which theſe mafters of the world covered
their fertile lands, and their changing them into unproductive
deferts. In the fame manner William II. converted a large aħd
a populous part of this country into a foreſt.
There have been many reafons given for the extreme popu-
loufness of China, but it feems chiefly to arife from this one
circumſtance, that the expences attending a married ſtate are
very inconfiderable. A wife can put her huſband but to a very
moderate expence. He is to allow her a certain quantity of
rice for food, and fome raw cotton, or other materials, which
ſhe muſt work up for her cloathing; while a mat to fit on is
almoſt all the furniture of the houſe. Thus no perfon is dif
couraged from marrying, and the confequence is a moft amazing
population.
Where matrimony, in oppofition to the promiscuous ufe of
women, is not encouraged, it is evident, from the moſt un-
doubted facts, that neither a numerous, a healthy, or in any
refpects a valuable offspring can be expected. Polygamy is
likewiſe unfavourable to populouſneſs. If one man have ſeveral
wives, feveral men must be without wives, and if that man be
impotent, the offspring of feveral men is loft to the nation.
O oo
Suppoſe,
466
PART V.
LECTURES ON
Suppofe a country, by its fituation, and the induſtry of its
inhabitants, to be capable of maintaining a certain number of
people; if, by any accident, that number be diminished; as
this diminution leaves a greater encouragement to population,
their numbers will foon be fupplied. Thus plagues and
devaftations of all kinds are never known to have more than
a temporary effect, unleſs they leave a country altered with
reſpect to a ſpirit of induſtry, or fome other circumſtance necef-
fary to the fupport of their numbers. For this reaſon, the
number of men taken off by war does not make a nation lefs
populous than they would have been without war, if war did not
in other refpects affect the populoufnefs of nations. The nations
of Africa, from which ſuch a number of flaves are fent annually
to America, are not lefs populous for that vent; and were that
drain to be cut off, in a few years, the internal ftate of the
country remaining the fame in other refpects, it would likewife
be the fame with refpect to the number of inhabitants. They
would no more find themſelves incommoded by being over-
ſtocked than they had done before. In fhort, mankind, like any
other commodity, will increaſe, or decreaſe, in proportion to
the demand there is for them.
Monafteries and nunneries might be confidered exactly in the
fame light, were it not that they confume thofe products of the
ground which might have maintained the fame, or a greater
number of uſeful members of fociety. But as the cafe is,
perhaps thofe countries in which they abound would not be any
gainers by fuppreffing them, unleſs that event fhould contribute
to the increaſe of the national induftry; for a nobleman upon
the fame eftate would have kept as many menial fervants, who
are likewiſe a burden upon fociety, and whofe labour con-
tributes little to the good of it.
3
The
LECT. LIX.
467
GENERAL POLICY.
The religious fentiments of a people are far from being a
circumftance of indifference with refpect to the populouſneſs of a
country. No wonder the Jews always multiplied, and ſtill do
multiply very faft; when, befides the reproach and, as they
believe, the curſe, of being childless among them, they think that,
for any thing they can tell, the Meffiah may be born of them.
The religion of the Ghebres, Chineſe, and Mahometans favour
marriage. The facred books of the ancient Perfians declare that
children make a bridge at the day of judgment, and that thoſe
who have none cannot paſs to the ſtate of the bleffed. Even
the opinion of the lawfulness of expofing children feems to
favour the populoufnefs of China. For many perfons may be
induced to enter into marriage with a proſpect of expoſing their
children, which yet natural affection (the ftrength of which
they were not aware of) will not allow them to do, while there
is any poffibility of maintaining them, for which they will
exert their induftry to the utmoſt.
It is peculiarly unfortunate when religious and philofophical
fentiments difcourage matrimony. Philofophy first annexed
the idea of perfection to a fingle life, miftaken notions of
chriſtianity confirmed that opinion, and the great Juftiman
was fo far mifled by it, that, instead of giving rewards to thoſe
who had a great number of children (which had ever been the
wife policy of his predeceffors in the empire) he granted privi-
leges to thoſe who never married. The fame notion prevailing
in catholic countries is, no doubt, one reaſon why they are not
fo populous as proteftant ones. For, befides the monks and
nuns, the whole body of the clergy live unmarried.
Mr. Hume has written a very elaborate and ingenious differ-
tation upon the populouſneſs of ancient nations, endeavouring
to prove that there are few parts of the world which are not
0002
more
468
PART V.
LECTURES ON
more populous now than they were formerly. It fhould feem,
by applying the maxims above laid down, that Paleſtine, Afia
Minor, and Greece, were much more populous than they
are now; but hardly any other country and it is certain that
all the weſtern parts of Europe had few inhabitants in ancient
times in compariſon of what they have at prefent. Upon the
whole, it cannot be doubted but that the world is growing
ftill more populous than ever; eſpecially confidering the increaſe
of induſtry and arts, the improvements in agriculture, and the
increaſe of the European colonies in America.
Sub-
The extreme of population is far from being defirable.
fiftence being ſcarce, the competition for it in the lower ranks
of the people will be exceffive. They will work for a trifle,
and live upon any thing that will afford nouriſhment, and though
they propagate, their offspring muft ftarve and perish. The
accounts of all travellers agree, fays Dr. Smith *, in the low
wages of labour, and in the difficulty which a labourer finds in
bringing up a family, in China. If by digging the ground a
whole day he can get what will purchaſe a ſmall quantity of
rice in the evening, he is contented. The condition of arti-
ficers is, if poffible, ftill worfe. Instead of waiting indolently
in their work-houfes for the calls of their customers, as in
Europe, they are continually running about the ſtreets with the
tools of their refpective trades, offering their ſervice, and as it
were begging employment. The poverty of the lower ranks of
the people in China far furpaffes that of the moſt beggarly nations
in Europe. In the neighbourhood of Canton many hundreds,
it is commonly ſaid, many thouſand families, have no habitation
on the land, but live conſtantly in little fiſhing boats upon the
* Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 108.
rivers
LECT. LIX.
469
GENERAL POLICY.*
rivers and canals. The fubfiftence which they find there is fo
fcanty, that they are eager to fifh up the naftieft garbage thrown
overboard from any European ſhip. Any carrion, the carcafe of a
dead dog, or cat, for example, though half putrid, and ſtinking,
is as welcome to them as the moſt wholeſome food to the people of
other countries. Marriage is encouraged in China, not by the
profitableneſs of children, but by the liberty of deſtroying them.
In all great towns, feveral are every night expoſed in the ſtreets,
or drowned like puppies in the water. The performance of
this horrid office is even ſaid to be the avowed buſineſs by which
fome people earn their fubfiftence.
Our manufacturing poor do not in many places rear many
children, and Dr. Smith fays*, that he has been told it is not
uncommon in the highlands of Scotland for a mother who has
born twenty children not to have two alive.
poor exhauſt themſelves by extreme labour,
wrought cattle bring on untimely old age.
London, and in fome other places, fays Dr. Smith, is not
ſuppoſed to laſt in his utmoſt vigour above eight years.
The induftrious
and like over-
A carpenter in
The population of China is fo great, that the fuperftitious
reſpect for anceſtors has been obliged to give way to it. The
ordinary fepulchres are levelled, and the ground cultivated.
The rich bury in mountains and barren lands. This exceffive
population, the inconveniences of which modern philofophers
in Europe have no idea of, increaſes the demand for agriculture
ſo much, as to make a famine the fudden and inevitable confe-
quence of the fmalleft neglects, and to compel the Chineſe to
live without oxen, ſheep, or horfes. Without mountains and
marſhes, China would be without wood, or game. For want
*Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 120.
+ Ibid. vol. i. p. 124.
of
470
PART V.
LECTURES ON
1
of manure, the fields require much more labour*. The greateſt
attention is requifite on the part of government to provide for
the equal diftribution of corn, and to make one province and
one year relieve another.
•
It may not be improper, in order to affift you in your compu-
tations on this fubject, just to mention two facts which, I
believe, may be pretty nearly depended upon. The first is,
that there are more men than women born in almost every
country, in the proportion of fourteen to thirteen, or of fifteen
to fourteen; allowance, as it were, being made by divine
providence for a greater confumption of men by war and other
accidents to which women are not expofed; alfo that the number
of men capable of bearing arms are about one fourth of all the in-
habitants. The ſecond is, that we ſhall come very near the num-
ber of the inhabitants of any town, if we multiply the annual
number of their dead taken at a medium by thirty; or as fome
fay, the number of births by thirty-four (but I think it ought
to be larger in proportion) and the number of houfes by five.
The number of deaths in proportion to the number of in-
habitants differs exceedingly in different places. Dr. Price,
after giving more attention to this fubject than perhaps any other
perfon ever did, thinks that, in great towns, it is from one-
nineteenth or one-twentieth to one twenty-third or a twenty-
fourth, in moderate towns from one twenty-third to one twenty-
eighth, but in the country from one thirty-fifth, or one fortieth
to a fiftieth or a fixtieth †.
* Memoirs fur les Chinois, vol iv. p. 321.
+ Obfervations on reverfionary payments, vol. i. p. 302.
3
LEC-
LECT. LX.
471
GENERAL POLICY.
•
LECTURE
LX.
What makes a Nation Secure. Natural Ramparts. Advantage
of an Iſland. Importance of Weapons. The Alteration which
the Invention of Gunpowder has made in the Art of War.
Reaſon why the first Effects of it were not more fenfible in
Europe. Difference in the Methods of Fortification, and
fighting at Sea, of the Ancients and Moderns. The Importance
of Difcipline. Inconvenience of the Feudal Syſtem. What
Mode of Subfiftence makes a Nation formidable. Standing
Armies, and Militia. The Rife of ftanding Armies in Europe.
Why a Nation is formidable after a Civil War. The great
military Power of ancient Nations accounted for. In what
Senfe Populoufnefs contributes to make a Nation strong and
Secure.
•
FTER confidering thoſe things and circumſtances which
tend to make a nation rich, happy, and populous, we are
naturally led to attend to thofe things which make it fecure.
Indeed, without the perfuafion of our fecurity, it is impoffible
to derive any advantage from the moſt favourable concurrence
of thofe circumftances which tend to render a nation rich,
populous, and happy.
:
A reaſonable ſecurity can only ariſe from a conſciouſneſs of
being able effectually to defend ourſelves in cafe of any attack
from a foreign ſtate, or to make any nation repent of the infults
they ſhall offer us. This power in a people of defending them-
felves, or of annoying others, muft depend principally upon
three
472
PART V.
LECTURES ON
three things; a natural fituation, which may be of great confe-
quence either for defending ourſelves, or of attacking others;
fkill in the art of war; and courage to exert that ſkill to
advantage.
A natural rampart is either the fea, or a chain of mountains,
the paffes of which require but few troops to defend them
againſt a multitude. Barrier towns and fortifications are arti-
ficial ramparts, and require a knowledge of the art of war to
be ferviceable. Iflands afford the most effectual fecurity that
nature can provide for a people, if they be fkilled in navigation
and fea engagements, which, from their conftant and neceffary
uſe of the ſea, they have the greateſt chance and opportunity
of excelling in, provided they keep up any intercourfe with
neighbouring nations, and particularly if they carry on any
foreign commerce. Had Tyre been fituated on an inland
farther from the fhore, it is probable it would never have been
finally conquered by Alexander the Great; and had there been
any paffage from France to England by land, we might have
been much more diftreffed in fome of our wars with the French,
in which they appeared to be fuperior to us by land.
The Swifs have been more than once indebted to their
mountains for the fecurity and liberty which they enjoy.
Holland was delivered from the invafion of Lewis XIV.
by nothing but the opportunity, which their fituation gave
them of deluging their country; and the natural divifion of
Europe into tracts of a moderate extent, both mark out, as
it were, the limits of empires, and is a means of keeping them
within reaſonable bounds; thereby giving us a kind of fecurity
againſt the eſtabliſhment of any large empire in this part of the
world; whereas in Afia, which abounds in extenfive plains,
nothing but a fuperior military force can prevent an army which
has
LECT. LX.
473
GENERAL POLICY.
་
has fubdued a part from taking poffeffion of the whole. Afia
is therefore thought to be favourable for extenfive monarchy.
Even Tartary affords no place of retreat to a vanquiſhed army.
If the fituation of a people will not afford them a ſufficient
fecurity (and it can hardly ever be quite fufficient of itſelf) they
muſt have recourfe to thofe methods of defence and attack which
are either equal or fuperior to thofe of the enemy.
The
The fingle article of weapons is of prodigious confequence in
war, and has decided the fate of many important battles.
Romans acknowledged themſelves to be inferior to the Cimbri
in courage and martial heroiſm, and that even their fuperior
difcipline would have been no fecurity againſt the dreadful
impetuofity of their attacks, but that the fwords of the Cimbri
were of bad temper. They often bent at the firſt ſtroke, and
the perſon who uſed one of them was obliged to wait till he
could ſtraighten it with his foot before he could make a ſecond
ſtroke. The expertneſs of the Engliſh in the uſe of their long
and cross bows gave them a great advantage both over the Scotch
and the French before the invention of artillery. The cavalry
of the Romans and Huns were killed in the ufe of the bow,
while thofe of the Goths and Vandals uſed the ſword and lance.
To this difference Belifarius attributed part of his fuccefs.
It was a great advantage to the Romans that they were never
bigottedly attached to their own weapons, and manner of
fighting, but eaſily changed them when they faw any advantage
in thoſe of other nations. Thus Romulus exchanged the
Argive buckler for the large fhield of the Sabines; and the
Romans changed their method of arming their horſe when they
conquered Greece. The fame juft fentiments taught them the
proper uſe of their auxiliaries, whom they employed according
Ppp
to
474
PART V.
LECTURES ON
to their character. It was the Numidian cavalry that gained the
battle of Zama. Hannibal too had the good ſenſe to arm his
troops after the Roman manner, when he found it was preferable
to the armour of his own country. And it was no incon-
fiderable cauſe of the decline of the Roman power, that they
quitted their ancient armour. Under Gratian the Romans laid
afide the uſe of their heavy armour, their coats of mail and
helmet. They likewiſe ceaſed to fortify their camp.
The fingle diſcovery of the compofition and force of gun
powder has made a total alteration in the whole ſyſtem of war,
and has contributed to make battles both lefs bloody, and more
quickly decided than before. Formerly armies were drawn up
generally fixteen or twenty, fome times fifty men deep, with a
narrow front, becauſe their ranks would have been too apt to
have been thrown into diſorder by fighting hand to hand. But
the confequence of this was, that the troops which gave way
were entangled with one another, and had little power of making
their eſcape. Befides, their conquerors were neceffarily clofe
behind them, and maffacred them at pleaſure, as they were
incapable of making any refiftance the moment after they had
turned their backs. Whereas thin and extended ranks are
able to keep their order in the prefent method of fighting; and,
as the oppofite armies are at fome diftance, the party which
begins to be worſted is able to make its retreat in good order,
with leſs help from a body of referve, to keep the enemy in play,
or over-awed, which was the only method by which the ancients
could fecure an orderly retreat. In fhort, as Hume well
obferves, nations, by the ufe of artillery, have been brought
more upon a level, conquefts have become less frequent and
rapid, ſucceſs in war has been reduced merely to a matter of
calculation,
fr
!
LECT. LX.
475
GENERAL POLICY.
calculation; and a nation over-matched by its enemies either
yields to their demands, or fecures itſelf by alliances againſt
their violence and invafion.
When we read of the aſtoniſhing fuccefs of a few Spaniards in
America, where five hundred men under Cortez fubdued the vaſt
empire of Mexico, by the help of gunpowder only; we are apt
to wonder that the era of its invention, and its uſe in war,
ſhould not have been noted by contemporary hiftorians, and that
the Germans who invented it ſhould not have derived ſome ſignal
advantage from it. But the reaſon was, that the diſcovery doth
not appear to have been any fecret. The compofition itſelf,
and its more innocent effects, were probably well known, and
its poffible uſes in war generally talked of, before it was actually
applied to that deſtructive purpoſe; which would tend greatly to
take off the ſurprize which would otherwiſe have been felt upon
the first introduction of it. Befides, the firft artillery was fo
clumfy, and of fuch difficult management, that mankind were
not immediately fenfible of its uſe and efficacy; and confidering
how many arrows might be drawn before one piece could have
been loaded and diſcharged, eſpecially before the invention of
gun-locks; it is rather to be wondered that guns and cannons
ſhould ever have come into ufe at all. The Chineſe were
acquainted with the compofition of gunpowder, but never
thought of making any uſe of it in war. Matchlocks were uſed
fo late as in the civil wars in England, above three centuries
after the invention of gunpowder. Before the time of Lewis
XIV. little ufe was made of cannon in befieging or defending
places, fortification was in its infancy, and fpears and fhort
guns were then in ufe as well as fwords, which are now
entirely laid aſide; and fome time before that period, viz. at the
battle of Lepanto, in the year 1571, they fought promifcuously
Ppp 2
with
476
PART V.
LECTURES ON
with arrows, long javelins, grenadoes, grappling-irons, can-
nons, mufquets, fpears, and fabres.
The alteration of the methods of fortification, and the manner
of attacking and defending fortified places, in confequence of
the diſcovery of gunpowder, is even more confiderable than the
alteration it has introduced into the methods of fighting in the
open field. Sea-engagements are likewife now quite a different
thing from what they were before this great difcovery. Inftead
of the ſhips of war themſelves being the principal weapons of
offence, and being puſhed againſt one another by their beaks;
and inſtead of the men fighting heavy armed as on land, when-
ever they had an opportunity of grappling; the fhip is now
nothing but a fortified place of fecurity, which the men affail
with their artillery, as if it were a caſtle at land.
Superiority of discipline is an excellent fecond to fuperiority
in point of weapons. Exact difcipline makes a multitude act
as one man, and gives each man the courage of a multitude.
For every ſingle foldier, who helps to compofe a body whoſe
motions are ſo uniform and regular, has the fame entire confidence
in the ftrength of the whole, as if he himſelf had the ſole
direction of that ftrength. Difcipline chiefly rendered the
•
Greeks fo much better foldiers than the Perfians, and the
Romans than the Greeks, the Carthaginians, and the fierce
barbarous nations of the north. Some of the foldiers of Niger,
driven by the profcriptions of Severus among the Parthians,
taught them the Roman difcipline, which, it is faid, ever after
gave them an advantage over the Romans. "The Parthians
"have not more courage than we have," faid Belifarius, in a
fpeech to his men. They are only better difciplined than
"we are,"
66
It
LECT. LX.
477
GENERAL POLICY.
$
It is difcipline only which gives the Europeans the fuperi-
ority they as yet retain over the Afiatics, and the American
nations, now that we have communicated to them the uſe of
our artillery; a conduct, the reverfe of the wife policy of Charle-
magne, who forbade, under the fevereft penalties, that any
perfon fhould fell arms to the Saxons, with whom he was
frequently at war.
So much fuperior is the military ſkill of civilized and wealthy
nations at this day, that they have nothing to apprehend, as
they formerly had, from the ferocity of their barbarous neigh-
bours. On the contrary, if they were fo difpofed, they might
fubdue them and extirpate them, with as much eafe as they
could clear any country of lions, and other wild beaſts.
We ought not to forget the maxim, verified by all hiſtory,
that a nation which has often been conquered, and confequently
which has often feen what it was that gave their enemies the
advantage they had over them, have at length acquired know-
ledge, diſcipline, and courage, ſufficient to beat their conquerors.
Thus Peter the Great was at length able to beat the Swedes,
though he had no other maſters in the art of war befides the
Swedes themſelves; and the leffons he received from them were
fo many dreadful defeats, in the beginning of the war he had
with them.
The difcipline of the European armies is prodigiouſly im-
proved fince the diſuſe of the feudal militia, when all armies
were raiſed by the prince's fummoning his vaffals to appear in
the field, at the head of their dependants, who were maintained
a certain number of days at his expence; and when this vaffal
was their commander of courfe, whether he was properly
qualified for the command, or not.
In
478
PART V.
LECTURES ON
In thoſe times, too, the kings, who were originally nothing
more than generals, always headed their armies in perfon.
Charles, the ſon of king John of France, ſeems to have fixed it
as a maxim, never to appear at the head of his army; and he
was the first king in Europe who fhewed the advantage of policy,
forefight, and judgment, above a rash and precipitate valour.
The inconvenience of kings commanding in perfon had often
been ſeverely felt by the nation before the cuftom was difufed.
To
pay for the king's ranfom was one of the three occafions on
which only it was lawful to impofe a tax in the feudal times.
Nations are powerful and formidable in proportion as their
mode of fubfiftence enables them to maintain difcipline in the
army, and keep them in the field. People who live by hunting,
as the North American Indians, can never fubfift in great
numbers. They therefore fight in ſmall parties, and endeavour
to attack their enemies by furprize. Nations that live by
pafturage, as the Tartars, can drive their cattle along with
them if they march into a fertile country, and every man can
appear in the field, and fome times even the women can join
them. Theſe, therefore, are the moſt formidable invaders.
But in caſe of a defeat, they have no refource, their all is at
ſtake, and being incumbered with much baggage they muſt be
open to attacks.
Nations which live in towns, by manufactures and commerce,
are in general unqualified to fight themſelves; but being rich,
they can afford to pay thoſe who are able, either of their own
country, or of other nations; and thoſe who have no other
buſineſs beſides that of fighting, will improve in the art of
it. Their armies will feldom be very large, but they will be
lefs incumbered, and upon the whole far more effectual for
defence or offence. But experience will teach them that,
though
LECT. LX.
479
GENERAL POLICY.
though able to make conquests, thefe will never repay them the
expences they are at in acquiring and maintaining them. For
of all luxuries (as every thing which is not necessary for life may
be called) war is the deareft.
If a wealthy nation does not keep a ftanding army, fuch as
is deſcribed above, but oblige every citizen to learn the ufe of
arms, and appear in the field whenever he is called upon, it
is faid to have a militia. On fuch a plan the liberties of a
country are certainly fafer, but the fighting men, not making
war their whole bufinefs, will not be very expert in it, and
confequently will not have that confidence in themſelves that a
ſtanding army has. Though, fighting for their liberties, they
will be ftimulated to act with more vigour.
The firſt ſtanding army we read of was that of Philip of
Macedon, and by this means chiefly he was fuperior to the ſtates
of Greece, whofe armies conſiſted of militia, and ſtill more to
the Perfians. In the beginning of the ſecond Punic war, Hannibal
had a proper ſtanding army, and the Romans only a militia;
but it was otherwife before the end of that war.
The greateſt care ſhould be taken that the officers in
ſtanding armies be of the body of the people, fo as to have the
fame intereſt with them, and that their civil privileges fhould
be more valuable to them than any thing that they could get
as foldiers.
A militia has the advantage of training more men to the ufe
of arms, and of preferving the people independent; but if
theſe ends could be fecured by any other means, the country
would be defended at lefs expence by a ftanding army. For
the fame reaſons that we have our fhoes and cloaths made
at lefs expence by employing fhoe-makers, and taylors, whofe
fole buſineſs it is to make ſhoes and cloaths, than for every man
·4
to
480
PART V..
LECTURES ON
to be taught to make them himself. If it was a man's whole
buſineſs to learn the ufe of arms, he would certainly be more
perfect in the uſe of them; and though this foldier would be
idle and uſeleſs to any other purpofe, the occafional practice of
arms by the whole community would produce a greater fum of
idleness, and on the whole would not take fo much from the
mafs of uſeful labour.
Since the increaſe of induſtry, and the impofition of taxes,
in lieu of the ancient feudal fervices, ftanding armies, conftantly
exerciſed, and commanded by officers of the king's nomination,
have been kept up by all the princes in Europe; and as there is
a provifion in the ftate for the conftant pay of theſe
of theſe troops, the
difference between the expences of a time of war and a time of
peace is not fo great as formerly: though our armies are
infinitely more expenfive. It is the price of artillery, fortifi-
cation, &c. which exhaufts the revenues of the prefent belli-
gerent powers. The neceffary expences of war, as it is con-
ducted at preſent, has given rife to a maxim unknown to
antiquity, that riches are the finews of war.
Lewis XIV. was the first who kept on foot numerous armies.
His example excited other princes to do the fame; fo that after
the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle the chriſtian powers of Europe had
about a million of men under arms. The inconvenience of
ftanding armies commanded by officers of the king's nomination,
is that too much power is thrown into the hands of the
fovereign.
It is owing to the great improvements in exerciſe and difcipline
that a nation makes fo great a figure in arms, and appears fo
formidable to its neighbours immediately after the conclufion of
a civil war. Though it leaves the nation exhaufted in other
refpects, it leaves a great number of men trained to the uſe of
24
arms,
LECT. LX.
481
GENERAL POLICY.
arms, and averſe to any other method of getting fubfiftence.
The Romans were extending their conquefts on all fides even
in the fiercest of their civil wars. Thofe in the minority of
Lewis. XIV. formed a number of generals, who raiſed the glory
of that reign to the higheft pitch, and England had never
appeared fo formidable to the reft of Europe as it did under the
commonwealth, immediately after the conclufion of the laſt
civil war.
There are undoubtedly more men in a nation before
the commencement of a civil war, but the ftrength of a nation
is not in proportion to the number of its inhabitants, but to the
number of the fighting men it contains, which are much in-
creaſed by a war, which depopulates the country in general.
This accounts for the great military power of ancient
An European prince who has a million of fubjects,
cannot maintain more than ten thousand troops; whereas the
fighting men in ancient republics were nearly as one to eight
of all the inhabitants. Hence, in all ancient hiftory, we read
of the ſmalleſt republics raifing, and maintaining, greater
armies than ftates confifting of many times the number of in-
habitants are able to fupport at prefent. It is generally faid that,
in the preſent ftate of things, even wealthy focieties cannot keep
more than an hundredth part of their fighting men in the field,
and maintain them in the character of foldiers.
nations.
In ancient times few artifans were maintained by the labour
of the farmer, and therefore more foldiers might be fupported
by the produce of the lands. Livy fays, it would be difficult,
in his days, to raiſe fo large an army as the Roman ſtate formerly
fent out against the Gauls and Latins. The numbers and private
riches of the Athenians are faid, by all ancient writers, to have
been no greater at the beginning of the Peloponefian than they
were at the beginning of the Macedonian war; but in the latter
period
Q I q
482
PART V
LECTURES ON
!
period they were grown more luxurious, and more people were
employed about the arts. The Dutch are, no doubt, richer
now than they were in the time of our wars with them,
but they have not the tenth part of the power they had then.
With them, indeed, this is not perhaps fo much owing to the
increaſe of luxury, as to a want of that public fpirit, which
converts private riches into public riches, and national power.
This, too, accounts for the large armies of the ancient Gauls-
and Germans. With them, and all people of the north-weſtern
parts of Europe, no profeffion was honourable but that of arms.
Agriculture, and the arts, were ever accounted ignoble and baſe,
unworthy of a man free-born. Of courſe, every man ftudied
the uſe of arms, and the confequence was a ſtate of perpetual
war, and a body of people full of courage and experience in it.
A nation may be very populous, and either be very weak, or
very ftrong, in confequence of that populoufnefs. If the
greateſt part of the number of people be employed in raiſing
the neceffaries of life, no men can be fpared; and they cannot
bear the expence of a long war. But if the full produce of the
lands be reaped with eaſe, and the bulk of the people be artiſans,
thefe being employed about fuperfluities, may be fpared upon
any emergence; and while hands enow are left to follow
huſbandry; the country, yielding as much as before, will foon
recruit itſelf for the loffes it fuftained in war. But when the
ambition of a prince takes men from their farms, and the lands
are left uncultivated, the very finews of riches and ſtrength are
After this neglect of huſbandry, the land will not main-
tain the fame number of inhabitants, and the country will
require a long courfe of time before it grow as populous and
powerful as it was before.
cut.
LEC
LECT. LXI.
483
GENERAL POLICY.
:
LECTURE LXI.
Of Confederacies. The Balance of Power in ancient and modern
Times. The Conduct of different Nations in extending and
Securing their conquefts. The Roman Policy in War particularly
noticed. The Neceffity of perfonal Courage. Influence of Liberty.
The Reafon of fome Inftances of defperate Valour in ancient
Times. The Difference between the Proportion of Officers and
their Pay in ancient and modern Times explained. The Danger
of employing Mercenaries. Of buying off Wars.
IT is at this day not only a confidence in the number of their
own warlike inhabitants that gives a people the idea of fecurity.
A fenfe of common advantage has connected all the ftates of Europe
in alliances with one another; fo that the weakeft cannot be at-
tacked but fome of the ftronger powers fee it their intereft to
enter either as allies, or as principals, into the war; and for a
century or two, there has hardly been a particular war in
Europe (wherever, or upon whatever occafion, it might happen
to arife) which has not very foon become general: whereas, in
ancient times, a nation might almoſt be ſubdued before its next
neighbours knew any thing of the matter. The Greeks and
Perfians ſeem to have underſtood what we call the balance of
power, but the Romans never met with any general combi-
nations against them. The confederacies in Gaul and Britai
were very partial.
It has been the rivalship and oppofition between the two
houfes of Bourbon and Auſtria which has made this ſubject ſo
Q992
much
484
PART V.
LECTURES O N
much attended to in Europe; it being apparently the intereft of
all neighbouring ftates to oppoſe the ſtronger, and more enter-
prizing of the two, by joining them felves as allies to the weaker.
The quickneſs with which an alarm is taken at the ambitious
enterprizes of any European monarch would have been incredible
in ancient times. Lewis XIV. fays Voltaire, entered Holland
only in May, and by the month of July all Europe was in a
confederacy against him.
It may not be amifs in this place juft to mention the conduct
and policy of different nations in extending and fecuring their
conquefts. It was the cuftom of the kings of Affyria, of Babylon,
and all the ancient empires in the Eaft (for preventing the
rebellion of people newly conquered) to captivate and tranſplant
the people of different countries into one another's lands, and to
intermix them variously. The Romans obferved a policy fome-
thing like it; the troops which guarded one province being
always raiſed in another and a diftant one, ſo that no perfon was
permitted to bear arms in his own country.
A few more particulars of the Roman policy in war deferve
our notice. In early times the command of every general ex-
pired with his confular or pro-confular year; ſo that they were.
obliged to exert themfelves greatly, in order to diſtinguiſh
themſelves in the ſhort period of their command; and thereby.
the foldiers alfo, who were then perfons of property, got.
no attachment to the general, but to the ftate. Afterwards,
when, on account of diftant wars, it was found inconvenient to
change the general, the foldiers (who were then more needy, and
received their pay from the general) were always at his devotion,
whoever he was, and were ready to fecond his ambitious views,,
in all the civil wars with which they were harraffed. Under
the emperors, the generals were afraid of giving umbrage by
diftinguishing
LECT. LXI.
485
GENERAL POLICY.
diftinguishing themſelves, and therefore we are not to be fur-
priſed that the Roman empire received fo little addition after
the end of the commonwealth.
Another maxim of their policy in war was to deprive all
conquered nations of power, making them deliver up their arms
and ſhips, and forbidding them to make war upon any of their
allies. They took hoftages of their princes' children, and
fecured their conquefts by not ſeeming to take poffeffion of the
conquered countries at firft, but leaving the people their own
laws, cuſtoms, and government. But thereby their kings, or
chiefs, and confequently the whole people, were in fact, more
at their devotion than if they had been nominally the fubjects
of the empire. They alfo ftrengthened their own power by
eafily granting the freedom of their city to particular perfons,
towns, and ſtates, thereby incorporating the conquered nations
into their own body, and making them confider the intereft of
Rome as their own. By this policy they encreafed in numbers
and ſtrength by their conquefts. Whereas the ftates of Greece
(in which the freedom of cities was difficult to be obtained)
were neceffarily diminiſhed in numbers and ſtrength by the wars
in which they were engaged.
Though the Romans exacted very little under the form of
tribute from the conquered nations, they are faid to have been
the only people in the world who grew rich by their conquefts,
fo that every war made them more able to undertake a fecond.
Pompey encreafed the revenues of the ftate one-third.
The beſt diſcipline, and the beſt maxims of war, will avail
but little without bodily ftrength and perfonal courage. I fhall
therefore make a few obſervations upon the different fources of
it. It is obvious to remark, in the first place, that men will
always
486
ON
PART V.
LECTURES
always exert their ftrength in proportion to the motives they
have to exert it. We may, therefore, expect more courage in
free-men, fighting for their liberty, than in the fubjects of an
arbitrary monarch, fighting for the honour of their maſter. It
was an enthuſiaſtic love of liberty that inſpired the Greeks in
their wars with the Perfians, and that enabled the Dutch to
reſcue themſelves from the power of Spain, when they were the
moſt inconfiderable, and the Spaniards the moſt formidable,
power in Europe.
If we read of more inftances of defperate valour among the
ancients; as of men killing themfelves, their wives, and their
children, rather than fall into the hands of an enemy; as the
Saguntines, the Numantines, the people of Smyrna, and
many others are faid to have done; we muſt confider, that
more was loft by being conquered in former times than is loft.
at prefent. In thofe times a conquered people loft their civil
liberty, goods, wives, children, and often even the rights
of burial; whereas modern conquefts generally terminate in
leaving the conquered to live according to their own laws,
and the private property of individuals is untouched. In fhort,
the only difference to moft of the inhabitants of a conquered
country is, that they are obliged to fwear allegiance to another
fovereign; a great argument of the fuperiority of modern times
in reafon, religion, philofophy, and manners.
There was a capital difference in the regulation of armies in
ancient and modern times, which could not be a matter of
indifference with reſpect to the motives the foldiers had to exert
themſelves. With us the pay of an officer is prodigiouſly greater
than that of a common foldier; whereas, in ancient times, if
the generals had any pay, it was little more than what the
1
meaneſt
LECT. LXI.
487
GENERAL POLICY.
meanest perfon in the army received. When Xenophon returned
from his famous expedition, he hired himſelf and fix thoufand
of his Greeks into the ſervice of Seuthes, a prince of Thrace,
upon theſe terms, that each foldier fhould receive a daric a
month, each captain two darics, and he himſelf, as general, four.
The commander in chief of a Roman army, at leaſt during
the commonwealth, had no regular pay. All the advantage he
received was the honour, the power, and the influence, which
his command gave him at home. What we may call the
perquifites- of his office, when any ſpoils were taken, could not
regularly be confiderable, for the Queftor took an account of the
whole, in order to its being lodged in the public treaſury.
There were fewer officers in the Roman armies than in ours,
and thefe officers had very ſmall pay. A centurion had only
double the pay of a common foldier; and it muſt be remembered
that the Roman foldiers bought their own cloaths, arms, tents,
and baggage. Cæfar, however, gave the centurions ten times
the gratuity that he gave the common foldiers.
}
The reaſon of this conduct in the Romans feems to have
been, that in the early times, the body of the people, fighting
their own battles, either in their own defence, or with a view
to enrich themſelves with the plunder of other people, had no
pretence to claim any pay. Befides, as they ferved in their
turns, it would have made no fort of difference, whether they
provided themſelves with neceffaries for war, or were fupplied
out of a common ftock, formed by their joint contributions.
Afterwards, when it became inconvenient for the greater part of
the people to ferve in the army, on account of their being
engaged in the arts and in agriculture; and confequently thofe
were enlifted chiefly who had little or no employment, and were
therefore very poor,
very poor, it appeared unreaſonable that they ſhould
fight
488
PART V.
LECTURES ON
}
fight for the common advantage, at their own expence, which
they were fo little able to afford. Upon this they were allowed
ſome pay, but at firft it was extremely fmall; as may be imagined,
after being uſed to ſerve for nothing at all. Still the officers
ferved without pay, and never received any thing confiderable till
it became the intereft of their commanders to court their favour
by encreaſing their allowance. Till Julius Cæfar doubled the
legionary pay, a common foot foldier received only two oboli a
day, the inferior officers and centurions four oboli, and a horſe-
man a drachm.
The hiftory of the pay of European foldiers, and particularly
of the Engliſh is very different from that of theſe ancients. In
the early feudal times, as all lands were held by military tenure,
every vaffal fent horfe and foot in proportion to the lands he held,
and none bore arms but freemen, who must have been handfomely
provided for if they were retained in the fervice beyond the ftipulated
time. Alſo they did not fight their own battles, as the Roman
foldiers did in the early times of the commonwealth. Whatever
advantage was gained by the war, it was entirely at the difpofal
of the chief in the expedition. Indeed, before the eſtabliſhment
of the ſtrict feudal fyftem, the foldiers had no pay; but then they
fought for lands to be divided equally among them all, and there
was no fuperiority of one man to another but what was temporary,
and ceaſed with the war. But when this army of freemen
became fixed in a conquered country, the inhabitants of which
were vastly more numerous than themſelves, and they were
obliged to keep up the form and order of a perpetual army,
the fuperiority of the commanders, both fupreme and ſubordinate,
became fixed, and the ordinary freemen were as much under
the command of their fuperiors as they had been when they
were their officers, in the time of actual fervice.
3
}
Befides,
:
1
LECT. LXI.
489
GENERAL POLICY.
Beſides, when the great vaffals grew almoſt independent, their
fervices muſt have been bought at a confiderable price; and they
often ſtipulated not only for a handſome reward for themſelves,
but alſo for each of their followers. In the time of Edward III.
a knight, who ſerved on horſeback, had two fhillings a day, which
was equivalent to one pound at prefent; and an archer fix-pence,
which was equal in value to a crown with us.
pay in
in proportion
The reduction of the value of money, and the reduction of
the rank of the common foldiers, was a very fuitable coincidence,
as under the fame name they always received
to their rank, and the value of their fervices. At the prefent
time, foldiers are the very loweft, and worst provided for, of all
the people; generally thoſe who are too idle to provide a better
fubfiftence for themselves by their labour, and their pay is
according to it.
More officers are neceffary in modern armies, becauſe the
method of fighting, fince the invention of gunpowder, is more
complex and more ſcientifical. And the commanders muſt have
better pay, to make it worth the while of perfons of proper
rank and fortune (who have the greateſt intereſt in the welfare
of their country) to take it upon them. It is true, that the
low rank, and the low pay, of our common foldiers allow
them to be little more than mercenaries. Common foldiers
have certainly very little at ftake in the country; but the very
profeffion of arms tends to infpire a fenfe of honour, and
attachment to their country, though they have little or no
intereft in it. This is remarkably the cafe with the English
foldiers and feamen.
Profeffed mercenaries, it is certain, can have no motive
to fight for one fide, but what may be converted to engage
them in the ſervice of the other; and the hiftory of all nations
demonftrates
Rrr
490
PARt V.
LECTURES
ON
demonftrates how impolitic it is to depend upon them. Thus
the Perfians depended upon the mercenary Greeks, their natural
enemies, till they had no other troops capable of doing them
any ſervice; and the Carthaginians were brought to the very
brink of deftruction by the rebellion of their mercenaries,
between the first and fecond Punic wars. At prefent, while
all the ſtates of Europe keep up a confiderable body of native
troops, the inconvenience is lefs fenfible. Thoſe who are the
moft remarkable for ferving as mercenaries at prefent are the
Swifs, and the petty princes of Germany.
But even depending upon mercenaries is a better expedient
than buying off a war. For that is, in fact, to confide in the
honour of an enemy confeffedly fuperior. The Romans were
not long able to withſtand the ravages of the barbarous nations,
after they began to bribe them to quit their territories. And
the money which the Danes received from the English on the
fame account only induced them to rife continually in their
demands, and bring over new bodies of adventurers, with the
fame expectation of raifing fortunes without fighting.
LE C-
LECT. LXII.
491
GENERAL POLICY.
}
LECTURE LXII.
A Capacity of bearing the Fatigues of War: more requifite in the
ancient Manner of fighting. The Advantage of poor Nations
over the rich. Why Invaders have generally more Courage than
the Invaded. The Influence of Opinion upon Courage. The
Influence of religious Sentiments. Effects of violent perfonal
Hatred. Civil Wars peculiarly bloody. Causes of Factions,
Duration of them, eafily propagated in free Governments.
Dreadful Effects of Faction. The unfortunate Situation of the
Greek Empire. Obſervations on the different Durations of Em-
pires. Folly of Conqueft. What Wars are juftifiable. Laws
of War. Duelling.
SKILL
KILL in the art of war will avail little without a foldiery
capable of bearing the neceflary fatigues of it. The
Roman difcipline was admirable in this refpect. The Roman
foldiers were kept in conftant exercife. The Lacedæmonian
foldiers had lefs fatigue in the field than they had at home
whereas ours paſs from comparative indolence to extreme exerciſe.
Distempers in armies are for this reafon more common, and
more fatal with us, than we ever hear of their being with them.
Few Roman foldiers died of distempers. The military pace
was twenty miles in five hours, carrying fixty pounds. The
foldiers were alſo exerciſed in running and leaping in their arms.
Indeed, as the nature of the modern fervice, in which artillery
is principally uſed, is leſs laborious, and therefore lefs depends
Rrr2
upon
492
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
upon frength of body, fuch fevere excrcife feems not to be
neceffary.
It is this circumftance, of hardinefs, and capacity of bearing
fatigue, which gives poor nations the advantage they fome
times have over the rich. Befides, the profpect they have of
bettering their circumstances, acts more forcibly upon them
than even the fear of a reverſe of fortune does upon the rich.
Theſe circumſtances, in concurrence with the more robuſt
make of body in the northern nations, have generally directed
the courſe of victory fouthwards. Perfia, it is faid, has been
conquered thirteen times from the north; and the Saracens are
the only nation fituated confiderably to the fouth, who have
made extenſive conqueſts northwards. At the time that the
Romans made their conquefts northwards, they were as hardy
as the Gauls and Germans themſelves, with the advantage of
fuperior diſcipline and better weapons.
This
Invaders are generally obferved to have more courage than
the people invaded: it being fuppofed, that no nation would
take up a refolution to invade another, and particularly the
defperate refolution of attacking them at home, without great
confidence, and therefore great probability of ſucceſs.
apprehenfion cannot but make the people invaded diffident
of themſelves, which must give their enemies a confiderable
advantage. The Romans feldom gave their enemies an oppor-
tunity of attacking them, but generally carried the war into
their country; and Hannibal's great maxim was, that that
people were no where vulnerable but at home.
Mere current opinion, without any foundation in the world,
is of great moment with respect to courage. The tenth legion
of Cæfar, and the regiment of Picardy in France, imagined
themſelves, and really were, the beſt troops in the fervice.
The
LECT. LXII.
493
GENERAL POLICY.
The Dorians were ever reputed better foldiers than the Ionians,
and actually were fo in confequence of it. Indeed, when once a
character has been acquired, men will exert themſelves uncom-
monly to fupport it.
The five nations of North-America think themſelves by far
ſuperior to the reft of mankind, and have taken fuch care to
imprefs the fame opinion on all their neighbours, that they, on
all occafions, yield the moſt fubmiffive obedience to them.
When one of a different tribe cries out a mohawk, they will fly
like ſheep before wolves, without making any reſiſtance, what-
ever advantage there was on their fide *.
Of what moment religious fentiments are in war, has been
ſhown under the article of religion, I fhall only add, in this
place, that the knights ertant, who did fuch excellent fervice
in the war with the Moors in Spain, had their valor, no doubt;
greatly enflamed by watching their arms a whole night before the
ſhrine of the Virgin Mary, in the ceremony of receiving knight-
hood; and that the foldiers will be more eaſily kept in good
diſcipline when notions of religion attach them to their general
and their cauſe, eſpecially if their religion oblige them to great
ftrictneſs and ſeverity of manners in private life. The fuper-
ftitious regard which the Romans had for the authority of their
generals was extreme. Several times they fuffered themſelves to
be decimated by them; whereas the Carthaginian foldiers more
than once crucified their generals. It was the excellent difci-
pline which the ſeriouſneſs of the parliamentary army in this
country enured them to, that gave them fo great an advantage
over the king's troops, whofe diffolutenefs of morals as men.
greatly relaxed their diſcipline as foldiers.
* Colden's Hiftory. of five Nations, p. 3-
Violent
494
PART V.
LECTURES ON
4
Violent perfonal hatred has always produced the greateft, and
moſt dreadful effects in war. This principle accounts for the
peculiar favagenefs with which civil wars are often conducted.
Refentment is inflamed in proportion to the nearness of the
caufe, and the frequency of impreffions from it. For this reafon
but little hatred is excited against a public and diftant enemy,
and therefore thofe wars are conducted with more generofity and
humanity. But civil and religious parties have this in common,
that their antipathy to one another' is always the greater the
more things there are in which they agree. For this makes the
contraft of the few things in which they differ, the more fenfible
and ftriking. A remarkable inftance of the effects of this
animofity, is mentioned by Voltaire: A cavalier commanded a
regiment of French refugees at the battle of Alman-za, where
they met with another French regiment in the oppofite army;
as foon as they faw one another they began a bloody fight with
their bayonets, without firing a fingle mufquet, and there were
not above three hundred men left alive out of the two regiments.
Civil wars are alfo peculiarly bloody, becaufe tefs quarter is
expected in them. All prifoners are fure to be treated as rebels;
whereas in open wars, at leaft in modern times; all prifoners
are mutually exchanged.
1
•
•
Factions, which are the foundation of civil wars, take their
rife from very different fources. Their real caufes are intereft
or affection, though theſe are feldom avowed; principle being
the pretence in almoſt all cafes. The factions in the Roman
commonwealth were a ftruggle for power between the two'
orders of the ſtate; and they were a great means of contributing
to its aggrandizement. For the fenate had no method of.
filencing the clamours of the common people but by leading
them out to war, which was a bait that was almost always fure
to take with them.
Affection
Lect. LXII.
495
GENERAL POLICY.
1
Affection divided England between the houfes of York and
Lancafter, as alfo Scotland between Bruce and Baliol. But
this affection, as Hume well obferves, is only in the lower
people, who fee not the princes. The great partiſans are led
by intereſt chieffy! They fee the weakneſs of princes and
defpife them. Thefe motives, however, for entering intơ
factions, different as they may be in their own nature, cafily
introduce one another. The attachment of a court party to the
monarch 'naturally becomes their attachment to monarchy, and
vice versa.
T!
1
Factions fubfift long after the original motives have ceàſed to
actuate both parties. The real difference between the Guelf,
and the Ghibeline factions was long over in Italy before the
factions themfelves were extin
f #
f
Factions are obferved to rife more cafily, and propagate faſter
in free governments, where they always affect the legislature
itſelf. The reafon is, that the people have more influence in
free governments, and are therefore more jealous of the conduct
of their governors.
t
· Upon the whole, the greatest number of factions are probably
owing to perfonal or local reafons. All the factions in defpotic
ftates are neceffarily perfonal, as the people are fure to be
governed in 'the very fame manner, whoever be their prince.
In feveral of the eivil wars of the Romans, the foldiers fought
more for their commander than for the chufe. Such wars are
generally terminated by the death of the commander. In more
modern times, and even in freer governments, we find that the
Neri and the Bianchi of Florence, the Fregofi and Adorni of
Genoa, the Colonefi and Orfini at modern Rome, were all
chiefly perfonal factions.
3
Į
From
496
PART V.
LECTURES ON
From whatever caufe factions arife, their effects are often
laſting and dreadful. The tribe Pollia and Papiria always voted
on oppoſite fides for near three hundred years. The Prafini and
Veneti, founded on the difference of colour in the livery of the
combatants at the public games, never ceaſed their animofities till
they had nearly ruined the Greek empire. In the year 1327,
moſt of the great houfes in Ireland were divided one againſt
another; the Giraldines, the Butlers, and Breminghams on
one fide, and the Bourcs, and Poers on the other. The ground
of the quarrel was no other, but that the lord Arnold Poer had
called the earl of Kildare a rimer. This quarrel was profecuted
with ſuch malice, that the counties of Waterford and Kilkenny
were deſtroyed with fire and fword.
But never was a ſtate ſo unfortunate with reſpect to factions
as the Greek empire. The feveral parties at Conftantinople,
whenever they invited the Turks to come and affift them, always
ftipulated, that they ſhould take into captivity all they ſhould
meet with of the oppofite party. Indeed, it was religion which
gave the chief ſtimulus to their mutual animofity. No people
had ever a greater averfion to heretics than the Greeks. Several
of their lawful emperors were perfectly odious on that account;
and the imperial family itſelf was often divided in their fenti-
ments. Thus when Juftinian perfecuted thoſe who did not
favour the council of Chalcedon, the emprefs oppoſed it.
It is obferved that nations, which have arrived at great power,
and extenfive empire, by flow degrees, have not often fallen,
but by the fame flow degrees; whereas conquefts made with
rapidity, have generally been loft as quickly as they were gained.
Thus the Theban power was born and died with one man,
Epaminondas; and the Macedonian power with two men, Philip
and Alexander. Whereas the Roman empire, which required
feven
I
LECT. LXII.
497
GENERAL POLICY.
feven hundred years to eſtabliſh it, required as many to deſtroy
it. There are, however, many exceptions to this obfervation.
If there be any truth in it, it ſeems to be owing to this, that
when conquefts are made gradually, the conquerors have time
to fall upon the beſt methods of fecuring them, and alfo
becauſe, before the laft conquefts are made, the people who
were firſt conquered, confider themſelves as the conquerors of
the reft, being intimately incorporated with thoſe who fubdued
them. Whereas when large conquefts are made at once, the
empire becomes unwieldly by its own greatneſs, the conquerors
do not immediately hit upon the best methods of fecuring their
conquests, and all the conquered ftates, feeing themſelves at
once in the fame fituation, perceiving their intereft to be the
fame, and at the fame time, perceiving their own ftrength, and
the comparative weakneſs of their conquerors, eafily join to
affert their liberty.
In the rude and ferocious ftate of mankind in former ages,
fome nations enriched themſelves by conquering others; as by
this means they came at once into the poffeffion of all their
ſtock of wealth, and made flaves of their perfons. But with
lefs labour, and far lefs riſk, though with a little more patience,
they might have got richer at home, without the trouble of
acquiring and watching fo many flaves. There was, however,
a prefent advantage in the fyftem, when it was fuccefful, and
it gratified the pride of a nation to have at their mercy other
great and diftant nations.
gained by foreign
This last advantage, if it be any, is ftill
conqueſts, but perhaps hardly any other. As the humanity of
modern manners leaves the inhabitants of a conquered country
in the poffeffion of their private property, the only advantage
that can accrue from conquering a nation is the direction of its
force,
Sff
498
PART V
LECTURES ON
force, for the purpoſe of other conquefts, the appropriation of
its taxes, and the controul of its commerce. As the taxes
will feldom do much more than defray the expences of govern-
ment, the direction of its commerce is now confidered as
the chief article of emolument. But when the expence of
conquering and keeping fuch diftant countries is taken into the
account, the greater cheapnefs of the commodities of fuch
countries and the monopoly of their commerce will go but a
little way to pay the balance.
C
It may be faid that a nation muſt be ftronger by the addition
of the power of foreign dominions. But in proportion as
any nation becomes powerful, it excites the jealousy of other
nations, and thereby has much more powerful enemies to con-
tend with; and if the liberty of commerce can be obtained
(which does not ſeem to be difficult in the prefent ſtate of the
world) and the ſtock of a nation confequently encreaſe, without
the expence of conquering and keeping foreign dominions,. that
great furplus of wealth will purchaſe more affiftance in war than
could in general be furnished by any conquered nation or
colony; and it might be better applied for the purpoſe of ſelf-
defence, which is the only juſtifiable ufe of arms. Had England
nothing to do with the Eaft or Weft Indies, America, or
Gibraltar, it would have fewer wars, and would, no doubt, be
much more wealthy (as its induftry would, by one means or
other, find a market) and if it was invaded, would have much,
greater reſources for defending itſelf. Alfo, if it was thought
proper to enter into an alliance with other nations, in order to
ſupport a common army or navy, it would find greater refources
for that purpoſe, as well as for others.
No war is juflifiable except that which is neceffary to the
preſervation of a ſtate, that is, a defenfive war. Motives of
honour
LECT. LXII.
499
GENERAL POLICY.
i
honour and dignity are never fufficient. Good conduct and
generofity alone can affert the true honour of men and of nations.
And it no more becomes a great nation, than it does a great and
good man, to revenge a mere affront. If motives of honour and
dignity be attended to by ſtateſmen, they will involve nations in
as many fooliſh and deftru&tive quarrels as the fame notions
involve thoſe individuals who are addicted to duelling.
The object of war is the deftruction of the enemy, at leaſt
of his power, fo as to difable him from doing that miſchief to
prevent which the war was engaged in. But every method of
diftreffing an enemy is not deemed honourable, or right. A
regard to public opinion, therefore, ought to regulate the ravages
of war; becauſe it is for the common intereft of mankind that
they ſhould be obferved. As the world advances in civilization,
and national animofity abates, war becomes lefs diftreffing to
peaceable individuals who do not bear arms. It would not be
extended much more, if, in time of war,
if, in time of war, commerce was
permitted to pafs free, fo that no privateers fhould be allowed,
and only ſhips of war by fea, and fortreffes on land, fhould be
expofed to danger. Next to having no wars at all, this rule
would be the greateſt common benefit.
વ
One of the most barbarous and abfurd cuftoms which has
arifen from the practice of war, joined to ancient fuperftition, is
the modern duelling, which is fo faſhionable in many parts of
Europe. For it is hardly known elſewhere, and was unknown
to the ancients. It is a remarkable inftance of the continuance
of an effect after the caufe hath ceafed to operate. Nobody at
this day imagines that fingle combat is a proper appeal to God,
or that he who is in the right has any advantage in the combat
over him that is in the wrong; yet a man thinking himfelf
innocent and injured, and perhaps having a wife and family,
Sffz
will
500
PART V..
LECTURES ON
will voluntarily expofe his life to an equal rifk with that of a
man whom he defpifes as a nuifance to fociety, becauſe he has
been infulted by him. Good fenfe will furely teach the world
at laft, that infolence is beft anſwered by contempt, and real
injuries beſt redreffed by public juftice. The man who hath
offended againſt the rules of good breeding, will find a fufficient
puniſhment in the neglect and difgrace which his behaviour:
will naturally bring upon him.
}
LECTURE LXIII.
The Expences of Government. How moderate Taxes operate.
Exorbitant Taxes. Taxes upon Poffeffions or Confumptions.
Their different Advantages and Disadvantages. A Poll-tax,
in what Circumftances moft tolerable. By whom a Tax upon
Confumptions ſhould be paid. Cuftoms. Manufactures no proper
Subject of Taxation. Land-taxes. The French Taille. Taxes:
on Luxuries or Neceſſaries; on Importation. Farmers of Taxes.
N hiſtorian ſhould give particular attention to the manner in
which the expences of government are defrayed. For very
much of the public happineſs and tranquillity depends upon it,
and many governments have been ruined by wrong methods of
doing it. Either the taxes have been too great, have been laid
upon improper things, or have been collected in an improper
manner..
LECT. LXIII.
501
GENERAL POLICY.
manner. And innumerable events ſhow that the minuteft things ♦
of this nature are of great importance.
Moderate taxes operate like a conſtant ſpur and obligation to
labour, and thereby greatly contribute to the flouriſhing ftate
of a people, particularly if they be laid on gradually. Then,
the only confequence of taxes is, that the poor increaſe their
induſtry, perform more work, and live as well as before, without
demanding more for their labour. This is agreeable to what is
conſtantly obſerved, that in years of fcarcity, if it be not
extreme, the poor labour more, and live better than in
years of
plenty. Any other material diſadvantage which is an equal
fpur to labour hath the like effect.
Tyre, Athens, Carthage, Rhodes, Genoa, Venice, and Hol-
land, all laboured under great natural diſadvantages. It feems
more reaſonable to afcribe the indolence of mankind in hot
countries to the general goodneſs of the foil in thoſe countries,
which, without labour, fupplies them with the few things which
are neceffary to their ſubſiſtence, than to the heat of the climate.
For wherever people can live without labour they are equally
idle. No nation under the fun can be more indolent than the
Iriſh have been, or than many of them are to this day, and Sir
William Temple attributes it to the goodneſs of the foil in
Ireland; as he afcribes the richneſs of the Dutch to the badneſs
of theirs.
On the other hand, exorbitant taxes, like extreme neceffity,
deſtroys induſtry, by engendering deſpair, and even before they
reach that pitch they raiſe the price of labour and manufactures
in commodities of all kinds. But a free ftate, in which
there is every encouragement to industry,
heavy taxes than a defpotic government.
Turks bear the taxes which the Dutch pay?
5
་
will better bear
How would the
In England mer-
chants
502
PART V.
LECTURES ON
chants in fact lend great fums to the ftate on the importation
of their goods. Who would venture to do this in Turkey?
Taxes may be laid either upon what is poſſeſſed, or upon what
is confumed. Taxes upon poffeffions are levied with little ex-
pence, but they have this difadvantage, that they require that
every man's property be known. If the owners regulated it
themſelves, they would do it falfely; and if it was done by the
infpection of officers, there would be a door open to all kinds
of oppreffion and cruelty. In this cafe, however, it were
unjuſt to tax a perfon according to his property. It ought to be
according to his fuperfluity, or what he can fpare from the
expences which his ftation of life neceffarily obliges him to.
The produce of no tax can be fo eafily afcertained as that of
a poll-tax, and therefore in arbitrary governments recourfe is
often had to it. But in order to render it, in any tolerable
degree, equal, and, if the amount be great, fupportable, the
people muſt be claffed, and their circumftances known.
Taxes on confumption are, upon the whole, the moſt eligible,
becauſe in this cafe no man pays more than he chufes; and the
conveniences he enjoys, are an equivalent for what he pays.
Taxes of this kind regulate and check themſelves. For
the increaſe of the impofition is not always found to be an
increaſe of the revenue, fince the dearnefs of a commodity
leffens the confumption. In this cafe it is of vaft confequence
that the feller pay the tax. He will make nothing of the
expence, becauſe he makes that addition to the price of his
goods, and with the buyer, particularly after fome time has
elapſed fince the impofition, it is confounded with the price
of the commodity, and confidered as part of it. Befides, if
the buyer pay the tax, he is liable to be fearched, which would
be intolerable in a free ftate. This method, however, only
deceives
LECT. LXIII.
503
GENERAL POLICY.
deceives the people, making them ignorant of what they con-
tribute to the expences of government. As the price of living
is increaſed by all taxes on confumption, men muſt have more
for their labour, and confequently thofe manufactures will come
dearer to a foreign market.
Sir James Stuart fuppofes*, that the beft poffible tax would
be upon the fale of every commodity. But this would be a
check on the transferring of property, which, in a commercial
ſtate, ought to be made as eaſy as poffible; fo that it ſeems
better to have refpect either to the poffeffion, or the confumption,
of commodities, in the levying of all taxes.
The fewer particulars are liable to be inſpected in a free ſtate
the better. This makes the excife laws feverely felt in England.
When duties are paid upon importation only, it is much the
eaſieſt for the country. With us, theſe taxes are called cuſtoms,
and, as they are levied, are the most injudicious of all our taxes,
They are a great temptation to fmuggling, and frauds of all
kinds. The ſtate never receives what it ought; and yet the fair
trader, befides infinite trouble and vexation, pays more, in fees,
to expedite his bufinefs, than the ftate requires.
prevents.
If
If the wealth and ſtrength of a nation depend chiefly upon its
manufactures, it is impolitic to fubject them to any tax. It
ought to be laid upon the property acquired by them; becauſe
a tax on the manufacture itſelf difcourages induſtry, and
the acquifition of that wealth which alone can pay the tax.
the tax be laid on any inftrument employed in the manufacture,
the manufacturer will be embarraſſed in his art, and be reduced
to inconvenient methods of avoiding it. And, in general, if
he cannot go to work without thinking of the tax, and knowing
*Political Economy, vol. i. p. 593;
that
504
PART V.
LECTURES O N
that he pays it as a manufacturer, he will often chufe to avoid
a prefent certain lofs by abandoning the profpect of great future
gain. Whereas, when property, acquired by manufactures as
well as in any other way, is taxed, the grievance is remote,
and he knows that if ever he be fubject to pay, he will be
proportionably able to do it.
Many perfons are of opinion that any country would beſt
ſupport the expences of government by laying all taxes on fome
one visible object, as land, or land and houſes. The tax could
not then be evaded, and though it might ſeem to affect only one
object, it might in reality affect every article of confumption,
becauſe they would all, in fome way or other, depend upon it.
If the land alone be taxed, it muſt proportionably raife the
price of every produce of the foil, as corn, cattle, materials for
manufactures, &c. and confequently of labour in general; becauſe
the labourer must be fed and cloathed from the produce of the
ground; and the proprietor and farmer, by raifing the price of
their commodity in proportion, would feel no particular burthen.
In this, as in every other cafe, the tax would ultimately be
paid by the confumer, who would, of courfe, be the moſt able
to pay, and would enjoy the value of it.
If all the taxes were laid on houſes, or habitations of
any
kind, it would not be very difficult to make it affect all the
inhabitants according to their property, becauſe all perfons muft
have houſes, and in general would have them in proportion to
their fortunes. If a few perfons ſhould content themſelves with
living in a difreputable manner, in order to avoid the tax, the
lofs to the ſtate would not be very great. They muft at leaſt
eat, drink, and be cloathed, and the price of thofe neceffaries
will be raiſed by every poffible mode of taxation.
To
LEOT. LXIII.
505
GENERAL POLICY.
To raife all taxes upon the land, or rather the nett produce
of it, after the expences of culture are deducted, is the great
maxim of the French economifts. They ſay that the nett
produce is the only real wealth that is annually reproduced, and
that the only poffible way of taxing this, in any regular pro-
portion, is to levy the tax directly upon the produce. But
the produce of land is fo various, that this would make a
very complex ſyſtem, if it was made to affect all who ſhould
uſe the produce, and if any regard was paid to its being a
neceffary, or a fuperfluity; fo that it will be found more
expedient to lay the tax upon the property, of which a
man is poffeffed. And perhaps the only practicable method of
doing this is, to tax his expenditure, always laying the greateſt
burthen on articles that are leaft neceffary. As to the wealth
which perfons hoard, it does not feem poffible to come at it
without great oppreffion; and it may be prefumed that whatever
is hoarded by one generation, will be diffipated in the next.
All the taxes in China are laid upon the land. Nothing is
demanded of the artifans or merchants *.
All taxes fhould affect men in proportion to their property,
and not their rank, becauſe it is their property only that enables
them to pay taxes. To exempt certain claffes of men, evidently
more able to pay the tax than thofe who do pay it, fixes a mark
of ignominy on thofe who pay. It gives them a conftant feeling
of their degradation, and excites envy towards their fuperiors,
which cannot be productive of any good.
In England the nobility and the members of the houfe of
commons have fome perfonal privileges, but the taxes affect
them as much as others. They have; indeed, the privilege
* Memoirs fur les Chinois, vol. iv. p. 305.
Ttt
of
506
PART V.
LECTURES ON
of being exempt from the poftage of letters; but it is on the idea
of their correſpondence having for its object the concerns of the
public. If the members of parliament ſhould-venture to exempt
themſelves from any confiderable tax,, the country at large would
not bear it.
Nothing can well be imagined more oppreffive than the taille
in France. It is levied directly upon men who, having nothing
but their wages for their fubfiftence, without property, and
without furniture, beyond their neceffary utenfils, cannot even by
violence itſelf be compelled to pay. Every collector (who is:
himſelf conſtrained to undertake to levy the tax) had a right to
call upon the four perfons in the district'; whofe proportion of
the taille was the greateft,, to fill up all deficiencies. Though
they might already have diſcharged their own, ſhare.. of the tax,
they were compelled, by the fale of their effects, or even by
imprisonment, to expiate the negligence of the collector, or the
poverty of their countrymen*.
{
The eaſe of the country has been too little the object of thoſe
who have impoſed taxes. They have not ſtudied in what man->
ner to proportion the burden of them to the capacity of the
people to bear it, but have only endeavoured to get as much as,
they could without exciting any dangerous commotions, or fuch
a clamour as would make it impoffible for them to keep their
places. They have, therefore, too often fpared the rich, whoſe.
union was easy and formidable, and have oppreffed the poor,
who were too numerous, and too much difperfed, to unite in.
great bodies, and whofe complaints the prince ſeldom hears of.
When great numbers of perfons are fupported by the revenues
of a country, and are of courſe intereſted in the continuance of
* Life of Mr. Turgot, p. 126.
$
its
LECT. LXIII.
507
GENERAL POLICY.
its burdens, the moſt upright minifters' will find it difficult to
afford it any
relief. This was fully experienced by Mr. Turgot.
All the indirect grants of former minifters were confidered as
fo many rights, and many had transferred them as real property.
The united claims of theſe perfons, and intrigues, overpowered
that great man*.
It is always preferable to tax luxuries, becauſe this will
not tend to raiſe the price of neceffaries, and therefore will
only affect thoſe who can beſt afford to pay. But ftill, fince
many will be leſs able to pay the poor, whofe labour ſupplied
their luxury, thefe muft lofe their employment, or at leaſt
change it for one that may be leſs advantageous to them.
It is a maxim in all commercial ftates, that taxes be laid fo
as to favour the exports as much as poffible, and to lay the chief
burden upon what is imported.
what is imported. This encourages an application
to home-manufactures, and navigation. Taxes upon foreign
commodities oblige a people to apply to them themſelves. This
has been the happy effect of many taxes upon foreign manufac-
tures in England, particularly upon German and Flemish linens;
and the tax on French brandy has encreafed the fale of rum,
and contributed to the fupport of our fouthern colonies. But it
ſhould be confidered that this is taxing the whole community for
the advantage of a part of it; and unleſs that part be neceſſary
to the whole, their benefit may be purchaſed at too great a
price. If more money be given for Weft-India commodities,
in the price that individuals pay for them to our planters, than
they would do if the importation of them was free to all the
world, it had been better for the country at large if no fuch
colonies had been known, except they ſhould in fome other manner
* Life of Mr. Turgot, p. 189.
Ttt 2
add
508
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
add to the ſtrength and wealth of the nation; and the expence
of one war on their account will much more than overbalance
any advantage of that kind.
Taxes are raiſed with the leaft trouble to the government by
means of farmers, who advance the money as it is wanted..
But as the farmers muft neceffarily have an opportunity of doing
more than barely refunding themſelves, and certainly will not
do lefs, it is generally the moſt expenſive method in the end,
and-fooneft exhaufts the people. Befides, it is always an odious.
method of taxation. The people cannot with any patience fee
the farmers growing rich at their expence.. The eftablishment.
of farmers of the taxes was a great hurt to Rome. In a defpotic
ſtate, where the taxes are paid to the king's officers, the people
are infinitely more happy; witness, Perfia and China. The great
abuſes which arife from the fyftem of taxation in France proceed
not from the number, or the weight, of the taxes, but from 'the:
expenſive, unequal, arbitrary, and intricate méthod: of levying
them; by which induftry is difcouraged,, and agriculture renderedi
a beggarly and flavish employment.
In France, fays Sir James Stewart*, the collection of taxes,
coſts the ſtate no less than ten per cent. whereas in England the-
expence of collecting the excife, adminiftered. by commiffioners,,
who act for the public, and not by farmers who act for them-
felves, does not cost more than five pounds, twelve fhillings, andi
fix-pence in the hundred.
7
* Political Economy, vol. i. p. 5:12. -
:
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}
LECT. LXIV.
509.
GENERAL POLICY.
י
LECTURE
LXIV.
Of National Debts. Origin of them. Want of Credit in ancient
States, and in fome Countries at prefent. Advantages and
Difadvantages of National Debts. Great Danger from them.
Sinking Funds.
To augment the national fupplies upon any particular
emergency beyond their annual produce, it has been the
practice of fome ſtates to anticipate their revenues, by borrowing
fums of money on the credit of them. This paper credit, as it
is called (from the circulation of the government fecurities upon
paper, borrowed from the practice of merchants) is faid to have
had its origin in Florence, in the year 1324, and to have been
brought into France from. Italy after it had been fuppreffed by
Henry IV.
Sir James Stewart gives the following more particular account.
of the origin and progrefs. of national debts *. The Jews, baniſhed
from France on account of their extortion. in the holy wars,.
fled into Lombardy, and there invented the uſe of bills of exchange,
in order to draw their riches from countries to which they durft
not refort to bring them off. Thus bills, and promiffory notes, in
various forms, came to be uſed by all perfons, and even by kings.
At first princes mortgaged their lands and principalities, in
order to obtain a fum of money; acting upon the principle of
* Political Economy, vol. i. p. 353.
private:
510
'PART V.
LECTURES ON
private credit, before government acquired that ftability which
is neceffary to eſtabliſh a firm confidence. The fecond ſtep was
to raiſe money upon branches of the taxes affigned to the lender.
But this method was attended with great abuſe and oppreffion,
and at length public credit affumed its prefent form. Money
was borrowed upon determinate or perpetual annuities, a fund
was provided for that purpoſe, and the refunding of the capital
was in many cafes left in the option of government, but was
never to be demandable by the creditor. Francis I. was the
firſt who contracted a regular debt on a perpetual intereft upon
the town-houſe of Paris, at about eight per cent. when legal
intereft in England at the fame time was ten per cent*. Vol-
taire fays, that Lewis XIV. left a debt of about a hundred and
eighty millions fterling.
This cuſtom of contracting national debts is quite contrary to
the practice of antiquity, in which almoſt all ſtates made pro-
viſion of a public treaſure in time of peace againſt the neceffities
of war; for want of which war is now attended with the increaſe
of taxes, and the decay of commerce. But then the ancients
had it not in their power to make uſe of expedients which
nothing but the far greater fecurity of property, and greater
fidelity and honour, both in individuals, and in public and private
focieties, than they ever knew, could make practicable. They
either could not have borrowed at all, or upon fuch intereft, that
the remedy would have inſtantly been intolerable. Whereas with
us, though the future evils of borrowing may be great, they come
on gradually and imperceptibly, fo long as the intereft of the
borrowed
money can be paid without much difficulty.'
* Stewart's Political Economy, vol. i. p. 377.
Credit
LECT. LXIV.
511
GENERAL POLICY.
Credit was fo low in France, and intereft fo high, that feven
millions borrowed by the late king became a debt of thirty-two
millions to the ſtate*. While the king of France paid exorbitant
intereft for the money advanced him, and Maximilian was known
by the name of Moneyless, the Venetians raiſed whatever fums
they pleaſed at the moderate premium of five per cent.
1
It ſeems not very difficult briefly to point out the principal
advantages and difadvantages attending thefe national debts.
The capital advantage of them is, that they afford relief in great
emergencies, and may thereby give a greater permanency to
ftates, which in former times, for want of fuch great occafional
reſources, were liable to be overturned without remedy. And
if the taxes neceffary to pay the intereft of thefe debts be not
immoderate, they are, as was obferved before, of no differvice to a
nation upon the whole.
Some have reprefented the national debt as having the fame
operation with the addition of ſo much capital ftock to the
nation, encouraging the induſtry of it, &c. But whatever money is
iſſued in the form of paper by the government, it is firſt depofited
in the form of caſh by the individual. The man who pays the
tax gives up fo much of his property, fo that it ceaſes to be
productive to him, and it is generally expended by government
in army and navy expences, revenue of officers, gratuities, &c.
which yield no return. It is like a man giving his fon a fum
of money which he expends in eating and drinking. The money,
no doubt, is employed, and thereby induſtry is encouraged; but
it is only that kind of induſtry which raiſes the price of con-
* Stewart's Political Economy, vol. i. p. 472.
+ Robertfon's Charles V. vol. i. p. 135.
fùmable.
512
PART V.
LECTURES
O N
fumable goods
If any man, or any nation, fhould give all
their property in this manner, they would certainly be im-
poverished, though thofe to whom their money was transferred
would be gainers.
Some perſons have paradoxically maintained that there can be
no inconvenience whatever attending any national debt; that
by this means the price of every thing is indeed raiſed, but that
this affecting all perfons alike, they will be as well able to pay
the advanced prices, as they were the lower ones. The fallacy
of this reaſoning may perhaps be moft eafily expofed by the
following ſtate of the cafe.
Let us ſuppoſe a ſociety to conlift of a thouſand labourers,
and a thouſand perſons juſt able to employ them. If this fociety
be loaded with any debt, and confequently be obliged to pay a
tax; fince all the labourers muft ftill fubfift, and their employers
can give them no more than they do, fome of theſe muſt become
labourers themſelves, fo that the price of this additional labour
fhall be equal to the amount of the tax. It is evident, therefore,
that the whole power of the fociety will be exhaufted when the
thouſand, who firft employed the labourers,, fhall be all brought
into the fame ftate with them; and when the price of their
labour ſhall be limited by the market to which it is brought.
The tendency of a public debt, therefore, is to encreafe the
quantity of labour in a country; and to a certain degree this
may be favourable, by promoting industry, but when carried to
an extreme, the country muſt be diftreffed.
So long as the labourers can raiſe the price of their labour, no tax
can hurt them. If, for inftance, each of them be obliged to pay one
hilling a week, and their wages have been twelve, they muft de-
mand thirteen fhillings, for their wages must be fufficient to fubfift
5
them.
LECT. LXIV.
513
GENERAL POLICY.
them. But when the wages they muſt abfolutely have, in order
to pay all the demands upon them, cannot be given, the proceſs
muſt ceaſe.
We ſhall always deceive ourſelves when we imagine that the
cafe of a country is, in this refpect, at all different from that of an
individual, or of a number of individuals, and that though debts.
may ruin the latter, they will not hurt the former. The only
difference is, that a ſtate cannot be compelled to pay its debts.
But when its credit is exhaufted, it will not only be unable to
contract any more debts, but may not have it in its power even
to pay the intereft of thofe already contracted; and in that cafe
it muſt neceffarily be expoſed to all the inconveniences attending
the numerous inſolvencies which must be occafioned by its own.
And if the infolvency of one great merchant, or banker, produce
great diftrefs in a country, how dreadful must be the confe-
quence attending the infolvency of fuch a nation as England.
It muſt be ſo extenfive and complicated as no politician can
pretend to deſcribe a priori.
The inconvenience of fuch a debt as the English have now
contracted, and which they rather feem difpofed to increaſe
than diminiſh is great, and may be fatal. If foreigners fhould
become poffeffors of the greateſt ſhare of our funds, we are in fact
tributary to them, and the difference is very little if they be
natives. For ſtill the people are debtors to another body than
themſelves, though they may, in fome refpects, have the fame
intereft. But the moſt we have to fear from the accumulation
of the national debt will begin to be felt when the intereft of it
comes to be fo great, that it cannot be defrayed by the taxes
which the country is able to raiſe, and when, confequently,
the monied people, notwithſtanding their intereft in keeping up
the national credit, will not venture to lend any more. Then
Uuu
one
•
514
PART V.
LECTURES ON
one of theſe two confequences muft follow, which I fhalk
introduce in the words of Mr. Hume. "When the new
"created funds for the expences of the year are not fubfcribed
"to, and raiſe not the money projected; at the ſame time that
"the nation is diftreffed by a foreign invafion, or the like, and
"the money is lying in the exchequer to diſcharge the intereſt
"of the old debt; the money must either be feized for the
"current fervice, and the debt be cancelled, by the violation of
"all national credit; or, for want of that money, the nation
"be enflaved."
What we have moſt to fear from the accumulation of our
national debt is not perhaps a fudden bankruptcy, but the
gradual diminution of the power of the ftate, in confequence
of the increaſe of taxes, which difcourage induftry, and make
it difficult to vend our manufactures abroad. The private
revenue of the inhabitants of Great-Britain, Dr. Smith fays*,,
is at preſent as much incumbered in time of peace, and their
ability to accumulate as much impaired, as it would have been
in the time of the most expenfive war, had the pernicious fyftem
of funding never been adopted. The practice of funding, he-
fays, has gradually enfeebled every ftate which has adopted it.
The Italian republics feem to have begun it. Genoa and Venice
the only two remaining which can. pretend to an independent
exiſtence, have both been enfeebled by it. Spain feems to have
learned the practice from the Italian republics; and (its taxes
being probably lefs judicious than theirs) it has in proportion
to its natural ſtrength been ftill more enfeebled. The debts of
Spain are of very old ftanding. It was deeply in debt before the
end of the fixteenth century, about an hundred years before
* Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. p. 528.
England.
LECT. LXIV.
515
GENERAL POLICY.
+
England owed a fhilling. France, notwithſtanding its natural
reſources, languiſhes under an oppreffive load of the ſame kind.
The republic of the United Provinces is as much enfeebled by
its debts as either Genoa or Venice. Is it likely then, he adds,
that in Great-Britain alone a practice, which has either brought
weakneſs or defolation into every other country, fhould prove
altogether innocent?
When debts have been contracted, and a fund appointed for
paying the intereſt of them, it is generally contrived to be ſo
ample, as to do fomething more than this, and the furplus is
made a fund for finking, or paying off, the debt; and is therefore
called a finking fund. And as diſcharging the debt difcharges
the intereſt of the debt at the fame time, it neceffarily operates
in the manner of compound intereft, and therefore will in time
annihilate the debt. But the temptation to apply this finking
fund to other purpoſes is ſo great, that it has been of little uſe
in this country.
To facilitate the payment of theſe debts, it is cuſtomary with
ſome nations to borrow upon lives, viz. either to give the lender
an annuity for his own life, or an annual fum to a number of
perfons to expire with the laft life. This laſt method is called
a tontine. Both theſe methods have fucceeded better in France
than with us.
Mr. Poftlethwaite makes an eſtimate of what taxes thefe king-
doms may be ſuppoſed to bear, in the following manner. People
who live in plenty, as in England, may part with a tenth of
their income; but fo poor as Scotland and Ireland in general
are, a twentieth to them would be as much as a tenth to the
English. By which, confidering the number of the people,
and their incomes, computed at a medium, he puts the amount
Uuu 2
of
3
51,6
PART V.
LECTURES ON
of all that can be drawn from the three kingdoms annually at.
eight millions, three hundred and feventy-five thousand pounds.
Experience has taught us that we are able to bear a much
greater burden than this, or than any perfon, even the moſt
fanguine among us, had imagined we ever could bear; our
national debt at prefent being about two hundred and forty
millions, the intereft of which is twelve millions. However,
without naming any particular fum, if the national debt fhould
be raiſed fo high that the taxes will not pay the intereft of
it, and at the fame time defray the ordinary expences of govern-
ment, one or other of the confequences above-mentioned muft
enfue. And in the mean time our manufactures must be
burdened, and confequently our ability to pay taxes muſt be
diminiſhed, by every addition to the national debt..
Inſtead of paying off any part of the national debt, ſome think:
it would be better, as foon as the produce of any tax would
enable the ſtate to do it, to take off fome of the other more
burthenfome taxes, eſpecially fuch as tend to check manufac-
tures, and thereby to diminish the power of acquiring wealth..
For if the country grow more wealthy, the debt, though.
nominally the fame, becomes in reality lefs, in proportion to.
the greater ability to diſcharge it. Thus a perfon in a good way
of trade does not always find it his intereft to pay his debts,
becauſe he can employ that furplus by which he could diſcharge.
them to a better. account. For it is poffible that with an.
hundred pounds, by which he might have diminiſhed his debts,,
he may acquire a thouſand.
It can hardly be expected, however, that minifters of ftate
will have the magnanimity, or the judgment, to act upon this
plan. Otherwife, by adding to fome taxes, as thofe on land.
and:
LECT. LXIV.
517
GENERAL POLICY
and houſes, acquired by wealth, and diminiſhing thoſe on manu-
factures, by which wealth is acquired, a nation might become
ſo wealthy, as that its debts would be of little confequence to
it. But till mankind are cured of the expenfive folly of going
to war, it is not even defirable that nations should have any
large furplus of wealth at the difpofal of their governors; as
it would be fure to be fquandered in fome mischievous project.
Wife nations therefore, not being fure of a fucceffion of wife
governors,, will be content to be juſt able to pay the intereft of
their debts, as the only fecurity for peace, and indeed the only
guard againſt deſtruction.
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PART V.
518
LECTURES ON
སྙད།
སཱ
LECTURE
>
LXV.
The Hiftorian directed to attend to whatever contributes to the
Improvement of uſeful Science. Changes in the Face of the
Earth. The Abbe de Bos's Obfervation on the Air of Italy.
Changes with respect to the Fertility of feveral Countries; to
what they are owing. Rivers which have changed their Courfe.
Whatever tends to make us better acquainted with Human
Nature to be particularly attended to. In what Refpect
Hiftory may afift us to correct the Errors of a Theory drawn
from Experience. Of National Characters, whether depending
upon Climate, or other Caufes. Varieties among Mankind, in
their Moral Sentiments, in the Make of the Human Body, and
the different Difeafes to which Men have been Subject. The
different Vices which have prevailed in different Ages. An
Attention to Language recommended.
1
Have now held forth to your view the grand objects of
attention to every wife politician, and every fenfible reader of
hiſtory; namely thoſe things which tend to make a nation happy,
populous, and fecure, together with what relates to the expences
of government, and have endeavoured, for your further affiftance,
to point out the principal of their mutual connexions and
influences. It would be endleſs to point out every uſeful
object of attention to a reader of hiftory, as there is no branch
of uſeful knowledge which history will not furnish materials
for illuftrating and extending.
Modern
LECT. LXV.
51.9
GENERAL POLICY.
Modern mechanics have been improved by an acquaintance
with what the ancients had executed in that way. Natural
philofophy may yet receive great light from the accounts which
many hiftorians give of the natural hiſtory of different countries.
The principles of aftronomical calculation may be farther af-
certained, and perfected, by means of the hiftory of celeſtial
appearances, fuch as eclipfes and comets. And hints may with
advantage be taken, from the accounts of diſeaſes mentioned in
hiſtory, to improve the ſcience of medicine:
Some changes which have taken place in the face of the earth
justly challenge the attention of natural philofophers, par-
ticularly fuch as the Abbé de Bos has made his obfervations
upon. He is of opinion, that Italy is warmer at prefent than
it was in the times of the ancients; a remark which may be
extended to other Eutopean climates, owing probably to the
lands being cleared of wood, to the marshes being drained, and
the country better peopled and cultivated. On the other hand,
the northern parts of Europe appear to be colder than they
were fome centuries ago, and feas which were open formerly
are not navigable now,,on account of their being obftructed by ice.
It is worthy of notice, in this view, that when the form of
government has deftroyed a ſpirit of induftry, the foil itſelf
ſeems to become barren. Who, for instance, from feeing the
preſent ſtate of Egypt, Paleſtine, Afia Minor, fome parts of
Greece, Africa, or Sicily, would ever imagine that they had
formerly been fo fruitful as all history demonftrates them to
have been. Time has alſo made a confiderable alteration in the
courſe of many great rivers. The courſe of the Rhine is quite
changed from what it was formerly. The river Oxus no longer
runs into the Cafpian fea. The fea has in many places gained
upon the land, and in other places towns which were formerly
fea-ports
520
PART V.
LECTURES ON
fea-ports have now no advantage of that kind, the fea having
removed to fuch a diftance from them.
1
357
The hands of men have made many confiderable alterations in
the face of the earth. The Nile, it is faid, once loft itſelf in the
fands of Lybia, the laxartes, which formerly feparated the barba-
rous from the civilized nations of Afia, no more empties itſelf
into any fea. Its waters have been divided and diffipated by the
Tartars. The draining of marfhes, the clearing of woods, and
the multitude of canals in many countries, make the face of the
earth affume à very different appearance; and the ſpirit for
improvements of all kinds, which now prevails in many parts of
the world, will, no doubt, in time, produce farther changes, of
which we have no idea; and the confequences of thoſe changes
may be what thoſe who make them may leaft of all think of.
The only object of attention I fhall endeavour to point out
more particularly is the knowledge of human nature, which may
be viewed in a variety of lights, and to confiderable advantage
in the glafs of hiſtory.
Experience and felf-examination may affift us in adjuſting
the general theory of the human mind. But it is in hiftory alone
that we can ſee the ftrength of its powers, the connexion of its
principles, and the variety to which individuals of the ſpecies
are ſubject, together with many other particulars, equally curious
and uſeful to be known, by a perfon who is defirous thoroughly
to understand this very important and interefting ſubject.
An European would allow too little to the ftrength of imagi-
nation, and the influence of the mind upon the body, if he
formed his judgment from facts within the compaſs of his own
obſervation only. If he cannot travel, he must read oriental
hiſtory, before he can be a competent judge of it.
even convulfions are frequent at the bare recital of
5
In the Eaſt,
a ſtory, or the
delivery
LECT. LXV.
$21
GENERAL POLICY.
<
1
delivery of a piece of eloquence. The utmoſt vehemence in
action is quite natural to them. They exprefs their fenfations by
cries, lifting up their arms, and the agitation of their whole
bodies. And geftures which outgo every poffible natural
impulſe, to a degree which with us would pafs for ridiculous
and mad, are not, with them, accounted extravagant. The
Mahometan monks and derviſes whirl themfelves round in their
extafies with inconceivable rapidity: they even receive their
fultans with thefe convulfions. Alfo the tendernefs of the
orientals for the living exceeds our benevolence, and we are as
far fhort of them in our regards to the dead.
4 A
In this age of reafon and philofophy we fhould be abfolutely
ignorant without the help of hiftory, how deplorably the beſt
faculties of the human mind may be funk and fettered by ſuper-
ftition. The minds of almoſt all the ancients were inflaved by
it, to a degree of which very few of the moderns have any juft
conception. All the religion of the ancients, that the learned
Greeks and Romans leaft of all excepted, was fuperftition of
the moſt abfurd kind.
Some fpecies of fuperftition rofe even to a great height
under the ſhelter of chriftianity in barbarous ages. Never
was the folly of witchcraft in fo much credit as in the reign
of Henry III. of France. A magician condemned to be burned
declared, on his examination, that there were above thirty
thouſand of the fame profeffion in France.
In the year
*
1609, fix hundred forcerers were condemned in the juriſdiction of
the parliament of Bourdeaux, and most of them burned. The
famous curate Lewis Guaffredi, burned at Aix in the year 1611, had
publicly owned that he was a forcerer, and the judges believed him.
In fome refpects, hiftory bids fairer for determining the con-
nexion between different principles, difpofitions, and fituations.
Xxx
of
522
PART V.
LECTURES ON
of the human mind, than any reafoning a priori. Such is the
obſervation of Montefquieu, whether it be true or not, that
perfons very happy, or very miferable, are equally inclined to
feverity; witnefs monks and conquerors.
Hiſtory alſo furniſhes all that can be faid upon the curious
fubject of national characters, whatever hypothefs we adopt
with respect to them; whether we plead for the prevailing
influence of climate, or the infection of example, and the force
of habits of long ſtanding.
Thoſe who plead for the influence of phyfical caufes, allege
the indolence, the langour of body, and the fpeculative turn of
mind which are generally obſerved in people of fouthern climates,
together with the firmness of bodily texture, and the groffneſs of
intellects in people fituated far to the north. They fay with.
Montefquieu, that drunkenneſs prevails over the whole earth
in proportion to the coldness and moiſture of the climate, and
that people who inhabit a windy country are generally wild and
fickle, as the Gafcons and Thracians; whereas a calm fituation
fettles and tranquilizes the mind.
On the other hand, thofe who endeavour to account for the
variety which is obfervable in national characters from fixed
moral caufes, or from particular accidents which (might give
a turn to the difpofitions of the founders of a ftate, and be
afterwards propagated by example, as language is) allege other
hiftorical facts, as that Athens and Thebes were fituated near
together, yet the inhabitants of thofe towns differed much in their
national character; as do the ancient and modern Greeks, though
inhabiting the fame climate. Travellers, however, do fay, that
many of the Greeks, particularly the Athenians, fhow a great deal
of natural quickneſs of apprehenfion, notwithſtanding the civil
difadvantages they labour under, difadvantages enow to damp the
Zi
brightest
LECT. LXV.
523
GENERAL POLICY.
brighteſt genius that ever appeared among men. They ſay, that
the people of Languedoc and Gafcony are the gayeft people in
France, whereas the Spaniards, who are feparated from them
only by the Pyrenees, are as remarkably heavy; that the Jews in
Europe, and the Armenians in the Eaft, have the fame peculiar
character in all places, as well as the Jefuits, and the Quakers;
and that the Spanish, Dutch, and French colonies, though
fituated in the fame or fimilar climates, retain the peculiarities
of their reſpective mother countries.
Even habits which depend very much upon the conſtitution
of the body, which is univerfally acknowledged to be greatly
influenced by the climate, do by no means correſpond to it.
Both the ancient and modern Germans, indeed, were remarkable
for their addictedness to drinking; but the Perfians, who are
now the moſt abftemious people in the world, were, in ancient
times, as much the contrary. Artaxerxes reckoned himſelf
fuperior to his brother Cyrus, becauſe he was a better drinker.
Darius Hyftafpes caufed it to be infcribed upon his tomb, that no
perfon could bear a greater quantity of liquor, and Alexander
the Great was obliged to drink hard in order to recommend
himſelf to the fame people. The Mofcovites, a very northern
nation, were as jealous as any people in the fouth, before their
communication with the rest of Europe. The Engliſh, they fay,
have leaſt of an uniform national character, on account of their
liberty and independence, which enables every man to follow
his own humour.
Theſe, and all the varieties obfervable in the human fpecies,
furniſh a moſt pleaſing object of attention to a reader of hiſtory.
A moraliſt, without the aid of hiftory, which furnishes him
with more extenſive obſervations than his own experience could
reach to, would be too apt to grow bigotted to arbitrary and
Xxx 2
fanciful
524
PART V.
LECTURES ON
fanciful hypothefes, about the divifion of the faculties of the
human mind, about the proper office of each faculty, and the
uniformity of its operations. Several varieties in what is called
the moral ſenſe, were noted in the lecture upon the moral uſes
of history. To theſe I fhall now add, in order to lead the
attention of a reader of hiſtory to other varieties of a fimilar
nature, which affect the theory of the human mind and its
faculties, that the Japaneſe think fuicide virtuous when not
injurious to fociety, and the Chineſe certainly think it no fin
to expoſe the children they cannot maintain. Theſe, and the
different degrees of value fet upon particular virtues; and the
different degrees of horror conceived againſt particular vices, in
different nations and ages, are well worth the attention of a
philofopher and moraliſt.
It is not beneath him to confider even the varieties there are
in the outward form of the human fpecies; fince it is evident
there are ſome things very remarkable in the make of the body
and turn of the features, which we learn from history has ever
been peculiar to certain nations, and by, which one may be
greatly affifted in tracing the origin and migration of people.. I
ſhall mention a few of theſe differences, with a view to excite
you to inveſtigate this fubject more thoroughly than it has yet
been done.
} {
1
The African blacks are well, known to be different from the
Europeans, and not more in the colour of their, fkin, than in
the form of their lips and nofes, the hair of their heads, and the
ſhape of their legs. Lapland produces no men' taller than three
cubits, their eyes, ears, and nofes are different from, thoſe of all
other people who furround them. As Voltaire fays, they feem to
be formed purpoſely for the climate they inhabit. The people of
Caffraria are of an olive colour; the people of Sophila, Mont-
5
baza,
}
LECT. LXV.
525
GENERAL POLICY.
baza, and Melinda are black, but of a different fpecies from
thoſe of Nigritia. In the middle of Africa are little men,
as white as fnow, with faces like thofe of the negroes, and
round eyes like thofe of a partridge. The Tartars and native
Americans, and the inhabitants of Kamtfchatka, have thin
beards. Du Halde fays, the very make of the Chineſe mouth
is very different from that of the Europeans, their teeth are placed
in a different manner from ours, under the row ftands out, and
fometimes that upon the upper lip, or, at leaſt on the gums
of the under row, which lies inwards, fo that the two gums
ſcarce ever meet together, like thofe of Europeans.
Even the diſeaſes to which mankind have been fubject in
different ages, and to which they are incident in different parts
of the world, are a ftriking object of attention to an hiftorian.
Diſeaſes are mentioned in antiquity which are almoft unknown
to modern medicine, and new difeafes have arifen, and propa-
gated themſelves, of which there are no traces in ancient hiſtory.
The ſmall and the great pox, which are not fo much as
mentioned by any ancient author, deftroy, it is thought, ten
or twelve parts of mankind every generation. The origin of
theſe diſeaſes has been the ſubject of much controverſy, and it
can only be decided by history. The leprofy was hardly known
in Europe till it was imported in the time of the Crufades,
and the prevalence of that diforder in thoſe times is now hardly
credible. Philip Auguftus of France bequeathed one hundred
fols to each of the two thouſand Lazarettoes in his kingdom.
Matter of uſeful philofophical fpeculation may ariſe even from
the confideration of the vices to which mankind have been addicted,
particularly to the prevalence of particular vices in certain coun-
tries and the fucceffion of vices in different ages. Two centuries.
ago (as the progrefs of revenge is ingenuously traced in the Law
Tracts)
526
ON PART V.
LECTURES
Tracts) affaffination was the crime in fathion in Europe, but it
wore out by degrees, and made way for a more covered, but more
deteſtable method of deftruction, by poiſon. This horrid crime
was extremely faſhionable in France and Italy. It vanifhed,
however, imperceptibly, and was fucceeded by a lefs dif-
honourable method of exercising revenge, viz. by duelling.
Laftly, no philofopher, in reading hiftory, can paſs without
particular obſervation whatever occurs with reſpect to the
language of different ages and nations. Every thing relating
to their rife, progreſs, and revolutions, will demand his attention,
being uſeful both in tracing the migrations of people, as was
obſerved before, and in throwing light upon the fentiments and
feelings of the human mind, to which language correfponds,
and being thereby fubfervient, in a variety of ways, to many
philofophical ſpeculations.
LEC.
LECT. LXVI.
527
GENERAL POLICY.
LECTURE LXVI.
An Attention to Divine Providence in the Conduct of Human
Affairs recommended. The Use of theſe Obfervations in demon-
ftrating the Divine Attributes. Comparison of this Proof with
that from the Works of Nature. Theſe Reſearches cleared from
the Charge of Prefumption.
Great Caution recommended.
Methods and Maxims of proceeding in thefe Inquiries. Evi-
dence of the State of the World having been improved, and
Marks of its being in a progress towards farther Improvement:
confidered here only with refpect to perfonal Security and perfonal
Liberty. The State of perfonal Security in Greece, Rome, and
the Feudal Times of Europe, compared with the State of Things
at prefent. Number of Slaves in ancient Times, and during the
Prevalence of the Feudal Syftem.
TH
HE noblest object of attention to an hiſtorian, and to every
perſon who confiders himſelf as a ſubject of the moral
government of God, I have reſerved for the laſt place; and
that is, the conduct of divine Providence in the direction of
human affairs. This is the moſt fublime ſubject of contemp-
lation that can employ the mind of man. And, as was ſhewn
in the first part of this courfe, has the happieft tendency to
inſpire our hearts with the fentiments of piety and virtue.
Confufed and perplexed as is the profpect, which hiſtory
exhibits to our view, it is, in reality, an exhibition of the
ways of God, and jointly with the works of nature (which at
fuft
528
PART V.
LECTURES ON
firſt fight, preſent a profpect equally confuſed and perplexed)
leads us to the knowledge of his perfections, and of his will.
Hitherto, indeed, next to the fcriptures, we have been
chiefly indebted to the former of thefe inftructors for what we
know of God. But the time may come when we ſhall have as
frequent recourfe to the latter. The principles of the former
are, no doubt, as yet, far better understood; fince by the
fucceffive obſervations of fome ages of mankind, much more of
uniformity has been difcovered amidſt their feeming irregularity.
The chief reafon of this is, that the operations of nature are
more fully expofed to our view. Every obfervation and experi-
ment may be repeated as often as we pleafe, and to as much
advantage as we can poffibly devife; whereas the events which
take place in confequence of the views of divine Providence
happen but once, and our knowledge of them, and of all the
circumſtances which attended them (from which only we can
judge either of their efficient or final cauſes) are but imperfectly
tranſmitted to us by hiftory; for which reafon we fee little
more as yet than a chaos, and heap of confufion, in the ſcene.
But let not this difcourage us in our reſearches. What is
truly valuable in the hiftory of pait ages is every day cleared
from more and more of the obfcurity in which it has, been
involved. In confequence of which, the feries and connexion
of events may be more strictly traced, ſo that we may ſay, the
plan of this divine drama is opening more and more, and
the grand catastrophe growing nearer and nearer perpetually.
As, therefore, this moſt intereſting fubject may now be ftudied
to more advantage than it could. hitherto have been done, we
ought to give more attention to it than has hitherto been given,
and endeavour to aſcertain and enlarge our knowledge of the
divine
LECT. LXVI.
529.
GENERAL POLICY.
divine perfections, from confiderations and topics of argument,
of which little ufe has hitherto been made for this purpofe.
It may, by fome, be thought prefumptuous in man to attempt
to ſcan the ways of God in the conduct of human affairs. But
the fame objection might with equal justice be made to the
ſtudy of the works of God in the frame of nature. Both methods
are equally attempts to trace out the perfections and providence
of God, by means of different footſteps which he has left us of
them, differing only in this, that the one are much more diſtinct
than the other. What is the whole fcience of phyfiology, but
an attempt to inveſtigate the reafons, or final caufes, of the
Atructure of the feveral parts of nature, with a view to fee
farther into the wiſdom and goodneſs of the Divine Being
manifeſted in his works? And in fact, fo far is this condu,
in either cafe, from impiety, that it is the proper and the nobleſt
ufe we can make of our intellectual faculties, which is to attain
to the knowledge of God our maker, by means of obfervations
on every part of his works, or conduct, which he has thought
proper to exhibit to our view, and as it were to fubject to our
examination, no doubt for this very purpofe.
The greateſt caution is, certainly, requifite in our refearches
into this fubject; and very raſh, and unbecoming, would it be
in us to pronounce, in a peremptory manner, what was the
intention of the Diety in any of the events of this lower world,
becauſe we are able to fee, and to compare, fo very few of the
circumſtances with which they are connected. But taking for
granted what we already do know of God, both. from his works
and from his word, we cannot err far in any conclufions we draw
from the obfervation of his providence. And it cannot but be
a very great fatisfaction to a pious mind to fee his faith in the
divine power and wifdom, which was firft eſtabliſhed upon the
preceding
Yyy
530
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
preceding foundation, corroborated by obfervations on other
appearances.
To proceed, therefore, in the fureft manner in our enquiries
into the conduct of Divine Providence, we ought to take for
granted, the doctrines of the wiſdom and goodneſs of God, as
fuggefted from his works and his word, and look upon it as a fair
preſumption that we are not far wrong in our conjectures, when
we ſee a courſe of events in the hiftory of the world terminating
in the fame benevolent purpofes. And we ought to heſitate and
fufpend our judgment upon the view of any feemingly contrary
appearances, waiting the refult of farther obfervations.
This is ftrictly analogous to the most approved methods of
reaſoning, and the ſtricteft philoſophical inveſtigation; and pur-
fuing an univerfally allowed maxim in the conduct of our under-
ſtanding in other fimilar cafes. In examining even the works
of men, if we have any reaſon to ſuppoſe uniformity and con-
ſiſtency of deſign in them, we are guided in our enquiries into
the ſtructure of their parts by a view to this confiſtency, and
never conclude againſt that confiftency which the greater number
of appearances fuggeft to us, from the firft view of circum-
ftances not easily reconcileable with it.
In like manner, fince, in the greateſt part of the works of
God, we fee plain marks of wife and kind intention, we never
think we ought to give up our belief of the wiſdom and goodneſs
of God, becauſe we are not able to fee how every appearance in
nature is reconcileable with them; and if this be our maxim in
the inveſtigation of the works of nature, much more ought it
to be ſo in ſcanning the ways of God in the courſe of his provi-
dence; this being a ſubject in itſelf much more obſcure, and to
which our faculties, for the reafons given above, are much
more unequal. Let an hiftorian, therefore, attend to every
inſtance
LECT. LXVI.
5319
GENERAL POLICY.
inftance of improvement, and a better ſtate of things being brought
about, by the events which are preſented to him in hiſtory,
and let him afcribe thoſe events to an intention in the Divine
Being to bring about that better ſtate of things by means of
thofe events; and if he cannot fee the fame benevolent tendency
in all other appearances let him remain in fufpence with regard
to them.
Let the perfon, then, who would trace the conduct of Divine
Providence, attend to every advantage which the prefent age
enjoys above ancient times, and fee whether he cannot perceive
marks of things being in a progrefs towards a ftate of greater
perfection. Let him particularly attend to every event which
contributes to the propagation of religious knowledge; and
laftly, let him carefully obferve all the evils which mankind
complain of, and confider whether they be not either remedies-
of greater evils, or, fuppofing the general conftitution of things
unalterable, the neceffary means of introducing a greater degree
of happineſs than could have been brought about by any other
means; at leaſt, whether they be not, in fact, fubfervient to a
ftate of greater happiness. I fhall make a few obfervations
upon each of theſe heads, in order to affiſt you in your farther
enquiries into this important fubject.
That the ſtate of the world at prefent, and particularly the
ſtate of Europe, is vaſtly preferable to what it was in any former
period, is evident from the very first view of things. A thouſand
circumſtances fhew how inferior the ancients were to the moderns
in religious knowledge, in fcience in general, in government,.
in laws, both the laws of nations, and thoſe of particular ftates,,
in arts, in commerce, in the conveniences of life, in manners,,
and in conſequence of all thefe, in happiness. Almoſt all theſe
particulars have been demonftrated in the courfe of theſe lectures.
I fhall,,
Yyy. 2.
532
PART V.
LECTURES ON
?
I fhall, therefore, confine myſelf, in this place, to two par-
ticulars, comprehended under the general fubject of laws and
and government, in which the fuperiority of the internal cónfti-
tution of modern ſtates above thofe of the ancients will appear
to great advantage, and thoſe are, perfonal fecurity and perfonal
liberty.
•
Perfonal fecurity, or a freedom from violence and infult, is
certainly the moſt important object of all civil government; and
it cannot be defirable to live, where that is not firmly efta-
bliſhed; and a very few inftances will fhew the extreme
infecurity of ancient times in compariſon of the modern, and
particularly the preſent ſtate of England.
We may judge of the ſtate of Greece in this refpect by that
paffage in a dialogue of Xenophon quoted before, in which he
humorously fhews the advantages of poverty, and the incon-
venience of riches, and by what Tacitus fays, that their temples
were full of debtors and criminals, as churches and monafteries
ufed formerly to be in Popish countries.
Rome, and the neighbourhood of it, in the moſt intereſting
period of its hiftory, viz. in the time of Cicero, abounded with
robbers. Salluft fays, that Catiline's army was much augmented
by the acceffion of highwaymen about Rome. Cicero obferved,
that had Milo way-laid. Clodius by night, it might have been
imagined he had been killed by highwaymen, and that the
frequency of fuch accidents would have favoured the fuppofition,
though he had thirty flaves with him compleatly`armed, and
accuſtomed to blood and danger. By the law of the twelve
tables, poffeffion for two years formed a preſcription for land,
and of one year for moveables; an evident mark of frequent
violences, when fuch a law was neceffary to fecure a title
to property.
Barbarous
LECT. LXVI.
533
GENERAL POLICY
Barbarous nations appear to have been in no better a fituation,
Hirtius fays, that in
obliged to live in a
There are a thoufand
in proportion to the property they had.
Cæfar's time every man in Spain was
caftle, or walled town, for his fecurity.
evidences of the violence and infecurity of the feudal times in
all parts of Europe. Every retainer to a powerful lord might
do whatever he pleafed with impunity. It was no uncom-
mon thing for a parcel of deſperate fellows, fuch as Robin Hood
and his companions, independently of any lord, to live in
defiance of all the laws and adminiftration in being, without
ever being brought to punishment. Nay, fuch bands of rob-
bers often acquired a confiderable degree of reputation. Kings
entered into treaties with them, and bought their ſervice at a
confiderable price. The armies of Edward III. confifted chiefly
of fuch banditti, and they formed the best part of all the
armies then employed in Europe. In thoſe times every perſon
of any eftate or property lived in a kind of castle; the moats,
the ftrong enclofures, and the battlements about all old country
feats, together with many other circumftances, fhew that they
were built more for fecurity, than for convenience, or pleaſure.
As inftances enów were given of the wretchednefs of thofe
times in the lecture upon the feudal fyftem, I ſhall content
myſelf, in this place, with an extract from Voltaire, fhewing the
ſtate of Italy fo late as in the fixteenth century, which was a
pretty juft picture of a great part of the reft of Europe." Italy,
.6 C
furrounded by the arts, and in the very bofom of peace, was
"deficient in reſpect of general police, and had a long time been
"infefted with public robbers, like ancient Greece in the moſt
..
barbarous times. Whole troops of armed banditti marauded
"from one province to another, from the frontiers of Milan to
"the farther end of the kingdom of Naples, either purchafing
"❝ a pro-
534
PART V.
LECTURES ON
"a protection of the petty princes, or obliging them to wink
"at their rapines. The papal fee could not clear its dominions.
"of them till the time of Sixtus V. Even after his pontificate
they appeared fome times. The example of theſe free-booters
"encouraged private perfons to put in practice the fhocking
"cuſtom of affaffination. The ufe of the ftiletto was but too
"common in the towns, while the country was over-run with
"banditti. The ftudents of Padua uſed to knock people on
"the head, as they were paffing under the piazzas which run
along each fide of the treet."
The greater fecurity of, the prefent times, above that of the ſtate
of Europe during the prevalence of the feudal fyftem, is evident
from this circumſtance. That which we call treaſure trove, or the
diſcovery of concealed money, &c. was in former times a con-
fiderable part of the revenues of the lords to whom the land
belonged; which ſhews that it had been much the cuſtom to hide
things of value, for fear of being plundered of them, and that thoſe
who hid them had been fo often obliged to abandon them, that no
body knew where they were. At prefent fuch a fource of revenue
would never be thought of, but every thing that was found,
unclaimed by any body, would be the property of the finder.
So little was the ſecurity of property in the feudal times, that
men were often gainers by divefting themſelves of it, and giving
it to the church, of which they held it in fee. Methods fimilar
to this are at this day taken in Turkey.
The hiſtory of fairs furniſhes another argument for the
improved ſtate of Europe. They were inftituted when travelling,
was unfafe, and all property expofed to plunder. However,
needy lords and needy fovereigns confented, that, upon certain.
terms, traders might meet and exchange their commodities,
without the riſque of their being feized, and with the privilege
5
of
LECT. LXVI.
535
GENERAL POLICY:
of going and returning unmolefted. A commerce thus reftricted
was better than no commerce at all. At prefent, however,
thoſe great fairs have little advantage, except what they derive
from custom; and in countries perfectly civilized they are
almoſt fallen into difufe. Individuals travel with eafe and
ſafety, and do buſineſs in a manner more advantageous to
themſelves.
That there is lefs domeftic flavery in the world than formerly
is very evident, notwithstanding the late revival of that ſhocking
practice in the Weft-Indies. And domeſtic ſlavery is far more
cruel and oppreffive than any civil fubjection whatever, juft
as it is more grievous to fubmit to a petty prince, whofe
dominions extend not beyond a fingle city, than to obey a great
monarch; the fubjects of a petty prince, and the flaves of a
private perfon, being more immediately under the eye of their
maſter.
The number of flaves in ancient times is almoft incredible at
this day. Strabo fays, that ten thouſand flaves have been often
fold in a day for the uſe of the Romans, only in one particular
place, viz. Delas in Cilicia. Eunus and Athenio gave liberty
to fixty thouſand flaves in Sicily, and other immenſe armies
were frequently raiſed out of them. At Athens, and all the
confiderable cities in Greece, flaves were generally four times or
even in a greater proportion, more numerous than the fre
The petty tyrannies into which almoſt all ancient nations in
early times were divided, could differ very little from a large
family, in which one was maſter, and the reſt ſlaves, Indeed, the
univerſal odium into which every name of kingly power fell
in Greece and Italy, fhews the cafe to have been as it is here
reprefented.
In
536
-PART V.
LECTURES ON
In the feudal times in Europe, in which oppreffions of all
kinds prevailed, this was not the leaft evil; the labouring
people, and the artifans were as much the property of the great
landholders as the foil itſelf, and the cafe is nearly the fame at
this day in Poland. That mankind are happier in this reſpect
than formerly, and that there is a profpect of the farther
increaſe of perſonal fecurity, and perfonal liberty, in confe-
quence of any courfe of events, and efpecially thoſe which
favour the propagation of knowledge in general, and of the
chriſtian religion in particular, must be afcribed to the wiſdom
and goodness of God, who made, and who governs the world..
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LECT. LXVII. GENERAL POLICY.
537
LECTURE LXVII.
The gradual Advancement of Religious Knowledge to be attended to,
particularly in the Propagation of Christianity, and the Circum-
ftances attending the Reformation. Objection to the Goodness
of God from the State of War Mankind have generally been
in. War has always borne a very great Proportion to Peace.
Reflections upon the Slain in Battle. How far the Calamities
of War extend. The Benefit accruing to Mankind from their
Difpofition to hoftility. The particular Ufe of War shown in
Several Cafes. Religion, Liberty, and the Sciences have often
been promoted by War.
THE order of the divine difpenfations, or the gradual
advancement of religious knowledge, and thoſe circum-
ftances in the hiftory of the world which have contributed to
its advancement, are very important objects of attention to an
hiſtorian and divine, but it is what would be departing out of my
province to dwell upon in this place. This fubject has been
excellently treated by the late biſhop of Carliſle, in his Con-
fiderations on the Theory of Religion; in which performance he
has ſhown, from the ſtate of the world, as collected from hiftory,
that Chrift came in the fulness of time, both when the chriftian
doctrines were the moſt wanted, and when every thing was moſt
favourable to their evidence and propagation.
Zzz
The
538
PART V
LECTURE Š ON
The circumſtances of the reformation ought alſo to be at-
tended to with the fame view, and it ought to be confidered
that the benefit of the reformation is by no means to be re-
garded as confined to the reformed party. The reformation
was but like a little leaven, which leavened the whole lump.
The ſtate of the catholic church is prodigiouſly better than it was
before the exiſtence of proteftantifm. There are fewer abuſes
in the papal conftitution than formerly; and popish princes,
though they remain attached to the rites of the Romish church,
have, in fact, thrown off all fubjection to the pope. A fimilar
ſervice has been done to the church of England by the old puri-
tans, and the prefent diffenters.
Our greateſt difficulty in tracing the conduct of Divine Provi-
dence in the government of the world arifes from the ftate of
war, in which, upon the firſt reading of hiſtory, mankind ſeem
to have been almoft perpetually engaged.
To
This is ſo ſtriking a circumſtance to the generality of readers
of hiſtory, that it has been afferted, that hiftory contains nothing
but a view of the vices and the mifery of mankind.
me, however, and, I believe, to many others, this fubje&
appears in a very different light. Times of peace and tran-
quility are paffed over in filence by all hiftorians, and for this
reafon the face of hiftory prefents fo horrid an afpect. But if
any perſon will take the trouble to calculate accurately, he will
probably find, that war has borne no greater a proportion to
peace than fickness has borne to health, in the ordinary courſe
of human life. If, therefore, the difeafes we are fubject to
(the conſtitution of our nature confidered) 'be upon the whole
falutary, or if that conftitution whereby we are expoſed to them
be the beſt upon the whole, fo that we ſhould rather chufe to
豐
​be
LECT. LXVII.
539
GENERAL POLICY.
be expoſed to them than not, no particular objection will lie to
the conduct of Providence on account of the evils of war.
If, moreover, we confider that the numbers flain in battle
are abfolutely inconfiderable in compariſon of thoſe who die a
natural death, even in very destructive wars, and that the
plague, the ſmall-pox, and many other diforders, do vaftly
more execution than the ſword; and befides, that, with reſpect
to the greateſt part of thoſe who actually perish in war, the
courſe of nature may poffibly have been but little anticipated;
we ſhall ſee reaſon to conclude, that, provided poſterity be in
any reſpect better for the war, the lives loft in it were very
well loft. Confidering what kind of perfons compoſe the bulk
of our modern armies, it may, without any hesitation, be faid,
that it is more than probable, in no other way could they have
done their country fo much fervice.
In all ſpeculations of this nature, war ought to be confidered
as confined to thoſe who are fufferers by it. For certainly,
it would be very abfurd to confider all the people of England, or
France, as in a ſtate of war during the period of their late mutual
hoftilities, when the far greater part of them were very incon-
fiderably affected by it, paying only a few taxes extraordinary on
that account. This inconvenience (to recur to our former allu-
fion) is like nothing more than a flight cold, a temporary head-
ach, or fuch pains as paſs every day without any attention.
The nature and neceffity of evils in general, I ſhall not under-
take to diſcuſs, as it belongs wholly to another fubject. I ſhall
only, in this place, confider whether, allowing the neceffity
of human nature being what it is in other refpects, the dif-
pofition to hoſtility has not, upon the whole, been ſerviceable
to mankind, and whether they would not have been in a worſe
fituation without that difpofition.
Zzzz
Now
540
PART V.
LECTURES ON
Now it appears to me, that, in early ages, before mankind
had acquired a tafte for intellectual pleaſures, when they ftudied
nothing but the gratification of their lower appetites, they
would have funk into a ſtate of fuch grofs beastiality, and have
abuſed their bodies to fuch a degree, as would have been almoft
inconfiftent with the continuance of the fpecies, had it not
been for the falutary alarms of war, which rouſed the activity,
and excited the ingenuity, of men.
It is nothing but difficulty that can call forth the utmoſt
efforts of our faculties; and without a dread of the greateſt
impending evils, nothing belonging to fcience, or whatever
requires the exertion of our intellectual faculties, could have
been carried on. Many of the moſt uſeful arts in civil life,
owe their origin to contrivances for defence or offence in war.
"Men's wars and treaties, their mutual jealouſy, and the eſta-
"bliſhments which they deviſe with a view to each other," ſays
Mr. Charlevoix, "conftitute more than half the occupations of
"mankind, and furniſh materials for the greateſt and moſt
improving exertions *."
86
Mankind feem to have required a greater fpur to ingenuity
than merely the profpect of providing themſelves with the
conveniencies of life, or they would never procured thoſe
conveniencies. It is not even the better living of the English
that can induce the wild Irish to quit his native Aluggish-
neſs, ſo long as he can live in his own poor way. What
then could reaſonably have been expected of mankind, when
the greatest part of them were habituated to the fame way
of life? What arts, fciences, or improvements of any kind,
could have been expected from them? It is analogous to this,
* Voyage to Canada.
that,
1
LECT. LXVII.
541
GENERAL POLICY.
that, in common life, we fee the fear of hell operating more
powerfully upon the ſenſual part of mankind, than the proſpect
of all the pleaſures of virtue, or the hope of Heaven.
With reſpect to thoſe things with which the happineſs of
mankind, either in a private or focial capacity, are moſt cloſely
connected, as religion, liberty, and the fciences; it is an unde-
niable fact, that they have been chiefly promoted by events
which, at first fight, appeared the moſt diſaſtrous.
There is nothing which chriftians of all profeffions dread
more, and more conftantly pray to be delivered from (and all
this juftly), than perfecution, though all hiſtory informs us, that,
in general, nothing has been more favourable to the ſpread of
the tenets of the perfecuted party. Perfecution inflames the
zeal of thoſe who are perfecuted, and this fpreads as it were by
infection. By dying in any cauſe, a man gives a ſtronger proof
than he could in any other way give, of his own attachment to
it, and his ſteady faith in its principles and importance; a
circumſtance which operates powerfully on the faith of others.
Perfecution alfo difperfed the profeffors of chriftianity in primi-
tive times, whereby their doctrines were fpread into countries.
whither they would otherwife have hardly reached at all, or not
till after a much longer time.
•
Martyrs, likewife, in the cauſe of liberty have given the
firmeſt eſtabliſhment to it in any country. This was the cafe in
many of the ſtates of Greece. How much did the tragical ends
of Lucretia and Virginia operate towards the liberty of Rome?
Numberless friends to the fame glorious cauſe were made in
Holland by the death of the prince of Orange, who died fighting
for it, and in England by that of the famous Algernon Sydney,
who equally died a martyr. to it, though under the pretence
of law..
There
542
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
There is another view in which we may fee the benefit
indirectly refulting from the wars in which bigotted princes
have been engaged, as they have prevented their employing all
their power to the extirpation of what they thought to be herefy;
and by this means the propagation of truth has been greatly
favoured. The bishop of Ofmo, confeffor to Charles V. adviſed
him to behave with generofity to his prifoner Francis I. as the
only means of ftopping the progrefs of the Turks, and ex-
tinguiſhing the Lutheran herefy, which he ſaid encreaſed every
day, and would increaſe more, if their differences continued,
but might eaſily be deftroyed if the princes were united among
themſelves*. His brother Ferdinand was obliged to defer his per-
fecuting meaſures by his wars with the Turks. And, to mention
one inſtance more, Henry II. of France acknowledged to the
prince of Orange, that, after the peace concluded between him and
Philip II. of Spain, it was the deſign of that king to extinguiſh
the ſmalleſt ſpark of hereſy in the low countries, and to join
his arms to thofe of France, to attack the new fectaries with
their joint forces. How thefe projects were providentially
defeated, the hiftory of the fucceeding times will fhew.
Though the ſciences feem to be utterly repugnant to war,
and, in general, certainly fuffer by it, the caufe of learning
hath often been remarkably ferved by it. Learned men flee
from the feat of war, and thereby their knowledge becomes
difperfed into countries into which they would never have been
induced to carry it, by any motive whatever. This happened
at the taking of Conftantinople by the Turks, when the learned
men, who had no favour fhown them by their new mafters,
*Beaufobre's Hiftoire de la Reformation, vol. iii. p. 146.
+ Thuani Hilt. Lib. 22.
fed
}
LECT. LXVIII.
543
GENERAL POLICY.
fled into Italy, and eſtabliſhed ſchools, in which they taught
their own literature for a ſubſiſtence. Barbarous nations generally
gain arts, ſciences, religion, and a better form of government,
by being conquered by a civilized nation, and they have likewife
often acquired them by conquering the nation which was poffeffed
of them, inftances of which will appear in the fubfequent
obfervations on the effects of conqueft, which is generally con-
fidered as the laſt and the worst evil that can be fuffered by war..
J
LECTURE LXVIII.
Beneficial Effects of Conquefts: made with the most Eafe where
they are the most wanted. Benefits accruing to barbarous Nations
from conquering civilized ones, or from being conquered by them.
The World a gainer by the Roman Conquefts, exemplified in
Several Countries. Examples of Men doing more Good by their
Deaths than by their Lives. Advantages refulting from the
Feudal Wars, and from the Abuſes of Popery. Moral Maxims
of Conduct deduced from our Obfervation of the Divine Being
producing Good by Means of Evil.
THE
HE effects of conqueſts have often been remarkably happy,
and not lefs fo to the conquered than the conquering
people. It doth not appear, from the hiſtory of the early ages
of the world, that commerce alone (if the induſtry of men could
4.
have
544
PART V.
LECTURES ON
have been ſo far rouſed as to enable them to carry it on without
war) would have promoted fuch an intercourſe between different
nations, and have brought them fo far acquainted with one
another, as was requifite for curing their mutual prejudices, for
improving their genius and tempers, and thereby laying a
foundation for a ſufficiently extenfive benevolence.
Hiſtory informs us, that it was war, and war only, which,
making it impoffible for the Edomites, and other inhabitants of
Paleſtine to ſtay at home, forced them to feek fettlements on the
coafts of the Mediterranean, and promoted the intercourſe of
that part of the world with Greece; the confequence of which
was, the amazing improvement of that country, and its making
a figure which will, to the end of the world, attract the admi-
ration of mankind.
Conquefts have, in general, been made with the moſt eaſe,
when the government of the conquered people was grown very
corrupt, and a change of maſters was neceffary for the good of
the country.
This was remarkably the cafe of the Greek
empire. The feveral provinces of it were oppreffed with exceffive
taxes, which made them glad to take fhelter, as it were, from
greater evils under the government of the Saracens and Turks,
who had not the luxury, or the wants, of their former maſters.
We ſee the benefit accruing to a barbarous nation from their
conqueft of a civilized one in the conquefts which the Saracens
made upon the provinces of the Greek empire, whereby they came
into poffeffion of their ſciences; in the conqueſt of Perfia, and
the feat of the Saracen empire, by the Tartars; who immediately
adopted the religion, and foon became enamoured of the ſciences,
of the people they had conquered. And no nation ever ſubdued
the Chineſe, without conforming to their wife laws, cuftoms,,
and manners, in every refpe&t. The conqueft of Greece by the
Romans
LECT. LXVIII.
545
GENERAL POLICY.
Romans extended the knowledge of the Grecian arts, and made
the Romans learned and polite; and their conqueſts of other
nations contributed to civilize them as much.
but
There was not perhaps a country conquered by the Romans,
may be clearly fhewn to have been a confiderable gainer by
its fubjection, and by being incorporated into that vaft and
wonderfully compacted fyftem. All Europe was in a moft
diſordered uncivilized ſtate before the Roman conquefts; nor
doth it appear that any other more expeditious, or more effectual,
method could have been found to civilize them.
Gaul manifeftly found its account in being conquered by
the Romans. Before that event, there were no arts or commerce
in Gaul, except at Marſeilles, a colony of Greeks; but after-
wards, Arles, Autun, Lyons, and Triers became flouriſhing
cities. They peaceably enjoyed their municipal laws, in
fubordination to the regulations of the Romans, and they
were animated by a very extenfive commerce. The like was
the cafe with Britain, Spain, and all the northern nations
conquered by the Romans.
Polybius fuppoſes that Greece became more populous and
flouriſhing after the eſtabliſhing of the Roman empire in that
country. Syria was certainly never ſo happy as under the
Romans; and Strabo praiſes the fuperior policy of the Romans
with regard to the finances of Egypt, above that of their former
monarchs; and no part of adminiftration is fo effential to the
happineſs of à people.
The eafy communication which the uniformity of government
eſtabliſhed through that vaft empire, favoured the propagation of
the goſpel through all the countries of which it confifted.
And, to conclude, there may perhaps be fomething in what an
ingenious author has advanced, that large empires extend the
genius of mankind. I fuppofe he means by fuggefting great
4 A
projects,
546
PART V.
LECTURES
ON
projects; in many refpects, giving a greater ſcope to the faculties
of men's minds, and fupplying a great object to the imagination.
And there is certainly more of grandeur, and what we may call
the fublime, in the Roman hiftory, than the Grecian, notwith-
ſtanding, in almost every other reſpect, the latter be the more
agreeable object.
It justly fhocks our humanity to read of thouſands of brave
men being cut off in the field of battle, and to go over in our
imagination all the defolation and diſtreſs of every kind which
war ſpreads through a country; but we ought to confider, what a
foundation for future and general happineſs thofe temporary
evils may, for any thing we know to the contrary, be laying.
We cannot, indeed, always fee the particular advantages accruing
to a country from thoſe ſhocks that are given to it; but, in fome
cafes, as in thofe mentioned above, it requires no great pene-
tration to perceive them pretty diſtinctly.
To mention a recent and ftriking inftance of this kind, but of a
more private nature. Can we conceive it poffible that Jean Calas
of Thouloufe could have done a tenth part of the fervice to his
country by his life, which it is probable he has done by his death,
in the abhorrence of biggotry, which his unjust and tragical end
has raiſed in a great part of that nation, and in affording a ſubject
for a book which is likely to be of ſo much ſervice to the cauſe
of religious liberty as that of Voltaire's upon toleration, and
other writings of a fimilar tendency? I fhall now return to
examples of a more general nature.
It has been obferved before, that the conftant wars of the
feudal princes laid a foundation for the civil liberty we now
enjoy, by obliging thofe princes to grant the people great
privileges, in return for the fupplies neceffary for carrying on
their wars.
And thus evils of all kinds, in this and many
other cafes, have been ſeen, under the government of God, to
have
!
A
LECT. LXVIII.
547
GENERAL POLICY.
have been the occafion of greater happineſs than could, in the
common courſe of things, have taken place without them.
The intolerable abuſes of popery were the means of exciting
ſuch an attention to the ſubject of thoſe abuſes, as brought on
a quicker and more extenſive ſpread of religious knowledge than
would, probably, have taken place without thoſe abuſes. Had
not two or three of the popes immediately before the reformation,
and particularly Alexander VI. been ſo abominably wicked; had
not Julius II. been ambitious; had not Leo X. been profuſe
and extortionate; had not the abuſe of indulgences been ſo ſhame-
lefs, this part of Europe might have been but little improved in
religious knowledge, notwithſtanding the revival of letters, and
the invention of printing.
Popery, during the prevalence of it, was attended with
ſeveral accidental advantages. The monks were fond of defert
places, which occafioned the cultivation of many of them, by
drawing a concourfe of people after them; fo that many
flouriſhing towns were built, in places where we ſhould leaft of
all expect them. A remarkable example of this is Halifax in
Yorkshire.
Popery connected the feveral parts of Europe, which was in
danger of being difjoined by the diſmembering of the Roman
empire. The fuperftition of that fyftem provided an aſylum
for the remains of learning in thofe barbarous ages, and by
loofening men's attachment to the Grecian fects of philoſophy,
broke the progrefs of authority in matters of ſcience; thereby
leaving men at liberty to follow their own genius, without
depriving them of any benefit they could receive from the labours
of thoſe who had gone before them.
There was hardly any event in hiſtory ſo calamitous to Europe
in general as the Crufades, and befides the numbers who loft
their lives in thofe mad expeditions, they brought back the
leprofy,
4 A 2
548
PART V.
LECTURES, &c.
leprofy, which deftroyed, and made wretched, greater numbers
at home. But it fhould be confidered that it was a great means
of eſtabliſhing the liberties of the lower orders of men, difperfing
the wealth, and breaking the power of the great barons, of
bringing Europe acquainted with the eaſtern world, and of
introducing much ufeful knowledge, in which this part of the
world was then greatly deficient.
Upon the whole, fo evident is the tendency of the moſt
difaftrous events which disfigure the face of hiftory, upon our
first looking on it, to bring about the most happy and defirable
ftate of things, and fo fuperlatively efficacious is their operation
for this purpoſe (or at leaſt ſo cloſe is the connexion they have
with what appears, even to us, to be the best part of the con-
ftitution of things) that the more we ftudy the works of Provi-
dence, as well as thofe of nature, the more reaſon ſhall we fee to
be fatisfied with, and to rejoice in, all the fair conclufions we
can draw from them. The more we ſtudy hiſtory in this view, the
more thoroughly fhall we be fatisfied with our fituation and
connexions, the more will our gratitude to the wife and kind
author of the univerſe be inflamed, and the more defirous ſhall
we be to promote, by our conduct, and by methods of operation
of which we are able to judge, that end, which we perceive the
Divine Being is purſuing, though by methods of operation of
which we are not always competent judges, and which, there-
fore, we ought not to attempt to imitate.
Let the plain duties of morality be our rule of life. We fee
and experience their happy effects.
their happy effects. But let us acquiefce in
the Divine conduct, when we fee him producing the fame good
and glorious ends, by means which are apt at first to alarm our
narrow apprehenfions, on account of their feeming to have a
contrary tendency.
A CATA-
IN D E X.
A
ACTS of Parliament, give hints of
manners and cuſtoms, p. 226.
proclaimed openly
in every county till the reign of
Henry VII. p. 227.
Addiſon's treatiſe on medals recommend-
ed, 57.
Era, the Chriftian, began to be uſed
about 360 years after the birth of
Chrift, 119. The Greeks for a long
time had no fixed æra, 64, 118.
The æra of Nabonaffar, 119. Of the
Seleucidæ, ibid. Of the Hegyra, ibid.
That which was uſed formerly in
Spain, ibid. Of the battle of Actium,
ibid. Of Dioclefian, and of Yer-
digerd, 120. Cautions in comparing
the æras with one another, ibid.
Agathias's Hiftory of Juftinian, 185.
Agriculture, deferves particular attention,
364. How beft encouraged, 365.
Whether bounties are proper, 366.
Advantages of agriculture and com-
merce reciprocal, 367.
much promoted in China and
Switzerland, 368., Imperfect ſtate
of, in England formerly, 368, 369.
Labour the fource of wealth and of
every advantage, 369, 370.
Alcibiades, ill-treatment of, advantage-
ous to his country, 29, 30.
Alehoufes, and other places of entertain-
ment, a great nuifance, 350.
Ambition makes a better ſtateſman than
avarice, 322.
American Indians, fond of their roving
way of life, 325. Their method of
making hatchets, 373:
Ammianus Marcellinus's Hiftory, 184.
Ancient nations, military power of, ac-
counted for, 481, 482.
Anderfon, extract from, 396. His gene-
alogies, the largeſt and moſt complete
body of, 152.
Annius of Viterbo, his pretended ancient
writings impofitions, 70.
Anfon's Voyage, entertaining, 6.
Antiquities, Greek and Roman, collected
by Grævius and Gronovius, an im-
menfe work, 186.
186.
Greek, Potter's commended,
Roman, Kennet's, 187.
Appian's Hiſtory, 173.
Apprentices, law relating to, an impedi-
ment to the improvement of the arts,
376.
Ariftocracy, how different from De-
fpotifm, 307. What depends on the
number of its members, ibid. Libels
peculiarly obnoxious in this govern-
ment, 308.
Ariftotle's idea of the conftitution of ſtates
very imperfect, 288.
Armies, ftanding, and militias, 479--482.
Regulation and pay of, in ancient and
modern times, 486-489. Merce-
naries dangerous, 489. Buying off a
war more dangerous, 190.
Arrian's Hiftory and Enchiridion, com-
mended, 166.
Arts and Sciences, periods in the hiſtory
of, 263-266. Connexion between,
380-382. By the knowledge of,
happiness increaſed in modern times,
383-385.
Arts and Manufactures, encouraged by
government, 374, 375. How they in-
creaſe the power of a ftate, 378. Num-
bers of perfons employed in them, 379.
Arundelian marbles valuable, 52. When
compofed, 64.
4 A 3
Afia,
IN D E X.
DE
Afia, at what time it exhibits in hiftory
the moſt inviting ſpectacle, 261.
Afferius, his Life of Alfred, 194.
Auguftan Hiftory, the writers of, 183.
Auguftus admonifhed his officers by paf-
fages of hiftorians, 8.
Aurelius, M. pleafing anecdote of, 21.
Aurelius Victor's character and hiſtory,
182.
B
Bacon's, Sir Francis, Life of Henry VII.
commended, 213.
Lord, remark of, 10.
Baker, Rich. his chronicle, 208.
Balance of power, in ftates, particularly
in England, 313—316, 483.
Barons, greater and lefs, 340.
Beccaria, on crimes, 437, 438:
Bede's Hiftory, 190.
Belifarius, 31.
• Bell's Travels quoted, 325.
Benfon, Dr. mentioned, VIII.
Bentivoglio's Hiftory commended, 239.
Berington's Life of Abelard commend-
ed, 242.
Bills a reprefentative of money, 413.
Biographia Britannica commended, 246.
Bodleian library, 226.
Birch's Life of Queen Elizabeth, 214.
Blackstone's Commentaries, VI. 222.
Blair's Chronology commended, 150.
Bolingbroke, Lord, extracts from, 6, 10,
66, 249, 253, 258, 260.
Bos, Abbe de, his remark, 519.
Bounties on exportation of corn, 365,
366.
Bracton's Code of Common Law, 217,
218.
Brady's Old Engliſh Hiftory and Gloffary,
222.
Bridone's Travels, extract from, 376.
British Conftitution, the excellence of,
acknowledged by Montefquieu and
Voltaire, 12.
British hiftorians, and their characters,
190, 191.
Briton, an excellent French manual of
our laws, 219.
Brompton's (John) Chronicle commend-
ed, 203:
Burnet's Hiftory, of his own times, 209.
of the Reformation, 216.
C
Cafar's Commentaries, character of,
176, 177.
Calas, condemned to the wheel, 356.
His death of great ſervice to his coun-
try, 546.
Camden's Life of Queen Elizabeth, 214.
Cantacuzenus (John), his Hiftory com-
mended, 185.
Capitoline marbles valuable, 52.
Caradocus's Hiftory of the petty Kings in
Wales, 191.
Cato's character in Salluft, 20.
Caxton's, Wm. Hiftory begun by the
Monks of St. Alban's, 205.
Chalcondiles, Laonicus, his Hiftory, 186.
Chancery Records, where kept, 229, 230.
Moſt of them deftroyed by the rebels
under Wat Tyler, 230.
Characters and order of the Greek and
Roman hiſtorians, 161-186.
Charlevoix' Travels, extracts and obfer-
vations from, concerning the American
Indians, 325, 354, 373, 439.
Chart of Biography, 155, 156.
of Hiftory, 153, 154.
Child's (Sir Jofiah) Obfervation on Colo-
nies, 401.
China, perfection of complaifance in,
426. Extremely populous, 465,469.
Chronology, Ancient, defective, 63—66.
Corrected by Sir Ifaac Newton, 81-
89.
Chronological tables, 149, 150.
Cicero's paffion for fame, 20.
Letters, the hiftorical ufe of, 70.
Clarendon's Hiftory, character of, 208.
Claudius's expedition to Britain, remark
on, 20, 21.
Clavigero's Hiftory of Mexico, 440, 454•
Clergy, from fuperftition are confidered a
diſtinct order of men, 305.
Codrus, 22.
Coinage, nothing charged for it in Eng-
land, 409.
Coins
IN D
D
E
E X.
Coins and Medals, their origin, and their
uſe in hiftory, 53, &c. Progreſs of
the manner of writing traced by them,
57. Ancient and modern compared,
58, 59.
Coins, English, 133-135. Table of,
136. Gold first coined by Edward III.
and no copper, by authority, before
James I. 134. The proportion money
has borne to commodities from time
to time, 137-140. Account of
French money from Voltaire, 140-
143.
Coke's Inftitutes, and complete Copy-
holder, 221.
Colbert, willing to depreſs the induſtry of
the country, 393
Colden's Hiftory of the Five Nations,
493.
1
Colonies, ufe of, to a commercial ftate;
400. Difference between ancient and
modern, 401.
Comines, Philip De, an excellent hif-
torian, 240.
Commerce and Manufactures, Hiftory of,
267-270.
Commerce, its rife, 386. Its effects on
the minds of men, 386, 387. Its
immediate and principal advantage to
a ftate, 387-389. What exporta-
tions and importations peculiarly va-
luable, 389, 390. Commerce pro-
motes the landed intereft, 391. It is
fometimes hurt by the interference of
the legiflature, 392. In fome cafes
companies ferviceable to it, 393, 394.
Obstructions to it, 394, 395.
Uni-
formity of weights and meafures faci-
litates it, 395. Account of the Auc-
tuation of commerce, from Anderfon,
396. National jealouſy of trade in-
jurious, 398. Money of eminent ufe
in commerce, 403.
Whether paper-
money uſeful, 413, 414.
Common-place book, how to be made,
157, 158:
Compendiums, ufeful in ſtudying hiftory,
145-148. Several mentioned, 148.
Compenfation fhould be made to an inno-
cent man charged with a crime, 358.
Condemned criminals, the notion that
their repentance prepares them for
future happineſs falfe and dangerous,
350.
Confinement of criminals together, a ſchool
of vice, 350, 351.
Conquests, conduct of nations with re-
fpect to, 484. Their beneficial ef
fects, 543-545. Romans faid to be
the only people enriched by conqueſts,
485. Comp. 497, 498.
Constellations firft invented at the time of
the Argonautic expedition, 95.
Cornelia's just turn of thinking, 19.
Corporations, Rife of, 339.
Cortez, an inftance of the reverſe of for-
tune, 31.
Cotton's (Sir John) library, 225, 227.
Cotton's (Sir Robert) Abridgement of the
Parliamentary Records, publiſhed by
Prynne, 227.
Covetous perfons, the large fortunes they
leave foon diffipated, 34.
Courage, neceffary in war, 485. Sources
and reaſons of, 486, 492, 493. In-
vaders have generally more than the
invaded, 492.
Couftumier de Normandy, an ancient law
book, 217.
Crimes, a prudent legiſlature will endea-
vour to prevent, 350.
Crofus, the first prince mentioned who
coined money, 54.
Curtius, 22.
Cuſtom has the force of law, 347•
Cycles explained, 111, 112.
D
Dalrymple on feudal property, 222.
Danish period of our hiftory, how to be
learned, 196, 197.
Darics, 54:
Davila's Hiftory of the Civil Wars in
France commended, 46, 239. What
the Duke d'Epernon faid of it, 46.
Decem Scriptores, 212.
Decker's, Sir William, maxim, 388.
Decretals, are acknowledged to be forge-
ries, 70.
De Lolme, referred to, 293, 294.
4 A 4
Demo-
INDE X.
Democracy, its advantages, 296.
Defpotifm, fome nations attached to, 292.
Diceto, Ralph de, an Engliſh hiftorian,
who was admired by Selden, 201.
Diggs's Complete Ambaffador, 225.
Dio Caffius's Hiftory, 177-179.
Diodorus Siculus, his hiftory, 165.
Dionyfius Halicarnaffenfis, an excellent
hiſtorian, 168, 169.
Divine Providence, overrules the paffions
and powers of men to benevolent
purpoſes, 251, 538-542. In the di-
rection of human affairs, the nobleſt
object of attention to an hiftorian,
25-31, 527-531. By this ftudy the
marks of progress towards a ftate of
greater knowledge, fecurity and hap-
pineſs may be obferved, 531-536.
XIV.
Doctor and Student, 221.
Doomsday book, 232.
Doree's reply to Charles IX. 22.
Duelling, a barbarous and abfurd cuftom,
499, 500.
E
Eadmerus, his Hiftory publiſhed by Sel-
den, commended by Nicholfon, 199.
Ealred's Genealogy of our Kings to
Henry II. 200.
Ecclefiaftical writers throw light on civil
history, 215.
Eclipfes, of ufe to afcertain the time of
events in hiftory, 90.
in hiftory, 90. Principal
eclipſes taken notice of by hiftorians,
quoted from Ferguson, 91, 92.
Education of youth, its importance, 423.
Effay on, XIII-XXXII.
Edward II. his life accurately written
by Sir Thomas De la More. His
hiſtory alſo written by Sir Henry
Cary, 213.
Edward VI. his Diary, written by his
own hand, publiſhed by Burnet, 214.
Epitomes of history commended, 148.
Eratofthenes and Apollodorus hiftorians,
followed by all chronologers, 64.
Ethelward, or Elward Patritius, a Saxon
hiflorian, 194.
9
Evidence, its value computed in ancient
and modern hiſtory, 42-46, 66, 67.
in the trial of criminals, 355,
356.
Europe, Hiftory of, much more intereft-
ing from the end of the 15th century,
258-260.
Eutropius's Roman hiſtory, a pretty good
epitome, 183.
Exchange, general nature of, 415, 416.
Examples, good and bad, reprefented in
hiftory, tend to ftrengthen virtuous
fentiments, 17—24.
F
Fabian, Robert, his Hiftoriarum Concor-
dantiæ, 206.
Fabius Maximus, inftance of his honour-
able conduct, 21.
Factions, their rife, duration, and effects,
494-496.
Fenelon, the ingenious and excellent;
inftance of his weaknefs, 24.
Feudal fyftem, not fully eſtabliſhed in
England till the time of William the
Conqueror, 331. In what circum-
ftances it acquired ftrength, 333, 334-
Violence and infecurity in thofe times,
334, 335. The number of powers
and intereſts ſtruggling for fuperiority
kept things tolerably well balanced,
335. Private confederacies fupplied
the place of civil union, 336, and
knight-errantry arofe and prevailed,
336, 337. Caufes of the decline of
the feudal fyftem, 337, 338, 342, 343•
Some traces of it ftill, and general ob-
fervations on its progreſs and termi-
nation, 344, 345. Manners of feudal.
times, 428, 429.
Fisheries, valuable to a ſtate, 389.
Fitzherbert, Sir Anthony, author of the
new Natura Brævium, 221.
Flemings, led the way in the improve-
ment of arts and manufactures, 379.
Fleta, a methodical and learned treatife,
218.
Fleury, Cardinal, a fucceſsful ſtateſman
to a very advanced age, 32.
Florentius
t
I
X.
N DE
Florentius Bravonius, an Engliſh hifto-
rian in the 12th century, 199.
Foreft laws, rigorous in France, 352.
Fortefcue, Sir John, author of De Laudi-
bus Legum Anglia, 220.
France, hiftory of, when it began to be
intereſting, 260.
French baubles and modes, in the time
of Colbert, coft England little leſs
than 800,000 pounds a year, 418.
Froiffart, Sir John, an hiftorian in the
15th century, 204.
Frugality, favourable to population, 463
-465.
G
Gain of a merchant, not always the gain
of the country in general, 390.
Gaming, the greateſt incentive to profi-
gacy of every kind, 422.
General Biographical Dictionary, 246.
Generations of men, or intervals from
father to fon, their mean length, 83.
German ftates, their ancient form, 327,
328. Divifion of their conquered
lands, 329.
Taxes of thoſe times,
330. Allodial lands converted into
feudal, 331.
Germany, when it made a great figure,
201.
Gervafe, an antiquary and hiftorian in
the 12th century, 201.
Giannone's history of Naples commended,
239.
Gildas, a Saxon, wrote the hiftory of the
Engliſh nation, 190.
Glanville, chief juftice in the reign of
Henry II. author of Tractatus de legi-
bus, &c. 217.
Government, the fcience of, the moſt im-
portant of all fciences, 12, 13, 272.
ftill in its infancy, 13. The well-
being of fociety, or the happineſs of
the people, its only proper and gene-
ral object, 12, 14. The nature and
particular objects and forms of civil
government, 273-287.
Government, monarchical, its advantages.
and diſadvantages, with various cir- ■
cumſtances attending it, 289-295.
True feat of power in fuch govern-
ments, 295, 321.
Government, democratical, its advant-
ages, with various circumſtances, 296
-306.
Government, ariftocratical, various cir-
cumſtances of, 306-310.
Governments, permanent, 312, 313. Pre-
ferved by the balance of power, and
liberty of ſpeaking and writing, 313-
316, and reverence for the form, in
the body of the people, 317-319.
Government, under any form, preferable
to anarchy or barbarifin, 323. Refine-
ment in the ideas of a people keeps
pace with their improvement in go-
vernment, 325, 326. The European
governments, and particularly the
Engliſh, traced from their firft rudi-
ments to their preſent form, 327, &c.
The expence of government fupported
by taxes, 500-508.
Grævius and Gronovius, authors of a
collection of a compleat body of Greek
and Roman antiquities, 186.
Green cloth, a repofitory of court records,
226.
Grey's Memoria Technica, 156.
Grofe's Antiquities, a paffage from, 440.
Guicciardini's hiftory of Italy commend-
ed, 239, 240.
Gunpowder, the invention of, has made
a total alteration in the whole ſyſtem
of war, 258, 474.
H
213.
Haddington's Life of Edward IV.
Hale's (Ld. Ch. J.) obfervations on a law
of king Canute, 79.
Hall, Edward, wrote on the wars be-
tween the houfes of York and Lan-
caſter, 207.
Hannibal's power in Italy dreaded at
Carthage, 30.
Harrington's Oceana, 13.
Harris's history of James I. Charles I.
and Oliver Cromwell, commended,
214.
4 A 5
Harrison's
IN D E X.
Harriſon's and Hollingfhead's Chronicle,
greatly esteemed, 207.
Hart's Life of Guftavus Adolphus com-
mended, 240.
Hartley's doctrine of affociation of ideas,
commended, VIII.
Hegyra, and method of computing from
it, 120.
Hemingford's (W.) Chronicle, from 1066
to 1308, 203.
Henault's abridgment of French hiftory
commended, 238.
Hengham, Sir Ralph de, chief juftice in
the reign of Edw. I. his Summa's, 218.
Henrietta, Queen of Charles I. remark
on her reverſe of fortune, 3!.
Henry V. his life by Titus Livius, 213.
Henry, archdeacon of Huntington, his
hiftory concluding with the reign of
king Stephen, 200.
Henry's (Dr.) Hiftory of Great-Britain,
VI.
Heraldry, its origin and uſe, 60, 61.
Herbert's (Lord) Hiftory of Henry VIII.
214.
Hereditary diftinctions in a ſtate unjust,
308.
Herodian's Hiftory commended, 182.
Herodotus, his Hiftory commended, 6.
Its character, 161. He derived his
information principally from oral tra-
dition, 41.
Higden's (Ralph) Polychronicon, 203.
HISTORY, the employment of all per-
fons, 1, 2.
ufes of; it amufes the imagina-
tion and intereſts the paffions, 4, 5.
It improves the understanding, 6-14.
It tends to ftrengthen the fentiments
of virtue, 15-25. efpecially as it ex-
hibits the conduct of Divine Provi-
dence in human affairs, 25, &c.
the fources of, 39—100.
ufeful to young perfons without
previous qualifications, 102, 103. Pre-
requifites neceffary or uſeful for thoſe
who have ſcientific views in the ftudy
of it, 102-144.
directions for facilitating the
ftudy of, 145-188.
Greek and Roman, with the
character of the writers in order of
time, 161-186.
Hiftory, British, with the character of
the writers, 190, 191. Roman writers
of affairs of this ifland, 192, 193.
Saxon, of this iſland, 194, 195.
Daniſh, of this iſland, 196, 197.
Engliſh, principal authors of,
from the conqueft to the end of the
15th century, 198-205. from the be-
ginning of the 16th century to the
preſent time, 206-211. Particular
lives and reigns, 212–214, and other
means of information, 215-237.
of other nations, with the charac-
ter of the writers, 238-242.
the most important objects of
attention to a reader of, 243–270.
Every thing is worthy of attention
which contributes to make a nation
happy, 271-455; populous, 456–
470; and fecure, 471-517. Some
other objects worthy of attention, 518
-548.
the firft, of our own country,
we have from the Romans, 66.
Hiftorians to be preferred who write of
the events of their own times, 66.
Modern hiſtory beſt underſtood a con-
fiderable time after the events, 67.
Greek and Roman, in order of
time, with their characters, 161-186.
Hoel Dha's laws, enacted in the tenth
century, 190.
Holling fhead's Chronicle, greatly esteem-
ed, 207.
Homer's poems founded on fact, 48. .
Honour, fenfe of, exemplified by the earl
of Peterborough, 22.
Hooke's Roman hiftory commended, 188.
his obfervation on the kings of Rome,
87.
Horace, his refined praiſes of the charac-
ter of Auguftus, 8.
Horn, Andrew, author of the Mirroir
de Justice, 219.
Hoveden, Roger de, author of a hiſtory
of England, to the year 1202, 201.
Howard, Mr. commended, 351.
Hume's history, its character, 209, 210,
his faults well pointed out by Dr.
Towers,
9
IN D X.
E
E
Towers, 210. quoted, 247, 250, 263,
297,458, 467. juſt obſervations from,
12, 16, 45, 73, 249, 293, 435, 474.
his differtation upon the populouſneſs
of ancient nations commended, 467.
I
Facob's Law Dictionary commended,
222.
Idleneſs, the great inlet to the moſt de-
ſtructive vices, 420.
Jealousy of trade, how it operates, 398.
Jeffery of Monmouth, his hiftory, 191.
Imprisonment, not defigned for punifh-
ment, 358.
Indians in North America, their native.
ftrength of mind, 22.
Ingulphus of Croyland, firſt Engliſh hif-
torian after the conqueft, 198.
Inquifition, tribunal of, 353.
Intereft of money, 410. Caufes of high,
411. On fixing the rate of, 412.
John, vicar of Tinmouth, collector of
Engliſh hiſtory in the 14th century,
203.
Fornandes's Hiftory of the Goths, 184.
Journals of the Lords and Commons,
lately printed, 227.
Iſcanus, Jofeph, author of a poem entitled
Antiocheis, 213.
Judges fhould have no part in the legif-
lative or executive power, 355.
Julian, period, 116, 117. year, 114.
Juries introduced into the Engliſh courts
in the time of Alfred, 332.
Juftinian's Inftitutes, 187. Pandects, 363.
K
Kaims's (Lord) law tracts, 222, 347.
commended, 359-
Kippis, Dr. mentioned, VIII.
Knight-errantry, rife of, 336.
Knighton, Henry, wrote a chronicle in
the 14th century, 204.
Knowledge, feveral branches of, very uſe-
ful, as preparatory to the accurate
ftudy of hiſtory, 103-108, 121.
L
Labour, the fource of wealth and of every
advantage, 369, 378. Divifion of, 372.
extreme, brings on untimely old
age, 469.
Ladies inftructed by hiftory, 12.
Lands, alienation of allowed, 341, 342.
Language, uſe of, a guide to an hiftorian,
71-74.
Latins, first money coined by them, 54.
Law, Dr. biſhop of Carlifle, his confi-
derations on the theory of religion,
537.
Law books, uſeful for the most valuable
purpoſes of hiſtory, 216-222.
Law, the profeffion of, always reckoned
honourable in civilized countries, 364.
Laws concerning property, a fource of
hiftorical knowledge, 361-363.
Laws, their multiplicity in free ſtates,
346. Should be uniform, 346, 347.
Object of criminal law, 348, 353.
Lenity and ſeverity of laws, 351, 352.
Laws and cuſtoms, a fource of hiftorical
knowledge, 75-79-
L'Enfant's History of the councils of Pifa,
Conftance and Bafil, 241, 242.
Leprofy brought into Europe by the Cru-
fades, 277:
Leti's Life of Sixtus V. commended, 240.
Letters, alphabetical, when introduced
into ſeveral countries, 66.
Lewis XI. inftance of his weakneſs, 24.
Lewis XII. a reply of, 21.
Lewis XIV. Voltaire's account of, 32.
Liberty, civil and political, defined, 281,
282.
Liberty of fpeaking and writing, impor-
tant to the ftate and to individuals,
274, 275, 316.
Lyttelton's (Lord) Hiftory of Henry II.
commended, 213.
(Sir Thomas) book of tenures,,
commended, 221.
Lives of English writers by ſeveral
authors, 237.
Livy's Roman hiftory, character of, 171..
Lotteries very hurtful, 350.
Luxury, what kinds of, are hurtful, 417
-420. Promoted by the largeneſs of
capital cities, 422..
7
Ma
I N N
X.
DE
E
M
Macaulay's (Mrs.) maſterly Hiſtory, 210.
Machiavel's Hiftory of Florence, 16.
Machines for facilitating labour, whether
hurtful to population, 459.
Maddox's Formulare Anglicanum, 234.
Mailros, Chronicle of, 203.
Males, more born than females, 470.
Mankind are naturally felfifh, fenfual,
and favage, 425.
រ
Manners of the ancients, 427. and of
the feudal times, 428, 429.
Manufactures and commerce, the hiſtory
of, 267-270.
Marianus Scotus, an hiftorian in the
eleventh century, 199.
Mary, Queen, in her reign above 800 Pro-
teſtants burned, 441. Jews were fpared,
444.
Matthew of Weſtminſter, Engliſh hifto-
rian to 1307, 203.
Medallions, 55.
Memoirs fur les Chinois, 505.
Mica, inftance of his braving death, 22.
Middleton's Life of Cicero, 6.
Millar, Mr. on the Engliſh conſtitution,
commended, 210.
Monarchy, its advantages and difadvan-
tages, 289–295.
Monarchies, European, very different
from the ancient, 309. Their riſe,
Their rife,
ibid. Their nobility, 310. Thefe go-
vernments permanent, ibid. Favour
the female fex, 311. Not proper for
very extenfive dominion, 312.
Monafticon Anglicanum, in 3 vol. folio,
by Sir William Dugdale and Mr.
Dodsworth, commended, 236.
Money, a reprefentative of the commodi-
ties which may be purchaſed with it,
122.
Two things may make an al-
teration in its reprefentative power;
the change of the idea annexed to any
common name or fum, 122-124,
and the alteration of the proportion
between the quantity of money, and
the commodities reprefented by it,
125. Its proportion to commodities,
127-131. The only inconvenience
attending a fmall quantity of current
money in a ſtate, 407.
Money, value of, among the Greeks and
Romans, taken from Arbuthnot, 125
-127. When first ftamped by the
Romans, 126. See Coins.
its quantity in circulation, 405.
Maxims with refpect to it, 406-409.
Intereft of, 410-412. Paper-money,
413, 414. Exchange of, 415, 416.
Montague's (Lady Wortley) letters and
travels, 355, 376.
Montefquieu commended, 12, 248. Quo-
ted, 249, 283, 285, 286, 288, 290,
297, 301, 346, 354, 431, 435, 455.
Months, lunar and folar, 109.
Monuments, a means of preferving tra-
ditions, 48.
Moors, one of their prejudices, II.
Morals, profligacy of, in arbitrary go-
vernments, 294, 295.
More's Utopia, would not bear to be
reduced to practice, 13.
Hiftory of Edward V. elegantly
defcribed, 213.
Motives, true, of conduct, different from
the declared reaſons, 252, 253.
N
Names perpetuate the memory of perfons
and facts, 49.
National debts, their origin and progrefs,
509, 510. Their advantages and dif-
advantages, 511-514. Sinking funds
for paying them off, 515, 516.
Navigation act, 392, 398.
Nennius, a Britiſh hiftorian, 190.
Nepos, Cornelius, commended, 167.
Newton's (Sir Ifaac) maxim concerning
oral tradition, 42. His fagacity in
tracing events by circumftances, 71.
his Chronology commended, 81. The
ufe he made of obfervations of the
preceffion of the equinoxes, 94.
Nicephorus Gregoras, an hiftorian in the
fourteenth century, 185.
Nicetas Acominatus, begins his hiftory
where Zonaras ends, 185.
Nicholson's Engliſh liftorical Library
commended, 189. Referred to, 216,
224, 231.
Nobility,
I N
X.
D E
Nobility, not hereditary in the eaſtern
monarchies, 308.
Nova Narrationes, publiſhed in the reign
of Edward III. 220.
Oaths, 444, 445.
O
Odericus Vitalis, a writer of church hif-
tory in the twelfth century, 215.
Old Testament history, credible, 89. Of
uſe to Sir I. Newton in rectifying the
heathen chronology, 100.
Oral tradition, a vehicle of hiftorical
knowledge, 39-41.
Order of time, of the Greek and Roman
hiftory, 161-186.
P
Paintings of the Mexicans contained a
hiſtory of the nation, 42.
Paper-office, a repofitory of records, 224,
225.
Papers, belonging to the office of Ord-
nance, where kept, 233.
Paris, Matthew, a renowned Engliſh
hiſtorian in the 13th century, 201.
Paftal, an inftance of his weakneſs, 23.
The fame kind of weakneſs in his
fifter, 24.
Paul's (Father) Hiſtory of the Council
of Trent, commended, 242.
Paulus Diaconus, an hiftorian in the
9th century, 184.
Peloponnefian war, affords a leffon to the
English, 255.
Periods in hiftory worthy of contempla-
tion, 256—270.
Perfecution, ruinous to trade and com-
merce, 395. Benefits reſulting from
it, 541, 542.
Peterborough, Earl of, an inſtance of his
fenſe of honour, 22.
Petrarch, Memoirs of, commended, 241.
Philip of Macedon, maxim of, 20.
Philofophy has an influence on the happi-
neſs of ſociety, 454, 455. The know-
ledge of it uſeful in ftudying hiſtory,
105.
Plutarch's Lives, commended, 167.
Poems, hiftorical, 47. of Homer founded
on fact, 48.
Poland, the worst conftituted ariftocracy,
308.
Politeness, what? 425, 426.
Politeness, in a ſtate, 425. The ancients
defective in, 425, 426, 432. Rife
and progrefs of modern politenefs,
429-431.
Polybius's Hiſtory commended, 171, 172.
Poor, public maintenance of, 279–281.
Popery, attended with accidental advan-
tages, 547.
Pope's remark on learning, 17.
Population, circumftances favourable to,
456-463. Increaſe or decreaſe of
mankind in proportion to the demand,
466. How to compute the number
of inhabitants, 470. Extreme popu-
lation, 468, 469.
Porter's (Sir James) obfervations on the
Turks quoted, 438, 443.
Poftlethwaite quoted, 367, 402.
Power, legislative, of the Saxons, 332.
of judging, muſt be ſeparate from
the legiſlative and executive power,
286.
of the King, Lords, and Com-
mons, 314, 315.
Preceffion of the equinoxes, of ufe to Sir
Ifaac Newton in correcting ancient
chronology, 94-100.
Price, Dr. on the number of deaths, 470.
Price of commodities, on what it depends,
404, 405.
Printing, the invention of, the means-
of diffufing knowledge, 265.
Prior, Richard, of Hexham, collected
king Stephen's memoirs, 212.
Proclamations, Royal, preferved in the li-
brary of the antiquarian fociety, 224.
Procopius, an hiftorian, flouriſhed A.D.
502. 185.
Property, on difpofing of, 277–279.
Profecutors of criminals, 354, 355:
Provinces, Roman, not much lefs happy
under Tiberius and Nero, than under
Trajan and the Antonines, 29.
Prynne's.
I
X.
N.
D E
Prynne's abridgment of the ftatutes, 227.
Public inftruction, the whole fociety in-
tereſted in, 276...
Punishments fhould be fuch as infpire
terror, 349.
Pyrrhus's converſation with Cyneas, 34.
е
Quintus Curtius, the character of his
hiſtory, 166.
R
Randolf's (Sir Thomas) embaffy to the
emperor of Ruffia, 225.
Rapin's Hiftory of England, commended,
209.
Raftal's (William) collection of the ſta-
tutes, with the continuation, 227.
Receipt office, 225.
Records, Engliſh, where preferved, 223
-227. of the court of chancery, 229,
230.
of the court of exchequer, ibid.
of the courts of king's-bench and
common pleas, 228, 229.
Reformation, from popery, of extenfive
advantage, 538.
Religion, its influence on civil fociety,
433-435. Advantages derived from-
chriſtianity in Europe, 436. Abufes
of religion, 437-445. Connexion
of modes of religion with forms of
government, 445, 446. Civil efta-
bliſhments of religion, 447-453.
eftabliſhed, in Ireland, that of
the minority, 450.
Reprefentatives in ftates, their qualifica-
tions, 303-305.
Republican governments, virtue and pub-
lic fpirit their neceffary fupports, 297
-299. In them exorbitant riches and
power dangerous, 300. Offices of
truſt and power ſhould be held by ro-
tation, 302. Where great numbers
are concerned, reprefentatives fhould
be chofen, 303. who fhould be men
of property and reputed underſtand-
ing, 305.
Rewards for fervices, great, figns of the
decline of the ſtate, 300.
Rice, cultivation of, favourable to popu-
lation, 458.
Robertfon's (Dr.) Hiftory of Scotland
commended, 210, 263. His Hiftory
of Charles V. 241, 357.
Roger Ceftrenfis, an Engliſh hiftorian in
the 14th century, 202.
Roman empire, a worthy object of con-
templation, 256, 257. Capital defects
in its conftitution, 285. Never a
proper monarchy, 311.
Roman history, old chronology of, 87,88.
Roman and Greek hiftorians in order of
time, 161-186.
Roman policy in war, 484, 485. Their
difcipline admirable, 491.
Roman writers of the affairs of Britain,
192.
Rofs, John, Engliſh hiſtorian, 205.
Rymer's Foedera, an immenfe work,
226.
S
11.
Salluft's character and hiſtory, 174-
176.
Samoedes, their ignorance, II.
Sanctuaries for criminals in Italy, 356.
Saxe Grammaticus, a Danish hiftorian,
197.
Saxon Chronicle, 194.
laws and coins, 193, 194.
times in our island, hiftory of,
193-195.
Security, the proper ufe of fociety, 272.
Security of a nation; by natural ramparts,
472. fkill in the art of war, 473-
485. courage, 485, 486.
Senfe of the people, a real check on
public meaſures, 315, 316.
Shame, the fear of, a powerful inftru-
ment of government, 292.
Sharp's Travels in Italy quoted, 356.
Shepherd's treatiſe of corporations, fra-
ternities, and guilds, 224.
Sheringham's treatife De Anglorum gentis
origine, 195.
Siam, King of, ignorant of hiſtory, 14.
Simeon
I
IN DE
X.
Simeon Dunelmenfis, an Engliſh hiftorian,
in the 12th century, 200.
Sixtus V. roſe from a low beginning,
20.
Slave-trade, 376-378.
Smith's Wealth of Nations, VII. 393,
452, 468. Extracts from it, 372,
377.
Society, confequences of its flouriſhing
ftate, 417-423. Other objects of
attention in fociety, befides govern-
ment, religion, laws, arts and com-
merce, 424, &c.
Sorcerers, fix hundred condemned in
France in the year 1609, 521.
Spain, Hiftory of, when it began to be
interefting, 259.
Speed's Chronicle commended, 207.
Spelman's treatife of lands and tenures
by knights ſervice in England, 221.
collection of the laws before
Magna Charta, 226.
Sphere, the firft, probably invented for
the uſe of the Argonauts, 95.
Statesmen, their general character, 322.
Public bufinefs really done by a few,
321.
Statham, Nicholas, the first who abridged
the Reports, 220.
Stewart's, Sir James, Effay on the con-
ftitution of England, 340.
Political Oeconomy, 404, 405,
464, 508-511.
Stow, John, corrected Reyne Wolf's
Chronicle, 207.
Sturt's chronological tables, 150.
Succeffion, a fixed law of, in monarchies
important, 293, 311, 312.
Suetonius's Lives of the twelve Cæfars,
179, 180.
Sullivan's Law Lectures, VI. 210, 222.
Superftition, found in both good and bad
men, 24.
Sweno Agonis, a Danish hiftorian, 197.
T
Tacitus's Annals and Hiftory commend-
ed, 180, 181.
Talkativeness of old age favourable to
the propagation of knowledge, 40.
Tanner's Notitia Monaftica commended,
236.
Tartars, fuperftitious, 24.
Taxes, how they operate, 501. On
what they ſhould be laid, 502-507.
The taille in France very oppreffive,.
506. Farmers of taxes, 508.
Temple's, Sir W. account of William
the Conqueror's reign and policy
commended, 212.
Temporary remedies for inconveniences
better than perpetuities, 278.
Thuanus's Hiftory of his own times.
commended, 239-241.
Thucydides's Hiftory commended, 6, 162,
163.
Tiberius flattered by Velleius Patercu-
lus, 8.
Tindal's notes to Rapin, and continua-
tion of it to the reign of George II,
209.
Tilts and Tournaments, 337.
Titus, the emperor, an inftance of his
greatneſs of mind, 21.
Toleration and perfecution, 441–444,
449, 450.
Torture, the only proper ufe of, 357.
Tower, repofitory for records, 227,
228.
Towers, Dr. has well pointed out ſome
great faults in Hume's Hiftory, 210.
Traditions, preferved by Poems, 47. Mo-
numents, 48. Infcriptions, 49. Names,
ibid. National cuftoms, 50. Symbols,
51.
Treaties, recited before large affemblies,
41. How the Indians in North Ame-
rica retain the articles of treaties, ibid,
Trials of caufes fhould be public, 354.
Trivet, Nicholas, an hiftorian in the
14th century, 202.
Turenne, Marſhal, honourable inſtance
of, 21.
Turgot, Mr. quoted, 278, 308.
His
Life quoted, 445, 447, 452, 506, 50%。.
Tyranny abfolute, where the legislative
and executive power are united in the
fame perfons, 286.
Tythes burthenfome and inexpedient, 451
-453-
Vaillant,
IN D E
X.
V.
Vaillant, Mr. by means of medals has
given us an entire chronicle of the
kings of Syria, 54, 55.
Velleius Paterculus's epitome of the Ro-
man hiſtory, 8, 179.
Verstegan's reftitution of decayed intelli-
gence in antiquities, 195.
Vertat makes hiftory entertaining, 239.
Victor Amadeus, an inftance of his dif-
guft at having changed his fituation,
33.
·
Vinegas's Hiftory of California quoted,
438.
Virgil's refined praiſes of Auguftus, 8.
Virgil, Polydore, his Hiſtory of England,
206.
Virtuous impreffions, how they are made
upon the mind, 15.
Univerfal Hiftory, 187.
Voltaire, partial to Lewis XIV. and the
glory of France, 8, 12. Extracts
from, 250, 335, 384, 414, 429, 441,
494.
239.
's General Hiſtory entertaining,
Voyages of Anfon and Cook intereſting,
240.
W
Wager of battle, 357.
Walfingham, Thamas, Engliſh hiftorian
in the 15th century, 204.,
Wars, civil, often conducted with petu
liar favagenefs, and the reafon of it,
494.
-,none juftifiable but defenfive, 498.
and perfecutions ordered by divine
Providence to promote the good of
mankind, 538-548.
Watfon's, Dr. Hiftory of Philip II. and
III. 241.
Weakness of human nature, inſtances of
it in Paſcal, 23; and others, 24.
Wheare on hiftory, 238.
Wikes, Thomas, Engliſh hiftorian in the
14th century, 202.
William the Conqueror, had a very great
revenue, 144. His Life, by William
of Poitiers, 212.
William of Malmſbury's De geftis regum
Anglorum commended, 200.
William of Newberry, an Engliſh hif-
torian in the 11th century, 200.
Witchcraft, formerly in credit in France,
521.
Witches, above a hundred thoufand con-
demned to die by chriftian tribunals,
437.
Women, how treated, 430-432.
Wood's, Anthony, Hiſtory and Antiqui-
ties of the Univerfity of Oxford, 236.
Wormius's, Olaus, Literatura Runica,
and Monumenta Danica, 197.
X
Xenophon's Hiftory, its character, 163,
164.
Ximines, Cardinal, roſe from a low be-
ginning, 20.
Y
Year, Julian, 114. Amended by Pope
Gregory, XIII. ibid.
Mahometan, 115.
Year books, ten volumes of, printed by
fubfcription in the year 1679, 222.
Yes, different tople made to begin at
different times, 110.
about AD. 360, began to be
reckoned from the birth of Chrift,
III.
Z
Zonaras, an hiſtorian in the 12th cen-
tury, 184.
Zofimus, an hiftorian in the 6th century,
183.
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