For the rest (says Plutarch,
closing up the story of Lycurgus) when he saw that
his government had taken root, and was in the very
plantation strong enough to stand by itself, he conceived
such a delight within him, as God is described by
Plato to have done when he had finished the creation
of the world, and saw his own orbs move below him:
for in the art of man (being the imitation of nature,
which is the art of God) there is nothing so like
the first call of beautiful order out of chaos and
confusion, as the architecture of a well-ordered commonwealth.
Wherefore Lycurgus, seeing in effect that his orders
were good, fell into deep contemplation how he might
render them, so far as could be effected by human
providence, unalterable and immortal. To which
end he assembled the people, and remonstrated to them:
That for aught he could perceive, their policy was
already such, and so well established, as was sufficient
to entail upon them and theirs all that virtue and
felicity whereof human life is capable: nevertheless
that there being another thing of greater concern
than all the rest, whereof he was not yet provided
to give them a perfect account, nor could till he had
consulted the oracle of Apollo, he desired that they
would observe his laws without any change or alteration
whatsoever till his return from Delphos; to which
all the people cheerfully and unanimously engaged
themselves by promise, desiring him that he would make
as much haste as he could. But Lycurgus, before
he went, began with the kings and the senators, and
thence taking the whole people in order, made them
all swear to that which they had promised, and then
took his journey. Being arrived at Delphos, he
sacrificed to Apollo, and afterward inquired if the
policy which he had established was good and sufficient
for a virtuous and happy life?
By the way, it has been a maxim with
legislators not to give checks to the present superstition,
but to make the best use of it, as that which is always
the most powerful with the people; otherwise, though
Plutarch, being a priest, was interested in the cause,
there is nothing plainer than Cicero, in his book
“De Divinatione” has made it, that there
was never any such thing as an oracle, except in the
cunning of the priests. But to be civil to the
author, the god answered to Lycurgus that his policy
was exquisite, and that his city, holding to the strict
observation of his form of government, should attain
to the height of fame and glory. Which oracle
Lycurgus causing to be written, failed not of transmitting
to his Lacedaemon. This done, that his citizens
might be forever inviolably bound by their oath, that
they would alter nothing till his return, he took
so firm a resolution to die in the place, that from
thenceforward, receiving no manner of food, he soon
after performed it accordingly. Nor was he deceived
in the consequence; for his city became the first
in glory and excellency of government in the whole
world. And so much for Lycurgus, according to
Plutarch.
My Lord Archon, when he beheld not
only the rapture of motion, but of joy and harmony,
into which his spheres (without any manner of obstruction
or interfering, but as if it had been naturally) were
cast, conceived not less of exultation in his spirit;
but saw no more necessity or reason why he should
administer an oath to the Senate and the people that
they would observe his institutions, than to a man
in perfect health and felicity of constitution that
he would not kill himself. Nevertheless whereas
Christianity, though it forbids violent hands, consists
no less in self-denial than any other religion, he
resolved that all unreasonable desires should die upon
the spot; to which end that no manner of food might
be left to ambition, he entered into the Senate with
a unanimous applause, and having spoken of his government
as Lycurgus did when he assembled the people, he abdicated
the magistracy of Archon. The Senate, as struck
with astonishment, continued silent, men upon so sudden
an accident being altogether unprovided of what to
say; till the Archon withdrawing, and being almost
at the door, divers of the knights flew from their
places, offering as it were to lay violent hands on
him, while he escaping, left the Senate with the tears
in their eyes, of children that had lost their father
and to rid himself of all further importunity, retired
to a country house of his, being remote, and very
private, insomuch that no man could tell for some
time what was become of him.
Thus the law-maker happened to be
the first object and reflection of the law made; for
as liberty of all things is the most welcome to a people,
so is there nothing more abhorrent from their nature
than ingratitude. We, accusing the Roman people
of this crime against some of their greatest benefactors,
as Camillus, heap mistake upon mistake; for being
not so competent judges of what belongs to liberty
as they were, we take upon us to be more competent
judges of virtue. And whereas virtue, for being
a vulgar thing among them, was of no less rate than
jewels are with such as wear the most, we are selling
this precious stone, which we have ignorantly raked
out of the Roman ruins, at such a rate as the Switzers
did that which they took in the baggage of Charles
of Burgundy. For that Camillus had stood more
firm against the ruin of Rome than her capitol, was
acknowledged; but on the other side, that he stood
as firm for the patricians against the liberty of
the people, was as plain; wherefore he never wanted
those of the people that would die at his foot in
the field, nor that would withstand him to his beard
in the city. An example in which they that think
Camillus had wrong, neither do themselves right, nor
the people of Rome; who in this signify no less than
that they had a scorn of slavery beyond the fear of
ruin, which is the height of magnanimity.
The like might be shown by other examples
objected against this and other popular governments,
as in the banishment of Aristides the Just from Athens,
by the ostracism, which, first, was no punishment,
nor ever understood for so much as a disparagement;
but tended only to the security of the commonwealth,
through the removal of a citizen (whose riches or
power with a party was suspected) out of harm’s
way for the space of ten years, neither to the diminution
of his estate or honor. And next, though the
virtue of Aristides might in itself be unquestioned,
yet for him under the name of the Just to become universal
umpire of the people in all cases, even to the neglect
of the legal ways and orders of the commonwealth,
approached so much to the prince, that the Athenians,
doing Aristides no wrong, did their government no more
than right in removing him; which therefore is not
so probable to have come to pass, as Plutarch presumes,
through the envy of Themistocles, seeing Aristides
was far more popular than Themistocles, who soon after
took the same walk upon a worse occasion. Wherefore
as Machiavel, for anything since alleged, has
irrefragably proved that popular governments are of
all others the least ungrateful, so the obscurity,
I say, into which my Lord Archon had now withdrawn
himself caused a universal sadness and clouds in the
minds of men upon the glory of his rising commonwealth.
Much had been ventilated in private
discourse, and the people (for the nation was yet
divided into parties that had not lost their animosities),
being troubled, bent their eyes upon the Senate, when
after some time spent in devotion, and the solemn action
of thanksgiving, his Excellency Navarchus de Paralo
in the tribe of Dorean, lord strategus of Oceana (though
in a new commonwealth a very prudent magistrate) proposed
his part or opinion in such a manner to the Council
of State, that, passing the ballot of the same with
great unanimity and applause, it was introduced into
the Senate, where it passed with greater. Wherefore
the decree being forthwith printed and published,
copies were returned by the secretaries to the phylarchs
(which is the manner of promulgation) and the commissioners
of the seal, that is to say, the Right Honorable Phosphorus
de Auge in the tribe of Eudia, Dolabella d’Enyo
in the tribe of Turmae, and Linceus de Stella
in the tribe of Nubia, being elected proposers pro
tempore, bespoke of the tribunes a muster of the people
to be held that day six weeks, which was the time
allowed for promulgation at the halo.
The satisfaction which the people
throughout the tribes received upon promulgation of
the decree, loaded the carriers with weekly letters
between friend and friend, whether magistrates or private
persons. But the day for proposition being come,
and the prerogative upon the place appointed in discipline,
Sanguine de Ringwood in the tribe of Saltum, captain
of the Phoenix, marched by order of the tribunes with
his troop to the piazza of the Pantheon, where his
trumpets, entering into the great hall, by their blazon
gave notice of his arrival; at which the sergeant
of the house came down, and returning, in formed the
proposers, who descending, were received at the foot
of the stairs by the captain, and attended to the
coaches of state, with which Calcar de Gilvo in the
tribe of Phalera, master of the horse, and the
ballotins upon their great horses, stood waiting at
the gate.
The proposers being in their coaches,
the train for the pomp, the same that is used at the
reception of ambassadors, proceeded in this order.
In the front marched the troop with the cornet in the
van and the captain in the rear; next the troop came
the twenty messengers or trumpets, the ballotins upon
the curvet with their usher in the van, and the master
of the horse in the rear; next the ballotins, Bronchus
de Rauco, in the tribe of Bestia, king of the
heralds, with his fraternity in their coats-of-arms,
and next to Sir Bronchus, Boristhenes de Holiwater
in the tribe of Ave, master of the ceremonies; the
mace and the seal of the chancery went immediately
before the coaches, and on either side, the doorkeepers
or guard of the Senate, with their pole-axes, accompanied
with some 300 or 400 footmen belonging to the knights
or senators, the trumpeters, ballotins, guards, postilions,
coachmen and footmen, being very gallant in the liveries
of the commonwealth, but all, except the ballotins,
without hats, in lieu whereof they wore black velvet
calots, being pointed with a little peak at the
forehead. After the proposers came a long file
of coaches full of such gentlemen as use to grace
the commonwealth upon the like occasions. In
this posture they moved slowly through the streets
(affording, in the gravity of the pomp and the welcomeness
of the end, a most reverend and acceptable prospect
to the people all the way from the Pantheon, being
about half a mile) and arrived at the halo, where they
found the prerogative in a close body environed with
scaffolds that were covered with spectators.
The tribunes received the proposers, and conducted
them into a seat placed in the front of the tribe,
like a pulpit, but that it was of some length, and
well adorned by the heralds with all manner of birds
and beasts, except that they were ill-painted, and
never a one of his natural color. The tribunes
were placed at a table that stood below the long seat,
those of the horse in the middle, and those of the
foot at either end, with each of them a bowl or basin
before him, that on the right hand being white, and
the other green: in the middle of the table stood
a third, which was red. And the housekeepers of
the pavilion, who had already delivered a proportion
of linen balls or pellets to every one of the tribe,
now presented boxes to the ballotins. But the
proposers as they entered the gallery, or long seat,
having put off their hats by way of salutation, were
answered by the people with a shout; whereupon the
younger commissioners seated themselves at either
end; and the first, standing in the middle, spoke after
this manner:
“My lords, the people of
Oceana:
“While I find in myself what
a felicity it is to salute you by this name, and in
every face, anointed as it were with the oil of gladness,
a full and sufficient testimony of the like sense,
to go about to feast you with words, who are already
filled with that food of the mind which, being of
pleasing and wholesome digestion, takes in the definition
of true joy, were a needless enterprise. I shall
rather put you in mind of that thankfulness which
is due, than puff you up with anything that might
seem vain. Is it from the arms of flesh that we
derive these blessings? Behold the Commonwealth
of Rome falling upon her own victorious sword.
Or is it from our own wisdom, whose counsels had brought
it even to that pass, that we began to repent ourselves
of victory? Far be it from us, my lords, to sacrifice
to our own nets, which we ourselves have so narrowly
escaped! Let us rather lay our mouths in the
dust, and look up (as was taught the other day when
we were better instructed in this lesson) to the hills
with our gratitude. Nevertheless, seeing we read
how God upon the neglect of his prophets has been
provoked to wrath, it must needs follow that he expects
honor should be given to them by whom he has chosen
to work as his instruments. For which cause,
nothing doubting of my warrant, I shall proceed to
that which more particularly concerns the present occasion,
the discovery of my Lord Archon’s virtues and
merit, to be ever placed by this nation in their true
meridian.
“My lords, I am not upon a subject
which persuades me to balk, but necessitates me to
seek out the greatest examples. To begin with
Alexander, erecting trophies common to his sword and
the pestilence: to what good of mankind did he
infect the air with his heap of carcasses? The
sword of war, if it be any otherwise used than as the
sword of magistracy, for the fear and punishment of
those that do evil, is as guilty in the sight of God
as the sword of a murderer; nay more, for if the blood
of Abel, of one innocent man, cried in the ears of
the Lord for vengeance, what shall the blood of an
innocent nation? Of this kind of empire, the
throne of ambition, and the quarry of a mighty hunter,
it has been truly said that it is but a great robbery.
But if Alexander had restored the liberty of Greece,
and propagated it to mankind, he had done like my
Lord Archon, and might have been truly called the Great.
Alexander cared not to steal a victory that would be
given; but my Lord Archon has torn away a victory
which had been stolen, while we went tamely yielding
up obedience to a nation reaping in our fields, whose
fields he has subjected to our empire, and nailed them
with his victorious sword to their native Caucasus.
“Machiavel gives a handsome
caution: ‘Let no man,’ says he, ’be
circumvented with the glory of Cæsar, from the false
reflection of their pens, who through the longer continuance
of his empire in the name than in the family, changed
their freedom for flattery. But if a man would
know truly what the Romans thought of Cæsar, let them
observe what they said of Catiline.’”
And yet by how much he who has perpetrated some heinous
crime is more execrable than he who did but attempt
it, by so much is Cæsar more execrable than Catiline.
On the contrary, let him that would know what ancient
and heroic times, what the Greeks and Romans would
both have thought and said of my Lord Archon, observe
what they thought and said of Solon, Lycurgus, Brutus,
and Publicola. And yet by how much his virtue,
that is crowned with the perfection of his work, is
beyond theirs, who were either inferior in their aim,
or in their performance; by so much is my Lord Archon
to be preferred before Solon, Lycurgus, Brutus, and
Publicola.
“Nor will we shun the most illustrious
example of Scipio: this hero, though never so
little less, yet was he not the founder of a commonwealth;
and for the rest, allowing his virtue to have been
of the most untainted ray in what did it outshine
this of my Lord Archon? But if dazzling the eyes
of the magistrates it overawed liberty, Rome might
be allowed some excuse that she did not like it, and
I, if I admit not of this comparison: for where
is my Lord Archon? Is there a genius, how free
soever, which in his presence would not find itself
to be under power? He is shrunk into clouds,
he seeks obscurity in a nation that sees by his light.
He is impatient of his own glory, lest it should stand
between you and your liberty.”
Liberty! What is even that, if
we may not be grateful? And if we may, we have
none: for who has anything that he does not owe?
My lords, there be some hard conditions of virtue:
if this debt were exacted, it were not due; whereas
being cancelled, we are all entered into bonds.
On the other side, if we make such a payment as will
not stand with a free people, we do not enrich my
Lord Archon, but rob him of his whole estate immense
glory.
“These particulars had in due
deliberation and mature debate, according to the order
of this commonwealth, it is proposed by authority of
the Senate, to you my lords the people of Oceana:
“I. That the dignity and
office of Archon, or protector of the commonwealth
of Oceana, be and are hereby conferred, by the Senate
and the people of Oceana, upon the most illustrious
Prince and sole legislator of this commonwealth, Olphaus
Megaletor, pater patrioe, whom God preserve, for the
term of his natural life, yet remaining of the ancient.
“II. That L350,000 per
annum revenue, be estated upon the said illustrious
Prince, or Lord Archon, for the said term, and to the
proper and peculiar use of his Highness.
“III. That the Lord Archon
have the reception of all foreign ambassadors, by
and with the Council of State, according to the orders
of this commonwealth.
“IV. That the Lord Archon
have a standing army of 12,000 defrayed upon a monthly
tax, during the term of three years, for the protection
of this commonwealth against dissenting parties, to
be governed, directed, and commanded by and with the
advice of the Council of War, according to the orders
of this commonwealth.
“V. That this commonwealth
make no distinction of persons or parties, but every
man being elected and sworn, according to the orders
of the same, be equally capable of magistracy, or
not elected, be equally capable of liberty, and the
enjoyment of his estate free from all other than common
taxes.
“VI. That a man putting
a distinction upon himself, refusing oath upon election,
or declaring himself of a party not conformable to
the civil government, may within any time of his the
three years’ standing of the army transport
himself and his estate, without molestation or impediment,
into any other nation.
“VII. That in case there
remains any distinction of parties not conforming
to the civil government of this commonwealth, after
the three years of the standing army being expired,
and the commonwealth be thereby forced to prolong
the term of the said army, the pay from henceforth
of the said army be levied upon the estates of such
parties so remaining unconformable to the civil government.”
The proposer having ended his oration,
the trumpets sounded; and the tribunes of the horse
being mounted to view the ballot, caused the tribe
(which thronging up to the speech, came almost round
the gallery) to retreat about twenty paces, when Linceus
de Stella, receiving the propositions, repaired with
Bronchus de Rauco the herald, to a little scaffold
erected in the middle of the tribe, where he seated
himself, the herald standing bare upon his right hand.
The ballotins, having their boxes ready, stood before
the gallery, and at the command of the tribunes marched,
one to every troop on horseback, and one to every
company on foot, each of them being followed by other
children that bore red boxes: now this is putting
the question whether the question should be put.
And the suffrage being very suddenly returned to the
tribunes at the table, and numbered in the view of
the proposers, the votes were all in the affirmative,
whereupon the red or doubtful boxes were laid aside,
it appearing that the tribe, whether for the negative
or affirmative, Was clear in the matter. Wherefore
the herald began from the scaffold in the middle of
the tribe, to pronounce the first proposition, and
the ballotins marching with the negative or affirmative
only, Bronchus, with his voice like thunder, continued
to repeat the proposition over and over again, so
long as it was in balloting. The like was done
for every clause, till the ballot was finished, and
the tribunes assembling, had signed the points, that
is to say, the number of every suffrage, as it was
taken by the secretary upon the tale of the tribunes,
and in the sight of the proposers; for this may not
be omitted: it is the pulse of the people.
Now whereas it appertains to the tribunes to report
the suffrage of the people to the Senate, they cast
the lot for this office with three silver balls and
one gold one; and it fell upon the Right Worshipful
Argus de Crookhorn, in the tribe of Pascua, first tribune
of the foot. Argus, being a good sufficient man
in his own country, was yet of the mind that he should
make but a bad spokesman, and therefore became something
blank at his luck, till his colleagues persuaded him
that it was no such great matter, if he could but read,
having his paper before him. The proposers, taking
coach, received a volley upon the field, and returned
in the same order, save that, being accompanied with
the tribunes, they were also attended by the whole
prerogative to the piazza of the Pantheon, where,
with another volley, they took their leaves.
Argus, who had not thought upon his wife and children
all the way, went very gravely up: and everyone
being seated, the Senate by their silence seemed to
call for the report, which Argus, standing up, delivered
in this wise:
“Right honorable lords
and fathers assembled in parliament:
“So it is, that it has fallen
to my lot to report to your excellencies in the votes
of the people, taken upon the 3d instant, in the first
year of this commonwealth, at the halo; the Right
Honorable Phosphorus de Auge in the tribe of Eudia,
Dolabella d’Enyo in the tribe of Turmae,
and Linceus de Stella in the tribe of Nubia, lords
commissioners of the great seal of Oceana, and proposers
pro temporibus, together with my brethren the tribunes,
and myself being present. Wherefore these are
to certify to your fatherhoods, that the said votes
of the people were as follows, that is to say:
To the first proposition, némine contradicente;
To the second, némine contradicente;
To the third, the like;
To the fourth, 211, above half;
To the fifth, 201, above half;
To the sixth, 150, above half, in the affirmative;
To the seventh, némine contradicente again, and
so forth.
“My Lords, it is a language
that is out of my prayers, and if I be out at it,
no harm
“But as concerning my Lord Archon
(as I was saying) these are to signify to you the
true-heartedness and goodwill which are in the people,
seeing by joining with you, as one man, they confess
that all they have to give is too little for his highness.
For truly fathers, if he who is able to do harm, and
does none, may well be called honest; what shall we
say to my Lord Archon’s highness, who having
had it in his power to have done us the greatest mischief
that ever befell a poor nation, so willing to trust
such as they thought well of, has done us so much good,
as we should never have known how to do ourselves?
Which was so sweetly delivered by my Lord Chancellor
Phosphorus to the people, that I dare say there was
never a one of them could forbear to do as I do-and,
it please your fatherhoods, they be tears of joy.
Aye, my Lord Archon shall walk the streets (if it
be for his ease I mean) with a switch, while the people
run after him and pray for him; he shall not wet his
foot; they will strew flowers in his way; he shall
sit higher in their hearts, and in the judgment of
all good men, than the kings that go upstairs to their
seats; and one of these had as good pull two or three
of his fellows out of their great chairs as wrong
him or meddle with him; he has two or three hundred
thousand men, that when you say the word, shall sell
themselves to their shirts for him, and die at his
foot. His pillow is of down, and his grave shall
be as soft, over which they that are alive shall wring
their hands. And to come to your fatherhoods,
most truly so called, as being the loving parents
of the people, truly you do not know what a feeling
they have of your kindness, seeing you are so bound
up, that if there comes any harm, they may thank themselves.
And, alas! poor souls, they see that they are given
to be of so many minds, that though they always mean
well, yet if there comes any good, they may thank
them that teach them better. Wherefore there was
never such a thing as this invented, they do verily
believe that it is no other than the same which they
always had in their very heads, if they could have
but told how to bring it out. As now for a sample:
my lords the proposers had no sooner said your minds,
than they found it to be that which heart could wish.
And your fatherhoods may comfort yourselves, that
there is not a people in the world more willing to
learn what is for their own good, nor more apt to
see it, when you have showed it them. Wherefore
they do love you as they do their own selves; honor
you as fathers; resolve to give you as it were obedience
forever, and so thanking you for your most good and
excellent laws, they do pray for you as the very worthies
of the land, right honorable lords and fathers assembled
in Parliament.”
Argus came off beyond his own expectation;
for thinking right, and speaking as he thought, it
was apparent by the house and the thanks they gave
him, that they esteemed him to be absolutely of the
best sort of orators; upon which having a mind that
till then misgave him, he became very crounse, and
much delighted with that which might go down the next
week in print to his wife and neighbors. Livy
makes the Roman tribunes to speak in the same style
with the consuls, which could not be, and therefore
for aught in him to the contrary, Volerò and Canuleius
might have spoken in no better style than Argus.
However, they were not created the first year of the
commonwealth; and the tribunes of Oceana are since
become better orators than were needful. But the
laws being enacted, had the preamble annexed, and
were delivered to Bronchus, who loved nothing in the
earth so much as to go staring and bellowing up and
down the town, like a stag in a forest, as he now did,
with his fraternity in their coats-of-arms, and I
know not how many trumpets, proclaiming the act of
parliament; when, meeting my Lord Archon, whom from
a retreat that was without affectation, as being for
devotion only and to implore a blessing by prayer
and fasting upon his labors, now newly arrived in
town, the herald of the tribe of Bestia set
up his throat, and having chanted out his lesson,
passed as haughtily by him as if his own had been
the better office, which in this place was very well
taken, though Bronchus for his high mind happened afterward
upon some disasters, too long to tell, that spoiled
much of his embroidery.
My Lord Archon’s arrival being
known, the signory, accompanied by the tribunes, repaired
to him, with the news he had already heard by the
herald, to which my lord strategus added that his highness
could not doubt upon the demonstrations given, but
the minds of men were firm in the opinion that he
could be no seeker of himself in the way of earthly
pomp and glory, and that the gratitude of the Senate
and the people could not therefore be understood to
have any such reflection upon him. But so it
was, that in regard of dangers abroad, and parties
at home, they durst not trust themselves without a
standing army, nor a standing army in any man’s
hands but those of his highness.
The Archon made answer, that he ever
expected this would be the sense of the Senate and
the people; and this being their sense, he should have
been sorry they had made choice of any other than himself
for a standing general; first, because it could not
have been more to their own safety, and secondly because
so long as they should have need of a standing army,
’his work was, not done, that he would not dispute
against the judgment of the Senate and the people,
nor ought that to be. Nevertheless, he made little
doubt but experience would show every party their
own interest in this government, and that better improved
than they could expect from any other; that men’s
animosities should overbalance their interest for
any time was impossible, that humor could never be
lasting, nor through the constitution of the government
of any effect at the first charge. For supposing
the worst, and that the people had chosen no other
into the Senate and the prerogative than royalists,
a matter of 1,400 men must have taken their oaths at
their election, with an intention to go quite contrary
not only to their oaths so taken, but to their own
interest; for being estated in the sovereign power,
they must have decreed it from themselves (such an
example for which there was never any experience,
nor can there be any reason), or holding it, it must
have done in their hands as well every wit as in any
other. Furthermore, they must have removed the
government from a foundation that apparently would
hold, to set it upon another which apparently would
not hold; which things if they could not come to pass,
the Senate and the people consisting wholly of royalists,
much less by a parcel of them elected. But if
the fear of the Senate and of the people derived from
a party without, such a one as would not be elected,
nor engage themselves to the commonwealth by an oath;
this again must be so large, as would go quite contrary
to their own interest, they being as free and as fully
estated in their liberty as any other, or so narrow
that they could do no hurt, while the people being
in arms, and at the beck of the strategus, every tribe
would at any time make a better army than such a party;
and there being no parties at home, fears from abroad
would vanish. But seeing it was otherwise determined
by the Senate and the people, the best course was
to take that which they held the safest, in which,
with his humble thanks for their great bounty, he was
resolved to serve them with all duty and obedience.
A very short time after the royalists,
now equal citizens, made good the Archon’s judgment,
there being no other that found anything near so great
a sweet in the government. For he who has not
been acquainted with affliction, says Seneca, knows
but half the things of this world.
Moreover they saw plainly, that to
restore the ancient government they must cast up their
estates into the hands of 300 men; wherefore in case
the Senate and the prerogative, consisting of 1,300
men, had been all royalists, there must of necessity
have been, and be forever, 1,000 against this or any
such vote. But the Senate, being informed by the
signory that the Archon had accepted of his dignity
and office, caused a third chair to be set for his
Highness, between those of the strategus and the orator
in the house, the like at every council; to which he
repaired, not of necessity, but at his pleasure, being
the best, and as Argus not vainly said, the greatest
prince in the world; for in the pomp of his court
he was not inferior to any, and in the field he was
followed with a force that was formidable to all.
Nor was there a cause in the nature of this constitution
to put him to the charge of guards, to spoil his stomach
or his sleep: insomuch, as being handsomely disputed
by the wits of the academy, whether my Lord Archon,
if he had been ambitious, could have made himself
so great, it was carried clear in the negative; not
only for the reasons drawn from the present balance,
which was popular, but putting the case the balance
had been monarchical. For there be some nations,
whereof this is one, that will bear a prince in a
commonwealth far higher than it is possible for them
to bear a monarch. Spain looked upon the Prince
of Orange as her most formidable enemy; but if ever
there be a monarch in Holland, he will be the Spaniard’s
best friend. For whereas a prince in a commonwealth
derives his greatness from the root of the people,
a monarch derives his from one of those balances which
nip them in the root; by which means the Low Countries
under a monarch were poor and inconsiderable, but in
bearing a prince could grow to a miraculous height,
and give the glory of his actions by far the upper
hand of the greatest king in Christendom. There
are kings in Europe, to whom a king of Oceana would
be put a petit companion. But the Prince of this
commonwealth is the terror and judge of them all.
That which my Lord Archon now minded
most was the agrarian, upon which debate he incessantly
thrust the Senate and the Council of State, to the
end it might be planted upon some firm root, as the
main point and basis of perpetuity to the commonwealth.
And these are some of the most remarkable
passages that happened in the first year of this government.
About the latter end of the second, the army was disbanded,
but the taxes continued at L30,000 a month, for three
years and a half. By which means a piece of artillery
was planted, and a portion of land to the value of
L50 a year purchased for the maintenance of the games,
and of the prize arms forever, in each hundred.
With the eleventh year of the commonwealth,
the term of the excise, allotted for the maintenance
of the Senate and the people and for the raising of
a public revenue, expired. By which time the Exchequer,
over and above the annual salaries, amounting to L300,000
accumulating every year out of L1,000,000 income,
L700,000 in banco, brought it with a product
of the sum, rising to about L8,000,000 in the whole:
whereby at several times they had purchased to the
Senate and the people L400,000 per annum solid revenue;
which, besides the lands held in Panopea, together
with the perquisites of either province, was held sufficient
for a public revenue. Nevertheless, taxes being
now wholly taken off, the excise, of no great burden
(and many specious advantages not vainly proposed
in the heightening of the public revenue), was very
cheerfully established by the Senate and the people,
for the term of ten years longer, and the same course
being taken, the public revenue was found in the one-and-twentieth
year of the commonwealth to be worth L1,000,000 in
good land. Whereupon the excise was so abolished
for the present, as withal resolved to be the best,
the most fruitful and easy way of raising taxes, according
to future exigencies.
But the revenue being now such as
was able to be a yearly purchaser, gave a jealousy
that by this means the balance of the commonwealth,
consisting in private fortunes, might be eaten out,
whence this year is famous for that law whereby the
Senate and the people, forbidding any further purchase
of lands to the public within the dominions of Oceana
and the adjacent provinces, put the agrarian upon the
commonwealth herself. These increases are things
which men addicted to monarchy deride as impossible,
whereby they unwarily urge a strong argument against
that which they would defend. For having their
eyes fixed upon the pomp and expense, by which not
only every child of a king, being a prince, exhausts
his father’s coffers, but favorites and servile
spirits, devoted to the flattery of those princes,
grow insolent and profuse, returning a fit gratitude
to their masters, whom, while they hold it honorable
to deceive, they suck and keep eternally poor:
it follows that they do not see how it should be possible
for a commonwealth to clothe herself in purple, and
thrive so strangely upon that which would make a prince’s
hair grow through his hood, and not afford him bread.
As if it were a miracle that a careless and prodigal
man should bring L10,000 a year to nothing, or that
an industrious and frugal man brings a little to L10,000
a year. But the fruit of one man’s industry
and frugality can never be like that of a commonwealth;
first, because the greatness of the increase follows
the greatness of the stock or principal; and, secondly,
because a frugal father is for the most part succeeded
by a lavish son; whereas a commonwealth is her own
heir.
This year a part was proposed by the
Right Honorable Aureus de Woolsack in the tribe of
Pecus, first commissioner of the Treasury, to
the Council of State, which soon after passed the
ballot of the Senate and the people, by which the
lands of the public revenue, amounting to L1,000,000,
were equally divided into L5,000 lots, entered by their
names and parcels into a lot-book preserved in the
Exchequer. And if any orphan, being a maid, should
cast her estate into the Exchequer for L1,400, the
Treasury was bound by the law to pay her quarterly
L200 a year, free from taxes, for her life, and to
assign her a lot for her security; if she married,
her husband was neither to take out the principal
without her consent (acknowledged by herself to one
of the commissioners of the Treasury, who, according
as he found it to be free, or forced, was to allow
or disallow of it), nor any other way engage it than
to her proper use. But if the principal were taken
out, the Treasury was not bound to repay any more
of it than L1,000, nor might that be repaid at any
time, save within the first year of her marriage:
the like was to be done by a half or quarter lot respectively.
This was found to be a great charity
to the weaker sex, and as some say, who are more skilful
in the like affairs than myself, of good profit to
the commonwealth.
Now began the native spleen of Oceana
to be much purged, and men not to affect sullenness
and pedantism. The elders could remember that
they had been youths. Wit and gallantry were
so far from being thought crimes in themselves, that
care was taken to preserve their innocence. For
which cause it was proposed to the Council for Religion
by the Right Honorable Cadiscus de Clero,
in the tribe of Stamnum, first censor, that such women
as, living in gallantry and view about the town, were
of evil fame, and could not show that they were maintained
by their own estates or industry, or such as, having
estates of their own, were yet wasteful in ’their
way of life, and of ill-example to others, should be
obnoxious to the animadversion of the Council of Religion,
or of the censors: in which the proceeding should
be after this manner. Notice should be first
given of the scandal to the party offending, in private:
if there were no amendment within the space of six
months, she should be summoned and rebuked before
the said Council or censors; and, if after other six
months it were found that neither this availed, she
should be censored not to appear at any public meetings,
games, or recreations, upon penalty of being taken
up by the doorkeepers or guards of the Senate, and
by them to be detained, till for every such offence
L5 were duly paid for her enlargement.
Furthermore, if any common strumpet
should be found or any scurrility or profaneness represented
at either of the theatres, the prelates for every
such offence should be fined L20 by the said Council,
and the poet, for every such offence on his part,
should be whipped. This law relates to another,
which was also enacted the same year upon this occasion.
The youth and wits of the Academy
having put the business so home in the defence of
comedies that the provosts had nothing but the consequences
provided against by the foregoing law to object, prevailed
so far that two of the provosts of the Council of
State joined in a proposition, which after much ado
came to a law, whereby L100,000 was allotted for the
building of two theatres on each side of the piazza
of the halo: and two annual magistrates called
prelates, chosen out of the knights, were added to
the tropic, the one called the prelate of the buskin,
for inspection of the tragic scene called Melpomene;
and the other the prelate of the sock, for the comic
called Thalia, which magistrates had each L500 a year
allowed out of the profits of the theatres; the rest,
except L800 a year to four poets, payable into the
Exchequer. A poet laureate created in one of
these theatres by the strategus, receives a wreath
of L500 in gold, paid out of the said profits.
But no man is capable of this creation that had not
two parts in three of the suffrages at the Academy,
assembled after six weeks’ warning and upon
that occasion.
These things among us are sure enough
to be censured, but not know the nature of a commonwealth;
that they are free, and yet to curb the genius in
a lawful recreation to which they are naturally is
to tell a tale of a tub. I have heard the Protestant
ministers in France, by men that were wise and of
their own profession, much blamed in that they forbade
dancing, a recreation to which the genius of that air
is so inclining that they lost many who would not
lose that: nor do they less than blame the former
determination of rashness, who now gently connive at
that which they had so roughly forbidden. These
sports in Oceana are so governed, that they are pleasing
for private diversion, and profitable to the public:
for the theatres soon defrayed their own charge, and
now bring in a good revenue. All this is so far
from the detriment of virtue, that it is to the improvement
of it, seeing women that heretofore made havoc of
their honor that they might have their pleasures are
now incapable of their pleasures if they lose their
honor.
About the one-and-fortieth year of
the commonwealth, the censors, according to their
annual custom, reported the pillar of Nilus, by which
it was found that the people were increased very near
one-third. Whereupon the Council of War was appointed
by the Senate to bring in a state of war, and the
treasurers the state of the Treasury. The state
of war, or the pay and charge of an army, was soon
after exhibited by the Council in this account:
THE FIELD PAY OF A PARLIAMENTARY ARMY
The lord strategus, marching 10,000
Polemarches
General of the horse... 2,000
Lieutenant-general... 2,000
General of the artillery.... 1,000
Commissary-general... 1,000
Major-general.... 1,000
Quartermaster-general... 1,000
Two adjutants to the major-general... 1,000
Forty colonels..... 40,000
100 captains of horse, at 500 a man... 50,000
300 captains of foot, at 300 a man... 90,000
100 cornets, at 100 a man.... 10,000
300 ensigns, at 50 a man.... 15,000
800 Quartermasters, Sergeants, Trumpeters,
Drummers, 20,000
10,000 horse, at 2s 6d per day each... 470,000
30,000 foot, at 1s per day each.... 500,000
Chirurgeons... 400
40,000 auxiliaries, amounting to within a
little as much... 1,100,000
The charge of mounting 20,000 horse.. 300,000
The train of artillery, holding a 3d to
the whole 900,000
Sum total 3,514,400
Arms and ammunition are not reckoned, as those which are
furnished out of the store or arsenal of Emporium: nor wastage,
as that which goes upon the account of the fleet, maintained by
the customs; which customs, through the care of the Council for
Trade and growth of traffic, were long since improved to about
1,000,000 revenue. The house being thus informed of a state of
war, the commissioners brought in
THE STATE OF THE TREASURY THIS PRESENT YEAR, BEING THE
ONE-AND-FORTIETH OF THE COMMONWEALTH
Received from the one-and-twentieth of the commonwealth:
By 700,000 a year in bank, with the product of the sum
rising..............
16,000,000
Expended from the one-and-twentieth of this commonwealth:
Imprimis, for the addition of arms for 100,000 men to
the arsenal, or tower of Emporium.........
1,000,000
For the storing of the same with artillery...
300,000
For the storing of the same with ammunition...
200,000
For beautifying the cities, parks, gardens, public walks,
and places for recreation of Emporium and Hiera, with
public buildings, aqueducts, statues,
and fountains, etc......
1,500,000
Extraordinary embassies...
150,000
Sum........
3,150,000
Remaining in the Treasury, the salaries of the
Exchequer being defalked.......
12,000,000By comparison of which accounts if
a war with an army of 80,000 men were to be made by
the penny, yet was the commonwealth able to maintain
such a one above three years without levying a tax.
But it is against all experience, sense, and reason
that such an army should not be soon broken, or make
a great progress; in either of which cases, the charge
ceases; or rather if a right course be taken in the
latter, profit comes in: for the Romans had no
other considerable way but victory whereby to fill
their treasury, which nevertheless was seldom empty.
Alexander did not consult his purse upon his design
for Persia: it is observed by Machiavel,
that Livy, arguing what the event in reason must have
been had that King invaded Rome, and diligently measuring
what on each side was necessary to such a war, never
speaks a word of money. No man imagines that
the Gauls, Goths, Vandals, Huns, Lombards, Saxons,
Normans, made their inroads or conquests by the strength
of the purse; and if it be thought enough, according
to the dialect of our age, to say in answer to these
things that those times are past and gone: what
money did the late Gustavus, the most victorious of
modern princes, bring out of Sweden with him into
Germany? An army that goes upon a golden leg
will be as lame as if it were a wooden one; but proper
forces have nerves and muscles in them, such for which,
having L4,000,000 or L5,000,000, a sum easy enough,
with a revenue like this of Oceana, to be had at any
time in readiness, you need never, or very rarely,
charge the people with taxes. What influence
the commonwealth by such arms has had upon the world,
I leave to historians, whose custom it has been of
old to be as diligent observers of foreign actions
as careless of those domestic revolutions which (less
pleasant it may be, as not partaking so much of the
romance) are to statesmen of far greater profit; and
this fault, if it be not mine, is so much more frequent
with modern writers, as has caused me to undertake
this work; on which to give my own judgment, it is
performed as much above the time I have been about
it, as below the dignity of the matter.
But I cannot depart out of this country
till I have taken leave of my Lord Archon, a prince
of immense felicity who having built as high with
his counsels as he digged deep with his sword, had
now seen fifty years measured with his own unerring
orbs.
Timoleon (such a hater of tyrants
that, not able to persuade his brother Timophanes
to relinquish the tyranny of Corinth, he slew him)
was afterward elected by the people (the Sicilians
groaning to them from under the like burden) to be
sent to their relief: whereupon Teleclides, the
man at that time of most authority in the Commonwealth
of Corinth, stood up, and giving an exhortation to
Timoleon, how he should behave himself in this expedition,
told him that if he restored the Sicilians to liberty,
it would be acknowledged that he destroyed a tyrant;
if otherwise, he must expect to hear he had murdered
a king. Timoleon, taking his leave with a very
small provision for so great a design, pursued it
with a courage not inferior to, and a felicity beyond,
any that had been known to that day in mortal flesh,
having in the space of eight years utterly rooted
out of all Sicily those weeds of tyranny, through
the detestation whereof men fled in such abundance
from their native country that whole cities were left
desolate, and brought it to such a pass that others,
through the fame of his virtues and the excellency
of the soil, flocked as fast from all quarters to it
as to the garden of the world: while he, being
presented by the people of Syracuse with his town-house
and his country retreat, the sweetest places in either,
lived with his wife and children a most quiet, happy,
and holy life; for he attributed no part of his success
to himself, but all to the blessing and providence
of the gods. As he passed his time in this manner,
admired and honored by mankind, Laphistius, an envious
demagogue, going to summon him upon some pretence or
other to answer for himself before the assembly, the
people fell into such a mutiny as could not be appeased
but by Timoleon, who, understanding the matter, reproved
them, by repeating the pains and travel which he had
gone through, to no other end than that every man
might have the free use of the laws. Wherefore
when Daemenetus, another demagogue, had brought the
same design about again, and blamed him impertinently
to the people for things which he did when he was
general, Timoleon answered nothing, but raising up
his hands, gave the gods thanks for their return to
his frequent prayers, that he might but live to see
the Syracusans so free, that they could question whom
they pleased.
Not long after, being old, through
some natural imperfection, he fell blind; but the
Syracusans by their perpetual visits held him, though
he could not see, their greatest object: if there
arrived strangers, they brought him to see this sight.
Whatever came in debate at the assembly, if it were
of small consequence, they determined it themselves;
but if of importance, they always sent for Timoleon,
who, being brought by his servants in a chair, and
set in the middle of the theatre, there ever followed
a great shout, after which some time was allowed for
the benedictions of the people; and then the matter
proposed, when Timoleon had spoken to it, was put
to the suffrage; which given, his servants bore him
back in his chair, accompanied by the people clapping
their hands, and making all expressions of joy and
applause, till, leaving him at his house, they returned
to the despatch of their business. And this was
the life of Timoleon, till he died of age, and dropped
like a mature fruit, while the eyes of the people
were as the showers of autumn.
The life and death of my Lord Archon
(but that he had his senses to the last, and that
his character, as not the restorer, but the founder
of a commonwealth, was greater) are so exactly the
same, that (seeing by men wholly ignorant of antiquity
I am accused of writing romance) I shall repeat nothing:
but tell you that this year the whole nation of Oceana,
even to the women and children, were in mourning, where
so great or sad a funeral pomp had never been seen
or known. Some time after the performance of
the obsequies a Colossus, mounted on a brazen horse
of excellent fabric, was erected in the piazza of
the Pantheon, engraved with this inscription on the
eastern side of the pedestal:
HIS NAME
IS AS
PRECIOUS OINTMENT
And on the wester with the following:
GRATA PATRIA
Piae et Perpetuae Memorie
D.D.
OLPHAUS MEGALETOR
LORD ARCHON, AND SOLE LEGISLATOR
OF
OCEANA
PATER PATRIAE
Invincible in the Field The Greatest of Captains
Inviolable in his Faith The Best of Princes
Unfeigned in his Zeal The Happiest of Legislators
Immortal in his Fame The Most Sincere of Christians
Who setting the Kingdoms of Earth at Liberty,
Took the Kingdom of the Heavens by Violence.
Anno AEtat. suoe 116
Hujus Reipu
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