and I may utter them more to the comprehenfion of ordinary capacities, because I am more on the level of ordinary men. If it be neceffary to pave the way for what follows on the general History of nations, by giving fome account of the heads under which various forms of government may be conveniently ranged, the reader fhould perhaps be referred to what has been already delivered on the subject by this profound politician and amiable moralift. In his writings will be found, not only the original of what I am now, for the fake of order, to copy from him, but likewife probably the fource of many obfervations, which, in different places, I may, under the belief of invention, have repeated, without quoting their author.

THE ancient philofophers treated of government commonly under three heads; the Democratic, the Ariftocratic, and the Defpotic. Their attention was chiefly occupied with the varieties of republican government; and they paid little regard to a very important distinction, which Mr Montefquieu has måde, between defpotifm and monarchy. He too has confidered government as reducible to three general forms; and, "to understand the nature of each," he observes, it is fufficient to recall "ideas which are familiar with men of the leaft re"flection, who admit three definitions, or rather "three facts: That a republic is a state in which "the people in a collective body, or a part of the people, poffefs the fovcrcign power: That mo

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"narchy

"narchy is that in which one man governs, accord"ing to fixed and determinate laws: And a defpo"tifm is that in which one man, without law, or "rule of adminiftration, by the mere impulfe of "will or caprice, decides, and carries every thing "before him."

REPUBLICS admit of a very material diftinction, which is pointed out in the general definition; that between democracy and aristocracy. In the first, fupreme power remains in the hands of the collective body. Every office of magiftracy, at the mination of this fovereign, is open to every citizen; who, in the discharge of his duty, becomes the minister of the people, and accountable to them for every object of his trust.

In the second, the fovereignty is lodged in a particular class, or order of men; who, being once named, continue for life; or by the hereditary diftinctions of birth and fortune, are advanced to a station of permanent fuperiority. From this order, and by their nomination, all the offices of magiftracy are filled; and in the different affemblies which they conftitute, whatever relates to the legiflation, the execution, or jurifdiction, is finally determined.

MR Montefquieu has pointed out the fentiments or maxims from which men must be supposed to act under thefe different governments.

IN

IN democracy, they must love equality; they must respect the rights of their fellow-citizens; they muft unite by the common ties of affection to the ftate. In forming perfonal pretenfions, they must be fatisfied with that degree of confideration they can procure by their abilities fairly measured with thofe of an opponent; they muft labour for the public without hope of profit; they must reject every attempt to create a perfonal dependence. Candour, force, and elevation of mind, in fhort, are the props of democracy; and virtue is the prineiple of conduct required to its preservation.

How beautiful a pre-eminence on the fide of popular government? and how ardently should mankind wifh for the form, if it tended to establish the prin-x ciple, or were, in every instance, a fure indication ofis its prefence!

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BUT perhaps we must have poffeffed the prin ciple, in order, with any hopes of advantage, to fre ceive the form; and where the first is entirely exil tinguished, the other may be fraught with evil, if any additional evil deserves to be hunned where men are already unhappy se boxtrollite to BRI

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AT Conftantinople or Algiers, it is a miferableto fpectacle when men pretend to act on a foot of equa-of lity: They only mean to thake off the refraints of to,j siburador gang of 23 r asd Igovernment,

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government, and to feize as much as they can of that spoil, which, in ordinary times, is ingroffed by the mafter they serve.

It is one advantage of democracy, that the principal ground of diftinction being perfonal qualities, men are claffed according to their abilities, and to the merit of their actions. Though all have equal pretenfions to power, yet the ftate is actually governed by a few. The majority of the people, even in their capacity of fovereign, only pretend to employ their fenfes; to feel, when preffed by national inconveniences, or threatened by public dangers; and with the ardour which is apt to arife in crouded affemblies, to urge the purfuits in which they are engaged, or to repel the attacks with which they are menaced.

THE most perfect equality of rights can never exclude the afcendant of fuperior minds, nor the affemblies of a collective body govern without the direction of felect councils. On this account, popular government may be confounded with ariftocracy. But this alone does not conftitute the chafacter of aristocratical government. Here the members of the state are divided, at least, into two claffes; of which one is deftined to command, the other to obey. No merits or defects can raife or fink person from one clafs to the other. The only effect of perfonal character is, to procure to the individual a fuitable degree of confideration with his own

order,

order, not to vary his rank. In one fituation he is taught to affume, in another to yield the preeminence. He occupies the ftation of patron or client, and is either the fovereign or the fubject of his country. The whole citizens may unite in executing the plans of state, but never in deliberating on its measures, or enacting its laws. What belongs to the whole people under democracy, is here confined to a part. Members of the fuperior order, are among themselves, poffibly, claffed according to their abilities, but retain a perpetual afcendant over thofe of inferior ftation. They are at once the fervants and the mafters of the ftate, and pay with their personal attendance and with their blood, for the civil or military honours they enjoy.

To maintain for himself, and to admit in his fellow-citizen, a perfect equality of privilege and ftation, is no longer the leading maxim of the member of fuch a community. The rights of men are modified by their condition. One order claims more than it is willing to yield; the other must be ready to yield what it does not affume to itself: and it is with good reafon that Mr Montefquieu gives to the principle of fuch governments the name of moderation not of virtue.

THE elevation of one class is a moderated arrogance the fubmiffion of the other a limited de-. erence.The first must be careful, by concealing the invidious part of their diftinction, to palliate

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