And spreads in burning ruin round. When reckless power by force prevails, The reign of peace and art is o'er; And when a mob e'en wrong assails, The public welfare is no more. Alas! when in the peaceful state Conspiracies are darkly forming; The oppressed no longer patient wait; With fury every breast is storming. Then whirls the bell with frequent clang; And Uproar, with her howling voice, Has changed the note, that peaceful rang, To wild confusion's dreadful noise. Freedom and equal rights they call,And peace gives way to sudden war; The street is crowded, and the hall,And crime is unrestrained by law: E'en woman to a fury turning, But mocks at every dreadful deed; Against the hated madly burning, With horrid joy she sees them bleed. Now naught is sacred ;-broken lies Each holy law of honest worth; The bad man rules, the good man flies, And every vice walks boldly forth, There's danger in the lion's wrath, Destruction in the tiger's jaw; The torch of truth by passion's fire! God has given us joy to-night! See how, like the golden grain From top to well formed rim, Around, around, Companions all, take your ground, Be this henceforth the destined end In the blue canopy of heaven, With brightest troops of distant suns, The praise of our Creator's name, While round each circling season runs Of hastening time's unceasing flight. Of human passions, griefs, and joys. Now, lads, join your strength around! And in the kingdom wide of sound Its birth-place see it leave! ALGERNON SIDNEY ON GOVERN. MENT. [ALGERNON SIDNEY, English author and statesman, born about 1622, executed at London, 1683, a son of the Earl of Leicester, and grand-nephew of Sir Philip Sidney. He became distinguished both in civil and in military life, fighting gallantly at Marston Moor, entering Parliament, and being made governor of Dublin and of Dover. He was one of the judges of King Charles I, but did not sign the warrant of execution. A republican in principle, he remained in voluntary exile for years till 1677, when he was permitted to return to England. He was arrested and thrown into the Tower in 1683, charged with complicity in the Ryehouse plot, and conspiracy against the king's life. Of this no legal evidence was produced, but the infamous Judge Jeffreys, with a subservient jury, upon garbled extracts from his work on Government, yet unpublished, but found among his papers, convicted him of high treason. Sidney met the barbarous death by the headsman's axe with the fortitude of a stoic, leaving an eloquent vindication of his principles in an address to his countrymen, who have enshrined him among the most illustrious martyrs of English liberty. From his "Discourses on Government," a work written in refutation of Sir Robert Filmer's De fence of Absolute Monarchy, we quote a few passages:] Our author's cavils concerning I know not what vulgar opinions that democracies were introduced to curb tyranny, deserve no answer; for our question is, whether one form of government be prescribed to us by God and nature, or we are left according | tions did reside, and by which they were to our own understanding, to constitute exercised. The like was practised in Hunsuch as seem best to ourselves. As for de- gary, Bohemia, Sweden, Denmark, Poland; mocracy, he may say what pleases him of and if things are changed in some of these it; and I believe it can suit only with the places within few years, they must give convenience of a small town, accompanied better proofs of having gained by the change with such circumstances as are seldom than are yet seen in the world, before I found. But this no way obliges men to run think myself obliged to change my opinion. into the other extreme, inasmuch as the variety of forms between mere democracy and absolute monarchy is almost infinite; and if I should undertake to say, there never was a good government in the world that did not consist of the three simple species of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, I think I might make it good. This, at the least, is certain, that the government of the Hebrews, instituted by God, had a judge, the great sanhedrim, and general assemblies of the people. Sparta had two kings, a senate of twenty-eight chosen men, and the like assemblies; all the Dorian cities had a chief magistrate, a senate, and occasional assemblies. The Ionian, Athens, and others, had an archon, the areopagi; and all judgments concerning matters of the greatest importance, as well as the election of magistrates, were referred to the people. Rome, in the beginning, had a king and a senate, whilst the election of kings, and judgments upon appeals, remained in the people; afterwards consuls, representing kings, and vested with equal power, a more numerous senate, and more frequent meetings of the people. Venice has at this day a duke, the senate of the "pregadi," and the great assembly of the nobility, which is the whole city, the rest of the inhabitants being only "incolæ," not " cives;" and those of the other cities or countries are their subjects, and do not participate in the government. Genoa is governed in like manner: Luca not unlike to them. Germany is at this day governed by an emperor, the princes or great lords in their several precincts, the cities by their own magistrates, and by general diets, in which the whole power of the nation resides, and where the emperor, princes, nobility, and cities have their places in person, or by their deputies. All the northern nations, which, upon the dissolution of the Roman empire, possessed the best provinces that had composed it, were under that form which is usually called the Gothic polity: they had kings, lords, commons, diets, assemblies of estates, cortez, and parliaments, in which the sovereign powers of those na Some nations, not liking the name of king, have given such a power as kings enjoyed in other places to one or more magistrates, either limited to a certain time, or left to be perpetual, as best pleased themselves: others, approving the name, made the dignity purely elective. Some have in their elections principally regarded one family as long as it lasted others considered nothing but the fitness of the person, and reserved to themselves a liberty of taking when they pleased. Some have permitted the crown to be hereditary, as to its ordinary course; but restrained the power and instituted officers to inspect the proceedings of kings, and to take care that the laws were not violated: of this sort were the ephori of Sparta, the maires du palais, and afterwards the constable of France; the justicia in Arragon; rijckshofmeister in Denmark; the high-steward in England; and in all places such assemblies as are before-mentioned under several names, who had the power of the whole nation. Some have continued long and it may be always in the same form; others have changed it; some, being incensed against their kings, as the Romans, exasperated by the villanies of Tarquin, and the Tuscans by the cruelties of Mezentius, abolished the name of king: others, as Athens, Sicyon, Argos, Corinth, Thebes, and the Latins, did not stay for such extremities; but set up other governments when they thought it best for themselves, and by this conduct prevented the evils that usually fall upon nations, when their kings degenerate into tyrants, and a nation is brought to enter into a war by which all may be lost, and nothing can be gained which was not their own before. The Romans took not this salutary course; the mischief was grown up before they perceived, or set themselves against it; and when the effects of pride, avarice, cruelty, and lust, were grown to such a height that they could no longer be endured, they could not free themselves without a war: and whereas upon other occasions their victories had brought them increase of strength, territory, and glory; the only reward of their virtue in this was, to be delivered from a plague they had unadvisedly suffered to grow up among them. I confess this was most of all to be esteemed; for if they had been overthrown, their condition under Tarquin would have been more intolerable than if they had fallen under the power of Pyrrhus or Hannibal; and all their following prosperity was the fruit of their recovered liberty: but it had been much better to have reformed the state after the death of one of their good kings, than to be brought to fight for their lives against that abominable tyrant. Our author, in pursuance of his aversion to all that is good, disapproves this; and, wanting reasons to justify his dislike, according to the custom of impostors and cheats, hath recourse to the ugly terms of a backdoor sedition," and "faction:" as if it were not as just for a people to lay aside their kings when they receive nothing but evil, and can rationally hope for no benefit by them, as for others to set them up in expectation of good from them. But if the truth be examined, nothing will be found more orderly than the changes of government, or of the persons and races of those that governed, which have been made by many nations. * * * It may be said that some princes are so full of virtue and goodness, as not to desire more power than the laws allow, and are not obliged to chuse ill men, because they desire nothing but what the best are willing to do. This may be, and sometimes is: the nation is happy that has such a king: but he is hard to find, and, more than a human power is required to keep him in so good a way. The strength of his own affections will ever be against him: wives, children, and servants will always join with those enemies that arise in his own breast to pervert him if he has any weak side, any lust unsubdued, they will gain the victory. He has not searched into the nature of man, who thinks that any one can resist where he is thus on all sides assaulted: nothing but the wonderful and immediate power of God's Spirit can preserve him; and to allege it, will be nothing to the purpose, unless it can be proved, that all princes are blessed with such an assistance, or that God hath promised it to them and their successors for ever, by what means soever they came to the crowns they enjoy. Nothing is farther from my intention than to speak irreverently of kings; and I presume no wise man will think I do so, if I profess that, having observed, as well as I can, what history, and daily experience, teach us concerning the virtues and religions that are or have been from the beginning of the world encouraged and supported by monarchs, the methods they have followed since they have gone under the name of Christians, their moral as well as their theological graces, together with what the scriptures tell us of those who in the last days will principally support the throne of antichrist; I cannot be confident, that they are generally in an extraordinary manner preserved by the hand of God from the vices and frailties to which the rest of mankind is subject. If no man can shew that I am in this mistaken I may conclude, that as they are more than any other men in the world exposed to temptations and snares, they are more than any in danger of being corrupted, and made instruments of corrupting others, if they are no otherwise defended than the rest of men. This being the state of the matter on both sides, we easily collect, that all governments are subject to corruption and decay; but with this difference, that absolute monarchy is by principle led unto, or rooted in it; whereas mixed or popular governments are only in a possibility of falling into it: as the first cannot subsist, unless the prevailing part of the people be corrupted; the other must certainly perish, unless they be preserved in a great measure free from vices: and I doubt whether any better reason can be given, why there have been and are more monarchies than popular governments in the world, than that nations are more easily drawn into corruption than defended from it; and I think that monarchy can be said to be natural in no other sense, than that our depraved nature is most inclined to that which is worst. To avoid unnecessary disputes, I give the name popular governments to those of Rome, Athens, Sparta, and the like, though improperly unless the same may be also given to many that are usually called monarchies, since there is nothing of violence in either; the power is conferred upon the chief magistrates of both by the free consent of a willing people, and such a part as they think fit is still retained and executed in their own assemblies; and in this sense it is that our author seems to speak against them. As to popular government in the strictest sense (that is pure democracy, where the people in [der it impossible for him to accomplish it. Though I believe there have been in all ages bad men in every nation; yet I doubt whether there was one in Rome, except a Catiline or a Cæsar, who designed to make themselves tyrants, that would not rather have wished the whole people as brave and virtuous as in the times of the Carthaginian wars, than vile and base as in the days of Nero and Domitian. But it is madness to think, that the whole body would not rather wish to be as it was when virtue flourished, and nothing upon earth was able to resist their power, than weak, miserable, base, slavish, and trampled under foot by any that would invade them; and forced as a chattel to become a prey to those that were strongest. Which is sufficient to shew, that a people acting according to the liberty of their own will, never advance unworthy men, unless it be by mistake, nor willingly suffer the introduction of vices: whereas the absolute monarch always prefers the worst of those who are addicted to him, and cannot subsist unless the prevailing part of the people be base and vicious. **** themselves, and by themselves, perform all that belongs to government) I know of no such thing; and if it be in the world have nothing to say for it. In asserting the liberty, generally, as I suppose granted by God to all mankind, I neither deny, that so many as think fit to enter into a society, may give so much of their power as they please to one or more men, for a time, or perpetually, to them and to their heirs, according to such rules as they prescribe; nor approve the disorders that must arise if they keep it entirely in their own hands: and looking upon the several governments, which, under different forms and names, have been regularly constituted by nations, as so many undeniable testimonies that they thought it good for themselves, and their posterity, so to do, I infer, that as there is no man who would not rather chuse to be governed by such as are just, industrious, valiant, and wise, than by those that are wicked, slothful, cowardly, and foolish; and to live in society with such as are qualified like those of the first sort, rather than with those who will ever be ready to commit all manner of villanies, or want experience, That our author's book may appear to be strength, or courage, to join in repelling a heap of incongruities and contradictions, the injuries that are offered by others: so it is not amiss to add to what has already there are none who do not according to the been observed, that having asserted absomeasure of understanding they have, en- lute monarchy to be "the only natural deavour to set up those who seem to be government," he now says, that the na best qualified, and to prevent the introduc- ture of all people is to desire liberty with. tion of those vices, which render the faith out restraint." But if monarchy be that of the magistrate suspected, or make him power which above all restrains liberty, and unable to perform his duty, in providing for subjects all to the will of one; this is as the execution of justice, and the public de- much as to say that all people naturally defence of the state, against foreign and do-sire that which is against nature: and by mestic enemies. For as no man who is not absolutely mad, will commit the care of a flock to a villain, that has neither skill, diligence, or courage, to defend them, or perhaps is maliciously set to destroy them, rather than to a stout, faithful, and wise shepherd; it is less to be imagined, that any would commit the same error in relation to that society which comprehends himself, with his children, friends, and all that is dear to him. The same considerations are of equal force in relation to the body of every nation: for since the magistrate, though the most perfect in his kind, cannot perform his duty, if the people be so base, vicious, effeminate and cowardly, as not to second his good intentions; those who expect good from him, cannot desire so to corrupt their companions that are to help him, as to ren wonderful excess of extravagance and folly to assert contrary propositions, that on both sides are equally absurd and false. For, as we have already proved that no govern. ment is imposed upon men by God or na ture, it is no less evident that man being a rational creature, nothing can be univer sally natural to him, that is not rational But this liberty without restraint, being inconsistent with any government, and the good which man naturally desires for himself, children, and friends, we find no place in the world where the inhabitants do not enter into some kind of society or government to restrain it: and to say that all men desire liberty without restraint, and yet that all restrain it is ridiculous. The truth is, man is hereunto led by reason, which is his nature. Every one sees they cannot well live asunder, nor many to gether, without some rule to which all must submit. This submission is a restraint of liberty, but could be of no effect as to the good intended, unless it were general; nor general, unless it were natural. When all are born to the same freedom, some will not resign that which is their own, unless others do the like. This general consent of all to resign such a part of their liberty as seems to be for the good of all, is the voice of nature, and the act of men (according to natural reason), seeking their own good: and if all go not in the same way, according to the same form, it is an evident testimony that no one is directed by nature; but as a few or many may join together, and frame smaller and greater societies, so those societies may institute such an order or form of government as best pleases themselves; and if the ends of government are obtained, all equally follow the voice of nature in constituting them. And still she gazed incredulous; and still But the quick oars upon the waters flashed, Far off she strains her melancholy eyes; Stands as in act to shout, for she espies Him she once called her own. Dark waves of care swayed o'er her tender soul; Over her bosom bare. Again, if man were by nature so tena- Loose dropped the well-wrought girdle from her breast, violation of the laws of nature that can be But nought she recked of turban then, and nought And soul, she hung on thee! Ay me! that hour did cruel love prepare A never-ending thread of wildering woe; And twining round that heart rude briars of care, Bade them take root and grow. |