The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Advertisement to the Reader.
• To the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sherifs, and Common Council of London.
• The Preface.
• The Life of James Harrington.
• The Mechanics of Nature:
• The Grounds and Reasons of Monarchy Considered: and Exemplify’d In the Scotish Line, Out of Their Own Best Authors and Records.
• The Commonwealth of Oceana. to His Highness the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
• The Introduction, Or Order of the Work.
• Oceana.
• The Preliminarys, Shewing the Principles of Government.
• The Second Part of the Preliminarys.
• The Council of Legislators.
• Oceana: the Model of the Commonwealth of Oceana.
• Anno Dom.
• Anno Domini.
• Anno Domini.
• Epitome of the Whole Commonwealth.
• Libertas. the Proclamation of His Highness the Lord Archon of Oceana Upon Promulgation of the Model.
• The Prerogative of Popular Government.
• Epistle to the Reader.
• The First Book, Containing: a Full Answer to All Such Objections As Have Hitherto Bin Made Against Oceana.
• The Preface.
• Chap. I. Antient and Modern Prudence.
• Chap. I.: Whether Prudence Be Well Distinguish’d Into Antient and Modern.
• Chap. II.: Whether a Commonwealth Be Rightly Defin’d to Be a Government of Laws and Not of Men, and a Monarchy to Be the Government of Som Man, Or a Few Men, and Not of Laws?
• Chap. III.: Whether the Balance of Dominion In Land Be the Natural Cause of Empire?
• Chap. IV. Chap. IV.: Whether the Balance of Empire Be Well Divided Into National and Provincial; and Whether These Two, Or Any Nations That Are of Distinct Balance, Coming to Depend Upon One and the Same Head, Such a Mixture Creates a New Balance.
• Chap. V.: Whether There Be Any Common Right Or Interest of Mankind Distinct From the Parts Taken Severally; and How By the Orders of a Commonwealth It May Be Best Distinguish’d From Privat Interest.
• Chap. VI.: Whether the Senatusconsulta, Or Decrees of the Roman Senat, Had the Power of Laws?
• Chap. VII.: Whether the Ten Commandments Were Propos’d By God Or Moses, and Voted By the People of Israel.
• Chap. VIII.: Whether a Commonwealth Coming Up to the Perfection of the Kind, Coms Not Up to the Perfection of Government, and Has No Flaw In It.
• Chap. IX.: Whether Monarchy Coming Up to the Perfection of the Kind, Coms Not Short of the Perfection of Government, and Has Not Som Flaw In It. In Which Is Also Treated of the Balance of France; of the Original of a Landed Clergy; of Arms, and Their Ki
• Chap. X.: Whether a Commonwealth That Was Not First Broken By Her Self, Was Ever Conquer’d By the Arms of Any Monarch?
• Chap. XI.: Whether There Be Not an Agrarian, Or Som Law of Laws of That Nature, to Supply the Defect of It In Every Commonwealth: and Whether the Agrarian, As It Is Stated In Oceana, Be Not Equal and Satisfactory to All Interests.
• Chap. XII.: Whether Courses Or a Rotation Be Necessary to a Well-order’d Commonwealth. In Which Is Contain’d the Courses Or Parembole of Israel Before the Captivity, Together With the Epitome of Athens and Venice.
• The Second Book; Or, a Political Discourse Concerning Ordination: Against Dr. H. Hammond, Dr. L. Seaman, and the Authors They Follow.
• Advertisment to the Reader.
• Order of the Discourse.
• A Political Discourse Concerning Ordination.
• The Introduction, Or First Chapter.
• Chap. II.: That the Citys, Or Most of Them Nam’d In the Perambulation of the Apostles Paul and Barnabas, Were At That Time Under Popular Government. In Which Is Contain’d the Administration of a Roman Province.
• Chap. III.: The Deduction of the Chirotonia From Popular Government, and of the Original Right of Ordination From the Chirotonia. In Which Is Contain’d the Institution of the Sanhedrim Or Senat of Israel By Moses, and That of Rome By Romulus
• Chap. IV.: The Deduction of the Chirothesia From Monarchical Or Aristocratical Government, and of the Second Way of Ordination From the Chirothesia. In Which Is Contain’d the Commonwealth of the Jews As It Stood After the Captivity.
• Chap. V.: Whether the Chirotonia Mention’d In the Fourteenth of the Acts Be Indeed, As Is Pretended By Dr. Mammond, Dr. Seaman, and the Authors They Follow, the Same With the Chirothesia, Or a Far Different Thing. In Which Are Contain’d the
• Advertisement to the Reader, Or Direction to the Answerer.
• An Answer to Three Objections Against Popular Government, That Were Given Me After These Two Books Were Printed.
• The Art of Lawgiving: In Three Books.
• The Order of the Work.
• The First Book.
• The Second Book.
• The Third Book.
• The First Book, Shewing the Foundations and Superstructures of All Kinds of Government.
• The Preface. Considering the Principles Or Nature of Family Government.
• Chap. I.: Considering the Principles Or Balance of National Governments; With the Different Kinds of the Same.
• Chap. II.: Shewing the Variation of the English Balance.
• Chap. III.: Of Fixation of the Balance, Or of Agrarian Laws.
• Chap. IV.: Shewing the Superstructures of Governments.
• The Conclusion: Observing That the Principles of Human Prudence Being Good Without Proof of Scripture, Are Nevertheless Such As Are Provable Out of Scripture.
• The Second Book, Containing the Commonwealths of the Hebrews; Namely, Elohim, Or the Commonwealth of Israel; and Cabala, Or the Commonwealth of the Jews.
• The Preface, Shewing That There Were Commonwealths Before That of Israel.
• Chap. I.: Shewing That Israel Was a Commonwealth.
• Chap. II.: Shewing What Commonwealth Israel Was.
• Chap. III.: Shewing the Anarchy, Or State of the Israelits Under Their Judges.
• Chap. IV.: Shewing the State of the Israelits Under Their Kings, to the Captivity.
• Chap. V.: Shewing the State of the Jews In the Captivity; and After Their Return Out of It; With the Frame of the Jewish Commonwealth.
• Chap. VI.: Shewing How Ordination Was Brought Into the Christian Church, and the Divers Ways of the Same That Were At Divers Times In Use With the Apostles.
• The Conclusion: Shewing That Neither God, Nor Christ, Or the Apostles, Ever Instituted Any Government Ecclesiastical Or Civil Upon Any Other Principles Than Those Only of Human Prudence.
• The Third Book, Containing a Model of Popular Government, Practically Propos’d According to Reason, Confirm’d By the Scripture, and Agreable to the the Present Balance Or State of Property In England.
• The Preface. Containing a Model of Popular Government, Propos’d Notionally.
• Chap. I.: Containing the Civil Part of the Model, Propos’d Practicably.
• Chap. II.: Containing the Religious Part of This Model, Propos’d Practicably.
• Chap. III.: Containing the Military Part of This Model, Propos’d Practicably.
• Chap. IV.: Containing the Provincial Part of This Model, Propos’d Practicably.
• The Conclusion: Shewing How the Model Propos’d May Be Prov’d Or Examin’d; and Giving a Brief Answer to Mr. Wren’s Last Book, Intitl’d, Monarchy Asserted Against Mr. Harrington’s Oceana.
• A Word Concerning a House of Peers.
• Six Political Tracts Written On Several Occasions.
• Valerius and Publicola: Or, the True Form of a Popular Commonwealth Extracted Ex Puris Naturalibus.
• To the Reader.
• To the Parlament of the Commonwealth of England, &c. the Humble Petition, &c.
• The Petitioner to the Reader.
• A System of Politics Delineated In Short and Easy Aphorisms. Publish’d From the Author’s Own Manuscript.
• Chap. I.: Of Government.
• Chap. II.: Of the Matter of Government.
• Chap. III.: Of the Privation of Government.
• Chap. IV.: Of the Form of Government.
• Chap. V.: Of Form In the Civil Parts.
• Chap. VI.: Of Form In the Religious Part.
• Chap. VII.: Of Form In the Military Part.
• Chap. VIII.: Of Form In the Legal Part.
• Chap. IX.: Of Form In the Judicial Part.
• Chap. X.: Of the Administration of Government, Or Reason of State.
• Political Aphorisms.
• Seven Models of a Commonwealth: Or, Brief Directions Shewing How a Fit and Perfect Model of Popular Government May Be Made, Found, Or Understood.
• The First Part.
• Divers Models the First Model of Popular Government Propos’d. the Commonwealth of Israel.
• A Second Model of a Commonwealth Propos’d.
• A Third Model of a Commonwealth Propos’d. the Commonwealth of Sparta.
• A Fourth Model of a Commonwealth Propos’d. the Commonwealth of Athens.
• A Fifth Model of a Commonwealth Propos’d. the Commonwealth of Rome.
• A Sixth Model of a Commonwealth Propos’d. the Commonwealth of Venice.
• A Seventh Model of a Commonwealth Propos’d. the Commonwealth of Holland.
• The Second Part, Proposing a Model of a Commonwealth Fitted to the Present State of This Nation.
• Conclusion; Or, the Use of These Propositions.
• The Ways and Means Wherby an Equal and Lasting Commonwealth May Be Suddenly Introduc’d, and Perfectly Founded, With the Free Consent and Actual Confirmation of the Whole People of England.
• The Humble Petition of Divers Well Affected Persons, Deliver’d the 6th Day of July, 1659, With the Parlament’s Answer Therto.
• Appendix, Containing All the Political Tracts of James Harrington, Esq; Omitted In Mr. Toland ’s Edition of His Works.
• Pian Piano: Or, Intercourse Between H. Ferne, D. D. And J. Harrington, Esq; Upon Occasion of the Doctor’s Censure of the Commonwealth of Oceana.
• Epistle to the Reader.
• Intercourse Between H. Ferne, D. D. And James Harrington, Esq; Upon Occasion of the Doctor’s Censure of the Commonwealth of Oceana.
• The Queries I Shall Interweave With the Doctor’s Answer Unto Each of Them, Returned Unto Me With This Preamble.
• The First Query. How Much, Or In What the Author of Oceana Is Mistaken, to Think the Commonwealth of the Hebrews Appliable to His Purpose.
• The Second Query.
• The Third Query.
• The Fourth Query.
• The Fifth Query.
• The Sixth Query.
• The Seventh Query.
• The Stumbling-block of Disobedience and Rebellion, Cunningly Imputed By P. H. Unto Calvin, Remov’d, In a Letter to the Said P. H. From J. H.
• A Letter Unto Mr. Stubs, In Answer to His Oceana Weighed, &c.
• Politicaster: Or, a Comical Discourse In Answer to Mr. Wren ’s Book, Intituled, Monarchy Asserted, Against Mr. Harrington’ S Oceana.
• Pour Enclouer Le Canon.
• A Discourse Upon This Saying: the Spirit of the Nation Is Not Yet to Be Trusted With Liberty; Lest It Introduce Monarchy, Or Invade the Liberty of Conscience.
• A Discourse Shewing, That the Spirit of Parliaments, With a Council In the Intervals, Is Not to Be Trusted For a Settlement; Lest It Introduce Monarchy, and Persecution For Conscience.
• A Parallel of the Spirit of the People With the Spirit of Mr. Rogers; and an Appeal Thereupon Unto the Reader, Whether the Spirit of the People, Or the Spirit of Men Like Mr. Rogers, Be the Fitter to Be Trusted With the Government.
• A Sufficient Answer to Mr. Stubb.
• A Proposition In Order to the Proposing of a Commonwealth Or Democracy.
• The Rota: Or, a Model of a Free State, Or Equal Commonwealth.

Anno Domini.

If it be objected against this order, that the magistrats to be elected by it, will be men of more inferior rank than those of the hundreds, in regard that those are chosen first; it may be remember’d, that so were the burgesses in the former government, nevertheless the knights of the shire were men of greater quality: and the election at the hundred is made by a council of electors, of whom less cannot be expected than the discretion of naming persons fittest for those capacitys, with an ey upon these to be elected at the tribe. As for what may be objected in point of difficulty, it is demonstrable by the foregoing orders, that a man might bring ten thousand men (if there were occasion) with as much ease, and as suddenly to perform the ballot, as he can make five thousand men (drawing them out by double files) to march a quarter of a mile. But because at this ballot, to go up and down the field, distributing the linen pellets to every man, with which he is to ballot or give suffrage, would lose a great deal of time, therfore a man’s wife, his daughters, or others, make him his provision of pellets before the ballot; and he coms into the field with a matter of a score of them in his pocket. And now I have as good as don with the sport. The next is

11 Order. Functions of the magistrats of the prime magnitude.The eleventh ORDER, explaining the dutys and functions of the magistrats contain’d in the list of the prime magnitude: and those of the hundreds, beginning with the lord high sheriff, who, over and above his more antient offices, and those added by the former order, is the first magistrat of the phylarch, or prerogative troop. The lord lieutenant, over and above his duty mentioned, is commander in chief of the musters of the youth, and second magistrat of the phylarch. The custos rotulorum is to return the yearly muster-rolls of the tribe, as well that of the youth as of the elders, to the rolls in emporium, and is the third magistrat of the phylarch. The censors by themselves, and their subcensors, that is, the overseers of the parishes, are to see that the respective laws of the ballot be observ’d in all the popular assemblys of the tribe. They have power also to put such national ministers, as in preaching shell intermeddle with matters of government, out of their livings: except the party appeals to the phylarch, or to the council of religion, where in that case the censors shall prosecute. All and every one of these magistrats, together with the justices of peace, and the jurymen of the hundreds, amounting in the whole number to threescore and six, are the prerogative troop or phylarch of the tribe.

THE function of the phylarch or prerogative troop is fivesold.

Functions of the phylarch.First, They are the council of the tribe, and as such to govern the musters of the same according to the foregoing orders, having cognizance of what has past in the congregation or elections made in the parishes or the hundreds, with power to punish any undue practices, or variation from their respective rules and orders, under an appeal to the parlament. A marriage legitimatly is to be pronounc’d by the parochial congregation, the muster of the hundred, or the phylarch. And if a tribe have a desire (which they are to express at the muster by their captains, every troop by his own) to petition the parlament, the phylarch, as the counsil, shall frame the petition in the pavilion, and propose it by clauses to the ballot of the whole tribe; and the clauses that shall be affirm’d by the ballot of the tribe, and sign’d by the hands of the six magistrats of the prime magnitude, shall be receiv’d and esteem’d by the parlament as the petition of the tribe, and no other.

Secondly, The phylarch has power to call to their assistance what other troops of the tribe they please (be they elders or youth, whose disciplin will be hereafter directed) and with these to receive the judges itinerant in their circuits, whom the magistrats of the phylarch shall assist upon the bench, and the jurys elsewhere in their proper functions according to the more antient laws and customs of this nation.

Thirdly, The phylarch shall hold the court called the quarter sessions according to the antient custom, and therin shall also hear causes in order to the protection of liberty of conscience, by such rules as are or shall hereafter be appointed by the parlament.

Fourthly, All commissions issu’d into the tribes by the parlament, or by the chancery, are to be directed to the phylarch, or som of that troop, and executed by the same respectively.

Fifthly, In the case of levys of mony the parlament shall tax the phylarchs, the phylarchs shall tax the hundreds, the hundreds the parishes, and the parishes shall levy it upon themselves. The parishes having levy’d the tax-mony, accordingly shall return it to the officers of the hundreds, the hundreds to the phylarchs, and the phylarchs to the Exchequer. But if a man has ten children living, he shall pay no taxes; if he has five living, he shall pay but half taxes; if he has bin marry’d three years, or be above twenty five years of age, and has no child or children lawfully begotten, he shall pay double taxes. And if there happen to grow any dispute upon these or such other orders as shall or may hereto be added hereafter, the phylarchs shall judg the tribes, and the parlament shall judg the phylarchs. For the rest, if any man shall go about to introduce the right or power of debate into any popular council or congregation of this nation, the phylarch or any magistrat of the hundred, or of the tribe, shall cause him presently to be sent in custody to the council of war.

Institution of the roll call’d the pillar of Nilus.The part of the order relating to the rolls in Emporium being of singular use, is not unworthy to be somwhat better open’d. In what manner the lists of the parishes, hundreds, and tribes are made, has bin shewn in their respective orders, where after the partys are elected, they give an account of the whole number of the elders or deputys in their respective assemblys or musters; the like for this part exactly is don by the youth in their disciplin (to be hereafter shewn) wherfore the lists of the parishes, youth and elders, being sum’d up, give the whole number of the people able to bear arms; and the lists of the tribes, youth and elders, being sum’d up, give the whole number of the people bearing arms. This account, being annually recorded by the master of the rolls, is call’d the pillar of Nilus, because the people being the riches of the commonwealth, as they are found to rise or fall by the degrees of this pillar, like that river, give an account of the public harvest.

Thus much for the description of the first day’s work at the muster, which happen’d, as has bin shewn, to be done as soon as said: for as in practice it is of small difficulty, so requires it not much time, seeing the great council of Venice, consisting of a like number, begins at twelve of the clock, and elects nine magistrats in one afternoon. But the tribe being dismist for this night, repair’d to their quarters, under the conduct of their new magistrats. The next morning returning to the field very early, the orator proceded to

12 Order. Institution of the galaxy.The twelfth ORDER, directing the muster of the tribe in the second day’s election, being that of the list call’d the galaxy; in which the censors shall prepare the urns according to the directions given in the ninth order for the second ballot; that is to say, with 36 gold balls in the middle urn, making four orders, and nine electors in every order, according to the number of the magistrats in the list of the galaxy, which is as follows:

THE rest of the ballot shall procede exactly according to that of the first day. But forasmuch as the commonwealth demands as well the fruits of a man’s body as of his mind, he that has not bin marry’d shall not be capable of these magistracys till he be marry’d. If a deputy, already chosen to be an officer in the parish, in the hundred, or in the tribe, be afterwards chosen of the galaxy, it shall be lawful for him to delegat his office in the parish, in the hundred, or in the tribe, to any one of his own order, being not already chosen into office. The knights and deputys being chosen, shall be brought to the head of the tribe by the lord high sheriff, who shall administer to them this oath; Ye shall well and truly observe and keep the orders and customs of this commonwealth which the people have chosen. And if any of them shall refuse the oath, he shall be rejected, and that competitor which had the most voices next shall be call’d, in his place; who if he takes the oath shall be entered in the list; but if he also refuses the oath, he who had most voices next shall be call’d, and so till the number of nine out of those competitors which had most voices be sworn knights and deputys of the galaxy. [This clause, in regard of the late divisions, and to the end that no violence be offer’d to any man’s conscience, to be of force but for the first three years only.] The knights of the galaxy being elected and sworn, are to repair, by the Monday next insuing the last of March, to the pantheon or palace of justice, situated in the metropolis of this commonwealth (except the parlament, by reason of a contagious sickness, or som other occasion, has adjourn’d to another part of the nation) where they are to take their places in the senat, and continue in full power and commission as senators for the full term of three years next insuing the date of their election. The deputys of the galaxy are to repair by the same day (except as before excepted) to the halo situated in Emporium, where they are to be listed of the prerogative tribe, or equal representative of the people; and to continue in full power and commission as their deputys for the full term of three years next insuing their election. But forasmuch as the term of every magistracy or office in this commonwealth requires an equal vacation, a knight or deputy of the galaxy, having fulfill’d his term of three years, shall not be reelected into the same galaxy, or any other, till he has also fulfill’d his three years vacation.

Whoever shall rightly consider the foregoing orders, will be as little able to find how it is possible, that a worshipful knight should declare himself in ale and beef worthy to serve his country, as how my lord high sheriff’s honour, in case he were protected from the law, could play the knave. But tho the foregoing orders, so far as they regard the constitution of the senat and the people, requiring no more as to an ordinary election than is therin explain’d, that is but one third part of their knights and deputys, are perfect; yet must we in this place, and as to the institution, of necessity erect a scaffold. For the commonwealth to the first creation of her councils in full number, requir’d thrice as many as are eligible by the foregoing orders. Wherfore the orator, whose aid in this place was most necessary, rightly informing the people of the reason, staid them two days longer at the muster, and took this course. One list containing two knights and seven deputys, he caus’d to be chosen upon the second day; which list being call’d the first galaxy, qualify’d the partys elected of it with power for the term of one year and no longer: another list containing two knights and seven deputys more, he caus’d to be chosen the third day, which list being call’d the second galaxy, qualify’d the partys elected of it with power for the term of two years and no longer. And upon the fourth day he chose the third galaxy, according as it is directed by the order, impower’d for three years; which lists successively falling (like the sign: or constellations of one hemisphere, which setting, cause those of the other to rise) cast the great orbs of this commonwealth into an annual, triennial, and perpetual revolution.

The business of the muster being thus happily finish’d, Hermes de Caduceo, lord orator of the tribe of Nubia, being now put into her first rapture, caus’d one of the censors pulpits to be planted in front of the squadron, and ascending into the same, spake after this manner.

My lords, the magistrats and the people of the tribe of Nubia.

“WE have this day solemniz’d the happy nuptials of the two greatest princes that are upon the earth or in nature, arms and councils: in the mutual embraces wherof consists your whole commonwealth; whose councils upon their perpetual wheelings, marches, and countermarches, create her armys; and whose armys with the golden vollys of the ballot at once create and salute her councils. There be those (such is the world at present) that think it ridiculous to see a nation exercising its civil functions in military disciplin; while they, committing their buff to their servants, com themselves to hold trenchards. For what avails it such as are unarm’d, or (which is all one) whose education acquaints them not with the proper use of their swords, to be call’d citizens? What were two or three thousand of you, tho never so well affected to your country, but naked, to one troop of mercenary soldiers? If they should com upon the field and say, Gentlemen, It is thought fit that such and such men should be chosen by you; where were your liberty; Or, Gentlemen, parlaments are exceeding good, but you are to have a little patience, these times are not so fit for them; where were your commonwealth? What causes the monarchy of the Turcs but servants in arms? What was it that begot the glorious commonwealth of Rome, but the sword in the hands of her citizens? Wherfore my glad eys salute the serenity and brightness of this day with a showr that shall not cloud it. Behold the army of Israel becom a commonwealth, and the commonwealth of Israel remaining an army, with her rulers of tens and of fiftys, her rulers of hundreds and thousands, drawing near (as this day throout our happy fields) to the lot by her tribes, increas’d above threefold, and led up by her phylarchs or princes, to sit upon* fifty thrones, judging the fifty tribes of Oceana! Or, Is it Athens, breaking from her iron sepulcher, where she has bin so long trampled by hosts of janizarys? For certainly that is the voice of Theseus, having gather’d his scatter’d Athenians into one city.† This freeborn nation lives not upon the dole or bounty of one man, but distributing her annual magistracys and honours with her own hand, is herself king PEOPLE—at which the orator was a while interrupted with shouts, but at length proceded)—Is it grave Lacedemon in her arm’d tribe divided by her obæ and her mora, which appears to chide me that I teach the people to talk, or conceive such language as is drest like a woman, to be a fit usher of the joys of liberty into the hearts of men? Is it Rome in her victorious arms (for so she held her concio or congregation) that congratulats with us, for finding out that which she could not hit on, and binding up her comitia curiata, centuriata, and tributa, in one inviolable league of union? Or is it the great council of incomparable Venice, bowling forth by the self-same ballot her immortal commonwealth? For, neither by reason nor by experience is it impossible that a commonwealth should be immortal; seeing the people being the materials, never dy; and the form, which is motion, must, without opposition, be endless. The bowl which is thrown from your hand, if there be no rub, no impediment, shall never cease: for which cause the glorious luminarys that are the bowls of God, were once thrown for ever; and next these, those of Venice. But certainly, my lords, whatever these great examples may have shewn us, we are the first that have shewn to the world a commonwealth establish’d in her rise upon fifty such towers, and so garnizon’d as are the tribes of Oceana, containing a hundred thousand elders upon the annual list, and yet but an outguard; besides her marching armys to be equal in the disciplin, and in the number of her youth.

“And forasmuch as soverain power is a necessary but a formidable creature, not unlike the pouder which (as you are soldiers) is at once your safety and your danger, being subject to take fire against you as well as for you; how well and securely is she by your galaxys so collected as to be in full force and vigor, and yet so distributed that it is impossible you should be blown up by your own magazine? Let them who will have it, that power if it be confin’d cannot be soverain, tell us, whether our rivers do not enjoy a more secure and fruitful reign within their proper banks, than if it were lawful for them, in ravaging our harvests, to spill themselves? whether souls, not confin’d to their peculiar bodys, do govern them any more than those of witches in their trances? whether power, not confin’d to the bounds of reason and virtue, has any other bounds than those of vice and passion? or if vice and passion be boundless, and reason and virtue have certain limits, on which of these thrones holy men should anoint their soverain? but to blow away this dust, the soverain power of a commonwealth is no more bounded, that is to say straitned, than that of a monarch; but is balanc’d. The eagle mounts not to her proper pitch, if she be bounded; nor is free, if she be not balanc’d. And lest a monarch should think he can reach further with his scepter, the Roman eagle upon such a balance spread her wings from the ocean to Euphrates. Receive the soverain power; you have received it, hold it fast, imbrace it for ever in your shining arms. The virtue of the loadstone is not impair’d or limited, but receives strength and nourishment by being bound in iron. And so giving your lordships much joy, I take my leave of this tribe.”

The orator descending, had the period of his speech made with a vast applause and exultation of the whole tribe, attending him for that night to his quarter, as the phylarch with some commanded troops did the next day to the frontiers of the tribe, where leave was taken on both sides with more tears than grief.

Definition of the tribe.So, a tribe is the third division of land occasion’d by the third collection of the people, whose functions proper to that place are contain’d in the five foregoing orders.

The institution of the commonwealth was such as needed those props and scaffolds which may have troubled the reader; but I shall here take them away, and com to the constitution which stands by it self, and yields a clearer prospect.

Constitution of the commonwealth.The motions, by what has bin already shown, are spherical; and spherical motions have their proper center: for which cause (e’er I procede further) it will be necessary, for the better understanding of the whole, that I discover the center wherupon the motions of this commonwealth are form’d.

The center, or basis of every government, is no other than the fundamental laws of the same.

Fundamental laws are such as state what it is that a man may call his own, that is to say, property; and what the means be wherby a man may enjoy his own, that is to say, protection. The first is also call’d dominion, and the second empire or soverain power, wherof this (as has been shewn) is the natural product of the former: for such as is the balance of dominion in a nation, such is the nature of its empire.

Wherfore the fundamental laws of Oceana, or the center of this commonwealth, are the agrarian and the ballot: the agrarian by the balance of dominion preserving equality in the root; and the ballot by an equal rotation conveying it into the branch, or exercise of soverain power: as, to begin with the former, appears by

The thirteenth ORDER, constituting the agrarian laws of Oceana, Marpesia, and Panopea, wherby it is ordain’d, first, for all such lands as are lying and being within the proper territorys of Oceana, that every man who is at present possest, or shall hereafter be possest of an estate in land exceeding the revenue of two thousand pounds a year, and having more than one son, shall leave his lands either equally divided among them, in case the lands amount to above 2000 l. a year to each; or so near equally in case they com under, that the greater part or portion of the same remaining to the eldest, excede not the value of two thousand pounds revenue. And no man, not in present possession of lands above the value of two thousand pounds by the year, shall receive, enjoy (except by lawful inheritance) acquire, or purchase to himself lands within the said territorys, amounting, with those already in his possession, above the said revenue. And if a man has a daughter, or daughters, except she be an heiress, or they be heiresses, he shall not leave or give to any one of them in marriage, or otherwise, for her portion, above the value of one thousand five hundred pounds in lands, goods, and monys. Nor shall any friend, kinsman, or kinswoman, add to her or their portion or portions that are so provided for, to make any one of them greater. Nor shall any man demand, or have more in marriage with any woman. Nevertheless an heiress shall enjoy her lawful inheritance, and a widow, whatsoever the bounty or affection of her husband shall bequeath to her, to be divided in the first generation, wherein it is divisible according as has bin shewn.

Secondly, For lands lying and being within the territorys of Marpesia, the agrarian shall hold in all parts as it is established in Oceana, except only in the standard or proportion of estates in land, which shall be set for Marpesia at five hundred pounds. And,

Thirdly, For Panopea, the agrarian shall hold in all parts, as in Oceana. And whosoever possessing above the proportion allow’d by these laws, shall be lawfully convicted of the same, shall forfeit the overplus to the use of the state.

Agrarian laws of all others have ever bin the greatest bugbears, and so in the institution were these, at which time it was ridiculous to see how strange a fear appear’d in every body of that which, being good for all, could hurt no body. But instead of the proof of this order, I shall out of those many debates that happen’d e’er it could be past, insert two speeches that were made at the council of legislators, the first by the right honourable Philautus de Garbo, a young man, being heir apparent to a very noble family, and one of the counsillors, who exprest himself as follows.

May it please your highness, my lordArchonof Oceana.

“IF I did not, to my capacity, know from how profound a counsillor I dissent, it would certainly be no hard task to make it as light as the day: first, That an agrarian is altogether unnecessary. Secondly, That it is dangerous to a commonwealth. Thirdly, That it is insufficient to keep out monarchy. Fourthly, That it ruins familys. Fifthly, That it destroys industry. And last of all, That tho it were indeed of any good use, it will be a matter of such difficulty to introduce in this nation, and so to settle that it may be lasting, as is altogether invincible.

“First, That an agrarian is unnecessary to a commonwealth, what clearer testimony can there be, than that the commonwealths which are our cotemporarys (Venice, to which your highness gives the upperhand of all antiquity, being one) have no such thing? and there can be no reason why they have it not, seeing it is in the soverain power at any time to establish such an order, but that they need it not; wherfore no wonder if Aristotle, who pretends to be a good commonwealthsman has long since derided Phaleas, to whom it was attributed by the Greecs, for his invention.

“Secondly, That an agrarian is dangerous to a commonwealth is affirm’d upon no slight authority, seeing Machiavel is positive, that it was the dissension which happen’d about the agrarian that caus’d the destruction of Rome; nor do I think that it did much better in Lacedemon, as I shall shew anon.

“Thirdly, That it is insufficient to keep out monarchy cannot without impiety be deny’d, the holy Scriptures bearing witness, that the commonwealth of Israel, notwithstanding her agrarian, submitted her neck to the arbritrary yoke of her princes.

“Fourthly, therfore to com to my next assertion, That it is destructive to familys; this also is so apparent, that it needs pity rather than proof. Why, alas, do you bind a nobility (which no generation shall deny to have bin the first that freely sacrific’d their blood to the antient libertys of this people) on an unholy altar? why are the people taught, that their liberty, which, except our noble ancestors had bin born, must have long since bin bury’d, cannot now be born except we be bury’d? a commonwealth should have the innocence of the dove. Let us leave this purchase of her birth to the serpent, which eats itself out of the womb of its mother.

“Fifthly, but it may be said, perhaps, That we are fallen from our first love, becom proud and idle. It is certain, my lords, that the hand of God is not upon us for nothing. But take heed how you admit of such assaults and sallys upon mens estates, as may slacken the nerve of labor, and give others also reason to believe that their sweat is vain; or else, whatsoever be pretended, your agrarian (which is my fifth assertion) must indeed destroy industry. For, that so it did in Lacedemon is most apparent, as also that it could do no otherwise, where every man having his 40 quarters of barly, with wine proportionable, supply’d him out of his own lot by his laborer or helot; and being confin’d in that to the scantling above which he might not live, there was not any such thing as a trade, or other art, except that of war, in exercise. Wherfore a Spartan, if he were not in arms, must sit and play with his fingers, whence insu’d perpetual war, and, the estate of the city being as little capable of increase as that of the citizens, her inevitable ruin. Now what better ends you can propose to your selves in the like ways, I do not so well see as I perceive that there may be worse: for Lacedemon yet was free from civil war: but if you employ your citizens no better than she did, I cannot promise you that you shall fare so well, because they are still desirous of war that hope it may be profitable to them; and the strongest security you can give of peace, is to make it gainful. Otherwise men will rather chuse that wherby they may break your laws, than that wherby your laws may break them. Which I speak not so much in relation to the nobility or such as would be holding, as to the people or them that would be getting; the passion in these being so much the stronger, as a man’s felicity is weaker in the fruition of things, than in their prosecution and increase.

“Truly, my lords, it is my fear, that by taking of more hands, and the best from industry, you will farther indamage it, than can be repair’d by laying on a few, and the worst; while the nobility must be forc’d to send their sons to the plow, and, as if this were not enough, to marry their daughters also to farmers.

“Sixthly, but I do not see (to come to the last point) how it is possible that this thing should be brought about, to your good I mean, tho it may to the destruction of many. For that the agrarian of Israel, or that of Lacedemon might stand, is no such miracle; the lands, without any consideration of the former proprietor, being survey’d and cast into equal lots, which could neither be bought, nor sold, nor multiply’d: so that they knew wherabout to have a man. But in this nation no such division can be introduc’d, the lands being already in the hands of proprietors, and such whose estates ly very rarely together, but mix’d one with another; being also of tenures in nature so different, that as there is no experience that an agrarian was ever introduc’d in such a case, so there is no appearance how, or reason why it should: but that which is against reason and experience is impossible.”

The case of my lord Philautus was the most concern’d in the whole nation; for he had four younger brothers, his father being yet living to whom he was heir of ten thousand pounds a year. Wherfore being a man both of good parts and esteem, his words wrought both upon mens reason and passions, and had born a stroke at the head of the business, if my lord Archon had not interpos’d the buckler in this oration.

My lords, the legislators of Oceana,

“MY lord Philautus has made a thing which is easy to seem hard; if the thanks were due to his eloquence, it would be worthy of less praise, than that he ows it to his merit, and the love he has most deservedly purchas’d of all men: nor is it rationally to be fear’d, that he who is so much beforehand in his privat, should be in arrear in his public capacity. Wherfore my lord’s tenderness throout his speech arising from no other principle than his solicitude lest the agrarian should be hurtful to his country; it is no less than my duty to give the best satisfaction I am able to so good a patriot, taking every one of his doubts in the order propos’d. And,

“First, Wheras my lord, upon observation of the modern commonwealths, is of opinion, that an agrarian is not necessary: it must be confest, that at the first sight of them there is som appearance favoring his assertion, but upon accidents of no precedent to us. For the commonwealths of Switzerland and Holland, I mean of those leagues, being situated in countrys not alluring the inhabitants to wantonness, but obliging them to universal industry, have an implicit agrarian in the nature of them: and being not obnoxious to a growing nobility (which, as long as their former monarchys had spread the wing over them, conld either not at all be hatch’d, or was soon broken) are of no example to us, whose experience in this point has bin to the contrary. But what if even in these governments there be indeed an explicit agrarian? for when the law commands an equal or near equal distribution of a man’s estate in land among his children, as it is don in those countrys, a nobility cannot grow; and so there needs no agrarian, or rather there is one. And for the growth of the nobility in Venice (if so it be, for Machiavel observes in that republic, as a cause of it, a great mediocrity of estates) it is not a point that she is to fear, but might study, seeing she consists of nothing else but nobility; by which, whatever their estates fuck from the people, especially, if it coms equally, is digested into the better blood of that commonwealth, which is all, or the greatest benefit they can have by accumulation. For how inequal soever you will have them to be in their incoms, they have officers of the pomp, to bring them equal in expences, or at least in the ostentation or shew of them. And so unless the advantage of an estate consists more in the measure than in the use of it, the authority of Venice dos but inforce our agrarian; nor shall a man evade or elude the prudence of it, by the authority of any other commonwealth. For if a commonwealth has bin introduc’d at once, as those of Israel and Lacedemon, you are certain to find her underlaid with this as the main foundation; nor, if she is oblig’d more to fortune than prudence, has she rais’d her head without musing upon this matter, as appears by that of Athens, which thro her defect in this point, says Aristotle, introduc’d her ostracism, as most of the democracys of Grece.Polit. 1. 3. c. 9. But, not to restrain a fundamental of such latitude to any one kind of government, do we not yet see, that if there be a sole landlord of a vast territory, he is the Turc? that if a few landlords overbalance a populous country, they have store of servants? that if a people be in an equal balance, they can have no lords? that no government can otherwise be erected, than upon som one of these foundations? that no one of these foundations (each being else apt to change into som other) can give any security to the government, unless it be fix’d: that thro the want of this fixation, potent monarchy and commonwealths have faln upon the heads of the people, and accompany’d their own sad ruins with vast effusions of innocent blood? let the fame, as was the merit of the antient nobility of this nation, be equal to, or above what has bin already said, or can be spoken; yet have we seen not only their glory, but that of a throne, the most indulgent to, and least invasive for so many ages upon the liberty of a people that the world has known, thro the mere want of fixing her foot by a proportionable agrarian upon her proper foundation, to have faln with such horror, as has bin a spectacle of astonishment to the whole earth. And were it well argu’d from one calamity, that we ought not to prevent another? nor is Aristotle so good a commonwealthsman for deriding the invention of Phaleas, as in recollecting himself, where he says, That democracys, when a less part of their citizens overtop the rest in wealth, degenerat into oligarchys and principalitys; and, which coms nearer to the present purpose, that the greater part of the nobility of Tarentum coming accidentally to be ruin’d, the government of the few came by consequence to be chang’d into that of the many.Polit. l. 5. c. 3.

“These things consider’d, I cannot see how an agrarian, as to the fixation or security of a government, can be less than necessary. And if a cure be necessary, it excuses not the patient, his disease being otherwise desperat, that it is dangerous; which was the case of Rome, not so stated by Machiavel, where he says, That the strife about the agrarian caus’d the destruction of that commonwealth. As if when a senator was not rich (as Crassus held) except he could pay an army, that commonwealth could expect nothing but ruin whether in strife about the agrarian, or without it.*Of late, says Livy,riches have introduc’d avarice;and voluptuous pleasures abounding, have thro lust and luxury begot a desire of blasting and destroying all good orders. If the greatest security of a commonwealth consists in being provided with the proper antidote against this poison, her greatest danger must be from the absence of an agrarian, which is the whole truth of the Roman example. For the laconic, I shall reserve the farther explication of it, as my lord also did, to another place: and first see whether an agrarian proportion’d to a popular government be sufficient to keep out monarchy. My lord is for the negative, and fortify’d by the people of Israel electing a king. To which I say, That the action of the people therin exprest is a full answer to the objection of that example: for the monarchy neither grew upon them, nor could, by reason of the agrarian, possibly have invaded them, if they had not pull’d it upon themselves by the election of a king. Which being an accident, the like wherof is not to be found in any other people so planted, nor in this, till, as it is manifest, they were given up by God to infatuation (for says he to Samuel,They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them) has somthing in it which is apparent, by what went before, to have bin besides the course of nature, and by what follow’d. For the king having no other foundation than the calamitys of the people, so often beaten by their enemys, that despairing of themselves, they were contented with any change; if he had peace as in the days of Solomon, left but a slippery throne to his successor, as appear’d by Rehoboam. And the agrarian, notwithstanding the monarchy thus introduc’d, so faithfully preserv’d the root of that commonwealth, that it shot forth oftner, and by intervals continu’d longer than any other government, as may be computed from the institution of the same by Joshua, 1465 years before Christ, to the total dissolution of it, which happen’d in the reign of the emperor Adrian, 135 years after the incarnation. A people planted upon an equal agrarian, and holding to it, if they part with their liberty, must do it upon good-will, and make but a bad title of their bounty. As to instance yet further in that which is propos’d by the present order to this nation, the standard wherof is at 2000 l. a year: the whole territory of Oceana being divided by this proportion, amounts to 5000 lots. So the lands of Oceana being thus distributed, and bound to this distribution, can never fall to fewer than five thousand proprietors. But five thousand proprietors so seiz’d will not agree to break the agrarian, for that were to agree to rob one another; nor to bring in a king, because they must maintain him, and can have no benefit by him; nor to exclude the people, because they can have as little by that, and must spoil their militia. So the commonwealth continuing upon the balance propos’d, tho it should come into five thousand hands, can never alter; and that it should ever come into five thousand hands, is as improbable as any thing in the world that is not altogether impossible.

“My lord’s other considerations are more privat: as that this order destroys familys; which is as if one should lay the ruin of some antient castle to the herbs which usually grow out of them; the destruction of those familys being that indeed which naturally produc’d this order. For we do not now argue for that which we would have, but for that which we are already possest of; as would appear, if a note were but taken of all such as have at this day above two thousand pounds a year in Oceana. If my lord should grant (and I will put it with the most) that they who are proprietors in land, exceeding this proportion, exceed not three hundred; with what brow can the interest of so few be balanc’d with that of the whole nation? or rather, what interest have they to put in such a balance? they would live as they had bin accustom’d to do; who hinders them? they would enjoy their estates; who touches them? they would dispose of what they have according to the interest of their familys: it is that which we desire. A man has one son; let him be call’d: would he enjoy his father’s estate? it is his, his son’s, and his son’s son’s after him. A man has five sons; let them be call’d: would they enjoy their father’s estate? it is divided among them: for we have four votes for one in the same family, and therefore this must be the interest of the family, or the family knows not its own interest. If a man shall dispute otherwise, he must draw his arguments from custom, and from greatness, which was the interest of the monarchy, not of the family: and we are now a commonwealth. If the monarchy could not bear with such divisions because they tended to a commonwealth; neither can a commonwealth connive at such accumulations, because they tend to a monarchy. If the monarchy might make bold with so many for the good of one, we may make bold with one for the good of so many; nay, for the good of all. My lords, it coms into my mind, that which upon occasion of the variety of partys enumerated in our late civil wars, was said by a friend of mine coming home from his travels, about the latter end of these troubles: That he admir’d how it came to pass, that younger brothers, especially being so many more in number than their elder, did not unite as one man against a tyranny, the like wherof has not bin exercis’d in any other nation. And truly, when I consider that our countrymen are none of the worst natur’d, I must confess I marvel much how it coms to pass, that we should use our children as we do our puppys; take one, lay it in the lap, feed it with every good bit, and drown five: nay yet worse; forasmuch as the puppys are once drown’d, wheras the children are left perpetually drowning. Really, my lords, it is a flinty custom! and all this for his cruel ambition, that would raise himself a pillar, a golden pillar for his monument, tho he has children, his own reviving flesh, and a kind of immortality. And this is that interest of a family, for which we are to think ill of a government that will not indure it. But quiet ourselves: the land thro which the river Nilus wanders in one stream, is barren; but where it parts into seven, it multiplys its fertil shores by distributing, yet keeping and improving such a propriety and nutrition, as is a prudent agrarian to a well-order’d commonwealth.

“Nor (to com to the fifth assertion) is a political body render’d any fitter for industry, by having one gouty and another wither’d leg, than a natural. It tends not to the improvement of merchandize that there be som who have no need of their trading, and others that are not able to follow it. If confinement discourages industry, an estate in mony is not confin’d; and lest industry should want wherupon to work, land is not ingrost or intail’d upon any man, but remains at its devotion. I wonder whence the computation can arise, that this should discourage industry. Two thousand pounds a year a man may enjoy in Oceana, as much in Panopea, five hundred in Marpesia: there be other plantations, and the commonwealth will have more. Who knows how far the arms of our agrarian may extend themselves? and whether he that might have left a pillar, may not leave a temple of many pillars to his more pious memory? where there is som measure in riches, a man may be rich; but if you will have them to be infinit, there will be no end of starving himself, and wanting what he has: and what pains dos such a one take to be poor! furthermore, if a man shall think that there may be an industry less greasy, or more noble, and so cast his thoughts upon the commonwealth, he will have leisure for her, and she riches and honors for him; his sweat shall smell like Alexander’s. My lord Philautus is a young man, who enjoying his ten thousand pounds a year, may keep a noble house in the old way, and have homely guests; and having but two, by the means propos’d, may take the upper hand of his great ancestors; with reverence to whom, I may say, there has not bin one of them would have disputed his place with a Roman consul. My lord, do not break my heart; the nobility shall go to no other plows than those which we call our consuls. But, says he, it having bin so with Lacedemon, that neither the city nor the citizens were capable of increase, a blow was given by that agrarian, which ruin’d both. And what are we concern’d with that agrarian, or that blow, while our citizens and our city (and that by our agrarian) are both capable of increase? the Spartan, if he made a conquest, had no citizens to hold it: the Oceaner will have enow: the Spartan could have no trade, the Oceaner may have all. The agrarian in Laconia, that it might bind on knapsacs, forbidding all other arts but that of war, could not make an army of above 30000 citizens. The agrarian in Oceana without interruption of traffic, provides us in the fifth part of the youth an annual source or fresh spring of 100000, besides our provincial auxiliarys, out of which to draw marching armys; and as many elders, not feeble, but men most of them in the flower of their age, and in arms for the defence of our territorys. The agrarian in Laconia banish’d mony, this multiplys it: that allow’d a matter of twenty or thirty acres to a man; this two or three thousand: there is no comparison between them. And yet I differ so much from my lord, or his opinion that the agrarian was the ruin of Lacedemon, that I hold it no less than demonstrable to have bin her main support. For if, banishing all other diversions, it could not make an army of above 30000; then letting in all other diversions, it must have broken that army. Wherfore Lysander bringing in the golden spoils of Athens, irrecoverably ruin’d that commonwealth; and is a warning to us, that in giving incouragement to industry, we also remember, that covetousness is the root of all evil. And our agrarian can never be the cause of those seditions threaten’d by my lord, but is the proper cure of them, as*Lucan notes well in the state of Rome before the civil wars, which happen’d thro the want of such an antidote.

“Why then are we mistaken, as if we intended not equal advantages in our commonwealth to either sex, because we would not have womens fortunes consist in that metal, which exposes them to cutpurses? if a man cuts my purse, I may have him by the heels or by the neck for it; wheras a man may cut a woman’s purse, and have her for his pains in fetters. How brutish, and much more than brutish, is that commonwealth, which prefers the earth before the fruits of the womb? if the people be her treasure, the staff by which she is sustain’d and comforted, with what justice can she suffer them, by whom she is most inrich’d, to be for that cause the most impoverish’d? and yet we see the gifts of God, and the bountys of heaven in fruitful familys, thro this wretched custom of marrying for mony, becom their insupportable grief and poverty. Nor falls this so heavy upon the lower sort, being better able to shift for themselves, as upon the nobility or gentry. For what avails it in this case, from whence their veins have deriv’d their blood; while they shall see the tallow of a chandler sooner converted into that beauty which is requir’d in a bride? I appeal, whether my lord Philautus or my self be the advocat of nobility; against which in the case propos’d by me, there would be nothing to hold the balance. And why is a woman, if she may have but fifteen hundred pounds, undon? if she be unmarry’d, what nobleman allows his daughter in that case a greater revenu, than so much mony may command? and if she marry, no nobleman can give his daughter a greater portion than she has. Who is hurt in this case? nay, who is not benefited? if the agrarian gives us the sweat of our brows without diminution; if it prepares our table, if it makes our cup to overflow; and above all this, in providing for our children, anoints our heads with that oil which takes away the greatest of worldly cares; what man, that is not besotted with a covetousness as vain as endless, can imagin such a constitution to be his poverty? seeing where no woman can be considerable for her portion, no portion will be considerable with a woman; and so his children will not only find better preferments without his brokage, but more freedom of their own affections. We are wonderful severe in laws, that they shall not marry without our consent; as if it were care and tenderness over them: but is it not lest we should not have the other thousand pounds with this son, or the other hundred pounds a year more in jointure for that daughter? these, when we are crost in them, are the sins for which we water our couch with tears, but not of penitence; seeing wheras it is a mischief beyond any that we can do to our enemys, we persist to make nothing of breaking the affection of our children. But there is in this agrarian a homage to pure and spotless love, the consequence wherof I will not give for all your romances. An alderman makes not his daughter a countess till he has given her 20000 l. nor a romance a considerable mistriss till she be a princess; these are characters of bastard love. But if our agrarian excludes ambition and covetousness, we shall at length have the care of our own breed, in which we have bin curious as to our dogs and horses. The marriage-bed will be truly legitimat, and the race of the commonwealth not spurious.

“But(impar magnanimis ausis, imparque dolori) I am hurl’d from all my hopes by my lord’s last assertion of impossibility, that the root from whence we imagin these fruits, should be planted or thrive in this soil. And why? because of the mixture of estates, and variety of tenures. Nevertheless, there is yet extant in the exchequer an old survey of the whole nation; wherfore such a thing is not impossible. Now if a new survey were taken at the present rates, and the law made, that no man should hold hereafter above so much land as is valu’d therein at 2000 l. a year, it would amount to a good and sufficient agrarian. It is true, that there would remain som difficulty in the different kind of rents, and that it is a matter requiring not only more leisure than we have, but an authority which may be better able to bow men to a more general consent, than is to be wrought out of them by such as are in our capacity. Wherfore, as to the manner, it is necessary that we refer it to the parlament; but as to the matter, they cannot otherwise fix their government upon the right balance.

“I shall conclude with a few words to som parts of the order, which my lord has omitted. As first to the consequences of the agrarian to be settled in Marpesia, which irreparably breaks the aristocracy of that nation; being of such a nature, as standing, it is not possible that you should govern. For while the people of that country are little better than the cattel of the nobility, you must not wonder if, according as these can make their markets with foren princes, you find those to be driven upon your grounds. And if you be so tender, now you have it in your power, as not to hold a hand upon them that may prevent the slaughter which must otherwise insue in like cases, the blood will lie at your door. But in holding such a hand upon them, you may settle the agrarian; and in settling the agrarian, you give that people not only liberty, but lands; which makes your protection necessary to their security; and their contribution due to your protection, as to their own safety.

“For the agrarian of Panopea, it allowing such proportions of so good land, men that conceive themselves straiten’d by this in Oceana, will begin there to let themselves forth, where every citizen will in time have his villa. And there is no question, but the improvement of that country by this means must be far greater than it has bin in the best of former times.

“I have no more to say, but that in those antient and heroic ages (when men thought that to be necessary which was virtuous) the nobility of Athens having the people so much ingag’d in their debt, that there remain’d no other question among these, than which of those should be king, no sooner heard Solon speak than they quitted their debts, and restor’d the commonwealth; which ever after held a solemn and annual feast call’d the Sisacthia, or Recision, in memory of that action. Nor is this example the phœnix; for at the institution by Lycurgus, the nobility having estates (as ours here) in the lands of Laconia, upon no other valuable consideration than the commonwealth propos’d by him, threw them up to be parcel’d by his agrarian. But now when no man is desir’d to throw up a farthing of his mony, or a shovel full of his earth, and that all we can do is but to make a virtue of necessity; we are disputing whether we should have peace or war: for peace you cannot have without som government, nor any government without the proper balance. Wherfore if you will not fix this which you have, the rest is blood, for without blood you can bring in no other.”

By these speeches made at the institution of the agrarian, you may perceive what were the grounds of it. The next is

14 Order.The fourteenth ORDER, constituting the ballot of Venice, as it is fitted by several alterations, and appointed to every assembly, to be the constant and only way of giving suffrage in this commonwealth, according to the following scheme.

I shall indeavour by the preceding figure to demonstrat the manner of the VENETIAN BALLOT (a thing as difficult in discourse or writing, as facil in practice) according to the use of it in Oceana. The whole figure represents the senat, containing, as to the house or form of sitting, a square and a half; the tribunal at the upper end being ascended by four steps. On the uppermost of these sit the magistrats that constitute the signory of the commonwealth, that is to say, A the strategus; B the orator; C the three commissioners of the great seal; D the three commissioners of the treasury, whereof one, E, exercises for the present the office of a censor at the middle urn F.

To the two upper steps of the tribunal answer GG. GG. the two long benches next the wall on each side of the house; the outwardmost of which are equal in height to the uppermost step, and the innermost equal in height to the next. Of these four benches consists the first seat; as the second seat consists in like manner of those four benches HH. HH. which being next the floor, are equal in height to the two nethermost steps of the throne. So the whole house is distributed into two seats, each consisting of four benches.

This distribution causes not only the greater conveniency, as will be shewn, to the senators in the exercise of their function at the ballot, but a greater grace to the aspect of the senat. In the middle of the outward benches stand I. I. the chairs of the censors, those being their ordinary places, tho upon occasion of the ballot they descend, and sit where they are shewn by K. K. at each of the outward urns L. L. Those M. M. that sit with their tables, and the bowls N. N. before them, upon the half space or second step of the tribunal from the floor, are the clercs or secretarys of the house. Upon the short seats O. O. on the floor (which should have bin represented by woolsacks) sit P the two tribuns of the horse; Q the two tribuns of the foot; and RR. RR. the judges: all which magistrats are assistants, but have no suffrage. This posture of the senat consider’d, the ballot is perform’d as follows.

First, whereas the gold balls are of several sutes, and accordingly mark’d with several letters of the alphabet, a secretary presents a litle urn (wherin there is one ball of every sute or mark) to the strategus and the orator; and look what letter the strategus draws, the same and no other is to be us’d for that time in the middle urn F; the like for the letter drawn by the orator is to be observ’d for the side urns L. L. that is to say, if the strategus drew a ball with an A, all the gold balls in the middle urn for that day are mark’d with the letter A; and if the orator drew a B, all the gold balls in the side urn for that day are mark’d with the letter B: which don immediatly before the ballot, and so the letter unknown to the ballotants, they can use no fraud or jugling; otherwise a man might carry a gold ball in his hand, and seem to have drawn it out of an urn. He that draws a gold ball at any urn, delivers it to the censor or assessor of that urn, who views the character, and allows accordingly of his lot.

The strategus and the orator having drawn for the letters, the urns are prepar’d accordingly by one of the commissioners and the two censors. The preparation of the urns is after this manner. If the senat be to elect, for example, the list call’d the tropic of magistrats, which is this;

• 1. The lord STRATEGUS;
• 2. The lord ORATOR;
• 3. The third COMMISSIONER of the great seal;
• 4. The third COMMISSIONER of the treasury;
• 5. The first CENSOR;
• 6. The second CENSOR;

This list or schedule consists of six magistracys, and to every magistracy there are to be four competitors, that is, in all four and twenty competitors propos’d to the house. They that are to propose the competitors are call’d electors, and no elector can propose above one competitor: wherfore for the proposing of four and twenty competitors you must have four and twenty electors; and wheras the ballot consists of a lot and of a suffrage, the lot is for no other use than for the designation of electors; and he that draws a gold ball at the middle urn is an elector. Now, as to have four and twenty competitors propos’d, you must have four and twenty electors made; so to have four and twenty electors made by lot, you must have four and twenty gold balls in the middle urn; and these (because otherwise it would be no lot) mix’d with a competent number of blanks, or silver balls. Wherfore to the four and twenty gold balls cast six and twenty silver ones, and those (reckoning the blanks with the prizes) make fifty balls in the middle urn. This don (because no man can com to the middle urn that has not first drawn a gold ball at one of the side urns) and to be sure that the prizes or gold balls in this urn be all drawn, there must com to it fifty persons: therfore there must be in each of the side urns five and twenty gold balls, which in both com to fifty; and to the end that every senator may have his lot, the gold balls in the side urns are to be made up with blanks equal to the number of the ballotants at either urn: for example, the house consisting of 300 senators, there must be in each of the side urns 125 blanks and 25 prizes, which com in both the side urns to 300 balls. This is the whole mystery of preparing the urns, which the censors having skill to do accordingly, the rest of the ballot, whether the partys balloting understand it or no, must of necessary consequence com right; and they can neither be out, nor fall into any confusion in the exercise of this art.

But the ballot, as I said, is of two parts, lot and suffrage, or the proposition and result. The lot determins who shall propose the competitors; and the result of the senat, which of the competitors shall be the magistrats. The whole, to begin with the lot, procedes in this manner.

The first secretary with an audible voice reads first the list of the magistrats to be chosen for the day; then the oath for fair election, at which the senators hold up their hands; which don, another secretary presents a little urn to the strategus, in which are four balls, each of them having one of these four inscriptions: FIRST SEAT AT THE UPPER END. FIRST SEAT AT THE LOWER END. SECOND SEAT AT THE UPPER END. SECOND SEAT AT THE LOWER END. And look which of them the strategus draws, the secretary pronouncing the inscription with a loud voice, the seat so call’d coms accordingly to the urns: this in the figure is the SECOND SEAT AT THE UPPER END. The manner of their coming to the side urns is in double files, there being two holes in the cover of each side urn, by which means two may draw at once. The senators therfore SS. SS. are coming from the upper end of their seats HH. HH. to the side urns L. L. The senators TT. T. are drawing. The senator V has drawn a gold ball at his side urn, and is going to the middle urn F, where the senator W having don the like at the other side urn, is already drawing. But the senators XX. XX. having drawn blanks at their side urns, and thrown them into the bowls Y. Y. standing at the feet of the urns, are marching by the lower end into their seats again; the senator a having don the like at the middle urn, is also throwing his blank into the bowl b, and marching to his seat again: for a man by a prize at a side urn gains no more than right to com to the middle urn, where if he draws a blank, his fortune at the side urn comes to nothing at all; wherfore he also returns to his place. But the senator c has had a prize at the middle urn, where the commissioner having viewed his ball, and found the mark to be right, he marches up the steps to the seat of the electors, which is the form d set cross the tribunal, where he places himself according as he was drawn with the other electors e e e drawn before him. These are not to look back, but sit with their faces towards the signory or state, till their number amount to that of the magistrats to be that day chosen, which for the present, as was shewn, are six; wherfore six electors being made, they are reckon’d according as they were drawn: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, in their order; and the first six that are chosen are the FIRST ORDER OF ELECTORS.

THE first order of electors being made, are conducted by a secretary with a copy of the list to be chosen, out of the senat, and into a committee or council-chamber, being neither suffered by the way, nor in their room (till the ballot be ended) to have conference with any but themselves; wherfore the secretary, having given them their oath that they shall make election according to the law and their conscience, delivers them the list, and seats himself at the lower end of the table with his pen and paper, while another secretary keeps the door.

By such time as the first order of electors are thus seated, the second order of electors is drawn, who with a second copy of the same list are conducted into another committee-chamber, by other secretarys performing the same office with the former.

The like exactly is don by the third and by the fourth orders (or hands, as the Venetians call them) of electors, by which means you have the four and twenty electors divided according to the four copys of the same list, by six, into four hands or orders; and every one of these orders names one competitor to every magistracy in the list; that is to say, the first elector names to the first magistracy, the second elector to the second magistracy, and so forth. But tho the electors, as has bin shewn, are chosen by mere lot, yet the competitors by them nam’d are not chosen by any lot, but by the suffrage of the whole order: for example; the first elector in the first order proposes a name to be Strategus, which name is balloted by himself and the other five electors: and if the name so balloted attain not to above half the suffrages, it is laid aside, and the first elector names another to the same magistracy; and so in case this also fails, another, till one he has nam’d, whether it be himself, or som other, has attained to above half the suffrages in the affirmative; and the name so attaining to above half the suffrages in the affirmative is written to the first magistracy in the list by the secretary; which being don, the second elector of the first order names to the second magistracy till one of his nomination be chosen to the same. The like is don by the rest of the electors of the first order, till one competitor be chosen, and written to every magistracy in their list. Now the second, third, and fourth orders of electors doing exactly after the same manner, it coms to pass that one competitor to every magistracy being chosen in each order, there be in all four competitors chosen to every magistracy.

If any controversy arises in an order of electors, one of the censors (these being at this game the groomporters) is advertis’d by the secretary, who brings him in, and the electors, disputing are bound to acquiesce in his sentence. For which cause it is that the censors do not ballot at the urns; the signory also abstains, lest it should deform the house: wherfore the blanks in the side urns are by so many the fewer. And so much for the lot, which is of the greater art but less consequence, because it concerns proposition only: but all, (except the tribuns and the judges, which being but assistants have no suffrage) are to ballot at the result, to which I now com.

The four orders of electors having perfected their lists, the face of the house is chang’d: for the urns are taken away, and every senator and magistrat is seated in his proper place, saving the electors, who, having given their suffrages already, may not stir out of their chambers till the house have given theirs, and the rest of the ballot be perform’d; which follows in this manner.

The four lists being presented by the secretarys of each council of electors to the signory, are first read, according to their order, to the house with an audible voice; and then the competitors are put to the ballot or suffrage of the whole senat in this manner: A. A. nam’d to be strategus in the first order; wherupon eight ballotins or pages, such as are express’d by the figures f. f. take eight of the boxes represented, tho rudely, by the figures, g. g. and go four on the one, and four on the other side of the house, that is, one to every bench, signifying A. A. nam’d to be the strategus in the first order: and every magistrat or senator (beginning by the strategus and the orator first) holds up a little pellet of linen, as the box passes, between his finger and his thumb, that men may see he has but one, and then puts it into the same. The box consisting in the inner part of two boxes, being painted on the outside white and green, to distinguish the affirmative from the negative side, is so made, that when your hand is in it, no man can see to which of the sides you put the suffrage, nor hear to which it falls, because the pellet being linen, makes no noise. The strategus and the orator having begun, all the rest do the like.

The ballotins having thus gather’d the suffrages, bring them before the signory, in whose presence the outward boxes being open’d, they take out the inner boxes, wherof the affirmative is white, and the negative green, and pour the white in the bowl N. on the right hand, which is white also, and the green into the bowl N. on the left, which is also green. These bowls or basons (better represented at the lower end of the figure by h. i.) being upon this occasion set before the tables of the secretarys at the upper end N. N. the white on the right hand, and the green on the left, the secretarys on each side number the balls: by which if they find that the affirmatives amount not to above one half, they write not the name that was balloted; but if they amount to above one half, they write it, adding the number of above half the suffrages to which it attain’d. The first name being written, or laid aside, the next that is put is B. B. nam’d to be strategus in the second order; the third C. C. nam’d to be strategus in the third order; the fourth D. D. nam’d to be strategus in the fourth order: and he of these four competitors that has most above half in the affirmative, is the magistrat; or if none of them attain to above half, the nomination for that magistracy is to be repeated by such new electors as shall be chosen at the next ballot. And so, as is exemplify’d in the first magistracy, proceeds the ballot of the rest; first in the first, then in the second, and so in the third and fourth orders.

Now wheras it may happen that A. A. (for example) being nam’d strategus in the first order, may also be nam’d to the same or som one or more other magistracys in one or more of the other orders; his name is first balloted where it is first written, that is to the more worthy magistracy, wherof if he misses, he is balloted as it coms in course for the next, and so for the rest, if he misses of that, as often as he is nam’d.

And because to be nam’d twice, or oftner, whether to the same or som other magistracy, is the stronger recommendation; the note must not fail to be given upon the name, at the proposition in this manner; A. A. nam’d to be strategus in the first, and in the second order: or A. A. nam’d to be strategus in the first and the third; in the first and the fourth, &c. But if he be nam’d to the same magistracy in the first, second, third, and fourth orders, he can have no competitor; wherfore attaining to above half the suffrages, he is the magistrat. Or thus: A. A. nam’d to be strategus in the first, to be censor in the second, to be orator in the third, and to be commissioner of the seal in the fourth order, or the like in more or fewer orders: in which cases if he misses of the first magistracy, he is balloted to the second; if he misses of the second, to the third; and if he misses of the third, to the fourth.

The ballot not finish’d before sunset, tho the election of the magistrats already chosen be good, voids the election of such competitors as being chosen are not yet furnish’d with magistracys, as if they had never bin nam’d (for this is no jugling box, but an art that must see the sun) and the ballot for the remaining magistracys is to be repeated the next day by new orders of electors, and such competitors as by them shall be elected. And so in the like manner, if of all the names propos’d to the same magistracy, no one of them attains to above half the suffrages in the affirmative.

The senatorian ballot of Oceana being thus describ’d, those of the parish, of the hundred, and of the tribe, being so little different, that in this they are all contain’d, and by this may be easily understood, are yet fully describ’d, and made plain enough before in the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th orders.

This therfore is the general order, whence those branches of the ballot, som wherof you have already seen, are deriv’d; which, with those that follow were all read and debated in this place at the institution. When my lord Epimonus de Garrula, being one of the counsellors, and having no farther patience (tho the rulers were compos’d by the agent of this commonwealth, residing for that purpose at Venice) than to hear the direction for the parishes, stood up and made way for himself in this manner.

May it please your highness, my lordArchon,

“UNDER correction of Mr. Peregrin Spy, our very learn’d agent and intelligencer, I have seen the world a little, Venice, and (as gentlemen are permitted to do) the great council balloting. And truly I must needs say, that it is for a dumb shew the goodliest that I ever beheld with my eys. You should have som would take it ill, as if the noble Venetians thought themselves too good to speak to strangers, but they observ’d them not so narrowly. The truth is, they have nothing to say to their acquaintance; or men that are in council sure would have tongues: for a council, and not a word spoken in it, is a contradiction. But there is such a pudder with their marching and countermarching, as, tho never a one of them draw a sword, you would think they were training; which till I found that they did it only to entertain strange