Algernon Sidney, "Discourses Concerning Government" (Third Edition, A. Millar,
London, 1751).
"Plato, Aristotle, Hooker, and (I may say, in short) all wise men have held, that order
required, that the wisest, best, and most valiant men, should be placed in the offices where
wisdom, virtue, and valour, are requisite. If common sense did not teach us this, we might
learn it from scripture. When God gave the conduct of his people to Moses, Joshua,
Samuel, and others, he endowed them with all of the virtues and graces that were required
for the right performance of their duty." II:11:105.
"Nothing can be called stable, that is not so in principle and practice, in which respect
human nature is not well capable of stability; but the utmost deviation from it that can be
imagined, is, when such an error is laid for a foundation as can never be corrected. All will
confess, that if there be any stability in man, it must be in wisdom and virtue, and in those
actions that are thereby directed; for in weakness, folly, and madness, there can be none.
The stability therefore that we seek, in relation to the exercise of civil and military powers,
can never be found, unless care be taken, that such as shall exercise those powers, be
endowed with the qualities that should make them stable." II:11:106.
"[C]orruption will always reign most, where those who have the power do most favour it,
where the rewards of such crimes are greatest, easiest, and most valued, and where the
punishment of them is least feared. . . . liberty cannot be preserved, if the manners of the
people are corrupted . . ." II:25:201.
"[P]opular and regular governments have always applied themselves to increase the
number, strength, power, riches, and courage, of their people, by providing comfortable
ways of subsistence for their own citizens, inviting strangers, and filling them with all with
such a love to their country, that every man might look upon the public cause as his own,
and be always ready to defend it." II:26:209.
"[I]f vice and corruption prevail, liberty cannot subsist; but if virtue have the advantage,
arbitrary power cannot be established." II:30:241-242.
"Reason and experience instruct us, that every man acts according to the end he proposes
to himself. The good magistrate seeks the good of the people committed to his care, that
he may perform the end of his institution: and knowing that chiefly to consist in justice and
virtue, he endeavors to plant and propagate them; and by doing this he procures his own
good as well as that of the public. He knows there is no safety where there is no strength,
no strength without union, no union without justice; no justice where faith and truth, in
accomplishing public and private contracts, is wanting. This he perpetually inculcates, and
thinks it a great part of his duty, by precept and example, to educate the youth in a love of
virtue and truth, that they may be seasoned with them, and filled with an abhorrence of
vice and falsehood, before they attain that age which is exposed to the most violent
temptations, and in the which they may, by their crimes, bring great mischiefs upon the
public. He would do all this, tho' it were to his own prejudice. But as good actions always
carry a reward with them, these contribute in a high measure to his own advantage. By
preferring the interest of the people before his own, he gains their affection, and all that is
in their power comes with it; whilst he unites them to one another, he unites all to himself:
in leading them to virtue, he increases their strength, and by that means provides for his
own safety, glory, and power.
"On the other side, such as seek different ends must take different ways. When a
magistrate fancies he is not made for the people, but the people for him; that he does not
govern for them, but for himself; and that the people live only to increase his glory, or
furnish matter for his pleasures; he does not inquire what he may do for them, but what he
may draw from them. By this means he sets up an interest of profit, pleasure, or pomp, in
himself, repugnant to the good of the public, for which he is made to be what he is. These
contrary ends certainly divide the nation into parties; and whilst every one endeavors to
advance that to which he is addicted, occasions of hatred for injuries every day done, or
thought to be done, and received, must necessarily arise. This creates a most fierce and
irreconcilable enmity, because the occasions are frequent, important, and universal, and
the causes thought to be most just. The people think it the greatest of all crimes, to
convert that power to their hurt, which was instituted for their good; and that the injustice
is aggravated by perjury and ingratitude, which comprehend all manner of ill; and the
magistrate gives the name of sedition or rebellion to whatsoever they do for the
preservation of themselves, and their own rights. When men's spirits are thus prepared, a
small matter sets them on fire; but if no accident happens to blow them into a flame, the
course of justice is certainly interrupted, the public affairs are neglected; and when any
occasion, whether foreign or domestic arises, in which the magistrate stands in need of the
people's assistance, they, whose affections are alienated, not only shew an unwillingness to
serve him with their persons and estates, but fear that by delivering him from his distress,
they strengthen their enemy, and enable him to oppress them; and he, fancying his will to
be unjustly opposed, or his due more unjustly denied, is filled with a dislike of what he
sees, and a fear of worse of the future. Whilst he endeavors to ease himself of the one, and
to provide against the other, he usually increases the evils of both and jealousies are on
both sides multiplied. Every man knows that the governed are in a great measure under
the power of the governor; but as no man, or number of men, is willingly subject to those
who seek their ruin, such as fall in so great a misfortune continue no longer under it than
force, fear, or necessity, may be able to oblige them. But as such a necessity can hardly lie
longer upon a great people, than till the evil be fully discovered and comprehended, and
their virtue, strength, and power, be united to expel it; the ill magistrate looks upon all
things, that may conduce to that end, as so many preparatives to his ruin; and by the help
of those, who are of his party, will endeavor to prevent that union, and diminish that
strength, virtue, power, and courage, which he knows to be bent against him. And as
truth, faithful dealing due performance of contracts, and integrity of manners, are bonds of
union, and helps to good, he will always by tricks, artifices, cavils, and all means possible,
endeavor to establish falsehood and dishonesty; whilst other emissaries and instruments of
iniquity, by corrupting the oath, and seducing such as can be brought to lewdness and
debauchery, bring the people to such a pass, that they may neither care nor dare to
vindicate their rights, and that those who would do it, may so far suspect each other, as
not to confer upon, much less to join in, any action tending to the public deliverance.
"This distinguishes the good from the bad magistrate, that faithful from the unfaithful; and
those who adhere to either, living in the same principle, must walk in the same ways. They
who uphold the rightful power of a just magistracy, encourage virtue and justice; teach
men what they ought to do, suffer, or expect from others; fix them upon principles of
honesty; and generally advance every thing that tends to the increase of the valour,
strength, greatness, and happiness of the nation, creating a good union among them, and
bringing every man to an exact understanding of his own and the public rights. On the
other side, he that would introduce an ill magistrate, make one evil who was good, or
preserve him in the exercise of injustice when he is corrupted, must always open the way
for him by vitiating the people, corrupting their manners, destroying the validity of oaths
and contracts, teaching such evasions, equivocations, and frauds, as are inconsistent with
the thoughts, that become men of virtue and courage; and overthrowing the confidence
they ought to have in each other, make it impossible for them to unite among themselves.
The like arts must be used with the magistrate: he cannot be for their turn, till he is
persuaded to believe he has no dependence upon, and owes no duty to the people; that he
is of himself, and not by their institution; that no man ought to inquire into, nor be judge of
his actions; that all obedience is due to him, whether he be good or bad, wise or foolish, a
father or an enemy to his country. This being calculated for his personal interest, he must
pursue the same designs, or his kingdom is divided within itself, and cannot subsist. By
this means those who flatter his humor, come to be accounted his friends, and the only
men that are thought worthy of great trusts, whilst such as are of another mind are
exposed to all persecution. These are always such as excel in virtue, wisdom, and
greatness of spirit: they have eyes, and they will always see the way they go; and, leaving
fools to be guided by implicit faith, will distinguish between good and evil, and chose that
which is best; they will judge of men by their actions, and by them discovering whose
servant every man is, know whether he is to be obeyed or not. Those who are ignorant of
all good, careless, or enemies to it, take a more compendious way; their slavish, vicious,
and base natures, inclining them to seek only private and present advantages, they easily
slide into a blind dependence upon one who has wealth and power; and desiring only to
know his will, care not what injustice they do, if they may be rewarded. They worship
what they find in the temple, tho' it be the vilest of idols; and always like the best which is
worst, because it agrees with their inclinations and principles. When a party comes to be
erected upon such a foundation, debauchery, lewdness, and dishonesty, are the true
badges of it. Such as wear them are cherished; but the principal marks of favor are
reserved for those, who are the most industrious in mischief, either by seducing the people
with allurements of sensual pleasures, or corrupting their understandings by false and
slavish doctrines. By this means, a man who calls himself a philosopher, or a divine, is
often more useful than a great number of tapsters, cooks, buffoons, players, fidlers,
whores, or bawds. These are the devil's ministers of a lower order; they seduce single
persons; and such as fall into their snares, are for the most part men of the simpler sort;
but the principal supporters of this kingdom are they, who by false doctrines poison the
springs of religion and virtue, and by preaching or writing (if their falsehood and
wickedness were not detected) would extinguish all principles of common honesty, and
bring whole nations to be best satisfied with themselves, when their actions are most
abominable. And as the means must always be suitable to the end proposed, the
governments that are to be established or supported by such ways must needs be the worst
of all, and comprehend all manner of evil."
III:19:342-45.
"If the public safety be provided, liberty and propriety secured, justice administered, virtue
encouraged, vice suppressed, and the true interest of the nation advanced, the ends of
government are accomplished . . ." III:21:351.
"The legislative power is always arbitrary, and not to be trusted in the hands of any who
are not bound to obey the laws they make." III:45:455. |
