Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary

ESSAY XII

Essay_051-100.indd 87 12/27/11 7:41 PM ESSAY XII OF CIVIL LIBERTYa T HOSE who employ their pens on political subjects, free from party-rage, and party-prejudices, cultivate a science, which, of all others, contributes most to public utility, and even to the private satisfaction of those who addict themselves to the study of it. I am apt, however, to entertain a suspicion, that the world is still too young to fix many general truths in politics, which will remain true to the latest posterity. We have not as yet had experience of three thousand years; so that not only the art of reasoning is still imperfect in this science, as in all others, but we even want sufficient materials upon which we can reason. It is not fully known, what degree of refinement, either in virtue or vice, human nature is susceptible of; nor what may be expected of mankind Essay_051-100.indd 88 12/27/11 7:41 PM 88 ESSAY XII from any great revolution in their education, customs, or principles . MACHIAVEL was certainly a great genius; but having confined his study to the furious and tyrannical governments of ancient times, or to the little disorderly principalities of ITALY, his reasonings especially upon monarchical government , have been found extremely defective; and there scarcely is any maxim in his prince, which subsequent experience has not entirely refuted. A weak prince, says he, is incapable of receiving good counsel; for ifhe consult with several, he will not be able to choose among their different counsels. If he abandon himselfto one, that minister may, perhaps, have capacity; but he will not long be a minister: He will be sure to dispossess his master, and place himself and his family upon the throne. 1 I mention this, among many instances of the errors of that politician, proceeding, in a great measure, from his having lived in too early an age of the world, to be a good judge of political truth. Almost all the princes of EUROPE are at present governed by their ministers; and have been so for near two centuries; and yet no such event has ever happened, or can possibly happen. SEJANUS might project dethroning the CJESARS; but FLEURY,2 though ever so vicious, could not, while in his senses, entertain the least hopes of dispossessing the BOURBONS. Trade was never esteemed an affair of state till the last century; and there scarcely is any ancient writer on politics, who has made mention of it.3 Even the ITALIANS have kept a 1[See Machiavelli, The Prince (1513), chap. 23. Machiavelli speaks of an "imprudent" prince and not a "weak" prince, as Hume suggests.] 2[Sejanus was prefect of the praetorian guard under the emperor Tiberius. He ruled Rome for a time after Tiberius's retirement to Capri (A.D. 26), but Tiberius later had him arrested and put to death (A.D. 31). Cardinal Fleury was tutor and subsequently chief minister of Louis XV of France in the decades preceding Fleury's death in 1743.] 3XENOPHON mentions it; but with a doubt if it be of any advantage to a state. El o€ Kai €p.mopia d)(/>EAEC n 7T6Atv, &c. XEN. HIERO. [Xenophon, Hiero 9. 9: "Ifcommerce also brings gain to a city" (Loeb translation by E. C. Marchant).] PLATO totally excludes it from his imaginary republic. De legibus, lib. iv.b [Plato (427-347 B.C.), Laws, bk. IV (704d-70Sb).] Essay_051-100.indd 89 12/27/11 7:41 PM 89 OF CIVIL LIBERTY profound silence with regard to it, though it has now engaged the chief attention, as well of ministers of state, as of speculative reasoners. The great opulence, grandeur, and military atchievements of the two maritime powers4 seem first to have instructed mankind in the importance of an extensive commerce. Having, therefore, intended in this essay to make a full comparison of civil liberty and absolute government, and to showc the great advantages of the former above the latter; I began to entertain a suspicion, that no man in this age was sufficiently qualified for such an undertaking; and that whatever any one should advance on that head would, in all probability, be refuted by further experience, and be rejected by posterity. Such mighty revolutions have happened in human affairs, and so many events have arisen contrary to the expectation of the ancients, that they are sufficient...