groan under, and have groaned under from the beginning. So that by sure and uncontested principles, the greatest part of the governments on earth must be concluded tyrannies, impostures, violations of the natural rights of mankind, and worse than the most disorderly anarchies.

Vindication of Natural Society,* p. 41-47•

THE nature of anarchy has never been sufficiently understood. It is undoubtedly a horrible calamity, but it is less horrible than despotism. Where anarchy has slain its hundreds, despotism has sacrificed millions upon millions, with this only effect, to perpetuate the ignorance, the vices, and the misery of mankind. Anarchy is a short lived mischief, while despotism is all but immortal. It is to despotism that anarchy is indebted for its sting.

-

GODWIN.

Political Justice, b. v. ch. xx.

I AM not of your opinion with regard to despotism and despots. It appears to me horrible and absurd to the last degree, that a whole people should blindly subject themselves to the caprice of one man, even if he were an angel. For my

*The Vindication of Natural Society is a pamphlet written by Mr. Burke, in imitation of the manner and habits of thinking of Lord Bolingbroke. He ought therefore by no means to be considered as responsible for any of the sentiments it contains; but the composition is so beautiful, and the reasoning so conclusive, that we could not resist making very liberal extracts.

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own part, I would not live under him a single day. This angel may become in a moment a monster thirsting after blood. Despotism is to me the most abominable and disgustful of all bad governman is perpetually crushed, debased, and degraded by it. Look into history, ancient and modern, and see if ever there was one upon earth that was not an insult on mankind, and the disgrace of human nature.,

ments;

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MONTESQUIEU.;

Three Letters to the Chevalier de Bruant. Let. 1.

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Potior visa est periculosa libertas quieto servitio.

SALUST.

Liberty with danger is to be preferred to servitude with security.

ONE may venture to affirm, that all honest and disinterested Britons, of what party soever, if they understood one another, are of the same opinion in points of government: and that the gross of the people, who are imposed upon by terms which they do not comprehend, are Whigs in their hearts. They are made to believe that passive obedience and non-resistance, unlimited power, and indefeasible right, have something of a venerable and religious meaning in them; whereas in reality they only imply that a king of Great Bri tain has a right to be a tyrant, and that his subjects are obliged in conscience to be slaves. Were the case truly and fairly laid before them, they would know that when they make a profession of

such

such principles they renounce their legal claim to liberty and property, and unwarily submit to what they really abhor.

Those who have the misfortune to live under an arbitrary, tyrannic, or despotic power, have' no other law but the will of their prince, and consequently no privileges but what are precarious. For though in some arbitrary governments there may be a body of laws observed in the ordinary forms of justice, they are not sufficient to secure any rights to the people; because they may be dispensed with or laid aside at the pleasure of the sovereign.

One of the most arbitrary princes in our age was Muley Ishmael, emperor of Morocco, who, after a long reign, died about a twelvemonth ago, [1714.] This prince was a prince of much wit and natural sense, of an active temper, undaunted courage and great application. He was a descendant of Mahomet, and so exemplary. for his adherence to the law of his prophet, that he ab. stained all his life from the taste of wine; began the annual feast, or Lent, of Ramadan, two months before his subjects; was frequent in his prayers, and that he might not want opportunities of kneeling, had fixed in all the spacious courts of his palace large consecrated stones pointing towards the East, for any occasional exercise of his devotion.

Foreign envoys, who have given an account of their audiences, describe this holy man mounted on horseback in an open court, with several of his

alcayades,

alcayades, or governors of provinces, about him, standing barefoot, trembling, bowing to the earth, and, at every word he spoke, breaking out into passionate exclamations of praise, as, great is "the wisdom of our lord the king; our lord the

king speaks as an angel from heaven." Happy was the man among them, who was so much a favourite as to be sent on an errand to the most remote street in his capital; which he performed with the greatest alacrity, ran through every puddle that lay in his way, and took cares to return out of breath and covered with dirt, that he might show himself a diligent and faithful minister. His majesty at the same time, to exhibi: the greatness of his power, and to show his horsemanship, seldom dismissed the foreigner from his presence, until he had entertained him with the slaughter of two or three of his liege subjects, whom he very dextrously put to death with the tilt of his lance. St. Olon, the French envoy, tells us, that when he had his last audience of him, he received him in robes just stained with an execution; and that he was blooded up to his elbows.byla couple of Moors whom he had been butchering with his own imperial hands. By the calculation of that author, and many others who have since given an account of his exploits, we may reckon that by his own arm he killed above forty thousand of his people. To render himself the more awful, he chose to wear a garb of a particular colour when he was bent upon execution; so that when he appeared in yellow, his

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great

great men hid themselves in corners, and durst not pay their court to him till he had satiated his thirst of blood by the death of some of his loyal commoners, or of such unwary officers of state as chanced to come in his way.

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Such was the government of Muley Ishmael, "the servant of God, the emperor of the faithful, who was courageous in the very way of the lord, the noble, the good."

To conclude this account, which is extracted from the best authorities, I shall only observe, that he was a great admirer of his late Christian Majesty. In a letter to him, he compliments him with the title of "Sovereign arbiter of the actions and wills of his people." And in a book published by a Frenchman, who was sent to him as an ambassador, is the following passage: "He is absolute in his states, and often compares himself to the emperor of France, who, he says, is the "only person who knows how to reign like him"self, and make his will the law."

ADDISON. Freebolder, No. 10.

THE mode of punishing criminals in this country [Morocco] depends entirely upon the will of the sovereign. In some cases the hands are cut off, in others a leg and a hand. When I was at Morocco, four men, who had committed murder, had both their hands and legs cut off, and were afterwards shot. Other criminals are run through with swords, knocked down with clubs, or are beheaded. Another mode of punishment is tossing, which

is