or to make their court, would find out some pretence
or other to give the king a fair colour to carry the
point. For if the judges but differ in opinion,
the clearest thing in the world is made by that means
disputable, and truth being once brought in question,
the king may then take advantage to expound the law
for his own profit; while the judges that stand out
will be brought over, either through fear or modesty;
and they being thus gained, all of them may be sent
to the Bench to give sentence boldly as the king would
have it; for fair pretences will never be wanting
when sentence is to be given in the prince’s
favour. It will either be said that equity lies
of his side, or some words in the law will be found
sounding that way, or some forced sense will be put
on them; and, when all other things fail, the king’s
undoubted prerogative will be pretended, as that which
is above all law, and to which a religious judge ought
to have a special regard. Thus all consent to
that maxim of Crassus, that a prince cannot have treasure
enough, since he must maintain his armies out of it;
that a king, even though he would, can do nothing
unjustly; that all property is in him, not excepting
the very persons of his subjects; and that no man has
any other property but that which the king, out of
his goodness, thinks fit to leave him. And they
think it is the prince’s interest that there
be as little of this left as may be, as if it were
his advantage that his people should have neither
riches nor liberty, since these things make them less
easy and willing to submit to a cruel and unjust government.
Whereas necessity and poverty blunts them, makes them
patient, beats them down, and breaks that height of
spirit that might otherwise dispose them to rebel.
Now what if, after all these propositions were made,
I should rise up and assert that such counsels were
both unbecoming a king and mischievous to him; and
that not only his honour, but his safety, consisted
more in his people’s wealth than in his own;
if I should show that they choose a king for their
own sake, and not for his; that, by his care and endeavours,
they may be both easy and safe; and that, therefore,
a prince ought to take more care of his people’s
happiness than of his own, as a shepherd is to take
more care of his flock than of himself? It is
also certain that they are much mistaken that think
the poverty of a nation is a mean of the public safety.
Who quarrel more than beggars? who does more earnestly
long for a change than he that is uneasy in his present
circumstances? and who run to create confusions with
so desperate a boldness as those who, having nothing
to lose, hope to gain by them? If a king should
fall under such contempt or envy that he could not
keep his subjects in their duty but by oppression
and ill usage, and by rendering them poor and miserable,
it were certainly better for him to quit his kingdom
than to retain it by such methods as make him, while
he keeps the name of authority, lose the majesty due