 committed to the ONE, the FEW, or the MANY; the Parties entrusted have generally proved Traitors; and deputed Power has almost perpetually been seized upon as Property.
Monarchy
has ever been found to rush headlong into Tyranny;
Aristocracy
into Faction and multiplied Usurpation; and
Democracy
into Tumult, Confusion and Violence. And All these, whether distinct or compounded with Each-other, have ended in the Supremacy of some arbitrary Tyrant, enabled, by a Body of military Mercenaries, to rule, oppress, and spoil the People at Pleasure.
How
England
hath come, after the many Wrecks and Ruins which you have read of in History, to survive, to recover, to grow sounder from her Wounds, and mightier from her Discomfitures; and to rise superior, as we trust, to all future external and internal Attempts, hath been owing to the Peculiarity of her Constitution.
Her Constitution, it is true, is not yet quit, perhaps never ought to be quit of some intestine Commotions. For, though Liberty has no Relation to Party, Dissention, or Cabal against Government; there is yet a Kind of yeast observable in its Nature, which may be necessary to the fermentation and working up of Virtue to the Degree that is requisite for the Production of Patriotism and public-Spirit. But, when this
Yest of Liberty
happens to light upon weak or vapid Tempers, they are immediately affected, like Small-beer Casks, and rave and boil over in an Abundance of factious Sputter and Turbulence. Party and Faction therefore, being the Scum and Ebullition of this animating Yest, are sure Signs and Proofs of the Life of Liberty, though they neither partake nor communicate any Portion of its Beneficence; as rank Weeds are the Proof of a hot Sun and luxuriant Soil, though they are the detestable Consequence of the One and the Other.
I will endeavour to image and exemplify to you the Nature and Tendency of these Commotions, by bringing some of our old Plays to the Memory of my
Harry.
First, there's ROBIN'S ALIVE AND ALIVE LIKE TO BE,
if he dies in my Hand, my Mouth shall be bridled, my Back shall be saddled, with Sticks and Stones and marrow-Bones, and sent to the King's black Hall.
This is always supposed to be the favourite Diversion of the Children of a free People. Where the Stick, which is fired at one end, and handed about through the Society, represents the Light and Comfort which they derive from LIBERTY, and which they endeavour to keep alive, by the Quickness of Communication and by the
