Wherever we have ſeen a territory ſomewhat larger, arts and ſciences more cultivated, commerce flouriſhing, or even agriculture improved to any great degree, an ariſtocracy has riſen up in a courſe of time, conſiſting of a few rich and honourable families, who have united with each other againſt both the people and the firſt magiſtrate; wreſted from the former, by art and by force, all their participation in the government, and even inſpired them with ſo mean an eſteem of themſelves, and ſo deep a veneration and ſtrong attachment to their rulers, as to believe and confeſs them a ſuperior order of beings.
We have ſeen theſe noble families, although neceſſitated to have a head, extremely jealous of his influence, anxious to reduce his power, and conſtrain him to as near a level with themſelves as poſſible; always endeavouring to eſtabliſh a rotation by which they may all equally in turn be entitled to the pre-eminence, and equally anxious to preſerve to themſelves as large a ſhare of power as poſſible in the executive and judicial, as well as the legiſlative departments of the ſtate.
Theſe patrician families have alſo appeared in every inſtance to be equally jealous of each other, and to have contrived, by blending lot and choice, by mixing various bodies in the elections to the ſame offices, and even by the horrors of an inquiſition, to guard againſt the ſin that ſo eaſily beſets them, of being wholly influenced and governed by a junto or oligarchy of a few among themſelves.
We have ſeen no one government, in which is a diſtinct ſeparation of the legiſlative from the executive power, and of the judicial from both,
