tions, ſtirred up by the harangues of their orators, were now wholly bent upon ſingle and deſpotic ſlavery; elſe how could ſuch a profligate as Anthony, or a boy of eighteen like Octavius, ever dare to dream of giving law to ſuch an empire and ſuch a people? Wherein the latter ſucceeded, and entailed the vileſt tyranny, that Heaven in its anger, ever inflicted on a corrupt and poiſoned people.
It is an error to think it an uncontroulable maxim, that power is always ſafer lodged in many hands than in one: for if theſe many hands be made up from one of thoſe three diviſions, it is plain, from the examples produced, and eaſy to be paralleled in other ages and countries, that they are as capable of enſlaving the nation, and of acting all manner of tyranny and oppreſſion, as it is poſſible for a ſingle perſon to be, though we ſhould ſuppoſe their number not only to be four or five hundred, but three thouſand. In order to preſerve a balance in a mixed ſtate, the limits of power depoſited with each party, ought to be aſcertained and generally known: the defect of this is the cauſe of thoſe ſtruggles in a ſtate, about prerogative and liberty; about encroachments of the few upon the rights of the many, and of the many upon the privileges of the few; which ever did, and ever will, conclude in a tyranny, firſt either of the few or the many, but at laſt, infallibly, of a ſingle perſon: for whichever of the three diviſions in a ſtate is upon the ſcramble for more power than its own, as one of the three generally is (unleſs due care be taken by the other two); upon every new queſtion that ariſes, they will be ſure to decide in favour of themſelves; they will make large demands, and ſcanty conceſſionſ, ever com-
