being humoured, and a lover ſatisfied by ſmall compliances without further purſuits, then expect popular aſſemblies to be content with ſmall conceſſions. If there could one ſingle example be brought from the whole compaſs of hiſtory, of any one popular aſſembly who, after beginning to contend for power, ever ſat down quietly with a certain ſhare; or of one that ever knew, or propoſed, or declared, what ſhare of power was their due, then might there be ſome hopes, that it was a matter to be adjuſted by reaſonings, conferences, or debates. An uſurping populace is its own dupe, a mere under-worker, and a purchaſer in truſt for ſome ſingle tyrant, whoſe ſtate and power they advance to their own ruin, with as blind an inſtinct, as thoſe worms that die with weaving magnificent habits for beings of a ſuperior order. The people are more dextrous at pulling down and ſetting up, than at preſerving what is fixed; and they are not fonder of ſeizing more than their own, than they are of delivering it up again to the worſt bidder, with their own into the bargain. Their earthly devotion is ſeldom paid to above one at a time, of their own creation, whoſe oar they pull with leſs murmuring and more ſkill, than when they ſhare the leading, or even hold the helm.
You will perceive by the ſtyle, that it is Dr. Swift that has been ſpeaking; otherwiſe you might have been deceived, and imagined that I was entertaining you with further reflections upon the ſhort account previouſly given you in theſe letters, of the modern republics. There is not an obſervation here that is not juſtified by the hiſtory of every government we have conſidered. How much more maturely had this writer weighed the ſubject, than Mr. Turgot—Perhaps
