ſays, "Men are hung upon riches, not of choice as upon the other, but of neceſſity and by the teeth: for as much as he who wants bread, is his ſervant that will feed him; and if a man thus feeds a whole people, they are under his empire." It already appears, that there muſt be in every ſociety of men, ſuperiors and inferiors, becauſe God has laid in the conſtitution and courſe of nature the foundations of the diſtinction. And indeed, as Harrington ſays, "an army may as well conſiſt of ſoldiers without officers, or of officers without ſoldiers, as a commonwealth conſiſt of a people without a gentry, or of a gentry without a people."
"Let ſtates take heed," ſays Lord Bacon, "how their nobility and gentlemen multiply too fail, for that makes the common ſubject grow to be a peaſant and baſe ſwain driven out of heart, and in effect but a gentleman's labourer. How ſhall the plow then be kept in the hands of the owners, and not mere hirelings? how ſhall the country attain to the character which Virgil gives of ancient Italy, Terra potens armis, atque ubere gleba? how, but by the balance of dominion or property?"
Notwithſtanding Mr. Turgot's averſion to balances, Harrington diſcovered, and made out, as Toland his biographer informs us, that "empire follows the balance of property, whether lodged in one, a few, or many hands." A noble diſcovery, of which the honour ſolely belongs to him, as much as the circulation of the blood to Harvey, printing to Laurence Coſter, or of guns, compaſſes, or optic glaſſes to the ſeveral authors. If this balance is not the foundation of all politicks, as Toland aſſerts, it is of ſo much importance, that no man can be thought a mailer of the
