his empire, but property, is called; and the empire, in this caſe, is abſolute monarchy. If the few, or a nobility, or a nobility with a clergy, be landlords to ſuch a proportion as over-balances the people in the like manner, they may make whom they pleaſe king; or, if they be not pleaſed with their king, down with him, and ſet up whom they like better; a Henry the fourth, or ſeventh, a Guiſe, a Montfort, a Nevil, or a Porter, ſhould they find that beſt for their own ends and purpoſes: for as not the balance of the king, but that of the nobility, in this caſe, is the cauſe of the government, ſo not the eſtate of the prince or captain, but his virtue or ability, or fitneſs for the ends of the nobility, acquires that command or office. This for ariſtocracy, or mixed monarchy. But if the whole people be landlords, or hold the lands ſo divided among them, that no one man, or number of men, within the compaſs of the few, or ariſtocracy, over-balance them, it is a commonwealth. Such is the branch in the root, or the balance of property naturally producing empire.
Then follows a curious account of the laws in Iſrael againſt uſury, and in Lacedemon againſt trade, &c. which are well worth ſtudying.
Page 254.—That which, introducing two eſtates, cauſes diviſion, or makes a commonwealth unequal, is not that ſhe has a nobility, without which ſhe is deprived of her moſt ſpecial ornament, and weakened in her conduct, but when the nobility only is capable of magiſtracy, or of the ſenate; and where this is ſo ordered, ſhe is unequal, as Rome. But where the nobility is no otherwiſe capable of magiſtracy, nor of the ſenate, than by election of the people, the commonwealth conſiſts but of one order, and
