third a commonwealth, as Iſrael, Rome, Holland. Of theſe, the government of ſervants is harder to be conquered, and the eaſier to be held. The government of ſubjects is the eaſier to be conquered, and the harder to be held. The government of citizens is both the hardeſt to be conquered, and the hardeſt to be held.
The reaſon why a government of ſervants is hard to be conquered, is, that they are under a perpetual diſcipline and command. Why a government of ſubjects is eaſily conquered, is on account of the factions of the obility.
The reaſons why a government of citizens, where the commonwealth is equal, is hardeſt to be conquered, are, that the invader of ſuch a ſociety muſt not only truſt to his own ſtrength, inaſmuch as, the commonwealth being equal, he muſt needs find them united; but in regard that ſuch citizens, being all ſoldiers, or trained up to their arms, which they uſe not for the defence of ſlavery, but of liberty, a condition not in this world to be bettered, they have, more ſpecially upon this occaſion, the higheſt ſoul of courage, and, if their territory be of any extent, the vaſteſt body of a well-diſciplined militia, that is poſſible in nature: wherefore an example of ſuch a one, overcome by the arms of a monarch, is not to be found in the world.
In the Art of Law-giving, chap. i. he enlarges ſtill farther upon this ſubject; and inſtances Joſeph's purchaſe of all the lands of the Egyptians for Pharaoh, whereby they became ſervants to Pharaoh; and he enlarges on the Engliſh balance, &c.
In America, the balance is nine-tenths on the ſide of the people: indeed there is but one orders;
