and our ſenators have influence chiefly by the principles of authority, and very little by thoſe of power; but this muſt be poſtponed.
LETTER XXX.
ANTIENT REPUBLICS, AND OPINIONS
OF PHILOSOPHERS.
My dear Sir,
MY deſign is more extenſive than barely to ſhew the imperfection of Mr. Turgot's idea. This might be done in a few words, and a very ſhort proceſs of reaſoning: but I wiſh to aſſemble together the opinions and reaſonings of philoſophers, politicians, and hiſtorians, who have taken the moſt extenfſve views of men and ſocieties, whoſe characters are deſervedly revered, and whoſe writings were in the contemplation of thoſe who framed the American conſtitutions. It will not be conteſted, that all theſe characters are united in Polybius, who, in a fragment of his ſixth book, tranſlated by Edward Spelman, p. 391, at the end of his tranſlation of the Roman Antiquities of Dionyſius Hallicarnaſſenſis, ſays:—"It is cuſtomary to eſtabliſh three ſorts of governments; kingly government, ariſtocracy, and democracy: upon which one may very properly aſk them, whether they lay theſe down as the only forms of government, or as the beſt; for in both caſes they ſeem to be in an error, ſince it is
