manifeſt, that the beſt form of government is that which is compounded of all three.—This is founded not only in reaſon but in experience, Lycurgus having ſet the example of this form of government in the inſtitution of the Lacedemonian commonwealth."
Six kinds of government muſt be allowed: kingly government and monarchy, ariſtocracy and oligarchy, democracy, and the government of the multitude.
Lycurgus concluded, that every form of government that is ſimple, by ſoon degenerating into that vice that is allied to it, muſt be unſtable. The vice of kingly government is monarchy; that of ariſtocracy, oligarchy; that of democracy, rage and violence; into which, in proceſs of time, all of them muſt degenerate. Lycurgus, to avoid theſe inconveniences, formed his government not of one ſort, but united in one all the advantages and properties of the beſt governments; to the end that no branch of it, by ſwelling beyond its due bounds, might degenerate into the vice which is congenial to it; and that, while each of them were mutually acted upon by oppoſite powers, no one part might incline any way, or out-weigh the reſt; but that the commonwealth, being equally poiſed and balanced, like a ſhip or a waggon, acted upon by contrary powers, might long remain in the fame ſituation; while the king was reſtrained from exceſs by the fear of the people, who had a proper ſhare in the commonwealth; and, on the other ſide, the people did not dare to diſregard the king, from their fear of the ſenate, who, being all elected for their virtue, would always incline to the juſteſt ſide; by which means, that branch which happened to be oppreſſed became always ſuperior, and, by the acceſſional weight of the ſenate, out-
