he little thought of venturing to propoſe to them any queſtions: circumſtances, however, have lately occurred, which ſeemed to require that ſome notice ſhould be taken of one of them. If the publication of theſe papers ſhould contribute any thing to turn the attention of the younger gentlemen of letters in America to this kind of enquiry, it will produce an effect of ſome importance to their country. The ſubject, is the moſt intereſting that can engage the underſtanding or the heart; for whether the end of man, in this ſtage of his exiſtence, be enjoyment or improvement, or both, it can never be attained ſo well in a bad government as a good one.
The practicability or the duration of a republic, in which there is a governor, a ſenate, and a houſe of repreſentatives, is doubted by Tacitus, though he admits the theory to be laudable:—"Cunctas nationes et urbes, populus, aut priores, aut ſinguli, regunt. Delecta ex his et conſtituta reipublicæ forma, laudari facilius quam inveniri; vel, ſi evenit, haud diuturna eſſe poteſt." Ann. lib. iv.—Cicero aſſerts—"Statuo eſſe optime conſtitutam rempublicam, quæ ex tribus generibus illis, regali, optimo, et populari, modice confuſa." Frag.—in ſuch peremptory terms the ſuperiority of ſuch a government to all other forms, that the loſs of his book upon republics is much
