of a few cows, ſheep, goats, ſwine, poultry, and pigeons, on a piece of rocky, ſnowy ground, protected from every enemy by their ſituation, their ſuperſtition, and even by their poverty, having no commerce nor luxury, can be no example for the commonwealth of Penfſilvania, Georgia, or Vermont, in one of which there are poſſibly half a million of people, and in each of the other at leaſt thirty thouſands, ſcattered over a large territory.
Upon the whole, a ſtronger proof cannot be adduced of the neceſſity of different orders, and of an equilibrium between them, than this commonwealth of St. Marino, where there are ſuch ſtrong ſynmtoms of both in a ſociety, where the leaſt occaſion for them appears that can be imagined to take place in any conceivable ſituation.
LETTER IV.
BISCAY.
Dear Sir,
IN a reſearch like thiſ, after thoſe people in Europe who have had the ſkill, courage, and fortune, to prſerve a voice in the government, Biſcay, in Spain, ought by no means to be omitted. While their neighbours have lono ſince reſigned all their pretenſions into the hands of kings and prieſts, this extraordinary people have preſerved their ancient language, genius, laws, government, and manners, without innovation, longer than any other nation of Europe. Of Celtic extraction, they once inhabited ſome of
