Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/146

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Thoughts on

be commented on: But at present, the Writer can with Satisfaction leave it to the impartial Public, to find a more instructive and Living Comment.


SECT.XXIV.

Of a second Remedy.

THE next Remedy, which can effectually aid the Firmness of the Prince, must be the Steadiness of the Minister, in discouraging, as far as in him lies, the Inroads of Venality and Corruption.

This is a large Topic, and fitter for a Book than a Section: However, what is most essential to the present Subject may be briefly touched on.

A plausible Objection, then, is here to be obviated: For a late Writer hath very calmly and systematically attempted to prove the universal and unconditional Necessity of political Corruption, in all free Governments.[1]

  1. See a free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil, Let. v.