AN ESSAY ON THE Lacedæmonian Government. ADDRESSED TO Anthony Hammond, Esq; In the Year 1698. AN ESSAY ON THE Lacedæmonian Government. WE learn from Herodotus, that the Lacedæmonian Government, or Civil Politie, was reformed by Lycurgus, before whose time, it was such, that it did not answer the Ends of Government either with regard to foreign Affairs, or to their own domestick and private Welfare among one another: It appears from this, that it is not peculiar to Popish Tyrannies only, for Human Kind to suffer the greatest Indignities and Cruelties under a notion and pretence of Government, as, you know Fletchera loves to maintain. "This wise b Lawgiver made such Checks in the executive part of the Government, that in the Administration they reciprocally controuled each other. The Lacedæmonian Government was the same with that of Crete, and the Basis of each was settled upon this Maxim, that Liberty is the chiefest good of Civil Society, because it is That which makes every thing else we possess, our own. But without this Liberty, all Property centers in those who govern, and not in them who are governed c. It is obvious that this valuable Liberty cannot be preserved without sufficient security from Laws, which may create such a Temperament in the Constitution of the Government, that a due Ballance in Property, Power and Dominion is formed by it. From hence it is, that the Common- wealth of Sparta has been very rightly defined to be a Government of Laws, and not of Men; and what can reasonable Creatures wish for, but to live under an Empire of Laws? a An eminent Scots Gentleman of Salton. b See, Herodotus, Clio. c See, Strabon, Geograph. Lib. x. From modern Politicks we have been taught the Name of the Ballance of Power, but it was ancient Prudence taught us the Thing. To search to the Bottom into the Nature of this Government, (the Subject of our present Consideration,) we must remember that Lycurgus when he first begun to give a new Model to the Common-wealth, found the greatest Part of the People to be wretchedly and desperately poor, and some few excessively rich; his Intention and Design was to banish on the one Side, Envy, Fraud and Violence; and on the other, Insolence, Luxury and Oppression; and together with these, Riches and Poverty, each of them, when in Extreams, Diseases dangerous to the Tranquillity of a Common- wealth; upon this he persuaded them to come into a new and equal Division of Lands, and that for the time to come none should aim at Priority and Precedency in any thing, but in private and publick Merit; that all should live upon equal Terms with one another, declaring there ought to be no difference between Man and Man, but what arises from the just Praise of Virtue, and a necessary Reproach of Vice. After he had gained this important Point, we are told that as he passed through the Country in the Harvest Season, and seeing the Shocks of Corn all of a Size; he smiled and said, the Country looked as if it belonged to Brothers, who had newly parted their Inheritance. Thus the Crimes which are perpetually committed out of the Love of Money, did of themselves soon cease. But this Golden Age at Sparta, when Gold it self was of little Worth or Esteem, declined; for so early as in the Time of Cræsus, (the Lewis le Grand a of that Age,) the Lacedæmonian began to cast amorous Glances upon the beauteous Metal, and being corrupted by him, they connived at the Slavery he brought upon the Græcian Republicks in Asia, and by that means they lost their Barrier; for the Liberty of a Government is as nice as the Chastity of a Woman: You know, dear Hammond, that if the Fair One gives up the Outworks, the Citadel is not long maintained. Some time after the equal Distribution of Lands (the Agrarian Law,) was shaken, though this was judged to be the immoveable Basis if the Common-wealth. Then Covetousness entered, and after that a strong Tendency to Ease and Pleasures, which soon overcame the sober and masculine Temper of their first Institution, instead of that private Integrity of Mind, and that publick Probity of Manners towards their Friends and Neighbours which accompanied their original State; Pride, Avarice and Injustice, supported by Riches and Power, advanced in Triumph; and a Government that grows effeminate and weak at home, will soon become despicable and odious abroad; and as it declines from Virtue, will sink in Glory, and fall to Ruin. a The XIVth. Thus you see, as a good Author expresses it: Eadem Fabula semper in Mundo agitur, mutatis duntaxat Personis; which agrees with what Thucydides lays in his third Book, Eadem accidire, donec eadem Hominum Natura. Justin in his Epitome of Trogus Pompeius, though an Author defective in Chronology, and taken singly, not entirely to be depended upon, yet he is very useful for ancient History; and particularly in what he says of the Lacedæmonian Government, in his third Book; I refer you to him not being willing to transcribe the whole, though he gives Hints sufficient there, to form an Idea of that Republick. It was considered that the Body of a People shew no Avarice, but in desiring to be equally taxed, nor no Ambition, but to be quiet and happy under a just and well-poised Government. And it appears This was such, for its Administration was lodged in the different Estates that composed the whole; the Kings had the Executive Power in War, the Courts of Justice were in the Hands of the Magistrates by a Rotation of annual Successions; in the Senate was lodged the Legislature, to the People belonged the Choice of the Senators, and the Power of removing Officers. Thus the Perfection of Government was aimed at in those early Times; it was judged to consist in governing so, as Men might seem to determine themselves freely, while they were guided by the Laws, and the Subject had just Grounds to believe that his own Advantage and Profit consisted in Obedience; but to speak my Thoughts, the Nature and State of Man reacheth not to the ideal Perfection of Government; Men can no more judge of their own Good than Children, some are too dull, and some too negligent; a Trust is necessary, from hence arises Government, but still the Imperfections and Weakness of Human Nature must go along with it. However absolute Slavery is an unjustifiable Usurpation upon Nature, and I cannot conceive how absolute Governments exercised tyrannically can think their suffering Subjects are under an Obligation of Obedience, because such servile Subjection implies a Man's renouncing his Reason, which amounts to a Renunciation of Human Nature it self. From the Lacedæmonian Government Harrington formed his Definition, which is the Basis of his Oceana. "An equal Common-wealth, says that excellent Author, is a Government established upon an equal Agrarian, arising into the Superstructures, or three Orders, the Senate debating and proposing, the People resolving, and the Magistracy executing by an equal Rotation through the Suffrage of the People given by the Ballot d. d Harrington's Oceana, p. 55. How nearly this is drawn from Lycurgus' Institution you may read with Pleasure his Life writ by Plutarch, and his Law were kept in Sparta almost seven Hundred Years, and during that great length of time the Common-wealth flourished in all possible Prosperity; he began with the forming of Youth, and in them their Course of Life was so strict and austere, that War, when it was just and necessary, seemed natural to them. Diogenes said, when he returned from Lacedaemon to Athens, that he came from Men to Women; their Discipline was such both in War and Peace, that it made their City feared as well as honoured by all their Neighbours. They were esteemed the chief among all the Grecians, and had a directive Power over all the rest. Sovereignty and Liberty were consistent with each other, and no way prejudicial to one another; their Kings, tho of the race of Hercules, were not uneasy in having their Power limited, and the Legislature kept within their Bounds. You may observe in every Government, that when the executive Power is transferred to the Legislative, there is no Controul, nor can there be any Check upon them; the People in such a case must suffer without redress they have no Resource; because they are oppressed by their own Representatives. The Ephori, or Tribunes of the People, whose Authority in many respects was above the King's, made the Government seem a Democracy; the Decrees of the Senate, (in whom the Legislature rested,) were uncontroulable; in this it resembled an Aristocracy, and the regal Power, which like the Soul had animate the whole, shewed something Monarchical in it. He had Power to do Good, but none to do Harm. The Consideration of this Government was of equal use to Sidney as well as Harrington; the former has I think been longer in confuting Sir Robert Filmer's Patriarchal Hypothesis, than it deserved, which makes that part of his Work seem tedious; but his Notions of Government are generally right, and expressed with a Force, and Spirit, beyond what is commonly to be met with. One thing is very well worth your Notice in this Author, and that is, the admirable use he makes of History, through the whole Course of his Book. Historical Reflections are finely interwoven in all his Discourses. Such a use of History seems to be wanting in many Authors, who treat of Politicks. It is objected against Sidney that he makes the Grounds and Obligation of Subjection and Obedience to Government too precarious and loose; but this Objection seems to be taken from some incorrect Expressions, which have fallen from his Pen and do not arise from the regular Hypothesis he advances; and it must be considered, that this Work never had his last Hand. If you look into Sidney, I would advise you to read first the answer that has been made to Filmer by Mr. Locke, and his Essay of the Original, Extent and End of Civil Government; that piece contains the first Rudiments upon this Subject. I know a Gentleman, who calls it the A. B. C. of Politicks. But I might spare giving these Notices to you, who are an Adept in the Science. But to return to Lycurgus; when the regal Authority was put down at Lacedæmon he established a Senate of twenty eight Men, to whom he joined two Kings Descendants of Hercules, as was hinted above, besides the Fundamental Institutions he left them. This Senate was to make Laws, Decrees and Orders for the governing of the Common-wealth. But these Laws were to have their Ratification from the People, who frequently refusing to confirm the Decrees of the Senate, the Government was sometimes reduced to Difficulties; so about one hundred and thirty Years after Lycurgus, Theopompus and Polidorus, at that time the Kings of Sparta, transferred the Power of making Laws on the Senate: The People were soothed into the permitting of this by the Pretence of an Oracle's commanding it; as a farther compensation, and to screen them from the Tyrany that they might be liable to, either from the Kings, or the Senate, the Ephori were set up; and it is from the setting up of these high Magistrates that the four hundred Years of the Duration of that Republick is computed by Thucydides. The nearer you inspect and take a view of the Lacedæmonian Common-wealth, you will find, as I formerly hinted, the true Constitution of the Government to consist in this; that it contained in its Formation a proper Distribution of Power into several Branches, in the whole composing as it were one great Machine, and each grand Branch was a Check upon the other; so that not one of them could exceed its just Bounds, but was kept within the Sphere in Which it was circumscribed by the Original Frame. From the Laws of eternal Reason, it is evident, that Number, Weight and Measure goes through the civil, as well as the natural World; and as all Things were at first created, so are they still governed by Rules necessarily resulting and flowing from thence: from this Reason and Necessity (the Words are equivalent, and of the same Signification in the Language of the Schools) arises the Truth of that Political Maxim, which you tell me Mr. Harley a often repeats; Res nolunt administrari diu: That is, a Government cannot subsist long under an ill Administration. Observe that the Weight of the Proposition rests upon this, that ill Management, Confusion, and Disorder cannot long subsist. Physicians say, that acute Diseases either cure themselves, or kill; so the Constitution of a Government either recovers its original State from under a wrong Administration, or it dies; that is, changes its form, and is renewed under another, for Human Societies can never cease and break up entirely. Even in Civil War, (the great Reproach and Blemish of human Prudence, or rather of human Nature) each side maintains a just Government among themselves, however monstrous and barbarous they are to the adverse Party. It is an agreeable Thought to consider how many Millions of People lived happily and dyed quietly under the Spartan Government in a Succession of seven hundred Years. I do not regard the Severities of the Discipline, with which their Youth was educated: It is the weak and only Censure with which the corrupt Advocates of Absolute Monarchy could ever asperse that Republick. These Men do not fairly consider, that the Severity they complain of, was amply recompensed by the true and substantial Nourishment it gave to the Seeds of innate Virtue among them; and afterwards it was still more amply recompensed by the Respect and Veneration that was paid to those Youths, when they became Old Men. The private Virtue, which that rigid Education instilled, gave a Strength to their publick Government; and it was that Strength enabled the Common-wealth upon extraordinary Emergencies to right her self soon, if I may use a Sea Phrase, when Storms had brought her to lye almost a long side. Such a Vigour we have once seen In England upon the late happy Revolution; and I wish from my Soul, that England may never want a like Vigour upon a like Occasion! a The late Earl of Oxford. In Lacedæmon the distinct Function and different Power of each Branch of the Government was well known, and therefore it was as well known among them, when an Encroachment and Invasion was made by the one, upon the inherent Rights and inseparable Privileges of the other. I should be glad we could say the same Thing of our own Government herein England; but the Boundaries and Limits of Prerogative and Liberty are not yet so well stated with us. To speak with Freedom, and I hope without Offence to the learned and pious Body you represent, b I must tell you plainly, that the Clergy have for a great number of Years contributed chiefly to perplex the Notions and muddle the Brains of the People about our English Constitution: However I do as freely own they did their Duty very well just upon the Revolution; and whatever their Theories were, they did at that Crisis act rightly per Viam Facti, as the Civilians term it. To reconcile their Practice then to their speculative Maxims before and since, their Proceedings as freeborn Subjects to the Jura Sanguinis and the Indefeasible Rights; that is their Business, as Sir Robert Marsham used to say. But since I have touched upon this point, spare me a Word; I am, Dear Hammond, on the side of Liberty, I have traced this matter to its Source, and it may be perhaps of use to you at the Rose or the three Tuns c. It may be observed, that Arguments supported with the strongest Reasons, and most convincing and cogent to us of the Laity, have not the same Efficacy and Weight with the Clergy; they still oppose us, and contradict us even in Matters which we take to be the common and undoubted Rights belonging jointly and mutually to the Parson as well as to the Parishioner, How is it possible, that Men of great Learning, Piety, and Reason should not have the same Care of their own and our Rights as we have, and the same Conviction of what our Rights are, as we our selves have, upon clear Reason in plain terms offered to them. It certainly can arise only from hence, we must necessarily differ in Principles, and then it is not difficult to apprehend, that what is clear Sense to Men of my Principle, may not affect the Judgment, nor guide the Consciences of very good Men of a different Principle from me. My Principle is that the King is King by the Fundamental Law of the Land, and by the same Law, and no other, the meanest Subject enjoys the Liberty of his Person and Property in his Estate, and it is every Man's concern to defend this to his utmost, as well as the King in his lawful Rights and Prerogatives. b Anthony Hammond Esq; was Representative for the University of Cambridge. c Taverns used by a select Number of Members of Parliament. It is also my Principle that the House of Lords and Commons are an essential part of the Government, and established by Laws of equal Force and Validity with those by which regal Power is settled among us. According to this Principle every honest Man that holds it must endeavour with equal Care and Courage to preserve the Frame of our Government in all Parts and Branches of it, and cannot in Conscience give up the one to the other. He that from any indirect Motive, or from a Love of Ease shall depart from endeavouring this, will soon lose the Sweetness of that Ease which induced him to be either false, or remiss in the Service of his King and Country. But while some of the Laity are labouring in this Service, there are those among the Clergy, who act upon another Principle, which they brought into the World about the Year 1640. We agree that the King and Government it to be obeyed for Conscience sake, and the Precepts of Religion require Obedience not only of the Subject here, but in all Parts of the World, to their lawful Governours; but this particular Frame of Government is our legal Constitution by the Laws of the Land. Monarchy by Divine Right cannot be bounded nor limited by human Laws, nor can it indeed effectually bound it-self. All Claims vested in the People collectively, or in Particulars, either by the Constitution of the Government, or by Law, all Jurisdictions and Privileges of the House of Lords, all the Rights of the House of Commons, all the Liberties and Properties of the People are, according to this Principle, to be yeilded up, if required, not only to serve the Interest, but the Will and Pleasure of the Crown. The best and worthiest Men, holding this mistaken notion must, if they act conformably to it, surrender accordingly. Could the Lacedæmonian Government have held long, if a Party among them of this Stamp had prevailed. This Principle was a main Occasion of the Civil Wars among us, and contributed to bring us to the very brink of Ruin before the Revolution, and if it spreads again will be fatal to us by throwing us into Confusions and Tumults: One Conclusion may be naturally drawn from the Substance of this Digression, which will properly bring us to our Subject: The Ephori were the Guardians of Liberty at Sparta, as our Parliaments are here; and I must needs give the Preference to a Representative of the People, as a better Security against the Encroachments of regal Power, than their Ephori, or the Tribunes among the Romans. The Athenians making large Conquests in Asia, began to eclipse the Spartan Glory, upon which a War ensued between them, and after various Losses sustained by Athens, they took the City and dismantled it. Soon after this success the War between them and the Bœotians broke out, who were underhand assisted by the Athenians, and openly by the Persians. Here they felt Shocks unknown to them before that time; I refer you to the Life of Epaminondas the Theban. Next they were involved in the Holy War of that Age, and much streightned by Philip of Macedon; but still they held their Liberty, till Antigonus, one who succeeded in a Part of Alexander's Empire, defeated Cleomenes their last King, killed his Brother and 6000 Spartans, entered the City, and was the first Man that ever was received into it as a Conqueror. This was 221 Years before the Christian Æra, and above 700 Years from Lycurgus. Thus I have in a few Words given you a Crayon of the History of the Lacedæmonians, which may be a Guide to you in reading any of the Occurrences of that Government. The most learned Civilian P. Ærodius in his Collection of the Ancient adjudged Cases, (ab omni Antiquitate, as he expresses it, that agree with Reason and tend to the Illustration of the Civil Laws,) has many more Cases drawn from Precedents among the Lacedæmonians, than from any other People; you may likewise observe that in Valerius Maximus the Instances of Wisdom and Virtue taken from the Spartans bear no small Proportion in his Rhapsody. Having Lucius Florus now in my Hands, (the Panegyrical Historian of the Roman Common-wealth,) I cannot omit mentioning the Account of a Defeat which he was to make the best of, and passing over the Number of those slain and those taken Prisoners: Hic paulùm circumacta Fortuna est, tantùm ut plura essent Romanæ urbis Insignia, cujus ferè magnitudo calamitatibus approbatur. Nam conversis ad externa Auxilia hostibus, cum Xantippum illis ducem Lacedæmon misisset, à viro militiæ peritissimo vincimur, cum fœdâ clade, Romanisq; usu incognita, vivus in manus hostium venit fortissimus Imperator, [Regulus a.] This Action in our common Chronologies is placed 253 Years before Christ. We cannot form a juster Idea of the Excellency and Efficacy of the Lacedæmonian Institutions and Laws than by looking into the Lives of the great Men, who have been produced under that Government; a List of some of them are given us by Lucius Ampelius as follows, Lycurgus, Theopompus, Polydorus, Othyades, Leonidas, Pausanias, Leander, Xantippus, Agesilaus. a See Lucius Florus on the first Punic War, Book II. Chap. ii. The Ancient Civil Government of all Greece, (and that will take in Peloponnesus) may be considered. First, in its Origination. Secondly, under the various Alterations it went through. As to the first, its Origin, we shall find that some Governments arose from Consent and Compact, and that in particular Cities, some were independent on any other for their Original, and others owed their Original to neighbouring Cities, who sent out Colonies to plant them. In the Alterations that happened in their Governments, some of them arose by Consent among themselves, as was the Case of Lacedæmon, and others of those Alterations that arose by intestine Seditions, which made way for Usurpation, and others were changed by Conquest from Abroad. I have been the more minute in these Divisions, because I am persuaded they may be of use in reading not only the Grecian History, but also the Histories of all other Parts of the World, if you trace them from then first Sources. For the clearer Discovery on these Points, as they relate to Greece it will be necessary to consider the constituent Cause of Civil Government, the People, in their Origin, and in their Dispositions and Manners. As to the first of these, we find two very differing accounts, some say they were descended from Ancestors, who came thither from Ionia, Doris and Æolia in Asia Minor; and others assert, that they were Aborigines, or sprung out of the Earth, where they inhabited, and had always lived thereabouts; this is all the Notices we can have of them from their own Authors; the latter of which, however false it may be, serves to teach us thus much, that the Country had been inhabited time out of Mind: As to their Whimsey of being Aborigines, I think it ought rather to be looked upon as a frivolous Notion in their Philosophy, than an Error in their History; and since they endeavour to persuade us that all the Western Nations were derived and peopled from them, why may we not rather conclude in arguing against their Notion, that they themselves were Colonies from the South East Parts, rather than that their Land peopled it-self, unless they pretended to prove that their Soil was better able, and more disposed to bear Mankind than any other. If from their Origin we come to their Dispositions and Manners in the most ancient Times, before they coalesced into their respective Governments, we shall find them to have been very barbarous, and wandering from one Place to another In quest of Food and Maintenance; those who inhabited barren Countries, making frequent Incursions upon those that held the more fruitful, and these were often driven out to make room for others, and afterwards those again expelled. The most fruitful Countries were the constant Scenes of such Vicissitudes: these Changes of Inhabitants were more frequent in Peloponnesus, than in Attica, which being more barren was less molested with these Per-mutations. Besides these Inroads among themselves, they were no less harrassed on their Coasts by the continued Invasions of Pyrates, (an inseparable Consequence of Naval Superiority) who inhabited the Islands, and the Continent of Asia bordering upon the Sea; which made them in those early times not venture to live near the Sea. Thus they were in a State of almost perpetual War both abroad and at home: It is very observable how these Accounts correspond with our first Discoveries in America; and thus it continued in Greece, till Minos King of Crete (now Candia) with his Fleet destroyed all the Pyrates, and set up several Governments, making his Sons, Princes. When the Seas were thus cleared, they became free for Trade, which induced the People to live upon the Coasts of Greece, and to apply themselves to the Art of Navigation, tho' Lycurgus prohibited Trade, as tending to foment Luxury, which was contrary to that Severity of Manners, and Parsimony of Living which he introduced; and tho' that Austere Method did not contribute to extend their Conquests, it gave them a long Duration within their own Bounds. Concerning the particular Governments of Greece, some were free and Independent on any other, and many arose from Colonies; as for the Foundation of Sparta or Lacedæmon, the Chronologers run it up so far back into the fabulous Age, that we cannot depend upon any thing certain either from Pausanias, or Stephanus in his Treatise De Urbibus, who place the building of it about 1700 Years before the Birth of Christ, which was coeval with the Time when Jacob sent his ten Sons to buy Corn in Ægypt: From thence till the Reign of Menelaus all things lye in Obscurity; he was King of Lacedæmonia, and his story too well known to be mentioned; his Son-in-Law Orestes having married Hermione became King of Mycenæ and Sparta, this was soon after the taking of Troy, from which Æra the Computation of the Grecian History begins to acquire some degree of Certainty; and this was about the latter Part of the Age, when the Judges governed in Israel, about 1200 Years before Christ. When the Line of Orestes failed the Heraclidæ, (or Descendants of Hercules) governed Lacedæmon, Mycenæ and Corinth; there were several Branches of them, but the Kingdom of Sparta was in them, when Lycurgus gave them the Laws he brought from Crete, or framed himself for them. He was Contemporary with Homer, and lived about 900 Years before Christ. Aristotle at the latter End of the Tenth Book of his Ethics, speaking of the Force and Efficacy of Laws, draws an Argument from the Example of the Lacedæmonians, whose Legislature had put the Education and Discipline of their Youth under the Direction of Publick Laws; and as they excelled their neighbouring Governments in this respect, so both Aristotle and Xenophon assign this as the Cause of that Superiority, which Sparta maintained over the other Cities of Greece, who being negligent in this important Point, a Dissolution of Morals and Virtue was a Consequence that necessarily followed it. There are Instances among them of proceeding to Judgment and Execution against State Criminals without tying themselves down to the common Forms of their Courts of Judicature. When the Danger was great and imminent, they did not use the Formality of an Accusation, and a legal Tryal, but to prevent worse Consequences proceeded in a Summary Way. This was an Attainder among them, and Agesilaus gave a Precedent of it, when, as Plutarch recites the Case; the City being besieged by the Thebans under their wise and valiant General Epaminondas, Information was given that some Spartan Citizens were met together in the Night on a treasonable Design; whereupon Agesilaus, by the Advice and Authority of the Senate and the Ephori, seized them upon the Spot, and immediately caused them to be put to Death without any open Process, or Trial. Upon this Valerius Maximus observes in his seventh Book, that it was a very prudent Action in Agesilaus, in suspending upon that Occasion the Laws of Lycurgus, which strictly forbid the Punishment of uncondemned Persons: Comprehensis autem & intersectis sontibus easdem Lege se vestigio restituit; atque utrumq; simul providis, ne salutaris Animadversio, vel injusta esset, vel jure impediretur: Itaq; ut semper esse possent, aliquando non fuerunt. That is, having apprehended the Guilty and put them to Death, he presently restored the Laws again. Old Mr. Henry Nevil, whom you know they call Plato at the Grecian Coffee-House a, from his being Author of an excellent Treatise intitled Plato Redivivus, Or a Dialogue concerning Government: Anno, 1681, wherein by Observations drawn from other Kingdoms and States, both ancient and modern, an endeavour is used to discover the present Politick Distemper of our own, with the Causes and Remedies. This wise and experienced Gentleman says, p. 248. "I have ever thought that the Ephori of Sparta were an admirable Magistracy, not only for the Interest of the People, but likewise of the Authority of the Kings, and of their Lives too: for Plutarch observes that the City of Mycenæ and Argos had the same Government with Lacedæmon, and yet for want of eroding such an Authority as was in the Spartan-Ephori, they were in perpetual Broils amongst themselves; and for that Reason were ever beaten by their Enemies; whereas the Spartans were always victorious: and at last in both those Cities the Kings were driven out, their Families extirpated, and the Government turned into a Democracy." We may see from this, that Theopompus shewed a great Penetration into Futurity, as well as Moderation with regard to his own personal Power. When he instituted the Ephori, They told him he had lessened the Grandeur of his Children, he replied; he should indeed leave it less, but more lasting. Optimè quidam, says the Roman Author, ea enim demum tuta potentia, quæ viribus suis modum imponit. a In Devereux-Court without Temple-Bar is a Coffee-House so called, from its being originally kept by Mr. George Constantine a Greek. THE END.