Book V.
Chap. 14.soever to the prince. How then can we reconcile the security of the government, with that of the prince's person?
Observe how industriously the Russian government endeavours to temper its arbitrary power, which it finds more burthensome than the people themselves. They have broke their great bodies of troops, mitigated criminal punishments, erected tribunals, entered into a knowledge of the laws, and instructed the people. But there are particular causes that will probably oblige them to return to the very misery which they now endeavour to avoid.
In those states religion has more influence than any where else; it is a fear added to fear. In Mahometan countries it is partly from their religion that the people derive the surprizing veneration they have for their prince.
It is religion that amends, in some measure, the Turkish constitution. The subjects who have no attachment of honor to the glory and grandeur of the state, are attached to it by the force and principle of religion.
Of all despotic governments, there is none that labours more under its own weight, than that wherein the prince declares himself proprietor of all the lands, and heir to all his subjects. Hence the neglect of agriculture arises; and if the prince intermeddles likewise in trade, all manner of industry is ruined.
Under this sort of government nothing is repaired or improved [1]. Houses are built only for the necessity of habitation; there is no such thing as diging of ditches, or planting of trees; every thing is drawn from, but nothing restored to the earth;
- ↑ See Ricaut, State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 196.
