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¬with the magistracies of the country, powerful in themselves from rank and property, having a common interest with the whole nation, and no temptations being then in existence to seduce them from the discharge of their duties, they were the most formidable opponents of the prerogatives that were to be balanced; and it was therefore the most unquestionable policy to enlarge and confirm their authority, instead of endeavouring to controul a long established and too powerful a dominion by an untried force. ¬" From this period the principles of civil free- dom struck deep root in Armata, deeper perhaps from the weight by which they continued to be pressed, the prerogatives of their princes being still formidable and frequently abused. — Per- haps the law which governs the system of the universe may be the grand type and example of human governments — the immense power of the sun, though the fountain of light and life, would in its excess be fatal ; the planets, there- fore, though they yield to its fostering attraction ¬in ¬
