LETTER XXXII.
ANCIENT REPUBLICS, AND OPINIONS
OF PHILOSOPHERS.
Dear Sir,
DIONYSIUS Halicarnaſſenſis, in his ſeventh book, has given us an excellent ſpeech in the ſenate, made by Manlius Valerius, a man venerable for his age and wiſdom, and remarkable for his conſtant friendſhip for the people.
"If any of you, fathers! alarmed with an apprehenſion that you will introduce a pernicious cuſtom into the commonwealth, if you grant the people a power of giving their ſuffrages againſt the patricians, and entertain an opinion that the tribunitian power, if conſiderably ſtrengthened, will prove of no advantage, let them learn, that their opinion is erroneous, and their imagination contrary to ſound reaſoning: for if any meaſure can tend to preſerve this commonwealth, to aſſure both her liberty and power, and to eſtablifh a perpetual union and harmony in all things, the moſt effectual will be to give the people a ſhare in the government: and the mod advantageous thing to us will be, not to have a ſimple and unmixed, form of government; neither a monarchy, an oligarchy, nor a democracy, but a conſtitution tempered with all of them: for each of theſe forms, when ſimple, very eaſily deviates into abuſe and exceſs; but when all of them are equally mixed, that part which happens to innovate, and to exceed the cuſtomary bounds, is always reſtrained by another that is ſober, and adheres to the eſtabliſhed
