thority by which to make or execute a law, or judge a cauſe, but by a vote of the whole people, and the deciſion of a majority! Where is the plain large enough to hold them; and what are the means, and how long would be the time, neceſſary to aſſemble them together?
A ſimple and perſect democracy never yet exiſted among men. If a village of half a mile ſquare, and one hundred families, is capable of exerciſing all the legiſlative, executive, and judicial powers, in public aſſemblies of the whole, by unanimous votes, or by majorities, it is more than has ever yet been proved in theory or experience. In ſuch a democracy, the moderator would be king, the town-clerk legiſlator and judge, and the conſtable ſheriff, for the moſt part; and, upon more important occaſions, committees would be only the counſellors of both the former, and commanders of the latter.
Shall we ſuppoſe then, that Mr. Turgot intended, that an aſſembly of repreſentatives ſhould be choſen by the nation, and veiled with all the powers of government; and that this aſſembly ſhall be the center in which all the authority ſhall be collected, and ſhall be virtually deemed the nation. After long reflection, I have not been able to diſcover any other ſenſe in his words, and this was probably his real meaning. To examine this ſyſte, in detail may be thought as trifling an occupation, as the laboured reaſonings of Sidney and Locke, to ſhew the abſurdity of Filmar's ſuperſtitious notions, appeared to Mr. Hume in his enlightened days. Yet the miſtakes of great men, and even the abſurdities of fools, when they countenance the prejudices of numbers of people, eſpecially in a young country, and under new governments, cannot be too fully confuted.
