Republics that are recorded in Story: Those of Sparta, Athens, and Rome. The Events are sufficiently known to those who are conversant in ancient History: But the fundamental and leading Causes of these Events deserve a particular Investigation: They will form a concurrent Proof of the Principles here given.
The Republic of Sparta claims the first Place; both on Account of its Antiquity, and Perfection. By its Perfection is meant, not the moral Perfection of its particular Institutions, but of the Means and Principles by which These Institutions were secured.
The leading Institutions which Lycurgus fixed as the Essence of his Commonwealth, were these which follow.
1. He established a Senate of twenty-eight, as an intermediate Power between that of Prince and People... 2. He made an equal Partition of Lands and Goods, among the free Members of the Community... 3. He introduced the Use of Iron Money, instead of Gold and Silver... 4. He banished or
