The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr. Samuel Butler/Volume 1/A Speech made at the Rota
Among the excellent Orders of that glorious Senate of Rome one was, that any Senator having a Right to speak to every Business in Debate, might instead of giving his Sentence to the present Question (if he had no mind to declare himself) propose any Thing else, that was in his Judgment e Republica, of Concernment to the Commonwealth. This Custom I humbly desire may be received into this ingenious Assembly, and that I may have the Honour to be the first Man that shall put it in Practice. For I perceive, we have not only heard all, and more than all, that can be said to the Purpose concerning over-Balance and Propriety[2], but like those that are out of their Way, the further we go the further we are from our End; and I doubt, in Conclusion. shall come to discover, that there is no such Thing at present in the English Nation, as either the one, or the other—Besides, Sir, as all Rotations and Wheelings cause a kind of Giddiness in the Brain; so if we provide not some wholesome Diversion for those that we have so often heard of, it will not be in the Power of this sober and considerate Coffee to keep us in our Wits. Although if it be the black Broth which the Lacedemonians us'd[3], as some learned Authors are of Opinion, I grant it hath a sovereign Operation to strengthen politic Notions, especially such as concern Republics, and is the same which Lycurgus himself drank, when he form'd his Commonwealth; and among other excellent Constitutions, hit upon that excellent Law, that enjoins Women to wear Slits in their Petticoats, and Boys to steal Bread and Butter, as Plutarch writes in his Life; and I could wish Mr. Harrington may be desired by this Assembly to introduce it into his Oceana—But this is not that, which I purpose to propose at this Time, but something that does more immediately concern the present Government, which as yet we live under, for whose Service I suppose these Meetings are peculiarly intended—And that is, whether the late Name of Rump be significant, proper, and adequate to the present Parliament. I doubt not, but at first Sight it will appear to most Men to be nothing less; but if you please to trust me with your Patience for a few Minutes, I dare undertake to make it appear, not only out of all Antiquity and the Consent of all Ages, but the Testimony of Nature herself, that it is not only the most proper, apt, and significant, but the most honourable Denomination, that could by the Wit of Man be given unto it.
The learned Eben Ezra[4] and Manasseh Ben Israel do write, that there is in the Rump of Man a certain Bone, which they call the Bone Luz; this, they say, is of so immortal and incomprehensible a Nature, that at the Resurrection out of it all the rest of the Bones and Members shall sprout, just as a Plant does out of a Kernel: and is there any thing that can bear a nearer Resemblance to this Rump Bone than the present Parliament, that has been so many Years dead and rotten under Ground to any Man's thinking, that the Ghosts of some of the Members thereof have transmigrated in to other Parliaments, and some into those Parts from whence there is no Redemption, should nevertheless at two several and respective Resurrections start up, like the Dragon's Teeth that were sown, into living, natural, and carnal Members? And hence it is, I suppose, that Physicians and Anatomists call this Bone Os sacrum, or the holy Bone.
The Ægyptians in their Hieroglyphics decyphered a Prince by a Bee: now a Bee, you know, does carry not only his Militia or Defence, but his whole politic Interest in his Tail; for when he has lost his Sting he is presently banished that well order'd Government, as an unprofitable Member and a Drone.
The Greeks call Rule or Empire Βασιλεια, as the Etymologists tell us, because it is Βασις του λαου, the Base or Fundament of the People: for as the Rump or Bum in the natural Body is called the Fundament, because it is the Foundation on which all the rest of the Members depend; so is the State and Government in the Body politic.
The Philosophers say, that a Man is a Tree inverted, and that his Head is the Root, by which he takes in his Nourishment, and his Arms and Legs the Branches—If that be true, it must follow that his Rump is the Head.
It is a Custom of the Eastern Kings to vail their Faces from public View, only to avoid prostituting the Majesty of their Persons to common Eyes; and what is that more than the universal Custom of all Nations and Ages hath always carefully observed to the Rump? And therefore, when the Philistines resolved to put the highest indignity upon David's Embassadors, they could not think of a way more ignominious than to cut their Garments above their Buttocks, and by that means to render those reverend Parts cheap and despicable in the Eyes of the Rabble.
Some are of Opinion, that Honour is seated in that Part only, chiefly at least: for it is observed, that a small Kick on that Part does more hurt and wound Honour, than a cut on the Head or Face, or a Stab or Shot of a Pistol on any other Part of the Body. And hence it is, that in all Combats all the rest of the Members are ready to expose themselves to any Danger to screen the Breech; as if the whole outward Man were but a Life-Guard to that Part: and he, that by turning his Back, exposes that to Danger, is ever after branded with the ignominious Name of a Coward.
The ancient Heroes were wont to wear Horse-Tails in their Helmets, as our young Gallants do Ostrich Tails in their Hats; from whence we may infer, that it hath been the Consent of all Ages, that the Head can receive no greater Ornament than that which is conferred on it by the Tail. And in all funeral Pomps and public Shews, he that hath the longest Tail to his Robe is understood to be the most honourable Person; and, therefore, when Oliver Cromwel was to be installed, his Robe had a Tail of six Yards long, which was born up by six young Noblemen, merely in Honour to that Part, in Contemplation whereof the Charge was bestowed; for all the other Parts bore a nearer Proportion to the Body.
Is not the Chair the most honourable Part of the Parliament? Then that which sits in it must of necessity be the most honourable Part of the Speaker. It is an Axiom in Philosophy levia sursum, gravia deorsum, and can any thing imaginable be more grave than so venerable a Senate? And hence, I suppose, the Wisdom of our Ancestors called it the lower-House, in relation to the Place it held in the Government. All Birds in the Air, and Fishes in the Sea guide themselves with their Tails, from the Leviathan to the Sprat; and the most famous of our modern Philosophers hath of late made a Discovery, that Leviathan and Republic are all one.
The greatest Honour, that can be given to Man, is either to go before, or sit above others—In sitting the whole Honour is conferred on the Breech; and in going before, the Breech is more immediately waited upon than any other Part, and therefore receives the greater Respect—And from all this I doubt not but by this Time it plainly appears, that the Rump, as I said before, is not only the most honourable, but most apt and proper Name, that can be given to those, whose only Business is to sit.
- ↑ The Rota was a Club of speculating Politicians in those Times of Confusion, when almost every Man unhappily thought it his Business to make or mend Government; and to this Butler alludes in his Hudibras.The Founder of it was James Harrington, Esq; who in the beginning of the civil War sided with the Presbyterians, and in 1646, went as a Volunteer with the Commissioners appointed by Parliament to go to the King at Newcastle to treat for a Peace and Settlement, and bring him nearer to London, who, taking a liking to Mr. Harrington's Conversation, admitted him a Groom of his Bedchamber, in which Attendance he continued till the King's Death. After that, thinking that Monarchy would never be restored, he followed his own Genius, which chiefly lay towards Politics and democratical Government, and writ his Oceana or System of a perfect Commonwealth. In 1659 in the Beginning of Michaelmas Term he and his followers had every Night a meeting at the then Turks-Head in the new Palace Yard at Westminster called Miles's Coffee-House, to contrive the Model of a Commonwealth, to be erected in England. Their Scheme was, that the third Part of the Senate should rote out by Ballot every Year, so that every ninth Year the said Senate would be wholly altered, and from hence they got the Name of the Rota-Club. See Wood's Athenæ.But Sidrophel, as full of Tricks
As Rota-Men of Politics.P. 2. C. 3. V. 1107. - ↑ Concerning over-Balance and Propriety.] Harrington's Foundation Maxim was, that Empire follows the Ballance of Property, whether lodged in one, a few, or many Hands; and observed, "That the Troubles of his Time were not to be wholly attributed to Wilfulness or Faction, neither to the Misgovernment of the Prince, nor the Stubbornness of the People; but to a change in the Balance of Property, which ever since Henry the seventh's Time was daily falling into the Scale of the Commons, from that of the King and the Lords".———All Imperfections of Government he imputes to over-Balance, which in one, says he, creates absolute Monarchy, in the few Aristocracy, and in the People popular Government. See Harrington's Life and Works.
- ↑ Although if it be the black Broth, which the Lacedemonians used] Plutarch tells us, that this Black Broth, whatever it was, was the favourite Food of the Lacedemonians, especially of the older and graver Sort.
- ↑ The learned Eben Ezra, &c.] Our Author introduced this and several other of the Arguments which follow, into the second Canto of the third Part of his Hudibras, where he describes the Burning of the Rump; but, in my Opinion, not with the Propriety, in which they appear here, as it could not naturally be supposed, that the Statesman, into whose Mouth they are there put, rushing in, as he is there described, in the utmost Fear and Haste, could have a Mind at Liberty enough to descant, in the manner upon the Subject.The learned Rabbins of the Jews
Write there's a Bone, which they call Luz, &c.
Hud. P. 3. C. 2. V. 1615.