es; they form a band in the legislature, and act
true to their own interests; so that the sovereign himself is compelled
to admit of abuses, which he is willing but not able to remedy.

It is a great mistake, and one of the greatest into which people have of
late been apt to run, that the government and people of a country are
of opposite interests; and that governments wish to oppress the people,
and rob them of the means of being affluent and happy: the very
contrary is the case; all enlightened monarchs have acted quite
differently.

Alfred the Great, Edward III. Queen Elizabeth, and nearly all her
successors have endeavoured to increase the wealth and happiness of
the people in England. Henry IV. of France, even Louis XIV. Peter the
Great of Russia, Catherine, and indeed all his successors, as also the
Kings of Prussia, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and other sovereigns,
who know how to shew their disposition, have tried to enrich their
people, and render them happy. The great study of the English
government has always been directed to that end, and the Romans
extended their care even to the nations they subdued. Though there are
many sovereigns who have not known how to do this, and therefore
have either not attempted it, or erred in the mode they have taken; yet,
with very few exceptions indeed, sovereigns have been found to wish
for the prosperity of the nations over which they ruled.

In all human institutions there is much that is bad, and something [end
of page #118] that is good; and the best, as well as the worst, are only
combinations of good and evil, differing in the proportions. In mixt
governments, or in limited governments, the people can defend their
rights better against the sovereign than against those bodies that spring
up amongst themselves: whereas, in pure monarchies, they have only
to guard against the encroachments of the sovereign; and he will take
care to prevent them from being oppressed by any other power.

This tendency to destruction, from encroachments of public bodies in
established governments, is more to be dreaded in limited monarchies,
and in democracies, than in pure monarchies; but we have had little
occasion to observe the progress in governments of the former sort,
excepting the clergy, though the military and the nobles generally play
their part.

In Rome, the military never were dangerous, while the armies were
only raised, like militias, for the purpose of a particular war