STUDY VÎI. 



57 



which has, at length, corrupted her. The Com- 

 mons, I grant, form one of her Houfes of Parlia ■ 

 liament, but the right of fitting in it as a repre- 

 fentative, being reftrided to perfons polfeffed of 

 fuch a revenue, it's doors muft, of courfe, be fhut 

 againfi; the admiffion of many a wife head, and be 

 open to feme not entirely of that defcription. An 

 Alcibiadcs and a Catqline might have made a (hin- 

 ing figure there ; but a Socrates, the juft Arijiides, 

 Epaminondas, who transferred the Empire of 

 Greece to Thebes, Attilius-ReguhiSy who was called 

 from the plough to the Didatorfliip, Menenius- 

 Agrippa, who fettled the difpute between the Se- 

 nate and People ; no one of thefe could have pro- 

 cured a feat, becaufe he had not an eftate in land 

 worth fo much a year. Britain would deftroy her- 

 felf by her very boafted Conftitution, did (lie not 

 prefent a common career to every citizen, in her 

 Marine. All the Orders of the State concur in this 

 point of union, and give it fuch a preponderancy, 

 that it fixes their political equilibrium. Whoever 

 could deftroy the Marine of England, would an- 

 nihilate her Government. This unanimous con- 

 currence of the whole Nation toward the cultiva- 

 tion of one fingle Art, has raifed it to a height of 

 perfedtion hitherto unattained in any other Coun- 

 try, and has rendered it the fole inftrument of her 

 power. 



If 



