112 STUDIES OF NATiTRE. 



confidered as the reward of merit, and not the pur- 

 chafe of money : that refpect for gold, which has 

 corrupted every moral principle, would be dimi- 

 niOied, and that which is due to virtue would be 

 heightened i the career of public honour would be 

 laid open to all the orders of the State, which, for 

 more than a century paft, has been the patrimony 

 of from four to five thoufand families, which have 

 tranfmitted all the great offices from hand to hand, 

 without communicating any fhare of them to the 

 reft of the citizens, except in proportion as they 

 ceafe to be fuch, that is, in proportion as they fell 

 to them their liberty, their honour, and their con 

 fcience. 



Our Princes have been taught to believe, that it 

 was fafer for them to truft to the purfes, than to 

 the probity of their fubje6ts. Htre we have the 

 origin of venality in the civil ftate ; but this fo- 

 phifm falls to the ground, the moment we refleâ: 

 that it fubfifts not in either the ecclefiaftical or mi- 

 litary order ; and that thefe great bodies ftill are, 

 as to the individuals which coinpofe them, the bed 

 ordered of any in the State, at leaft with relation 

 to their police, and to their particular interefts. 



The Court employs frequent change of faQiions, 

 in order to enable the poor to live on the fuper- 

 fluity of the rich. This palliative is fo far good, 



though 



