OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES 35 



in fact great or small : for they are the most dangerous 

 discontentments where the fear is greater than the feeling : 

 Dolendi modus, timendi non item. Besides, in great oppres- 

 sions, the same things that provoke the patience, do withal 

 mate the courage ; but in fears it is not so. Neither let 

 any prince or state be secure concerning discontentments, 

 because they have been often, or have been long, and yet 

 no peril hath ensued : for as it is true that every vapour or 

 fume doth not turn into a storm ; so it is nevertheless true 

 that storms, though they blow over divers times, yet may 

 fall at last ; and, as the Spanish proverb noteth well, ' The 

 cord breaketh at the last by the weakest pull.' 



The Causes and Motives of seditions are, innovation in 

 religion ; taxes ; alteration of laws and customs ; breaking 

 of privileges ; general oppression ; advancement of un- 

 worthy persons ; strangers ; dearths ; disbanded soldiers ; 

 factions grown desperate ; and whatsoever, in offending 

 people, joineth and knitteth them in a common cause. 



For the Remedies ; there may be some general preserva- 

 tives, whereof we will speak : as for the just cure, it must 

 answer to the particular disease ; and so be left to counsel 

 rather than rule. 



The first remedy or prevention is to remove by all 

 means possible that material cause of sedition whereof we 

 spake ; which is, want and poverty in the estate. To which 

 purpose serveth, the opening and well-balancing of trade ; 

 the cherishing of manufactures ; the banishing of idleness ; 

 the repressing of waste and excess by sumptuary laws ; the 

 improvement and husbanding of the soil ; the regulating 

 of prices of things vendible ; the moderating of taxes and 

 tributes, and the like. Generally, it is to be foreseen that 

 the population of a kingdom (especially if it be not mown 

 down by wars) do not exceed the stock of the kingdom 

 which should maintain them. Neither is the population 

 to be reckoned only by number ; for a smaller number 

 that spend more and earn less, do wear out an estate sooner 

 than a greater number that live lower and gather more. 

 Therefore the multiplying of nobility and other degrees of 

 quality in an over proportion to the common people, doth 



