horrible, though he did her no harm. And Juvenal reckons it as the complement of all torments inflicted by a cruel Roman dame upon her slaves, that whilst she was whipping them, she painted her face, talked with her gossips, and used all signs of neglecting what those wretches felt. Now seeing that the greatest grievances, wherewith a domineering state offendeth her subjects, are free from all sense of indignity; likely it is, that they will not extremely hate her, although desire of liberty make them weary of her empire. In these respects it is not needful that she should keep a guard of licentious cutthroats, and maintain them. in all villainy, as a Dionysius or Agathocles must do; her own citizens are able to terrify, and to hold perforce in obedience, all malecontents. These things, considered alone by themselves, may serve to prove, that a city is scarce able to deserve the name of a tyranness in the proper signification.

All this notwithstanding, it shall appear, that the miseries wherewith a tyrant loadeth his people are not so heavy as the burdens imposed by a cruel city. Not without some appearance of truth, it may be said, that lust, and many other private passions, are no way incident to a city or corporation. But to make this good, we shall have need to use the help of such distinctions as the argument in hand doth not require. Was not Rome lascivious, when Cato was fain to rise and leave the theatre, to the end that the reverend regard of his gravity might not hinder the people from calling for a show of naked courtesans, that were to be brought upon the open stage? By common practice, and general approved custom, we are to censure the quality of a whole state, not by the private virtue or vice of any one man, nor by metaphysical abstraction of the universal from the singular, or of the corporation from those of whom it is compounded. I say therefore, (as I have said elsewhere,) that it were better to live under one pernicious tyrant, than under many thousands. The reasons proving this are too many to set down, but few may suffice. The desires of one man, how inordinate soever, if they cannot be satisfied, yet they may be wearied; he is not able to search all cor

ners; his humour may be found and soothed; age, or good advice, yea or some unexpected accident, may reform him ; all which failing, yet is there hope that his successor may prove better. Many tyrants have been changed into worthy kings; and many have ill-used their ill-gotten dominion, which, becoming hereditary to their posterity, hath grown into the most excellent form of government, even a lawful monarchy. But they that live under a tyrannical city have no such hope; their mistress is immortal, and will not slacken the reins until they be pulled out of her hands, and her own mouth receive the bridle of a more mighty charioteer. This is woful; yet their present sufferings make them less mindful of the future. New flies, and hungry ones, fall upon the same sore, out of which others had already sucked their fill. A new governor comes yearly among them, attended by all his poor kindred and friends, who mean not to return home empty to their hives, without a good lading of wax and honey. These fly into all quarters, and are quickly acquainted with every man's wealth, or whatsoever else in all the province is worthy to be desired. They know all a man's enemies and all his fears; becoming themselves, within a little space, the enemies that he feareth most. To grow into acquaintance with these masterful guests, in hope to win their friendship, were an endless labour, (yet it must be undergone,) and such as every one hath not means to go about; but, were this effected, what availeth it? The love of one governor is purchased with gifts; the successor of this man, he is more loving than could be wished, in respect of a fair wife or daughter; then comes the third, perhaps of the contrary faction at home, a bitter enemy to both his foregoers, who seeks the ruin of all that have been inward with them. So the miseries of this tyranny are not simple, but interlaced (as it were) with the calamities of civil war. The Romans had a law de repetundis, or of recovery, against extorting magistrates; yet we find, that it served not wholly to restrain their provincial governors, who, presuming on the favour of their own citizens, and of their kindred and friends at home,

were bold in their provinces to work all these enormities rehearsed, though somewhat the more sparingly, for fear of judgment. If the subjects of Rome groaned under such oppressions, what must we think of those that were vassals unto Carthage? The Romans imposed no burdensome tribute; they loved not to hear that their empire was grievous; they condemned many noble citizens for having been ill governors. At Carthage all went quite contrary; the rapines newly devised by one magistrate served as precedents to instruct another; every man resolved to do the like when it should fall to his turn; and he was held a notable statesman whose robberies had been such as might afford a good share to the common treasure. Particular examples of this Carthaginian practice are not extant: the government of Verres the Roman, in Sicily, that is livelily set out by Tully, may serve to inform us what was the demeanour of these Punic rulers, who stood in fear of no such condemnation as Verres underwent. By prosecuting this discourse, I might infer a more general proposition, that a city cannot govern her subject provinces so mildly as a king; but it is enough to have shewed, that the tyranny of a city is far more intolerable than that of any one most wicked man.

Suitable to the cruelty of such lords is the hatred of their subjects; and again, suitable to the hatred of the subjects is the jealousy of their lords. Hence it followed, that in wars abroad, the Carthaginians durst use the service of African soldiers; in Afric itself, they had rather be beholding to others that were further fetched. For the same purpose did Hannibal, in the second Punic war, shift his mercenaries out of their own countries: k Ut Afri in Hispania, Hispani in Africa, melior procul ab domo futurus uterque miles, velut mutuis pignoribus obligati stipendia facerent; "That the Africans might serve in Spain, the Spaniards in "Afric, being each of them like to prove the better soldiers "the further they were from home, as if they were obliged by mutual pledges." It is disputable, I confess, whether

Livy, Dec. 3. l. 1.

these African and Spanish hirelings could properly be termed mercenaries; for they were subject unto Carthage, and carried into the field, not only by reward, but by duty. Yet seeing their duty was no better than enforced, and that it was not any love to the state, but mere desire of gain that made them fight; I will not nicely stand upon propriety of a word, but hold them, as Polybius also doth, no better than mercenaries.

§. 3.

The dangers growing from the use of mercenary soldiers and foreign auxiliaries.

THE extreme danger growing from the employment of such soldiers is well observed by Machiavel; who sheweth, that they are more terrible to those whom they serve, than to those against whom they serve. They are seditious, unfaithful, disobedient, devourers, and destroyers of all places and countries whereinto they are drawn; as being held by no other bond than their own commodity. Yea, that which is most fearful among such hirelings is, that they have often, and in time of greatest extremity, not only refused to fight in their defence who have entertained them, but revolted unto the contrary part, to the utter ruin of those princes and states that have trusted them. These mercenaries, (saith Machiavel,) which filled all Italy when Charles the Eighth of France did pass the Alps, were the cause that the said French king won the realm of Naples with his buckler without a sword. Notable was the example of Sforza, the father of Francis Sforza, duke of Milan, who being entertained by queen Joan of Naples, abandoned her service on the sudden, and forced her to put herself into the hands of the king of Arragon. Like unto his father was Francis Sforza, the first of that race duke of Milan; who, being entertained by the Milanese, forced them to become his slaves, even with the same army which themselves had levied for their own defence. But Lodovick Sforza, the son of this Francis, by the just judgment of God, was made a memorable example unto posterity in losing his whole estate by the treachery of such faithless mercenaries

as his own father had been. For, having waged an army of Switzers, and committed his duchy, together with his person, into their hands, he was by them delivered up unto his enemy the French king, by whom he was enclosed in the castle of Loches to his dying day.

The like inconvenience is found in using the help of foreign auxiliaries. We see, that when the emperor of Constantinople had hired ten thousand Turks against his neighbour princes, he could never, either by persuasion or-force, set them again over sea upon Asia side; which gave beginning to the Christian servitude that soon after followed. Alexander, the son of Cassander, sought aid of the great Demetrius; but Demetrius being entered into his kingdom, slew the same Alexander who had invited him, and made himself king of Macedon. Syracon the Turk was called into Egypt by Sanar the soldan against his opposite; but this Turk did settle himself so surely in Egypt, that Saladine his successor became lord thereof, and of all the Holy Land soon after. What need we look about for examples of this kind? every kingdom in effect can furnish us. The Britons drew the Saxons into this our country, and Mac Murrough drew the English into Ireland; but the one and the other soon became lords of those two kingdoms.

Against all this may be alleged the good success of the united provinces of the Netherlands, using none other than such kind of soldiers in their late war. Indeed these Low Countries have many goodly and strong cities, filled with inhabitants that are wealthy, industrious, and valiant in their kind. They are stout seamen, and therein is their excellency; neither are they bad at the defence of a place well fortified; but in open field they have seldom been able to stand against the Spaniard. Necessity therefore compelled them to seek help abroad; and the like necessity made them forbear to arm any great numbers of their own: for, with money raised by their trade, they maintained the war; and therefore could ill spare, unto the pike and musket, those hands that were of more use in helping to fill the