The treatise on “The Grounds and Reasons of Monarchy,” prominently placed at the opening of the works of Harrington, and inseparably combined with his opinions by the reference in the general index—this treatise which has settled like a gangrene on the fair character of the author of “Oceana,” which has called down on his devoted head the execrations of honourable men,[5] and which has misled many generations of readers, is the composition of a salaried party writer, in no way connected with our author. Toland, the first editor of Harrington’s works, introduced into the volume this anonymous invective, which has thus come down to us sanctioned by the philosopher’s name. There was no plea of any connexion between the two authors, and much less between their writings. The editor of the edition of 1771 has silently introduced the name of the real author in the table of contents, but without prefixing it to the tract, or without any further indication to inform the reader.
Whether zeal for “the cause” led Toland to this editorial delinquency, or whether he fell into this inadvertence from deficient acumen, it remains a literary calamity not easily paralleled, for a great author is condemned for what he never could have written.
[1] I must refer the reader for the development of the system of Hobbes to the Essay on Hobbes in the “Quarrels of Authors,” (last edition, p. 436.)
[2] The masterpiece of legislation of Abbé Sieyes, who, during the French Revolution, had always a new constitution in his pocket, was founded on this principle of “checks and balances in the state,” evidently adopted from Harrington. In Scott’s “Life of Napoleon,” vol. iv., the Abbé Sieyes’ system is described.
[3] I think that Harrington presciently detected the latent causes of a great revolution in France. The curiosity of the passage may compensate for its length—
“Where there is tumbling and tossing upon the bed of sickness, it must end in death or recovery. Though the people of the world, in the dregs of the Gothic empire, be yet tumbling and tossing upon the bed of sickness, they cannot die; nor is there any means of recovery for them but by ancient prudence; whence, of necessity, it must come to pass that this drug be better known. If France, Italy, and Spain were not all sick—all corrupted together, there would be none of them so; for the sick would not be able to withstand the sound, nor the sound to preserve their health without curing of the sick. The first of these nations, which, if you stay her leisure, will, in my mind, be France, that recovers the health of ancient prudence, shall certainly govern the world.”—Oceana, p. 168; edition 1771.
[4] The Art of Law-giving, 366, 4to edition.
[5] See the solemn denunciations of the “Biographia Britannica,” p. 2536, which are repeated by later biographers; see Chalmers.
