Page:A Vindication of Natural Society - Burke (1756).djvu/61

 The People are not only Politically, but Personally Slaves, and treated with the utmost Indignity. The Republick of Venice is somewhat more moderate; yet even here, so heavy is the Aristocratick Yoke, that the Nobles have been obliged to enervate the Spirit of their Subjects by every Sort of Debauchery; they have denied them the Liberty of Reason, and have recompensed it, by not only allowing, but encouraging them to corrupt themselves in the most scandalous Manner. They consider their Subjects, as the Farmer does the Hog he keeps to feast upon. He holds him fast in his Stye, but allows him to wallow as much as he pleases in his beloved Filth and Gluttony. So scandalously debauched a People as that of Venice, is to be met with no where else. High, Low, Men, Women, Clergy, and Laity, are all alike. The Ruling Nobility are no less afraid of one another, than they are of the People; and for that Reason, politically enervate their own Body by the same