Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/24

 Means are most wide of each other, and that the Mixtures of Monarchy and Liberty render the Yoke either more easy or more grievous. I must take Notice of a Remark of Tacitus with regard to the Romans under their Emperors, that they neither could bear total Slavery nor total Liberty, Nec totam servitutem nec totam libertatem pati possunt. This Remark a famous Poet has translated and applied to the English in his admirable Description of Queen Elizabeth's Policy and happy Government.

to these Remarks, therefore, we are to consider the Roman Government as a Mixture of Despotism and Liberty, where the Despotism prevailed; and the English Government as a Mixture of the same Kind, but where the Liberty predominates. The Consequences are exactly conformable to the foregoing Observation; and such as may be expected from those mixed Forms of Government, which beget a mutual Watchfulness and Jealousy. The Roman Emperors were, many