Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/98

 as if it contained not one Member, who had any Regard to public Interest and Liberty.

, therefore, there offers to my Censure and Examination any Plan of Government, real or imaginary, where the Power is distributed among several Courts, and several Orders of Men, I always consider the private Interest of each Court, and each Order; and if I find, that, by the artful Division of the Power, the private Interest must necessarily, in its Operation, concur with the public, I pronounce that Government to be wise and happy. If, on the contrary, the private Interest of each Order be not check'd, and be not directed to publick Interest, I shall look for nothing but Faction, Disorder, and Tyranny from such a Government. In this Opinion I am justified by Experience, as well as by the Authority of all Philosophers and Politicians, both antient and modern.

much, therefore, would it have surprised such a Genius, as Cicero, or Tacitus, to have been told, that in a future Age there should arise a very regular System of mixt Government, where the Power was