Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/153

 The Minister, therefore, both in Consideration of his own Peace, and the public Welfare, ought as far as possible, to obviate this Evil in its Beginnings; fortify Himself, as well as the State, with the Honest, the Firm, and the Capable; resist, to the utmost, the exorbitant Demands of Venality: Thus Faction will either bark itself asleep; or die despairing.

 

ET us now consider, what might be in the Power of the Legislature and the Magistrate immediately to effect.

1. 'Tis generally acknowledged, that Power naturally follows Property. Therefore exorbitant Property in Individuals must always be unfavourable to civil Liberty; must always tend to produce Licentiousness and Faction; because it throws