第79章 Letter XIX(4)

Now nothing can be more certain than this,that national luxury and national poverty may,in time,establish national prostitution.Besides this,it is to be considered,that the immense wealth of particular men is a circumstance which always attends national poverty,and is in a great measure the cause of it.We may apply already to our country thus much at least of that which Sallust makes Cato say of the state of Rome;and I wish we could apply no more,--Habemus luxuriam,atque avaritiam,publice egestatem,privatim opulentiam;'luxury and avarice,public want and private wealth abound'.Now,as public want,or general poverty,for in that sense I take it here,will lay numbers of men open to the attacks of corruption;so private wealth will have the same effect,especially where luxury prevails,on some of those who do not feel the public want;for there is imaginary as well as real poverty.He who thought himself rich before,may begin to think himself poor,when he compares his wealth,and the expense he is able to make,with those men whom he hath been used to esteem,and perhaps justly,far inferior to himself in all respects.He who would have been ashamed to participate in fraud,or to yield to corruption,may begin to think the fault venial,when he sees men who were far below him,rise above him by fraud and by corruption;when he sees them maintain themselves by these means in an elevation which they could not have acquired by the contrary virtues,if they had had them.Thus may contraries unite in their effect,and poverty and wealth combine to facilitate the means and the progress of corruption.Thus may the great thieves of the nation do more,and less reparable mischief,by the practices they introduce and the examples they set,than by the actual robberies they commit.Plusque exemplo quam peccato nocent,to use an expression of Tully,in one of his books of laws.

Much more might be said,concerning the increase of power which the crown hath acquired,and must continue to acquire,according to the present constitution and management of the revenue.Much more might be said to show that the power of money,as the world is now constituted,is real power,and that all power,without this,is imaginary;that the prince who gets prerogative alone,gets a phantom;but that he who gets money,even without prerogative,gets something real,and will be as much stronger than his neighbours,and his people too,as he hath a greater command of money.In fine,a great deal more might be said to show how much corruption is a more deadly weapon than the highest prerogative,in the hands of men who are enemies to such a constitution of government as ours is.--But I hasten to a conclusion.