LETTER X.

ON THE USE OF HISTORY.

IN a former letter I have mentioned history as an amusement; but here I mean to recommend it as a science. To persons of a private station, it is not requisite: but to every gentleman, who may be called to an active. and public life in the service of his country, it is absolutely necessary. The higher his rank, the more necessary is this science: if he is a prince, he is under greater obligation to study history than any of his subjects.

History shews us the laws of different countries, and the manners of different ages; the principles on which empires have risen to power and greatness, and the errors by which they have declined and fallen into decay. It teaches us the fatal effects of intestine divisions, whether arising from the mercenary views of self-interest and ambition, or from visionary ideas of liberty and false principles of policy. These things are worth the consideration of Englishmen at all times, especially at present. I am sorry to say it of my

country

countrymen, (who in the main are a sensible and generous people ;) but, they are factious by nature, and are unhappily encouraged to opposition by the present turn of their education. Those false ideas, of liberty, government, and power, of which we are now reaping, the fruits, have been propagated among them for many years past, and with as much assi duity as if the salvation of the people had depended upon them. From the doctrines of Algernon Sydney and Mr. Locke, which have so long been held in admiration, rebellion hath grown up as naturally as thorns and thistles spring from their proper seeds. These doctrines were exploded long ago by an able writer, whose work being unpopular at the time of its publication, when parties ran very high in this country, hath fallen into oblivion." History may in good measure dispel "this charm, by teaching you, that there never was an instance of any government arising from compact and the general consent of the people, from whence our theorists suppose all governments to have been derived. The idea is an absurdity; because kings, as the fathers of families, were prior to their subjects. All the great kingdoms of the earth either came by descent, or were gained by conquest; and he

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who

who gave the victory gave the kingdom. Mr. Selden was of opinion, that there is actually no power upon earth but the power of the. sword. So I think; but then I must have leave to add, that this power of the sword belongs properly to him who created the iron of it; and that the sword held by government for the taking away of any man's life, is held by his commission; the reason of which is plain-enough, if this were a place to insist upon it.

History will shew you the comparative inconveniencies of the different sorts of governments that popular governments, especially the aristocratic, are the most expensive and tyrannical. That when liberty is rampant, and power gets into the hands of those, who by nature or law have no right to it, it must be bought out of them again, with the money of those who neither share the power nor partake of the plunder of their country. If you look at home, you will discover that the English government hath become more venal, expensive, and distressed, in proportion as it hath approached nearer to the popular form, by encroachments upon the old legal rights of the crown; which, as Lord Lyttelton has well observed in his History of Henry II. are

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the

the security of the people against the oppression of the nobility. The system of venality was established by Sir Robert Walpole, who openly professed that he had set a price upon every man's conscience, and turned all public business into a scramble.

When you read of wars, you will meet with examples of successful fore-sights, and fatal over-sights; what opportunities have been lost for want of expedition and resolution: in particular, that no plots and rebellions were ever suppressed, but by unexpected and vigorous exertions in the beginning; and that no such exertions can well be made where the power is lodged in too many hands, and measures are consequently slow and fluctuating; and what is still worse, the secrets of the state are bandied about so publicly in debate, that they are always known to the enemy, who have warning to direct their own motions, so as to defeat every design that is formed against them. Secrecy is the wisdom of power; and without it, all power is like a body without a soul.

You will see how the talents of great commanders have wrought wonders when occasion required. Such was the constructing of a wooden bridge over the Rhine by Julius Cæsar,

Cæsar, for the passage of his troops into Germany. And such was the conduct of Xenophon, a scholar and a soldier like Julius Cæsar, when he led his Greeks safe back through a vast tract of the enemies country, after Cyrus, who had engaged them in his service, was defeated and slain. I have heard the following anecdote of Wolfe, who was a mili tary genius as well as a man of courage; that he was shewing some general officers how expert his men were at a new mode of attacking and retreating upon hills; and when he stept up to one of the officers after the performance, and asked him what he thought of it; I think, said he, I see something here of the History of the Carduchi, who harassed Xenophon, and hung upon his rear in his retreat over the mountains. You are right, said Wolfe; I had it from thence; and I see you are a man of reading; but our friends there are surprised at what I have shewn them, because they have read nothing.

You may learn how dangerous it is under any circumstances whatsoever to listen to the reports of an enemy, from the fatal and very striking example of Cæsar's legion in Gaul, cut off by leaving their winter-quarters, at the "perfidious remonstrances of Ambiorix.