matters, was a man extremely false, cruel, and avaricious. To furnish pretences for persecuting the ecclesiastics, that he might enrich himself with their spoils, he prevailed on Henry to make that most iniquitous law, that sentences of death, and confiscations, pronounced on people for high treason, should be good and valid, although they had not been heard in their defence; but Cromwell himself, was the first man this law was put in practice against; Henry having caused him to be beheaded, without his being heard or permitted to make any defence: _--------Nec lex est æquior illa,_ _Ut necis artifices arte perirent sua._ XLII. Finally, and to sum up the whole, if we search history, we shall hardly find one among a thousand of those politicians, who have sought to exalt themselves by means of wicked arts and practices, that have not come to an unhappy end. Thus it has ever been till this time, and so it will ever continue to be from henceforward. What blindness then is it, to persevere in following a path, by pursuing which, you can only by a miracle of chance avoid a precipice? What can this be but delirium, the infallible symptom of the fever of ambition? which is a flame that cannot burn with violence in any man, without his being affected with a phrensy of the brain. SECT. XIII. XLIII. All we have said of policy, as it relates to private people, may be applied to princes, or superiors, who govern every kind of state; and with respect to these also, the division of policy into the high and the low, is apt and proper, as the first is secure, and the second hazardous in them, in the same proportion, which it is with respect to subjects or private men. Any ruler whatever, who is endued with the three virtues, of prudence, justice, and fortitude, will be a singular good politician, without ever having read any of those books, which treat of reasons of state. The true arts of governing, are, to chuse such ministers as are wise and upright, to reward merit, and to punish crimes; to watch over, and attend to the interest of the public, and to be faithful in promises. By these means, the respect, the love, and the obedience of subjects, will be much more effectually secured, than by all that compound farrago of political subtilties, called reasons of state; a mystery, deposited in the minds of privy counsellors, which, as if it was a most sacred thing, they never suffer to be totally displayed; nor ever to go forth to the public, unless covered with a thick veil; and is for the most part, no more than a ridiculous phantom, or vain idol, which under the title of a Deity, they exhibit for the adoration of the ignorant vulgar. Reason of state, is the universal agitator, or primum mobile of a kingdom, and is the reason for every thing, without being the reason of any thing. If it is asked, why was such a thing done, the answer is, for reasons of state; very well, but why was such another thing omitted to be done,