“My lord’s other considerations are more private, as that, this order
destroys families; which is as if one should lay the ruin of some
ancient castle to the herbs which usually grow out of them, the
destruction of those families being that indeed which naturally produced
this order. For we do not now argue for that which we would have, but
for that which we are already possessed of, as would appear if a note
were but taken of all such as have at this day above £2,000 a year in
Oceana. If my lord should grant (and I will put it with the most) that
they who are proprietors in land, exceeding this proportion, exceed not
300, with what brow can the interest of so few be balanced with that of
the whole nation? or rather, what interest have they to put in such a
balance? they would live as they had been accustomed to do; who hinders
them? they would enjoy their estates; who touches them? they would
dispose of what they have according to the interest of their families;
it is that which we desire. A man has one son, let him be called; would
he enjoy his father’s estate? it is his, his son’s, and his son’s son’s
after him. A man has five sons, let them be called; would they enjoy
their father’s estate? It is divided among them; for we have four votes
for one in the same family, and therefore this must be the interest of
the family, or the family knows not its own interest. If a man shall
dispute otherwise, he must draw his arguments from custom and from
greatness, which was the interest of the monarchy, not of the family;
and we are now a commonwealth. If the monarchy could not bear with
such divisions because they tendered to a commonwealth, neither can
a commonwealth connive at such accumulations because they tend to a
monarchy. If the monarchy might make bold with so many for the good of
one, we may make bold with one for the good of so many, nay, for the
good of all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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