Neither are such grand Inconveniences to be found onely
under the standing power of Kings, because they are Hereditary,
but the same abound in like maner in the government
of standing Senates, there being the same reason to prove
inconveniences, because in this form they ever continue the
same Hereditary Course of Succession in their particular Families,
usurping the same power (as Kings do) by birth, not
receiving it from the consent of the people. The truth of
this appeares by a survey of the constitution of the Roman
Senate, which confined all right to government within their
own Walls, Wills, and Families, to whom they affixed one
common name of Honour, calling themselves the Patrician
or Noble Order, just as they doe now in Venice, where none
but the sons of the Senate are admitted to any dignity or
power, but they all of them (without distinction) are admitted
to the Helm, after they are once 25 years old; so that
as in both those Commonweals the reasons and occasions of
inconvenience are the same, as in the Kingly hereditary
Form; so had I room I would have made Reasons and Examples
walk hand in hand together, to make full proof of
our position; and this I might have done, not onely in Rome
and Venice, but also in Florence, Genoa, and even in Switzerland
in time past, when the Cantons were prest under the
weight of an Hereditary standing Nobility. But I have been
too large already: let this serve to manifest, That a Government
by a free election and consent of the people, setled in a
due and orderly Succession of their Supream Assemblies, is
more consonant to the light of Nature and Reason, and consequently
much more excellent than any Hereditary Standing
Form whatsoever. ------ To take off all misconstructions,
when we mention the People, observe all along, that we doe
not mean the confused promiscuous body of the People, nor
any part of the people who have forfeited their Rights by
Delinquency, or Neutrality, &c, in relation to the divided
State of any Nation; For, they are not to be reckoned
within the lists of the People, as shall be proved hereafter.