Cato's Letters

John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, Cato's Letters (1721-22) [Excerpts]

Number 38: The Right and Capacity of the People to Judge of Government

The World has, from Time to Time, been led into such a long Maze of Mistakes, by those who gained by deceiving, that whoever would instruct Mankind, must begin with removing their Errors; and if they were every where honestly apprized of Truth, and restored to their Senses, there would not remain one Nation of Bigots or Slaves under the Sun: A Happiness always to be wished, but never expected!

In most Parts of the Earth there is neither Light nor Liberty; and even in the best Parts of it they are but little encouraged, and coldly maintained; there being, in all Places, many engaged, through Interest, in a perpetual Conspiracy against them. They are the two greatest Civil Blessings, inseparable in their Interests, and the mutual Support of each other; and whoever would destroy one of them, must destroy both. Hence it is, that we every where find Tyranny and Imposture, Ignorance and Slavery, joined together; and Oppressors and Deceivers mutually aiding and paying constant Court to each other. Wherever Truth is dangerous, Liberty is precarious.

Of all the Sciences that I know in the World, that of Government concerns us most, and is the easiest to be known, and yet is the least understood. Most of those who manage it would make the lower World believe that there is I know not what Difficulty and Mystery in it, far above vulgar Understandings; which Proceeding of theirs is direct Craft and Imposture: Every Ploughman knows a good Government from a bad one, from the Effects of it: he knows whether the Fruits of his Labor be his own, and whether he enjoy them in Peace and Security: And if he do not know the Principles of Government, it is for want of Thinking and Enquiry, for they lie open to common Sense; but People are generally taught not to think of them at all, or to think wrong of them.

What is Government, but a Trust committed by All, or the Most, to One, or a Few, who are to attend upon the Affairs of All, that every one may, with the more Security, attend upon his own? A great and honorable Trust; but too seldom honorably executed; those who possess it having it often more at Heart to increase their Power, than to make it useful; and to be terrible, rather than beneficent. It is therefore a Trust, which ought to be bounded with many and strong Restraints, because Power renders Men wanton, insolent to others, and fond of themselves. Every Violation therefore of this Trust, where such Violation is considerable, ought to meet with proportionable Punishment; and the smallest Violation of it ought to meet with some, because Indulgence to the least Faults of Magistrates may be Cruelty to a whole People.

Honesty, Diligence, and plain Sense, are the only Talents necessary for the executing of this Trust; and the public Good is its only End: As to Refinements and Finesses, they are often only the false Appearances of Wisdom and Parts, and oftener Tricks to hide Guilt and Emptiness; and they are generally mean and dishonest: they are the Arts of Jobbers in Politicks, who, playing their own Game under the public Cover, subsist upon poor Shifts and Expedients; starved Politicians, who live from Hand to Mouth, from Day to Day, and following the little Views of Ambition, Avarice, Revenge, and the like personal Passions, are ashamed to avow them, yet want Souls great enough to forsake them; small wicked Statesmen, who make a private Market of the Public, and deceive it, in order to sell it.

These are the poor Parts which great and good Governors scorn to play, and cannot play; their Designs, like their Stations, being purely public, are open and undisguised. They do not consider their People as their Prey, nor lie in Ambush for their Subjects; nor dread, and treat and surprise them like Enemies, as all ill Magistrates do; who are not Governors, but Jailors and Sponges, who chain them and squeeze them, and yet take it very ill if they do but murmur; which is yet much less than a People so abused ought to do. There have been Times and Countries, when public Ministers and public Enemies have been the same individual Men. What a melancholy Reflection is this, that the most terrible and mischievous Foes to a Nation should be its own Magistrates! And yet in every enslaved Country, which is almost every Country, this is their woeful Case.

….What is the Public, but the collective Body of private Men, as every private Man is a Member of the Public? And as the Whole ought to be concerned for the Preservation of every private Individual, it is the Duty of every Individual to be concerned for the Whole, in which himself is included.

One Man, or a few Men, have often pretended the Public, and meant themselves, and consulted their own personal Interest, in Instances essential to its Well-being; but the whole People, by consulting their own Interest, consult the Public, and act for the Public by acting for themselves: This is particularly the Spirit of our Constitution, in which the whole Nation is represented; and our Records afford Instances, where the House of Commons have declined entering upon a Question of Importance, till they had gone into the Country, and consulted their Principals, the People….

For myself, who have thought pretty much of these Matters, I am of Opinion, that a whole Nation are like to be as much attached to themselves, as one Man or a few Men are like to be, who may by many Means be detached from the Interest of a Nation. It is certain that one Man, and several Men, may be bribed into an Interest opposite to that of the Public; but it is as certain that a whole Country can never find an Equivalent for itself, and consequently a whole Country can never be bribed. It is the eternal Interest of every Nation, that their Government should be good; but they who direct it frequently reason a contrary Way, and find their own Account in Plunder and Oppression; and while the public Voice is pretended to be declared, by one or a few, for vile and private Ends, the Public know nothing of what is done, till they feel the terrible Effects of it.

By the Bill of Rights, and the Act of Settlement, at the Revolution, a Right is asserted to the People of applying to the King and to the Parliament, by Petition and Address, for a Redress of public Grievances and Mismanagements, when such there are, of which They are left to judge; And the Difference between free and enslaved Countries lies principally here, that in the former, their Magistrates must consult the Voice and Interest of the People; but in the latter, the private Will, Interest, and Pleasure of the Governors, are the sole End and Motives of their Administration.

Number 60: All Government Proved to be Instituted by Men, and Only to Intend the General Good of Men

There is no Government now upon Earth, which owes its Formation or Beginning to the immediate Revelation of God, or can derive its Existence from such Revelation: It is certain, on the contrary, that the Rise and Institution or Variation of Government, from Time to Time, is within the Memory of Men or of Histories; and that every Government, which we know at this Day in the World, was established by the Wisdom and Force of mere Men, and by the Concurrence of Means and Causes evidently human. Government therefore can have no Power, but such as Men can give, and such as they actually did give, or permit for their own Sakes: Nor can any Government be in Fact framed but by Consent, if not of every Subject, yet of as many as can compel the rest; since no Man, or Council of Men, can have personal Strength enough to govern Multitudes by Force, or can claim to themselves and their Families any Superiority, or natural Sovereignty over their Fellow-Creatures naturally as good as them. Such Strength, therefore where-ever it is, is civil and accumulative Strength, derived from the Laws and Constitutions of the Society, of which the Governors themselves are but Members.

….Here then is the natural Limitation of the Magistrate's Authority: He ought not to take what no Man ought to give; nor exact what no Man ought to perform: All he has is given him, and those that gave it must judge of the Application. In Government there is no such Relation as Lord and Slave, lawless Will and blind Submission; nor ought to be amongst Men: But the only Relation is that of Father and Children, Patron and Client, Protection and Allegiance, Benefaction and Gratitude, mutual Affection and mutual Assistance.

So that the Nature of Government does not alter the natural Right of Men to Liberty, which in all political Societies is alike their Due: But some Governments provide better than others for the Security and impartial Distribution of that Right. There has been always such a constant and certain Fund of Corruption and Malignity in human Nature, that it has been rare to find that Man, whose Views and Happiness did not center in the Gratification of his Appetites, and worst Appetites, his Luxury, his Pride, his Avarice, and Lust of Power; and who considered any public Trust reposed in him, with any other View, than as the Means to satiate such unruly and dangerous Desires! And this has been most eminently true of Great Men, and those who aspired to Dominion. They were first made Great for the Sake of the Public, and afterwards at its Expense. And if they had been content to have been moderate Traitors, Mankind would have been still moderately happy; but their Ambition and Treason observing no Degrees, there was no Degree of Vileness and Misery which the poor People did not often feel.

The Appetites therefore of Men, especially of Great Men, are carefully to be observed and stayed, or else they will never stay themselves. The Experience of every Age convinces us, that we must not judge of Men by what they ought to do, but by what they will do; and all History affords but few Instances of Men trusted with great Power without abusing it, when with Security they could. The Servants of Society, that is to say, its Magistrates, did almost universally serve it by seizing it, selling it, or plundering it; especially when they were left by the Society unlimited as to their Duty and Wages. In that Case these faithful Stewards generally took all; and, being Servants, made Slaves of their Masters.

For these Reasons, and convinced by woeful and eternal Experience, Societies found it necessary to lay Restraints upon their Magistrates or public Servants, and to put Checks upon those who would otherwise put Chains upon them; and therefore these Societies set themselves to model and form national Constitutions with such Wisdom and Art, that the public Interest should be consulted and carried at the same Time, when those entrusted with the Administration of it were consulting and pursuing their own.

Hence grew the Distinction between Arbitrary and Free Governments: Not that more or less Power was vested in the one than in the other; nor that either of them lay under less or more Obligations, in Justice, to protect their Subjects, and study their Ease, Prosperity, and Security, and to watch for the same. But the Power and Sovereignty of Magistrates in free Countries was so qualified, and so divided into different Channels, and committed to the Direction of so many different Men, with different Interests and Views, that the Majority of them could seldom or never find their Account in betraying their Trust in fundamental Instances. Their Emulation, Envy, Fear, or Interest, always made them Spies and Checks upon one another. By all which Means the People have often come at the Heads of those who forfeited their Heads, by betraying the People.

In despotic Governments Things went far otherwise, those Governments having been framed otherwise; if the same could be called Governments, where the Rules of public Power were dictated by private and lawless Lust; where Folly and Madness often swayed the Scepter, and blind Rage wielded the Sword. The whole Wealth of the State, with its Civil or Military Power, being in the Prince, the People could have no Remedy but Death and Patience, while he oppressed them by the Lump, and butchered them by Thousands: Unless perhaps the Ambition or personal Resentments of some of the Instruments of his Tyranny procured a Revolt, which rarely mended their Condition.

The only Secret therefore in forming a Free Government, is to make the Interests of the Governors and of the Governed the same, as far as human Policy can contrive. Liberty cannot be preserved any other Way. Men have long found, from the Weakness and Depravity of themselves and one another, that most Men will act for Interest against Duty, as often as they dare. So that to engage them to their Duty, Interest must be linked to the Observance of it, and Danger to the Breach of it. Personal Advantages and Security, must be the rewards of Duty and Obedience; and Disgrace, Torture, and Death, the Punishment of Treachery and Corruption.

Human Wisdom has yet found out but one certain Expedient to effect this; and that is, to have the Concerns of all directed by all, as far as possibly can be: And where the Persons interested are too numerous, or live too distant to meet together on all Emergencies, they must moderate Necessity by Prudence, and act by Deputies, whose Interest is the same with their own, and whose Property is so intermingled with theirs, and so engaged upon the same Bottom, that Principals and Deputies must stand and fall together. When the Deputies thus act for their own Interest, by acting for the Interest of their Principals; when they can make no Law but what they themselves, and their Posterity, must be subject to; when they can give no Money, but what they must pay their Share of; when they can do no Mischief, but what must fall upon their own Heads in common with their Countrymen; their Principals may then expect good Laws, little Mischief, and much Frugality.

Here therefore lies the great Point of Nicety and Care in forming the Constitution, that the Persons entrusted and representing, shall either never have any Interest detached from the Persons entrusting and represented, or never the Means to pursue it. Now to compass this great Point effectually, no other Way is left, but one of these two, or rather both; namely, to make the Deputies so numerous, that there may be no Possibility of corrupting the Majority; or, by changing them so often, that there is no sufficient Time to corrupt them, and to carry the Ends of that Corruption. The People may be very sure, that the major Part of their Deputies being honest, will keep the rest so; and that they will all be honest, when they have no Temptations to be Knaves….

Number 62: An Enquiry into the Nature and Extent of Liberty; with its Loveliness and Advantages, and the Vile Effects of Slavery.

By liberty, I understand the power which every man has over his own actions, and his right to enjoy the fruit of his labor, art, and industry, as far as by it he hurts not the society, or any members of it, by taking from any member, or by hindering him from enjoying what he himself enjoys. The fruits of a man's honest industry are the just rewards of it, ascertained to him by natural and eternal equity, as is his title to use them in the manner which he thinks fit: And thus, with the above limitations, every man is sole lord and arbiter of his own private actions and property. A character of which no man living can divest him but by usurpation, or his own consent.

Where liberty is lost, life grows precarious, always miserable, often intolerable. Liberty is, to live upon one's own terms; slavery is, to live at the mere mercy of another; and a life of slavery is, to those who can bear it, a continual state of uncertainty and wretchedness, often an apprehension of violence, often the lingering dread of a violent death: But by others, when no other remedy is to be had, death is reckoned a good one. And thus, to many men, and to many other creatures, as well as men, the love of liberty is beyond the love of life.

Slavery, while it continues, being a perpetual awe upon the spirits, depresses them, and sinks natural courage; and want and fear, the concomitants of bondage, always produce despondency and baseness; nor will men in bonds ever fight bravely, but to be free. Indeed, what else should they fight for; since every victory that they gain for a tyrant, makes them poorer and fewer; and, increasing his pride, increases his cruelty, with their own misery and chains?

Indeed liberty is the divine source of all human happiness. To possess, in security, the effects of our industry, is the most powerful and reasonable incitement to be industrious: And to be able to provide for our children, and to leave them all that we have, is the best motive to beget them. But where property is precarious, labor will languish. The privileges of thinking, saying, and doing what we please, and of growing as rich as we can, without any other restriction, than that by all this we hurt not the public, nor one another, are the glorious privileges of liberty; and its effects, to live in freedom, plenty, and safety.

Number 68: Property and Commerce Secure in a Free Government Only; with the Consuming Miseries under Simple Monarchies

To live securely, happily, and independently, is the end and effect of liberty; and it is the ambition of all men to live agreeably to their own humors and discretion. Nor did ever any man that could live satisfactorily without a master, desire to live under one; and real or fancied necessity alone makes men the servants, followers, and creatures of one another. And therefore all men are animated by the passion of acquiring and defending property, because property is the best support of that independency, so passionately desired by all men. Even men the most dependent have it constantly in their heads and their wishes, to become independent one time or other; and the property which they are acquiring, or mean to acquire by that dependency, is intended to bring them out of it, and to procure them an agreeable independency. And as happiness is the effect of independency, and independency the effect of property; so certain property is the effect of liberty alone, and can only be secured by the laws of liberty; laws which are made by consent, and cannot be repealed without it.

All these blessings, therefore, are only the gifts and consequences of liberty, and only to be found in free countries, where power is fixed on one side, and property secured on the other; where the one cannot break bounds without check, penalties or forfeiture, nor the other suffer diminution without redress; where the people have no masters but the laws, and such as the laws appoint; where both laws and magistracy are formed by the people or their deputies; and no demands are made upon them, but what are made by the law, and they know to a penny what to pay before it is asked; where they that exact from them more than the law allows, are punishable by the law; and where the legislators are equally bound by their own acts, equally involved in the consequences.

There can be no good, where there are none of the causes of good; and consequently all the advantages of liberty must be lost with liberty, and all the evils of tyranny must accompany tyranny….

John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, Cato's Letters, in David L. Jacobson, ed., The English Libertarian Heritage (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965) pp. 93-101, 116-23, 127-31, 177-78.