The other causes are
haughtiness, fear, eminence, contempt, disproportionate increase in
some part of the state. There are also other things which in a
different manner will occasion revolutions in governments; as election
intrigues, neglect, want of numbers, a too great dissimilarity of
circumstances.
CHAPTER III
What influence ill-treatment and profit have for this purpose, and how
they may be the causes of sedition, is almost self-evident; for when
the magistrates are haughty and endeavour to make greater profits than
their office gives them, they not only occasion seditions amongst each
other, but against the state also who gave them their power; and this
their avarice has two objects, either private property or the property
of the state. What influence honours have, and how they may occasion
sedition, is evident enough; for those who are themselves unhonoured
while they see others honoured, will be ready for any disturbance: and
these things are done unjustly when any one is either honoured or
discarded contrary to their deserts, justly when they are according to
them. Excessive honours are also a cause of sedition when one person
or more are greater than the state and the power of the government can
permit; for then a monarchy or a dynasty is usually established: on
which account the ostracism was introduced in some places, as at Argos
and Athens: though it is better to guard against such excesses in the
founding of a state, than when they have been permitted to take place,
to correct them afterward.
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