But, as the
magistrates are to execute their offices without any advantages, the
law ought to provide proper honours for those who execute them well.
In democracies also it is necessary that the rich should be protected,
by not permitting their lands to be divided, nor even the produce of
them, which in some states is done unperceivably. It would be also
better if the people would prevent them when they offer to exhibit a
number of unnecessary and yet expensive public entertainments of
plays, music, processions, and the like. In an oligarchy it is
necessary to take great care of the poor, and allot them public
employments which are gainful; and, if any of the rich insult them, to
let their punishment be severer than if they insulted one of their own
rank; and to let estates pass by affinity, and not gift: nor to permit
any person to have more than one; for by this means property will be
more equally divided, and the greater part of the poor get into better
circumstances. It is also serviceable in a democracy and an oligarchy
to allot those who take no part in public affairs an equality or a
preference in other things; the rich in a democracy, to the poor in an
oligarchy: but still all the principal offices in the state to be
filled only by those who are best qualified to discharge them.
CHAPTER IX
There are three qualifications necessary for those who fill the first
departments in government; first of all, an affection for the
established constitution; second place, abilities every way completely
equal to the business of their office; in the third, virtue and
justice correspondent to the nature of that particular state they are
placed in; for if justice is not the same in all states, it is evident
that there must be different species thereof.
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