Henry Fielding

“ One Error, however, is common to them all: for all seem to have the Conception of something uniform and permanent, as if the Constitution of England partook rather of the Nature of the Soil than of the Climate, and was as fixed and constant as the former, not as changing and variable as the latter. ”

“ The Customs, Manners, and Habits of the People, do, as I have said, form one Part of the Political Constitution; if these are altered therefore, this must be changed likewise; and here, as in the Natural Body, the Disorder of any Part will, in its Consequence, affect the whole.
One known Division of the People in this Nation is into the Nobility, the Gentry, and the Commonalty. ”

“ Under the Second of these Divisions may be ranged all the Art of the Legislator and Politician, all the power of Laws and Government. These do constitute the Civil Power; and a State may then be said to be in good Order, when all the other Powers are subservient to this; when they own its superior Excellence and Energy, pay it a ready Obedience, and all unite in Support of its Rule. ”

“ But that Politician finds many Emoluments to compensate all the moral Evils introduced by Trade, by which the Grandeur and Power of the Nation is carried to a Pitch that it could never otherwise have reached; Arts and Sciences are improved, and human Life is imbellished with every Ornament, and furnished with every Comfort which it is capable of tasting. ”

“ But when a Mob of Chairmen or Servants, or a Gang of Thieves and Sharpers, are almost too big for the Civil Authority to suppress, what must be the Case in a seditious Tumult, or general Riot of the People? ”

“ In all these Assertions he is right: but surely he forgets himself a little, when he joins the Philosopher in lamenting the Introduction of Luxury as a casual Evil; for as Riches are the certain Consequence of Trade, so is Luxury the no less certain Consequence of Riches: nay, Trade and Luxury do indeed support each other ”

“ To prevent this Consequence therefore of a flourishing Commerce is to tally to change the Nature of Things, and to separate the Effect from the Cause. A Matter as impossible in the Political Body as in the Natural. Vices and Diseases, with like physical Necessity, arise from certain Habits in both; and to restrain and palliate the evil Consequences, is all that lies within the Reach of Art. How far it is the Business of the Politician to interfere in the Case of Luxury, we have attempted to shew in the following Treatise. ”

“ In this Disposition the Laws have so considerable a Share, that, as no Man can perfectly understand the whole, without knowing the Parts of which it is composed, it follows, that, to have a just Notion of our Constitution, without a competent Knowledge of the Laws, is impossible. ”

“ But nothing hath wrought such an Alteration in this Order of People, as the Introduction of Trade. This hath indeed given a new Face to the whole Nation, hath in a great measure subverted the former State of Affairs, and hath almost totally changed the Manners, Customers, and Habits of the People, more especially of the lower Sort. The Narrowness of their Fortune is changed into Wealth; the Simplicity of their Manners into Craft; their Frugality into Luxury ”

“ But so far are these Powers from paying such voluntary Submission, that they are all extremely apt to rebel, and to assert their own Superiority; but none is more rebellious in its Nature, or more difficult to be governed than that of the Purse or Money. ”

“ And as to the former, tho' they were accounted Freemen, yet were they obliged to swear Fealty to their Lord; and tho' Mr. Rapin be mistaken, when he says they could not alienate their Land, (for before the Statute of Magna Charta, Chap. 32. they could have given or sold the whole, but without any Alteration of the Tenure) yet was the Estate of these but very mean. 'Tho' they are called Freemen,' says Lord Coke, 'yet they ploughed, harrowed, reaped, and mowed, &c. ”