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On the Origin of the Present Old Governments
| A chapter from Rights of Man (1792) |
It is impossible that such governments as have hitherto existed in
the world, could have commenced by any other means than a total
violation of every principle sacred and moral. The obscurity in which
the origin of all the present old governments is buried, implies the
iniquity and disgrace with which they began. The origin of the
present government of America and France will ever be remembered,
because it is honourable to record it; but with respect to the rest,
even Flattery has consigned them to the tomb of time, without an
inscription.
It could have been no difficult thing in the early and solitary ages
of the world, while the chief employment of men was that of attending
flocks and herds, for a banditti of ruffians to overrun a country,
and lay it under contributions. Their power being thus established,
the chief of the band contrived to lose the name of Robber in that of
Monarch; and hence the origin of Monarchy and Kings.
The origin of the Government of England, so far as relates to what is
called its line of monarchy, being one of the latest, is perhaps the
best recorded. The hatred which the Norman invasion and tyranny
begat, must have been deeply rooted in the nation, to have outlived
the contrivance to obliterate it. Though not a courtier will talk of
the curfew-bell, not a village in England has forgotten it.
Those bands of robbers having parcelled out the world, and divided it
into dominions, began, as is naturally the case, to quarrel with each
other. What at first was obtained by violence was considered by
others as lawful to be taken, and a second plunderer succeeded the
first. They alternately invaded the dominions which each had assigned
to himself, and the brutality with which they treated each other
explains the original character of monarchy. It was ruffian torturing
ruffian. The conqueror considered the conquered, not as his prisoner,
but his property. He led him in triumph rattling in chains, and
doomed him, at pleasure, to slavery or death. As time obliterated the
history of their beginning, their successors assumed new appearances,
to cut off the entail of their disgrace, but their principles and
objects remained the same. What at first was plunder, assumed the
softer name of revenue; and the power originally usurped, they
affected to inherit.
From such beginning of governments, what could be expected but a
continued system of war and extortion? It has established itself into
a trade. The vice is not peculiar to one more than to another, but is
the common principle of all. There does not exist within such
governments sufficient stamina whereon to engraft reformation; and
the shortest and most effectual remedy is to begin anew on the ground
of the nation.
What scenes of horror, what perfection of iniquity, present
themselves in contemplating the character and reviewing the history
of such governments! If we would delineate human nature with a
baseness of heart and hypocrisy of countenance that reflection would
shudder at and humanity disown, it is kings, courts and cabinets that
must sit for the portrait. Man, naturally as he is, with all his
faults about him, is not up to the character.
Can we possibly suppose that if governments had originated in a right
principle, and had not an interest in pursuing a wrong one, the world
could have been in the wretched and quarrelsome condition we have
seen it? What inducement has the farmer, while following the plough,
to lay aside his peaceful pursuit, and go to war with the farmer of
another country? or what inducement has the manufacturer? What is
dominion to them, or to any class of men in a nation? Does it add an
acre to any man's estate, or raise its value? Are not conquest and
defeat each of the same price, and taxes the never-failing
consequence?- Though this reasoning may be good to a nation, it is
not so to a government. War is the Pharo-table of governments, and
nations the dupes of the game.
If there is anything to wonder at in this miserable scene of
governments more than might be expected, it is the progress which the
peaceful arts of agriculture, manufacture and commerce have made
beneath such a long accumulating load of discouragement and
oppression. It serves to show that instinct in animals does not act
with stronger impulse than the principles of society and civilisation
operate in man. Under all discouragements, he pursues his object, and
yields to nothing but impossibilities.
On the Origin of the Present Old Governments is Part 2, Chapter 2 of Tom Paine's Rights of Man, published in 1792(?). The full text is at Rights of Man, and at Project Gutenberg: Rights of Man.
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