Page 38 - UTOPIA

come in, that so he might both pay much with a little, and
in a little receive a great deal. Another proposes a pretence
of a war, that money might be raised in order to carry it
on, and that a peace be concluded as soon as that was done;
and this with such appearances of religion as might work
on the people, and make them impute it to the piety of their
prince, and to his tenderness for the lives of his subjects. A
third offers some old musty laws that have been antiquat-
ed by a long disuse (and which, as they had been forgotten
by all the subjects, so they had also been broken by them),
and proposes the levying the penalties of these laws, that,
as it would bring in a vast treasure, so there might be a very
good pretence for it, since it would look like the executing
a law and the doing of justice. A fourth proposes the pro-
hibiting of many things under severe penalties, especially
such as were against the interest of the people, and then the
dispensing with these prohibitions, upon great composi-
tions, to those who might find their advantage in breaking
them. This would serve two ends, both of them acceptable
to many; for as those whose avarice led them to transgress
would be severely fined, so the selling licences dear would
look as if a prince were tender of his people, and would not
easily, or at low rates, dispense with anything that might be
against the public good. Another proposes that the judges
must be made sure, that they may declare always in favour
of the prerogative; that they must be often sent for to court,
that the king may hear them argue those points in which
he is concerned; since, how unjust soever any of his preten-
sions may be, yet still some one or other of them, either out

38 Utopia