with him or them, then your servant is with you. Now for the same reason, if the People hold three parts in four of the Territory, it is plain there can neither be any single person nor Nobility able to dispute the Government with them; in this case therefore (except force be interposed) they govern themselves. So by this computation of the ballance of propriety or dominion in Land, you have according unto the Threefold Foundation of Propriety, the root or generation of the Threefold kind of Govern∣ment or Empire.
If one man be sole Landlord of a Territory, or over∣ballance the whole People, three parts in four, or therea∣bouts, he is grand Seignior; for so the Turk not from his Empire, but his Propriety is called, and the Empire in this case is absolute Monarchy.
If the few, or a Nobility, or a Nobility with a Clergy be Landlords unto such a proportion as over ballanceth the People in like manner; they may make whom they please King, or if they be not pleased with their King, down with him, and set up whom they like better, an Henry the fourth, or the seventh, a Guise, a Montforth, a Nevil, or a Por∣ter, should they find that best for their own ends and pur∣poses: For as not the ballance of the King, but that of the Nobility in this case is the cause of the Government, so not the Estate or riches of the Prince or Captain, but his virtue or ability, or fitnesse for the ends of the Nobility, acquires that Command or Office. This for Aristocracy, or mixed Monarchy. But if the whole People be Landlords, or hold the Land so divided among them, that no one Man, or Number of Men within the Compasse of the Few or Aristo∣cracy overballance them, it is a Common-wealth. Such is the branch in the Root, or the ballance of Propriety na∣turally producing Empire, which not confuted, no Man shall be able to batter my superstructures, and which con∣futed, I lay down my Armes. Till then, if the Cause ne∣cessarily praecede the effect, Propriety must have a being before Empire, or beginning with it, must be still first in order.
Propriety comes to have a being before Empire or Go∣vernment two wayes, either by Natural or violent revolu∣tion.