in general, is the polity of a state, or an orderly power constituted for the public good.

Civil government was instituted for the preservation and advancement of men's civil interests, and for the better security of their lives, liberties, and properties. The use and necessity of government is such, that there never was an age or country without some form of civil authority: but as men are seldom unanimous in the means of attaining their ends, so their difference in opinion in relation to government, has produced a variety of forms of it. To enumerate them, would be to recapitulate the history of the whole earth. But they may, in general, be reduced to one of these heads: either the civil authority is delegated to one or more, or else it is still referred to the whole body of the people; whence arises the known distinction of government into monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy.

Mr Hooker thinks, that the first government was arbitrary, and administered by a single person; till it was found by experience, that to live by one man's will, was the cause of all men's misery: and this, he concludes, was the original of inventing laws. The Roman and most of the Grecian states were built up on the republican plan; but when the Goths, and other northern nations, destroyed the Roman empire, and extended their conquests into far distant countries, they established, wherever they came, a mixed form of government. The preservation of this constitution depending upon the balance between the king, nobility, and people, the legislative power was lodged in these three states, called by different names in different countries; in the north, diets; in Spain, cortes; in France, estates; and in Britain, parliaments. The excellency of this mixed government, consists in that due poise or balance between rule and subjection, so justly observed in it, that by the necessary concurrence of the nobility and commons, in making and repealing all laws, it has the main advantage of an aristocracy, and a democracy, and yet is free from the disadvantages and evils of either of them. This mixed form of government is, however, now driven almost out of Europe, in some parts of which we can hardly find the shadow of liberty left, and in many there is no more than the name of it remaining. France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, and part of Germany, were all, an age or two ago, limited monarchies, governed by princes, well advised by parliaments or courts, and not by the absolute will of one man. But now all their valuable rights and liberties are swallowed up by the arbitrary power of their princes: whilst we in great Britain have still happily preserved this noble and ancient Gothic constitution, which all our neighbours once enjoyed. There is such a due balance of property, power, and dominion in our constitution, that, like the ancient government of Sparta, it may be called an empire of laws, and not of men; being the most excellent plan of limited monarchy in the world.

Governments are commonly divided into two classes, arbitrary and free governments; but there are many different sorts of each. Thus the governments of France and Spain are generally called arbitrary; though they differ as much from the governments of Turkey and other eastern empires, where absolute despotism prevails, as they do from the government of England, and other European nations, where liberty is said to flourish in its fullest perfection.

Government is also a post or office which gives a person the power or right to govern or rule over a place, a city, or province, either supremely or by deputation.

Government is also used for the city, country, or place to which the power of governing is extended.

Gourd, in botany. See Cucurbita.

Gout. In medicine. See Medicine.