le if we
assume the case of each of them freed from all control, it will be seen
that the people commits fewer errors than the prince, and less serious
errors, and such as admit of readier cure. For a turbulent and unruly
people may be spoken to by a good man, and readily brought back to good
ways; but none can speak to a wicked prince, nor any remedy be found
against him but by the sword. And from this we may infer which of the
two suffers from the worse disease; for if the disease of the people may
be healed by words, while that of the prince must be dealt with by the
sword, there is none but will judge that evil to be the greater which
demands the more violent remedy.

When a people is absolutely uncontrolled, it is not so much the follies
which it commits or the evil which it actually does that excites alarm,
as the mischief which may thence result, since in such disorders it
becomes possible for a tyrant to spring up. But with a wicked prince the
contrary is the case; for we dread present ill, and place our hopes in
the future, persuading ourselves that the evil life of the prince may
bring about our freedom. So that there is this distinction between the
two, that with the one we fear what is, with the other what is likely to
be. Again, the cruelties of a people are turned against him who it fears
will encroach upon the common rights, but the cruelties of the prince
against those who he fears may assert those rights.

The prejudice which is entertained against the people arises from this,
that any man may speak ill of them openly and fearlessly, even when the
government is in their hands; whereas princes are always spoken of with
a thousand reserves and a constant eye to consequences.

But since the subject suggests it, it seems to me not out of place to
consider what alliances we can most trust, whether those made with
commonwealths or those made with princes.

CHAPTER LIX.--_To what Leagues or Alliances we may most trust; whether
those we make with Commonwealths or those we make with Princes_.

Since leagues and alliances are every day entered into by one prince
with another, or by one commonwealth with another, and as conventions
and treaties are concluded in like manner between princes and
commonwealths, it seems to me proper to inquire whether the faith of a
commonwealth or that of a prince is the more stable and the safer to
count on. All things considered, I am disposed to believe that in most
cases