The truth is, the Roman government, like almost every other, was the gradual result of circumstances; the fruit of time, and of political emergency.

20. The constitution of the Roman senate has occasioned considerable research, and is not free from obscurity. It is probable that the kings had the sole right of naming the senators, that the consuls succeeded them in this right, and afterwards, when these magistrates found too much occupation from the frequent wars in which the state was engaged, that privilege devolved on the censors. The senators were at first always chosen from the body of the patricians, but afterwards the plebeians acquired an equal title to that dignity. In the early periods of the republic, the people could not be assembled but by the senate's authority; nor were the plebiscita of any weight till confirmed by their decree. Hence the early constitution of the republic was rather aristocratical than democratical. From this extensive power of the senate, the first diminution was made by the creation of the tribunes of the people; and other retrenchments successively took place, till the people acquired at length the predominant power in the state. Yet the senate, even after every usurpation on their authority, continued to have, in many points, a supremacy. They regulated all matters regarding religion; they had the custody of the public treasure; they superintended the conduct of all magistrates; they gave audience to ambassadors, decided on the fate of vanquished nations, disposed of the govern ments of the provinces, and took cognizance, by appeal, in all crimes against the state. In great emergencies they appointed a dictator, with absolute authority.

21. At the period of the abolition of the regal government, the territory of the Romans was extremely limited. [it is said to have been only forty miles in length by thirty broad]. The only use they yet made of their victories was to naturalize the inhabitants of some of the conquered states, and so increase their population. Thus their strength being always superior to their enterprises, they laid a solid foundation for the future extension of their empire.

22. In the accounts given by historians of the strength of the armies, both of the Romans in those early times, and of the neighbouring states their enemies, we have every reason to believe there is much exaggeration. The

territories from which those armies were furnished were incapable of supplying the.

23. In the continual wars in which the republic was engaged, the Romans were most commonly the aggressors. The causes of this seem to have been the ambition of the consuls to distinguish their short administration by some splendid enterprise, and the wish of the senate to give the people occupation, to prevent intestine disquiets.

24. The regal government subsisted two hundred and forty-four years, and in that time only seven kings reigned, several of whom died a violent death. These circumstances throw doubt on the authenticity of this period of the Roman history. It is allowed that, for the five first centuries after the building of Rome, there were no historians. The first is Fabius Pictor, who lived during the second Punic war. Livy says that almost all the ancient records were destroyed when Rome was taken by the Gauls.

XXV.-Rome under the Consuls.

1. The regal government being abolished, it was agreed to commit the supreme authority to two magistrates, who should be annually elected by the people from the patrician order. To these they gave the name of consules; "a modest title," says Vertot, "which gave to understand that they were rather the counsellors of the republic than its sovereigns; and that the only point they ought to have in view was its preservation and glory." But, in fact, their authority differed scarcely in any thing from that of the kings. They had the supreme administration of justice, the disposal of the public money, the power of convoking the senate, and assembling the people, raising armies, naming all the officers, and the right of making peace and war. The only difference was, that their authority was limited to a year.

2. The first consuls were Brutus, and Collatinus the husband of Lucretia. Tarquin was at this time in Etruria, where he had got two of the most powerful cities, Veii and Tarquinii, to espouse his cause. He had like

wise his partizans at Rome; and a plot was formed to open the gates to receive him. It was detected; and Brutus had the mortification to find his two sons and the nephews of Collatinus in the number of the conspirators. [Brutus sat in judgment upon his sons and] condemned

them to be beheaded in his presence; "He laid aside the character of a father, that he might perform that of a consul; and preferred his own bereavement to the neglect of public vengeance." Val. Max. [Collatinus, unable to follow the patriotic example of Brutus, endeavoured to avert the punishment of his nephews, and thereby procured his own deposition and banishment.]

3. The consul Valerius, [who had been chosen in the room of Collatinus] successful in an engagement with the exiled Tarquin, was the first Roman who enjoyed the splendid reward of a triumph.* Arrogant from his recent honours, his popularity began to decline; and in the view of recovering it, he proposed the law termed from him the Valerian, which "permitted any citizen who had been condemned to death by a magistrate, or even to banishment or scourging, to appeal to the people, and required their consent previously to the execution of the sentence." This law gave the first blow to the aristocracy in the constitution of the Roman republic [B.C. 509.]

4. For thirteen years after the expulsion of Tarquin the Romans were involved in continual wars on his account. Of these the most remarkable was that with the Etrurians, under Porsenna; a war fertile in exploits of romantic heroism.

5. Soon after this period began those domestic disorders, which continued long to embroil the republic. Great complaints had arisen among the poorer classes of the citizens, both on account of the inequality of property from the partial distribution of the conquered lands, which the higher ranks generally contrived to engross to themselves, and from the harsh policy by which it was in the power of creditors to reduce to a state of slavery their insolvent debtors. As there was no legal restraint on usury, the poor, when once reduced to the necessity of contracting debts, were left entirely at the mercy of their creditors. These grievances, felt in common by a large proportion of the citizens, excited much discontent, which, from complaints long disregarded, grew at length into a spirit of determined resistance. The wars required new levies; and the plebeians positively refused to enrol their names, unless the senate should put an end to their oppression, by decreeing at once an abolition of all the debts

* Brutus was killed in this battle, the people paid him high funeral honours, and mourned for him for a whole year, as if they had lost a common father.- ED.

due by the poor to the rich. The emergency was critical, as the enemy was at the gates of Rome. The consuls found their authority of no avail; for the Valerian law had given any citizen condemned by them a right of appeal to the people. An extraordinary measure was necessary, and a dictator was created for the first time; a magistrate who, for the period of six months, was invested with absolute and unlimited authority; [the senate appointed one of the consuls to choose the dictator, which was always afterwards the custom]. Lartius, nominated to this high office, armed the twenty-four lictors with axes, summoned the whole people to the comitia, and calling over the names, under the penalty of death to any citizen who should dare to murmur, enrolled all such as he judged most fit for the service of their country. This expedient became henceforward a frequent and certain resource in all seasons of public danger.

6. The death of Tarquin removed one check against the tyranny of the higher over the lower orders; for the atter had hitherto kept alive a salutary apprehension, that, in case of extreme oppression, they would be under the necessity of calling back their king. When this fear was at an end, the domineering spirit of the patricians, exceeding every bound both of good policy and humanity, drove the people at length to deeds of mutiny and rebellion. An alarm from the enemy gave full weight to their power, and made the chief magistrates of the state solemnly engage their honour to procure a redress of their grievances, as soon as the public danger was at an end. The promise, either from a failure of will or of power, was not fulfilled, and this violation of faith drove the people at length to extremities. Bound by their military oath not to desert their standards, they carried them along with them; and the whole army, in military array, [under Sicinius Bellutus] withdrew from Rome, and deliberately encamped on the Mons Sacer, at three miles distance from the city; and here they were soon joined by the greatest part of the people. This resolute procedure had its desired effect. The senate deputed ten persons, the most respectable of their order, with plenary powers; and these, seeing no medium of compromise, granted to the people all their demands. The debts were solemnly abolished; and for the security of their privileges in future, they were allowed the right of choosing

magistrates of their own order, who should have the power of opposing with effect every measure which they should judge prejudicial to their interests. These were the tribunes of the people, chosen annually; at first five in number, and afterwards increased to ten. Without guards or tribunal, and having no seat in the senatehouse, they had yet the power by a single veto, to suspend or annul the decrees of the senate and the sentences of the consuls. Their persons were declared sacred, but their authority was confined to the limits of a mile from the city. The tribunes demanded and obtained two magistrates to assist them, who were termed Ædiles, from the charge committed to them of the buildings of the city. [They afterwards had the care of the spectacles, games, and other matters of police within the city bounds.]

7. From this era (260 years from the foundation of Rome) we date the commencement of the popular constitution of the Roman republic; a change operated by the unwise policy of the patricians themselves, who, by yielding to just complaints, and humanely redressing flagrant abuses, might have easily anticipated every ground of dissatisfaction. The first wish of the people was not power, but relief from tyranny and oppression; and had this been readily granted them, if not by abolishing the debts, at least by repressing enormous usury, and putting an end to the inhuman right of corporal punishment and the bondage of debtors, the people would have cheerfully returned to order and submission, and the Roman constitution have long remained what we have seen it was at the commencement of the consular government, aristocratical. But the plebeians now obtaining magistrates of their own order with those high powers, we shall see it become the object of the magistrates to increase their authority by continual demands and bold encroachments. The people, regarding them as the champions of their rights, are delighted to find themselves gradually approaching to a level with the higher order; and no longer bounding their desires to ease and security, are soon as much influenced by ambition as their superiors. While this people, borne down by injustice, seek no more than the redress of real grievances, we sympathize with their feelings, and applaud their spirited exertions; but compassing at length the end they wished, attaining ease and security, nay, power which they had neither sought nor