In this division therefore the patricians were masters of the fuffrages.

In the divifion into curiæ,* the patricians had not the fame advantages; fome however they had, for it was neceffary that the augurs fhould be confulted, who were under the direction of the patricians; and no proposal could be made there to the people, unless it had been previously laid before the fenate, and approved of by a fenatufconful tum. But in the divifion into tribes they had nothing to do either with the augurs or with the decrees of the fenate; and the patricians were excluded.

Now the people endeavored conftantly to have those meetings by curias which had been customary by centuries and by tribes, thofe they used to have before by curias; by which means, the direction of public affairs foon devolved from the patricians to the plebeians.

Thus when the plebeians obtained the power of judging the patricians, a power which commenced in the affair of Coriolanus,+ the plebeians infifted upon judging them by affemblies in tribes, and not in centuries; And when the new magiftracies of tribunes and ædiles were established in favor of the people, the latter obtained that they fhould meet by curias in order to nominate them ; and after their power was quite fettled, they gained fo far their point as to affemble by tribes to proceed to this nom, ination.

CHAP. XV

In what Manner Rome, while in the flourishing State of the Republic fuddently loft iis Liberty.

IN the heat of the contests between the patricians and the plebeians, the latter infifted upon having fixed laws, to the end that the public judgments should no longer

Dionyf. Halicarn. book ix. p. 598.

+ Ibid. book vii.

be

Contrary to the ancient custom, as may be seen in Dionyf. Halicarn.

book v. p. 320.

Dionyf, Halicarn. book vi. p. 410, and 411.

Ser Dionyf. Halicarn, book ix. p. 605.

be the effect of a capricious will, or of an arbitrary power. The fenate, after a great deal of refiftence, acquiefced; and decemvirs were nominated to compose those laws. It was thought proper to grant them an extraordinary power, because they were to give laws to parties whofe views and interests it was almost impoffible to unite. The nomination of all magiftrates was fufpended, and they were chofen in the comitia fole adminiftrators of the republic. Thus they found themselves invested with the confular and tribunician power. By one they had the privilege of affembling the fenate, by the other that of affembling the people. But they affembled neither fenate nor people. Ten men only in the republic had the whole legislative, the whole executive and the whole judiciary power. Rome faw herself enslaved by as cruel a tyranny as that of Tarquin. When Tarquin exercifed his oppreffions, Rome was feized with indignation at the power he had ufurped; when the decemvirs exercised theirs, he was astonished at the power she had given.

But what a ftrange fyftem of tyranny! a tyranny carri ed on by men who had obtained the political and military power merely because of their knowledge in civil affairs and who, in the circumftances of that very time, stood in' need of the cowardice of the citizens to let themselves be infulted at home, and of their courage to protect them abroad?

The fpectacle of Virginia's death, whom her father immolated to chastity and liberty, put an end to the power of the decemvirs. Every man became free, because every man had been injured; each fhewed himself a citizen, because each had the tie of a parent. The fenate and people refumed a liberty which had been committed to ridiculous tyrants.

No people were fo eafily moved with fpectacles as the Romans. The bloody body of Lucretia put an end to the regal government. The debtor who appeared in the public marketplace covered with wounds, caufed an alteration in the form of the republic. The decemvirs owed their expulfion to the fight of Virginia. To condemn Manlius, it was neceffary to keep the people from seeing the capitol. Cæfar's bloody garment flung Rome again into flavery.

СНАР,

CHAP. XVI.

Of the Legislative Bowers in the Roman Republic.

THERE were no rights to contest, under the decemvirs; but upon the restoration of liberty, jealousies revived; and as long as the patricians had any privileges left, they were fure to be ftripped of them by the plebeians,

The mischief would not have been fo great, had the plebeians been satisfied with depriving the patricians of their prerogatives; but they alfo injured them as citizens. When the people affembled by curias or centuries, they were compofed of fenators, patricians and plebeians. In their difputes the plebeians gained this point, that they alone, without patricians or fenate, fhould enact laws called plebifcita: And the comitia in which they were made, had the name given them of comitia by tribes, Thus there

were cafes, in which the patricianst had no fhare in the legislative power, and‡ in which they were fubject to the legiflation of another body of the ftate. This was the highest extravagance of liberty. The people, to establish a democracy, acted against the very principles of this government. One would have imagined, that fo exorbitant a power must have deftroyed the authority of the fenate. But Rome had admirable institutions. Two of these were especially remarkable; one by which the legislative power of the people was regulated, and the other by which it was limited.

The cenfors, and before them the confuls,§ formed and created

* Dionyf. Halicarn. book 11. p. 725. + By the facred laws the plebeians had a power of making the plebiscita by themfelves, without admitting the patricians into their affembly. Dionyf. Halicarn, book 6. p. 410. & book 7. p. 430.

By the law made after the expulsion of the decemvirs, the patricians were made fubject to the plebiscita, though they had not a right of voting there. Livy, book 3. and Dionyf. Halicarn. book 11. p. 725. This law was confirmed by that of Publius Philo, the dictator, in the year of Rome 416. Livy, book 8. In the year 312 of Rome, the confuls performed ftill the business of furveying the people and their eftates, as appears by Dionyf, Halicarn,

book 11.

Denn

created as it were, every five years, the body of the people; they exercised the legiflation on the very body that was poffeffed of the legislative power. "Tiberius Gracchus," fays Cicero, "caufed the freed men to be admitted into the tribes of the city, not by the force of his eloquence, but by a word, by a gefture; which had he not effected, the republic, whofe drooping head we are at present scarce able to uphold, would not even exift."

On the other hand, the fenate had the power of refcuing, as it were, the republic out of the hands of the people, by creating a dictator, before whom the fovereign bowed his head, and the most popular laws were silent.‡

CHAP. XVII.

Of the executive Power in the fame Republic.

JEALOUS as the people were of their legislative power, yet they had no great jealoufy of the executive. This they left almoft entirely to the fenate and to the confuls, referving fcarce any thing more to themselves, than the right of choosing the magiftrates, and of confirming the acts of the fenate and of the generals.

Rome, whofe paffion was to command, whofe ambition was to conquer, whofe commencement and progress were one continued ufurpation, had conftantly affairs of the greatest weight upon her hands; her enemies were always confpiring against her, or fhe against her enemies.

Thus

As he was obliged to behave on the one hand with heroic courage, and on the other with confummate prudence; the fituation of things required of course that the management of affairs fhould be committed to the fenate. the people difputed every branch of the legislative power with the fenate, because they were jealous of their liberty; but they had no difputes about the executive, because they were jealous of their glory.

So great was the fhare the fenate took in the executive

power,

*Such as thofe, by which it was allowed to appeal from the decifions of all the magistrates to the people,

power, that, as Polybius* informs us, foreign nations imagined that Rome was an ariftocracy. The fenate difpofed of the public money, and farmed out the revenue; they were arbiters of the affairs of their allies; they determined war or peace, and directed in this refpect the confuls; they fixed the number of the Roman and of the allied troops, difpofed of the provinces and armies to the confuls or prætors, and, upon the expiration of the year of command, had the power of appointing fucceffors; they deereed triumphs, received and fent embaffies; they nominated, rewarded, punifhed, and were judges of kings; gave them, or declared they had forfeited, the title of allies of the Roman people.

The confuls levied the troops which they were to carry into the field; they had the command of the forces by fea and land; difpofed of the allies; were invefted with the whole power of the republic in the provinces; gave peace to the vanquished nations, impofed condtions on them, or referred them to the fenate.

In the earliest times, when the people had some share in the affairs relating to war and peace, they exercised rather their legiflative than their executive power. They scarce. did any thing elfe but confirm the acts of the kings, and after their expulfion, of the confuls or fenate. So far were they from being the arbiters of war, that we have inftances of its having been often declared notwithstanding the oppofition of their tribunes. But growing wanton in their profperity, they increafed their executive power. Thus they created the military tribunes, the nomination of whom till then had belonged to the generals; and fome time before the first punic war they decreed that themselves only should have the right of declaring war.

* Book 6.

СНАР.

In the year of Rome 444. Livy decad. 1. book 9. As the war again Perfeus appeared fomewhat dangerous, it was ordained by a fenatufconfultum, that this law fhould be fufpended, and the people agreed to it. Livy dec. 5. book 2.

They extorted it from the fenate, fays Freinshemius, dec, book 6.