until they acquired the consistence of a nation, and assumed a regular form of government.

Romulus was first elected king and supreme magistrate by the inhabitants. The regal power subsisted for two hundred and forty-three years, under seven kings. The last of these was Tarquin, who, with his family, was expelled on account of his tyranny and cruelty.

The kings were elective, and limited in their power; they could neither enact laws, nor make war or peace, without the concurrence of the senate and people. Their badges were a white robe with stripes of purple, and fringed with the same color, a golden cross, an ivory sceptre, and a curule, or state chair.

The power of the people in Rome was elicited in their public assemblies. It was theirs to enact laws, elect magistrates, to decide concerning war and peace, and to try persons guilty of certain heinous offences. An assembly of the whole Roman people was called Comitia.

The senate was the grand council of the empire; they were also a body of magistrates entrusted with the power of putting the laws into execution.

The senators were originally chosen from the most distinguished citizens, and their number was then confined to one hundred; but it afterwards gradually extended to a thousand, and the knights and plebeians were indiscriminately admitted.

The senate was consulted on everything pertaining to the administration of the state, except the creation of the magistrates, the passing of laws, and the determination of war and peace. In many respects the mode of debating, voting, and passing decrees in the senate, appears to have

them. They were, usually, exposed in a state of nudity, and wore a label on the neck descriptive of their qualities, and seem to have been transferred in much the same manner as cattle.

Masters possessed absolute power over them, and were authorized to put them to death at pleasure,—a right often most inhumanly exercised. The laws in regard to them were extremely harsh and rigorous, and one of them provided, that, if a master of a family were slain in his own house, and the murderers were not discovered, all his domestic slaves were liable to be put to death. Tacitus records an instance of four hundred having thus suffered in one family.

Slaves were frequently liberated by their masters, and at that time their heads were shaved and they received a cap as a badge of their liberty, of which it has become the emblem. They then assumed the name of their master, which they preferred to their own, and were ever after called his freedmen.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Rome-Form of Government.

TRADITION describes the original constitution of Rome, as having been purely monarchical; but it was essentially a military democracy, founded on the rude basis of a barbarous horde, submitting, for their common interest, to the dominion of one chieftain; and, by encroaching on the neighboring states, enlarging their territory and their power,

until they acquired the consistence of a nation, and assumed a regular form of government.

Romulus was first elected king and supreme magistrate by the inhabitants. The regal power subsisted for two hundred and forty-three years, under seven kings. The last of these was Tarquin, who, with his family, was expelled on account of his tyranny and cruelty.

The kings were elective, and limited in their power; they could neither enact laws, nor make war or peace, without the concurrence of the senate and people. Their badges were a white robe with stripes of purple, and fringed with the same color, a golden cross, an ivory sceptre, and a curule, or state chair.

The power of the people in Rome was elicited in their public assemblies. It was theirs to enact laws, elect magistrates, to decide concerning war and peace, and to try persons guilty of certain heinous offences. An assembly of the whole Roman people was called Comitia.

The senate was the grand council of the empire; they were also a body of magistrates entrusted with the power of putting the laws into execution.

The senators were originally chosen from the most distinguished citizens, and their number was then confined to one hundred; but it afterwards gradually extended to a thousand, and the knights and plebeians were indiscriminately admitted.

The senate was consulted on everything pertaining to the administration of the state, except the creation of the magistrates, the passing of laws, and the determination of war and peace. In many respects the mode of debating, voting, and passing decrees in the senate, appears to have

borne a strong similitude to the proceedings in the British House of Commons. Each individual gave his opinion in a speech of any length which he chose, and the indulgence in this privilege fre quently caused a decision to be deferred from day to day. Sometimes long speeches were interrupt ed, as in modern times, by the bustle and clamor -by the "coughing down"-of other senators.

When all had offered their opinions, either by tacit assent or by speech, the presiding officer reported the arguments, and divided the house to tell the number on each side of the question, and ascertain the majority. A decree was then made out, called "senatus consultum," and referred to the tribunes of the people for their concurrence or rejection.

A magistrate in the Roman republic, was one possessed of public authority, either civil, religious, or military; so that the same person might act as a priest and a judge, regulate the police of the city, direct in the affairs of the empire, and command an army.

Previous to the election they were called candidati, (clothed in white,) from the white robe which they wore while soliciting the votes of the people. Hence the origin of the word "candidate."

The magistrates called ordinary, were the consuls, prætors, censors, tribunes, ædiles, and quæstors, who were created at stated times, and were constantly in the republic.

The extraordinary magistrates were the dictator and master of horse, the decemviri, military tribunes, and interrex, who were not constantly and statedly elected, but arose out of public disorder or emergency.

All magistrates were obliged, within five days

after entering on their office, to swear that they would observe the laws of the empire; and after the expiration of their office they might be brought to trial if they had done anything amiss. No one was allowed to enter upon an office unless the omens were favorable.

The laws of Rome were ordained by the people upon the application of a magistrate. The great foundation of Roman law or jurisprudence, was that collection of laws called the "laws of the twelve tables," compiled by the decemviri and ratified by the people,-a work, in the opinion of Cicero, superior to all the libraries of philosophers.

Yet the unsettled state of the Roman government, the extension of the empire, the increase of riches, and, consequently, the number of crimes, with various other circumstances, gave occasion to a great variety of new laws; and those ordinances originally were distinguished by the name of the persons who proposed them, and the subjects to which they refer.

The Roman punishments authorized by law, were fine, imprisonment, and fetters; stripes, generally inflicted with rods, or the infliction of the same injury that had been done to the accuser; public shame or penance, selling into slavery, and death.

There were several ways of inflicting the last upon criminals: they were either beheaded, strangled in prison, or thrown from the Tarpeian rock. Slaves and the lowest order of criminals were usually crucified. Those guilty of parricide were first scourged, then sewed into a leathern sack, together with an ape, a cock, a serpent, and a dog, and thrown into the sea or a deep river.

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