ed only by centuries, this firft clafs alone had more votes than all the others; when the centuries of this class, therefore, were found to be unanimous, they proceeded no farther in counting votes; whatever might be determined by the minority, being confidered as the opinion of the mob. So that it might be juftly faid, that in the Comitia Curiata matters were carried rather by the greater quantity of money than the majority of

votes.

But this extreme authority was moderated by two caufes. In the first place, the tribunes, generally fpeaking, and always a confiderable number of wealthy citizens, being in this clafs of the rich, they counterpoifed the credit of the patricians in the fame clafs. The fecond caufe lay in the manner of voting, which was this: the centuries, inftead of voting according to order, beginning with the firft in rank, caft lots which should proceed first to the election. And to this, the century whofe lot it was proceeded alone; the other centuries being called upon another day to give their votes according to their rank, when they repeated the fame election, and ufually confirmed the choice of the former. By this method the preference of rank was laid afide, in order to give it according to lot, agreeable to the principles of democracy.

There was another advantage refulting from this cuftom; for the citizens refiding in the coun

try had time, between the two elections, to inform themselves of the merit of the candidate thus provifionally nominated; by which means they might be better enabled to give their vote: but under the pretence of expediting affairs, this cuftom was in time abolished, and the two elections were made the fame day.

The Comitia by Tribes were, properly fpeaking, the great council of the Roman people. These were convoked only by the tribunes; by these also the tribunes were chofen, and by these the Plebiscita, or laws of the people, were paffed. The fenators were not only deftitute of rank in these affemblies, they had not even the right to be prefent at them, but obliged to pay obedience to laws, in the enacting of which they had no vote: they were in that refpect lefs free than the lowest citizens. This injuftice, however, was very ill understood, and was in itself alone fufficient to invalidate the decrees of a body, whofe members were not all admitted to vote. Had all the patricians affifted at thefe Comitia, as they had a right in quality of citizens, they could have had no undue influence, where every man's vote was equal, even from the lowest of the people to the highest perfonage of the ftate.

It is evident, therefore, that exclufive of the good order that refults from thefe feveral divifions, in collecting the votes of fo numerous a people, the form and me.

gative.

g

thod of these divifions were not indifferent in themselves; each being productive of effects adapted to certain views, in regard to which it was preferable to any other.

But without entering into a more circumftantial account of thefe matters, it is plain from what hath been advanced, that the Comitia Tribunata were the moft favourable to a popular government, and the Comitia Centuriata to an ariftocracy. With refpect to the Comitia Curiata, of which the populace formed the majority, as they were good for nothing but to favour tyrannical defigns, they remained in the contemptible ftate into which they were fallen; even the contrivers of fedition themselves not choosing to employ means, which must have expofed too openly their defigns. It is very certain that the whole majefty of the Roman people was difplayed only in the Comitia Centuriata, which only were complete; the Curiata wanting the ruftic tribes, and the Tribunata the fenate and patricians.

With regard to the method of collecting the votes, it was among the primitive Romans, fimple as their manners, though ftill lefs fimple than that of Sparta: every one gave his vote aloud, which the regifter took down in writing; the plurality of votes on each tribe determined the vote of that tribe; and the plurality of votes in the tribes determined the fuffrage of the people. In the fame manner alfo they proceeded with regard to the Curie and the Centuries. This custom was a very good one, fo

long as integrity prevailed among the citizens; and every one was afhamed to give his public fanétion to an unworthy perfon or cause. But when the people grew corrupt and fold their votes, it became neceffary to make them give their votes more privately, in order to reftrain the purchasers by diftruft, and afford knaves an expedient to avoid being traitors.

I know that Cicero cenfures this alteration, and imputes to it in a great degree the ruin of the republic. But though I am sensible of all the weight of Cicero's authority in this cafe, I cannot be of his opinion: I conceive, on the contrary, that the ruin of the ftate would have been accelerated, had the Romans neglected making this alteration. As the regimen of people in health is not proper for the fick, fo it is abfurd to think of governing a corrupt people by the fame laws, which might have been expedient for them before they were corrupted. There cannot be a ftronger proof of this maxim than the duration of the republic of Venice, the fhadow of which ftill exifts folely because its laws are adapted only to bad

officers from being often fufpected of partiality; and it appeared plain in the fequel, from the multiplicity of laws made to prevent bribery and corruption in elections, that they could not effect this point.

Toward the decline of the republic, recourfe was had to very extraordinary expedients to make up for the infufficiency of the laws. Prodigies were fometimes played off with fuccefs: but this fcheme, though it impofed on the multitude; did not impofe on those who influenced them. Sometimes affemblies were called fuddenly and in great hafte, that the candidates might not have time to create an undue intereft at others again, the whole feffions was spent in declamation, when it was feen that the people were biaffed to take a wrong fide. At length, however, ambition eluded all these precautions; and it is almoft incredible that, in the midft of fo many abufes, this immenfe people ftill continued, by virtue of their ancient laws, to elect their magiftates, to pafs laws, to judge caufes, and to expedite both public and private affairs with as much facility as could have been done in the fenate itself.

and

and pillaged the city of Treves. It was about the year 420, when, being lifted up on a fhield, he was fhewn to the whole army, acknowledged the nation's chief. This was all the inauguration of our ancient kings.

To Pharamond is generally attributed the inftitution of the famous law called the Salic, either from the furname of the prince who published it, or Salogaft's name who moved it, or from the word Salichame, the place where the heads of the nation met to digeft it. Others will have it to be fo named, as having been made for the Salic lands. These were noble fiefs which our firft kings used to beftow on the Salians, that is, the great lords of their Sale or court, without any other tenure than military service; and for this reafon, fuch fiefs were not to defcend to women, as by nature unfit for fuch a tenure. Some, again, derive the origin of this word from the Salians, a tribe of Franks that fettled in Gaul in the reign of Julian, who is faid to have given them lands on condition of their perfonal fervice in war. He even paffed the conditions into a law, which the new conquerors quiefced in, and called it Salic, from the name of their former countrymen.

ac

This law is commonly thought to concern only the fucceffion to the crown, or the Salian lands; but this is a two-fold mistake. It was not inftituted for the difpofal of the crown, nor purely for fettling the rights of private perfons to feudal lands; it is a collection

of

of ordinances for all articles, it prescribes punishments for theft, for fetting places on fire, for forcery, and acts of violence; it lays down political rules for behaviour, for public government, methods of procedure, and the prefervation of peace and unity among the feveral members of the ftate. Of the feventy-one articles which it contains, only one relates to inheritances, and the words are, In the Salic lands no part of the inheritance is to go to females; it belongs wholly and solely to the males.

It appears that all we have of this law is an extract from a larger code; and this proved by citations from the Salic law itself, and certain forms which are not found in our remains of that celebrated ordinance. The fagacious gloffographer Ducange, fpeaks of two forts of Salic laws; one fubfifting in the times of paganism, and composed by Wifogaft, Bofogaft, Salogaft, and Woldogaft, the four chiefs of the nation; the other, a correction of the former, by Christian princes, in that published by Du Tillet, Pithou, Lindembrock, and the great lawyer Bignon, who has added very learned and judicious notes. Du Hallion, but on grounds known only to himself, boldly avers it to be merely a contrivance of Philip the Tall to exclude from the throne Joan of France, daughter of Lewis X. He muft furely have forgotten how minutely that queftion was difcuffed in an affembly of the grandees of the realm, when they unanimously adjudged the crown to Philip, to the exclufion of that princefs; fo perfuaded were they of the existence of a Salic law, and that the kingdom of France was Salic land. Soon after arose a like

conteft, and the decifion was the fame. The right of Edward III. king of England, did not appear better founded than that of prin cefs Joan, a daughter of France. Philip, earl of Valois, was generally acknowledged the legal fucceffor of Charles the Handfome The article determining the right of private perfons to Salic land was declared equally to concern the fucceffion to the crown, and became a fundamental law of the ftate.

of modern Nobility, especially among the French; from M. Voltaire's Supplement to his General History.

HE word noble was not at firft

THE

title, including any particular rights hereditary: nobilitas, among the Romans, denoted any thing remarkable or notable, and not a clafs of the citizens. The fenate was inftituted for the adminiftration of juftice; the knights to fight on horfeback, when their wealth intitled them to a horse; and the plebeians were often knights, and fometimes fenators.

Among the Gauls the principal officers of the towns, and the druids, ruled, and the people obeyed. All countries have had their nominal diftinctions of conditions. They that fay all men are equal, fay very true, if their meaning be, that all men have an equal right to liberty, to property, and to the protection of the laws; but it would be a great miftake did they imagine that men are to be equal in employments, fince they are manifeftly not fo in their abilities. In this neceffary inequality between con

M 4

ditions,