was obedience to law carried that we seldom read of infuriated mobs trampling on law, and hastening in pursuit of vengeance. And when such scenes were exhibited, the laws were so interpreted and executed, that even Romans could no longer endure them. In a state like Rome, it was essential that law should exert a perfect and absolute control over the soldiery; and here we see the perfection of obedience. The law committed to the commander despotic power, with the single check of being held answerable to his country for its correct exercise. The most fearful penalties were suspended over the soldier, and at any moment he might be hurried away to execution. Cowardice was the most disgraceful crime. To sleep, when a post had been committed to him, no matter how arduous the march or battle of the previous day, caused the soldier to be executed. Disobedience to any issued command resulted in the same condign punishment; and it is worthy of notice, that seldom does a murmur escape the criminal's fellows. So completely had the doctrine of obedience been inculcated, that the most flagrant outrages were held sacred, if they only issued from the legal tribunal. When the soldier had taken the military oath to his general, bribes and threatenings were powerless. The obligation to obey was sacred as his honor, cherished as life, and controlling as his hope of an honorable death. Perhaps no one thing illustrated the stern adherence of the Roman soldiers to law so strikingly, as the cheerfulness with which they completed the most fatiguing marches by securing their encampment with the deep ditch and high rampart. This was a labor of hours, but was never omitted. The Roman would as quickly violate the law of nature demanding food, as the martial law commanding this laborious precaution against enemies. It was this fact which elicited the admiration of their enemy, Pyrrhus. "Megacles, the array of these barbarians is by no means barbarous: we shall see whether other circumstances will correspond with this appearance.' Threats, flattery, importunity, were lighter than vanity when urged on Fabricius, the noble personation of Roman regard for law in that age; and the magnanimous courage of an army like him, at a cost of 15,000 slain, extorted from the astonished Pyrrhus the exclamation, "If we gain such another victory, we are inevitably ruined." And whose mind has not been filled with admiration at the regard for the laws of nature shown by Fabricius, whilst warning Pyrrhus against his traitorous physician-by Camillus, scourging back to his own city the execrable wretch offering to betray his patrons' children, although those patrons were the enemies of Rome! And does the Roman General prohibit duels with the enemy on pain of death, and his own high-spirited son, exasperated by the insults offered his country, in defiance of law rush to the conflict, and return with the spoils of the slain insulter? Law must take its victim. The young hero is ordered to instant execution, that his fate may impress on all the stern nature of law, and the fearful penalty of transgressing, even nobly. Are the sons of Brutus convicted of treason? Brutus ceases to be a father, and assumes the sternness of a judge. The tears of his sons, the sympathy of his friends, the yearnings of natural affection, are completely swallowed up in his reverence for law. Law must be maintained, though it blight the dearest longings of the soul, and convert earth into the grave of all that is lovely and cherished. And even in the mad riotings of the mob may be traced the same reverence for law. The populace were roused to vengeance when Virginius, brandishing the blade dripping with the blood of his beautiful daughter, frantically shouted, "Tyrant, by this blood I devote thy head to the infernal gods!" The nation, maddened to frenzy, grasped the tardy sword of justice and smote down an infamous royalty, when Brutus, flinging aside his assumed idiocy, raised toward heaven the dagger reeking eloquently with the blood of violated innocence, and in terrible tones imprecated the curse of the gods on the fiendish violator. In these cases, the laws of nature and of Rome had been torn from their sacred pedestal, and outraged Romans only executed a just vengeance on the sacrilegious wretches who dared to lay unholy hands upon the enshrined object of a Roman's adoration! Nor may we entirely pass by one feature of this system in its nature highly conservative-the Roman Senate. The wisest men in the nation were embraced in this legislative body. No means were spared to render it the most august tribunal on earth, and, except the Areopagus, it actually stood unrivalled among the ancients. The nobleness of this body was greatly promoted by the singular power conferred upon the Censors. These were constituted the guardians of the public morals, and no class of men were exempt from the tremendous power of their sentences. A very peculiar fact concerning this office is, that during the four hundred years of its existence it was occupied by men, with few exceptions, distinguished for their probity, intelligence, love of law, and morality. To such men, elected not because they might be Plebeians or Patricians, but because they were the best men in the nation, was committed the guardianship of the Senate. At the end of every fifth year this high officer was privileged to expel any Senator judged by him to be unworthy of membership. the hands of men of whom great Cato stands the noblest representative, we may well infer that the Roman Senate, in its days of glory, was one of the noblest assemblages ever seen. The Roman aspiring to become a Senator must pass his probation in civil and military life, and possess a character so unblemished that the Catos of Rome could not prohibit the honor. Gravity, wisdom, moderation, piety to the gods, characterized their movements, and the majority of them wore the most splendid of ornaments, the crown of honorable gray hairs. In No Such was the assembly which wielded an immense influence on the destinies of Rome. Cicero called it "Ordo amplissimus et sanctissimus; summum Populi Romani, populorumque et gentium omnium ac Regum consilium." wonder that Cinneas, the ambassador of Pyrrhus, after beholding this magnificent and venerable body, exclaimed to bis master," that the Roman Senate seemed to him an assembly of kings." No wonder that Brennus and his savage Gauls, entering the Senate-chamber, mistook the venerable Senators for the gods of the city, and regarded them with reverence, until the kinglike rebuke of an insulted Senator kindled the passions of the barbarians, and gave up the city to the unmitigated horrors of sword and fire. But in this luxuriant field there is danger of satiety, and enthusiasm must be checked. And yet, who can traverse this field without drinking in the inspiration of the past, and standing by the side of the noble, the unforgotten, the living dead? Cincinnatus and Fabius, Fabricius and Cato, of loftier nobility than kings can confer, awake our admiration, and compel our praise. Regulus still lives, the hero of patriotism. Brutus and Manlius vindicating the law, whilst its wheels crush their own sons, can never die. Terrible-visaged Marius, and noble Scipio, with an hundred others, start up before us, like the living realities of the present, and extort from us exclamations of delighted wonder! They were the great sons of a stern mother. From her they derived a countenance cold as the frown of justice, a step and carriage. haughty as the tread of power, a courage unquailing as the onward rush of a thunder-cloud, a love of law which spurned the movings of pity, and which rent asunder the cords of natural affection. Rome reached her zenith about the time Carthage and Corinth were overthrown, and the great principle running throughout her entire history, is, the binding power of law. This was the moving energy of the nation from Romulus to Cicero, and in this respect Rome stands unrivalled. In this consisted her true sublimity, her proudest glory, her mightiest energy. In this consisted the real experiment she was destined to make in the science of human government. As the inspired statuary wrought into perfection this gigantic figure, erecting it proudly among the nations, the representative of legal power, a figure whose mighty proportions excited within the mind, not so much emotions of beauty as of power, for ages he fancied this to be the realized ideal, perfection in government. The perfect, yet lifeless beauty of its predecessor arrested the beholder's attention, but in this, though not destitute of symmetry, the gigantic frame, the hardened mus cle and brawn which fleshed that frame, its proud step, its unquailing courage, its tremendous strength, these riveted attention and compelled homage. Whilst the earth trembled before it, it seemed a being of real life, and its energy the inspiration of heaven. But it was not a being of real life. Its power was that of a mighty automaton, driven on by an energetic, yet perishable principle, which so nearly resembled the principle of immortality that the nations were deceived. For ages it stood the sublime image of perfection; the world admired and were duped. But when But when ages had passed away, its earth-born nature was disclosed. It began to stoop with decrepitude, its matchless energy waned, its stern frown gave way to an imbecile stare, and when the barbarian smote it, it fell. The power of law was not sufficient to save it from destruction, and many centuries since, the history of this long and momentous experiment was completed. It was a failure. "Rome Rome imperial, bows her to the storm, "Come and see The cypress, hear the owl, and plod your way A world is at our feet, as fragile as our clay. Of their heroic dwellers." We have thus traced the history of two grand experiments in government. The first system was beautiful, but lifeless. Such symmetrical beauty in government is one grand requisite, and for this reason this gorgeous beauty did not sweep over the stage of life, a vain display. It accomplished its destined part, it evolved and demonstrated its important principle |