dear to them than Life. Their Wives, their Children, their Fathers, their Mothers, are here in the City. Courage, Romans, the Gods are for us; thofe Gods, whofe Temples and Altars the impious Tarquin has profaned by Sacrifices and Libations made with polluted Hands, polluted with Blood, and with numberless unexpiated Crimes committed against his Subjects. Ye Gods, who protected our Fore-fathers, ye Genii, who watch for the Prefervation and Glory of Rome, do you infpire us with Courage and Unanimity in this glorious Caufe, and we will to our laft Breath defend your Worship from all Profanation.

LESSON III.

After the Expulfion of the Tarquins, Rome was governed by two Confuls, who held their Office during the Space only of a Year, at the Conclufion of which new ones were chofen by the Senate and People. After fome time, the People found themselves very much oppreffed by the Patricians; who engroffed the whole Power of the State, and by various Extortions, fuch as lending them Money at exorbitant Intereft, and the like, had got Poffeffion of all their Lands, and often feized their Perfons, imprisoned, or used them as Slaves, (the Laws permitting it in cafe of the Non-payment of their Debts) in a barbarous manner. Unable to bear this cruel Treatment, a Number of them, at the Inftigation of Sicinnius Bellutus, and another Junius Brutus, took an Opportunity, when the State had great Need of their Affiftance, to defert their Generals, and retired to a Hill three Miles from Rome. In this Exigence, a Deputation was fent to them from the Senate, perfuading them with many fair Promises, to return. At the Head of this Deputation were T. Lartius, Menenius Agrippa, and M. Valerius, all three in great Efteem; and of whom two had govern'd the Republic, and commanded her Armies in quality of Dictator. When they were introduced to the Camp of the Male-contents, and had given an Account of their Commiffion, Junius Brutus, perceiving his Comrades continued in a profound Silence, and that none of them attempted to make himself an Advocate in the Caufe, ftepped forward, and thus addreffed them.

NE would imagine, Fellow-Soldiers, by this deep Si

that fervile in

which the Patricians and your Creditors kept you fo long, Every Man confults the Eyes of the reft, to discover whether there be more Refolution in others than he finds in himself; and not one of you has the Courage to fpeak in public, that which is the conftant Subject of your private Conversation. Do you not know that you are free? This Camp, these Arms, do not they convince you that you are no longer under Tyrants? And if you could ftill doubt it, would not this Step which the Senate has taken be fufficient to fatisfy you? Thofe Patricians, fo haughty and imperious, now fend to court us; they no longer make ufe either of proud Commands, or cruel Threats; they invite us as their FellowCitizens to return into our common City; nay fome of our Sovereigns, you see, are so gracious as to come to our very Camp, to offer us a general Pardon. Whence then can proceed this obftinate Silence, after fuch fingular Condefcenfions? If you doubt the Sincerity of their Promises; if you fear that under the Veil of a few fine Words they conceal your former Chains, why do you not speak? Declare your Thoughts freely. Or, if you dare not open your Mouths, at least hear a Roman, who has Courage enough to fear nothing but the not fpeaking the Truth. [Then turning to Valerius,] You invite us to return to Rome, but you do not tell us upon what Conditions: Can Plebeians, poor, tho' free, think of being united with Patricians fo rich, and fo ambitious? And even though we should agree to the Conditions you have to offer, what Security will the Patricians give us for the Performance, thofe haughty Patricians, who make it a Merit among themselves to have deceived the People? You talk to us of nothing but Pardon and Forgiveness, as if we were your Subjects, and Subjects in Rebellion; but that is the Point to be difcuffed. Is it the People or the Senate who are in Fault? Which of the two Orders was it, that first violated thofe Laws of Society, which ought to reign among the Members of the fame Republic? This is the Queftion. In order to judge of this without Prejudice, give me leave barely to relate a certain Number of Facts, for the Truth of which I will appeal to no other but yourself and your Collegue. Our State was founded by Kings, and never was the Roman People more free, and more happy, than under their Government. Tarquin himfelf, the laft of thofe Princes, Tarquin, fo odious to the Senate and the Nobility, favoured our Interests as much

as

as he oppofed yours. Nevertheless, to revenge your Wrongs, we drove that Prince from Rome; we took Arms against a Sovereign who defended himself only with the Prayers he made to us to leave your Interests, and to return to his Obedience. We afterwards cut to pieces the Armies of Veii and Tarquinii, which endeavoured to reftore him to the Throne. The formidable Power of Porfenna, the Famine we underwent during a long Siege, the fierce Affaults, the continual Battles, were all these, or in fhort, was any thing capable of fhaking the Faith which we had given you? Thirty Latine Cities united to reftore the Tarquins. What would you have done then, if we had abandoned you, and joined your Enemies? What Rewards might we not have obtained of Tarquin, while the Senate and Nobles would have been the Victims of his Refentment? Who was it that difperfed this dangerous Combination? To whom are you obliged for the Defeat of the Latines? Is it not to this People? Is it not to them you owe that very_Power which you have fince turned against them? What Recompence have we had for the Affiftance we gave you? Is the Condition of the Roman People one Jot the better? Have you affociated them in your Offices and Dignities? Have our poor Citizens found fo much as the fmalleft Relief in their Neceffities? On the contrary, have not our braveft Soldiers, oppreffed with the Weight of Ufury, been groaning in the Chains of their mercilefs Creditors? What has come of all those vain Promises of abolishing, in time of Peace, the Debts which the Extortions of the Great had forced us to contract? Scarce was the War finished, but you alike forgot our Services, and your Oaths. With what Defign then do you come hither? Why do you try to reduce this People by the Enchantments of your Words? Are there any Oaths fo folemn as to bind your Faith? And after all, what would you get by a Union brought about by Artifice, kept up with mutual Diftruft, and which muft end at last in a Civil War? Let us on both Sides avoid fuch heavy Misfortunes, let us not lofe the Happiness of our Separation; fuffer us to depart from a Country where we are loaded with Chains like so many Slaves, and where being reduced to be only Farmers of our own Inheritances, we are forced to cultivate them for the Profit of our Tyrants. So long as we have our Swords in our Hands, we fhall be able to open ourfelves a Way into more fortunate Climates; and wherever the Gods fhall grant us to live in LIBERTY, there we fhall find our COUNTRY.

LESSON IV.

By this and frequent Struggles of this Sort, which the People bad made before, they at length obtained the Establishment of the Tribunefhip, which confifted of two Officers annually chofen out of the Order of the Plebeians, with Authority to prevent the Injustices that might be done to the People, and to defend their Interefts both public and private. Rome, by this Eftablishment, made a great Advance towards a new Change in the Form of her Government. It had paffed before from the Monarchic State, to a kind of Ariftocracy; for upon the Expulfion of Tarquin, the whole Authority did really and in fact devolve upon the Senate and the Great: But now, by the Creation of the Tribunes, a Democracy began to take place, and the People, by infenfible Degrees, and under different Pretences, got Poffeffion of the much greater Share in the Government. A Famine which raged at Rome, foon after the Establishment of this Office, occafions great Complaints among ft the People; and a large Supply of Corn being procured from Sicily by the Patricians, Coriolanus, a young Senator, who had done great Services to the State as a General, is for taking Advantage of the People's Distress, to get the Tribunefhip abolished, which be propofes in the Senate. The Tribunes and the People, enraged at this, determine to profecute Coriolanus, and, after much Altercation, defire to be heard by the Senate in relation to their Charge against him; where Decius, one of the Tribunes, makes the following Speech.

You

YOU know, Confcript Fathers, that having by our Affiftance expelled Tarquin, and abolished the Regal Power, you established in the Republic the Form of Government which is now obferved in it, and of which we do not complain. But neither can you be ignorant, that in all the Differences which any poor Plebeians had afterwards with wealthy Patricians, thofe Plebeians conftantly loft their Caufes, their Adverfaries being their Judges, and all the Tribunals being filled with Patricians only. This Abufe was what made Valerius Poplicola, that wife Conful and excellent Citizen, eftablish the Law which granted an Appeal to the People, from the Decrees of the Senate, and the Judgments of the Confuls.

Such

Such is the Law called Valeria, which has always been looked upon as the Bafis and Foundation of the public Liberty. It is to this Law that we now fly for Redrefs, if you refuse us the Juftice we demand upon a Man, black with the greatest Crime that it is poffible to commit in a Republic. It is not a fingle Plebeian complaining, it is the whole Body of the Roman People, demanding the Condemnation of a Tyrant, who would have destroyed his Fellow-Citizens by Famine, has violated our Magiftracy, and forcibly repulfed our Officers, and the Ediles of the Commonwealth. Coriolanus is the Man we accufe of having propofed the Abolition of the Tribunefhip, a Magiftracy made facred by the most folemn Oaths. What need is there of a Senatus-Confultum to profecute a Criminal like this? Does not every Man know that thofe particular Decrees of the Senate, are requifite only in unforeseen and extraordinary Affairs, and for which the Laws have as yet made no Provifion? But in the prefent Cafe, where the Law is fo direct, where it exprefsly devotes to the infernal Gods thofe that infringe it, is it not to become an Accomplice in the Crime to hesitate in the leaft? Are you not apprehenfive that these affected Delays, this Obftruction you throw in the Way of our Proceedings against this Criminal, by the pretended Neceffity of a previous Decree of the Senate, will make the People inclined to believe that Coriolanus only spoke the Sentiments of you all?

I know that feveral among you complain it was merely by Violence that we extorted your Confent for the Abolition of the Debts, and the Establishment of the Tribunefhip. I will even fuppofe that in the high degree of Power to which you had raifed yourfelves after the Expulfion of Tarquin, it was neither convenient nor honourable for you to yield up Part of it in Favonr of the People; but you have done it, and the whole Senate is bound by the most folemn Oaths never to undo it. After the Establishment of thofe facred Laws, which render the Perfons of your Tribunes inviolable, will you in compliance with the first ambitious Man that arifes, attempt to revoke what makes the Security and Peace of the State? Certainly you never will; and I dare answer for you, fo long as I behold in this Affembly thofe venerable Magiftrates who had fo great a Share in the Treaty made upon the Mons Sacer. Ought you to fuffer a Matter like this to be so much as brought into Deliberation? Coriolanus is the firft, who by his feditious Advice has endeavoured to break thofe facred Bonds, which, trengthened by the Laws, unite the feveral Orders of the State. It is he alone who is for deftroying the Tribunitian Power,

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