imaginary crimes and real virtues. Their
infamous accusers assumed the language of independent patriots, who
arraigned a dangerous citizen before the tribunal of his country; and
the public service was rewarded by riches and honors. [55] The servile
judges professed to assert the majesty of the commonwealth, violated
in the person of its first magistrate, [56] whose clemency they most
applauded when they trembled the most at his inexorable and impending
cruelty. [57] The tyrant beheld their baseness with just contempt, and
encountered their secret sentiments of detestation with sincere and
avowed hatred for the whole body of the senate.

[Footnote 55: They alleged the example of Scipio and Cato, (Tacit.
Annal. iii. 66.) Marcellus Epirus and Crispus Vibius had acquired two
millions and a half under Nero. Their wealth, which aggravated their
crimes, protected them under Vespasian. See Tacit. Hist. iv. 43. Dialog.
de Orator. c. 8. For one accusation, Regulus, the just object of Pliny's
satire, received from the senate the consular ornaments, and a present
of sixty thousand pounds.]

[Footnote 56: The crime of majesty was formerly a treasonable offence
against the Roman people. As tribunes of the people, Augustus and
Tiberius applied tit to their own persons, and extended it to an
infinite latitude. Note: It was Tiberius, not Augustus, who first took
in this sense the words crimen laesae majestatis. Bachii Trajanus, 27.
--W.]

[Footnote 57: After the virtuous and unfortunate widow of Germanicus had
been put to death, Tiberius received the thanks of the senate for his
clemency. she had not been publicly strangled; nor was the body drawn
with a hook to the Gemoniae, where those of common male factors were
exposed. See Tacit. Annal. vi. 25. Sueton. in Tiberio c. 53.]

II. The division of Europe into a number of independent states,
connected, however, with each other by the general resemblance of
religion, language, and manners, is productive of the most beneficial
consequences to the liberty of mankind. A modern tyrant, who should find
no resistance either in his own breast, or in his people, would soon
experience a gentle restrain form the example of his equals, the dread
of present censure,d the advice of his allies, and the apprehension of
his enemies. The object of his displeasure, escaping from the narrow
limits of his dominions, would easily obtain, in a happier climate,
a secure refuge, a new fortune adequate to h