f observed in the Carthaginian senate, was forty-five years of
age. What we have farther to say of this great man, includes the space of
twenty-five years.

_Hannibal undertakes and completes the Reformation of the Courts of
Justice, and the Treasury of Carthage._--After the conclusion of the peace,
Hannibal, at least at first, was greatly respected at Carthage, where he
filled the first employments of the state with honour and applause. He
headed the Carthaginian forces in some wars against the Africans:(812) but
the Romans, to whom the very name of Hannibal gave uneasiness, not being
able to see him in arms without displeasure, made complaints on that
account, and accordingly he was recalled to Carthage.

On his return he was appointed praetor, which seems to have been a very
considerable employment, and to have conferred great authority. Carthage
is therefore going to be, with regard to him, a new theatre, as it were,
on which he will display virtues and qualities of a quite different nature
from those we have hitherto admired in him, and which will finish the
picture of this illustrious man.

Eagerly desirous of restoring the affairs of his afflicted country to
their former happy condition, he was persuaded, that the two most powerful
methods to make a state flourish, were, an exact and equal distribution of
justice to all its subjects in general, and a scrupulous fidelity in the
management of the public finances. The former, by preserving an equality
among the citizens, and making them enjoy such a delightful, undisturbed
liberty under the protection of the laws, as fully secures their honour,
their lives, and properties; unites the individuals of the commonwealth
more closely together, and attaches them more firmly to the state, to
which they owe the preservation of all that is most dear and valuable to
them. The latter, by a faithful administration of the public revenues,
supplies punctually the several wants and necessities of the state; keeps
in reserve a never failing resource for sudden emergencies, and prevents
the people from being burthened with new taxes, which are rendered
necessary by extravagant profusion, and which chiefly contribute to make
men harbour an aversion for the government.

Hannibal saw, with great concern, the irregularities which had crept
equally into the administration of justice, and the management of the
finances. Upon his being nominated praetor, as his love for regularity and
or