ver, by zeal and superstition; and the
British clergy incessantly labored to eradicate the Pelagian heresy,
which they abhorred, as the peculiar disgrace of their native country.

It is somewhat remarkable, or rather it is extremely natural, that the
revolt of Britain and Armorica should have introduced an appearance of
liberty into the obedient provinces of Gaul. In a solemn edict, filled
with the strongest assurances of that paternal affection which princes
so often express, and so seldom feel, the emperor Honorius promulgated
his intention of convening an annual assembly of the _seven provinces_:
a name peculiarly appropriated to Aquitain and the ancient Narbonnese,
which had long since exchanged their Celtic rudeness for the useful and
elegant arts of Italy. Arles, the seat of government and commerce,
was appointed for the place of the assembly; which regularly continued
twenty-eight days, from the fifteenth of August to the thirteenth of
September, of every year. It consisted of the Praetorian praefect of the
Gauls; of seven provincial governors, one consular, and six presidents;
of the magistrates, and perhaps the bishops, of about sixty cities;
and of a competent, though indefinite, number of the most honorable
and opulent _possessors_ of land, who might justly be considered as the
representatives of their country. They were empowered to interpret and
communicate the laws of their sovereign; to expose the grievances and
wishes of their constituents; to moderate the excessive or unequal
weight of taxes; and to deliberate on every subject of local or
national importance, that could tend to the restoration of the peace and
prosperity of the seven provinces. If such an institution, which gave
the people an interest in their own government, had been universally
established by Trajan or the Antonines, the seeds of public wisdom and
virtue might have been cherished and propagated in the empire of Rome.
The privileges of the subject would have secured the throne of the
monarch; the abuses of an arbitrary administration might have been
prevented, in some degree, or corrected, by the interposition of these
representative assemblies; and the country would have been defended
against a foreign enemy by the arms of natives and freemen. Under the
mild and generous influence of liberty, the Roman empire might have
remained invincible and immortal; or if its excessive magnitude, and the
instability of human affairs, had opposed su