nd the people, that these should have magistrates of their own
election, called the tribunes, upon which they returned.

"To hold you no longer, the Senate having done this upon necessity, made
frequent attempts to retract it again, while the tribunes, on the other
side, to defend what they had got, instituted their Tributa Comitia,
or council of the people; where they came in time, and, as disputes
increased, to make laws without the authority of the Senate, called
plebiscita. Now to conclude in the point at which I drive: such were the
steps whereby the people of Rome came to assume debate, nor is it in art
or nature to debar a people of the like effect, where there is the like
cause. For Romulus, having in the election of his Senate squared out a
nobility for the support of a throne, by making that of the patricians
a distinct and hereditary order, planted the commonwealth upon two
contrary interests or roots, which, shooting forth, in time produced two
commonwealths, the one oligarchical in the nobility, the other a mere
anarchy of the people, and ever after caused a perpetual feud and enmity
between the Senate and the people, even to death.

"There is not a more noble or useful question in the politics than that
which is started by Machiavel, whether means were to be found whereby
the enmity that was between the Senate and the people of Rome could
have been removed? Nor is there any other in which we, on the present
occasion, are so much concerned, particularly in relation to this
author; forasmuch as his judgment in the determination of the question
standing, our commonwealth falls. And he that will erect a commonwealth
against the judgment of Machiavel, is obliged to give such reasons
for his enterprise as must not go a-begging. Wherefore to repeat the
politician very honestly, but somewhat more briefly, he disputes thus:

"'There be two sorts of commonwealths, the one for preservation, as
Lacedaemon and Venice; the other for increase, as Rome.

"'Lacedaemon, being governed by a King and a small Senate, could
maintain itself a long time in that condition, because the inhabitants,
being few, having put a bar upon the reception of strangers, and living
in a strict observation of the laws of Lycurgus, which now had got
reputation, and taken away all occasion of tumults, might well continue
long in tranquillity. For the laws of Lycurgus introduced a greater
equality in estates, and a less equality in honors, whence