racterize such a transaction, for,
according to the narrative which they give us, the whole proceeding
was conducted in such a manner as to evince not only great ingenuity
and sagacity on the part of Romulus and his government, but also great
moderation and humanity. The circumstances, as the historians relate
them, were these:

As might naturally be supposed from the manner in which the company
which formed the population of Rome had been collected, it consisted
at first almost wholly of men. The laws and regulations referred to in
the last chapter, in respect to the family relation, were those framed
after the organization of the community had become somewhat advanced,
since at the outset there could be very few families, inasmuch as the
company which first met together to build the city, consisted simply
of an army of young men. It is true that among those who joined them
at first there were some men of middle life and some families,--still,
as is always the case with new cities and countries suddenly and
rapidly settled, the population consisted almost entirely of men.

It was necessary that the men should have wives. There were several
reasons for this. First, it was necessary for the comfort and
happiness of the people themselves. A community of mere men is gloomy
and desolate. Secondly, for the continuance and perpetuity of the
state it was necessary that there should be wives and children, so
that when one generation should have passed away there might be
another to succeed it. And, thirdly, for the preservation of order and
law. Men unmarried are, in the mass, proverbially ungovernable.
Nothing is so effectual in keeping a citizen away from scenes of
tumult and riot as a wife and children at home. The fearful violence
of the riots and insurrections of which the city of Paris has so often
been the scene, is explained, in a great degree, by the circumstance
that so immense a proportion of the population are unmarried. They
have no homes, and no defenseless wives and children to fear for, and
so they fear nothing, but give themselves up, in times of public
excitement, to the wildest impulses of passion. Romulus seems to have
understood this, and his first care was to provide the way by which as
many as possible of his people should be married.

The first measure which he adopted, was to send embassadors around to
the neighboring states, soliciting alliances with them, and
stipulations allowing of intermarriages