esson to the multitude. A new method of secret ballot abolished the
influence of fear and shame, of honor and interest, and the abuse of
freedom accelerated the progress of anarchy and despotism. The
Romans had aspired to be equal; they were levelled by the equality of
servitude; and the dictates of Augustus were patiently ratified by
the formal consent of the tribes or centuries. Once, and once only,
he experienced a sincere and strenuous opposition. His subjects had
resigned all political liberty; they defended the freedom of domestic
life. A law which enforced the obligation, and strengthened the bonds
of marriage, was clamorously rejected; Propertius, in the arms of Delia,
applauded the victory of licentious love; and the project of reform was
suspended till a new and more tractable generation had arisen in the
world. Such an example was not necessary to instruct a prudent usurper
of the mischief of popular assemblies; and their abolition, which
Augustus had silently prepared, was accomplished without resistance, and
almost without notice, on the accession of his successor. Sixty thousand
plebeian legislators, whom numbers made formidable, and poverty secure,
were supplanted by six hundred senators, who held their honors, their
fortunes, and their lives, by the clemency of the emperor. The loss of
executive power was alleviated by the gift of legislative authority; and
Ulpian might assert, after the practice of two hundred years, that the
decrees of the senate obtained the force and validity of laws. In the
times of freedom, the resolves of the people had often been dictated by
the passion or error of the moment: the Cornelian, Pompeian, and Julian
laws were adapted by a single hand to the prevailing disorders; but the
senate, under the reign of the Caesars, was composed of magistrates and
lawyers, and in questions of private jurisprudence, the integrity of
their judgment was seldom perverted by fear or interest.

The silence or ambiguity of the laws was supplied by the occasional
edicts of those magistrates who were invested with the _honors_ of the
state. This ancient prerogative of the Roman kings was transferred, in
their respective offices, to the consuls and dictators, the censors and
praetors; and a similar right was assumed by the tribunes of the people,
the ediles, and the proconsuls. At Rome, and in the provinces, the
duties of the subject, and the intentions of the governor, were
proclaimed; and the civil