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that ever was heard of. I can make any cause good. By the time I have talked half an hour, there is not a judge on the bench, that knows which side the right is on, or whether there be any right on either side. And then for brow-beating, and finding useful and seasonable demurs, quirks, and the like, I dare challenge

16th Ghost. Mercury, I do intreat you to Hypoc. and let me come into the boat. I am sure, judge Fawning. Minos, will pass a very favourable sentence on me. For it is well known, that nobody ever was a more exact observer of the religious ceremonies appointed by authority, and established by custom, than myself. And what was alledged against me, of my being given to censoriousness, pride, and private sins, is all false-almost -and

17th Ghost. I am sure, Mercury, I shall be Confidence very well received by judge Minos, judge Rhadamanthus, and judge Eacus. For I never did harm to any body; but was always ready to do any kindness in my power. And there is noth- Self-Vindiing can be alledged against me, worth naming.cation. For it is not true, that I believed neither God nor future state. I was no Athiest, as has been alledged, but only a free-thinker.

18th Ghost. Pray, Mercury, let a brave Intreating. soldier come into the boat. See what a stab in my back I died of..

19th Ghost. Pray, Mercury, don't keep out an industrious citizen, who died of living too frugally..

20th Ghost. Pray, Mercury, let an honest farmer pass, who was knocked on the head for not selling corn to the poor for a song.

Merc. Hoity, toity! What have we got! Impatience Why don't you all bawl together? Now in the name of the three Furies, Alecto, Tysiphone, and Megara, of the Vegoves, the Numina, læva, and all the Robigus's and Averruncus's that

Anger.

Chiding.

stand on Aulus Gellius's list of mischievous deities, what must we do, Charon ?

Cha. Push them away. Push them into the Styx. There is not one of them fit to be carried over. One comes loaded with pride of beauty and lust, another with arrogance and cruelty, another with falsehood and flattery, another with love of fame, and desire of boundless dominion, another with false learning, another with learned pride, another with spiritual pride and hypocrisy, another with avarice and churlishness, another with foppery and false pretensions to ladies favours, another with political craft, bribery, and corruption, another with law quirks, another with quackish nostrums, and another with priestcraft; and they expect, that my poor little old half rotten wherry should carry them and all their nasty luggage, over at one lift. Why, Mercury, it would require such a vessel, as those they will build at the island of Albion two thousand years hence, which will be called first rate men of war, to carry such a cargo. Determin. Therefore we must e'en put off, with this half dozen of passengers, and, perhaps, by the time we come back, some of them will be stripped to the buff, I mean to the bones, and disencumbered of their respective appurtenances, so as to be fit for the voyage.

Agreeing. Merc. We have nothing else for it, Charon. Therefore, gentlemen and ladies, if you don't Threaten. clear the way, I must be rude to you. Fall Command. back, fall back. I have not room to push the boat offStanding a tiptoe, and looking as Doubting. at a distant object] O-Methinks, I see a couple of modest-looking ghosts whom I should know, Inviting. standing at a distance. Ay, Ay, it is the same. Approbati. Hark ye, you good people, come this way. You seem to have shaken off all your useless lumber. I remember you. You lived in a little cottage on the side of a hill in the Chersonesu, Cimbrica.

You were always good, honest contented, crea

tures.

Char. Take them in, Mercury. They are worth an hundred of your cumbrous emperors, conquerors, beauties, and literati. Come, let us push off.

LXIII.

ACCUSATION.

From CICERO'S Oration against VERRES, entitled Divinatio.

HAVING

Kindness.

Pity.

AVING formerly had the honour of being Apology questor in Sicily, and leaving that people with such grateful impressions of me on account of my behaviour, while I was among them, as, I hope, will not soon be effaced; it appeared, that as they had great dependence upon their former patrons for the security of their properties, they likewise reposed some degree of confidence in me. Those unhappy people being plundered and oppressed, have made frequent and public applications to me, intreating, that I would undertake the defence of them, and their fortunes; which, they told me, they were encouraged to request of me, by promises I had given them (of the sincerity of which they had had several substantial proofs) that if ever they should have occasion för my friendship, I would not be wanting in any respect in which I could be useful to them. The time was now come, they told me, when they had Intreating. but too much occasion to claim my promise; for that they were now in want of protection, not for their property only, but even for their lives, and for securing the very being of the province. That for three years they had suffered, by the in- Accufation justice of Caius Verres, every hardship, with which daring impiety, rapacious insolence, and wanton cruelty could distress a miserable and help

Promifing.

Pity.

Vexation. less people. It gave me no small concern, to find myself obliged either to falsify my promise to those, who had reposed a confidence in me, or to undertake the ungrateful part of an accuser, instead of that which I have always chosen, I mean of a defender. I referred them to the Declining patronage of Quintus Cæcilius, who succeeded me in the questorship of the province. I was in Vexation. hopes I should thus get free of the disagreeable office they had solicited me to engage in. But Accusation to my great disappointment, they told me, so far from their having any hopes from Cæcilius,.. their distresses had been heightened by him; and that he had, by his conduct, during his quæstorship, made their application to me more necessa ry than otherwise it would have been. You Apology. see, therefore, fathers, that I am drawn to en-gage this cause by duty, fidelity, and commiseration for the distressed; and that, though I may seem to take the accusing side, it is, in fact, the defence of the oppressed, that I undertake; the defence of many thousands, of many great cities, of a whole province. And indeed, though the cause were of less consequence than it is; though ́ the Sicilians had not requested my assistance; and though I had not been by my promise, and my connexions with that unfortunate people, obliged to undertake their defence, though I had professedly commenced this prosecution with a view to the service of my country merely; that Accusation a man infamous for his avarice, impudence, and villainy, whose rapaciousness, and other crimes of various kinds, are notorions, not in Sicily on-ly, but in Achaia, Asia Minor, Cilicia, Pamphilia, and even here at home; that such a man might, at my instance, be brought upon his trial, and receive the punishment he deserves; though I had had no other view in this prosecuSelf-Vindi- tion, than that justice, should be done upon a cruel oppressor and the distressed be delivered; what Roman could have blamed my proceeding 2

cation.

Pity.

How could I do a more valuable service to the Commonwealth? What ought to be more acceptable to the Roman people, to our allies, or to foreign nations? What more des rable towards securing the properties, priv eges and lives of mankind, than exemplary j ice, inflicted on notorious abusers of power? Deplorable is the situation of the tributary sta es and provinces of the commonwealth. Oppressed, plundered, ruined, by those who are set over them, they do not now presume to hope for deliverance. All they desire, is a little alleviation of their distresses. They are willing to submit their cause to the justice of a Roman senate. But they, who ought to undertake their vindication, are their enemies. They who ought to commence Accufings the prosecution against their oppressors, deserve themselves to be brought upon their trial for

their own mal-administration.

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It is sufficiently known to you, Fathers, that Teaching the law for recovery of tributes unjustly seized, or Explain. was intended expressly for the advantage of the allied and tributary states. For in cases of injustice done by one citizen to another, redress is to be had by action at common law. The present cause is, therefore, to be tried by the law of recovery. And, under the umbrage of that law, and in hopes of redress by it, the province of Sicily, with one voice, accuses Verres of plundering her of her gold and silver, of the riches of her towns, her cities, and temples, and of all she enjoyed under the protection of the Roman commonwealth, to the value of many millions, &c.

From his other Orations against VERRES.

Accufing.

The time is come, Fathers, when that which Teaching has long been wished for, towards allaying the or Exp ain envy your order has been subject to, and removing the imputations against trials, is (not by

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