but as high public officers, who became, by virtue of their places, senators for life upon quitting them. The practi cal results of such a system are probably not materially different from those of the method of election for short terms adopted in this country. We generally find that a member of congress or of the state legislatures, though his regular term of service may perhaps be only a year, is re-elected as long as he will consent to serve, unless excluded from party motives, or for some other particular reason and citizens, who have discharged with honor any public functions of considerable importance, are almost universally sent to the legislative bodies, if they are willing to go. We rather regret that an exception from this latter usage seems to be gradually establishing itself, in regard to the high office of president of the United States. We cannot think that it would have detracted at all from the real dignity of character of the three illustrious living statesmen, who have held this post, had they consented, upon retiring from it, to take a seat in the senate of the union; and we are sure that their presence in that august assembly would have given additional gravity to its proceedings, and rendered a real service to the country. To return to the Roman senate, we agree with M. Villemain in thinking that its constitution, so far as we are acquainted with it, was in substance good. Had the whole legislative power been vested in this body, there would have been little to object to, in this part of the political institutions of the Eternal City. But there were great and deeply seated vices in other institutions, still more important than the forms of legislation and administration, which counteracted from the first the good effect resulting from the excellence of these forms, and finally ruined the Republic.

In the last dissertation, M. Villemain examines the religious establishments, and the state of opinion upon this

interesting subject. He considers the question, whether the principal citizens, who officiated as priests and augurs, really had any faith themselves in the gross superstitions which they employed to influence the people; and supposes with an appearance of probability, that in the early periods of the Republic, a great part of them really shared in this respect the credulity of the mass. In fact, the number of individuals of the educated class, who are able to emancipate themselves from the dominant prejudices of their age and nation is exceedingly small even in highly civilized communities, and of course still smaller in ruder ones: and the superstitions of the Romans, however gross they appear to us, were not more so than those of most other heathen countries. We have certainly individual instances of persons that appear to have treated the religious ceremonies with contempt; as was the case with a general bound upon a maritime expedition, who finding that the sacred chickens would not drink, - which was thought a bad omen, threw them into the sea, and told them with an oath, that if they did not like fresh water, they should have salt. But an act of this kind is as likely to have been the effect of a momentary pettishness, like that which induces a savage to flog his god when his prayers are not granted, as of a rational contempt for superstition. There were however, doubtless, times and cases in which the instinctive good sense of some more generous minds rose above the influence of these prevailing opinions: as the poet of the Iliad represents his Trojan hero as declaring, that he cared not for the flight of birds, whether they took their course to the right or to the left; and that the only omen he wanted, was the consciousness of serving his country.' It is also certain that the ceremonies were constantly employed at Rome for merely political objects. A consul or a tribune who found it convenient to adjourn a public meeting, always had a

clap of thunder at command to assist him. But with all these exceptions and qualifications, there is every reason to suppose that the whole mass of the people, high and low, in the earlier periods of the Republic, believed in the truth of their religion as firmly and as faithfully as we do in that of ours. The progress of civilization and knowledge increased the number of sceptics; but the old religion had not entirely lost its hold upon enlightened minds, even after the establishment of christianity as the creed of the country. It appears quite certain from his writings, that the emperor Julian, with all his philosophy and wit, was a sincere and even enthusiastic pagan in the plain and usual sense of the term.

However gross and material may have been the religion of the Romans, they appear to have met with better success, and indeed to have exercised more wisdom, in determining the mode of its connexion with the state, than almost any country in which a religious establishment has ever existed. The union of church and state, as understood in most of the European countries provided with religious establishments, is in reality a legal separation or divorce; the functions belonging to the two departments, being committed to different, and in some degree, independent corporations, which act of necessity upon different and commonly hostile principles. A real union of church and state could only be effected by moulding the two systems into one, and not by forming a contract between them, which is itself a tacit acknowledgment of their disunion. Religion and government, considered as establishments, are two forms, in which the same sovereign power, to wit, the nation, representing for this purpose the order of providence, declares the same laws under different sanctions. The unity and not the union of church and state is therefore the true theory of a religious establishment. All ministers of religion

should on such a system be considered as political functionaries, and all political functionaries as ministers of religion so that the same institution might at once consecrate the state, and civilize the church. Such was in substance the state of things in the Roman Republic.

It is time however to bring this desultory article to a close. In dwelling at considerable length upon the recovered fragment before us, we have not only had it in view to make the reader acquainted with this particu lar work, but have gladly taken the occasion to offer our feeble tribute of applause to the writings and character of the author. We shall feel ourselves well rewarded for our labor, if any of our readers who may be led by this notice to peruse the Republic, should be induced by the profit and pleasure which this study will certainly afford them, to familiarize themselves with the splendid eloquence and sublime philosophy of the Father of his Country.

A DIALOGUE ON GOVERNMENT.

FRANKLIN AND MONTESQUIEU.

[North American Review, April, 1821.]

It is well known that the fortunate inhabitants of Elysium retain, in some degree at least, the tastes and occupations that belonged to them during their lifetime. We have the authority of Virgil to this point, which is deservedly high in every thing relating to the subject. There is also but too much reason to suppose that some of these distinguished persons are subject, like the most favoured mortals in our sublunary sphere, to the disease of ennui, and are glad to resort to reading and other amusements, in order to carry on the war with vigor against the great enemy, time. It has long been suspected for these reasons, that in making provision for the comfort of the Elysians, the accommodations of books and newspapers had not been overlooked. Having accidentally discovered the local situation of this part of the universe, and had an opportunity of examining it somewhat at leisure, I am able to assure the public that this idea is perfectly correct. The book-sellers' shops, the libraries, and the reading rooms, are on a very good footing and the new publications and journals are received with great regularity from all parts of the world. How this is effected, and whether passengers might not pass by the same conveyances that bring the Gazettes, it is not necessary to inquire, the