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train of miferies which render life to me a burden. He lies full low, gored with wounds, and feftering in his own blood. But he lies in peace. He feels none of the miferies which rend my foul with agony and diftrac tion, while I am fet up a fpectacle to all mankind of the uncertainty of human affairs. So far from having it in my power to revenge his death, I am not mafter of the means of fecuring my own life. So far from be ing in a condition to defend my kingdom from the vio lence of the ufurper, I am obliged to apply for foreign protection for my own perfon.

Fathers! Senators of Rome! the arbiters of the world!-to you I fly for refuge from the murderous fury of Jugurtha.-By your affection for your children, by your love for your country, by your own virtues, by the majesty of the Roman commonwealth, by all that is facred, and all that is dear to you-deliver a wretched prince from unde ferved, unprovoked injury; and fare the kingdom of Numidia, which is your own property, from being the prey of violence, ufurpation, and cruelty.

1X. Speech of Canuleius to the Confuls; in which he demands that the Flebeians may be admitted into the Con fulfhip, and that the Law prohibiting Patricians and Plebeians from intermarrying may be repealed..

WHAT an infult upon us is this! If we are not fo

rich as the Patricians, are we not citizens of Rome as well as they? inhabitants of the fame country? mem bers of the fame community? The nations bordering upon Rome, and even strangers more remote, are admited, not only to marriages with us, but to what is of much greater importance, the freedom of the city. Are we, because we are commoners, to be worse treated than Arangers-And, when we demand that the people may be free to beftow their offices and dignities on whom they pleafe, do we afk any thing unreasonable or new? Do we claim more than their original inherent right? What occafion, then, for all this uproar, as if the univerfe were falling to ruin? They were just going to lay violent hands upon me in the fenate-houfe.

What! must this empire, then, be unavoidably overinrned;

turned;, muft Rome of neceffity fink at once, if a Plebeian, worthy of the office, fhould be raised to the confulfhip? The Patricians, I am perfuaded, if they could, would deprive you of the common light. It certainly offends them that you breathe, that you fpeak, that you have the fhapes of men. Nay, but to make a commoner a conful, would be, fay they, a moft enormous thing, Numa Pompilius, however, without being fo much as a Roman citizen, was made king of Rome. The elder Tarquin, by birth not even an Italian, was nevertheless placed upon the throne. Servius Tullius, the son of a captive woman (nobody knows who his father was), obtained the kingdom as the reward of his wifdom and virtue. In thofe days, no man in whom virtue fhone confpicuous was rejected or defpifed on account of his race and descent. And did the state profper the lefs for that? Were not thefe ftrangers the very best of all our kings? And, fuppofing, now, that a Plebeian thould have their talents and merit, muft not he be fuffered to govern us ??

But, "we find, that, upon the abolition of the regal power, no commoner was chofen to the confulate.' And what of that? Before Numa's time, there were no pontiffs in Rome. Before Servius Tullius's days, there were no cenfus, no divifion of the people into claffes and centuries. Who ever heard of confuls, before the expulfion of Tarquin the Proud? Dictators, we all know, are of modern invention; and fo are the offices of tribunes, ædiles, quæftors. Within thefe ten years we have made decemvirs, and we have unmade them. Is nothing to be done but what has been done before? That very law forbidding marriages of Patricians with Plebeians, is not that a new thing? Was there any fuch law before the decemvirs enacted it? and a-most shameful one it is in a free, state. Such marriages, it feems, will taint the pure blood of the nobility! Why, if they think fo, let them take care to match their fifters and daughters with men of their own fort. No Plebeian will do violence to the daughter of a Patrician. Thofe are exploits for our prime nobles. There is no need to fear that we fhall! force any body into a contract of marriage. But, to make an exprefs law to prohibit marriages of Patricians: B.b 3

with

with Plebeians, what is this but to fhow the utmost contempt of us, and to declare one part of the communityto be impure and unclean?

They talk to us of the confufion there will be in fás. milies if this ftatute should be repealed. I wonder they don't make a law against a commoner's living near a nobleman, or going the fame road that he is going, or being prefent at the fame feaft, or appearing in the fame market-place. They might as well pretend that thefe things make confufion in families, as that intermarriages will do it. Does not every one know, that the children will be ranked according to the quality of their father, let him be a Patrician or a Plebeian? In short, it is manifeft enough that we have nothing in view but to be treated as men and citizens; nor can they who op pofe our demand have any motive to do it but the love of domineering. I would fain know of you, Confuls and Patricians, is the fovereign power in the people of Rome, or in you? I hope you will allow, that the people can, at their pleasure, either make a law or repeal one. And will you, then, as foon as any law is propofed to them, pretend to lift them immediately for the war, and hin der them from giving their fuffrages, by leading them › into the field?

Hear me, Confuls. Whether the news of the war you? talk of be true, or whether it be only a falfe rumour fpread abroad for nothing but a colour to fend the people out of the city, I declare, as tribune, that this peo ple, who have already fo often fpilt their blood in our country's caufe, are again ready to arm for its defence. and its glory, if they may be reflored to their natural rights, and you will no longer treat us like strangers in our own country: but, if you account us unworthy of your alliance by intermarriages, if you will not fuffer the entrance to the chief offices in the state to be open to all perfons of merit indifferently, but will confine your choice of magiftrates to the fenate alone-talk of wars as much as ever you pleafe; paint, in your ordinary. difcourfes, the league and power of our enemies, ten times more dreadful than you do now-I declare, that this people whom you fo much defpife, and to whom you are nevertheless indebted for all your victories

hall

fhall never more inlift themfelves ; not a man of them fhall take arms; not a man of them fhall expose his life for imperious lords, with whom he can neither fhare the dignities of the state, nor in private life have any alliance' by marriage.

X. Speech of Junius Brutus over the dead Body of

Lucretia.

YES, noble lady, 1 fwear by this blood, which was once fo pure, and which nothing but royal villany could have polluted, that I will puriue Lucius Tarquinius the Proud, his wicked wife, and their children, with fire and fword; nor will I ever fuffer any of that family,. or of any other whatfoever, to be king in Rome: Ye gods, I call you to witnefs this my oath!-There, Romans, turn your eyes to that fad fpectacle-the daughter of Lucretius, Collatinus's wife-fhe died by her own hand. See there a noble lady, whom the luft of a Tarquin reduced to the neceffity of being her own executioner, to atteft her innocence. Hofpitably entertained by her as a kinfman of her hufband's, Sextus, the perfidious gueft, became her brutal ravifher. The chalte, the generous Lucretia, could not furvive the infult. Glori ous woman! But once only treated as a flave, fhe thought life no longer to be endured. 'Lucretia, a woman, disdained a life that depended on a tyrant's will; and fhall we-fhall men, with fuch an example before our eyes, . and after five-and-twenty years of ignominious fervitude, fhall we, through a fear of dying, defer one fingle inftant to affert our liberty? No, Romans, now is the time; the favourable moment we have fo long waited for is come. Tarquin is not at Rome. The Patricians are: at the head of the enterprife. The city is abundantly provided with men, arms, and all things neceffary. There is nothing wanting to fecure the fuccefs, if our own courage does not fail us. And shall thofe warriours, who have ever been fo brave when foreign enemies were to be fubdued, or when conquefts were to be made to gratify the ambition and avarice of Tarquin, be then only cowards, when they are to deliver themfelves from: flavery?-Some of you are perhaps intimidated by the army which Tarquin now commands. The foldiers, you

imagine,

imagine, will take the part of their general. Banifh fo groundless a fear. The love of liberty is natural to all wen. Your fellow-citizens in the camp feel the weight of oppreffion with as quick a fenfe as you that are in Rome: they will as eagerly feize the occafion of throw ing off the yoke. But, let us grant there may be fome among them, who, through bafenefs of fpirit or a bad education, will be difpofed to favour the tyrant. The number of thefe can be but small, and we have means fufficient in our hands to reduce them to reafon. They have left us hoftages more dear to them than life. Their wives, their children, their fathers, their mothers, are here in the city. Courage, Romans, the gods are for ns; thofe gods, whofe temples and altars the impious. Tarquin has profaned by facrifices and libations made with polluted hands, polluted with blood, and with numberlefs unexpiated crimes committed against his fübjects. -Ye gods, who protected our forefathers, ye genii, who watch for the prefervation and glory of Rome, do you. infpire us with courage and unanimity in this glorious caufe, and we will, to our last breath, defend your wor-fhip from all profanation.

XI. Demofthenes to the Athenians, exciting them to pre fecute the War against Philip.

WHEN I compare, Athenians, the speeches of fome

amongst us with their actions, I am at a lofs to reconcile what I fee with what I hear. Their prote-ftations are full of zeal against the public enemy; but their measures are fo inconfiftent, that all their profef-fions become fufpected. By confounding you with a va riety of projects, they perplex your refolutions; and lead you from executing what is in your power, by engaging. you in fchemes not reducible to practice..

'Tis true, there was a time, when we were powerful enough not only to defend our own borders, and pros tect our allies, but even to invade Philip in his own do minions. Yes, Athenians, there was such a juncture; I remember it well. But, by neglect of proper opportu nities, we are no longer in a fituation to be invaders : it will be well for us, if we can provide for our own de fence, and our allies. Never did any conjuncture require

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