1. Niebuhr.

NOTHING is more unjust than the vague charge brought against Niebuhr, that he has denied the r the early history of Rome. On the contrary, he from the dominion of scepticism much which les inquirers had before too hastily given up to " restored and established far more than he has Ferguson finds no sure ground to rest on till to the second Punic war; in his view, not only of the kings and the first years of the common the whole of two additional centuries,-not on with the Equians and Volscians, but those witi. the Samnites, and even with Pyrrhus,-are considerable uncertainty. The progress of the he is content to trace in the merest outline; par and still more particular characters, appear to to poetry or romance rather than to histo Niebuhr maintains that a true history of Rom details of dates, places, events, and charac recovered from the beginning of the comm has been greatly corrupted and disguised by uncritical writers, but there exist, he thinks, terials to enable us, not only to get rid of thes but to restore that genuine and original edific have so long overgrown and hidden from our accordingly, far from passing over hastily, lik the period from the expulsion of Tarquinius Punic war, he has devoted to it somewhat mor large volumes; and from much, that to form seemed a hopeless chaos, he has drawn a live of events and institutions, as rich in its colouring. in its composition, as it is faithful to the truth of n

Roman Society.

tribes, of those at least which

t century, lived on their lands, Rome to vote at the elections, onal importance was proposed rty opposed to its enactment. appear on the Capitol on the he enlistment of soldiers for the t also call them up to Rome in games, or any other great ✓ them thither in great numbers. when they were not serving in their small properties in the is agriculture, their recreations eir social pleasures were found eighbours at seasons of festival; 1 be dancing, music, and often some rude attempts at dramatic est and most universal amuse1. This was enough to satisfy g; of the beauty of painting, of the charms of eloquence and he deep interest which can be auses of all the wonders around

which a few distinguished individuals perish; not that we over-estimate the horror and the guilt of times of open bloodshedding, but we are much too patient of the greater misery and greater sin of periods of quiet legalized oppression; of that most deadly of all evils, when law, and even religion herself, are false to their divine origin and purpose, and their voice is no longer the voice of God, but of his enemy. In such cases the evil derives advantage, in a manner, from the very amount of its own enormity. No pen can record, no volume can contain, the details of the daily and hourly sufferings of a whole people, endured without intermission, through the whole life of man, from the cradle to the grave. The mind itself can scarcely comprehend the wide range of the mischief: how constant poverty and insult, long endured as the natural portion of a degraded caste, bear with them to the sufferers something yet worse than pain, whether of the body or the feelings; how they dull the understanding and poison the morals; how ignorance and ill-treatment combined are the parents of universal suspicion; how from oppression is produced habitual cowardice, breaking out when occasion offers into merciless cruelty; how slaves become naturally liars; how they, whose condition denies them all noble enjoyments, and to whom looking forward is only despair, plunge themselves with a brute's recklessness into the lowest sensual pleasures; how the domestic circle itself, the last sanctuary of human virtue, becomes at length corrupted, and in the place of natural affection and parental care, there is to be seen only selfishness and unkindness, and no other anxiety on the part of the parents for their children, than that they may, by fraud or by violence, prey in their turn upon that society which they have found their bitterest enemy. Evils like these, long working in the heart of a nation, render their own cure impossible: a revolution

may execute judgment on one generation, and that perhaps the very one which was beginning to see and to repent of its inherited sins; but it cannot restore life to the morally dead; and its ill success, as if in this line of evils no curse should be wanting, is pleaded by other oppressors as a defence of their own iniquity, and a reason for perpetuating it for ever. -History of Rome.

3. The state of Roman Society.

THE members of the country tribes, of those at least which had been created within the last century, lived on their lands, and probably only went up to Rome to vote at the elections, or when any law of great national importance was proposed and there was a powerful party opposed to its enactment. They were also obliged to appear on the Capitol on the day fixed by the consuls for the enlistment of soldiers for the legions. Law business might also call them up to Rome occasionally, and the Roman games, or any other great festival, would no doubt draw them thither in great numbers. With these exceptions, and when they were not serving in the legions, they lived on their small properties in the country; their business was agriculture, their recreations were country sports, and their social pleasures were found in the meetings of their neighbours at seasons of festival; at these times there would be dancing, music, and often some pantomimic acting, or some rude attempts at dramatic dialogue, one of the simplest and most universal amusements of the human mind. This was enough to satisfy all their intellectual craving; of the beauty of painting, sculpture, or architecture, of the charms of eloquence and of the highest poetry, of the deep interest which can be excited by inquiry into the causes of all the wonders around

us and within us, of some of the highest and most indispensable enjoyments of an Athenian's nature, the agricultural Romans of the fifth century had no notion what

soever.

But it was not possible that an equal simplicity should have existed at Rome. Their close and constant intercourse with other men sharpens and awakens the faculties of the inhabitants of cities; and country sports being by the necessity of the case denied to them, they learn earlier to value such pleasures as can be supplied by the art or genius of man. Besides, the conduct of political affairs on a large scale, much more when these affairs are publicly discussed either in a council or in a popular assembly, cannot but create an appreciation of intellectual power of eloquence; and the multiplied transactions of civil life, leading perpetually to disputes, and these disputes requiring a legal decision, a knowledge of law became a valuable accomplishment, and the study of law, which is as wholesome to the human mind as the practice of it is often injurious, was naturally a favourite pursuit with those who had leisure, and who wished either to gain influence or to render services. Thus the family of the Claudii seem always to have aspired after civil rather than military distinction. Appius Claudius, the censor, was a respectable soldier, but he is much better known by his great public works and by his speech against making peace with Pyrrhus, than by his achievements in war; nay, it is said, that his plebeian colleague in the consulship, L. Volumnius, taunted him with his legal knowledge and his eloquence, as if he could only talk and not fight. The Claudii, however, were distinguished by their high nobility, independently of any personal accomplishments; but the family of the Coruncanii owed its celebrity entirely, so far as appears, to their acquaintance with the law. Ti.