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little perfonal intereft in the event as any one here. There. is, I believe, no member who will not think his chance to be a witness of the confequences greater than mine. If, however, the vote fhould pass to reject, and a spirit fhould rife, as it will, with the public diforders to make confutien worfe confounded, even 1, flender and almost broken as my bol upon life is, may outlive the government and conftitution of my country.

From CICERO's Orations against VERRES.

THE

HE time is come, Fathers, when that which has long been wifhed for towards allaying the envy your order has been fubject to, and removing the imputa tions again trials. is (not by human contrivance but fuperior direction) e ctually put in our power.

2. An opinoin has long prevailed, not only here at home, but likewife in foreign countries, both dangerous. to you, and pernicious to the ftate, viz. that in profecutions, men of wealth are always fife, however clearly con victed.

3. There is now to be brought upon his trial before. you, to the confufion I hope of the propagators of this Landerous imputation, one whofe life and actions con demn him in the opinion of all impartial perfons, but who according to his own reckoning and declared/dependence upon his riches, is already acquitted; I mean Caius Verres.

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4. If that fentence is paffed upon him which his crimes deferve, your authority, fathers, will be venerable and fas.! cred in the eyes of the public. But if his great riches i fhould bias you in his favor, I fhall ftill gain one point, viz. to make it apparent to all the world, that what was wanting in this cafe was not a criminal, nor profecutor, but juftice and adequate punishment.

5. To pafs over the fhameful irregularities of his youth, what does his quæftorship, the first public employment he held, what does it exhibit, but one continued fcene otri villainies? Cneus Carbo plundered of the public money's by his own treafürer, a conful ftripped and betrayed, an army deferted and reduced to want, a province robbed, the civil and religious nights of a people violated.

6. The employment he held in Afia Minor and Pan

phylia, what did it produce, but the ruin of thofe coun tries? in which houses, cities and temples, were robbed by him. What was his conduct in his prætorfhip here at home Let the plundered temples, and the public works, neglected that he might embezzle the money intended, for carrying them on, bear witnefs. But His prætorship in Sicily crowns all his works of wickedness, and furnishes (a lafting monument of his infamy.

7. The mifchiefs done by him in that country, during the three years of his iniquitous adminiftration, are fuch, that many years, under the wifeft and best of prætors, will not be fufficient to restore things to the condition in which He found theni.

&. For it is notorious, that during the time of his ty ranny, the Sicilians neither enjoyed the protection of their original laws, of the regulations made for their benefit by the Roman fenate, upon their coming under the protection, of the common wealth, nor of the natural and unalienable rights of men.

His nod has decided all caufes in Sicily thefe three years; and his decifions have broken all law, all precedent, alb right. The funs he has by arbitrary taxes and unheard of impolitions extorted from the induftrious poor, are not to be computed. The most faithful allies of the common

wealth have been treated as enemies.

10. Roman citizens have, like flaves, been put to death. with tortures. The moft atrocious criminals, for money,, have been exempted from deferved punishments; and men of the most unexceptionable characters condemned and banifhed unheard.

The harbors, though fufficiently fortified, and the gates of frong towns, opened to pirates and ravagers; the faldiory and failors belonging to a province under the prowotion of the commonwealth, ftarved to death; whole, fleets, to the great detriment of the province, fuffered to perifh; the ancient monuments of either Sicilian or Roman greatness, the ftatues of heroes and princes, carried off; and the temples ftripped of their images.

12. The infamy of his lewdnefs has been fuch as decency forbids me to defcribe ; nor will I by mentioning particulars, put thefe unfortunate perfons to fresh pain, who have not been able to fave their wives and daughters from his impurity.

13. And thefe his atrocious crimes, have been committed in fo public a manner, that there is no one': who has heard of his name, but could reckon up his actions. Having by his iniquitous fentences, filled the prifonsi with the most induftrious and deferving of the people, he then proceeded to order numbers of Roman citizens: to be frangled in the goals; fo that the exclamation, "I am a citizen of Rome," which has often, in the most diftant regions, and among the most barbarous people, been a protection, was of no fervice to them, but on the contrary, brought a speedier and more fevere punishment upon them.

14. Iafk now, Verres, what you have to advance against this charge? Will you pretend to deny it? Will you pretend that any thing falfe, that even any thing aggravated is alledged against you? Had any prince, or any state. committed the fame outrage against the privilege of Roman citizens, fhould we not think we had fufficient ground for declaring immediate war against them.

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15. What punishment then ought to be inflicted upon a tyrannical and wicked prætor, who dared, at no greater diftance than Sicily, within fight of the Italian coast, to put to the infamous death of crucifixion, that unfortunate and innocent citizen, Publius Gavius Cefanus, only for his having afferted his privilege of his citizenship, and declared his intention of appealing to the juftice of his country against a cruel oppreffor, who had unjustly confined him in prifon, at S, racuft, from whence he had juft made his. elcape.

16. The unhappy man, arrefted as he was going to êmbark from his native country, is brought before the wicked prætor. With eyes darting fury, and a countenance diftorted with cruelty, he orders the helpless victim of his rage to be ripped, and rods to be brought; accufing him, but without the leaft fhadow of evidence, or even of fuf picion of haring come to Sicily as a spy.

17. It was in vain that the unhappy man cried out "I am a Roman Citizen-I have ferved under Lucius. Pretius, who is now at Panormous, and will atteft my innocence." The blood thirty prætor, deaf to all he could urge in his own defence, ordered the infamous punishment to be inflicted. Thus, fathers, was an inno

cent Roman citizen publicly mangled with fcourging, whilft the only words he uttered amidft his cruel fufferings, were, "I am a Roman citizen!"

18. With thefe he hoped to defend himfelf from violence and infamy: but of fo little fervice was this privilege to him, that while he was thus afferting his citizenship, the order was given for his execution for his execution upon the crofs !

19. O liberty-O fourd, once delightful to every Roman ear facred privilege of Roman citizenship! Once facred, now trampled upon! But what then! come to this ?

Is it

20. Shall an inferior magiftrate, a governor who holds his own power of the Roman people, in a Roman province, within fight of Italy, bind, fcourge, torture with fire and red hot plates of iron, and at laft put to the infamous death of the cross, a Roman citizen?

21. Shall neither the cries of innocence, expiring in agony, nor the tears of pitying spectators, nor the majesty of the Roman commonwealth, nor the fear or the juftice of his country, reftrain the licentious and wanton cruelty of a monster, who in confidence of his riches, ftrikes at the root of liberty, and fets mankind at defiance?

22. I conclude with expreffing my hopes that your wif dom, and justice, fathers, will not, by fuffering the atrocious and unexampled infolence of Caius Verres to escape the due punishment, leave room to apprehend the danger of a total fubverfion of authority, and introduction of ge neral anarchy and confufion.

SPEECH of CANULES, a Roman tribune, to the consuls; in which bedemands that the Plebeians may be admitted into the Consulship; and that the law prohibiting Patri cians and Plebeians from intermarrying,may be repealed.

WHAT

THAT 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? members of the fame community? The nations bordering upon Rome, and even ftrangers more remote, are admitted not only to marriage with us, but to what is of much greater importance, the freedom of the city.

2. Are we, because we are commoners, to be worfe treated than ftrangers? and when we demanded that the people may be free to beftow their offices and dignities on whom they pleafe, do we ask any thing unreafonable or new? Do we claim more than their original inherent right? What occafion then for all this uproar, as if the univerfe was falling to ruin? They were juft going to lay violent hands upon me in the fenate house.

3. What! muft this empire then, be unavoidably overturned? 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.

4. 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 most enormous thing. Numa Pompilius, however, without be ing fo much as a Roman citizen, was made king of Rome.

g. The elder Tarquin, by birth not even Italian, was nevertheless placed upon the throne. Servius Tullius, the fon of a captive woman, (nobody knows who his father was) obtained the kingdom as the reward of his wildom and virtue.

. 6. In those days, no man, in whom virtue fhone-confpicuous, was rejected or defpifed on account of his race and defcent. And did the state profper the lefs for that? Were not thefe ftrangers the very beft of our kings? And fuppofing now, that a Plebeian fhould have their talents and merits, muft not he be fuffered to govern us?!

7. 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' days, there was no cenfus, no divifion of the people into claffes and centuries.- Who ever heard of confuls before the expul fion of Tarquin the proud? Dictators, we all know, are of modern invention; and fo are the offices of tribunes, adiles, quæftors.

we have made, decemvirs, Is nothing to be done but That very law, forbidding

S. Within thefe ten years and we have unmade them. what has been done before? marriages of Patricias and Plebeians, is not that a ne

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