All the reforms of Sulla were effected by means of _Leges_, which were proposed by him in the Comitia Centuriata, and bore the general name of _Leges Corneliae_. They may be divided into four classes: laws relating to the constitution, to the ecclesiastical corporations, to the administration of justice, and to the improvement of public morals. Their general object and design was to restore, as far as possible, the ancient Roman Constitution, and to give again to the Senate and the Nobility that power of which they had been gradually deprived by the leaders of the popular party. His Constitution did not last, because the aristocracy were thoroughly selfish and corrupt, and exercised the power which Sulla had intrusted to them only for their own aggrandizement. Their shameless conduct soon disgusted the provinces as well as the capital; the people again regained their power, but the consequence was an anarchy and not a government; and as neither class was fit to rule, they were obliged to submit to the dominion of a single man. Thus the empire became a necessity to the exhausted Roman world. * * * * * I. _Laws relating to the Constitution._--Sulla deprived the Comitia Tributa of their legislative and judicial powers; but he allowed them to elect the Tribunes, AEdiles, Quaestors, and other inferior magistrates. This seems to have been the only purpose for which they were called together. The Comitia Centuriata, on the other hand, were allowed to retain their right of legislation unimpaired. He restored, however, the ancient regulation, which had fallen into desuetude, that no matter should be brought before them without the previous sanction of a senatus consultum. The Senate had been so much reduced in numbers by the proscriptions of Sulla, that he was obliged to fill up the vacancies by the election of three hundred new members. But he made no alteration in their duties and functions, as the whole administration of the state was in their hands; and he gave them the initiative in legislation by requiring a previous senatus consultum respecting all measures that were to be submitted to the Comitia, as already stated. With respect to the magistrates, Sulla increased the number of Quaestors from eight to twenty, and of Praetors from six to eight. He renewed the old law that no one should hold the Praetorship before he had been Quaestor, nor the Consulship before he had been Praetor. He also renewed the law that no one should be elected to the same magistracy till after the expiration of ten years.