When liberty began to totter at Rome, the decadence of the political activity of the citizens necessarily diminished its concentration. The chief men of the _municipia_ repaired to Rome to take their part in the government of the world, either by voting in the _comitia_, or discharging great public functions. When the _comitia_ and the high magistracies ceased to have any perceptible influence in the government, when political life became extinct in Rome, together with the movement of liberty, this affluence of all the important men towards Rome decreased. Such a decrease was advantageous to the rising despotism, and met with no opposition. {185} Progress Of Public Indifference. Here, as in every instance, the necessary consequences of general facts are revealed in particular and positive facts, up to that time, no political act could be performed, and no suffrage be exercised, elsewhere than within the walls of Rome. Suetonius informs us that Augustus conferred upon the citizens of a large number of Italian _municipia_ the right of giving their votes without leaving their town, and sending them to Rome in a sealed packet, that they might be properly scrutinized in the _comitia_. Thus was exhibited, at once, the progress of public indifference, and the growth of absolute power. This progress continued rapidly. Ere long, the _comitia_ met with the fate of all shams, and were abolished; all free intervention of the citizens in the government disappeared, and no political acts remained to be performed, either at Rome, or at a distance therefrom; and as it is always a trick of nascent despotism to offer to all men the deceptive advantages of a shameful equality, the right of Roman citizenship was, almost at the same period, bestowed indiscriminately upon the whole Roman world. This right no longer possessed any political significance, nor did it confer any real importance upon those who received it; and yet this concession deprived those whom it levelled to the condition of the multitude, of any importance they might still have retained. There is reason to believe that this measure was rather the consequence of a financial speculation than of a clever despotic combination. But despotism, even when its conduct is least guided by scientific principles, is never deceived by its instincts. Such was, moreover, the natural course of things; and degraded peoples must inevitably suffer their fate. All the blame must not be laid on the master of the flock; and the hatred which tyranny merits cannot save from our contempt nations that are incapable of liberty.