Lastly, the Hortensian law again has quite a different object. It establishes a true democracy, inasmuch as it lays down the rule that in legislative measures,--for with regard to administrative ones, the second Publilian law remained in force,--a previous resolution of the senate was not necessary, but the _Plebes_ could pass any decree: at the same time, the power of the curies was taken away. This is a decided victory of the democracy. The administrative measures were decrees for particular cases, nor could any thing of this kind be brought before the _Plebes_ without a previous resolution of the senate, even so late as the end of the sixth century (570); but for actual laws the resolution of the _Plebes_ was sufficient. By this means, the older body of citizens lost its power of regeneration, the equilibrium was destroyed, and the scale was turned in favour of the democratic side. The curies were bound already by the _lex Publilia_ of the year 417, before a convocation of the centuries to declare after a certain form that they sanctioned whatever was going to be decreed. It was a misfortune for the state that the curies did not regenerate themselves; yet as long as the resolutions were still made in the centuries, this mattered nothing. But by the _lex Hortensia_, by which the whole weight was given to the tribes, all the wholesome relations between the different elements of the state were broken, and the balance utterly destroyed. In the _first_ stage therefore, the _plebiscita_ are mere bye-laws which have no reference to general affairs; for instance, resolutions at the death of a person of consequence concerning his burial, &c., or a poll tax. In the _second_, by virtue of the older Publilian law, the _Plebes_ declared itself competent to pass resolutions on general affairs, which were, however, to be taken into consideration by the consul, to be laid before the senate, and by the latter to be brought before the centuries and curies. In the _third_ stage, according to the Valerian law, a _plebiscitum_ was just as valid as a resolution of the centuries: it went at once to the curies, and received their sanction. And _fourthly_, by the later Publilian law, the _plebiscita_ could do for the confirmation of resolutions of the senate which, in pressing circumstances, when one could not wait for the next _dies comitialis_, were brought by the consul to the tribunes. It was sufficient that the tribunes proclaimed a concilium: the _dies nefasti_ only affected curule magistrates and the _Populus_. For instance, let us suppose that an army was in the field at the conclusion of the year, and that a decree of the senate had first to be brought to the centuries, and then to be ratified by the curies; in such a case a shorter course was taken. The consuls were ordered _ut cum tribunis plebis agerent, quam primum fieri posset ad plebem ferrent_. This does not occur before the Publilian law. _Lastly_ and _fifthly_, by the _lex Hortensia_ the