at this secession, had recourse to their last resource in all desperate cases, the creation of a dictator. Q. Hortensius was nominated dictator upon this occasion, a man of great temper and prudence, and a real friend to liberty. As he was vested with absolute power by virtue of his office, he totally abolished that law which had given such just cause of uneasiness, and notwithstanding all the opposition of the senate, revived and confirmed two laws which had been formerly made, though constantly violated by the Patricians. One was, “that the decrees made by the Plebeians should be equally obligatory to the Patricians:” the other, “that all laws passed in the senate should be laid before the comitia, or assemblies of the people, either to be confirmed or rejected.” Thus the liberty, which the Plebeians had acquired by the first secession, was confirmed in the plainest and strongest manner by the last, which happened about two hundred and six years after. For the Patricians, from that memorable æra, had scarce any other advantage over the Plebeians, except what arose from their superior wealth, and that respect which is naturally paid by inferiors to men of superior birth. It is evident, from that sudden change which the Plebeians experienced in the behaviour of the Patricians at the death of Tarquin, that if the senate could have supported themselves in that arbitrary power, which they so visibly aimed at, the condition of the people would have been just like that of the Polish peasants under their imperious lords. For in that detestable aristocracy, the Patricians, not content with the wealth of the republick, which centered chiefly in their own body, used their utmost efforts to engross the entire possession of the lands. The secession of the people, and the creation of the tribunes, defeated the scheme they had formed for establishing an aristocratick tyranny. But the frequent attempts to revive the Agrarian law prove undeniably that the Patricians never lost sight of their ambitious views of aggrandizing their families by an illegal usurpation of the conquered lands. Spurius Cassius, a Patrician, was the first author of this law, about eight years after the secession, with a view of raising himself to the regal power by conciliating the affection and interest of the people. The law itself was certainly just, and founded upon that equality in the distribution of the land, which was a part of the constitution, as settled by their founder Romulus. The plea therefore of Cassius, “that the lands, which had been conquered by the blood and valour of the people, should be taken from the rich and applied to the service of the publick,” was founded upon the strictest equity, as well as the fundamental principles of their constitution. Even Appius, the most inveterate enemy to the people, acknowledged the justice of his proposal, since he moved that commissioners should be appointed by the