Of the original simplicity of the government, some evidences are afforded by this work; as where it is stated that lands were assigned to the sovereign, and cultivated for him by the people, that he might have nothing to do but administer justice. The principal men too of the state in those early times lived in the vicinity of Rome, cultivating a small possession. The illustrious names of Fabius, Lentulus, Cicero, &c., were perhaps given to those husbandmen who excelled in the cultivation of those vegetables; such was the opinion of Pliny.[1] The censor had the power of reprimanding those whose fields were slovenly cultivated. Many customs of those antique times are found in Cato’s curious Treatise on Rural Affairs. “Our ancestors constituted and ordained thus in their Laws: A thief was condemned to double restitution; an usurer to quadruple. You may judge from this how much worse a citizen they deemed the usurer to be than the thief. And when they praised a worthy man, they spoke thus of him: ‘that he was a good farmer, an excellent husbandman.’ He that was commended in these terms, was thought to be praised enough.”[2] And again speaking of a good husbandman, he says, “He should part with his old cattle, his weaned calves and lambs, his wool, his skins, his old carts and worn out irons, his old slaves, and his sick ones; and if he has got any thing else he does not want, let him sell it. A father of a family ought always to sell and never to buy.” Dion says that a messenger summoned the patricians by name, but that the people were convened _by the blowing of a horn_.[3] But the splendid military government which soon grew up, gave both state employment and riches to that class once distinguished for their industry and frugality. Agriculture was abandoned to slaves, and men branded for crimes: it was no longer deemed an honourable employment. Luxury and habits of profusion made it necessary for conspicuous men to acquire the means of indulging in them, at the expense of principle and patriotism. At length when sensual gratifications became dearer to a majority of the Romans than liberty, the republic was overthrown, and military despotism accomplished the circle of military influence; extinguished every spark of light and liberty; stripped the empire of its moral and physical power, and left it unmindful of its past glorious existence, to perish in a blind and helpless old age.