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The portion of lands, which belonged to the city of Rome at the beginning, was very narrow; but Romulus by war enlarged it very much. Now all this land Numa divided amongst the indigent part of the citizens, that by these means he might keep them from extreme want, which is the necessary cause of men's injuring one another, and might turn the minds of the people to husbandry, whereby themselves, as well as their land, would become better cultivated and more tractable. For there is no way of life, that either so soon or so powerfully produces the love of peace, as the life of husbandry, whereby so much warlike courage is preserved, as enables wen to fight in defence of what is their own, but all boldness in acts of injustice and encroachment upon others is restrained and destroyed. Wherefore Numa, that he might take and amuse the hearts of his citizens with agriculture or husbandry, choosing it for them as an employment that rather begets civility and a peaceable temper than great opulency and riches, divided all the lands into several parcels, to which he gave the name of Pagus or Borough, and over each of them he appointed overseers, and such as should go about to inspect them. And sometimes he would himself, in person, take a survey of them; and making a judgment of every man's inclination and manners by his industry, and the improvements he had made, he preferred those to honours and authority, who had merited most, and, on the contrary, reproaching and chiding the sluggishness of such as had given themselves over to a careless and a negligent life, he reduced them to better order. But among all his political institutions, that which is most admired, is his distribution of the people into companies according to their several arts and professions. For whereas the city did consist of, or rather was distinguished into, two kinds of people, and could not by any means be united, it being impossible to efface the strangeness and difference between them, but that there would be perpetual clashing and contention of the two parties. Numa, having considered that

hard bodies, and such as are not easily incorporated so long as they remain in their gross bulk, by being beaten into a powder, or reduced into small atoms, are often cemented and consolidated into one, determined to divide the whole people into many lesser parts, and from thence by casting them into other distinctions, to abolish that first and great distinction, which was thus scattered into smaller parts. This distribution was made according to the several arts or trades, of musicians, goldsmiths, masons, dyers, shoe-makers, tanners, braziers, and potters; and all other handycraftsmen he composed and reduced into a single company, appointing unto every one their respective halls, courts, and ceremonies of religion proper to their several societies. Thus it was, that he first banished out of the city the custom of calling and reputing one a Sabine, another a Roman, one a partisan of Tatius, another of Romulus; so that this distribution became the means of well uniting and mixing all of them perfeetly together....·

During the reign of Numa the temple of Janus was never seen open one day, but continued constantly shut for fortythree years together; so entire a cessation of all kind of war was there on all sides. For not only the people of Rome were tamed, and as it were charmed by the just and mild government of their prince, but even the neighbouring cities round about, as if some gentle breeze or salubrious air had blown from Rome upon them, began to change their temper; and a general inclination to peace and good government was infused into all, so that every one applied himself to the management of his lands and farm, to the quiet education of his children, and worship of the gods. Festival days and pleasant banquets, mutual benevolence and kind entertainment of friends visiting and conversing freely with each other, without fear or jealousy, were the common practice over all Italy, while from Numa's wisdom, as from a fountain, an universal honesty and justice flowed upon all, and his calm tranquillity

diffused itself around every way. So that the high and hyperbolical expressions of the poets are said to fall short in describing the happy state of those days. For during the whole reign of Numa, there was neither war, nor sedition, nor innovation designed against the state, nor even so much as any enmity or envy to the person of the prince, nor was there any plot or conspiracy out of ambitious design to oust him of his government. But either the fear of the gods, who seemed to take a particular care of his person, or a reverence for his virtue, or divine good fortune, which during his time kept men's lives free and pure from all such wickedness, then produced an effectual instance and proof of the truth of that opinion of Plato, which he ventured to deliver many ages after, in relation to a well-formed commonwealth, viz. “That the only means to cause a true cessation or cure of evil among men, must be from some divine conjuncture of fortune, when royal authority, meeting with a philosophical mind in the same person, shall put virtue in a state of power and authority over vice." For the wise man is truly happy; and happy also are they, who can hear and receive the words which flow from the mouth of a wise man. Possibly there would be no need of compulsion or menaces to subject the multitude; but that when they see virtue in a clear and shining instance manifested in the life of their prince, they would freely of themselves grow wise, and conform themselves to an innocent and happy life, in friendship and mutual concord, with justice and moderation, wherein consists the noblest end of all political government, and that prince is of all others most worthy of royal authority, who can bring to effect such a life and such a disposition in his subjects. Now this is what Numa seems to have had constantly in his view more than any other man ...

Numa's death was neither sharp nor sudden, but being gradually worn away with old age and gentle sickness, he at last ended his days a little above fourscore years old. That which made all the glories of his life consummate, was the

honour paid to him at his funeral, when all the people that were in alliance and amity with him, met together at his interment, with public presents and garlands. The senators carried the bier, on which his corpe was laid, and the priests followed and accompanied the solemn procession. All the rest of the train, among which were a great number of women and children, followed with such lamentable sighs and tears, not as if they assisted at the burial of an aged, worn-out king, but rather as if each of them had then buried his dearest relative in the flower of his age.

FROM THE COMPARISON OF NUMA WITH LYCURGUS.

-Thus much of Numa was truly great and god-like, that though an alien, he was thought worthy to be courted to come and take the crown-that he altered the whole frame of the government by mere persuasion, and that he kept the absolute rule over a city consisting of two parties not yet well compacted, which he did without any occasion to make use of arms, or any sort of force; but by mere dint of wisdom and justice brought every one to concur entirely with him, and settled a perfect harmony among them.

GOVERNMENT.

In these our days, we travel from London to York, with great rapidity, in perfect personal security, without accident, without even a jolt, and never stopped by flood, or frost, or snow. The reason is because the money and labour expended, have been expended in making a good road, instead of providing against the defects of a bad one. This is an apt emblem of wise government, directing its means to proper ends, and keeping pace with the times; all then goes on simply and well. But now let us suppose the road from London to York left as it was five hundred years ago, and

passing through morasses and forests, and over desert moors. What loss of time, what uncertainty, what annoyances, what dangers, what impediments, what expense of horses and carriages and living, would then be the consequences! What smiths, what wheelwrights, what surgeons, what robbers, what beggars, what guards, would be found along the line! What inns for travellers, what hospitals for accidents, what refuges for the poor, what stations for police, would border the now cultivated and smiling country! What botching and patching, and what expedients there would be! What acts of parliament! what acts to amend acts! what committees ! what reports! what commissions! what grants of money! We see the parallel continually exhibited in almost all matters of government. Then mole-eyed economists cry out against necessary expense; the profiters by things as they are, strenuously resist improvement, and find supporters for their own interested purposes; whilst the heads of government are too indolent or too timid, to strike at the root of what is defective. At last, when alteration must come, some false principle is adopted to "skin and film the ulcerous place❞—some board and its dependencies is created to reduce the evil to the bearable point, and there to perpetuate it or else there comes an overwhelming flood threatening to sweep away both good and bad together.

The prime remedy for the defects in our institutions is to be found in democratic, or self-government fitly organizedthat government which, by making each part healthy and vigorous, would unite the whole in health and vigour under the monarchy or key-stone. Then would vanish a chaotic mass of evil, which at present renders sound legislation as impossible as it would be to frame an efficient mutiny act for an ill-organized army. In my observation of even the worst part of mankind, I see so great an aptitude for the right path, and so little aberration, considering the quantity of neglect, that I feel confident an adequate enforcement of the real English

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