gacy, and to the establishment of those countenanced corruptions which raised the more celebrated, but infamous, Athenian women

To that bad eminence.

Every description of men, who know how to estimate public good or private happiness, will joyfully acknowledge the visible effect which Christianity has had (independently of its influence over its real votaries) in improving and elevating the general standard of morals, so as considerably to rectify and raise the conduct of those who are not directly actuated by its principles. And, lastly, to say nothing of a pure church establishment, so diametrically the reverse of the deplorably blind and ignorant rites of Athenian worship,-who can contemplate, without a thankful heart, that large infusion of Christianity into our national laws, which has set them so infinitely above all comparison with the admired codes of Lycurgus and of Solon?

CHAPTER VIII.

Rome.

IF the Romans, from being a handful of banditti, rendered themselves in a short period the lords of the universe; if Rome, from being an ordinary town in Italy, became foremost in genius and in arms, and at length unrivalled in imperial magnificence; let it be remembered, that the foundations of this greatness were laid in some of the extraordinary virtues of that republic. The personal frugality of her citizens; the remarkable simplicity of their manners; the habit of transferring from themselves to the state all pretensions to external con*Acts of the Apostles, chap. xvii.

sequence and splendour; the strictness of her laws, and the striking impartiality of their execution; that inflexible regard to justice, which led them, in the early ages of the republic-so little was the doctrine of expediency in repute among them-to inflict penalties on those citizens who even conquered by deceit and not by valour; that vigilant attention to private morals which the establishment of a censorship secured, and that zeal for liberty, which was at the same time supported by her political constitution. These causes were the true origin of the Roman greatness. This was the pedestal on which her colossal power was erected; and though she remained mistress of the world, even at a time when these virtues had begun to decline, the first impulse not having ceased to operate, yet a discerning eye might even then perceive her growing internal weakness, and might anticipate her final dissolution.

Republican Rome, however, has been much too highly panegyrized. The Romans had, indeed, a public feeling, to which every kind of private affection gave way; and it is chiefly on the credit of their sacrificing their individual interests to the national cause, that they acquired so high a

renown.

It may not be unworthy of remark, that the grand fundamental principle of the ancient republics (and though it was still more strikingly manifest in the Grecian, it was in no small degree the case with republican Rome) was different from that which constitutes the essential principle of the British constitution, and even opposite to it. In the former, the public was every thing; the rights, the comforts, the very existence of individuals, were as nothing. With us, happily, the case is very different, nay, even exactly the reverse. The well-being of the whole community is provided for, by effectually securing the rights. the safety, the comforts

of every individual. Among the ancients, the grossest acts of injustice against private persons were continually perpetrated, and were regarded as beneath account, when they stood in the way of the will, the interest, the aggrandisement, the glory of the state. In our happier country, not the meanest subject can be injured in his person or his possessions. The little stock of the artisan, the peaceful cottage of the peasant, is secured to him by the universal superintendence and the strong protection of the public force. The state is justly considered as made up of an aggregate of particular families; and it is by securing the well-being of each, that all are preserved in prosperity. We could delight to descant largely on this topic; and surely the contemplation could not but warm the hearts of Britons with lively gratitude to the Author of all their blessings, and with zealous attachment to that constitution which conveys and secures to them the enjoyment of such unequalled happiness! But we dare not expatiate in so wide a field. Let us, however, remark the degree in which the benevolent spirit of Christianity is transfused into our political system. As it was the glory of our religion to take the poor under her instruction, and to administer her consolations to the wretched; so it is the beauty of our constitution that she considers, not as below her care, the seats of humble but honest industry, the peaceful dwellings and quiet enjoyments of the lover of domestic comfort.

Again-This vital spirit of our constitution is favourable to virtue, as well as congenial with religion, and conducive to happiness. It checks that spirit of injustice and oppression which is so manifest in the conduct of the ancient republics towards all other nations. It tends to diffuse a general sense of moral obligation, a continual reference to the claims of others, and our own consequent

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obligations in short, a continual reference to the real rights of man; a term which, though so shamefully abused, and converted into the watchword of riot and rebellion, yet, truly and properly understood, is of sound meaning and constant application. By princes especially, these rights should ever be kept in remembrance. They were, indeed, never so well secured, as by that excellent injunction of our blessed Saviour, "To do to others as we would have them do to us." And to which the apostle's brief, but comprehensive directions, form an admirable commentary: Honour all menyour brethren-fear God-honour the king.' But, to return to the Romans: their very patriotism, by leading them to thirst for universal empire, finally destroyed them, being no less fatal to the morals than to the greatness of the state. Even their vaunted public spirit partly originated in the necessities of their situation. They were a little state, surrounded by a multitude of other little states, and they had no safety but in union. "Necessity first roused the genius of war, and the habits of experienced and successful valour kept him awake. The love of wealth and power, in latter ages, carried on what original bravery had begun : till, in the unavoidable vicissitude of human affairs, Rome perished beneath the weight of that pile of glory which she had been so long rearing."*

Their laws and constitution were naturally calculated to promote their public spirit, and to produce their union. Having succeeded in repelling the attacks of the small rival powers, and, by their peculiar fortune, or rather by the designation of Providence, having become the predominating power in Italy, they proceeded to add conquest to conquest, making, in the pride of conscious superiority, wars evidently the most unjust. Yet it must not * Carlo Denina, on the ancient Republics of Italy.

be denied, that the occupation which progressive conquests found for the citizens, communicated a peculiar hardiness to the Roman character, and served to retard the growth both of luxury and faction. That public spirit, which might be justified when it applied itself to wars of self-defence, became by degrees little better than the principle of a band of robbers on a great scale; at the best, of honourable robbers, who, for the sake of the spoil, agree fairly to co-operate in order to obtain it, and divide it equally when it is obtained.

This public spirit seems to have existed so long as there were any objects of foreign ambition remaining, and so long as any sense was left of foreign danger. Even in the midst of unlawful and unrelenting war, it is important to bear in mind, that many of the ancient virtues were still assiduously cultivated; the laws were still had in reverence, and, in spite of a corrupt polytheism, and of many and great defects in the morality and the constitution of Rome, this was the salt which, for a time, preserved her. The firmness of character, and deep political sagacity of the Romans, seem to have borne an exact proportion to each other. That foreseeing wisdom, that penetrating policy, which led Montesquieu to observe, that they conquered the world by maxims and principles, seem in reality to have insured the success of their conquests, almost more than their high national valour, and their bold spirit of enterprise.

What was it which afterwards plunged Rome into the lowest depths of degradation, and finally blotted her out from among the nations? It was her renouncing those maxims and principles. It was her departure from every virtuous and self-denying habit. It was the gradual relaxation of private morals. It was the substitution of luxury for temperance, and of a mean and narrow selfishness for