157 



80 much of what we know with some degree of certainty of the 

 Roman Senate, as will enable us to appreciate the exact posi- 

 tion, weight, and influence of that body in the political 

 organization of the Roman Republic; and to draw a com- 

 parison between it and the two houses of the British Parlia- 

 ment. I shall do this with a view to show how the history of 

 antiquity and history in general should be studied at the 

 present day, so as not to be an accumulation in the memory 

 of mere facts, names, dates, and institutions, totally isolated, 

 and therefore imperfectly understood, and susceptible of no 

 application as a lesson for our own conduct ; but elucidated 

 by comparison, measured by measures known to us (viz., the 

 facts and institutions of modern times), and* thus acquiring a 

 degree of reality, certainty, life, and vigour in our imagina- 

 tion, which will enable us to derive from them both moral and 

 political lessons for the regulation of our own affairs. 



The Roman Republic may be called a mixed government^ 

 inasmuch as it was not placed under one ruling body or person, 

 unrestricted by other persons or bodies. It resembled in its 

 outline ali the other republics of classical antiquity, whilst, in 

 comparing it to a modern State, we shall find that the chief 

 component parts of the two do not tally. There were at 

 Rome, as in aU the ancient republics, 1st, an executivey con- 

 sisting in certain public functionaries periodically changing 

 by annual electron, and responsible for all their public acts ; 

 2nd, a select body, deliberative, administrative, and partly 

 legislative, the Senate. Such a body was as essentially a part, 

 as the executive, in the organism of all ancient republics, 

 whether aristocratic or democratic ; 3rdly, the assembly of the 

 sovereign people, with the power of electing the chief officers 

 of the executive, of confirming or rejecting laws and decrees, 

 and lastly, of exercising supreme jurisdiction. 



Comparing these three constitutive parts of the ancient 

 republics to our modern constitutional monarchies, and 

 especially to England, we can easily identify the first power, 



