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via., the executive, in spite of a great difference in their 

 respective attributes — for they are identified by their func- 

 tions. The Enghsh executive, wliich rests, according to the 

 theory of the constitution, with the hereditary and irrespon- 

 sible King or Queen, and according to the practical working 

 of that constitution with a limited number of Ministers, 

 appointed for an indefinite period by the people, though by a 

 very indirect mode of election, represents with some degree of 

 accuracy the Roman executive. 



But there is no analogy in the British Constitution to the 

 Roman people. The individual citizen in this country is only 

 called upon at certain distant periods to elect a representative, 

 on whom he confers all his legislative power, and to act, when 

 called upon, as juryman. But the Roman citizen had the 

 right of giving his own individual vote on every legislative 

 measure, and on every act of great political importance pro- 

 posed by the executive — such as questions of peace and war — 

 besides that of directly electing the high officers of state. 

 This arrangement (possible only where state and city coincide, 

 or where one city legislates for the state), does not allow us to 

 draw a close parallel between the political position of the 

 Roman and the English people, and as a mediate consequence, 

 it narrows the ground on which tally the functions of the 

 third remaining power, placed between the two extremes, viz., 

 the Roman Senate and the British Parliament. For it 

 appears at the first glance that the latter, being invested with 

 the chief legislative power, takes in this respect at least a 

 wider range than the Senate at Rome did, where the ultimate 

 decision in legislative matters rested with the popular as- 

 sembly. To this must be added the great influence of the 

 British Parliament in the election of the chief ministers of 

 state, which in Rome was given entirely to the people; 

 furthermore, the highest court of justice, which in Rome was 

 the popular assembly, is in this country the elder branch 

 of the legislature. It appears. therefore that the weight of the 



