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the senators, it being taken for granted that they were the 

 wealthiest. Whilst that feature in general places the Roman 

 Senate and the British houses of Parliament on a par, this 

 similarity is still increased by the circumstance that the sena- 

 torial families were the great landowners of Italy and the 

 empire; were precluded by law from trading, and were en- 

 tirely distinct from the monied class, the knights. What an 

 element of conservatism lay embodied in this fact can be ap- 

 preciated, more particularly in England, where one half of the 

 legislature entirely, and the other half in its great majority, 

 belong to the landed aristocracy. 



I have already mentioned the fact, that the Roman senators 

 held their seats for life. In this respect they materially dif- 

 fered from the members of either house of the English legisla- 

 ture, who are in the Lords hereditary and in the Commons 

 elected for limited periods. But this disparity will finally 

 result in a fair analogy, if, considering the Lords and the 

 Commons as one body, we weigh the frequent changes in the 

 one fraction, against the hereditary nature of the other ; the 

 average duration of membership and the degree of conservatism 

 could hardly be more adequately expressed than by a single 

 body, in which, as in the Roman Senate, every member was 

 elected, but for life. 



Touching next the mode of election, we shall find, though 

 not apparent at first sight, some similarity between the two 

 poKtical bodies. It is true, the Roman senators were not 

 chosen by the people, nor hereditary members of the great 

 council of the republic ; but they were admitted by the execu- 

 tive, first by the consuls, and after the establishment of the 

 censorship, by the censors. Yet we ought to bear in mind, 

 that censors were not quite free in their selections ; that they 

 were bound first by custom, and then by express law, to select 

 men, who had blamelessly discharged public offices from 

 the qusestorship upwards ; nay, that these public officers 

 during their period of office had always a seat in the Senate, 



