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Senate, aiid its political importance, as wc shall see hereafter. 



I will now add a few remarks on the dillereut ranks and 

 grades of senators, -on the mode of convoking and hold- 

 ing the Senate, — the mode of presiding, conducting a 

 debate, putting questions to the vote, on divisions, drawing 

 up of decrees, and similar matters, which may be interesting 

 as points of comparison between that body and the English 

 Parliament. 



There were neither regular periodical sittings nor sessions. 

 Whenever there was a necessity for the Senate to meet, the 

 magistrate who had the right to convoke the Senate, sent 

 his messengers round to every senator, or convened the 

 Senate by public proclamation. Without being convoked 

 in due form by a magistrate the Senate could not assemble. 



The place of meeting was generally the Curia Hostilia 

 in the Forum, or rather Comitium, but the Senate might 

 meet in any other place provided it was a templuniy i.e., a 

 consecrated spot (not necessarily a temple), which was requi- 

 site for the due performance of the religious ceremonies 

 that preceded a meeting of the Senate. When foreign 

 ambassadors were introduced to the Senate, the meeting took 

 place generally outside the walls of Rome, in the Temple of 

 Apollo or Bellona. 



The Senate could not meet before sunrise, nor protract 

 its sittings beyond sunset. This some of our legislators would 

 no doubt consider a very enviable regulation. 



As all public acts in Rome were accompanied by certain 

 prescribed religious ceremonies, so the Senate met only after 

 due performance of the auspices. It may perhaps be well to 

 remark, that the ministers of religion at Rome, if we may so 

 call the augurs, pontifices and other priests, were strictly under 

 the control of the civil authorities ; they acted no independent 

 part, no augur 'for instance could take the auspices, unless 

 called upon to do so by the civil magistrate. 



It is worth remarking here, that there is a marked difference 



