192 



SEMLIN SENATE. 



preserved by the influence of his mother; but, after 

 her death, he yielded to the influence of his father 

 and brother, became desponding, and wept and 

 prayed the whole day. He went to the university 

 ot Halle in 1742, where he became acquainted with 

 some young men who had brighter views of life, 

 and his gloom wore off. He became a pupil of the 

 liberal professor Baumgarten, partook in his lite- 

 rary labours, and in the dissertation which he wrote 

 on taking the degree of master of arts, defended 

 the genuineness of some passages in the New Tes- 

 tament, which had been attacked by the English 

 writer Whiston, and went, in 1750, to Coburg, 

 where he edited the Coburg Gazette. A diplo- 

 matic paper gained him the favour of the duke, 

 and he was appointed professor of history and 

 poetry at Altdorf; but after the lapse of a year, 

 he was made professor of theology at Halle, 

 where he and professor Baumgarten were op- 

 l-o-i'd to all the rest of the theological faculty. 

 His lectures on ecclesiastical history, hermeneutics 

 and dogmatics, were fully attended, and, in 1757, 

 he was made head of the theological seminary, after 

 the death of Baumgarten, whose life he published 

 in 1758. His works are full of learning, but exhibit 

 little elegance. He died in 1791, after having 

 endured many severe trials, owing partly to his par- 

 ticular views of religion, and his hatred of all re- 

 strictions on conscience. Semler, though some- 

 times imprudent from want of tact, was a man of 

 strict virtue, a most tender conscience, and a pious 

 heart. Griesbach was his pupil. The value of 

 Semler's labours towards illustrating the history of 

 the sacred text, and contributing to a right under- 

 standing of the New Testament by a reference to 

 the condition and opinions of its authors, and the 

 fearlessness with which he proceeded in his histori- 

 cal method of exegetics, and thus showed the human 

 origin of many theological dogmas (in his notes 

 to Wetstein's Prolegomena and critical works ; his 

 Introduction to Theological Hermeneutics, and his 

 apparatuses fora liberal interpretation of the Canon), 

 will be long remembered, and acknowledged even 

 by those who are opposed to many of his views. 



SEMLIN; a Sclavonic military community, and 

 fortified frontier city (see Military Districts'), not 

 far from the junction of the Save with the Danube, 

 only a quarter of a league distant from the Turkish 

 city of Belgrade, which lies opposite to it, on the 

 Danube. Semlin contains seven churches and 

 chapels, one convent, 1200 houses, with 8000 in- 

 habitants, not including the soldiers. It carries on 

 an important commerce with Turkey. There is a 

 daily fair on the Belgrade meadow, where, however, 

 the Turkish merchants are separated from the Hun- 

 garian by barriers, to prevent the transmission of 

 the plague. 



SEN ASSY. See Fakir. 



SENATE. This term has been applied to bodies 

 of very different powers and constitutions in dif- 

 ferent countries. The Roman senate (senatas), in 

 the early periods of the city (see Patricians"), par- 

 ticipated in the judicial and executive powers of 

 the k>'ng, and even in the management of military 

 affairs, by means of its influence with the people. 

 Historians commonly attribute its creation to the 

 wisdom of Romulus ; but it may be asserted, with- 

 out exception, that, among all the civilized nations 

 around the Mediterranean, a senate, or select body 

 of elder citizens, was considered no less essential 

 and indispensable than a popular assembly. Such 

 a council, says Aristotle, there always is, whether 



the constitution be aristocratical or democratical. 

 It is also generally said that the number was in- 

 creased, under Tarquinius Priscus, to 300. How- 

 ever this may be, it is plain that it corresponded 

 to the tribes, the 300 houses (gentes}, which ori- 

 ginally composed the three tribes, being represented 

 in the senate, each by its decurio, or head. At a 

 later period, the choice {lectio) of the senators was 

 connected with the censorship. Every lustre (i. e. 

 every five years), the censor read aloud the names 

 of the senators, the worthiest first; and the one 

 first named was called princeps senatus. Those 

 who were unworthy of the dignity were degraded 

 by the omission of their names. The equestrian 

 order was the nursery from which the senate was 

 supplied. In the time of the republic, a senator 

 was required to have property of the value of about 

 4,000; in the time of Augustus, of 6,000. The 

 supreme officers of government assembled the senate, 

 which acted on propositions laid before it by them, 

 article by article, and decided by a majority of 

 voices. A decree of the senate was called a sena- 

 tus consultum. If a tribune opposed the decree, or 

 the senate was not full, the act was called senatus 

 auctoritas, and was submitted to the people. The 

 tribunes of the people could reject every proposi- 

 tion before the senate by their veto. All matters of 

 public administration the choice of public officers, 

 legislation, and questions of peace and war were 

 within the jurisdiction of the senate, which likewise 

 superintended the financial concerns of the republic. 

 The authority of the senate was styled auctoritas; 

 that of the people, potestas: the former decreed 

 (decernebaf), the latter ordered (jubebaf). Still, 

 in those cases in which it was subject to the deci- 

 sions of the people (plebis-scita'), the authority of 

 the senate was extensive ; and in other matters its 

 acts {senatus consulta) had the force of laws. Under 

 the emperors, the senate gradually lost its political 

 consideration; but until the time of Constantine 

 the Great, many imperial decrees, which the senate 

 issued by the command of the emperors, were called 

 senatus consulta, and took the place of the laws 

 enacted by the people (leges'). It finally became 

 so submissive, that it often decided on the proposi- 

 tions of the emperors, without deliberation, by ac- 

 clamation. 



The French senate came into existence after the 

 revolution of the 18th Brumaire, which placed 

 Bonaparte at the head of the government, when he 

 caused a new (the fourth) constitution to be drawn 

 up (Dec. 13, 1799), which, besides three consuls, 

 the tribunate, and the legislative body, established a 

 conservative senate (scnai conservateur), consisting 

 of eighty members, of at least forty years old. 

 The senate was to choose its own members for life, 

 on the nomination of the first consul, the tribunate, 

 and the legislative body; preserve the constitution, 

 and, with this view, inspect the acts of the legis- 

 lative body ; choose the consuls, tribunes, and mem- 

 bers of the legislature, from the lists presented by 

 the departments; and supply vacancies by the 

 choice of one of the three individuals nominated by 

 the three other branches of government. Each 

 senator had a yearly pension of 25,000 francs, af- 

 terwards increased (exclusive of the senatories) to 

 36,000. This body soon became a tool in the 

 hands of the first consul, for the conversion of the 

 republic into a monarchy. This took place when 

 the senate sanctioned the decree proposed by the 

 council of Bonaparte, for a new change in the con- 

 stitution of France. The fundamental law, or 



