SENATE. 



ferious, they acquired a fpecial jurifdiftion and cognizance 

 in many points of great importance, to the exclufion even 

 of the people ; who yet, by the laws and conftitution of 

 the government, had tlie abfolute dominion over all. For 



example: ,• n.- j 



1. They affumed to themfelves the guardianlhip and 

 fuperintendance of the public religion ; fo that no new god 

 could be introduced, nor altar crefted, nor the Sibylline 

 books confulted, without their exprefa order. 



2. They held it as their prerogative, to fettle the number 

 and condition of the foreign " provinces, that were an- 

 nually, affigned to the magiftrates, and to declare which of 

 them fhould be confular, and which prstorian provinces. 



3. They had the diftribution of the public treafure, and 

 all the expences of the government ; the appointment of 

 ftipends to their generals, with the number of their lieu- 

 tenants and their troops, and the provifions and clothing of 

 their armies. 



4. They nominated all ambaffadors fent from Rome, out 

 of their own body, and received and difmilTed all who came 

 from foreign ftates, with fuch anfwers as they thought 

 proper. 



5. They had the right of decreeing all fupplications, or 

 public thankfgivings, for viftories obtained, and of con- 

 ferring the honour of an ovation, or triumph, with the title 

 of emperor, on their viftorious general?. 



6. It was their province to inquire into public crimes or 

 treafons, either in Rome, or the other parts of Italy ; and to 

 hear and determine all difputej among the allied and de- 

 pendent cities. 



7. They exercifed a power, not only of interpreting the 

 laws, but abfolving men from the obligation of them, and 

 even of abrogating them. 



8. In the cafe of civil diifenfions, or dangerous tumults 

 within the city, they could arm the confuls by a vote with 

 abfolute power, to dcftroy and put to death, without the 

 formality of trial, all fuch citizens as were concerned in ex- 

 citing them. 



9. They had a power to prorogue, or poltpone the aflem- 

 blies of the people ; to decree the title of king to any prince 

 whom they pleafed ; thanks and praife to thsfe who had de- 

 ferved them ; pardon and reward to enemies, or the dil- 

 coverers of any treafon ; to declare any one an enemy by a 

 vote ; and to prefcribe a general change of habit to the city, 

 in cafes of any imminent danger or calamity. 



The tribunes foon fnatched from them that original right, 

 which they had enjoyed from the very foundation of the 

 city, of being the authors, or firft movers of every thing, 

 which was to be enafted by the people, and excluded them 

 from any fhare or influence in the aflcmblics of their tribes ; 

 and though in the other affemblies of the curis and the cen- 

 turies, they feemed to have referved to them their ancient 

 right, yet it was reduced to a mere form, without any real 

 force ; for inttead of being what they had always been, the 

 authors of each particular aft that was to be propofed to the 

 people's deliberation, they were obliged, by a fpecial law, 

 to authorize every aflembly of the people, and whatever 

 fhould be determined in it, even before they had proceeded 

 to any vote. And C. Gracchus afterwards, in his famous 

 tribunate, ufed to boaft that he had demohfhed the fenate at 

 once, by transferring to the equeft;rian order the right of 

 judicature in all criminal caufes, which the fenate had pof- 

 fefled from the time of the kings. 



It has been a queftion among the learned, how fenators 

 were created, and how the vacancies of the fenate in old 

 Rome were fupplied. 



Dr. Middleton is of opinion, that tlie conftant and regular 

 9 



fupply of the fenate was from the annual magiftrates ; who, 

 by virtue of their fevcral officjs, acquired an immediate right 

 to lit and vote in that aiiembly. The ufual gradation of 

 thefe offices was that of quseltor, tribune of the people, xdile, 

 prxtor, and conful ; which every candidate, in the ordinary 

 forms of the conilitution, wasobhged to take in their order, 

 with this exception only, that he might forego either the tri. 

 bunate, or the sedileftiip, at his own ciioice, without a nc- 

 ceflity of palling through them both. See Qvxstor, Tri- 

 bune, &c. 



But though thefe offices gave both an immediate right, 

 and aftual entrance into the lenate, yet the fenatorian cha- 

 rafter was not elteemed complete, till the tiew fenators had 

 been enrolled by the cenfors at the next lullrum, or general 

 review of all the orders of the city, which was generally held 

 every five years. Yet this enrolment was but a matter of 

 form, which could not be denied to any of them, except for 

 fomc legal incapacity, or the notoriety of fome crince, or in- 

 famy upon their charafters ; for which the fame cenfors 

 could expel, or deprive any dlher fenator, of what rank or 

 (landing foever. See Censor. 



It has been the opinion of fome, that under the king^ of 

 Rome the choice and nomination of all the fenators depcnfled 

 wholly on the will of the prince, v-khout any right in the 

 people, either direft or indireA ; and that the confuls, who 

 Succeeded to the kingly power, enjoyed the fame prero- 

 gative, till the creation of the cenfors, who ever after pof- 

 fefled the fole and abfolute right of making and unmaking 

 fenators. But Dr. Middleton is of opinion, tnat the kings, 

 the confuls, and the cenfors, afted in this affair but minif- 

 terially and fubordinately to the fupreme will of the people, 

 in whom the proper and abfolute power of creating fenators 

 always refided. And the doftor adurcs us, upon the ftriflcft 

 fearch into the ftateof theprefent queftion, as it flood under 

 the kingly government, he cannot but conclude, from the 

 exprefs tellimony of the bell hillorians, the concurrence of 

 fimilar fads, and the probability of the thing itielf, that the 

 right of ciioofing fenators was originally and conllitutionally 

 veiled in the people. Middleton of Rom. Sen. p. j6. 



But lord Hervcy, who feems to have lludied the Roman 

 hiilory with care and attention, is of a different opinion. 

 The fenate, at its firll ellabhihment (notu-ithllanding the 

 judicial and legiflative power it afterwards acquired) was 

 nothing more than the king's council. In this light not 

 only Fettus, Eutropius, and Livy, reprefent the fenate, but 

 even Dionyfius himfelf. It is therefore highly probable, hit 

 lordlhip fays, that each member of this council wa-- merely, 

 as Livy and Plutarch relate, the choice of the king, and not, 

 as Dionyfius reports, elefted by the people. Nor is there 

 the lead ground to imagine, he tells us, from any author 

 whatever, except Dionyfius, that during the whole regal 

 government, the people had, direftly or indirettly, aftually 

 or virtually, any Ihare or concern at all in the choice of the 

 fenators. The firtl inftitution, in a word, every augmenta- 

 tion, and every fupply on vacancies, he fuppofcs to have 

 depended entirely on the will and authority of the kings. 

 Nor does he, like Monfieur Vertot, imagine thereafon why 

 Dionyfius had reported otherwife, proceeded from his repub- 

 lican fpirit, but from what every body who reads him mud 

 find in his manner of defcribing every inftitution, law, or 

 cuitom, among the Romans, viz. an affeftation of tracing 

 its origin from fome fimilar practice in the Grecian Hates, in 

 order, from his partiality to that country, to give Greece 

 the honour of having furnilhed the ll<(.tch of every plan, on 

 which the Roman government was framed, and the Roman 

 greatnefs raifed. 



Soon after the cxpulfion of Tarquin, and the eftablifhment 



of 



