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THe power of the Tribunes stir'd the causes of all sediti∣ons, vnder pretext of de∣fending the common peo∣ple, for whose helpe that power was ordained, but in very truth that the Tri∣bunes might ingrosse abso∣lute authoritie to them∣selues,
and for that cause courted the commons for their speciall fauour, & good will, by enacting lawes which allotted them land, corne, and seates of iudge∣ment, gratis. There was a colour of equitie in each; for what so iust, as the peo∣ple to receiue their right at the hands of the Fathers of the State? for them who were the lords of nations, and possessors of the earth, not to liue like strangers to their owne homes, and temples? what more rea∣sonable, then that the poor should liue vpon their own eschequer? what could be more effectuall to make the templer of liberty euen, and
indifferent? then the Senate gouerning prouinces, that the cheualrie, and gentle∣men of Rome, to support their authoritie at home, should haue the as it were kingdome of iudgement∣seates? Yet euen these very things turnd pernicious, & the wofull common-weale came thereby to be the wa∣ges of her proper ouer∣throw: for the cheualrie, and inferiour nobles being made iudges, which till then the lords of Counsell were, they purloynd the publike incomes, that is to say, the patrimonie of the empire; and the paying for the common peoples corn out of the publike money,
suckt dry the very sinewes of State, the treasury: and how could the cōmon sort be made landed men, with∣out eiecting thē who were already in possession, and were themselues also a por∣tion of the people? and who held their seates of a∣bode, left them from their ancestors, by prescription, as a title of inheritance.