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CHAP IV.
The dissentions betwixt the Senate and the people of Rome, were the occasion that Commonwealth beame so powerful and free.
I Cannot in silence passover the tumults and commotions which hapned in Rome betwixt the death of the Tarquins, and the creation of those Tribunes. Nor can I forbear say∣ing something against the opinion of many who will needs have Rome to have been a tu∣multuous Republick, so full of mutiny and confusion, that had not its good fortune and va∣lour supplyed for its defects, it would have been inferior to any other Commonwealth whatsoever. I cannot deny but fortune and valour were the occasions of the Roman Em∣pire; but, in my judgment, they do not consider, that where the Souldier is good, the disci∣pline is good; and where the discipline is good, there is commonly good fortune: but to return to the other particulars in that City, I say, those who object against the tumults be∣twixt the Nobles and the people, do in my opinion condemn those very things which were the first occasion of its freedom, regarding the noise and clamours which do usually follow such commotions, more than the good effects they do commonly produce, not con∣sidering that in all Commonwealths there are two opposite humours, one of the People, the other of the Nobles; and that all Laws which are made in favour of liberty, proceed from the differences betwixt them, as may easily be seen in the revolutions of Rome: for from the time of the Tarquins to the Gracchi, (which was more than three hundred years) in all the tumults in Rome seldom any body was banished, and seldomer put to death: so that it is not reasonable to esteem those popular tumults so dangerous and horrible, nor to pronounce that a seditious and bloody Commonwealth, which in so long time, among all their heats and animosities sent not above eight or ten persons into banishment, executed but few, and condemned not many to any pecuniary Mulct. Nor can it be called reasona∣bly disorderly and irregular, which produced so many examples of all sorts of virtue; for good examples proceed from good Education, and good Education from good Laws, and good Laws from those tumults, which many people do so inconsiderately condemn, and who-ever examines their success, will not find they have produced any Laws or Violence to the prejudice of the Common interest, but rather on the contrary. And if any should ob∣ject their ways were wild and unusual, to heat the people roaring against the Senate, and the Senate railing against the people. To see them running tumultuously about the streets, shutting up their shops, and leaving the Town, I answer, that all Cities ought to be allowed some ways of vent and evacuation for their passions, and especially those who expect as∣sistance from their people in time of exigence and danger; in which number the City of Rome was one, and had this custom, that when the Commons had a mind to a new Law, they either committed some of the aforesaid outrages, or else refused to list themselves for the Wars, so that to appease, it was in some measure necessary to comply with them, and the desires of a free people are seldom or never destructive or prejudicial to liberty, because they commonly spring from actual oppression, or an apprehension of it; and if perhaps that apprehension should be vain, and ill grounded, there is the remedy of Conventions, in which some honest man or good Orator may remonstrate their mistake: and the people, though (as Tully says) they may be ignorant, yet they are capable enough of the truth, and do easily submit to it, when delivered to them by any person they think credible, and to be belived. So that it is an obligation upon us to judge more moderately of the Roman Government, and to consider that so many good effects as proceeded from that Republick, could not have been produced but from sutable causes: and if their tumults were the oc∣casion of the creation of the Tribunes, they were more laudable than otherwise; for be∣sides that they secured a share of the Government to the people, they were constituted as Guardians and Conservators of the Roman liberty, as shall be shewn in the Chapter ensuing.