nobles took the land on the frontier, they did it with much risk and with frequent serious loss to themselves; and by maintaining possession, they had rendered great service to the state. To deprive them of the property so soon as it became the source of secure profit would be highly unfair. The great inequality in the size of the tracts, the differences in the circumstances under which they had been originally occupied, and the varieties of the dangers which the occupants had encountered in early and late years, rendered it difficult to devise plans which would not be the source of much injustice to a considerable proportion of those dispossessed, while it was obviously unjust to entirely exclude the plebeians.

These remarks are intended as a general introduction to the agrarian agitations, the first of which, as was stated in the beginning of this section, is attributed in Roman legend to the year 486 B. C., when Spurius Cassius, as consul, proposed to give tracts of public land to plebeians. His scheme was met by the patricians with angry denunciation, and he was silenced by murder. Of the situation or quantity of the land which he wished to divide, or of the other details of his scheme, we know nothing. No measures were taken to punish his murderers; and more than a generation elapsed before anything was again heard of an agrarian law.

SEC. 436. Tribal Assembly.-In 471 B. C. some bills in the nature of constitutional amendments, proposed by Publilius Volero, were adopted. One of them provided that the tribunes of the people, five in number, should be elected, not by the centuriate assembly as before,' but by an assembly of the tribes, which was controlled by, if not composed exclusively of, plebeians. It is probable that the election of plebeian ædiles, who were officers of

some streets and markets and had charge of certain public buildings, was given at the same time to the tribal assembly which now took a permanent place in the government.

The legend says that another in the series of Publilian laws gave a share of the legislative authority to the tribal assembly; but this statement is doubtful, because such a concession should not be expected in this stage of political development, and because the next twenty years were not marked by the events which might have been expected if the plebeian assembly had been admitted in 471 B. C. to participate equally with the centuriate assembly in the law-making power.

There have been instances, as in the English Habeas Corpus, in which certain rights have been guaranteed to the people in a succession of official documents; but those are not analogous to the bestowal of a large share in the government on a popular assembly previously provided with the means and the motives of defending and increasing its privileges.

To observe the natural course of development in a political society somewhat similar to that of the Roman republic in the first two centuries of its existence, we must go back to Athens, the mother of democracy. The first important concession which that city, after establishing the strict aristocracy, made to popular rights was the reform of Draco, who compiled and published the laws previously the secret possession of some few nobles. Her next concession was the reform of Solon, who abolished enslavement for debt; opened the highest offices to rich commoners; admitted all adult male citizens with an equal vote into the popular assembly, which possessed exclusive legislative power and supreme and direct con

trol over all branches of the government; and the establishment of a senate, annually chosen from the citizens generally, with power to prepare bills, and supervise the administration, as representatives of the assembly, when the latter was not in session. The third important

reform in Athens was that of Cleisthenes, who provided for regular and frequent meetings of the assembly so that it could exercise its powers efficiently; and who made a new apportionment of voters in such a manner that the nobles could no longer control the votes as they had done previously. The fourth and last reform, establishing a complete equality of all political rights in Athens, was that of Aristides, who threw open all the offices to all adult male citizens.

In Rome, according to Livy, the corresponding order of events comprised, first, the admission of all plebeians to a vote in the popular assembly under such restrictions that the poor citizens, who were a large majority, had very little influence in the government; second, the creation of the office of tribune, who, though selected under patrician control, was to protect the plebeians against patrician oppression; third, the transfer of the election of tribunes to the plebeian tribes, and the endowment of those tribes with a share in the legislative power; fourth, the compilation and publication of the laws; fifth, the opening of all offices to the plebeians, but under such circumstances that poor citizens could very rarely be elected; and sixth, the abolition of enslavement for debt. In Rome the poor plebeians never had an equal vote in the election of the highest officers, and the tribal assembly never acquired exclusive legislative authority or direct and continuous control of the administration.

The disparity in the march of liberal institutions in the

two leading republics of antiquity does not prove that the less trustworthy story of Rome is false, but it suffices to strengthen our doubts in regard to Livy's statement that the tribes were permitted in 471 B. C. to participate in legislation.

SEC. 437. XII Tables.-In 449 and 448 B. C. a series of written laws, known as the XII Tables, prepared by the decemvirs, were enacted. They were a summary of the main principles of civil and constitutional law that in the opinion of the leading men of Rome needed explicit statement. The first table, or chapter, treated of proceedings preliminary to trial; the second, of trial; the third, of execution of the judgment; the fourth, of paternal power; the fifth, of inheritance and guardianship; the sixth, of ownership and possession; the seventh, of real property; the eighth, of torts; the ninth, of public land; the tenth, of sacred law; the eleventh, of marriage; and the twelfth, of sacerdotal affairs.

Many fragments of these laws have been preserved, but we have no complete copy of any one table; and in regard to many of the sentences and sections there are reasons to doubt whether portions may not be missing. The portions now in our possession have been arranged in paragraphs, of which there are one hundred and five; on an average, about nine to a table. Of these paragraphs some are here copied from Hunter.' The chapters, or tables, are indicated by the Roman, and the paragraphs by the Arabic numerals.

I. I. "When summoned in a civil suit by the plaintiff, the defendant shall go with him to the magistrate; and if he refuses, the plaintiff, calling a bystander to witness, may take him by force."

I. 6. “If the parties do not agree, the plaintiff shall state his case to the magistrate before noon."

I. 7. "If one of the litigants has not appeared by midday [on the second day of the hearing], the magistrate shall render judgment for the other."

II. 2. "Theft may be the subject of compromise."

III. 5. "A delinquent debtor may be kept in chains for sixty days, in the course of which he must be brought before the Prætor in the forum on three successive market days, and the amount of the debt shall be publicly declared. After the third market day, the debtor may be punished with death or sold into slavery beyond the Tiber."

III. 6. "After the third market day, the creditors [if there be more than one] may cut [off] their several portions [respective proportions] of his body; and anyone who cuts more or less than his just share shall be held guiltless.'

IV. 2. "During his whole life the father shall have absolute power over his legitimate children. He may imprison or scourge his son, or keep him at work in fetters, or sell him, or put him to death, even though the son had been famous for his public services and had held the highest offices in the state."

V. 3. "The provisions of the will of a father of a family concerning his property and the guardianship of his family shall be enforced."

V. 4. "If the father of a family die intestate and without near heirs, the property shall pass to his nearest relative in the male line."

V. 5. "If he has no such relative, the property shall pass to his clansmen."

VI. 3. "A prescriptive title is acquired after two years' possession in the case of realty; after one year's possession in the case of other property."