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• To His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland.
• Introduction.
• Postscript.
• Political Discourses Upon Sallust.
• Discourse I.: Of Faction and Parties.
• Sect. I.: How Easily the People Are Led Into Faction, and Kept In It, By Their Own Heat and Prejudices, and the Arts of Their Leaders; How Hard They Are to Be Cured; and With What Partiality and Injustice Each Side Treats the Other.
• Sect. II.: How Apt Parties Are to Err In the Choice of Their Leaders. How Little They Regard Truth and Morality, When In Competition With Party. the Terrible Consequences of All This; Worthy Men Decried and Persecuted; Worthless and Wicked Men Popular and
• Sect. III.: Party Infers Public Weakness: Its Devilish Spirit, and Sirange Blindness: What Public Ruin It Threatens: the People Rarely Interested In It; Yet How Eager and Obstinate In It, and Bewitched By It.
• Discourse II.: Of Patriots and Parricides.
• Sect. I.: How Virtue and Vice, Public Services, and Public Crimes, May Be Said to Bring Their Own Rewards.
• Sect. II.: A Suffering Patriot More Happy Than a Successful Parricide: Public Oppressors Always Unhappy.
• Sect. III.: Cautions Against the Arts and Encroachments of Ambition. the Character of a Patriot, and That of a Parricide. How Much It Is the Duty, How Much the Interest, of All Governors to Be Patriots.
• Sect. IV.: How Apt the World Is to Be Deceived With Glare and Outside, to Admire Prosperous Iniquity, and to Slight Merit In Disgrace. Public Spirit the Duty of All Men. the Evils and Folly Attending the Want of It.
• Sect. V.: Considerations Upon Two Distinguished Romans, Cato and Cæsar; One In the Interest of His Country, the Other In His Own Interest: With the Fate and Issue of Cæsar’s Ambition, to Himself and His Race.
• Discourse III.: Of the Resignation of Sylla.
• Sect. I.: His Policy In Resigning; His Motives and Encouragement to Resign.
• Sect. II.: What Measures, and Precautions, He Had Taken For His Security, After His Resignation.
• Discourse IV.: Of the Pride and Ill Conduct of the Patricians, After the Expulsion of Kings.
• Sect. I.: The Roman Commonwealth Unequally Balanced. the Kingly Power, Upon the Expulsion of Tarquin, Engrossed, and Imperiously Exercised, By the Patricians. the Ill Policy of This to Themselves, the Injustice of It to the Plebeians.
• Sect. II.: The Plebeians, Long Oppressed, Obtain a Remedy By Force; But a Remedy Dangerous to the State.
• Discourse V.: Of the Institution and Power of the Popular Tribunes.
• Sect. I.: The Blind Confidence of the People In the Tribunes: the Ambition, and Violent Attempts, of Those Popular Leaders.
• Sect. II.: Reflections On the Plausible Professions, and Dangerous Conduct, of the Gracchi. Public Reformations, How Cautiously to Be Attempted.
• Sect. III.: The Boundless Power Assumed By the Tribunes: With What Boldness and Iniquity They Exercise It. the People Still Their Dupes.
• Discourse VI.: Of Public Corruption; Particularly That of the Romans.
• Sect. I.: The Interest of Virtue, and of the Public, Every Man’s Interest.
• Sect. II.: The Fatal Tendency of Public Corruption. the Public Sometimes Served By Encouraging Private Corruption. Other Means of Corruption, Beside That of Money. Corruption Sometimes Practised By Such Who Rail At It; In Some Instances, By Good Men, Who
• Sect. III.: Some Corruptions In the State to Be Borne, Rather Than Removed By the Introduction of Greater.
• Sect. IV.: How Hard to Prevent Corruption, Where the Means of Corruption Are Found.
• Sect. V.: Venal Men, With What Ill Grace They Complain of Any Ill Conduct, Or Corruption, In Him Who Bought Them: People Once Corrupted, How Abandoned to All Corruption.
• Sect. VI.: Amongst a Corrupt People, the Most Debauched and Desperate Leaders Are the Most Popular.
• Sect. VII.: When the People Are Thoroughly Corrupt, All True Sense of Liberty Is Lost. Outrage and Debauchery Then Pass For Liberty, Defiance of Law For Public Spirit, and Incendiaries For Patriots.
• Sect. VIII.: The Swift Progress of Corruption In the Roman Republic. Its Final Triumph In the Dissolution of the State.
• Discourse VII.: Of the Corruption In the Roman Seats of Justice, and the Oppression In the Provinces.
• Sect. I.: Of the Extreme Difficulty In Procuring Justice At Rome, Against Any Considerable Criminal.
• Sect. II.: The Wonderful Guilt and Enormities of Verres In Sicily, Confidently Committed, From Assurance of Impunity. Cicero’ S Character of the Judges: Their Bold and Constant Venality.
• Sect. III.: The Virtue of the Old Romans, In the Administration of Justice, and Government of Provinces. Their Posterity, and Successors, How Unlike Them. the Wise and Righteous Administration of Cicero, With That of the Provincial Governors In China
• Discourse VIII.: Of Civil Wars.
• Sect. I.: Who the First Authors of Civil War: What Inslames It Most, and Why It Is So Hard to Be Checked.
• Sect. II.: The Chief Power In a Civil War, Vested In the Generals, Yet Little Reverenced By the Soldiers. Both Soldiers and People Grow Hardened and Ungovernable.
• Sect. III.: The Shocking Corruption, and Dissolute Manners, Produced By Civil War; With the Dreadful Barbarities and Devastations Attending It.
• Sect. IV.: The Soldiery, In a Civil War, Only Consider Themselves: What Low Instruments and Causes Serve to Begin and Continue It.
• Sect. V.: How Hard to Put an End to a Civil War. the Tendency of One, to Produce More. How It Sharpens the Spirits of Men, Shocks the Civil Constitution, and Produces Tyranny.
• Sect. VI.: The Evils, and Sudden Changes, Brought By Civil War Upon Particular Families, and Upon a Country In General; With the Fierce Discontents, and Animosities, and Ill Morals, Which It Entails.
• Sect. VII.: A View of the Affecting Horrors, and Calamities, Produced By Civil War; Taken From the History of Greece.
• Discourse IX.: To His Grace Archibald, Duke of Argyll. of the Mutability of Government.
• Sect. I.: Why Free Governments Are More Changeable In Their Frame, Than Such As Are Single and Arbitrary.
• Sect. II.: The Danger to Free Government From Popular Maxims, and Popular Men; With the Advantages It Furnishes Against Itself.
• Sect. III.: The Signal Power of Enthusiasm, and Pious Imposture, In Settling, Changing, Or Perpetuating Government.
• Sect. IV.: The Surprising, Despotic, But Pacific Government, Established By the Jesuits, By the Force of Imposture, In Paraguay.
• Sect. V.: The Inevitable Danger of Trusting Ecclesiastical Persons With Any Worldly Power, Or Any Share In Government.
• Sect. VI.: The Profession of the Missionaries Abroad; How Notoriously Insincere, and Contradictory to Their Tenets and Practices At Home.
• Sect. VII.: The Duration of Tyrannical Single Governments, and the Changeable Nature of Such As Are Popular and Free, Further Considered and Illustrated.
• Sect. VIII.: An Inquiry, Which Is the Most Equal and Perfect Government: Our Own Proved to Be So.
• Postscript.
• The Conspiracy of Cataline
• To His Grace Evelyn, Duke of Kingston.
• The First Oration of Cicero Against Catiline. Spoken In the Senate.
• The Second Oration of Cicero Against Catiline. Addressed to the People.
• The Third Oration of Cicero Against Catiline. Addressed to the People.
• The Fourth Oration of Cicero Against Catiline. Spoken In the Senate.
• The War Against Jugurtha.
• To the Right Honourable the Earl of Cholmondeley.
• The War Against Jugurtha.
• The Speech of M. Æmilius Lepidus, the Consul, Against Sylla.
• The Speech of L. Philippus Against Lepidus.
• Pompey ’s Letter to the Senate.
• The Oration of Licinius, the Tribune: Addressed to the People.
• The Letter Which Mithridates, King of Pontus, Sent to Arsaces, King of Parthia.
• The First Epistle of Sallust to Caius Julius CÆsar: Concerning the Regulation of the Commonwealth.
• The Second Epistle of Sallust to Caius Julius CÆsar: Concerning the Regulation of the Commonwealth.

THE SPEECH OF L. PHILIPPUS AGAINST LEPIDUS.

THERE is nothing, Conscript Fathers, that I so ardently wish, as to see the Commonwealth established in Tranquillity; or that, in every Article of Danger, there may never be wanting Men of ready Abilities to rise up in her Defence; and that, in the End, all the Machinations of her Enemies may recoil upon their own impious Heads. But, instead of this, we are embarrassed, on all Sides, with Seditions; Seditions raised by those very Men, whose Duty it was to have guarded us against them. And such, in short, is our Situation, that the Weakest and Basest among us usurp the Direction of Affairs; and Men of Virtue and Abilities are constrained to execute their Decrees. For now we must enter into War; now we must actually take the Field, though it be intirely against your Sentiments and Inclinations; for no other Reason, but because it is agreeable to the Will and Pleasure of Lepidus: Unless you are resolved, that you will subject Yourselves to the Hardships of War, to procure Peace and Tranquillity to Another(a) .

Amazing Supineness and Neglect! Can You, Fathers, to whom the Administration of Affairs is committed, be thus remiss in your Duty? Do you not see M. Æmilius, the most abandoned of all Criminals, a Creature so abject, that it will ever remain a Doubt, whether his Villainy or his Cowardice claim the Pre-eminence—Do you not see him advancing against your Liberty, at the Head of an Army; rising from that Contempt which lately covered him, and spreading Dread and Terror all around? whilst You, scarce daring, at last, to utter your stifled Sentiments, and, opposing his Attempts with feeble Words and prophetic Auguries only, barely discover your Inclinations to Peace, but have not the Spirit to maintain it; little considering that this tame irresolute Conduct, in Support of your Decrees, weakens Your Authority, in proportion as it diminishes His Fears. Nor, indeed, can you justly complain of this: You, who have suffered him, by Violence, to usurp the Consulship; and rewarded his Sedition with the Government of a Province, and the Command of an Army. But, if his Crimes are thus regarded, what Recompences would you have found great enough to repay his Services, had he really deserved well of you? But, perhaps, you will tell me, that such as have stood firm in their Attachment to him, and decreed Overtures of Peace, and Terms of Accommodation, to be offered him, have, by their Compliance, secured his Favour and Protection: So far from it, you see, he holds them in the utmost Contempt, looks upon them as unworthy of any Share in the Administration, and fit only to become the Prey of superior Abilities; since they now betray as much Weakness in suing for the Restoration of Peace; as they did before in suffering it to be ravished from them.

For myself, I confess, as soon as I perceived that Etruria was engaged in his Conspiracy, that the Proscribed were called in to his Assistance, and the Constitution rent in Pieces by Venality and Corruption, I apprehended these Evils called for speedy Redress; and therefore, in Conjunction with some others, I went over to Catulus, in Support of his Measures.

There was, indeed, a Party, biassed to the Æmilian Family by their eminent Services to the State, and influenced by an Opinion, that the Romans derived their Glory and Greatness from a Spirit of Lenity, who would not even then allow, that Lepidus had taken any Steps that called for violent Opposition; and, when he had taken up Arms, without your Authority, and against your Liberty, every one regarding only the Security of his own Person and Fortune, weakened the Strength of public Councils.

But, at that Juncture, Lepidus was viewed only in the Light of a public Robber, attended by the slavish Followers of a Camp, and a few desperate Assassins; such abandoned Hirelings, as prefer the daily Wages of Villainy to the Security of their Lives. But now he is actually invested with the Authority of Proconsul; an Authority not purchased with Money, but freely conferred by You, with proper Legates, obliged by Law to execute his Commands. Whilst Men of the most profligate and abandoned Characters, of all Ranks and Orders, daily list themselves under his Banner; Men wrung with Difficulties and Distresses, enraged with Lust of Rapine, and slung with keen Reflections on their crying Villainies; Men who are ever easy and satisfied in the midst of Tumults and Seditions; ever restless and disquieted in the midst of Peace and Tranquillity. These are they who are perpetually exciting public Confusion, and sowing the Seeds of Civil Broils and Insurrections; base Instruments as they were; first, of Saturninus; next, of Sulpitius; then, of Marius and Damasippus; and now, at last, of Lepidus’s traiterous Conspiracies. And what further aggravates our Calamity, not only Etruria, but all the Soldiers, who survived the last War, are animated to take up Arms in his Cause; no Methods are left untried, to engage the Two Spains on his Side; and Mithridates, in the very Frontiers of out tributary Provinces, waits only for a favourable Conjuncture to open a War. In short, nothing seems wanting to complete the Ruin of the Empire, but an able and experienced Commander to conduct the Enterprize.

I beseech you therefore, I earnestly conjure you, Conscript Fathers, to call up all your Attention; and suffer not this licentious Evil to spread its Influence to such Members of the Republic as are yet sound and uncorrupted. For if you still permit the Base and Unworthy to engross all Honours and Employments, you will find it a difficult Task, to bring Men to the Observance of unrewarded Virtue.

In this Posture of Affairs, will you hesitate and linger till an Army again advances against your Gates, till the Enemy ravage your City with Fire and Sword? For to such an Outrage it is more reasonable to believe he may be driven, than it was to have imagined, that, in the midst of public Tranquillity, he durst have had recourse to Arms, in Violation of all Laws, Human and Divine, under the specious Pretence, indeed, of redressing his own Grievances, or those of his Fellow-Citizens; but in reality, for the Destruction of public Liberty, and the Subversion of a legal Establishment.

Distracted, indeed, he is in his Mind, and tortured with raging Desires, and guilty Dread; ever irresolute in his Determinations, ever restless and disquieted, now pursuing one Scheme, then another: He has by no means a Relish for War, and yet trembles at the Apprehensions of a Peace: And though he is sensible he cannot continue the Progress of his licentious Pursuits; yet still he makes his Advantage of your Inactivity.—Inactivity, did I say? I protest to you, Conscript Fathers, I am at a Loss what Term to use; whether I should call it Fear, or Pusilanimity, or Infatuation, that when you see imminent Perils, like uplifted Thunder, threatening your Heads, you idly wish to escape the impending Destruction, but make not the least Effort to shun the Stroke.

Call back to your Remembrance, I beseech you, how much the Temper of these Times is changed from the former! Then all Machinations against the Commonwealth were industriously concealed from public View; all Attempts in her Favour were openly avowed: And this Conduct gave the Lovers of their Country an eminent Advantage over her Enemies. But now the public Tranquillity is as openly attacked, as it is secretly espoused: The Parricide is become formidable in Arms, whilst you, Conscript Fathers, tremble under Fears and Alarms!

What is it that you mean? Surely you are not weary; surely you are not ashamed to pursue a steady Conduct! Or are you influenced by the Professions and Declarations of Lepidus, who is constantly calling out for the Restitution of Rapine, and yet, all the while, injuriously detains the Property of others?—Disclaims, in Words, all military Violence, and yet is endeavouring to subdue us by the Force of Arms; talks of establishing the Constitution, when, at the same time, he refuses to give up his usurped Dominion—And insists upon the Restitution of the Tribunitial Authority to the Plebeians; as if that were the only Method of extinguishing the Heat of our Animosities, which first inflamed them!

Thou most abandoned, thou most shameless Profligate of all the human Race! Are then the Distresses and Grievances of the Citizens become the Objects of thy Care, who art not in Possession of the least Property, but what was obtained by Acts of Violence and Hostility? Thou art now pushing thy Way to a second Consulship, as if thou hadst actually abdicated the former: Under the specious Pretence of Peace, thou hast involved us in a War, by which we are robbed of the real Peace we were before in Possession of! Rebel, as thou art, against Us! Traitor to thy own Party; and a Foe to all virtuous Men! Hast thou, by Perfidiousness and Perjuries, injured Men, and violated the Honour of the immortal Gods; and dost thou feel no Shame, no Compunction for these Enormities? Since then this is thy Character, this thy Turn of Mind, hearken to my Admonition; Stand firm to thy Purposes; still hold thyself in Arms, and never entertain a Thought of delaying thy traiterous Designs; for that would be of no other Use, but to disturb thy own Breast, and keep us in anxious Suspense.

Citizen of Rome thou art no more; neither the Provinces, nor the Constitution, nor the Gods of our Country, will any longer allow thee that Title. Go on then, in thy Progress, with all possible Expedition, that thou mayest the sooner meet with a Recompence suitable to thy Deserts.

But You, Conscript Fathers, how long will you defer the necessary Preparations for the Defence of the Commonwealth? How long will you content yourselves to resist the Force of Arms with feeble Words only? Already Forces are levied against you; Money is raised by all the Methods of public and private Extortion; Detachments are drawn from our Garisons to other Posts; and tyrannous Lust tramples upon all Law and Order. And you, all the while, content yourselves with insignificant Decrees, and fruitless Overtures. For, be assured, the more eagerly you sue for Peace, the more ardently will he push on the War; when he apprehends, that, though Justice and Equity come not in to his Aid, your Cowardice supports his Cause. For whoever professes a Detestation of Seditions, and the Effusion of Roman Blood, and, upon that Consideration, would persuade you to pacific Measures, does, in effect, declare, that when you have it in your Power to reduce Others to the Ignominy of a Defeat, you should tamely suffer Yourselves to be reduced to that shameful Situation. Thus are you exhorted to enter into pacific Measures with him, that he may be the better enabled to carry on a War against you.

If these Counsels are acceptable to you; if you are become so stupidly insensible, that, forgetting Cinna’s enormous Crimes, who, upon his Return into the City, trampled upon the Dignity of this august Assembly, you will nevertheless put yourselves, your Wives and Children, under the Power of Lepidus; of what Use are all your Decrees! Why do you call upon Catulus for Aid? In vain will Catulus, or any other virtuous Man, apply Remedies to our Evils, whilst you are thus remiss. Go on, therefore, in your own way—Fly for Refuge to Cethegus, or seek Protection from any of those Parricides, who wait, with Impatience, for an Opportunity of renewing the Scene of Desolation and Rapine, and advancing, once more, with armed Forces against the Gods of Rome.

But if the Defence of Liberty, if just and honourable Sentiments, inspire your Hearts, then enter boldly into Resolutions worthy of such a Cause; and rouse up the Spirits of the Brave and Virtuous. You have, at your Devotion, a new-raised Army, and Colonies of veteran Troops; you have all the Nobility, and the most able and experienced Commanders, to support your Cause; and Success, Fathers, is ever found to attend on superior Merit. All that Strength, which our Remissness only hath enabled him to gather, will, in an Instant, be dissipated upon the Return of our Vigour.

Upon these Considerations, I am induced to declare my Opinion, since Lepidus, at the Head of an Army, raised in Defiance of our Authority, advances towards our Gates in an hostile Manner, that Appius Claudius, Inter-rex, and Q. Catulus, Proconsul, and the rest of the chief Magistrates, be appointed to defend the City, and impowered to exert any Endeavours whatsoever, that the Constitution may not suffer any Prejudice.

[(a) ]Or, Unless you chuse, for the bare Appearances of Peace, to bear the real Burdens of War. Nisi forte cui præstare pacem, & bellum pati, consilium est.