A monster nexr exalted to the Throne. Page 190. line 2368.

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That the immediate Successor of Augustus should have lesr behind him a reputation so different must be ascribed (next to the abominable nature of the man himself) to his having been without the aid of such minister's Agripp: and Macenas, who chiefly conducted public affairs under his predecessor. The of this monster, a circumstance apparently advantageous, but really matulie ?.ge fatal to his subjects, gave him more confidence in himself than the former Emperor with better abilities seems to have entertained of his own capacity to govern singly. Augustus even when young and in the season of presumptio appear's not to have been ignorant of some of his own deficiencies Agrippa trught him to conquer, and he learned from Macenas how become popular. Upon an indiscretion of which he was conscious too late in having Communicated to the Senate an account of the disorders of the Imperial family very sensibly lamented and at an advanced time of life the want of his usual advisers. The villain Sejanus had no better recommendation to thefavour of Tiberius than an artful knowledge and participation of his vices, and having once accidentally contributed to save his life. It was said of him "pari exitio Reipublica Romana viguisse illum hominem ac cecidisse Hi political sin were visited by men if possible worse than himself on the remote and obscure of his kindred and and adherents. This ambitious Favourite stained with every infamy collected into one Camp the Prætorian Bands of which he was Prefect, intending more conveniently to turn them against his Master, or to secure the succession, when he shoud find a conjunc propitious to his revolt of usurpation. The united encampment of these Prætorians struck the last river into the shackles of the Senators, Afte; the destruction of Sejanus was resolved upon, the first care of Macro the principl agent of Tiberius in the whole business was to secure the fidelity of these troops by promises and a donative, None but very young Readers need be told thar the corps of Turkish Janizaries which overzives the Sultan no less than the meaner Musslemen was formed on the model of the Pretorian Cohorts,

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But the principal contrast between the policy of these two Emperor's (for both were eminently crafty and cruel) and which immediately accounts for the different state of Rome under them arises from a cause fully Sufficient to produce it. The laws, regulations, and edicts of the former we infact all directed to the Public Benefit, He nor only held out the pretence but was influenced by the motive, This have endeavourd to express, briefly opposing his conduct to Antonys in the following coupler

The first a steady sceptre born to wield

O'er all his acts extends the Public shield.

The principal object of Augustus was to conceal his superiority, that of Tiberius to make it terrible. The one endeavoured to persuade the People they had done wisely in surrendering their Rights to him, the other, that it was impossible to recoverthem, The first laboured to make the Romans dread a change in the new mode of Gove -ment, the last to intimidate them from attempting it Augustus with 11h vices' had strong affections, Tiberius still more vicious was a Misanthrope, The Sun shone Lyron the Imperial pleasures of the former, and the People shaied in them, the foulest caverns of Erebus wou'd have been defiled by the hideous Sensualities of the grottoes at Capied. To the intimacy of the second CASA Histor Poets, and Orators were admitted, to the Orgies of the third, Humourists, Monte banks, Astrologers, and Catamites. The Tyrant and his Minions accordingly atten with cruel vigilance solely to the extension of the Prince's power and his personal Security, everything was losa majestas, every thing constructive high breason, He seems to have been in the habit of but half revealing his intentions to have the pleasure of punishing the Senators for attempting to guess at, and conform to them Truch and flattery were equally hateful to him and he practised nothing but dissimulation, cruelty and the gratification of unnatural appetites, Ane of the

virtues of Cis acted for some time ad a sort of curb within his l

jams, but that Hero being removed by poison his voracious cruelty pwad restrained notonger. Passions of Sentiments, Joy of Sorrow, Writings or discourses, speculative quinions, the peruwal of certain Authors or the possession of them, nay even looks, wet tortured into State Crimes, and made the pretence for impeachments, mock trials, death and confiscation Property in these days rarely failed to be fatal to its owners. Such was the Policy from this reign to that of Vespasian and the short livedŢitus. After them, the foul stream of poiver soon returned into its former channel, The aspersion which Tacitus means to throw on the

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had intended to gratify a posthumouw vanity by a comparison likely to beformed between him and between him and his detestable successor must be wiped out when aris recollected that Tiberius was a brave and experienced Soldier, grave and sagacious, nor destitute of learning and accomplishments, of a vigorous frame and healthy constitution, bur above all, char he was a profound dissembler, so that tho Alistus did entirely approve of his disposition, he might not have known the full extent of his vices and malignity. The libertinism of his daughter luliA had long scandaliz the Matrons of Ronte, and furnished a theme for many a satire while he remained 21most the only person unacquainted with the ignominy cquainted with the interno the secret of their domenić of his own Palace For obvious reasons Princes are sometimes the last to be ler into the secret of their domestic disgraces. We shou'd see exhibited in the Imperial state of Rome the most gloomy and dismal picture of Persecution the heart of than ever mourned over did ir nor acquire a kind of comparative obscurity from one of a still deeper die which the present Ruters of France hold out to us. They do wisely to proclaim the crimes of & Lawless Kings and bloody Tyrants, they keep the mind in unison with their own crions. Coud such display diminish the horror or justify the perpetration of much greater crimes it would be still better for their purpose. To order the butt -ery in cold blood of Prisoner's taken in war was never adopted 20 part of a system. promulgated as such, and called a measure necessary for good Government even by Caligula or Nero, It has been since revoked, but it existed, and the disgrace is indelible. The Duke of York's address to the British Army on the publication of this diabolical mandate was worthy of a son of England. A Nation which had the light of the Christian Revelation, the knowledge of social rights, and moral duties so long established, and the example before their eyes of the British constitution, ver persevering in such super!

outrages against human nature and human reason must be surveyed with no less amazement than horror, the whole scene presenting a continued series of Political Prodigies. This his been the work of modern Philosophers. By anewillumination, they see true in Religion in Liberty only in dungeons, free gear settlement, as some Naturalisu

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assert thar Cats see best in the dark, because the glare of their eyes is then most visible. Liberty, Equality Independence! these are the echoes of ther horn of Alcetp, the Toe'sinlar Paris. With us, our Shibboleth of treason the newly accommodated term Reform comprehends all their meaning. When that sound approaches, let him who values Life Estate, or Freedom Look well to his danger, for the flash does no with more certainty precede the thunder than that word is the muffled harbinger of Pillage, Havoc, and Devastation,

The very reflection made by Tacitus when he deplores the disadvantages the Imperial Historian labours under from the lamentable sameness of his materials compared with the interesting diversity of the Republican period, determined me to close this work with the Age of Augustus, Beyond it the Reture is too hideous to excite any sensation, except grief, surprise or indignation: grief at such excess of human depravity, surprise at the novelty of crimes, and the fertile ingenuity of wickedness, and indignation against the servile timidity of a Senate which could not only endure but defy them by the apotheosis of their execrable Emperors. Such & detail in proportion as it was faithful, could only bemore disgusting or fight ful, noteriery besides has made it unnecessary.

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The Historians and Poets of ancient Rome have done their duty, they have attached its infamy to every Imperial Portrait, and sent it down for abhorrence to posterity. Alike prinful office remains for modern ingenuity, and the latter end of the present century has already furnished a canvass too ample from Republicanism and Anarchy, The modern page will nor indeed like the ancient be stained with the recital of abominable appetites and filthy vices, but in the perpetration of every deed, unjust, oppressive, erud and sanguinary, the present generation needl acknowledge no inferiority. The innocent of the present generation may indeed Say with sorrow, what cannot be said by any who have gone before them, that during their sojourn, they have not only lived to see every against God and man committed by the most populous nation in every offence Europe, but still more strange to see the black register of quilt waved with ostentation over the head of that Nation, as the banner of their distinction and glory.