3. It is neither certain nor probable, that Romulus granted the firft citizens of Rome all the privileges of a Democracy; the right of making laws, war, and peace, with the choice of all their magistrates. 1. There is no inftance recorded in hiftory of a legislative power exercifed by the people, in the time of Romulus, or any of the Kings. 2. There is no inftance recorded of the people's exercifing any fhare of power during the regal ftate, in declaring war, or in making treaties of peace. 3. That Romulus granted to the people the election of all the magiftrates, is an affertion unfupported by the teftimony of any antient Writer, except Dionyfius, whofe teftimony is contradicted by himfelf, and by the Latin Hiftorians.

This is but a small part of what Mr. Hooke has advanced upon the point in debate; it is fufficient, however, we apprehend, for the generality of our Readers, who probably will look upon the whole controverfy rather as a matter of curiofity, than of any confiderable importance.

After a confused heap of obfervations, quotations, and authorities, when the Reader is naturally led to expect fomething fatisfactory upon the subject, our Author concludes his work in the following manner.

It will probably be expected,' fays he, that I finish the prefent difcuffion with offering my own conjectures on the point in queftion. I fay, conjectures; for though I am convinced • beyond a doubt, that the hypothefis, or conclufion, of the two • learned Doctors is totally groundless, yet I pretend not to have any thing certain and fatisfactory, any thing better than conjecture, to put in the place of it; nor, indeed, any thing very different from Lord Hervey's opinion.

We have seen, that, by the conceffion of Dr. Middleton to • Lord Hervey, the Latine Writers do conftantly speak of the creation of fenators as a branch of the royal prerogative.

The Doctor, indeed, is of opinion, that we ought to prefer the fingle teftimony of Dionyfius to the teftimonies of all the Latine Writers; but he has offered no good reason for this preference; and I think I have offered many good reafons why the Greek Rhetorician, when his tales are not confirmed by • Latine authority, ought to be confidered as a Writer of ro'mance, not of hiftory: and it has likewife been obferved, that the Doctor has not, in favour of his notion, even the teftimony of Dionyfius; for this Writer, though he pretends that Romulus, in two inftances, remitted the choice of the fenators 'to the people, yet never attributes to the people a conftitutional right of creating fenators.

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< Admitting then, upon fo good authority as that of all the • Latine Writers, that the choice and nomination of the senators ⚫ depended wholly on the will of the Kings, muft we not say, that the FIRST CONSULS enjoyed the fame prerogative? For it is agreed, that they fucceeded to the kingly power.

There is nothing to oppofe to this but the words jus populi, in the fpeech of Cameleius, the Tribune; and it has, I think, • been proved, that those words can relate but to that one lection of fenators, made by Brutus at the commencement of the republic and it has been obferved, that there was a particular • reason why the consent and approbation of the people should be afked on that occafion.

As to the Cenfors, I conjecture that they did not, at first, perform the part which had belonged to the Confuls, in the affair of making and unmaking Senators. For fuppofing that part to have been nothing more than the putting on the roll of the Senate the names of thofe perfons whom the people had either • directly or indirectly chofen to be members of that highest order, and the omitting to enroll, and thereby excluding from the Senate fuch of the elected, whofe conduct they difapproved, how can we believe that the office, at its first inftitution, would have been defpifed (as Livy tells us it was) by the Grandees.—A primoribus civitatis fpretus honor? Liv. 1. 4. c. 8.

May we not, with good appearance of reafon, believe, that the Cenfors for fome time, even after they had the charge of • enrolling the Senators, were but a kind of Deputies to the Confuls? Is not this countenanced by the cafe of Appius Claudius, and his collegue, where we find, that the Confuls took upon them to cancel the lift of Senators which those Cenfors had made?

And, on this fuppofition, the difficulty arifing from the long ⚫ intervals between one cenfus and another, vanishes. We have here a ready answer. When there were no Cenfors in the ftate, the Confuls filled up the vacancies of the fenate, as they had used to do, before the inftitution of that magiftracy. And here I muft obferve, that though the two Doctors affert, that ' to make a roll of the Senate was always a part of the business of the Cenfus, yet of this they produce no proof.

From Livy's account of the lection, made by the Dictator, Fabius Buteo, whom the Senate appointed to perform the function of two Genfors, in fupplying the Senate with new mem⚫bers, it would feem that it was, at that time, become the cuf < tom for the Cenfors freely to name thofe perfons, who had ⚫ born the honours of the city, to fill the vacancies of the auguft affembly:

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affembly: and probably this cuftom had prevailed ever fince, (most certainly not before) the time when the Plebeians obtained accefs to the higheft magiftracy: but it would likewife feem, from what the Dictator faid and did on occafion of that extraordinary lection, that the Cenfors, if they were under any obligation to put the late Curule magiftrates on the roll, • ftill they were under no obligation to place them there according to the degrees of their honour, or the order of their creation, (ut quifque eorum primus creatus erat); for the Dictator intimates, that his doing this was by his own free choice (Se -ita in demortuorum locum fublecturum, ut ordo ordini, non homo bomini prælaus videretur). And as to the inferior magiftrates, it would seem that they were not comprehended in the defcription, Qui eos magiftratus geffiffent unde in Senatum legi deberent; and that the Cenfors were entirely at liberty to enroll them among the Senators, or to pass them by.

I fhall conclude with obferving, that the words of Livy, when he speaks of the firft creation of Cenfors, do plainly imરે port, that the power of those magistrates was not the fame at the first as afterwards; and do feem to import, that the Cenfors, in the height of their power, did not act minifterially to the prerogative of the people, in their lections of Senators; did not merely enroll the names of fuch perfons as the people had chofen, but did themselves chufe the members of the Senate: Idem hic annus Cenfuræ initium fuit; rei a parva origine ortæ, quæ deinde tanto incremento aucta eft, ut morum difciplinæque Romana penes eam regimen Senatus, equitumque Centuria • fub ditione ejus magiftratus—effent.'

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We shall close this article with acquainting our Readers, upon Mr. Hooke's own authority, that a confiderable part of the third volume of his history is already written and revited, and will, probably, be foon fent to the preís.

Account of FOREIGN BOOKS.

Le Reformateur. That is,

R

The Reformer. Amfterdam, by Arkftée and Merkus, 1757. 12mo. Vol. I. pp. 268. Vol. II. pp. 268.

A

N advertisement, from the Bookfeller to the Reader, prefixed to this work, gives us the following account of the Author. Mr. D- R- was the fon of a confiderREV. Aug. 1758.

able

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able Merchant, in a maritime town in France, who bestowed upon him an excellent education, which, however it might qualify, did not induce him to take that turn which his father could have wifhed. He was well enough pleased with the task firft impofed on him, which was to read and to digeft a compleat Theory of Commerce, and afterwards to run through the Hiftory of the French Colonies, the detail of their Interefts, and the Benefits accruing from them to their mother-country. But when it was propo ed to him, to carry thefe fpeculations into practice, and to think either of embarking in business at home, or taking a trip to fea, he not only declined it, but declared plainly, that his temper and ftudies difpofed him rather to embrace the ecclefiaftic ftate.

His father would by no means hear of this, but having a daughter married to Mr. W, one of the Farmers of the Revenue, he fent his fon up to Paris, that he might both teach him the art to live, and put him likewife into the proper way of living in the world. He remained with this man, much against his inclination, many years, in which space he became minutely and thoroughly acquainted with every branch of the bufinefs, done by thofe whom the French call Financiers. It was in vain that he wrote from time to time to his father, defiring to withdraw from a kind of life, which he not only difliked, but even detefted and defpifed. At length he was delivered, by his brother-in-law's breaking, on which Mr. D. R returned to his feminary, entered into orders, and became a Doctor in Divinity. When he was upwards of fixty years of age, retiring from the world, he compofed this work, which, on his deathbed, he committed to a Prieft, with a letter, addreffed to a Nobleman of the first rank, to be by him laid before his moft Chriftian Majefty. Before the Priest could execute this commiffion, that Nobleman alfo died, which induced him to put it into the hands of a Bockfeller, that the publication of it might, in fome degree, answer the defign of its Author.

The work itself, tho' curious and important, is, nevertheless, rendered dry and tedious, by the multitude of fchemes and computations, with which it is filled. It is divided into two volumes, and ea h volume into two parts. The first part of the first volume, contains a project for eftablishing a new Revenue, with a view to correct the innumerable abufes that arife from the prefent fyftem of Finances. It confifts of eleven chapters, in which he labours to prove, that according to his method, the King would receive a much larger fum than he does at prefent, with infinitely greater eafe to his people, and be at the fame time enabled to fupprefs many thoufand ufelefs Officers, and re

vive Manufactures and Trade, which, he afferts, have been. many years finking under the oppreffion of thofe Harpies at prefent employed, and whom he charges with amaffing immenfe fortunes, by fqueezing their fellow fubjects, and robbing the

crown.

In the fecond part of this volume, he undertakes to make it evident, that the scheme he has drawn in the first, is practicable in all its branches, and points out what appears to him to be the propereft methods for carrying his defign into execution. One of the strongest proofs that can be given of the hardships which the French at prefent fuftain, is our Author's propofal for their relief; which confifts in an univerfal and perpetual land tax, of a Vingtieme, or, as we would call it, a fhilling in the pound; a duty upon every fack of corn, to be paid at the mill; making the King to be Proprietor of falt; as alfo to be Merchant of tobacco; eftablishing befides, excifes on moft of the neceffaries of life, and, in various other particulars, treating as benefits and favours, what to us would appear exceffive grievances. In the close, however, he fhews the advantage the people would derive from his plan, in comparifon with that now fubfifting; and in the most pathetic terms addreffes the King, to demonftrate his compaffion for his fubjects, by delivering them from the Farmers, Sub-farmers, and the many thousand under Inftruments of Tyranny and Plunder, by whom, as by Locufts, the realm is now devoured.

The first part of the fecond volume relates to the Clergy, and confifts of five chapters. The Author declares roundly against the Monks, whom he treats as a lazy, luxurious, ufelefs people, and is therefore clearly for the fuppreffion of Monafteries, (with proper cautions and reftrictions) as detrimental to the State. He is alfo for taxing the lands of the Clergy, hitherto exempt, and afferts, that the value of thofe lands exceeds four hundred millions of French livres annually, which, tho' in appearance well fupported, is fuch an enormous fum, that one cannot help doubting the fact. He points out the manner in which the revenue arifing from the fuppreffion of religious houses ought to be employed, and proves at large how beneficial hist fchemes would be to the Crown and people in general.

The laft fection of this work is divided into thirteen chapters, in which he confiders Commerce, and takes very great pains to make his Readers believe, that France is capable of excelling her neighbours in that refpect, from the variety of her valuable products, the turn of her people to manufactures, and, which is a little fingular, the fuperiority of their tafte, by which, he affures us, that his nation is the fupreme indifputed MISTRESS

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