OF THE KOJIA\ EMPIRE.

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tired and eighty, the ancient statutes were col- chap.lected, methodised in three books, and adaptedto present use, under the pontificate, and withthe approbation, of Gregory the thirteenth: 1 'this civil and criminal code is the modern lawof the city; and, if the popular assemblies havebeen abolished, a foreign senator, with the threeconservators, still resides in the palace of thecapito!. 1, The policy of the Caesars has been re-peated by the popes; and the bishop of Romeaffected to maintain the form of a republic,whilehe reigned with the absolute powers of a tem-poral, as well as spiritual monarch.

It is an obvious truth, that the times must Conspiracybe suited to extraordinary characters, and that ^“‘[453!the genius of Cromwell or Retz might now ex- Janiiar >'pire in obscurity. The political enthusiasm ofRienzi had exalted him to a throne; the sameenthusiasm, in the next century, conducted hisimitator to the gallows. The birth of StephenRorcaro was noble, his reputation spotless; histongue was armed with eloquence, his mind wasenlightened with learning; and he aspired, be-yond the aim of vulgar ambition, to free his

° Statuta alma Urbis Roma Auctoritatt ,S. D. N. Gregorii XIII. Pont.

Max. a Senatn Populoque Rom. reformata et edita. Romeo , 1580, in/olio.

The obsolete, repugnant statutes of antiquity were confounded in fivebooks, and Lucas Paetus, a lawyer and antiquarian, was appointed toact as the modern Tribonian . Yet I regret the old code, with therugged crust of freedom and barbarism.

P In my time (1765), and in M. Grosley’s (Observations snr l’ltalie,tom. ii, p. 361), the senator of Rome was M. Bielke, a noble Swede ,and a proselyte to the catholic faith. The pope’s right to appoint thesenator and the conservator is implied, rather than affirmed, in thestatutes.