After all who wished to speak on the subject had given their
opinions, they proceeded to details; each gave a statement of the
number of men enrolled in his section, with a few words as to the
disposition of each. Almost without an exception each of these men
was animated with a sense of private wrong. Some had lost near
relatives, executed for some trifling offence by the tribunals,
some had been ruined by the extortion of the tax gatherers. All
were stated to be ready to give their lives for vengeance.

"These agents of ours, you see, Malchus, are not for the most
part animated by any feeling of pure patriotism, it is their own
wrongs and not the injuries of Carthage which they would avenge.
But we must take them as we find them; one cannot expect any deep
feeling of patriotism on the part of the masses, who, it must be
owned, have no very great reason to feel any lively interest in the
glories of the republic. So that they eat and drink sufficiently,
and can earn their living, it matters not very greatly to them
whether Carthage is great and glorious, or humbled and defeated.
But this will not always be so. When we have succeeded in ridding
Carthage of her tyrants we must next do all we can so to raise the
condition of the common people that they may feel that they too
have a common interest in the fate of our country. I should not,
of course, propose giving to them a vote; to bestow the suffrage
upon the ignorant, who would simply follow the demagogues who would
use them as tools, would be the height of madness. The affairs
of state, the government of the country, the making of the laws,
must be solely in the hands of those fitted for the task -- of
the men who, by education, by birth, by position, by study and by
leisure have prepared their minds for such a charge. But the people
should share in the advantages of a good government; they should