citizens. Such a law was purely socialistic. The privilege was confined to
Rome, because in Rome the elections were held, and the Roman constituency
was the one depositary of power. The effect was to gather into the city a
mob of needy, unemployed voters, living on the charity of the State, to
crowd the circus and to clamor at the elections, available no doubt
immediately to strengthen the hands of the popular tribune, but certain in
the long-run to sell themselves to those who could bid highest for their
voices. Excuses could be found, no doubt, for this miserable expedient in
the state of parties, in the unscrupulous violence of the aristocracy, in
the general impoverishment of the peasantry through the land monopoly, and
in the intrusion upon Italy of a gigantic system of slave labor. But none
the less it was the deadliest blow which had yet been dealt to the
constitution. Party government turns on the majorities at the
polling-places, and it was difficult afterward to recall a privilege which
once conceded appeared to be a right. The utmost that could be ventured in
later times with any prospect of success was to limit an intolerable evil;
and if one side was ever strong enough to make the attempt, their rivals
had a bribe ready in their hands to buy back the popular support. Caius
Gracchus, however, had his way, and carried all before him. He escaped the
rock on which his brother had been wrecked. He was elected tribune a
second time. He might have had a third term if he had been contented to be
a mere demagogue. But he, too, like Tiberius, had honorable aims. The
powers which he had played into the hands of the mob to obtain he desired
to use for high purposes of statesmanship, and his instrument broke in his
hands. He was too wise to suppose that a Roman mob, fed by bounties from
the treasury, could permanently govern the world. He had schemes for
scattering Roman colonies, with the Roman franchise, at various points of
the Empire. Carthage was to be one of them. He thought of abolishing the
distinction between Romans and Italians, and enfranchising the entire
peninsula. These measures were good in themselves--essential, indeed, if