[15]
I see that all
the rest are of equestrian rank; they are all without stain all equally
virtuous and upright men but it is necessary that the distinctions of rank
should be observed that the praetorian family should yield to the consular,
and that the equestrian body should not contend with a praetorian
house.” There is an end to all eagerness for any candidate, an end
to all voting; there are no longer any contests; the people has no longer
any liberty of choice in electing magistrates; there is no anxiety to see
how the votes will be given; nothing will ever happen, (as is so often the
case,) contrary to the general expectation; there will be for the future no
variety in the comitia. But if it is constantly
happening that we marvel why some men have been elected, and
why some men have not; if the Campus
Martius and those waves of the comitia, like a deep and wide sea, swell in such a manner, as
if through some tide or other, that they approach one party and recede from
another; why, when the impulse of party spirit is so great and when so much
is done with precipitation, are we to seek for any rational explanation, any
deliberate intention or any system in such a case?
