The First Oration of Cicero against Cataline

Belfast Monthly Magazine

The First Oration of Cicero against CatalineSource: The Belfast Monthly Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 28 (Nov. 30, 1810), pp. 331-337Published by: Belfast Monthly MagazineStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30072757 .

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330 Thoughts on Sir John Moore's Expedition, [Nov, the semdtest corners of the earth, and convert

,mankuird into

oeegreat falni ly, lectprocally extendug twheir armss to conter benelits oni each other. HoIw dthfe-eat is tre pictutreplez ented to our vnew on every sitke, mutual jeal- ousy of proepelnty, and mndustry only directed to acqurtuing rcnes and power, n 1 order to vex and destroy each other. Am'bition, the dire anubettou of possessing all things, of governing alt, has wasted the blood of tire world, anrd dEuoyed tie happiness of m fl ions.

Frosm the day oat Alexander to the present, it has ueen the constant piac- tje of coatendlt g nations, to endea. sour to fix the seat of wacr il the enenies' country ; but unMortunately taor England, sute tihe first alarm of revolution engaged her as an acting partner tm the war, she has never been able to accomplish this plan, and her endeavouis after thisgrand object, have only rroutghit dePstruction rinto the ternl- tory of her althes. Srhe has seen state after state, fall before the repubthain energy of new levie., and tretamrred band~ of the Great Frerdeilsk, resist in vain, the lmSpetuous attack, of almost unrdscrplrined recruits ; mutual )ealou- sirs dividtlg, the conttaent, the most powertAul watrons have now bowed before tre eagles of France, and fett England :asioe gjmrd unlrtended to con- tend for heir

indeeenerece. Whlethet e Mr. Pitt's oprrnon of tihe h4gh value of tre command ot tre mouth otthe Scheldt, comnt5ned a I) b the idea of destro) ing a few sips of thie ire, dictated this un- fortunate exgeerthon, or that of rlvid- Jig the atte hton ot Napoleon, it s unm- possible for us to tell. If, however, tie 'hrst n.rentioned objects were tthe cause ot the laultching of tills uzlisense armament, Mir. Pitt lrust have been

apparernty ill ,,cquamnted

with the form ao-t're dmrrjoa rwtrg coanst,

'and the

preseent inmlrtry of tiMe sotudatioiandu na.- ture qf tire inland Qf W alcherein, which fromts vtrproax4mty to other islands,

arnd its flatress mut be ever hable 0o attack, and ecuid not be tsiaattAined but at an eapence ot both tne) aud ship> uotatly above its vaile ; aid rI the des-

truction of tile seven shp'p of tihe }ine was the object, r it would seem to say to the gallait comrnannders of the tBr- tish Navy, we have not such coiop- dence inr your powers, but that tirhe destruction of a french ship is tq be

desired at however greit an expence, and if the opinion prevailed, that by an attack on the coast of Holland the attention and power of Tirance might be divided, it would appeal that the plannels of the expedition have been very inattentive to toe Napoleon mode of warfare, which commands success by never allowing a secondaiy object to interfere with a primary one. fHis plan has always been to overcome the greatest obstacle, justly conceiving thfat the lesser must then give way of course. If instead of dividing our owr forces we had concentrated the whole power in Spain, theu might we hate acted with toll effect, and given spirit both to Ger-many and Spair ; unhap- plly this plan was not adopted, and after a total failure oft our schemes oe thie Ieheldt, by the unforeseen and vi- gorous oppos'ion of the Gatrison of Flushing, and mortality which ensued, we have to look at the destruction of our gallant army in Spain, saci ificed we may say, to

lphe feeble and ilI

concerted eitotts of a party contending for the re-establishment of a govern. ment as It would appear for which the peoplewere not anxious, no doubt the apartards feel themselves in some degree uneasy at the transler to new masters, unacquainted with their pre- junices, and h4bits, but what has the Junrta promise4 to attach the people to the cause of their dethroned nionarca l haad they promised Spain a reform of thoSe aouses apparent to the nmeaest subject, and had Englahd seconded their views, arid appeared as guarantee for the due

executioo of the scheme, then nmight the peope have rtien with that energy, whmic the love of liberty glways inspires; thren might the throne of Napoleon bee) nl,ade to tottei ; then might Eng4land Isave pet with people worttiy of being assisted, arnd our army cqm- batants and friends equally anmiotms for gloy) as themselves.

To the Editor of the Beifat HMagaziSe,

I send you the first oration of Cicero agarmst Catabln, as a spectinen of a translation wjrnch was intended to be " close, but not sO close, as to be servile ; free, but not so free, as to be Ii. Fentwous." I request tre criticismr of



18 t10o.] The first Oration of Cicero against Catalire. 33 1

any of your literary correspondents.* 1 am, sir, yours,

APOO, SCHOLAR.

ThefiFest Oratzon of Cteero against Catabne.

C ATALINE ' How far, art- thou to abuse our, forbearance. I-ow

long, ate we to be deluded, by the mockery of thy madness W hee art thou to stop, in this career of unbridled licentiousness ? Has the nightly guard at the Palatunnwnothing in it, to alarm you; the Piatioles throughout the city, nothing; the

cobi:stionm of the people, nothing ;

the assemblage of all true lovers of their country, nothing; the guarded mtajesty of this assembly, nothing&; aid all the eyes that, at tis tinstaknt, are rivetted upon yours, have they nothing to, denounCe, nor. you to ap- prehend > Does not youir conscience

inftormn you, that the sun shines upon your secrets, and do you notbdis- cover a fuLl knowledgeof your con- spuacy, revealed on the. couttenriu.e of every man around youP Your employment, on the ladtiayght; your occupations3 on the preceding night; thie place wlhere you nmet,; the per- sons who met; and the, pLt fabi icated at the meeting ; of these things, I ask- not, who knows; I ask, who, among you all is ignorant?

6but, alas' for the tunes thus cor-. rupted ; or iather for mapkind that thus corrupt, the, tanes 'IThe senate knows all this, The consul sees all this: and yet the man who sits thet e- Lives. Lives ! Ae-Cointes dlowni to your senate-house ; taes his seat,

as counsellor for the common weal; and with a dethbeiate destiny iR his eye maiks out out nmesntrs, and selegts thetm for slaughitet; wlhdle, otr us, and for our (ouny, it seemS glory suflicient, to escape fronm his tury, to had an asylum boum his sworld

Long, veiy long before this late hour, ought 1, the consul, to thave doomed thus ringleader ot sedition to an ignominious death; ought lito thave overwhelmed )ou, Catalume, in the lumis of, yous own machmnations. What i Ddl not that great man, the H6igh Ptiest, PublIMs Scip;o, al- though at the time, in private station,

sa5cfiChe I iberms Glacchus for damtig

even to modhify out constatutno i and shadlj we, cloathed as we aM,e with the plenatude of,consular power, endotre this nuisance. of our ntion, and our name, shla41 we suffer htm to put the, Roqnan Emp:me to the sword, and lay waste thie orldl, because such is his horn id fancy, With the saoction of so late a. precedent5 need I ob- trude the fate of the inmovator SplX- nIus MIubs, immolated at the altar of the constitution, by the hand of Senvtlius Ahaa? 'I he e has, there has been, and lately been, a vindicatory virtue, at, avenging spirit in this lepublhc, that never tailed to inflict speedlier mal heavier s engeance on a nIoxious cttizet thai) on a national foe. Against )ou, Catu4ine, and for your inmmediate conJdenuattoq, what, therefore, is wanting

g Nou tbhe gvae saw.tion of the senate. Not the voice of th1e country. Not ancietnt precedent. Not living law. But ne are wakiting--l say it more fooddly-w the consuls, themselves.

When the senate committed the tepublic, into the hands of the Consul L Opimmus, didlpresumptive sedition

palliate the puni shiment'ot CanusGrac- chus, or coull hs,louminous line' of ancestry, yield even a momentary protection to his person was the ve;,.

eance of the executive power ot the Consular Fulvius and itis childien, arrested for a single mlht! when si- milar power was delegated to the consuls O. Marius, and .. Valerius, were the lives which the practor Seevilts, and the Tribune. batulninus

I- iL s hoped that uo one wIl Iall into the maAtak& of drawaing, conclusions from the just indignation of, Cicero against Cat aloe,toceountenanqe the fashionable opituons, which in different ages have branded sonme of the best men, the re- veted and honoured martyrs of liberty, as couspirators, No! the designing, pro fligate Catahle will ever standdtaitigui- shed from the steady patriot,, and true fhiend to his country and to man. Cata- line fell,a victlm.to has evil passions, but the, page of history furnishes us with unate% s twho have been blatsded as foul conspin aprs by the bjsenesstand madness of their'conttempora!KeA, but whose me- monies are dear to the lovers of fieedom, and to whoigpqseienty will yet do jus. tice.



332 Thefirst Oration of Cicero against Cataline. [Nov

had forfeited to their country, pro- longed for a single day ? But, now. twenty days, and nights, have blunted the edge of our axes, and our autho-

rities. Our sharp pointed decree sleeps, sheathed in tile record-that very decree, which, a moment after its promulgation, was not to find you a living man. You do live, and live, not in the humiliating depression of guilt, but in the exultation and triumph of insolence. Mercy, Con- script Fathers, is mly dearest'delight, as the vindication ot the constitution is iny best ambition, but 1, now, stand self-condemned of guilt in mercy, and I own it as a treachery against the state.

Conscript Fathers !-a camp is pitched against the Roman Repubitc, within Italy, on the very borders of Etruria. Every day adds to the numberof tie enemy. Ihe leader of those enemies, the commander of that encampment, walks within the walls of Rome; takes his seat in this senate, the lieart of Rome; and, with venomous nis-- chief, rankies in the inmost vitals of the commonwealth. Cataline-should 1, on the instant, order my Lictors to seize and drag you to the stake, some men might, even then, blame me for having procrastinated punish. ment, but no man could criminate me for a faithful execution of tihe laws. They shall be executed. But I will neither act, nor will I suft-r, witlsout full and sutfficienit reason. II it :me,

they shall be executed; anii thein, even then, when there Shali not be found a man so flagi- tittus, so muich a Cataline, as to say, you were not ripe for execution. You shill live, as long as there is one who has the forehead to say you ougit to live; and you shall live, as you live now, tunder our broad and wakeful eye, and the sword of

.yutice shall keep waving rouod your

iead. Without the possibility of hear- img, or of seeing, you shall be seen, and heard, and understood.

What is it now, you are to ex- peet, if night cannot hide you, nor vonr lurking associates; it the very

walls of your own houses, resoundl with the secret, and proclaim it to tIe world; if the sun shines, and the winds blow upon it? Take my advice,

adopt some other plan, wait a more favourable opportunity for setting the city in flames, add putting its in- habitants to the sword. Yet, to convince you, tihat you are beset, on every side, I shall enter, for a little, into the detail of your ,desperations, and my discoveries.

Do you not remember, or is it possible you can forget my decla- ration on the 21st October last, in the senate, that Caius Manlius, your life guards-man, and confidential bravo, would, on a certain day, take up arms, and this day would be before the 25th, was I mistaken in the very day selected for a deed so atrocious, so apparently incredible? Did not 1, the same mnan, declare, in this house, that you had conspired the massacre of the principal men in the state, upon tIhe 28Sh, at which time they withdrew, for the sake of repressing your design, rather than on account of safety to themselves! Are you daring enough to deny your being, on that very day, so manacled by my power, so entangled by my vigilance, that you durst not raise your finger against the stability of the state, al- though indeed, you were tongue-vali- ant enough to say, that you must even be content with the heads which the runaways had left you. What! with all your full-blown confidence of surpriinug Preneste, in the night, on the Ist of November, did not you find me, in arms, at the gate; did you not feel ne in watch on the walls? Your head cannot contrive, your hea t cannot conceive a wicked- ness of which I shall not have notice; I measure the length and breadth of your treasons, and I sound the gloomi- est depths of your soul.

\Was not the night before the last, sufficiet~t to convince you that there is a good genius protecting that re. public, which a ferocious demoniac is labouring to destroy. I aver that on that same night, you and your coumpiotters assembled in the house of

IM. Lecca. Can even your own tongue deny it ? Yet secret! Speak out, nman! tor if you do not, there are some I see around me, who shall have an agoizimig proof that I am true in my a

asertionx. Good and great Gods ! where are



1810,] Thefirst Oration of Cicero against Cataline. 333

we ? What city do we inhabit? Under what government do we live? Here, HERa,ConscriptFathers ! mix- ed and mingled with us all, in the center of this most grave, and vener- able assembly, are men sitting, quiet- ly incubating a plot, against my life, against all your lives, the life of every virtuous senator, and citizen, while I1, with the whole nest of traitors brood- ing beneath my eyes, am parading in the petty formalities of debate, and the very men appear scarcely vulnerable by my voice, who ought long since to have been cut downi with the sword.

in the house of Lecca, you were on that night. Then and there did you divide Italy into military stations; did you appoint commanders of those stations; did you specify those whom you were to take along with you, and those whom you were to leave behind; did you mark out the limit of the intended conflagration; did you repeat your resolution of shortly leaving Rome, only putting it off for a little, as you said, until you could have the head of the consul. Two knights, Roman knights, promised to deliver that head to you before sun rise the next morning ; but scarce. ly was this stygian council dissolved, when the consul was acquainted with the result of the whole. I doubled the guards at my house, and after announcing to a circle of the first men in the state (who were with me at the time) the very minute when these assassins would come to pay me their respects, that same minute they arrived, asked for entrance, and were denied it.

Proceed, Cataline, in your honour. able career. Go where your destiny, and your desire are driving you. Evacuate the city for a season. I he gates stand open. Begone! What a shame that the Manlian army should look out so long for their general! T'ake all your loving friends along with you, or, if that be a vain hope, take, at least, as many as you can, and cleanse the city for some short time. Let the walls of Romebe the medi- ators between thee and me, for, at present, you are much too near me.

will not suffer you. I will not longer undergo you. I give thanks

BELFAST MAG. NO. XXVIII,

to the immortal Gods, and especially to the God presiding in this temple, the guardian of the city, and stablisher of the state, for my past deliverance from this pest of the republic; but we, now stand here, as ftie Roman state, and whoever con-spires against my person is the assassin of Roime. As long, Cataline, as your plot was leveled against the consul elect, I mnet you as man would meet such a man. I borrowed no safe-guard from governmnent, but was my own protect. or. Even at the late consularcomitia, when you designed to murder me, in office at the time, with all your competitors on the spot, I blasted your design with a croud of private ftriends, without exciting any public commotion. You struck. I parry'd the blow levelled at my country through my side. But now that you have declared open, unambiguous war against your country in the first instance, destruction to the citizens, devastation to the city, domestic, public, and divile, not as yet linding ourselves prepared for that prime duty to which we acknowledge ourselves decidedly bound, by the dignity of our station, the sacred malesty of the empire, and the awful' authority of our fathers, we shall do what, in the next degree, is best becoming us, and we shall soften the edge of public justice, merely from a consideration of public utility. Your execution would not deliver the republic from the malignant attempts of others equally vicious, but should the city once get rid of ,you, the scum of conspiracy might drain off along with you, and il staying, you are really setting your obstinacy not so much against my command, as against your own re. solution, The consuls order an enemy to avoid the city. Do I then con- mand you into banishment ? No. It is to an einemy I speak, not to a citizen.

1\hat indeed is there, in this city, which can tempt you to stay ? Is there, in its streets, a mnn, except your own bauditti, who "ill not turn aside for fear of meeting you, or else look into your lace withhorror ; Is not your private tite branded as teo the bone, with every turpitude? Has not your body been at home and abioad, %h,t obdict pandx of



334 Thefirst Oration of Cicero against Cataline. [Nov.

your lastivious soul, ready to act or to suffer eveiy dishonour? Is there among all the young men you have ruined, onle, to w hose madness you 'have not lent your poignard, to whose lust you have not Ihglgted a lanthorn When )ou had emptied your house of one wife to make room for another, did you not then crown even yout own character with such black abomination,-But let me be silent here, Let. it not be 'told ; if posstble, let it not be conce'ved, that such deeds have been practised in Rome; and let me, with silent reve' rence, draw a veil over public justice htich had the long sufeindg

to endure them. As sllghtly, shall I touch on the impending uinm of your domestic affairs. I pass this b). I attach myself to the general colicern of us all, our lives, our properties, dur common liberties.

C(an 'the light'of the sun be delight- ful;, or the breath of he'aven sweet to him, who kirows there is nOtone present who does not know, that on the last day of December, in the

consulhip of Lepidus and Tullus, this Cataline stood, in' theopen comi- tta, himself armed with a dagger, and attended unh a tro6p of his ad herents, fol the sole' puipose of mas- sacreing the consul and the pinfdipal men in the state; that nothing was wanting on his part, neither despeia. tion ih the doer, nor dread of tihe deed, and that only a lucky chance shielded the republic, on toat day, fiomn his fuiy I pass t'his also, however palpable and notorious. How often have I pan y'd the thrust of death as if by a slight'inclination of the body -Iow often, as consul elect, how often as consul. My eye puisues you thiough all your wind. ings, anticipatesalt your machinations,

,et still you work on in the darkness

of criminality. How often hasthat dagger been wrested out of your hand, or dropt fiom yoear breast, yet still you pick it' up, and'cherish it as devoted by the fnfernal deities to be buried in thIe breast of a consul.

In, the amne of heaven, what manner of man are you > For, althougrh yon are woithy of m'y hottest-~ dignation, I must now- pause, for a moment, to take pvty upon you. You came, a

Shrt time ago, into the senate,

Point me out a single man, in this crouded room, not even ot yotrown faction, who accosted you with the commonest courtesy of the day; and attei this 'most unparal'eled insult, are you waiting, 'n-iseiable man tor any more expressive verdict of your guilt, than such silent contempt What do yon naked, and deserted benches tell you Is it' iecessary for all the 'consudars who have made their escape frtm the bench where you are sitting to ',se tp, and with one vOice, say, Cataline begone froni anioug us. How can you have the foiebeasl to beat all this By heaven, weret I 'the object of such fear to the meilals of my household, as you are' to your felloMv-cittzens, I should a- bandon 'my own house, while yqot keep clngging to a city that abhors, you, and stiuck at, and blasted by every eye, ati floundering from deep to tlepr infttamy, are still able to present 'yoiseltf before the faces of men whose hbnour spImns at you, whose veipy senses loathe you. You

,would run from parents who hated

you as cordially as 3our country' hates and fears you, yet when that conimmon, mother of us alt, struggles to fling this patri de from her bosom, he mocks her authoiity, spOrns at her decrees, and sullenly smtles at her me'ditated< vengeance.

I think I see your parent country standing in disdanmful silence, at'your' side, 'and I shdll interpret that look whiach she casts 'down upon you. " Not ope' mischlief of inagunude has of ale' occurried, not a slmgle iank sedition which has not been plante& by your hand, and ripened 'under your fostering care, thou licensed breaker of my peace, permitted plundeier of my allies, self auth6rized ,6sassain of my cuttehis, audaciously arming thyself against my laws, -or msidiously evad(ingthem. As I could, not as 1 wou-d, have I suffeted what is past ; but now, that thou dost mn- feet the very air which 1 breathe, making even the virtue of others vain, and dying every pubhe crime wviith deeper malignity, I can suffer thee, no longer. Disburthen me. 'Whether my fears 'be founded or fallacious, deliver ile flor' thee and them."

Were your country to speak to you, as I have done, ought there to



18 10o. The first Oration of Cicero against Catalzne. 335

be a neces~ity for any violence tolforce you away ? But it seems you have ot yourselt most condescendingly of- fted to place yourself im safe custody But it seems in order to avoid the breath of calumny, you have declaied your readiness to take up yotu abode with M. Le- pidus, and as he did not wish to re- ceive you, you haa the confidence to come to me, and demand my house for your prison. My answer was, that the man, whom within tlhe walls of the samecity, I found much too near me, I could by 'no mneanu suffer in tne walls of the same house. You then went to the Piaftor Metellus, and by him too, rejected, you na. turally awgrated to an excellent member of your own- society, M Marcellus, weil assured, no doubt, of having at length pitched upon a most diligent sentinel, a most vigilant, watch, a most cou ageous asserter of the laws. But from all this must I not have room to con- clude, his distance inot to be gieat frorn chains and a prison, who by its own acknowledgement, declaies intn- self fit to be put under safe custody.

If then it be impossible for you here to stay with any degree of se- curity to others or to yourselt, why linger in the resolution of going to some other place, and of saving by exile and solitude the wretched re-

lhques of a life snatched from the gripe of the executioner. Move the senate to that puipoit, you d(emand; and if it orders your banishmenJt, you profest aln intant obedience. No. This is not the mode ot con- duct most suittaie to roy disposition, but I shall, on the moment, asceitain to your conviction the judgnent of the senate respecting you ti say, begone from tots city. Deliver the state from inquietude. (f you besitate, in want of a wold-Go, I say, iuito

AaSisMENT--Yell. Have you un- derstanding) can you interpret? Not one murmuw n the asseimbly. It is silent. And yet do you wait for voices to manifest the wishes of hearts which ate clamorous, in their very silence ?

Were I to utter such words to this excellent youth P. Sextius, or to that brave man M. Marcellus, the senate would justly ariest their

consul, even in the temple of the law. But on the question of your banishmunent, their silenie is assent, their passiveness has all the virtue of a decree, and the vigoiur of a vote by acclamation. Nor is it mierely this order of the state, whose authority so valued now, has been at other times so contemlned, but it is the class of Roman Knights who join honesty with honour; it is the multitude of brave elt-zens who ate, now, sur'ounding .this assembly, whose numbels you see, whose wishes 3ou know, whose voices you might a little'ago have pretty plainly heard, and i om whose hands I caun nyselt Ecaicely protect you, yet even these shall I prevail upon to accompany, and guaud yop to the very gaLes of that city Wbhclh you had- dettlned for conflagration.

But why am I thus talking to him? as if the waid of an airy tmleat could shake him 2 as if he stood self chas- tised as it he meditated flight1 as if he thought ot baishmnet! May heaven so dispose )um, eyen at my ris- que ot that stormn of calumny which should encounter me, if not at the pie- sent time inflamed with the recent sense oft your etminollumnt 3 et in the judglmenlt of sucteeding ays. But this, in my estimatioil ranks

'as o-

thing, provided the consequences be

personal, and ttle republic be secure. But that you should ever come to a full sense ot your crjiny, that you should ever iegain a proper ,espect for the laws, that you should ever yield yourself to the calls of your country and exigency of thp state; this is 'indeed a

barren vxpecration. You are not Cataline, of that ntold whose baseves, lppy shame can deter, whose $esperation any danger can ap'- pal, whose madnta, any reaso( can appease.

Hfow oftep then iputit I exclain, be. gone.-Lt you Irate ipe, go, and load me with fhe opplibribilIm of having or- dered Catalmne into tbaisihnent. If you love pie, go, and acceleiate my triumph. But to thils ppi pose my glory demands )ou to carry along wnwl you the most despei ate of y our

asSort, ates, and then alter sweeping ofl all the scum and stirring up aI' tme dregs and fweculence of rebellipn, you must be. take yourself to Manlius, and then yon miust proclaim war against the etJte,



336 The first Oration of Cicero against Cataline. [ Nov.

and the State, and then take care not to say that you had been cast out and and vomited forth of the city, but that you had anrved in coirespoin- dence to your ,ow i bshes, anld i compliance with their invitation.

Yet how i'rldculous is it to urge this man faster to that

tomu winch lie

himnself anti.ipatts5

Is there not, at this instant, an aimed detachmentet waiting for you at the Atrelan Forumr ? IHave not )ou and Manjiuishxed uponr a day for your march, and has it not already been preceded by the domes tic shine of thy impietees, the silver eagle betoie ,*tch )you made )our vows of murder, and

liltewl ip tihe

hinds reqdy to be dyed ii ,the blood of your countriymen, that silver eagle which, I trust will spread its ill omenedI wing over )our cause and shame its worshipper. Yes you will go, I con,

iclde In your unbidlled toury, yourr dire and dauntless audacityl, Miserable 3 ou must be without a civil war, for which nature has formed and fasihrcned y ou, education improved you, and your good toi tune presented to you. You will crown a life spent in licen- tious leisure, in lazy lust and grovel- iig debauclhery, by thie telicliy of mon- sti ios aFud

urnnato al war : arad Ut wet e

pity that a gang so cai efllly selected from all that is base anti sordid in

bumanityt , should pas thejn Irves In obsciire and petishaole infamiy,

wlzu h mighit have been iecordet for curimes maoe consequential and extendled,

There, whtat j3o.s gawart you what delights will' you not experience, witli- out encounter Vn the sIent conclusion of one good ura's e)ye For this, gieat man, h ive betn destined your studies by (ay, your watchiings by night, notler objects than ,a rot aid a rape, than waini)g by the bed of a- diultery or haunting tihe dying to rob tihe dead. Hunge arnd cold, alid ftatgiue, wtl ihe~te meet with tireir re- ward, but the tepublic thlougLh me has its ie itil al)o, talt Catahlire is not

wairiiig 4gaitst it, in tihe station

of a ,consi, ,it is anll infamolus antd igtlori~uouns exrlie, and that what might have beert civil wai, is now but a factious rebeliton.

And no", ConIsclipt Fathersi that I mary stand avJcuitted betfoe toejuog.

merit seat of my country and my own conscience to what I

ha'Fe'done, and for what I'am about to do; that I may deprecate all complaint, and all

imrigoiatioi), le)rid e I pray )ou, 3 our attention, for a little longer, and It t the wot d, I am goiirg to say im1- press themselves on toe healts of all who hear me

Were that country for whom 1 live, or are, were all Italy, were this ma- jestic empire to addrtss me, in suph worus as these, " What, Marcus Tul- 1:us, what my son, are you thlowing your country's great revenge away ? litin, of all men your most dclecded

enemy. Him, an all but convicted traitor. Ham, who has debauched the genius of tne common weal, and de- flowered the honourot thestate. Huin the sver y he-ad and front of conspir acy, anid ebellion. [lim, who thro%s open our pirson doors, aid lets loose our slaves to crush us, with their tetteLs. Him, do you suffer him t9 maici out to civil war as If ne marched in for a ti uniph ? Not yet bound Not yet diagged to the altar Not )yet pouting out his blood before the in- feinaldeitles! and wh y? Because pie. cedents are wanttrgO No. 'l hie blood of every traitot shed in timnes past, oy the swords even of commonol citizen, will answer, no. Is it hien the law bsbieloing tihe head of every Ronuars citizen s No ; Catahitte, and

,is crew,

at e not citizens, but rebels arid revolteir . Do 'lou then fear the coildeli)tdlmon of posterity O Cicelo poor is the iet W i)t you make to that country

whhictI har lIft-d 3ou without tie ai(l of ain- cestry, without any other help than ) rur ownabi)ltties, through all t be grada- tlrns of civil Ille, and seated you thuo opporktirnely onl the summinit of the emnpire, if you cainnot t-countet the reploaches ot a few, while you are devoting youtseit to tile welfare ot tlht. woole. Rather tihan be subjected to the disgrace of relaxing tihe au- thorwty of law, show the stern sever. ty.ot public justice, oc (it such be

your choice) wait until our country be

iald waste, our cities sacked, our

houses in flames, and then,and then only, writ your name become odious Indeed '

Now, mark my answer to thjr re-



I sto4. Eighth Report front the Board of Education. 337

vered and parental voice. I would wnt allow the life of this man, tle prolongation of a single hour, if I judged the present hour the mo-t pio- per to take it away. If the prime and and master spirits of the age they lived in, not only were not disgraced, but wete glorfiediby the sactifice of Saturninus, of Flaccus, and of the Gracchi, much less ought I to tuspend the sword over this par- ricide, aud though I might happen to encounter public odium, I am the man who knows it is sometimes the truest glory to have merited it.

I know -full well that some theze are, even in this assembly, w ho dither do not or will not see the impending danger, who are of such mild and milky natures as to nuise the hopes of Cataline; and under the sanction of such unsuspecting tempers, the wi(k. ed and the weak among us will ex- claim, that itnmediate judgment upon hin would not be mnekely cruel, but the act of a royal despot. Now, I am convinced, that, if this man pioceeds, as he intends, to the camp of Man- iurs, there will not be one so very stupid, as not to see a conspiiacy framed against the state, nor one so very wicked, as not to s& ish it repress, ed. I arn also convinced, that were this man cut off, on the instant, the hydha of public calamity would lose only one head, while others would spring up, and pullulate in its place,; but it he should not only himself evacuate the city, but collect Into one place all of depraved chalacter, and desperate fortune, then would the evil becompletely etadicated, and the seed- plot of sedition be blasted and destro\ ed.

I know not how it happens, conscript fatheis, but every stratagem of sedition, every malignant conspiracy, that has fostered in the body polbtdc, for a length of time, seems to have ripened, and fully matuiated, during the peiiod of m1y con

h-bkh'Ip. I know well, that by giving tiee exit to this boil, the sufeiing state night be lightened and refreshed ftor a season; but here is a malady that las in- fected the very vitals, and taints ttle whole with such venom, that the ex- cision even of this man, would be only a poor palliative, that migiht ex- asperate, but never would completely tjiloninate the dlsorder.

On this account, and this only, let the wicked depart. Let them be corn- piessed into one body, and heid in one place. Let the city walls, as I have said, keep us andthen asunder. Nob longer let them lie in wait for the consul at his very door; no longer beset the praetor in ins seat ofjustice; no longer let our citizelns stand as it on the point of these men's daggers; no longer let combutuiiej be prepared, and faggots laid up foi setting our streets in a blage. In short, let us, in times as these, tead the pi in- ciples of every citizen engraved upon his for ehead, and then, behold in me, an auspicious augur, that such must be the consequence, of consular vigilance, senatorial authornt), and equestriaq vaiour, every thing will become clear antd imanifest, the machinations of evil men will be blasted, and the honour of Rome avenged.

Lucius Cataline begin, as soon is you aie able, tthis damnable, and un- patural war. Begin it, on your part. under the shade of every dreadful o- men: on mine, with the sure and certain hope of safety to, my country

and glory to myself, and when this yoa have ldone, then, do T'1 u, whose altar was first founded by the founder of our state- 'hou, the stablisher ,f this city, pour out thy vengeance upon this man and all hib adherents. Save us from his fuiy, our public al- tais, our sacred temples, our hoases, and household god&, our liberties, our lives. Pur-ue, tutelar god, pursue item, these foes to the gods, and goodntess, these plunderess ot Italy, these assa,- sins of Rome. Erase them out of this life, and in the next, let thy sengeance pursue then), insatiable, tinplactable, immortal!

For the Belfast Monthly l Magazine. EIGHTH REPORT FROM THE COMMISSIONERS

OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION, IN IRE- LAND.

To his Grace Charles Duke of Rice- mond and Lenox, 4-c. Lord

Lzeute- nant genural,aed general governor of Ii eland.

MAY iT PLEASE YOUR GER CE, E the undersigned continissiRn- els, appointed tor inquirinog i- to the several funds and tevenues

gianted by public or piivate don,4- tlons for the purposes of educatios



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The First Oration of Cicero against Cataline

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