398 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, on his return, he carefully revised their proceedings, ' " ' mitigated the rigour of the law, and pronounced a second judgement on the judges themselves. Superior to the last temptation of vu'tuous minds, an indiscreet and intemperate zeal for justice, he restrained, with calmness and dignity, the warmth of an advocate who prosecuted for extortion the president of the Nar- bonnese province. " Who will ever be found guilty," exclaimed the vehement Delphidius, " if it be enough to deny?" " And who," replied Julian, " will ever be inno- cent, if it be sufficient to affirm ?" In the general admi- nistration of peace and war, the interest of the sovereign is commonly the same as that of his people ; but Con- stantius would have thought himself deeply injured, if the virtues of Julian had defrauded him of any part of the tribute which he extorted from an opprcosed and exhausted country. The prince who was invested with the ensigns of royalty, might sometimes presume to correct the rapacious insolence of the inferior agents ; to expose their corrupt arts, and to introduce an equal and easier mode of collection. But the management of the finances was more safely intrusted to Florentius, pretorian prefect of Gaul, an effeminate tyrant, inca- pable of pity or remorse ; and the haughty minister complained of the most decent and gentle opposition, while Julian himself was rather inclined to censure the weakness of his own behaviour. The Caesar had re- jected with abhorrence a mandate for the levy of an extraordinary tax, a new superindiction, which the pre- fect had offered for his signature; and the faithful picture of the public misery, by which he had been obliged to justify his refusal, offended the court of Constantius. We may enjoy the pleasure of reading the sentiments of Julian, as he expresses them with warmth and freedom in a letter to one of his most in- timate friends. After stating his own conduct, he pro- ceeds in the following terms : " Was it possible for the disciple of Plato and Aristotle to act otherwise than I have done ? Could I abandon the unhappy subjects in-
