OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 357 sovereign ; to expose the grievances and wishes of their con- stituents ; to moderate the excessive or unequal weight of taxes ; and to deliberate on every subject of local or national importance, that could tend to the restoration of the peace and prosperity of the seven provinces. If such an institution, which gave the people an interest in their own government, had been universally established by Trajan or the Antonines, the seeds of public wisdom and, virtue might have been cherished and propagated in the empire of Rome. The privileges of the subject would have secured the throne of the monarch ; the abuses of an arbitrary administration might have been prevented, in some degree, or corrected, by the interposition of these representative assemblies ; and the country would have been defended against a foreign enemy by the arms of natives and freemen. Under the mild and generous influence of liberty, the Roman empire might have remained invincible and immortal ; or, if its excessive magnitude and the instability of human affairs had opposed such perpetual continuance, its vital and constituent members might have separately preserv^ed their vigour and independence. But in the decline of the empire, when every principle of health and life had been exhausted, the tardy application of this partial remedy was incapable of producing any important or salutary effects. The Emperor Honorius expresses his surprise that he must compel the reluctant provinces to accept a privilege which they should ardently have solicited. A fine of three or even five pounds of gold was imposed on the absent representa- tives ; who seem to have declined this imaginary gift of a free constitution, as the last and most cruel insult of their op- pressors.^^" 1^ [Guizot, in his Histoire de la Civilisation en Europe (c. 2), translates this edict. It interests him as an unsuccessful attempt at representative govern- ment and centralisation, which were contrary to the nature of a society in which the municipal spirit was predominant. Chateaubriand had already described the institution of the assembly as " un tres grand fait historique qui annonce le passage k une nouvelle espece de liberty". These and other writers have exaggerated the importance of the edict and ascribed to Honorius and his ministers ideas which were foreign to them. There was certainly no question of anything like a national representation. For recent discussions of the document, see Guiraud, Les assemblies provinciales dans I'Empire romain, and Carette, Les assemblies provinciales de la Gaule romaine. The main objects of Honorius were probably, as M. Carette says, p. 249, to multiply the points of contact between the chief of his Gallic subjects and his governors; and to facilitate the administrative business of the provinces by centralisation. For diocesan, as distinct from provincial, concilia, see C. Th, 12, 12, 9.]
