the public burdens. You will distinguish into regular
classes the various and infinite multitude of citizens, and accurately
view the military strength, the wealth, the virtue, and the resources of
Rome. Your decisions shall obtain the force of laws. The army, the
palace, the ministers of justice, and the great officers of the empire,
are all subject to your tribunal. None are exempted, excepting only the
ordinary consuls, [39] the praefect of the city, the king of the
sacrifices, and (as long as she preserves her chastity inviolate) the
eldest of the vestal virgins. Even these few, who may not dread the
severity, will anxiously solicit the esteem, of the Roman censor." [40]

[Footnote 37: Montesquieu, Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, c. viii.
He illustrates the nature and use of the censorship with his usual
ingenuity, and with uncommon precision.]

[Footnote 38: Vespasian and Titus were the last censors, (Pliny, Hist.
Natur vii. 49. Censorinus de Die Natali.) The modesty of Trajan
refused an honor which he deserved, and his example became a law to the
Antonines. See Pliny's Panegyric, c. 45 and 60.]

[Footnote 39: Yet in spite of his exemption, Pompey appeared before
that tribunal during his consulship. The occasion, indeed, was equally
singular and honorable. Plutarch in Pomp. p. 630.]

[Footnote 40: See the original speech in the Augustan Hist. p. 173-174.]

A magistrate, invested with such extensive powers, would have appeared
not so much the minister, as the colleague of his sovereign. [41]
Valerian justly dreaded an elevation so full of envy and of suspicion.
He modestly argued the alarming greatness of the trust, his own
insufficiency, and the incurable corruption of the times. He artfully
insinuated, that the office of censor was inseparable from the Imperial
dignity, and that the feeble hands of a subject were unequal to the
support of such an immense weight of cares and of power. [42] The
approaching event of war soon put an end to the prosecution of a project
so specious, but so impracticable; and whilst it preserved Valerian
from the danger, saved the emperor Decius from the disappointment, which
would most probably have attended it. A censor may maintain, he can
never restore, the morals of a state. It is impossible for such a
magistrate to exert his authority with benefit, or even with effect,
unless he is supported by a quick sense of honor and virtue in the minds
of the people, by a decent reveren