CHAPTER IX .-- _That to give new Institutions to a Commonwealth, or to.
reconstruct old Institutions on an entirely new basis, must be the work of one Man_.
It may perhaps be thought that I should not have got so far into the history of Rome, without some mention of those who gave that city its institutions, and saying something of these institutions themselves, so far as they relate to religion and war.

As I have no wish to keep those who would know my views on these matters in suspense, I say at once, that to many it might seem of evil omen that the founder of a civil government like Romulus, should first have slain his brother, and afterwards have consented to the death of Titus Tatius the Sabine, whom he had chosen to be his colleague in the kingship; since his countrymen, if moved by ambition and lust of power to inflict like injuries on any who opposed their designs, might plead the example of their prince.

This view would be a reasonable one were we to disregard the object which led Romulus to put those men to death.

But we must take it as a rule to which there are very few if any exceptions, that no commonwealth or kingdom ever has salutary institutions given it from the first or has its institutions recast in an entirely new mould, unless by a single person.

On the contrary, it must be from one man that it receives its institutions at first, and upon one man that all similar reconstruction must depend.