In the election of these magistrates, the people, during the reign of Augustus, were permitted to expose all the inconveniences of a wild democracy.

That artful prince, instead of discovering the least symptom of impatience, humbly solicited their suffrages for himself or his friends, and scrupulously practised all the duties of an ordinary candidate.

But we may venture to ascribe to his councils the first measure of the succeeding reign, by which the elections were transferred to the senate.

The assemblies of the people were forever abolished, and the emperors were delivered from a dangerous multitude, who, without restoring liberty, might have disturbed, and perhaps endangered, the established government.
By declaring themselves the protectors of the people, Marius and Caesar had subverted the constitution of their country.

But as soon as the senate had been humbled and disarmed, such an assembly, consisting of five or six hundred persons, was found a much more tractable and useful instrument of dominion.