in memory, that your indignation may be kindled against all those whose decrees have been illegal. Let not any of their offences be deemed of little moment, but all of the greatest importance; nor suffer your rights to be wrested from you, by any power; neither by the combinations of your generals, who, by conspiring with our public speakers, have frequently involved the state in danger; nor by the solicitations of foreigners, who have been brought up to screen some men from justice, whose administration hath been notoriously illegal. But' as each man among you would be ashamed to desert from his post in battle; so think it shameful to abandon the post this day assigned to you by the laws, that of guardians of the constitution.

Let it also be remembered, that the whole body of our citizens hath now committed their state, their liberties, into your hands. Some of them are present, awaiting the event of this trial; others are called away to attend on their private affairs. Shew the due reverence to these; remember your oaths and your laws; and if we convict Ctesiphon of having proposed decrees illegal, false, and detrimental to the state, reverse these illegal decrees, assert the freedom of your constitution, and punish those who have administered your affairs in opposition to your laws, in contempt of your constitution, and in total disregard of your interest. If, with these sentiments impressed upon your minds, you attend to what is now to be proposed, you must, I am convinced, proceed to a decision just and religious, a decision of the utmost advantage to yourselves, and to the state.

As to the general nature of this prosecution, thus far have I premised, and, I trust, without offence. Let me now request your attention to a few words about the laws relative to persons ACCOUNTABLE to the public, which have been violated by the decree proposed by Ctesiphon.

In former times there were found magistrates of the most

1 To perceive the whole force and artifice of this similitude, the reader is to recollect, that at the battle of Charonea, Demosthenes betrayed the utmost weakness and cowardice, a matter of great triumph to his enemies, and a constant subject of their ridicule.

distinguished rank, and entrusted with the management of our revenues, who in their several stations were guilty of the basest corruption, but who, by forming an interest with the speakers in the senate, and in the popular assembly, anticipated their accounts by public honours, and declarations of applause. Thus, when their conduct came to a formal examination, their accusers were involved in great perplexity, their judges in still greater. For many of the persons thus subject to examination, though convicted, on the clearest evidence, of having defrauded the public, were yet suffered to escape from justice; and no wonder. The judges were ashamed that the same man, in the same city, possibly in the same year, should be publicly honoured in our festivals, that proclamation should be made, "that the people had conferred a golden crown upon him, on account of his integrity and virtue;" that the same man, I say, in a short time after, when his conduct had been brought to an examination, should depart from the tribunal, condemned of fraud. In their sentence, therefore, the judges were necessarily obliged to attend, not to the nature of those offences, but to the reputation of the state.

Some of our magistrates1 observing this, framed a law, (and its excellence is undeniable) expressly forbidding any man to be honoured with a crown, whose conduct had not yet been submitted to the legal examination. But, notwithstanding all the precaution of the framers of this law, pretences were still found of force sufficient to defeat its intention. Of these you are to be informed, lest you should be unwarily betrayed into error. Some of those who in defiance of the laws have moved, that men who yet stood accountable for their conduct, should be crowned, are still influenced by some degree of decency (if this can with propriety be said of men who propose resolutions directly subversive of the laws): they still seek to cast a kind of veil upon their shame. Hence are they sometimes careful to express their resolutions in this manner, "that the man whose conduct is not yet submitted to examina

1 Those who were appointed to revise the laws, and to propose the amendment or abrogation of such as were found inconvenient, as well as such new laws as the public interest seemed to demand.

tion, shall be honoured with a crown," "when his accounts. have first been examined, and approved." But this is no less injurious to the state; for by these crowns and public honours is his conduct prejudged, and his examination anticipated: while the author of such resolutions demonstrates to his hearers, that his proposal is a violation of the laws, and that he is ashamed of his offence. But Ctesiphon (my countrymen) hath at once broken through the laws relative to the examination of our magistrates; he hath scorned to recur to that subterfuge now explained: he hath moved you to confer a crown upon Demosthenes, previously to any account, to any examination of his conduct: at the very time while he was yet employed in the discharge of his magistracy.

But there is another evasion of a different kind, to which they are to recur. These offices, say they, to which a citizen is elected by an occasional decree, are by no means to be accounted magistracies, but commissions, or agencies. Those alone are magistrates whom the proper officers1 appoint by lot in the temple of Theseus, or the people elect by suffrage in their ordinary assemblies; such as generals of the army, commanders of the cavalry, and such-like; all others are but commissioners, who are but to execute a particular decree. To this their plea I shall oppose your own law, a law enacted from a firm conviction, that it must at once put an end to all such evasions. In this it is expressly declared, that all offices whatever, appointed by the voices of the people, shall be accounted magistracies. In one general term the author of this law hath included all. All hath he declared MAGISTRATES, whom the VOTES OF THE ASSEMBLY HAVE APPOINTED: and particularly THE INSPECTORS OF PUBLIC WORKS.-Now Demosthenes inspected the repair of our walls, the most important of public works.-THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN ENTRUSTED WITH ANY PUBLIC MONEY FOR MORE THAN THIRTY DAYS. THOSE WHO ARE ENTITLED ΤΟ PRESIDE IN A TRIBUNAL.2-But 1 In the original, Thesmothetæ, i.e., the six inferior Archons, who were called by this general name, while each of the three first had his peculiar title.

2 There was scarcely any Athenian at all employed in public business, but had some sort of jurisdiction annexed to his office. Inferior suits

the inspectors of works are entitled to this privilege.What then doth the law direct? That all such should assume not their COMMISSIONS, but their MAGISTRACY, having first been judicially approved: (for even the magistrates appointed by lot are not exempted from this previous inquiry, but must be first approved, before they assume their office). These are also directed by the law to submit the accounts of their administration to the legal officers, as well as every other magistrate. And for the truth of what I now advance, to the laws themselves do I appeal.-Read

The Laws are here read.

Here then you find that what these men call commissions or agencies, are declared to be magistracies. It is your part to bear this in memory, to oppose the law to their presumption; to convince them that you are not to be influenced by the wretched sophistical artifice, that would defeat the force of laws by words; and that the greater their address in defending their illegal proceedings, the more severely must they feel your resentment. For the public speaker should ever use the same language with the law. Should he at any time speak in one language, and the law pronounce another, to the just authority of law should you grant your voices, not to the shameless presumption of the speaker.

To that argument on which Demosthenes relies, as utterly unanswerable, I would now briefly speak.-This man will say, "I am director of the fortifications. I confess it. But I have expended of my own money, for the public service, an additional sum of one hundred minæ, and enlarged the work beyond my instructions; for what then am I to account? Unless a man is to be made accountable for his own beneficence."

-To this evasion you shall hear a just and good reply.—In this city of so ancient an establishment, and a circuit so extensive, there is not a man exempted from account, who has the smallest part in the affairs of state. This I shall shew, and controversies were thus multiplied, and found perpetual employment for this lively meddling people: who were trained from their youth, and constantly exercised in the arts of managing and conducting suits at law.

first in instances scarcely credible. Thus, the priests and priestesses are by the laws obliged to account for the discharge of their office: all in general, and each in particular; although they have received no more than an honorary pension, and have had no other duty but of offering up their prayers for us to the gods. And this is not the case of single persons only, but of whole tribes, as the Eumolpida the Ceryces,1 and all the others. Again, the trierarchs are by the law made accountable for their conduct; although no public money hath been committed to their charge; although they have not embezzled large portions of their revenue, and accounted but for a small part; although they have not affected to confer bounties on you, while they really but restored your own property; no; they confessedly expended their paternal fortunes to approve their zealous affection for your service; and not our trierarchs alone, but the greatest assemblies in the state, are bound to submit to the sentence of our tribunals. First, the law directs, that the council of the Areopagus shall stand accountable to the proper officers, and submit their august transactions to a legal examination; thus our greatest judicial body stands in perpetual dependence upon your decisions. Shall the members of this council then be precluded from the honour of a crown?-Such has been the ordinance from times the most remote.—And have they no regard to public honour? -So scrupulous is their regard, that it is not deemed sufficient that their conduct should not be notoriously criminal, their least irregularity is severely punished; a discipline too rigorous for our delicate orators. Again, our lawgiver directs, that the senate of five hundred shall be bound to account for their conduct; and so great diffidence doth he express of those who have not yet rendered such an account, that in the very beginning of the law it is ordained, "that no magistrate, who hath not yet passed through the ordinary examination, shall be permitted to go abroad."-But here a man may exclaim,

1 Families (so called from their founders, Eumolpus and Ceryx) who had an hereditary right of priesthood.

2 Rich citizens who were required not only to command, but to equip a war vessel at their own expense.