In this division of the nation, the preponderance of numbers may not have been so entirely on the side of the plebeians, as it will probably appear to every one, even to him who has thoroughly rid himself of the delusive notion that the patricians of those ages are to be regarded as a nobless; a class, which in fact was to be found within both the estates. Had the superiority of the plebeians been such as to leave no doubt that the issue of a contest with arms, since matters had unhappily gone so far, would be in their favour, they would never have contented themselves with a compact which merely gave them back a part of the rights they had been robbed of. And yet the commonalty, if it stood together as one man, was evidently so strong, that their opponents betrayed the uttermost infatuation in not endeavouring to separate the various classes which composed it; nay, in wronging and outraging them all at once; the noble and rich, by withholding public offices from them; such of the gentry as without personal ambition were attached as honest men to the well-being of their class, by depriving it of its common rights and privileges; the personal honour of both, by the indignities to which such as stood nearest to the ruling party were the most frequently exposed, and by which men of good birth were the most keenly wounded; every one who wanted to borrow money, and all the indigent, by the abominable system of pledging the person and of slavery for debt; in fine high and low, by excluding them from the public domains, where many, who had been stript of their property by the loss of the territory beyond the Tiber, might have found a home.