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JUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS, 153mentby petalism came into vogue. But whether the publicprocesses embraced elsewhere as many subjects as at Athens,and as many things, which to us seem to regard the privatecitizen alone, is a question which we cannot decide, forwant of information."This pointhas been entirely overlooked by those whohave written on the judicialinstitutions of Greece for ; theyhad Athens only in view, and treated the subjectmore as oneof jurisprudencethan of politics.And yetit is of all the mostimportant.The more limited was the number of publicsuits, the smaller was the possibilityof instituting them, tinlesssome personal injury had previouslybeen sustained.In the list of publicoffences at Athens, there were many,which, by their very nature, were indefinite. Hence it waseasy to bring a public action against almost any one. Weneed but think of an ageof corruption,to understand howAthens, after the Peloponnesian war, could teem with thebrood of sycophants, againstwhom the orators are so loudin their complaints ; and whom all the measures, first adopted in consequence of the magnitude of the evil, all thedanger and topunishmentswhich false accusers were exposed, were never sufficient to restrain.Were other cities, at least the democratic ones, in as bada condition as Athens? Here we are deserted by history;which has preservedfor us almost nothing respecting theextent of the public processesand the popular tribunals.But if in Athens several adventitious causes, lying partly inthe national character, and in the partly political power ofAthens, (for the importanceof state trials increases with theimportance of the state,) contributed to multiply this classof processesit; by no means follows, that the number wasmuch smaller in most of the other Grecian cities.Populartribunals are the sources of politicalrevolutions ;and whatstates abounded in them more than the Grecian ? The manof influence, always an objectof envy, was the most exposedto accusations, where it was so easy to find a ground of accusation; but the man of influence had the greatestresourceswithout the precinctsof the court. He with his if lieparty,is conscious of possessingsufficient strength, has recourse toarms, and instead of sufferinghimself to be banished fromthe city, prefersto terminate the action by driving away his