# 48. To prevent an Official Appointment being given to a Base and Wicked Fellow, either an Exceedingly Base and Wicked Man should be put forward as a Candidate or an Exceedingly Noble and Good Man

When the senate half expected that plebeians would be made tribunes with consular power, it adopted one of these two expedients. Either it put forward as candidates the most reputable men in Rome, or on the other hand, it took suitable means to suborn some rascally and insignificant plebeians and to cause them to mingle with plebeians of higher standing who in the ordinary course would stand as candidates, so that they should stand as candidates together. This second expedient made the plebs ashamed to give a man the office, while the first made them ashamed not to give it.

This all bears out the proposition laid down in the preceding discourse that, if the populace makes mistakes about generalities, it does not make mistakes about particulars.