626 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



questions of general importance. The members of every society, how- 

 ever, have a right to be present at all its councils, and to give their 

 voices on the questions mooted, although the patriarchs alone take a 

 part in their public discussion. . . . The federal patriarchs, in like 

 manner, consult with the heads of tribes, and assemble when neces- 

 sary the entire population of the federal group." 



In New Zealand the government was conducted in accordance 

 with public opinion expressed in general assemblies ; and the chiefs 

 " could not declare peace or war, or do anything affecting the whole 

 people, without the sanction of the majority of the clan." Of the 

 Tahitians, Ellis tells us that the king had a few chiefs as advisers, 

 but that no affair of national importance could be undertaken without 

 consulting the land-holders or second rank, and also that public assem- 

 blies were held. Similarly of the Malagasy : " The greatest national 

 council in Madagascar is an assembly of the people of the capital, and 

 the heads of the provinces, towns, villages, etc." The king usually 

 presides in person. 



Though in these last cases we see considerable changes in the 

 relative powers of the three components, so that the inner few have 

 gained in authority at the expense of the outer many, yet all three 

 are still present ; and they continue to be present when we pass to 

 sundry historic peoples. Even of the Phoenicians, Movers notes that 

 " in the time of Alexander a war was decided upon by the Tyrians 

 without the consent of the absent king, the senate acting together 

 with the popular assembly." Then there is the familiar case of the 

 Homeric Greeks, whose Agora, presided over by the king, was " an 

 assembly for talk, communication and discussion to a certain extent 

 by the chiefs, in presence of the people as listeners and sympathizers," 

 who were seated around ; and. that the people were not always passive 

 is shown by the story of Thersites, who, ill-used though he was by 

 Odysseus and derided by the crowd for interfering, had first made 

 his harangue. Again, the king, the senate, and the freemen, in primi- 

 tive Rome, stood in relations which had manifestly grown out of 

 those existing in the original assembly ; for, though the three did not 

 simultaneously cooperate, yet on important occasions the king com- 

 municated his proposals to the assembled burgesses, who expressed 

 their approval or disapproval, and the clan-chiefs, forming the senate, 

 though they did not debate in public, had yet such joint power that 

 they could, on occasion, negative the decision of king and burgesses. 

 Concerning the primitive Germans, Tacitus, as translated by Mr. 

 Freeman, writes : " On smaller matters the chiefs debate, on greater 

 matters all men ; but so that those things whose final decision rests 

 with the whole people are first handled by the chiefs. . . . The multi- 

 tude sits armed in such order as it thinks good ; silence is proclaimed 

 by the priests, who have also the right of enforcing it. Presently the 

 king or chief, according to the age of each, according to his birth, 



