POLITICAL FORMS AND FORCES. 627 



according to his glory in war or his eloquence, is listened to, speaking 

 rather by the influence of persuasion than by the power of command- 

 ing. If their opinions give offense, they are thrust aside with a 

 shout ; if they are approved, the hearers clash their spears." 



Similarly among the Scandinavians, as shown us in Iceland, where, 

 besides the general Al-thing annually held, which it was " disreputable 

 for a freeman not to attend," and at which " people of all classes in 

 fact pitched their tents," there were local assemblies called Var-things 

 " attended by all the freemen of the district, with a crowd of retain- 

 ers .. . both for the discussion of public affairs and the administra- 

 tion of justice. . . . Within the circle [formed for administering 

 justice] sat the judges, the people standing on the outside." In the 

 account given by Mr. Freeman of the yearly meetings in the Swiss 

 cantons of Uri and Appenzell, we may trace this primitive political 

 form as still existing ; for though the presence of the people at large 

 is the fact principally pointed out, yet there is named, in the case of 

 Uri, the body of magistrates or chosen chiefs who form the second 

 element, as well as the head magistrate who is the first element. And 

 that in ancient England there was a kindred constitution of the Wit- 

 tenagemot, is indirectly proved ; as witness the following passage 

 from Freeman's "Growth of the English Constitution" : "No ancient 

 record gives us any clear or formal account of the constitution of that 

 body. It is commonly spoken of in a vague way as a gathering of 

 the wise, the noble, the great men. But, alongside of passages like 

 these, we find other passages which speak of it in a way which implies 

 a far more popular constitution. King Eadward is said to be chosen 

 king by ' all folk.' Earl Godwine ' makes his speech before the king 

 and aU the people of the land.' " And the implication, as Mr. Free- 

 man points out, is that the share taken by the people in the proceed- 

 ings was that of expressing by shouts their approval or disapproval. 



This form of ruling agency is thus shown to be the fundamental 

 form, by its presence at the outset of social life and by its continuance 

 under various conditions. Not among peoples of superior types only, 

 such as Aryans and some Semites, do we find it, but also among sun- 

 dry Malayo-Polynesians, among the red men of North America, the 

 Dravidian tribes of the Indian hills, the aboi'igines of Australia. In 

 fact, as already implied, governmental organization could not possibly 

 begin in any other way. On the one hand, no controlling force at 

 first exists save that of the aggregate will as manifested in the assem- 

 bled horde. On the other hand, leading parts in determining this 

 aggregate will are inevitably taken by the few whose superiority is 

 recognized. And of these predominant men some one is sure to be 

 most predominant. That which we have to note as specially signifi- 

 cant, is not that a free form of government is the primitive form ; 

 though this is an implication which may be dwelt upon. Nor are 

 we chiefly concerned with the fact that at the very beginning there 



