2o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



eminent of annually elected tribunes. And these original govern- 

 ments, existing at the time when there came several thousands of 

 fugitives, driven from the mainland by the invading Huns, survived 

 under the form of a rude confederation. As we have seen happen in 

 other cases, the union into which these independent little communities 

 were forced for purposes of joint defense was disturbed by feuds ; 

 and it was only under the stress of opposition to aggressing Lombards 

 on the one side and Slavonic pirates on the other that a general as- 

 sembly of nobles, clergy, and citizens appointed a duke or doge to 

 direct the combined forces, and to restrain internal factions ; being 

 superior to the tribunes of the united islets and subject only to this 

 body which appointed him. What changes subsequently took plaCB 

 how, beyond the restraints imposed by the general assembly, the 

 doge was presently put under the check of two elected councilors, 

 and on important occasions had to summon the principal citizens ; 

 how there came afterward a representative council, which underwent 

 from time to time changes does not now concern us. Here we have 

 simply to note that, as in preceding cases, the component groups be- 

 ing favorably circumstanced for severally maintaining their indepen- 

 dence of one another, the imperative need for union against enemies 

 initiated a rude compound headship, which, notwithstanding the cen- 

 tralizing effects of war, tended to maintain itself in one or other 

 form. 



On finding allied results among men of a different race but occu- 

 pying a similar region, doubts respecting the process of causation 

 must be dissipated. On the area half land, half sea formed of the 

 sediment brought down by the Rhine and adjacent rivers, there early 

 existed scattered families. Living on isolated sand-hills, or in huts 

 raised on piles, they were so secure amid their creeks and mud-banks 

 and marshes, that they remained unsubdued by the Romans. Sub- 

 sisting at first by fishing, with here and there such small agriculture 

 as was possible, and eventually becoming maritime and commercial, 

 these people, in course of time, rendered their land more habitable by 

 damming out the sea ; and they long enjoyed a partial if not complete 

 independence. In the third century " the Low Countries contained the 

 only free people of the German race." Especially the Frisians, more 

 remote than the rest from invaders, " associated themselves with the 

 tribes settled on the limits of the German Ocean, and formed with 

 them a connection celebrated under the title of the * Saxon League.' " 

 Though, at a later time, the inhabitants of the Low Countries fell under 

 the power of France, yet the nature of their habitat continued to give 

 them such advantages in resisting foreign control that they organized 

 themselves after their own fashion, notwithstanding interdicts. " From 

 the time of Charlemagne the people of the ancient Menapia, now be- 

 come a prosperous commonwealth, formed political associations to 

 raise a barrier against the despotic violence of the Franks." Mean- 



