Te EUROPEAN LEGISLATURES. 157 



Mr HUME, obferving that vaft numbers of members were al- 

 ways afcribed to the Saxon diet, has thcmght it neceffary to 

 fuppofe, that the principal proprietors of land were entitled to 

 feats in it ; and he, at the fame time, rejects the notion of the 

 commons fitting, or being reprefented in it, becaufe he finds 

 no mention of reprefentatives in Saxon times ; and becaufe, 

 from the nature of the thing, a deliberative council could 

 not contain a whole nation. But, if the diet was a mili- 

 tary review, the leaders might naturally form a council far 

 from being- too numerous for deliberation ; and the body which 

 approved or rejected their refolutions might be fuppofed to cort- 

 fift of almofl any given numbers without confufion. The fe- 

 paration of the diet into two bodies is, no doubt, irreconcileable 

 with Mr HUME'S fyftem j but it feems to obviate the difficulties 

 that induced him to adopt ir. 



IN the next place, I apprehend the following paffages clearly 

 point out, that the eldeft wites, or faplentes natu major -es, were 

 the lay and ecclefiaftical magiftrates, and, by no means, merely 

 confiderable landholders. INA reigned in WefTex in the end of 

 the feventh and beginning of the eighth century* His laws 



are 



difpulei As to thofe of Spain, there feems to be no room for fuppofing them different : 

 " Tandem unus ex primatibus," fays an ancient chronicle, " nomine CHINDASINTHUS, 

 " colle&is plurimis (enatoribus Gothorum, caeteroque populo in regno Spanise fublima- 

 " tur. TOLOGANEM degra.datum ad honos CLERICATI tonfbrare fecit." FREDEG. 82. 

 The fame conftitution among the Lombards feems to be implied in the expreflion of the 

 chronicle : " Langobardi una cum concilio procerum fuorum DESIDERIUM in fedem reg- 

 " ni inftituunt." Du CHESNE, tit. i. />. 775. As to France, again, under the firft 

 Race, we frequently meet with fu.ch language as this : " CHILPERICUS rex, convocatis 

 " melioribus Francis, reliquifque fidelibus, nuptias celebravit filise fuse." GREG. Tur. 

 lib. 6. 45. " Ille vero congregatis fenioribus fecum, praeparatis epulis," 4>T. 

 Lib.$. \ 27. And FREDEGARIUS writes, " Confilio fapientum ufus pagos et civitates,- 

 " quod fratri fuo CHARIBERTO ad tranfigendum ad inftar privato habitu viventium, 

 " potuiflet fufficere nofcitur conceflifle." Cap. 57. In the fame way, the legiflature of 

 the Saxons, when conquered by CHARLEMAGNE, confifted of a ienate and people : 

 " Cum in Saxoniam CAROLHS perveniflet totum perfidas gentis fenatum ac papulum; 

 " quern ad fe venire juflerat, morigeram ac fallaciter fibi devotam invenit." EOINHAR- 

 TDS in aflis ann, 777. 



