156 On the ORIGIN and STRUCTURE of 



As to the former of thefe circumftances, it will not have efcapecf 

 attention, that many of the facts already quoted ftrongly confirm 

 the general idea, that there was a prefiding body in the national 

 diets, confiding chiefly of the ecclefiaftical and lay magiftracy. 

 HINC MAR'S defcription of the placita under CHARLEMAGNE ; 

 what we know of the diets in Germany under his fucceffors, and 

 of thofe of the Vifigoths before the Saracen conqueft, and the 

 ftruclure of thofe of Poland and Sweden, are all agreeable to 

 this opinion. The queflion, however, who the wites were, 

 from which the Anglo-Saxon diet, or micelmot, derived fome- 

 times the name of ivittenagemot, has been a matter of fo much 

 difcuflion, the opinion I offer is fo adverfe to what the greateft 

 of our hiflorians have entertained on the fubject, and is itfelf 

 fo material in explaining the origin and functions of the peer- 

 age and titled nobility of modern Europe, that I flatter myfelf 

 fome obfervadons, particularly directed to this fubject, will not 

 be unacceptable. 



IN the firft place, it is to be noticed, that many of the ex- 

 preflions of our ancient hiflorians and records indicate, that the 

 Saxon diet confifled of two bodies. This feems to be implied 

 even in the common enumeration, which begins with the dig- 

 nified clergy, and ends with fome term denoting a great multi- 

 tude of people, fuch as tola ingenuitas, or populus ; but there are 

 not wanting more explicit expreffions. Thus, WILLIAM of 

 Malmfbury, who flourifhed only fixty-nine years after the con- 

 queft, makes HAROLD, when reproached for afluming the 

 crown contrary to his oath, give the following anfwer to WIL- 

 LIAM the Norman : " De regno prefumptuofum fuifle, quod 

 " abfque general! fenatus et populi conventu et edicto, alienam: 

 " illi haereditatem juraverit," &c . *'. 



Mr 



* ANALOGOUS expreflions are ufed with refpedi to the diets of the continental nations. 

 As to the northern nations, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, the fa<3, with 

 regard to two bodies, a fenate and people, compofmg their ancient diets, admits of no 



difpute 



