144 the ORIGIN and STRUCTURE of 



UNDER the Carlovingians, we have much more particular ac- 

 counts of thefe affemblies. The moft unambiguous expref- 

 fions of hiftorians indicate that they were national *. 



HINCMAR relates, that, at the placita, the " Epifcopi abbates, 

 f velhujufmodi honorificentioresclerici,fibimet honorificabiliter 

 ' a cactera multitudine primo mane fegregarentur ;" and that a 

 fimilar feparation took place, as to the comites, " vel hujufmodi 

 ' principes." Thefe, he fays, formed two councils, which met 

 together in one, when the affairs under deliberation required it. 

 Here, then, we have the magiftracy, or governors of towns 

 and counties, and the dignified clergy, forming a fenate, and 

 feparated from the multitude of whidi the reft of the diet 

 was compofed. And it will be particularly obferved, that this 

 multitude were, by no means, as has often been pretend- 

 ed, a rabble of attendants and fpeclators ', for it is related, 

 that no " inferiores perfonas" were admitted among them ; and 

 that their functions were to hear the refolves of the lay and ec- 

 clefiaftical magiftracy ; and fometimes (in cafes, I fuppofe, of 

 very general intereft) deliberate on them, and confirm them, 

 not by their power in executing them, but by their fuffrage in 

 approving of them f. There is alfo a leffer diet mentioned by 



HINCMAR, 



" principibus fuis, id funt, 33 eplfcopis, 34 ducibus, et 79 comitibus, vel csetero populo 

 ' conftituta eft." And HINCMAR, archbifhop of Rheims, under Loois LK DEBONNAIRE, 

 a well informed author, and anxious to preferve information of the conftitution of his 

 country, Teems to hold it as a thing perfe&ly notorious, that, in all times, the national 

 confent had been given to the promulgation of laws. " Habent enim reges," fays he, 

 " et reipublicse miniflri, leges quibus, in quacunque provincia degentes regere debent 

 '' habent capitula Chriftianorum regum, ac progenitorum fuorum, qu* general! confen- 

 " fu fidelium fuorum tenere legaliter promulgaverunt." Vol. \\. p. 204. The capitula- 

 ries are exprefs on this fubjeft. One of them runs as follows : " Per capitula avi et pa- 

 " tris noftri, quae Franci pro lege tenenda judicaverunt et fideles noftri, in generali pla- 

 " cito noftro confervanda decreverunt." Cafit. Carol. Cat, tit. 39. cap. 8. 



* IT is related under the year 767, " Ibi fynodicum fecit (ftiz. PJPINUS) cum omnibus 

 Francis in campo Bertini. Annales Francor. 



\ IT is thus I underftand the following paflage. It begins with mentioning, that 

 there were two diets in the year, one of the general kind I am treating of, in which the 



whole 



