The EUROPEAN LEGISLATURES. 143 



celebrated in the fpring, previous to a military expedition ; to 

 which, I apprehend, they, in the fame manner as in the moft 

 ancient times, were a iieceffary prelude *. On thefe occanons, 

 the name of placitum exerdtale is often afcribed to them, while 

 the term placitum fimply is attributed to all diets without ex- 

 ception, where judicative and political authority was ex- 

 ercifed. This circumftance itfelf looks as if thefe affemblies 

 had differed only in their objecl. The power and means of 

 convoking them, and die perfons that they confifted of, muft 

 have been the fame in both ; and, without deliberative powers-, 

 we cannot conceive any thing more abfurd than to have beftow- 

 ed the name of placitum on an affembly of the national force. 



BUT, though we have no particular defcription of the Me* 

 rovingian placita, or malla f , we find every where evidence^ 

 that all affairs of confequence were tranfacted in them. Tha 

 may or of the palace was chofen in them '$.; differences among the 

 royal family, and with foreign nations, were decided in them |j ; 

 and the Salic law feems to have owed to them its fanclion . 



UNDER 



* See PEPIN'S Expediton to Italy. FreJeg. Clran. Contia. 



f- MAEL, in German, an aiTembly or^convivium. 



J Fredeg. Chron. cap. 43. et 89. And, I apprehend, the kings themfelves likewife.. 

 In a difpute between CLOTAIRE II. and the children of THIERR.I, CLOTAIRE makes this 

 reply to an embafly from the latter : " Judicio Francorum eleilo, quicquid precedente do- 

 " mino a Francis inter eohleni judicabitur, pollicetur fe implere." Ibid. \ 40. In 

 the fame way, the conttaiit expreffiorv ufed in the Chronicles to record n fucceflion 

 to the crown, is, " Et filium ejus Franci fuper fe rcgem ftatuunt." Gejl: Franc. \ 43. 

 The very ceremony of the coronation of the French kings, as practifed in modern 

 times, is that of an election by the grandees, aflembled within the church of Rheims, 

 and an approbation of the people aflembled without. In fact, however^ the Chronicles 

 often mention elections in-exprefs terms. 



\ Thus AISTXJLFCS, king of the Lombards, engaged, " Ut omnia per judicium Fran- 

 " corum emendaret ;" and it was " per facerdotes et optimates Francorum," that he 

 obtained peace. Fredeg. Cbron. Continual. In the fame way, " GUNTRAN et CHILPERIC 

 " pacem fecerunt, pollicentes alter alterutrum, ut quicquid faccrdotes vel feuk/res popu- 

 " li judicarent, pars parti componeret quse terminum legis exceflerat." GREG. Tur. 

 lib, 6. ^ 31. 



5 IN the preamble of the compilation of it, as corre&ed under CLOTAIRE II.. the au- 

 thority it proceeded from is thus defcribed : " Temporibus CLC^TARII regis, una cum 



" principibua 



