The EUROPEAN LEGISLATURES. 137 



AT fuch general mufters, the king would hold a council, with 

 the chiefs of the different tribes, about fxich affairs as could not 

 be tranfacted without the national concurrence ; and what they 

 refolved on would, when propofed to the multitude, be in ge- 

 neral approved of: But, on fome lingular occafions, the people 

 might entertain different fentiments from their chiefs ; and 

 inftances, therefore, may have occurred, not only of fuch propo- 

 fals being rejected, but of oppofite refolutions being embraced. 

 THE power by which the king exercifed his new authority 

 , would naturally be founded in the influence of his old retainers, 

 and in the habits of the vanquifhed natives, which mufl have 

 univerfaily difpofed them to attribute to him the prerogatives 

 of the imperial crown. From this laft fource, the forms of 

 official bufinefs, which, as far as preferved, were neceffarily con- 

 dueled by the vanquifhed, would, wherever the king was con- 

 cerned, retain the language of defpotifm : And in this way, 

 likewife, as the conquerors would, at their firfl fettlement, have 

 more lands than they could well occupy, the greater part of the 

 imperial fifes (thofe vaft domains which monopolized the Ro- 

 man provinces) would remain to the king: And, without 

 doubt, the right of diflributing the lands at the fojourning of 

 the tribe, which was the known and ancient prerogative of the 

 German chiefs, would greatly facilitate his acquisition of the 

 fifes, without envy or difpute. Thus the king would become 

 the mofl confiderable proprietor in the nation, and his vafl pof- 

 feffions would enable him to multiply exceedingly the ancient 

 numbers of his retainers, and to afford them, in return for 

 their fervices, more valuable rewards than the battle-horfe, or 

 the conquering fpear. 



THE retainers of the fubordinate chiefs would, in like man r 

 ner, be multiplied and rewarded with lands. Under the em- 

 pire, the municipia, as well as the emperor, had their proper 

 domains, from the produce of which they defrayed the public 

 expences of the community. Befides thefe domains, there were 



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