The EUROPEAN LEGISLATURES. 139 



early times, it affected, in any fhape, the ftructure of the le- 

 giflature. As attendance around their chiefs at the national af- 

 femblies was a condition by which benefices were field, the be- 

 neficiaries would be more punctual than others in frequenting 

 the diets ; but it is not to be thought, that, on fuch occafions, 

 the royal beneficiaries were either admitted into the council of 

 the king and chiefs of pagi, or deliberated apart from other 

 freemen. 



I LIKEWISE apprehend that there is no fufficient reafon for con- 

 ceiving, that either the acquifition of the Roman towns by the 

 conqueft, or the embracing of Chriflianity after it, would make 

 any material innovation in the form of the original German legi- 

 flature. The government of the Roman towns was well fuited to 

 combine with the German political arrangements. Moft of them 

 had, in fact, been originally pagi *, and ftill retained vefliges of 

 their primary ftructure ; and thofe that had been founded in 

 civilized times were, modelled after Rome, herfelf unqueftion- 

 ably a production of rude ages. The curiales, or ancient bur- 

 gefTes, were every where arranged into wards or tithings under 

 headfmen elected by them, called decuriones. The curiales 

 formed a popular afTembly; the decuriones a fenate. Magi- 

 ftrates chofen by them, and holding their offices for a limited 

 time, exercifed a fubordinate jurifdiction ; and, like thofe of 

 Rome, judges, felected from the order of decuriones, tried law- 

 fuits. Befides, each confiderable town ufually chofe a great 

 man to be its protector and patron, and was like wife fubjected 

 to one or more magiftrates, inverted with military and civil 

 powers, and appointed by the emperor. 



NOTHING, then, could be more natural than that the muni- 

 cipia mould, immediately on the conqueft, acquire the afpect 

 of the German pagi. The new fettlers naturally mixed with 



/ 2 the 



* THERE were above an hundred fovereign ftates in Gaul, and many more in Spain, 

 when fubdued by the Romans ; and there were jij free cities in Gaul under the 

 empire. 



