the EUROPEAN LEGISLATURES. 15 



Semnones were themfelves a national confederacy, at the fame 

 time that they were only a lingle ally in the great league of the 

 Suevi. 



WE have evidence, that this military arrangement coincided 

 with the natural diftinclions of tribes and families. At the fame 

 rime that TACITUS mentions the former, he obferves as to the 

 latter, That " non cafus nee fortuita conglobatio turmam aut cu- 

 " neum facit, fed familiae et propinquitates." And C-ass AR men- 

 tions, that lands were occupied " gentibus cognationibufque *." 



SUCH being the general arrangement of the Germans, it is 

 eafy to perceive the nature of thofe aflemblies, about which there 

 has been fo much difcuflion. All writers agree in the gravity 

 and decorum of the aflemblies of favages. The chief fits in 

 council with the aged, the warriors forming a circle around 

 them. The chief, or the feniors, begin the deliberation, but 

 all take a decent part in it, and the whole refolve j " the con- 

 " fent of the youth being as eflential as that of the old f." 

 Again, after the warriors are fubjec~led to a degree of mili- 

 tary order, we may reafonably conjecture, that it will be em- 

 ployed in their political aflemblies. All rude nations love pa- 

 rade ; and as, on fuch occafions, it contributes much to deco- 

 rum, as well as difcipline, their aflembly muft tend to become 

 a military review, at the fame time that it retains the character 

 of a political and religious convention. It is true, the defcrip- 

 tions of CESAR and TACITUS do not countenance this notion 



of 



* THWROCS, or rather perhaps an anonymous author of a chronicle, as old as 1358, when, 

 mentioning the fettlement of the Hungarians in Panonia, under their feven leaders, may 

 alfo be urged in fupport of this opinion. " Et unicuique exercitui, capitaneum fpecialem 

 " prwficientes, centurionefque ac decanos, more folito conftituerunt. Et unufquifque 

 " exercitus 30,857 continebat. Nam in fecundo eorundem de Scythia egreflu de cen- 

 " tumetofto tribubus ducenta et ledecim millia, deunaquaque,yt/!S. tribu, duo millia ar- 

 " matorunv excepto familiae numero eduxifle perhibeatur." Scriptores rerum Hungari- 

 carum, 410, v. i. p. 100. 



\ PEN'S letter to the Pennfylvanian traders. See alfo KOLBEN of the Hottentots, 

 Hift. Gen. des voyages, t. 6. p. 500. AllbCoLDEn's hiftory of the fix nations, 4ffc, &c. 



