The EUROPEAN LEGISLATURES. 17 



riors of fuch tribes would attend in military array, under the 

 chiefs of their fubdivifions. At any rate, we are certain, that 

 the warriors Attended in perfon, and in arms, whether in regu- 

 lar array or not ; and every perfon, in the leaft acquainted with 

 the character of rude nations, will be perfuaded, that the per- 

 fonal prefence of the warriors was not a matter of mere form. 

 It is only by the opportunity of perfuanon, which numerous af- 

 femblies afford, and by that deference to the authority of perfons 

 of eminence, and that contagious enthufiafm which are there 

 felt, that men, untamed by laws or cultivation, can be induced 

 to purfue common meafures. Hence national diets are the 

 great engine by which leaders condxidl affairs, before govern- 

 ment acquires its powers : And accordingly, attendance on them 

 is among the firfl duties of the citizen that are enforced. But 

 when government has once attained its energy, kings and ma- 

 giflrates have no occafion for numerous councils, in order to ac- 

 complim their purpofes. On the contrary, they dread them as 

 rivals or maflers j and they know, that the lefs formidable they 

 can render them, by diminiming their numbers or their influ- 

 ence, their own power becomes in proportion uncontrolled *. 



THERE is, however, abundance of direct evidence, that the 

 warriors were not mere fpectators of the deliberations of their 

 chiefs in the German afTemblies. TACITUS exprefsly mentions 

 their approving or rejecting, by certain known figns, the propo- 

 fals or advices that perfons, diftinguifhed by their functions, 

 their age, defcent, eloquence, or reputation in war, thought pro- 

 per to offer. And he, in particular, remarks, that thofe who 

 were of confequence enough to deliver their fentiments in this 

 manner, pretended to no right to command compliance with 

 them, but only hoped to influence or perfuade. 



c THE 



* AND again, when government becomes feeble, there are examples of national aflem- 

 blies reappearing. In the fall of the weftern empire, the government, finding itfelf un- 

 able to animate the torpid and disjointed mafs of the Gaulic nations, attempted to roufe 

 its powers by the aid of national aflemblies. SIRMOND not. ad Sidon. apolin. p. 245. 

 See alfo DUBO'S Hift. Cret. t. i. p. 241, 255. And to a finiilar caufe is chiefly to be 

 attributed the entry of the plebeians into the European legiflatures. 



