We EUROPEAN LEGISLATURES. 23 



eflential to-fuch enterprises, and efpecially to wars carried on 

 by barbarous tribes againfl the Roman legions, remained in full 

 energy ; and that progrefs in the arts of induftry was prevent- 

 ed, which otherwife, in the courfe of a few centuries, would 

 naturally have transformed every pagus into a little republic, 

 and its ardent and aclive affociations with its neighbours, into 

 the cold alliances of agricultural ftates. 



THE foregoing idea of the general form of the government 

 of the Germans is ftrongly confirmed by what we know of the 

 ancient conftitution of Sweden and Iceland. Iceland was 

 peopled by a feries of Norwegian colonies, who fled their coun- 

 try, on the conqueft of it by HAROLD with the beautiful hair, 

 in A. D. 878. The colonies formed little communities with 

 elective chiefs. Thefe, by degrees, combined together, and held 

 tuTemblies, under a common leader, in each of the four great 

 provinces into which the ridges of mount Hecla divide the 

 ifland : And, at laft, thefe four provinces likewiie confederated* 

 and formed a republic, under one chief magiftrate, in A. D. 928. 

 The whole country was arranged into regular divisions, cal- 

 led provinces, hundreds, and reeps. The magiflrates held their 

 offices for life. At the diets, whether of the diftricts or of the 

 nation, the magiftrate celebrated religious rites ; and it is, in 

 particular, mentioned, that the lagman, or chief of the nation, 

 performed human Sacrifices at the alting, or great annual afTem- 

 bly. In it too, befides the arrangement of political matters, ap- 

 peals were received from the provincial courts, and rejudged in 

 its prefence, and under its infpeclion, by the former judges ; 

 and the lagman' s bufinefs was to carry into execution what the 

 alting ordered. The judges of each diftridt were called repftio- 

 rar ', and chofen, by the diet, among the wealthieft and moft 

 refpeclable of its members *. There was a fucceflion of thirty- 

 eight lagmans, which continued till 1262, when the republic 



was 



* THESE probably correfponded to the fcabini and red boran, or lawmen of the Franks 

 and Saxons,. 



