18 ON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 



seemly anomaly to the judgment seat, even in times of peace; nor 

 did it did give way until the long outstanding account between the 

 people and the crown was finally settled under Charles I. 



The star chamber (at the side of which was afterwards esta- 

 blished, for similar purposes in ecclesiastical affairs, the court of 

 high commission) was the second tribunal which acted up to the will 

 of the monarch, as manifested in the royal proclamation, rather 

 than the dictates of the established law. Founded on ancient cus- 

 toms, it attained under Henry VII a sanction nearly akin to legal 

 authority ; and under Henry VIII the parliament, after having 

 assigned to the royal proclamations the same legal force as to par- 

 liamentary edicts, declared that henceforth nine councillors of the 

 crown were to form a legitimate tribunal, the business of which 

 should be, to decide on matters respecting the obedience or non-obe- 

 dience to the royal proclamations. 



In 1641 the star chamber was abolished, and with that establish- 

 ment fell the privilege of the crown to govern by its own arbitrary 

 will. If royal proclamations were occasionally issued, their actual 

 enforcement depended on the views and opinion of the several judi- 

 cial authorities, who were now guided by defined and positive 

 laws. 



The rights of supreme authority, conceded to the governments 

 which were formed under the conquerors of the Roman Empire, in 

 those countries which had been composed of its wreck, are of a dif- 

 ferent and various origin. 



Royalty, among the ancient Germans, denoted a similar authori- 

 ty to that of the Scottish lairds over their clans, or of the Arabian 

 sheiks over their Nomadian tribes, being no more than an extended 

 order of that authority which the father or the patriarch holds over 

 the members of his own family ; and so long as the wandering 

 hordes were confined to their two ancient acceptations, the martial 

 and the pastoral, they formed a closely-united society, held together 

 by the most simple and direct links, and, accustomed to the broad 

 fields and the open air, it was their practice to congregate at a pub- 

 lic rendezvous, to receive the commands, and put themselves under 

 the guidance of their chief or king. When civilization, however, 

 progressed, and the roving tribes, finding themselves in undisturbed 

 possession of pleasant and fertile domains, settled down into various 

 trades and professions, and thus passed from their primitive condi- 

 tion, then royalty dwindled into a mere title of distinction. Agri- 

 culture especially tended to sever and dissolve the links which held 

 together the tribes, and broke off and divided the mass into little 

 independent communities, in separate districts and circles, under the 



