398 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



Mallams and the principal people.&quot; Of the Mandingo states 

 \ve read that &quot; in all affairs of importance, the king calls an 

 assembly of the principal men, or elders, by whose counsels 

 he is directed.&quot; And such cases might be multiplied inde 

 finitely. 



That we may understand the essential nature of this in 

 stitution, and that we may see why, as it evolves, it assumes 

 the characters it does, we must once more go back to the 

 beginning. 



401. Evidence coming from many peoples in all times, 

 shows that the consultative body is, at the outset, nothing 

 more than a council of war. It is in the open-air meeting of 

 armed men, that the cluster of leaders is iirst seen performing 

 that deliberative function in respect of military measures, 

 which is subsequently extended to other measures Long after 

 its deliberations have become more general in their scope, 

 there survive traces of this origin. 



In Rome, where the king was above all things the general, 

 and where the senators, as the heads of clans, were, at the 

 outset, war-chiefs, the burgesses were habitually, when called 

 together, addressed as &quot; spear-men : &quot; there survived the title 

 which was naturally given to them when they were present 

 as listeners at war-councils. So during later days in Italy, 

 when the small republics grew up. Describing the assem 

 bling of &quot; citizens at the sound of a great bell, to concert 

 together the means of their common defence,&quot; Sismondi says 

 &quot; this meeting of all the men of the State capable of bearing 

 arms, was called a Parliament.&quot; Concerning the gatherings 

 of the Poles in early times we read : &quot; Such assemblies, 

 before the establishment of a senate, and while the kings were 

 limited in power, were of frequent occurrence, and . . . were 

 attended by all who bore arms;&quot; and at a later stage &quot;the 

 comitia paludata, which assembled during an interregnum, 

 consisted of the whole body of nobles, who attended in the 

 open plain, armed and equipped as if for battle.&quot; In Hungary, 



