CONSULTATIVE BODIES. 407 



In early assemblies of men similarly armed, it must happen 

 that though the inferior many will recognize that authority 

 of the superior few which is due to their leaderships as 

 warriors, to their clan-headships, or to their supposed super 

 natural descent ; yet the superior few, conscious that they are 

 no match for the inferior many in a physical contest, will be 

 obliged to treat their opinions with some deference will not 

 be able completely to monopolize power. But as fast as 

 there progresses that class-differentiation before described, and 

 as fast as the superior few acquire better weapons than the 

 inferior many, or, as among various ancient peoples, have war- 

 chariots, or, as in mediaeval Europe, wear coats of mail or plate 

 armour and are mounted on horses, they, feeling their advantage, 

 will pay less respect to the opinions of the many. And the 

 habit of ignoring their opinions will be followed by the habit of 

 regarding any expression of their opinions as an impertinence. 



This usurpation will be furthered by the growth of those 

 bodies of armed dependents with which the superior few 

 surround themselves mercenaries and others, who, while 

 unconnected with the common freemen, are bound by fealty 

 to their employers. These, too, with better weapons and 

 defensive appliances than the mass, will be led to regard 

 them with contempt and to aid in subordinating them. 



Not only on the occasions of general assemblies, but from 

 day to day in their respective localities, the increasing powers 

 of the nobles thus caused, will tend to reduce the freemen 

 more and more to the rank of dependents ; and especially so 

 where the military service of such nobles to their king is 

 dispensed with or allowed to lapse, as happened in Denmark 

 about the thirteenth century. 



&quot; The free peasantry, who were originally independent proprietors of 

 the soil, and had an equal suffrage with the highest nobles in the land, 

 were thus compelled to seek the protection of these powerful lords, and 

 to come under vassalage to some neighbouring Herremand, or bishop, 

 or convent. The provincial diets, or Lands-Ting, were gradually super 

 seded by the general national parliament of the Dannehof Adel-Ting, 

 or Herredag ; the latter being exclusively composed of the princes, pre- 



