412 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



hereditary. On the occasion of each election out of the royal 

 clan, there was an opportunity of choosing for king one whose 

 character the turbulent nobles thought fittest for their own 

 purposes ; and hence it resulted that the power of the king 

 ship decayed. Eventually 



&quot; Of the three orders into which the state was divided, the king, though 

 his authority had been anciently despotic, was the least important. His 

 dignity was unaccompanied with power ; he was merely the president 

 of the senate, and the chief judge of the republic.&quot; 



And then there is the instance furnished by Scandinavia, 

 already named in another relation. Danish, Norwegian, and 

 Swedish kings were originally elective ; and though, on sundry 

 occasions, hereditary succession became for a time the usage, 

 there were repeated lapses into the elective form, with the 

 result that predominance was gained by the feudal chieftains 

 and prelates forming the consultative body. 



495. The second element in the tri-une political struc 

 ture is thus, like the first, developed by militancy. By this 

 the ruler is eventually separated from all below him ; and by 

 this the superior few are gradually integrated into a delibera 

 tive body, separated from the inferior many. 



That the council of war, formed of leading warriors who 

 debate in presence of their followers, is the germ out of which 

 the consultative body arises, is implied by the survival of 

 usages which show that a political gathering is originally a 

 gathering of armed men. In harmony with this implication 

 are such facts as that after a comparatively settled state has 

 been reached, the power of the assembled people is limited to 

 accepting or rejecting the proposals made, and that the mem 

 bers of the consultative body, summoned by the ruler, who is 

 also the general, give their opinions only when invited by him 

 to do so. 



Nor do we lack clues to the process by which the primitive 

 war-council grows, consolidates, and separates itself. Within 

 the warrior class, which is also the land-owning class, war 



