REPRESENTATIVE BODIES. 421 



tions; namely, where large numbers become closely aggre 

 gated. Even if such large numbers are formed of groups 

 severally subordinate to heads of clans, or to feudal lords, 

 sundry influences combine to diminish subordination. When 

 there are present in the same place many superiors to whom 

 respectively their dependents owe obedience, these superiors 

 tend to dwarf one another. The power of no one is so im 

 posing if there are daily seen others who make like displays. 

 Further, when groups of dependents are mingled, supervision 

 cannot be so well maintained by their heads. And this which 

 hinders the exercise of control, facilitates combination among 

 those to be controlled : conspiracy is made easier and detec 

 tion of it more difficult. Again, jealous of one another, as 

 these heads of clustered groups are likely in such circum 

 stances to be, they are prompted severally to strengthen 

 themselves ; and to this end, competing for popularity, are 

 tempted to relax the restraints over their inferiors and to 

 give protection to inferiors ill-used by other heads. Still 

 more are their powers undermined when the assemblage 

 includes many aliens. As before implied, this above all 

 causes favours the growth of popular power. In proportion 

 as immigrants, detached from the gentile or feudal divisions 

 they severally belong to, become numerous, they weaken the 

 structures of the divisions among which they live. Such 

 organization as these strangers fall into is certain to be a 

 looser one; and their influence acts as a dissolvent to the 

 surrounding organizations. 



And here we are brought back to the truth which cannot 

 be too much insisted upon, that growth of popular power is 

 in all ways associated with trading activities. For only by 

 trading activities can many people be brought to live in close 

 contact. Physical necessities maintain the wide dispersion 

 of a rural population ; while physical necessities impel the 

 gathering together of those who are commercially occupied. 

 Evidence from various countries and times shows that periodic 

 gatherings for religious rites, or other public purposes, furnish 



