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branch happens to be extinct, the nobleft matron 

 of the tribe or in the nation chufes the perfon (he 

 approves of moft, and declares him chief. The 

 perfon who is to govern mult be come to) years 

 of maturity and when the hereditary chief is not 

 as yet arrived at this period, they appoint a re- 

 gent, who has all the authority, but which he holds 

 in name of the minor. Thefe chiefs generally have 

 no great marks of outward refpect paid them, and 

 if they are never difobeyed, it is becaufe they 

 know r how to fet bounds to their authority. It is 

 true that they requeft or propofe, rather than com- 

 mand ; and never exceed the boundaries of that 

 fmall mare of authority with which they are 

 veiled. Thus it is properly reafon which governs, 

 and the government has fo much the more influ- 

 ence, as obedience is founded in liberty ; and that 

 they are free from any apprehenfion of its degene- 

 rating into tyranny. 



Nay more, each family has a right to chufe a 

 counfellor of its own, and an affiftant to the chief, 

 who is to watch for their intereft ; and without 

 whofe confent the chief can undertake nothing. 

 Thefe counfellors are, above all things, to have an 

 eye to the public treafury •, and it is properly they 

 who determine the ufes it is to be put to. They are 

 inverted with this character in a general council, 

 but they do not acquaint their allies with it, as they 

 do at the elections and inftallations of their chief. 

 Amongft the Huron nations, the women name the 

 counfellors, and often chufe perfons of their own fex. 



This body of counfellors or affiflants is the 

 higheft of all ; the next is that of the elders, con- 

 filling of all thofe who have come to the years 

 of maturity. I have not been able to find exactly 



what 



