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Show 6f ON THE Si.AvERY AND CoMMERCE had jufl: elected, from a confidence of his in• tegrity; Ambiorix himfelf confcffing, "t_hat " his people had as much power over hm1, as he could pofiibly have over his peo~ " pie." The fame cufl:om, as appears from Tacitus, prevailed alfo among the Germans. They had their national councils, like . the Gauls; in which the regal and ducal offices were confirmed according to the majority of voices . They elected alfo, on thefe occafions, thofe only, whom their virtue, by repeated trial, had unequivocally difl:inguifiled from the ref!:; and they limited their authority fo far, as neither to leave them the power of inflicting imprifonment or fl:ripes, nor of exercifing any penal jurifdiction. But as punifhment was neceffary in a fl:ate of civil fociety, " it was permitted to the priefl:s alone, that it might appear to have been inflicted, by the order of the gods, and not by any fuperiour authority in tnan." The accounts which we have thus given of the ancient Germans and Gauls, will be found alfo to be equally true of thofe people, OF THE HuMAN SPECIEs. ple, which had arrived at the fame fl:ate of fubordinate fociety. 'We might appeal, for a tefl:imony of this, to the hifl:ory of the Goths ; to the hifl:ory of the Franks and Saxons ; to the hiflory, in i11cirt, of all thofe nations, from which the different governments, now confpicuous in Europe, have undeniably fprung. And we might appeal, as a farther proof, to the Americans, who are reprefented by many of the moderns, from their own ocular teflimony, as obferving the fame cufYoms at the prefent day. It remains only to obferve, that as thefe cuil:oms prevailed among the different nations defcribed, in their early il:ate of Cubordinate fociety, and as they were moreover the cuil:oms of their refpective anceftors, it appears that they mu£1: have been handed down, both by tradition and ufe, from the firil: introduction of government. C H A P. III. We may now deduce thofe general maxims concerning Jubordination, and liberty, E which |