160
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book i.
settled, and applied to every part of our social
scheme. But whatever extension they may have
attained in process of time, they have their origin
in the rights permitted to the king, even in the re-
motest periods of which we read.
There cannot be the least doubt that many of
them were usurpations, gradual developments of an
old and simple principle ; and it is only in periods
of advanced civilization that we find them alluded
to. Nevertheless we must admit that even at the
earliest recorded time in our history, the kings
were not only wealthy but powerful far beyond any
of their fellow-countrymen. All intercourse with
foreign nations, whether warlike or peaceful, tends
to this result, because treaties and grave affairs of
state can best be negotiated and managed by single
persons : a popular council may be very properly
consulted as to the final acceptance or rejection of
terms; but the settlement of them can obviously
not be beneficially conducted by so unwieldy a
multitude. Moreover contracting parties on either
side will prefer having to do with as small a num-
ber of negotiators as possible, if it be only for the
greater dispatch of business. Accordingly. Tacitus
shows us, on more than one occasion, the Senate
in communication with the princes, not the popu-
lations of Germany1 : and this must naturally be
the case where the aristocracy, to whose body thfe
* “ Adgandestrii, principis Cattorum, Iectas in Senatu literas.” Annal,
ii. 88. “ Maroboduum.. . .per dona et Iegationes petivisse foedus.”
Annal, ii. 45. “ Misitque legatos ad Tiberium oraturos auxilia.”
Ibid.
CH. VI.]
THE KING.
IOl
king belongs, have the right of taking the initiative
in public business’.
But although we find a great difference in the
social position, wealth and power of the king, and
those of the noble and freeman, we are not to ima-
gine that he could at any time exercise his royal
prerogatives entirely at his royal pleasure2: held in
check by the universal love of liberty, by the rights
of his fellow nobles, and the defensive alliances of
the freemen3, he enjoyed indeed a rank, a splendour
and an influence which placed him at the head of
his people,—a limited monarchy, but happier than
a capricious autocracy : and the historian who had
groaned over the vices and tyranny of Tiberius,
Nero and Domitian, could give the noble boon of
his testimony to the eternal memory of the bar-
barous Arminius.
1 “ De minoribus rebus principes consultant ; de Hiaioribus omnes :
ita tamen, ut ea quoque, quorum penes plebem arbitrium est, apud
principes pertractentur.....Mox rex vel princeps, prout aetas cuique,
prout nobilitas, prout decus be∏orum, prout facundia est, audiuntur,
auctoritate Suadendi magis quam iubendi potestdte.” Mor. Germ. xi.
2 “ Nec regibus infinite, nec Iiberapotestas." Mor. Germ. vii. “Auc-
tore Verrito et Malorige, qui natioriem earn regebant, in qqantum Ger-
mani regnantur.” Tac. Annal, xiii. 64.
3 “ Ceterum Arminius, abscedentibus Romanis et pulso Maroboduo,
. regnum adfectans, Iibertatem popularium adversam Iiabuit, petitusque
armis, cum varia fortuna certaret, dolo propinquorum cecidit.” Tae.
Annal, ii. 88.
VOL. I
JJ