OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
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he was introduced into the general council ofhis countrymen, solemnly invested with a shieldand spear, and adopted as an equal and wor-thy member of the military commonwealth.The assembly of the warriors of the tribe wasconvened at stated seasons, or on sudden emer-gencies. The trial of public offences, the elec-tion of magistrates, and the great business ofpeace and war, were determined by its inde-pendent voice. Sometimes, indeed, these im-portant questions were previously considered,and prepared in a more select council of theprincipal chieftains/ The magistrates mightdeliberate and persuade, the people only couldresolve and execute; and the resolutions of theGermans were for the most part hasty and vio-lent. Barbarians accustomed to place theirfreedom in gratifying the present passion, andtheir courage in overlooking all future conse-quences, turned away with indignant contemptfrom the remonstrances of justice and policy,and it was the practice to signify by a hollowmurmur their dislike of such timid counsels.But whenever a more popular orator proposedto vindicate the meanest citizen from either fo-reign or domestic injury, whenever he calledupon his fellow countrymen to assert the nation-al honour, or to pursue some enterprise full ofdanger and glory, a loud clashing of shieldsand spears expressed the eager applause of theassembly. For the Germans always met in
CHAP.
IX.