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A    SYSTEM 


OF 


SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY, 

VOL.  VII. 


SPENOEB'S  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY. 


(1.)  FIRST  PRINCIPLES $2.00 

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m.  The  Ethics  of  Individual  Life. 

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IV.  The  Ethics  of  Social  Life  :  Justice. 
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New  York  :  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  72  Fifth  Avenue. 


THE   PRINCIPLES   OF 
SOCIOLOGY 


BY 


HERBERT    SPENCER 


IN   THREE   VOLUMES 
VOL.    II 


MICROFORMED  BY 
PRESERV/YTIGN 

SERVICES 

DATE    SEP  14  1990 


NEW    YORK 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 
1897 


Authorized  Edition. 


PREFACE  TO  PART  IV; 


OF  the  chapters  herewith  published,  constituting  Part 
I Y  of  The  Principles  of  Sociology,  seven  have  already  seen 
the  light:  not,  however,  all  of  them  in  England.  For  rea 
sons  which  need  not  be  specified,  it  happened  that  the  chap 
ter  on  Titles  was  not,  like  those  preceding  it,  published  in 
the  Fortnightly  Review  at  the  same  time  that  it  was  pub 
lished  in  periodicals  in  America,  France,  Germany,  Italy, 
Hungary,  and  Russia;  and  it  is  therefore  new  to  English 
readers.  Five  other  chapters,  namely  V,  IX,  X,  XI,  and 
XII,  have  not  hitherto  appeared  either  at  home  or  abroad. 

For  deciding  to  issue  by  itself,  this  and  each  succeeding 
division  of  Vol.  II  of  the  Principles  of  Sociology,  I  have 
found  several  reasons.  One  is  that  each  division,  though 
related  to  the  rest,  nevertheless  forms  a  whole  so  far  dis 
tinct,  that  it  may  be  fairly  well  understood  without  the  rest. 
Another  is  that  large  volumes  (and  Vol.  II  threatens  to 
exceed  in  bulk  Vol.  I)  are  alarming;  and  that  many  who 
are  deterred  by  their  size  from  reading  them,  will  not  fear 
to  undertake  separately  the  parts  of  which  they  are  com 
posed.  A  third  and  chief  reason  is  that  postponement  of 
issue  until  completion  of  the  entire  volume,  necessitates  an 
undesirable  delay  in  the  issue  of  its  earlier  divisions:  sub 
stantially-independent  works  being  thus  kept  in  manuscript 
much  longer  than  need  be. 

The  contents  of  this  Part  are  not,  indeed,  of  such  kind 
as  to  make  me  anxious  that  publication  of  it  as  a  whole 
should  be  immediate.  But  the  contents  of  the  next  Part, 

*  The  two  parts  of  which  this  volume  consists  having  been  separately  pub 
lished,  each  with  its  preface,  it  seems  most  convenient  here  simply  to  repro 
duce  the  two  prefaces  in  place  of  a  fresh  one  for  the  entire  volume. 


vl  PREFACE. 

treating  of  Political  Institutions,  will,  I  think,  be  of  some 
importance;  and  I  should  regret  having  to  keep  it  in  my 
portfolio  for  a  year,  or  perhaps  two  years,  until  Parts  VI, 
VII,  and  VIII,  included  in  the  second  volume,  were  writ 
ten.  [Inclusion  of  these  proves  impracticable.] 

On  sundry  of  the  following  chapters  when  published  in 
the  Fortnightly  Review,  a  criticism  passed  by  friends  was 
that  they  were  overweighted  by  illustrative  facts.  I  am 
conscious  that  there  were  grounds  for  this  criticism;  and 
although  I  have,  in  the  course  of  a  careful  revision,  dimin 
ished  in  many  cases  the  amount  of  evidence  given  (adding 
to  it,  however,  in  other  cases)  the  defect  may  still  be  alleged. 
That  with  a  view  to  improved  effect  I  have  not  suppressed  a 
larger  number  of  illustrations,  is  due  to  the  consideration 
that  scientific  proof,  rather  than  artistic  merit,  is  the  end  to 
be  here  achieved.  If  sociological  generalizations  are  to  pass 
out  of  the  stage  of  opinion  into  the  stage  of  established 
truth,  it  can  only  be  through  extensive  accumulations  of 
instances:  the  inductions  must  be  wide  if  the  conclusions 
are  to  be  accepted  as  valid.  Especially  while  there  contin 
ues  the  belief  that  social  phenomena  are  not  the  subject-mat 
ter  of  a  Science,  it  is  requisite  that  the  correlations  among 
them  should  be  shown  to  hold  in  multitudinous  cases.  Evi 
dence  furnished  by  various  races  in  various  parts  of  the 
world,  must  be  given  before  there  can  be  rebutted  the  alle 
gation  that  the  inferences  drawn  are  not  true,  or  are  but 
partially  true.  Indeed,  of  social  phenomena  more  than  all 
other  phenomena,  it  must,  because  of  their  complexity,  hold 
that  only  by  comparisons  of  many  examples  can  fundamen 
tal  relations  be  distinguished  from  superficial  relations. 

In  pursuance  of  an  intention  intimated  in  the  preface  to 
the  first  volume,  I  have  here  adopted  a  method  of  reference 
to  authorities  cited,  which  gives  the  reader  the  opportunity 
of  consulting  them  if  he  wishes,  though  his  attention  to 
them  is  not  solicited.  At  the  end  of  the  volume  will  be 
found  the  needful  clues  to  the  passages  extracted;  pre- 


PREFACE. 


ceded  by  an  explanatory  note.  Usually,  though  not  uni 
formly,  references  have  been  given  in  those  cases  only 
where  actual  quotations  are  made. 

London,  November,  1879. 


PREFACE  TO  PART  V. 


THE  division  of  the  Principles  of  Sociology  herewith  is 
sued,  deals  with  phenomena  of  Evolution  which  are,  above 
all  others,  obscure  and  entangled.  To  discover  what  truths 
may  be  affirmed  of  political  organizations  at  large,  is  a  task 
beset  by  difficulties  that  are  at  once  many  and  great — diffi 
culties  arising  from  un  likenesses  of  the  various  human 
races,  from  differences  among  the  modes  of  life  entailed  by 
circumstances  on  the  societies  formed  of  them,  from  the  nu 
merous  contrasts  of  sizes  and  degrees  of  culture  exhibited  by 
such  societies,  from  their  perpetual  interferences  with  one 
another's  processes  of  evolution  by  means  of  wars,  and  from 
accompanying  breakings-up  and  aggregations  in  ever- 
changing  ways. 

Satisfactory  achievement  of  this  task  would  require  the 
labours  of  a  life.  Having  been  able  to  devote  to  it  but  two 
years,  I  feel  that  the  results  set  forth  in  this  volume  must 
of  necessity  be  full  of  imperfections.  If  it  be  asked  why, 
being  thus  conscious  that  far  more  time  and  wider  inves 
tigation  are  requisite  for  the  proper  treatment  of  a  subject 
so  immense  and  involved,  I  have  undertaken  it,  my  reply 
is  that  I  have  been  obliged  to  deal  with  political  evolution 
as  a  part  of  the  general  Theory  of  Evolution ;  and,  with  due 
regard  to  the  claims  of  other  parts,  could  not  make  a  more 
prolonged  preparation.  Anyone  who  undertakes  to  trace 
the  general  laws  of  transformation  which  hold  throughout 
all  orders  of  phenomena,  must  have  but  an  incomplete 


PREFACE. 

knowledge  of  each  order;  since,  to  acquaint  himself  ex 
haustively  with  any  one  order,  demanding,  as  it  would,  ex 
clusive  devotion  of  his  days  to  it,  would  negative  like  devo 
tion  to  any  of  the  others,  and  much  more  would  negative 
generalization  of  the  whole.  Either  generalization  of  the 
whole  ought  never  to  be  attempted,  or,  if  it  is  attempted,  it 
must  be  by  one. who  gives  to  each  part  such  time  only  as  is 
requisite  to  master  the  cardinal  truths  it  presents.  Believ 
ing  that  generalization  of  the  whole  is  supremely  important, 
and  that  no  one  part  can  be  fully  understood  without  it, 
I  have  ventured  to  treat  of  Political  Institutions  after  the 
manner  implied:  utilizing,  for  the  purpose,  the  materials 
which,  in  the  space  of  fourteen  years,  have  been  gathered 
together  in  the  Descriptive  Sociology -,  and  joining  with 
them  such  further  materials  as,  during  the  last  two  years, 
have  been  accumulated  by  inquiries  in  other  directions, 
made  personally  and  by  proxy.  If  errors  found  in  this  vol 
ume  are  such  as  invalidate  any  of  its  leading  conclusions, 
the  fact  will  show  the  impolicy  of  the  course  I  have  pursued ; 
but  if,  after  removal  of  the  errors,  the  leading  conclusions 
remain  outstanding,  this  course  will  be  justified. 

Of  the  chapters  forming  this  volume,  the  first  seven 
were  originally  published  in  the  Fortnightly  Review  in 
England;  and,  simultaneously,  in  monthly  periodicals  in 
America,  Erance,  and  Germany.  Chapters  VIII  and  IX 
were  thus  published  abroad  but  not  at  home.  Chapters 
XVII  and  XYIII  appeared  here  in  the  Contemporary  Re 
view;  and  at  the  same  time  in  the  before-mentioned  foreign 
periodicals.  The  remaining  chapters,  X,  XI,  XII,  XIII, 
XI Y,  XV,  XYI,  and  XIX,  now  appear  for  the  first  time; 
with  the  exception  of  chapter  XI,  which  has  already  seen 
the  light  in  an  Italian  periodical — La  Rivista  di  Filosofia 
Scientific**. 

London,  March,  1882. 


CONTENTS   OF   VOL.  II. 


PAKT  IV.— CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I. — CEREMONY    IN    GENERAL 

II. TROPHIES  ...  ...  •••  36 

III. MUTILATIONS                ...                   ...  •••  •••  52 

IV. PRESENTS  ...  83 

V. VISITS         ...  ...  ...  ...  108 

VI. OBEISANCES                   ...                   ...  ...  ...  H6 

VII. — FORMS    OF    ADDRESS 

VIII. TITLES        ...                    ...                    ...  ...  ...  159 

IX. BADGES    AND    COSTUMES  ...  ...  179 

X. FURTHER    CLASS-DISTINCTIONS  ...  ...  198 

XI. — FASHION    ...                   ...                   ...  ...  ...  210 

XII. CEREMONIAL    RETROSPECT    AND  PROSPECT  ...  216 

PART  V.— POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

I. PRELIMINARY               ...                    ...  ...  ...  229 

II. — POLITICAL   ORGANIZATION    IN    GENERAL  ...  244 

III. — POLITICAL    INTEGRATION             ...  ...  ...  265 

IV. POLITICAL    DIFFERENTIATION  ...  ...  ...  288 

V. — POLITICAL    FORMS    AND    FORCES  ...  ...  311 

VI. POLITICAL    HEADS CHIEFS,    KINGS,    ETC.  ...  331 

VII. COMPOUND    POLITICAL     HEADS  ...  ...  366 

VIII. — CONSULTATIVE    BODIES                  ...  ...  ...  397 

IX. REPRESENTATIVE    BODIES           ...  ...  ...  415 

X. MINISTRIES                     ...                    ...  ...  ...  442 

XI. LOCAL    GOVERNING    AGENCIES  ...  ...  451 

XII. MILITARY    SYSTEMS  473 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAP.  PAGE 

XIII. — JUDICIAL    AND    EXECUTIVE    SYSTEMS  ...  ...  492 

XIV. LAWS       ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  513 

XV. PROPERTY  ...  ...  ...  ,..  538 

XVI. REVENUE  ...  ...  ...  ...  557 

XVII. THE    MILITANT    TYPE    OF    SOCIETY  ...  ...  568 

XVIII. THE    INDUSTRIAL    TYPE    OF    SOCIETY  ...  ...  603 

XIX. — POLITICAL    RETROSPECT    AND    PROSPECT  643 


PART  IV. 

CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 


CHAPTEE  L 

CEREMONY  IN  GENERAL. 

§  343.  If,  disregarding  conduct  that  is  entirely  private, 
we  consider  only  that  species  of  conduct  which  involves 
direct  relations  with  other  persons  ;  and  if  under  the  name 
government  we  include  all  control  of  such  conduct,  however 
arising  ;  then  we  must  say  that  the  earliest  kind  of  govern 
ment,  the  most  general  kind  of  government,  and  the  govern 
ment  which  is  ever  spontaneously  recommencing,  is  the 
government  of  ceremonial  observance.  More  may  be  said. 
This  kind  of  government,  besides  preceding  other  kinds,  and 
besides  having  in  all  places  and  times  approached  nearer  to 
universality  of  influence,  has  ever  had,  and  continues  to 
have,  the  largest  share  in  regulating  men's  lives. 

Proof  that  the  modifications  of  conduct  called  "  man 
ners  "  and  "  behaviour,"  arise  before  those  which  political 
and  religious  restraints  cause,  is  yielded  by  the  fact  that,  be 
sides  preceding  social  evolution,  they  precede  human  evolu 
tion  :  they  are  traceable  among  the  higher  animals.  The  dog 
afraid  of  being  beaten,  comes  crawling  up  to  his  master; 
clearly  manifesting  the  desire  to  show  submission.  Nor  is 
it  solely  to  human  beings  that  dogs  use  such  propitiatory  ac 
tions.  They  do  the  like  one  to  another.  All  have  occasion 
ally  seen  how,  on  the  approach  of  some  formidable  New 
foundland  or  mastiff,  a  small  spaniel,  in  the  extremity  of  its 
terror,  throws  itself  on  its  back  with  legs  in  the  air.  Instead 
of  threatening  resistance  by  growls  and  showing  of  teeth,  as 
it  might  have  done  had  not  resistance  been  hopeless,  it  spon- 

3 


4.  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

taneously  assumes  the  attitude  that  would  result  from  defeat 
in  battle;  tacitly  saying — "  I  am  conquered,  and  at  your 
mercy.'7  Clearly  then,  besides  certain  modes  of  behaviour 
expressing  affection,  which  are  established  still  earlier  in 
creatures  lower  than  man,  there  are  established  certain 
modes  of  behaviour  expressing  subjection. 

After  recognizing  this  fact,  we  shall  be  prepared  to 
recognize  the  fact  that  daily  intercourse  among  the  lowest 
savages,  whose  small  loose  groups,  scarcely  to  be  called 
social,  are  without  political  or  religious  regulation,  is  under 
a  considerable  amount  of  ceremonial  regulation.  No  rul 
ing  agency  beyond  that  arising  from  personal  superiority, 
characterizes  a  horde  of  Australians  ;  but  every  such  horde 
has  imperative  observances.  Strangers  meeting  must  re 
main  some  time  silent;  a  mile  from  an  encampment  ap 
proach  has  to  be  heralded  by  loud  cooeys ;  a  green  bough  is 
used  as  an  emblem  of  peace;  and  brotherly  feeling  is  indi 
cated  by  exchange  of  names.  Similarly  the  Tasmanians, 
equally  devoid  of  government  save  that  implied  by  pre 
dominance  of  a  leader  during  war,  had  settled  ways 
of  indicating  peace  and  defiance.  The  Esquimaux, 
too,  though  without  social  ranks  or  anything  like 
chieftainship,  have  understood  usages  for  the  treatment  of 
guests.  Kindred  evidence  may  be  joined  with  this. 

Ceremonial  control  is  highly  developed  in  many  places 
where  other  forms  of  control  are  but  rudimentary.  The 
wild  Comanche  "  exacts  the  observance  of  his  rules  of  eti 
quette  from  strangers/'  and  "  is  greatly  offended  "  by  any 
breach  of  them.  When  Araucanians  meet,  the  inquiries, 
felicitations,  and  condolences  which  custom  demands,  are  so 
elaborate  that  "  the  formality  occupies  ten  or  fifteen  min 
utes.'7  Of  the  ungoverned  Bedouins  we  read  that  "  their 
manners  are  sometimes  dashed  with  a  strange  ceremonious- 
ness;  "  and  the  salutations  of  Arabs  are  such  that  the 
"  compliments  in  a  well-bred  man  never  last  less  than  ten 
minutes."  "  We  were  particularly  struck,"  says  Living- 


CEREMONY  IN   GENERAL.  5 

stone,  "  with  the  punctiliousness  of  manners  shown  by  the 
Balonda."  "  The  Malagasy  have  many  different  forms  of 
salutation,  of  which  they  make  liberal  use.  .  .  .  Hence  in 
their  general  intercourse  there  is  much  that  is  stiff,  formal, 
and  precise.'7  A  Samoan  orator,  when  speaking  in  Parlia 
ment,  "  is  not  contented  with  a  mere  word  of  salutation, 
such  as  *  gentlemen/  but  he  must,  with  great  minuteness, 
go  over  the  names  and  titles,  and  a  host  of  ancestral  refer 
ences,  of  which  they  are  proud." 

That  ceremonial  restraint,  preceding  other  forms  of  re 
straint,  continues  ever  to  be  the  most  widely-diffused  form  of 
restraint,  we  are  shown  by  such  facts  as  that  in  all  inter 
course  between  members  of  each  society,  the  decisively  gov 
ernmental  actions  are  usually  prefaced  by  this  government 
of  observances.  The  embassy  may  fail,  negotiation  may  be 
brought  to  a  close  by  war,  coercion  of  one  society  by  another 
may  set  up  wider  political  rule  with  its  peremptory  com 
mands  ;  but  there  is  habitually  this  more  general  and  vague 
regulation  of  conduct  preceding  the  more  special  and  defi 
nite.  So  within  a  community,  acts  of  relatively  stringent 
control  coming  from  ruling  agencies,  civil  and  religious,  be 
gin  with  and  are  qualified  by,  this  ceremonial  control;  which 
not  only  initiates  but,  in  a  sense,  envelops  all  other.  Func 
tionaries,  ecclesiastical  and  political,  coercive  as  their  pro 
ceedings  mav  be,  conform  them  in  large  measure  to  the  re 
quirements  of  courtesy.  The  priest,  however,  arrogant  his 
assumption,  makes  a  civil  salute;  and  the  officer  of  the  law 
performs  his  duty  subject  to  certain  propitiatory  words  and 
movements. 

Yet  another  indication  of  primordialism  may  be  named. 
This  species  of  control  establishes  itself  anew  with  every 
fresh  relation  among  individuals.  Even  between  intimates 
greetings  signifying  continuance  of  respect,  begin  •  each 
renewal  of  intercourse.  And  in  presence  of  a  stranger,  say 
in  a  railway-carriage,  a  certain  self-restraint,  joined  with 
some  small  act  like  the  offer  of  a  newspaper,  shows  the  spon- 
59 


6  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

taneous  rise  of  a  propitiatory  behaviour  such  as  even  the 
rudest  of  mankind  are  not  without. 

So  that  the  modified  forms  of  action  caused  in  men  by 
the  presence  of  their  fellows,  constitute  that  comparatively 
vague  control  out  of  which  other  more  definite  controls  are 
evolved — the  primitive  undifFerentiated  kind  of  govern 
ment  from  which  the  political  and  religious  governments 
are  differentiated,  and  in  which  they  ever  continue  im 
mersed. 

§  344.  This  proposition  looks  strange  mainly  because, 
when  studying  less-advanced  societies,  we  carry  with  us  our 
developed  conceptions  of  law  and  religion.  Swayed  by 
them,  we  fail  to  perceive  that  what  we  think  the  essential 
parts  of  sacred  and  secular  regulations  were  originally  sub 
ordinate  parts,  and  that  the  essential  parts  consisted  of  cere 
monial  observances. 

It  is  clear,  d  priori,  that  this -must  be  so  if  social  phenom 
ena  are  evolved.  A  political  system  or  a  settled  cult,  cannot 
suddenly  come  into  existence,  but  implies  pre-established 
subordination.  Before  there  are  laws,  there  must  be  sub 
mission  to  some  potentate  enacting  and  enforcing  them. 
Before  religious  obligations  are  recognized,  there  must  be 
acknowledged  one  or  more  supernatural  powers.  Evident 
ly,  then,  the  behaviour  expressing  obedience  to  a  ruler,  visi 
ble  or  invisible,  must  precede  in  time  the  civil  or  religious 
restraints  he  imposes.  And  this  inferable  precedence  of 
ceremonial  government  is  a  precedence  we  everywhere 
find. 

How,  in  the  political  sphere,  fulfilment  of  forms  imply 
ing  subordination  is  the  primary  thing,  early  European  his 
tory  shows  us.  During  times  when  the  question,  who 
should  be  master,  was  in  course  of  settlement,  now  in  small 
areas  and  now  in  larger  areas  uniting  them,  there  was  scarce 
ly  any  of  the  regulation  which  developed  civil  government 
brings;  but  there  was  insistence  on  allegiance  humbly  ex- 


CEREMONY  IN  GENERAL.  7 

pressed.  While  each,  man  was  left  to  guard  himself,  and 
blood-feuds  between  families  were  unchecked  by  the  central 
power — while  the  right  of  private  vengeance  was  so  well 
recognized  that  the  Salic  law  made  it  penal  to  carry  off  ene 
mies'  heads  from  the  stakes  on  which  they  were  exhibited 
near  the  dwellings  of  those  who  had  killed  them ;  there  was 
a  rigorous  demanding  of  oaths  of  fidelity  to  political  supe 
riors  and  periodic  manifestations  of  loyalty.  Simple 
homage,  growing  presently  into  liege  homage,  was  paid  by 
smaller  rulers  to  greater;  and  the  vassal  who,  kneeling  un- 
girt  and  swordless  before  his  suzerain,  professed  his  subjec 
tion  and  then  entered  on  possession  of  his  lands,  was  little 
interfered  with  so  long  as  he  continued  to  display  his  vas 
salage  in  court  and  in  camp.  Refusal  to  go  through  the  re 
quired  observances  was  tantamount  to  rebellion;  as  at  the 
present  time  in  China,  where  disregard  of  the  forms  of  be 
haviour  prescribed  towards  each  grade  of  officers,  "  is  con 
sidered  to  be  nearly  equivalent  to  a  rejection  of  their  author 
ity."  Among  peoples  in  lower  stages  this  connexion  of  so 
cial  traits  is  still  better  shown.  The  extreme  ceremonious- 
ness  of  the  Tahitians,  "  appears  to  have  accompanied  them 
to  the  temples,  to  have  distinguished  the  homage  and  the 
service  they  rendered  to  their  gods,  to  have  marked  their 
affairs  of  state,  and  the  carriage  of  the  people  toward  their 
rulers,  to  have  pervaded  the  whole  of  their  social  inter 
course/'  Meanwhile,  they  were  destitute  "  of  even  oral 
laws  and  institutes :  "  there  was  no  public  administration  of 
justice.  Again,  if  any  one  in  Tonga  neglected  the  proper 
salute  in  presence  of  a  superior  noble,  some  calamity  from 
the  gods  was  expected  as  a  punishment  for  the  omission; 
and  Mariner's  list  of  Tongan  virtues  commences  with  "  pay 
ing  respect  to  the  gods,  nobles,  and  aged  persons."  When 
to  this  we  add  his  statement  that  many  actions  reprobated  by 
the  Tongans  are  not  thought  intrinsically  wrong,  but  are 
wrong  merely  if  done  against  gods  or  nobles,  we  get  proof 
that  along  with  high  development  of  ceremonial  control, 


8  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

the  sentiments  and  ideas  out  of  which  civil  government 
comes  were  but  feebly  developed.  Similarly  in  the  ancient 
American  States.  The  laws  of  the  Mexican  king,  Monte- 
zuma  I.,  mostly  related  to  the  intercourse  of,  and  the  dis 
tinctions  between,  classes.  In  Peru,  "  the  most  common 
punishment  was  death,  for  they  said  that  a  culprit  was  not 
punished  for  the  delinquencies  he  had  committed,  but  for 
having  broken  the  commandment  of  the  Ynca."  There  had 
not  been  reached  the  stage  in  which  the  transgressions  of 
man  against  man  are  the  wrongs  to  be  redressed,  and  in 
which  there  is  consequently  a  proportioning  of  penalties  to 
injuries;  but  the  real  crime  was  insubordination:  implying 
that  insistance  on  marks  of  subordination  constituted  the  es 
sential  part  of  government.  In  Japan,  so  elaborately  cere 
monious  in  its  life,  the  same  theory  led  to  the  same  result. 
And  here  we  are  reminded  that  even  in  societies  so  advanced 
as  our  own,  there  survive  traces  of  a  kindred  early  condition. 
"  Indictment  for  felony/'  says  Wharton,  "  is  [for  a  trans 
gression]  against  the  peace  of  our  lord  the  King,  his  crown 
and  dignity  in  general:  "  the  injured  individual  being 
ignored.  Evidently  obedience  was  the  primary  require 
ment,  and  behaviour  expressing  it  the  first  modification  of 
conduct  insisted  on. 

Religious  control,  still  better,  perhaps,  than  political 
control,  shows  this  general  truth.  When  we  find  that  rites 
performed  at  graves,  becoming  afterwards  religious  rites 
performed  at  altars  in  temples,  were  at  first  acts  done  for 
the  benefit  of  the  ghost,  either  as  originally  conceived  or  as 
ideally  expanded  into  a  deity — when  we  find  that  the  sacri 
fices  and  libations,  the  immolations  and  blood-offerings  and 
mutilations,  all  begun  to  profit  or  to  please  the  double  of  the 
dead  man,  were  continued  on  larger  scales  where  the  double 
of  the  dead  man  was  especially  feared — when  we  find  that 
fasting  as  a  funeral  rite  gave  origin  to  religious  fasting, 
that  praises  of  the  deceased  and  prayers  to  him  grew  into  re 
ligious  praises  and  prayers;  we  are  shown  why  primitive 


CEREMONY  IN  GENERAL.  9 

religion  consisted  almost  wholly  of  propitiatory  observances. 
Though  in  certain  rude  societies  now  existing,  one  of  the 
propitiations  is  the  repetition  of  injunctions  given  by  the 
departed  father  or  chief,  joined  in  some  cases  with  expres 
sions  of  penitence  for  breach  of  them;  and  though  we  are 
shown  by  this  that  from  the  outset  there  exists  the  germ  out 
of  which  grow  the  sanctified  precepts  eventually  constitut 
ing  important  adjuncts  to  religion;  yet,  since  the  supposed 
supernatural  beings  are  at  first  conceived  as  retaining  after 
death  the  desires  and  passions  that  distinguished  them  dur 
ing  life,  this  rudiment  of  a  moral  code  is  originally  but  an  in 
significant  part  of  the  cult :  due  rendering  of  those  offerings 
and  praises  and  marks  of  subordination  by  which  the 
goodwill  of  the  ghost  or  god  is  to  be  obtained,  forming  the 
chief  part.  Everywhere  proofs  occur.  "We  read 

of  the  Tahitians  that  "  religious  rites  were  connected  with 
almost  every  act  of  their  lives;  "  and  it  is  so  with  the  unciv 
ilized  and  semi-civilized  in  general.  The  Sandwich  Island 
ers,  along  with  little  of  that  ethical  element  which  the  con 
ception  of  religion  includes  among  ourselves,  had  a  rigorous 
and  elaborate  ceremonial.  Noting  that  tabu  means  liter 
ally,  "  sacred  to  the  gods,"  I  quote  from  Ellis  the  following 
account  of  its  observance  in  Hawaii: — 

"During  the  season  of  strict  tabu,  every  fire  or  light  in  the  island 
or  district  must  be  extinguished ;  no  canoe  must  be  launched  on  the 
water,  no  person  must  bathe ;  and  except  those  whose  attendance  was 
required  at  the  temple,  no  individual  must  be  seen  out  of  doors ;  no 
dog  must  bark,  no  pig  must  grunt,  no  cock  must  crow.  ...  On 
these  occasions  they  tied  up  the  mouths  of  the  dogs  and  pigs,  and 
put  the  fowls  under  a  calabash,  or  fastened  a  piece  of  cloth  over  their 
eyes." 

And  how  completely  the  idea  of  transgression  was  associ 
ated  in  the  mind  of  the  Sandwich  Islander  with  breach  of 
ceremonial  observance,  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  "  if  any  one 
made  a  noise  on  a  tabu  clay  ...  he  must  die."  Through 
stages  considerably  advanced,  religion  continues  to  be  thus 
constituted.  TV  hen  questioning  the  ISTicaraguans  concern- 


10  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

ing  their  creed,  Oviedo,  eliciting  the  fact  that  they  confessed 
their  sins  to  an  appointed  old  man,  asks  what  sort  of  sins 
they  confessed;  and  the  first  clause  of  the  answer  is — "  we 
tell  him  when  we  have  broken  onr  festivals  and  not  kept 
them.77  Similarly  among  the  Peruvians,  "  the  most  nota 
ble  sin  was  neglect  in  the  service  of  the  huacas  "  [spirits, 
&c.]  ;  and  a  large  part  of  life  was  spent  by  them  in  pro 
pitiating  the  apotheosized  dead.  How  elaborate  the  observ 
ances,  how  frequent  the  festivals,  how  lavish  the  expendi 
ture,  by  which  the  ancient  Egyptians  sought  the  goodwill  of 
supernatural  beings,  the  records  everywhere  prove;  and 
that  with  them  religious  duty  consisted  in  thus  ministering 
to  the  desires  of  ancestral  ghosts,  deified  in  various  degrees, 
is  shown  by  the  before-quoted  prayer  of  Rameses  to  his 
father  Ammon,  in  which  he  claims  his  help  in  battle  because 
of  the  many  bulls  he  has  sacrificed  to  him.  With  the  He 
brews  in  pre-Mosaic  times  it  was  the  same.  As  Kuenen  re 
marks,  the  "  great  work  and  enduring  merit  "  of  Moses,  was 
that  he  gave  dominance  to  the  moral  element  in  religion. 
In  his  reformed  creed,  "  Jahveh  is  distinguished  from  the 
rest  of  the  gods  in  this,  that  he  will  be  served,  not  merely  by 
sacrifices  and  feasts,  but  also,  nay,  in  the  first  place,  by  the 
observance  of  the  moral  commandments."  That  the  piety  of 
the  Greeks  included  diligent  performance  of  rites  at  tombs, 
and  that  the  Greek  god  was  especially  angered  by  non-ob 
servance  of  propitiatory  ceremonies,  are  familiar  facts;  and 
credit  with  a  god  was  claimed  by  the  Trojan,  as  by  the 
Egyptian,  not  on  account  of  rectitude,  but  on  account  of  ob 
lations  made;  as  is  shown  by  Chryses'  prayer  to  Apollo. 
So  too,  Christianity,  originally  a  renewed  development  of 
the  ethical  element  at  the  expense  of  the  ceremonial  element, 
losing  as  it  spread  those  early  traits  which  distinguished  it 
from  lower  creeds,  displayed  in  mediaeval  Europe,  a  relative 
ly  large  amount  of  ceremony  and  a  relatively  small  amount 
of  morality.  In  the  Rule  of  St.  Benedict,  nine  chapters 
concern  the  moral  and  general  duties  of  the  brothers,  while 


CEREMONY   IN  GENERAL.  H 

thirteen  concern  the  religious  ordinances.  And  how  crimi 
nality  was  ascribed  to  disregard  of  such  ordinances,  the 
following  passage  from  the  Rule  of  St.  Columbanus 
shows : — 

"A  year's  penance  for  him  who  loses  a  consecrated  wafer;  six 
months  for  him  who  suffers  it  to  be  eaten  by  mites ;  twenty  days  for 
him  who  lets  it  turn  red;  forty  days  for  him  who  contemptuously 
flings  it  into  water;  twenty  days  for  him  who  brings  it  up  through 
weakness  of  stomach ;  but,  if  through  illness,  ten  days.  He  who  neg 
lects  his  Amen  to  the  Benedicite,  who  speaks  when  eating,  who  for 
gets  to  make  the  sign  of  the  cross  on  his  spoon,  or  on  a  lantern  lighted 
by  a  younger  brother,  is  to  receive  six  or  twelve  stripes." 
That  from  the  times  when  men  condoned  crimes  by  building 
chapels  or  going  on  pilgrimages,  down  to  present  times  when 
barons  no  longer  invade  one  another's  territories  or  torture 
Jews,  there  has  been  a  decrease  of  ceremony  along  with  an 
increase  of  morality,  is  clear;  though  if  we  look  at  unad- 
vanced  parts  of  Europe,  such  as  Xaples  or  Sicily,  we  see 
that  even  now  observance  of  rites  is  in  them  a  much  larger 
component  of  religion  than  obedience  to  moral  rules.  And 
when  WTC  remember  how  modern  is  Protestantism,  which, 
less  elaborate  and  imperative  in  its  forms,  does  not  habitu 
ally  compound  for  transgression  by  acts  expressing  subordi 
nation,  and  how  recent  is  the  spread  of  dissenting  Prot 
estantism,  in  which  this  change  is  carried  further,  we  are 
shown  that  postponement  of  ceremony  to  morality  charac 
terizes  religion  only  in  its  later  stages. 

Mark,  then,  what  follows.  If  the  two  kinds  of  control 
which  eventually  grow  into  civil  and  religious  governments, 
originally  include  scarcely  anything  beyond  observance  of 
ceremonies,  the  precedence  of  ceremonial  control  over  other 
controls  is  a  corollary. 

§  345.  Divergent  products  of  evolution  betray  their 
kinship  by  severally  retaining  certain  traits  which  belonged 
to  that  from  which  they  were  evolved ;  and  the  implication 
is  that  whatever  traits  they  have  in  common,  arose  earlier  in 


12  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

time  than  did  the  traits  which  distinguish  them  from  one 
another.  If  fish,  reptiles,  birds,  and  mammals,  all  possess 
vertebral  columns,  it  follows,  on  the  evolution-hypothesis, 
that  the  vertebral  column  became  part  of  the  organization 
at  an  earlier  period  than  did  the  teeth  in  sockets  and  the 
mammae  which  distinguish  one  of  these  groups,  or  than  did 
the  toothless  beak  and  the  feathers  which  distinguish  an 
other  of  these  groups;  and  so  on.  Applying  this  principle 
in  the  present  case,  it  is  inferable  that  if  the  controls  classed 
as  civil,  religious,  and  social,  have  certain  common  charac 
ters,  such  characters,  older  than  are  these  now  differentiated 
controls,  must  have  belonged  to  the  primitive  control  out  of 
which  they  developed.  Ceremonies,  then,  have  the  highest 
antiquity;  for  these  differentiated  controls  all  exhibit  them. 
There  is  the  making  of  presents:  this  is  one  of  the  acts 
showing  subordination  to  a  ruler  in  early  stages;  it  is  a  re 
ligious  rite,  performed  originally  at  the  grave  and  later  on 
at  the  altar;  and  from  the  beginning  it  has  been  a  means  of 
vertebral  columns,  it  follows,  on  the  evolution-hypothesis, 
propitiation  in  social  intercourse.  There  are  the  obei 
sances:  these,  of  their  several  kinds,  serve  to  express  rever 
ence  in  its  various  degrees,  to  gods,  to  rulers,  and  to  private 
persons:  here  the  prostration  is  habitually  seen,  now  in  the 
temple,  nowT  before  the  monarch,  now  to  a  powerful  man; 
here  there  is  genuflexion  in  presence  of  idols,  rulers,  and  fel 
low-subjects;  here  the  salaam  is  more  or  less  common  to  the 
three  cases;  here  uncovering  of  the  head  is  a  sign  alike  of 
worship,  of  loyalty,  and  of  respect ;  and  here  the  bow  serves 
the  same  three  purposes.  Similarly  with  titles:  father  is 
a  name  of  honour  applied  to  a  god,  to  a  king,  and  to  an  hon 
oured  individual ;  so  too  is  lord ;  so  are  sundry  other  names. 
The  same  thing  holds  of  humble  speeches:  professions  of 
inferiority  and  obedience  on  the  part  of  the  speaker,  are 
used  to  secure  divine  favour,  the  favour  of  a  ruler,  and  the 
favour  of  a  private  person.  Once  more,  it  is  thus  with 
words  of  praise :  telling  a  deity  of  his  greatness  constitutes  a 


CEREMONY  IN  GENERAL.  13 

large  element  of  worship;  despotic  monarchs  are  addressed 
in  terms  of  exaggerated  eulogy;  and  where  ceremony  is 
dominant  in  social  intercourse,  extravagant  compliments  are 
addressed  to  private  persons. 

In  many  of  the  less  advanced  societies,  and  also  in  the 
more  advanced  that  have  retained  early  types  of  organiza 
tion,  we  find  other  examples  of  observances  expressing  sub 
jection,  which  are  common  to  the  three  kinds  of  control- 
political,  religious,  and  social.  Among  Malayo-Polynesians 
the  offering  of  the  first  fish  and  of  first  fruits,  is  a  mark  of 
respect  alike  to  gods  and  to  chiefs;  and  the  Fijians  make 
the  same  gifts  to  their  gods  as  they  do  to  their  chiefs — 
food,  turtles,  whale's-teeth.  In  Tonga,  "  if  a  great  chief 
takes  an  oath,  he  swears  by  the  god;  if  an  inferior  chief 
takes  an  oath,  he  swears  by  his  superior  relation,  who,  of 
course,  is  a  greater  chief. "  In  Fiji,  "  all  are  careful  not  to 
tread  on  the  threshold  of  a  place  set  apart  for  the  gods: 
persons  of  rank  stride  over;  others  pass  over  on  their  hands 
and  knees.  The  same  form  is  observed  in  crossing  the 
threshold  of  a  chief's  house."  In  Siam,  "  at  the  full  moon 
of  the  fifth  month  the  Talapoins  [priests]  wash  the  idol 
with  perfumed  wTater.  .  .  .  The  people  also  wash  the 
Sancrats  and  other  Talapoins;  and  then  in  the  families 
children  wash  their  parents."  China  affords  good  instances. 
"  At  his  accession,  the  Emperor  kneels  thrice  and  bows  nine 
times  before  the  altar  of  his  father,  and  goes  through  the 
same  ceremony  before  the  throne  on  which  is  seated  the  Em 
press  Dowager.  On  his  then  ascending  his  throne,  the 
great  officers,  marshalled  according  to  their  ranks,  kneel  and 
bow  nine  times."  And  the  equally  ceremonious  Japanese 
furnish  kindred  evidence.  "  From  the  Emperor  to  the  low 
est  subject  in  the  realm  there  is  a  constant  succession  of 
prostrations.  The  former,  in  want  of  a  human  being  supe 
rior  to  himself  in  rank,  bows  humbly  to  some  pagan  idol; 
and  every  one  of  his  subjects,  from  prince  to  peasant,  has 
some  person  before  whom  he  is  bound  to  cringe  and  crouch 


14  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

in  the  dirt:  "  religious,  political,  and  social  subordination 
are  expressed  by  the  same  form  of  behaviour. 

These  indications  of  a  general  truth  which  will  be  abun 
dantly  exemplified  when  discussing  each  kind  of  ceremonial 
observance,  I  here  give  in  brief,  as  further  showing  that  the 
control  of  ceremony  precedes  in  order  of  evolution  the  civil 
and  religious  controls,  and  must  therefore  be  first  dealt  with. 

§  346.  On  passing  to  the  less  general  aspects  of  ceremoni 
al  government,  we  are  met  by  the  question — How  do  there 
arise  those  modifications  of  behaviour  which  constitute  it? 
Commonly  it  is  assumed  that  they  are  consciously  chosen 
as  symbolizing  reverence  or  respect.  After  their  usual  man 
ner  of  speculating  about  primitive  practices,  men  read  back 
developed  ideas  into  undeveloped  minds.  The  supposition 
is  allied  to  that  which  originated  the  social-contract  theory :  a 
kind  of  conception  that  has  become  familiar  to  the  civilized 
man,  is  assumed  to  have  been  familiar  to  man  in  his  earliest 
state.  But  just  as  little  basis  as  there  is  for  the  belief  that 
savages  deliberately  made  social  contracts,  is  there  for  the 
belief  that  they  deliberately  adopted  symbols.  The 

error  is  best  seen  on  turning  to  the  most  developed  kind  of 
symbol ization — that  of  language.  An  Australian  or  a  Fue- 
gian  does  not  sit  down  and  knowingly  coin  a  word ;  but  the 
words  he  finds  in  use,  and  the  new  ones  which  come  into  use 
during  his  life,  grow  up  unawares  by  onomatopoeia,  or  by 
vocal  suggestions  of  qualities,  or  by  metaphor  which  some 
observable  likeness  suggests.  Among  civilized  peoples, 
however,  who  have  learnt  that  words  are  symbolic,  new 
words  are  frequently  chosen  to  symbolize  new  ideas.  So, 
too,  is  it  with  written  language.  The  early  Egyptian  never 
thought  of  fixing  on  a  sign  to  represent  a  sound,  but  his  rec 
ords  began,  as  those  of  ^"orth  American  Indians  begin  now, 
with  rude  pictures  of  the  transactions  to  be  kept  in  memory; 
and  as  the  process  of  recording  extended,  the  pictures,  abbre 
viated  and  generalized,  lost  more  and  more  their  likenesses 


CEREMONY  IN  GENERAL.  15 

to  objects  and  acts,  until,  under  stress  of  the  need  for  express 
ing  proper  names,  some  of  them  were  used  phonetically,  and 
signs  of  sounds  came  into  existence.  But,  in  our  days,  there 
has  been  reached  a  stage  at  which,  as  shorthand  shows  us, 
special  marks  are  consciously  selected  to  signify  special 
sounds.  The  lesson  taught  is  obvious.  As  it 

would  be  an  error  to  conclude  that  because  we  knowingly 
choose  sounds  to  symbolize  ideas,  and  marks  to  symbolize 
sounds,  the  like  was  originally  done  by  savages  and  by 
barbarians ;  so  it  is  an  error  to  conclude  that  because  among 
the  civilized  certain  ceremonies  (say  those  of  freemasons) 
are  arbitrarily  fixed  upon,  so  ceremonies  were  arbitra 
rily  fixed  upon  by  the  uncivilized.  Already,  in  in 
dicating  the  primitiveness  of  ceremonial  control,  I  have 
named  some  modes  of  behaviour  expressing  subordination 
which  have  a  natural  genesis;  and  here  the  inference  to  be 
drawn  is,  that  until  we  have  found  a  natural  genesis  for  a 
ceremony,  we  have  not  discovered  its  origin.  The  truth  of 
this  inference  will  seem  less  improbable  on  observing  sundry 
ways  in  which  spontaneous  manifestations  of  emotion  initi 
ate  formal  observances. 

The  ewe  bleating  after  her  lamb  that  has  strayed,  and 
smelling  now  one  and  now  another  of  the  lambs  near  her, 
but  at  length,  by  its  odour,  identifying  as  her  own  one  that 
comes  running  up,  doubtless,  thereupon,  experiences  a  wrave 
of  gratified  maternal  feeling;  and  by  repetition  there  is  es 
tablished  between  this  odour  and  this  pleasure,  such  an  asso 
ciation  that  the  first  habitually  produces  the  last :  the  smell 
becomes,  on  all  occasions,  agreeable  by  serving  to  bring  into 
consciousness  more  or  less  of  the  philoprogenitive  emotion. 
That  among  some  races  of  men  individuals  are  similarly 
identified,  the  Bible  yields  proofs.  Though  Isaac,  with 
senses  dulled  by  age,  fails  thus  to  distinguish  his  sons  from 
one  another,  yet  the  fact  that,  unable  to  see  Jacob,  and  puz 
zled  by  the  conflicting  evidence  his  voice  and  his  hands  fur 
nished,  "  he  smelled  the  smell  of  his  raiment,  and  blessed 


16  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

him,"  shows  that  different  persons,  even  members  of  the 
same  family,  were  perceived  by  the  Hebrews  to  have  their 
specific  odours.  And  that  perception  of  the  odour  possessed 
by  one  who  is  loved,  yields  pleasure,  proof  is  given  by  an 
other  Asiatic  race.  Of  a  Mongol  father,  Timkowski  writes : 
— "  He  smelt  from  time  to  time  the  head  of  his  youngest 
son,  a  mark  of  paternal  tenderness  usual  among  the  Mon 
gols,  instead  of  embracing/7  In  the  Philippine  Islands 
"  the  sense  of  smell  is  developed  ...  to  so  great  a  degree 
that  they  are  able,  by  smelling  at  the  pocket-handkerchiefs, 
to  tell  to  which  persons  they  belong;  and  lovers  at  parting 
exchange  pieces  of  the  linen  they  may  be  wearing,  and  dur 
ing  their  separation  inhale  the  odour  of  the  beloved  being, 
besides  smothering  the  relics  with  kisses."  So,  too,  with  the 
Chittagong-Hill  people,  the  "  manner  of  kissing  is  peculiar. 
Instead  of  pressing  lip  to  lip,  they  place  the  mouth  and  nose 
upon  the  cheek,  and  inhale  the  breath  strongly.  Their 
form  of  speech  is  not  '  Give  me  a  kiss,'  but  '  smell  me.'  ' 
Similarly  "  the  Burmese  do  not  kiss  each  other  in  the  west 
ern  fashion,  but  apply  the  lips  and  nose  to  the  cheek  and 
make  a  strong  inhalation."  And  now  note  a  sequence. 
Inhalation  of  the  odour  given  off  by  a  loved  person  coming 
to  be  a  mark  of  affection  for  him  or  for  her,  it  happens  that 
since  men  wish  to  be  liked,  and  are  pleased  by  display  of 
liking,  the  performance  of  this  act  which  signifies  liking, 
initiates  a  complimentary  observance,  and  gives  rise  to  cer 
tain  modes  of  showing  respect.  The  Samoans  salute  by 
"  juxtaposition  of  noses,  accompanied  not  by  a  rub,  but  a 
hearty  smell.  They  shake  and  smell  the  hands  also,  espe 
cially  of  a  superior."  And  there  are  like  salutes  among  the 
Esquimaux  and  the  New  Zealanders. 

The  alliance  between  smell  and  taste  being  close,  we 
may  naturally  expect  a  class  of  acts  which  arise  from  tast 
ing,  parallel  to  the  class  of  acts  which  smelling  originates; 
and  the  expectation  is  fulfilled.  Obviously  the  billing  of 
doves  or  pigeons  and  the  like  action  of  love-birds,  indicates 


CEREMONY    IN  GENERAL.  17 

an  affection  which  is  gratified  by  the  gustatory  sensation. 
No  act  of  this  kind  on  the  part  of  an  inferior  creature,  as  of 
a  cow  licking  her  calf,  can  have  any  other  origin  than  the 
direct  prompting  of  a  desire  which  gains  by  the  act  satis 
faction;  and  in  such  a  case  the  satisfaction  is  that  which 
vivid  perception  of  offspring  gives  to  the  maternal  yearning. 
In  some  animals  like  acts  arise  from  other  forms  of  affection. 
Licking  the  hand,  or,  where  it  is  accessible,  the  face,  is  a 
common  display  of  attachment  on  a  dog's  part;  and  when 
we  remember  how  keen  must  be  the  olfactory  sense  by 
which  a  dog  traces  his  master,  we  cannot  doubt  that  to  his 
gustatory  sense,  too,  there  is  yielded  some  impression — an 
impression  associated  with  those  pleasures  of  affection 
which  his  master's  presence  gives.  The  inference 

that  kissing,  as  a  mark  of  fondness  in  the  human  race,  has  a 
kindred  origin,  is  sufficiently  probable.  Though  kissing  is 
not  universal — though  the  Negro  races  do  not  understand  it, 
and  though,  as  we  have  seen,  there  are  cases  in  which  sniff 
ing  replaces  it — yet,  being  common  to  unlike  and  widely- 
dispersed  peoples,  we  may  conclude  that  it  originated  in 
the  same  manner  as  the  analogous  action  among  lower 
creatures.  Here,  however,  we  are  chiefly  concerned  to 
observe  the  indirect  result.  From  kissing  as  a  natural  sign 
of  affection,  there  is  derived  the  kissing  which,  as  a  means  of 
simulating  affection,  gratifies  those  who  are  kissed;  and,  by 
gratifying  them,  propitiates  them.  Hence  an  obvious  root 
for  the  kissing  of  feet,  hands,  garments,  as  a  part  of  cere 
monial. 

Feeling,  sensational  or  emotional,  causes  muscular  con 
tractions,  which  are  strong  in  proportion  as  it  is  intense; 
and,  among  other  feelings,  those  of  love  and  liking  have  an 
effect  of  this  kind,  which  takes  on  its  appropriate  form.  The 
most  significant  of  the  actions  hence  originating  is  not  much 
displayed  by  inferior  creatures,  because  their  limbs  are 
unfitted  for  prehension;  but  in  the  human  race  its  natural 
genesis  is  sufficiently  manifest.  Mentioning  a  mother's 


18  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

embrace  of  her  child,  will  remind  all. that  the  strength  of  the 
embrace  (unless  restrained  to  prevent  mischief)  measures 
the  strength  of  the  feeling;  and  while  reminded  that  the 
feeling  thus  naturally  vents  itself  in  muscular  actions,  they 
may  further  see  that  these  actions  are  directed  in  such 
ways  as  to  give  satisfaction  to  the  feeling  by  yield 
ing  a  vivid  consciousness  of  possession.  That  between 
adults  allied  emotions  originate  like  acts,  scarcely  needs  add 
ing.  It  is  not  so  much  these  facts,  however,  as  the 
derived  facts,  which  we  have  to  take  note  of.  Here  is  an 
other  root  for  a  ceremony:  an  embrace,  too,  serving  to  ex 
press  liking,  serves  to  propitiate  in  cases  where  it  is  not  nega 
tived  by  those  observances  which  subjection  entails.  It 
occurs  where  governmental  subordination  is  but  little  devel 
oped.  Of  some  Snake  Indians  we  read,  "  the  three  men 
immediately  leaped  from  their  horses,  came  up  to  Captain 
Lewis,  and  embraced  him  with  great  cordiality."  Marcy 
tells  of  a  Comanche  that,  "  seizing  me  in  his  brawny  arms 
while  we  were  yet  in  the  saddle,  and  laying  his  greasy  head 
upon  my  shoulder,  he  inflicted  upon  me  a  most  bruin-like 
squeeze."  And  Snow  says,  the  Fuegian  "  friendly  mode  of 
salutation  was  anything  but  agreeable.  The  men  came 
and  hugged  me,  very  much  like  the  grip  of  a  bear." 

Discharging  itself  in  muscular  actions  which,  in  cases 
like  the  foregoing,  are  directed  to  an  end,  feeling  in  other 
cases  discharges  itself  in  undirected  muscular  actions.  The 
resulting  changes  are  habitually  rhythmical.  Each  con 
siderable  movement  of  a  limb  brings  it  to  a  position  at  which 
a  counter-movement  is  easy;  both  because  the  muscles  pro 
ducing  the  counter-movement  are  then  in  the  best  positions 
for  contraction,  and  because  they  have  had  a  brief  rest. 
Hence  the  naturalness  of  striking  the  hands  together  or 
against  other  parts.  We  see  this  as  a  spontaneous  manifesta 
tion  of  pleasure  among  children;  and  we  find  it  giving  ori 
gin  to  a  ceremony  among  the  uncivilized.  Clapping  of  the 
hands  is  "  the  highest  mark  of  respect  "  in  Loango;  and  it 


CEREMONY  IN  GENERAL.  19 

occurs  with  kindred  meaning  among  the  Coast  Negroes, 
the  East  Africans,  the  Dahomans.  Joined  with  other  acts 
expressing  welcome,  the  people  of  Batoka  "  slap  the  out- 
sides  of  their  thighs;  "  the  Ealonda  people,  besides  clapping 
their  hands,  sometimes  "  in  saluting,  drum  their  ribs  with 
their  elbows;  "  while  in  Dahomey,  and  some  kingdoms  on 
the  Coast,  snapping  the  fingers  is  one  of  the  salutes. 
Rhythmical  muscular  motions  of  the  arms  and  hands,  thus 
expressing  pleasure,  real  or  pretended,  in  presence  of  an 
other  person,  are  not  the  only  motions  of  this  class :  the  legs 
come  into  play.  Children  often  "jump  for  joy;"  and 
occasionally  adults  may  be  seen  to  do  the  like.  Saltatory 
movements  are  therefore  apt  to  grow  into  compliments.  In 
Loango  "  many  of  the  nobility  salute  the  king  by  leaping 
with  great  strides  backward  and  forward  two  or  three  times 
and  swinging  their  arms.'7  The  Fuegians  also,  as  the 
United  States  explorers  tell  us,  show  friendship  "  by  jump 
ing  up  and  down."  * 

Feeling,  discharging  itself,  contracts  the  muscles  of 
the  vocal  organs,  as  well  as  other  muscles.  Here  shouts,  in 
dicating  joy  in  general,  indicate  the  joy  produced  by  meet 
ing  one  who  is  beloved;  and  serve  to  give  the  appearance  of 
joy  before  one  whose  goodwill  is  sought.  Among  the  Fiji- 
ans,  respect  is  "  indicated  by  the  tama*  which  is  a  shout  of 
reverence  uttered  by  inferiors  when  approaching  a  chief 
or  chief  town."  In  Australia,  as  we  have  seen,  loud 
cooeys  are  made  on  coming  within  a  mile  of  an  encampment 

*  In  his  Early  History  of  Mankind  (2nd  ed.  pp.  51-2),  Mr.  Tylor  thus  com 
ments  on  such  observances : — "  The  lowest  class  of  salutations,  which  merely 
aim  at  giving  pleasant  bodily  sensations,  merge  into  the  civilities  which  we  see 
exchanged  among  the  lower  animals.  Such  are  patting,  stroking,  kissing, 
pressing  noses,  blowing,  sniffing,  and  so  forth.  .  .  .  Natural  expressions  of 
joy,  such  as  clapping  hands  in  Africa,  and  jumping  up  and  down  in  Tierra  del 
Fuego,  are  made  to  do  duty  as  signs  of  friendship  or  greeting."  But,  as  in 
dicated  above,  to  give  "  pleasant  bodily  sensations  "  is  not  the  aim  of  "  the 
lowest  class  of  salutations."  Mr.  Tylor  has  missed  the  physio-psychological 
sources  of  the  acts  which  initiate  them. 


20  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

— an  act  which,  while  primarily  indicating  pleasure  at  the 
coming  reunion,  further  indicates  those  friendly  intentions 
which  a  silent  approach  would  render  doubtful. 

One  more  example  may  be  named.  Tears  result  from 
strong  feeling — mostly  from  painful  feeling,  but  also  from 
pleasurable  feeling  when  extreme.  Hence,  as  a  sign  of  joy, 
weeping  occasionally  passes  into  a  complimentary  observ 
ance.  The  beginning  of  such  an  observance  is  shown  us 
by  Hebrew  traditions  in  the  reception  of  Tobias  by  Raguel, 
when  he  finds  him  to  be  his  cousin's  son: — "  Then  Raguel 
leaped  up,  and  kissed  him,  and  wept.7'  And  among  some 
races  there  grows  from  this  root  a  social  rite.  In  New  Zea 
land  a  meeting  "  led  to  a  warm  tangi  between  the  two  par 
ties;  but,  after  sitting  opposite  to  each  other  for  a  quarter 
of  an  hour  or  more,  crying  bitterly,  with  a  most  piteous 
moaning  and  lamentation,  the  tangi  was  transformed  into 
a  hungi,  and  the  two  old  ladies  commenced  pressing  noses, 
giving  occasional  satisfactory  grunts."  And  then  we  find  it 
becoming  a  public  ceremony.  On  the  arrival  of  a  great 
chief,  "  the  women  stood  upon  a  hill,  and  loud  and  long  was 
the  tangi  to  welcome  his  approach;  occasionally,  however, 
they  would  leave  off,  to  have  a  chat  or  a  laugh,  and  then 
mechanically  resume  their  weeping."  Other  Malay  o-Poly- 
nesians  have  a  like  custom ;  as  have  also  the  Tupis  of  South 
America. 

To  these  examples  of  the  ways  in  which  natural  mani 
festations  of  emotion  originate  ceremonies,  may  be  added 
a  few  examples  of  the  ways  in  which  ceremonies  not  origi 
nating  directly  from  spontaneous  actions,  nevertheless  orig 
inate  by  natural  sequence  rather  than  by  intentional  sym- 
bolization.  Brief  indications  must  suffice. 

Blood-relationships  are  formed  in  Central  South  Africa 
between  those  who  imbibe  a  little  of  each  other's  blood.  A 
like  way  of  establishing  brotherhood  is  used  in  Madagascar, 
in  Borneo,  and  in  many  places  throughout  the  world;  and 
it  was  used  among  our  remote  ancestors.  This  is  assumed 


CEREMONY  IN  GENERAL.  21 

to  be  a  symbolic  observance.  On  studying  early  ideas, 
however,  and  finding  that  the  primitive  man  regards  the 
nature  of  anything  as  inhering  in  all  its  parts,  and  therefore 
thinks  he  gets  the  courage  of  a  brave  enemy  by  eating  his 
heart,  or  is  inspired  with  the  virtues  of  a  deceased  relative 
by  grinding  his  bones  and  drinking  them  in  water,  we  see 
that  by  absorbing  each  other's  blood,  men  are  supposed  to 
establish  actual  community  of  nature. 

Similarly  with  the  ceremony  of  exchanging  names. 
"  To  bestow  his  name  upon  a  friend  is  the  highest  compli 
ment  that  one  man  can  offer  another,"  among  the  Sho- 
shones.  The  Australians  exchange  names  with  Europeans, 
in  proof  of  brotherly  feeling.  This,  which  is  a  widely-dif 
fused  practice,  arises  from  the  belief  that  the  name  is  vitally 
connected  with  its  owner.  Possessing  a  man's  name  is 
equivalent  to  possessing  a  portion  of  his  being,  and  enables 
the  possessor  to  work  mischief  to  him;  and  hence  among 
numerous  peoples  a  reason  for  concealing  names.  To  ex 
change  names,  therefore,  is  to  establish  some  participation 
in  one  another's  being;  and  at  the  same  time  to  trust  each 
with  power  over  the  other:  implying  great  mutual  confi 
dence. 

It  is  a  usage  among  the  people  of  Vate,  "  when  they  wish 
to  make  peace,  to  kill  one  or  more  of  their  own  people,  and 
send  the  body  to  those  with  whom  they  have  been  fighting 
to  eat;  "  and  in  Samoa,  "  it  is  the  custom  on  the  submission 
of  one  party  to  another,  to  bow  down  before  their  conquerors 
each  with  a  piece  of  firewood  and  a  bundle  of  leaves,  such 
as  are  used  in  dressing  a  pig  for  the  oven  [bamboo-knives 
being  sometimes  added]  ;  as  much  as  to  say — '  3£ill  us  and 
ccok  us,  if  you  please.'  '  These  facts  I  name  because  they 
show  a  point  of  departure  from  which  might  arise  an  appar 
ently-artificial  ceremony.  Let  the  traditions  of  cannibalism 
among  the  Samoaiis  disappear,  and  this  surviving  custom 
of  presenting  firewood,  leaves,  and  knives,  as  a  sign  of  sub 
mission,  would,  in  pursuance  of  the  ordinary  method  of  in- 
Ou 


22  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

terpretation,  be  taken  for  an  observance  arbitrarily  fixed 
upon. 

The  facts  that  peace  is  signified  among  the  Dacotahs 
by  burying  the  tomahawk  and  among  the  Brazilians  by  a 
present  of  bows  and  arrows,  may  be  cited  as  illustrating 
what  is  in  a  sense  symbolization,  but  what  is  in  origin  a  modi 
fication  of  the  proceeding  symbolized ;  for  cessation  of  fight 
ing  is  necessitated  by  putting  away  weapons,  or  by  giving 
weapons  to  an  antagonist.  If,  as  among  the  civilized,  a 
conquered  enemy  delivers  up  his  sword,  the  act  of  so  mak 
ing  himself  defenceless  is  an  act  of  personal  submission; 
but  eventually  it  comes  to  be,  on  the  part  of  a  general,  a 
sign  that  his  army  surrenders.  Similarly,  when,  as  in  parts 
of  Africa,  "  some  of  the  free  blacks  become  slaves  volunta 
rily  by  going  through  the  simple  but  significant  ceremony 
of  breaking  a  spear  in  the  presence  of  their  future  master/' 
we  may  properly  say  that  the  relation  thus  artificially  estab 
lished,  is  as  near  an  approach  as  may  be  to  the  relation  es 
tablished  when  a  foe  whose  weapon  is  broken  is  made  a  slave 
by  his  captor :  the  symbolic  transaction  simulates  the  actual 
transaction. 

An  instructive  example  conies  next.  I  refer  to  the 
bearing  of  green  boughs  as  a  sign  of  peace,  as  an  act  of  pro 
pitiation,  and  as  a  religious  ceremony.  As  indicating  peace 
the  custom  occurs  among  the  Araucanians,  Australians, 
Tasmanians,  New  Guinea  People,  New  Caledonians,  Sand 
wich  Islanders,  Tahitians,  Samoans,  New  Zealanders;  and 
branches  were  used  by  the  Hebrews  also  for  propitiatory 
approach  (II.  Mace.  xiv.  4).  In  some  cases  we  find  them 
employed  to  signify  not  peace  only  but  submission.  Speak 
ing  of  the  Peruvians,  Cieza  says — "  The  men  and  boys  came 
out  with  green  boughs  and  palm-leaves  to  seek  for  mercy;  " 
and  among  the  Greeks,  too,  a  suppliant  carried  an  olive 
branch.  Wall-paintings  left  by  the  ancient  Egyptians 
show  us  palm-branches  carried  in  funeral  processions  to  pro 
pitiate  the  dead;  and  at  the  present  time  "  a  wreath  of  palm- 


CEREMONY  IN  GENERAL.  23 

branches  stuck  in  the  grave  "  is  common  in  a  Moslem  ceme 
tery  in  Egypt.  A  statement  of  Wallis  respecting  the  Ta- 
hitians  shows  presentation  of  these  parts  of  trees  passing 
into  a  religious  observance:  a  pendant  left  flying  on  the 
beach  the  natives  regarded  with  fear,  bringing  green  boughs 
and  hogs,  which  they  laid  down  at  the  foot  of  the  staff. 
And  that  portion  of  a  tree  was  anciently  an  appliance 
of  worship  in  the  East,  is  shown  by  the  direction  in  Lev. 
xxiii.  40,  to  take  the  "  boughs  of  goodly  trees,  branches  of 
palm-trees,"  and  "  rejoice  before  the  Lord:  "  a  verification 
being  furnished  by  the  description  of  the  chosen  in  heaven, 
who  stand  before  the  throne  with  "  palms  in  their 
hands."  The  explanation,  when  we  get  the  clue, 

is  simple.  Travellers'  narratives  illustrate  the  fact  that 
laying  down  weapons  on  approaching  strangers  is  taken  to 
imply  pacific  intentions.  Obviously  the  reason  is  that 
opposite  intentions  are  thus  negatived.  Of  the  Kaffirs, 
for  instance,  Barrow  says — "  '  a  messenger  of  peace  '  is 
known  by  this  people  from  his  laying  down  his  hassagai  or 
spear  on  the  ground  at  the  distance  of  two  hundred  paces 
from  those  to  whom  he  is  sent,  and  by  advancing  from 
thence  with  extended  arms:  "  the  extension  of  the  arms 
evidently  having  the  purpose  of  showing  that  he  has  no 
weapon  secreted.  But  how  is  the  absence  of  weapons  to  be 
shown  when  so  far  off  that  weapons,  if  carried,  are  invis 
ible?  Simply  by  carrying  other  things  which  are  visible; 
and  boughs  covered  with  leaves  are  the  most  convenient 
and  generally  available  things  for  this  purpose.  Good 
evidence  is  at  hand.  The  Tasmanians  had  a  way  of  deceiv 
ing  those  who  inferred  from  the  green  boughs  in  their  hands 
that  they  were  weaponless.  They  practised  the  art  of  hold 
ing  their  spears  between  their  toes  as  they  walked:  "the 
black  .  .  .  approaching  him  in  pretended  amit}*,  trailed 
between  his  toes  the  fatal  spear."  Arbitrary,  then,  as  this 
usage  seems  when  observed  in  its  later  forms  only,  we  find  it 
by  no  means  arbitrary  when  traced  back  to  its  origin. 


2±  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Taken  as  proof  that  the  advancing  stranger  is  without  arms, 
the  green  bough  is  primarily  a  sign  that  he  is  not  an  enemy. 
It  is  thereafter  joined  with  other  marks  of  friendship.  It 
survives  when  propitiation  passes  into  submission.  And  so 
it  becomes  incorporated  with  various  other  actions  which 
express  reverence  and  worship. 

One  more  instance  I  must  add,  because  it  clearly  shows 
how  there  grow  up  interpretations  of  ceremonies  as  arti 
ficially-devised  actions,  when  their  natural  origins  are  un 
known.  At  Arab  marriages,  Baker  says,  "  there  is  much 
feasting,  and  the  unfortunate  bridegroom  undergoes  the 
ordeal  of  whipping  by  the  relations  of  his  bride,  in  order  to 
test  his  courage.  ...  If  the  happy  husband  wishes  to  be 
considered  a  man  worth  having,  he  must  receive  the  chas 
tisement  with  an  expression  of  enjoyment;  in  which  case 
the  crowds  of  women  in  admiration  again  raise  their  thrill 
ing  cry."  Here,  instead  of  the  primitive  abduction  violent 
ly  resisted  by  the  woman  and  her  relatives — instead  of  the 
actual  capture  required  to  be  achieved,  as  among  the  Kamt- 
schadales,  spite  of  the  blows  and  wounds  inflicted  by  "  all 
the  women  in  the  village  "•  —instead  of  those  modifications 
of  the  t  form  of  capture '  in  which,  along  with  mock  pur 
suit,  there  goes  receipt  by  the  abductor  of  more  or  less  vio 
lence  from  the  pursuers;  we  have  a  modification  in  which 
pursuit  has  disappeared,  and  the  violence  is  passively  re 
ceived.  And  then  there  arises  the  belief  that  this  castiga- 
tion  of  the  bridegroom  is  a  deliberately-chosen  way  to  "  test 
his  courage." 

These  facts  are  not  given  as  adequately  proving  that  in 
all  cases  ceremonies  are  modifications  of  actions  which  had 
at  first  direct  adaptations  to  desired  ends,  and  that  their 
apparently  symbolic  characters  resiilt  from  their  survival 
under  changed  circumstances.  Here  I  have  aimed  only  to 
indicate,  in  the  briefest  way,  the  reasons  for  rejecting  the 
current  hypothesis  that  ceremonies  originate  in  conscious 
symbolization ;  and  for  entertaining  the  belief  that  in  every 


CEREMONY  IN  GENERAL.  25 

case  they  originate  by  evolution.     This  belief  we  shall  here 
after  find  abundantly  justified. 

§  347.  A  chief  reason  why  little  attention  has  been  paid 
to  phenomena  of  this  class,  all-pervading  and  conspicuous 
though  they  are,  is  that  while  to  most  social  functions  there 
correspond  structures  too  large  to  be  overlooked,  functions 
which  make  up  ceremonial  control  have  correlative  struc 
tures  so  small  as  to  seem  of  no  significance.  That  the  gov 
ernment  of  observances  has  its  organization,  just  as  the  po 
litical  and  ecclesiastical  governments  have,  is  a  fact  habitu 
ally  passed  over,  because,  while  the  last  two  organizations 
have  developed  the  first  has  dwindled:  in  those  societies, 
at  least,  which  have  reached  the  stage  at  which  social 
phenomena  become  subjects  of  speculation.  Originally, 
however,  the  officials  who  direct  the  rites  expressing  politi 
cal  subordination  have  an  importance  second  only  to  that 
of  the  officials  who  direct  religious  rites;  and  the  two 
officialisms  are  homologous.  To  whichever  class  belong 
ing,  these  functionaries  conduct  propitiatory  acts:  the  visi 
ble  ruler  being  the  propitiated  person  in  the  one  case,  and 
the  ruler  no  longer  visible  being  the  propitiated  person  in 
the  other  case.  Both  are  performers  and  regulators  of  wor 
ship — worship  of  the  living  king  and  worship  of  the  dead 
king.  In  our  advanced  stage  the  differentiation  of  the 
divine  from  the  human  has  become  so  great  that  this  propo 
sition  looks  scarcely  credible.  But  on  going  back  through 
stages  in  which  the  attributes  of  the  conceived  deity  are  less 
and  less  unlike  those  of  the  visible  man,  and  eventually 
reaching  the  early  stage  in  which  the  other-self  of  the  dead 
man,  considered  indiscriminately  as  ghost  and  god,  is  not 
to  be  distinguished,  when  he  appears,  from  the  living  man; 
we  cannot  fail  to  see  the  alliance  in  nature  between  the 
functions  of  those  who  minister  to  the  ruler  who  has  gone 
away  and  those  who  minister  to  the  ruler  who  has  taken  his 
place.  What  remaining  strangeness  there  may  seem  in 


26  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

this  assertion  of  homology  disappears  on  remembering  that 
in  sundry  ancient  societies  living  kings  were  literally  wor 
shipped  as  dead  kings  were. 

Social  organisms  that  are  but  little  differentiated  clearly 
show  us  several  aspects  of  this  kinship.  The  savage  chief 
proclaims  his  own  great  deeds  and  the  achievements  of  his 
ancestors;  and  that  in  some  cases  this  habit  of  self-praise 
long  persists,  Egyptian  and  Assyrian  inscriptions  prove. 
Among  the  Patagonians  we  see  a  transition  beginning.  A 
ruler  haranguing  his  subjects,  "  always  extols  his  own  prow 
ess  and  personal  merit.  When  he  is  eloquent,  he  is  greatly 
esteemed;  and  when  a  cacique  is  not  endowed  with  that 
accomplishment,  he  generally  has  an  orator,  who  supplies 
his  place.'7  Permanent  advance  from  the  stage  at  which 
the  head  man  lauds  himself,  to  the  stage  at  which  laudation 
of  him  is  done  by  deputy,  is  well  typified  in  the  contrast 
between  the  recent  usage  in  Madagascar,  where  the  king  in 
public  assembly  was  in  the  habit  of  relating  "  his  origin, 
his  descent  from  the  line  of  former  sovereigns,  and  his  in 
contestable  right  to  the  kingdom,"  and  the  usage  that  ex 
isted  in  past  times  among  ourselves,  when  the  like  distinc 
tions  and  claims  of  the  king  were  publicly  asserted  for  him 
by  an  appointed  officer.  As  the  ruler,  extending  his  domin 
ions  and  growing  in  power,  gathers  round  him  more  numer 
ous  agents,  the  utterance  of  propitiatory  praises,  at  first  by 
all  of  these,  becomes  eventually  distinctive  of  certain  among 
them:  there  arise  official  glorifiers.  "  In  Samoa,  a  chief 
in  travelling  is  attended  by  his  principal  orator.'7  In 
Fiji  each  tribe  has  its  "  orator,  to  make  orations  on  occasions 
of  ceremony."  The  attendants  of  the  chiefs  in  Ashantee 
eagerly  vociferate  the  "strong  names"  of  their  masters; 
and  a  recent  writer  describes  certain  of  the  king's  attendants 
whose  duty  it  is  to  "  give  him  names  " — cry  out  his  titles  and 
high  qualities.  In  kindred  fashion  a  Yoruba  king,  when  he 
goes  abroad,  is  accompanied  by  his  wives,  who  sing  his 
praises.  Now  when  we  meet  with  facts  of  this  kind — when 


CEREMONY  IN  GENERAL.  27 

we  read  that  in  Madagascar  "  the  sovereign  has  a  large  band 
of  female  singers,  who  attend  in  the  courtyard,  and  who  ac 
company  their  monarch  whenever  he  takes  an  excursion, 
either  for  a  short  airing  or  distant  journey;  "  when  we  are 
told  that  in  China  "  his  imperial  majesty  was  preceded  by 
persons  loudly  proclaiming  his  virtues  and  his  power;  " 
when  we  learn  that  among  the  ancient  Chibchas  the  bogota 
was  received  with  "  songs  in  which  they  sung  his  deeds  and 
victories;  "  we  cannot  deny  that  these  assertors  of  greatness 
and  singers  of  praises  do  for  the  living  king  exactly  that 
which  priests  and  priestesses  do  for  the  dead  king,  and  for 
the  god  who  evolves  from  the  dead  king.  In  societies 

that  have  their  ceremonial  governments  largely  developed, 
the  homology  is  further  shown.  As  such  societies  ordina 
rily  have  many  gods  of  various  powers,  severally  served 
by  their  official  glorifiers;  so  they  have  various  grades 
of  living  potentates,  severally  served  by  man  who  as 
sert  their  greatness  and  demand  respect.  In  Samoa, 
"  a  herald  runs  a  few  paces  before,  calling  out,  as  he 
meets  any  one,  the  name  of  the  chief  who  is  coming." 
With  a  Madagascar  chief  in  his  palanquin-,  "  one  or  two 
men  with  assagais,  or  spears,  in  their  hands,  ran  along  in 
front  shouting  out  the  name  of  the  chief."  In  advance  of 
an  ambassador  in  Japan  there  "  first  walked  four  men  with 
brooms  such  as  always  precede  the  retinue  of  a  great  lord,  in 
order  to  admonish  the  people  with  cries  of  '  Stay,  stay!  ' 
which  means,  i  Sit,  or  bow  you  down.'  "  *  In.  China  a 
magistrate  making  a  progress  is  preceded  by  men  bearing 
"  red  boards  having  the  rank  of  the  officer  painted  on  them, 
running  and  shouting  to  the  street  passengers,  '  Retire,  re 
tire!  keep  silence,  and  clear  the  way!  '  Gong-strikers  fol 
low,  denoting  at  certain  intervals  by  so  many  strokes  their 
master's  grade  and  office."  And  in  ancient  Rome  men  of 
rank  had  their  anteambulones  whose  cry  was  "  Give  place 

*  Mr.  Ernest  Satow,  writing  from  Japan  to  suggest  some  corrections,  says 
this  cry  should  be  "shita  ni,  shita  ni,  Down!  Down!  (i.e.  on  your  knees)." 


28  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

to  my  lord."  Another  parallelism  exists  between 

the  official  who  proclaims  the  king's  will  and  the  official  who 
proclaims  the  will  of  the  deity.  In  many  places  where 
regal  power  is  extreme,  the  monarch  is  either  invisible  or 
cannot  be  directly  communicated  with :  the  living  ruler  thus 
simulating  the  dead  and  divine  ruler,  and  requiring  kindred 
intermediators.  It  was  thus  among  the  ancient  Assyrians. 
Their  monarch  could  be  spoken  to  only  through  the  Vizier 
or  the  chief  eunuch.  It  was  thus  in  ancient  Mexico.  Of 
Montezuma  II.  it  is  said  that  "  no  commoner  was  to  look 
him  in  the  face,  and  if  one  did,  he  died  for  it;  "  and  further, 
that  he  did  not  communicate  with  any  one,  "  except  by  an 
interpreter."  In  Nicaragua  the  caciques  "  carried  their 
exclusion  so  far  as  to  receive  messages  from  other  chiefs 
only  through  officers  delegated  for  that  purpose."  So  of 
Peru,  where  some  of  the  rulers  "  had  the  custom  not  to  be 
seen  by  their  subjects  but  on  rare  occasions,"  we  read  that 
at  the  first  interview  with  the  Spaniards,  "  Atahuallpa  gave 
no  answer,  nor  did  he  even  raise  his  eyes  to  look  at  the  cap 
tain  (Hernando  de  Soto).  But  a  chief  replied  to  what  the 
captain  had  said."  With  the  Chibchas  "  the  first  of  the 
court  officers  was  the  crier,  as  they  said  that  he  was  the 
medium  by  which  the  will  of  the  prince  was  explained." 
Throughout  Africa  at  the  present  time  it  is  the  same.  "  In 
conversation  with  the  King  of  Uganda,  the  words  must 
always  be  transmitted  through  one  or  more  of  his  officers." 
In  Dahomey,  "  the  sovereign's  words  are  spoken  to  the  meu, 
who  informs  the  interpreter,  who  passes  it  on  to  the  visitor, 
and  the  answer  must  trickle  back  through  the  same  chan 
nels."  And,  concerning  Abyssinia,  where  even  the  chiefs 
sit  in  their  houses  in  darkness,  so  "that  vulgar  eyes  may 
not  gaze  too  plainly  upon  "  them,  we  are  told  the  king  was 
not  seen  when  sitting  in  council,  but  "  sat  in  a  darkened 
room,"  and  "  observed  through  a  window  what  was  going 
on  in  the  chamber  without;  "  and  also  that  he  had  "  an 
interpreter,  who  was  the  medium  of  communication  between 


CEREMONY  IN  GENERAL.  29 

the  king  and  his  people  on  state  occasions;  his  name  meant 
the  voice  or  word  of  the  king."  I  may  add  that  this 
parallelism  between  the  secular  and  sacred  agents  of 
communication  is  in  some  cases  recognized  by  peoples  whose 
institutions  display  it.  The  New  Zealand  priests  are  re 
garded  as  the  "  ambassadors  of  the  gods;"  and  the  title 
"  messengers  of  the  gods  "  is  borne  by  the  officers  of  the 
temple  of  Tensio  dai  Sin,  the  chief  deity  of  the  Japa 
nese. 

There  is  a  further  evidence  of  this  homology.  Where, 
along  with  social  development  considerably  advanced, 
ancestor-worship  has  remained  dominant,  and  where  gods 
and  men  are  consequently  but  little  differentiated,  the  two 
organizations  are  but  little  differentiated.  In  ancient 
Egypt  "  it  was  the  priesthood,  directing  the  ceremonial  of 
court-life,  who  exacted  .  .  .  that  the  king  (belonging  to 
their  order)  did  not  receive  any  one  who  failed  to  follow 
their  laws  of  purity."  China  furnishes  a  good  instance. 
"  The  Chinese  emperors  are  in  the  habit  of  deifying  .  .  . 
civil  or  military  officers,  whose  life  has  been  characterized 
by  some  memorable  act,  and  the  worship  rendered  to  these 
constitute  the  official  religion  of  the  mandarins."  Further, 
the  emperor  "  confers  various  titles  on  officers  who  have 
left  the  world,  and  shown  themselves  worthy  of  the  high 
trust  reposed  in  them,  creating  them  governors,  presidents, 
overseers,  <fcc.,  in  Hades."  And  then  we  learn  that  one 
department  of  the  Li  pu,  or  Board  of  Rites,  regulates  the 
etiquette  to  be  observed  at  court,  the  dresses,  carriages  and 
riding  accoutrements,  the  followers  and  insignia;  while 
another  department  superintends  the  rites  to  be  observed  in 
worshipping  deities  and  spirits  of  departed  monarchs,  sages, 
and  worthies,  &c. :  statements  showing  that  the  same  board 
regulates  both  religious  ceremonial  and  civil  ceremonial. 
To  which  summarized  account  I  may  add  this  quotation : — 
"  in  Court,  the  master  of  ceremonies  stands  in  a  conspicuous 
place,  and  with  a  loud  voice  commands  the  courtiers  to 


30  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

rise  and  kneel,  stand  or  march;  "  that  is,  he  directs  the 
worshippers  of  the  monarch  as  a  chief  priest  directs  the  wor 
shippers  of  the  god.  Equally  marked  were,  until  lately, 
the  kindred  relations  in  Japan.  With  the  sacredness  of 
the  Mikado,  and  with  his  god-like  inaccessibility,  travellers 
have  familiarized  us;  but  the  implied  confusion  between 
the  divine  and  the  human  went  to  a  much  greater  extent. 

' '  The  Japanese  generally  are  imbued  with  the  idea  that  their  land 
is  a  real  l  shin  koku,  a  kami  no  kooni ' — that  is,  the  land  of  spiritual 
beings  or  kingdom  of  spirits.  They  are  led  to  think  that  the  emperor 
rules  over  all,  and  that,  among  other  subordinate  powers,  he  rules 
over  the  spirits  of  the  country.  He  rules  over  men,  and  is  to  them 
the  fountain  of  honour ;  and  this  is  not  confined  to  honours  in  this 
world,  but  is  extended  to  the  other,  where  they  are  advanced  from 
rank  to  rank  by  the  orders  of  the  emperor." 

And  then  we  read  that  under  the  Japanese  cabinet,  one  of 
the  eight  administrative  boards,  the  Ji  Bu  shio,  "  deals  with 
the  forms  of  society,  manners,  etiquette,  worship,  cere 
monies  for  the  living  and  the  dead."  * 

Western  peoples,  among  whom  during  the  Christian  era 
differentiation  of  the  divine  froni  the  human  has  become 
very  decided,  exhibit  in  a  less  marked  manner  the  homology 
between  the  ceremonial  organization  and  the  ecclesiastical 
organization.  Still  it  is,  or  rather  was  once,  clearly  trace 
able.  In  feudal  days,  beyond  the  lord  high  chamberlains, 
grand  masters  of  ceremonies,  ushers,  and  so  forth,  belong 
ing  to  royal  courts,  and  the  kindred  officers  found  in  the 
households  of  subordinate  rulers  and  nobles  (officers  who 
conducted  propitiatory  observances),  there  were  the  heralds. 
These  formed  a  class  of  ceremonial  functionaries,  in  various 
ways  resembling  a  priesthood.  Just  noting  as  significant 
the  remark  of  Scott  that  "  so  intimate  was  the  union  be- 

*  Concerning  Dickson's  statement,  here  quoted,  Mr.  Ernest  Satow  writes 
that  this  board  (long  since  extinct)  was  double.  The  differentiation  in  the 
functions  of  its  divisions  was  but  partial  however  ;  for  while  one  regulated  the 
propitiation  of  the  gods,  the  other,  beside  regulating  secular  propitiations,  per 
formed  propitiations  of  the  dead  Mikados,  who  were  gods. 


CEREMONY  IN  GENERAL.  31 

twixt  chivalry  and  religion  esteemed  to  be,  that  the  sev 
eral  gradations  of  the  former  were  seriously  considered 
as  parallel  to  those  of  the  Church/'  I  go  on  to  point  out  that 
these  officers  pertaining  to  the  institution  of  chivalry, 
formed  a  body  which,  where  it  was  highly  organized,  as  in 
France,  had  five  ranks — chevaucheur^poursuivant  d/armes, 
heraut  (Pannes,  roi  cParmes,  and  roi  ctfarmes  de  France. 
Into  these  ranks  successively,  its  members  were  initiated  by 
a  species  of  baptism — wine  being  substituted  for  water. 
They  held  periodic  chapters  in  the  church  of  St.  Antoine. 
When  bearing  mandates  and  messages,  they  were  similarly 
dressed  with  their  masters,  royal  or  noble,  and  were  simi 
larly  honoured  by  those  to  whom  they  were  sent:  having 
thus  a  deputed  dignity  akin  to  the  deputed  sacredness  of 
priests.  By  the  chief  king-at-arms  and  five  others,  local 
visitations  were  made  for  discipline,  as  ecclesiastical  visita 
tions  were  made.  Heralds  verified  the  titles  of  those  who 
aspired  to  the  distinctions  of  chivalry,  as  priests  decided  on 
the  fitness  of  applicants  for  the  sanctions  of  the  Church; 
and  when  going  their  circuits,  they  wrere  to  correct  "  things 
ill  and  dishonest,"  and  to  advise  princes — duties  allied  to 
those  of  priests.  Besides  announcing  the  wills  of  earthly 
rulers  as  priests  announced  the  wills  of  heavenly  rulers, 
they  were  glorifiers  of  the  first  as  priests  were  of  the 
last:  part  of  their  duty  to  those  they  served  being  "  to  pub 
lish  their  praises  in  foreign  lands."  At  the  burials  of 
kings  and  princes,  where  observances  for  honouring  the  liv 
ing  and  observances  for  honouring  the  dead,  came  in  con 
tact,  the  kinship  of  a  herald's  function  to  the  function  of 
a  priest  was  again  shown;  for  besides  putting  in  the  tomb 
the  insignia  of  rank  of  the  deceased  potentate,  and  in 
that  manner  sacrificing  to  him,  the  herald  had  to  write, 
or  get  written,  a  eulogy — had  to  initiate  that  worship  of 
the  dead  out  of  which  grow  higher  forms  of  worship.  Simi 
lar,  if  less  elaborate,  was  the  system  in  England.  Heralds 
had  royal  dresses,  and  used  the  plural 


32  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

"  we."  Anciently  there  were  two  heraldic  provinces, 
with  their  respective  chief  heralds,  like  two  dioceses.  Fur 
ther  development  produced  a  garter  king-at-arms,  writh  pro 
vincial  kings-at-arms  presiding  over  minor  heraldic  officers; 
and,  in  1483,  all  were  incorporated  into  the  College  of 
Heralds.  As  in  France,  visitations  were  made  for  the  pur 
pose  of  verifying  existing  titles  and  honours,  and  authoriz 
ing  others;  and  funeral  rites  were  so  far  under  heraldic 
control  that,  among  the  nobility,  no  one  could  be  buried 
without  the  assent  of  the  herald. 

Why  these  structures  which  discharged  ceremonial 
functions  once  conspicuous  and  important,  dwindled,  while 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  structures  developed,  it  is  easy  to  see. 
Propitiation  of  the  living  has  been,  from  the  outset,  neces 
sarily  more  localized  than  propitiation  of  the  dead.  The 
existing  ruler  can  be  worshipped  only  in  his  presence,  or,  at 
any  rate,  within  his  dwelling  or  in  its  neighbourhood. 
Though  in  Peru  adoration  was  paid  to  images  of  the  living 
Yncas;  and  though  in  Madagascar  King  Radama,  when 
absent,  had  his  praises  sung  in  the  words — "  God  is  gone  to 
the  west,  Radama  is  a  mighty  bull;  "  yet,  generally,  the 
obeisances  and  laudations  expressing  subordination  to  the 
great  man  while  alive,  are  not  made  when  they  cannot  be 
witnessed  by  him  or  his  immediate  dependants.  But 
when  the  great  man  dies  and  there  begins  the  fear  of  his 
ghost,  conceived  as  able  to  reappear  anywhere,  propitiations 
are  less  narrowly  localized;  and  in  proportion  as,  with 
formation  of  larger  societies,  there  comes  development  of 
deities  greater  in  supposed  power  and  range,  dread  of  them 
and  reverence  for  them  are  felt  simultaneously  over  wide 
areas.  Hence  the  official  propitiators,  multiplying  and 
spreading,  severally  carry  on  their  worships  in  many  places 
at  the  same  time — there  arise  large  bodies  of  ecclesiastical 
officials.  Xot  for  these  reasons  alone,  however, 

does  the  ceremonial  organization  fail  to  grow  as  the  other  or 
ganizations  do.  Development  of  the  latter,  causes  decay  of 


CEREMONY   IN   GENERAL.  33 

the  former.  During  early  stages  of  social  integration,  local 
rulers  have  their  local  courts  with  appropriate  officers  of 
ceremony;  but  the  process  of  consolidation  and  increasing 
subordination  to  a  central  government,  results  in  decreasing 
dignity  of  the  local  rulers,  and  disappearance  of  the  official 
upholders  of  their  dignity.  Among  ourselves  in  past 
times,  "  dukes,  marquises,  and  earls  were  allowed  a  herald 
and  a  pursuivant;  viscounts,  and  barons,  and  others  not 
ennobled,  even  knights  bannerets,  might  retain  one  of  the 
latter;  "  but  as  the  regal  power  grew,  "  the  practice 
gradually  ceased:  there  were  none  so  late  as  Elizabeth's 
reign."  Yet  further,  the  structure  carrying  on 

ceremonial  control  slowly  falls  away,  because  its  functions 
are  gradually  encroached  upon.  Political  and  ecclesiasti 
cal  regulations,  though  at  first  insisting  mainly  on  conduct 
expressing  obedience  to  rulers,  human  and  divine,  develop 
more  and  more  in  the  directions  of  equitable  restraints  on 
conduct  between  individuals,  and  ethical  precepts  for  the 
guidance  of  such  conduct;  and  in  doing  this  they  trench 
more  and  more  on  the  sphere  of  the  ceremonial  organiza 
tion.  In  France,  besides  having  the  semi-priestly  functions 
we  have  noted,  the  heralds  were  u  judges  of  the  crimes 
committed  by  the  nobility;  "  and  they  were  empowered  to 
degrade  a  transgressing  noble,  confiscate  his  goods,  raze  his 
dwellings,  lay  waste  his  lands,  and  strip  him  of  his  arms. 
In  England,  too,  certain  civil  duties  were  discharged  by 
these  officers  of  ceremony.  Till  1G88,  the  provincial 
kings-at-anns  had  "  visited  their  divisions,  receiving  com 
missions  for  that  purpose  from  the  Sovereign,  by  which 
means  the  funeral  certificates,  the  descents,  and  alliances  of 
the  nobility  and  gentry,  had  been  properly  registered  in  this 
college  [of  Heralds].  These  became  records  in  all  the 
courts  at  law."  Evidently  the  assumption  of  functions  of 
these  kinds  by  ecclesiastical  and  political  agents,  has  joined 
in  reducing  the  ceremonial  structures  to  those  rudiments 
which  now  remain  in  the  almost-forgotten  Herald's  Col- 


34:  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

lege  and  in  the  Court  officials  who  regulate  intercourse  with 
the  Sovereign. 

§  348.  Before  passing  to  a  detailed  account  of  cere 
monial  government  under  its  various  aspects,  it  will  be  well 
to  sum  up  the  results  of  this  preliminary  survey.  They  are 
these. 

That  control  of  conduct  which  we  distinguish  as  cere 
mony,  precedes  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  controls.  It 
begins  with  sub-human  types  of  creatures;  it  occurs  among 
otherwise  ungoverned  savages;  it  often  becomes  highly 
developed  where  the  other  kinds  of  rule  are  little  devel 
oped;  it  is  ever  being  spontaneously  generated  afresh  be 
tween  individuals  in  all  societies;  and  it  envelops  the  more 
definite  restraints  which  State  and  Church  exercise.  The 
primitiveness  of  ceremonial  regulation  is  further  shown 
by  the  fact  that  at  first,  political  and  religious  regulations 
are  little  more  than  systems  of  ceremony,  directed  towards 
particular  persons  living  and  dead:  the  code  of  law  joined 
with  the  one,  and  the  moral  code  joined  with  the  other, 
coming  later.  There  is  again  the  evidence  derived  from  the 
possession  of  certain  elements  in  common  by  the  three 
controls,  social,  political,  and  religious;  for  the  forms  ob 
servable  in  social  intercourse  occur  also  in  political  and  re 
ligious  intercourse  as  forms  of  homage  and  forms  of  wor 
ship.  More  significant  still  is  the  circumstance  that  cere 
monies  may  mostly  be  traced  back  to  certain  spontaneous 
acts  which  manifestly  precede  legislation,  civil  and  ecclesias 
tical.  Instead  of  arising  by  dictation  or  by  agreement, 
which  wrould  imply  the  pre-established  organization  re 
quired  for  making  and  enforcing  rules,  they  arise  by  modi 
fications  of  acts  performed  for  personal  ends;  and  so  prove 
themselves  to  grow  out  of  individual  conduct  before  social 
arrangements  exist  to  control  it.  Lastly  we  note  that  when 
there  arises  a  political  head,  who,  demanding  subordination, 
is  at  first  his  own  master  of  the  ceremonies,  and  who  present- 


CEREMONY   IN  GENERAL.  35 

ly  collects  round  him  attendants  whose  propitiatory  acts  are 
made  definite  and  fixed  by  repetition,  there  arise  ceremonial 
officials.  Though,  along  with  the  growth  of  organizations 
which  enforce  civil  laws  and  enunciate  moral  precepts,  there 
has  been  such  a  decay  of  the  ceremonial  organization  as  to 
render  it  among  ourselves  inconspicuous ;  yet  in  early  stages 
the  body  of  officials  who  conduct  propitiation  of  living 
rulers,  supreme  and  subordinate,  homologous  with  the  body 
of  officials  who  conduct  propitiation  of  dead  apotheosized 
rulers,  major  and  minor,  is  a  considerable  element  of  the  so 
cial  structure ;  and  it  dwindles  only  as  fast  as  the  structures, 
political  and  ecclesiastical,  which  exercise  controls  more 
definite  and  detailed,  usurp  its  functions. 

Carrying  with  us  these  general  conceptions,  let  us  now 
pass  to  the  several  components  of  ceremonial  rule.  AYe 
will  deal  with  them  under  the  heads — Trophies,  Mutilations, 
Presents,  Visits,  Obeisances,  Forms  of  Address,  Titles, 
Badges  and  Costumes,  Further  Class  Distinctions,  Fashion, 
Past  and  Future  of  Ceremony. 


CHAPTEK    II. 

TROPHIES. 

§  349.  Efficiency  of  every  kind  is  a  source  of  self- 
satisfaction;  and  proofs  of  it  are  prized  as  bringing 
applause.  The  sportsman,  narrating  his  feats  when 
opportunity  serves,  keeps  such  spoils  of  the  chase  as  he  con 
veniently  can.  Is  he  a  fisherman?  Then,  occasionally, 
the  notches  cut  on  the  butt  of  his  rod,  show  the  number 
and  lengths  of  his  salmon;  or,  in  a  glass  case,  there  is  pre 
served  the  great  Thames-trout  he  once  caught.  Has  he 
stalked  deer?  Then  in  his  hall,  or  dining-room,  are  fixed 
up  their  heads;  which  he  greatly  esteems  when  the  attached 
horns  have  "  many  points."  Still  more,  if  a  successful  hun 
ter  of  tigers,  does  he  value  the  skins  demonstrating  his 
prowess. 

Trophies  of  such  kinds,  even  among  ourselves,  give  to 
their  owner  some  influence  over  those  around  him.  A 
traveller  who  has  brought  from  Africa  a  pair  of  elephant's 
tusks,  or  the  formidable  horn  of  a  rhinoceros,  impresses 
those  who  come  in  contact  with  him  as  a  man  of  courage 
and  resource,  and,  therefore,  as  one  not  to  be  trifled  with. 
A  vague  kind  of  governing  power  accrues  to  him. 

Naturally,  by  primitive  men,  whose  lives  are  predatory 
and  whose  respective  values  largely  depend  on  their 
powers  as  hunters,  animal-trophies  are  still  more  prized; 
and  tend,  in  greater  degrees,  to  bring  honour  and  influence. 
Hence  the  fact  that  rank  in  Yate  is  indicated  by  the  num- 

36 


TROPHIES.  37 

ber  of  bones  of  all  kinds  suspended  in  the  house.  Of 
the  Shoshone  warrior  we  are  told  that,  "  killing  a  grizzly 
bear  also  entitles  him  to  this  honour,  for  it  is  considered 
a  great  feat  to  slay  one  of  these  formidable  animals, 
and  only  he  who  has  performed  it  is  allowed  to  wear  their 
highest  insignia  of  glory,  the  feet  or  claws  of  the  vic 
tim."  "  In  the  house  of  a  powerful  chief  [of  the  Mishmis], 
several  hundreds  of  skulls  [of  beasts],  are  hung  up  along 
the  walls  of  the  passage,  and  his  wealth  is  always  calcu 
lated  according  to  the  number  of  these  trophies,  which 
also  form  a  kind  of  currency  among  the  tribes."  With 
the  Santals  "  it  is  customary  to  hand  these  trophies  [skulls 
of  beasts,  &c.j  down  from  father  to  son."  And  when, 
with  such  facts  to  give  us  the  clue,  we  read  that  the  habi 
tation  of  the  king  of  the  Koossas  "  is  no  otherwise 
distinguished  than  by  the  tail  of  a  lion  or  a  panther  hang 
ing  from  the  top  of  the  roof,"  we  can  scarcely  doubt 
that  this  symbol  of  royalty  was  originally  a  trophy  dis 
played  by  a  chief  whose  prowess  had  gained  him  suprem 
acy. 

But  as,  among  the  uncivilized  and  semi-civilized,  human 
enemies  are  more  to  be  feared  than  beast-enemies,  and 
conquests  over  men  are  therefore  occasions  of  greater 
triumphs  than  conquests  over  animals,  it  results  that 
proofs  of  such  conquests  are  usually  still  more  valued. 
A  brave  who  returns  from  battle  does  not  get  honour 
if  his  boasts  are  unsupported  by  evidence;  but  if  he 
proves  that  he  has  killed  his  man  by  bringing  back  some 
part  of  him — especially  a  part  which  the  corpse  could 
not  yield  in  duplicate — he  raises  his  character  in  the 
tribe  and  increases  his  power.  Preservation  of  such  tro 
phies  with  a  view  to  display,  and  consequent  strength 
ening  of  personal  influence,  therefore  becomes  an  estab 
lished  custom.  In  Ashantee  "  the  smaller  joints,  bones, 
and  teeth  of  the  slain  are  worn  by  the  victors  about  their 
persons."  Among  the  Ceris  and  Opatas  of  North  Mexico, 
61 


38  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

"  many  cook  and  eat  the  flesh  of  their  captives,  reserving 
the  bones  as  trophies."  And  another  Mexican  race,  "  the 
Chichimecs,  carried  with  them  a  bone  on  which,  when  they 
killed  an  enemy,  they  marked  a  notch,  as  a  record  of  the 
number  each  had  slain." 

The  meaning  of  trophy-taking  and  its  social  effects,  be 
ing  recognized,  let  us  consider  in  groups  the  various 
forms  of  it. 

§  350.  Of  parts  cut  from  the  bodies  of  the  slain,  heads 
are  among  the  commonest;  probably  as  being  the  most 
unmistakable  proofs  of  victory. 

We  need  not  go  far  afield  for  examples  of  the  practice 
and  its  motives.  The  most  familiar  of  books  contains 
them.  In  Judges  vii.  25,  we  read — "  And  they  took  two 
princes  of  the  Midianites,  Oreb  and  Zeeb:  and  they  slew 
Oreb  upon  the  rock  Oreb,  and  Zeeb  they  slew  at  the 
wine-press  of  Zeeb,  and  pursued  Midian,  and  brought 
the  heads  of  Oreb  and  Zeeb  to  Gideon  on  the  other  side 
Jordan."  Similarly,  the  decapitation  of  Goliath  by 
David  was  followed  by  carrying  his  head  to  Jerusalem. 
The  practice  existed  in  Egypt  too.  At  Abou  Simbel, 
Rameses  II.,  is  represented  as  holding  a  bunch  of  a  dozen 
heads.  And  if,  by  races  so  superior,  heads  were  taken 
home  as  trophies,  we  shall  not  wonder  at  finding  the  cus 
tom  of  thus  taking  them  among  inferior  races  all  over 
the  globe.  By  the  Chichimecs  in  i^orth  America  "  the 
heads  of  the  slain  were  placed  on  poles  and  paraded 
through  their  villages  in  token  of  victory,  the  inhabitants 
meanwhile  dancing  round  them."  In  South  America,  by 
the  Abipones,  heads  are  brought  back  from  battle  "  tied 
to  their  saddles;"  and  the  Mundrucus  "  ornament  their 
rude  and  miserable  cabanas  with  these  horrible  trophies." 
Of  Malayo-Polynesians  having  a  like  habit,  may  be  named 
the  Xew  Zealanders.  Skulls  of  enemies  are  preserved  as 
trophies  by  the  natives  on  the  Congo;  and  "  the  skull  and 


TROPHIES.  39 

thigh  bones  of  the  last  monarch  of  Dinkira  are  still  tro 
phies  of  the  court  of  Ashantee."  Among  the  Hill-tribes 
of  India,  the  Kukis  have  this  practice.  In  Persia,  under 
the  stimulus  of  money  payments,  "  prisoners  [of  war] 
have  been  put  to  death  in  cold  blood,  in  order  that  the  heads, 
which  are  immediately  dispatched  to  the  king,  .  .  might 
make  a  more  considerable  show."  And  that  among  other 
Asiatic  races  head-taking  persists  spite  of  semi-civilization, 
we  are  reminded  by  the  recent  doings  of  the  Turks;  who 
have,  in  some  cases,  exhumed  the  bodies  of  slain  foes  and 
decapitated  them. 

The  last  instance  draws  attention  to  the  fact  that  this 
barbarous  custom  has  been,  and  is,  carried  to  the  greatest 
extremes  along  with  militancy  the  most  excessive.  Among 
ancient  examples  there  are  the  doings  of  Timour,  with  his 
exaction  of  ninety  thousand  heads  from  Bagdad.  Of 
modern  examples  the  most  notable  comes  from  Dahomey. 
"  The  sleeping  apartment  of  a  Dahoman  king  was  paved 
with  skulls  of  neighbouring  princes  and  chiefs,  placed  there 
that  the  king  might  tread  upon  them."  And  the  king's 
statement  "  that  his  house  wanted  thatch,"  was  "  used  in 
giving  orders  to  his  generals  to  make  war,  and  alludes  to 
the  custom  of  placing  the  heads  of  the  enemies  killed  in 
battle,  or  those  of  the  prisoners  of  distinction,  on  the  roofs 
of  the  guard-houses  at  the  gates  of  his  palaces." 

But  now,  ending  instances,  let  us  observe  how  this  tak 
ing  of  heads  as  trophies  initiates  a  means  of  strengthening 
political  power;  how  it  becomes  a  factor  in  sacrificial  cere 
monies;  and  how  it  enters  into  social  intercourse  as  a  con 
trolling  influence. 

That  the  pyramids  and  towers  of  heads  built  by  Timour 
at  Bagdad  and  Aleppo,  must  have  conduced  to  his 
supremacy  by  striking  terror  into  the  subjugated,  as 
well  as  by  exciting  dread  of  vengeance  for  insubordina 
tion  among  his  followers,  cannot  be  doubted;  and  that 
living  in  a  dwelling  paved  and  decorated  with  skulls, 


40  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

implies,  in  a  Dahoman  king,  a  character  generating 
fear  among  enemies  and  obedience  among  subjects,  is 
obvious.  In  Northern  Celebes,  where,  before  1822, 
"  human  skulls  were  the  great  ornaments  of  the  chiefs' 
houses/'  these  proofs  of  victory  in  battle,  used  as  symbols 
of  authority,  could  not  fail  to  exercise  a  governmental 
effect.  And  that  they  do  this  we  have  definite  proof  in  the 
fact  that  among  the  Mundrucus,  the  possession  of  ten 
smoke-dried  heads  of  enemies  renders  a  man  eligible  to  the 
rank  of  chief. 

That  heads  are  offered  in  propitiation  of  the  dead,  and 
that  the  ceremony  of  offering  them  is  thus  made  part  of  a 
quasi-worship,  there  are  clear  proofs.  One  is  supplied  by 
the  Celebes  people  just  named.  "  When  a  chief  died  his 
tomb  must  be  adorned  with  two  fresh  human  heads,  and  if 
those  of  enemies  could  not  be  obtained,  slaves  were  killed 
for  the  occasion."  Among  the  Dyaks,  who,  though  in 
many  respects  advanced,  have  retained  this  barbarous  prac 
tice  sanctified  by  tradition,  it  is  the  same:  "  the  aged  war 
rior  could  not  rest  in  his  grave  till  his  relatives  had  taken  a 
head  in  his  name."  By  the  Kukis  of  Northern  India 
sacrificial  head-taking  is  carried  still  further.  Making  raids 
into  the  plains  to  procure  heads,  they  "  have  been  known  in 
one  night  to  carry  off  fifty.  These  are  used  in  certain 
ceremonies  performed  at  the  funerals  of  the  chiefs,  and  it 
is  always  after  the  death  of  one  of  their  Kajahs  that  these 
incursions  occur." 

That  the  possession  of  these  grisly  tokens  of  success 
gives  an  influence  in  social  intercourse,  proof  is  yielded  by 
the  following  passage  from  St.  John: — "  Head-hunting  is 
not  so  much  a  religious  ceremony  among  the  Pakatans, 
Borneo,  as  merely  to  show  their  bravery  and  manliness. 
When  they  quarrel,  it  is  a  constant  phrase — '  How  many 
heads  did  your  father  or  grandfather  get? '  If  less  than 
his  own  number — t  Well  then,  you  have  no  occasion  to 
be  proud.' ' 


TROPHIES.  41 

§  351.  The  head  of  an  enemy  is  of  inconvenient  bulk; 
and  when  the  journey  home  is  long  there  arises  the  question 
— cannot  proof  that  an  enemy  has  been  killed  be  given  by 
carrying  back  a  part  only?  In  some  places  the  savage  in 
fers  that  it  can,  and  acts  on  the  inference. 

This  modification  and  its  meaning  are  well  shown  in 
Ashantee,  where  "  the  general  in  command  sends  to  the  capi 
tal  the  jaw-bones  of  the  slain  enemies."  When  first  found, 
the  Tahitians,  too,  displayed  in  triumph  their  dead  foes' 
jaw-bones;  and  Cook  saw  fifteen  of  them  fastened  up  at  the 
end  of  a  house.  Similarly  of  Vate,  where  "  the  greater  the 
chief,  the  greater  the  display  of  bones,"  we  read  that  if  a 
slain  enemy  was  "  one  who  spoke  ill  of  the  chief,  his  jaws  are 
hung  up  in  the  chief's  house  as  a  trophy:  "  a  tacit  threat  to 
others  who  vilified  him.  A  recent  account  of  another  Papuan 
race  inhabiting  Boigu,  on  the  coast  of  Xew  Guinea,  further 
illustrates  the  practice,  and  also  its  social  effect.  Mr.  Stone 
writes: — "  By  nature  these  people  are  bloody  and  warlike 
among  themselves,  frequently  making  raids  to  the  '  Big 
Land,'  and  returning  in  triumph  with  the  heads  arid  jaw 
bones  of  their  slaughtered  victims,  the  latter  becoming  the 
property  of  the  murderer,  and  the  former  of  him  who  de 
capitates  the  body.  The  jawbone  is  consequently  held  as 
the  most  valued  trophy,  and  the  more  a  man  possesses,  the 
greater  he  becomes  in  the  eyes  of  his  fellow-men."  Add 
that  in  South  America  some  tribes  of  Tupis,  in  honouring 
a  victorious  warrior,  "  hung  the  mouth  [of  his  victim]  upon 
his  arm  like  a  bracelet." 

With  the  display  of  jaws  as  trophies,  there  may  be  named 
a  kindred  use  of  teeth.  America  furnishes  instances.  The 
Caribs  "  strung  together  the  teeth  of  such  of  their  enemies 
as  they  had  slain  in  battle,  and  wore  them  on  their  legs  and 
arms."  The  Tupis,  after  devouring  a  captive,  preserved 
"  the  teeth  strung  in  necklaces."  The  Moxos  women  wore 
"  a  necklace  made  of  the  teeth  of  enemies  killed  by  their 
husbands  in  battle."  The  Central  Americans  made  an  im- 


42  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

age,  "  and  in  its  mouth  were  inserted  teeth  taken  from  the 
Spaniards  whom  they  had  killed. " 

Other  parts  of  the  head,  easily  detached  and  carried,  also 
serve.  Where  many  enemies  are  slain,  the  collected  ears 
yield  in  small  bulk  a  means  of  counting;  and  probably 
Zengis  Khan  had  this  end  in  view  when,  in  Poland,  he 
"  filled  nine  sacks  with  the  right  ears  of  the  slain/'  !N"oses, 
again,  are  in  some  cases  chosen  as  easily  enumerated  tro 
phies.  Anciently,  by  Constantine  V.,  "  a  plate  of  noses 
was  accepted  as  a  grateful  offering;  "  and,  at  the  present 
time,  the  noses  they  have  taken  are  carried  by  soldiers  to 
their  leaders  in  Montenegro.  That  the  slain  Turks  thus 
deprived  of  their  noses,  even  to  the  extent  of  five  hundred 
on  one  battle-field,  were  so  treated  in  retaliation  for  the 
decapitations  the  Turks  had  been  guilty  of,  is  true;  but 
this  excuse  does  not  alter  the  fact  "  that  the  Montenegrin 
chiefs  could  not  be  persuaded  to  give  up  the  practice  of  pay 
ing  their  clansmen  for  the  number  of  noses  produced." 

§  352.  The  ancient  Mexicans,  having  for  gods  their  dei 
fied  cannibal  ancestors,  in  whose  worship  the  most  horrible 
rites  were  daily  performed,  in  some  cases  took  as  trophies 
the  entire  skins  of  the  vanquished.  "  The  first  prisoner 
made  in  a  war  was  flayed  alive.  The  soldier  who  had  cap 
tured  him  dressed  himself  in  his  bleeding  skin,  and  thus, 
for  some  days,  served  the  god  of  battles.  .  .  .  He  who  was 
dressed  in  the  skin  walked  from  one  temple  to  another;  men 
and  women  followed  him,  shouting  for  joy."  While  we 
here  see  that  the  trophy  was  taken  primarily  as  a  proof  of 
the  victor's  prowess,  we  are  also  shown  how  there  resulted 
a  religious  ceremony :  the  trophy  was  displayed  for  the  sup 
posed  gratification  of  deities  delighting  in  bloodshed. 
There  is  further  evidence  that  this  was  the  intention.  "  At 
the  festival  of  the  goldsmiths'  god  Totec,  one  of  the  priests 
put  on  the  skin  of  a  captive,  and  being  so  dressed,  he  was 
the  image  of  that  god  Totec."  Nebel  (pi.  3,  fig.  1)  gives 


TROPHIES.  43 

the  basalt  figure  of  a  priest  (or  idol)  clothed  in  a  human 
skin;  and  additional  evidence  is  yielded  by  a  custom  in 
the  neighbouring  state  of  Yucatan,  where  "  the  bodies  were 
thrown  down  the  steps,  flayed,  the  priest  put  on  the  skins, 
and  danced,  and  the  body  was  buried  in  the  yard  of  the 
temple." 

Usually,  however,  the  skin-trophy  is  relatively  small :  the 
requirement  being  simply  that  it  shall  be  one  of  which  the 
body  yields  no  duplicate.  The  origin  of  it  is  well  shown  by 
the  following  description  of  a  practice  among  the  Abipones. 
They  preserve  the  heads  of  enemies,  and 

"  When  apprehension  of  approaching  hostilities  obliges  them  to 
remove  to  places  of  greater  security,  they  strip  the  heads  of  the  skin, 
cutting  it  from  ear  to  ear  beneath  the  nose,  and  dexterously  pulling  it 
off  along  with  the  hair.  .  .  .  That  Abipon  who  has  most  of  these 
skins  at  home,  excels  the  rest  in  military  renown." 
Evidently,  however,  the  whole  skin  is  not  needful  to  prove 
previous  possession  of  a  head.  The  part  covering  the 
crown,  distinguished  from  other  parts  by  the  arrangement 
of  its  hairs,  serves  the  purpose.  Hence  is  suggested  scalp 
ing.  Tales  of  Indian  life  have  so  far  familiarized  us  with 
this  custom  that  examples  are  needless.  But  one  piece  of 
evidence,  supplied  by  the  Shoshones,  may  be  named;  be 
cause  it  clearly  shows  the  use  of  the  trophy  as  an  accepted 
evidence  of  victory — a  kind  of  legal  proof  regarded  as  alone 
conclusive.  We  read  that 

"Taking  an  enemy's  scalp  is  an  honour  quite  independent  of  the 
act  of  vanquishing  him.  To  kill  your  adversary  is  of  no  importance 
unless  the  scalp  is  brought  from  the  field  of  battle,  and  were  a  war 
rior  to  slay  any  number  of  his  enemies  in  action,  and  others  were  to 
obtain  the  scalps,  or  first  touch  the  dead,  they  would  have  all  the 
honours,  since  they  have  borne  off  the  trophy." 
Though  we  usually  think  of  scalp-taking  in  connexion  with 
the  North  American  Indians,  yet  it  is  not  restricted  to  them. 
Herodotus  describes  the  Scythians  as  scalping  their  con 
quered  enemies;  and  at  the  present  time  the  Nagas  of  the 
Indian  hills  take  scalps  and  preserve  them. 


44  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Preservation  of  hair  alone,  as  a  trophy,  is  less  general; 
doubtless  because  the  evidence  of  victory  which  it  yields  is 
inconclusive:  one  head  might  supply  hair  for  two  trophies. 
Still  there  are  cases  in  which  an  enemy's  hair  is  displayed 
in  proof  of  success  in  war.  Speaking  of  a  Naga,  Grange 
says  his  shield  "  was  covered  over  with  the  hair  of  the  foes 
he  had  killed."  The  tunic  of  a  Mandan  chief  is  described 
as  "  fringed  with  locks  of  hair  taken  by  his  own  hand  from 
the  heads  of  his  enemies."  And  we  read  of  the  Cochimis 
that  "  at  certain  festivals  their  sorcerers  .  .  .  wore  long 
robes  of  skin,  ornamented  with  human  hair." 

§353.  Among  easily-transported  parts  carried  home  to 
prove  victory,  may  next  be  named  hands  and  feet.  By  the 
Mexican  tribes,  Ceris  and  Opatas,  "  the  slain  are  scalped,  or 
a  hand  is  cut  off,  and  a  dance  performed  round  the  trophies 
on  the  field  of  battle."  So,  too,  of  the  California  Indians, 
who  also  took  scalps,  we  are  told  that  "  the  yet  more  bar 
barous  habit  of  cutting  off  the  hands,  feet,  or  head  of  a  fallen 
enemy,  as  trophies  of  victory,  prevailed  more  widely.  They 
also  plucked  out  and  carefully  preserved  the  eyes  of  the 
slain."  Though  this  is  not  said,  we  may  assume  that  either 
the  right  or  the  left  foot  or  hand  was  the  trophy;  since,  in 
the  absence  of  any  distinction,  victory  over  two  enemies  in 
stead  of  one  might  be  alleged.  In  one  case,  indeed,  I  find 
the  distinction  noted.  "  The  right  hands  of  the  slain  were 
hung  up  by  both  parties  [of  hostile  Khonds]  on  the  trees 
of  the  villages."  Hands  were  trophies  among  ancient  peo 
ples  of  the  old  world  also.  The  inscription  on  a  tomb  at  El 
Kab  in  Upper  Egypt,  tells  how  Aahmes,  the  son  of  Abuna, 
the  chief  of  the  steersmen,  "  when  he  had  won  a  hand  [in 
battle],  he  received  the  king's  commendation,  and  the 
golden  necklace  in  token  of  his  bravery ;  "  and  a  wTall-paint- 
ing  in  the  temple  of  Medinet  Abou  at  Thebes,  shows  the 
presentation  of  a  heap  of  hands  to  the  king. 

This  last  instance  introduces  us  to  vet  another  kind  of 


TROPHIES.  45 

trophy.  Along  with  the  heap  of  hands  thus  laid  before  the 
king,  there  is  represented  a  phallic  heap;  and  an  accom 
panying  inscription,  narrating  the  victory  of  Meneptah  I. 
over  the  Libyans,  besides  mentioning  the  "  cut  hands  of  all 
their  auxiliaries,"  as  being  carried  on  donkeys  following  the 
returning  army,  mentions  these  other  trophies  as  taken 
from  men  of  the  Libyan  nation.  And  here  a  natural  tran 
sition  brings  us  to  trophies  of  an  allied  kind,  the  taking  of 
which,  once  common,  has  continued  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Egypt  down  to  modern  times.  The  great  significance 
of  the  account  Bruce  gives  of  a  practice  among  the  Abys- 
sinians,  must  be  my  excuse  for  quoting  part  of  it.  He 
says  :— 

' '  At  the  end  of  a  day  of  battle,  each  chief  is  obliged  to  sit  at  the 
door  of  his  tent,  and  each  of  his  followers  who  has  slain  a  man,  pre 
sents  himself  in  his  turn,  armed  as  in  fight,  with  the  bloody  foreskin 
of  the  man  he  has  slain.  ...  If  he  has  killed  more  than  one  man,  so 
many  more  times  he  returns.  .  .  .  After  this  ceremony  is  over,  each 
man  takes  his  bloody  conquest,  and  retires  to  prepare  it  in  the  same 
manner  the  Indians  do  their  scalps.  .  .  .  The  whole  army  ...  on  a 
particular  day  of  review,  throws  them  before  the  king,  and  leaves 
them  at  the  gate  of  the  palace." 

Llere  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  trophy,  first  serving  to  dem 
onstrate  a  victory  gained  by  the  individual  warrior,  is 
subsequently  made  an  offering  to  the  ruler,  and  further  be 
comes  a  means  of  recording  the  number  slain :  facts  verified 
by  the  more  recent  French  traveller  d'Hericourt.  That 
like  purposes  were  similarly  served  among  the  Hebrews, 
proof  is  yielded  by  the  passage  which  narrates  Saul's  en 
deavour  to  betray  David  when  offering  him  Michal  to  wife : 
— "  And  Saul  said,  Thus  shall  ye  say  to  David,  The  king  de- 
sireth  not  any  dowry,  but  an  hundred  foreskins  of  the 
Philistines,  to  be  avenged  of  the  king's  enemies;  "  and 
David  "slew  of  the  Philistines  two  hundred  men;  and 
David  brought  their  foreskins,  and  gave  them  in  full  tale  to 
the  king." 


46  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

§  354.  Associated  with  the  direct  motive  for  taking 
trophies  there  is  an  indirect  motive,  which  probably  aids 
considerably  in  developing  the  custom.  When  treating  of 
primitive  ideas,  we  saw  that  the  imanalytical  mind  of  the 
savage  thinks  the  qualities  of  any  object  beside  in  all  its 
parts;  and  that,  among  others,  the  qualities  of  human  be 
ings  are  thus  conceived  by  him.  From  this  wre  found 
there  arise  such  customs  as  swallowing  parts  of  the  bodies 
of  dead  relatives,  or  their  ground  bones  in  water,  with  the 
view  of  inheriting  their  virtues;  devouring  the  heart  of  a 
slain  brave  to  gain  his  courage,  or  his  eyes  in  the  expectation 
of  seeing  further;  avoiding  the  flesh  of  certain  timid  ani 
mals,  lest  their  timidity  should  be  acquired.  A 
further  implication  of  this  belief  that  the  spirit  of  each  per 
son  is  diffused  throughout  him,  is,  that  possession  of  a  part 
of  his  body  gives  possession  of  a  part  of  his  spirit,  and, 
consequently,  a  power  over  his  spirit:  one  corollary  being 
that  anything  done  to  a  preserved  part  of  a  corpse  is  done  to 
the  corresponding  part  of  the  ghost;  and  that  thus  a  ghost 
may  be  coerced  by  maltreating  a  relic.  Hence,  as  before 
pointed  out  (§  133),  the  origin  of  sorcery;  hence  the  rat 
tle  of  dead  men's  bones  so  prevalent  with  primitive  medi 
cine-men  ;  hence  "  the  powder  ground  from  the  bones  of  the 
dead  "  used  by  the  Peruvian  necromancers;  hence  the  por 
tions  of  corpses  which  our  own  traditions  of  witchcraft  name 
as  used  in  composing  charms. 

Besides  proving  victory  over  an  enemy,  the  trophy  there 
fore  serves  for  the  subjugation  of  his  ghost;  and  that  pos 
session  of  it  is,  at  any  rate  in  some  cases,  supposed  to  make 
his  ghost  a  slave,  we  have  good  evidence.  The  primitive 
belief  everywhere  found,  that  the  doubles  of  men  and 
animals  slain  at  the  grave,  accompany  the  double  of  the 
deceased,  to  serve  him  in  the  other  world — the  belief  which 
leads  here  to  the  immolation  of  wives,  who  are  to  manage 
the  future  household  of  the  departed,  there  to  the  sacrifice 
of  horses  needed  to  carry  him  on  his  journey  after  death, 


TROPHIES.  47 

and  elsewhere  to  the  killing  of  dogs  as  guides;  is  a  belief 
which,  in  many  places,  initiates  the  kindred  belief  that,  by 
placing  portions  of  bodies  on  his  tomb,  the  men  and  animals 
they  belonged  to  are  made  subject  to  the  deceased.  We 
are  shown  this  by  the  bones  of  cattle,  &c.,  with  which  graves 
are  in  many  cases  decorated;  by  the  placing  on  graves  the 
heads  of  enemies  or  slaves,  as  above  indicated;  and  by  a 
like  use  of  the  scalp.  Concerning  the  Osages,  Mr.  Tylor 
cites  the  fact  that  they  sometimes  "  plant  on  the  cairn  raised 
over  a  corpse  a  pole  with  an  enemy's  scalp  hanging  to  the 
top.  Their  notion  was  that  by  taking  an  enemy  arid  sus 
pending  his  scalp  over  the  grave  of  a  deceased  friend,  the 
spirit  of  the  victim  became  subjected  to  the  spirit  of  the 
buried  warrior  in  the  land  of  spirits."  The  Ojibways  have 
a  like  practice,  of  which  a  like  idea  is  probably  the  cause. 

§  355.  A  collateral  development  of  trophy-taking,  which 
eventually  has  a  share  in  governmental  regulation,  must 
not  be  forgotten.  I  refer  to  the  display  of  parts  of  the  bod 
ies  of  criminals. 

In  our  more  advanced  minds  the  enemy,  the  criminal, 
and  the  slave,  are  well  discriminated;  but  they  are  little 
discriminated  by  the  primitive  man.  Almost  or  quite 
devoid  as  he  is  of  the  feelings  and  ideas  we  call  moral — 
holding  by  force  whatever  he  owns,  wresting  from  a  wreaker 
man  the  woman  or  other  object  he  has  possession  of, 
killing  his  own  child  without  hesitation  if  it  is  an  incum- 
brance,  or  his  wife  if  she  offends  him,  and  sometimes 
proud  of  being  a  recognized  killer  of  his  fellow-tribesmen; 
the  savage  has  no  distinct  ideas  of  right  and  wrong  in 
the  abstract.  The  immediate  pleasures  or  pains  they  give 
are  his  sole  reasons  for  classing  things  and  acts  as  good 
or  bad.  Hence  hostility,  and  the  injuries  he  suffers  from 
it,  excite  in  him  the  same  feeling  whether  the  aggressor 
is  without  the  tribe  or  within  it:  the  enemy  and  the  felon 
are  undistinguished.  This  confusion,  now  seeming 


48  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

strange  to  us,  we  shall  understand  better  on  remembering 
that  even  in  .early  stages  of  civilized  nations,  the  family- 
groups  which  formed  the  units  of  the  national  group,  were 
in  large  measure  independent  communities,  standing  to 
one  another  on  terms  much  like  those  on  which  the  nation 
stood  to  other  nations.  They  had  their  small  blood-feuds 
as  the  nation  had  its  great  blood-feuds.  Each  family-group 
wras  responsible  to  other  family-groups  for  the  acts  of 
its  members,  as  each  nation  to  other  nations  for  the  acts  of 
its  citizens.  Vengeance  was  taken  on  innocent  members 
of  a  sinning  family,  as  vengeance  was  taken  on  innocent 
citizens  of  a  sinning  nation.  And  thus  in  various  ways  the 
inter-family  aggressor  (answering  to  the  modern  criminal), 
stood  in  a  like  relative  position  with  the  inter-national 
aggressor.  Hence  the  naturalness  of  the  fact  that 

he  was  similarly  treated.  Already  we  have  seen  how,  in 
mediaeval  days,  the  heads  of  destroyed  family-enemies  (mur 
derers  of  its  members  or  stealers  of  its  property)  were  ex 
hibited  as  trophies.  And  since  Stfabo,  writing  of  the  Gauls 
and  other  northern  peoples,  says  that  the  heads  of  foes  slain 
in  battle  were  brought  back  and  sometimes  nailed  to  the 
chief  door  of  the  house,  while,  up  to  the  time  of  the  Salic 
law,  the  heads  of  slain  private  foes  were  fixed  on  stakes  in 
front  of  it ;  we  have  evidence  that  identification  of  the  pub 
lic  and  the  private  foe  was  associated  with  the  practice  of 
taking  trophies  from  them  both.  A  kindred  alliance  is 
traceable  in  the  usages  of  the  Jews.  Along  with  the  slain 
Eleanor's  head,  Judas  orders  that  his  hand  be  cut  off;  and 
he  brings  both  with  him  to  Jerusalem  as  trophies :  the  hand 
being  that  which  he  had  stretched  out  in  blasphemous 
boasts.  And  this  treatment  of  the  transgressor  who  is  an 
alien,  is  paralleled  in  the  treatment  of  non-alien  transgress 
ors  by  David,  who,  besides  hanging  up  the  corpses  of  the 
men  who  had  slain  Ishbosheth,  "  cut  off  their  hands  and 
their  feet." 

It  may,  then,  be  reasonably  inferred  that  display  of 


TROPHIES.  49 

executed  felons  on  gibbets,  or  their  heads  on  spikes, 
originates  from  the  bringing  back  of  trophies  taken  from 
slain  enemies.  Though  usually  a  part  only  of  the  slain 
enemy  is  fixed  up,  yet  sometimes  the  whole  body  is;  as 
when  the  dead  Saul,  minus  his  head,  was  fastened  by  the 
Philistines  to  the  wall  of  Bethshan.  And  that  fixing  up  a 
felon's  body  is  more  frequent,  probably  arises  from  the  fact 
that  it  has  not  to  be  brought  from  a  great  distance,  as 
would  usually  have  to  be  the  body  of  an  enemy. 

§  356.  Though  no  direct  connexion  exists  between 
trophy-taking  and  ceremonial  government,  the  foregoing 
facts  reveal  such  indirect  connexions  as  to  make  it  needful  to 
note  the  custom.  It  enters  as  a  factor  into  the  three  forms 
of  control — social,  political,  and  religious. 

If,  in  primitive  states,  men  are  honoured  according  to 
their  prowess — if  their  prowess  is  estimated  here  by  the 
number  of  heads  they  can  show,  there  by  the  number  of 
jaw-bones,  and  elsewhere  by  the  number  of  scalps, — if  such 
trophies  are  treasured  up  for  generations,  and  the  pride  of 
families  is  proportioned  to  the  number  of  them  taken  by 
ancestors — if  of  the  Gauls  in  the  time  of  Posidonius,  we 
read  that  "  the  heads  of  their  enemies  that  were  the  chiefest 
persons  of  quality,  they  carefully  deposit  in  chests,  em 
balming  them  with  the  oil  of  cedars,  showing  them  to 
strangers,  glory  and  boast  "  that  they  or  their  forefathers 
had  refused  great  sums  of  money  for  them ;  then,  obviously, 
a  kind  of  class  distinction  is  initiated  by  trophies.  On 
reading  that  in  some  places  a  man's  rank  varies  with  the 
quantity  of  bones  in  or  upon  his  dwelling,  we  cannot  deny 
that  the  display  of  these  proofs  of  personal  superiority, 
originates  a  regulative  influence  in  social  intercourse. 

As  political  control  evolves,  trophy-taking  becomes  in 
several  ways  instrumental  to  the  maintenance  of  authority. 
Beyond  the  awe  felt  for  the  chief  whose  many  trophies 
show  his  powers  of  destruction,  there  comes  the  greater 


50  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

awe  which,  on  growing  into  a  king  with  subordinate  chiefs 
and  dependent  tribes,  he  excites  by  accumulating  the  tro 
phies  others  take  on  his  behalf;  rising  into  dread  when  he 
exhibits  in  numbers  the  relics  of  slain  rulers.  As  the  prac 
tice  assumes  this  developed  form,  the  receipt  of  such  vicari 
ously-taken  trophies  passes  into  a  political  ceremony.  The 
heap  of  hands  laid  before  an  ancient  Egyptian  king,  served 
to  propitiate;  as  now  serves  the  mass  of  jawbones  sent  by  an 
Ashantee  captain  to  the  court.  When  we  read  of  Timour's 
soldiers  that  "  their  cruelty  was  enforced  by  the  peremptory 
command  of  producing  an  adequate  number  of  heads,"  we 
are  conclusively  shown  that  the  presentation  of  trophies 
hardens  into  a  form  expressing  obedience.  Nor  is  it  thus 
only  that  a  political  effect  results.  There  is  the  govern 
mental  restraint  produced  by  fixing  up  the  bodies  or  heads 
of  the  insubordinate  and  the  felonious. 

Though  offering  part  of  a  slain  enemy  to  propitiate  a 
ghost,  does  not  enter  into  what  is  commonly  called  religious 
ceremonial,  yet  it  obviously  so  enters  when  the  aim  is  to 
propitiate  a  god  developed  from  an  ancestral  ghost.  We 
are  shown  the  transition  by  such  a  fact  as  that  in  a  battle 
between  two  tribes  of  Khoncls,  the  first  man  who  "  slew  his 
opponent,  struck  off  his  right  arm  and  rushed  with  it  to  the 
priest  in  the  rear,  wrho  bore  it  off  as  an  offering  to  Laha 
Pennoo  in  his  grave:  "  Laha  Pennoo  being  their  "  God  of 
Arms."  Joining  with  this  such  other  facts  as  that  before  the 
Tahitian  god  Oro,  human  immolations  were  frequent,  and 
the  preserved  relics  were  built  into  walls  "  formed  entirely 
of  human  skulls,"  which  were  "  principally,  if  not  entirely 
the  skulls  of  those  slain  in  battle;  "  we  are  shown  that  gods 
are  worshipped  by  bringing  to  them,  and  accumulat 
ing  round  their  shrines,  these  portions  of  enemies  killed 
—killed,  very  often,  in  fulfilment  of  their  supposed  com 
mands.  This  inference  is  verified  on  seeing  similar 
ly  used  other  kinds  of  spoils.  The  Philistines,  besides 
otherwise  displaying  relics  of  the  dead  Saul,  put  "  his 


TROPHIES.  51 

armour  in  the  house  of  Ashtaroth."  By  the  Greeks  the 
trophy  f orrned  of  arms,  shields,  and  helmets  taken  from  the 
defeated,  was  consecrated  to  some  divinity;  and  the  Romans 
deposited  the  spoils  of  battle  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter 
Capitolinus.  Similarly  among  the  Fijians,  who  are  solicit 
ous  in  every  way  to  propitiate  their  blood-thirsty  deities, 
"  when  flags  are  taken  they  are  always  hung  up  as  trophies 
in  the  mbure"  or  temple.  That  hundreds  of  gilt  spurs  of 
French  knights  vanquished  by  the  Flemish  in  the  battle  of 
Courtrai,  were  deposited  in  the  church  of  that  place,  and 
that  in  France  flags  taken  from  enemies  were  suspended 
from  the  vaults  of  cathedrals  (a  practice  not  unknown  in 
Protestant  England),  are  facts  which  might  be  joined  with 
these,  did  not  joining  them  imply  the  impossible  supposition 
that  Christians  think  to  please  "  the  God  of  love  "  by  acts 
like  those  used  to  please  the  diabolical  gods  of  cannibals. 

Because  of  inferences  to  be  hereafter  drawn,  one  remain 
ing  general  truth  must  be  named,  though  it  is  so  obvious 
as  to  seem  scarcely  worth  mention.  Trophy-taking  is  di 
rectly  related  to  militancy.  It  begins  during  a  primitive 
life  that  is  wholly  occupied  in  fighting  men  and  animals;  it 
develops  with  the  growth  of  conquering  societies  in  which 
perpetual  wars  generate  the  militant  type  of  structure;  it 
diminishes  as  growing  industrialism  more  arid  more  substi 
tutes  productive  activities  for  destructive  activities;  and 
complete  industrialism  necessitates  entire  cessation  of  it. 
The  chief  significance  of  trophy-taking,  however,  has 
yet  to  be  pointed  out.  The  reason  for  here  dealing  with  it, 
though  in  itself  scarcely  to  be  classed  as  a  ceremony,  is  that 
it  furnishes  us  with  the  key  to  numerous  ceremonies  pre 
vailing  all  over  the  world  among  the  uncivilized  and  semi- 
civilized.  From  the  practice  of  cutting  off  and  taking  away 
portions  of  the  dead  body,  there  grows  up  the  practice  of 
cutting  off  portions  of  the  living  body. 


CHAPTEE  III. 

MUTILATIONS. 

§  357.  Facility  of  exposition  will  be  gained  by  ap 
proaching  indirectly  the  facts  and  conclusions  here  to  be 
set  forth. 

The  ancient  ceremony  of  infeftment  in  Scotland  was 
completed  thus: — "  He  [superior's  attorney]  would  stoop 
down,  and,  lifting  a  stone  and  a  handful  of  earth,  hand 
these  over  to  the  new  vassal's  attorney,  thereby  conferring 
upon  him  '  real,  actual,  and  corporal '  possession  of  the 
fief."  Among  a  distant  slightly-civilized  people,  a  parallel 
usage  occurs.  On  selling  his  cultivated  plot,  a  Khond. 
having  invoked  the  village  deity  to  bear  witness  to  the  sale, 
"  then  delivers  a  handful  of  soil  to  the  purchaser."  From 
cases  where  the  transfer  of  lands  for  a  consideration  is  thus 
expressed,  we  may  pass  to  cases  where  lands  are  by  a  simi 
lar  form  surrendered  to  show  political  submission.  When 
the  Athenians  applied  for  help  against  the  Spartans, 
after  the  attack  of  Kleomenes,  a  confession  of  subordination 
was  demanded  in  return  for  the  protection  asked;  and  the 
confession  was  made  by  sending  earth  and  water.  A  like 
act  has  a  like  meaning  in  Fiji.  "  The  soro  with  a  basket  of 
earth  ...  is  generally  connected  with  war,  and  is  pre 
sented  by  the  weaker  party,  indicating  the  yielding  up  of 
their  land  to  the  conquerors."  And  so  is  it  in  India.  When 
some  ten  years  ago,  Tu-wen-hsin  sent  his  "  Panthay  "  mis 
sion  to  England,  "  they  carried  with  them  pieces  of  rock 

52 


MUTILATIONS.  53 

hewn  from  the  four  corners  of  the  [Tali]  mountain,  as  the 
most  formal  expression  of  his  desire  to  become  feudatory 
tc  the  British  Crown. " 

This  giving  a  part  instead  of  giving  the  whole,  where 
the  whole  cannot  be  mechanically  handed  over,  will  perhaps 
be  instanced  as  a  symbolic  ceremony;  though,  even  in  the 
absence  of  any  further  interpretation,  \ve  may  say  that  it 
approaches  as  nearly  to  actual  transfer  as  the  nature  of  the 
case  permits.  We  are  not,  however,  obliged  to  regard 
this  ceremony  as  artificially  devised.  We  may  affiliate  it 
upon  a  simpler  ceremony  which  at  once  elucidates  it,  and 
is  elucidated  by  it.  I  refer  to  surrendering  a  part  of  the 
body  as  implying  surrender  of  the  whole.  In  Fiji,  tribu 
taries  approaching  their  masters  were  told  by  a  messenger 
"  that  they  must  all  cut  off  their  tobe  (locks  of  hair  that 
are  left  like  tails).  .  .  They  all  docked  their  tails."  Still, 
it  may  be  replied  that  this  act,  too,  is  a  symbolic  act — an 
act  artificially  devised  rather  than  naturally  derived.  If 
we  .carry  our  inquiry  a  step  back,  however,  we  shall  find  a 
clue  to  its  natural  derivation. 

First,  let  us  remember  the  honour  which  accrues  from 
accumulated  trophies;  so  that,  among  the  Shoshones  for 
instance,  "  he  who  takes  the  most  scalps  gains  the  most 
glory."  Let  us  join  with  this  Bancroft's  statement 
respecting  the  treatment  of  prisoners  by  the  Chichimecs, 
that  "  often  they  were  scalped  while  yet  alive,  and  the 
bloody  trophy  placed  upon  the  heads  of  their  tormentors." 
And  then  let  us  ask  what  happens  if  the  scalped  enemy  sur 
vives.  The  captor  preserves  the  scalp  as  an  addition  to  his 
other  trophies;  the  vanquished  enemy  becomes  his  slave; 
and  he  is  shown  to  be  a  slave  by  the  loss  of  his  scalp. 
Here,  then,  are  the  beginnings  of  a  custom  that  may  be 
come  established  when  social  conditions  make  it  advanta 
geous  to  keep  conquered  foes  as  servants  instead  of  eating 
them.  The  conservative  savage  changes  as  little  as  possi 
ble.  While  the  new  practice  of  enslaving  the  captured 
62 


54:  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

arises,  the  old  practice  of  cutting  from  their  bodies  such 
parts  as  serve  for  trophies  continues;  and  the  marks  left 
become  marks  of  subjugation.  Gradually  as  the  receipt 
of  such  marks  comes  to  imply  bondage,  not  only  will  those 
taken  in  war  be  marked,  but  also  those  born  to  them; 
until  at  length  the  bearing  of  the  mark  shows  subordination 
in  general. 

That  submission  to  mutilation  may  eventually  grow  into 
the  sealing  of  an  agreement  to  be  bondsmen,  is  shown  us 
by  Hebrew  history.  "  Then  J^ahash  the  Ammonite  came 
up,  and  encamped  against  Jabesh-gilead :  and  all  the  men 
of  Jabesh  said  unto  Xahash,  Make  a  covenant  with  us, 
and  we  will  serve  thee.  And  i^ahash  the  Ammonite  an 
swered  them,  On  this  condition  will  I  make  a  covenant 
with  you,  that  I  may  thrust  out  all  your  right  eyes.'7  They 
agreed  to  become  subjects,  and  the  mutilation  (not  in  this 
case  consented  to,  however)  was  to  mark  their  subjection. 
And  while  mutilations  thus  serve,  like  the  brands  a  farmer 
puts  on  his  sheep,  to  show  first  private  ownership  and 
afterwards  political  ownership,  they  also  serve  as  perpetual 
reminders  of  the  ruler's  power:  so  keeping  alive  the  dread 
that  brings  obedience.  This  fact  we  see  in  the  statement 
that  when  the  second  Basil  deprived  fifteen  thousand  Bul 
garian  captives  of  sight,  "  the  nation  was  awed  by  this  terri 
ble  example." 

Just  adding  that  the  bearing  of  a  mutilation,  thus  be 
coming  the  mark  of  a  subject  race,  survives  as  a  token  of 
submission  when  the  trophy-taking  which  originated  it  has 
disappeared;  let  us  now  note  the  different  kinds  of  mutila 
tions,  and  the  ways  in  which  they  severally  enter  into  the 
three  forms  of  control — political,  religious,  and  social. 

§  358.  When  the  Araucanians  on  going  to  war  send 
messengers  summoning  confederate  tribes,  these  messengers 
carry  certain  arrows  as  their  credentials;  and,  "  if  hostilities 
are  actually  commenced,  the  finger,  or  (as  Algedo  will  have 


MUTILATIONS.  55 

it)  the  hand  of  a  slain  enemy,  is  joined  to  the  arrows  "• 
another  instance,  added  to  those  already  given,  in  which 
hands,  or  parts  of  them,  are  brought  home  to  show  victory. 

We  have  proof  that  in  some  cases  living  vanquished 
men,  made  hand! ess  by  this  kind  of  trophy-taking,  are 
brought  back  from  battle.  King  Osymandyas  reduced  the 
revolted  Bactrians;  and  as  shown  "  on  the  second  wall  "  of 
the  monument  to  him  "  the  prisoners  are  brought  forward: 
they  are  without  their  hands  and  members."  But  though  a 
conquered  enemy  may  have  one  of  his  hands  taken  as  a 
trophy  without  much  endangering  his  life,  loss  of  a  hand  so 
greatly  diminishes  his  value  as  a  slave,  that  some  other 
trophy  is  naturally  preferred. 

The  like  cannot,  however,  be  said  of  a  finger.  That 
fingers  are  sometimes  carried  home  as  trophies  we  have  just 
seen;  and  that  conquered  enemies,  mutilated  by  loss  of  fin 
gers,  are  sometimes  allowed  to  live  as  slaves,  the  Bible 
yields  proof.  In  Judges  i.  6,  7,  we  read: — "  Adoni-bezek 
[the  Canaanite]  fled;  and  they  pursued  after  him,  and 
caught  him,  and  cut  off  his  thumbs  and  his  great  toes.  And 
Adoni-bezek  said,  Threescore  and  ten  kings,  having  their 
thumbs  and  their  great  toes  cut  off,  gathered  their  meat 
under  my  table:  as  I  have  done,  so  God  hath  requited  me." 
Hence,  then,  the  fact  that  fingers  are,  in  various  places,  cut 
off  and  offered  in  propitiation  of  living  rulers,  in  propitiation 
of  dead  rulers,  and  in  propitiation  of  dead  relatives.  The 
sanguinary  Fijians,  extreme  in  their  loyalty  to  cannibal 
despots,  yield  sundry  illustrations.  Describing  the  se 
quence  of  an  alleged  insult,  Williams  says: — "  A  messenger 
was  .  .  .  sent  to  the  chief  of  the  offender  to  demand  an 
explanation,  which  was  forthwith  given,  together  with  the 
fingers  of  four  persons,  to  appease  the  angry  chieftain." 
On  the  occasion  of  a  chief's  death,  "  orders  were  issued  that 
one  hundred  fingers  should  be  cut  off;  but  only  sixty  were 
amputated,  one  woman  losing  her  life  in  consequence." 
Once  more,  a  child's  hand  "  was  covered  with  blood,  which 


56  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

flowed  from  the  stump  where,  shortly  before,  his  little  finger 
had  been  cut  off,  as  a  token  of  affection  for  his  deceased  fath 
er."  This  propitiation  of  the  dead  by  offering  fingers, 
or  parts  of  them,  occurs  elsewhere.  When,  among  the 
Charruas,  the  head  of  the  family  died,  "  the  daughters, 
widow,  and  married  sisters  were  obliged  to  have,  each  one 
joint  from  the  finger  cut  off;  and  this  was  repeated  for 
every  relation  of  the  like  character  who  died:  the  primary 
amputation  being  from  the  little  finger."  By  the  Manclans, 
the  usual  mode  of  expressing  grief  on  the  death  of  a  relation 
"  was  to  lose  two  joints  of  the  little  fingers,  or  sometimes 
the  other  fingers."  A  like  custom  was  found  among  the 
Dacotahs  and  various  other  American  tribes.  Sacrificed 
in  this  way  to  the  ghost  of  the  dead  relative,  or  the  dead 
chief,  to  express  that  subjection  which  would  have  pacified 
him  while  alive,  the  amputated  finger  becomes,  in  other 
cases,  a  sacrifice  to  the  expanded  ghost  or  god.  During  his 
initiation  the  Mandan  warrior,  "  holding  up  the  little  finger 
of  his  left  hand  to  the  Great  Spirit,  he  expresses  to  Him,  in 
a  speech  of  a  few  words,  his  willingness  to  give  it  as  a  sacri 
fice;  when  he  lays  it  on  the  dried  buffalo  skull,  where  the 
other  chops  it  off  near  the  hand  with  a  blow  of  the  hatchet." 
And  the  natives  of  Tonga  cut  off  a  portion  of  the  little  fin 
ger  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  gods,  for  the  recovery  of  a  superior 
sick  relative. 

Originally  expressing  submission  to  powerful  beings 
alive  and  dead,  this  mutilation  in  some  cases  becomes,  appar 
ently,  a  mark  of  domestic  subordination.  The  Australians 
have  a  custom  of  cutting  off  the  last  joint  of  the  little  finger 
of  females;  and  a  Hottentot  "  widow,  who  marries  a  second 
time,  must  have  the  top  joint  of  a  finger  cut  off,  and  loses 
another  joint  for  the  third,  and  so  on  for  each  time  that  she 
enters  into  wedlock." 

As  showing  the  way  in  which  these  propitiatory  mutila 
tions  of  the  hands  are  made  so  as  to  interfere  least  with 
usefulness,  it  may  be  noted  that  habitually  they  begin  with 


MUTILATIONS.  57 

the  last  joint  of  the  little  finger,  and  affect  the  more  impor 
tant  parts  of  the  hand  only  if  they  recur.  And  where,  by 
amputating  the  hand,  there  is  repeated  in  full  the  original 
mutilation  of  slain  enemies,  it  is  where  the  usefulness  of  the 
subject  persons  not  a  consideration,  but  where  the  treat 
ment  of  the  external  enemy  is  extended  to  the  internal 
enemy — the  criminal.  The  Hebrews  made  the  loss  of  a 
hand  a  punishment  for  one  kind  of  offence,  as  shown  in 
Deuteronomy,  xxv.  11,  12.  In  ancient  Egypt,  forgers  and 
other  falsifiers  lost  both  hands.  Of  a.  Japanese  political 
transgressor  it  is  said — "  His  hands  were  ordered  to  be 
struck  off,  which  in  Japan  is  the  very  extremity  of  dishon 
our."  In  mediaeval  Europe  hands  were  cut  off  for  various 
offences. 

§  359.  Recent  accounts  from  the  East  prove  that  some 
of  the  vanquished  deprived  of  their  noses  by  their  conquer 
ors,  survive ;  and  those  who  do  so,  remain  identifiable  there 
after  as  conquered  men.  Consequently,  lack  of  a  nose  may 
become  the  mark  of  a  slave ;  and  in  some  cases  it  does  this. 
Certain  of  the  ancient  Central  Americans  challenged  neigh 
bouring  peoples  when  "  they  wanted  slaves;  if  the  other 
party  did  not  accept  of  the  challenge,  they  ravaged  their 
country  and  cut  off  the  noses  of  the  slaves."  And,  describ 
ing  a  war  carried  on  during  his  captivity  in  Ashantee,  Ram 
sey  er  says  the  Ashantees  spared  one  prisoner,  "  whose  head 
was  shaved,  nose  and  ears  cut  off,  and  himself  made  to 
carry  the  king's  drum." 

Along  with  loss  of  nose  occurs,  in  the  last  case,  loss  of 
ears.  This  is  similarly  interpretable  as  having  originated 
from  trophy-taking,  and  having  in  some  cases  survived,  if 
not  as  a  mark  of  ordinary  slavery,  still,  as  a  mark  of  that 
other  slavery  which  is  a  punishment  for  crime.  In  ancient 
Mexico  "  he  who  told  a  lie  to  the  particular  prejudice  of 
another  had  a  part  of  his  lip  cut  off,  and  sometimes  his 
ears."  Among  the  Honduras  people  a  thief  had  his  goods 


58  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

confiscated,  "  and,  if  the  theft  was  very  great,  they  cut  off 
his  ears  and  hands.'7  A  law  of  an  adjacent  people,  the 
Miztecs,  directed  the  "  cutting  off  of  an  adulterer's  ears, 
nose,  or  lips;  "  and  by  some  of  the  Zapotecas,  "  women  con 
victed  of  adultery  had  their  ears  and  noses  cut  off." 

But  though  absence  of  ears  seems  more  generally  to  have 
marked  a  criminal  than  a  vanquished  enemy  who  had  sur 
vived  the  taking  of  his  ears  as  trophies,  we  may  suspect 
that  originally  it  was  a  trait  of  an  enslaved  captive;  and 
that  by  mitigation,  it  gave  rise  to  the  method  of  marking  a 
slave  that  was  used  by  the  Hebrews,  and  still  continues  in 
the  East  with  a  modified  meaning.  In  Exodus  xxi.  5,  6,  we 
read  that  if,  after  his  six  years'  service,  a  purchased  slave 
does  not  wish  to  be  free,  his  master  shall  "  bring  him  to  the 
door,  or  unto  the  door-post,  and  his  master  shall  bore  his 
ear  through  with  an  awl,  and  he  shall  serve  him  for  ever." 
Commenting  on  this  ceremony  Knobel  says: — "  In  the  mod 
ern  East,  the  symbol  of  piercing  the  ears  is  mentioned  as 
the  mark  of  those  who  are  dedicated.  ...  It  expresses  the 
belonging  to  somebody."  And  since  where  there  grows  up 
unqualified  despotism,  private  slavery  is  joined  with  public 
slavery,  and  the  accepted  theory  is  that  all  subjects  are  the 
property  of  the  ruler,  we  may  suspect  that  there  hence 
results  in  some  cases  the  universality  of  this  mutilation. 
"  All  the  Burmese  without  exception  have  the  custom  of 
boring  their  ears.  The  day  when  the  operation  is  per 
formed  is  kept  as  a  festival ;  for  this  custom  holds,  in  their 
estimation,  something  of  the  rank  that  baptism  has  in  ours." 
As  indirect  evidence,  I  may  add  the  curious  fact  that  the 
Gond  holds  "  his  ears  in  his  hands  in  token  of  submission." 

A  related  usage  must  be  noted :  the  insertion  of  a  ring  in 
the  nose.  Commenting  on  this  as  exemplified  by  some 
women  of  Astrachan,  Bell  says — "  I  was  told  that  it  was 
the  consequence  of  a  religious  dedication  of  these  persons 
to  the  service  of  God."  Now  read  the  following  passage 
from  Isaiah  about  Sennacherib : — "  This  is  the  word  that 


MUTILATIONS.  59 

the  Lord  hath  spoken  concerning  him.  .  .  I  will  put  my 
hook  in  thy  nose,  and  my  bridle  in  thy  lips."  And  then 
add  the  fact  that  in  Assyrian  sculptures  are  represented 
prisoners  being  led  by  cords  attached  to  rings  through  their 
noses.  Do  we  not  see  a  kindred  filiation — conquest,  inci 
dental  marking  of  the  captive,  survival  of  the  mark  as 
distinguishing  subject  persons? 

§  360.  Jaws  can  be  taken  only  from  those  whose  lives 
are  taken.  There  are  the  teeth,  however:  some  of  these 
may  be  extracted  as  trophies  without  seriously  decreasing 
the  usefulness  of  the  prisoner.  Hence  another  form  of 
mutilation. 

We  have  seen  that  teeth  of  slain  foes  are  worn  in 
Ashantee  and  in  South  America.  J^ow  if  teeth  are  taken 
as  trophies  from  captives  who  are  preserved  as  slaves,  loss 
of  them  must  become  a  mark  of  subjection.  Of  facts 
directly  showing  that  a  propitiatory  ceremony  hence  arises 
I  can  name  but  one.  Among  mutilations  undergone  when 
a  king  or  chief  dies  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  Ellis  names 
knocking  out  one  of  the  front  teeth:  an  alternative  being 
cutting  the  ears.  When  we  further  read  in  Cook  that  the 
Sandwich  Islanders  knock  out  from  one  to  four  of  the  front 
teeth,  showing  that  the  whole  population  becomes  marked 
by  these  repeated  mutilations  suffered  to  propitiate  the 
ghosts  of  dead  rulers — when  we  infer  that  in  propitiation  of 
a  much-dreaded  ruler  deified  after  death,  not  only  those 
who  knew  him  may  submit  to  this  loss,  but  also  their  chil 
dren  subsequently  born ;  we  see  how  the  practice,  becoming 
established,  may  survive  as  a  sacred  custom  when  its  mean 
ing  is  lost.  For  concluding  that  the  practice  has  this 
sacramental  nature,  there  are  the  further  reasons  derived 
from  the  fixing  of  the  age  for  the  operation,  and  from  the 
character  of  the  operator.  In  ]STew  South  Wales  it  is  the 
Koradger  men,  or  priests,  who  perform  the  ceremony;  and 
of  a  semi-domesticated  Australian,  Ilaygarth  writes  that  he 


60  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

said  one  day,  "  with  a  look  of  importance,  that  he  must  go 
away  for  a  few  days,  as  he  had  grown  up  to  man's  estate, 
and  k  it  was  high  time  that  he  should  have  his  teeth  knocked 
out.'  '  Various  African  races,  as  the  Batoka,  the  Dor, 
similarly  lose  two  or  more  of  their  front  teeth;  and 
habitually  the  loss  of  them  is  an  obligatory  rite.  But  the 
best  evidence  is  furnished  by  the  ancient  Peruvians. 
A  tradition  among  certain  of  them  was  that  the  conqueror 
Huayna  Ccapac,  finding  them  disobedient,  "  made  a  law 
that  they  and  their  descendants  should  have  three  of  their 
front  teeth  pulled  out  in  each  jaw."  Another  tradition, 
naturally  derivable  from  the  last,  was  that  this  extraction  of 
teeth  by  fathers  from  their  children  was  a  "  service  very 
acceptable  to  their  gods."  And  then,  as  happens  with 
other  mutilations  of  which  the  meaning  has  dropped  out  of 
memory,  the  improvement  of  the  appearance  was  in  some 
parts  the  assigned  motive. 

§  361.  As  the  transition  from  eating  conquered  enemies 
to  making  slaves  of  them,  mitigates  trophy-taking  so  as  to 
avoid  causing  death;  and  as  the  tendency  is  to  modify  the 
injury  inflicted  so  that  it  shall  in  the  least  degree  diminish 
the  slave's  usefulness;  and  as,  with  the  rise  of  a  class  born 
in  slavery,  the  mark  which  the  slave  bears,  no  longer  show 
ing  that  he  was  taken  in  war,  does  not  imply  a  victory 
achieved  by  his  owner;  there  eventually  remains  no  rea 
son  for  a  mark  which  involves  serious  mutilation.  Hence 
it  is  inferable  that  mutilations  of  the  least  injurious  kinds 
will  become  the  commonest.  Such,  at  any  rate,  seems  a 
reasonable  explanation  of  the  fact  that  cutting  off  of  hair 
is  the  most  prevalent  mutilation. 

Already  we  have  seen  the  probable  origin  of  the  custom 
in  Fiji,  where  tributaries  had  to  sacrifice  their  locks  on 
approaching  their  great  chiefs;  and  there  is  evidence  that  a 
kindred  sacrifice  was  demanded  of  old  in  Britain.  In  the 
Arthurian  legends,  which,  unhistoric  as  they  may  be,  yield 


MUTILATIONS.  61 

good  evidence  respecting  the  manners  of  the  times  from 
which  they  descend,  we  read,  "  Then  wrent  Arthur  to  Caer- 
leon;  and  thither  came  messengers  from  King  Ryons,  who 
said,  '  Eleven  kings  have  done  me  homage,  and  with  their 
beards  I  have  trimmed  a  mantle.  Send  me  now  thy  beard, 
for  there  lacks  yet  one  to  the  finishing  of  my  mantle.'  ' 

Reasons  exist  for  the  belief  that  taking  an  enslaved 
captive's  hair,  began  with  the  smallest  practicable  diver 
gence  from  taking  the  dead  enemy's  scalp;  for  the  part  of 
the  hair  in  some  cases  given  in  propitiation,  and  in  other 
cases  worn  subject  to  a  master's  ownership,  answers  in  posi 
tion  to  the  scalp-lock.  The  tobe  yielded  np  by  the  tributary 
Fijians  was  a  kind  of  pigtail:  the  implication  being  that 
this  could  be  demanded  by,  and  therefore  belonged  to,  the 
superior.  Moreover,  among  the  Kalmucks, 

"When  one  pulls  another  by  the  pigtail,  or  actually  tears  it  out, 
this  is  regarded  as  a  punishable  offence,  because  the  pigtail  is  thought 
to  belong  to  the  chief,  or  to  be  a  sign  of  subjection  to  him.  If  it  is 
the  short  hair  on  the  top  of  the  head  that  has  been  subjected  to  such 
treatment,  it  does  not  constitute  a  punishable  offence,  because  this  is 
considered  the  man's  own  hair  and  not  that  of  the  chief." 
And  then  I  may  add  the  statement  of  Williams,  that  the 
Tartar  conquerors  of  China  ordered  the  Chinese  "  to  adopt 
the  national  Tartar  mode  of  shaving  the  front  of  the  head, 
and  braiding  the  hair  in  a  long  queue,  as  a  sign  of  sub 
mission."  Another  fact  presently  to  be  given  joins  with 
these  in  suggesting  that  a  vanquished  man,  not  killed  but 
kept  as  a  slave,  wore  his  scalp-lock  on  sufferance. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  however,  the  widely-prevalent  custom 
of  taking  the  hair  of  the  conquered,  either  with  or  without 
part  of  the  skin,  has  nearly  everywhere  resulted  in  the  asso 
ciation  between  short  hair  and  slavery.  This  association 
existed  among  both  Greeks  and  Romans:  "the  slaves 
had  their  hair  cut  short  as  a  mark  of  servitude."  We 
find  it  the  same  throughout  America.  "  Socially  the  slave 
is  despised,  his  hair  is  cut  short,"  says  Bancroft  of  the 


62  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Nootkas;  and  "  the  privilege  of  wearing  long  hair  was  rig 
orously  denied  "  to  Carib  slaves  and  captives.  The  slavery 
that  punished  criminality  was  similarly  marked.  In  Nica 
ragua,  "  a  chief  had  his  hair  cut  off  and  became  a  slave  to 
the  person  that  had  been  robbed  till  he  was  satisfied." 
Naturally,  infliction  of  the  slave-badge  grew  into  a  punish 
ment.  By  the  Central  Americans  a  suspected  adulterer 
"  was  stripped  and  his  hair  was  cut."  One  ancient 
Mexican  penalty  "  was  to  have  the  hair  cut  at  some  public 
place."  And  during  mediseval  times  in  Europe  cutting  of 
hair  was  a  punishment.  Of  course,  by  contrast, 

long  hair  became  a  distinction.  If  among  the  Chibchas 
"  the  greatest  affront  that  could  be  put  on  a  man  or  a  woman 
was  to  have  their  hair  cropped,"  the  assimilation  to  slaves  in 
appearance  was  the  reason:  the  honourableness  of  long 
hair  being  an  implication.  "  The  Itzaex  Indians,"  says 
Fancourt,  "  wore  their  hair  as  long  as  it  would  grow;  in 
deed,  it  is  a  most  difficult  thing  to  bring  the  Indians  to  cut 
their  hair."  Long  hair  shows  rank  among  the  Tongans: 
none  are  permitted  to  wear  it  but  the  principal  people. 
Similarly  with  the  New  Caledonians  and  various  others  of 
the  uncivilized;  and  similarly  with  semi-civilized  Orien 
tals:  "  the  Ottoman  princes  have  their  beard  shaved  off  to 
show  that  they  are  dependent  on  the  favour  of  the  reigning 
emperor."  By  the  Greeks,  "  in  manhood,  .  .  .  hair  was 
worn  longer,"  and  "  a  certain  political  significancy  was 
attached  to  the  hair."  In  Northern  Europe,  too,  "  among 
the  Franks  .  .  .  the  serfs  wore  the  hair  less  long  and 
less  carefully  dressed  than  freemen,"  and  the  freemen 
less  long  than  the  nobles.  "  The  hair  of  the  Frank  kings 
is  sacred.  ...  It  is  for  them  a  mark  and  honourable 
prerogative  of  the  royal  race."  Clothair  and  Childebert, 
wishing  to  divide  their  brother's  kingdom,  consulted  re 
specting  their  nephews,  "  whether  to  cut  off  their  hair  so  as 
to  reduce  them  to  the  rank  of  subjects,  or  to  kill  them."  I 
may  add  the  extreme  case  of  the  Japanese  Mikado. 


MUTILATIONS.  63 

"  Neither  his  hair,  beard,  nor  nails  are  ever  [avowedly] 
cut,  so  that  his  sacred  person  may  not  be  mutilated:  "  such 
cutting  as  occurs  being  done  while  he  is  supposed  to  sleep. 

A  parallel  marking  of  divine  rank  may  be  noted  in  pass 
ing.  Length  of  hair  being  significant  of  terrestrial  dignity 
becomes  significant,  too,  of  celestial  dignity.  The  gods 
of  various  peoples,  and  especially  the  great  gods,  are  distin 
guished  by  their  flowing  beards  and  long  locks. 

Domestic  subordination  also,  in  many  cases  goes  along 
with  short  hair.  Under  low  social  conditions,  females  com 
monly  bear  this  badge  of  slavery.  In  Samoa  the  women 
wear  the  hair  short  while  the  men  wear  it  long ;  and  among 
other  Malayo-Polynesians,  as  the  Tahitians  and  New  Zea- 
landers,  the  like  contrast  occurs.  Similarly  with  the  Ne 
grito  races.  "  In  New  Caledonia  the  chiefs  and  influential 
men  wear  their  hair  long.  .  .  .  The  women  all  crop  theirs 
close  to  the  very  ears."  Cropped  heads  in  like  manner  dis 
tinguish  the  women  of  Tanna,  of  Lifu,  of  Vate,  and  those  of 
Tasmania.  A  kindred  mode  of  signifying  filial 

subjection  has  existed.  Sacrifice  of  hair  once  formed  part 
of  the  ceremony  of  adoption  in  Europe.  "  Charles  Martel 
sent  Pepin,  his  son,  to  Luithprand,  king  of  the  Lombards, 
that  he  might  cut  his  first  locks,  and  by  this  ceremony  hold 
for  the  future  the  place  of  his  father;  "  and  Clovis,  to  make 
peace  with  Alaric,  proposed  to  become  his  adopted  son,  by 
offering  his  beard  to  be  cut  by  him. 

This  mutilation  simultaneously  came  to  imply  subjec 
tion  to  dead  persons.  How  yielding  up  hair  to  the  dead  is 
originally  akin  to  yielding  up  a  trophy,  is  well  shown  by  the 
Dacotahs.  "  The  men  shave  the  hair  off  their  heads,  except 
a  small  tuft  on  the  top  [the  scalp-lock],  which  they  suffer 
to  grow  and  wear  in  plaits  over  the  shoulders:  the  loss  of 
it  is  the  usual  sacrifice  at  the  death  of  near  relations."  That 
is,  they  go  as  near  as  may  be  to  surrendering  their  scalps 
to  the  dead.  The  meaning  is  again  seen  in  the  account 
given  of  the  Caribs.  "  As  their  hair  thus  constituted  their 


64  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

chief  pride,  it  was  an  unequivocal  proof  of  the  sincerity  of 
their  sorrow,  when,  on  the  death  of  a  relation  or  friend, 
they  cut  it  short  like  their  slaves  and  captives.'7  Every 
where  the  uncivilized  have  kindred  forms.  2\"or  was  it 
otherwise  with  the  ancient  historic  races.  By  the  Hebrews 
making  "  baldness  upon  their  heads  "  was  practised  as  a 
funeral  rite,  as  was  also  shaving  off  u  the  corner  of  their 
beard."  Among  Greeks  and  Romans,  "  the  hair  was  cut 
close  in  mourning."  In  Greece  the  meaning  of  this  mutila 
tion  was  recognized.  Potter  remarks, — "  we  find  Electra 
in  Euripides  finding  fault  with  Helena  for  sparing  her 
locks,  and  thereby  defrauding  the  dead;  "  and  he  cites  the 
statement  that  this  sacrifice  of  hair  (sometimes  laid  upon  the 
grave)  was  "  partly  to  render  the  ghost  of  the  deceased 
person  propitious."  A  significant  addition  must  be  made. 
"  Eor  a  recent  death,  the  mourner's  head  was  shaved;  for 
an  offering  to  the  long  dead,  a  single  lock  was  cut  off." 

Naturally  if,  from  propitiation  of  the  dead,  some  of 
whom  become  deities,  there  grows  up  religious  propitiation, 
the  offering  of  hair  may  be  expected  to  re-appear  as  a  re 
ligious  ceremony ;  and  we  find  that  it  does  so.  Already,  in 
the  just-named  fact  that  besides  the  hair  sacrificed  at  a 
Greek  funeral,  smaller  sacrifices  of  hair  were  made  after 
wards,  we  see  the  rise  of  that  recurring  propitiation  charac 
terizing  worship  of  a  deity.  And  when  wre  further  read 
that  among  the  Greeks  "  on  the  death  of  any  very  popular 
personage,  as  a  general,  it  sometimes  happened  that  all  the 
army  cut  off  their  hair,"  we  are  shown  a  step  towards  that 
propitiation  by  unrelated  members  of  the  community  at 
large,  which,  when  it  becomes  established,  is  a  trait  of  re 
ligious  worship.  Hence  certain  Greek  ceremonies.  (  The 
cutting  off  of  the  hair,  which  was  always  done  when  a  boy 
became  an  e<£?;/3o9,  was  a  solemn  act,  atttended  with  religious 
ceremonies  .  .  .  and  the  hair  after  being  cut  off  was 
dedicated  to  some  deity,  usually  a  river-god."  So,  too,  at 
the  first  shaving  among  the  Romans:  "  the  hair  cut  off  on 


MUTILATIONS.  65 

such  occasions  was  consecrated  to  some  god."  Sacrifice  of 
hair  was  an  act  of  worship  with  the  Hebrews  also.  We  are 
told  of  "  fourscore  men,  having  their  beards  shaven,  and 
their  clothes  rent,  and  having  cut  themselves,  with  offerings 
and  incense  in  their  hand,  to  bring  them  to  the  house  of  the 
Lord;  "  and  Krehl  gives  sundry  kindred  facts  concerning 
the  Arabians.  Curious  modifications  of  the  practice  oc 
curred  in  ancient  Peru.  Small  sacrifices  of  hair  were  con 
tinual.  "  Another  offering,"  writes  d'Acosta,  is  "  pulling 
out  the  eye-lashes  or  eye-brows  and  presenting  them  to  the 
sun,  the  hills,  the  combles,  the  winds,  or  whatever  they  are 
in  fear  of."  "  On  entering  the  temples,  or  when  they  were 
already  within  them,  they  put  their  hands  to  their  eyebrows 
as  if  they  would  pull  out  the  hairs,  and  then  made  a  motion 
as  if  they  were  blowing  them  towards  the  idol;  "  a  good  in 
stance  of  the  abridgment  which  ceremonies  habitually  un 
dergo. 

One  further  development  remains.  This  kind  of  sacri 
fice  becomes  in  some  cases  a  social  propitiation.  Wreaths  of 
their  own  hair  plaited,  were  bestowed  upon  others  as  marks 
of  consideration  by  the  Taliitians.  In  France  in  the  fifth 
and  sixth  centuries,  it  was  usual  to  pluck  out  a  few  hairs 
from  the  beard  on  approaching  a  superior,  and  present 
them;  and  this  usage  was  occasionally  adopted  as  a  mark 
of  condescension  by  a  ruler,  as  when  Clovis,  gratified  by 
the  visit  of  the  Bishop  of  Toulouse,  gave  him  a  hair  from 
his  beard,  and  was  imitated  in  so  doing  by  his  followers. 
Afterwards  the  usage  had  its  meaning  obscured  by  abridg 
ment.  In  the  times  of  chivalry  one  mode  of  showing  re 
spect  was  to  tug  at  the  moustache. 

§  362.  Already,  when  treating  of  trophies,  and  when 
finding  that  those  of  the  phallic  class,  major  and  minor,  had 
the  same  meanings  as  the  rest,  the  way  was  opened  to 
explain  the  mutilations  next  to  be  dealt  with.  We  have 
seen  that  when  the  vanquished  were  not  killed  but  enslaved, 


66  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

it  became  imperative  that  the  taking  of  trophies  from  them 
should  neither  endanger  life  nor  be  highly  injurious;  and 
that  hence  instead  of  jaws,  teeth  were  taken;  instead  of 
hands,  fingers;  instead  of  scalps,  hair.  Similarly  in  this 
case,  the  fatal  or  dangerous  mutilation  disappearing,  left 
only  such  allied  mutilation  as  did  not  seriously  or  at  all  de 
crease  the  value  of  the  enemy  as  a  servant. 

That  castration  was  initiated  by  trophy-taking  I  find  no 
direct  proof;  but  there  is  direct  proof  that  prisoners  are 
sometimes  treated  in  a  way  which  trophy-taking  of  the 
implied  kind  would  entail.  The  ancient  Persians  used  to 
castrate  the  young  men  and  boys  of  their  vanquished 
enemies.  Of  Theobald,  Marquis  of  Spoleto,  we  read  in 
Gibbon  that  "  his  captives  .  .  .  were  castrated  without 
mercy."  For  thinking  that  there  was  once  an  enforced 
sacrifice  of  the  nature  indicated,  made  to  a  conqueror,  there 
is  the  further  reason  that  we  find  a  parallel  sacrifice  made  to 
a  deity.  At  the  annual  festivals  of  the  Phrygian  goddess 
Amma  [Agdistis],  "  it  was  the  custom  for  young  men  to 
make  themselves  eunuchs  with  a  sharp  shell,  crying  out  at 
the  same  time,  '  Take  this,  Agdistis.'  '  There  was  a  like 
practice  among  the  Phoenicians;  and  Brinton  names  a 
severe  self -mutilation  of  the  ancient  Mexican  priests,  which 
seems  to  have  included  this.  Coming  in  the  way  shown  to 
imply  subordination,  this  usage,  like  many  ceremonial 
usages,  has  in  some  cases  survived  where  its  meaning  is 
lost.  The  Hottentots  enforce  semi-castration  at  about 
eight  or  nine  years  of  age;  and  a  kindred  custom  exists 
among  the  Australians. 

Naturally,  of  this  class  of  mutilations,  the  less  serious  is 
the  more  prevalent.  Circumcision  occurs  among  unallied 
races  in  all  parts  of  the  world — among  the  Malayo-Poly- 
ncsians  in  Tahiti,  in  Tonga,  in  Madagascar;  among  the 
Negritos  of  New  Caledonia  and  Fiji;  among  African 
peoples,  both  of  the  coast  and  the  interior,  from  northern 
Abyssinia  to  southern  Kaffir-land;  in  America,  among  some 


MUTILATIONS.  67 

Mexican  peoples,  the  Yucatanese,  and  the  people  of  Sari 
Salvador;  and  we  meet  with  it  again  in  Australia.  Even 
apart  from  the  fact  that  their  monuments  show  the 
Egyptians  practiced  it  from  early  times,  and  even  apart 
from  the  evidence  that  it  prevailed  among  Arab  peoples  at 
large,  these  proofs  that  circumcision  is  not  limited  to  region 
or  race,  sufficiently  dispose  of  the  current  theological 
interpretation.  They  sufficiently  dispose,  too,  of  another 
interpretation  not  uncommonly  given;  for  a  general  sur 
vey  of  the  facts  shows  us  that  while  the  usage  does  not  pre 
vail  among  the  most  cleanly  races  in  the  world,  it  is  common 
among  the  most  uncleanly  races.  Contrariwise,  the  facts 
taken  in  the  mass  are  congruous  with  the  general  theory 
thus  far  verified. 

It  was  shown  that  among  the  Abyssinians  the  trophy 
taken  by  circumcision  from  an  enemy's  dead  body,  is 
presented  by  each  warrior  to  his  chief;  and  that  all  such 
trophies  taken  after  a  battle  are  eventually  presented 
to  the  king.  If  the  vanquished  enemies  instead  of  being 
killed  are  made  slaves;  and  if  the  warriors  who  have 
vanquished  them  continue  to  present  the  usual  proofs 
of  their  prowess;  there  must  arise  the  circumcision  of 
living  captives,  who  thereby  become  marked  as  subjugated 
persons.  A  further  result  is  obvious.  As  the  chief  and 
the  king  are  propitiated  by  bringing  them  these  trophies 
taken  from  their  foes;  and  as  the  primitive  belief  is  that  a 
dead  man's  ghost  is  pleased  by  whatever  pleased  the  man 
when  alive;  there  will  naturally  follow  a  presentation  of 
such  trophies  to  the  ghost  of  the  departed  ruler.  And  then 
in  a  highly  militant  society  governed  by  a  divinely- 
descended  despot,  who  requires  all  his  subjects  to  bear  this 
badge  of  servitude,  and  who,  dying,  has  his  dreaded  ghost 
anxiously  propitiated ;  we  may  expect  that  the  presentation 
to  the  king  of  these  trophies  taken  from  enslaved  enemies, 
will  develop  into  the  offering  to  the  god  of  like  trophies 
taken  from  each  generation  of  male  citizens  in  acknowledg- 


68  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

ment  of  their  slavery  to  him.  Hence,  when  Movers  says 
that  among  the  Phoenicians  circumcision  was  "  a  sign  of 
consecration  to  Saturn/'  and  when  proof  is  given  that  of 
old  the  people  of  San  Salvador  circumcised  "  in  the  Jewish 
manner,  offering  the  blood  to  an  idol/'  we  are  shown  just 
the  result  to  be  anticipated  as  eventually  arising. 

That  this  interpretation  applies  to  the  custom  as  made 
known  in  the  Bible,  is  clear.  We  have  already  seen  that 
the  ancient  Hebrews,  like  the  modern  Abyssinians,  prac 
tised  the  form  of  trophy-taking  which  necessitates  this  mu 
tilation  of  the  dead  enemy ;  and  as  in  the  one  case,  so  in  the 
other,  it  follows  that  the  vanquished  enemy  not  slain  but 
made  prisoner,  will  by  this  mutilation  be  marked  as  a  subject 
person.  That  circumcision  was  among  the  Hebrews  the 
stamp  of  subjection,  all  the  evidence  proves.  On  learning 
that  among  existing  Bedouins,  the  only  conception  of  God 
is  that  of  a  powerful  living  ruler,  the  sealing  by  circumcision 
of  the  covenant  between  God  and  Abraham  becomes  a 
comprehensible  ceremony.  There  is  furnished  an  explana 
tion  of  the  fact  that  in  consideration  of  a  territory  to  be  re 
ceived,  this  mutilation,  undergone  by  Abraham,  implied 
that  "  the  Lord  "  was  "  to  be  a  god  unto  "  him;  as  also  of 
the  fact  that  the  mark  was  to  be  borne  not  by  him  and  his 
descendants  only,  as  favoured  individuals,  but  also  by  slaves 
not  of  his  blood.  And  on  remembering  that  by  primitive 
peoples  the  returning  double  of  the  dead  potentate  is 
believed  to  be  indistinguishable  from  the  living  potentate, 
we  get  an  interpretation  of  the  strange  tradition  concerning 
God's  anger  with  Moses  for  not  circumcising  his  son:— 
"  And  it  came  to  pass  by  the  way  in  the  inn,  that  the  Lord 
met  Moses,  and  sought  to  kill  him.  Then  Zipporah  took  a 
sharp  stone,  and  cut  off  the  foreskin  of  her  son,  and  cast  it 
at  his  feet."  There  are  further  proofs  that  circumcision 
among  the  Jews  was  a  mark  of  subordination  to  Jahveh. 
Under  the  foreign  ruler  Antiochus,  who  brought  in  foreign 
gods,  circumcision  was  forbidden;  and  those  who,  persever- 


MUTILATIONS.  69 

ing  in  it,  refused  obedience  to  these  foreign  gods,  were  slain. 
On  the  other  hand,  Mattathias  and  his  friends,  rebelling 
against  foreign  rule  and  worship,  are  said  to  have  gone 
"  round  about,  and  pulled  down  the  altars :  and  what  chil 
dren  soever  they  found  within  the  coast  of  Israel  uncircum- 
cised,  those  they  circumcised  valiantly."  Moreover  Hyr- 
canus,  having  subdued  the  Idumeans,  made  them  submit 
to  circumcision;  and  Aristobulus  similarly  imposed  the 
mark  on  the  conquered  people  of  Iturea. 

Quite  congruous  are  certain  converse  facts.  Tooitonga 
(the  great  divine  chief  of  Tonga)  is  not  circumcised,  as  all 
the  other  men  are ;  being  unsubordinated,  he  does  not  bear 
the  badge  of  subordination.  And  with  this  I  may  join  a 
case  in  which  whole  tribes  belonging  to  a  race  ordinarily 
practising  circumcision,  are  uncircumcised  where  they  are 
unsubordinated.  Naming  some  wild  Berbers  in  Morocco 
as  thus  distinguished,  Rohlfs  says,  "  these  uncircumcised 
tribes  inhabit  the  Rif  mountains.  .  .  .  All  the  Rif  moun 
taineers  eat  wild  boar,  in  spite  of  the  Koran  law." 

§  363.  Besides  mutilations  entailing  some  loss  of  flesh, 
bone,  skin,  or  hair,  there  are  mutilations  which  do  not 
imply  a  deduction;  at  least — not  a  permanent  one.  Of 
these  we  may  take  first,  one  which  sacrifices  a  liquid  part 
of  the  body  though  not  a  solid  part. 

Bleeding  as  a  mutilation  has  an  origin  akin  to  the  origins 
of  other  mutilations.  Did  we  not  find  that  some  uncivil 
ized  tribes,  as  the  Samoyedes,  drink  the  warm  blood  of 
animals — did  we  not  find  among  existing  cannibals,  such  as 
the  Fijians,  proofs  that  savages  drink  the  blood  of  still- 
living  human  victims;  it  would  seem  incredible  that  from 
taking  the  blood  of  a  vanquished  enemy  was  derived  the 
ceremony  of  offering  blood  to  a  ghost  and  to  a  god.  But 
when  to  accounts  of  horrors  like  these  we  join  accounts  of 
kindred  ones  which  savages  commit,  such  as  that  among 
the  Amaponda  Kaffirs  "  it  is  usual  for  the  ruling  chief,  on 
63 


YO  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

his  accession  to  the  government,  to  be  washed  in  the  blood 
of  a  near  relative,  generally  a  brother,  who  is  put  to  death 
on  the  occasion;  "  and  when  we  infer  that  before  civilization 
arose  the  sanguinary  tastes  and  usages  now  exceptional 
were  probably  general;  we  may  suspect  that  from  the 
drinking  of  blood  by  conquering  cannibals  there  arose  some 
kinds  of  blood-offerings — at  any  rate,  offerings  of  blood 
taken  from  immolated  victims.  Possibly  some  offerings  of 
blood  from  the  bodies  of  living  persons  are  to  be  thus  ac 
counted  for.  But  those  which  are  not,  are  explicable  as 
arising  from  the  practice  of  establishing  a  sacred  bond  be 
tween  living  persons  by  partaking  of  each  other's  blood :  the 
derived  conception  being  that  those  who  give  some  of  their 
blood  to  the  ghost  of  a  man  just  dead  and  lingering  near, 
effect  with  it  a  union  which  on  the  one  side  implies  sub 
mission,  and  on  the  other  side  friendliness. 

On  this  hypothesis  we  have  a  reason  for  the  prevalence  of 
self-bleeding  as  a  funeral  rite,  not  among  existing  savages 
only,  but  among  ancient  and  partially-civilized  peoples — 
the  Jews,  the  Greeks,  the  Huns,  the  Turks.  We  are 
shown  IIOAV  there  arise  kindred  rites  as  permanent  pro 
pitiations  of  those  more  dreaded  ghosts  which  become  gods 
— such  offerings  of  blood,  now  from  their  own  bodies  and 
now  from  their  infants'  bodies,  as  those  which  the  Mexicans 
gave  their  idols;  such  offerings  as  were  implied  by  the 
self-gashings  of  the  priests  of  Baal;  and  such  as  were 
sometimes  made  even  in  propitiating  Jahveh,  as  by  the 
fourscore  men  wTho  came  from  Shechem,  Shiloh,  and 
Samaria.  Moreover,  the  instances  of  blood-letting  as  a 
complimentary  act  in  social  intercourse,  become  explicable. 
During  a  Samoan  marriage  ceremony  the  friends  of  the 
bride,  to  testify  their  respect,  "  took  up  stones  and  beat 
themselves  until  their  heads  were  bruised  and  bleed 
ing."  "  When  the  Indians  of  Potonchan  (Central  Amer 
ica)  receive  new  friends  ...  as  a  proof  of  friendship,  they, 
in  the  sight  of  the  friend,  draw  some  blood  .  .  .  from  the 


MUTILATIONS.  71 

tongue,  hand,  or  arm,  or  from  some  other  part."  And  Mr. 
W.  Foster,  Agent  General  for  New  South  Wales,  writes  to 
me  that  he  has  seen  an  Australian  mother  on  meeting  her 
son  after  an  interval  of  six  months,  gash  her  face  with  a 
pointed  stick  "  until  the  blood  streamed." 

§  364.  Cuts  leave  scars.  If  the  blood-offerings  which 
entail  them  are  made  by  relatives  to  the  departed  spirit  of 
an  ordinary  person,  these  scars  are  not  likely  to  have  any 
permanent  significance;  but  if  they  are  made  in  propitia 
tion  of  a  deceased  chief,  not  by  his  relatives  alone  but  by 
unrelated  members  of  the  tribe  who  stood  in  awe  of  him 
and  fear  his  ghost,  then,  like  other  mutilations,  they 
become  signs  of  subjection.  The  Huns  who  "  at  the  burial 
of  Attila,  cut  their  faces  with  hollow  wounds,"  in  common 
with  the  Turks  who  did  the  like  at  royal  funerals,  thus 
inflicted  on  themselves  marks  which  thereafter  distin 
guished  them  as  servants  of  their  respective  rulers.  So,  too, 
did  the  Lacedaemonians  who,  "  when  their  king  died,  had  a 
barbarous  custom  of  meeting  in  vast  numbers,  where  men, 
women,  and  slaves,  all  mixed  together,  tore  the  flesh  from 
their  foreheads  with  pins  and  needles  ...  to  gratify  the 
ghosts  of  the  dead."  Such  customs  are  likely  sometimes  to 
have  further  results.  With  the  apotheosis  of  a  notable 
king  whose  conquests  gave  him  the  character  of  founder 
of  the  nation,  marks  of  this  kind,  borne  not  by  his  con 
temporary  followers  only  but  imposed  by  them  on  their 
children,  may  become  national  marks. 

That  the  scars  caused  by  blood-lettings  at  funerals  are 
recognized  as  binding  to  the  dead  these  who  bear  them, 
and  do  develop  in  the  way  alleged,  we  have  good  evidence. 
The  command  in  Leviticus,  "  ye  shall  not  make  any  cuttings 
in  your  flesh  for  the  dead,  nor  print  any  marks  upon  you," 
shows  us  the  usage  in  that  stage  at  which  the  scar  left  by 
sacrifice  of  blood  is  still  a  sign  partly  of  family  subordination 
and  partly  of  other  subordination.  And  Scandinavian  tra- 


72  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

clitions  show  us  a  stage  at  which  the  scar  betokens  allegiance 
either  to  an  unspecified  supernatural  being,  or  to  a  deceased 
ruler  who  has  become  a  god.  Odin,  "  when  he  was  near  his 
death,  made  himself  be  marked  with  the  point  of  a  spear;  " 
and  Xiort  "  before  he  died  made  himself  be  marked  for 
Odin  with  the  spear-point." 

It  is  probable  that  scars  on  the  surface  of  the  body,  thus 
coming  to  express  loyalty  to  a  deceased  father,  or  a  deceased 
ruler,  or  a  god  derived  from  him,  initiate  among  other  dis 
figurements  those  we  class  as  tattooing.  Lacerations,  and 
the  traces  they  leave,  are  certain  to  take  different  forms 
in  different  places.  The  Andaman  Islanders  "  tattoo 
by  incising  the  skin  .  .  .  without  inserting  colouring 
matter,  the  cicatrix  being  whiter  than  the  sound  skin." 
Some  natives  of  Australia  have  ridges  raised  on  this  or  that 
part  of  the  body;  while  others  brand  themselves.  In 
Tanna  the  people  make  elevated  scars  on  their  arms  and 
chests.  And  Burton,  in  his  Abeokuta,  says — "  the  skin 
patterns  were  of  every  variety,  from  the  diminutive  prick  to 
the  great  gash  and  the  large  boil-like  lumps  ...  In  this 
country  every  tribe,  sub-tribe,  and  even  family,  has  its 
blazon,  whose  infinite  diversifications  may  be  compared 
with  the  lines  and  ordinaries  of  European  heraldry." 
Naturally,  among  the  various  skin-mutilations  originating 
in  the  way  alleged,  many  will,  under  the  promptings  of 
vanity,  take  on  a  character  more  or  less  ornamental;  and 
the  use  of  them  for  decoration  will  often  survive  when  their 
meaning  has  been  lost. 

Hypothesis  apart,  we  have  proof  that  these  marks  are  in 
many  cases  tribal  marks;  as  they  would  of  course  become 
if  they  were  originally  made  when  men  bound  themselves 
by  blood  to  the  dead  founder  of  the  tribe.  Among  the 
Cuebas  of  Central  America,  "  if  the  son  of  a  chief  declined 
to  use  the  distinctive  badge  of  his  house,  he  could,  when  he 
became  chief,  choose  any  new  device  he  might  fancy;  "  but 
"  a  son  who  did  not  adopt  his  father's  totem  was  always 


MUTILATIONS.  73 

hateful  to  him."  And  if  refusal  to  adopt  the  family-mark 
where  it  is  painted  on  the  body,  is  thus  regarded  as  a  kind 
of  disloyalty,  equally  will  it  be  so  when  the  mark  is  one 
that  has  arisen  from  modified  lacerations;  and  such  refusal 
will  be  tantamount  to  rebellion  where  the  mark  signifies 
descent  from,  and  submission  to,  some  great  father  of  the 
race.  Hence  such  facts  as  the  following : — "  All  these  In- 
"  dians  "  says  Cieza  of  the  ancient  Peruvians,  "  wear  certain 
"  marks  by  which  they  are  known,  and  which  were  used 
by  "  their  ancestors."  "  Both  sexes  of  the  Sandwich  Isl 
anders  have  a  particular  mark  (tattooed)  which  seems  to 
indicate  the  district  in  which,  or  the  chief  under  whom,  they 
lived."* 

That  a  special  form  of  tattooing  becomes  a  tribal  mark  in 
the  way  suggested,  we  have,  indeed,  some  direct  evidence. 
Among  the  Sandwich  Islanders,  funeral  rites  at  the  death 
of  a  chief,  such  as  knocking  out  teeth,  cutting  the  ears,  &c., 
one  is  tattooing  a  spot  on  the  tongue.  Here  we  see  this 
mutilation  becoming  a  sign  of  allegiance  to  a  ruler  who 
has  died;  and  then,  when  the  deceased  ruler,  unusually 
distinguished,  is  apotheosized,  the  tattoo  mark  becomes  the 
sign  of  obedience  to  him  as  a  deity.  "  With  several 
Eastern  nations,"  says  Grimm,  "  it  was  a  custom  to  mark 
oneself  by  a  burnt  or  incised  sign  as  adherent  to  a  certain 
worship."  It  was  thus  with  the  Hebrews.  Remembering 
that  they  were  forbidden  to  mark  themselves  for  the  dead, 
we  shall  see  the  meaning  of  the  passage  in  Deuteronomy— 
"  They  have  corrupted  themselves,  the  spot  is  not  the  spot 
of  his  children:  they  are  a  perverse  and  crooked  genera 
tion."  And  that  such  contrasted  spots  were  understood  in 

*  While  this  chapter  is  standing  in  type,  I  have  come  upon  a  passage  in 
Bancroft,  concerning  the  Indians  of  the  Isthmus  of  Darien  fully  verifying  the 
general  interpretation  given.  He  says : — "  Every  principal  man  retained  a 
number  of  prisoners  as  bondsmen ;  they  .  .  .  were  branded  or  tattooed  with 
the  particular  mark  of  the  owner  en  the  face  or  arm,  or  had  one  of  their  front 
teeth  extracted." 


74:  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

later  times  to  imply  the  service  of  different  deities,  is  sug 
gested  by  passages  in  Revelations,  wliere  an  angel  is  de 
scribed  as  ordering  delay  "  till  we  have  sealed  the  servants 
of  our  God  in  their  foreheads/'  and  where  "  an  hundred  and 
forty  and  four  thousand,  having  his  Father's  name  written 
in  their  foreheads,"  are  described  as  standing  on  Mount  Sion 
while  an  angel  proclaims  that,  "  If  any  man  worship  the 
beast  and  his  image,  and  receive  his  mark  in  his  forehead,  or 
in  his  hand,  the  same  shall  drink  of  the  wine  of  the  wrath  of 
God."  Even  now  "  this  practice  of  marking  religious  to 
kens  upon  the  hands  and  arms  is  almost  universal  among  the 
Arabs,  of  all  sects  and  classes."  Moreover  "  Christians  in 
some  parts  of  the  East,  and  European  sailors,  were  long  in 
the  habit  of  marking,  by  means  of  punctures  and  a  black 
dye,  their  arms  and  other  members  of  the  body  with  the  sign 
of  the  crucifix,  or  the  image  of  the  Virgin ;  the  Mahomme- 
dans  mark  them  with  the  name  of  Allah."  So  that  among 
advanced  races,  these  skin-mutilations  still  have  meanings 
like  those  given  to  them  in  ancient  Mexico,  where,  when  a 
child  was  dedicated  to  Quetzalcohuatl  "  the  priest  made  a 
slight  cut  with  a  knife  011  its  breast,  as  a  sign  that  it  belonged 
to  the  cult  and  service  of  the  god,"  and  like  those  now  given 
to  them  in  parts  of  Angola,  where  a.  child  as  soon  as  born  is 
tattooed  on  the  belly,  in  order  thereby  to  dedicate  it  to  a  cer 
tain  fetich. 

A  significant  group  of  evidences  remains.  We  have 
seen  that  where  cropped  hair  implies  servitude,  long  hair  be 
comes  an  honourable  distinction;  and  that,  occasionally, 
in  opposition  to  circumcision  as  associated  with  subjection, 
there  is  absence  of  it  along  with  the  highest  power.  Here 
we  have  a  parallel  antithesis.  The  great  divine  chief  of  the 
Tongans  is  unlike  all  other  men  in  Tonga,  not  only  as  being 
uncircumcised,  but  also  as  being  untattooed.  Elsewhere 
whole  classes  are  thus  distinguished.  Not,  however, 

that  such  distinctions  are  at  all  regular:  we  here  meet  with 
anomalies,.  Though  in  some  places  showing  social  inferior- 


MUTILATIONS.  75 

ity,  tattooing  in  other  places  is  a  trait  of  the  superior.  But 
the  occurrence  of  anomalies  is  not  surprising.  During  the 
perpetual  overrunnings  of  race  by  race,  it  must  sometimes 
have  happened  that  an  untattooed  race  having  been  con 
quered  by  one  which  practised  tattooing,  the  presence  of 
these  markings  became  associated  with  social  supremacy. 

A  further  cause  exists  for  this  conflict  of  meanings. 
There  remains  to  be  named  a  species  of  skin-mutilation 
having  another  origin  and  different  implication. 

§  365.  Besides  scars  resulting  from  lacerations  made  in 
propitiating  dead  relatives,  dead  chiefs,  and  deities,  there 
are  scars  resulting  from  wrounds  received  in  battle.  All  the 
world  over,  these  are  held  in  honour  and  displayed  with 
pride.  The  sentiment  associated  with  them  among  our 
selves  in  past  times,  is  indicated  in  Shakespeare  by  sundry- 
references  to  "  such  as  boasting  shew  their  scars."  Lafeu 
says — "  a  scar  nobly  got,  or  a  noble  scar,  is  a  good  livery  of 
honour;  "  and  Henry  Y.  foretells  of  an  old  soldier  that 
'  then  will  he  strip  his  sleeve  and  shew  his  scars." 

Animated  as  are  savages  in  still  higher  degrees  than 
civilized  by  the  feelings  thus  indicated,  what  may  be 
expected  to  result?  Will  not  anxiety  to  get  honour  some 
times  lead  to  the  making  of  scars  artificially?  We  have 
evidence  that  it  does.  A  Bechuana  priest  makes  a  long  cut 
in  the  skin  from  the  thigh  to  the  knee  of  each  warrior  who 
has  slain  a  man  in  battle.  The  Bachapin  Kaffirs  have  a 
kindred  usage.  Among  the  Damaras,  "  for  every  wild 
animal  that  a  young  man  destroys,  his  father  makes  four 
small  incisions  on  the  front  of  the  son's  body  as  marks  of 
honour  and  distinction."  And  then  Tuckey,  speaking  of 
certain  Congo  people  who  make  scars,  says  that  this  is 
"  principally  done  with  the  idea  of  rendering  themselves 
agreeable  to  the  wromen:  "  a  motive  which  is  intelligible  if 
such  scars  originally  passed  for  scars  got  in  war,  and  imply 
ing  bravery.  Again,  we  read  that  "  the  Itzaex  Indians  [in 


76  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Yucatan]  have  handsome  faces,  though  some  of  them  were 
marked  with  lines  as  a  sign  of  courage."  Facts 

furnished  by  other  American  tribes,  suggest  that  the  inflic 
tion  of  torture  on  reaching  maturity,  originated  from  the 
habit  of  making  scars  artificially  in  imitation  of  scars  be 
queathed  by  battle.  If  self -in  jury  to  avoid  service  in  war 
has  been  not  infrequent  among  the  cowardly,  we  may  infer 
that  among  the  courageous  Avho  had  received  no  wounds, 
self -in  jury  might  be  not  infrequent,  wrhere  there  was  gained 
by  it  that  character  desired  above  everything.  The  reputa 
tion  achieved  might  make  the  practice,  at  first  secret  and  ex 
ceptional,  gradually  more  common  and  at  length  general; 
until,  finally,  public  opinion,  vented  against  those  who  did 
not  follow  it,  made  the  usage  peremptory.  And  on  reading 
that  among  the  Abipones,  "  boys  of  seven  years  old  pierce 
their  little  arms  in  imitation  of  their  parents,  and  display 
plenty  of  wounds,"  we  are  shown  the  rise  of  a  feeling,  and  a 
consequent  practice,  which,  growing,  may  end  in  a  system 
of  initiatory  tortures  at  manhood.  Though  when  the  scars, 
being  borne  by  all,  are  no  longer  distinctive,  discipline  in 
endurance  comes  to  be  the  reason  given  for  inflicting  them, 
this  cannot  have  been  the  original  reason.  Primitive  men, 
improvident  in  all  ways,  never  devised  and  instituted  a 
usage  with  a  view  to  a  foreseen  distant  benefit :  they  do  not 
make  laws,  they  fall  into  customs. 

Here,  then,  we  find  an  additional  reason  why  markings 
on  the  skin,  though  generally  badges  of  subordination,  be 
come  in  some  cases  honourable  distinctions  and  occasionally 
signs  of  rank. 

§  366.  Something  must  be  added  concerning  a  second 
ary  motive  for  mutilating  prisoners  and  slaves,  parallel  to, 
or  sequent  upon,  a  secondary  motive  for  taking  trophies. 

In  the  last  chapter  we  inferred  that,  prompted  by  his 
belief  that  the  spirit  pervades  the  corpse,  the  savage  pre 
serves  relics  of  dead  enemies  partly  in  the  expectation  that 


MUTILATIONS.  77 

he  will  be  enabled  thereby  to  coerce  their  ghosts — if  not 
himself,  still  by  the  help  of  the  medicine-man.  He  has  a 
parallel  reason  for  preserving  a  part  cut  from  one  whom  he 
has  enslaved :  both  he  and  the  slave  think  that  he  so  obtains 
a  power  to  inflict  injury.  Remembering  that  the  sorcerer's 
first  step  is  to  procure  some  hair  or  nail-parings  of  his 
victim,  or  else  some  piece  of  his  dress  pervaded  by  that 
odour  which  is  identified  with  his  spirit;  it  appears  to  be 
a  necessary  corollary  that  the  master  who  keeps  by  him  a 
slave's  tooth,  a  joint  from  his  litt|e  finger,  or  even  a  lock  of 
his  hair,  thereby  retains  a  power  of  delivering  him  over  to 
the  sorcerer,  who  may  bring  on  him  one  or  other  fearful 
evil — torture  by  demons,  disease,  death. 

The  subjugated  man  is  consequently  made  obedient  by 
a  dread  akin  to  that  which  Caliban  expresses  of  Prospero's 
magically-inflicted  torments. 

§  367.  The  evidence  that  mutilation  of  the  living  has 
been  a  sequence  of  trophy-taking  from  the  slain,  is  thus 
abundant  and  varied.  Taking  the  trophy  implies  victory 
carried  to  the  death;  and  the  derived  practice  of  cutting 
off  a  part  from  a  prisoner  implies  subjugation  of  him. 
Eventually  the  voluntary  surrender  of  such  a  part  expresses 
submission;  and  becomes  a  propitiatory  ceremony  because 
it  does  this. 

Hands  are  cut  off  from  dead  enemies;  and,  answering 
to  this,  besides  some  identical  mutilations  of  criminals,  we 
have  the  cutting  off  of  fingers  or  portions  of  fingers,  to 
pacify  living  chiefs,  deceased  persons,  and  gods.  Noses  arc 
among  the  trophies  taken  from  slain  $oes;  and  we  have  loss 
of  noses  inflicted  on  captives,  on  slaves^n  transgressors  of 
certain  kinds.  Ears  are  brought  back  from  the  battle-field ; 
and  occasionally  they  are  cut  off  from  prisoners,  felons, 
or  slaves;  while  there  are  peoples  among  whom  pierced 
ears  mark  the  servant  or  the  subject.  Jaws  and  teeth, 
too,  are  trophies;  and  teeth,  in  some  cases  knocked  out  in 


78  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

propitiation  of  a  dead  chief,  are,  in  various  other  cases, 
knocked  out  by  a  priest  as  a  quasi-religious  ceremony. 
Scalps  are  taken  from  killed  enemies,  and  sometimes  their 
hair  is  used  to  decorate  a  victor's  dress;  and  then  come 
various  sequences.  Here  the  enslaved  have  their  heads 
cropped;  here  scalp-locks  are  worn  subject  to  a  chief's 
ownership,  and  occasionally  demanded  in  sign  of  submis 
sion;  while,  elsewhere,  men  sacrifice  their  beards  to  their 
rulers:  unshorn  hair  being  thus  rendered  a  mark  of 
rank.  Among  numerous  peoples,  hair  is  sacrificed  to 
propitiate  the  ghosts  of  relatives;  whole  tribes  cut  it  off  on 
the  deaths  of  their  chiefs  or  kings;  and  it  is  yielded  up  to 
express  subjection  to  deities.  Occasionally  it  is  offered  to 
a  living  superior  in  token  of  respect;  and  this  complimen 
tary  offering  is  extended  to  others.  Similarly  with  genital 
mutilations:  there  is  a  like-  taking  of  certain  parts 
from  slain  enemies  and  from  living  prisoners;  and  there  is 
a  presentation  of  them  to  kings  and  to  gods.  Self -bleeding, 
initiated  partly,  perhaps,  by  cannibalism,  but  more  exten 
sively  by  the  mutual  giving  of  blood  in  pledge  of  loyalty, 
enters  into  several  ceremonies  expressing  subordination: 
we  find  it  occurring  in  propitiation  of  ghosts  and  of  gods, 
and  occasionally  as  a  compliment  to  living  persons.  Natu 
rally  it  is  the  same  with  the  resulting  marks.  Originally 
indefinite  in  form  and  place  but  rendered  definite  by 
custom,  and  at  length  often  decorative,  these  healed 
wounds,  at  first  entailed  only  on  relatives  of  deceased  per 
sons,  then  on  all  of  the  followers  of  a  man  much  feared  while 
alive,  so  become  marks  expressive  of  subjection  to  a  dead 
ruler,  and  eventually  to  a  god:  growing  thus  into  tribal 
and  national  marks. 

If,  as  we  have  seen,  trophy-taking  as  a  sequence  of  con 
quest  enters  as  a  factor  into  those  governmental  restraints 
which  conquest  initiates,  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  the  mutila 
tions  originated  by  trophy-taking  will  do  the  like.  The 
evidence  justifies  this  inference.  Beginning  as  marks  of 


MUTILATIONS.  79 

personal  slavery  and  becoming  marks  of  political  and 
religious  subordination,  they  play  a  part  like  that  of 
oaths  of  fealty  and  pious  self-dedications.  Moreover,  being 
acknowledgments  of  submission  to  a  ruler,  visible  or  in 
visible,  they  enforce  authority  by  making  conspicuous  the 
extent  of  his  sway.  And  where  they  signify  class-subjec 
tion,  as  well  as  where  they  show  the  subjugation  of  crimi 
nals,  they  further  strengthen  the  regulative  agency. 

If  mutilations  originate  as  alleged,  some  connexion 
must  exist  between  the  extent  to  which  they  are  carried  and 
the  social  type.  On  grouping  the  facts  as  presented  by 
fifty-two  peoples,  the  connexion  emerges  with  as  much 
clearness  as  can  be  expected.  In  the  first  place,  since 

mutilation  originates  with  conquest  and  resulting  aggre 
gation,  it  is  inferable  that  simple  societies,  however  savage, 
will  be  less  characterized  by  it  than  the  larger  savage  socie 
ties  compounded  out  of  such,  and  less  than  even  semi-civil 
ized  societies.  This  proves  to  be  true.  Of  peoples  who 
form  simple  societies  that  practice  mutilation  either  not  at 
all  or  in  slight  forms,  I  find  eleven — Fuegians,  Veddahs, 
Andamanese,  Dyaks,  Todas,  Gonds,  Santals,  Bodo  and 
Dhimals,  Mishmis,  Kamstchadales,  Snake  Indians;  and 
these  are  characterized  throughout  either  by  absence  of 
chieftainship,  or  by  chieftainship  of  an  unsettled  kind. 
Meanwhile,  of  peoples  who  mutilate  little  or  not  at  all,  I 
find  but  two  in  the  class  of  uncivilized  compound  societies; 
of  which  one,  the  Kirghiz,  is  characterized  by  a  wandering 
life  that  makes  subordination  difficult;  and  the  other,  the 
Iroquois,  had  a  republican  form  of  government.  Of  socie 
ties  practising  mutilations  that  are  moderate,  the  simple 
bear  a  decreased  ratio  to  the  compound:  of  the  one  class 
there  are  ten — Tasmanians,  Tannese,  New  Guinea  people, 
Karens,  Nagas,  Ostyaks,  Esquimaux,  Chinooks,  Comanches, 
Chippewayans ;  while  of  the  other  class  there  are  five — New 
Zealanders,  East  Africans,  Khonds,  Kukis,  Kalmucks. 
And  of  these  it  is  to  be  remarked,  that  in  the  one  class  the 


80  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

simple  headship,  and  in  the  other  class  the  compound  head 
ship,  is  unstable.  On  coming  to  the  societies  distinguished 
by  severer  mutilations,  we  find  these  relations  reversed. 
Among  the  simple  I  can  name  but  three — the  New  Cal^- 
donians  (among  whom,  however,  the  severer  mutilation  is 
not  general),  the  Bushmen  (who  are  believed  to  have  lapsed 
from  a  higher  social  state),  and  the  Australians  (who  have, 
I  believe,  similarly  lapsed);  while,  among  the  compound, 
twenty-one  may  be  named — Fijians,  Sandwich  Islanders, 
Tahitians,  Tongans,  Samoans,  Javans,  Sumatrans,  Mala 
gasy,  Hottentots,  Damaras,  Bechuanas,  Kaffirs,  Congo  peo 
ple,  Coast  Negroes,  Inland  Negroes,  Dahomans,  Ashantees, 
Fulahs,  Abyssinians,  Arabs,  Dacotahs.  In  the 

second  place,  social  consolidation  being  habitually  effected 
by  conquest,  and  compound  and  doubly-compound  societies 
being  therefore,  during  early  stages,  militant  in  their  activi 
ties  and  types  of  structure,  it  follows  that  the  connexion 
of  the  custom  of  mutilation  with  the  size  of  the  society  is 
indirect,  while  that  with  its  type  is  direct.  And  this  the 
facts  show  us.  If  we  put  side  by  side  those  societies  which 
are  most  unlike  in  respect  of  the  practice  of  mutilation,  we 
find  them  to  be  those  which  are  most  unlike  as  being  wholly 
unmilitant  in  organization,  and  wholly  militant  in  organiza 
tion.  At  the  one  extreme  we  have  the  Veddas,  Todas, 
Bodo  and  Dhimals;  while,  at  the  other  extreme,  we  have 
the  Fijians,  Abyssinians,  and  ancient  Mexicans. 

Derived  from  trophy-taking,  and  developing  with  the 
development  of  the  militant  type,  mutilations  must,  by 
implication,  decrease  as  fast  as  the  societies  consolidated  by 
militancy  become  less  militant,  and  must  disappear  as  the 
industrial  type  of  structure  evolves.  That  they  do  so, 
European  history  at  large  may  be  assigned  in  proof.  And 
it  is  significant  that  in  our  own  society,  now  predominant 
ly  industrial,  such  slight  mutilations  as  continue  are  con 
nected  with  that  regulative  part  of  the  organization  which 
militancy  has  bequeathed:  there  survive  only  the  now- 


MUTILATIONS.  81 

meaningless  tattooings  of  sailors,  the  branding  of  deserters 
(until  recently),  and  the  cropping  of  the  heads  of  felons. 

NOTE   TO   CHAPTER  III. 

At  the  Royal  Institution,  in  April,  1882,  Dr.  E.  B.  Tylor  deliv 
ered  a  lecture  on  "The  Study  of  Customs  "  (afterwards  published  in 
Macmillan's  Magazine  for  May,  1882),  which  was  primarily  an  attack 
on  this  work. 

One  of  the  objections  he  made  concerns  the  interpretation  of  scars 
and  tatooings  as  having  originated  in  offerings  of  blood  to  the  dead ; 
and  as  becoming,  by  consequence,  marks  of  subordination  to  them, 
and  afterwards  of  other  subordination.  He  says : — 

"Now  the  question  here  is  not  to  determine  whether  all  this  is  imaginable 
or  possible,  but  what  the  evidence  is  of  its  having  actually  happened.  The 
Levitical  law  is  quoted,  '  Ye  shall  not  make  any  cuttings  in  your  flesh  for  the 
dead,  nor  print  any  marks  upon  you.'  This  Mr.  Spencer  takes  as  good  evidence 
that  the  cutting  of  the  flesh  at  the  funeral  develops  into  a  mark  of  subjection." 

But  Dr.  Tylor  ignores  the  fact  that  I  have  referred  to  the  Huns, 
the  Turks,  the  Lacedaemonians,  as  following  customs  such  as  Leviti 
cus  interdicts  (besides  eight  cases  of  like  lacerations,  leaving  marks, 
in  §  89).  Nor  does  he  hint  that  there  are  uncited  cases  of  like  mean 
ing:  instance  the  ancient  Scythians,  among  whom,  according  to  He 
rodotus  (iv.  71),  each  man  in  presence  of  a  king's  corpse,  "makes  a 
cut  all  round  his  arm,  lacerates  his  forehead  and  his  nose,  and 
thrusts  an  arrow  through  his  left  hand ;  "  or  instance  some  modern 
Australians,  who,  says  Grey,  on  the  authority  of  Bussel,  "placed  the 
corpse  beside  the  grave  and  gashed  their  thighs,  and  at  the  flowing 
of  the  blood  they  all  said—'  I  have  brought  blood  '  "  (p.  332).  Not 
only  does  Dr.  Tylor  lead  readers  to  "suppose  that  the  evidence  I  have 
taken  from  Leviticus  is  unsupported  by  like  evidence  elsewhere  de 
rived,  but  he  passes  over  the  fact  that  this  form  of  bodily  mutilation 
is  associated  by  me  with  other  forms,  similarly  originating  and  having 
similar  sequences.  He  omits  to  say  that  I  have  named  four  peoples 
among  whom  amputated  fingers  are  offered  in  propitiation  of  the 
dead;  two  among  whom  they  are  given  in  propitiation  of  a  god;  and 
one — the  ferocious  Fijians — among  whom  living  persons  also  are  pro 
pitiated  by  sacrificed  fingers ;  and  that  I  have  joined  this  last  with 
the  usage  of  the  Canaanites,  among  whom  amputated  thumbs  and 
toes  marked  conquered  men,  and  hence  became  signs  of  subordina 
tion.  He  did  not  tell  his  hearers  that,  as  mutilations  entailed  by 
trophy-taking,  I  have  named  the  losses  of  hands,  feet,  parts  of  the 
ears  and  nose,  and  parts  of  the  genital  organs;  and  have  shown  that 
habitually,  the  resulting  marks  have  come  to  signify  subjection  to 
powerful  persons,  living  or  dead.  Concerning  all  this  direct  and  in 
direct  support  of  my  inference  he  is  silent ;  and  he  thus  produces  the 
suppression  that  it  is  almost  baseless.  Moreover,  in  contesting  the 
conclusion  that  tatooing  was  derived  from  lacerations  at  funerals,  he 
leaves  it  to  be  supposed  that  this  is  a  mere  guess :  saying  nothing  of 
my  quotation  from  Burton  to  the  effect  that  these  skin-mutilations 


82  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

show  all  gradations  from  large  gashes  to  diminutive  pricks,  and  say 
ing  nothing  of  the  instances  I  have  given  in  which  a  tatoo-mark  sig 
nifies  subjection  to  a  ruler,  human  or  divine.  And  then,  after  assert 
ing  that  of  "cogent  proof  there  is  simply  none,"  he  inadvertently 
furnishes  a  proof  of  considerable  cogency — the  fact  that  by  lines  of 
tatooing  joined  to  it,  the  D  branded  on  deserters  was  often  changed 
by  them  into  the  handle  of  a  sword :  a  decorative  skin-mark  was  de 
rived  from  a  skin  mark  that  was  not  decorative. 

My  inference  that  the  cropping  of  the  hair  of  felons  is  a  survival, 
is  supported  by  more  evidence  than  that  given  in  the  text.  Dr.  Tylor, 
however,  prefers  to  regard  it  as  an  entirely  modern  regulation  to  in 
sure  cleanliness :  ignoring  the  truth,  illustrated  by  himself,  that  usages 
often  survive  after  their  original  purpose  has  been  forgotten,  and  are 
then  misinterpreted. 

The  remaining  three  errors  alleged  (which  are  all  incidental,  and, 
if  substantiated,  would  leave  the  main  propositions  unshaken)  con 
cern  chapters  that  follow.  One  only  of  them  is,  I  think,  estab 
lished.  Good  reason  is  given  for  dissenting  from  my  interpretation 
of  the  colours  used  in  different  countries  for  mourning  (an  inter 
pretation  not  embodied  in  the  argument  of  Chapter  VI,  but  merely 
appended  as  a  note,  which,  in  this  edition,  I  have  changed).  The 
other  two,  concerning  the  wearing  of  two  swords  by  upper-class  Jap 
anese,  and  the  origin  of  shaking  hands,  I  leave  standing  as  they  did; 
partly  because  I  see  further  reasons  for  thinking  them  true,  and  part 
ly  because  Dr.  Tylor's  explanations  fail  to  account  for  the  origin  of  the 
one  as  a  mark  of  rank,  and  of  the  other  as  a  mark  of  friendship. 

Dr.  Tylor's  avowed  purpose  is  to  show  that  my  method  "vitiates 
the  whole  argument :  "  having  previously  asserted  that  my  method  is 
to  extract  ' '  from  laws  of  nature  the  reasons  how  and  why  men  do  all 
things."  It  is  amusing  to  place  by  the  side  of  this  the  assertion  of 
The  Times'  reviewer  (March  llth,"  1880),  who  says  that  my  method  is 
"to  state  the  facts  as  simply  as  possible,  with  just  a  word  or  two  on 
their  mutual  bearings  and  their  place  in  his  [my]  '  system  ; ' "  and 
who  hints  that  I  have  not  sufficiently  connected  the  facts  with  "  prin 
ciples  "  !  The  one  says  I  proceed  exclusively  by  deduction ;  the  other 
says  that  I  proceed  almost  exclusively  by  induction  !  But  the  reader 
needs  not  depend  on  authority :  the  evidence  is  before  him.  In  it  he 
will,  I  think,  fail  to  recognize  the  truth  of  Dr.  Tylor's  statement; 
and,  having  thus  tested  one  of  his  statements,  will  see  that  others  of 
his  statements  are  not  to  be  taken  as  valid  simply  because  I  do  not 
occupy  time  and  space  in  contesting  them. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PEESENTS. 

§  3G8.  Travellers,  coming  in  contact  with  strange  peo 
ples,  habitually  propitiate  them  by  gifts.  Two  results  are 
achieved.  Gratification  caused  by  the  worth  of  the  thing 
given,  tends  to  beget  a  friendly  mood  in  the  person  ap 
proached;  and  there  is  a  tacit  expression  of  the  donor's  de 
sire  to  please,  which  has  a  like  effect.  It  is  from  the  last  of 
these  that  gift-making  as  a  ceremony  proceeds. 

The  alliance  between  mutilations  and  presents — be 
tween  off ering  a  part  of  the  body  and  offering  something  else 
—is  well  shown  by  a  statement  respecting  the  ancient  Peru 
vians;  which  also  shows  how  present-making  becomes  a 
propitiatory  act,  apart  from  the  value  o?  the  tiling  presented. 
Describing  people  who  carry  burdens  over  the  high  passes, 
Garcilasso  says  they  unload  themselves  on  the  top,  and  then 
severally  say  to  the  god  Pachacamac, — 

"  'I  give  thanks  that  this  has  been  carried,'  and  in  making  an 
offering  they  pulled  a  hair  out  of  their  eyebrows,  or  took  the  herb 
called  cuca  from  their  mouths,  as  a  gift  of  the  most  precious  tilings 
they  had.  Or  if  there  was  nothing  better,  they  offered  a  small  stick 
or  piece  of  straw,  or  even  a  piece  of  stone  or  earth.  There  were 
great  heaps  of  these  offerings  at  the  summits  of  passes  over  the 
mountains." 

Though,  coming  in  this  unfamiliar  form,  these  offerings  of 
parts  of  themselves,  or  of  things  they  prized,  or  of  worthless 
things,  seems  strange,  they  will  seem  less  strange  on  remem 
bering  that  at  the  foot  of  a  wayside  crucifix  in  France,  may 

83 


84  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

any  day  be  seen  a  heap  of  small  crosses,  severally  made  of 
two  bits  of  lath  nailed  together.  Intrinsically  of  no  more 
value  than  these  straws,  sticks,  and  stones  the  Peruvians 
offered,  they  similarly  force  on  our  attention  the  truth  that 
the  act  of  presentation  passes  into  a  ceremony  expressing 
the  wish  to  conciliate.  How  natural  is  this  substitution  of 
a  nominal  giving  for  a  real  giving,  where  a  real  giving  is 
impracticable,  we  are  shown  even  by  intelligent  animals.  A 
retriever,  accustomed  to  please  his  master  by  fetching  killed 
birds,  &c.,  will  fall  into  the  habit  at  other  times  of  fetching 
things  to  show  his  desire  to  please.  On  first  seeing  in  the 
morning  some  one  he  is  friendly  with,  he  will  add  to  his 
demonstratioins  of  joy,  the  seeking  and  bringing  in  his 
mouth  a  dead  leaf,  a  twig,  or  any  small  available  object 
lying  near.  And,  while  serving  to  show  the  natural  genesis 
of  this  propitiatory  ceremony,  his  behaviour  serves  also  to 
show  how  deep  down  there  begins  the  process  of  symboliza- 
tion;  and  how,  at  the  outset,  the  symbolic  act  is  as  near  a 
repetition  of  the  act  symbolized  as  circumstances  allow. 
Prepared  as  we  thus  are  to  trace  the  development  of 
gift-making  into  a  ceremony,  let  us  now  observe  its  several 
varieties,  and  the  social  arrangements  eventually  derived 
from  them. 

§  369.  In  headless  tribes,  and  in  tribes  of  which  the 
headship  is  unsettled,  and  in  tribes  of  which  the  headship 
though  settled  is  feeble,  making  presents  does  not  become 
an  established  usage.  Australians,  Tasmanians,  Fuegians 
are  instances;  and  on  reading  through  accounts  of  wild 
American  races  that  are  little  organized,  like  the  Esqui 
maux,  Chinooks,  Snakes,  Comanches,  Chippewas,  or  are 
organized  in  a  democratic  manner,  like  the  Iroquois  and 
the  Creeks,  we  find,  along  with  absence  of  strong  personal 
rule,  scarcely  any  mention  of  gift-making  as  a  political  ob 
servance. 

In  apt  contrast  come  accounts  of  usages  among  those 


PRESENTS.  85 

American  races  which  in  past  times  reached,  under  despotic 
governments,  considerable  degrees  of  civilization.  Torque- 
mada  writes  that  in  Mexico,  "  when  any  one  goes  to  salute 
the  lord  or  king,  he  takes  with  him  flowers  and  gifts."  Of 
the  Chibchas  we  read  that  "  when  they  brought  a  present 
in  order  to  negotiate  or  speak  with  the  cazique  (for  no  one 
went  to  visit  him  without  bringing  a  gift),  they  entered 
with  the  head  and  body  bent  downwards."  Among  the 
Yucatanese,  "  when  there  was  hunting  or  fishing  or  salt- 
carrying,  they  always  gave  a  part  to  the  lord."  Peoples  of 
other  types,  as  the  Malayo-Polynesians,  living  in  kindred 
stages  of  social  progress  under  the  undisputed  sway  of 
chiefs,  exemplify  this  same  custom.  Speaking  of  things 
bartered  to  the  Tahitian  populace  for  food,  native  cloth,  &c., 
Forster  says — "  Ho\vever,  we  found  that  after  some  time  all 
this  acquired  wealth  flowed  as  presents,  or  voluntary  ac 
knowledgments,  into  the  treasure  of  the  various  chiefs."  In 
Fiji,  again,  "  whoever  asks  a  favour  of  a  chief,  or  seeks  civil 
intercourse  with  him,  is  expected  to  bring  a  present." 

These  last  cases  show  us  how  making  presents  passes 
from  a  voluntary  propitiation  into  a  compulsory  propitia 
tion;  for  on  reading  that  "  the  Tahitian  chiefs  plundered  the 
plantations  of  their  subjects  at  will,"  and  that  in  Fiji, 
"  chiefs  take  the  property  and  persons  of  others  by  force ;  " 
it  becomes  manifest  that  present-making  develops  into  the 
giving  of  a  part  to  prevent  loss  of  the  whole.  It  is  the 
policy  at  once  to  satisfy  cupidity  and  to  express  submission. 
1  The  Malagasy,  slaves  as  well  as  others,  occasionally  make 
presents  of  provisions  to  their  chiefs,  as  an  acknowledgment 
of  homage."  And  it  is  inferable  that  in  proportion  to  the 
power  of  chiefs,  will  be  the  anxiety  to  please  them;  both 
by  forestalling  their  greedy  desires  and  by  displaying 
loyalty. 

In  few  if  any  cases,  however,  does  the  carrying  of  gifts 
to  a  chief  become  so  developed  a  usage  in  a  simple  tribe. 
At  first  the  head  man,  not  much  differentiated  from  the  rest, 
64 


86  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

fails  to  impress  them  with  a  fear  great  enough  to  make 
present-giving  an  habitual  ceremony.  It  is  only  in  a  com 
pound  society,  resulting  from  the  over-running  of  many 
tribes  by  a  conquering  tribe,  that  there  comes  a  governing 
class,  formed  of  head-chief  and  sub-chiefs,  sufficiently  dis 
tinguished  from  the  rest,  and  sufficiently  powerful  to  inspire 
the  required  awe.  The  above  examples  are  all  taken  from 
societies  in  which  kingship  has  been  reached. 

§  370.  A  more  extended  form  is  simultaneously  as 
sumed  by  this  ceremony.  For  where  along  with  subordi 
nate  rulers  there  exists  a  chief  ruler,  he  has  to  be  propitiated 
alike  by  the  people  at  large  and  by  the  subordinate  rulers. 
AYe  must  here  observe  the  growth  of  both  kinds  of  gift- 
making  that  hence  arise. 

A  place  in  which  the  usage  has  retained  its  primitive 
character  is  Timbuctoo.  Here  "  the  king  does  not  levy  any 
tribute  on  his  subjects  or  on  foreign  merchants,  but  he 
receives  presents.'7  But  Caillie  adds — "  There  is  no  regular 
government.  The  king  is  like  a  father  ruling  his  children." 
When  disputes  arise,  he  "  assembles  a  council  of  the  elders." 
That  is  to  say,  present-giving  remains  voluntary  where  the 
kingly  power  is  not  great.  Among  the  Kaffirs,  we  see  gifts 
losing  their  voluntary  character.  "  The  revenue  of  the  king 
consists  of  an  annual  contribution  of  cattle,  first-fruits," 
&G.  ;  and  "  when  a  Koossa  [Kaffir]  opens  his  granary  he 
must  send  a  little  of  the  grain  to  his  neighbours,  and  a  larger 
portion  to  the  king."  In  Abyssinia  there  is  a  like  mixture  of 
exactions  and  spontaneous  gifts:  besides  settled  contribu 
tions,  the  prince  of  Tigre  receives  annual  presents.  Evi 
dently  when  presents  that  have  become  customary  have 
ceased  in  so  far  to  be  propitiatory,  there  is  a  tendency  to 
make  other  presents  that  are  propitiatory  because  unex 
pected. 

If  an  offering  made  by  a  private  person  implies  submis 
sion,  still  more  does  an  offering  made  by  a  subordinate  ruler 


PRESENTS.  87 

to  a  supreme  ruler.  Hence  the  making  of  presents  grows 
into  a  formal  recognition  of  supremacy.  In  ancient  Vera 
Pas,  "  as  soon  as  some  one  was  elected  king  ...  all  the 
lords  of  the  tribes  appeared  or  sent  relations  of  theirs  .  .  . 
with  presents. "  Among  the  Chibchas,  when  a  new  king 
came  to  the  throne,  "  the  chief  men  then  took  an  oath  that 
they  would  be  obedient  and  loyal  vassals,  and  as  a  proof  of 
their  loyalty  each  one  gave  him  a  jewel  and  a  number  of 
rabbits,  &c."  Of  the  Mexicans,  Toribio  says — "  Each  year, 
at  certain  festivals,  those  Indians  who  did  not  pay  taxes, 
even  the  chiefs  .  .  .  made  gifts  to  the  sovereigns  ...  in 
token  of  their  submission. "  And  so  in  Peru,  "  no  one  ap 
proached  Atahuallpa  without  bringing  a  present  in  token 
of  submission. "  This  significance  of  gift-making  is  shown 
in  the  records  of  the  Hebrews.  In  proof  of  Solomon's 
supremacy  it  is  said  that  "  all  the  kings  of  the  earth 
sought  the  presence  of  Solomon  ...  and  they  brought 
every  man  his  present  ...  a  rate  year  by  year."  Con 
versely,  when  Saul  was  chosen  king  "  the  children  of  Belial 
said,  How  shall  this  man  save  us?  And  they  despised  him, 
and  brought  him  no  presents."  Throughout  the  remote 
East  the  bringing  of  presents  to  the  chief  ruler  has  still  the 
same  meaning.  I  have  before  me  illustrative  facts  from 
Japan,  from  China,  from  Burmah. 

Nor  does  early  European  history  fail  to  exemplify  pres 
ent-giving  and  its  implications.  During  the  Merovingian 
period  "  on  a  fixed  day,  once  a-year,  in  the  field  of  March, 
according  to  ancient  custom,  gifts  were  offered  to  the  kings 
by  the  people;  "  and  this  custom  continued  into  the  Carolin- 
gian  period.  Such  gifts  were  made  alike  by  individuals  and 
communities.  From  the  time  of  Gontram,  who  was  over 
whelmed  with  gifts  by  the  inhabitants  of  Orleans  on  his  en 
try,  it  long  continued  the  habit  with  towns  thus  to  seek  the 
goodwill  of  monarchs  who  visited  them.  In  ancient  Eng 
land,  too,  when  the  monarchs  visited  a  town,  present-mak 
ing  entailed  so  heavy  a  loss  that  in  some  cases  "  the  passing 


88  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

of  the  royal  family  and  court  was  viewed  as  a  great  misfor- 


§  371.  Grouped  as  above,  the  evidence  implies  that 
from  propitiatory  presents,  voluntary  and  exceptional  to  be 
gin  with  but  becoming  as  political  power  strengthens  less 
voluntary  and  more  general,  there  eventually  grow  up 
universal  and  involuntary  contributions — established  trib 
ute;  and  that  with  the  rise  of  a  currency  this  passes  into 
taxation.  How  this  transformation  takes  place,  is  well 
shown  in  Persia.  Speaking  of  the  "  irregular  and  oppres 
sive  taxes  to  which  they  [the  Persians]  are  continually  ex 
posed,"  Malcolm  says — "  The  first  of  these  extra  taxes  may 
be  termed  usual  and  extraordinary  presents.  The  usual 
presents  to  the  king  are  those  made  annually  by  all  govern 
ors  of  provinces  and  districts,  chiefs  of  tribes,  ministers,  and 
all  other  officers  in  high  charge,  at  the  feast  of  Nourouze, 
or  vernal  equinox.  .  .  .  The  amount  presented  on  this 
occasion  is  generally  regulated  by  usage ;  to  fall  short  is  loss 
of  office,  and  to  exceed  is  increase  of  favour." 

The  passing  of  present-making  into  payment  of  tribute 
as  it  becomes  periodic,  is  clearly  exemplified  in  some  com 
paratively  small  societies  where  governmntal  power  is 
well  established.  Tn  Tonga  "  the  higher  class  of  chiefs 
generally  make  a  present  to  the  king,  of  hogs  and  yams, 
about  once  a  fortnight :  these  chiefs  at  the  same  time  receive 
presents  from  those  below  them,  and  these  last  from  others, 
and  so  on,  down  to  the  common  people."  Ancient  Mexico, 
formed  of  provinces  dependent  in  various  degrees,  exhibited 
several  stages  of  the  transition.  "  The  provinces  .  .  . 
made  these  contributions  .  .  .  since  they  were  conquered, 
that  the  gallant  Mexicans  might  .  .  .  cease  to  destroy 
them:  "  clearly  showing  that  the  presents  were  at  first  pro 
pitiatory.  Again,  "  in  Meztitlan  the  tribute  was  not  paid 
at  fixed  times  .  .  .  but  when  the  lord  wanted  it."  Then  of 
the  tributes  throughout  the  country  of  Montezuma,  we  are 


PRESENTS.  89 

told  that  "  some  of  these  were  paid  annually,  others  every 
six  months,  and  others  every  eighty  days."  And  further  of 
the  gifts  made  at  festivals  by  some  "  in  token  of  their 
submission/'  Toribio  says — "  In  this  way  it  seems  manifest 
that  the  chiefs,  the  merchants,  and  the  landed  proprietors, 
were  not  obliged  to  pay  taxes,  but  did  so  voluntarily." 

A  like  transition  is  traceable  in  early  European  history. 
Among  the  sources  of  revenue  of  the  Merovingian  kings, 
Waitz  enumerates  the  freewill  gifts  of  the  people  on  various 
occasions,  besides  the  yearly  presents  made  originally  at  the 
March  gatherings.  And  then,  speaking  of  these  yearly 
presents  in  the  Carolingian  period,  the  same  writer  says 
they  had  long  lost  their  voluntary  character,  and  are  even 
described  as  a  tax  by  Hincmar.  They  included  horses,  gold, 
silver,  and  jewels,  and  (from  nunneries)  garments,  and 
requisitions  for  the  royal  palaces;  and  he  adds  that  these 
dues,  or  tribute,  were  all  of  a  more  or  less  private  character: 
though  compulsory  they  had  not  yet  become  taxes  in  the 
literal  sense.  So,  too,  with  the  things  presented  to  minor 
rulers  by  their  feudal  dependants.  "  The  dona,  after  hav 
ing  been,  as  the  name  sufficiently  indicates,  voluntary  gifts, 
were  in  the  twelfth  century  become  territorial  dues  received 
by  the  lords." 

In  proportion  as  values  became  more  definite  and  pay 
ments  in  coin  easier,  commutation  resulted.  Instance, 
in  the  Carolingian  period,  "  the  so-called  inferenda — a  due 
originally  paid  in  cattle,  now  in  money;  "  instance  the 
oublies,  consisting  of  bread  "  presented  on  certain  clays  by 
vassals  to  their  lords,"  which  "  were  often  replaced  by  a 
small  annual  due  in  money;  "  instance,  in  our  own  history, 
the  giving  of  money  instead  of  goods  by  towns  to  a  king 
and  his  suite  making  a  progress  through  them.  The  evi 
dence  may  fitly  be  closed  with  the  following  passage 
from  Stubbs: — 

"The  ordinary  revenue  of  the  English  king  had  been  derived 
solely  from  the  royal  estates  and  the  produce  of  what  had  been  the 


90  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

folkland,  with  such  commuted  payments  of  feormfultum,  or  provision 
in  kind,  as  represented  either  the  reserved  rents  from  ancient  posses 
sions  of  the  crown,  or  the  quasi-voluntary  tribute  paid  by  the  nation 
to  its  chosen  head." 

In  which  passage  are  simultaneously  implied  the  transition 
from  voluntary  gifts  to  involuntary  tribute,  and  the  commu 
tation  of  tribute  into  taxes. 

§  372.  If  voluntary  gifts  to  the  supreme  man  by-and-by 
become  tribute,  and  eventually  form  a  settled  revenue,  may 
we  not  expect  that  gifts  made  to  his  subordinates,  when 
their  aid  is  wished,  will  similarly  become  customary,  and  at 
length  yield  them  maintenance  ?  Will  not  the  process  above 
indicated  in  relation  to  the  major  State-functionary,  repeat 
itself  with  the  minor  State-functionaries?  We  find  that  it 
does  so. 

First  it  is  to  be  noted  that,  besides  ordinary  presents,  the 
ruling  man  in  early  stages  commonly  has  special  presents 
made  to  him  when  called  on  to  use  his  power  in  aid  of  an 
aggrieved  subject.  Among  the  Chibchas,  "  no  one  could 
appear  in  the  presence  of  a  king,  cazique,  or  superior,  with 
out  bringing  a  gift,  which  was  to  be  delivered  before  the 
petition  was  made."  In  Sumatra,  a  chief  "  levies  no 
taxes,  nor  has  any  revenue,  ...  or  other  emolument  from 
his  subjects,  than  what  accrues  to  him  from  the  deter 
mination  of  causes."  Of  Gulab  Singh,  a  late  ruler  of 
Jummoo,  Mr.  Drew  says — "  With  the  customary  offering 
of  a  rupee  as  nazar  [present]  any  one  could  get  his  ear; 
even  in  a  crowd  one  could  catch  his  eye  by  holding  up  a 
rupee  and  crying  out.  .  .  .  '  Maharajah,  a  petition.7  He 
would  pounce  down  like  a  hawk  on  the  money,  and,  having 
appropriated  it,  would  patiently  hear  out  the  petitioner." 
There  is  evidence  that  among  ourselves  in  ancient  days  a 
kindred  usage  existed.  "  We  may  readily  believe,"  says 
Broom,  referring  to  a  statement  of  Lingard,  "  that  few 
princes  in  those  [Anglo-Saxon]  days,  declined  to  exercise 


PRESENTS.  91 

judicial  functions  when  solicited  by  favourites,  tempted  by 
bribery,  or  stimulated  by  cupidity  and  avarice."  And  on 
reading  that  in  early  Norman  times  "  the  first  step  in  the 
process  of  obtaining  redress  was  to  sue  out,  or  purchase, 
by  paying  the  stated  fees,"  the  king's  original  writ,  re 
quiring  the  defendant  to  appear  before  him,  we  may  suspect 
that  the  amount  paid  for  this  document  represented  what 
had  originally  been  the  present  to  the  king  for  giving  his 
judicial  aid.  There  is  support  for  this  inference.  Black- 
stone  says:- — "  Now,  indeed,  even  the  royal  writs  are  held  to 
be  demandable  of  common  right,  on  paying  the  usual  fees:  " 
implying  a  preceding  time  in  which  the  granting  of  them 
was  a  matter  of  royal  favour  obtained  by  propitiation. 

Naturally,  then,  when  judicial  and  other  functions 
come  to  be  deputed,  gifts  will  similarly  be  made  to  obtain 
the  services  of  the  functionaries;  and  these,  originally  vol 
untary,  will  become  compulsory.  Ancient  records  yield 
evidence.  Amos  ii.  6,  implies  that  judges  received  presents; 
as  are  said  to  do  the  Turkish  magistrates  in  the  same  regions 
down  to  our  day ;  and  on  finding  that  habitually  among  the 
Kirghis,  "  the  judge  takes  presents  from  both  sides/'  we  see 
that  the  assumption  of  the  prophet,  and  of  the  modern  ob 
server,  that  this  usage  arose  by  a  corruption,  adds  one  to 
those  many  cases  in  which  survival  of  a  lower  state  is  mis 
taken  for  degradation  of  a  higher.  In  France,  the  king  in 
1256  imposed  on  his  judicial  officials,  "  high  and  subal 
terns,  an  oath  to  make  or  receive  no  present,  to  administer 
justice  without  regard  to  persons."  Nevertheless  gifts  con 
tinued.  Judges  received  "  spices  "  as  a  mark  of  gratitude 
from  those  who  had  won  a  cause.  By  1369,  if  not  before, 
these  were  converted  into  money;  and  in  1402  they  were 
recognized  as  dues.  In  our  own  history  the  case  of  Bacon 
exemplifies  not  a  special  and  late  .practice,  but  an  old  and 
usual  one.  Local  records  show  the  habitual  making  of  gifts 
to  officers  of  justice  and  their  attendants;  and  "  no  approach 
to  a  great  man,  a  magistrate,  or  courtier,  was  ever  made 


92  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

without  the  oriental  accompaniment — a  gift."  "  Damage 
deer,"  a  gratuity  to  prothonotaries,  had  become  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  a  fixed  assessment.  That  the  pres 
ents  to  State-functionaries  formed,  in  some  cases,  their 
entire  revenues,  is  inferable  from  the  fact  that  in  the  twelfth 
century  the  great  offices  of  the  royal  household  were  bought : 
the  value  of  the  presents  received  was  great  enough  to 
make  the  places  worth  buying.  Good  evidence  comes  from 
Russia.  Karamsin  "  repeats  the  observations  of  the  travel 
lers  who  visited  Muscovy  in  the  sixteenth  century: — '  Is  it- 
surprising/  says  these  strangers,  l  that  the  Grand  Prince  is 
rich  ?  He  neither  gives  money  to  his  troops  nor  his  ambassa 
dors;  he  even  takes  from  these  last  all  the  costly  things 
they  bring  back  from  foreign  lands.  .  .  .  Nevertheless 
these  men  do  not  complain.'  '  Whence  we  must  infer  that, 
lacking  payments  from  above,  they  lived  on  gifts  from  be 
low.  Whence,  further,  it  becomes  manifest  that  what  we 
call  the  bribes,  which  the  miserably-salaried  officials  in  Rus 
sia  now  require  before  performing  their  duties,  represent  the 
presents  which  formed  their  sole  maintenance  in  times  when 
they  had  no  salaries.  And  the  like  may  be  inferred  respect 
ing  Spain,  of  which  Rose  says: — "  From  judge  down  to 
constable,  bribery  and  corruption  prevail.  .  .  .  There  is 
this  excuse,  however,  for  the  poor  Spanish  official.  His  gov 
ernment  gives  him  no  remuneration,  and  expects  every 
thing  of  him." 

So  natural  has  habit  now  made  to  us  the  payment  of 
fixed  sums  for  specified  services,  that  we  assume  this  relation 
to  have  existed  from  the  beginning.  But  when  we  read 
how,  in  slightly-organized  societies,  such  as  that  of  the 
Bechuanas,  the  chiefs  allow  their  attendants  "  a  scanty 
portion  of  food  or  milk,  and  leave  them  to  make  up  the 
deficiency  by  hunting  or  by  digging  up  wild  roots;  "  and 
how,  in  societies  considerably  more  advanced,  as  Dahomey, 
"  no  officer  under  government  is  paid;  "  we  are  shown  that 
originally  the  subordinates  of  the  chief  man,  not  officially 


PRESENTS.  93 

supported,  have  to  support  themselves.  And  as  their 
positions  enable  them  to  injure  or  to  benefit  subject  persons 
— as,  indeed,  it  is  often  only  by  their  aid  that  the  chief  man 
can  be  invoked;  there  arises  the  same  motive  to  propitiate 
them  by  presents  that  there  does  to  propitiate  by  presents 
the  chief  man  himself.  Whence  the  parallel  growth  of  an 
income.  Here,  from  the  East,  is  an  illustration  come  upon 
since  the  foregoing  sentences  were  first  published: — "  None 
of  these  [servants  or  slaves]  receive  any  wages,  but  the 
master  presents  each  with  a  suit  of  clothes  at  the  great 
yearly  festival,  and  gifts  are  also  bestowed  upon  them, 
mostly  in  money  (bakshish),  from  such  visitors  as  have 
business  with  their  master,  and  desire  a  good  word  spoken 
to  him  at  the  opportune  moment." 

§  373.  Since,  at  first,  the  double  of  the  dead  man,  like 
him  in  all  other  respects,  is  conceived  as  being  no  less  liable 
to  pain,  cold,  hunger,  thirst;  he  is  supposed  to  be  similarly 
propitiated  by  providing  for  him  food,  drink,  clothing,  &c. 
At  the  outset,  then,  presents  to  the  dead  differ  from  presents 
to  the  living  neither  in  meaning  nor  motive. 

Lower  forms  of  society  all  over  the  world  furnish 
proofs.  Food  and  drink  are  left  with  the  unburied  corpse 
by  Papuans,  Tahitians,  Sandwich  Islanders,  Malanans,  Ba- 
dagas,  Karens,  ancient  Peruvians,  Brazilians,  &c.  Food 
and  drink  are  afterward  carried  to  the  grave  in  Africa  by  the 
Sherbro  people,  the  Loango  people,  the  inland  Negroes,  the 
Dahomans,  and  others;  throughout  the  Indian  hills  by 
Bhils,  Santals,  Kukis;  in  America  by  Caribs,  Chibchas, 
Mexicans;  and  the  like  usage  was  general  among  ancient 
races  in  the  East.  Clothes  are  periodically  taken  as  pres 
ents  to  the  dead  by  the  Esquimaux.  In  Patagonia  they  an 
nually  open  the  sepulchral  chambers  and  re-clothe  the  dead ; 
as  did,  too,  the  ancient  Peruvians.  When  a  potentate  dies 
among  the  Congo  people,  the  quantity  of  clothes  given  from 
time  to  time  is  so  great  "  that  the  first  hut  in  which  the  body 


94:  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

is  deposited  becoming  too  small,  a  second,  a  third,  even  to  a 
sixth,  increasing  in  dimensions,  is  placed  over  it."  And, 
occasionally,  the  gifts  made  by  subordinate  rulers  to  the 
ghost  of  a  supreme  dead  ruler,  simulate  the  tribute  paid  to 
him  when  living.  Concerning  a  royal  funeral  in  Toiiquin, 
Tavernier  writes: — 

"There  proceeds  afterwards  Six  Princesses  who  carry  Meat  and 
Drink  for  the  deceased  King.  .  .  .  Four  Governours  of  the  four 
chief  provinces  of  the  Kingdom,  each  bearing  a  stick  on  his  shoulder, 
on  which  hangs  a  bag  full  of  Gold  and  several  Perfumes,  and  these 
bags  contain  the  Presents  which  the  several  Provinces  make  unto  the 
deceased  King,  for  to  be  buried  with  his  corps,  that  he  may  make  use 
of  the  same  in  the  other  World." 

Xor  can  there  be  any  doubt  about  the  likeness  of  intention. 
When  we  read  that  a  chief  among  the  New  Caledonians  says 
to  the  ghost  of  his  ancestor — "  Compassionate  father,  here 
is  some  food  for  you;  eat  it;  be  kind  to  us  on  account  of 
it;  "  or  when  the  Yeddah,  calling  by  name  a  deceased  rela 
tive,  says — "  Come  and  partake  of  this.  Give  us  mainte 
nance,  as  you  did  when  living;  "  we  see  it  to  be  undeniable 
that  present-giving  to  the  dead  is  like  present-giving  to  the 
living,  with  the  difference  that  the  receiver  is  invisible. 

Noting  only  that  there  is  a  like  motive  for  a  like  propitia 
tion  of  the  undistinguished  supernatural  beings  which 
primitive  men  suppose  to  be  all  around  them — noting  that 
whether  it  be  in  the  fragments  of  bread  and  cake  left  for 
elves  by  our  Scandinavian  ancestors,  or  in  the  eatables 
which.  Dyaks  place  on  the  tops  of  their  houses  to  feed  the 
spirits,  or  in  the  portions  of  food  cast  aside  and  of  drink 
poured  out  for  the  ghosts  before  beginning  their  meals,  by 
various  races  throughout  the  world ;  let  us  go  on  to  observe 
the  developed  present-making  to  the  developed  supernatural 
being.  The  things  given  and  the  motives  for  giving  them 
remain  the  same;  though  the  sameness  is  disguised  by  the 
use  of  different  words — oblations  to  a  deity  and  presents  to 
a  living  person.  The  original  identity  is  well  shown  in  the 


PRESENTS.  95 

statement  concerning  the  Greeks — "  Gifts,  as  an  old  prov 
erb  says,  determine  the  acts  of  gods  and  kings;  "  and  it  is 
equally  well  shown  by  a  verse  in  the  Psalms  (Ixxvi.  11) — - 
"  Vow,  and  pay  unto  the  Lord  your  God :  let  all  that  be 
round  about  him  bring  presents  unto  him  that  ought  to  be 
f eared. "  Observe  the  parallelism  in  detail. 

Food  and  drink,  which  constitute  the  earliest  kind  of 
propitiatory  gift  to  a  living  person,  and  also  the  earliest 
kind  of  propitiatory  gift  to  a  ghost,  remain  everywhere  the 
essential  components  of  an  oblation  to  a  deity.  As,  where 
political  power  is  evolving,  the  presents  sent  to  the  chief 
at  first  consist  mainly  of  sustenance;  so,  where  ancestor- 
worship,  developing,  has  expanded  a  ghost  into  a  god,  the 
offerings  have  as  elements  common  to  them  in  all  places 
and  times,  things  serving  for  nutrition.  That  this  is  so  in 
low  societies  no  proof  is  needed ;  and  that  it  is  so  in  higher 
societies  is  also  a  conspicuous  fact;  though  a  fact  ignored 
where  its  significance  is  most  worthy  to  be  remarked.  If  a 
Zulu  slays  an  ox  to  secure  the  goodwill  of  his  dead  relative's 
ghost,  who  complains  to  him  in  a  dream  that  he  has  not 
been  fed — if  among  the  Zulus  this  private  act  develops  into 
a  public  act  when  a  bullock  is  periodically  killed  as  "  a  pro 
pitiatory  Offering  to  the  Spirit  of  the  King's  immediate 
Ancestor;  "  we  may,  without  impropriety,  ask  whether 
there  do  not  thus  arise  such  acts  as  those  of  an  Egyptian 
king,  who  by  hecatombs  of  oxen  hopes  to  please  the  ghost  of 
his  deified' father;  but  it  is  not  supposable  that  there  was 
any  kindred  origin  for  the  sacrifices  of  cattle  to  Jahveh,  con 
cerning  which  such  elaborate  directions  are  given  in  Leviti 
cus.  When  we  read  that  among  the  Greeks  "  it  was  cus 
tomary  to  pay  the  same  offices  to  the  gods  which  men  stand 
in  need  of:  the  temples  were  their  houses,  sacrifices  their 
food,  altars  their  tables;  "  it  is  permissible  to  observe  the 
analogy  between  these  presents  of  eatables  made  to  gods, 
and  the  presents  of  eatables  made  at  graves  to  the  dead, 
as  being  both  derived  from  similar  presents  made  to  the 


96  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

living;  but  that  the  presentation  of  meat,  bread,  fruits,  and 
liquors  to  Jahveh  had  a  kindred  derivation,  is  a  thought 
not  to  be  entertained — not  even  though  we  have  a  complete 
parallel  between  the  cakes  which  Abraham  bakes  to  refresh 
the  Lord  when  he  comes  to  visit  him  in  his  tent  on  the 
plains  of  Mamre,  and  the  shew-bread  kept  on  the  altar  and 
from  time  to  time  replaced  by  other  bread  fresh  and  hot 
(1  Sam.  xxi,  6).  Here,  however,  recognizing  these  paral- 
lelisms,  it  may  be  added  that  though  in  later  Hebrew  times 
the  original  and  gross  interpretation  of  sacrifices  became 
obscured,  and  though  the  primitive  theory  has  since  under 
gone  gradual  dissipation,  yet  the  form  survives.  The  offer 
tory  of  our  Church  still  retains  the  words — "  accept  our 
alms  and  oblations;  "  and  at  her  coronation,  Queen  Victoria 
offered  on  the  altar,  by  the  hands  of  the  archbishop,  "  an 
altar-cloth  of  gold  and  an  ingot  of  gold,"  a  sword,  then 
"  bread  and  wine  for  the  communion,"  then  "  a  purse  of 
gold,"  followed  by  a  prayer  "  to  receive  these  oblations." 

Evidence  from  all  parts  of  the  world  thus  proves  that 
oblations  are  at  first  literally  presents.  Animals  are  given 
to  kings,  slain  on  graves,  sacrificed  in  temples ;  cooked  food 
is  furnished  to  chiefs,  laid  on  tombs,  placed  on  altars ;  first- 
fruits  are  presented  to  living  rulers,  to  dead  rulers,  to  gods ; 
here  beer,  here  wine,  here  chica,  is  sent  to  a  potentate, 
offered  to  a  ghost,  and  poured  out  as  libation  to  a  deity; 
incense,  burnt  before  ancient  kings,  and  in  some  places 
burnt  before  distinguished  persons,  is  burnt  before  gods  in 
various  places;  and  besides  such  consumable  things,  valua 
bles  of  every  kind,  given  to  secure  goodwill,  are  accumu 
lated  in  royal  treasuries  and  in  sacred  temples. 

There  is  one  further  remark  of  moment.  We  saw  that  the 
present  to  the  visible  ruler  was  at  first  propitiatory  because 
of  its  intrinsic  worth,  but  came  afterwards  to  have  an 
extrinsic  propitiatory  effect  as  implying  loyalty.  Similarly, 
the  presents  to  the  invisible  ruler,  primarily  considered  as 
directly  useful,  secondarily  come  to  signify  obedience;  and 


PRESENTS.  97 

their  secondary  meaning  gives  that  ceremonial  character  to 
sacrifice  which  still  survives. 

§  374.  And  now  we  come  upon  a  remarkable  sequence. 
As  the  present  to  the  ruler  eventually  develops  into  political 
revenue,  so  the  present  to  the  god  eventually  develops  into 
ecclesiastical  revenue. 

Let  us  set  out  with  that  earliest  stage  in  which  no  eccle 
siastical  organization  exists.  At  this  stage  the  present  to 
the  supernatural  being  is  often  shared  between  him  and 
those  who  worship  him.  While  the  supernatural  being  is 
propitiated  by  the  gift  of  food,  there  is,  by  eating  together, 
established  between  him  and  his  propitiators  a  bond  of 
union:  implying  protection  on  the  one  side  and  allegiance 
on  the  other.  The  primitive  notion  that  the  nature  of  a 
thing,  inhering  in  all  its  parts,  is  acquired  by  those  who 
consume  it,  and  that  therefore  those  who  consume  two  parts 
of  one  thing,  acquire  from  it  some  nature  in  common — that 
same  notion  which  initiates  the  practice  of  forming  a  broth 
erhood  by  partaking  of  one  another's  blood,  which  instigates 
the  funeral  rite  of  blood-offering,  and  which  gives  strength 
to  the  claims  established  by  joining  in  the  same  meal, 
originates  this  prevalent  usage  of  eating  part  of  that  which 
is  presented  to  the  ghost  or  to  the  god.  In  some  places  the 
people  at  large  participate  in  the  offering;  in  some  places 
the  medicine-men  or  priests  only;  and  in  some  places  the 
last  practice  is  habitual  while  the  first  is  occasional,  as  in 
ancient  Mexico,  where  communicants  "  who  had  partaken 
of  the  sacred  food  were  engaged  to  serve  the  god  during 
the  subsequent  year." 

Here  the  fact  which  concerns  us  is  that  from  the  presents 
thus  used,  there  arises  a  maintenance  for  the  sacerdotal 
class.  Among  the  Kukis  the  priest,  to  pacify  the  angry 
deity  who  has  made  some  one  ill,  takes,  it  may  be  a  fowl, 
which  he  says  the  god  requires,  and  pouring  its  blood  as  an 
offering  on  the  ground  while  muttering  praises,  "  then 


98  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

deliberately  sits  down,  roasts  and  eats  the  fowl,  throws  the 
refuse  into  the  jungle  and  returns  home."  The  Battas  of 
Sumatra  sacrifice  to  their  gods,  horses,  buffaloes,  goats, 
dogs,  fowls,  "  or  whatever  animal  the  wizard  happens  on 
that  day  to  be  most  inclined  to  eat."  And  by  the  Bustar 
tribes  in  India,  Kodo  Pen  "  is  worshipped  at  a  small  heap  of 
stones  by  every  new-comer,  through  the  oldest  resident, 
with  fowls,  eggs,  grains,  and  a  few  copper  coins,  which 
become  the  property  of  the  officiating  priest."  Africa  has 
more  developed  societies  which  show  us  a  kindred  arrange 
ment.  In  Dahomey,  "  those  who  have  the  '  cure  of  souls  ' 
receive  no  regular  pay,  but  live  well  upon  the  benevolences 
of  votaries:  "  in  their  temples,  "  small  offerings  are  daily 
given  by  devotees,  and  removed  by  the  priests."  Similarly 
in  Ashantee,  "  the  revenue  of  the  fetishmen  is  derived  from 
the  liberality  of  the  people.  A  moiety  of  the  offerings 
which  are  presented  to  the  fetish  belongs  to  the  priests." 
It  is  the  same  in  Polynesia.  Describing  the  Tahitian  doc 
tor  as  almost  invariably  a  priest,  Ellis  states  that  he  received 
a  fee,  part  of  which  was  supposed  to  belong  to  the  gods,  be 
fore  commencing  operations.  So,  too,  was  it  in  the  an 
cient  states  of  Central  America.  A  cross-examination 
narrated  by  Oviedo,  contains  the  passage:— 

"  FT.  Do  you  offer  anything  else  in  your  temples  ? 

' '  Ind.  Every  one  brings  from  his  house  what  he  wishes  to  offer — 
as  fowls,  fish,  or  maize,  or  other  things — and  the  boys  take  it  and  put 
it  inside  the  temple. 

"  FT.  Who  eats  the  things  thus  offered  ? 

^  Ind.  The  father  of  the  temple  eats  them,  and  what  remains  is 
eaten  by  the  boys." 

And  then  in  Peru,  where  worship  of  the  dead  was  a  main 
occupation  of  the  living,  the  accumulated  gifts  to  ghosts  and 
gods  had  resulted  in  sacred  estates,  numerous  and  rich,  out 
of  which  the  priests  of  all  kinds  were  maintained.  A 

parallel  genesis  is  shown  us  by  ancient  historic  peoples. 
Among  the  Greeks  "  the  remains  of  the  sacrifice  are  the 


PRESENTS.  99 

priests'  fees/'  and  "  all  that  served  the  gods  were  main 
tained  by  the  sacrifices  and  other  holy  offerings."  Nor  was 
it  otherwise  with  the  Hebrews.  In  Leviticus  ii.  10,  we  read 
— "  And  that  which  is  left  of  the  meat  offering  shall  be 
Aaron's  and  his  sons'  "  (the  appointed  priests) ;  while  other 
passages  entitle  the  priest  to  the  skin  of  the  offering,  and 
to  the  whole  of  the  baked  and  fried  offering.  Neither  does 
the  history  of  early  Christianity  fail  to  exhibit  the  like 
development.  "  In  the  first  ages  of  the  Church,  those 
deposita  pietatis  which  are  mentioned  by  Tertullian  were 
all  voluntary  oblations."  Afterwards  "  a  more  fixed  main 
tenance  was  necessary  for  the  clergy;  but  still  oblations 
were  made  by  the  people.  .  .  .  These  oblations  [defined  as 
i  whatever  religious  Christians  offered  to  God  and  the 
Church'],'  which  were  at  first  voluntary,  became  after 
wards,  by  continual  payment,  due  by  custom."  In  medi 
aeval  times  a  further  stage  in  the  transition  is  shown  us:— 
"  Besides  what  was  necessary  for  the  communion  of  priests 
and  laymen,  and  that  which  was  intended  for  eulogies,  it 
was  at  first  the  usage  to  offer  all  sorts  of  presents,  which  at  a 
later  date  were  taken  to  the  bishop's  house  and  ceased  to  be 
brought  to  the  church."  And  then  by  continuation  and 
enlargement  of  such  donations,  growing  into  bequests,  nom 
inally  to  God  and  practically  to  the  Church,  there  grew 
up  ecclesiastical  revenues. 

§  375.  The  foregoing  statements  represent  all  presents 
as  made  by  inferiors  to  propitiate  superiors;  ignoring  the 
presents  made  by  superiors  to  inferiors.  The  contrast  be 
tween  the  two  in  meaning,  is  well  recognized  where  pres 
ent-making  is  much  elaborated,  as  in  China.  "  At  or  after 
the  customary  visits  between  superiors  and  inferiors,  an 
interchange  of  presents  takes  place;  but  those  from  the 
former  are  bestowed  as  donations,  while  the  latter  are' 
received  as  offerings :  these  being  the  Chinese  terms  for 
such  presents  as  pass  between  the  emperor  and  foreign 


100  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

princes."     Concerning  donations  something  must  here  be 
said,  though  their  ceremonial  character  is  not  marked. 

As  the  power  of  the  political  head  develops,  until  at 
length  he  assumes  universal  ownership,  there  results  a  state 
in  which  he  finds  it  needful  to  give  back  part  of  that 
which  he  has  monopolized;  and  having  been  originally 
subordinated  by  giving,  his  dependants  are  now,  to  a  cer 
tain  extent,  further  subordinated  by  receiving.  People  of 
whom  it  can  be  said,  as  of  the  Kukis,  that  "  all  the  prop 
erty  they  possess  is  by  simple  sufferance  of  the  rajah," 
or  people  who,  like  the  Dahomans,  are  owned  in  body  and 
estate  by  their  king,  are  obviously  so  conditioned  that 
property  having  flowed  in  excess  to  the  political  centre 
must  flow  down  again  from  lack  of  other  use.  Hence,  in 
Dahomey,  though  no  State-functionary  is  paid,  the  king 
gives  his  ministers  and  officers  royal  bounty.  Without 
travelling  further  afield  for  illustrations,  it  will  suffice  if  wre 
note  these  relations  of  causes  and  effects  in  early  European 
times.  Of  the  ancient  Germans,  Tacitus  says — "  The 
chief  must  show  his  liberality,  and  the  follower  expects  it. 
He  demands  at  one  time  this  war-horse;  at  another,  that 
victorious  lance  imbrued  with  the  enemy's  blood.  The 
prince's  table,  however  inelegant,  must  always  be  plentiful ; 
it  is  the  only  pay  of  his  followers."  That  is,  a  monopolizing 
supremacy  had,  as  its  sequence,  gratuities  to  dependants. 
Mediaeval  days  in  France  were  characterized  by  modified 
forms  of  the  same  system.  In  the  thirteenth  century,  "  in 
order  that  the  princes  of  the  blood,  the  whole  royal  house, 
the  great  officers  of  the  crown,  and  those  ...  of  the 
king's  household,  should  appear  with  distinction,  the  king 
gave  them  dresses  according  to  the  rank  they  held  and 
suitably  to  the  season  at  which  these  solemn  courts  were 
celebrated.  These  dresses  were  called  liveries  (UvrSes) 
'because  they  were  delivered,"  as  the  king's  free  gifts:  a 
statement  showing  how  acceptance  of  such  gifts  went  along 
with  subordination.  It  needs  scarcely  be  added  that 


PRESENTS.  101 

throughout  the  same  stages  of  progress  in  Europe,  the 
scattering  of  largesse  to  the  people  by  the  kings,  dukes,  and 
nobles,  was  similarly  a  concomitant  of  that  servile  position 
in  which  such  return  as  they  got  for  their  labour  in  addi 
tion  to  daily  sustenance,  was  in  the  shape  of  presents  rather 
than  in  the  shape  of  wages.  Moreover,  we  still  have  in  vails 
and  Christmas-boxes  to  servants,  &c.,  the  remnants  of  a 
system  under  which  fixed  remuneration  was  eked  out  by 
gratuities — a  system  itself  sequent  upon  the  earlier  system 
under  which  gratuities  formed  the  only  remuneration. 

Thus  it  becomes  tolerably  clear  that  while  from  presents 
offered  by  subject  persons,  there  eventually  develop  tribute, 
taxes,  and  fees;  from  donations  made  by  ruling  persons 
there  eventually  develop  salaries. 

§  376.  Something  must  be  added  concerning  presents 
passing  between  those  who  do  not  stand  in  acknowledged 
relations  of  superior  and  inferior. 

Consideration  of  these  carries  us  back  to  the  primitive 
form  of  present-making,  as  it  occurs  between  members  of 
alien  societies;  and  on  looking  at  some  of  the  facts,  there  is 
suggested  a  question  of  much  interest — Whether  from  the 
propitiatory  gift  made  under  these  circumstances  there  does 
not  originate  another  important  kind  of  social  action? 
Barter  is  not,  as  we  are  apt  to  suppose,  universally  under 
stood.  Cook,  speaking  of  his  failure  to  make  any  exchange 
of  articles  with  the  Australians,  says — "  They  had,  indeed, 
no  idea  of  traffic."  And  other  statements  suggest  that 
when  exchange  begins,  the  thought  of  equivalence  between 
the  things  given  and  received  scarcely  arises.  Of  the 
Ostyaks,  who  supplied  them  "  with  plenty  of  fish  and  wild 
fowl,"  Bell  remarks — "  Give  them  only  a  little  tobacco  and 
a  dram  of  brandy,  and  they  ask  no  more,  not  knowing  the 
use  of  money."  Remembering  that  at  first  no  means  of 
measuring  values  exists,  and  that  the  conception  of  equality 
of  value  has  to  grow  by  use,  it  seems  not  impossible  that 
65 


102  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

mutual  propitiation  by  gifts  was  the  act  from  which  barter 
arose:  the  expectation  that  the  present  received  would  be 
of  like  worth  with  that  given,  being  gradually  established, 
and  the  exchanged  articles  simultaneously  losing  the 
character  of  presents.  One  may,  indeed,  see  the  connexion 
between  the  two  in  the  familiar  cases  of  gifts  made  by 
European  travellers  to  native  chiefs ;  as  where  Mungo  Park 
writes — "  Presented  Mansa  Knssan  [the  chief  man  of  Juli- 
funda]  with  some  amber,  coral,  and  scarlet,  with  which  he 
appeared  to  be  perfectly  satisfied,  and  sent  a  bullock  in 
return."  Such  transactions  show  us  both  the  original 
meaning  of  the  initial  present  as  propitiatory,  and  the  idea 
that  the  responsive  present  should  have  an  approximately- 
like  value :  implying  informal  barter.  ^Nay  more.  Certain 
usages  of  the  ^orth  American  Indians  suggest  that  even  a 
circulating  medium  may  originate  from  propitiatory  pres 
ents.  Catlin  writes:— 

"Wampum  has  been  invariably  manufactured,  and  highly  valued 
as  a  circulating  medium  (instead  of  coins,  of  which  the  Indians  have 
no  knowledge) ;  so  many  strings,  or  so  many  hand's-breadth,  being 
the  fixed  value  of  a  horse,  a  gun,  a  robe,  &c.  In  treaties,  the  wam 
pum  belt  has  been  passed  as  the  pledge  of  friendship,  and  from  time 
immemorial  sent  to  hostile  tribes,  as  the  messenger  of  peace ;  or  paid 
by  so  many  fathoms'  length,  as  tribute  to  conquering  enemies." 

Speculation  aside,  we  have  to  note  how  the  propitiatory 
present  becomes  a  social  observance.  That  along  with  the 
original  form  of  it,  signifying  allegiance,  there  goes  the 
spread  of  it  as  a  means  to  friendship,  was  shown  in  ancient 
America.  Of  the  Yucatanese  we  read  that,  "  at  their  visits 
the  Indians  always  carry  with  them  presents  to  be  given 
away,  according  to  their  position;  those  visited  respond  by 
another  gift."  In  Japan,  so  rigorously  ceremonious,  the 
stages  of  the  descent  are  well  shown.  There  are  the  periodic 
presents  to  the  Mikado,  expressive  of  loyalty;  there  is  "  the 
giving  of  presents  from  inferiors  to  superiors;  "  and  be 
tween  equals  "  it  is  customary  on  the  occasion  of  a  first  visit 


PRESENTS.  103 

to  a  house  to  carry  a  present  to  the  owner,  who  gives  some 
thing  of  equal  value  on  returning  the  visit."  Other  races 
show  us  this  mutual  propitiation  taking  other  forms. 
Markham,  writing  of  Himalayan  people,  states  that  ex 
changing  caps  is  "  as  certain  a  mark  of  friendship  in  the 
hills,  as  two  chiefs  in  the  plains  exchanging  turbans."  But 
the  most  striking  development  of  gift-making  into  a  form, 
occurs  in  Bootan;  where  "  between  people  of  every  rank 
and  station  in  life,  the  presenting  of  a  silk  scarf  constantly 
forms  an  essential  part  of  the  ceremonial  of  salutation." 

"An  inferior,  on  approaching  a  superior,  presents  the  white  silk 
scarf;  and,  when  dismissed,  has  one  thrown  over  his  neck,  with  the 
ends  hanging  down  in  front.  Equals  exchange  scarfs  on  meeting, 
bending  towards  each  other,  with  an  inclination  of  the  body.  No  in 
tercourse  whatever  takes  place  without  the  intervention  of  a  scarf; 
it  always  accompanies  every  letter,  being  enclosed  in  the  same  packet 
however  distant  the  place  to  which  it  is  despatched." 

How  gift-making,  first  developed  into  a  ceremony  by 
fear  of  the  chief  ruler,  and  made  to  take  a  wider  range  by 
fear  of  the  powerful,  is  eventually  rendered  general  by  fear 
of  equals  who  may  prove  enemies  if  they  are  passed  over 
when  others  are  propitiated,  we  may  gather  from  Euro 
pean  history.  Thus  in  Rome,  "  all  the  world  gave  or  re 
ceived  New  Year's  gifts."  Clients  gave  them  to  their 
patrons;  all  the  Romans  gave  them  to  Augustus.  "  He 
was  seated  in  the  entrance-hall  of  his  house;  they  defiled 
before  him,  and  every  citizen  holding  his  offering  in  his 
hand,  laid  it,  when  passing,  at  the  feet  of  that  terrestrial 
god  ...  the  sovereign  gave  back  a  sum  equal  or  supe 
rior  to  their  presents."  Because  of  its  association  with 
pagan  institutions,  this  custom,  surviving  into  Christian 
times,  was  condemned  by  the  Church.  In  578  the  Council 
of  Auxerre  forbade  New  Year's  gifts,  which  it  character 
ized  in  strong  words.  Ives,  of  Chartres,  says — "  There  are 
some  who  accept  from  others,  and  themselves  give,  devil 
ish  New  Year's  gifts."  In  the  twelfth  century,  Maurice, 


104  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

bishop  of  Paris,  preached  against  bad  people  who  "  put  their 
faith  in  presents,  and  say  that  none  will  remain  rich  during 
the  year  if  he  has  not  had  a  gift  on  New  Year's  day."  Not 
withstanding  ecclesiastical  interdicts,  however,  the  custom 
survived  through  the  Middle  Ages  down  to  modern  times. 
Moreover,  there  simultaneously  developed  kindred  periodic 
ceremonies;  such  as,  in  France,  the  giving  of  Easter  eggs. 
And  present-makings  of  these  kinds  have  undergone 
changes  like  those  which  wre  traced  in  other  kinds  of  pres 
ent-makings  :  beginning  as  voluntary,  they  have  become  in 
a  measure  compulsory. 

§  377.  Spontaneously  made  among  primitive  men  to 
one  whose  goodwill  is  desired,  the  gift  thus  becomes,  as  soci 
ety  evolves,  the  originator  of  many  things. 

To  the  political  head,  as  his  power  grows,  presents  are 
prompted  partly  by  fear  of  him  and  partly  by  the  wish  for 
his  aid;  and  such  presents,  at  first  propitiatory  only  in  vir 
tue  of  their  intrinsic  worth,  grow  to  be  propitiatory  as  ex 
pressions  of  loyalty:  from  the  last  of  which  comes  present- 
giving  as  a  ceremonial,  and  from  the  first  of  which  comes 
present-giving  as  tribute,  eventually  changing  i^ito  taxes. 
Simultaneously,  the  supplies  of  food  &c.,  placed  on  the 
grave  of  the  dead  man  to  please  his  ghost,  developing  into 
larger  and  repeated  offerings  at  the  grave  of  the  distin 
guished  dead  man,  and  becoming  at  length  sacrifices  on  the 
altar  of  the  god,  differentiate  in  an  analogous  way:  the 
present  of  meat,  drink,  or  clothes,  at  first  supposed  to  beget 
goodwill  because  actually  useful,  becomes,  by  implication, 
significant  of  allegiance.  Hence,  making  the  gift  grows 
into  an  act  of  worship  irrespective  of  the  value  of  the  thing 
given;  while,  as  affording  sustenance  to  the  priest,  the  gift 
makes  possible  the  agency  by  which  the  worship  is  con 
ducted.  From  oblations  originate  Church  revenues. 

Thus  we  unexpectedly  come  upon  further  proof  that  the 
control  of  ceremony  precedes  the  political  and  ecclesiastical 


PRESENTS.  105 

controls;  since  it  appears  that  from  actions  which  the  first 
initiates,  eventually  result  the  funds  by  which  the  others 
are  maintained. 

When  we  ask  what  relations  present-giving  has  to  differ 
ent  social  types,  we  note,  in  the  first  place,  that  there  is  little 
of  it  in  simple  societies  where  chieftainship  does  not  exist 
or  is  unstable.  Conversely,  it  prevails  in  compound  and 
doubly-compound  societies;  as  throughout  the  semi-civil 
ized  states  of  Africa,  those  of  Polynesia,  those  of  ancient 
America,  where  the  presence  of  stable  headships,  primary 
and  secondary,  gives  both  the  opportunity  and  the  motive. 
Recognizing  this  truth,  we  are  led  to  recognize  the 
deeper  truth  that  present-making,  while  but  indirectly  re 
lated  to  the  social  type  as  simple  or  compound,  is  directly 
related  to  it  as  more  or  less  militant  in  organization. 
The  desire  to  propitiate  is  great  in  proportion  as  the  per 
son  to  be  propitiated  is  feared;  and  therefore  the  con 
quering  chief,  and  still  more  the  king  who  has  made  him 
self  by  force  of  arms  ruler  over  many  chiefs,  is  one  whose 
goodwill  is  most  anxiously  sought  by  acts  which  simultane 
ously  gratify  his  avarice  and  express  submission.  Hence, 
then,  the  fact  that  the  ceremony  of  making  gifts  to  the 
ruler  prevails  most  in  societies  that  are  either  actually 
militant,  or  in  which  chronic  militancy  'during  past  times 
has  evolved  the  despotic  government  appropriate  to  it. 
Hence  the  fact  that  throughout  the  East  where  this  social 
type  exists  everywhere,  the  making  of  presents  to  those  in 
authority  is  everywhere  imperative.  Hence  the  fact  that  in 
early  European  ages,  while  the  social  activities  were  mili 
tant  and  the  structures  corresponded,  loyal  presents  to 
kings  from  individuals  and  corporate  bodies  were  univer 
sal;  while  donations  from  superiors  to  inferiors,  also  grow 
ing  out  of  that  state  of  complete  dependence  which  accom 
panied  militancy,  were  common. 

The  like  connexion  holds  with  religious  offerings.  In 
the  extinct  militant  States  of  the  New  World,  sacrifices 


106  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

to  gods  were  perpetual,  and  their  shrines  were  being  ever 
enriched  by  deposited  valuables.  Papyri,  wall-paintings, 
and  sculptures,  show  us  that  among  ancient  Eastern  na 
tions,  highly  militant  in  their  activities  and  types  of  struc 
ture,  oblations  to  deities  were  large  and  continual ;  and  that 
vast  amounts  of  property  were  devoted  to  making  their 
temples  glorious.  During  early  and  militant  times  through 
out  Europe,  gifts  to  God  and  the  Church  were  more  general 
and  extensive  than  they  are  in  our  relatively  industrial 
times.  It  is  observable,  too,  how,  even  now,  that  representa 
tive  of  the  primitive  oblation  which  we  still  have  in  the 
bread  and  wine  of  the  mass  and  the  sacrament  (offered  to 
God  before  being  consumed  by  communicants),  recurs  less 
frequently  here  than  in  Catholic  societies,  which  are  rela 
tively  more  militant  in  type  of  organization;  while  the 
offering  of  incense,  Avhich  is  one  of  the  primitive  forms  of 
sacrifice  among  various  peoples  and  survives  in  the  Catholic 
service,  has  disappeared  from  the  authorized  service  in  Eng 
land.  ^Nor  in  our  own  society  do  we  fail  to  trace  a  kindred 
contrast.  For  while  within  the  Established  Church,  which 
forms  part  of  that  regulative  structure  developed  by  mili 
tancy,  sacrificial  observances  continue,  they  are  not  per 
formed  by  that  most  unecclesiastical  of  sects,  the  Quakers; 
who,  absolutely  unmilitant,  show  us  also  by  the  absence  of 
an  established  priesthood,  and  by  the  democratic  form  of 
their  government,  the  type  of  organization  most  character 
istic  of  industrialism. 

The  like  holds  even  with  the  custom  of  present-giving 
for  purposes  of  social  propitiation.  We  see  this  on  com 
paring  European  nations,  which,  otherwise  much  upon  a  par 
in  their  stages  of  progress,  differ  in  the  degrees  to  which 
industrialism  has  qualified  militancy.  In  Germany,  where 
periodic  making  of  gifts  among  relatives  and  friends  is  a 
universal  obligation,  and  in  France,  where  the  burden 
similarly  entailed  is  so  onerous  that  at  the  ~New  Year  and  at 
Easter,  people  not  unfrequently  leave  home  to  escape  it, 


PRESENTS.  107 

this  social  usage  survives  in  greater  strength  than  in  Eng 
land,  less  militant  in  organization. 

Of  this  kind  of  ceremony,  then,  as  of  the  kinds  already 
dealt  with,  we  may  say  that,  taking  shape  with  the  estab 
lishment  of  that  political  headship  which  militancy  pro 
duces,  it  develops  with  the  development  of  the  militant  type 
of  social  structure,  and  declines  with  the  development  of 
the  industrial  type. 


CHAPTEK  V. 

VISITS. 

§  378.  One  may  go  to  the  house  of  a  blameworthy  man 
to  reproach  him,  or  to  that  of  an  inferior  who  is  in  trouble 
to  give  aid,  or  to  that  of  a  reputed  oddity  to  gratify 
curiosity:  a  visit  is  not  intrinsically  a  mark  of  homage. 
Visits  of  certain  kinds,,  however,  become  extrinsically 
marks  of  homage.  In  its  primitive  form,  making  a  present 
implies  going  to  see  the  person  it  is  made  to.  Hence,  by  asso 
ciation,  this  act  comes  to  be  itself  indicative  of  respect,  and 
eventually  acquires  the  character  of  a  reverential  ceremony. 

From  this  it  results  that  just  as  the  once-voluntary  pres 
ent  grows  into  the  compulsory  present,  and  ends  in  tribute 
periodically  paid;  so  the  concomitant  visit  loses  its  volun 
tary  character,  and,  as  political  supremacy  strengthens,  be 
comes  an  expression  of  subordination  demanded  by  the 
ruler  at  stated  intervals. 

§  370.  Naturally  this  ceremony  takes  no  definite  shape 
where  chiefly  power  is  undecided;  and  hence  is  not  usual  in 
simple  tribes.  Even  in  societies  partially  compounded,  it 
characterizes  less  the  relations  between  the  common  people 
and  the  rulers  next  above  them,  than  the  relations  between 
these  subordinate  rulers  and  superior  rulers.  Still  there 
are  places  where  subjects  show  their  local  heads  the  consid 
eration  implied  by  this  act.  Some  of  the  Coast  Negroes, 
the  Joloffs  for  example,  come  daily  to  their  village  chiefs 

108 


VISITS.  109 

to  salute  them;  and  among  the  Kaffirs,  the  Great  Place 
(as  the  chief's  residence  is  termed)  is  the  resort  of  all  the 
principal  men  of  the  tribe,  who  attend  "  for  the  purpose  of 
paying  their  respects  to  the  chief.'7 

But,  as  just  implied,  the  visits  chiefly  to  be  noted  as 
elements  in  ceremonial  government,  are  those  which  sec 
ondary  rulers  and  officials  of  certain  grades  are  required  to 
pay.  In  a  compound  society  headed  by  a  chief  who  has 
been  victorious  over  other  chiefs,  there  arises  the  need 
for  periodic  demonstrations  of  allegiance.  Habitually  the 
central  ruler,  knowing  that  these  subjugated  local  rulers 
must  chafe  under  their  humiliation,  and  ever  suspecting 
conspiracies  among  them,  insists  on  their  frequently 
recurring  presence  at  his  place  of  residence.  lie  thus 
satisfies  himself  in  two  ways:  he  receives  re-assurances  of 
loyalty  by  gifts  brought  and  homage  performed,  while  he 
gets  proof  that  his  guests  are  not  then  engaged  in  trying 
to  throw  off  his  yoke. 

Hence  the  fact  that  in  compound  societies  the  periodic 
visit  to  the  king  is  a  political  ceremony.  Concerning  a 
conquered  people  in  ancient  Peru,  we  read  that  the  Yncas 
"  ordered  that,  during  certain  months  in  the  year,  the  native 
chiefs  should  reside  at  the  court  of  Cuzco ;  "  and,  speaking 
of  other  subordinate  rulers,  F.  de  Xeres  says — "  Some  of 
these  chiefs  [who  came  to  visit  Atahuallpa]  were  lords  of 
30,000  Indians,  all  subject  to  Atahuallpa."  In  ancient 
Mexico  a  like  usage  is  shown  to  have  had  a  like  origin. 
From  the  chiefs  of  the  conquered  province  of  Chalco, 
certain  indications  of  submission  were  required;  and 
"  Montezuma  II.  asked  them,  besides,  to  come  to  Mexico 
twice  a-year,  and  so  take  part  in  the  festivals."  Africa  in 
our  own  day  furnishes  an  illustration  showing  at  once  the 
motive  for  the  usage  and  the  reluctant  feeling  with  which  it 
is  sometimes  conformed  to.  In  Ashantee, 

"  At  that  great  annual  festival  [the  yam-custom]  all  the  caboceers 
and  captains,  and  the  greater  number  of  the  tributary  kings  or  chiefs, 


HO  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

are  expected  to  appear  in  the  capital.  .  .  .  Sometimes  a  chief  who 
suspects  that  he  has  become  obnoxious  to  the  king,  will  not  trust 
himself  in  the  capital  without  the  means  of  defence  or  intimidation." 
Further,  as  showing  how  in  Africa  the  visit  is  a  recognized 
expression  of  subordination,  we  have  the  fact  that  "  it  is  not 
'  etiquette  '  for  the  king  of  Dahomey  to  visit  even  his  high 
est  officers.'7  And  then  Madagascar  and  Siam  yield  in 
stances  in  which  the  political  meaning  of  the  visit  is  shown 
by  making  it  to  a  proxy  ruler.  Ellis  mentions  certain 
Malagasy  chiefs  as  "  going  to  the  residence  of  the  governor, 
to  present  their  homage  to  the  sovereign's  representative, 
according  to  the  custom  of  the  country  at  this  season;" 
and,  speaking  of  the  "  thirteen  other  kings  ??  in  his  domin 
ions  who  every  year  pay  tribute  to  the  king  of  Siam,  Bow- 
ring  quotes  evidence  that  "  formerly  they  used  to  come  to 
the  city  of  Odiaa  to  make  their  sumlaya  (which  was  to  kiss 
the  sword  of  their  Grand  Senor);  and  now,  by  the  Royal 
command,  they  come  to  make  it  before  his  viceroy."  Writ 
ing  in  the  seventeenth  century,  Tavernier  describes  the 
extreme  to  which  this  kind  of  ceremony  was  carried  in  the 
empire  of  the  Mogul.  "  All  those  that  are  at  Court  are 
oblig'd,  under  a  considerable  Penalty,  to  come  twice  every 
day  to  salute  the  King  in  the  Assembly,  once  about  ten  or 
eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  he  renders  justice; 
and  the  second  time  about  six  hours  at  night."  And  such 
scepticism  as  we  might  reasonably  feel  concerning  this 
statement,  is  removed  on  finding  that  at  the  present  time 
in  Jummoo  and  Kashmir,  the  Maharaja  receives  bi-diurnal 
visits  from  "  all  of  a  certain  standing."  Till  lately,  Japan 
furnishes  various  illustrations  of  the  usage  and  its  mean 
ings.  There  was  the  yearly  visit  made  by  the  secular 
monarch  to  the  Mikado,  originally  in  person  and  then  by 
proxy;  there  were  the  yearly  visits  of  the  nobles  to  court— 
the  superior  ones  doing  homage  to  the  emperor  himself  and 
the  inferior  ones  to  his  ministers;  and,  still  more  signifi 
cantly,  there  were  the  recurring  migrations  of  certain  lords, 


VISITS.  HI 

the  Siomio,  who  were  "  allowed  but  six  months  stay  in  their 
hereditary  dominions;  the  other  half-year  they  mnst  spend 
in  the  imperial  capital,  Jedo,  where  their  wives  and  fam 
ilies  are  kept  all  the  year  round  as  hostages  of  their  fidel- 

ity." 

How  in  feudal  Europe  like  customs  arose  from  like 
causes,  the  reader  will  need  only  to  be  reminded.  Periodical 
visits  were  made  by  vassals  to  their  suzerains  and  by  these  to 
their  higher  suzerains — the  kings;  prolonged  residences  at 
places  of  government  grew  out  of  these  periodical  visits ;  and 
the  payment  of  such  visits  having  come  to  be  a  recognized 
expression  of  allegiance,  absence  on  the  appointed  occasions 
was  considered  a  sign  of  insubordination.  As  says  de 
Tocqueville,  giving  an  interpretation  which  partially  recog 
nizes  the  origin  of  the  usage  :— 

"The  abandonment  of  a  country  life  by  the  nobility  [in  France] 
.  .  .  was,  no  doubt,  an  idea  almost  always  pursued  by  the  kings  of 
France,  during  the  three  last  centuries  of  the  monarchy,  to  separate 
the  gentry  from  the  people,  and  to  attract  the  former  to  Court  and  to 
public  employments.  This  was  especially  the  case  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  when  the  nobility  were  still  an  object  of  fear  to  royalty." 
To  which  facts  add  that  among  ourselves  down  to  the  pres 
ent  day,  going  to  court  at  intervals,  expected  specially  of  all 
who  hold  official  positions  above  a  certain  grade,  and  ex 
pected  generally  of  members  of  the  governing  classes,  is 
taken  as  an  expression  of  loyalty;  and  continued  absence  is 
interpreted  as  a  mark  of  disrespect,  bringing  disfavour. 

§  380.  In  the  last  chapter  we  saw  that  to  deceased  persons 
as  well  as  to  living  persons,  propitiatory  presents  are  made. 
"We  have  now  to  observe  that  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other 
visits  are  entailed. 

As  in  primitive  beliefs,  the  powers  of  men's  ghosts  are 
greater  than  were  those  of  the  men  themselves,  it  results 
that  present-making  visits  to  the  dead  begin  even  earlier 
than  do  those  to  the  living.  In  §  83  it  was  shown  that 


112  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

among  the  Irmuits  (Esquimaux),  who  have  no  chiefs,  and 
therefore  no  visits  expressing  political  allegiance,  there  are 
occasional  journeys  with  gifts  to  the  graves  of  departed 
relations.  In  §  85  instances  of  such  periodic  journeys  per 
formed  by  various  peoples,  savage  and  semi-civilized,  were 
given.  And  in  §  14-i  we  saw  how,  in  subsequent  stages, 
these  grow  into  quasi-religious  and  religious  pilgrimages. 

Here,  from  the  usages  of  more  advanced  peoples,  may 
be  given  two  examples  showing  how  close  is  the  relation 
between  these  visits  paid  to  the  deified  and  undeified  dead, 
and  visits  paid  to  the  living.  Describing  the  observances 
on  All  Saints'  Day  in  Spain,  Rose  writes — "  This  festival  is 
observed  for  three  days,  and  .  .  .  the  streets  are  filled  with 
holiday-makers.  Yet  none  of  these  forget  to  walk  down  to 
the  house  of  their  dead,  and  gaze  on  it  with  respect."  And 
then  in  Japan,  where  sacred  and  secular  are  but  little  differ 
entiated,  these  visits  made  to  gods,  ancestors,  superiors,  and 
equals,  are  intimately  associated.  Says  Koempfer:— 

"Their  festivals  and  holidays  are  days  sacred  rather  to  mutual 
compliments  and  civilities,  than  to  acts  of  holiness  and  devotion,  for 
which  reason  they  call  them  also  rebis,  which  implies  as  much  as  vis 
iting  days.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  they  think  it  a  duty  incumbent 
on  them,  on  those  days,  to  go  to  the  temple  of  Tensio  Dai  Sin,  the 
first  and  principal  object  of  their  worship,  and  the  temples  of  their 
other  gods  and  deceased  great  men.  .  .  .  Yet  the  best  part  of  their 
time  is  spent  with  visiting  and  complimenting  their  superiors,  friends, 
and  relations. " 

As  further  proving  how  important  in  super-ceremonious 
Japan  is  the  visit  as  a  mark  of  subordination,  while  it  also 
discloses  a  curious  sequence  from  the  Japanese  theory  that 
their  sacred  monarch  rules  the  other  world  as  well  as  this 
world,  let  me  add  an  extract  showing  that  the  gods  them 
selves  pay  visits. 

"  All  the  other  kamis  or  gods  of  the  country  are  under  an  obliga 
tion  to  visit  him  [the  Mikado,  the  living  kami]  once  a  year,  and  to 
wait  upon  his  sacred  person,  though  in  an  invisible  manner,  during 
the  tenth  month  .  .  .  which  is  by  them  called  Kaminatsuki,  that  is, 


VISITS.  113 

the  month  without  gods  .  .  .  because  the  gods  are  supposed  not  to 
be  at  home  in  their  temples,  but  at  court  waiting  upon  their  Dairi." 

These  and  many  kindred  facts  force  on  us  the  conclusion 
that  from  propitiatory  visits,  now  to  the  living  and  now  to 
the  dead,  have  been  developed  those  visits  of  worship  which 
we  class  as  religious.  When  we  watch  in  a  continental 
cemetery,  relatives  periodically  coming  to  hang  fresh  im 
mortelles  round  tombs,  and  observe  how  the  decayed 
wreaths  on  unvisited  tombs  are  taken  to  imply  lack  of  re 
spect  for  the  dead — when  we  remember  how  in  Catholic 
countries  journeys  are  made  with  kindred  feelings  to  the 
shrines  of  semi-deified  men  called  saints — when  we  note  that 
between  pilgrimages  of  this  kind  and  pilgrimages  made  in 
days  gone  by  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  the  differences  are  sim 
ply  between  the  distances  travelled  and  the  ascribed  degrees 
of  holiness  of  the  places;  we  see  that  the  primitive  man's 
visit  to  the  grave,  where  the  ghost  is  supposed  to  reside,  orig 
inates  the  visit  to  the  temple  regarded  as  the  residence  of  the 
god,  and  that  both  are  allied  to  visits  of  reverence  to  the  liv 
ing.  Remote  as  appear  the  going  to  church  and  the  going  to 
court,  they  are  divergent  forms  of  the  same  thing.  That 
which  once  linked  the  two  has  now  almost  lapsed;  but  we 
need  only  go  back  to  early  times,  when  a  journey  to  the 
abode  of  a  living  superior  had  the  purpose  of  carrying  a 
present,  doing  homage,  and  expressing  submission,  while 
the  journey  to  a  temple  was  made  for  offering  oblations, 
professing  obedience,  uttering  praises,  to  recognize  the 
parallelism.  Before  the  higher  creeds  arose,  the  unseen 
ruler  visited  by  the  religious  worshipper  was  supposed  to  be 
present  in  his  temple,  just  as  much  as  was  the  seen  ruler 
visited  at  his  court;  and  though  now  the  presence  of  the 
unseen  ruler  in  his  temple  is  conceived  in  a  vaguer  way,  he 
is  still  supposed  to  be  in  closer  proximity  than  usual. 

§  381.  As  with  other  ceremonies  so  with  this  ceremony. 
What  begins  as  a  propitiation  of  the  most  powerful  man 


CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

—now  living,  now  dead,  now  apotheosized — extends 
as  a  propitiation  of  men  who  are  less  powerful;  and, 
continuing  to  spread,  finally  becomes  a  propitiation  of 
equals. 

How,  as  tacitly  expressing  subordination,  the  visit  comes 
to  be  looked  for  by  one  who  claims  superiority,  and  to  be 
recognized  as  an  admission  of  inferiority  by  one  who  pays 
it,  is  well  shown  in  a  story  which  Palgrave  narrates.  Fey- 
sul,  king  of  the  Wahhabees,  ordered  his  son  Sa'ood  to  pay  a 
visit  to  Abd- Allah,  an  elder  brother.  "  i  I  am  the  stranger 
guest,  while  he  is  an  inhabitant  of  the  town/  replied 
Sa'ood,  i  and  it  is  accordingly  his  duty  to  call  first  on 
me.'  "  .  .  .  Feysul  entreated  Abd- Allah  "  to  fulfil  the 
obligation  of  a  first  visit.  But  the  elder  son  proved  no  less 
intractable." 

Peoples  in  various  parts  of  the  world  supply  facts  having 
kindred  meanings.  The  old  traveller  Tavernier,  writes  that 
"the  Persians  are  very  much  accustomed  to  make  mutual 
Visits  one  to  another  at  their  solemn  Festivals.  The  more 
noble  sort  stay  at  home  to  expect  the  Visits  of  their  In 
feriors."  So  in  Africa.  Of  a  rich  Indian  trader,  living 
at  Unyanyembe,  Grant  says — "  Moosah  sat  from  morn  till 
night  .  .  .  receiving  salutes  and  compliments  from  the  rich 
and  poor."  Passing  to  Europe  we  have,  in  ancient  Rome, 
the  morning  calls  of  clients  on  their  patrons.  And  in  an  old 
French  book  of  manners  translated  into  English  in  the  sev 
enteenth  century,  we  read — "  A  great  person  is  to  be  visited 
often,  and  his  health  to  be  inquir'd  after." 

These  instances  sufficiently  indicate  that  gradual  de 
scent  of  the  visit  of  ceremony  which  has  finally  brought  it 
down  to  an  ordinary  civility — a  civility  which,  however,  still 
bears  traces  of  its  origin;  since  it  is  regarded  more  as  due 
from  an  inferior  to  a  superior  than  conversely,  and  is  taken 
as  a  condescension  when  paid  by  a  superior  to  an  inferior. 
Evidently  the  morning  call  is  a  remote  sequence  of  that 
system  under  which  a  subordinate  ruler  had  from  time  to 


VISITS.  H5 

time  to  show  loyalty  to^a  chief  ruler  by  presenting  himself 
to  do  homage. 

§  382.  In  this  case  as  in  preceding  cases,  we  have,  lastly, 
to  note  the  relations  between  visit-making  and  types  of 
social  organization. 

That  in  simple  tribes  without  settled  headships,  it  cannot 
become  a  political  ceremony  is  obvious;  and  that  it  begins 
to  prevail  in  societies  compounded  to  the  second  and  third 
degrees,  the  evidence  clearly  shows.  As  before,  however, 
so  now,  we  find  on  grouping  and  comparing  the  facts  that 
it  is  not  so  much  with  the  size  of  the  society  as  with  its 
structure,  that  this  ceremony  is  connected.  Being  one  of 
the  expressions  of  obedience,  it  is  associated  with  develop 
ment  of  the  militant  organization.  Hence  as  proved  by  the 
instances  given,  it  grows  into  a  conspicuous  element  of  cere 
monial  rule  in  nations  which  are  under  those  despotic  forms 
of  government  which  militancy  produces — ancient  Mexico 
and  ancient  Peru  in  the  Xew  World,  China  and  Japan  in 
the  East.  And  the  earlier  stages  of  European  societies  ex 
emplified  the  relation. 

The  converse  relation  is  no  less  manifest.  Among  our 
selves,  characterized  as  we  now  are  by  predominance  of 
industrialism  over  militancy,  the  visit  as  a  manifestation  of 
loyalty  is  no  longer  imperative.  And  in  the  substitution  of 
cards  for  calls,  we  may  observe  a  growing  tendency  to  dis 
pense  with  it  as  a  formality  of  social  intercourse. 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

OBEISANCES. 

§  383.  Concerning  a  party  of  Shoshones  surprised  by 
them,  Lewis  and  Clarke  write — "  Tlie  other  two,  an  elderly 
woman  and  a  litle  girl,  seeing  we  were  too  near  for  them  to 
escape,  sat  on  the  ground,  and  holding  down  their  heads 
seemed  as  if  reconciled  to  the  death  which  they  supposed 
awaited  them.  The  same  habit  of  holding  down  the  head 
and  inviting  the  enemy  to  strike,  when  all  chance  of  escape 
is  gone,  is  preserved  in  Egypt  to  this  day."  Here  we  are 
shown  an  effort  to  propitiate  by  absolute  submission;  and 
from  acts  so  prompted  originate  obeisances. 

When,  at  the  outset,  in  illustration  of  the  truth  that 
ceremony  precedes  not  only  social  evolution  but  human 
evolution,  I  named  the  behaviour  of  a  small  dog  which 
throws  itself  on  its  back  in  presence  of  an  alarming  great 
dog,  probably  many  readers  thought  I  was  putting  on  this 
behaviour  a  forced  construction.  They  would  not  have 
thought  so  had  they  known  that  a  parallel  mode  of  beha 
viour  occurs  among  human  beings.  Livingstone  says  of  the 
Batoka  salutation —  "  they  throw  themselves  on  their  backs 
on  the  ground,  and,  rolling  from  side  to  side,  slap  the  out 
side  of  their  thighs  as  expressions  of  thankfulness  and 
welcome."  The  assumption  of  this  attitude,  which  implies 
— "  You  need  not  subdue  me,  I  am  subdued  already,"  is 
the  best  means  of  obtaining  safety.  Resistance  arouses  the 
destructive  instincts;  and  prostration  on  the  back  nega- 

116 


OBEISANCES.  117 

tives  resistance.  Another  attitude  equally  helpless,  more 
elaborately  displays  subjugation.  "  At  Tonga  Tabu  .  .  . 
the  common  people  show  their  great  chief  .  .  .  the  greatest 
respect  imaginable  by  prostrating  themselves  before  him, 
and  by  putting  his  foot  on  their  necks."  The  like  occurs  in 
Africa.  Laird  says  the  messengers  from  the  king  of  Fundah 
"  each  bent  down  and  put  my  foot  on  their  heads."  And 
among  historic  peoples  this  position,  originated  by  defeat, 
became  a  position  assumed  in  acknowledging  submission. 

From  such  primary  obeisances  representing  completely 
the  attitudes  of  the  conquered  beneath  the  conqueror,  there 
come  obeisances  which  express  in  various  ways  the  subjec 
tion  of  the  slave  to  the  master.  Of  old  in  the  East  this 
subjection  was  expressed  when  "  Ben-hadad's  servants 
girded  sackcloth  on  their  loins,  and  put  ropes  on  their  heads, 
and  came  to  the  king  of  Israel."  In  Peru,  where  the 
militant  type  of  organization  was  pushed  so  far,  a  sign  of 
humility  was  to  have  the  hands  tied  and  a  rope  round  the 
neck.  In  both  cases  there  was  an  assumption  of  those 
bonds  which  originally  marked  captives  brought  from  the 
battle-field.  Along  with  this  mode  of  simulating  slavery 
to  the  Ynca,  another  mode  was  employed.  Servitude  had  to 
be  indicated  by  carrying  a  burden;  and  "  this  taking  up  a 
load  to  enter  the  presence  of  Atahuallpa,  is  a  ceremony 
which  \vas  performed  by  all  the  lords  who  have  reigned  in 
that  land." 

These  extreme  instances  I  give  at  the  outset  by  way  of 
showing  the  natural  genesis  of  the  obeisance  as  a  means  of 
obtaining  mercy ;  first  from  a  victor  and  then  from  a  ruler. 
A  full  conception  of  the  obeisance,  however,  includes  an 
other  element.  In  the  introductory  chapter  it  was  pointed 
out  that  sundry  signs  of  pleasure,  having  a  physio-psycho 
logical  origin,  which  occur  in  presence  of  those  for  whom 
there  is  affection,  pass  into  complimentary  observances;  be 
cause  men  are  pleased  by  supposing  themselves  liked,  and 
are  therefore  pleased  by  demonstrations  of  liking.  So  that 
63 


CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

while  trying  to  propitiate  a  superior  by  expressing  submis 
sion  to  him,  there  is  generally  an  endeavour  further  to  pro 
pitiate  him  by  showing  joy  at  his  presence.  Keeping  in 
view  both  these  elements  of  the  obeisance,  let  us  now  con 
sider  its  varieties;  with  their  political,  religious,  and  social 
uses. 

§  384.  Though  the  loss  of  powder  to  resist  which  prostra 
tion  on  the  face  implies,  does  not  reach  the  utter  defenceless- 
ness  implied  by  prostration  on  the  back,  yet  it  is  great 
enough  to  make  it  a  sign  of  profound  homage;  and  hence 
it  occurs  as  an  obeisance  wherever  despotism  is  unmitigated 
and  subordination  slavish.  In  ancient  America,  before  a 
Chibcha  cazique,  "  people  had  to  appear  prostrate  and  with 
their  faces  touching  the  ground/7  In  Africa,  "  when  he 
addresses  the  king,  a  Borghoo  man  stretches  himself  on  the 
earth  as  flat  as  a  flounder."  Asia  furnishes  many  instances. 
"  When  preferring  a  complaint,  a  Khond  or  Panoo  will 
throw  himself  on  his  face  with  his  hands  joined;  "  and 
while,  in  Siam,  "  before  the  nobles  all  subordinates  are  in  a 
state  of  reverent  prostration,  the  nobles  themselves,  in  the 
presence  of  the  sovereign,  exhibit  the  same  crawling  obei 
sance."  Similarly  in  Polynesia.  Falling  on  the  face  was  a 
mark  of  submission  among  the  Sandwich  Islanders:  the 
king  did  so  to  Cook  when  he  first  met  him.  And  in  the  rec 
ords  of  ancient  historic  peoples  kindred  illustrations  are 
given ;  as  when  Mephibosheth  fell  on  his  face  and  did  rever 
ence  before  David ;  or  as  when  the  king  of  Bithynia  fell  on 
his  face  before  the  Roman  senate.  In  some  cases  this  atti 
tude  of  the  conquered  before  the  conqueror,  has  its  meaning 
emphasized  by  repetition.  Bootan  supplies  an  instance:— 
'  They  .  .  .  made  before  the  Raja  nine  prostrations,  which 
is  the  obeisance  paid  to  him  by  his  subjects  whenever  they 
are  permitted  to  approach." 

Every  kind  of  ceremony  is  apt  to  have  its  primitive 
character   obscured   by   abridgment;  and   by   abridgment 


OBEISANCES.  119 

this  profoundest  of  obeisances  is  rendered  a  less  profound 
one.  In  performing  a  full-length  prostration  there  is 
passed  through  an  attitude  in  which  the  body  is  on  the 
knees  with  the  head  on  the  ground ;  and  to  rise,  it  is  needful 
to  draw  up  the  knees  before  raising  the  head  and  getting 
on  the  feet.  Hence  this  attitude  may  be  considered  as  an 
incomplete  prostration.  It  is  a  very  general  one.  Among 
the  Coast  Negroes,  if  a  native  "  goes  to  visit  his  superior,  or 
meets  him  by  chance,  he  immediately  falls  on  his  knees, 
and  thrice  successively  kisses  the  earth."  In  acknowl- 
ment  of  his  inferiority,  the  king  of  the  Brass  people  never 
spoke  to  the  king  of  the  Ibos  "  without  going  down  on  his 
knees  and  touching  the  ground  with  his  head."  At  Em- 
bomma,  on  the  Congo,  "  the  mode  of  salutation  is  by  gently 
clapping  the  hands,  and  an  inferior  at  the  same  time  goes 
on  his  knees  and  kisses  the  bracelet  on  the  superior's  ancle." 

Often  the  humility  of  this  obeisance  is  increased  by 
emphasizing  the  contact  with  the  earth.  On  the  lower 
Niger,  "  as  a  mark  of  great  respect,  men  prostrate  them 
selves,  and  strike  their  heads  against  the  ground."  When, 
in  past  ages,  the  Emperor  of  Russia  was  crowned,  the  nobil 
ity  did  homage  by  "  bending  down  their  heads,  and  knock 
ing  them  at  his  feet  to  the  very  ground."  In  China  at  the 
present  time,  among  the  eight  kinds  of  obeisances,  increas 
ing  in  humility,  the  fifth  is  kneeling  and  striking  the  head 
on  the  ground ;  the  sixth,  kneeling  and  thrice  knocking  the 
head,  which  again  doubled  makes  the  seventh,  and  trebled, 
the  eighth:  this  last  being  due  to  the  Emperor  and  to 
Heaven.  Among  the  Hebrews,  repetition  had  a  kindred 
meaning.  "  Jacob  bowed  himself  to  the  ground  seven 
timers,  until  he  came  near  to  his  brother." 

Naturally  this  attitude  of  the  conquered  man,  used  by 
the  slave  before  his  master  and  the  subject  before  his  ruler, 
becomes  that  of  the  worshipper  before  his  deity.  We  find 
complete  prostrations  made  whether  the  being  to  be  propiti 
ated  is  visible  or  invisible.  "  Abraham  fell  upon  his  face  " 


120  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

before  God  when  lie  covenanted  with  him;  "  Nebuchadnez 
zar  fell  upon  his  face  and  worshipped  Daniel;  "  and  when 
Nebuchadnezzar  set  up  a  golden  image  there  was  a  threat 
of  death  on  "  whoso  falleth  not  down  and  worshippeth." 
Similarly,  the  incomplete  prostration  in  presence  of  kings 
recurs  in  presence  of  deities.  When  making  obeisances  to 
their  idols,  the  Mongols  touch  the  ground  with  the  forehead. 
The  Japanese  in  their  temples  "  fall  down  upon  their  knees, 
bow  their  head  quite  to  the  ground,  slowly  and  with  great 
humility.'7  And  sketches  of  Mahommedans  at  their  devo 
tions  familiarize  us  with  a  like  attitude. 

§  385.  From  the  positions  of  prostration  on  back  or 
face,  and  of  semi-prostration  on  knees,  we  pass  to  sundry  oth 
ers  ;  which,  however,  continue  to  imply  relative  inability  to 
resist.  In  some  cases  it  is  permissible  to  vary  the  attitude,  as 
in  Dahomey,  where  "  the  highest  officers  lie  before  the  king 
in  the  position  of  Romans  upon  the  triclinium.  At  times 
they  roll  over  upon  their  bellies,  or  relieve  themselves  by 
standing  l  on  all  fours.7  7  Duran  states  that  "  cowering  .  .  . 
was,  with  the  Mexicans,  the  posture  of  respect,  as  with  us  is 
genuflexion.77  Crouching  shows  homage  among  the  New 
Caledonians;  as  it  does  in  Fiji,  and  in  Tahiti. 

Other  changes  in  attitudes  of  this  class  are  entailed  by 
the  necessities  of  locomotion.  In  Dahomey  "  when  ap 
proaching  royalty  they  either  crawl  like  snakes  or  shuffle 
forward  on  their  knees.77  When  changing  their  places  be 
fore  a  superior,  the  Siamese  "  drag  themselves  on  their 
hands  and  knees.77  In  Java  an  inferior  must  "  walk  with 
his  hams  upon  his  heels  until  he  is  out  of  his  superiors 
sight.77  Similarly  with  the  subjects  of  a  Zulu  king — even 
with  his  wives.  And  in  Loango,  extension  of  this  attitude 
to  the  household  appears  not  to  be  limited  to  the  court: 
wives  in  general  "  dare  not  speak  to  them  [their  husbands] 
but  upon  their  bare  knees,  and  in  meeting  them  must  creep 
upon  their  hands.77  A  neighbouring  state  furnishes  an  in- 


OBEISANCES.  121 

stance  of  gradation  in  these  forms  of  partial  prostration ;  and 
a  recognized  meaning  in  the  gradation.  The  Dakro,  a 
woman  who  bears  messages  from  the  Dahoman  King  to  the 
Men,  goes  on  all  fours  before  the  king;  and  "  as  a  rule  she 
goes  on  all  fours  to  the  Men,  and  only  kneels  to  smaller  men, 
who  become  quadrupeds  to  her." 

Here  we  come,  incidentally,  upon  a  further  abridgment 
of  the  original  prostration;  wyhence  results  one  of  the  most 
widely-spread  obeisances.  As  from  the  entirely  prone 
posture  we  pass  to  the  posture  of  the  Mahommedan  worship 
per  with  forehead  on  the  ground ;  so  from  this  we  pass  to  the 
posture  on  all  fours,  and  from  this,  by  raising  the  body,  to 
simple  kneeling.  That  kneeling  is,  and  has  been  in  count 
less  places  and  times,  a  form  of  political  homage,  a  form  of 
domestic  homage,  and  a  form  of  religious  homage,  needs  no 
showing.  We  will  note  only  that  it  is,  and  has  been,  in  all 
cases  associated  with  coercive  government;  as  in  Africa, 
where  "  by  thus  constantly  practising  genuflexion  upon  the 
hard  ground,  their  [the  Dahomans']  knees  in  time  become 
almost  as  hard  as  their  heels;  "  as  in  Japan,  where  "  on 
leaving  the  presence  of  the  Emperor,  officers  walk  back 
wards  on  their  knees;  "  as  in  China,  "  where  the  Viceroy's 
children  ...  as  they  passed  by  their  father's  tent,  fell  on 
their  knees  and  bowed  three  times,  with  their  faces  towards 
the  ground;  "  and  as  in  mediaeval  Europe,  where  serfs  knelt 
to  their  masters  and  feudal  vassals  to  their  suzerains. 

l^ot  dwelling  on  the  transition  from  descent  on  both 
knees  to  descent  on  one  knee,  which,  less  abject,  conies  a 
stage  nearer  the  erect  attitude,  it  will  suffice  to  note  the 
transition  from  kneeling  on  one  knee  to  bending  the  knee. 
That  this  form  of  obeisance  is  an  abridgment,  is  well  shown 
us  by  the  Japanese. 

"  On  meeting,  they  show  respect  by  bending  the  knee;  and  when 
they  wish  to  do  unusual  honour  to  an  individual  they  place  them- 
sel.ves  on  the  knee  and  bow  down  to  the  ground.  But  this  is  never 
done  in  the  streets,  where  they  merely  make  a  motion  as  if  they  were 


122  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

going  to  kneel.  When  they  salute  a  person  of  rank,  they  bend  the 
knee  in  such  a  manner  as  to  touch  the  ground  with  their  fingers." 
\Vo  are  shown  the  same  thing  equally  well,  or  better,  in 
China;  where,  among  the  specified  gradations  of  obei 
sance,  the  third  is  denned  as  bending  the  knee,  and  the 
fourth  as  actual  kneeling.  Manifestly  that  which  still  sur 
vives  among  ourselves  as  the  curtesy  with  the  one  sex,  and 
that  which  until  recently  survived  with  the  other  sex  as  the 
scrape  (made  by  a  backward  sweep  of  the  right  foot),  are 
both  of  them  vanishing  forms  of  the  going  down  011  one 
knee. 

There  remains  only  the  accompanying  bend  of  the  body. 
This,  while  the  first  motion  passed  through  in  making  a 
complete  prostration,  is  also  the  last  motion  that  survives  as 
the  prostration  becomes  stage  by  stage  abridged.  In. 
various  places  we  meet  indications  of  this  transition. 
"  Among  the  Soosoos,  even  the  wives  of  a  great  man,  when 
speaking  to  him,  bend  their  bodies,  and  place  one  hand  upon 
each  knee;  this  is  done  also  when  passing  by."  In  Samoa, 
"  in  passing  through  a  room  where  a  chief  is  sitting,  it  is 
disrespectful  to  walk  erect;  the  person  must  pass  along 
with  his  body  bent  downwards."  Of  the  ancient  Mexicans 
who,  during  an  assembly,  crouched  before  their  chief,  we 
read  that  "  when  they  retired,  it  was  done  with  the  head 
lowered."  And  then  in  the  Chinese  ritual  of  ceremony, 
obeisance  number  two,  less  humble  than  bending  the -knee, 
is  bowing  low  with  the  hands  joined.  Bearing  in  mind 
that  there  are  insensible  transitions  between  the  humble 
salaam  of  the  Hindoo,  the  profound  bow  which  in  Europe 
shows  great  respect,  and  the  moderate  bend  of  the  head 
expressive  of  consideration,  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  famil 
iar  and  sometimes  scarcely-perceptible  nod,  is  the  last  trace 
of  the  prostration. 

These  several  abridgments  of  the  prostration  which 
we  see  occur  in  doing  political  homage  and  social  hom 
age,  occur  also  in  doing  religious  homage.  Of  the  Con- 


OBEISANCES.  123 

goese  Bastian  says  that  when  they  have  to  speak  to  a  supe 
rior — 

"They  kneel,  turn  the  face  half  aside,  and  stretch  out  the  hands 
towards  the  person  addressed,  which  they  strike  together  at  every 
address.  They  might  have  sat  as  models  to  the  Egyptian  priests 
when  making  the  representations  on  the  temple  walls,  so  striking  is 
the  resemblance  between  what  is  represented  there  and  what  actually 
takes  place  here." 

And  we  may  note  kindred  parallelisms  in  European  relig 
ious  observances.  There  is  the  going  on  both  knees  and  the 
going  on  one  knee ;  and  there  are  the  bowings  and  curtesy- 
ings  on  certain  occasions  at  the  name  of  Christ. 

§  386.  As  already  explained,  along  with  the  act  express 
ing  humility,  the  complete  obeisance  includes  some  act  ex 
pressing  gratification.  To  propitiate  the  superior  effectually 
it  is  needful  at  once  to  imply — "  I  am  your  slave/'  and — 
"  I  love  you." 

Certain  of  the  instances  cited  above  have  exemplified 
the  union  of  these  two  factors.  Along  with,  the  attitude  of 
abject  submission  assumed  by  the  Batoka,  we  saw  that 
there  go  rhythmic  blows  of  the  hands  against  the  thighs. 
In  some  of  the  cases  named,  clapping  of  the  hands,  also 
indicating  joy,  was  described  as  being  an  accompaniment  of 
movements  showing  subjection;  and  many  others  may  be 
added.  Nobles  who  approach  the  king  of  Loango,  "  clap 
their  hands  two  or  three  times,  and  then  cast  themselves  at 
his  majesty's  feet  into  the  sand."  Speke  says  of  certain 
attendants  of  the  king  of  Uganda,  that  they  "  threw 
themselves  in  line  upon  their  bellies,  and,  wriggling  like 
fish  .  .  .  whilst  they  continued  floundering,  kicking  about 
their  legs,  rubbing  their  faces,  and  patting  their  hands 
upon  the  ground."  Going  on  their  knees  to  superiors,  the 
Balonda  "  continue  the  salutation  of  clapping  the  hands 
until  the  great  ones  have  passed;  "  and  a  like  use  of  the 
hands  occurs  in  Dahomey.  A  further  rhythmical 


CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

movement  having  like  meaning  must  be  added.  Already 
we  have  seen  that  jumping,  as  a  natural  sign  of  delight,  is  a 
friendly  salute  among  the  Fuegians,  and  that  it  recurs  in 
Loango  as  a  mark  of  respect  to  the  king.  Africa  furnishes 
another  instance.  Grant  narrates  that  the  king  of  Karague 
"  received  the  salutations  of  his  people,  who,  one  by  one, 
shrieked  and  sprang  in  front  of  him,  swearing  allegiance." 
Let  such  saltatory  movements  be  systematized,  as  they  are 
likely  to  be  during  social  progress,  and  they  will  constitute 
the  dancing  with  which  a  ruler  is  sometimes  saluted;  as  in 
the  before-named  case  of  the  king  of  Bogota,  and  as  in  the 
case  Williams  gives  in  his  account  of  Fiji,  where  an  inferior 
chief  and  his  suite,  entering  the  royal  presence,  "  per 
formed  a  dance,  which  they  finished  by  presenting  their 
clubs  and  upper  dresses  to  the  Somo-Somo  king." 

Of  the  other  simulated  signs  of  pleasure  commonly 
forming  part  of  the  obeisance,  kissing  is  the  most  conspicu 
ous.  This,  of  course,  has  to  take  such  form  as  consists  with, 
the  humility  of  the  prostration  or  kindred  attitude.  As 
shown  in  certain  foregoing  instances,  we  have  kissing  the 
earth  when  the  superior  cannot  be  approached  close  enough 
for  kissing  the  feet  or  the  garment.  Others  may  be  added. 
"  It  is  the  custom  at  Eboe,  when  the  king  is  out,  and  indeed 
indoors  as  well,  for  the  principal  people  to  kneel  on  the 
ground  and  kiss  it  three  times  when  he  passes;  "  and  the 
ancient  Mexican  ambassadors,  on  coming  to  Cortes,  "  first 
touched  the  ground  with  their  hands  and  then  kissed  it." 
This,  in  the  ancient  East,  expressed  submission  of  con 
quered  to  conqueror;  and  is  said  to  have  gone  as  far  as  kiss 
ing  the  footmarks  of  the  conqueror's  horse.  Abyssinia, 
where  the  despotism  is  extreme  and  the  obeisances  servile, 
supplies  a  modification.  In  Shoa,  kissing  the  nearest  inani 
mate  object  belonging  to  a  superior  or  a  benefactor,  is  a 
sign  of  respect  and  thanks.  From  this  we  pass  to 

licking  the  feet  and  kissing  the  feet.  Of  a  Malagasy  chief 
Drury  says — "  he  had  scarcely  seated  himself  at  his  door, 


OBEISANCES.  125 

when  his  wife  came  out  crawling  on  her  hands  and  knees 
till  she  came  to  him,  and  then  licked  his  feet  ...  all  the 
women  in  the  town  saluted  their  husbands  in  the  same  man 
ner.''  Slaves  did  the  like  to  their  masters.  So  in  ancient 
Peru,  "when  the  chiefs  came  before  [ Atahuallpa] ,  they 
made  great  obeisances,  kissing  his  feet  and  hands."  Egyp 
tian  wall-paintings  represent  this  extreme  homage;  and  in 
Assyrian  records  Sennacherib  mentions  that  Menahem 
of  Samaria  came  up  to  bring  presents  and  to  kiss  his  feet. 
"  Kissing  his  feet  "  was  part  of  the  reverence  shown  to 
Christ  by  the  woman  with  the  box  of  ointment.  At  the 
present  day  among  the  Arabs,  inferiors  kiss  the  feet,  the 
knees,  or  the  garments  of  their  superiors.  Kissing  the 
Sultan's  feet  is  a  usage  in  Turkey;  and  Sir  R.  K.  Porter 
narrates  that  in  acknowledgment  of  a  present,  a  Persian 
"  threw  himself  on  the  ground,  kissed  mv  knees  and  my 
feet." 

Kissing  the  hand  is  a  less  humiliating  observance  than 
kissing  the  feet;  mainly,  perhaps,  because  it  does  not  in 
volve  a  prostration.  This  difference  of  implication  is  recog 
nized  in  regions  remote  from  one  another.  In  Tonga, 
"  when  a  person  salutes  a  superior  relation,  he  kisses  the 
hand  of  the  party ;  if  a  very  superior  relation,  he  kisses  the 
foot."  And  the  women  who  wait  on  the  Arabian  princesses, 
kiss  their  hands  when  they  do  them  the  favour  not  to  suffer 
them  to  kiss  their  feet  or  the  borders  of  their  robes.  The 
prevalence  of  this  obeisance  as  expressing  loving  submis 
sion,  is  so  great  as  to  render  illustration  superfluous. 

What  is  implied,  where,  instead  of  kissing  another's 
hand,  the  person  making  the  obeisance  kisses  his  own  hand? 
Does  the  one  symbolize  the  other,  as  being  the  nearest  ap 
proach  to  it  possible  under  the  circumstances?  This  ap 
pears  a  hazardous  inference;  but  there  is  evidence  justify 
ing  it.  D'Arvieux  says — 

"An  oriental  pays  his  respects  to  a  person  of  superior  station  by 
kissing  his  hand  and  putting  it  to  his  forehead ;  but  if  the  superior  be 


126  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

of  a  condescending  temper,  he  will  snatch  away  his  hand  as  soon  as 
the  other  has  touched  it ;  then  the  inferior  puts  his  own  fingers  to  his 
lips  and  afterwards  to  his  forehead." 

This,  I  think,  makes  it  clear  that  the  common  custom  of 
kissing  the  hand  to  another,  originally  expressed  the  wish, 
or  the  willingness,  to  kiss  his  hand. 

Here,  as  before,  the  observance,  beginning  as  a  spon 
taneous  propitiation  of  conqueror  by  conquered,  of  master 
by  slave,  of  ruler  by  ruled,  early  passes  into  a  religious  pro 
pitiation  also.  To  the  ghost,  and  to  the  deity  developed 
from  the  ghost,  these  actions  of  love  and  liking  are  used. 
That  embracing  and  kissing  of  the  lower  extremities,  which 
was  among  the  Hebrews  an  obeisance  to  the  living  person, 
Egyptian  wall-paintings  represent  as  an  obeisance  made  to 
the  mummy  enclosed  in  its  case;  and  then,  in  pursuance  of 
this  action,  we  have  kissing  the  feet  of  statues  of  gods  in 
pagan  Rome  and  of  holy  images  among  Christians.  An 
cient  Mexico  furnished  an  instance  of  the  transition  from 
kissing  the  ground  as  a  political  obeisance,  to  a  modified  kiss 
ing  the  ground  as  a  religious  obeisance.  Describing  an  oath 
Clavigero  says — "  Then  naming  the  principal  god,  or  any 
other  they  particularly  reverenced,  they  kissed  their  hand, 
after  having  touched  the  earth  with  it."  In  Peru  "  the 
manner  of  worship  was  to  open  the  hands,  to  make  some 
noise  with  the  lips  as  of  kissing,  and  to  ask  what  they 
wished,  at  the  same  time  offering  the  sacrifice;  "  and  Garci- 
lasso,  describing  the  libation  to  the  Sun,  adds — "  At  the 
same  time  they  kissed  the  air  two  or  three  times,  which 
.  .  .  was  a  token  of  adoration  among  these  Indians."  ^Kor 
have  European  races  failed  to  furnish  kindred  facts.  Kiss 
ing  the  hand  to  the  statue  of  a  god  was  a  Roman  form  of 
adoration. 

Once  more,  saltatory  movements,  which  being  natural 
expressions  of  delight  become  complimentary  acts  before 
a  visible  ruler,  become  acts  of  worship  before  an  invisible 
ruler.  David  danced  before  the  ark.  Dancing  wras 


OBEISANCES.  127 

originally  a  religions  ceremony  among  the  Greeks:  from 
the  earliest  times  the  u  worship  of  Apollo  was  connected 
with  a  religious  dance."  King  Pepin,  "  like  King  David, 
forgetful  of  the  regal  purple,  in  his  joy  bedewed  his  costly 
robes  with  tears,  and  danced  before  the  relics  of  the  blessed 
martyr."  And  in  the  Middle  Ages  there  were  religious 
dances  in  churches;  as  there  are  still  in  Christian  churches 
at  Jerusalem. 

§  387.  To  interpret  another  scries  of  observances  we 
must  go  back  to  the  prostration  in  its  original  form.  I  refer 
to  those  expressions  of  submission  which  are  made  by  put 
ting  dust  or  ashes  on  some  part  of  the  body. 

Men  cannot  roll  over  in  the  sand  in  front  of  their  king, 
or  crawl  before  him,  or  repeatedly  knock  their  heads  against 
the  ground,  without  soiling  themselves.  Hence  the  adher 
ing  dirt  is  recognized  as  a  concomitant  mark  of  subjection; 
and  comes  to  be  gratuitously  assumed,  and  artificially  in 
creased,  in  the  anxiety  to  propitiate.  Already  the  associa 
tion  between  this  act  and  the  act  of  prostration  has  been  in 
cidentally  exemplified  by  cases  from  Africa;  and  Africa 
furnishes  other  cases  which  exemplify  more  fully  this  self- 
defiling  as  a  distinct  form.  "  In  the  Congo  regions  prostra 
tion  is  made,  the  earth  is  kissed,  and  dust  is  strewed  over  the 
forehead  and  arms,  before  every  Banza  or  village  chief;  " 
and  Burton  adds  that  the  Dahoman  salutation  consists  of 
two  actions — prostration  and  pouring  sand  or  earth  upon 
the  head.  Similarly  "  in  saluting  a  stranger,  they  [the 
Kakanda  people  on  the  Niger]  stoop  almost  to  the  earth, 
throwing  dust  on  their  foreheads  several  times."  And 
among  the  Balonda, 

"The  inferiors,  on  meeting  their  superiors  in  the  street,  at  once 
drop  on  their  knees  and  rub  dust  on  their  arms  and  chest.  .  .  .  Dur 
ing  an  oration  to  a  person  commanding  respect,  the  speaker  every 
two  or  three  seconds  '  picked  up  a  little  sand,  and  rubbing  it  on  the 
upper  part  of  his  arms  and  chest.'  .  .  .  When  they  wish  to  be  exces- 


128  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

sively  polite,  they  bring  a  quantity  of  ashes  or  pipeclay  in  a  piece  of 
skin,  and,  taking  up  handfuls,  rub  it  on  the  chest  and  upper  front 
part  of  each  arm." 

Moreover,  we  are  shown  how  in  this  case,  as  in  all  other 
cases,  the  ceremony  undergoes  abridgment.  Of  these  same 
Balonda,  Livingstone  says,  "  the  chiefs  go  through  the 
manoeuvre  of  rubbing  the  sand  on  the  arms,  but  only  make 
a  feint  of  picking  up  some.'7  On  the  Lower  Niger,  the 
people  when  making  prostrations  "  cover  them  [their 
heads]  repeatedly  with  sand;  or  at  all  events  they  go 
through  the  motion  of  doing  so.  Women,  on  perceiving 
their  friends,  kneel  immediately,  and  pretend  to  pour  sand 
alternately  over  each  arm."  In  Asia  this  ceremony  was, 
and  still  is,  performed  with  like  meaning.  As  expressing 
political  humiliation  it  was  adopted  by  the  priests  who,  when 
going  to  implore  Floras  to  spare  the  Jews,  appeared  "  with 
dust  sprinkled  in  great  plenty  upon  their  heads,  with  bosoms 
deprived  of  any  covering  but  what  was  rent."  In  Turkey, 
abridgments  of  the  obeisance  may  yet  be  witnessed.  At  a 
review,  even  officers  on  horseback,  saluting  their  superiors, 
"  go  through  the  form  of  throwing  dust  over  their  heads;  " 
and  when  a  caravan  of  pilgrims  started,  spectators  "  went 
through  the  pantomime  of  throwing  dirt  over  their  heads." 
Hebrew  records  prove  that  this  sign  of  submission  made 
before  visible  persons,  was  made  before  invisible  persons 
also.  Along  writh  those  blood-lettings  and  markings  of  the 
flesh  and  cuttings  of  the  hair  which,  at  funerals,  were  used 
to  propitiate  the  ghost,  there  went  the  putting  of  ashes  on 
the  head.  The  like  was  done  to  propitiate  the  deity;  as 
when  "  Joshua  rent  his  clothes,  and  fell  to  the  earth  upon 
his  face  before  the  ark  of  the  Lord  until  the  eventide,  he 
and  the  elders  of  Israel,  and  put  dust  upon  their  heads." 
Even  still  this  usage  occurs  among  Catholics  on  occasions  of 
special  humiliation. 

§  388.  We  must  again  return  to  that  original  obeisance 
which   first    actually    is,   and  then   which   simulates,   the 


OBEISANCES.  129 

attitude  of  the  conquered  before  the  conqueror,  to  find  the 
clue  to  certain  further  movements  signifying  submission. 
As  described  in  a  foregoing  paragraph,  the  supplicating 
Khond  "  throws  himself  on  his  face  with  hands  joined." 
Whence  this  attitude  of  the  hands  ? 

From  the  usages  of  the  people  among  whom  submission 
and  all  marks  of  it  were  carried  to  great  extremes,  an  in 
stance  has  already  been  given  indicating  the  genesis  of 
this  action.  A  sign  of  humility  in  ancient  Peru  was  to  have 
the  hands  bound  and  a  rope  round  the  neck:  the  condition 
of  captives  was  simulated.  Did  there  need  proof  that  it 
has  been  a  common  practice  to  make  prisoners  of  war  de 
fenceless  by  tying  their  hands,  I  might  begin  with  Assyrian 
wall-sculptures,  in  which  men  thus  bound  are  represented; 
but  the  fact  that  among  ourselves,  men  charged  with  crimes 
are  hand-cuffed  by  the  police  when  taken,  shows  how 
naturally  suggested  is  this  method  of  rendering  prisoners 
impotent.  And  for  concluding  that  bound  hands  hence 
came  to  be  an  adopted  mark  of  subjection,  further  reason 
is  furnished  by  two  strange  customs  found  in  Africa  and 
Asia  respectively.  When  the  king  of  Uganda  returned 
the  visit  of  captains  Speke  and  Grant,  "  his  brothers,  a  mob 
of  little  ragamuffins,  several  in  hand-cuffs,  sat  behind  him. 
...  It  was  said  that  the  king,  before  coming  to  the  throne, 
always  went  about  in  irons,  as  his  small  brothers  now  do." 
And  then,  among  the  Chinese,  "  on  the  third  day  after  the 
birth  of  a  child  .  .  .  the  ceremony  of  binding  its  wrists  is 
observed.  .  .  .  These  things  are  worn  till  the  child  is 
fourteen  days  old  .  .  .  sometimes  .  .  .  for  several  months,  or 
even  for  a  year.  ...  It  is  thought  that  such  a  tying  of  the 
wrists  will  tend  to  keep  the  child  from  being  troublesome  in 
after  life." 

Such  indications  of  its  origin,  joined  with  such  examples 
of  derived  practices,  force  on  us  the  inference  that  raising 
the -joined  hands  as  part  of  that  primitive  obeisance  signi 
fying  absolute  submission,  was  an  offering  of  the  hands  to 


130  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

be  bound.  The  above-described  attitude  of  the  Khond  ex 
hibits  the  proceeding  in  its  original  form;  and  on  reading 
in  Hue  that  "  the  Mongul  hunter  saluted  us,  with  his 
clasped  hands  raised  to  his  forehead/7  or  in  Drury  that  when 
the  Malagasy  approach  a  great  man,  they  hold  the  hands 
up  in  a  supplicatory  form,  we  cannot  doubt  that  this  act 
now  expresses  reverence  because  it  originally  implied  sub 
jugation.  Of  the  Siamese,  La  Loubere  says — "  If  you 
extend  your  hand  to  a  Siamese,  to  place  it  in  his,  he  carries 
both  his  hands  to  yours,  as  if  to  place  himself  entirely  in 
your  power."  That  presentation  of  the  joined  hands  has  the 
meaning  here  suggested,  is  elsewhere  shown.  In  Unyan- 
yembe,  "  when  two  of  them  meet,  the  Wezee  puts  both  his 
palms  together,  these  are  gently  clasped  by  the  Watusi " 
[a  man  of  more  powerful  race]  ;  and  in  Sumatra,  the  obei 
sance  "  consists  in  bending  the  body,  and  the  inferior's 
putting  his  joined  hands  between  those  of  the  superior,  and 
then  lifting  them  to  his  forehead."  By  these  instances  we 
are  reminded  that  a  kindred  act  was  once  a  form  of  submis 
sion  in  Europe.  When  doing  homage,  the  vassal,  on  his 
knees,  placed  his  joined  hands  between  the  hands  of  his 
suzerain. 

As  in  foregoing  cases,  'an  attitude  signifying  defeat  and 
therefore  political  subordination,  becomes  an  attitude  of 
religious  devotion.  By  the  Mahommedan  worshipper  we 
are  shown  that  same  clasping  of  the  hands  above  the  head 
which  expresses  reverence  for  a  living  superior.  Among 
the  Greeks,  "  the  Olympian  gods  were  prayed  to  in  an  up 
right  position  with  raised  hands;  the  marine  gods  with 
hands  held  horizontally;  the  gods  of  Tartarus  with  hands 
held  down."  And  the  presentation  of  the  hands  joined 
palm  to  palm,  once  throughout  Europe  required  from  an 
inferior  when  professing  obedience  to  a  superior,  is  still 
taught  to  children  as  the  attitude  of  prayer. 

A  kindred  use  of  the  hands  descends  into  social  inter 
course;  and  in  the  far  East  the  filiation  continues  to  be 


OBEISANCES.  131 

clear.  "  "When  the  Siamese  salute  one  another,  they  join 
the  hands,  raising  them  before  the  face  or  above  the 
head."  Of  the  eight  obeisances  in  China,  the  least  pro 
found  is  that  of  putting  the  hands  together  and  raising  them 
before  the  breast.  Even  among  ourselves  a  remnant  of 
this  action  is  traceable.  An  obsequious  shopman  or  fussy 
innkeeper,  may  be  seen  to  join  and  loosely  move  the 
slightly  raised  hands  one  over  another,  in  a  way  sug 
gestive  of  derivation  from  this  primitive  sign  of  sub 
mission. 

§  389.  A  group  of  obeisances  having  a  connected, 
though  divergent,  root,  come  next  to  be  dealt  with.  Those 
which  we  have  thus  far  considered  do  not  directly  affect  the 
subject  person's  dress.  But  from  modifications  of  dress, 
either  in  position,  state,  or  kind,  a  series  of  ceremonial  ob 
servances  result. 

The  conquered  man,  prostrate  before  his  conqueror,  and 
becoming  himself  a  possession,  simultaneously  loses  posses 
sion  of  whatever  things  he  has  about  him;  and  therefore, 
surrendering  his  weapons,  he  also  yields  up,  if  the  victor 
demands  it,  whatever  part  of  his  dress  is  worth  taking. 
Hence  the  nakedness,  partial  or  complete,  of  the  captive, 
becomes  additional  evidence  of  his  subjugation.  That  it 
was  so  regarded  of  old  in  the  East,  there  is  clear  proof.  In 
Isaiah  xx.  2 — 4,  we  read —  "  And  the  Lord  said,  like  as  my 
servant  Isaiah  hath  walked  naked  and  barefoot  three  years 
for  a  sign  ...  so  shall  the  king  of  Assyria  lead  away  the 
Egyptians  prisoners,  and  the  Ethiopians  captives,  young 
and  old,  naked  and  barefoot."  And  that  the  Assyrians 
completely  stripped  their  captives  is  shown  by  their  sculp 
tures.  Nay,  even  our  own  days  furnish  evidence ;  as  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Afghan  war,  when  the  Afreedees  were 
reported  to  have  stripped  certain  prisoners  they  had  taken. 
Naturally,  then,  the  taking  off  and  yielding  up  of  cloth 
ing  becomes  a  mark  of  political  submission,  and  in  some 


132  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

cases  even  a  complimentary  observance.  In  Fiji,  on  the 
day  for  paying  tribute — 

' '  The  chief  of  Somo  Somo,  who  had  previously  stripped  off  his 
robes,  then  sat  down,  and  removed  even  the  train  or  covering,  which 
was  of  immense  length,  from  his  waist.  He  gave  it  to  the  speaker," 
who  gave  him  ' '  in  return  a  piece  large  enough  only  for  the  purposes 
of  decency.  The  rest  of  the  Somo-Sonio  chiefs,  each  of  whom  on 
coming  on  the  ground  had  a  train  of  several  yards  in  length,  stripped 
themselves  entirely,  left  their  trains,  and  walked  away  .  .  .  thus 
leaving  all  the  Somo-Somo  people  naked," 

Further  we  read  that  during  Cook's  stay  at  Tahiti,  two  men 
of  superior  rank  "  came  on  board,  and  each  singled  out  his 
friend  .  .  .  this  ceremony  consisted  in  taking  off  great  part 
of  their  clothes  and  putting  them  upon  us."  And  then  in 
another  Polynesian  island,  Samoa,  this  complimentary  act 
is  greatly  abridged:  only  the  girdle  is  presented. 

With  such  facts  to  give  us  the  clue,  we  can  scarcely 
doubt  that  surrender  of  clothing  originates  those  obeisances 
which  are  made  by  uncovering  the  body,  more  or  less  exten 
sively.  All  degrees  of  uncovering  have  this  meaning. 
From  Ibn  Batuta's  account  of  his  journey  into  the  Soudan, 
Mr.  Tylor  cites  the  statement  that  "  women  may  only  come 
unclothed  into  the  presence  of  the  Sultan  of  Melli,  and  even 
the  Sultan's  own  daughters  must  conform  to  the  custom;  " 
and  what  doubt  we  might  reasonably  feel  as  to  the  existence 
of  an  obeisance  thus  carried  to  its  original  extreme,  is  re 
moved  on  reading  in  Speke  that  at  the  present  time,  at  the 
court  of  Uganda,  "  stark-naked,  full-grown  women  are  the 
valets."  Elsewhere  in  Africa  an  incomplete,  though  still 
considerable,  unclothing  as  an  obeisance  occurs.  In 
Abyssinia  inferiors  bare  their  bodies  down  to  the  girdle  in 
presence  of  superiors;  "  but  to  equals  the  corner  of  the 
cloth  is  removed  only  for  a  time."  The  like  occurs  in  Poly 
nesia.  The  Tahitians  uncover  "  the  body  as  low  as  the 
waist,  in  the  presence  of  the  king;  "  and  in  the  Society 
Isles  generally,  "  the  lower  ranks  of  people,  by  way  of  re 
spect,  strip  off  their  upper  garment  in  the  presence  of  their  " 


OBEISANCES.  133 

principal  chiefs.  How  this  obeisance  becomes  further 
abridged,  and  how  it  becomes  extended  to  other  persons 
than  rulers,  is  shown  by  natives  of  the  Gold  Coast. 

"  They  also  salute  Europeans,  and  sometimes  each  other,  by  slight 
ly  removing  their  robe  from  their  left  shoulder  with  the  light  hand, 
gracefully  bowing  at  the  same  time.  When  they  wish  to  be  very  re 
spectful,  they  uncover  the  shoulder  altogether,  and  support  the  robe 
under  the  arm,  the  whole  of  the  person  from  the  breast  upwards 
being  left  exposed." 

And  Burton  says  that,  "  throughout  Yoruba  and  the  Gold 
Coast,  to  bare  the  shoulders  is  like  unhatting  in  England." 

Evidently  uncovering  the  head,  thus  suggestively  com 
pared  with  uncovering  the  upper  part  of  the  body,  has  the 
same  original  meaning.  Even  in  certain  European  usages 
the  relation  between  the  two  has  been  recognized;  as  by 
Ford,  who  remarks  that  "  uncloaking  in  Spain  is  ... 
equivalent  to  our  taking  off  the  hat."  It  is  recognized 
in  Africa  itself,  where,  as  in  Dahomey,  the  two  are  joined: 
"  the  men  bared  their  shoulders,  doffing  their  caps  and 
large  umbrella  hats,"  says  Burton,  speaking  of  his  recep 
tion.  It  is  recognized  in  Polynesia,  where,  as  in  Tahiti, 
along  with  the  stripping  down  to  the  waist  before  the  king, 
there  goes  uncovering  of  the  head.  Hence  it  seems  that 
removal  of  the  hat  among  European  peoples,  often  reduced 
among  ourselves  to  touching  the  hat,  is  a  remnant  of  that 
process  of  unclothing  himself,  by  which,  in  early  times,  the 
captive  expressed  the  yielding  up  of  all  he  had. 

That  baring  the  feet  has  the  same  origin,  is  well  shown 
by  these  same  Gold  Coast  natives;  for  while  they  partially 
bare  the  upper  part  of  the  body,  they  also  take  off  their 
sandals  "  as  a  mark  of  respect:  "  they  begin  to  strip  the 
body  at  both  ends.  Throughout  ancient  America  uncov- 
,ering  the  feet  had  a  like  meaning.  In  Peru,  "  no  lord, 
however  great  he  might  be,  entered  the  presence  of  the 
Ynca  in  rich  clothing,  but  in  humble  attire  and  barefoot 
ed;  "  and  in  Mexico,  "  the  kings  who  were  vassals  of  Monte- 
67 


134  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

zuma  were  obliged  to  take  off  their  shoes  when  they  came 
into  his  presence:  "  the  significance  of  this  act  being  so 
great  that  as  "  Michoacan  was  independent  of  Mexico,  the 
sovereign  took  the  title  of  cazonzi — that  is,  '  shod.7  '  Kin 
dred  accounts  of  Asiatics  have  made  the  usage  familiar 
to  us.  In  Burmah,  "  even  in  the  streets  and  highways,  a 
European,  if  he  meets  with  the  king,  or  joins  his  party,  is 
obliged  to  take  off  his  shoes."  And  in  Persia,  every  one 
who  approaches  the  royal  presence  must  bare  his  feet. 

Verification  of  these  interpretations  is  yielded  by  the 
equally  obvious  interpretations  of  certain  usages  which  we 
similarly  meet  with  in  societies  where  extreme  expressions 
of  subjection  are  required.  I  refer  to  the  appearing  in  pres 
ence  of  rulers  dressed  in  coarse  clothing — the  clothing  of 
slaves.  In  Mexico,  whenever  Montezuma's  attendants 
"  entered  his  apartments,  they  had  first  to  take  off  their  rich 
costumes  and  put  on  meaner  garments."  In  Peru,  along 
with  the  rule  that  a  subject  should  appear  before  the  Ynca 
with  a  burden  on  his  back,  simulating  servitude,  and  along 
with  the  rule  that  he  should  be  barefooted,  further 
simulating  servitude,  there  went,  as  we  have  seen,  the  rule 
that  "  no  lord,  however  great  he  might  be,  entered  the 
presence  of  the  Ynca  in  rich  clothing,  but  in  humble  attire," 
again  simulating  servitude.  A  kindred  though  less  ex 
treme  usage  exists  in  Dahomey:  the  highest  subjects  may 
"  ride  on  horseback,  be  carried  in  hammocks,  wear  silk, 
maintain  a  numerous  retinue,  with  large  umbrellas  of  their 
own  order,  flags,  trumpets,  and  other  musical  instruments; 
but,  on  their  entrance  at  the  royal  gate,  all  these  insignia  are 
laid  aside."  Even  in  mediaeval  Europe,  submission  was  ex 
pressed  by  taking  off  those  parts  of  the  dress  and  appendages 
which  were  inconsistent  with  the  appearance  of  servitude. 
Thus,  in  France,  in  1467,  the  head  men  of  the  town,  surren 
dering  to  a  victorious  duke,  "  brought  to  his  camp  with  them 
three  hundred  of  the  best  citizens  in  their  shirts,  barehead 
ed,  and  barelegged,  who  presented  the  keies  of  the  citie  to 


OBEISANCES.  135 

him,  and  yielded  themselves  to  his  mercy/'  And  the  doing 
of  feudal  homage  included  observances  of  kindred  meaning. 
Saint  Simon,  describing  one  of  the  latest  instances,  and 
naming  among  ceremonies  gone  through  the  giving  up  of 
belt,  sword,  gloves,  and  hat,  says  that  this  was  done  "  to 
strip  the  vassal  of  his  marks  of  dignity  in  the  presence  of 
his  lord."  So  that  wThether  it  be  the  putting  on  of  coarse 
clothing  or  the  putting  off  of  fine  clothing,  the  meaning  is 
the  same. 

Observances  of  this  kind,  like  those  of  other  kinds,  ex 
tend  themselves  from  the  feared  being  who  is  visible  to  the 
feared  being  who  is  invisible — the  ghost  and  the  god.  On 
remembering  that  by  the  Hebrews,  putting  on  sackcloth 
and  ashes  was  joined  with  cutting  the  hair,  self -bleeding, 
and  making  marks  on  the  body,  to  propitiate  the  ghost — on 
reading  that  the  habit  continues  in  the  East,  so  that  a 
mourning  lady  described  by  Mr.  Salt,  was  covered  with 
sackcloth  and  sprinkled  with  ashes,  and  so  that  Burckhardt 
"  saw  the  female  relations  of  a  deceased  chief  running 
through  all  the  principal  streets,  their  bodies  half  naked, 
and  the  little  clothing  they  had  on  being  rags,  while  the 
head,  face,  and  breast,"  were  "  almost  entirely  covered  with 
ashes;  "  it  becomes  clear  that  the  semi-nakedness,  the  torn 
garments,  and  the  coarse  garments,  expressing  submission 
to  a  living  superior,  serve  also  to  express  submission  to  one 
who,  dying  and  becoming  a  supernatural  being,  has  so  ac 
quired  a  power  that  is  dreaded.*  This  inference  is  con- 

*  For  the  use  of  coarse  and  dingy  fabrics  in  mourning  by  Hebrews,  Greek?, 
and  Romans,  and  of  inferior  clothing  by  numerous  peoples,  two  causes,  both 
resulting  from  ghost-propitiation,  appear  to  act  separately  or  jointly.  One  is 
the  sacrifice  of  clothes,  often  the  best,  at  the  grave  of  the  dead  man,  of  which 
instances  were  given  in  §  103  ;  and  in  further  exemplification  of  which  maybe 
named  Mr.  Willard's  account  of  a  funeral  in  a  Californian  tribe,  the  Sen-e"l, 
among  whom,  by  a  man,  a  "  quite  new  and  fine  "  coat,  and  by  women,  "  their 
gaudiest  dresses  "  were  thrown  on  the  pyre  ;  or  the  account  by  Young  of  the 
Blackfeet,  who,  on  such  occasions,  divested  "  themselves  of  clothing  even  in  the 
coldest  weather." — (Dr.  II.  C.  Yarrow's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Mortuary 


136  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

firmed  on  observing  that  like  acts  become  acts  of  religious 
subordination.  Isaiah,  himself  setting  the  example,  ex 
horts  the  rebellious  Israelites  to  make  their  peace  with  Jah- 
veh  in  the  words — "  Strip  you,  and  make  you  bare,  and  gird 
sackcloth  upon  your  loins. "  So,  too,  the  fourscore  men 
who  came  from  Shechem,  Shiloh,  and  Samaria,  to  propitiate 
Jahveh,  besides  cutting  their  hair  and  gashing  themselves, 
tore  their  clothes.  Nor  does  the  parallelism  fail 

with  baring  the  feet.  This  was  a  sign  of  mourning  among 
the  Hebrews ;  as  is  shown  by  the  command  in  Ezekiel  (xxiv. 
17),  "  Forbear  to  cry,  make  no  mourning  for  the  dead,  bind 
the  tire  of  thine  head  upon  thee,  and  put  on  thy  shoes  upon 
thy  feet."  And  then,  among  the  Hebrews,  putting  off  the 
shoes  was  also  an  act  of  worship.  Elsewhere,  too,  it  oc 
curred  as  in  common  a  mark  of  political  subordination  and 
of  religious  subordination.  Of  the  Peruvians,  who  went 
barefoot  into  the  presence  of  the  Ynca,  we  read  that  "  all 
took  off  their  shoes,  except  the  king,  at  two  hundred  paces 
before  reaching  the  doors  [of  the  temple  of  the  Sun]  ;  but 
the  king  remained  with  his  shoes  on  until  he  came  to  the 
doors."  Once  more,  the  like  holds  with  baring  the 

head.  Used  along  with  other  ceremonial  acts  to  propitiate 
the  living  superior,  this  is  used  also  to  propitiate  the  spirit 

Customs  among  the  North  American  Indians,  pp.  55  and  67.)  For,  if,  to  pro 
pitiate  the  ghost,  the  best  clothing  is  sacrificed,  the  implication  is  that  inferior 
or  inadequate  clothing  remains  for  use.  Hence  comes  "  the  chief  mourner 
being  clad  in  moss  "  among  the  Santee  Indians  (p.  38).  The  more  obvious  and 
still-continuing  motive  is  that  grief  is  inconsistent  with  wearing  the  best, 
which  is  usually  the  gayest,  clothing.  Thus  we  read  that  among  the  Choctaws 
the  "  widow  wholly  neglects  her  toilet,"  and  that  among  the  Chippewas  she  is 
"  not  permitted  to  wear  any  finery  "  for  twelve  moons  (Yarrow,  pp.  92-3).  In 
a  letter  of  a  deceased  relative  of  mine,  dated  1810,  I  find  an  instructive  ex 
ample  of  the  way  in  which  natural  feeling  prompts  this  putting  on  of  inferior 
clothes.  Speaking  of  a  conversation  held  with  a  pedler  concerning  an  eccen 
tric  but  benevolent  man,  the  writer  describes  the  pedler  as  praising  him  and 
saying,  "  he  thought  he  should  put  on  his  worst  clothes  when  he  died."  That 
is,  not  being  able  to  afford  mourning,  he  proposed  to  revert  to  this  primitive 
method  of  showing  sorrow. 


OBEISANCES.  137 

of  the  ordinary  dead,  and  the  spirit  of  the  apotheosized 
dead.  Uncovering  round  the  grave  continues  even  among 
ourselves;  and  on  the  Continent,  there  is  uncovering  by 
those  who  meet  a  funeral  procession.  Taking  off  the  hat  to 
images  of  Christ  and  the  Madonna,  out  of  doors  and  in 
doors,  was  enjoined  in  old  books  of  manners.  Unhatting  on 
the  knees  when  the  host  is  carried  by,  occurs  still  in  Catholic 
countries.  And  habitually  men  bare  their  heads  on  enter 
ing  places  of  worship. 

Nor  must  we  omit  to  note  that  obeisances  of  this  class, 
too,  made  first  to  supreme  persons  and  presently  to  less  pow 
erful  persons,  diffuse  gradually  until  they  become  gen 
eral.  Quotations  above  given  have  shown  incidentally  that 
in  Africa  partial  uncovering  of  the  shoulder  is  a  salute  be 
tween  equals,  and  that  a  kindred  removal  of  the  cloak  in 
Spain  serves  a  like  purpose.  Similarly,  the  going  barefoot 
into  a  king's  presence,  and  into  a  temple,  originates  an 
ordinary  civility.  The  Damaras  take  off  their  sandals  be 
fore  entering  a  stranger's  house;  a  Japanese  leaves  his 
shoes  at  the  door,  even  when  he  enters  a  shop;  "  upon  en 
tering  a  Turkish  house,  it  is  the  invariable  rule  to  leave 
the  outer  slipper  or  galosh  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs."  And 
then  in  Europe,  from  having  been  a  ceremony  of  feudal 
homage  and  of  religious  worship,  uncovering  the  head  has 
become  an  expression  of  respect  due  even  to  a  labourer  on 
entering  his  cottage. 

§  390.  These  last  facts  suggest  a  needful  addition  to  the 
argument.  Something  more  must  be  said  respecting  the 
way  in  which  all  kinds  of  obeisances  between  equals,  have 
resulted  by  diffusion  from  obeisances  which  originally  ex 
pressed  surrender  to  a  conqueror. 

Proof  has  been  given  that  rhythmical  muscular  move 
ments,  naturally  signifying  joy,  such  as  jumping,  clapping 
the  hands,  and  even  drumming  the  ribs  with  the  elbows, 
become  simulated  signs  of  joy  used  to  propitiate  a  king. 


138  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

These  simulated  signs  of  joy  become  civilities  where  there 
is  no  difference  of  rank.  According  to  Grant,  "  when  a 
birth  took  place  in  the  Toorkee  camp  .  .  .  women  assem 
bled  to  rejoice  at  the  door  of  the  mother,  by  clapping  their 
hands,  dancing,  and  shouting.  Their  dance  consisted  in 
jumping  in  the  air,  throwing  out  their  legs  in  the  most  un 
couth  manner,  and  flapping  their  sides  with  their  elbows." 
Where  circumstances  permit,  such  emphatic  marks  of  con 
sideration  become  mutual.  On  the  Slave  Coast,  "  when  two 
persons  of  equal  condition  meet  each  other,  they  fall  both 
down  on  their  knees  together,  clap  hands,  and  mutually  sa 
lute,  by  wishing  each  other  a  good  day."  In  China,  during 
a  wedding  visit  "  each  visitor  prostrated  himself  at  the  feet 
of  the  bride,  and  knocked  his  head  upon  the  ground,  saying 
at  the  same  time,  ( I  congratulate  you !  I  congratulate  you !  7 
whilst  the  bride,  also  upon  her  knees,  and  knocking  her 
head  upon  the  ground,  replied,  '  I  thank  you!  I  thank 
you!  ?  And  among  the  Mosquitos,  says  Bancroft,  "  one 
will  throw  himself  at  the  feet  of  another,  who  helps  him  up, 
embraces  him,  and  falls  down  in  his  turn  to  be  assisted  up 
and  comforted  with  a  pressure."  Such  extreme  instances 
yield  verifications  of  the  inference  that  the  mutual  bows, 
and  curtseys,  and  unhattings,  among  ourselves,  are  rem 
nants  of  the  original  prostrations  and  strippings  of  the 
captive. 

But  I  give  these  instances  chiefly  as  introducing  the 
interpretation  of  a  still  more  familiar  observance.  Already 
I  have  named  the  fact  that  between  polite  Arabs  the  offer 
of  an  inferior  to  kiss  a  superior's  hand,  is  resisted  by  the 
superior  if  he  is  condescending,  and  that  the  conflict  ends 
by  the  inferior  kissing  his  own  hand  to  the  superior. 
Further  evidence  is  given  by  Malcolm,  who  says:— 
"  Everyone  [Arab]  who  met  a  friend  took  his  right  hand, 
and,  after  shaking  it,  raised  it  as  high  as  his  breast."  And 
the  following,  from  ISTiebuhr,  is  an  account  of  an  allied 
usage :— 


OBEISANCES.  139 

"Two  Arabs  of  the  desert  meeting,  shake  hands  more  than  ten 
times.  Each  kisses  his  own  hand,  and  still  repeats  the  question, 
'  How  art  thou  ? '  .  .  .In  Yemen,  each  does  as  if  he  wished  the 
other's  hand,  and  draws  back  his  own  to  avoid  receiving  the  same 
honour.  At  length,  to  end  the  contest,  the  eldest  of  the  two  suffers 
the  other  to  kiss  his  fingers." 

Have  we  not  here,  then,  the  origin  of  shaking  hands?  If 
of  two  persons  each  wishes  to  make  an  obeisance  to  the  other 
by  kissing  his  hand,  and  each  out  of  compliment  refuses  to 
have  his  own  hand  kissed,  what  will  happen?  Just  as  when 
leaving  a  room,  each  of  two  persons,  proposing  to  give  the 
other  precedence,  will  refuse  to  go  first,  and  there  will  re 
sult  at  the  doorway  some  conflict  of  movements,  "preventing 
either  from  advancing;  so,  if  each  of  two  tries  to  kiss  the 
other's  hand,  and  refuses  to  have  his  own  kissed,  there  will 
result  a  raising  of  the  hand  of  each  by  the  other  towards 
his  own  lips,  and  by  the  other  a  drawing  of  it  down  again, 
and  so  on  alternately.  Though  at  first  such  an  action  will 
be  irregular,  yet  as  fast  as  the  usage  spreads,  and  the  failure 
of  either  to  kiss  the  other's  hand  becomes  a  recognized  issue, 
the  motions  may  be  expected  to  grow  regular  and  rhyth 
mical.  Clearly  the  difference  between  the  simple  squeeze, 
to  which  this  salute  is  now  often  abridged,  and  the  old-fash 
ioned  hearty  shake,  exceeds  the  difference  between  the 
hearty  shake  and  the  movement  that  would  result  from  the 
effort  of  each  to  kiss  the  hand  of  the  other. 

Even  in  the  absence  of  this  clue  yielded  by  the  Arab 
custom,  we  should  be  obliged  to  infer  some  such  genesis. 
After  all  that  has  been  shown,  no  one  can  suppose  that  hand 
shaking  was  ever  deliberately  fixed  upon  as  a  complimentary 
observance;  and  if  it  had  a  natural  origin  in  some  act 
which,  like  the  rest,  expressed  subjection,  the  act  of  kissing 
the  hand  must  be  assumed,  as  alone  capable  of  leading  to  it. 

§  391.  Whatever  its  kind,  then,  the  obeisance  has  the 
same  root  with  the  trophy  and  the  mutilation.  At  the  mercy 
of  his  conqueror,  who,  cutting  off  part  of  his  body  as  a  me- 


140  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

morial  of  victory,  kills  him,  or  else,  taking  some  less  im 
portant  part,  marks  him  as  a  subject  person,  the  conquered 
enemy  lies  prone  before  him;  now  on  his  back,  or  now 
with  neck  under  his  conqueror's  foot,  smeared  with  dirt, 
weaponless,  and  with  torn  clothes  or  stripped  of  the  trophy- 
trimmed  robe  he  prized.  Thus  the  prostration,  the  coating 
of  dust,  and  the  loss  of  covering,  incidental  on  defeat,  be 
come,  like  the  mutilation,  recognized  proofs  of  it.  Whence 
result,  first  of  all,  the  enforced  signs  of  submission  of  ^laves 
to  masters  and  subjects  to  rulers;  then  the  voluntary  as 
sumptions  of  humble  attitudes  before  superiors;  and,  final 
ly,  those  complimentary  movements  expressive  of  inferior 
ity,  made  by  each  to  the  other  between  equals. 

That  all  obeisances  originate  in  militancy,  is  a  conclu 
sion  harmonizing  with  the  fact  that  they  develop  along  with 
development  of  the  militant  type  of  society.  Attitudes  and 
motions  signifying  subjection,  do  not  characterize  headless 
tribes  and  tribes  having  unsettled  chieftainships,  like  the 
Fuegians,  the  Andamanese,  the  Australians,  the  Tasma- 
nians,  the  Esquimaux ;  and  accounts  of  etiquette  among  the 
wandering  and  almost  unorganized  communities  of  ^orth 
America,  make  little,  if  any,  mention  of  actions  expressing 
subordination.  It  is  remarked  of  the  Kamtschadales,  who 
when  found  were  without  rulers,  that  "  their  manners  are 
quite  rude:  they  never  use  any  civil  expression  or  salu 
tation;  never  take  off  their  caps,  nor  bow  to  one  another." 
On  the  other  hand,  in  societies  compounded  and  consoli 
dated  by  militancy  which  have  acquired  the  militant  type  of 
structure,  political  and  social  life  are  characterized  by  grov 
elling  prostrations.  We  find  them  in  warlike,  cannibal  Fiji, 
where  the  power  of  rulers  over  subjects  is  unlimited;  we 
find  them  in  Uganda,  where  war  is  chronic,  where  the  rev 
enue  is  derived  from  plunder,  and  where  it  is  said  of  the  king 
out  shooting  that,  "  as  his  highness  could  not  get  any  game 
to  shoot  at,  he  shot  down  many  people;  "  we  find  them  in 
sanguinary  Dahomey,  where  adjacent  societies  are  attacked 


OBEISANCES.  14-1 

to  get  more  heads  for  decorating  the  king's  palace.  Among 
states  more  advanced  they  occur  in  Burmah  and  Siam, 
where  the  militant  type,  bequeathed  from  the  past,  has  left 
a  monarchial  power  without  restraint;  in  Japan,  where 
there  has  been  a  despotism  evolved  and  fixed  during  the  wars 
of  early  times ;  and  in  China,  where  a  kindred  form  of  gov 
ernment,  similarly  originated,  survives.  The  like  happens 
with  kissing  the  feet  as  an  obeisance.  This  was  the  usage  in 
ancient  Peru,  where  the  entire  nation  was  under  a  regi 
mental  organization  and  discipline.  It  prevails  in  Mada 
gascar,  where  the  militant  structure  and  activity  are  de 
cided.  And  among  sundry  Eastern  peoples,  living  still,  as 
they  have  ever  done,  under  autocratic  rule,  this  obeisance 
exists  at  present  as  it  existed  in  the  remote  past,  ^or  is  it 
otherwise  with  complete  or  partial  removals  of  the  dress. 
The  extreme  forms  of  this  we  saw  occur  in  Fiji  and  in 
Uganda;  while  the  less  extreme  form  of  baring  the  body 
down  to  the  waist  was  exemplified  from  Abyssinia  and  Ta 
hiti,  where  the  kingly  power,  though  great,  is  less  recklessly 
exercised.  So,  too,  with  baring  the  feet.  This  was  an  obei 
sance  to  the  king  in  ancient  Peru  and  ancient  Mexico,  as  it 
is  now  in  Burmah  and  in  Persia — all  of  them  having  the 
despotic  government  evolved  by  militancy.  And  the  like 
relation  holds  with  the  other  servile  obeisances — the  putting- 
dust  on  the  head,  the  assumption  of  mean  clothing,  the  tak 
ing  up  a  burden  to  carry,  the  binding  of  the  hands. 

The  same  truth  is  shown  us  on  comparing  the  usages  of 
European  peoples  in  early  ages,  when  war  was  the  business 
of  life,  with  the  usages  which  obtain  now  that  war  has 
ceased  to  be  the  business  of  life.  In  feudal  days  homage 
was  shown  by  kissing  the  feet,  by  going  on  the  knees,  by 
joining  the  hands,  by  laying  aside  sundry  parts  of  the 
dress;  but  in  our  days  the  more  humble  of  these  obeisances 
have,  some  quite  and  others  almost,  disappeared:  leaving 
only  the  bow,  the  curtsey,  and  the  raising  of  the  hat,  as 
their  representatives.  Moreover,  it  is  observable  that  be- 


142  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

tween  the  more  militant  nations  of  Europe  and  the  less  mili 
tant,  kindred  differences  are  traceable.  On  the  Continent 
obeisances  are  fuller,  and  more  studiously  attended  to,  than 
they  are  here.  Even  from  within  our  own  society  evidence 
is  forthcoming ;  for  by  the  upper  classes,  forming  that  regu 
lative  part  of  the  social  structure  which  here,  as  everywhere, 
has  been  developed  by  militancy,  there  is  not  only  at  Court, 
but  in  private  intercourse,  greater  attention  paid  to  these 
forms  than  by  the  classes  forming  the  industrial  structures. 
And  I  may  add  the  significant  fact  that,  in  the  distinctively 
militant  parts  of  our  society — the  army  and  navy — not  only 
is  there  a  more  strict  performance  of  prescribed  obeisances 
than  in  any  other  of  its  parts,  but,  further,  that  in  one  of 
them,  specially  characterized  by  the  absolutism  of  its  chief 
officers,  there  survives  a  usage  analogous  to  usages  in  barbar 
ous  societies.  In  Burmah,  it  is  requisite  to  make  "  prostra 
tions  in  advancing  to  the  palace;  "  the  Dahomans  prostrate 
themselves  in  front  of  the  palace  gate;  in  Fiji,  stooping  is 
enjoined  as  "  a  mark  of  respect  to  a  chief  or  his  premises, 
or  a  chief's  settlement;  "  and  on  going  on  board  a  British 
man-of-war,  it  is  the  custom  to  take  off  the  hat  to  the  quar 
ter-deck. 

]^or  are  we  without  kindred  contrasts  among  the  obei 
sances  made  to  the  supernatural  being,  whether  spirit  or 
deity.  The  wearing  sackcloth  to  propitiate  the  ghost,  as 
now  in  China  and  as  of  old  among  the  Hebrews,  the  partial 
baring  of  the  body  and  putting  dust  on  the  head,  still 
occurring  in  the  East  as  funeral  rites,  are  not  found  in  ad 
vanced  societies  having  types  of  structure  more  profoundly 
modified  by  industrialism.  Among  ourselves,  most  charac 
terized  by  the  extent  of  this  change,  obeisances  to  the  dead 
have  wholly  disappeared,  save  in  the  uncovering  at  the 
grave.  Similarly  with  the  obeisances  used  in  wor 

ship.  The  baring  of  the  feet  when  approaching  a  temple, 
as  in  ancient  Peru,  and  the  removal  of  the  shoes  on  enter 
ing  it,  as  in  the  East,  are  acts  finding  no  parallels  here  on 


OBEISANCES.  143 

any  occasion,  or  on  the  Continent,  save  on  occasion  of  pen 
ance.  Neither  the  prostrations  and  repeated  knockings 
of  the  head  upon  the  ground  by  the  Chinese  worshipper, 
nor  the  kindred  attitude  of  the  Mahommedan  at  prayers, 
occurs  where  freer  forms  of  social  institutions,  proper  to 
the  industrial  type,  have  much  qualified  the  militant  type. 
Even  going  on  the  knees  as  a  form  of  religious  homage, 
has,  among  ourselves,  fallen  greatly  into  disuse;  and  the 
most  unmilitant  of  our  sects,  the  Quakers,  make  no  relig 
ious  obeisances  whatever. 

The  connexions  thus  traced,  parallel  to  connexions  al 
ready  traced,  are  at  once  seen  to  be  natural  on  remembering 
that  militant  activities,  intrinsically  coercive,  necessitate 
command  and  obedience;  and  that  therefore  where  they 
predominate,  signs  of  submission  are  insisted  upon.  Con 
versely,  industrial  activities,  whether  exemplified  in  the  re 
lations  of  employer  and  employed  or  of  buyer  and  seller, 
being  carried  on  under  agreement,  are  intrinsically  non- 
coercive  ;  and  therefore,  where  they  predominate,  only  ful 
filment  of  contract  is  insisted  upon:  whence  results  decreas 
ing  use  of  the  signs  of  submission. 


CHAPTEE  VII. 

FOKMS    OF    ADDRESS. 

§  392.  What  an  obeisance  implies  by  acts,  a  form  of 
address  says  in  words.  If  the  two  have  a  common  root 
this  is  to  be  anticipated;  and  that  they  have  a  common  root 
is  demonstrable.  Instances  occur  in  which  the  one  is  rec 
ognized  as  equivalent  to  the  other.  Speaking  of  Poles  and 
Sclavonic  Silesians,  Captain  Spencer  remarks — 

"Perhaps  no  distinctive  trait  of  manners  more  characterizes  both 
than  their  humiliating  mode  of  acknowledging  a  kindness,  their  ex 
pression  of  gratitude  being  the  servile  "  Upadam  do  nog"  (I  fall  at 
your  feet),  which  is  no  figure  of  speech,  for  they  will  literally  throw 
themselves  down  and  kiss  your  feet  for  the  trifling  donation  of  a  few 
halfpence." 

Here,  then,  the  attitude  of  the  conquered  man  beneath  the 
conqueror  is  either  actually  assumed  or  verbally  assumed; 
and  when  used,  the  oral  representation  is  a  substitute  for 
the  realization  in  act.  Other  cases  show  us  words  and  deeds 
similarly  associated;  as  when  a  Turkish  courtier,  accus 
tomed  to  make  humble  obeisances,  addresses  the  Sultan— 
"  Centre  of  the  Universe!  Your's  slave's  head  is  at 
your  feet;  "  or  as  when  a  Siamese,  whose  servile  pros 
trations  occur  daily,  says  to  his  superior — "  Lord  Bene 
factor,  at  whose  feet  I  am;"  to  a  prince — "I,  the  sole 
of  your  foot;  "  to  the  king — "  I,  a  dust-grain  of  your  sacred 
feet."  Early  European  manners  furnish  kindred 

evidence.     In  Kussia  down  to  the  seventeenth  century,  a 

144 


FORMS  OF  ADDRESS.  145 

petition  began  with  the  words — "  So  and  so  strikes  his  fore 
head  "  [on  the  ground]  ;  and  petitioners  were  called  "  fore 
head  strikers."  At  the  Court  of  France  as  late  as  1577,  it 
was  the  custom  of  some  to  say — "  I  kiss  your  grace's  hands/' 
and  of  others  to  say — "  I  kiss  your  lordship's  feet."  Even 
now  of  Spain,  where  orientalisms  linger,  we  read — "  When 
you  get  up  to  take  leave,  if  of  a  lady,  you  should  say,  '  My 
lady,  I  place  myself  at  your  feet;  '  to  which  she  will  reply, 
'  I  kiss  your  hand,  sir.'  ' 

From  what  has  gone  before,  such  origins  and  such  char 
acters  of  forms  of  address  might  be  anticipated.  Along 
with  other  ways  of  propitiating  the  victor,  the  master,  the 
ruler,  will  naturally  come  speeches  which,  beginning  with 
confessions  of  defeat  by  verbal  assumptions  of  its  attitude, 
will  develop  into  varied  phrases  acknowledging  servitude. 
The  implication,  therefore,  is  that  forms  of  address  in  gen 
eral,  descending  as  they  do  from  these  originals,  will  ex 
press,  clearly  or  vaguely,  ownership  by,  or  subjection  to, 
the  person  addressed. 

§  393.  Of  propitiatory  speeches  there  are  some  which, 
instead  of  describing  the  prostration  entailed  by  defeat, 
describe  the  resulting  state  of  being  at  the  mercy  of  the 
person  addressed.  One  of  the  strangest  of  these  occurs 
among  the  cannibal  Tupis.  While,  on  the  one  hand,  a 
warrior  shouts  to  his  enemy — "  May  every  misfortune  come 
upon  thee,  my  meat!  "  on  the  other  hand,  the  speech  re 
quired  from  the  captive  Hans  Stade  on  approaching  a  dwell 
ing,  was — "  I,  your  food,  have  come:  "  that  is — my  life  is 
at  your  disposal.  Then,  again,  instead  of  profess 

ing  to  live  only  by  permission  of  the  superior,  actual  or  pre 
tended,  who  is  spoken  to,  we  find  the  speaker  professing  to 
be  personally  a  chattel  of  his,  or  to  be  holding  property  at 
his  disposal,  or  both.  Africa,  Asia,  Polynesia,  and  Europe, 
furnish  examples.  "  When  a  stranger  enters  the  house  of  a 
Serracolet  (Inland  Negro),  he  goes  out  and  says — '  White 


146  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

man,  my  house,  my  wife,  my  children  belong  to  thee.'  ' 
Around  Delhi,  if  you  ask  an  inferior  "  '  Whose  horse  is 
that? '  he  says  '  Slave's,'  meaning  his  own;  or  he  may  say 
-'  It  is  your  highnesses','  meaning  that,  being  his,  it  is  at 
your  disposal."  In  the  Sandwich  Islands  a  chief,  asked  re 
specting  the  ownership  of  a  house  or  canoe  possessed  by  him, 
replies —  "  It  is  yours  and  mine."  In  France,  in  the  fif 
teenth  century,  a  complimentary  speech  made  by  an  abbe  on 
his  knees  to  the  queen  when  visiting  a  monastery  was — 
"  We  resign  and  offer  up  the  abbey  with  all  that  is  in  it,  our 
bodies,  as  our  goods."  And  at  the  present  time  in  Spain, 
where  politeness  requires  that  anything  admired  by  a  visitor 
shall  be  offered  to  him,  "  the  correct  place  of  dating  [a  let 
ter]  from  should  be  ...  from  this  your  house,  wherever 
it  is ;  you  must  not  say  from  this  my  house,  as  you  mean  to 
place  it  at  the  disposition  of  your  correspondent." 

But  these  modes  of  addressing  a  real  or  fictitious  supe 
rior,  indirectly  asserting  subjection  to  him  in  body  and 
effects,  are  secondary  in  importance  to  the  direct  assertions 
of  slavery  and  servitude;  which,  beginning  in  barbarous 
days,  have  persisted  down  to  the  present  time. 

§  394.  Hebrew  narratives  have  familiarized  us  with  the 
word  "  servant,"  as  applied  to  himself  by  a  subject  or  in 
ferior,  when  speaking  to  a  ruler  or  superior.  In  our  days 
of  freedom,  the  associations  established  by  daily  habit  have 
obscured  the  fact  that  "  servant  "  as  used  in  translations  of 
old  records,  means  "  slave  "  —implies  the  condition  fallen 
into  by  a  captive  taken  in  war.  Consequently  when,  as 
often  in  the  Bible,  the  phrases  "  thy  servant  "  or  "  thy 
servants  "  are  uttered  before  a  king,  they  must  be  taken  to 
signify  that  same  state  of  subjugation  which  is  more  cir- 
cuitously  signified  by  the  phrases  quoted  in  the  last  sec 
tion.  Clearly  this  self -abasing  word  was  employed,  not  by 
attendants  only,  but  by  conquered  peoples,  and  by  sub 
jects  at  large;  as  we  see  when  the  unknown  David,  ad- 


FORMS  OF   ADDRESS.  147 

dressing  Saul,  describes  both  himself  and  his  father  as  Saul's 
servants.  And  kindred  uses  of  the  word  to  rulers  have  con 
tinued  down  to  modern  times. 

Very  early,  however,  professions  of  servitude,  originally 
made  only  to  one  of  supreme  authority,  came  to  be  made  to 
those  of  subordinate  authority.  Brought  before  Joseph  in 
Egypt,  and  fearing  him,  his  brethren  call  themselves  his 
servants  or  slaves;  and  not  only  so,  but  speak  of  their 
father  as  standing  in  a  like  relation  to  him.  Moreover, 
there  is  evidence  that  this  form  of  address  extended  to  the 
intercourse  between  equals  where  a  favour  was  to  be 
gained;  as  witness  Judges  xix.  19.  And  we  have  seen  in 
the  last  section  that  even  still  in  India,  a  man  shows  his 
politeness  by  calling  himself  the  slave  of  the  person  ad 
dressed.  How  in  Europe  a  like  diffusion  has  taken  place, 
need  not  be  shown  further  than  by  exemplifying  some  of 
the  stages.  Among  French  courtiers  in  the  sixteenth  cen 
tury  it  was  common  to  say — "  I  am  your  servant  and  the 
perpetual  slave  of  your  house;  "  and  among  ourselves  in 
past  times  there  were  used  such  indirect  expressions  of 
servitude  as — "  Yours  to  command,"  "  Ever  at  your  wor 
ship's  disposing,"  "  In  all  serviceable  humbleness,"  &c. 
While  in  our  days,  rarely  made  orally  save  in  irony,  such 
forms  have  left  only  their  written  representatives — "  Your 
obedient  servant,"  "  Your  humble  servant;  "  reserved  for 
occasions  when  distance  is  to  be  maintained,  and  for  this 
reason  often  having  inverted  meanings. 

That  for  religious  purposes  the  same  propitiatory  words 
are  employed,  is  a  familiar  truth.  In  Hebrew  history  men 
are  described  as  servants  of  God,  just  as  they  are  described 
as  servants  of  the  king.  Neighbouring  peoples  arc  said 
to  serve  their  respective  deities  just  as  slaves  are  said  to 
serve  their  masters.  And  there  are  cases  in  which  these 
relations  to  the  visible  ruler  and  to  the  invisible  ruler,  are 
expressed  in  like  ways;  as  where  we  read  that  "  The  king 
hath  fulfilled  the  request  of  his  servant,"  and  elsewhere 


148  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

that  "  The  Lord  hath  redeemed  his  servant  Jacob."  Hence 
as  used  in  worship,  the  expression  "  thy  servant  "  has  orig 
inated  as  have  all  other  elements  of  religious  ceremonial. 

And  here  better  than  elsewhere,  may  be  noted  the  fact 
that  the  phrase  "  thy  son/7  used  to  a  ruler  or  superior,  or 
other  person,  is  originally  equivalent  to  "  thy  servant.'7 
On  remembering  that  in  rude  societies  children  exist  only 
on  sufferance  of  their  parents;  and  that  in  patriarchal 
groups  the  father  had  life  and  death  power  over  his  chil 
dren;  we  see  that  professing  to  be  another's  son  was  like 
professing  to  be  his  servant  or  slave.  There  are  ancient 
examples  demonstrating  the  equivalence;  as  when  "  Ahaz 
sent  messengers  to  Tigiath-pileser  king  of  Assyria,  saying, 
I  am  thy  servant  and  thy  son:  come  up  and  save  me." 
Mediaeval  Europe  furnished  instances  when,  as  we  saw, 
rulers  offered  themselves  for  adoption  by  more  powerful 
rulers:  so  assuming  the  condition  of  filial  servitude  and 
calling  themselves  sons;  as  did  Theodebert  I.  and  Childe- 
bert  II.  to  the  emperors  Justinian  and  Maurice.  !Nor  does 
there  lack  evidence  that  this  expression  of  subordination 
spreads  like  the  rest,  until  it  becomes  a  complimentary  form 
of  speech.  At  the  present  time  in  India,  the  man  who  in 
compliment  professes  to  be  your  slave,  will,  on  introducing 
his  son  say, — "  This  is  your  highness's  son."  And  a  a 
Samoan  cannot  use  more  persuasive  language  than  to  call 
himself  the  son  of  the  person  addressed." 

§  395.  From  those  complimentary  phrases  which  ex 
press  abasement  of  self,  we  pass  to  those  which  exalt  an 
other.  Either  kind  taken  alone,  is  a  confession  of  relative 
inferiority;  and  this  confession  gains  in  emphasis  when  the 
two  kinds  are  joined,  as  they  commonly  are. 

At  first  it  does  not  seem  likely  that  eulogies  may,  like 
other  propitiations,  be  traced  back  to  the  behaviour  of  the 
conquered  to  the  conqueror;  but  we  have  proof  that  they 
do  thus  originate,  certainly  in  some  cases.  To  the  victorious 


FORMS  OF  ADDRESS. 

Ramses  II.  his  defeated  foes  preface  their  prayers  for  mercy 
by  the  laudatory  words — "  Prince  guarding  the  army, 
valiant  with  the  sword,  bulwark  of  his  troops  in  day  of  bat 
tle,  king  mighty  of  strength,  great  Sovran,  Sun  powerful 
in  truth,  approved  of  Ha,  mighty  in  victories,  Ramses  Mia- 
mon."  Obviously  there  is  no  separation  between  such 
praises  uttered  by  the  vanquished,  and  those  afterwards 
coming  from  them  as  a  subject  people.  We  pass  without 
break  to  glorifying  words  like  those  addressed  to  the  king 
of  Siam — "  Mighty  and  august  lord!  Divine  Mercy!" 
"  The  Divine  Order!  "  "  The  Master  of  Life!  "  "  Sover 
eign  of  the  Earth!  "  or  those  addressed  to  the  Sultan— 
"  The  Shadow  of  God!  "  "  Glory  of  the  Universe!  "  or  those 
addressed  to  the  Chinese  Emperor — "  Son  of  Heaven!  " 
"  The  Lord  of  Ten  Thousand  Years!  "  or  those  some  years 
since  addressed  by  the  Bulgarians  to  the  emperor  of  Russia 
— "  O  blessed  Czar!  "  "  Blissful  Czar!  "  "  Orthodox  pow 
erful  Czar!  "  or  those  with  which,  in  the  past,  speeches  to 
the  French  monarch  commenced — "  O  very  benign!  O 
very  great!  O  very  merciful!  "  And  then  along  with  these 
propitiations  by  direct  flattery,  there  go  others  in  which  the 
flattery  is  indirectly  conveyed  by  affected  admiration  of 
whatever  the  ruler  says;  as  when  the  courtiers  of  the  king 
of  Delhi  held  up  their  hands  crying — "  Wonder,  wonder!  " 
after  any  ordinary  speech;  or  in  broad  day,  if  he  said  it 
was  night,  responded — "  Behold  the  moon  and  the  stars!  " 
or  as  when  Russians  in  past  times  exclaimed — "  God  and 
the  prince  have  willed!  "  "  God  and  the  prince  know!  " 
Eulogistic  phrases  first  used  to  supreme  men,  descend  to 
men  of  less  authority,  and  so  downwards.  Examples  may 
be  taken  from  those  current  in  France  during  the  sixteenth 
century — to  a  cardinal,  "  the  very  illustrious  and  very 
reverend;  "  to  a  marquis,  "  my  very  illustrious  and  much- 
honoured  lord;  "  to  a  doctor,  "  the  virtuous  and  excellent." 
And  from  our  own  past  days  may  be  added  such  compli 
mentary  forms  of  address  as — "  the  right  worshipful,"  to 
68 


150  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

knights  and  sometimes  to  esquires;  "  the  right  noble/' 
"the  honourable-minded/7  used  to  gentlemen;  and  even 
to  men  addressed  as  Mr.,  such  laudatory  prefixes  as  "  the 
worthy  and  worshipful."  Along  with  flattering  epithets 
there  spread  more  involved  flatteries,  especially  observable 
in  the  East,  where  both  are  extreme.  On  a  Chinese  in 
vitation-card  the  usual  compliment  is — "  To  what  an  ele 
vation  of  splendour  will  your  presence  assist  us  to  rise!  " 
Tavernier,  from  whom  I  have  quoted  the  above  example 
of  scarcely  credible  flattery  from  the  Court  of  Delhi,  adds, 
"  this  vice  passeth  even  unto  the  people;  "  and  he  says  that 
Lis  military  attendant,  compared  to  the  greatest  of  con 
querors,  was  described  as  making  the  world  tremble  when 
he  mounted  his  horse.  In  these  parts  of  India  at  the  pres 
ent  day,  an  ordinary  official  is  addressed — "  My  lord,  there 
are  only  two  who  can  do  anything  for  me :  God  is  the  first, 
and  you  are  the  second;  "  or  sometimes,  as  a  correspondent 
writes  to  me — "  (  Above  is  God,  and  your  honour  is  below;  ' 
i  Your  honour  has  power  to  do  anything;  '  '  You  are  our 
king  and  lord;  '  '  You  are  in  God's  place.'  ' 

On  reading  that  in  Tavernier's  time  a  usual  expression 
in  Persia  was — "  Let  the  king's  will  be  clone,"  recalling  the 
parallel  expression — "  Let  God's  will  be  done,"  we  are 
reminded  that  various  of  the  glorifying  speeches  made  to 
kings  parallel  those  made  to  deities.  Where  the  militant 
type  is  highly  developed,  and  where  divinity  is  ascribed  to 
the  monarch,  not  only  after  death  but  before,  as  of  old  in 
Egypt  and  Peru,  and  as  now  in  Japan,  China,  and  Siam,  it 
naturally  results  that  the  eulogies  of  visible  rulers  and  of 
rulers  who  have  become  invisible,  are  the  same.  Having 
reached  the  extreme  of  hyperbole  to  the  king  Avhen  living, 
they  cannot  go  further  to  the  king  when  dead  and  deified. 
And  the  identity  thus  initiated  continues  through  subse 
quent  stages  with  deities  whose  origins  are  no  longer  trace 
able. 


FORMS  OF  ADDRESS.  151 

§  396.  Into  the  complete  obeisance  we  saw  that  there 
enter  two  elements,  one  implying  submission  and  the  other 
implying  love;  and  into  the  complete  form  of  address  two 
analogous  elements  enter.  With  words  employed  to  pro 
pitiate  by  abasing  self  or  elevating  the  person  addressed,  or 
both,  are  joined  words  suggestive  of  attachment  to  him — 
wishes  for  his  life,  health,  and  happiness. 

Professions  of  interest  in  another's  well-being  and  good 
fortune  are,  indeed,  of  earlier  origin  than  professions  of 
subjection.  Just  as  those  huggings  and  kissings  which 
indicate  liking  are  used  as  complimentary  observances  by 
ungoverned,  or  little-governed,  savages,  who  have  no  obei 
sances;  so,  friendly  speeches  precede  speeches  expressing 
subordination.  By  the  Snake  Indians,  a  stranger  is  accosted 
with  the  words — "  I  am  much  pleased,  I  am  much  re 
joiced;  "  and  among  the  Araucanians,  whose  social  organ 
ization,  though  more  advanced,  has  not  yet  been  developed 
by  militancy  into  the  coercive  type,  the  formality  on  meet 
ing,  which  "  occupies  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,"  consists  of 
detailed  inquiries  about  the  welfare  of  each  and  his  belong 
ings,  with  elaborate  felicitations  and  condolences. 

Of  course  this  element  of  the  salutation  persists  while 
there  grow  up  the  acts  and  phrases  expressing  subjection. 
We  saw  that  along  with  servile  obeisances,  good  wishes  and 
congratulations  are  addressed  to  a  superior  among  IsTegro 
nations;  and  among  the  Fulahs  and  the  Abyssinians  they 
are  elaborate.  It  is  in  Asia,  however,  that  the  highest 
developments  of  them  occur.  Beginning  with  such  hyper 
bolic  speeches  as — "  O  king,  live  for  ever!  "  we  descend  to 
speeches  between  equals  which,  in  like  exaggerated  ways, 
signify  great  sympathy ;  as  among  the  Arabs,  who  indicate 
their  anxiety  by  rapidly  repeating — "  Thank  God,  how  are 
you?  "  for  some  minutes,  and  who,  when  well-bred,  occa 
sionally  interrupt  the  subsequent  conversation  by  again 
asking — "  How  are  you?  "  or  as  among  the  Chinese,  who 
on  an  ordinary  visiting  billet  write — "  The  tender  and 


152  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

sincere  friend  of  your  lordship,  and  the  perpetual  disciple 
of  jour  doctrine,  presents  himself  to  pay  his  duty  and  make 
his  reverence  even  to  the  earth."  In  Western  societies, 
less  despotically  governed,  professions  of  liking  and  soli 
citude  have  been  less  exaggerated ;  and  they  have  decreased 
as  freedom  has  increased.  In  ancient  France,  at  the  royal 
table,  "  every  time  the  herald  cried — '  The  king  drinks!  ' 
every  one  made  voeux  and  cried — '  Long  live  the  king!  ' 
And  though  both  abroad  and  at  home  the  same  or  an  allied 
speech  is  still  used,  it  recurs  with  nothing  like  the  same  fre 
quency.  So,  too,  is  it  with  the  good  wishes  expressed  in 
social  intercourse.  The  exclamation — "  Long  life  to  your 
honour!  "  may,  indeed,  still  be  heard;  but  it  is  heard 
among  a  people  who,  till  late  times  under  personal  rule,  are 
even  now  greatly  controlled  by  their  loyalty  to  representa 
tives  of  old  families.  And  in  parts  of  the  kingdom  longer 
emancipated  from  feudalism  and  disciplined  by  industrial 
ism,  the  ordinary  expressions  of  interest,  abridged  to  "  How 
do  you  do?  "  and  "  Good-bye,"  are  uttered  in  a  manner 
implying  not  much  more  interest  than  is  felt. 

Along  with  phrases  in  which  divine  aid  is  invoked  on 
behalf  of  the  person  saluted,  as  in  the  "  May  God  grant  you 
his  favours  "  of  the  Arab,  "  God  keep  you  well  "  of  the 
Hungarian,  "  God  protect  you  "  of  the  Negro;  and  along 
with  those  which  express  sympathy  by  inquiries  after  health 
and  fortune,  which  are  also  widespread;  there  are  some 
which  take  their  characters  from  surrounding  conditions. 
One  is  the  oriental  "  Peace  be  with  you,"  descending  from 
turbulent  times  when  peace  was  the  great  desideratum ; 
another  is  the  "How  do  you  perspire?"  alleged  of  the 
Egyptians;  and  a  still  more  curious  one  is  "  How  have  the 
mosquitoes  used  you?  "  which,  according  to  Humboldt,  is 
the  morning  salute  on  the  Orinoco. 

§  397.  There  remain  to  be  noted  those  modifications  of 
language,  grammatical  and  other,  which,  by  implication, 


FORMS  OF  ADDRESS.  153 

exalt  tlie  person  addressed  or  abase  the  person  addressing. 
These  have  certain  analogies  with  other  elements  of  cere 
mony.  We  have  seen  that  where  subjection  is  extreme, 
the  ruler,  if  he  does  not  keep  himself  invisible,  must,  when 
present,  not  be  looked  at;  and  from  the  idea  that  it  is  an 
unpardonable  liberty  to  gaze  at  the  supreme  person,  there 
has  arisen  in  some  countries  the  usage  of  turning  the  back 
on  a  superior.  Similarly,  the  practice  of  kissing  the  ground 
before  one  who  is  reverenced,  or  kissing  some  object  be 
longing  to  him,  implies  that  the  subject  is  so  remote  in  sta 
tion,  that  he  may  not  take  the  liberty  of  kissing  even  the 
foot  or  the  dress.  And  in  a  kindred  spirit,  the  linguistic 
forms  used  in  compliment  have  the  trait  that  they  avoid 
direct  relations  with  the  individual  addressed. 

Such  forms  make  their  appearance  in  comparatively 
early  social  stages.  Of  the  superior  people  among  the  Abi- 
pones,  we  read  that  "  the  names  of  men  belonging  to  this 
class  end  in  my  those  of  the  women,  who  also  partake  of 
these  honours,  in  en.  These  syllables  you  must  add  even  to 
substantives  and  verbs  in  talking  with  them."  Again,  "  the 
Samoan  language  contains  (  a  distinct  and  permanent  vo 
cabulary  of  words  which  politeness  requires  to  be  made  use 
of  to  superiors,  or  on  occasions  of  ceremony.'  '  By  the 
Javans,  "  on  no  account  is  any  one,  of  whatever  rank,  al 
lowed  to  address  his  superior  in  the  common  or  vernacular 
language  of  the  country."  And  of  the  ancient  Mexican 
language  Gallantin  says,  there  is  "  a  special  form,  called 
Reverential,  which  pervades  the  whole  language,  and  is 
found  in  no  other  .  .  .  this  is  believed  to  be  the  only  one 
[language]  in  which  every  word  uttered  by  the  inferior 
reminds  him  of  his  social  position." 

The  most  general  of  the  indirectnesses  which  etiquette 
introduces  into  forms  of  address,  apparently  arise  from 
the  primitive  superstition  about  proper  names.  Conceiving 
that  a  man's  name  is  part  of  his  individuality,  and  that  pos 
session  of  his  name  gives  power  over  him,  savages  almost 


154:  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

everywhere  are  reluctant  to  disclose  names.  Whether  this 
is  the  sole  cause,  or  whether,  apart  from  this,  utterance  of 
a  man's  name  is  felt  to  be  a  liberty  taken  with  him,  the  fact 
is  that  among  rude  peoples  names  acquire  a  kind  of  sacred- 
ness,  and  taking  a  name  in  vain  is  interdicted:  especially 
to  inferiors  when  speaking  to  superiors.  Hence  a  curious 
incidental  result.  As  in  early  stages  personal  names  are 
derived  from  objects,  the  names  of  objects  have  to  be  dis 
used  and  replaced  by  others.  Among  the  Kaffirs  "  a  wife 
may  not  publicly  pronounce  the  i-gama  [the  name  given 
at  birth]  of  her  husband  or  any  of  his  brothers;  nor  may 
she  use  the  interdicted  word  in  its  ordinary  sense.  .  .  . 
The  chief's  i-yama  is  withdrawn  from  the  language  of  his 
people."  Again,  "  the  hereditary  appellation  of  the  chief 
of  Pango-Pango  [in  Samoa]  being  now  Maunga,  or  Moun 
tain,  that  word  must  never  be  used  for  a  hill  in  his  pres 
ence,  but  a  courtly  term  .  .  .  substituted."  And  then 
where  there  exist  proper  names  of  a  developed  kind,  there 
are  still  kindred  restrictions  on  the  general  use  of  them; 
as  in  Siam,  where  "  the  name  of  the  king  must  not  be 
uttered  by  a  subject:  he  is  always  referred  to  by  a  peri 
phrasis,  such  as  i  the  master  of  life,'  i  the  lord  of  the  land,' 
{ the  supreme  head;  '  "  and  as  in  China,  where  "  the  '  old 
man  of  the  house,'  e  excellent  honourable  one,'  and  '  ven 
erable  great  prince,'  are  terms  used  by  a  visitor  to  desig 
nate  the  father  of  his  host." 

Similarly,  there  is  avoidance  of  personal  pronouns; 
which  also  establish  with  the  individual  addressed  a  rela 
tion  too  immediate  to  be  allowed  where  distance  is  to  be 
maintained.  In  Siam,  when  asking  the  king's  commands, 
the  pronominal  form  is,  as  much  as  possible,  evaded;  and 
that  this  usage  is  general  among  the  Siamese  is  implied  by 
the  remark  of  Pere  Bruguiere,  that  "  they  have  personal 
pronouns,  but  rarely  use  them."  In  China,  also,  this  style 
descends  into  ordinary  intercourse.  "  If  they  are  not  inti 
mate  friends,  they  never  say  I  and  You,  which  would  be  a 


FORMS  OF  ADDRESS.  155 

gross  incivility.  But  instead  of  saying,  I  am  very  sensible 
of  the  service  you  have  done  me,  they  will  say,  The  service 
that  the  Lord  or  the  Doctor  has  done  for  his  meanest  Ser 
vant,  or  his  Scholar,  has  greatly  affected  me." 

We  come  next  to  those  perversions  in  the  uses  of  pro 
nouns  which  raise  the  superior  and  lower  the  inferior. 
"  '  I '  and  '  me  '  are  expressed  by  several  terms  in  Siamese; 
as  (1)  between  a  master  and  slave;  (2)  between  a  slave  and 
master;  (3)  between  a  commoner  and  a  nobleman;  (4) 
between  persons  of  equal  rank;  while  there  is,  lastly,  a 
form  of  address  which  is  only  used  by  the  priests."  Still 
more  developed  has  this  system  been  by  the  Japanese. 
"  In  Japan  all  classes  have  an  '  I '  peculiar  to  themselves, 
which  no  other  class  may  use;  and  there  is  one  exclusively 
appropriated  by  the  Mikado  .  .  .  and  one  confined  to 
women.  .  .  .  There  are  eight  pronouns  of  the  second  per 
son  peculiar  to  servants,  pupils,  and  children."  Though 
throughout  the  West,  the  distinctions  established  by  abus 
ing  pronominal  forms  have  been  less  elaborated,  yet  they 
have  been  well  marked.  By  Germans  "  in  old  times  .  .  . 
all  inferiors  were  spoken  to  in  the  third  person  singular,  as 
(  er  ? :  "  that  is,  an  oblique  form  by  which  the  inferior  was 
referred  to  as  though  not  present,  served  to  disconnect  him 
from  the  speaker.  And  then,  conversely,  "  inferiors  invari 
ably  use  the  third  person  plural  in  addressing  their  supe 
riors:  "  a  mode  which,  while  dignifying  the  superior  by 
pluralization,  increases  the  distance  of  the  inferior  by  its 
relative  indirectness;  and  a  mode  which,  beginning  as  a 
propitiation  of  those  in  power,  has,  like  the  rest,  spread 
till  it  has  become  a  general  propitiation.  In  our  own 
speech,  lacking  such  misuse  of  pronouns  as  humiliates, 
there  exists  only  that  substitution  of  the  "  you  "  for  the 
"  thou,"  which,  once  a  complimentary  exaltation,  has  now 
by  diffusion  wholly  lost  its  ceremonial  meaning.  That  it 
retained  some  ceremonial  meaning  at  the  time  when  the 
Quakers  persisted  in  using  "  thou  "  is  clear;  and  that  in 


156  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

still  earlier  times  it  was  employed  to  ascribe  dignity,  is  in 
ferable  from  the  fact  that  during  the  Merovingian  period 
in  France,  the  kings  ordered  that  they  should  be  addressed 
in  the  plural.  Whoever  fails  to  think  that  calling  him 
"  yon/7  once  served  to  exalt  the  person  addressed,  will  be 
aided  by  contemplating  this  perversion  of  speech  in  its 
primitive  and  more  emphatic  shape;  as  in  Samoa,  where 
they  say  to  a  chief — "  Have  you  two  come?  "  or  "  Are  you 
two  going?  " 

§  398.  Since  they  state  in  words  what  obeisances  ex 
press  by  acts,  forms  of  address  of  course  have  the  same  gen 
eral  relations  to  social  types.  The  parallelisms  must  be 
noted. 

Speaking  of  the  Dacotahs,  who  are  politically  unorgan 
ized,  and  who  had  not  even  nominal  chiefs  till  the  whites  be 
gan  to  make  distinctions  among  them,  Burton  says — "  Cere 
mony  and  manners  in  our  sense  of  the  word  they  have 
none;  "  and  he  instances  the  entrance  of  a  Dacotah  into  a 
stranger's  house  with  a  mere  exclamation  meaning  "  Well." 
Bailey  remarks  of  the  Veddahs  that  in  addressing  others, 
"  they  use  none  of  the  honorifics  so  profusely  common  in 
Singhalese ;  the  pronoun  i  to,  '  thou/  being  alone  used, 
whether  they  are  addressing  each  other  or  those  whose  posi 
tion  would  entitle  them  to  outward  respect."  These  cases 
will  sufficiently  indicate  the  general  fact  that  where  there  is 
no  subordination,  speeches  which  elevate  the  person  spoken 
to  and  abase  the  person  speaking,  do  not  arise.  Con 

versely,  where  personal  government  is  absolute,  verbal 
self-humiliations  and  verbal  exaltations  of  others  assume 
exaggerated  forms.  Among  the  Siamese,  who  are  all  slaves 
of  the  king,  an  inferior  calls  himself  dust  under  the  feet 
of  a  superior,  while  ascribing  to  the  superior  transcendent 
powers;  and  the  forms  of  address,  even  between  equals, 
avoid  naming  the  person  addressed.  In  China,  where  there 
is  no  check  on  the  power  of  the  "  Imperial  Supreme,"  the 


FORMS  OF  ADDRESS.  157 

phrases  of  adulation  and  humility,  first  used  in  intercourse 
with  rulers  and  afterwards  spreading,  have  elaborated  to 
such  extremes  that  in  inquiring  another's  name  the  form  is 
— "  May  I  presume  to  ask  what  is  your  noble  surname  and 
your  eminent  name;  "  while  the  reply  is — "  The  name  of 
my  cold  (or  poor)  family  is  -  — ,  and  my  ignoble  name 
is  —  — ."  If  we  ask  where  ceremony  has  initiated  the  most 
elaborate  misuses  of  pronouns,  we  find  them  in  Japan, 
where  wars  long  ago  established  a  despotism  which  acquired 
divine  prestige. 

Similarly,  on  contrasting  the  Europe  of  past  times,  char 
acterized  by  social  structures  developed  by,  and  fitted  for, 
perpetual  fighting,  with  modern  Europe,  in  which,  though 
fighting  on  a  large  scale  occurs,  it  is  the  temporary  rather 
than  the  permanent  form  of  social  activity,  we  observe  that 
complimentary  expressions,  now  less  used,  are  also  now 
less  exaggerated.  Xor  does  the  generalization  fail  when 
we  compare  the  modern  European  societies  that  are  organ 
ized  in  high  degrees  for  war,  like  those  of  the  Continent, 
with  our  own  society,  not  so  well  organized  for  war;  or 
when  we  compare  the  regulative  parts  of  our  own  society, 
which  are  developed  by  militancy,  with  the  industrial 
parts.  Elattering  superlatives  and  expressions  of  devotion 
are  less  profuse  here  than  abroad;  and  much  as  the  use 
of  complimentary  language  has  diminished  among  our  rul 
ing  classes  in  recent  times,  there  remains  a  greater  use  of  it 
among  them  than  among  the  industrial  classes:  especially 
those  of  the  industrial  classes  who  have  no  direct  relations 
with  the  ruling  classes. 

These  connexions  are  obviously,  like  previous  ones, 
necessary.  Should  any  one  say  that  along  with  the  en 
forced  obedience  which  military  organization  implies,  and 
which  characterizes  the  whole  of  a  society  framed  for  mili 
tary  action,  there  naturally  go  forms  of  address  not  express 
ing  submission;  and  if,  conversely,  he  should  say  that  along 
with  the  active  exchanging  of  goods  for  money,  and  services 


158  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

for  wages,  freely  carried  on,  which  characterizes  the  life  of 
an  industrial  society,  there  naturally  go  exaggerated  eulo 
gies  of  others  and  servile  depreciations  of  self;  his  proposi 
tion  would  manifestly  be  absurd.  And  the  absurdity  of 
this  hypothetical  proposition  serves  to  bring  into  view  the 
truth  of  the  actual  proposition  opposed  to  it. 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

TITLES. 

§  399.  Adhering  tenaciously  to  all  his  elders  taught 
him,  the  primitive  man  deviates  into  novelty  only  through 
unintended  modifications.  Everyone  now  knows  that  lan 
guages  are  not  devised  but  evolve;  and  the  same  is  true 
of  usages.  To  many  proofs  of  this,  the  foregoing  chapters 
have  added  further  proofs. 

The  like  holds  of  titles.  Looked  at  as  now  existing, 
these  appear  artificial:  there  is  suggested  the  idea  that 
once  upon  a  time  they  wrere  consciously  settled.  But  this 
is  no  more  true  than  it  is  true  that  our  common  words  were 
once  consciously  settled.  Names  of  objects  and  qualities 
and  acts,  were  at  the  outset  directly  or  indirectly  descrip 
tive;  and  the  names  we  class  as  titles  were  so  too.  Just  as 
the  deaf-mute  who  calls  to  mind  a  person  he  means  by  mim 
icking  a  peculiarity,  has  no  idea  of  introducing  a  symbol ;  so 
neither  has  the  savage  wrhen  he  indicates  a  place  as  the  one 
where  the  kangaroo  was  killed  or  the  one  where  the  cliff 
fell  down ;  so  neither  has  he  when  he  suggests  an  individual 
by  referring  to  some  marked  trait  in  his  appearance  or  fact 
in  his  life ;  and  so  neither  has  he  when  he  gives  those  names, 
literally  descriptive  or  metaphorically  descriptive,  which 
now  and  again  develop  into  titles. 

The  very  conception  of  a  proper  name  grew  up  una 
wares.  Among  the  uncivilized  a  child  becomes  known  as 
"  Thunderstorm,"  or  "  New  Moon,"  or  "  Father-come- 

159 


160  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

home,"  simply  from  the  habit  of  referring  to  an  event  which 
occurred  011  its  birthday,  as  a  way  of  raising  the  thought  of 
the  particular  child  meant.  And  if  afterwards  it  gets  such 
a  name  as  "  Squash-head/'  or  "  Dirty-saddle  "  (Dacotah 
names),  "  The  Great  Archer,"  or  "  He  who  runs  up  the 
Hill  "  (Blackfoot  names),  this  results  from  spontaneously 
using  an  alternative,  and  sometimes  better,  means  of  identi 
fication.  Evidently  the  like  has  happened  with  such  less 
needful  names  as  titles.  These  have  differentiated  from 
ordinary  proper  names,  by  being  descriptive  of  some  trait, 
or  some  deed,  or  some  function,  held  in  honour. 

§  400.  Various  savage  races  give  a  man  a  name  of  re 
nown  in  addition  to,  or  in  place  of,  the  name  by  which  he 
was  previously  known,  on  the  occasion  of  a  great  achieve 
ment  in  battle.  The  Tupis  furnish  a  good  illustration. 
"  The  founder  of  the  [cannibal]  feast  took  an  additional 
name  as  an  honourable  remembrance  of -what  had  been 
done,  and  his  female  relations  ran  through  the  house  shout 
ing  the  new  title."  And  of  these  same  people  Hans  Stade 
says, — "  So  many  enemies  as  one  of  them  slays,  so  many 
names  does  he  give  himself;  and  those  are  the  noblest 
among  them  who  have  many  such  names."  In  North 
America,  too,  when  a  young  Creek  Indian  brings  his  first 
scalp,  he  is  dubbed  a  man  and  a  warrior,  and  receives  a 
"  war-name."  Among  the  people  of  ancient  Nicaragua, 
this  practice  had  established  a  general  title  for  such:  they 
called  one  who  had  killed  another  in  battle  ta/palique;  and 
cobra  was  an  equivalent  title  given  by  the  Indians  of  the 
Isthmus. 

That  descriptive  names  of  honour,  thus  arising  during 
early  militancy,  become  in  some  cases  official  names,  we  see 
on  comparing  evidence  furnished  by  two  sanguinary  and 
cannibal  societies  in  different  stages  of  advance.  In  Fiji, 
"  warriors  of  rank  receive  proud  titles,  such  as  '  the  divider 
of  '  a  district,  '  the  waster  of  '  a  coast,  '  the  depopulator  of  7 


TITLES.  161 

an  island — the  name  of  the  place  in  question  being  affixed." 
And  then  in  ancient  Mexico,  the  names  of  offices  filled  by 
the  king's  brothers  or  nearest  relatives  were,  one  of  them, 
"  Cutter  of  men,"  and  another,  "  Shedder  of  blood." 

Where,  as  among  the  Fijians,  the  conceived  distinction 
between  men  and  gods  is  vague,  and  the  formation  of  new 
gods  by  apotheosis  of  chiefs  continues,  we  find  the  gods 
bearing  names  like  those  given  during  their  lives  to  fero 
cious  warriors.  "  The  Woman-stealer,"  "  the  Brain-eater," 
"  the  Murderer,"  "  Fresh-fr cm-slaughter/'  are  naturally 
such  divine  titles  as  arise  from  descriptive  naming  among 
ancestor-worshipping  cannibals.  That  sundry  titles  of  the 
gods  worshipped  by  superior  races  have  originated  in  a  kin 
dred  manner,  is  implied  by  the  ascription  of  conquests  to 
them.  Be  they  the  Egyptian  deities,  the  Babylonian  dei 
ties,  or  the  deities  of  the  Greeks,  their  power  is  represented 
as  having  been  gained  by  battle ;  and  with  accounts  of  their 
achievements  are  in  some  cases  joined  congruous  descrip 
tive  names,  such  as  that  of  Mars — "  the  Blood-stainer,"  and 
that  of  the  Hebrew  god — "  the  Violent  One;  "  which,  ac 
cording  to  Keunen,  is  the  literal  interpretation  of  Shaddai. 

§  401.  Very  generally  among  primitive  men,  instead  of 
the  literally-descriptive  name  of  honour,  there  is  given  the 
metaphorically-descriptive  name  of  honour.  Of  the  Tupis, 
whose  ceremony  of  taking  wTar-names  is  instanced  above, 
we  read  that  "  they  selected  their  appellations  from  visible 
objects,  pride  or  ferocity  influencing  their  choice."  That 
such  names,  first  spontaneously  given  by  applauding  com 
panions  and  afterwards  accorded  in  some  deliberate  way, 
are  apt  to  be  acquired  by  men  of  the  greatest  prowess,  and 
so  to  become  names  of  rulers,  is  suggested  by  what  Ximenez 
tells  us  respecting  the  semi-civilized  peoples  of  Guatemala. 
Their  king's  names  enumerated  by  him  are — "  Laughing 
Tiger,"  "  Tiger  of  the  Wood,"'  "  Oppressing  Eagle," 
"  Eagle's  Head,"  "  Strong  Snake."  Throughout  Africa 


162  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

the  like  has  happened.  The  king  of  Ashantee  has  among 
his  glorifying  names  "  Lion  "  and  "  Snake."  In  Dahomey, 
titles  thus  derived  are  made  superlative:  the  king  is  "  the 
Lion  of  Lions."  And  in  a  kindred  spirit  the  king  of  LTsam- 
bara  is  called  "  Lion  of  Heaven:  "  a  title  whence,  should 
this  king  undergo  apotheosis,  myths  may  naturally  result. 
From  Zulu-land,  along  with  evidence  of  the  same  thing, 
there  comes  an  illustration  of  the  way  in  which  names  of 
honour  derived  from  imposing  objects,  animate  and  in 
animate,  are  joined  with  names  of  honour  otherwise  de 
rived,  and  pass  into  certain  of  those  forms  of  address  lately 
dealt  with.  The  titles  of  the  king  are — "  The  noble  ele 
phant,"  "  Thou  who  art  for  ever,"  "  Thou  who  art  as  high 
as  the  heavens,"  "  The  black  one,"  "  Thou  who  art  the 
bird  who  eats  other  birds,"  "  Thou  who  art  as  high  as  the 
mountains,"  &c.  Shooter  shows  how  these  Zulu  titles  are 
used,  by  quoting  part  of  a  speech  adressed  to  the  king — 
"  You  mountain,  you  lion,  you  tiger,  you  that  are  black. 
There  is  none  equal  to  you."  Further,  there  is  proof  that 
names  of  honour  thus  originating,  pass  into  titles  applied  to 
the  position  occupied,  rather  than  to  the  occupant  consid 
ered  personally;  for  a  Kaffir  chief's  wife  "  is  called  the  Ele- 
phantess,  while  his  great  wife  is  called  the  Lioness." 

Guided  by  such  clues,  we  cannot  miss  the  inference  that 
the  use  of  kindred  names  for  both  kings  and  gods  by  extinct 
historic  races,  similarly  arose.  If  we  find  that  now  in  Mada 
gascar  one  of  the  king's  titles  is  "  Mighty  Bull,"  and  are 
reminded  by  this  that  to  the  conquering  Ramses  a  like 
laudatory  name  was  given  by  defeated  foes,  we  may  reason 
ably  conclude  that  from  animal-names  thus  given  to  kings, 
there  resulted  the  animal-names  anciently  given  as  names 
of  honour  to  deities;  so  that  Apis  in  Egypt  became  an 
equivalent  for  Osiris  and  the  Sun,  and  so  that  Bull  similarly 
became  an  equivalent  for  the  conquering  hero  and  Sun- 
god  Indra. 

With  titles  derived  from  imposing  inanimate  objects  it 


TITLES.  163 

is  the  same.  We  have  seen  how,  among  the  Zulus,  the  hy 
perbolic  compliment  to  the  king — "  Thou  who  art  as  high 
as  the  mountains,"  passes  from  the  form  of  simile  into  the 
form  of  metaphor  when  he  is  addressed  as  "  you  Mountain." 
And  that  the  metaphorical  name  thus  used  sometimes  be 
comes  a  proper  name,  proof  comes  from  Samoa;  where,  as 
we  saw,  "  the  chief  of  Pango-Pango  "  is  "  now  Maunga,  or 
Mountain."  There  is  evidence  that  by  sundry  ancestor- 
worshipping  peoples,  divine  titles  are  similarly  derived. 
The  Chinooks  and  Navajos  and  Mexicans  in  North  Amer 
ica,  and  the  Peruvians  in  South  America,  regard  certain 
mountains  as  gods;  and  since  these  gods  have  other  names, 
the  implication  is  that  in  each  case  an  apotheosized  man  had 
received  in  honour  either  the  general  name  Mountain,  or 
the  name  of  a  particular  mountain,  as  has  happened  in  E"ew 
Zealand.  From  complimentary  comparisons  to  the  Sun,  re 
sult  not  only  personal  names  of  honour  and  divine  names, 
but  also  official  titles.  On  reading  that  the  Mexicans  distin 
guished  Cortes  as  "  the  offspring  of  the  Sun,"  and  that  the 
Chibchas  called  the  Spaniards  in  general  "  children  of  the 
Sun," — on  reading  that  "  child  of  the  Sun  "  was  a  compli 
mentary  name  given  to  any  one  particularly  clever  in  Peru, 
where  the  Yncas,  regarded  as  descendants  of  the  Sun,  suc 
cessively  enjoyed  a  title  hence  derived;  we  are  enabled  to 
understand  how  "  Son  of  the  Sun  "  came  to  be  a  title  borne 
by  the  successive  Egyptian  kings,  joined  with  proper  names 
individually  distinctive  of  them.  In  elucidation  of  this  as 
well  as  of  sundry  other  points,  let  me  add  an  account  of  a 
reception  at  the  court  of  Burmah  which  has  occurred  since 
the  foregoing  sentences  were  first  published  :— 

"  A  herald  lying  on  his  stomach  read  aloud  my  credentials.  The 
literal  translation  is  as  follows:  '  So-and-So,  a  great  newspaper  teach 
er  of  the  Daily  News  of  London,  tenders  to  his  Most  Glorious  Excel 
lent  Majesty,  Lord  of  the  Ishaddan,  King  of  Elephants,  master  of 
many  white  elephants,  lord  of  the  mines  of  gold,  silver,  rubies,  am 
ber,  and  the  noble  serpentine,  Sovereign  of  the  Empires  of  Thuna- 


CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

paranta  and  Tampadipa,  and  other  great  empires  and  countries,  and 
of  all  the  umbrella- wearing  chiefs,  the  supporter  of  religion,  the  Sun- 
descended  Monarch,  arbiter  of  life,  and  great,  righteous  King,  King 
of  Kings,  and  possessor  of  boundless  dominions  and  supreme  wis 
dom,  the  following  presents.'  The  reading  was  intoned  in  a  comical 
high  recitative,  strongly  resembling  that  used  when  our  Church  serv 
ice  is  intoned ;  and  the  long-drawn  '  Phya-a-a-a-a '  (my  lord)  which 
concluded  it,  added  to  the  resemblance,  as  it  came  in  exactly  like 
the  'Amen'  of  the  Liturgy."  [Showing  the  kinship  in  religious 
worship.] 

Given,  then,  the  metaphorically-descriptive  name,  and 
we  have  the  germ  from  which  grow  up  these  primitive  titles 
of  honour;  which,  at  first  individual  titles,  become  in  some 
cases  titles  attaching  to  the  offices  filled. 

§  402.  To  say  that  the  words  which  in  various  lan 
guages  answer  to  our  word  "  God,"  were  originally  descrip 
tive  words,  will  be  startling  to  those  who,  unfamiliar  with 
the  facts,  credit  the  savage  with  thoughts  like  our  own^  and 
will  be  repugnant  to  those  who,  knowing  something  of  the 
facts,  yet  persist  in  asserting  that  the  conception  of  a  uni 
versal  creative  power  was  possessed  by  man  from  the  be 
ginning.  But  whoever  studies  the  evidence  without  bias, 
will  find  proof  that  the  general  word  for  deity  was  at  first 
simply  a  word  expressive  of  superiority.  Among  the  Fiji- 
ans  the  name  is  applied  to  anything  great  or  marvellous; 
among  the  Malagasy  to  whatever  is  new,  useful,  or  extra 
ordinary;  among  the  Todas  to  everything  mysterious,  so 
that,  as  Marshall  says,  "  it  is  truly  an  adjective  noun  of 
eminence."  Applied  alike  to  animate  and  inanimate 
things,  as  indicating  some  quality  above  the  common,  the 
word  is  in  this  sense  applied  to  human  beings,  both  living 
and  dead ;  but  as  the  dead  are  supposed  to  have  mysterious 
powers  of  doing  good  and  evil  to  the  living,  the  word  comes 
to  be  especially  applicable  to  them.  Though  ghost  and  god 
have  with  us  widely-distinguished  meanings,  yet  they  are 
originally  equivalent  words;  or  rather,  originally,  there  is 


TITLES.  165 

but  one  word  for  a  supernatural  being.  And  since  in  early 
belief,  the  other-self  of  the  dead  man  is  equally  visible  and 
tangible  with  the  living  man,  so  that  it  may  be  slain, 
drowned,  or  otherwise  killed  a  second  time — since  the  re 
semblance  is  such  that  it  is  difficult  to  learn  what  is  the 
difference  between  a  god  and  a  chief  among  the  Fijians — 
since  the  instances  of  theophany  in  the  Iliad  prove  that  the 
Greek  god  was  in  all  respects  so  like  a  man  that  special 
insight  was  required  to  discriminate  him ;  we  see  how  natu 
rally  it  results  that  the  name  "  god,"  given  to  a  powerful 
being  thought  of  as  usually,  but  not  always,  invisible,  is 
sometimes  given  to  a  visible  powerful  being.  Indeed,  as  a 
sequence  of  this  theory,  it  inevitably  happens  that  men 
transcending  in  capacity  those  around  them,  are  suspected 
to  be  these  returned  ghosts  or  gods,  to  whom  special  powers 
are  ordinarily  ascribed.  Hence  the  fact  that,  considered  as 
the  doubles  of  their  own  deceased  people,  Europeans  are 
called  ghosts  by  Australians,  Xew  Caledonians,  Darnley 
Islanders,  Kroomen,  Calabar  people,  Mpongwe,  &c.  Hence 
the  fact  that  they  are  called  by  the  alternative  name  gods  by 
Bushmen,  Bechuanas,  East  Africans,  Eulahs,  Khonds,  Fiji 
ans,  Dyaks,  Ancient  Mexicans,  Chibchas,  &c.  Hence  the 
fact  that,  using  the  word  in  the  above  sense,  superior  men 
among  some  uncivilized  peoples  call  themselves  gods. 

The  original  meaning  of  the  word  being  thus  under 
stood,  we  need  feel  no  surprise  on  finding  that  "  God  "  be 
comes  a  title  of  honour.  The  king  of  Loango  is  so  called  by 
his  subjects;  as  is  also  the  king  of  Msambara.  At  the  pres 
ent  time  among  wandering  Arabs,  the  name  "  God  "  is  ap 
plied  in  no  other  sense  than  as  the  generic  name  of  the  most 
powerful  living  ruler  known  to  them.  This  makes  more 
credible  than  it  might  else  be,  the  statement  that  the  Grand 
Lama,  personally  worshipped  by  the  Tartars,  is  called  by 
them  "  God,  the  Father."  It  is  in  harmony  with  such 
other  facts  as  that  Radama,  king  of  Madagascar,  is  addressed 
by  the  women  who  sing  his  praises  as — "  O  our  God;  " 
69 


166  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

and  that  to  the  Dahoman  king  the  alternative  word  "  Spir 
it  "  is  used ;  so  that,  when  he  summons  any  one,  the  messen 
ger  says — "  The  Spirit  requires  you/7  and  when  he  has 
spoken,  all  exclaim — "  The  Spirit  speaketh  true."  All 
which  facts  make  comprehensible  that  assumption  of  ©eo? 
as  a  title  by  ancient  kings  in  the  East,  which  is  to  moderns  so 
astonishing. 

Descent  of  this  name  of  honour  into  ordinary  inter 
course,  though  not  common,  does  sometimes  occur.  After 
what  has  been  said,  it  will  not  appear  strange  that  it  should 
be  applied  to  deceased  persons;  as  it  was  by  the  ancient 
Mexicans,  who  "  called  any  of  their  dead  teotl  so  and  so — 
i.  e.,  this  or  that  god,  this  or  that  saint."  And  prepared  by 
such  an  instance  we  shall  understand  its  occasional  use  as  a 
greeting  between  the  living.  Colonel  Yule  says  of  the  Ka- 
sias,  "  the  salutation  at  meeting  is  singular — '  Kuble!  oh 
God.'  " 

§  403.  The  connexion  between  "  God  "  as  a  title  and 
a  Father  "  as  a  title,  becomes  clear  on  going  back  to  those 
early  forms  of  conception  and  language  in  which  the  two 
are  undifferentiated.  The  fact  that  even  in  so  advanced  a 
language  as  Sanscrit,  words  which  mean  "  making,"  "  fab 
ricating,'7  "  begetting,"  or  "  generating,77  are  indiscrim 
inately  used  for  the  same  purpose,  suggests  how  naturally  in 
the  primitive  mind,  a  father,  as  begetter  or  causer  of  new  be 
ings,  ceasing  at  death  to  be  visible,  is  then  associated  in  word 
and  thought  with  dead  and  invisible  causers  at  large,  who, 
some  of  them  acquiring  pre-eminence,  come  to  be  regarded 
as  causers  in  general — makers  or  creators.  When  Sir 
Rutherford  Alcock  remarks  that  "  a  spurious  mixture  of 
the  theocratic  aiid  patriarchal  elements  form  the  bases  of 
nil  government,  both  in  the  Celestial  and  the  Japanese 
Empires,  under  emperors  who  claim  not  only  to  be  each  the 
patriarch  and  father  of  his  people,  but  also  Divine  de 
scent;  "  he  adds  another  to  the  misinterpretations  produced 


TITLES.  167 

by  descending  from  our  own  higher  conceptions,  instead  of 
ascending  from  the  lower  conceptions  of  the  primitive  man. 
For  what  he  thinks  a  "  spurious  mixture  "  of  ideas  is,  in 
fact,  a  normal  union  of  ideas;  which,  in  the  cases  named, 
has  persisted  longer  than  commonly  happens  in  developed 
societies. 

The  Zulus  show  us  this  union  very  clearly.  They  have 
traditions  of  Unkulunkulu  (literally,  the  old,  old  one), 
"  who  was  the  first  man,"  "  who  came  into  being  and  begat 
men,"  "  who  gave  origin  to  men  and  everything  besides  " 
(including  the  sun,  moon,  and  heavens),  and  who  is  inferred 
to  have  been  a  black  man  because  all  his  descendants  are 
black.  The  original  Unkulunkulu  is  not  worshipped  by 
them,  because  he  is  supposed  to  be  permanently  dead;  but 
instead  of  him  the  Unkulunkulus  of  the  various  tribes  into 
which  his  descendants  have  divided,  are  severally  wor 
shipped,  and  severally  called  "  Father."  Here,  then,  the 
ideas  of  a  Creator  and  a  Father  are  directly  connected. 
Equally  specific,  or  even  more  specific,  are  the  ideas  con 
veyed  in  the  response  which  the  ancient  Kicaraguans  gave 
to  the  question — "  Who  made  heaven  and  earth?  "  After 
their  first  answers,  "  Tamagastad  and  Qipattoval,"  "  our 
great  gods  whom  we  call  teotes,"  cross-examination  brought 
out  the  further  answers — "  Our  fathers  are  these  teotes  /  " 
"  all  men  and  women  descend  from  them;  "  "  they  are  of 
flesh  and  are  man  and  woman;  "  "  they  walked  over  the 
earth  dressed,  and  ate  what  the  Indians  ate."  Gods  and 
first  parents  being  thus  identified,  fatherhood  and  divinity 
become  allied  ideas.  The  remotest  ancestor  supposed  to  be 
still  existing  in  the  other  world  to  which  he  went,  "  the  old, 
old  one,"  or  "  ancient  of  days,"  becomes  the  chief  deity; 
and  so  "  father  "  is  not,  as  we  suppose,  a  metaphorical 
equivalent  for  "  god,"  but  a  literal  equivalent. 

Therefore  it  happens  that  among  all  nations  we  find  it 
an  alternative  title.  In  the  before-quoted  prayer  of  the 
New  Caledonian  to  the  ghost  of  his  ancestor — "  Compas- 


CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

sionate  father,  here  is  some  food  for  you ;  eat  it ;  be  kind  to 
us  on  account  of  it  "•  —we  are  shown  that  original  identifi 
cation  of  fatherhood  and  godhood,  to  which  all  mythologies 
and  theologies  carry  us  back.  We  see  the  naturalness  of  the 
facts  that  the  Peruvian  Yncas  worshipped  their  father  the 
Sun;  that  Ptah,  the  first  of  the  dynasty  of  the  gods  who 
ruled  Egypt,  is  called  "  the  father  of  the  father  of  the 
gods;  "  and  that  Zeus  is  "  father  of  gods  and  men." 

After  contemplating  many  such  early  beliefs,  in  which 
the  divine  and  the  human  are  so  little  distinguished,  or 
after  studying  the  beliefs  still  extant  in  China  and  Japan, 
where  the  rulers,  "  sons  of  heaven,"  claim  descent  from 
these  most  ancient  fathers  or  gods;  it  is  easy  to  see  how 
the  name  father  in  its  higher  sense,  comes  to  be  applied  to 
a  living  potentate.  His  proximate  and  remote  ancestors 
being  all  spoken  of  as  fathers,  distinguished  only  by  the 
prefixes  grand,  great  great,  &c.,  it  results  that  the  name 
father,  given  to  every  member  of  the  series,  comes  to  be 
given  to  the  last  of  the  series  still  living.  With  this  cause 
is  joined  a  further  cause.  Where  establishment  of  descent 
in  the  male  line  has  initiated  the  patriarchal  family,  the 
name  father,  even  in  its  original  meaning,  comes  to  be 
associated  with  supreme  authority,  and  to  be  therefore  a 
name  of  honour.  Indeed,  in  nations  formed  by  the  com 
pounding  and  re-compounding  of  patriarchal  groups,  the 
two  causes  coalesce.  The  remotest  known  ancestor  of  each 
compound  group,  at  once  the  most  ancient  father  and  the 
god  of  the  compound  group,  being  continuously  represented 
in  blood,  as  well  as  in  power,  by  the  eldest  descendant  of 
the  eldest,  it  happens  that  this  patriarch,  who  is  head  not 
of  his  own  group  only  but  also  of  the  compound  group, 
stands  to  both  in  a  relation  analogous  to  that  in  which  the 
apotheosized  ancestor  stands;  and  so  combines  in  a  measure 
the  divine  character,  the  kingly  character,  and  the  paternal 
character. 

Hence  the  prevalence  of  this  word  as  a  royal  title.    It  is 


TITLES.  169 

used  equally  by  American  Indians  and  by  New  Zealanders 
in  addressing  the  rulers  of  the  civilized.  We  find  it  in 
Africa.  Of  the  various  names  for  the  king  among  the 
Zulus,  father  heads  the  list;  and  in  Dahomey,  when  the 
king  walked  from  the  throne  to  the  palace,  "  every  inequal 
ity  was  pointed  out,  with  finger  snappings,  lest  it  might 
offend  the  royal  toe,  and  a  running  accompaniment  of 
'Dadda!  Dadda!  '  (Grandfather!  Grandfather!)  and  of 
'Dedde!  Dedde!  '  (softly!  softly!)  was  kept  up."  Asia 
supplies  cases  in  which  the  titles  "  Lord  Raja  and  Lord 
Father  "  are  joined.  In  Russia,  at  the  present  time,  father 
is  a  name  applied  to  the  Czar;  and  of  old  in  France,  under 
the  form  sire,  it  was  the  common  name  for  potentates  of 
various  grades — feudal  lords  and  kings ;  and  ever  continued 
to  be  a  name  of  address  to  the  throne.* 

More  readily  than  usual,  perhaps  from  its  double  mean 
ing,  has  this  title  been  diffused.  Everywhere  we  find  it  the 
name  for  any  kind  of  superior.  Not  to  the  king  only  among 
the  Zulus  is  the  word  "  baba,"  father,  used;  but  also  by  in 
feriors  of  all  ranks  to  those  above  them.  In  Dahomey  a 
slave  applies  this  name  to  his  master,  as  his  master  applies  it 
to  the  king.  Livingstone  tells  us  that  he  was  referred  to  as 
"  our  father  "  by  his  attendants;  as  also  was  Burchell  by 
the  Bachassins.  It  was  the  same  of  old  in  the  East ;  as  when 
"  his  servants  came  near,  and  spake  unto  Naaman,  and 
said,  My  father,"  &c. ;  and  it  is  the  same  in  the  remote 
East  at  the  present  time.  A  Japanese  "  apprentice  ad 
dresses  his  patron  as  '  father.'  '  In  Siam  "  children  of  the 

*  Though  the  disputes  respecting  the  origins  of  sire  and  sifur  have  ended  in 
the  conclusion  that  they  are  derived  from  the  same  root,  meaning  originally 
elder,  yet  it  has  become  clear  that  sire  was  a  contracted  form  in  use  earlier 
than  sieur  (the  contracted  form  of  seigneur],  and  hence  acquired  a  more  gen 
eral  meaning,  which  became  equivalent  to  father.  Its  applicability  to  various 
persons  of  dignity  besides  the  seigneur,  is  evidence  of  its  previous  evolution 
and  spread ;  and  that  it  had  a  meaning  equivalent  to  father,  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  in  early  French,  grant-sire  was  an  equivalent  for  grand-pere,  and  also 
by  the  fact  that  sire  was  not  applicable  to  an  unmarried  man. 


170  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

nobles  are  called  '  father  and  mother '  by  their  subordi 
nates."  And  Hue  narrates  how  he  saw  Chinese  labourers 
prostrating  themselves  before  a  mandarin  exclaiming — 
"  Peace  and  happiness  to  our  father  and  mother."  Then,  as 
a  stage  in  the  descent  to  more  general  use,  may  be  noted  its 
extension  to  those  who,  apart  from  their  rank,  have  ac 
quired  the  superiority  ascribed  to  age:  a  superiority  some 
times  taking  precedence  of  rank,  as  in  Siam,  and  in  certain 
ways  in  Japan  and  China.  Such  extension  occurred  in  an 
cient  Rome,  where  pater  was  at  once  a  magisterial  title 
and  a  title  given  by  the  younger  to  the  elder,  whether  re 
lated  or  not.  In  Russia  at  the  present  time,  the  equivalent 
word  is  used  to  the  Czar,  to  a  priest,  and  to  any  aged 
man.  Eventually  it  spreads  to  young  as  well  as  old. 
Under  the  form  sire,  at  first  applied  to  feudal  rulers, 
major  and  minor,  the  title  "  father  "  originated  our  fa 
miliar  sir. 

A  curious  group  of  derivatives,  common  among  uncivil 
ized  and  semi-civilized  peoples,  must  be  named.  The  wish 
to  compliment  by  ascribing  that  dignity  which  fatherhood 
implies,  has  in  many  places  led  to  the  practice  of  replacing 
a  man's  proper  name  by  a  name  which,  while  it  recalls  this 
honourable  paternity,  distinguishes  him  by  the  name  of  his 
child.  The  Malays  have  "  the  same  custom  as  the  Dyaks  of 
taking  the  name  of  their  first-born,  as  Pa  Sipi,  the  father 
of  Sipi.7'  The  usage  is  common  in  Sumatra;  and  equally 
prevails  in  Madagascar.  It  is  so  too  among  some  Indian 
Hill  tribes:  the  Kasias  "  address  each  other  by  the  names 
of  their  children,  as  Pabobon,  father  of  Bobon!  "  Africa 
also  furnishes  instances.  Bechuanas  addressing  Mr.  Moffat, 
used  to  say — "  I  speak  to  the  Father  of  Mary."  And  in 
the  Pacific  States  of  North  America  there  are  people  so  so 
licitous  to  bear  this  primitive  name  of  honour,  that  until 
a  young  man  has  children,  his  dog  stands  to  him  in  the 
position  of  a  son,  and  he  is  known  as  the  father  of  his 
dog. 


TITLES. 

§  404.  The  supremacy  associated  with  age  in  patri 
archal  groups,  and  in  societies  derived  by  composition  from 
patriarchal  groups,  shown  primarily  in  that  honouring  of 
parents  which,  as  in  the  Jewish  commandments,  is  put  next 
to  the  worship  of  God,  and  secondarily  in  the  honouring  of 
old  men  in  general,  gives  rise  to  a  kindred  but  divergent 
group  of  titles.  Age  being  dignified,  words  indicating  sen 
iority  become  names  of  dignity. 

The  beginnings  may  be  discerned  among  the  uncivil 
ized.  Counsels  being  formed  of  the  older  men,  the  local 
name  for  an  older  man  becomes  associated  in  thought  with 
an  office  of  power  and  therefore  of  honour.  Merely  noting 
this,  it  will  suffice  if  we  trace  in  European  language  the 
growth  of  titles  hence  resulting.  Among  the  Romans  sena 
tor,  or  member  of  the  senatus,  words  having  the  same  root 
with  sen  ex,  was  a  name  for  a  member  of  the  assembly  of 
elders;  and  in  early  times  these  senators  or  elders,  other 
wise  called patres,  represented  the  component  tribes :  father 
and  elder  being  thus  used  as  equivalents.  From  the  fur 
ther  cognate  word  senior,  we  have,  in  derived  languages, 
signior,  seigneur,  senlior ;  first  applied  to  head  men, 
rulers,  or  lords,  and  then  by  diffusion  becoming  names  of 
honour  for  those  of  inferior  rank.  The  same  thing  has 
happenel  with  ealdor  or  aldor.  Of  this  Max  Miiller 
says, — "  like  many  other  titles  of  rank  in  the  various  Teu 
tonic  tongues,  it  is  derived  from  an  adjective  implying 
age;  "  so  that  "  earl  "  and  "  alderman,"  both  originat 
ing  from  this  root,  are  names  of  honour  similarly  result 
ing  from  that  social  superiority  gained  by  advanced 
years. 

Whether  or  not  the  German  title  graf  should  be  added, 
is  a  moot  point.  If  Max  Miiller  is  right  in  considering  the 
objections  of  Grimm  to  the  current  interpretation  inade 
quate,  then  the  wrord  originally  means  grey;  that  is,  grey 
headed. 


172  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

§  405.  We  may  deal  briefly  with  the  remaining  titles; 
which  re-illustrate,  in  their  respective  ways,  the  general 
principle  set  forth. 

Like  other  names  of  honour  that  grew  up  in  early 
times,  the  name  "  king  "  is  one  concerning  the  formation  of 
which  there  are  differences  of  opinion.  By  general  agree 
ment,  however,  its  remote  source  is  the  Sanscrit  gandka; 
and  lt  in  Sanscrit,  ganaka  means  producing,  parent,  then 
king."  If  this  is  the  true  derivation,  we  have  simply  an  al 
ternative  title  for  the  head  of  the  family-group,  of  the  patri 
archal  group,  and  of  the  cluster  of  patriarchal  groups. 
The  only  further  fact  respecting  it  calling  for  remark,  is  the 
way  in  which  it  becomes  compounded  to  produce  a  higher 
title.  Just  as  in  Hebrew,  Abram,  meaning  "  high  father/' 
came  to  be  a  compound  used  to  signify  the  fatherhood  and 
headship  of  any  minor  groups;  and  just  as  the  Greek  and 
Latin  equivalents  to  our  patriarch,  signified  by  implication, 
if  not  directly,  a  father  of  fathers ;  so  in  the  case  of  the  title 
"  king,"  it  has  happened  that  a  potentate  recognized  as 
dominant  over  numerous  potentates,  has  in  many  cases 
been  descriptively  called  "  king  of  kings."  In  Abyssinia 
this  compound  royal  name  is  used  down  to  the  present 
time;  as  we  lately  saw  that  it  is  also  in  Burmah.  Ancient 
Egyptian  monarchs  assumed  it;  and  it  occurred  as  a  su 
preme  title  in  Assyria.  And  here  again  we  meet  a  cor 
respondence  between  terrestrial  and  celestial  titles.  As 
"  father  "  and  "  king  "  are  applied  in  common  to  the  vis 
ible  and  to  the  invisible  ruler;  so,  too,  is  "  king  of  kings." 

This  need  for  marking  by  some  additional  name  the 
ruler  who  becomes  head  over  many  rulers,  leads  to  the  in 
troduction  of  other  titles  of  honour.  In  France,  for  exam 
ple,  while  the  king  was  but  a  predominant  feudal  noble,  he- 
was  addressed  by  the  title  sire,  which  was  a  title  borne  by 
feudal  nobles  in  general;  but  towards  the  end  of  the  fif 
teenth  century,  when  his  supremacy  became  settled,  the 
additional  word  "  majesty  "  grew  into  use  as  specially  ap- 


TITLES.  173 

plicable  to  him.  Similarly  with  the  names  of  secondary 
potentates.  In  the  earlier  stages  of  the  feudal  period,  the 
titles  baron,  marquis,  duke,  and  count,  were  often  con 
founded:  the  reason  being  that  their  attributes  as  feudal 
nobles,  as  guards  of  the  marches,  as  military  leaders,  and 
as  friends  of  the  king,  were  so  far  common  to  them  as  to 
yield  no  clear  grounds  for  distinction.  But  along  with 
differentiation  of  functions  wTent  differentiation  of  these 
titles. 

"The  name  'baron,'"  says  Ch6ruel,  "appears  to  have  been  the 
generic  term  for  every  kind  of  great  lord,  that  of  duke  for  every  kind 
of  military  chief,  that  of  count  and  marquis  for  every  ruler  of  a  ter 
ritory.  These  titles  are  used  almost  indiscriminately  in  the  romances 
of  chivalry.  When  the  feudal  hierarchy  was  constituted,  the  name 
baron  denoted  a  lord  inferior  in  rank  to  a  count  and  superior  to  a 
simple  knight." 

That  is  to  say,  with  the  progress  of  political  organization 
and  the  establishment  of  rulers  over  rulers,  certain  titles 
became  specialized  for  the  dignifying  of  the  superiors,  in 
addition  to  those  which  they  had  in  common  with  the  in 
feriors. 

As  is  shown  by  the  above  cases,  special  titles,  like  gen 
eral  titles,  are  not  made  but  grow — are  at  first  descriptive. 
Further  to  exemplify  their  descriptive  origin,  and  also  to 
exemplify  the  undifferentiated  use  of  them  in  early  days, 
let  me  enumerate  the  several  styles  by  which,  in  the  Mero 
vingian  period,  the  mayors  of  the  palace  were  known;  viz. 
major  domus  regie®,  senior  domus,  princeps  domus,  and  in 
other  instances  prwpositus,  prcefectus,  rector,  gubernator, 
moderator,  dux,  custos,  subregulus.  In  which  list  (noting 
as  we  pass  how  our  own  title  "  mayor/'  said  to  be  derived 
from  the  French  maire,  is  originally  derived  from  the  Latin 
major,  meaning  either  greater  or  elder)  we  get  proof  that 
other  names  of  honour  carry  us  back  to  words  implying 
age  as  their  originals ;  and  that  in  place  of  such  descriptive 
words,  the  alternative  words  used  describe  functions. 


174  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

§  406.  Perhaps  better  in  the  case  of  titles  than  in  any 
other  case,  is  illustrated  the  diffusion  of  ceremonial  forms 
that  are  first  used  to  propitiate  the  most  powerful  only. 

Uncivilized  and  semi-civilized  peoples,  civilized  peoples 
of  past  times,  and  existing  civilized  peoples,  all  furnish 
examples.  Among  Samoans  "it  is  usual,  in  the  courtesies 
of  common  conversation,  for  all  to  call  each  other  chiefs. 
If  you  listen  to  the  talk  of  little  boys  even,  you  will  hear 
them  addressing  each  other  as  chief  this,  that,  and  the  other 
thing.'7  In  Siam,  a  man's  children  by  any  of  his  inferior 
wives,  address  their  father  as  "  my  lord,  the  king;  "  and  the 
word  Xai,  which  is  the  name  for  chief  among  the  Siamese, 
"  has  become  a  term  of  civility  which  the  Siamese  give  to 
one  another."  A  kindred  result  has  occurred  in  China, 
where  sons  speak  of  their  father  as  "  family's  majesty," 
"prince  of  the  family;"  and  China  supplies  a  further 
instance  which  is  noteworthy  because  it  is  special.  Here, 
where  the  supremacy  of  ancient  teachers  became  so  great, 
and  where  the  titles  tze  m  futze,  signifying  "  great  teacher," 
added  to  their  names,  were  subsequently  added  to  the  names 
of  distinguished  writers,  and  where  class  distinctions  based 
on  intellectual  eminence  characterize  the  social  organiza 
tion;  it  has  resulted  that  this  name  of  honour  signifying 
teacher,  has  become  an  ordinary  complimentary  title.  An 
cient  Rome  furnishes  other  evidences.  The  spirit  which 
led  to  the  diffusion  of  titles  is  well  shadowed  forth  by 
Mommsen  in  describing  the  corrupt  giving  of  public  tri 
umphs  that  were  originally  accorded  only  to  a  "  supreme 
magistrate  who  augmented  the  power  of  the  State  in  open 
battle." 

"In  order  to  put  an  end  to  peaceful  triumphators,  .  .  .  the  grant 
ing  of  a  triumph  was  made  to  depend  on  the  producing  proof  of  a 
pitched  battle  which  had  cost  the  lives  of  at  least  five  thousand  of  the 
enemy ;  but  this  proof  was  frequently  evaded  by  false  bulletins.  .  .  . 
Formerly  the  thanks  of  the  community  once  for  all  had  sufficed  for 
service  rendered  to  the  State ;  now  every  meritorious  act  seemed  to 
demand  a  permanent  distinction.  ...  A  custom  came  into  vogue,  by 


TITLES.  175 

which  the  victor  and  his  descendants  derived  a  permanent  surname 
from  the  victories  they  had  won.  .  .  .  The  example  set  by  the  higher 
was  followed  by  the  humbler  classes." 

And  under  influences  of  this  kind,  dominus  and  rex  even 
tually  became  titles  used  to  ordinary  persons.  Nor  do  mod 
ern  European  nations  fail  to  exemplify  the  process.  The 
prevalence  of  names  of  rank  on  the  contine-nt,  often  re 
marked,  reaches  in  some  places  great  extremes.  "  In  Meck 
lenburg,"  says  Captain  Spencer,  "  it  is  computed  that  the 
nobility  include  one  half  of  the  population.  .  .  .  At  one 
of  the  inns  I  found  a  Herr  Graf  [Count]  for  a  landlord, 
a  Frau  Grafinn  [Countess]  for  a  landlady,  the  young  Her- 
ren  Gr'afen  filled  the  places  of  ostler,  waiter,  and  boots, 
while  the  fair  young  Fraulein  Grafinnen  were  the  cooks  and 
chambermaids.  I  was  informed  that  in  one  village  .  .  . 
the  whole  of  the  inhabitants  were  noble  except  four." 

French  history  shows  us  more  clearly  perhaps  than  any 
other,  the  stages  of  diffusion.  Noting  that  in  early  days, 
while  madame  was  the  title  for  a  noble  lady,  mademoiselle 
was  used  to  the  wife  of  an  advocate  or  physician;  and  that 
when,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  madame  descended  to  the 
married  women  of  these  middle  ranks,  mademoiselle 
descended  from  them  to  the  unmarried  women ;  let  us  look 
more  especially  at  the  masculine  titles,  sire,  seigneur,  sieur, 
and  monsieur.  Setting  out  with  sire  as  an  early  title  for  a 
feudal  noble,  we  find,  from  a  remark  of  Montaigne,  that  in 
1580,  though  still  applicable  in  a  higher  sense  to  the  king, 
it  had  descended  to  the  vulgar,  and  was  not  used  for  inter 
mediate  grades.  Seigneur,  introduced  as  a  feudal  title  while 
sire  was  losing  its  meaning  by  diffusion,  and  for  a  period 
used  alternatively  with  it,  became,  in  course  of  time,  con 
tracted  into  sieur.  By  and  by  sieur  also  began  to  spread 
to  those  of  lower  rank.  Afterwards,  re-establishing  a  dis 
tinction  by  an  emphasizing  prefix,  there  came  into  use  mon 
sieur;  which,  as  applied  to  great  seigneurs,  was  new  in 
1321,  and  which  came  also  to  be  the  title  of  sons  of  kings 


176  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

and  dukes.  And  then  by  the  time  that  monsieur  also  had 
become  a  general  title  among  the  upper  classes,  sieur  had 
become  a  bourgeois  title.  Since  which  time,  by  the  same 
process,  the  early  sire  and  the  later  sieur  dying  out,  have 
been  replaced  by  the  universal  monsieur.  So  that  there 
appear  to  have  been  three  waves  of  diffusion:  sire,  sieur, 
and  monsieur  have  successively  spread  downwards.  K"ay, 
even  a  fourth  may  be  traced.  The  duplication  of  the  mon 
sieur  on  a  letter,  doubtless  at  first  used  to  mark  a  distinc 
tion,  has  ceased  to  mark  a  distinction. 

How  by  this  process  high  titles  eventually  descend  to 
the  very  lowest  people,  we  are  shown  most  startingly  in 
Spain;  where  "  even  beggars  address  each  other  as  Senor  y 
Caballero — Lord  and  Knight." 

§  407.  For  form's  sake,  though  scarcely  otherwise,  it  is 
needful  to  point  out  that  we  are  taught  here  the  same  lesson 
as  before.  The  title-giving  among  savages  which  follows 
victory  over  a  foe,  brute  or  human,  and  which  literally  or 
metaphorically  distinguishes  the  individual  by  his  achieve 
ment,  unquestionably  originates  in  militancy.  Though  the 
more  general  names  father,  king,  elder,  and  their  deriva 
tives,  which  afterwards  arise,  are  not  directly  militant  in 
their  implications,  yet  they  are  indirectly  so;  for  they  are 
the  names  of  rulers  evolved  by  militant  activity,  who  habit 
ually  exercise  militant  functions:  being  in  early  stages  al 
ways  the  commanders  of  their  subjects  in  battle.  Down  to 
our  most  familiar  titles  we  have  this  genesis  implied.  "  Es 
quire  "  and  "  Mister  "  are  derived  the  one  from  the  name  of 
a  knight's  attendant  and  the  other  from  the  name  magister 
—originally  a  ruler  or  chief,  who  was  a  military  head  by 
origin  and  a  civil  head  by  development. 

As  in  other  cases,  comparisons  of  societies  of  different 
types  disclose  this  relation  in  another  way.  Remarking  that 
in  sanguinary  and  despotic  Dahomey,  the  personal  name 
"  can  hardly  be  said  to  exist;  it  changes  with  every  rank  of 


TITLES.  177 

the  holder,"  Burton  says — "  The  dignities  seem  to  be  in 
terminable;  except  amongst  the  slaves  and  the  canaille, 
i  handles  '  are  the  rule,  not  the  exception,  and  most  of  them 
are  hereditary."  So,  too,  under  Oriental  despotisms.  "  The 
name  of  every  Burman  disappears  when  he  gets  a  title  of 
rank  or  office,  and  is  heard  no  more;  "  and  in  China,  "  there 
are  twelve  orders  of  nobility,  conferred  solely  on  the  mem 
bers  of  the  imperial  house  or  clan,"  besides  "  the  five  an 
cient  orders  of  nobility."  Europe  supplies  further  evi 
dence.  Travellers  in  both  Russia  and  Germany,  with  their 
social  organizations  adapted  to  war,  comment  on  the  "  in 
sane  rage  for  titles  of  every  description :  "  the  results  being 
that  in  Russia  "  a  police-office  clerk  belongs  to  the  eight 
eenth  grade,  and  has  the  right  to  the  title  of  Your  Hon 
our;  "  and  in  Germany  the  names  of  rank  and  names  of 
office  so  abundantly  distributed,  are  habitually  expected  and 
studiously  given,  in  both  speech  and  writing.  Meanwhile 
England,  for  ages  past  less  militant  in  type,  has  ever  shown 
this  trait  in  a  smaller  degree;  and  along  with  the  growth  of 
industrialism  and  accomp'aying  changes  of  organization, 
the  use  of  titles  in  social  intercourse  has  decreased. 

With  equal  clearness  is  this  connexion  seen  within  each 
society.  By  the  thirteen  grades  in  our  army  and  the  four 
teen  grades  in  our  navy,  we  are  shown  that  the  exclusively- 
militant  structures  continue  to  be  characterized  in  the  high- 
•  est  degree  by  numerous  and  specific  titular  marks.  To  the 
ruling  classes,  descendants  or  representatives  of  those  who 
in  past  times  were  heads  of  military  forces,  the  higher  dis 
tinctions  of  rank  still  mostly  belong;  and  of  remaining 
titles,  the  ecclesiastical  and  legal  are  also  associated  with  the 
regulative  organization  developed  by  militancy.  Mean 
while,  the  producing  and  exchanging  parts  of  the  society, 
carrying  on  industrial  activities,  only  in  exceptional  cases 
bear  any  titles  beyond  those  which,  descending  and  spread 
ing,  have  almost  lost  their  meanings. 

It  is  indisputable,  then,  that  serving  first  to  commemo- 


178  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

rate  the  triumphs  of  savages  over  their  foes,  titles  have  ex 
panded,  multiplied,  and  differentiated,  as  conquests  have 
formed  large  societies  by  consolidation  and  re-consolidation 
of  small  ones;  and  that,  belonging  to  the  social  type  gener 
ated  by  habitual  war,  they  tend  to  lose  their  uses  and  their 
values,  in  proportion  as  this  type  is  replaced  by  one  fitted 
for  carrying  on  the  pursuits  of  peace. 


CHAPTEE  IX. 

BADGES    AND    COSTUMES. 

§  408.  The  pursuit  of  interpretations  once  more  takes 
us  back  to  victories  achieved  over  men  or  animals. 
Badges  are  derived  from  trophies;  with  which,  in  early 
stages,  they  are  identical.  We  have  seen  that  by  the  Sho- 
shones,  a  warrior  is  allowed  to  wear  the  feet  and  claws  of  a 
grizzly  bear,  constituting  their  "  highest  insignia  of  glory/' 
only  when  he  has  killed  one:  the  trophy  being  thus  made 
into  a  recognized  mark  of  honour.  And  seeing  this,  we  can 
not  doubt  that  the  buffalo-horns  decorating  the  head  of  a 
Maiidan  chief  and  indicating  his  dignity,  were  at  first  worn 
as  spoils  of  the  chase  in  which  he  prided  himself:  implying 
a  genesis  of  a  badge  out  of  a  trophy,  which  gives  meaning  to 
the  head-dresses  of  certain  divine  and  human  personages 
among  ancient  peoples. 

Beginning  as  a  personal  distinction  naturally  resulting 
from  personal  prowess,  like  the  lion's  skin  which  Hercules 
wrears,  the  trophy-badge  borne  by  a  warrior  whose  supe 
riority  gains  for  him  supremacy,  tends  to  originate  a  fam 
ily-badge;  which  becomes  a  badge  of  office  if  his  descend 
ants  retain  power.  Hence  the  naturalness  of  the  facts  that 
in  Ukimi  "  the  skin  [of  a  lion]  ...  is  prepared  for  the 
sultan's  wear,  as  no  one  else  dare  use  it;  "  that  "  a  leopard- 
skin  mantle  is  the  insignia  of  rank  among  the  Zoolus;  "  and 
that  in  Uganda,  certain  of  the  king's  attendants  wear  "  leop 
ard-cat  skins  girt  round  the  waist,  the  sign  of  royal  blood." 

179 


180  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

Of  course  if  skins  or  other  parts  of  slain  beasts,  tend 
thus  to  become  badges,  so,  too,  do  parts  of  slain  men.  "  The 
Chichimecs  flea  their  heads  [of  their  vanquished  enemies] 
and  fit  that  skin  upon  their  own  heads  with  all  the  hair,  and 
so  wear  it  as  a  token  of  valour,  till  it  rots  off  in  bits."  Here 
the  scalp  which  proves  his  victory,  is  itself  used  in  stamp 
ing  the  warrior  as  honourable.  Similarly  when,  of  the  Yu- 
catanese,  Lancia  says  that  "  after  a  victory  they  tore  from 
the  slain  enemy  the  jaw-bone,  and  having  stripped  it  of 
flesh,  they  put  it  on  their  arm,"  we  may  recognize  the  be 
ginning  of  another  kind  of  badge  from  another  kind  of 
trophy.  Though  clear  evidence  that  jawbones  become 
badges,  is  not  forthcoming,  we  have  good  reason  to  think 
that  substituted  representations  of  them  do.  After  our  war 
with  Ashantee,  where,  as  we  have  seen,  jawbones  are  ha 
bitually  taken  as  trophies,  there  were  brought  over  to  Eng 
land  among  other  curiosities,  small  models  of  jawbones 
made  in  gold,  used  for  personal  adornment.  And  facts 
presently  to  be  cited  suggest  that  they  became  ornaments 
after  having  originally  been  badges  worn  by  those  who  had 
actually  taken  jawbones  from  enemies. 

§  409.  Besides  sometimes  losing  parts  of  their  bodies, 
which  thereupon  become  trophies,  conquered  men  inva 
riably  lose  their  weapons,  which  naturally  also  become 
trophies;  as  they  did  among  the.  Greeks,  and  as  they 
did  again  in  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  to  whom  swords 
of  subdued  chiefs  were  brought.  And  if,  as  we  see,  parts 
of  vanquished  foes'  bodies,  brute  or  human,  when  worn  be 
come  badges;  we  may  expect  that  the  weapons  of  the  van 
quished  when  carried  by  the  victors,  will  also  become 
badges. 

That  swords  are  thus  transformed  from  trophies'  into 
badges,  if  not  directly  proved  is  indirectly  implied.  In 
Japan  "  the  constant  criterion  [of  rank]  turns  upon  the 
wearing  of  swords.  The  higher  orders  wear  two  .  .  .  the 


BADGES  AND   COSTUMES.  181 

next  in  rank  wear  one.  .  .  .  To  the  lower  orders,  a  sword  is 
strictly  prohibited."  And  since  a  practice  so  inconvenient 
as  that  of  carrying  a  superfluous  sword,  is  not  likely  to  have 
been  adopted  gratuitously;  it  may  be  inferred  that  the 
"  two-sworded  man/'  as  he  is  called,  was  originally  one  who, 
in  addition  to  his  own  sword,  wore  a  sword  taken  from  an 
enemy:  in  which  case  what  is  now  a  badge  was  once  a  tro 
phy.  Even  where  both  swords  are  not  worn,  it  results 
that  as  the  vanquished  man  is  made  swordless,  the  victor's 
sword  marks  him  as  master  in  contrast  with  the  swordless 
as  slave.  Hence,  then,  the  fact  that  in  various  countries  a 
sword  is  a  symbol  of  power.  Hence  the  fact  that  of  old  the 
investiture  of  princes  was  in  many  cases  by  the  girding  on  of 
a  sword.  Hence  the  use  of  a  sword  as  an  emblem  of  judicial 
authority.  Implying  power  and  position,  the  sword 

is  a  mark  of  honour  which,  in  common  with  all  others,  has 
tended  to  spread  downwards;  as  till  lately  in  Japan,  where 
swordless  men  in  underhand  ways  acquired  the  privilege  of 
wearing  swords;  and  as  in  France,  where,  two  centuries 
ago,  punishments  for  the  unauthorized  wearing  of  swords 
were  inflicted. 

Better  than  the  sword  does  the  spear  illustrate  this  gene 
sis  of  the  badge  from  the  trophy ;  since,  while  the  sword  in 
becoming  a  badge  retains  its  original  shape,  the  spear  in 
becoming  a  badge  partially  loses  the  aspect  of  a  weapon. 
In  its  untransformed  state,  the  spear  is  used  to  signify  au 
thority  by  various  semi-civilized  peoples.  Among  several 
parties  met  by  Mr.  Ellis  when  travelling  in  Madagascar,  he 
noticed  that  "  the  chief  usually  carried  a  spear  or  staff,  or 
both."  "  Xo  person  is  permitted  to  carry  weapons  of  any 
sort  in  the  palace,"  of  Uganda,  says  Speke;  "  but  the  king- 
habitually  bears  a  couple  of  spears  "  :  a  duplication  of 
weapons  again  suggestive,  like  the  two  swords,  of  a  trophy. 
In  Japan,  nobles  "  are  entitled  in  virtue  of  their  rank  to 
have  a  spear  carried  before  them  when  moving  about  offi 
cially."  That  the  javelin  was  a  symbol  of  authority  among 
70 


182  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

the  Hebrews,  Ewald  infers  from  1  Samuel,  xviii.,  10  and 
xx vi.,  12  and  22.  And  then  there  is  the  still  more  signifi 
cant  fact  that  a  lance  or  spear,  in  the  time  of  Pausanias, 
was  worshipped  as  the  sceptre  of  Zeus.  Early  European 
history  yields  further  evidence.  "  The  lance  was  a  sign  of 
kingly  power'7  among  the  Franks,  says  Waitz;  and  when 
Guntchram  adopted  Childebert,  his  nephew,  he  placed  a 
spear  in  his  hand,  saying,  "  this  is  a  sign  that  I  have  given 
over  my  whole  kingdom  to  thee."t  Add  the  evidence  fur 
nished  by  the  shape  of  its  terminal  ornament,  and  we  cannot 
doubt  that  the  sceptre  is  simply  a  modified  spear — a  spear 
which,  ceasing  to  be  used  as  a  weapon,  lost  its  fitness  for  de 
structive  purposes  while  becoming  enriched  with  gold  and 
precious  stones.  That  only  by  degrees  did  its  character  as  a 
weapon  disappear,  is  implied  by  the  fact  that  the  prelate  who 
consecrated  Otho  in  937,  said — "  By  this  sceptre  you  shall 
paternally  chastise  your  subjects."  And  then  we  may  infer 
that  while  the  spear,  borne  by  the  supreme  ruler,  underwent 
transformation  into  the  sceptre,  the  spears  borne  by  sub 
ordinates,  symbolizing  their  deputed  authority,  gradually 
changed  into  staves  of  office,  batons  of  command,  and 
wands. 

Other  facts  from  various  quarters,  support  the  conclu 
sion  that  all  such  marks  of  official  power  are  derived  from 
the  weapons  or  appendages  carried  by  the  militant  man. 
Among  the  Araucanians  "  the  discriminative  badge  of  the 
toqui  [supreme  chief]  is  a  species  of  battle-axe,  made  of 
porphyry  or  marble."  Describing  a  governor-general  of  a 
Uganda  province,  Speke  says: — "  His  badge  of  office  is  an 
iron  hatchet,  inlaid  with  copper  and  handled  with  ivory." 
And  then  mediaeval  Erance  supplies  two  instances  in  which 
other  parts  of  the  warrior's  belongings  became  badges. 
Plate  armour,  originally  worn  by  the  knight  as  a  defence, 
was  clung  to  by  the  nobility  after  it  had  ceased  to  be  useful, 
because  it  was  a  mark  of  distinction,  says  Quicherat;  and 
spurs,  also  at  first  knightly  appendages,  grew  into  append- 


BADGES  AND  COSTUMES.  183 

ages  of  honour,  and  spread  through  bishops  down  even  to 
the  ordinary  clergy. 

§  410.  Another  symbol  of  authority,  the  flag  or  ensign, 
seems  to  have  had  a  kindred  origin.  This,  too,  is  a  modified 
and  developed  spear. 

Certain  usages  of  the  Peruvians  yield  evidence.  Gar- 
cilasso  says,  "  the  lance  was  adorned  with  feathers  of  many 
colours;  extending  from  the  point  to  the  socket,  and  fas 
tened  with  rings  of  gold.  The  same  ensign  served  as  a  ban 
ner  in  time  of  war."  This  suggests  that  the  appendages  of 
the  lance,  first  used  for  display,  incidentally  furnished  a 
means  of  identification,  whereby  the  whereabouts  of  the 
leader  could  be  traced.  And  then  Mr.  Markham's  statement 
that  planting  a  lance  with  a  banner  at  the  end  seems  to  have 
been  a  sign  of  the  royal  presence,  while  it  verifies  the  in 
ference  that  the  lance  became  by  association  a  mark  of  gov 
ernmental  power,  suggests  also  how,  by  development  of  its 
decorative  part,  the  banner  resulted. 

That  along  with  consolidation  of  small  societies  into 
larger  ones  by  conquest,  followed  by  development  of  mili 
tant  organization,  there  arises  not  only  the  need  for  dis 
tinguishing  each  chief  of  a  tribe  from  his  followers,  but 
also  for  distinguishing  the  tribes  from  one  another,  is  shown 
by  sundry  slightly  civilized  and  semi-civilized  peoples. 
During  wars  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  different  ranks  of 
chiefs  were  distinguished  by  the  sizes  and  colours  of  their 
feather  cloaks.  Among  the  Fijians  each  band  "  fights 
under  its  own  flag,"  and  "  the  flags  are  distinguished  from 
each  other  by  markings."  AVhcn  armies  were  formed  by 
the  Chibchas,  "  each  cazique  and  tribe  came  with  different 
signs  on  their  tents,  fitted  out  with  the  mantles  by  which 
they  distinguished  themselves  from  each  other."  And  "  the 
Mexicans  were  very  attentive  to  distinguish  persons,  par 
ticularly  in  war,  by  different  badges."  When  with  this  last 
statement  we  join  the  further  statement  that  "  the  armorial 


184  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

ensign  of  the  Mexican  empire  was  an  eagle  in  the  act  of 
darting  upon  a  tiger/'  recalling  the  animal-names  of  the 
kings,  we  are  shown  how,  at  any  rate  in  some  cases,  the 
distinctive  marks  on  the  flags  of  leaders  represented  their 
names;  carrying  us  back  to  those  achievements  in  war  and 
the  chase  which  originated  their  names. 

That  the  devices  on  flags  were  in  early  stages  commonly 
of  this  kind  (though  naturally  not  in  cases  like  those  of 
Sandwich  Islanders  and  Fijians  above  named,  whose  habi 
tats  contained  no  wild  beasts  of  fit  characters)  seems  im 
plied  by  the  fact  that  even  still,  the  predatory  mammals  and 
birds  of  prey  which,  in  early  times,  mostly  furnished  the 
animal  names  of  great  warriors,  still  linger  on  flags,  or  on 
the  standards  carrying  them:  the  reason  for  the  gradual 
subordination  of  the  animal-figure  being  obviously  the 
growth  of  that  expanse  of  colour  which  gives  the  needful 
conspicuousness. 

§  411.  And  here  we  come  upon  the  now-familiar  in 
ference  that  heraldic  badges  have  descended  from  these 
primitive  tribal  badges,  or  totems.  That  the  names  of 
tribes,  in  so  many  parts  of  the  world  derived  from  animals, 
and  often  joined  with  beliefs  that  the  animals  giving  the 
names  were  the  actual  ancestors,  sometimes  originate  tribal 
badges,  we  have  direct  proof.  Of  the  Thlinkeets  we  read 
in  Bancroft  that— 

"The  whole  nation  is  separated  into  two  great  divisions  or  clans, 
one  of  which  is  called  the  Wolf,  and  the  other  the  Raven.  Upon 
their  houses,  boats,  robes,  shields,  and  wherever  else  they  can  find 
a  place  for  it,  they  paint  or  carve  their  crest,  an  heraldic  device  of 
the  beast  or  the  bird  designating  the  clan  to  which  the  owner  be 
longs." 

With  such  support  for  an  inference  reasonably  to  be 
drawn,  we  cannot  but  accept  the  hypothesis  that  the  heral 
dic  devices  which  early  prevailed  among  the  civilized,  had 
a  like  genesis.  When  we  read  that  in  China,  "  the  Man- 


BADGES  AND  COSTUMES.  185 

darins  of  letters  have  birds  on  their  Habit  embroidered  in 
Gold,  to  distinguish  their  rank;  the  Mandarins  of  the 
Army  have  Animals,  as  the  Dragon,  the  Lion,  the  Tiger," 
and  that  "  by  these  Marks  of  Honour  the  People  know 
the  Rank  these  officers  have  in  the  nine  Degrees  of  the 
State;  "  we  can  scarcely  draw  any  other  conclusion  than 
that  this  use  of  animal-symbols,  however  much  it  has  de 
viated  from  its  original  use,  arose  from  the  primitive 
system  of  tribal  naming  and  consequent  tribal  badges. 
And  finding  that  during  early  times  in  Europe,  coats  of 
arms  were  similarly  emblazoned  upon  the  dresses,  as  well 
as  otherwise  displayed,  we  must  infer  that  whether  painted 
on  coach-panels,  chased  on  plate,  or  cut  on  seals,  these 
family-marks  among  ourselves  have  a  kindred  deriva 
tion. 

§  412.  Civilized  usages  obscure  the  truth  that  men 
were  not  originally  prompted  to  clothe  themselves  by  either 
the  desire  for  warmth  or  the  thought  of  decency.  When 
Speke  tells  us  that  the  Africans  attending  him,  donning 
with  pride  their  goat-skin  mantles  when  it  was  fine,  took 
them  off  when  it  rained,  and  went  about  naked  and  shiver 
ing;  or  when  we  read  in  Heuglin  that  "  among  the  Schiluk 
the  men  go  quite  naked,  even  their  sultan  and  his  wezir  ap 
pear  in  a  kind  of  parti-coloured  shirt,  only  during  official  in 
terviews  and  on  festive  occasions;  "  we  are  shown  that  the 
dress,  like  the  badge,  is  at  first  worn  from  the  wish  for  ad 
miration. 

Some  of  the  facts  already  given  concerning  American 
Indians,  who  wear  as  marks  of  honour  the  skins  of  formi 
dable  animals  they  have  killed,  suggest  that  the  badge  and 
the  dress  have  a  common  root,  and  that  the  dress  is,  at  any 
rate  in  some  cases,  a  collateral  development  of  the  badge. 
There  is  evidence  that  it  was  so  with  early  European  races. 
In  their  Life  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  Guhl  and  Koner 
remark: — 


186  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

"  The  covering  of  the  head  and  the  upper  part  of  the  body,  to 
protect  them  from  the  weather  and  the  enemy's  weapons,  originally 
consisted  of  the  hide  of  wild  animals.  Thus  the  hunter's  trophy 
became  the  warrior's  armour.  .  .  .  The  same  custom  prevailed 
amongst  Germanic  nations,  and  seems  to  have  been  adopted  by  the 
Roman  standard-bearers  and  trumpeters,  as  is  proved  by  the  monu 
ments  of  the  Imperial  period." 

Whence  it  is  inferable  that  the  honour ableness  of  the  badge 
and  of  the  dress,  simultaneously  arise  from  the  honourable- 
ness  of  the  trophy.  That  possession  of  a  skin-dress  passes 
into  a  class-distinction,  I  find  no  direct  proof;  though,  as 
the  skins  of  formidable  beasts  often  become  distinctive 
of  chiefs,  it  seems  probable  that  skins  in  general  become 
distinctive  of  a  dominant  class  where  a  servile  class 
exists.  Indeed,  in  a  primitive  society  there  unavoidably 
arises  this  contrast  between  those  who,  engaged  in  the 
chase  when  not  engaged  in  war,  can  obtain  skin-garments, 
and  those  who,  as  slaves,  are  debarred  from  doing  so 
by  their  occupation.  Hence,  possibly,  the  interdicts  in 
mediaeval  Europe  against  the  wearing  of  furs  by  the  inferior 
classes. 

Even  apart  from  this  it  is  inferable  that  since,  by  taking 
his  clothes,  nakedness  is  commonly  made  a  trait  of  the  pris 
oner,  and  consequently  of  the  slave,  relative  amount  of 
clothing  becomes  a  class-distinction.  In  some  cases  there 
result  exaggerations  of  the  difference  thus  incidentally  aris 
ing.  Where  the  inferior  are  clothed,  the  superior  distin 
guish  themselves  by  being  more  clothed.  Cook  says  of  the 
Sandwich  Islanders  that  quantity  of  clothing  is  a  mark  of 
position,  and  of  the  Tongans  he  says  the  same;  while  he  tells 
us  that  in  Tahiti,  the  higher  classes  signify  their  rank  by 
wearing  a  large  amount  of  clothing  at  great  inconvenience 
to  themselves.  A  kindred  case  occurs  in  Africa.  Accord 
ing  to  Laird,  "  on  all  great  occasions  it  is  customary  for  the 
king  "  of  Fundah  "  and  his  attendants  to  puff  themselves 
out  to  a  ridiculous  size  with  cotton  wadding."  And  the 
Arabs  furnish  an  allied  fact.  In  Kaseem  "  it  is  the  fashion 


BADGES  AND   COSTUMES.  187 

to  multiply  this  important  article  of  raiment  [shirts]  by 
putting  on  a  second  over  the  first  and  a  third  over  the  sec 
ond.'7 

That  there  simultaneously  arise  differences  in  the  forms 
and  in  qualities  of  the  dresses  worn^by  rulers  and  ruled, 
scarcely  needs  saying.  Obviously,  the  partial  dress  of  the 
slave  must  become  distinguished  by  shape  as  well  as  by 
amount,  from  the  complete  dress  of  the  master;  and  ob 
viously,  the  clothing  allowed  to  him  as  a  slave  will  be 
relatively  coarse.  But  beyond  the  distinctions  thus  marking 
rank  in  early  stages,  there  must  in  later  stages  habitually 
arise  further  such  distinctions.  As  wars  between  small 
societies  end  from  time  to  time  in  subjugation,  it  must  hap 
pen  that  when  the  dress  of  the  ruling  class  of  the  con 
quering  society  differs  from  that  of  the  ruling  class  of  the 
society  conquered,  it  will  become  distinctive  of  the  new  and 
higher  ruling  class.  There  is  evidence  that  contrasts  were 
thus  initiated  during  the  spread  of  the  Romans.  Those 
inhabitants  of  Gaul  who  were  inscribed  Roman  citizens, 
wore  the  Roman  costume,  and  formed  a  privileged  order. 
"  The  Gallo-Romans,  who  were  incomparably  the  more 
numerous  .  .  .  were  obliged  to  dress  otherwise :  "  freemen 
meanwhile  being  distinguished  from  slaves,  and  slaves  from 
coloni,  by  their  mantles. 

Distinctions  of  rank  naturally  come  to  be  marked  by  the 
colours  of  dresses,  as  well  as  by  their  quantities,  qualities, 
and  shapes.  The  coarse  fabrics  worn  by  the  servile  classes, 
must  as  a  matter  of  course  be  characterized  by  those  dull 
colours  possessed  by  the  raw  materials  used;  as  happened 
in  Rome,  where  "  only  poor  people,  slaves  and  freedmen, 
wore  dresses  of  the  natural  brown  or  black  colour  of  the 
wool."  Consequently,  bright  colours  will  habitually  distin 
guish  the  dresses  of  the  ruling  classes,  able  to  spend  money 
on  costly  dyes.  Illustrations  come  from  many  countries. 
In  Madagascar  the  use  of  a  "  dress  of  entire  scarlet  is  the 
prerogative  of  the  sovereign  alone. "  In  Siam  "  the  Prince; 


188  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

and  all  who  follow  him  in  war  or  the  chase,  are  clothed  in 
red."  "  The  Kututuchtu  [Mongol  pontiff]  and  his  lamas 
are  all  clothed  in  yellow,  and  no  layman  is  allowed  to  wear 
this  colour  except  the  prince."  In  China  also,  yellow  is  the 
imperial  colour,  limited  to  the  emperor  and  his  clan;  and 
among  the  Chinese  other  colours,  crimson,  green,  &c., 
mark  potentates  of  divers  grades,  while  sashes  and  caps  of 
various  bright  hues  are  marks  of  rank.  Then  in  Europe  we 
have,  during  the  last  years  of  the  Roman  republic,  the  wear 
ing  of  scarlet,  violet,  arid  purple,  by  men  of  the  wealth 
ier  classes;  ending  in  the  purple  of  special  quality  distinc 
tive  of  the  emperor,  when  his  supremacy  became  established 
And  among  later  peoples  like  causes  have  effected  like  dis 
tinctions.  In  mediaeval  France  scarlet,  as  the  most  costly 
colour,  was  worn  exclusively  by  princes,  knights,  and  women 
of  high  rank.  "  (  The  laws  ordain  that  no  one  shall  wear 
purple,  which  signifies  exalted  rank,  except  the  nobles.' 
Froissart,  speaking  of  Artevelle,  chief  of  the  revolted  Gan- 
tese,  says  that  '  he  was  clothed  in  sanguine  robes  and  in 
scarlet,  like  the  Duke  of  Brabant  and  the  Count  of  Hai- 
naut.'  " 

Of  course  with  that  development  of  ceremonial  control 
which  goes  along  with  elaboration  of  political  structure, 
differences  of  quantity,  quality,  shape  and  colour,  are  united 
to  produce  dresses  distinctive  of  classes.  This  trait  is  most 
marked  where  the  rule  is  most  despotic;  as  in  China  where 
"  between  the  highest  mandarin  or  prime  minister,  and  the 
lowest  constable,  there  are  nine  classes,  each  distinguished 
by  a  dress  peculiar  to  itself;  "  as  in  Japan,  where  the  at 
tendants  of  the  Mikado  "  are  clad  after  a  particular  fashion 
.  .  .  and  there  is  so  much  difference  even  among  them 
selves,  as  to  their  habits,  that  thereby  alone  it  is  easily 
known  what  rank  they  are  of,  or  what  employment  they 
have  at  Court;  "  and  as  in  European  countries  during 
times  of  unchecked  personal  government,  when  each  class 
had  its  distinctive  costume. 


BADGES  AND  COSTUMES.  189 

§  413.  The  causes  which  have  originated,  developed, 
and  specialized  badges  and  dresses,  have  done  the  like  with 
ornaments;  which  have,  indeed,  the  same  origins. 

How  trophy-badges  pass  into  ornaments,  we  shall  see  on 
joining  with  facts  given  at  the  outset  of  the  chapter,  certain 
kindred  facts.  In  Guatemala,  when  commemorating  by 
war-dances  the  victories  of  earlier  times,  the  Indians  were 
"  dressed  in  the  skins  and  wearing  the  heads  of  animals  on 
their  own;  "  and  among  the  Chibchas,  persons  of  rank 
"  wore  helmets,  generally  made  of  the  skins  of  fierce  ani 
mals."  If  we  recall  the  statement  already  quoted,  that  in 
primitive  European  times,  the  warrior's  head  and  shoulders 
were  protected  by  the  hide  of  a  wild  animal  (the  skin  of  its 
head  sometimes  surmounting  his  head) ;  and  if  we  add  the 
statement  of  Plutarch  that  the  Cimbri  wore  helmets  repre 
senting  the  heads  of  wild  beasts ;  we  may  infer  that  the  ani 
mal-ornaments  on  metal-helmets  began  as  imitations  of 
hunter's  trophies.  This  inference  is  supported  by  evidence 
already  cited  in  part,  but  in  part  reserved  for  the  present  oc 
casion.  The  Ashantees  who,  as  we  have  seen,  take  human 
jaws  as  trophies,  use  both  actual  jaws  and  golden  models  of 
jaws  for  different  decorative  purposes:  adorning  their  musi 
cal  instruments,  &c.,  with  the  realities,  and  carrying  on 
their  persons  the  metallic  representations.  A  parallel  deri 
vation  occurs  among  the  Malagasy.  When  we  read  that  by 
them  silver  ornaments  like  crocodile's  teeth  are  worn  on 
various  parts  of  the  body,  we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  the 
silver  teeth  are  substitutes  for  actual  teeth  originally  worn 
as  trophies. 

We  shall  the  less  doubt  this  derivation  on  observing  in 
how  many  parts  of  the  world  personal  ornaments  are  made 
out  of  these  small  and  durable  parts  of  conquered  men  and 
animals, — how  by  Caribs,  Tupis,  Moxos,  Ashantees,  human 
teeth  are  made  into  armlets,  anklets,  and  necklaces;  and 
how  in  other  cases  the  teeth  of  beasts,  mostly  formidable, 
are  used  in  like  ways.  The  necklaces  of  the  Land  Dyaks 


190  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

contain  tiger-cat's  teeth ;  the  New  Guinea  people  ornament 
their  necks,  arms,  and  waists  with  hogs'  teeth;  while  the 
Sandwich  Islanders  have  bracelets  of  the  polished  tusks  of 
the  hog,  with  anklets  of  dogs'  teeth.  Some  Dacotahs  wear 
"  a  kind  of  necklace  of  white  bear's  claws,  three  inches 
long."  Among  the  Kukis  "  a  common  armlet  worn  by  the 
men  consists  of  two  semi-circular  boar's  tusks  tied  together 
so  as  to  form  a  ring."  Enumerating  objects  hanging  from 
a  Dy all's  ear,  Boyle  includes  "  two  boar's  tusks,  one  alli 
gator's  tooth."  And  picturing  what  her  life  would  be  at 
home,  a  captive  New  Zealand  girl  in  her  lament  says — "  the 
shark's  tooth  would  hang  from  my  ear."  Though  small 
objects  which  are  attractive  in  colour  and  shape,  will  natu 
rally  be  used  by  the  savage  for  decorative  purposes,  yet  pride 
in  displaying  proofs  of  his  prowess,  will  inevitably  make 
him  utilize  fit  trophies  in  preference  to  other  things,  when 
he  has  them.  The  motive  which  made  Mandans  have  their 
buffalo-robes  "  fringed  on  one  side  with  scalp-locks,"  which 
prompts  a  Naga  chief  to  adorn  the  collar  round  his  neck 
with  "  tufts  of  the  hair  of  the  persons  he  had  killed,"  and 
which  leads  the  Hottentots  to  ornament  their  heads  with 
the  bladders  of  the  wild  beasts  they  have  slain,  as  Kolben 
tells  us,  will  inevitably  tend  to  transform  trophies  into 
decorations  wherever  it  is  possible.  Indeed  while  I  write 
I  find  direct  proof  that  this  is  so.  Concerning  the  Snake 
Indians,  Lewis  and  Clarke  say  :— 

"The  collar  most  preferred,  because  most  honourable,  is  one  of 
the  claws  of  the  brown  bear.  To  kill  one  of  these  animals  is  as  dis 
tinguished  an  achievement  as  to  have  put  to  death  an  enemy,  and  in 
fact  with  their  weapons  is  a  more  dangerous  trial  of  courage.  These 
claws  are  suspended  on  a  thong  of  dressed  leather,  and  being  orna 
mented  with  beads,  are  worn  round  the  neck  by  the  warriors  writh 
great  pride." 

And  sundry  facts  unite  in  suggesting  that  many  of  the 
things  used  for  ornaments  were  at  first  substitutes  for  tro 
phies  having  some  resemblance  to  them.  When  Tuckey 


BADGES  AND  COSTUMES.  191 

tells  us  that  the  natives  of  the  Congo  region  make  their 
necklaces,  bracelets,  &c.,  of  iron  and  brass  rings,  lion's 
teeth,  beads,  shells,  seeds  of  plants;  we  may  suspect  that 
the  lion's  teeth  stand  to  the  beads  and  shells  in  much  the 
same  relation  that  diamonds  do  to  paste. 

And  then  from  cases  in  which  the  ornament  is  an  actual 
trophy  or  representation  of  a  trophy,  we  pass  to  cases  in 
which  it  avowedly  stands  in  place  of  a  trophy.  Describing 
practices  of  the  Chibchas,  Acosta  says  that  certain  of  their 
strongest  and  bravest  men  had  "  their  lips,  noses,  and  ears 
pierced,  and  from  them  hung  strings  of  gold  quills,  the 
number  of  which  corresponded  with  that  of  the  enemies 
they  had  killed  in  battle:  "  the  probability  being  that  these 
golden  ornaments,  originally  representations  of  actual  tro 
phies,  had  lost  resemblance  to  them. 

Thus  originating,  adornments  of  these  kinds  become 
distinctive  of  the  wTarrior-class ;  and  there  result  interdicts 
on  the  use  of  them  by  inferiors.  Such  interdicts  have  oc 
curred  in  various  places.  Among  the  Chibchas,  "  paint 
ings,  decorations  and  jewels  on  dresses,  and  ornaments,  were 
forbidden  to  the  common  people."  So,  too,  in  Peru,  "  none 
of  the  common  people  could  use  gold  or  silver,  except  by 
special  privilege."  And  without  multiplying  evidence 
from  nearer  regions,  it  will  suffice  to  add  that  in  mediaeval 
France,  jewellery  and  plate  were  marks  of  distinction  not 
allowed  to  those  below  a  certain  rank. 

Of  course  decorations  beginning  as  actual  trophies, 
passing  into  representations  of  trophies  made  of  precious 
materials,  and,  while  losing  their  resemblance  to  trophies, 
coming  to  be  marks  of  honour  given  to  brave  warriors  by 
their  militant  rulers  (as  in  Imperial  Rome,  where  armlets 
were  thus  awarded)  inevitably  pass  from  relative  uniform 
ity  to  relative  multiformity.  As  society  complicates  there 
result  orders  of  many  kinds — stars,  crosses,  medals,  and  the 
like.  These  it  is  observable  are  most  if  not  all  of  them  of 
military  origin.  And  then  where  a  militant  organization 


192  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

evolved  into  rigidity,  continues  after  the  life  has  ceased  to 
be  militant,  we  find  such  decorations  used  to  mark  ranks  of 
another  kind;  as  in  China,  with  its  differently-coloured 
buttons  distinguishing  its  different  grades  of  mandarins. 

I  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  to  imply  that  this 
explanation  covers  all  cases.  Already  I  have  admitted  that 
the  rudimentary  aesthetic  sense  which  leads  the  savage  to 
paint  his  body,  has  doubtless  a  share  in  prompting  the  use 
of  attractive  objects  for  ornaments;  and  two  other  origins 
of  ornaments  must  be  added.  Cook  tells  us  that  the  New 
Zealanders  carry  suspended  to  their  ears  the  nails  and  teeth 
of  their  deceased  relations;  and  much  more  bulky  relics, 
which  are  carried  about  by  widows  and  others  among  some 
races,  may  also  occasionally  be  modified  into  decorative  ob 
jects.  Further,  it  seems  that  badges  of  slavery  undergo  a 
kindred  transformation.  The  ring  through  the  nose,  which 
Assyrian  sculptures  show  us  was  used  for  leading  captives 
taken  in  war,  which  marked  those  who,  as  priests,  entered 
the  service  of  certain  gods  in  ancient  America,  and  which  in 
Astrachan  is  even  now  a  sign  of  dedication,  that  is  of  sub 
jection;  seems  elsewhere  to  have  lost  its  meaning,  and  to 
have  survived  as  an  ornament.  And  this  is  a  change  analo 
gous  to  that  which  has  occurred  with  marks  on  the  skin. 
(§  364) 

§  414.  We  cannot  say  that  the  wish  to  propitiate,  which 
caused  the  spread  of  present-giving,  of  obeisances,  of  com 
plimentary  addresses,  and  of  titles,  has  also  caused  the 
spread  of  badges,  costumes,  and  decorations.  In  this  case  it 
is  rather  that  the  lower  grades  have  sought  to  raise  them 
selves  into  the  grades  above,  by  assuming  their  distinctive, 
marks;  and  that,  where  feared,  they  have  been  propitiated 
by  allowing  them  to  do  this. 

Already  in  passing  we  have  noted  how  such  badges  of 
rank  as  swords  and  as  spurs,  have  descended  even  in  spite 
of  interdicts;  and  here  must  be  added  proofs  that  the  like 


BADGES  AND   COSTUMES.  193 

has  occurred  with  dresses  and  ornaments.  It  was  thus  in 
Rome.  "  All  these  insignia,"  writes  Mommsen,  "  proba 
bly  belonged  at  first  only  to  the  nobility  proper,  i.  e.  to  the 
agnate  descendants  of  curule  magistrates;  although,  after 
the  manner  of  such  decorations,  all  of  them  in  course  of  time 
were  extended  to  a  wider  circle.7'  And  then,  in  illustration, 
he  says  that  the  purple-bordered  toga,  originally  significant 
of  the  highest  rank,  had,  as  early  as  the  time  of  the  second 
Punic  wrar,  descended  "  even  to  the  sons  of  freedmen;  " 
while  the  gold  amulet-case  distinguishing  the  triumphator, 
was,  at  the  same  date,  "  only  mentioned  as  a  badge  of  the 
children  of  senators."  So  was  it,  too,  with  signet  rings. 

"  Originally  only  ambassadors  sent  to  foreign  nations  were  allowed 
to  wear  gold  rings  .  .  .  ;  later,  senators  and  other  magistrates  of 
equal  rank,  and  soon  afterwards  knights,  received  the  jus  annuli 
aurei.  After  the  civil  war,  .  .  .  the  privilege  was  frequently  en 
croached  upon.  The  first  emperors  tried  to  enforce  the  old  law,  but 
as  many  of  their  freedmen  had  become  entitled  to  wear  gold  rings, 
the  distinction  lost  its  value.  After  Hadrian  the  gold  ring  ceased  to 
be  the  sign  of  rank." 

Sumptuary  laws  in  later  times,  have  shown  us  alike  the 
distinctions  of  dress  which  once  marked  off  classes  and  the 
gradual  breaking  down  of  those  distinctions;  as,  for  exam 
ple,  in  mediaeval  France.  Just  alluding  to  the  facts  that  in 
early  days  silk  and  velvet  were  prohibited  to  those  below  a 
certain  grade,  that  under  Philip  Augustus  shoe-points  were 
limited  in  their  lengths  to  six  inches,  twelve  inches,  or 
twenty-four  inches  according  to  social  position,  and  that  in 
the  17th  century,  ranks  at  the  French  court  were  marked  by 
the  lengths  of  trains;  it  will  suffice,  in  illustration  of  the 
feelings  and  actions  which  cause  and  resist  such  changes,  to 
name  the  complaints  of  moralists  in  the  14th  and  15th  cen 
turies,  that  by  extravagance  in  dress  "  all  ranks  were  con 
founded,"  and  to  add  that  in  the  16th  century,  women  were 
sent  to  prison  by  scores  for  wearing  clothes  like  those  of 
their  superiors. 

How  this  diffusion  of  dresses  marking  honourable  posi- 


CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

tion  and  disuse  of  dresses  marking  inferiority,  lias  gone  far 
among  ourselves,  but  is  still  incomplete,  is  shown  in  almost 
every  household.  On  the  one  hand  we  have  the  fashionable 
gowns  of  cooks  and  housemaids ;  on  the  other  hand  we  have 
that  dwarfed  representative  of  the  muslin  cap,  which,  once 
hiding  the  hair,  was  insisted  upon  by  mistresses  as  a  class 
distinction,  but  which,  gradually  dwindling,  has  now  be 
come  a  small  patch  on  the  back  of  the  head :  a  good  instance 
of  the  unobtrusive  modifications  by  which  usages  are 
changed. 

§  415.  Before  summing  up,  I  must  point  out  that 
though,  in  respect  of  these  elements  of  ceremony,  there  are 
not  numerous  parallelisms  between  the  celestial  rule  and  the 
terrestrial  rule,  still  there  are  some.  That  the  symbol  of 
dominion,  the  sceptre,  originally  derived  from  a  weapon, 
the  spear,  is  common  to  the  two,  will  be  at  once  recalled  as 
one  instance;  and  the  ball  held  in  the  hand  as  a  second. 
Further,  in  regions  so  far  from  one  another  as  Polynesia 
and  ancient  Italy,  we  find  such  communities  of  dress  be 
tween  the  divine  and  the  human  potentate,  as  naturally 
follow  the  genesis  of  deities  by  ancestor-worship.  Ellis 
tells  us  that  the  Tahitians  had  a  great  religious  festival  at 
the  coronation  of  their  kings.  During  the  ceremonies,  he 
was  girded  with  the  sacred  girdle  of  red  feathers,  which 
identified  him  with  the  gods.  And  then  in  ancient  Rome, 
says  Mommsen,  the  king's  "  costume  was  the  same  as  that 
of  the  supreme  god;  the  state-chariot,  even  in  the  city 
where  everyone  else  went  on  foot,  the  ivory  sceptre  wTith 
the  eagle,  the  vermilion-painted  face,  the  chaplet  of  oaken 
leaves  in  gold,  belonged  alike  to  the  Roman  god  and  to  the 
Roman  king." 

As  clearly  as  in  preceding  cases,  we  see,  in  the  genesis 
of  badges  and  costumes,  how  ceremonial  government  begins 
with,  and  is  developed  by,  militancy.  Those  badges  which 
carry  us  back  for  their  derivation  to  trophies  taken  from  the 


BADGES  AND  COSTUMES.  195 

bodies  of  slain  brutes  and  men,  conclusively  show  this ;  and 
we  are  shown  it  with  equal  collusiveness  by  those  badges, 
or  symbols  of  authority,  which  were  originally  weapons 
taken  from  the  vanquished.  On  finding  that  a  dress,  too, 
originally  consisting  of  a  wild  animal's  skin,  has  at  the  out 
set  like  implications  bringing  like  honours;  and  on  finding 
also  that  as  a  spoil  wrenched  from  the  conquered  man,  the 
dress,  whether  a  trophy  of  the  chase  or  of  other  kind,  comes 
by  its  presence  and  absence  to  be  distinctive  of  conqueror 
and  conquered;  and  on  further  finding  that  in  subsequent 
stages  such  additional  dress-distinctions  as  arise,  are  brought 
in  by  members  of  conquering  societies,  differently  clothed 
from  both  upper  and  lower  classes  of  the  societies  con 
quered;  we  are  shown  that  from  the  beginning  these  con 
spicuous  marks  of  superiority  and  inferiority  resulted  from 
war.  And  after  seeing  how  war  incidentally  initiated 
badges  and  costumes,  we  shall  understand  how  there  fol 
lowed  a  conscious  recognition  of  them  as  connected  with 
success  in  arms,  and  as  being  for  that  reason  honourable. 
Instances  of  this  direct  relation  are  furnished  by  the  mili 
tant  societies  of  ancient  America.  In  Mexico,  the  king 
could  not  wear  full  dress  before  he  had  made  a  prisoner  in 
battle.  In  Peru,  "  those  (of  the  vassals)  who  had  worked 
most  in  the  subjugation  of  the  other  Indians  .  .  .  were  al 
lowed  to  imitate  the  Ynca  most  closely  in  their  badges." 
And  how  dresses,  at  first  marking  military  supremacy,  be 
come  afterwards  dresses  marking  political  supremacy,  or 
political  power  derived  from  it,  we  may  gather  from  the 
statement  that  in  ancient  Rome  "  the  toga  picta  and  the  toga 
palmata  (the  latter  so  called  from  the  palm  branches  em 
broidered  on  it)  were  worn  by  victorious  commanders  at 
their  triumphs;  also  (in  imperial  times)  by  consuls  entering 
on  their  office,  by  the  prsetors  at  \hQpompa  circensis,  and  by 
tribunes  of  the  people  at  theAugustalia." 

Enforcing  direct  evidence  of  this  kind,  comes  the  in 
direct  evidence  obtained  by  comparing  societies  of  different 


196  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

types  and  by  comparing  different  stages  of  the  same  society. 
In  China  and  Japan,  where  the  political  organization 
evolved  in  ancient  times  by  war,  acquired  a  rigidity  which 
has  kept  it  unchanged  till  modern  times,  we  see  great  per 
sistence  of  these  class-badges  and  costumes;  and  among 
European  nations,  those  which  have  retained  types  pre 
dominantly  militant,  are  in  greater  degrees  characterized 
by  the  prevalence  of  special  dresses  and  decorations  than 
those  which  have  become  relatively  industrial  in  their  types. 
In  Russia,  "  a  dress  which  could  not  denote  the  rank  of 
the  man,  and  a  man  whose  only  worth  should  arise  from  his 
personal  merit,  would  be  considered  as  anomalies."  De 
scribing  a  Russian  dinner-party,  Dr.  Moritz  Wagner  says — 
"  I  found  that  on  the  breasts  of  thirty-five  military  guests, 
there  glittered  more  than  two  hundred  stars  and  crosses; 
many  of  the  coats  of  generals  had  more  orders  than  but 
tons."  And  this  trait  which  by  contrast  strikes  a  German  in 
Russia,  similarly  by  contrast  strikes  an  Englishman  in  Ger 
many.  Capt.  Spencer  remarks — "  I  do  not  believe  that  any 
people  in  Europe  are  more  partial  to  titles  and  orders  than 
the  Germans,  and  more  especially  the  Austrians."  And 
then  after  recalling  the  differences  between  the  street-scenes 
on  the  Continent  and  in  England,  caused  by  the  relative  in- 
frequency  here  of  official  costumes,  military  and  civil,  we 
are  reminded  of  a  further  difference  of  kindred  nature. 
For  here  among  the  non-official,  there  are  fewer  remnants 
of  those  class-distinctions  in  dress  which  were  everywhere 
pronounced  during  the  more  militant  past.  The  blouse  of 
the  French  workman  stamps  him  in  a  way  in  which  the 
Avorkman  in  England  is  not  stamped  by  his  comparatively 
varied  dress;  and  the  French  woman-servant  is  much  more 
clearly  identifiable  as  such  by  cap  and  gown  than  is  her 
sister  in  England.  Along  with  this  obliteration  of  visible 
distinctions  carried  further  at  home  than  abroad,  there  is 
another  kind  of  obliteration  also  carried  further.  Official 
costumes,  in  early  times  worn  constantly,  have  tended  in 


BADGES  AND  COSTUMES.  197 

the  less  militant  countries  to  fall  into  disuse,  save  during 
times  for  performing  official  functions;  and  in  England 
this  change,  more  marked  than  elsewhere,  has  gone  to  the 
extent  of  leading  even  military  and  naval  officers  to  assume 
"  mufti  "  when  off  duty. 

Most  striking,  however,  is  the  evidence  yielded  by  the 
general  contrast  between  the  controlling  part  of  each  so 
ciety  and  the  controlled  part.  The  facts  that  those  who 
form  the  regulative  organization,  which  is  originated  by 
militancy,  are  distinguished  from  those  who  form  the  or 
ganization  regulated,  which  is  of  industrial  origin,  by  the 
prevalence  among  them  of  visible  signs  of  rank;  and  that 
the  militant  part  of  this  regulative  organization  is  more 
than  the  rest  characterized  by  the  conspicuousness,  multi 
plicity,  and  definiteness,  of  those  costumes  and  badges 
which  distinguish  both  its  numerous  divisions  and  the  nu 
merous  ranks  in  each  division;  are  facts  unmistakably  sup 
porting  the  inference  that  militancy  has  generated  all  these 
marks  of  superiority  and  inferiority. 


71 


CHAPTEB  X. 

FURTHER    CLASS-DISTINCTIONS. 

§  416.  Foregoing  chapters  have  shown  how,  from 
primitive  usages  of  the  ceremonial  kind,  there  are  derived 
usages  which,  in  course  of  time,  lose  the  more  obvious  traces 
of  their  origin.  There  remain  to  be  pointed  out  groups  of 
secondarily-derived  usages  still  more  divergent. 

In  battle,  it  is  important  to  get  the  force  of  gravity  to 
fight  on  your  side ;  and  hence  the  anxiety  to  seize  a  position 
above  that  of  the  foe.  Conversely,  the  combatant  who  is 
thrown  down,  cannot  further  resist  without  struggling 
against  his  own  weight,  as  wrell  as  against  his  antagonist's 
strength.  Hence,  being  below  is  so  habitually  associated 
with  defeat,  as  to  have  made  maintenance  of  this  relation 
(literally  expressed  by  the  words  superior  and  inferior)  a 
leading  element  in  ceremony  at  large.  The  idea  of  relative 
elevation  as  distinguishing  the  positions  of  rulers  from  those 
of  ruled,  runs  through  our  language;  as  when  we  speak  of 
higher  and  lower  classes,  upper  and  under  servants,  and  call 
officers  of  minor  rank  subordinates  or  subalterns.  Every 
where  this  idea  enters  into  social  observances.  That  ten 
dency  to  connect  the  higher  level  with  honourableness, 
which  among  ourselves  in  old  times  was  shown  by  reserving 
the  dais  for  those  of  rank  and  leaving  the  body  of  the  hall 
for  common  people,  produces  in  the  East,  where  ceremonial 
is  so  greatly  developed,  various  rigid  regulations.  Writing 
of  Lombock,  Wallace  says — 

198 


FURTHER  CLASS-DISTINCTIONS.  199 

"The  highest  seat  is  literally,  with  these  people,  the  place  of 
honour  and  the  sign  of  rank.  So  unbending  are  the  rules  in  this  re 
spect,  that  when  an  English  carriage  which  the  Rajah  of  Lornbock 
had  sent  for,  arrived,  it  was  found  impossible  to  use  it  because  the 
driver's  seat  was  the  highest,  and  it  had  to  be  kept  as  a  show  in  its 
coach-house." 

Similarly,  according  to  Yule,  in  Burmah.  "  That  any  per 
son  should  occupy  a  floor  over  head,  would  be  felt  as  an  in 
tense  degradation.  ...  To  the  same  reason  is  generally 
ascribed  the  little  use  made  by  the  kings  of  Ava  of  the  car 
riages,  which  have  at  various  times  been  sent  to  them  as 
presents."  So  too  of  Siam,  Bowring  remarks:— 

"No  man  of  inferior  rank  dares  to  raise  his  head  to  the  level  of 
that  of  his  superior;  no  person  can  cross  a  bridge  if  an  individual  of 
higher  grade  chances  to  be  passing  below ;  no  mean  person  may  walk 
upon  a  floor  above  that  occupied  by  his  betters." 
And  this  idea  that  relative  elevation  is  an  essential  accom 
paniment  of  superior  rank,  we  shall  presently  see  dictates 
several  kinds  of  sumptuary  regulations. 

Other  derivative  class-distinctions  are  sequent  upon  dif 
ferences  of  wealth;  which  themselves  originally  follow 
differences  of  power.  From  that  earliest  stage  in  which 
master  and  slave  are  literally  captor  and  captive,  abundance 
of  means  has  been  the  natural  concomitant  of  mastery,  and 
poverty  the  concomitant  of  slavery.  Hence  where  the 
militant  type  of  organization  predominates,  being  rich  in 
directly  implies  being  victorious,  or  having  the  political 
supremacy  gained  by  victory.  It  is  true  that  some  primi 
tive  societies  furnish  exceptions.  Among  the  Dacotahs 
"  the  civil-chiefs  and  war-chiefs  are  distinguished  from  the 
rest  by  their  poverty.  They  generally  are  poorer  clad  than 
any  of  the  rest."  The  like  holds  of  the  Abipones,  whose 
customs  supply  an  explanation.  A  cazique,  distinguished 
by  the  "  peculiar  oldness  and  shabbiness  "  of  his  clothes, 
remains  shabby  because,  if  he  puts  on  "  new  and  handsome 
apparel,  .  .  .  the  first  person  he  meets  will  boldly  cry 
'  Give  me  that  dress '  .  .  .  and  unless  he  immediately 


200  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

parts  with  it,  lie  becomes  the  scoff  and  the  scorn  of  all,  and 
hears  himself  called  covetous  and  niggardly."  But  with  a 
few  such  exceptions,  marks  of  wealth  are  regarded  as  marks 
of  honour,  even  by  primitive  peoples.  Among  the  Mish- 
mis, 

"The  skull  of  every  animal  that  has  graced  the  board,  is  hung  up 
as  a  record  in  the  hall  of  the  entertainer ;  .  .  .  and  when  he  dies,  the 
whole  smoke-dried  collection  of  many  years  is  piled  upon  his  grave 
as  a  monument  of  his  riches  and  a  memorial  of  his  worth." 
A  like  usage  occurs  in  Africa.  "  The  Bambarans,"  says 
Caillie,  "  hang  on  the  outside  of  their  huts  the  heads  of  all 
the  animals  they  eat ;  this  is  looked  upon  as  a  mark  of  gran 
deur."  And  then  on  the  Gold  Coast,  "  the  richest  man  is 
the  most  honoured,  without  the  least  regard  to  nobility." 
Naturally  the  honouring  of  wealth,  beginning  in  these  early 
stages,  continues  through  subsequent  stages;  and  signs  of 
wealth  hence  become  class-distinctions:  so  originating  vari 
ous  ceremonial  restrictions. 

Carrying  with  us  the  two  ruling  ideas  thus  briefly  exem 
plified,  we  shall  readily  trace  the  genesis  of  sundry  curious 
observances. 

§  417.  In  tropical  countries  the  irritation  produced  by 
flies  is  a  chief  misery  in  life;  and  sundry  habits  which 
in  our  eyes  are  repulsive,  result  from  endeavours  to  mitigate 
this  misery.  In  the  absence  of  anything  better,  the  lower 
races  of  mankind  cover  their  bodies  with  films  of  dirt  as 
shields  against  these  insect-enemies.  Hence,  apparently, 
one  motive  for  painting  the  skin.  Juarros  says: — "  The 
barbarians,  or  unreclaimed  Indians,  of  Guatemala  .... 
always  paint  themselves  black,  rather  for  the  purpose  of 
defence  against  mosquitoes  than  for  ornament."  And  then 
we  get  an  indication  that  where  the  pigment  used,  being 
decorative  and  costly,  is  indicative  of  wealth,  the  abundant 
use  of  it  becomes  honourable.  In  Tanna  "  some  of  the 
chiefs  show  their  rank  by  an  extra  coat  of  pigment  [red 


FURTHER  CLASS-DISTINCTIONS.  201 

earth  on  the  face],  and  have  it  plastered  on  as  thick  as 
clay."  Coming  in  this  way  to  distinguish  the  man  of  power 
who  possesses  much,  from  subject  men  who  possess  little, 
the  putting  on  of  a  protective  covering  to  the  skin,  grows 
into  a  ceremony  indicating  supremacy.  Says  D.  Duran 
of  the  Mexicans,  "  they  anointed  [Vitziliuitl,  the  elected 
king]  on  his  whole  body  with  the  bitumen  with  which  they 
anointed  the  statue  of  their  god  Vitzilopochtli ;  "  and  speci 
fying  otherwise  the  material  used,  Herrera  says  "  they 
crowned  and  anointed  Yitzilocutly  with  an  ointment  they 
called  divine,  because  they  used  it  to  their  idol." 

Instead  of  earths,  paints,  and  bituminous  substances, 
other  people  employ  for  protecting  the  skin,  oils  and  fatty 
matters.  Proof  exists  that  the  use  of  these  also,  in  great 
quantity  and  of  superior  quality,  serves  to  indicate  wealth, 
and  consequently  rank ;  and,  guided  by  the  above  facts,  we 
may  suspect  that  there  have  hence  arisen  certain  ceremonies 
performed  in  recognition  of  superior  power.  Africa  fur 
nishes  two  pieces  of  evidence  which  go  far  to  justify  this 
conclusion. 

"The  richer  a  Hottentot  is,"  says  Kolben,  "the  more  Fat  and 
Butter  he  employs  in  anointing  himself  and  his  family.  This  is  the 
grand  Distinction  between  the  Rich  and  the  Poor.  .  .  .  Everyone's 
Wealth,  Magnificence,  and  Finery  being  measured  by  the  Quantity 
and  delicacy  of  the  Butter  or  Fat  upon  his  Body  and  Apparel." 
And  then  we  read  in  Wilkinson  that — 

''With  the  Egyptians  as  with  the  Jews,  the  investiture  to  any 
sacred  office,  as  that  of  king  or  priest,  was  confirmed  by  this  external 
sign  [of  anointing] ;  and  as  the  Jewish  lawgiver  mentions  the  cere 
mony  of  pouring  oil  on  the  head  of  the  high-priest  after  he  had  put 
on  his  entire  dress,  with  the  mitre  and  crown,  the  Egyptians  repre 
sent  the  anointing  of  their  priests  and  kings  after  they  were  attired 
in  their  full  robes  with  the  cap  and  crown  upon  their  head.  .  .  . 
They  also  anointed  the  statues  of  the  gods ;  which  was  done  with  the 
little  finger  of  the  right  hand.  .  .  .  The  custom  of  anointing  was  the 
ordinary  token  of  welcome  to  guests  in  every  party  at  the  house  of  a 
friend.  .  .  .  The  dead  were  made  to  participate  in  it,  as  if  sensible 
of  the  token  of  esteem  thus  bestowed  upon  them." 


202  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

When  we  thus  find  that  among  some  uncivilized  people 
the  abundance  and  fine  quality  of  the  fat  used  for  protecting 
the  skin  marks  wealth,  and  consequently  rank;  when  we 
join  with  this  a  proof  that  the  anointing  with  unguents 
among  the  Egyptians  was  an  act  of  propitiation,  alike  to 
gods,  kings,  deceased  persons,  and  ordinary  guests;  and 
when  we  remember  that  the  anointment  with  which  Christ 
was  anointed  was  "  precious;  "  we  may  reasonably  infer 
that  this  ceremony  attending  investiture  with  sovereign 
ty  was  originally  one  indicating  the  wealth  that  implied 
power. 

§  418.  The  idea  of  relative  height  and  the  idea  of  rela 
tive  wealth,  appear  to  join  in  originating  certain  building 
regulations  expressive  of  class-distinctions.  An  elevated 
abode  implies  at  once  display  of  riches  and  assumption  of 
a  position  overlooking  others.  Hence,  in  various  places, 
limitations  of  the  heights  to  which  different  ranks  may 
build.  In  ancient  Mexico,  under  Montezuma's  laws,  "  no 
one  was  allowed  to  build  a  house  with  [several]  stories,  ex 
cept  the  great  lords  and  gallant  captains,  on  pain  of  death." 
A  kindred  regulation  exists  at  the  present  time  in  Dahomey ; 
where  the  king,  wishing  to  honour  some  one,  "  gave  him  a 
formal  leave  to  build  a  house  two  stories  high;  "  and  wThere 
"  the  palace  and  the  city  gates  are  alloAved  five  surish 
[steps]  ;  chiefs  have  four  tall  or  five  short,  and  all  others 
three,  or  as  the  king  directs."  There  are  restrictions  of  like 
kind  in  Japan.  "  The  height  of  the  street-front,  and  even 
the  number  of  windows,  are  determined  by  sumptuary 
laws."  So,  too,  is  it  in  Burmah.  Yule  says: —  (  The  char 
acter  of  house,  and  especially  of  roof,  appropriate  to  each 
rank,  appears  to  be  a  matter  of  regulation,  or  inviolable  pre 
scription;  "  and,  according  to  Sangermano,  "nothing  less 
than  death  can  expiate  the  crime,  either  of  choosing  a  shape; 
[for  a  house]  that  does  not  belong  to  the  dignity  of  the  mas 
ter,  or  of  painting  the  house  white  j  which  colour  is  per- 


FURTHER  CLASS-DISTINCTIONS.  203 

mitted  to  the  members  of  the  royal  family  alone."     More 
detailed  are  the  interdicts  named  by  Syme. 

"Piasath,  the  regal  spire,  distinguishes  the  dwellings  of  the  mon 
arch  and  the  temples  of  the  divinity.  To  none  other  is  it  allowed. 
.  .  .  There  are  no  brick  buildings  either  in  Pegue  or  Rangoon  except 
such  as  belong  to  the  king,  or  are  dedicated  to  their  divinity  Gauda- 
ma.  .  .  .  Gilding  is  forbidden  to  all  subjects  of  the  Birman  Empire. 
Liberty  even  to  lacker  and  paint  the  pillars  of  their  houses,  is  granted 
to  very  few." 

§  419.  Along  with  laws  forbidding  those  of  inferior 
rank  to  have  the  higher  and  more  ornamental  houses  which 
naturally  imply  the  wealth  that  accompanies  power,  there 
go  interdicts  on  the  use  by  common  people  of  various  appli 
ances  to  comfort  which  the  man  of  rank  and  influence  has. 
Among  these  may  first  be  noted  artificial  facilities  for  loco 
motion. 

A  sketch  in  an  African  book  of  travels,  representing  the 
king  of  Obbo  making  a  progress,  seated  on  the  shoulders  of 
an  attendant,  shows  us  in  its  primitive  form,  the  connexion 
between  being  carried  by  other  men  and  the  exercise  of 
power  over  other  men.  Marking,  by  implication,  a  ruling 
person,  the  palanquin  or  equivalent  vehicle  is  in  many 
places  forbidden  to  inferior  persons.  Among  the  ancient 
Chibchas,  "  the  law  did*  not  allow  any  one  to  be  carried  in  a 
litter  on  the  shoulders  of  his  men,  except  the  Bogota  and 
those  to  whom  he  gave  the  privilege."  Prior  to  the  year 
1821,  no  person  in  Madagascar  "  was  allowed  to  ride  in  the 
native  chair  or  palanquin,  except  the  royal  family,  the 
judges,  and  first  officers  of  state."  So,  too,  in  Europe,  there 
have  been  restrictions  on  the  use  of  such  chairs.  Among  the 
Romans,  "  in  town  only  the  senators  and  ladies  were  al 
lowed  to  be  carried  in  them;  "  and  in  France,  in  past  times, 
the  sedan  was  forbidden  to  those  below  a  certain  rank.  In 
some  places  the  social  status  of  the  occupant  is  indicated  by 
the  more  or  less  costly  accompaniments.  Kcempfer  says 
that  in  Japan,  "  the  bigness  and  length  of  these  [sedan] 


204  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

poles  had  been  determined  by  the  political  laws  of  the  em 
pire,  proportionable  to  every  one's  quality."  .  .  .  The 
sedan  "  is  carried  by  two,  four,  eight,  or  more  men,  accord 
ing  to  the  quality  of  the  person  in  it."  The  like  happens  in 
China.  "  The  highest  officers  are  carried  by  eight  bearers, 
others  by  four,  and  the  lowest  by  two :  this,  and  every  other 
particular,  being  regulated  by  laws."  Then,  elsewhere,  the 
character  of  appliances  for  locomotion  on  water  is  similarly 
prescribed.  In  Turkey,  "  the  hierarchy  of  rank  is  main 
tained  and  designated  by  the  size  of  each  Turkish  function 
ary's  boat;  "  and  in  Siam  "  the  height  and  ornaments  of  the 
cabin  [in  barges]  designate  the  rank  or  the  functions  of  the 
occupier." 

As  the  possession  of  chair-bearers,  who  in  early  stages 
are  slaves,  implies  alike  the  mastery  and  the  wealth  always 
indicative  of  rank  in  societies  of  militant  type ;  so,  too,  does 
possession  of  attendants  to  carry  umbrellas  or  other  protec 
tions  against  the  sun.  Hence  interdicts  on  the  use  of  these 
by  inferiors.  Such  restrictions  occur  in  comparatively 
early  stages.  In  Fiji  (Somo-somo)  only  the  king  and  the 
two  high  priests  in  favour,  can  use  the  sun-shade.  In  Congo 
only  those  of  royal  blood  are  allowed  to  use  an  umbrella, 
or  to  be  carried  in  a  mat.  The  sculptured  records  of  ex 
tinct  eastern  peoples,  imply  the  existence  of  this  class-mark. 
Among  the  Assyrians, 

"the  officers  in  close  attendance  upon  the  monarch  varied  accord 
ing  to  his  employment.  In  war  he  was  accompanied  by  his  chariot 
eer,  his  shield-bearer  or  shield-bearers,  his  groom,  his  quiver-bearer, 
his  mace-bearer,  and  sometimes  by  his  parasol-bearer.  In  peace  the 
parasol-bearer  is  always  represented  as  in  attendance,  except  in  hunt 
ing  exp3ditions,  or  where  he  is  replaced  by  a  fan-bearer." 
Adjacent  parts  of  the  world  show  us  the  same  mark  of  dis 
tinction  in  use  down  to  the  present  time.  "  From  India  to 
Abyssinia,"  says  Burton,  "  the  umbrella  is  the  sign  of  roy 
alty."  Still  further  east  this  symbol  of  dignity  is  multiplied 
to  produce  the  idea  of  greater  dignity.  In  Siam,  at  the 


FURTHER  CLASS-DISTINCTIONS.  205 

king's  coronation,  "  a  page  comes  forward  and  presents  to 
the  king  the  seven-storied  umbrella, — the  savetrawat  or 
primary  symbol  of  royalty."  And  when  the  emperor  of 
China  leaves  his  palace,  he  is  accompanied  by  twenty  men 
bearing  large  umbrellas  and  twenty  fan-bearers.  Else 
where  umbrellas,  not  monopolized  by  kings,  may  be  used  by 
others,  but  with  differences;  as  in  Java,  where  custom  pre 
scribes  six  colours  for  the  umbrellas  of  six  ranks.  Evi 
dently  the  shade-yielding  umbrella  is  closely  allied  to  the 
shade-yielding  canopy;  the  use  of  which  also  is  a  class-dis 
tinction.  Ancient  America  furnished  a  good  instance. 
In  Utlatlan  the  king  sat  under  four  canopies,  the  "  elect " 
under  three,  the  chief  captain  under  two,  and  the  second 
captain  under  one.  And  here  we  are  reminded  that  this  de 
veloped  form  of  the  umbrella,  having  four  supports,  is 
alike  in  the  East  and  in  Europe,  used  in  exaltation  of  both 
the  divine  ruler  and  the  human  ruler:  in  the  one  region 
borne  by  attendants  over  kings  and  supported  in  a  more  per 
manent  manner  over  the  cars  in  which  idols  are  drawn ;  and 
in  the  other  used  alike  in  state-processions  and  ecclesiastical 
processions,  to  shade  now  the  monarch  and  now  the  Host. 

Of  course  with  regulations  giving  to  higher  ranks  the 
exclusive  enjoyment  of  the  more  costly  conveniences,  there 
go  others  forbidding  the  inferior  to  have  conveniences  of 
even  less  costly  natures.  For  example,  in  Fiji  the  best  kind 
of  mat  for  lying  on  is  forbidden  to  the  common  people.  In 
Dahomey,  the  use  of  hammocks  is  a  royal  prerogative, 
shared  in  only  by  the  whites.  Concerning  the  Siamese, 
Bowring  says: — "  We  were  informed  that  the  use  of  such 
cushions  [more  or  less  ornamented,  according  to  rank]  was 
prohibited  to  the  people."  And  we  learn  from  Bastian  that 
among  the  Joloffs  the  use  of  the  mosquito-curtain  is  a  royal 
prerogative. 

§  420.  Of  sumptuary  laws,  those  regulating  the  uses  of 
foods  may  be  traced  back  to  very  early  stages — stages  in 


206  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

which  usages  have  not  yet  taken  the  shape  of  laws.  They 
go  along  with  the  subordination  of  the  young  to  the  old, 
and  of  females  to  males.  Among  the  Tasmanians,  "  the  old 
men  get  the  best  food;  "  and  Sturt  says,  "  only  the  old  men 
of  the  natives  of  Australia  have  the  privilege  of  eating  the 
emu.  For  a  young  man  to  eat  it  is  a  crime."  The  Khond 
women,  Macpherson  tells  us,  "  for  some  unknown  cause, 
are  never,  I  am  informed,  permitted  to  eat  the  flesh  of  the 
hog."  In  Tahiti  "  the  men  were  allowed  to  eat  the  flesh  of 
the  pig,  and  of  fowls,  and  a  variety  of  fish,  cocoa-nuts,  and 
plantains,  and  whatever  was  presented  as  an  offering  to  the 
gods,  which  the  females,  on  pain  of  death,  were  forbidden 
to  touch."  After  stating  that  the  Fijian  women  are  never 
permitted  to  enter  the  temple,  the  United  States'  explorers 
add — "  nor,  as  we  have  seen,  to  eat  human  flesh,  at  least  in 
public." 

Of  food-restrictions  other  than  those  referring  to  age 
and  sex,  may  first  be  named  one  from  Fiji — one  which  also 
refers  to  the  consumption  of  human  flesh.  Seeman  says 
"  the  common  people  throughout  the  group,  as  well  as 
women  of  all  classes,  were  by  custom  debarred  from  it. 
Cannibalism  was  thus  restricted  to  the  chiefs  and  gentry." 
Of  other  class-restrictions  on  food,  ancient  America  fur 
nishes  examples.  Among  the  Chibchas,  "  venison  could 
not  be  eaten  unless  the  privilege  had  been  granted  by  the 
cazique."  In  San  Salvador,  "  none  formerly  drank  choco 
late  but  the  prime  men  and  notable  soldiers;  "  and  in  Peru 
"  the  kings  (Yncas)  had  the  coca  as  a  royal  possession 
and  privilege." 

Of  course  there  might  be  added  to  these  certain  of  the 
sumptuary  laws  respecting  food  which  prevailed  during 
past  times  throughout  Europe. 

§  421.  Of  the  various  class-distinctions  which  imply  su 
perior  rank  by  implying  greater  wealth,  the  most  curious  re 
main.  I  refer  to  certain  inconvenient,  and  sometimes  pain- 


FURTHER  CLASS-DISTINCTIONS.  207 

ful,  traits,  only  to  be  acquired  by  those  whose  abundant 
means  enable  them  to  live  without  labour,  or  to  indulge  in 
some  kind  of  sensual  excess. 

One  group  of  these  distinctions,  slightly  illustrated 
among  ourselves  by  the  pride  taken  in  delicate  hands,  as  in 
dicating  freedom  from  manual  labor,  is  exhibited  in 
marked  forms  in  some  societies  that  are  comparatively  little 
advanced.  "  The  chiefs  in  the  Society  Islands  value  them 
selves  on  having  long  nails  on  all,  or  on  some,  of  their  fin 
gers."  "  Fijian  kings  and  priests  wear  the  finger  nails 
long,"  says  Jackson;  and  in  Sumatra,  "  persons  of  superior 
rank  encourage  the  growth  of  their  hand-nails,  particular 
ly  those  of  the  fore  and  little  fingers,  to  an  extraordinary 
length."  Everyone  knows  that  a  like  usage  has  a  like  ori 
gin  in  China;  where,  however,  long  nails  have  partially 
lost  their  meaning:  upper  servants  being  allowed  to  wear 
them.  But  of  personal  defects  similarly  originating,  China 
furnishes  a  far  more  striking  instance  in  the  cramped  feet  of 
ladies.  Obviously  these  have  become  signs  of  class-dis 
tinction,  because  of  the  implied  inability  to  labour,  and 
the  implied  possession  of  means  sufficient  to  purchase  at 
tendance.  Then,  again,  as  marking  rank  because 
implying  riches,  we  have  undue,  and  sometimes  excessive, 
fatness;  either  of  the  superior  person  himself  or  of  his  be 
longings.  The  beginnings  of  this  may  be  traced  in  quite 
early  stages ;  as  among  some  uncivilized  American  peoples. 
"  An  Indian  is  respectable  in  his  own  community,  in  propor 
tion  as  his  wife  and  children  look  fat  and  well  fed :  this  be 
ing  a  proof  of  his  prowess  and  success  as  a  hunter,  and  his 
consequent  riches."  From  this  case,  in  which  the  relation 
between  implied  wealth  and  implied  power  is  directly  rec 
ognized,  we  pass  in  the  course  of  social  development  to  cases 
in  which,  instead  of  the  normal  fatness  indicating  suffi 
ciency,  there  comes  the  abnormal  fatness  indicating  super 
fluity,  and,  consequently,  greater  wealth.  In  China,  great 
fatness  is  a  source  of  pride  in  a  mandarin.  Ellis  tells  us 


208  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

that  corpulence  is  a  mark  of  distinction  among  Tahitian 
females.  Throughout  Africa  there  prevails  an  admiration 
for  corpulence  in  women,  which,  in  some  places,  rises  to  a 
great  pitch ;  as  in  Karague  where  the  king  has  "  very  fat 
wives  "•  —where,  according  to  Speke,  the  king's  sister-in-law 
"  was  another  of  those  wonders  of  obesity,  unable  to  stand 
excepting  on  all  fours/7  and  where,  "  as  fattening  is  the 
first  duty  of  fashionable  female  life,  it  must  be  duly  en 
forced  by  the  rod  if  necessary. "  Still  stranger 
are  the  marks  of  dignity  constituted  by  diseases  resulting 
from  those  excessive  gratifications  of  appetite  which  wealth 
makes  possible.  Even  among  ourselves  may  be  traced  an 
association  of  ideas  which  thus  originates.  The  story  about 
a  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  who,  hearing  that  some  man 
of  inferior  extraction  was  suffering  from  gout,  exclaimed— 
"Damn  the  fellow;  wasn't  rheumatism  good  enough  for 
him,"  illustrates  the  still-current  idea  that  gout  is  a  gentle 
manly  disease,  because  it  results  from  that  high  living  which 
presupposes  the  abundant  means  usually  associated  with  su 
perior  position.  Introduced  by  this  instance,  the  instance 
which  comes  to  us  from  Polynesia  will  seem  not  unnatural. 
"  The  habitual  use  of  ava  causes  a  whitish  scurf  on  the  skin, 
which  among  the  heathen  Tahitians  was  reckoned  a  badge 
of  nobility;  the  common  people  not  having  the  means  of 
indulgence  requisite  to  produce  it."  But  of  all  marks  of 
dignity  arising  in  this  way,  or  indeed  in  any  way,  the 
strangest  is  one  which  Ximenez  tells  us  of  as  existing 
among  the  people  of  ancient  Guatemala.  The  sign  of  a 
disorder,  here  best  left  unspecified,  which  the  nobles  were 
liable  to,  because  of  habits  which  wealth  made  possible, 
had  become  among  the  Guatemalans  a  sign  "  of  great 
ness  and  majesty;  "  and  its  name  was  applied  even  to  the 
deity ! 

§  1-22.  How  these  further  class-distinctions,  though  not, 
like  preceding  ones,  directly  traceable  to  militancy,  are  in- 


FURTHER  CLASS-DISTINCTIONS.  209 

directly  traceable  to  it,  and  how  they  fade  as  industrialism 
develops,  need  not  be  shown  at  length. 

Foregoing  instances  make  it  clear  that  they  are  still 
maintained  rigorously  in  societies  characterized  by  that  type 
of  organization  which  continuous  war  establishes;  and  that 
they  prevailed  to  considerable  degrees  during  the  past  war 
like  times  of  more  civilized  societies.  Conversely,  they 
show  that  as,  along  with  the  rise  of  a  wealth  which  does 
not  imply  rank,  luxuries  and  costly  modes  of  life  have 
spread  to  those  who  do  not  form  part  of  the  regulative  or 
ganization;  the  growth  of  industrialism  tends  to  abolish 
these  marks  of  class-distinction  which  militancy  originates. 
Xo  matter  what  form  they  take,  all  these  supplementary 
rules  debarring  the  inferior  from  usages  and  appliances 
characterizing  the  superior,  belong  to  a  social  regime  based 
on  coercive  co-operation;  while  that  unchecked  liberty 
which,  among  ourselves,  the  classes  regulated  have  to  imi 
tate  the  regulating  classes  in  habits  and  expenditure,  be 
longs  to  the  regime  of  voluntary  co-operation. 


CHAPTEE    XL 

FASHION. 

§  423.  To  say  nothing  about  Fashion  under  the  general 
head  of  Ceremonial  Institution  would  be  to  leave  a  gap; 
and  yet  Fashion  is  difficult  to  deal  with  in  a  systematic  man 
ner.  Throughout  the  several  forms  of  social  control  thus 
far  treated,  we  have  found  certain  pervading  characters 
traceable  to  common  origins;  and  the  conclusions  reached 
have  hence  been  definite.  But  those  miscellaneous  and 
ever-changing  regulations  of  conduct  which  the  name  Fash 
ion  covers,  are  not  similarly  interpretable ;  nor  does  any 
single  interpretation  suffice  for  them  all. 

In  the  Mutilations,  the  Presents,  the  Visits,  the  Obei 
sances,  the  Forms  of  Address,  the  Titles,  the  Badges  and 
Costumes,  &c.  we  see  enforced,  not  likeness  between  the 
acts  of  higher  and  lower,  but  unlikeness:  that  which  the 
ruler  does  the  ruled  must  not  do ;  and  that  which  the  ruled 
is  commanded  to  do  is  that  which  is  avoided  by  the  ruler. 
But  in  those  modifications  of  behaviour,  dress,  mode  of 
life,  &c.,  which  constitute  Fashion,  likeness  instead  of  un 
likeness  is  insisted  upon.  Respect  must  be  shown  by  follow 
ing  the  example  of  those  in  authority,  not  by  differing  from 
them.  How  does  there  arise  this  contrariety? 

The  explanation  appears  to  be  this.  Fashion  is  intrinsi 
cally  imitative.  Imitation  may  result  from  two  widely 
divergent  motives.  It  may  be  prompted  by  reverence  for 
one  imitated,  or  it  may  be  prompted  by  the  desire  to  assert 

210 


FASHION.  211 

equality  with  him.  Between  the  imitations  prompted  by 
these  unlike  motives,  no  clear  distinction  can  be  drawn; 
and  hence  results  the  possibility  of  a  transition  from  those 
reverential  imitations  going  along  with  much  subordina 
tion,  to  those  competitive  imitations  characterizing  a  state  of 
comparative  independence. 

Setting  out  with  this  idea  as  our  clue,  let  us  observe  how 
the  reverential  imitations  are  initiated,  and  how  there  be 
gins  the  transition  from  them  to  the  competitive  imitations. 

§  424.  Given  a  society  characterized  by  servile  submis 
sion,  and  in  what  cases  will  a  superior  be  propitiated  by  the 
imitations  of  an  inferior?  In  respect  of  what  traits  will  as 
sumption  of  equality  with  him  be  complimentary?  Only 
in  respect  of  his  defects. 

From  the  usages  of  those  tyrannically-ceremonious  sav 
ages  the  Fijians,  may  be  given  an  instance  well  illustrating 
the  motive  and  the  result. 

"  A  chief  was  one  day  going  over  a  mountain- path,  followed  by  a 
long  string  of  his  people,  when  he  happened  to  stumble  and  fall;  all 
the  rest  of  the  people  immediately  did  the  same,  except  one  man,  who 
was  instantly  set  upon  by  the  rest,  to  know  whether  he  considered 
himself  better  than  his  chief." 

And  Williams,  describing  his  attempt  to  cross  a  slip 
pery  bridge  formed  of  a  single  cocoa-nut  stem,  writes:— 

"Just  as  I  commenced  the  experiment,  a  heathen  said,  with  much 
animation,  '  To-day,  1  shall  have  a  musket ! '  .  .  .  When  I  asked  him 
why  he  spoke  of  a  musket,  the  man  replied,  '  I  felt  certain  that  you 
would  fall  in  attempting  to  go  over,  and  I  should  have  fallen  after 
you; '  [that  is,  it  appeared  to  be  equally  clumsy;]  'and  as  the  bridge 
is  high,  the  water  rapid,  and  you  a  gentleman,  you  would  not  have 
thought  of  giving  me  less  than  a  musket.'  " 

Even  more  startling  is  a  kindred  practice  in  Africa, 
among  the  people  of  Darfur.  "  If  the  Sultan,  being  on 
horseback,  happens  to  fall  off,  all  his  followers  must  fall  off 
likewise;  and  should  anyone  omit  this  formality,  however 
great  he  may  be,  he  is  laid  down  and  beaten." 


212  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Such  examples  of  endeavours  to  please  a  ruler  by  avoid 
ing  any  appearance  of  superiority  to  him,  seem  less  incredi 
ble  than  they  would  else  seem,  on  finding  that  among  Euro 
pean  peoples  there  have  occurred,  if  not  like  examples,  still, 
analogous  examples.  In  1461  Duke  Philip  of  Burgundy 
having  had  his  hair  cut  during  an  illness,  "  issued  an  edict 
that  all  the  nobles  of  his  state  should  be  shorn  also.  More 
than  five  hundred  persons  .  .  .  sacrificed  their  hair." 
From  this  instance,  in  which  the  ruler  insisted  on  having 
his  defect  imitated  by  the  ruled  against  their  wills  (for 
many  disobeyed),  we  may  pass  to  a  later  instance  in  which  a 
kindred  imitation  was  voluntary.  In  France,  in  1665,  after 
the  operation  on  LeAvis  XIV  for  fistula,  the  royal  infirmity 
became  the  fashion  among  the  courtiers. 

u  Some  who  had  previously  taken  care  to  conceal  it  were  now  not 
ashamed  to  let  it  be  known.  There  were  even  courtiers  who  chose  to 
be  .operated  on  in  Versailles,  because  the  king  was  then  informed  of 
all  the  circumstances  of  the  malady.  ...  I  have  seen  more  than 
thirty  wishing  to  be  operated  on,  and  w^hose  folly  was  so  great  that 
they  were  annoyed  when  told  that  there  was  no  occasion  to  do  so." 

And  now  if  with  cases  like  these  we  join  cases  in  which  a 
modification  of  dress  which  a  king  adopts  to  hide  a  defect 
(such  as  a  deep  neckcloth  where  a  scrofulous  neck  has  to  be 
concealed)  is  imitated  by  courtiers,  and  spreads  down 
wards;  we  see  how  from  that  desire  to  propitiate  which 
prompts  the  pretence  of  having  a  like  defect,  there  may  re 
sult  fashion  in  dress;  and  how  from  approval  of  imitations 
of  this  kind  may  insensibly  come  tolerance  of  other  imita 
tions. 

§  425.  Not  that  such  a  cause  would  produce  such  an 
effect  by  itself.  There  is  a  co-operating  cause  which  takes 
advantage  of  the  openings  thus  made.  Competitive  imita 
tion,  ever  going  as  far  as  authority  allows,  turns  to  its  own 
advantage  every  opportunity  which  reverential  imitation 
makes. 


FASHION.  213 

This  competitive  imitation  begins  quite  as  early  as  the 
reverential.  Members  of  savage  tribes  are  not  unfrequent- 
ly  led  by  the  desire  for  applause  into  expenditure  relatively 
more  lavish  than  are  the  civilized.  There  are  barbarous 
peoples  among  whom  the  expected  hospitalities  on  the  occa 
sion  of  a  daughter's  marriage,  are  so  costly  as  to  excuse 
female  infanticide,  on  the  ground  that  the  ruinous  expense 
which  rearing  the  daughter  would  eventually  entail  is  thus 
avoided.  Thomson  and  Angas  unite  in  describing  the  ex 
travagance  into  which  the  New  Zealand  chiefs  are  impelled 
by  fashion  in  giving  great  feasts,  as  often  causing  famines — 
feasts  for  which  chiefs  begin  to  provide  a  year  before :  each 
being  expected  to  out-do  his  neighbours  in  prodigality. 
And  the  motive  thus  coming  into  play  early  in  social  evolu 
tion,  and  making  equals  vie  with  one  another  in  display, 
similarly  all  along  prompts  the  lower  to  vie,  so  far  as  they 
are  allowed,  with  the  higher.  Everywhere  and  always  the 
tendency  of  the  inferior  to  assert  himself  has  been  in  an 
tagonism  with  the  restraints  imposed  on  him ;  and  a  preva 
lent  way  of  asserting  himself  has  been  to  adopt  costumes 
and  appliances  and  customs  like  those  of  his  superior. 
Habitually  there  have  been  a  few  of  subordinate  rank  who, 
for  one  reason  or  other,  have  been  allowed  to  encroach  by 
imitating  the  ranks  above;  and  habitually  the  tendency 
has  been  to  multiply  the  precedents  for  imitation,  and  so  to 
establish  for  wider  classes  the  freedom  to  live  and  dress  in 
ways  like  those  of  the  narrower  classes. 

Especially  has  this  happened  as  fast  as  rank  and  wealth 
have  ceased  to  be  coincident — as  fast,  that  is,  as  industrial 
ism  has  produced  men  rich  enough  to  compete  in  style  of 
living  with  those  above  them  in  rank.  Partly  from  the 
greater  means,  and  partly  from  the  consequent  greater 
power,  acquired  by  the  upper  grades  of  producers  and  dis 
tributors  ;  and  partly  from  the  increasing  importance  of  the 
financial  aid  they  can  give  to  the  governing  classes  in  pub 
lic  and  private  affairs:  there  has  been  an  ever-decreasing  re- 
72 


214  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

sistance  to  the  adoption  by  them  of  usages  originally  forbid 
den  to  all  but  the  high  born.  The  restraints  in  earlier  times 
enacted  and  re-enacted  by  sumptuary  laws,  have  been  grad 
ually  relaxed ;  until  the  imitation  of  superiors  by  inferiors, 
spreading  continually  downwards,  has  ceased  to  be  checked 
by  anything  more  than  sarcasm  and  ridicule. 

§  426.  Entangled  and  confused  with  one  another  as 
Ceremonial  and  Fashion  are,  they  have  thus  different  ori 
gins  and  meanings:  the  first  being  proper  to  the  regime  of 
compulsory  co-operation,  and  the  last  being  proper  to  the 
regime  of  voluntary  co-operation.  Clearly  there  is  an  es 
sential  distinction,  and,  indeed,  an  opposition  in  nature, 
between  behaviour  required  by  subordination  to  the  great 
and  behaviour  resulting  from  imitation  of  the  great. 

It  is  true  that  the  regulations  of  conduct  here  distin 
guished,  are  ordinarily  fused  into  one  aggregate  of  social 
regulations.  It  is  true  that  certain  ceremonial  forms  come 
to  be  fulfilled  as  parts  of  the  prevailing  fashion;  and  that 
certain  elements  of  fashion,  as  for  instance  the  order  of 
courses  at  a  dinner,  come  to  be  thought  of  as  elements  of 
ceremonial.  And  it  is  true  that  both  are  now  enforced  by 
an  unembodied  opinion  which  appears  to  be  the  same  for 
each.  But,  as  we  have  seen  above,  this  is  an  illusion. 
Though  wrhen,  in  our  day,  a  wealthy  quaker,  refusing  to 
wear  the  dress  worn  by  those  of  like  means,  refuses  also  to 
take  off  his  hat  to  a  superior,  we  commonly  regard  these1 
nonconformities  as  the  same  in  nature;  wre  are  shown  that 
they  are  not,  if  we  go  back  to  the  days  when  the  salute  to  the 
superior  was  insisted  on  under  penalty,  while  the  imitation 
of  the  superior's  dress,  so  far  from  being  insisted  on,  was 
forbidden.  Two  different  authorities  are  defied  by  his 
acts — the  authority  of  class-rule,  which  once  dictated  sucli 
obeisances;  and  the  authority  of  social  opinion,  which 
thinks  nonconformities  in  dress  imply  inferior  status. 

So  that,  strange  to  say,  Fashion,  as  distinguished  from 


FASHION.  215 

Ceremony,  is  an  accompaniment  of  the  industrial  type  as 
distinguished  from  the  militant  type.  It  needs  but  to  ob 
serve  that  by  using  silver  forks  at  his  table,  the  trades 
man  in  so  far  asserts  his  equality  with  the  squire;  or  still 
better  to  observe  how  the  servant-maid  out  for  her  holiday 
competes  with  her  mistress  in  displaying  the  last  style  of 
bonnet;  to  see  how  the  regulations  of  conduct  grouped 
under  the  name  Fashion,  imply  that  increasing  liberty 
which  goes  along  with  the  substitution  of  peaceful  activities 
for  warlike  activities. 

As  now  existing,  Fashion  is  a  form  of  social  regulation 
analogous  to  constitutional  government  as  a  form  of  politi 
cal  regulation :  displaying,  as  it  does,  a  compromise  between 
governmental  coercion  and  individual  freedom.  Just  as, 
along  with  the  transition  from  compulsory  co-operation  to 
voluntary  co-operation  in  public  action,  there  has  been  a 
growth  of  the  representative  agency  serving  to  express  the 
average  volition;  so  has  there  been  a  growth  of  this  indefi 
nite  aggregate  of  wealthy  and  cultured  people,  whose  con 
sensus  of  habits  rules  the  private  life  of  society  at  large. 
And  it  is  observable  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  that  this 
ever-changing  compromise  between  restraint  and  freedom, 
tends  towards  increase  of  freedom.  For  while,  on  the  aver 
age,  governmental  control  of  individual  action  decreases, 
there  is  a  decrease  in  the  rigidity  of  Fashion ;  as  is  shown  by 
the  greater  latitude  of  private  judgment  exercised  within 
certain  vaguely  marked  limits. 

Imitative,  then,  from  the  beginning,  first  of  a  superior's 
defects,  and  then,  little  by  little,  of  other  traits  peculiar  to 
him,  Fashion  has  ever  tended  towards  equalization.  Serv 
ing  to  obscure,  and  eventually  to  obliterate,  the  marks  of 
class-distinction,  it  has  favoured  the  growth  of  individual 
ity;  and  by  so  doing  has  aided  in  weakening  Ceremonial, 
which  implies  subordination  of  the  individual. 


CHAPTEE   XII. 

CEREMONIAL    RETROSPECT    AND    PROSPECT. 

§  427.  We  find,  then,  that  rules  of  behaviour  are  not 
results  of  conventions  at  one  time  or  other  deliberately 
made,  as  people  tacitly  assume.  Contrariwise,  they  are 
natural  products  of  social  life  which  have  gradually  evolved. 
Apart  from  detailed  proofs  of  this,  we  find  a  general  proof 
in  their  conformity  to  the  laws  of  Evolution  at  large. 

In  primitive  headless  groups  of  men,  such  customs  as 
regulate  conduct  form  but  a  small  aggregate.  A  few  natu 
rally  prompted  actions  on  meeting  strangers;  in  certain 
cases  bodily  mutilations;  and  in  some  interdicts  on  foods 
monopolized  by  adult  men;  constitute  a  brief  code.  But 
with  consolidation  into  compound,  doubly  compound,  and 
trebly  compound  societies,  there  arise  great  accumulations 
of  ceremonial  arrangements  regulating  all  the  actions  of 
life — there  is  increase  in  the  mass  of  observances. 

Originally  simple,  these  observances  become  progres 
sively  complex.  From  the  same  root  grow  up  various  kinds 
of  obeisances.  Primitive  descriptive  names  develop  into 
numerous  graduated  titles.  Erom  aboriginal  salutes  come, 
in  course  of  time,  complimentary  forms  of  address  adjusted 
to  persons  and  occasions.  Weapons  taken  in  war  give  origin 
to  symbols  of  authority,  assuming,  little  by  little,  great 
diversities  in  their  shapes.  While  certain  trophies,  differ 
entiating  into  badges,  dresses  and  decorations,  eventually  in 

each  of  these  divisions  present  multitudinous  varieties,  no 

216 


CEREMONIAL  RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.        217 

longer  bearing  any  resemblance  to  their  originals.  And 
besides  the  increasing  heterogeneity  which  in  each  society 
arises  among  products  having  a  common  origin,  there  is 
the  further  heterogeneity  which  arises  between  this  aggre 
gate  of  products  in  one  society  and  the  allied  aggregates 
in  other  societies. 

Simultaneously  there  is  progress  in  defi niteness ;  end 
ing,  as  in  the  East,  in  fixed  forms  prescribed  in  all  their  de 
tails,  which  must  not  under  penalty  be  departed  from.  And 
in  sundry  places  the  vast  assemblages  of  complex  and  defi 
nite  ceremonies  thus  elaborated,  are  consolidated  into  coher 
ent  codes  set  forth  in  books. 

The  advance  in  integration,  in  heterogeneity,  in  defi- 
niteness,  and  in  coherence,  is  thus  fully  exemplified. 

§  428.  When  we  observe  the  original  unity  exhibited 
by  ceremony  as  it  exists  in  primitive  hordes,  in  contrast 
with  the  diversity  which  ceremony,  under  its  forms  of 
political,  religious,  and  social,  assumes  in  developed  socie 
ties;  we  recognize  another  aspect  of  this  transformation 
undergone  by  all  products  of  evolution. 

The  common  origin  of  propitiatory  forms  which  eventu 
ally  appear  unallied,  was  in  the  last  volume  indicated  by 
the  numerous  parallelisms  we  found  between  religious  cere 
monies  and  ceremonies  performed  in  honouring  the 'dead; 
and  the  foregoing  chapters  have  shown  that  still  more  re 
markable  are  the  parallelisms  between  ceremonies  of  these 
kinds  and  those  performed  in  honouring  the  living.  We 
have  seen  that  as  a  sequence  of  trophy-taking,  parts  of  the 
body  are  surrendered  to  rulers,  offered  at  graves,  deposited 
in  temples,  and  occasionally  presented  to  equals;  and  we 
have  seen  that  mutilations  hence  originating,  become  marks 
of  submission  to  kings,  to  deities,  to  dead  relatives,  and  in 
some  cases  to  living  friends.  Beginning  with  presents, 
primarily  of  food,  made  to  strangers  by  savages  to  secure 
goodwill,  we  pass  to  the  presents,  also  primarily  of  food, 


218  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

made  to  chiefs;  and,  answering  to  these,  we  find  the  offer 
ings,  primarily  of  food,  made  to  ghosts  and  to  gods,  de 
veloping  among  ancestor-worshipping  peoples  into  sacri 
fices  showing  parallel  elaborations;  as  in  China,  where 
feasts  of  many  dishes  are  placed  alike  before  the  tablets 
inscribed  to  ancestors,  apotheosized  men,  and  great  deities, 
and  where  it  is  a  saying  that  "  whatever  is  good  for  food  is 
good  for  sacrifice."  Visits  are  paid  to  graves  out  of  respect 
to  the  spirits  of  the  departed,  to  temples  in  worship  of  the 
deities  supposed  to  be  present  in  them,  to  the  courts  of 
rulers  in  evidence  of  loyalty,  and  to  private  persons  to  show 
consideration.  Obeisances,  originally  implying  subjuga 
tion,  are  made  before  monarchs  and  superiors,  are  similarly 
made  before  deities,  are  sundry  of  them  repeated  in  honour 
of  the  dead,  and  eventually  become  observances  between 
equals.  Expressing  now  the  humility  of  the  speaker  and 
now  the  greatness  of  the  one  spoken  to,  forms  of  address, 
alike  in  nature,  are  used  to  the  visible  and  the  invisible 
ruler,  and,  descending  to  those  of  less  power,  are  at  length 
used  to  ordinary  persons;  while  titles  ascribing  fatherhood 
and  supremacy,  applied  at  first  to  kings,  gods,  and  deceased 
persons,  become  in  time  names  of  honour  used  to  undistin 
guished  persons.  Symbols  of  authority  like  those  carried 
by  monarchs,  occur  in  the  representations  of  deities;  in 
some  cases  the  celestial  and  the  terrestrial  potentates  have 
like  costumes  and  appendages;  and  sundry  of  the  dresses 
and  badges  once  marking  superiority  of  position,  become 
ceremonial  dresses  worn,  especially  on  festive  occasions, 
by  persons  of  inferior  ranks.  Other  remarkable  parallel 
isms  exist.  One  we  see  in  the  anointing,  which,  performed 
on  kings  and  on  the  images  of  gods,  extended  in  Egypt  to 
dead  persons  and  to  guests.  In  Egypt,  too,  birthday-cere 
monials  were  at  once  social,  political,  and  religious :  besides 
celebrations  of  private  birthdays  and  of  the  birthdays  of 
kings  and  queens,  there  were  celebrations  of  the  birthdays 
of  gods.  Nor  must  we  omit  the  sacredness  of  names.  In 


CEREMONIAL  RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT.         219 

many  countries  it  is,  or  lias  been,  forbidden  to  utter  the 
name  of  the  god;  the  name  of  the  king  is  in  other  places 
similarly  interdicted;  elsewhere  it  is  an  offence  to  refer  by 
name  to  a  dead  person;  and  among  various  savages  the 
name  of  the  living  person  may  not  be  taken  in  vain.  The 
feeling  that  the  presence  of  one  who  is  to  be  worshipped  or 
honoured,  is  a  bar  to  the  use  of  violence,  also  has  its  parallel 
sequences.  Not  only  is  the  temple  of  the  god  a  sanctuary, 
but  in  sundry  places  the  burial-place  of  the  chief  is  a  sanc 
tuary,  and  in  other  places  the  presence  of  the  monarch, 
as  in  Abyssinia  where  "  it  is  death  to  strike,  or  lift  the  hand 
to  strike,  before  the  king;  "  and  then  among  European 
peoples,  the  interdict  on  fighting  in  presence  of  a  lady, 
shows  how  this  element  in  ceremonial  rule  extends  into 
general  intercourse.  Finally  let  me  add  a  fuller  statement 
of  a  curious  example  before  referred  to — the  use  of  incense 
in  worship  of  a  deity,  as  a  political  honour,  and  as  a  social 
observance.  In  Egypt  there  was  incense-offering  before 
both  gods  and  kings,  as  also  among  the  Hebrews:  instance 
the  passage  from  the  Song  of  Solomon  (iii.,  6-7) — "  Who  is 
this  that  cometh  out  of  the  wilderness  like  pillars  of  smoke, 
perfumed  with  myrrh  and  frankincense.  .  .  Behold  his 
bed  [litter],  which  is  Solomon's."  Clavigero  tells  us  that 
"  incense-offering  among  the  Mexicans,  and  other  nations  of 
Anahuac,  was  not  only  an  act  of  religion  towards  their  gods, 
but  also  a  piece  of  civil  courtesy  to  lords  and  ambassadors." 
During  mediaeval  days  in  Europe,  incense  was  burnt  in 
compliment  to  rank:  nobles  on  entering  churches  severally 
expected  so  many  swings  of  the  censer  in  front  of  them, 
according  to  their  grades. 

While,  then,  we  are  shown  by  numerous  sets  of  paral 
lelisms  the  common  origin  of  observances  that  are  now 
distinguished  as  political,  religious,  and  social — while  we 
thus  find  verified  in  detail  the  hypothesis  that  ceremonial 
government  precedes  in  time  the  other  forms  of  govern 
ment,  into  all  of  which  it  enters;  we  are  shown  how,  in  con- 


220  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

f ormity  with  the  general  laws  of  Evolution,  it  differentiates 
into  three  great  orders  at  the  same  time  that  each  of  these 
orders  differentiates  within  itself. 

§  429.  From  the  beaten  dog  which,  crawling  011  its 
belly  licks  its  master's  hand,  we  trace  up  the  general  truth 
that  ceremonial  forms  are  naturally  initiated  by  the  relation 
of  conqueror  and  conquered,  and  the  consequent  truth  that 
they  develop  along  with  the  militant  type  of  society.  "While 
re-enunciated,  this  last  truth  may  be  conveniently  presented 
under  a  different  aspect.  Let  us  note  how  the  connexion  be 
tween  ceremonial  and  militancy,  is  shown  at  once  in  its  rig 
our,  in  its  defiiiiteness,  in  its  extent,  and  in  its  elaborateness. 

"  In  Fiji,  if  a  chief  sees  any  of  his  subjects  not  stooping 
IOAV  enough  in  his  presence,  he  will  kill  him  on  the  spot;  " 
while  "  a  vast  number  of  fingers,  missing  from  the  hands  of 
men  and  women,  have  gone  as  the  fine  for  disrespectful  or 
awkward  conduct."  And  then  of  these  same  sanguinary 
and  ferociously-governed  people,  Williams  tells  us  that 
"  not  a  member  of  a  chief's  body,  or  the  commonest  acts  of 
his  life,  are  mentioned  in  ordinary  phraseology,  but  all  are 
hyperbolized."  Africa  furnishes  a  kindred  instance  of  this 
connexion  between  ceremonial  rigour  and  the  rigour  of 
despotic  power  accompanying  excessive  militancy.  In  the 
kingdom  of  Uganda,  where,  directed  by  the  king  to  try  a 
rifle  presented  to  him  by  Speke,  a  page  went  to  the  door 
and  shot  the  first  man  he  saw  in  the  distance,  and  where,  as 
Stanley  tells  us,  under  the  last  king,  Suna,  five  days  were 
occupied  in  cutting  up  thirty  thousand  prisoners  who  had 
surrendered;  we  find  that  "  an  officer  observed  to  salute 
informally  is  ordered  for  execution,"  while  another  who, 
"  perhaps,  exposes  an  inch  of  naked  leg  whilst  squatting,  or 
has  his  mbugutied  contrary  to  regulations,"  "  is  condemned 
to  the  same  fate."  And  then  in  Asia  a  parallel  connexion 
is  shown  us  by  the  more  civilized  Siamese,  whose  adult  males 
are  all  soldiers,  and  over  whom  rules  omnipotently  a  sacred 


CEREMONIAL  RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.         221 

king,  whose  "  palace  must  not  be  passed  without  marks  of 
reverence  "  duly  prescribed,  and  "  severe  punishments  fol 
low  any  inattention  to  these  requirements/'  and  where,  in 
social  intercourse,  "  mistakes  in  these  kinds  of  duties  [obei 
sances]  may  be  punished  with  the  Mton  by  him  against 
whom  they  have  been  committed." 

Along  with  this  rigour  of  ceremonial  rule  we  find  great 
definiteness.  In  Fiji  there  are  "  various  forms  of  saluta 
tion,  according  to  the  rank  of  the  parties ;  and  great  attention 
is  paid  to  insure  that  the  salutation  shall  have  the  proper 
form:  "  such  precision  naturally  arising  where  loss  of  life  or 
fingers  follows  breach  of  observance.  A  kindred  precision 
is  similarly  caused  in  the  tyrannically-governed  African 
kingdoms,  such  as  Loango,  where  a  king  killed  his  own  son, 
and  had  him  quartered,  because  the  son  happened  to  see 
his  father  drink;  or  such  as  Ashantee,  where  there  is  much 
"  punctilious  courtesy,  and  a  laboured  and  ceremonious 
formality."  And  this  definiteness  characterizes  observ 
ances  under  the  despotisms  of  the  remote  East.  Of  the 
Siamese  La  Loubere  says — "  In  the  same  ceremonies  they 
always  say  almost  the  same  things.  The  king  of  Siam  him 
self  has  his  words  almost  told  [  contees]  in  his  audiences  of 
ceremony."  So,  too,  in  China,  in  the  imperial  hall  of  audi 
ence  "stones  are  inlaid  with  plates  of  brass,  on  which  are  en 
graved  in  Chinese  characters  the  quality  of  the  persons  who 
are  to  stand  or  kneel  upon  them;  "  and  as  Hue  says,  "  it  is 
easier  to  be  polite  in  China  than  elsewhere,  as  politeness  is 
subject  to  more  fixed  regulations."  Japan,  also,  shows  us 
this  precise  adjustment  of  the  observance  to  the  occasion: — 
"  The  marks  of  respect  to  superiors  .  .  .  are  graduated 
from  a  trifling  acknowledgment  to  the  most  absolute  pros 
tration."  "  This  state  of  things  is  supported  by  law  as  well 
as  custom,  and  more  particularly  by  the  permission  given  to 
a  two-sworded  man,  in  case  of  him  feeling  himself  insulted, 
to  take  the  law  into  his  own  hands."  Nor  does  Europe  in  its 
most  militant  country,  autocratically  ruled,  fail  to  yield  an 


222  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

illustration.  Custine  says  of  Russia  that,  at  the  marriage 
of  the  Grand  Duchess  Maria  with  the  Duke  of  Leuchten- 
berg  (1839)  the  Emperor  Nicholas  "  was  continually  leav 
ing  his  prayers,  and  slipping  from  one  side  to  the  other,  in 
order  to  remedy  the  omissions  of  etiquette  among  his  chil 
dren,  or  the  clergy.  .  .  .  All  the  great  functionaries  of  the 
Court  seemed  to  be  governed  by  his  minute  but  supreme 
directions." 

In  respect  of  the  range  and  elaborateness  of  ceremonial 
rule,  assimilating  the  control  of  civil  life  to  the  control  of 
military  life,  Oriental  despotisms  yield  equally  striking  ex 
amples.  La  Loubere  says: — "  If  there  are  several  Siamese 
together,  and  another  joins  them,  it  often  happens  that  the 
postures  of  all  change.  They  know  before  whom  and  to 
what  extent  they  should  bend  or  remain  erect  or  seated; 
whether  they  should  join  their  hands  or  not  and  hold  them 
low  or  high;  whether  being  seated  they  may  advance  one 
foot  or  both,  or  should  keep  both  hidden."  Even  the  mon 
arch  is  under  kindred  restraints.  "  The  Phra  raxa  mon- 
thierdban  [apparently,  sacred  book]  lays  down  the  laws 
which  the  Sovereign  is  bound  to  obey,  prescribes  the  hours 
for  rising  and  for  bathing,  the  manner  of  offering  and  the 
alms  to  be  offered,  to  the  bonzes,  the  hours  of  audience  for 
nobles  and  for  princes,  the  time  to  be  devoted  to  public  af 
fairs  and  to  study,  the  hours  for  repasts,  and  when  audiences 
shall  be  allowed  to  the  Queen  and  the  ladies  of  the  palace." 
Again,  in  the  account  of  his  embassy  to  Ava,  Syme  writes: 
— "  The  subordination  of  rank  is  maintained  and  marked 
by  the  Birmans  with  the  most  tenacious  strictness;  and  not 
only  houses,  but  even  domestic  implements,  such  as  the  bet- 
tie  box,  water  flagon,  drinking  cup,  and  horse  furniture, 
all  express  and  manifest,  by  shape  and  quality,  the  precise 
station  of  the  owner."  In  China,  too,  the  Li  ki,  or  Book  of 
Rites,  gives  directions  for  all  actions  of  life ;  and  a  passage 
in  Hue  shows  at  once  the  antiquity  of  their  vast,  coherent, 
elaborate  system  of  observances,  and  the  reverence  with 


CEREMONIAL  RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.         223 

which  its  prescriptions  were  regarded : — "  '  Under  the  first 
dynasties/  says  a  famous  Chinese  moralist,  e  the  government 
had  perfect  unity,  the  ceremonies  and  music  embraced  the 
whole  empire.'  '  Once  more,  in  Japan,  especially  in  past 
times,  ceremony  was  elaborated  in  books  so  far  that  every 
transaction,  down  to  an  execution,  had  its  various  move 
ments  prescribed  with  a  scarcely  credible  minuteness. 

That  these  connexions  are  necessary,  we  cannot  fail  to 
see  on  remembering  how,  with  the  compoundings  and  re- 
compoundings  of  social  groups  effected  by  militancy,  there 
must  go  an  evolution  of  the  forms  of  subordination;  made 
strong  by  the  needs  for  restraint,  made  multitudinous  by  the 
gradations  of  rank,  made  precise  by  continual  performance 
under  penalty. 

§  430.  The  moral  traits  which  accompany  respectively 
the  development  of  ceremonial  rule  and  the  decay  of  cere 
monial  rule,  may  with  advantage  be  named  while  not- 
ing  how  observances  weaken  as  fast  as  industrialism 
strengthens. 

We  have  seen  that  ceremony  originates  from  fear :  on 
the  one  side  supremacy  of  a  victor  or  master;  on  the  other 
side  dread  of  death  or  punishment  felt  by  the  vanquished  or 
the  slave.  And  under  the  regime  of  compulsory  co-opera 
tion  thus  initiated,  fear  develops  and  maintains  in  strength 
all  forms  of  propitiation.  But  with  the  rise  of  a  social  type 
based  on  voluntary  co-operation,  fear  decreases.  The  sub 
ordinate  ruler  or  officer  is  no  longer  wholly  at  the  mercy  of 
his  superior;  the  trader,  not  liable  to  be  robbed  or  tortured 
by  the  noble,  has  a  remedy  against  him  for  non-payment; 
the  labourer  in  receipt  of  wages,  cannot  be  beaten  like  the 
slave.  In  proportion  as  the  system  of  exchanging  services 
under  contract  spreads,  and  the  rendering  of  services  under 
compulsion  diminishes,  men  dread  one  another  less;  and, 
consequently,  become  less  scrupulous  in  fulfilling  propitia 
tory  forms. 


224  CEREMONIAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

War  of  necessity  cultivates  deception :  ambush,  ma 
noeuvring,  feints,  and  the  like,  involve  acted  lies;  and  skil 
ful  lying  by  actions  is  regarded  as  a  trait  of  military  genius. 
The  slavery  which  successful  war  establishes,  implies  daily 
practice  in  duplicity.  Against  the  anger  of  his  cruel  master 
a  successful  falsehood  is  the  slave's  defence.  Under  tyrants 
unscrupulous  in  their  exactions,  skilful  lying  is  a  means  of 
salvation,  and  is  a  source  of  pride.  And  all  the  ceremonies 
which  accompany  the  regime  of  compulsory  co-operation 
are  pervaded  by  insincerity :  the  fulsome  laudations  are  not 
believed  by  the  utterer;  he  feels  none  of  that  love  for  his 
superior  which  he  professes;  nor  is  he  anxious  for  his  wel 
fare  as  his  words  assert.  But  in  proportion  as  compul 
sory  co-operation  is  replaced  by  voluntary  co-operation,  the 
temptations  to  deceive  that  penalties  may  be  escaped,  be 
come  less  strong  and  perpetual;  and  simultaneously,  truth 
fulness  is  fostered,  since  voluntary  co-operation  can  increase 
only  as  fast  as  mutual  trust  increases.  Though  throughout 
the  activities  of  industry  there  yet  survives  much  of  the 
militant  untruthf ulness ;  yet,  on  remembering  that  only  by 
daily  fulfilment  of  contracts  can  these  activities  go  on,  we 
see  that  in  the  main  the  things  promised  are  performed. 
And  along  with  the  spreading  truthfulness  thus  implied, 
there  goes  on  an  increasing  dislike  of  the  more  extreme  un 
truthf  ulness  implied  in  the  forms  of  propitiation.  Neither 
in  word  nor  in  act  do  the  professed  feelings  so  greatly  ex 
ceed  the  real  feelings. 

It  scarcely  needs  saying  that  as  social  co-operation  be 
comes  less  coercive  and  more  voluntary,  independence  in 
creases;  for  the  two  statements  are  different  aspects  of 
the  same.  Forced  service  implies  dependence;  while  ser 
vice  rendered  under  agreement  implies  independence. 
Naturally,  the  different  moral  attitudes  involved,  express 
ing  themselves  in  different  political  types,  as  relatively  des 
potic  and  relatively  free,  express  themselves  also  in  the  ac 
companying  kinds  of  ceremonial  rule  that  are  tolerated  or 


CEREMONIAL  RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.         225 

liked.  In  the  one  case,  badges  of  subjection  are  thought 
honourable  and  pleasure  is  taken  in  acts  of  homage;  in  the 
other  case,  liveries  come  to  be  hated  and  there  is  reluctance 
to  use  reverential  forms  approaching  the  obsequious.  The 
love  of  independence  joins  the  love  of  truthfulness  in  gener 
ating  a  repugnance  to  obeisances  and  phrases  which  express 
subordination  where  none  is  internally  acknowledged. 

The  discipline  of  war,  being  a  discipline  in  destruction 
of  life,  is  a  discipline  in  callousness.  Whatever  sympathies 
exist  are  seared ;  and  any  that  tend  to  grow  up  are  checked. 
This  unsympathetic  attitude  which  war  necessitates,  is  main 
tained  by- the  coercive  social  co-operation  which  it  initiates 
and  evolves.  The  subordination  of  slave  by  master,  main 
tained  by  use  of  whatever  force  is  needful  to  secure  services 
however  unwilling,  implies  repression  of  fellow-feeling. 
This  repression  of  fellow-feeling  is  also  implied  by  insisting 
on  forms  of  homage.  To  delight  in  receiving  cringing  obei 
sances  shows  lack  of  sympathy  with  another's  dignity ;  and 
with  the  development  of  a  freer  social  type  and  accompany 
ing  increase  of  sympathy,  there  grows  up  on  the  part  of  su 
periors  a  dislike  to  these  extreme  manifestations  of  subjec 
tion  coming  from  inferiors.  "  Put  your  bonnet  to  its  right 
use,"  says  Hamlet  to  Osric,  standing  bareheaded:  showing 
us  that  in  Shakespeare's  day,  there  had  arisen  the  fellow- 
feeling  which  produced  displeasure  on  seeing  another  hum 
ble  himself  too  much.  And  this  feeling,  increasing  as  the 
industrial  type  evolves,  makes  more  repugnant  all  cere 
monial  forms  which  overtly  express  .subordination. 

Once  more,  originating  in  societies  which  have  the  glory 
of  victory  in  war  as  a  dominant  sentiment,  developed  cere 
mony  belongs  to  a  social  state  in  which  love  of  applause  is 
the  ruling  social  motive.  But  as  fast  as  industrialism  re 
places  militancy,  the  sway  of  this  ego-altruistic  sentiment 
becomes  qualified  by  the  growing  altruistic  sentiment;  and 
with  an  increasing  respect  for  others'  claims,  there  goes  a 
decreasing  eagerness  for  distinctions  which  by  implication 


226  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

subordinate  them.  Sounding  titles,  adulatory  forms  of 
address,  humble  obeisances,  gorgeous  costumes,  badges, 
privileges  of  precedence,  and  the  like,  severally  minister  to 
the  desire  to  be  regarded  with  actual  or  simulated  admira 
tion.  But  as  fast  as  the  wish  to  be  exalted  at  the  cost  of 
humiliation  to  others,  is  checked  by  sympathy,  the  appetite 
for  marks  of  honour,  becoming  less  keen,  is  satisfied  with, 
and  even  prefers,  more  subdued  indications  of  respect. 

So  that  in  various  ways  the  moral  character  natural  to 
the  militant  type  of  society,  fosters  ceremony;  while  the 
moral  character  natural  to  the  industrial  type  is  unfavour 
able  to  it. 

§  431.  Before  stating  definitely  the  conclusions,  already 
foreshadowed,  that  are  to  be  drawn  respecting  the  future 
of  ceremony,  we  have  to  note  that  its  restraints  not  only 
form  a  part  of  the  coercive  regime  proper  to  those  lower  so 
cial  types  characterized  by  predominant  militancy,  but  also 
that  they  form  part  of  a  discipline  by  which  men  are  adapt 
ed  to  a  higher  social  life. 

While  the  antagonistic  or  anti-social  emotions  in  men, 
have  that  predominance  which  is  inevitable  while  war  is 
habitual,  there  must  be  tendencies,  great  and  frequent,  to 
words  and  acts  generating  enmity  and  endangering  social 
coherence.  Hence  the  need  for  prescribed  forms  of  behav 
iour  which,  duly  observed,  diminish  the  risk  of  quarrels. 
Hence  the  need  for  a  ceremonial  rule  rigorous  in  proportion 
as  the  nature  is  selfish  and  explosive. 

Not  a  priori  only,  but  d  posteriori,  it  is  inferable  that 
established  observances  have  the  function  of  educating,  in 
respect  of  its  minor  actions,  the  anti-social  nature  into  a 
form  fitted  for  social  life.  Of  the  Japanese,  living  for  these 
many  centuries  under  an  unmitigated  despotism,  castes  se 
verely  restricted,  sanguinary  laws,  and  a  ceremonial  system 
rigorous  and  elaborate,  there  has  arisen  a  character  which, 
while  described  by  Mr.  Rundell  as  "  haughty,  vindictive, 


CEREMONIAL   RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT.         227 

and  licentious/ '  yet  prompts  a  behaviour  admirable  in  its 
suavity.  Mr.  Cornwallis  asserts  that  amiability  and  an  un 
ruffled  temper  are  the  universal  properties  of  the  women 
in  Japan ;  and  by  Mr.  Drummond  they  are  credited  with  a 
natural  grace  which  it  is  impossible  to  describe.  Among 
the  men,  too,  the  sentiment  of  honour,  based  upon  that  re 
gard  for  reputation  to  which  ceremonial  observance  largely 
appeals,  carries  them  to  great  extremes  of  consideration. 
Another  verifying  fact  is  furnished  by  another  despotical 
ly-governed  and  highly  ceremonious  society,  Russia.  Cus- 
tine  says — "  If  fear  renders  the  men  serious,  it  also  renders 
them  extremely  polite.  I  have  never  elsewhere  seen  so 
many  men  of  all  classes  treating  each  other  with  such  re 
spect."  Kindred,  if  less  pronounced,  examples  of  this  con 
nexion  are  to  be  found  in  Western  countries.  The  Italian, 
long  subject  to  tyrannical  rule,  and  in  danger  of  his  life  if 
he  excites  the  vengeful  feelings  of  a  fellow-citizen,  is  distin 
guished  by  his  conciliatory  manner.  In  Spain,  where  gov 
ernmental  dictation  is  unlimited,  where  women  are  harshly 
treated,  and  where  "  no  labourer  ever  wralks  outside  his  door 
without  his  knife,"  there  is  extreme  politeness.  Contrari 
wise  our  own  people,  long  living  under  institutions  which 
guard  them  against  serious  consequences  from  giving 
offence,  greatly  lack  suavity,  and  show  a  comparative  in 
attention  to  minor  civilities. 

Both  deductively  and  inductively,  then,  we  see  that 
ceremonial  government  is  one  of  the  agencies  by  which  so 
cial  co-operation  is  facilitated  among  those,  whose  natures 
are  in  large  measure  anti-social. 

§  432.  And  this  brings  us  to  the  general  truth  that 
within  each  embodied  set  of  restraining  agencies— the  cere 
monial  as  well  as  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  which  grow 
out  of  it — there  gradually  evolves,  a  special  kind  of  disem 
bodied  control,  which  eventually  becomes  independent. 

Political  government,  having  for  its  original  end  subor- 


228  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

dination;  and  inflicting  penalties  on  men  who  injure  others 
not  because  of  the  intrinsic  badness  of  their  acts  but  because 
their  acts  break  the  ruler's  commands;  has  ever  been  ha 
bituating  men  to  obey  regulations  conducive  to  social  order; 
until  there  has  grown  up  a  consciousness  that  these  regu 
lations  have  not  simply  an  extrinsic  authority  derived  from 
a  ruler's  will,  but  have  an  intrinsic  authority  derived  from 
their  utility.  The  once  arbitrary,  fitful,  and  often  irra 
tional,  dictates  of  a  king,  grow  into  an  established  system  of 
laws,  which  formulate  the  needful  limitations  to  men's  ac 
tions  arising  from  one  another's  claims.  And  these  limita 
tions  men  more  and  more  recognize  and  conform  to,  not  only 
without  thinking  of  the  monarch's  injunctions,  but  without 
thinking  of  the  injunctions  set  forth  in  Acts  of  Parlia 
ment.  Simultaneously,  out  of  the  supposed  wishes 
of  the  ancestral  ghost,  which  now  and  again  developing 
into  the  traditional  commands  of  some  expanded  ghost  of  a 
great  man,  become  divine  injunctions,  arises  the  set  of  re 
quirements  classed  as  religious.  Within  these,  at  first  al 
most  exclusively  concerning  acts  expressing  submission  to 
the  celestial  king,  there  evolve  the  rules  we  distinguish  as 
moral.  As  society  advances,  these  moral  rules  become  of  a 
kind  formulating  the  conduct  requisite  for  personal,  domes 
tic,  and  social  wellbeing.  For  a  long  time  imperfectly  dif 
ferentiated  from  the  essential  political  rules,  and  to  the  last 
enforcing  their  authority,  these  moral  rules,  originally  re 
garded  as  sacred  only  because  of  their  supposed  divine  ori 
gin,  eventually  acquire  a  sacredness  derived  from  their 
observed  utility  in  controlling  certain  parts  of  human  con 
duct — parts  not  controlled,  or  little  controlled,  by  civil  law. 
Ideas  of  moral  duty  develop  and  consolidate  into  a  moral 
code,  which  eventually  becomes  independent  of  its  theologi 
cal  root.  In  the  meantime,  from  within  that  part  of 
ceremonial  rule  which  has  evolved  into  a  system  of  regula 
tions  for  social  intercourse,  there  grows  a  third  class  of  re 
straints;  and  these,  in  like  manner,  become  at  length  inde- 


CEREMONIAL  RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.       229* 

pendent.  From  observances  which,  in  their  primitive 
forms,  express  partly  subordination  to  a  superior  and  partly 
attachment  to  him,  and  which,  spreading  downwards,  be 
come  general  forms  of  behaviour,  there  finally  come  observ 
ances  expressing  a  proper  regard  for  the  individualities  of 
other  persons,  and  a  true  sympathy  in  their  welfare.  Cere 
monies  which  originally  have  no  other  end  than  to  propiti 
ate  a  dominant  person,  pass,  some  of  them,  into  rules  of  po 
liteness;  and  these  gather  an  authority  distinct  from  that 
which  they  originally  had.  Apt  evidence  is  furnished  by 
the  "  Ritual  Remembrancer  "  of  the  Chinese,  which  gives 
directions  for  all  the  actions  of  life.  Its  regulations  "  are  in 
terspersed  with  truly  excellent  observations  regarding  mu 
tual  forbearance  and  kindness  in  society,  which  is  regarded 
as  the  "true  principle  of  etiquette."  The  higher  the  social 
evolution,  the  more  does  this  inner  element  of  ceremonial 
rule  grow,  while  the  outer  formal  element  dwindles.  As 
fast  as  the  principles  of  natural  politeness,  seen  to  originate 
in  sympathy,  distinguish  themselves  from  the  code  of  cere 
monial  within  which  they  originate,  they  replace  its  author 
ity  by  a  higher  authority,  and  go  on  dropping  its  non-essen 
tials  while  developing  further  its  essentials. 

So  that  as  law  differentiates  from  personal  commands, 
and  as  morality  differentiates  from  religious  injunctions,  so 
politeness  differentiates  from  ceremonial  observance.  To 
which  I  may  add,  so  does  rational  usage  differentiate  from 
fashion. 

§  433.  Thus  guided  by  retrospect  we  cannot  doubt 
about  the  prospect.  With  further  development  of  the  so 
cial  type  based  on  voluntary  co-operation,  will  come  a  still 
greater  disuse  of  obeisances,  of  complimentary  forms  of  ad 
dress,  of  titles,  of  badges,  &c.,  &c.  The  feelings  alike  of 
those  by  whom,  and  those  to  whom,  acts  expressing  subor 
dination  are  performed,  will  become  more  and  more  averse 

to  them. 

73 


230*  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Of  course  the  change  will  be,  and  should  be,  gradual. 
Just  as,  if  political  freedom  is  gained  faster  than  men  be 
come  adequately  self-controlled,  there  results  social  dis 
order — just  as  abolition  of  religious  restraints  while  yet 
moral  restraints  have  not  grown  strong  enough,  entails 
increase  of  misconduct ;  so,  if  the  observances  regulating  so 
cial  intercourse  lose  their  sway  faster  than  the  feelings 
which  prompt  true  politeness  develop,  there  inevitably  fol 
lows  more  or  less  rudeness  in  behaviour  and  consequent 
liability  to  discord.  It  needs  but  to  name  certain  of  our 
lower  classes,  such  as  colliers  and  brickmakers,  whose  rela 
tions  to  masters  and  others  are  such  as  to  leave  them  scarcely 
at  all  restrained,  to  see  that  considerable  evils  arise  from  a 
premature  decay  of  ceremonial  rule. 

The  normal  advance  toward  that  highest  state  in  which 
the  minor  acts  of  men  towards  one  another,  like  their  major 
acts,  are  so  controlled  by  internal  restraints  as  to  make  ex 
ternal  restraints  needless,  implies  increasing  fulfilment  of 
two  conditions.  Both  higher  emotions  and  higher  intelli 
gence  are  required.  There  must  be  a  stronger  fellow  feel 
ing  with  all  around,  and  there  must  be  an  intelligence  devel 
oped  to  the  extent  needful  for  instantly  seeing  how  all  words 
and  acts  will  tell  upon  their  states  of  mind — an  intelligence 
which,  by  each  expression  of  face  and  cadence  of  speech,  is 
informed  what  is  the  passing  state  of  emotion,  and  how 
emotion  has  been  affected  by  actions  just  committed. 


ADDENDA.  231* 


ADDENDA. 

MUTILATIONS. — In  Chap.  III.,  and  in  the  appended  note,  I  have 
assigned  grounds  for  the  conclusion  that  (beyond  some  which  arise 
from  the  simulation  of  battle-wounds)  the  skin-marks  made  on  sav 
ages,  from  the  scars  of  great  gashes  down  to  tatoo-lines,  originate  in 
the  wide-spread  practice  of  letting  blood  for  the  dead  at  a  funeral : 
naming,  in  all,  there  and  elsewhere,  fourteen  illustrations.  I  add 
here  an  instructive  one  given  by  Beckwourth,  "  who  for  many  years 
lived  among  "  the  Crows.  Describing  the  ceremonies  at  a  head  chief's 
death,  he  writes: — 

"  Blood  was  streaming  from  every  conceivable  part  of  tlie  bodies  of  all  who 
were  old  enough  to  comprehend  their  loss.  Hundreds  of  fingers  were  dismem 
bered  ;  hair  torn  from  the  head  lay  in  profusion  about  the  paths  ;  wails  and 
moans  in  every  direction  assailed  the  ear.  .  .  .  Long  Hair  cut  off  a  large  roll 
of  his  hair,  a  thing  he  was  never  known  to  do  before.  The  cutting  and  hack 
ing  of  human  flesh  exceeded  all  my  previous  experience ;  fingers  were  dismem 
bered  as  readily  as  twigs,  and  blood  was  poured  out  like  water.  Many  of  the 
warriors  would  cut  two  gashes  nearly  the  entire  length  of  their  arm ;  then, 
separating  the  skin  from  the  flesh  at  one  end,  would  grasp  it  in  their  other 
hand  and  rip  it  asunder  to  the  shoulder.  Others  would  carve  various  devices 
upon  their  breasts  and  shoulders,  and  raise  the  skin  in  the  same  manner  to 
make  the  scars  show  to  advantage  after  the  wound  was  healed." — H.  C.  Yar 
row's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Mortuary  Customs  among  the  North  Ameri 
can  Indians,  pp.  90—91. 

Here,  besides  seeing  that  offerings  of  blood  are  accompanied  by 
offerings  of  fingers  and  of  hair,  with  which  I  have  associated  them 
(all  of  them  acts  of  propitiation  which  leave  marks  that  become  signs 
of  allegiance  and  subordination),  we  get  clear  evidence  of  the  transi 
tion  to  decorative  marks.  Some  of  the  mourners  "would  carve  vari 
ous  devices  upon  their  breasts  and  shoulders,"  and  raise  the  skin  "to 
make  the  scars  show  to  advantage."  Dr.  Tylor,  who,  describing  my 
method  as  being  that  of  deducing  all  men's  customs  "  from  laws  of 
nature,"  alleges  that  my  inferences  are  vitiated  by  it,  contends  that  the 
skin-marks  are  all  record-marks,  when  not  deliberately  decorative. 
Whether  the  inductive  basis  for  this  conclusion  is  wider  than  that  for 
the  conclusion  drawn  by  me,  and  whether  the  superiority  of  Dr. 
Tylor's  method  is  thereby  shown,  may  be  judged  by  the  reader  who 
refers  to  his  essay. 

PRESENTS. — In  §  376,  sundry  facts  were  named  which  pointed  to 
the  conclusion  that  barter  does  not  begin  consciously  as  such,  but  is 
initiated  by  the  exchange  of  presents,  which  usage  more  and  more  re 
quires  to  be  of  equal  values.  My  attention  has  since  been  drawn  to  a 
verifying  instance  in  the  Iliad  ;  where,  in  token  of  friendship,  an  ex 
change  of  arms  is  made  between  Glaucus  and  Diomedes : — 

"  Howbeit  Zeus  then  bereaved  Glaucus  of  his  wits,  in  that  he  exchanged 
with  Diomedes,  the  son  of  Tydeus,  golden  arms  for  bronze,  a  hundred  oxen's 
worth  for  nine." 

Homer's  obvious  notion  being  that  there  should  be  likeness  of  worth 
in  the  presents  mutually  made ;  and  the  implication  being  that  this 


232*  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

requirement  was  commonly  observed.  Of  course,  if  a  propitiatory 
gift,  at  first  offered  without  expectation  of  a  return,  came  eventually 
to  be  offered  with  expectation  of  an  equivalent  return,  bargaining  and 
barter  would  inevitably  arise. 

A  clear  illustration  furnished  by  a  primitive  people  still  extant  oc 
curs  in  the  account  of  the  Andamanese  given  by  Mr.  E.  II.  Man  in 
the  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  vol.  xi.  pp.  285-6.  Say 
ing  of  this  people  that  "it  is  customary  for  each  family  to  supply 
itself  with  the  chief  necessaries  in  the  shape  of  weapons  and  food," 
Mr.  Man  tells  us  that — 

"  They  set  no  fixed  value  on  their  various  properties,  and  rarely  make  or  pro 
cure  anything  for  the  express  purpose  of  bartering  with  it.  ...  These  trans 
actions  [exchanges]  they  are  pleased  to  consider  as  presentations  ;  but  it  is 
tacitly  understood  that  no  present  is  to  be  accepted  unless  an  equivalent  is 
rendered,  and,  as  the  opinions  of  donor  and  recipient  are  liable  to  differ  as  to 
the  respective  value  of  the  articles  in  question,  a  quarrel  is  not  unfrequently 
the  result." 

These  facts,  joined  with  the  facts  given  in  Chapter  iv.,  go  far  to 
prove  that  savages  (who  invent  nothing,  but  even  in  the  making  of 
implements  develop  this  or  that  kind  by  unobtrusive  modifications), 
were  led  unawares,  and  not  aforethought,  into  the  practice  of  barter. 

That  in  the  course  of  social  evolution,  presents  precede  fixed  sal 
aries,  illustrated  in  §  375  by  the  fact,  among  others,  that  in  the  East 
the  attendants  of  a  man  of  power  are  supported  chiefly  by  propitiatory 
gifts  from  those  who  come  to  get  favours  from  him,  is  further  illus 
trated  by  the  fact  that  the  great  man  himself  similarly  remunerates 
them  if  need  be. 

"  Should  he  desire  to  retain  any  of  them  whose  income  does  not  prove  suffi 
cient,  he  himself  makes  presents  to  them,  or  favours  them  in  their  business 
by  means  of  his  influence,  but  never  pays  them  wages." — Van  Lennep,  Bible 
Lands  and  Customs,  ii.  592. 

Which  last  fact,  joined  with  the  others  before  named  of  like  kind,  im 
ply  that  exchange  of  services  for  payments,  did  not  begin  as  such : 
services  being  at  first  given  from  fear,  or  loyalty,  or  the  desire  for 
protection ;  and  any  return  made  for  these  services,  beyond  the  pro 
tection,  not  being  consciously  regarded  as  equivalent  payment,  but 
as  a  mark  of  approval  or  good  will.  The  fact  that  the  exchange  of 
service  for  fixed  payment  developed  out  of  this  practice,  harmonizes 
with,  and  confirms,  the  conclusion  that  the  exchange  of  commodities 
had  an  analogous  origin. 


PART  V. 
POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PEELIMINAEY. 

§  434.  Thought  and  feeling  cannot  be  completely  die-, 
sociated.  Each  emotion  has  a  more  or  less  distinct  frame 
work  of  ideas;  and  each  group  of  ideas  is  more  or  less  suffused 
with  emotion.  There  are,  however,  great  differences  between 
their  degrees  of  combination  under  both  of  these  aspects. 
AVe  have  some  feelings  which  are  vague  from  lack  of  intel 
lectual  definition ;  and  others  to  which  clear  shapes  are  given 
by  the  associated  conceptions.  At  one  time  our  thoughts 
are  distorted  by  the  passion  running  through  them ;  and  at 
another  time  it  is  difficult  to  detect  in  them  a  trace  of  liking 
or  disliking.  Manifestly,  too,  in  each  particular  case  these 
components  of  the  mental  state  may  be  varied  in  their  pro 
portions.  The  ideas  being  the  same,  the  emotion  joined  with 
them  may  be  greater  or  less ;  and  it  is  a  familiar  truth  that 
the  correctness  of  the  judgment  formed,  depends,  if  not  on 
the  absence  of  emotion,  still,  on  that  balance  of  emotions 
which  negatives  excess  of  any  one. 

Especially  is  this  so  in  matters  concerning  human  life. 
There  are  two  ways  in  which  men's  actions,  individual  or 
social,  may  be  regarded.  We  may  consider  them  as  groups 
of  phenomena  to  be  analyzed,  and  the  laws  of  their  depen 
dence  ascertained ;  or,  considering  them  as  causing  pleasures 
or  pains,  we  may  associate  with  them  approbation  or  repro 
bation.  Dealing  with  its  problems  intellectually,  we  may 


230  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

regard  conduct  as  always  the  result  of  certain  forces ;  or, 
dealing  with  its  problems  morally,  and  recognizing  its  out 
come  as  in  this  case  good  and  in  that  case  bad,  we  may 
allow  now  admiration  and  now  indignation  to  fill  our  con 
sciousness.  Obviously,  it  must  make  a  great  difference  in 
our  conclusions  whether,  as  in  the  one  case,  we  study  men's 
doings  as  those  of  alien  creatures,  which  it  merely  concerns 
us  to  understand  ;  or  whether,  as  in  the  other  case,  we  con 
template  them  as  the  doings  of  creatures  like  ourselves,  with 
whose  lives  our  own  lives  are  bound  up,  and  whose  behaviour 
arouses  in  us,  directly  and  sympathetically,  feelings  of  love 
or  hate. 

In  an  ancillary  work,  TJie  Study  of  Sociology,  I  have  de 
scribed  the  various  perversions  produced  in  men's  judgments 
by  their  emotions.  Examples  are  given  showing  how  fears 
and  hopes  betray  them  into  false  estimates ;  how  impatience 
prompts  unjust  condemnations ;  how  in  this  case  antipathy, 
and  in  that  case  sympathy,  distorts  belief.  The  truth  that 
the  bias  of  education  and  the  bias  of  patriotism  severally 
warp  men's  convictions,  is  enforced  by  many  illustrations. 
And  it  is  pointed  out  that  the  more  special  forms  of  bias  — 
the  class  bias,  the  political  bias,  the  theological  bias— each 
originates  a  predisposition  towards  this  or  that  view  of  public 
affairs. 

Here  let  me  emphasize  the  conclusion  that  in  pursuing 
our  sociological  inquiries,  and  especially  those  on  which  we 
are  now  entering,  we  must,  as  much  as  possible,  exclude 
whatever  emotions  the  facts  are  calculated  to  excite,  and 
attend  solely  to  the  interpretation  of  the  facts.  There  are 
several  groups  of  phenomena  in  contemplating  which  either 
contempt,  or  disgust,  or  indignation,  tends  to  arise  but  must 
be  restrained. 

§  435.  Instead  of  passing  over  as  of  no  account,  or  else 
regarding  as  purely  mischievous,  the  superstitions  of  the 
primitive  man,  we  must  inquire  what  part  they  play  in 


PRELIMINARY.  231 

social  evolution ;  and  must  be  prepared,  if  need  be,  to  re 
cognize  their  usefulness.  Already  we  bave  seen  that  the 
belief  which  prompts  the  savage  to  bury  valuables  with  the 
corpse  and  carry  food  to  the  grave,  has  a  natural  genesis ; 
that  the  propitiation  of  plants  and  animals,  and  the  "  worship 
of  stocks  and  stones,"  are  not  gratuitous  absurdities ;  and 
that  slaves  are  sacrificed  at  funerals  in  pursuance  of  an  idea 
which  seems  rational  to  uninstructed  intelligence.  Pre 
sently  we  shall  have  to  consider  in  what  way  the  ghost- 
theory  has  operated  politically  ;  and  if  we  should  find  reason 
to  conclude  that  it  has  been  an  indispensable  aid  to  political 
progress,  we  must  be  ready  to  accept  the  conclusion. 

Knowledge  of  the  miseries  which  have  for  countless  ages 
been  everywhere  caused  by  the  antagonisms  of  societies,  must 
not  prevent  us  from  recognizing  the  all-important  part  these 
antagonisms  have  played  in  civilization.  Shudder  as  we 
must  at  the  cannibalism  which  all  over  the  world  in  early 
days  was  a  sequence  of  war — shrink  as  we  may  from  the 
thought  of  those  immolations  of  prisoners  which  have,  tens 
of  thousands  of  times,  followed  battles  between  wild  tribes — 
read  as  we  do  with  horror  of  the  pyramids  of  heads  and  the 
whitening  bones  of  slain  peoples  left  by  barbarian  invaders — 
hate,  as  we  ought,  the  militant  spirit  which  is  even  now 
among  ourselves  prompting  base  treacheries  and  brutal  ag 
gressions  ;  we  must  not  let  our  feelings  blind  us  to  the 
proofs  that  inter-social  conflicts  have  furthered  the  develop 
ment  of  social  structures. 

Moreover,  dislikes  to  governments  of  certain  kinds  must 
not  prevent  us  from  seeing  their  fitnesses  to  their  circum 
stances.  Though,  rejecting  the  common  idea  of  glory,  and 
declining  to  join  soldiers  and  school-boys  in  applying  the 
epithet  "  great  "  to  conquering  despots,  we  detest  despotism — 
though  we  regard  their  sacrifices  of  their  own  peoples  and  of 
alien  peoples  in  pursuit  of  universal  dominion  as  gigantic 
crimes;  we  must  yet  recognize  the  benefits  occasionally 
arising  from  the  consolidations  they  achieve.  Neither  the 


POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

massacres  of  subjects  which  Eoman  emperors  directed,  nor 
the  assassinations  of  relatives  common  among  potentates 
in  the  East,  nor  the  impoverishment  of  whole  nations  by  the 
exactions  of  tyrants,  must  so  revolt  us  as  to  prevent  appre 
ciation  of  the  benefits  which  have,  under  certain  conditions, 
resulted  from  the  unlimited  power  of  the  supreme  man.  Nor 
must  the  remembrances  of  torturing  implements,  and  oub 
liettes,  and  victims  built  into  walls,  shut  out  from  our  minds 
the  evidence  that  abject  submission  of  the  weak  to  the 
strong,  however  unscrupulously  enforced,  has  in  some  times 
and  places  been  necessary. 

So,  too,  with  the  associated  ownership  of  man  by  man. 
Absolute  condemnation  of  slavery  must  be  withheld,  even  if 
we  accept  the  tradition  repeated  by  Herodotus,  that  to  build 
the  Great  Pyramid  relays  of  a  hundred  thousand  slaves  toiled 
for  twenty  years ;  or  even  if  we  find  it  true  that  of  the  serfs 
compelled  to  work  at  the  building  of  St.  Petersburg,  three 
hundred  thousand  perished.  Though  aware  that  the  un 
recorded  sufferings  of  men  and  women  held  in  bondage  are 
beyond  imagination,  we  must  be  willing  to  receive  such 
evidence  as  there  may  be  that  benefits  have  resulted. 

In  brief,  trustworthy  interpretations  of  social  arrangements 
imply  an  almost  passionless  consciousness.  Though  feeling 
cannot  and  ought  not  to  be  excluded  from  the  mind  when 
otherwise  contemplating  them,  yet  it  ought  to  be  excluded 
when  contemplating  them  as  natural  phenomena  to  be  under 
stood  in  their  causes  and  effects. 

§  436.  Maintenance  of  this  mental  attitude  will  be  furthered 
by  keeping  before  ourselves  the  truth  that  in  human  actions 
the  absolutely  bad  may  be  relatively  good,  and  the  absolutely 
good  may  be  relatively  bad. 

Though  it  has  become  a  common-place  that  the  institutions 
under  which  one  race  prospers  will  not  answer  for  another, 
the  recognition  of  this  truth  is  by  no  means  adequate.  Men 
svho  have  lost  faith  in  "paper  constitutions/'  nevertheless 


PRELIMINAEY.  233 

advocate  such  conduct  towards  inferior  races,  as  implies  the 
belief  that  civilized  social  forms  can  with  advantage  be  im 
posed  on  uncivilized  peoples ;  that  the  arrangements  which 
seem,  to  us  vicious  are  vicious  for  them ;  and  that  they  would 
benefit  by  institutions — domestic,  industrial,  or  political — 
nkin  to  those  which  we  find  beneficial.  But  acceptance  of 
the  truth  that  the  type  of  a  society  is  determined  by  the 
natures  of  its  units,  forces  on  us  the  corollary  that  a  regime 
intrinsically  of  the  lowest,  may  yet  be  the  best  possible  under 
primitive  conditions. 

Otherwise  stating  the  matter,  we  must  not  substitute  our 
developed  code  of  conduct,  which  predominantly  concerns 
private  relations,  for  the  undeveloped  code  of  conduct,  which 
predominantly  concerns  public  relations.  Now  that  life  is 
generally  occupied  in  peaceful  intercourse  with  fellow-citizens, 
ethical  ideas  refer  chiefly  to  actions  between  man  and  man ; 
but  in  early  stages,  while  the  occupation  of  life  was  mainly 
in  conflicts  with  adjacent  societies,  such  ethical  ideas  as 
existed  referred  almost  wholly  to  inter-social  actions :  men's 
deeds  were  judged  by  their  direct  bearings  on  tribal  welfare. 
And  since  preservation  of  the  society  takes  precedence  of 
individual  preservation,  as  being  a  condition  to  it,  we  must, 
in  considering  social  phenomena,  interpret  good  and  bad 
rather  in  their  earlier  senses  than  in  their  later  senses ;  and 
so  must  regard  as  relatively  good,  that  which  furthers  sur 
vival  of  the  society,  great  as  may  be  the  suffering  inflicted  on 
its  members. 

§  437.  Another  of  our  ordinary  conceptions  has  to  be  much 
widened  before  we  can  rightly  interpret  political  evolution. 
The  words  "  civilized "  and  "  savage "  must  have  given  to 
them  meanings  differing  greatly  from  those  which  are  current. 
That  broad  contrast  usually  drawn  wholly  to  the  advantage 
of  the  men  who  form  large  nations,  and  to  the  disadvantage 
of  the  men  who  form  simple  groups,  a  better  knowledge 
obliges  us  profoundly  to  qualify.  Characters  are  to  be  found 


234  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

among  rude  peoples  which  compare  well  with  those  of  the 
best  among  cultivated  peoples.  With  little  knowledge  and 
but  rudimentary  arts,  there  in  some  cases  go  virtues  which 
might  shame  those  among  ourselves  whose  education  and 
polish  are  of  the  highest. 

Surviving  remnants  of  some  primitive  races  in  India,  have 
natures  in  which  truthfulness  seems  to  be  organic.  Not  only 
to  the  surrounding  Hindoos,  higher  intellectually  and  rela 
tively  advanced  in  culture,  are  they  in  this  respect  far  superior; 
but  they  are  superior  to  Europeans.  Of  certain  of  these  Hill 
peoples  it  is  remarked  that  their  assertions  may  always  be 
accepted  with  perfect  confidence ;  which  is  more  than  can  be 
said  of  manufacturers  who  use  false  trade-marks,  or  of  diplo 
matists  who  intentionally  delude.  As  having  this  trait  may 
be  named  the  Santals,  of  whom.  Hunter  says,  "  they  were  the 
most  truthful  set  of  men  I  ever  met;"  and,  again,  the  Sowrahs, 
of  whom  Shortt  says,  "  a  pleasing  feature  in  their  character 
is  their  complete  truthfulness.  They  do  not  know  how  to 
tell  a  lie."  Notwithstanding  their  sexual  relations  of  a 
primitive  and  low  type,  even  the  Todas  are  described  as  con 
sidering  "  falsehood  one  of  the  worst  of  vices."  Though  Metz 
says  that  they  practise  dissimulation  towards  Europeans,  yet 
he  recognizes  this  as  a  trait  consequent  on  their  intercourse 
with  Europeans  ;  and  this  judgment  coincides  with  one  given 
to  me  by  an  Indian  civil  servant  concerning  other  Hill  tribes, 
originally  distinguished  by  their  veracity,  but  who  are 
rendered  less  veracious  by  contact  with  the  whites.  So  rare 
is  lying  among  these  aboriginal  races  when  unvitiated  by  the 
"  civilized,"  that,  of  those  in  Bengal,  Hunter  singles  out  the 
Tipperahs  as  "  the  only  hill-tribe  in  which  this  vice  is  met 
with." 

Similaily  in  respect  of  honesty,  some  of  these  peoples 
classed  as  inferior  read  lessons  to  those  classed  as  superior. 
Of  the  Todas  just  named,  ignorant  and  degraded  as  they  are 
in  some  respects,  Harkness  says,  "I  never  saw  a  people, 
civilized  or  uncivilized,  who  seemed  to  have  a  more  religious 


PRELIMINARY.  235 

respect  for  the  rights  of  meum  and  tuum"  The  Marias 
(Gonds),  "  in  common  with  many  other  wild  races,  bear  a 
singular  character  for  truthfulness  and  honesty."  Among  the 
Khonds  "  the  denial  of  a  debt  is  a  breach  of  this  principle, 
which  is  held  to  be  highly  sinful.  '  Let  a  man/  say  they, 
'  give  up  all  he  has  to  his  creditors.' "  The  Santal  prefers  to 
have "  no  dealings  with  his  guests ;  but  when  his  guests 
introduce  the  subject  he  deals  with  them  as  honestly  as  he 
would  with  his  own  people : "  "  he  names  the  true  price  at 
first."  The  Lepchas  "are  wonderfully  honest,  theft  being 
scarcely  known  among  them."  And  the  Bodo  and  Dhimals 
are  "  honest  and  truthful  in  deed  and  word."  Colonel  Dixon 
dilates  on  the  w  fidelity,  truth,  and  honesty  "  of  the  Carnatic 
aborigines,  who  show  "  an  extreme  and  almost  touching 
devotion  when  put  upon  their  honour."  And  Hunter  asserts 
of  the  Chakmas,  that  "  crime  is  rare  among  these  primitive 

people Theft  is  almost  unknown." 

So  it  is,  too,  with  the  general  virtues  of  these  and  sundry 
other  uncivilized  tribes.  The  Santal  "  possesses  a  happy  dis 
position,"  is  "  sociable  to  a  fault,"  and  while  the  "  sexes  are 
greatly  devoted  to  each  other's  society,"  the  women  are  "  ex 
ceedingly  chaste."  The  Bodo  and  the  Dhimals  are  "  full  of 
amiable  qualities."  The  Lepcha, "  cheerful,  kind,  and  patient," 
is  described  by  Dr.  Hooker  as  a  most  "attractive  com 
panion  ; "  and  Dr.  Campbell  gives  "  an  instance  of  the  effect 
of  a  very  strong  sense  of  duty  on  this  savage."  In  like 
manner,  from  accounts  of  certain  Malayo-Polynesian  societies, 
and  certain  Papuan  societies,  may  be  given  instances  show 
ing  in  high  degrees  sundry  traits  which  we  ordinarily 
associate  only  with  a  human  nature  that  has  been  long  sub 
ject  to  the  discipline  of  civilized  life  and  the  teachings  of  a 
superior  religion.  One  of  the  latest  testimonies  is  that  of 
Signor  D'Albertis,  who  describes  certain  New  Guinea  people 
he  visited  (near  Yule  Island)  as  strictly  honest,  "  very  kind," 
"  good  and  peaceful,"  and  who,  after  disputes  between  villages, 
"  are  as  friendly  as  before,  bearing  no  animosity ; "  but  of 


236  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

whom  the  Eev.  W.  G.  Lawes,  commenting  on  Signor 
D'Albertis'  communication  to  the  Colonial  Institute,  says 
that  their  goodwill  to  the  whites  is  being  destroyed  by  the 
whites'  ill-treatment  of  them  :  the  usual  history. 

Contrariwise,  in  various  parts  of  the  world  men  of  several 
types  yield  proofs  that  societies  relatively  advanced  in 
organization  and  culture,  may  yet  be  inhuman  in  their  ideas, 
sentiments,  and  usages.  The  Eijians,  described  by  Dr. 
Pickering  as  among  the  most  intelligent  of  unlettered  peoples, 
are  among  the  most  ferocious.  "  Intense  and  vengeful 
malignity  strongly  marks  the  Fijian  character."  Lying, 
treachery,  theft,  and  murder,  are  with  them  not  criminal,  but 
honourable ;  infanticide  is  immense  in  extent ;  strangling 
the  sickly  habitual ;  and  they  sometimes  cut  up  while  alive 
the  human  victims  they  are  going  to  eat.  Nevertheless  they 
have  a  "  complicated  and  carefully-  conducted  political 
system ; "  well-organized  military  forces  ;  elaborate  fortifica 
tions  ;  a  developed  agriculture  with  succession  of  crops  and 
irrigation  ;  a  considerable  division  of  labour ;  a  separate  dis 
tributing  agency  with  incipient  currency ;  and  a  skilled 
industry  which  builds  canoes  that  carry  three  hundred 
men.  Take  again  an  African  society,  Dahomey.  We 

find  there  a  finished  system  of  classes,  six  in  number ;  com 
plex  governmental  arrangements  with  officials  always  in 
pairs ;  an  army  divided  into  battalions,  having  reviews  and 
sham  fights ;  prisons,  police,  and  sumptiiary  laws ;  an  agri 
culture  which  uses  manure  and  grows  a  score  kinds  of  plants; 
moated  towns,  bridges,  and  roads  with  turnpikes.  Yet  along 
with  this  comparatively  high  social  development  there  goes 
what  we  may  call  organized  criminality.  "Wars  are  made  to 
get  skulls  with  which  to  decorate  the  royal  palace ;  hundreds 
of  subjects  are  killed  when  a  king  dies  ;  and  great  numbers 
are  annually  slaughtered  to  carry  messages  to  the  other 
world.  Described  as  cruel  and  blood-thirsty,  liars  and 
cheats,  the  people  are  "void  either  of  sympathy  or  gratitude, 
•even  in  their  own  families;"  so  that  "  not  even  the  appearance 


PRELIMINARY.  237 

of  affection  exists  between  husband  and  wife,  or  between 
parents  and  children."  The  New  World,  too,  furnished 

when  it  was  discovered,  like  evidence.  Having  great  cities 
of  120,000  houses,  the  Mexicans  had  also  cannibal  gods, 
whose  idols  were  fed  on  warm,  reeking,  human  flesh,  thrust 
into  their  mouths — wars  being  made  purposely  to  supply 
victims  for  them ;  and  with  skill  to  build  vast  and  stately 
temples,  there  went  the  immolation  of  two  thousand  five 
hundred  persons  annually,  in  Mexico  and  adjacent  towns 
alone,  and  of  a  far  greater  number  throughout  the  country  at 
large.  Similarly  in  the  populous  Central  American  States, 
sufficiently  civilized  to  have  a  developed  system  of  calcula 
tion,  a  regular  calendar,  books,  maps,  &c.,  there  were  exten 
sive  sacrifices  of  prisoners,  slaves,  children,  whose  hearts 
were  torn  out  and  offered  palpitating  on  altars,  and  who,  in 
other  cases,  were  flayed  alive  and  their  skins  used  as  dancing- 
dresses  by  the  priests. 

Nor  need  we  seek  in  remote  regions  or  among  alien  races, 
for  proofs  that  there  does  not  exist  a  necessary  connexion 
between  the  social  types  classed  as  civilized  and  those 
higher  sentiments  which  we  commonly  associate  with  civili 
zation.  The  mutilations  of  prisoners  exhibited  on  Assyrian 
sculptures  are  not  surpassed  in  cruelty  by  any  we  find  among 
the  most  bloodthirsty  of  wild  races ;  and  Eameses  II.,  who 
delighted  in  having  himself  sculptured  on  temple-walls 
throughout  Egypt  as  holding  a  dozen  captives  by  the  hair, 
and  striking  off  their  heads  at  a  blow,  slaughtered  during  his 
conquests  more  human  beings  than  a  thousand  chiefs  of 
savage  tribes  put  together.  The  tortures  inflicted  on  cap 
tured  enemies  by  Eed  Indians  are  not  greater  than  were 
those  inflicted  of  old  on  felons  by  crucifixion,  or  on  suspected 
rebels  by  sewing  them  up  in  the  hides  of  slaughtered  animals, 
or  on  heretics  by  smearing  them  over  with  combustibles  and 
setting  fire  to  them.  The  Damaras,  described  as  so  heartless 
that  they  laugh  on  seeing  one  of  their  number  killed  by  a 
wild  beast,  are  not  worse  than  were  the  Romans,  who  gratified 


238  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

themselves  by  watching  wholesale  slaughters  in  their  arenas, 
If  the  numbers  destroyed  by  the  hordes  of  Attila  were  not 
equalled  by  the  numbers  which  the  Eoman  armies  destroyed 
at  the  conquest  of  Selucia,  and  by  the  numbers  of  the  Jews 
massacred  under  Hadrian,  it  was  simply  because  the  occa 
sions  did  not  permit.  The  cruelties  of  Nero,  Gallienus,  and 
the  rest,  may  compare  with  those  of  Zingis  and  Timour ;  and 
when  we  read  of  Caracalla,  that  after  he  had  murdered 
twenty  thousand  friends  of  his  murdered  brother,  his  soldiers 
forced  the  Senate  to  place  him  among  the  gods,  we  are  shown 
that  in  the  Roman  people  there  was  a  ferocity  not  less  than 
that  which  deifies  the  most  sanguinary  chiefs  among  the  worst 
of  savages.  Nor  did  Christianity  greatly  change  matters. 
Throughout  Mediaeval  Europe,  political  offences  and  religious 
dissent  brought  on  men  carefully-devised  agonies  equalling  if 
not  exceeding  any  inflicted  by  the  most  brutal  of  barbarians. 
Startling  as  the  truth  seems,  it  is  yet  a  truth  to  be  recog 
nized,  that  increase  of  humanity  does  not  go  on  pari  passu 
with  civilization ;  but  that,  contrariwise,  the  earlier  stages  of 
civilization  necessitate  a  relative  inhumanity.  Among  tribes 
of  primitive  men,  it  is  the  more  brutal  rather  than  the  more 
kindly  who  succeed  in  those  conquests  which  effect  the  earliest 
social  consolidations;  and  through  many  subsequent  stages 
unscrupulous  aggression  outside  of  the  society  and  cruel 
coercion  within,  are  the  habitual  concomitants  of  political 
development.  The  men  of  whom  the  better  organized  societies 
have  been  formed,  were  at  first,  and  long  continued  to  be, 
nothing  else  but  the  stronger  and  more  cunning  savages  ;  and 
even  now,  when  freed  from  those  influences  which  super 
ficially  modify  their  behaviour,  they  prove  themselves  to  be 
little  better.  If,  on  the  one  hand,  we  contemplate  the  utterly 
uncivilized  Wood-Yecldahs,  wrho  are  described  as  "  proverbially 
truthful  and  honest,"  "gentle  and  affectionate/'  "  obeying  the 
slightest  intimation  of  a  wish,  and  very  grateful  for  attention 
or  assistance,"  and  of  whom  Pridham  remarks — "  What  a 
lesson  in  gratitude  and  delicacy  even  a  Veddah  may  teach  1  * 


PRELIMINARY.  239 

and  then  if,  on  the  other  hand,  we  contemplate  our  own 
recent  acts  of  international  brigandage,  accompanied  by  the 
slaughter  of  thousands  who  have  committed  no  wrong  against 
us — accompanied,  too,  by  perfidious  breaches  of  faith  and  the 
killing  of  prisoners  in  cold  blood ;  we  must  admit  that  be 
tween  the  types  of  men  classed  as  uncivilized  and  civilized, 
the  differences  are  not  necessarily  of  the  kinds  commonly 
supposed.  Whatever  relation  exists  between  moral  nature 
and  social  type,  is  not  such  as  to  imply  that  the  social  man  is 
in  all  respects  emotionally  superior  to  the  pre-social  man.* 

§  438.  "  How  is  this  conclusion  to  be  reconciled  with  the 
conception  of  progress  ? "  most  readers  will  ask.  "  How  is 
civilization  to  be  justified  if,  as  is  thus  implied,  some  of  the 
highest  of  human  attributes  are  exhibited  in  greater  degrees 
by  wild  people  who  live  scattered  in  pairs  in  the  woods,  than 
by  the  members  of  a  vast,  well-organized  nation,  having 

*  What  the  social  man,  even  of  advanced  race,  is  capable  of,  has  been 
again  shown  while  the;e  lines  are  standing  in  type.  To  justify  the  destruc 
tion  of  two  African  towns  in  Batanga,  we  are  told  that  their  king,  wishing  to 
have  a  trading  factory  established,  and  disappointed  with  the  promise  of  a 
sub-factory,  boarded  an  English  schooner,  carried  off  Mr.  Grovier,  the  mate, 
and  refusing  to  release  him  when  asked,  "  threatened  to  cut  the  man's  head 
off "  :  a  strange  mode,  if  true,  of  getting  a  trading  factory  established. 
Mr.  Grovier  afterwards  escaped  ;  not  having  been  ill-treated  during  his  deten 
tion.  Anchoring  the  Boadicea  and  two  gunboats  off  Kribby's  Town  ("  King 
Jack's"  residence),  Commodore  Richards  demanded  of  the  king  that  he 
should  come  on  board  and  explain :  promising  him  safety,  and  threatening 
serious  consequences  in  case  of  refusal.  Not  trusting  the  promise,  the  king 
failed  to  come.  Without  ascertaining  from  the  natives  whether  they  had 
any  reason  for  laying  hands  on  Mr.  Govier,  save  this  most  improbable  one 
alleged  by  our  people,  Commodore  Richards  proceeded,  after  some  hours' 
notice,  to  clear  the  beach  with  shells,  to  burn  the  town  of  300  houses,  to  cut 
down  the  natives'  crops,  and  to  destroy  their  canoes  ;  and  then,  not  satisfied 
with  burning  "King  Jack's"  town,  went  further  south  and  burnt  "King 
Long-Long's"  town.  These  facts  are  published  in  the  Times  of  September 
10,  1880.  In  an  article  on  them,  this  organ  of  English  respectability  regrets 
that  "the  punishment  must  seem,  to  the  childish  mind  of  the  savage,  wholly- 
disproportionate  to  the  offence :"  implying  that  to  the  adult  mind  Of  tlio 
civilized  it  will  not  seem  disproportionate.  Further,  this  leading  journal  of 
ruling  classes  who  hold  that,  in  the  absence  of  established  theological  dogmas, 

74 


240  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

marvellously-elaborated  arts,  extensive  and  profound  know 
ledge,  and  multitudinous  appliances  to  welfare  ? "  The 
answer  to  this  question  will  best  be  conveyed  by  an 
analogy. 

As  carried  on  throughout  the  animate  world  at  large,  the 
struggle  for  existence  has  been  an  indispensable  means  to 
evolution.  Not  simply  do  we  see  that  in  the  competition 
among  individuals  of  the  same  kind,  survival  of  the  fittest, 
has  from  the  beginning  furthered  production  of  a  higher  type  ; 
but  we  see  that  to  the  unceasing  warfare  between  species  is 
mainly  due  both  growth  and  organization.  Without  univer 
sal  conflict  there  would  have  been  no  development  of  the 
active  powers.  The  organs  of  perception  and  of  locomotion 
have  been  little  by  little  evolved  during  the  inter-action  of 
pursuers  and  pursued.  Improved  limbs  and  senses  have 
furnished  better  supplies  to  the  viscera,  and  improved  visceral 
structures  have  ensured  a  better  supply  of  aerated  blood  to 
the  limbs  and  senses ;  while  a  higher  nervous  system  has  at 
each  stage  been  called  into  play  for  co-ordinating  the  actions 
of  these  more  complex  structures.  Among  predatory  animals 
death  by  starvation,  and  among  animals  preyed  upon  death 
by  destruction,  have  carried  off  the  least-favourably  modified 
individuals  and  varieties.  Every  advance  in  strength,  speed, 
agility,  or  sagacity,  in  creatures  of  the  one  class,  has  necessi 
tated  a  corresponding  advance  in  creatures  of  the  other  class  ; 
and  without  never-ending  efforts  to  catch  and  to  escape,  with 
loss  of  life  as  the  penalty  for  failure,  the  progress  of  neither 
could  have  been  achieved. 

there  would  be  no  distinction  between  right  and  wrong,  remarks  tbat  "  if  it 
were  not  for  the  dark  shadow  cast  over  it  by  this  loss  of  life"  [of  two  of  our 
men],  "  the  whole  episode  would  be  somewhat  humorous."  Doubtless,  after 
the  "  childish  mind  of  the  savage  "  has  accepted  the  "glad  tidings"  brought 
by  missionaries  of  "  the  religion  of  love,"  there  is  humour,  somewhat  of  the 
grimmest,  perhaps,  in  showing  him  the  practice  of  this  religion  by  burning 
his  house.  Comments  on  Christian  virtues,  uttered  by  exploding  shells,  may 
fitly  be  accompanied  by  a  Mephistophelian  smile.  Possibly  the  king,  in  declin 
ing  to  trust  himself  on  board  an  English  ship,  was  swayed  by  the  common 
Negro  belief  that  the  devil  is  white. 


PRELIMINARY.  241 

Mark  now,  however,  that  while  this  merciless  discipline  of 
Nature,  "red  in  tooth  and  claw/'  has  been  essential  to 
the  progress  of  sentient  life,  its  persistence  through  all 
time  with  all  creatures  must  not  be  inferred.  The  high 
organization  evolved  by  and  for  this  universal  conflict,  is  not 
necessarily  for  ever  employed  to  like  ends.  The  resulting 
power  and  intelligence  admit  of  being  far  otherwise  employed. 
Not  for  offence  and  defence  only  are  the  inherited  structures 
useful,  but  for  various  other  purposes;  and  these  various 
other  purposes  may  finally  become  the  exclusive  purposes. 
The  myriads  of  years  of  warfare  which  have  developed  the 
powers  of  all  lower  types  of  creatures,  have  bequeathed  to 
the  highest  type  of  creature  the  powers  now  used  by  him  for 
countless  objects  besides  those  of  killing  and  avoiding  being 
killed.  His  limbs,  teeth  and  nails  are  but  little  employed  in 
fight;  and  his  mind  is  not  ordinarily  occupied  in  devising 
ways  of  destroying  other  creatures,  or  guarding  himself  from 
injury  by  them. 

Similarly  with  social  organisms.  We  must  recognize  the 
truth  that  the  struggles  for  existence  between  societies  have 
been  instrumental  to  their  evolution.  Neither  the  consolida 
tion  and  re-consolidation  of  small  groups  into  large  ones ;  nor 
the  organization  of  such  compound  and  doubly  compound 
groups ;  nor  the  concomitant  developments  of  those  aids  to 
a  higher  life  which  civilization  has  brought;  would  have 
been  possible  without  inter-tribal  and  inter-national  con 
flicts.  Social  cooperation  is  initiated  by  joint  defence  and 
offence  ;  and  from  the  cooperation  thus  initiated,  all  kinds  of 
cooperations  have  arisen.  Inconceivable  as  have  been  the 
horrors  caused  by  this  universal  antagonism  which,  beginning 
with  the  chronic  hostilities  of  small  hordes  tens  of  thou 
sands  of  years  ago,  has  ended  in  the  occasional  vast  battles  of 
immense  nations,  we  must  nevertheless  admit  that  with* 
out  it  the  world  would  still  have  been  inhabited  only  by 
men  of  feeble  types,  sheltering  in  caves  and  living  on  wild 
food. 


242  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

But  now  observe  that  the  inter-social  struggle  for  exist 
ence  which  has  been  indispensable  in  evolving  societies,  will 
not  necessarily  play  in  the  future  a  part  like  that  which  it  has 
played  in  the  past.  Eecognizing  our  indebtedness  to  war  for 
forming  great  communities  and  developing  their  structures, 
we  may  yet  infer  that  the  acquired  powers,  available  for  other 
activities,  will  lose  their  original  activities.  While  conceding 
that  without  these  perpetual  bloody  strifes,  civilized  societies 
could  not  have  arisen,  and  that  an  adapted  form  of  human 
nature,  fierce  as  well  as  intelligent,  was  a  needful  concomitant ; 
we  may  at  the  same  time  hold  that  such  societies  having  been 
produced,  the  brutality  of  nature  in  their  units  which  was 
necessitated  by  the  process,  ceasing  to  be  necessary  with  the 
cessation  of  the  process,  will  disappear.  While  the  benefits 
achieved  during  the  predatory  period  remain  a  permanent 
inheritance,  the  evils  entailed  by  it  will  decrease  and  slowly 
die  out. 

Thus,  then,  contemplating  social  structures  and  actions 
from  the  evolution  point  of  view,  we  may  preserve  that 
calmness  which  is  needful  for  scientific  interpretation  of  them, 
without  losing  our  powers  of  feeling  moral  reprobation  or 
approbation. 

§  439.  To  these  preliminary  remarks  respecting  the  mental 
attitude  to  be  preserved  by  the  student  of  political  institu 
tions,  a  few  briefer  ones  must  be  added  respecting  the  subject- 
matters  he  has  to  deal  with. 

If  societies  were  all  of  the  same  species  and  differed  only 
in  their  stages  of  growth  and  structure,  comparisons  would 
disclose  clearly  the  course  of  evolution ;  but  unlikenesses 
of  type  among  them,  here  great  and  there  small,  obscure  the 
results  of  such  comparisons. 

Again,  if  each  society  grew  and  unfolded  itself  without  the 
intrusion  of  additional  factors,  interpretation  would  be  rela 
tively  easy;  but  the  complicated  processes  of  development 
are  frequently  re-complicated  by  changes  in  the  gets  of 


PRELIMINARY.  243 

factors.  Now  the  size  of  the  social  aggregate  is  all  at  once 
increased  or  decreased  by  annexation  or  by  loss  of  territory ; 
and  now  the  average  character  of  its  -units  is  altered  by  the 
coming  in  of  another  race  as  conquerors  or  as  slaves  ;.  while, 
as  a  further  effect  of  this  event,  new  social  relations  are 
superposed  on  the  old.  In  many  cases  the  repeated  over- 
runnings  of  societies  by  one  another,  the  minglings  of  peoples 
and  institutions,  the  breakings  up  and  re-aggregations,  so 
destroy  the  continuity  of  normal  processes  as  to  make  it 
extremely  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  draw  conclu 
sions. 

Once  more,  modifications  in  the  average  mode  of  life 
pursued  by  a  society,  now  increasingly  warlike  and  now 
increasingly  industrial,  initiate  metamorphoses :  changed 
activities  generate  changes  of  structures.  Consequently  there 
have  to  be  distinguished  those  progressive  re-arrangements 
caused  by  the  further  development  of  one  social  type,  from 
those  caused  by  the  commencing  development  of  another 
social  type.  The  lines  of  an  organization  adapted  to  a  mode 
of  activity  which  has  ceased,  or  has  been  long  suspended,  begin 
to  fade,  and  are  traversed  by  the  increasingly-definite  lines  of 
an  organization  adapted  to  the  mode  of  activity  which  has 
replaced  it;  and  error  may  result  from  mistaking  traits 
belonging  to  the  one  for  those  belonging  to  the  other. 

Hence  we  may  infer  that  out  of  the  complex  and  confused 
evidence,  only  the  larger  truths  will  emerge  with  clearness. 
While  anticipating  that  certain  general  conclusions  are  to  be 
positively  established,  we  may  anticipate  that  more  special 
ones  can  be  alleged  only  as  probable. 

Happily,  however,  as  we  shall  eventually  see,  those  general 
conclusions  admitting  of  positive  establishment,  are  the  con 
clusions  of  most  value  for  guidance. 


CHAPTER   II. 
POLITICAL  ORGANIZATION  IN  GENERAL. 

§  440.  The  mere  gathering  of  individuals  into  a  group  does 
not  constitute  them  a  society.  A  society,  in  the  sociological 
sense,  is  formed  only  when,  besides  juxtaposition  there  is  co 
operation.  So  long  as  members  of  the  group  do  not  combine 
their  energies  to  achieve  some  common  end  or  ends,  there  is 
little  to  keep  them  together.  They  are  prevented  from  sepa 
rating  only  when  the  wants  of  each  are  better  satisfied  by 
uniting  his  efforts  with  those  of  others,  than  they  would  be 
if  he  a/;ted  alone. 

Cooperation,  then,  is  at  once  that  which  cannot  exist 
without  a  society,  and  that  for  which  a  society  exists.  It 
may  be  a  joining  of  many  strengths  to  effect  something  which 
the  strength  of  no  single  man  can  effect ;  or  it  may  be  an 
apportioning  of  different  activities  to  different  persons,  who 
severally  participate  in  the  benefits  of  one  another's  activities. 
The  motive  for  acting  together,  originally  the  dominant  one, 
may  be  defence  against  enemies ;  or  it  may  be  the  easier  ob- 
tamment  of  food,  by  the  chase  or  otherwise ;  or  it  may  be, 
and  commonly  is,  both  of  these.  In  any  case,  however,  the 
units  pass  from  the  state  of  perfect  independence  to  the  state 
of  mutual  dependence;  and  as  fast  as  they  do  this  they 
become  united  into  a  society  rightly  so  called. 

But  cooperation  implies  organization.  If  acts  are  to  be 
effectually  combined,  there  must  be  arrangements  under  which 
they  are  adjusted  in  their  times,  amounts,  and  characters. 

§  441.  This  social  organization,  necessary  as  a  means  to 
concerted  action,  is  of  two  kinds.  Though  these  two  kinds 


POLITICAL  ORGANIZATION  IN   GENERAL.  245 

generally  co-exist,  and  are  more  or  less  interfused,  yet  they 
are  distinct  in  their  origins  and  natures.  There  is  a  spon 
taneous  cooperation  which  grows  up  without  thought  during 
the  pursuit  of  private  ends ;  and  there  is  a  cooperation  which, 
consciously  devised,  implies  distinct  recognition  of  public 
ends.  The  ways  in  which  the  two  are  respectively  established 
and  carried  on,  present  marked  contrasts. 

Whenever,  in  a  primitive  group,  there  begins  that  coopera 
tion  which  is  effected  by  exchange  of  services — whenever 
individuals  find  their  wants  better  satisfied  by  giving  certain 
products  which  they  can  make  best,  in  return  for  other  pro 
ducts  they  are  less  skilled  in  making,  or  not  so  well  circum 
stanced  for  making,  there  is  initiated  a  kind  of  organization, 
which  then,  and  throughout  its  higher  stages,  results  from 
endeavours  to  meet  personal  needs.  Division  of  labour, 
to  the  last  as  at  first,  grows  by  experience  of  mutual  facilita 
tions  in  living.  Each  new  specialization  of  industry  arises 
from  the  effort  of  one  who  commences  it  to  get  profit ;  and 
establishes  itself  by  conducing  in  some  way  to  the  profit  of 
others.  So  that  there  is  a  kind  of  concerted  action,  with  an 
elaborate  social  organization  developed  by  it,  which  does  not 
originate  in  deliberate  concert.  Though  within  the  small  sub 
divisions  of  this  organization,  we  find  everywhere  repeated 
the  relation  of  employer  and  employed,  of  whom  the  one 
directs  the  actions  of  the  other;  yet  this  relation,  sponta 
neously  formed  in  aid  of  private  ends  and  continued  only  at 
will,  is  not  formed  with  conscious  reference  to  achievement  of 
public  ends:  these  are  not  thought  of.  And  though,  for 
regulating  trading  activities,  there  arise  agencies  serving  to 
adjust  the  supplies  of  commodities  to  the  demands ;  yet  such 
agencies  do  this  not  by  direct  stimulations  or  restraints,  but 
by  communicating  information  which  serves  to  stimulate  or 
restrain;  and,  further,  these  agencies  grow  up  not  for  the 
avowed  purpose  of  thus  regulating,  but  in  the  pursuit  of  gain 
by  individuals.  So  unintentionally  has  there  arisen  the 
elaborate  division  of  labour  by  which  production  and  distil- 


246  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

bution  are  now  carried  on,  that  only  in  modern  days  has 
there  come  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  it  has  all  along  been 
arising. 

On  the  other  hand,  cooperation  for  a  purpose  immediately 
concerning  the  whole  society,  is  a  conscious  cooperation ;  and 
is  carried  on  by  an  organization  of  another  kind,  formed  in  a 
different  way.  When  the  primitive  group  has  to  defend 
itself  against  other  groups,  its  members  act  together  under 
further  stimuli  than  those  constituted  by  purely  personal 
desires.  Even  at  the  outset,  before  any  control  by  a  chief 
exists,  there  is  the  control  exercised  by  the  group  over  its 
members ;  each  of  whom  is  obliged,  by  public  opinion,  to  join 
in  the  general  defence.  Very  soon  the  warrior  of  recognized 
superiority  begins  to  exercise  over  each,  during  war,  an  in 
fluence  additional  to  that  exercised  by  the  group ;  and  when 
his  authority  becomes  established,  it  greatly  furthers  com 
bined  action.  From  the  beginning,  therefore,  this  kind  of 
social  cooperation  is  a  conscious  cooperation,  and  a  coopera 
tion  which  is  not  wholly  a  matter  of  choice — is  often  at 
variance  with  private  wishes.  As  the  organization  initiated 
by  it  develops,  we  see  that,  in  the  first  place,  the  fighting 
division  of  the  society  displays  in  the  highest  degree  these 
same  traits :  the  grades  and  divisions  constituting  an  army, 
cooperate  more  and  more  under  the  regulation,  consciously 
established,  of  agencies  which  override  individual  volitions — 
or,  to  speak  strictly,  control  individuals  by  motives  which 
prevent  them  from  acting  as  they  would  spontaneously  act. 
In  the  second  place,  we  see  that  throughout  the  society  as  a 
whole  there  spreads  a  kindred  form  of  organization — kindred 
in  so  far  that,  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the  militant 
body  and  the  government  which  directs  it,  there  are  esta 
blished  over  citizens,  agencies  which  force  them  to  labour 
more  or  less  largely  for  public  ends  instead  of  private  ends. 
And,  simultaneously,  there  develops  a  further  organization, 
still  akin  in  its  fundamental  principle,  which  restrains  indi 
vidual  actions  in  such  wise  that  social  safety  shall  not  be 


POLITICAL   ORGANIZATION  IN   GENERAL.  247 

endangered  by  the  disorder  consequent  on  unchecked  pursuit 
of  personal  ends.  So  that  this  kind  of  social  organization  is 
distinguished  from  the  other,  as  arising  through  conscious 
pursuit  of  public  ends;  in  furtherance  of  which  individual 
wills  are  constrained,  first  by  the  joint  wills  of  the  entire 
group,  and  afterwards  more  definitely  by  the  will  of  a  regu 
lative  agency  which  the  group  evolves. 

Most  clearly  shall  we  perceive  the  contrast  between  these 
two  kinds  of  organization  on  observing  that,  while  they  are 
both  instrumental  to  social  welfare,  they  are  instrumental  in 
converse  ways.  That  organization  shown  us  by  the  division 
of  labour  for  industrial  purposes,  exhibits  combined  action ; 
but  it  is  a  combined  action  which  directly  seeks  and  subserves 
the  welfares  of  individuals,  and  indirectly  subserves  the 
welfare  of  society  as  a  whole  by  preserving  individuals. 
Conversely,  that  organization  evolved  for  governmental  and 
defensive  purposes,  exhibits  combined  action ;  but  it  is  a  com 
bined  action  which  directly  seeks  and  subserves  the  welfare 
of  the  society  as  a  whole,  and  indirectly  subserves  the  wel 
fares  of  individuals  by  protecting  the  society.  Efforts  for 
self-preservation  by  the  units  originate  the  one  form  of 
organization ;  while  efforts  for  self-preservation  by  the  aggre 
gate  originate  the  other  form  of  organization.  In  the  first 
case  there  is  conscious  pursuit  of  private  ends  only ;  and  the 
correlative  organization  resulting  from  this  pursuit  of  private 
ends,  growing  up  unconsciously,  is  without  coercive  power. 
In  the  second  case  there  is  conscious  pursuit  of  public  ends ; 
and  the  correlative  organization,  consciously  established, 
exercises  coercion. 

Of  these  two  kinds  of  cooperation  and  the  structures 
effecting  them,  we  are  here  concerned  only  with  one.  Poli 
tical  organization  is  to  be  understood  as  that  part  of  social 
organization  which  consciously  carries  on  directive  and  re 
straining  functions  for  public  ends.  It  is  true,  as  already 
hinted,  and  as  we  shall  see  presently,  that  the  two  kinds  are 
mingled  in  various  ways — that  each  ramifies  through  the 


248  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

other  more  or  less  according  to  their  respective  degrees  of 
predominance.  But  they  are  essentially  different  in  origin 
and  nature ;  and  for  the  present  we  must,  so  far  as  may  be, 
limit  our  attention  to  the  last. 

§  442.  That  the  cooperation  into  which  men  have  gradually 
risen  secures  to  them  benefits  which  could  not  be  secured 
while,  in  their  primitive  state,  they  acted  singly ;  and  that, 
as  an  indispensable  means  to  this  cooperation,  political 
organization  has  been,  and  is,  advantageous ;  we  shall  see  on 
contrasting  the  states  of  men  who  are  not  politically  organized, 
with  the  states  of  men  who  are  politically  organized  in  less 
or  greater  degrees. 

There  are,  indeed,  conditions  under  which  as  good  an  indi 
vidual  life  is  possible  without  political  organization  as  with 
it.  Where,  as  in  the  habitat  of  the  Esquimaux,  there  are  but 
few  persons  and  these  widely  scattered ;  where  there  is  no 
war,  probably  because  the  physical  impediments  to  it  are 
great  and  the  motives  to  it  feeble ;  and  where  circumstances 
make  the  occupations  so  uniform  that  there  is  little  scope  for 
division  of  labour;  mutual  dependence  can  have  no  place,  and 
the  arrangements  which  effect  it  are  not  needed.  Eecog- 
iiizing  this  exceptional  case,  let  us  consider  the  cases  which 
are  not  exceptional. 

The  Digger  Indians,  "  very  few  degrees  removed  from  the 
ourang-outang,"  who,  scattered  among  the  mountains  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada,  sheltering  in  holes  and  living  on  roots  and 
vermin,  "drag  out  a  miserable  existence  in  a  state  of  nature, 
amid  the  most  loathsome  and  disgusting  squalor,"  differ  from 
the  other  divisions  of  the  Shoshones  by  their  entire  lack  of 
social  organization.  The  river-haunting  and  plain-haunting 
divisions  of  the  race,  under  some,  though  but  slight,  govern 
mental  control,  lead  more  satisfactory  lives.  In  South 
America  the  Chaco  Indians,  low  in  type  as  are  the  Diggers, 
and  like  them  degraded  and  wretched  in  their  lives,  are  simi 
larly  contrasted  with  the  superior  and  more  comfortable 


POLITICAL  ORGANIZATION  IN   GENERAL.  249 

savages  around  them  in  being  dissociated.  Among  the 
Bedouin  tribes,  the  Sherarat  are  unlike  the  rest  in  being  divided 
and  sub-divided  into  countless  bands  which  have  no  common 
chief;  and  they  are  described  as  being  the  most  miserable  of 
the  Bedouins.  More  decided  still  is  the  contrast  noted  by 
Baker  between  certain  adjacent  African  peoples.  Passing 
suddenly,  he  says,  from  the  unclothed,  ungoverned  tribes — 
from  the  "wildest  savagedom  to  semi-civilisation" — we  come, 
in  Unyoro,  to  a  country  ruled  by  "  an  unflinching  despot," 
inflicting  "  death  or  torture  "  for  "  the  most  trivial  offences ;" 
but  where  they  have  developed  administration,  sub-governors, 
taxes,  good  clothing,  arts,  agriculture,  architecture.  So,  too, 
concerning  New  Zealand  when  first  discovered,  Cook  re 
marked  that  there  seemed  to  be  greater  prosperity  and  popu- 
lousness  in  the  regions  subject  to  a  king. 

These  last  cases  introduce  us  to  a  further  truth.  Not  only 
does  that  first  step  in  political  organization  which  places 
individuals  under  the  control  of  a  tribal  chief,  bring  the  ad 
vantages  gained  by  better  cooperation ;  but  such  advantages 
are  increased  when  minor  political  heads  become  subject  to 
a  major  political  head.  As  typifying  the  evils  which  are 
thereby  avoided,  I  may  name  the  fact  that  among  the  Beloo- 
chees,  whose  tribes,  unsubordinated  to  a  general  ruler,  are 
constantly  at  war  with  one  another,  it  is  the  habit  to  erect  a 
small  mud  tower  in  each  field,  where  the  possessor  and  his 
retainers  guard  his  produce :  a  state  of  things  allied  to,  but 
worse  than,  that  of  the  Highland  clans,  with  their  strongholds 
for  sheltering  women  and  cattle  from  the  inroads  of  their 
Deighbours,  in  days  when  they  were  not  under  the  control  of 
•a  central  power.  The  benefits  derived  from  such  wider  con 
trol,  whether  of  a  simple  head  or  of  a  compound  head,  were 
felt  by  the  early  Greeks  when  an  Amphictyonic  council  esr 
tablished  the  laws  that  "  no  Hellenic  tribe  is  to  lay  the  habi 
tations  of  another  level  with  the  ground;  and  from  no 
Hellenic  city  is  the  water  to  be  cut  off  during  a  siege.'1  How 
that  advance  of  political  structure  which  unites  smaller  com- 


250  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

inanities  into  larger  ones  furthers  welfare,  was  shown  in  our 
own  country  when,  by  the  Eoman  conquest,  the  incessant 
fights  between  tribes  were  stopped ;  and  again,  in  later  days, 
when  feudal  nobles,  becoming  subject  to  a  monarch,  were  de 
barred  from  private  wars.  Under  its  converse  aspect  the 
same  truth  was  illustrated  when,  amidst  the  anarchy  which 
followed  the  collapse  of  the  Carolingian  empire,  dukes  and 
counts,  resuming  their  independence,  became  active  enemies 
to  one  another :  their  state  being  such  that  "  when  they  were 
not  at  war  they  lived  by  open  plunder."  And  the  history  of 
Europe  has  repeatedly,  in  many  places  and  times,  furnished 
kindred  illustrations. 

While  political  organization,  as  it  extends  itself  throughout 
masses  of  increasing  size,  directly  furthers  welfare  by  re 
moving  that  impediment  to  cooperation  which  the  antago 
nisms  of  individuals  and  of  tribes  cause,  it  indirectly  furthers 
it  in  another  way.  Nothing  beyond  a  rudimentary  division 
of  labour  can  arise  in  a  small  social  group.  Before  commo 
dities  can  be  multiplied  in  their  kinds,  there  must  be  multi 
plied  kinds  of  producers ;  and  before  each  commodity  can  be 
produced  in  the  most  economical  way,  the  different  stages 
in  the  production  of  it  must  be  apportioned  among  special 
hands.  NOT  is  this  all.  Neither  the  required  complex  com 
binations  of  individuals,  nor  the  elaborate  mechanical  appli 
ances  which  facilitate  manufacture,  can  arise  in  the  absence 
of  a  large  community,  generating  a  great  demand. 

§  443.  But  though  the  advantages  gained  by  cooperation 
presuppose  political  organization,  this  political  organization 
necessitates  disadvantages ;  and  it  is  quite  possible  for  these 
disadvantages  to  outweigh  the  advantages.  The  controlling 
structures  have  to  be  maintained ;  the  restraints  they  impose 
have  to  be  borne ;  and  the  evils  inflicted  by  taxation  and  by 
tyranny  may  become  greater  than  the  evils  prevented. 

Where,  as  in  the  East,  the  rapacity  of  monarchs  has  some 
times  gone  to  the  extent  of  taking  from  cultivators  so  much 


POLITICAL  ORGANIZATION  IN   GENERAL.  251 

of  their  produce  as  to  have  afterwards  to  return  part  for 
seed,  we  see  exemplified  the  truth  that  the  agency  which 
maintains  order  may  cause  miseries  greater  than  the  miseries 
caused  by  disorder.  The  state  of  Egypt  under  the 

Romans,  who,  on  the  native  set  of  officials  superposed  their 
own  set,  and  who  made  drafts  on  the  country's  resources  not 
for  local  administration  only  but  also  for  imperial  administra 
tion,  furnishes  an  instance.  Beyond  the  regular  taxes  there 
were  demands  for  feeding  and  clothing  the  military,  wherever 
quartered.  Extra  calls  were  continually  made  on  the  people 
for  maintaining  public  works  and  subaltern  agents.  Men  in 
office  were  themselves  so  impoverished  by  exactions  that 
they  "assumed  dishonourable  employments  or  became  the 
slaves  of  persons  in  power."  Gifts  made  to  the  government 
were  soon  converted  into  forced  contributions.  And  those  who 
purchased  immunities  from  extortions  found  them  disregarded 
as  soon  as  the  sums  asked  had  been  received.  More 

terrible  still  were  the  curses  following  excessive  development 
of  political  organization  in  Gaul,  during  the  decline  of  the 
Roman  empire  : — 

"  So  numerous  were  the  receivers  in  comparison  with  the  payers,  and 
so  enormous  the  weight  of  taxation,  that  the  labourer  broke  down, 
the  plains  became  deserts,  and  woods  grew  where  the  plough  had 

been It  were  impossible  to  number  the  officials  who  were  rained 

upon  every  province  and  town The  crack  of  the  lash  and  the  cry 

of  the  tortured  filled  the  air.  The  faithful  slave  was  tortured  for  evi 
dence  against  his  master,  the  wife  to  depose  against  her  husband,  the 

son  against  his  sire Not  satisfied  with  the  returns  of  the  first 

enumerators,  they  sent  a  succession  of  others,  who  each  swelled  the 
valuation — as  a  proof  of  service  done  ;  and  so  the  imposts  went  on  in 
creasing.  Yet  the  number  of  cattle  fell  off,  and  the  people  died. 
Nevertheless,  the  survivors  had  to  pay  the  taxes  of  the  dead." 

And  how  literally  in  this  case  the  benefits  were  exceeded  by 
the  mischiefs,  is  shown  by  the  contemporary  statement  that 
*  they  fear  the  enemy  less  than  the  tax-gatherer :  the  truth 
is,  that  they  fly  to  the  first  to  avoid  the  last.  Hence  the  one 
unanimous  wish  of  the  Roman  populace,  that  it  was  their  lot  to 
live  with  the  barbarian."  In  the  same  region  during 


252  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

later  times  the  lesson  was  repeated.  While  internal  peace  and 
its  blessings  were  achieved  in  mediaeval  France  as  fast  as  feudal 
nobles  became  subordinate  to  the  king — while  the  central 
power,  as  it  grew  stronger,  put  an  end  to  that  primitive  prac 
tice  of  a  blood-revenge  which  wreaked  itself  on  any  relative 
of  an  offender,  and  made  the  "  trace  of  God  "  a  needful  miti 
gation  of  the  universal  savagery ;  yet  from  this  extension  of 
political  organization  there  presently  grew  up  evils  as  great 
or  greater — multiplication  of  taxes,  forced  loans,  groundless 
confiscations,  arbitrary  fines,  progressive  debasements  of 
coinage,  and  a  universal  corruption  of  justice  consequent  on 
the  sale  of  offices :  the  results  being  that  many  people  died 
by  famine,  some  committed  suicide,  while  others,  deserting 
their  homes,  led  a  wandering  life.  And  then,  afterwards, 
when  the  supreme  ruler,  becoming  absolute,  controlled  social 
action  in  all  its  details,  through  an  administrative  system  vast 
in  extent  and  ramifications,  with  the  general  result  that  in 
less  than  two  centuries  the  indirect  taxation  alone  "  crossed 
the  enormous  interval  between  11  millions  and  311,"  there 
came  the  national  impoverishment  and  misery  which  resulted 
in  the  great  revolution.  Even  the  present  day  sup 

plies  kindred  evidence  from  sundry  places.  A  voyage  up  the 
Nile  shows  every  observer  that  the  people  are  better  off 
where  they  are  remote  from  the  centre  of  government — that 
is,  where  administrative  agencies  cannot  so  easily  reach  them. 
Nor  is  it  only  under  the  barbaric  Turk  that  this  happens. 
Notwithstanding  the  boasted  beneficence  of  our  rule  in  India, 
the  extra  burdens  and  restraints  it  involves,  have  the  effect 
that  the  people  find  adjacent  countries  preferable :  the  ryots 
in  some  parts  have  been  leaving  their  homes  and  settling  iu 
the  territory  of  the  Nizam  and  in  Gwalior. 

Not  only  do  those  who  are  controlled  suffer  from  political 
organization  evils  which  greatly  deduct  from,  and  sometimes 
exceed,  the  benefits.  Numerous  and  rigid  governmental 
restraints  shackle  those  who  impose  them,  as  well  as  those  on 
whom  they  are  imposed.  The  successive  grades  of  ruling 


POLITICAL  ORGANIZATION  TN  GENERAL.  253 

agents,  severally  coercing  grades  below,  are  themselves 
coerced  by  grades  above  ;  and  even  the  highest  ruling  agent 
is  enslaved  by  the  system  created  for  the  preservation  of  his 
supremacy.  In  ancient  Egypt  the  daily  life  of  the  king  was 
minutely  regulated  alike  as  to  its  hours,  its  occupations,  its 
ceremonies ;  so  that,  nominally  all  powerful,  he  was  really  less 
free  than  a  subject.  It  has  been,  and  is,  the  same  with  other 
despotic  monarchs.  Till  lately  in  Japan,  where  the  form  of 
organization  had  become  fixed,  and  where,  from  the  highest 
to  the  lowest,  the  actions  of  life  were  prescribed  in  detail,  the 
exercise  of  authority  was  so  burdensome  that  voluntary  re 
signation  of  it  was  frequent:  we  read  that  "the  custom 
of  abdication  is  common  among  all  classes,  from  the  Emperor 
down  to  his  meanest  subject."  European  states  have  ex 
emplified  this  re-acting  tyranny.  "  In  the  Byzantine  palace," 
says  Gibbon,  "  the  Emperor  was  the  first  slave  of  the  cere 
monies  he  imposed."  Concerning  the  tedious  court  life  of 
Louis  XIV.,  Madame  de  Maintenon  remarks — "  Save  those 
only  who  fill  the  highest  stations,  I  know  of  none  more  un 
fortunate  than  those  who  envy  them.  If  you  could  only 
form  an  idea  of  what  it  is ! " 

So  that  while  the  satisfaction  of  men's  wants  is  furthered 
both  by  the  maintenance  of  order  and  by  the  formation  of 
aggregates  large  enough  to  permit  extensive  division  of  labour, 
it  is  hindered  both  by  great  deductions  from  the  products  of 
their  actions,  and  by  the  restraints  imposed  on  their  actions — 
usually  in  excess  of  the  needs.  And  political  control  in 
directly  entails  evils  on  those  who  exercise  it  as  well  as  on 
those  over  whom  it  is  exercised. 

§  444.  The  stones  composing  a  house  cannot  be  otherwise 
used  until  the  house  has  been  pulled  down.  If  the  stones 
are  united  by  mortar,  there  must  be  extra  trouble  in  destroy 
ing  their  present  combination  before  they  can  be  re-combined. 
And  if  the  mortar  has  had  centuries  in  which  to  consolidate, 
the  breaking  up  of  the  masses  formed  is  a  matter  of  such 


254  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

difficulty,  that  building  with  new  materials  becomes  more 
economical  than  rebuilding  with  the  old. 

I  name  these  facts  to  illustrate  the  truth  that  any  arrange 
ment  stands  in  the  way  of  re-arrangement;  and  that  this 
must  be  true  of  organization,  which  is  one  kind  of  arrange 
ment.  When,  during  the  evolution  of  a  living  body,  its  com 
ponent  substance,  at  first  relatively  homogeneous,  has  been 
transformed  into  a  combination  of  heterogeneous  parts,  there 
results  an  obstacle,  always  great  and  often  insuperable,  to 
any  considerable  further  change  :  the  more  elaborate  and  defi 
nite  the  structure  the  greater  being  the  resistance  it  opposes 
to  alteration.  And  this,  which  is  conspicuously  true  of  an 
individual  organism,  is  true,  if  less  conspicuously,  of  a  social 
organism.  Though  a  society,  formed  of  discrete  units,  and 
not  having  had  its  type  fixed  by  inheritance  from  countless 
like  societies,  is  much  more  plastic,  yet  the  same  principle 
holds.  As  fast  as  its  parts  are  differentiated — as  fast  as  there 
arise  classes,  bodies  of  functionaries,  established  administra 
tions,  these,  becoming  coherent  within  themselves  and  with 
one  another,  struggle  against  such  forces  as  tend  to  modify 
them.  The  conservatism  of  every  long-settled  institution 
daily  exemplifies  this  law.  Be  it  in  the  antagonism  of  a 
church  to  legislation  interfering  with  its  discipline ;  be  it  in 
the  opposition  of  an  army  to  abolition  of  the  purchase- 
system  ;  be  it  in  the  disfavour  with  which  the  legal  profes 
sion  at  large  has  regarded  law-reform  ;  we  see  that  neither  in 
their  structures  nor-  in  their  modes  of  action,  are  parts  that 
have  once  been  specialized  easily  changed. 

As  it  is  true  of  a  living  body  that  its  various  acts  have  as 
their  common  end  self-preservation,  so  is  it  true  of  its  com 
ponent  organs  that  they  severally  tend  to  preserve  them 
selves  in  their  integrity.  And,  similarly,  as  it  is  true  of  a 
society  that  maintenance  of  its  existence  is  the  aim  of  its 
combined  actions,  so  it  is  true  of  its  separate  classes,  its  sets 
of  officials,  its  other  specialized  parts,  that  the  dominant  aim 
of  each  is  to  maintain  itself.  Not  the  function  to  be  pei- 


POLITICAL  ORGANIZATION  IN   GENERAL.  255 

formed,  but  the  sustentation  of  those  who  perform  the  func 
tion,  becomes  the  object  in  view  :  the  result  being  that  when 
the  function  is  needless,  or  even  detrimental,  the  structure 
still  keeps  itself  intact  as  long  as  it  can.  In  early  days 
the  history  of  the  Knights  Templars  furnished  an  illustration 
of  this  tendency.  Down  to  the  present  time  we  have  before 
us  the  familiar  instance  of  trade-guilds  in  London,  which 
having  ceased  to  perform  their  original  duties,  nevertheless 
jealously  defend  their  possessions  and  privileges.  The  con 
vention  of  Royal  Burghs  in  Scotland,  which  once  regulated 
the  internal  municipal  laws,  still  meets  annually  though  it 
has  no  longer  any  work  to  do.  And  the  accounts  given  in 
The  Black  Book  of  the  sinecures  which  survived  up  to  recent 
times,  yield  multitudinous  illustrations. 

The  extent  to  which  an  organization  resists  re-organization, 
we  shall  not  fully  appreciate  until  we  observe  that  its  resist 
ance  increases  in  a  compound  progression.  For  while  each  new 
part  is  an  additional  obstacle  to  change,  the  formation  of  it 
involves  a  deduction  from  the  forces  causing  change.  If, 
other  things  remaining  the  same,  the  political  structures  of  a 
society  are  further  developed — if  existing  institutions  are 
extended  or  fresh  ones  set  up — if  for  directing  social  activities 
in  greater  detail,  extra  staffs  of  officials  are  appointed ;  the 
simultaneous  results  are — an  increase  in  the  aggregate  of 
tliose  who  form  the  regulating  part,  and  a  corresponding  de 
crease  in  the  aggregate  of  those  who  form  the  part  regulated. 
In  various  ways  all  who  compose  the  controlling  and  adminis 
trative  organization,  become  united  with  one  another  and 
separated  from  the  rest.  Whatever  be  their  particular 
duties,  they  are  similarly  related  to  the  governing  centres  of 
their  departments,  and,  through  them,  to  the  supreme  govern 
ing  centre ;  and  are  habituated  to  like  sentiments  and  ideas 
respecting  the  set  of  institutions  in  which  they  are  incorpo 
rated.  Receiving  their  subsistence  through  the  national 
revenue,  they  tend  towards  kindred  views  and  feelings 
respecting  the  raising  of  such  revenue.  Whatever  jealousies 

75 


256  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

there  may  be  between  their  divisions,  are  over-ridden  by 
sympathy  when  any  one  division  has  its  existence  or  privi 
leges  endangered;  since  the  interference  with  one  division 
may  spread  to  others.  Moreover,  they  all  stand  in  similar 
relations  to  the  rest  of  the  community,  whose  actions  are  in 
one  way  or  other  superintended  by  them  ;  and  hence  are  led 
into  allied  beliefs  respecting  the  need  for  such  superin 
tendence  and  the  propriety  of  submitting  to  it.  No  matter 
what  their  previous  political  opinions  may  have  been,  men 
cannot  become  public  agents  of  any  kind  without  being 
biassed  towards  opinions  congruous  with  their  functions.  So 
that,  inevitably,  each  further  growth  of  the  instrumentalities 
which  control,  or  administer,  or  inspect,  or  in  any  way  direct 
social  forces,  increases  the  impediment  to  future  modifica 
tions,  both  positively  by  strengthening  that  which  has  to  be 
modified,  and  negatively,  by  weakening  the  remainder ;  until 
at  length  the  rigidity  becomes  so  great  that  change  is  impos 
sible 'and  the  type  becomes  fixed. 

ISTor  does  each  further  development  of  political  organization 
increase  the  obstacles  to  change,  only  by  increasing  the 
power  of  the  regulators  and  decreasing  the  power  of  the 
regulated.  .For  the  ideas  and  sentiments  of  a  community  as 
a  whole,  adapt  themselves  to  the  regime  familiar  from  child 
hood,  in  such  wise  that  it  comes  to  be  looked  upon  as  natural. 
In  proportion  as  public  agencies  occupy  a  larger  space  in 
daily  experience,  leaving  but  a  smaller  space  for  other 
agencies,  there  comes  a  greater  tendency  to  think  of  public 
control  as  everywhere  needful,  and  a  less  ability  to  conceive 
of  activities  as  otherwise  controlled.  At  the  same  time  the 
sentiments,  adjusted  by  habit  to  the  regulative  machinery, 
become  enlisted  on  its  behalf,  and  adverse  to  the  thought  of 
a  vacancy  to  be  made  by  its  absence.  In  brief,  the  general 
law  that  the  social  organism  and  its  units  act  and  re  -act  until 
congruity  is  reached,  implies  that  every  further  extension  of 
political  organization  increases  the  obstacle  to  re-organiza 
tion,  not  only  by  adding  to  the  strength  of  the  regulative 


POLITICAL  ORGANIZATION  IN   GENERAL.  257 

part,  and  taking  from  the  strength  of  the  part  regulated, 
but  also  by  producing  in  citizens  thoughts  and  feelings 
in  harmony  with  the  resulting  structure,  and  out  of  har 
mony  with  anything  substantially  different.  Both 
France  and  Germany  exemplify  this  truth.  M.  Comte,  while 
looking  forward  to  an  industrial  state,  was  so  swayed  by 
the  conceptions  and  likings  appropriate  to  the  French  form 
of  society,  that  his  scheme  of  organization  for  the  ideal 
future,  prescribes  arrangements  characteristic  of  the  militant 
type,  and  utterly  at  variance  with  the  industrial  type. 
Indeed,  he  had  a  profound  aversion  to  that  individualism 
which  is  a  product  of  industrial  life  and  gives  the  character 
to  industrial  institutions.  So,  too,  in  Germany,  we  see  that 
the  socialist  party,  who  are  regarded  and  who  regard  them 
selves  as  wishing  to  re-organize  society  entirely,  are  so  in 
capable  of  really  thinking  away  from  the  social  type  under 
which  they  have  been  nurtured,  that  their  proposed  social 
system  is  in  essence  nothing  else  than  a  new  form  of  the 
system  they  would  destroy.  It  is  a  system  under  which  life 
and  labour  are  to  be  arranged  and  superintended  by  public 
instrumentalities,  omnipresent  like  those  which  already  exist 
and  no  less  coercive :  the  individual  having  his  life  even 
more  regulated  for  him  than  now. 

While,  then,  the  absence  of  settled  arrangements  negatives 
cooperation,  yet  cooperation  of  a  higher  kind  is  hindered  by 
the  arrangements  which  facilitate  cooperation  of  a  lower 
kind.  Though  without  established  connexions  among  parts, 
there  can  be  no  combined  actions ;  yet  the  more  extensive 
and  elaborate  such  connexions  grow,  the  more  difficult  does  it 
become  to  make  improved  combinations  of  actions.  There  is 
an  increase  of  the  forces  which  tend  to  fix,  and  a  decrease  of 
the  forces  which  tend  to  unfix ;  until  the  fully-structured 
social  organism,  like  the  fully-structured  individual  organism, 
becomes  no  longer  adaptable. 

§  445.     In  a  living  animal,  formed  as  it  is  of  aggregated 


258  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS 

units  originally  like  in  kind,  the  progress  of  organization  im 
plies,  not  only  that  the  units  composing  each  differentiated 
part  severally  maintain  their  positions,  but  also  that  their 
progeny  succeed  to  those  positions.  Bile-cells  which,  while 
performing  their  functions,  grow  and  give  origin  to  new  bile- 
cells,  are,  when  they  decay  and  disappear,  replaced  by  these  : 
the  cells  descending  from  them  do  not  migrate  to  the  kid 
neys,  or  the  muscles,  or  the  nervous  centres,  to  join  in  the 
performance  of  their  duties.  And,  evidently,  unless  the 
specialized  units  each  organ  is  made  of,  produced  units  simi 
larly  specialized,  which  remained  in  the  same  place,  there 
could  be  none  of  those  settled  relations  among  parts  which 
characterize  the  organism,  and  fit  it  for  its  particular  mode  of 
life. 

In  a  society  also,  establishment  of  structure  is  favoured  by 
the  transmission  of  positions  and  functions  through  successive 
generations.  The  maintenance  of  those  class-divisions  which 
arise  as  political  organization  advances,  implies  the  inherit 
ance  of  a  rank  and  a  place  in  each  class.  The  like  happens 
with  those  sub-divisions  of  classes  which,  in  some  societies, 
constitute  castes,  and  in  other  societies  are  exemplified  by  in 
corporated  trades.  Where  custom  or  law  compels  the  sons  of 
each  worker  to  follow  their  father's  occupation,  there  result 
among  the  industrial  structures  obstacles  to  change  analogous 
to  those  which  result  in  the  regulative  structures  from  im 
passable  divisions  of  ranks.  India  shows  this  in  an  extreme 
degree  ;  and  in  a  less  degree  it  was  shown  by  the  craft-guilds 
of  early  days  in  England,  which  facilitated  adoption  of  a  craft 
by  the  children  of  those  engaged  in  it,  and  hindered  adoption 
of  it  by  others.  Thus  we  may  call  inheritance  of  position  and 
function,  the  principle  of  fixity  in  social  organization. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  succession  by  inheritance, 
whether  to  class-position  or  to  occupation,  conduces  to 
stability.  It  secures  supremacy  of  the  elder ;  and  supremacy 
of  the  elder  tends  towards  maintenance  of  the  established 
order.  A  system  under  which  a  chief-ruler,  sub-ruler,  head  of 


POLITICAL   ORGANIZATION  IN  GENERAL.  259 

clan  or  house,  official,  or  any  person  having  the  power  given 
by  rank  or  property,  retains  his  place  until  at  death  it  is  filled 
by  a  descendant,  in  conformity  with  some  accepted  rule  of 
succession,  is  a  system  under  which,  by  implication,  the 
young,  and  even  the  middle-aged,  are  excluded  from  the  con 
duct  of  affairs.  So,  too,  where  an  industrial  system  is  such 
that  the  son,  habitually  brought  up  to  his  father's  business, 
cannot  hold  a  master's  position  till  his  father  dies,  it  follows 
that  the  regulative  power  of  the  elder  over  the  processes  of 
production  and  distribution,  is  scarcely  at  all  qualified  by  the 
power  of  the  younger.  Now  it  is  a  truth  daily  exemplified, 
that  increasing  rigidity  of  organization,  necessitated  by  the 
process  of  evolution,  produces  in  age  an  increasing  strength 
of  habit  and  aversion  to  change.  Hence  it  results  that  suc 
cession  to  place  and  function  by  inheritance,  having  as  its 
necessary  concomitant  a  monopoly  of  power  by  the  eldest, 
involves  a  prevailing  conservatism  ;  and  thus  further  insures 
maintenance  of  things  as  they  are. 

Conversely,  social  change  is  facile  in  proportion  as  men's 
places  and  functions  are  determinable  by  personal  qualities. 
Members  of  one  rank  who  establish  themselves  in  another 
rank,  in  so  far  directly  break  the  division  between  the  ranks ; 
and  they  indirectly  weaken  it  by  preserving  their  family 
relations  with  the  first,  and  forming  new  ones  with  the 
second ;  while,  further,  the  ideas  and  sentiments  pervading 
the  two  ranks,  previously  more  or  less  different,  are  made 
to  qualify  one  another  and  to  work  changes  of  character. 
Similarly  if,  between  sub-divisions  of  the  producing  and  dis 
tributing  classes,  there  are  no  barriers  to  migration,  then,  in 
proportion  as  migrations  are  numerous,  influences  physical 
and  mental,  following  inter-fusion,  alter  the  natures  of  their 
units ;  at  the  same  time  that  they  check  the  establishment  of 
differences  of  nature  caused  by  differences  of  occupation. 
Such  transpositions  of  individuals  between  class  and  class,  or 
group  and  group,  must,  on  the  average,  however,  depend  on 
the  fitnesses  of  the  individuals  for  their  new  places  and  duties. 


260  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Intrusions  will  ordinarily  succeed  only  where  the  intruding 
citizens  have  more  than  usual  aptitudes  for  the  businesses 
they  undertake.  Those  who  desert  their  original  functions, 
are  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  competition  with  those  whose 
functions  they  assume;  and  they  can  overcome  this  disad 
vantage  only  by  force  of  some  superiority :  must  do  the  new 
thing  better  than  those  born  to  it,  and  so  tend  to  improve 
the  doing  of  it  by  their  example.  This  leaving  of  men  to 
have  their  careers  determined  by  their  efficiencies,  we  may 
therefore  call  the  principle  of  change  in  social  organization. 

As  we  saw  that  succession  by  inheritance  conduces  in  a 
secondary  way  to  stability,  by  keeping  authority  in  the  hands 
of  those  who  by  age  are  made  most  averse  to  new  practices, 
so  here,  conversely,  we  may  see  that  succession  by  efficiency 
conduces  in  a  secondary  way  to  change.  Both  positively  and 
negatively  the  possession  of  power  by  the  young  facilitates 
innovation.  While  the  energies  are  overflowing,  little  fear  is 
felt  of  those  obstacles  to  improvement  and  evils  it  may  bring, 
which,  when  energies  are  failing,  look  formidable  ;  and  at  the 
same  time  the  greater  imaginativeness  that  goes  along  with 
higher  vitality,  joined  with  a  smaller  strength  of  habit,  facili 
tates  acceptance  of  fresh  ideas  and  adoption  of  untried 
methods.  Since,  then,  where  the  various  social  positions  come 
to  be  respectively  filled  by  those  who  are  experimentally 
proved  to  be  the  fittest,  the  relatively  young  are  permitted  to 
exercise  authority,  it  results  that  succession  by  efficiency 
furthers  change  in  social  organization,  indirectly  as  well  as 
directly. 

Contrasting  the  two,  we  thus  see  that  while  the  acquire 
ment  of  function  by  inheritance  conduces  to  rigidity  of  struc 
ture,  the  acquirement  of  function  by  efficiency  conduces  to 
plasticity  of  structure.  Succession  by  descent  favours  the 
maintenance  of  that  which  exists.  Succession  by  fitness 
favours  transformation,  and  makes  possible  something  better. 

§  446.     As  was  pointed  out  in  §  228,  "  complication  of 


POLITICAL  ORGANIZATION  IN  GENERAL.  261 

structure  accompanies  increase  of  mass,"  in  social  organisms 
as  in  individual  organisms.  When  small  societies  are  com 
pounded  into  a  larger  society,  the  controlling  agencies  needed 
in  the  several  component  societies  must  be  subordinated  to  a 
central  controlling  agency  :  new  structures  are  required.  Ee- 
compounding  necessitates  a  kindred  further  complexity  in 
the  governmental  arrangements ;  and  at  each  of  such  stages 
of  increase,  all  other  arrangements  must  become  more  com 
plicated.  As  Duruy  remarks — "By  becoming  a  world  in 
place  of  a  town,  Eome  could  not  conserve  institutions  esta 
blished  for  a  single  city  and  a  small  territory.  .  .  .  How 
was  it  possible  for  sixty  millions  of  provincials  to  enter  the 
narrow  and  rigid  circle  of  municipal  institutions  ?"  The  like 
holds  where,  instead  of  extension  of  territory,  there  is  only 
increase  of  population.  The  contrast  between  the  simple 
administrative  system  which  sufficed  in  old  English  times 
for  a  million  people,  and  the  complex  administrative  system 
at  present  needed  for  many  millions,  sufficiently  indicates 
this  general  truth. 

Bat  now,  mark  a  corollary.  If,  on  the  one  hand,  further 
growth  implies  more  complex  structure,  on  the  other  hand, 
changeableness  of  structure  is  a  condition  to  further  growth ; 
and,  conversely,  unchangeableness  of  structure  is  a  concomi 
tant  of  arrested  growth.  Like  the  correlative  law  just  noted, 
this  law  is  clearly  seen  in  individual  organisms.  Necessarily, 
transition  from  the  small  immature  form  to  the  large 
mature  form  in  a  living  creature,  implies  that  all  the  parts 
have  to  be  changed  in  their  sizes  and  connexions:  every 
detail  of  every  organ  has  to  be  modified ;  and  this  implies 
the  retention  of  plasticity.  Necessarily,  also,  when,  on 
approaching  maturity,  the  organs  are  assuming  their  final 
arrangement,  their  increasing  definiteness  and  firmness  con 
stitute  an  increasing  impediment  to  growth :  the  un-building 
and  re-building  required  before  there  can  be  re-adjustment, 
become  more  and  more  difficult.  So  is  it  with  a  society. 
Augmentation  of  its  mass  necessitates  change  of  the  pre- 


262  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

existing  structures,  either  by  incorporation  of  the  increment 
with  them,  or  by  their  extension  through  it.  Every  further 
elaboration  of  the  arrangements  entails  an  additional  obstacle 
to  this ;  and  when  rigidity  is  reached,  such  modifications  of 
them  as  increase  of  mass  would  involve,  are  impossible,  and 
increase  is  prevented. 

Nor  is  this  all.  Controlling  and  administrative  instru 
mentalities  antagonize  growth  by  absorbing  the  materials  for 
growth.  Already  when  pointing  out  the  evils  which  accom 
pany  the  benefits  gained  by  political  organization,  this  effect 
has  been  indirectly  implied.  Governmental  expenditure, 
there  represented  as  deducting  from  the  lives  of  producers 
by  taking  away  their  produce,  has  for  its  ulterior  result  de 
ducting  from  the  life  of  the  community :  depletion  of  the 
units  entails  depletion  of  the  aggregate.  Where  the  abstrac 
tion  of  private  means  for  public  purposes  is  excessive,  the 
impoverishment  leads  to  decrease  of  population ;  and  where 
it  is  less  excessive,  to  arrest  of  population.  Clearly  those 
members  of  a  society  who  form  the  regulative  parts,  together 
with  all  their  dependents,  have  to  be  supplied  with  the  means 
of  living  by  the  parts  which  carry  on  the  processes  of  pro 
duction  and  distribution ;  and  if  the  regulative  parts  go  on 
increasing  relatively  to  the  other  parts,  there  must  eventually 
be  reached  a  point  at  which  they  absorb  the  entire  surplus, 
and  multiplication  is  stopped  by  innutrition. 

Hence  a  significant  relation  between  the  .structure  of  a 
society  and  its  growth.  Organization  in  excess  of  need,  pre 
vents  the  attainment  of  that  larger  size  and  accompanying 
higher  type  which  might  else  have  arisen. 

§  447.  To  aid  our  interpretations  of  the  special  facts 
presently  to  be  dealt  with,  we  must  keep  in  mind  the  fore 
going  general  facts.  They  may  be  summed  up  as  fol 
lows  : — 

Cooperation  is  made  possible  by  society,  and  makes  society 


POLITICAL  ORGANIZATION  IN  GENERAL.  263 

possible.  It  pre-supposes  associated  men ;  and  men  remain 
associated  because  of  the  benefits  cooperation  yields  them. 

But  there  cannot  be  concerted  actions  without  agencies  by 
which  actions  are  adjusted  in  their  times,  amounts,  and  kinds; 
and  the  actions  cannot  be  of  various  kinds  without  the  co- 
operators  undertaking  different  duties.  That  is  to  say,  the 
cooperators  must  become  organized,  either  voluntarily  or 
involuntarily. 

The  organization  which  cooperation  implies,  is  of  two 
kinds,  distinct  in  origin  and  nature.  The  one,  arising  directly 
from  the  pursuit  of  individual  ends,  and  indirectly  conducing 
to  social  welfare,  develops  unconsciously  and  is  non-coercive. 
The  other,  arising  directly  from  the  pursuit  of  social  ends, 
and  indirectly  conducing  to  individual  welfare,  develops 
consciously  and  is  coercive. 

While,  by  making  cooperation  possible,  political  organiza 
tion  achieves  benefits,  deductions  from  these  benefits  are 
entailed  by  the  organization.  Maintenance  of  it  is  costly ; 
and  the  cost  may  become  a  greater  evil  than  the  evils  escaped. 
It  necessarily  imposes  restraints ;  and  these  restraints  may 
become  so  extreme  that  anarchy,  with  all  its  miseries,  is 
preferable. 

An  established  organization  is  an  obstacle  to  re-organiza 
tion.  Self-sustentation  is  the  primary  aim  of  each  part  as  of 
the  whole ;  and  hence  parts  once  formed  tend  to  continue, 
whether  they  are  or  are  not  useful.  Moreover,  each  addition 
to  the  regulative  structures,  implying,  other  things  equal,  a 
simultaneous  deduction  from  the  rest  of  the  society  which 
is  regulated,  it  results  that  while  the  obstacles  to  change 
are  increased,  the  forces  causing  change  are  decreased. 

Maintenance  of  a  society's  organization  implies  that  the 
units  forming  its  component  structures  shall  severally  be  re 
placed  as  they  die.  Stability  is  favoured  if  the  vacancies 
they  leave  are  filled  without  dispute  by  descendants ;  while 
change  is  favoured  if  the  vacancies  are  filled  by  those  who 


264  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

are  experimentally  proved  to  be  best  fitted  for  them.  Sue- 
cession  by  inheritance  is  thus  the  principle  of  social  rigidity ; 
while  succession  by  efficiency  is  the  'principle  of  social 
plasticity. 

Though,  to  make  cooperation  possible,  and  therefore  to 
facilitate  social  growth,  there  must  be  organization,  yet  the 
organization  formed  impedes  further  growth;  since  further 
growth  implies  re-organization,  which  the  existing  organiza 
tion  resists ;  and  since  the  existing  organization  absorbs  part 
of  the  material  for  growth. 

So  that  while,  at  each  stage,  better  immediate  results  may 
be  achieved  by  completing  organization,  they  must  be  at  the 
expense  of  better  ultimate  results. 


CHAPTER   III. 
POLITICAL  INTEGRATION. 

§  448.  THE  analogy  between  individual  organisms  and 
social  organisms,  which  holds  in  so  many  respects,  holds  in 
respect  to  the  actions  which  cause  growth.  We  shall  find  it 
instructive  to  glance  at  political  integration  in  the  light  of 
this  analogy. 

Every  animal  sustains  itself  and  grows  by  incorporating 
either  the  materials  composing  other  animals  or  those  com 
posing  plants ;  and  from  microscopic  protozoa  upwards,  it  has 
been  through  success  in  the  struggle  thus  to  incorporate,  that 
animals  of  the  greatest  sizes  and  highest  structures  have  been 
evolved.  This  process  is  carried  on  by  creatures  of  the  lowest 
kinds  in  a  purely  physical  or  insentient  way.  Without 
nervous  system  or  fixed  distribution  of  parts,  the  rhizopod 
draws  in  fragments  of  nutritive  matter  by  actions  which  we 
are  obliged  to  regard  as  unconscious.  So  is  it,  too,  with 
simple  aggregates  formed  by  the  massing  of  such  minute 
creatures.  The  sponge,  for  example,  in  that  framework  of 
fibres  familiar  to  us  in  its  dead  state,  holds  together,  when 
living,  a  multitude  of  separate  monads;  and  the  activities 
which  go  on  in  the  sponge,  are  such  as  directly  further  the 
separate  lives  of  these  monads,  and  indirectly  further  the 
life  of  the  whole:  the  whole  having  neither  sentiency  nor 
power  of  movement.  At  a  higher  stage,  however,  the  process 
of  taking  in  nutritive  materials  by  a  composite  organism. 


266  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

comes  to  be  carried  on  in  a  sentient  way,  and  in  a  way 
differing  from  the  primitive  way  in  this,  that  it  directly 
furthers  the  life  of  the  whole,  and  indirectly  furthers  the 
lives  of  the  component  units.  Eventually,  the  well-consoli 
dated  and  organized  aggregate,  which  originally  had  no  other 
life  than  was  constituted  by  the  separate  lives  of  these 
minute  creatures  massed  together,  acquires  a  corporate  life 
predominating  over  their  lives ;  and  also  acquires  desires  by 
which  its  activities  are  guided  to  acts  of  incorporation.  To 
which  add  the  obvious  corollary  that  as,  in  the  course  of 
evolution,  its  size  increases,  it  incorporates  with  itself  larger 
and  larger  aggregates  as  prey. 

Analogous  stages  may  be  traced  in  the  growth  of  social 
organisms,  and  in  the  accompanying  forms  of  action.  At  first 
there  is  no  other  life  in  the  group  than  that  seen  in  the  lives 
of  its  members ;  and  only  as  organization  increases  does  the 
group  as  a  whole  come  to  have  that  joint  life  constituted 
by  mutually-dependant  actions.  The  members  of  a  primi 
tive  horde,  loosely  aggregated,  and  without  distinctions  of 
power,  cooperate  for  immediate  furtherance  of  individual 
sustentation,  and  in  a  comparatively  small  degree  for  corpo 
rate  sustentation.  Even  when,  the  interests  of  all  being 
simultaneously  endangered,  they  simultaneously  fight,  they 
still  fight  separately — their  actions  are  uncoordinated ;  and 
the  only  spoils  of  successful  battle  are  such  as  can  be  indi 
vidually  appropriated.  But  in  the  course  of  the  struggles  for 
existence  between  groups  thus  unorganized,  there  comes,  with 
the  development  of  such  political  organization  as  gives  tribal 
individuality,  the  struggle  to  incorporate  one  another,  first 
partially  and  then  wholly.  Tribes  which  are  larger,  or  better 
organized,  or  both,  conquer  adjacent  tribes  and  annex  them, 
so  that  they  form  parts  of  a  compound  whole.  And  as 
political  evolution  advances,  it  becomes  a  trait  of  the  larger 
and  stronger  societies  that  they  acquire  appetites  prompting 
them  to  subjugate  and  incorporate  weaker  societies. 

Full  perception  of  this  difference  will  be  gained  on  looking 


POLITICAL  INTEGRATION.  267 

more  closely  at  the  contrast  between  the  wars  of  small  groups 
and  those  of  large  nations.  As,  even  among  dogs,  the  fights 
that  arise  between  individuals  when  one  attempts  to  take 
another's  food,  grow  into  fights  between  packs  if  one  tres 
passes  upon  the  feeding  haunts  of  another  (as  is  seen  in 
Constantinople) ;  so  among  primitive  men,  individual  con 
flicts  for  food  pass  into  conflicts  between  hordes,  when,  in 
pursuit  of  food,  one  encroaches  on  another's  territory.  After 
the  pastoral  state  is  reached,  such  motives  continue  with  a 
difference.  "  Retaliation  for  past  robberies,"  is  the  habitual  plea 
for  war  among  the  Bechuanas  :  "  their  real  object  being  always 
the  acquisition  of  cattle."  Similarly  among  European  peoples 
in  ancient  days.  Achilles  says  of  the  Trojans — "  They  are 
blameless  as  respects  me,  since  they  have  never  driven  away 
my  oxen,  nor  my  horses."  And  the  fact  that  in  Scotland 
during  early  times,  cattle-raids  were  habitual  causes  of  inter 
tribal  fights,  shows  us  how  persistent  have  been  these 
struggles  for  the  means  of  individual  sustentation.  Even 
where  the  life  is  agricultural,  the  like  happens  at  the  outset. 
"  A  field  or  a  farrow's  breadth  of  land  is  disputed  upon  the 
border  of  a  district,  and  gives  rise  to  rustic  strife  between  the 
parties  and  their  respective  hamlets,"  says  Macpherson  of  the 
Khonds;  and  "should  the  tribes  to  which  the  disputants 
belong  be  disposed  to  hostility,  they  speedily  embrace  the 
quarrel."  So  that  competition  in  social  growth  is  still  re 
stricted  to  competition  for  the  means  to  that  personal  welfare 
indirectly  conducive  to  social  growth. 

In  yet  another  way  do  we  see  exemplified  this  general 
truth.  The  furthering  of  growth  by  that  which  furthers  the 
multiplication  of  units,  is  shown  us  in  the  stealing  of 
women — a  second  cause  of  primitive  war.  Men  of  one  tribe 
who  abduct  the  women  of  another,  not  only  by  so  doing 
directly  increase  the  number  of  their  own  tribe,  but,  in  a 
greater  degree,  indirectly  conduce  to  its  increase  by  after 
wards  adding  to  the  number  of  children.  In  which  mode  of 
growing  at  one  another's  expense,  common  among  existin« 


268  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

tribes  of  savages,  and  once  common  among  tribes  from  which 
civilized  nations  have  descended,  we  still  see  the  same  trait : 
any  augmentation  of  the  group  which  takes  place,  is  an  indi 
rect  result  of  individual  appropriations  and  reproductions. 

Contrariwise,  in  more  advanced  stages  the  struggle  between 
societies  is,  not  to  appropriate  one  another's  means  of  sus- 
tentation  and  multiplication,  but  to  appropriate  one  another 
bodily.  Which  society  shall  incorporate  other  societies  with 
itself,  becomes  the  question.  Under  one  aspect,  the  history 
of  large  nations  is  a  history  of  successes  in  such  struggles ; 
and  down  to  our  own  day  nations  are  being  thus  enlarged. 
Part  of  Italy  is  incorporated  by  France ;  part  of  France  is 
incorporated  by  Germany ;  part  of  Turkey  is  incorporated  by 
Russia ;  and  between  Russia  and  England  there  appears  to 
be  a  competition  which  shall  increase  most  by  absorbing 
uncivilized  and  semi-civilized  peoples. 

Thus,  then,  with  social  organisms  as  with  individual 
organisms,  it  is  through  the  struggle  for  existence,  first,  by 
appropriating  one  another's  means  of  growth,  and  then  by 
devouring  one  another,  that  there  arise  those  great  aggre 
gates  which  at  once  make  possible  high  organization,  and 
require  high  organization. 

§  44-9.  Political  integration  is  in  some  cases  furthered,  and 
in  other  cases  hindered,  by  conditions,  external  and  internal. 
There  are  the  characters  of  the  environment,  and  there  are 
the  characters  of  the  men  composing  the  society.  We  will 
glance  at  them  in  this  order. 

How  political  integration  is  prevented  by  an  inclemency 
of  climate,  or  an  infertility  of  soil,  which  keeps  down  popu 
lation,  was  shown  in  §§  14 — 21.  To  the  instances  there 
named  may  be  added  that  of  the  Seminoles,  who  "  being  so 
thinly  scattered  over  a  barren  desert,  they  seldom  assemble 
to  take  black  drink,  or  deliberate  on  public  matters ;"  and, 
again,  that  of  certain  Snake  Indians,  of  whom  Schoolcraft 
says,  "  the  paucity  of  game  in  this  region  is,  I  have  little 


POLITICAL  INTEGRATION.  269 

doubt,  the  cause  of  the  almost  entire  absence  of  social  organi 
zation."  We  saw,  too,  that  great  uniformity  of  surface,  of 
mineral  products,  of  flora,  of  fauna,  are  impediments  ;  and 
that  on  the  special  characters  of  the  flora  and  fauna,  as  con 
taining  species  favourable  or  unfavourable  to  human  welfare, 
in  part  depends  the  individual  prosperity  required  for  social 
growth.  It  was  also  pointed  out  that  structure  of  the 

habitat,  as  facilitating  or  impeding  communication,  and  as 
rendering  escape  easy  or  hard,  has  much  to  do  with  the  size 
of  the  social  aggregate  formed.  To  the  illustrations  before 
given,  showing  that  mountain-haunting  peoples  and  peoples 
living  in  deserts  and  marshes  are  difficult  to  consolidate, 
while  peoples  penned  in  by  barriers  are  consolidated  with 
facility,  I  may  here  add  two  significant  ones  not  before 
noticed.  One  occurs  in  the  Polynesian  islands — Tahiti, 
Hawaii,  Tonga,  Samoa,  and  the  rest — where,  restrained 
within  limits  by  surrounding  seas,  the  inhabitants  have 
become  united  more  or  less  closely  into  aggregates  of  con 
siderable  sizes.  The  other  is  furnished  by  ancient  Peru, 
where,  before  the  time  of  the  Yncas,  semi-civilized  com 
munities  had  been  formed  in  valleys  separated  from  each 
other  "  on  the  coast,  by  hot,  and  almost  impassable  deserts, 
and  in  the  interior  by  lofty  mountains,  or  cold  and  trackless 
punas"  And  to  the  implied  inability  of  these  peoples  to 
escape  governmental  coercion,  thus  indicated  by  Squier  as  a 
factor  in  their  civilization,  is  ascribed,  by  the  ancient  Spanish 
writer  Cieza,  the  difference  between  them  and  the  neighbour 
ing  Indians  of  Popoyan,  who  could  retreat,  "  whenever 
attacked,  to  other  fertile  regions."  How,  conversely, 

the  massing  of  men  together  is  furthered  by  ease  of  inteinal 
communication  within  the  area  occupied,  is  sufficiently  mani 
fest.  The  importance  of  it  is  implied  by  the  remark  of 
Grant  concerning  Equatorial  Africa,  that  "no  jurisdiction 
extends  over  a  district  which  cannot  be  crossed  in  three  or 
four  days."  And  such  facts,  implying  that  political  integra 
tion  may  increase  as  the  means  of  going  from  place  to  place 


270  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

become  better,  remind  us  how,  from  Homan  times  down 
wards,  the  formation  of  roads  has  made  larger  social  aggre 
gates  possible. 

Evidence  that  a  certain  type  of  physique  is  requisite,  was 
given  in  §  16 ;  where  we  saw  that  the  races  which  have 
evolved  large  societies,  had  previously  lived  under  conditions 
fostering  vigour  of  constitution.  I  will  here  add  only  that 
the  constitutional  energy  needed  for  continuous  labour,  with 
out  which  there  cannot  be  civilized  life  and  the  massing  of 
men  presupposed  by  it,  is  an  energy  not  to  be  quickly 
acquired ;  but  is  to  be  acquired  only  by  inherited  modifica 
tions  slowly  accumulated.  Good  evidence  that  in  lower 
types  of  men  there  is  a  physical  incapacity  for  work,  is 
supplied  by  the  results  of  the  Jesuit  government  over  the 
Paraguay  Indians.  These  Indians  were  reduced  to  indus 
trious  habits,  and  to  an  orderly  life  which  was  thought  by 
many  writers  admirable ;  but  there  eventually  resulted  a 
fatal  evil:  they  became  infertile.  JSTot  improbably,  the 
infertility  commonly  observed  in  savage  races  that  have  been 
led  into  civilized  activities,  is  consequent  on  taxing  the 
physique  to  a  degree  greater  than  it  is  constituted  to  bear. 

Certain  moral  traits  which  favour,  and  others  which  hinder, 
the  union  of  men  into  large  groups,  were  pointed  out  when 
treating  of  "  The  Primitive  Man — Emotional."  Here  I  will 
re-illustrate  such  of  these  as  concern  the  fitness  or  unfitness 
of  the  type  for  subordination.  "  The  Abors,  as  they  them 
selves  say,  are  like  tigers,  two  cannot  dwell  in  one  den;"  and 
"  their  houses  are  scattered  singly,  or  in  groups  of  two  and 
three."  Conversely,  some  of  the  African  races  not  only  yield 
when  coerced  but  admire  one  who  coerces  them.  Instance 
the  Damaras,  who,  as  Gal  ton  says,  "court  slavery"  and 
"  follow  a  master  as  spaniels  would."  The  like  is  alleged  of 
other  South  Africans.  One  of  them  said  to  a  gentleman 
known  to  me — "  You're  a  pretty  fellow  to  be  a  master  ;  I've 
been  with  you  two  years  and  you've  never  beaten  me  once." 
Obviously  on  the  dispositions  thus  strongly  contrasted,  the 


POLITICAL  INTEGRATION.  271 

impossibility  or  possibility  of  political  integration  largely 
depends.  There  must  be  added,  as  also  influential,  the 

presence  or  the  absence  of  the  nomadic  instinct.  Varieties 
of  men  whose  wandering  habits  have  been  unchecked  during 
countless  generations  of  hunting  life  and  pastoral  life,  show 
us  that  even  when  forced  into  agricultural  life,  their  tendency 
to  move  about  greatly  hinders  aggregation.  It  is  thus  among 
the  hill-tribes  of  India.  "  The  Kookies  are  naturally  a  mi 
gratory  race,  never  occupying  the  same  place  for  more  than 
two  or,  at  the  utmost,  three  years ;"  and  the  like  holds  of  the 
Mishmees,  who  "  never  name  their  villages :"  the  existence  of 
them  being  too  transitory.  In  some  races  this  migratory 
instinct  survives  and  shows  its  effects,  even  after  the  forma 
tion  of  populous  towns.  Writing  of  the  Bachassins  in  1812, 
Burchell  says  that  Litakun,  containing  15,000  inhabitants, 
had  been  twice  removed  during  a  period  of  ten  years. 
Clearly,  peoples  thus  characterized  are  less  easily  united  into 
large  societies  than  peoples  who  love  their  early  homes. 

Concerning  the  intellectual  traits  which  aid  or  imp'ede  the 
cohesion  of  men  into  masses,  I  may  supplement  what  was 
said  when  delineating  "The  Primitive  Man — Intellectual," 
by  two  corollaries  of  much  significance.  Social  life  being  co 
operative  life,  presupposes  not  only  an  emotional  nature 
fitted  for  cooperation,  but  also  such  intelligence  as  perceives 
the  benefits  of  cooperation,  and  can  so  regulate  actions  as  to 
effect  it.  The  unreflectiveness,  the  deficient  consciousness  of 
causation,  and  the  lack  of  constructive  imagination,  shown  by 
the  uncivilized,  hinder  combined  action  to  a  degree  difficult  to 
believe  until  proof  is  seen.  Even  the  semi-civilized  exhibit 
in  quite  simple  matters  an  absence  of  concert  which  ia 
astonishing.*  Implying,  as  this  does,  that  cooperation  can 

*  The  behaviour  of  Arab  boatmen  on  the  Nile  displays,  in  a  striking  way, 
this  inabilily  to  act  together.  When  jointly  hauling  at  a  rope,  and  begin 
ning  to  chant,  the  inference  one  draws  is  that  they  pull  in  time  with  their 
words.  On  observing,  however,  it  turns  out  that  their  effoi'ts  are  not  com 
bined  at  given  intervals,  but  are  put  forth  without  any  unity  of  rhythm. 
Similarly  when  using  their  poles  to  push  the  dahabeiah  off  a  sand-bank,  the 
76 


272  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

at  first  be  effective  only  where  there  is  obedience  to  peremp 
tory  command,  it  follows  that  there  must  be  not  only  an 
emotional  nature  which  produces  subordination,  but  also  an 
intellectual  nature  which  produces  faith  in  a  commander.  That 
credulity  which  leads  to  awe  of  the  capable  man  as  a  pos 
sessor  of  supernatural  power,  and  which  afterwards,  causing 
dread  of  his  ghost,  prompts  fulfilment  of  his  remembered 
injunctions — that  credulity  which  initiates  the  religious  con 
trol  of  a  deified  chief,  re-inforcing  the  political  control  of  his 
divine  descendant,  is  a  credulity  which  cannot  be  dispensed 
with  during  early  stages  of  integration.  Scepticism  is  fatal 
while  the  character,  moral  and  intellectual,  is  such  as  to 
necessitate  compulsory  cooperation. 

Political  integration,  then,  hindered  in  many  regions  by 
environing  conditions,  has  in  many  races  of  mankind  been 
prevented  from  advancing  far  by  unfitnesses  of  nature — 
phvsical,  moral,  and  intellectual. 

§  450.  Besides  fitness  of  nature  in  the  united  individuals, 
social  union  requires  a  considerable  homogeneity  of  nature 
among  them.  At  the  outset  this  needful  likeness  of  kind  is 
insured  by  greater  or  less  kinship  in  blood.  Evidence  meets 
us  everywhere  among  the  uncivilized.  Of  the  Bushmen, 
Lichtenstein  says,  "families  alone  form  associations  in  single 
small  hordes — sexual  feelings,  the  instinctive  love  to  children, 
or  the  customary  attachment  among  relations,  are  the  only 
ties  that  keep  them  in  any  sort  of  union/'  Again,  "the 
Eock  Veddahs  are  divided  into  small  clans  or  families  asso 
ciated  for  relationship,  who  agree  in  partitioning  the  forest 

succession  of  grunts  they  severally  make,  is  so  rapid  that  it  is  manifestly 
impossible  for  them  to  give  those  effectual  united  pushes  which  imply 
appreciable  intervals  of  preparation.  Still  more  striking  is  the  want  of  con 
cert  shown  by  the  hundred  or  more  Nubians  and  Arabs  employed  to  drag 
the  vessel  up  the  rapids.  There  are  shoutings,  gesticulations,  divided  actions, 
utter  confusion ;  so  that  only  by  accident  does  it  at  length  happen  that  a 
sufficient  number  of  efforts  are  put  forth  at  the  same  moment.  As  was  said 
to  me,  with  some  exaggeration,  by  our  Arab  dragoman,  a  travelled  mau 
— "  Ten  Englishmen  or  Frenchmen  would  do  the  thing  at  once." 


POLITICAL  INTEGRATION.  273 

among  themselves  for  hunting  grounds."  And  this  rise  of 
the  society  out  of  the  family,  seen  in  these  least  organized 
groups,  re-appears  in  the  considerably  organized  groups  of 
more  advanced  savages.  Instance  the  New  Zealanders,  of 
whom  we  read  that  "  eighteen  historical  nations  occupy  the 
country,  each  being  sub-divided  into  many  tribes,  originally 
families,  as  the  prefix  Ngati,  signifying  offspring  (equivalent 
to  0  or  Mac)  obviously  indicates."  This  connexion  between 
blood  relationship  and  social  union  is  well  shown  by 
Humboldt's  remarks  concerning  South  American  Indians. 
"  Savages,"  he  says,  "  know  only  their  own  family,  and  a  tribe 
appears  to  them  but  a  more  numerous  assemblage  of  rela 
tions."  When  Indians  who  inhabit  the  missions  see  those  of 
the  forest,  who  are  unknown  to  them,  they  say — "  They  are 
no  doubt  my  relations  ;  I  understand  them  when  they  speak 
to  me."  But  these  same  savages  detest  all  who  are  not  of 
their  tribe.  "  They  know  the  duties  of  family  ties  and  of 
relationship,  but  not  those  of  humanity." 

When  treating  of  the  domestic  relations,  reasons  were 
given  for  concluding  that  social  stability  increases  as  kinships 
become  more  definite  and  extended ;  since  development  of 
kinships,  while  insuring  the  likeness  of  nature  which  furthers 
cooperation,  involves  the  strengthening  and  multiplication 
of  those  family  bonds  which  check  disruption.  Where  pro 
miscuity  is  prevalent,  or  where  marriages  are  temporary,  the 
known  relationships  are  relatively  few  and  not  close ;  and 
there  is  little  more  social  cohesion  than  results  from  habit 
and  vague  sense  of  kinship.  Polyandry,  especially  of  the 
higher  kind,  produces  relationships  of  some  defmiteness, 
which  admit  of  being  traced  further  :  so  serving  better  to  tie 
the  social  group  together.  And  a  greater  advance  in  the 
nearness  and  the  number  of  family  connexions  results  from 
P°lygTny-  But,  as  was  shown,  it  is  from  monogamy  that 
there  arise  family  connexions  which  are  at  once  the  most 
definite  and  the  most  wide-spreading  in  their  ramifications ; 
and  out  of  monogamic  families  are  developed  the  largest  and 


274  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

most  coherent  societies.  In  two  allied,  yet  distinguishable, 
ways,  does  monogamy  favour  social  solidarity. 

Unlike  the  children  of  the  polyandric  family,  who  are 
something  less  than  half  brothers  and  sisters  (see  §  300,  note), 
and  unlike  the  children  of  the  polygynic  family,  most  of 
whom  are  only  half  brothers  and  sisters,  the  children  of  the 
nionogainic  family  are,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  all  of 
the  same  blood  on  both  sides.  Being  thus  themselves  more 
closely  related,  it  follows  that  their  clusters  of  children  are 
more  closely  related ;  and  where,  as  happens  in  early  stages, 
these  clusters  of  children  when  grown  up  continue  to  form  a 
community,  and  labour  together,  they  are  united  alike  by 
their  kinships  and  by  their  industrial  interests.  Though 
with  the  growth  of  a  family  group  into  a  gens  which  spreads, 
the  industrial  interests  divide,  yet  these  kinships  prevent  the 
divisions  from  becoming  as  marked  as  they  would  otherwise 
become.  And,  similarly,  when  the  gens,  in  course  of  time, 
develops  into  the  tribe.  Nor  is  this  all.  If  local  cir 

cumstances  bring  together  several  such  tribes,  which  are  still 
allied  in  blood  though  more  remotely,  it  results  that  when, 
seated  side  by  side,  they  are  gradually  fused,  partly  by  inter- 
spersion  and  partly  by  intermarriage,  the  compound  society 
formed,  united  by  numerous  and  complicated  links  of  kin 
ship  as  well  as  by  political  interests,  is  more  strongly  bound 
together  than  it  would  otherwise  be.  Dominant  ancient 
societies  illustrate  this  truth.  Says  Grote — "All  that  we 
hear  of  the  most  ancient  Athenian  laws  is  based  upon  the 
gentile  and  phratric  divisions,  which  are  treated  throughout 
as  extensions  of  the  family."  Similarly,  according  to  Momm- 
sen,  on  the  "  Eoman  Household  was  based  the  Eoman 
State,  both  as  respected  its  constituent  elements  and  its  form. 
The  community  of  the  Eoman  people  arose  out  of  the  junc 
tion  (in  whatever  way  brought  about)  of  such  ancient  clan 
ships  as  the  Eomilii,  Voltinii,  Fabii,  &c."  And  Sir  Henry 
Maine  has  shown  in  detail  the  ways  in  which  the  simple 
family  passes  into  the  house-community,  and  eventually  the 


POLITICAL  INTEGRATION.  275 

village-community.  Though,    in    presence    of    the 

evidence  furnished  by  races  having  irregular  sexual  relations, 
we  cannot  allege  that  sameness  of  blood  is  the  primary 
reason  for  political  cooperation — though  in  numerous  tribes 
which  have  not  risen  into  the  pastoral  state,  there  is  com 
bination  for  offence  and  defence  among  those  whose  different 
totems  are  recognized  marks  of  different  bloods ;  yet  where 
there  has  been  established  descent  through  males,  and 
especially  where  monogamy  prevails,  sameness  of  blood 
becomes  largely,  if  not  mainly,  influential  in  determining 
political  cooperation.  And  this  truth,  under  one  of  its 
aspects,  is  the  truth  above  enunciated,  that  combined  action, 
requiring  a  tolerable  homogeneity  of  nature  among  those  who 
carry  it  on,  is,  in  early  stages,  most  successful  among  those 
who,  being  descendants  of  the  same  ancestors,  have  the 
greatest  likeness. 

An  all-important  though  less  direct  effect  of  blood-relation 
ship,  and  especially  that  more  definite  blood-relationship 
which  arises  from  monogamic  marriage,  has  to  be  added.  I 
mean  community  of  religion — a  likeness  of  ideas  and  senti 
ments  embodied  in  the  worship  of  a  common  deity.  Begin 
ning,  as  this  does,  with  propitiation  of  the  deceased 
founder  of  the  family  ;  and  shared  in,  as  it  is,  by  the  multi 
plying  groups  of  descendants,  as  the  family  spreads ;  it 
becomes  a  further  means  of  holding  together  the  compound 
cluster  gradually  formed,  and  checking  the  antagonisms  that 
arise  between  the  component  clusters  :  so  favouring  integra 
tion.  The  influence  of  the  bond  supplied  by  a  common  cult 
everywhere  meets  us  in  ancient  history.  Each  of  the  cities 
in  primitive  Egypt  was  a  centre  for  the  worship  of  a  special 
divinity  ;  and  no  one  who,  unbiassed  by  foregone  conclusions, 
observes  the  extraordinary  development  of  ancestor-worship, 
under  all  its  forms,  in  Egypt,  can  doubt  the  origin  of  this 
divinity.  Of  the  Greeks  we  read  that — 

"Each  family  had  its  own  sacred  rites  and  funereal  commemoration 
of  ancestors,  celebrated  by  the  master  of  the  house,  to  which  none  but 
members  of  the  family  were  admissible  :  the  extinction  of  a  family, 


276  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

carrying  with  it  the  suspension  of  these  religious  rites,  was  held  by  the 
Greeks  to  be  a  misfortune,  not  merely  from  the  loss  of  the  citizens 
composing  it,  but  also  because  the  family  gods  and  the  manes  of 
deceased  citizens  were  thus  deprived  of  their  honours  and  might  visit 
the  country  with  displeasure.  The  larger  associations,  called  Gens, 
Phratry,  Tribe,  were  formed  by  an  extension  of  the  same  principle — 
of  the  family  considered  as  a  religious  brotherhood,  worshipping  some 
common  god  or  hero  with  an  appropriate  surname,  and  recognizing  him 
as  their  joint  ancestor." 

A  like  bond  was  generated  in  a  like  manner  in  the  Eoman 
community.  Each  curia,  which  was  the  homologue  of  the 
phratry,  had  a  head,  "  whose  chief  function  was  to  preside 
over  the  sacrifices."  And,  on  a  larger  scale,  the  same  thing 
held  with  the  entire  society.  The  primitive  Eoman  king  was 
a  priest  of  the  deities  common  to  all :  "  he  held  intercourse 
with  the  gods  of  the  community,  whom  he  consulted  and 
whom  he  appeased."  The  beginnings  of  this  religious  bond, 
here  exhibited  in  a  developed  form,  are  still  traceable  in 
India.  Sir  Henry  Maine  says,  "  the  joint  family  of  the 
Hindoos  is  that  assemblage  of  persons  who  would  have 
joined  in  the  sacrifices  at  the  funeral  of  some  common 
ancestor  if  he  had  died  in  their  lifetime."  So  that  political 
integration,  while  furthered  by  that  likeness  of  nature  which 
identity  of  descent  involves,  is  again  furthered  by  that  like 
ness  of  religion  simultaneously  arising  from  this  identity  of 
descent. 

Thus  is  it,  too,  at  a  later  stage,  with  that  less-pronounced 
likeness  of  nature  characterizing  men  of  the  same  race  who 
have  multiplied  and  spread  in  such  ways  as  to  form  adjacent 
small  societies.  Cooperation  among  them  continues  to  be 
furthered,  though  less  effectually,  by  the  community  of  their 
natures,  by  the  community  of  their  traditions,  ideas,  and 
sentiments,  as  well  as  by  their  community  of  speech.  Among 
men  of  diverse  types,  concert  is  necessarily  hindered 
both  by  ignorance  of  one  another's  words,  and  by  unlike- 
nesses  of  thought  and  feeling.  It  needs  but  to  remember 
how  often,  even  among  those  of  the  same  family,  quarrela 
arise  from  misinterpretations  of  things  said,  to  see  what 


POLITICAL  INTEGRATION.  277 

fertile  sources  of  confusion  and  antagonism  must  be  the 
partial  or  complete  differences  of  language  which  habitually 
accompany  differences  of  race.  Similarly,  those  who  are 
widely  unlike  in  their  emotional  natures  or  in  their  intellec 
tual  natures,  perplex  one  another  by  unexpected  conduct — a 
fact  on  which  travellers  habitually  remark.  Hence  a  further 
obstacle  to  combined  action.  Diversities  of  custom,  too, 
become  causes  of  dissension.  Where  a  food  eaten  by  one 
people  is  regarded  by  another  with  disgust,  where  an  animal 
held  sacred  by  the  one  is  by  the  other  treated  with  contempt, 
where  a  salute  which  the  one  expects  is  never  made  by  the 
other,  there  must  be  continually  generated  alienations  which 
hinder  joint  efforts.  Other  things  equal,  facility  of  coopera 
tion  will  be  proportionate  to  the  amount  of  fellow  feeling ; 
and  fellow  feeling  is  prevented  by  whatever  prevents  men 
from  behaving  in  the  same  ways  under  the  same  conditions. 
The  working  together  of  the  original  and  derived  factors 
above  enumerated,  is  well  exhibited  in  the  following  passage 
from  Grote : — 

"The  Hellens  were  all  of  common  blood  and  parentage,  were  all 
descendants  of  the  common  patriarch  Hellen.  In  treating  of  the  his 
torical  Greeks,  we  have  to  accept  this  as  a  datum  ;  it  represents  the 
sentiment  under  the  influence  of  which  they  moved  and  acted.  It  is 
placed  by  Herodotus  in  the  front  rank,  as  the  chief  of  those  four  ties 
which  bound  together  the  Hellenic  aggregate  :  1.  Fellowship  of  blood  ; 
2.  Fellowship  of  language ;  3.  Fixed  domiciles  of  gods,  and  sacrifices 
common  to  all ;  4.  Like  manners  and  dispositions." 

Influential  as  we  thus  find  to  be  the  likeness  of  nature 
which  is  insured  by  common  descent,  the  implication  is  that, 
in  the  absence  of  considerable  likeness,  the  political  aggre 
gates  formed  are  unstable,  and  can  be  maintained  only  by  a 
coercion  which,  some  time  or  other,  is  sure  to  fail.  Though 
other  causes  have  conspired,  yet  this  has  doubtless  been  a 
main  cause  of  the  dissolution  of  great  empires  in  past  ages. 
At  the  present  time  the  decay  of  the  Turkish  Empire  is 
largely,  if  not  chiefly,  ascribable  to  it.  Our  own  Indian 
Empire  too,  held  together  by  force  in  a  state  of  artificial 


278  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

equilibrium,  threatens  some  day  to  illustrate  by  its  fall  the 
incohesion  arising  from  lack  of  congruity  in  components. 

§  451,  One  of  the  laws  of  evolution  at  large,  is  that  inte 
gration  results  when  like  units  are  subject  to  the  same  force 
or  to  like  forces  (First  Principles,  §  169)  ;  and  from  the  first 
stages  of  political  integration  up  to  the  last,  we  find  this  law 
illustrated.  Joint  exposure  to  uniform  external  actions,  and 
joint  reactions  against  them,  have  from  the  beginning  been 
the  leading  causes  of  union  among  members  of  societies. 

Already  in  §  250  there  has  been  indirectly  implied  the 
truth  that  coherence  is  first  given  to  small  hordes  of  primitive 
men  during  combined  opposition  to  enemies.  Subject  to  the 
same  danger,  and  joining  to  meet  this  danger,  the  members  of 
the  horde  become,  in  the  course  of  their  cooperation  against 
it,  more  bound  together.  In  the  first  stages  this  relation  of 
cause  and  effect  is  clearly  seen  in  the  fact  that  such  union  as 
arises  during  a  war,  disappears  when  the  war  is  over :  there 
is  loss  of  all  such  slight  political  combination  as  was  begin 
ning  to  show  itself.  But  it  is  by  the  integration  of  simple 
groups  into  compound  groups  in  the  course  of  common  re 
sistance  to  foes,  and  attacks  upon  them,  that  this  process  is 
best  exemplified.  The  cases  before  given  may  be  reinforced 
by  others.  Of  the  Karens,  Mason  says: — "Each  village, 
being  an  independent  community,  had  always  an  old  feud  to 
settle  with  nearly  every  other  village  among  their  own  people. 
But  the  common  danger  from  more  powerful  enemies,  or 
having  common  injuries  to  requite,  often  led  to  several  villages 
uniting  together  for  defence  or  attack."  According  to  Kolben, 
"  smaller  nations  of  Hottentots,  which  may  be  near  some 
powerful  nation,  frequently  enter  into  an  alliance,  offensive 
and  defensive,  against  the  stronger  nation."  Among  the  New 
Caledonians  of  Tanna,  "  six,  or  eight,  or  more  of  their  villages 
unite,  and  form  what  may  be  called  a  district,  or  county,  and 

all  league  together  for  mutual  protection In  war 

two  or  more  of  these  districts  unite."  Samoan  "  villages,  in 


POLITICAL  INTEGRATION.  279 

numbers  of  eight  or  ten,  unite  by  common  consent,  and  form 
a  district  or  state  for  mutual  protection ;"  and  during  hosti 
lities  these  districts  themselves  sometimes  unite  in  twos  and 
threes.  The  like  has  happened  with  historic  peoples. 

It  was  during  the  wars  of  the  Israelites  in  David's  time,  that 
they  passed  from  the  state  of  separate  tribes  into  the  state  of 
a  consolidated  ruling  nation.  The  scattered  Greek  communi 
ties,  previously  aggregated  into  minor  confederacies  by  minor 
wars,  were  prompted  to  the  Pan-Hellenic  congress  and  to  the 
subsequent  cooperation,  when  the  invasion  of  Xerxes  was 
impending ;  and  of  the  Spartan  and  Athenian  confederacies 
afterwards  formed,  that  of  Athens  acquired  the  hegemony, 
and  finally  the  empire,  during  continued  operations  against 
the  Persians.  So,  too,  was  it  with  the  Teutonic  races. 

The  German  tribes,  originally  without  federal  bonds,  formed 
occasional  alliances  for  opposing  enemies.  Between  the 
first  and  fifth  centuries  these  tribes  massed  themselves  into 
great  groups  for  resistance  against,  or  attack  upon,  Eome. 
During  the  subsequent  century  the  prolonged  military  con 
federations  of  peoples  "  of  the  same  blood  "  had  grown  into 
States,  which  afterwards  became  aggregated  into  still  larger 
States.  And,  to  take  a  comparatively  modern  instance,  the 
wars  between  France  and  England  aided  each  in  passing 
from  that  condition  in  which  its  feudal  divisions  were  in 
considerable  degrees  independent,  to  the  condition  of  a  con 
solidated  nation.  As  further  showing  how  integration 
of  smaller  societies  into  larger  ones  is  thus  initiated,  it  may 
be  added  that  at  first  the  unions  exist  only  for  military  pur 
poses.  Each  component  society  retains  for  a  long  time  its 
independent  internal  administration ;  and  it  is  only  when 
joint  action  in  war  has  become  habitual,  that  the  cohesion  is 
made  permanent  by  a  common  political  organization. 

This  compounding  of  smaller  communities  into  larger  by 
military  cooperation,  is  insured  by  the  disappearance  of  such 
smaller  communities  as  do  not  cooperate.  Barth  remarks 
that  ''  the  Fiilbe  [Fulahs]  are  continually  advancing,  as  they 


280  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

have  not  to  do  with  one  strong  enemy,  but  with  a  number  of 
small  tribes  without  any  bond  of  union."  Of  the  Damaras, 
Galton  says — a  If  one  werft  is  plundered,  the  adjacent  ones 
rarely  rise  to  defend  it,  and  thus  the  Namaquas  have  de 
stroyed  or  enslaved  piecemeal  about  one-half  of  the  whole 
Damara  population."  Similarly  with  the  Ynca  conquests  in 
Peru :  "  there  was  no  general  opposition  to  their  advance, 
for  each  province  merely  defended  its  land  without  aid  from 
any  other."  This  process,  so  obvious  and  familiar,  I  name 
because  it  has  a  meaning  which  needs  emphasizing.  For  we 
here  see  that  in  the  struggle  for  existence  among  societies, 
the  survival  of  the  fittest  is  the  survival  of  those  in  which 
the  power  of  military  cooperation  is  the  greatest ;  and  mili 
tary  cooperation  is  that  primary  kind  of  cooperation  which 
prepares  the  way  for  other  kinds.  So  that  this  formation  of 
larger  societies  by  the  union  of  smaller  ones  in  war,  and  this 
destruction  or  absorption  of  the  smaller  un-united  societies  by 
the  united  larger  ones,  is  an  inevitable  process  through  which 
the  varieties  of  men  most  adapted  for  social  life,  supplant  the 
less  adapted  varieties. 

Eespecting  the  integration  thus  effected,  it  remains  only  to 
remark  that  it  necessarily  follows  this  course — necessarily 
begins  with  the  formation  of  simple  groups  and  advances  by 
the  compounding  and  re-compounding  of  them.  Impulsive 
in  conduct  and  with  rudimentary  powers  of  concerted  action, 
savages  cohere  so  slightly  that  only  small  bodies  of  them 
can  maintain  their  integrity.  Not  until  such  small  bodies 
have  severally  had  their  members  bound  to  one  another  by 
some  slight  political  organization,  does  it  become  possible  to 
unite  them  into  larger  bodies;  since  the  cohesion  of  these 
implies  greater  fitness  for  concerted  action,  and  more  de 
veloped  organization  for  achieving  it.  And  similarly,  these 
composite  clusters  must  be  to  some  extent  consolidated  before 
the  composition  can  be  carried  a  stage  further.  Pass 

ing  over  the  multitudinous  illustrations  occurring  among  the 
uncivilized,  it  will  suffice  if  I  refer  to  those  given  in  §  220, 


POLITICAL  INTEGRATION.  281 

and  reinforce  them  by  some  which  historic  peoples  have 
supplied.  There  is  the  fact  that  in  primitive  Egypt,  the 
numerous  small  societies  (which  eventually  became  the 
"  nomes")  first  united  into  the  two  aggregates,  Upper  Egypt 
and  Lower  Egypt,  which  were  afterwards  joined  into  one ; 
and  the  fact  that  in  ancient  Greece,  villages  became  united  to 
form  towns  before  the  towns  became  united  into  states,  while 
this  change  preceded  the  change  which  united  the  states  with 
one  another ;  and  the  fact  that  in  the  old  English  period, 
small  principalities  were  massed  into  the  divisions  constitut 
ing  the  Heptarchy,  before  these  passed  into  something  like  a 
whole.  It  is  a  principle  in  physics  that,  since  the 

force  with  which  a  body  resists  strains  increases  as  the  squares 
of  its  dimensions,  while  the  strains  which  its  own  weight 
subject  it  to  increase  as  the  cubes  of  its  dimensions,  its  power 
of  maintaining  its  integrity  becomes  relatively  less  as  its 
mass  becomes  greater.  Something  analogous  may  be  said  of 
societies.  Small  aggregates  only  can  hold  together  while 
cohesion  is  feeble ;  and  successively  larger  aggregates  become 
possible  only  as  the  greater  strains  implied  are  met  by  that 
greater  cohesion  which  results  from  an  adapted  human  nature 
and  a  resulting  development  of  social  organization. 

§  452.  As  social  integration  advances,  the  increasing  aggre 
gates  exercise  increasing  restraints  over  their  units — a  truth 
which  is  the  obverse  of  the  one  just  set  forth,  that  the  main 
tenance  of  its  integrity  by  a  larger  aggregate  implies  greater 
cohesion.  The  forces  by  which  aggregates  keep  their  units 
together  are  at  first  feeble ;  and  becoming  strenuous  at  a 
certain  stage  of  social  evolution  afterwards  relax — or  rather, 
change  their  forms. 

Originally  the  individual  savage  gravitates  to  one  group  or 
other,  prompted  by  sundry  motives,  but  mainly  by  the  desire 
for  protection.  Concerning  the  Patagonians,  we  read  that  no 
one  can  live  apart :  "  if  any  of  them  attempted  to  do  it,  they 
would  undoubtedly  be  killed,  or  carried  away  as  slaves,  aa 


232  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

soon  as  they  were  discovered."  In  Xorth  America,  ainoug 
the  Chinooks,  "  on  the  coast  a  custom  prevails  which  autho 
rizes  the  seizure  and  enslavement,  unless  ransomed  by  his 
friends,  of  every  Indian  met  with  at  a  distance  from  his 
tribe,  although  they  may  not  be  at  war  with  each  other."  At 
first,  however,  though  it  is  necessary  to  join  some  group,  it  is 
not  necessary  to  continue  in  the  same  group.  When  oppressed 
by  their  chief,  Kalmucks  and  Mongols  desert  him  and  go  over 
to  other  chiefs.  Of  the  Abipones  Dobrizhoffer  says  : — "  With 
out  leave  asked  on  their  part,  or  displeasure  evinced  on  his, 
they  remove  with  their  families  whithersoever  it  suits  them, 
and  join  some  other  cacique  ;  and  when  tired  of  the  second, 
return  with  impunity  to  the  horde  of  the  first."  Similarly  in 
South  Africa,  "  the  frequent  instances  which  occur  [among 
the  Balonda]  of  people  changing  from  one  part  of  the  country 
to  another,  show  that  the  great  chiefs  possess  only  a  limited 
power."  And  how,  through  this  process,  some  tribes  grow 
while  others  dwindle,  we  are  shown  by  M'Culloch's  remark 
respecting  the  Kukis,  that  "  a  village,  having  around  it  plenty 
of  land  suited  for  cultivation  and  a  popular  chief,  is  sure 
soon,  by  accessions  from  less  favoured  ones,  to  become  large." 
With  the  need  which  the  individual  has  for  protection,  is 
joined  the  desire  of  the  tribe  to  strengthen  itself;  and  the 
practice  of  adoption,  hence  resulting,  constitutes  another 
mode  of  integration.  Where,  as  in  tribes  of  Xorth  American 
Indians,  "adoption  or  the  torture  were  the  alternative 
chances  of  a  captive"  (adoption  being  the  fate  of  one  admired 
for  his  bravery),  we  see  re-illustrated  the  tendency  which 
each  society  has  to  grow  at  the  expense  of  other  societies. 
That  desire  for  many  actual  children  whereby  the  family 
may  be  strengthened,  which  Hebrew  traditions  show  us, 
readily  passes  into  the  desire  for  factitious  children — here 
made  one  with  the  brotherhood  by  exchange  of  blood,  and 
there  by  mock  birth.  As  was  implied  in  §  319,  it  is  probable 
that  the  practice  of  adoption  into  families  among  Greeks  and 
Romans,  arose  during  those  early  times  when  the  wandering 


POLITICAL   HTTEGRATIOy.  283 

patriarchal  group  constituted  the  tribe,  and  when  the  wish 
of  the  tribe  to  strengthen  itself  was  dominant ;  though  it  w  as 
doubtless  afterwards  maintained  chiefly  by  the  wish  to  have 
someone  to  continue  the  sacrifices  to  ancestors.  And,  indeed, 
on  remembering  that,  long  after  larger  societies  were  formed 
by  unions  of  patriarchal  groups,  there  continued  to  be  feuds 
between  the  component  families  and  clans,  we  may  see  that 
there  hail  never  ceased  to  operate  on  such  families  and  clans, 
the  primitive  motive  for  strengthening  themselves  by  increas 
ing  their  numbers. 

Kindred  motives  produced  kindred  results  within  more 
modern  societies,  during  times  when  their  parts  were  so  im 
perfectly  integrated  that  there  remained  antagonisms  among 
them  Thus  we  have  the  fact  that  in  mediaeval  England, 
while  local  rule  was  incompletely  subordinated  to  general 
rule,  every  free  man  had  to  attach  himself  to  a  lord,  a  burgh, 
or  a  guild :  being  otherwise  "  a  friendless  man,"  and  in  a 
danger  like  that  which  the  savage  is  in  when  not  belonging 
to  a  tribe.  And  then,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  law  that 
"  if  a  bondsman  continued  a  year  and  a  day  within  a  free 
burgh  or  municipality,  no  lord  could  reclaim  him,"  we  may 
recognize  an  effect  of  a  desire  on  the  part  of  industrial  groups 
to  strengthen  themselves  against  the  feudal  groups  around — 
an  effect  analogous  to  that  of  adoption,  here  into  the  savage 
tribe  and  there  into  the  family  as  it  existed  in  more  ancient 
societies.  Xaturally,  as  a  whole  nation  becomes  more  in 
tegrated,  local  integrations  lose  their  separateness,  and  their 
divisions  fade ;  though  they  long  leave  their  traces,  as  among 
ourselves  in  the  law  of  settlement,  and  as,  up  to  182-i,  in  the 
kws  affecting  the  freedom  of  travelling  of  artisans. 

These  last  illustrations  introduce  us  to  the  truth  that  while 
at  first  there  is  little  cohesion  and  great  mobility  of  the  units 
forming  a  group,  advance  in  integration  is  habitually  accom 
panied  not  only  by  decreasing  ability  to  go  from  group  to 
group,  but  also  by  decreasing  ability  to  go  from  place  to 
place  within  the  group.  Of  course  the  transition  from  the 


284  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

nomadic  to  the  settled  state  partially  implies  this ;  since 
each  person  becomes  in  a  considerable  degree  tied  by  his 
material  interests.  Slavery,  too,  effects  in  another  way  this 
binding  of  individuals  to  locally-placed  members  of  the 
society,  and  therefore  to  particular  parts  to  it;  and,  where 
serfdom  exists,  the  same  thing  is  shown  with  a  difference. 
But  in  highly-integrated  societies,  not  simply  those  in 
bondage,  but  others  also,  are  tied  to  their  localities.  Of  the 
ancient  Mexicans,  Zurita  says : — "  The  Indians  never  changed 
their  village  nor  even  their  quarter.  This  custom  was 
observed  as  a  law."  In  ancient  Peru,  "  it  was  not  lawful  for 
any  one  to  remove  from  one  province,  or  village,  to  another ; " 
and  "  any  who  travelled  without  just  cause  were  punished  as 
vagabonds."  Elsewhere,  along  with  that  development  of  the 
militant  type  accompanying  aggregation,  there  have  been 
imposed  restraints  on  transit  under  other  forms.  Ancient 
Egypt  had  a  system  of  registration  ;  and  all  citizens  periodi 
cally  reported  themselves  to  local  officers.  "  Every  Japanese 
is  registered,  and  whenever  he  removes  his  residence,  the 
Nanushi,  or  head  man  of  the  temple  gives  a  certificate." 
And  then,  in  despotically-governed  European  countries  we 
have  passports-systems,  hindering  the  journeys  of  citizens 
from  place  to  place,  and  in  some  cases  preventing  them  from 
going  abroad. 

In  these,  as  in  other  respects,  however,  the  restraints  which 
the  social  aggregate  exercises  over  its  units,  decrease  as  the 
industrial  type  begins  greatly  to  qualify  the  militant  type ; 
partly  because  the  societies  characterized  by  industralism  are 
amply  populous,  and  have  superfluous  members  to  fill  the 
places  of  those  who  leave  them,  and  partly  because,  in  the 
alienee  of  the  oppressions  accompanying  a  militant  regime,  a 
sufficient  cohesion  results  from  pecuniary  interests,  family 
bonds,  and  love  of  country. 

§  453.  Thus,  saying  nothing  for  the  present  of  that  political 
evolution  manifested  by  increase  of  structure,  and  restricting 


POLITICAL  INTEGRATION.  285 

ourselves  to  that  political  evolution  manifested  by  increase  of 
mass,  here  distinguished  as  political  integration,  we  find  that 
this  has  the  following  traits. 

While  the  aggregates  are  small,  the  incorporation  of 
materials  for  growth  is  carried  on  at  one  another's  expense  in 
feeble  ways — by  taking  one  another's  game,  by  robbing  one 
another  of  women,  and,  occasionally  by  adopting  one  another's 
men.  As  larger  aggregates  are  formed,  incorporations  pro 
ceed  in  more  wholesale  ways  ;  first  by  enslaving  the  separate 
members  of  conquered  tribes,  and  presently  by  the  bodily 
annexation  of  such  tribes,  with  their  territory.  And  as  com 
pound  aggregates  pass  into  doubly  and  trebly  compound 
ones,  there  arise  increasing  desires  to  absorb  adjacent  smaller 
societies,  and  so  to  form  still  larger  aggregates. 

Conditions  of  several  kinds  further  or  hinder  social  growth 
and  consolidation.  The  habitat  may  be  fitted  or  unfitted  for 
supporting  a  large  population ;  or  it  may,  by  great  or  small 
facilities  for  intercourse  within  its  area,  favour  or  impede  co 
operation  ;  or  it  may,  by  presence  or  absence  of  natural 
barriers,  make  easy  or  difficult  the  keeping  together  of  the 
individuals  under  that  coercion  which  is  at  first  needful. 
And,  as  the  antecedents  of  the  race  determine,  the  indi 
viduals  may  have  in  greater  or  less  degrees  the  physical, 
the  emotional,  and  the  intellectual  natures  fitting  them  for 
combined  action. 

While  the  extent  to  which  social  integration  can  in  each 
case  be  carried,  depends  in  part  on  these  conditions,  it  also 
depends  in  part  upon  the  degree  of  likeness  among  the  units. 
At  first,  while  the  nature  is  so  little  moulded  to  social  life 
that  cohesion  is  small,  aggregation  is  largely  dependent  on 
ties  of  blood  :  implying  great  degrees  of  likeness.  Groups  in 
which  such  ties,  and  the  resulting  congruity,  are  most 
marked,  and  which,  having  family  traditions  in  common,  a 
common  male  ancestor,  and  a  joint  worship  of  him,  are  in 
these  further  ways  made  alike  in  ideas  and  sentiments,  are 
groups  in  which  the  greatest  social  cohesion  and  power  of  co- 


286  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

operation  arise.  Tor  a  long  time  the  clans  and  tribes  de 
scending  from  such  primitive  patriarchal  groups,  have  their 
political  concert  facilitated  by  this  bond  of  relationship  and 
the  likeness  it  involves.  Only  after  adaptation  to  social  life 
has  made  considerable  progress,  does  harmonious  cooperation 
among  those  who  are  not  of  the  same  stock  become  practi 
cable  ;  and  even  then  their  unlikenesses  of  nature  must  be 
small.  Where  their  unlikenesses  of  nature  are  great,  the 
society,  held  together  only  by  force,  tends  to  disintegrate 
when  the  force  fails. 

Likeness  in  the  units  forming  a  social  group  being  one 
condition  to  their  integration,  a  further  condition  is  their 
joint  reaction  against  external  action :  cooperation  in  war  is 
the  chief  cause  of  social  integration.  The  temporary  unions 
of  savages  for  offence  and  defence,  show  us  the  initiatory 
step.  When  many  tribes  unite  against  a  common  enemy, 
long  continuance  of  their  combined  action  makes  them 
coherent  under  some  common  control.  And  so  it  is  subse 
quently  with  still  larger  aggregates. 

Progress  in  social  integration  is  both  a  cause  and  a  con 
sequence  of  a  decreasing  separableness  among  the  units. 
Primitive  wandering  hordes  exercise  no  such  restraints  over 
their  members  as  prevent  them  individually  from  leaving  one 
horde  and  joining  another  at  will.  Where  tribes  are  more 
developed,  desertion  of  one  and  admission  into  another  are 
less  easy — the  assemblages  are  not  so  loose  in  composition. 
And  throughout  those  long  stages  during  which  societies  are 
being  enlarged  and  consolidated  by  militancy,  the  mobility  of 
the  units  becomes  more  and  more  restricted.  Only  with  that 
substitution  of  voluntary  cooperation  for  compulsory  co 
operation  which  characterizes  developing  industrialism,  do 
the  restrictions  on  movement  disappear :  enforced  union 
being  in  such  societies  adequately  replaced  by  spontaneous 
union. 

A  remaining  truth  to  be  named  is  that  political  integration, 
as  it  advances,  obliterates  the  original  divisions  among  the 


POLITICAL  INTEGRATION.  287 

united  parts.  In  the  first  place  there  is  the  slow  disappear 
ance  of  those  non-topographical  divisions  arising  from  rela 
tionship,  as  seen  in  separate  gentes  and  tribes :  gradual  inter 
mingling  destroys  them.  In  the  second  place,  the  smaller 
local  societies  united  into  a  larger  one,  which  at  first  retain 
their  separate  organizations,  lose  them  by  long  cooperation  : 
a  common  organization  begins  to  ramify  through  them.  And 
in  the  third  place,  there  simultaneously  results  a  fading  of 
their  topographical  bounds,  and  a  replacing  of  these  by 
the  new  administrative  bounds  of  the  common  organiza 
tion.  Hence  naturally  results  the  converse  truth, 
that  in  the  course  of  social  dissolution  the  great  groups 
separate  first,  and  afterwards,  if  dissolution  continues,  these 
separate  into  their  component  smaller  groups.  Instance  the 
ancient  empires  successively  formed  in  the  East,  the  united 
kingdoms  of  which  severally  resumed  their  autonomies  when 
the  coercion  keeping  them  together  ceased.  Instance,  again, 
the  Carolingian  empire,  which,  first  parting  into  its  large 
divisions,  became  in  course  of  time  further  disintegrated  by 
subdivision  of  these.  And  where,  as  in  this  last  case,  the 
process  of  dissolution  goes  very  far,  there  is  a  return  to  some 
thing  like  the  primitive  condition,  under  which  small  preda 
tory  societies  are  engaged  in  continuous  warfare  with  like 
small  societies  around  them. 


77 


CHAPTER  IV. 
POLITICAL  DIFFERENTIATION". 

§  454.  As  was  pointed  out  in  First  Principles,  §  154,  it  is 
true  of  a  social  aggregate,  as  of  every  other  aggregate,  that 
the  state  of  homogeneity  is  an  unstable  state;  and  that 
where  there  is  already  some  heterogeneity,  the  tendency  is 
towards  greater  heterogeneity. 

Lapse  from  homogeneity,  however,  or  rather,  the  increase 
of  such  heterogeneity  as  usually  exists,  requires  that  the 
parts  shall  be  heterogeneously  conditioned;  and  whatever 
prevents  the  rise  of  contrasts  among  the  conditions,  prevents 
increase  of  heterogeneity.  One  of  the  implications  is  that 
there  must  not  be  continual  changes  in  the  distribution  of 
the  parts.  If  now  one  part  and  now  another,  occupies  the 
same  position  in  relation  to  the  whole,  permanent  structural 
differences  cannot  be  produced.  There  must  be  such  cohesion 
among  the  parts  as  prevents  easy  transposition. 

We  see  this  truth  exemplified  in  the  simplest  individual 
organisms.  A  low  Rhizopod,  of  which  the  substance  has  a 
mobility  approaching  to  that  of  a  liquid,  remains  almost 
homogeneous ;  because  each  part  is  from  moment  to  moment 
assuming  new  relations  to  other  parts  and  to  the  environ 
ment.  And  the  like  holds  with  the  simplest  societies. 
Concern  ing  the  members  of  the  small  unsettled  groups  of 
Fuegians,  Cook  remarks  that  "  none  was  more  respected  than 
another."  The  Veddahs,  the  Andamanese,  the  Australians, 
the  Tasmanians,  may  also  be  instanced  as  loose  assemblages 


POLITICAL  DIFFERENTIATION.  289 

which  present  no  permanent  unlikenesses  of  social  position ; 
or  if  unlikeness  exist,  as  some  travellers  allege,  they  are  so 
vague  that  they  are  denied  by  others.  And  in  such  wander 
ing  hordes  as  the  Coroados  of  South  America,  formed  of 
individuals  held  together  so  feebly  that  they  severally  join 
one  or  other  horde  at  will,  the  distinctions  of  parts  are  but 
nominal. 

Conversely,  it  is  to  be  anticipated  that  where  the  several 
parts  of  a  social  aggregate  are  heterogeneously  conditioned  in 
a  permanent  way,  they  will  become  proportionately  hetero 
geneous.  We  shall  see  this  more  clearly  on  changing  the 
point  of  view. 

§  455.  The  general  law  that  like  units  exposed  to  like 
forces  tend  to  integrate,  was  in  the  last  chapter  exemplified 
by  the  formation  of  social  groups.  Here  the  correlative 
general  law,  that  in  proportion  as  the  like  units  of  an  aggregate 
are  exposed  to  unlike  forces  they  tend  to  form  differentiated 
parts  of  the  aggregate,  has  to  be  observed  in  its  application  to 
such  groups,  as  the  second  step  in  social  evolution. 

The  primary  political  differentiation  originates  from  the 
primary  family  differentiation.  Men  and  women  being  by 
the  unlikenesses  of  their  functions  in  life,  exposed  to  unlike 
influences,  begin  from  the  first  to  assume  unlike  positions  in 
the  community  as  they  do  in  the  family :  very  early  they 
respectively  form  the  two  political  classes  of  rulers  and 
ruled.  And  how  truly  such  dissimilarity  of  social  positions 
as  arises  between  them,  is  caused  by  dissimilarity  in  their 
relations  to  surrounding  actions,  we  shall  see  on  observing 
that  the  one  is  small  or  great  according  as  the  other  is  small 
or  great.  When  treating  of  the  status  of  women,  it  was 
pointed  out  that  to  a  considerable  degree  among  the  Chippe- 
wayans,  and  to  a  still  greater  degree  among  the  Clatsops  and 
Chinooks,  "  who  live  upon  fish  and  roots,  which  the  women 
are  equally  expert  with  the  men  in  procuring,  the  former  have 
a  rank  and  influence  very  rarely  found  among  Indians."  We 


290  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

saw  also  that  in  Cueba,  where  the  women  join  the  men  in 
war,  "  fighting  by  their  side/'  their  position  is  much  higher 
than  usual  among  rude  peoples;  and,  similarly,  that  in 
Dahomey,  where  the  women  are  as  much  warriors  as  the  men, 
they  are  so  regarded  that,  in  the  political  organization,  "  the 
woman  is  officially  superior."  On  contrasting  these  excep 
tional  cases  with  the  ordinary  cases,  in  which  the  men,  solely 
occupied  in  war  and  the  chase,  have  unlimited  authority, 
while  the  women,  occupied  in  gathering  miscellaneous  small 
food  and  carrying  burdens,  are  abject  slaves,  it  becomes  clear 
that  diversity  of  relations  to  surrounding  actions  initiates 
diversity  of  social  relations.  And,  as  we  saw  in  §  327,  this 
truth  is  further  illustrated  by  those  few  uncivilized  societies 
which  are  habitually  peaceful,  such  as  the  Bodo  and  the 
Dhimals  of  the  Indian  hills,  and  the  ancient  Pueblos  of  North 
America — societies  in  which  the  occupations  are  not,  or  were 
not,  broadly  divided  into  fighting  and  working,  and  severally 
assigned  to  the  two  sexes ;  and  in  which,  along  with  a  com 
paratively  small  difference  between  the  activities  of  the  sexes, 
there  goes,  or  went,  small  difference  of  social  status. 

So  is  it  when  we  pass  from  the  greater  or  less  political 
differentiation  which  accompanies  difference  of  sex,  to  that 
which  is  independent  of  sex — to  that  which  arises  among 
men.  Where  the  life  is  permanently  peaceful,  definite  class- 
divisions  do  not  exist.  One  of  the  Indian  Hill-tribes  to 
which  I  have  already  referred  as  exhibiting  the  honesty, 
truthfulness,  and  amiability,  accompanying  a  purely  indus 
trial  life,  may  be  instanced.  Hodgson  says,  "all  Bodo  and 
all  Dhimals  are  equal — absolutely  so  in  right  or  law — 
wonderfully  so  in  fact."  The  like  is  said  of  another  unwar- 
like  and  amiable  hill  tribe :  "  the  Lepchas  have  no  caste  dis 
tinctions."  And  among  a  different  race,  the  Papuans,  may 
be  named  the  peaceful  Arafuras  as  displaying  "brotherly 
love  with  one  another,"  and  as  having  no  divisions  of  rank. 

§456.  As,  at  first,  the  domestic  relation  between  the  sexea 


POLITICAL  DIFFERENTIATION.  291 

passes  into  a  political  relation,  such  that  men  and  women 
become,  in  militant  groups,  the  ruling  class  and  the  subject 
class ;  so  does  the  relation  between  master  and  slave,  origin 
ally  a  domestic  one,  pass  into  a  political  one  as  fast  as,  by 
habitual  war,  the  making  of  slaves  becomes  general.  It  is 
with  the  formation  of  a  slave-class,  that  there  begins  that 
political  differentiation  between  the  regulating  structures  and 
the  sustaining  structures,  which  continues  throughout  all 
higher  forms  of  social  evolution. 

Kane  remarks  that  "  slavery  in  its  most  cruel  form  exists 
among  the  Indians  of  the  whole  coast  from  California  to 
Behring's  Straits,  the  stronger  tribes  making  slaves  of  all  the 
others  they  can  conquer.  In  the  interior,  where  there  is  but 
little  warfare,  slavery  does  not  exist."  And  this  statement 
does  but  exhibit,  in  a  distinct  form,  the  truth  everywhere 
obvious.  Evidence  suggests  that  the  practice  of  enslavement 
diverged  by  small  steps  from  the  practice  of  cannibalism. 
Concerning  the  Nootkas,  we  read  that  "  slaves  are  occasion 
ally  sacrificed  and  feasted  upon;"  and  if  we  contrast  this 
usage  with  the  usage  common  elsewhere,  of  killing  and 
devouring  captives  as  soon  as  they  are  taken,  we  may  infer 
that  the  keeping  of  captives  too  numerous  to  be  immediately 
eaten,  with  the  view  of  eating  them  subsequently,  leading,  as 
it  would,  to  the  employment  of  them  in  the  meantime,  caused 
the  discovery  that  their  services  might  be  of  more  value 
than  their  flesh,  and  so  initiated  the  habit  of  preserving 
them  as  slaves.  Be  this  as  it  may,  however,  we  find  that 
very  generally  among  tribes  to  which  habitual  militancy  has 
given  some  slight  degree  of  the  appropriate  structure,  the 
enslavement  of  prisoners  becomes  an  established  habit.  That 
women  and  children  taken  in  war,  and  such  men  as  have  not 
l.«een  slain,  naturally  fall  into  unqualified  servitude,  is  mani 
fest.  They  belong  absolutely  to  their  captors,  who  might 
have  killed  them,  and  who  retain  the  right  afterwards  to  kill 
them  if  they  please.  They  become  property,  of  which  any 
use  whatever  may  be  made. 


292  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

The  acquirement  of  slaves,  which  is  at  first  an  incident  of 
war,  becomes  presently  an  object  of  war.  Of  the  ISTootkas  we 
read  that  "  some  of  the  smaller  tribes  at  the  north  of  the 
island  are  practically  regarded  as  slave-breeding  tribes,  and 
are  attacked  periodically  by  stronger  tribes ;"  and  the  like 
happens  among  the  Chinooks.  It  was  thus  in  ancient 
Vera  Paz,  where  periodically  they  made  "an  inroad  into 
the  enemy's  territory  .  .  .  and  captured  as  many  as  they 
wanted ;"  and  it  was  so  in  Honduras,  where,  in  declaring  war, 
they  gave  their  enemies  notice  "  that  they  wanted  slaves." 
Similarly  with  various  existing  peoples.  St.  John  says  that 
"  many  of  the  Dyaks  are  more  desirous  to  obtain  slaves  than 
heads ;  and  in  attacking  a  village  kill  only  those  who  resist 
or  attempt  to  escape."  And  that  in  Africa  slave-making 
wars  are  common  needs  no  proof. 

The  class-division  thus  initiated  by  war,  afterwards  main 
tains  and  strengthens  itself  in  sundry  ways.  Very  soon  there 
begins  the  custom  of  purchase.  The  Chinooks,  besides  slaves 
who  have  been  captured,  have  slaves  who  were  bought  as 
children  from  their  neighbours  ;  and,  as  we  saw  when  dealing 
with  the  domestic  relations,  the  selling  of  their  children  into 
slavery  is  by  no  means  uncommon  with  savages.  Then  the 
slave-class,  thus  early  enlarged  by  purchase,  comes  afterwards 
to  be  otherwise  enlarged.  There  is  voluntary  acceptance  of 
slavery  for  the  sake  of  protection ;  there  is  enslavement  for 
debt ;  there  is  enslavement  for  crime. 

Leaving  details,  we  need  here  note  only  that  this  political 
differentiation  which  war  begins,  is  effected,  not  by  the  bodily 
incorporation  of  other  societies,  or  whole  classes  belonging  to 
other  societies,  but  by  the  incorporation  of  single  members 
of  other  societies,  and  by  like  individual  accretions.  Com 
posed  of  units  who  are  detached  from  their  original  social 
relations  and  from  one  another,  and  absolutely  attached  to 
their  owners,  the  slave-class  is,  at  first,  but  indistinctly 
separated  as  a  social  stratum.  It  acquires  separateness  only 
as  fast  as  there  arise  some  restrictions  on  the  powers  of  the 


POLITICAL  DIFFERENTIATION.  293 

owners.  Ceasing  to  stand  in  the  position  of  domestic  cattle, 
slaves  begin  to  form  a  division  of  the  body  politic  when  their 
personal  claims  begin  to  be  distinguished  as  limiting  the 
claims  of  their  masters. 

§  457.  It  is  commonly  supposed  that  serfdom  arises  by 
mitigation  of  slavery ;  but  examination  of  the  facts  shows  that 
it  arises  in  a  different  way.  While,  during  the  early  struggles 
for  existence  between  them,  primitive  tribes,  growing  at  one 
another's  expense  by  incorporating  separately  the  individuals 
they  capture,  thus  form  a  class  of  absolute  slaves,  the  formation 
of  a  servile  class  considerably  higher,  and  having  a  distinct 
social  status,  accompanies  that  later  and  larger  process  of 
growth  under  which  one  society  incorporates  other  societies 
bodily.  Serfdom  originates  along  with  conquest  and  annexa 
tion. 

For  whereas  the  one  implies  that  the  captured  people  are 
detached  from  their  homes,  the  other  implies  that  the  subju 
gated  people  continue  in  their  homes.  Thomson  remarks 
that,  "  among  the  New  Zealanders  whole  tribes  sometimes 
became  nominally  slaves  when  conquered,  although  permitted 
to  live  at  their  usual  places  of  residence,  on  condition  of 
paying  tribute,  in  food,  &c." — a  statement  which  shows  the 
origin  of  kindred  arrangements  in  allied  societies.  Of  the 
Sandwich  Islands  government  when  first  known,  described  as 
consisting  of  a  king  with  turbulent  chiefs,  who  had  been  sub 
jected  in  comparatively  recent  times,  Ellis  writes: — "The 
common  people  are  generally  considered  as  attached  to  the 
soil,  and  are  transferred  with  the  land  from  one  chief  to 
another."  Before  the  late  changes  in  Fiji,  there  were  enslaved 
districts ;  and  of  their  inhabitants  we  read  that  they  had  to 
supply  the  chiefs'  houses  "  with  daily  food,  and  build  and 
keep  them  in  repair."  Though  conquered  peoples  thus 
placed,  differ  widely  in  the  degrees  of  their  subjection  (being 
at  the  one  extreme,  as  in  Fiji,  liable  to  be  eaten  when  wanted, 
and  at  the  other  extreme  called  on  only  to  give  specified  pro 


294  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

portions  of  produce  or  labour) ;  yet  they  remain  alike  as  being 
undetached  from  their  original  places  of  residence.  That 

serfdom  in  Europe  originated  in  an  analogous  way,  there  is 
good  reason  to  believe.  In  Greece  we  have  the  case  of  Crete, 
where,  under  the  conquering  Dorians,  there  existed  a  vassal 
population,  formed,  it  would  seem,  partly  of  the  aborigines 
and  partly  of  preceding  conquerors ;  of  which  the  first  were 
serfs  attached  to  lands  of  the  State  and  of  individuals,  and  the 
others  had  become  tributary  landowners.  In  Sparta  the  like 
relations  were  established  by  like  causes.  There  were  the 
helots,  who  lived  on,  and  cultivated,  the  lands  of  their 
Spartan  masters,  and  the  perioeci,  who  had  probably  been, 
before  the  Dorian  invasion,  the  superior  class.  So  was  it  also 
in  the  Greek  colonies  afterwards  founded,  such  as  Syracuse, 
where  the  aborigines  became  serfs.  Similarly  in  later  times 
and  nearer  regions.  When  Gaul  was  overrun  by  the  Eomans, 
and  again  when  Eomanized  Gaul  was  overrun  by  the  Franks, 
there  was  little  displacement  of  the  actual  cultivators  of  the 
soil,  but  these  simply  fell  into  lower  positions :  certainly 
lower  political  positions,  and  M.  Guizot  thinks  lower  indus 
trial  positions.  Our  own  country  yields  illustrations. 
"  Among  the  Scottish  Highlanders  some  entire  septs  or  clans  are 
stated  to  have  been  enslaved  to  others  ;  and  on  the  very  threshold  of 
Irish  history  we  meet  with  a  distinction  between  free  and  rent-paying 
tribes,  which  may  possibly  imply  the  same  kind  of  superiority  and  sub 
ordination." 

In  ancient  British  times,  writes  Pearson,  "  it  is  probable  that, 
in  parts  at  least,  there  were  servile  villages,  occupied  by  a 
kindred  but  conquered  race,  the  first  occupants  of  the  soil." 
More  trustworthy  is  the  evidence  which  comes  to  us  from 
old  English  days  and  Norman  days.  Professor  Stubbs  says — 
"  The  ceorl  had  his  right  in  the  common  land  of  his  township ;  his  Latin 
name,  villanus,  had  been  a  symbol  of  freedom,  but  his  privileges  were 
bound  to  the  land,  and  when  the  Norman  lord  took  the  land  he  took 
the  villein  with  it.  Still  the  villein  retained  his  customary  rights,  his 
house  and  land  and  rights  of  wood  and  hay  ;  his  lord's  demesne  depended 
for  cultivation  on  his  services,  and  he  had  in  his  lord's  sense  of  self- 
interest  the  sort  of  protection  that  was  shared  by  the  horse  and  the  ox.* 


POLITICAL  DIFFERENTIATION.  295 

And  of  kindred  import  is  the  following  passage  from  Innes: — • 

"  I  have  said  that  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Grange,  the  lowest  in  the 
scale  was  the  ceorl,  bond,  serfj  or  villein,  who  was  transferred  like  the 
laud  on  which  he  laboured,  and  who  might  be  caught  and  brought 
back  if  he  attempted  to  escape,  like  a  stray  ox  or  sheep.  Their  legal 
name  of  nativus,  or  neyfy  which  I  have  not  found  but  in  Britain,  seems 
to  point  to  their  origin  in  the  native  race,  the  original  possessors  of  the 
soil.  ...  In  the  register  of  Dunf  ermline  are  numerous  '  genealogies,'  or 
stud-books,  for  enabling  the  lord  to  trace  and  reclaim  his  stock  of  serf  a 
by  descent.  It  is  observable  that  most  of  them  are  of  Celtic  names." 

Clearly,  a  subjugated  territory,  useless  without  cultivators, 
was  left  in  the  hands  of  the  original  cultivators,  because 
nothing  was  to  be  gained  by  putting  others  in  their  places ; 
even  could  an  adequate  number  of  others  be  had.  Hence, 
while  it  became  the  conqueror's  interest  to  tie  each  original 
cultivator  to  the  soil,  it  also  became  his  interest  to  let  him 
have  such  an  amount  of  produce  as  to  maintain  him  and 
enable  him  to  rear  offspring,  and  it  further  became  his  interest 
to  protect  him  against  injuries  which  would  incapacitate  him 
for  work. 

To  show  how  fundamental  is  the  distinction  between  bondage 
of  the  primitive  type  and  the  bondage  of  serfdom,  it  needs  but 
to  add  that  while  the  one  can,  and  does,  exist  among  savages 
and  pastoral  tribes,  the  other  becomes  possible  only  after  the 
agricultural  stage  is  reached ;  for  only  then  can  there  occur  the 
bodily  annexation  of  one  society  by  another,  and  only  then 
can  there  be  any  tying  to  the  soil. 

§  458.  Associated  men  who  live  by  hunting,  and  to  whom 
the  area  occupied  is  of  value  only  as  a  habitat  for  game,  can 
not  well  have  anything  more  than  a  common  participation  iii 
the  use  of  this  occupied  area :  such  ownership  of  it  as  they 
have,  must  be  joint  ownership.  Naturally,  then,  at  the  outset 
all  the  adult  males,  who  are  at  once  hunters  and  warriors, 
are  the  common  possessors  of  the  undivided  land,  encroach 
ment  on  which  by  other  tribes  they  resist.  Though,  in  the 
earlier  pastoral  state,  especially  where  the  barrenness  of  the 


296  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

region  involves  wide  dispersion,  there  is  no  definite  pro 
prietorship  of  the  tract  wandered  over ;  yet,  as  is  shown  us  ill 
the  strife  between  the  herdsmen  of  Abraham  and  those  of  Lot 
respecting  feeding  grounds,  some  claims  to  exclusive  use  tend 
to  arise;  and  at  a  later  half-pastoral  stage,  as  among  the 
ancient  Germans,  the  wanderings  of  each  division  fall  within 
prescribed  limits. 

I  refer  to  these  facts  by  way  of  showing  the  identity  esta 
blished  at  the  outset  between  the  militant  class  and  the  land 
owning  class.  For  whether  the  group  is  one  which  lives  by 
hunting  or  one  which  lives  by  feeding  cattle,  any  slaves  its 
members  possess  are  excluded  from  land-ownership :  the  free 
men,  who  are  all  fighting  men,  become,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
the  proprietors  of  their  territory.  This  connexion  in  variously 
modified  forms,  long  continues ;  and  could  scarcely  do  other 
wise.  Land  being,  in  early  settled  communities,  the  almost 
exclusive  source  of  wealth,  it  happens  inevitably  that  during 
times  in  which  the  principle  that  might  is  right  remains 
unqualified,  personal  power  and  ownership  of  the  soil  go 
together.  Hence  the  fact  that  where,  instead  of  being  held 
by  the  whole  society,  land  comes  to  be  parcelled  out  among 
component  village-communities,  or  among  families,  or  among 
individuals,  possession  of  it  habitually  goes  along  with  the 
bearing  of  arms.  In  ancient  Egypt  "  every  soldier  was  a  land 
owner  " — "  had  an  allotment  of  land  of  about  six  acres."  In 
Greece  the  invading  Hellenes,  wresting  the  country  from  its 
original  holders,  joined  military  service  with  territorial  endow 
ment.  In  Rome,  too,  "  every  freeholder  from  the  seventeenth 
to  the  sixtieth  year  of  his  age,  was  under  obligation  of 
service  ...  so  that  even  the  emancipated  slave  had  to 
serve  who,  in  an  exceptional  case,  had  come  into  possession 
of  landed  property."  The  like  happened  in  the  early  Teutonic 
community.  Joined  with  professional  warriors,  its  army 
included  "  the  mass  of  freemen  arranged  in  families  fighting 
for  their  homesteads  and  hearths :"  such  freemen,  or  markmen, 
owning  land  partly  in  common  and  partly  as  individual  pro- 


POLITICAL   DIFFERENTIATION.  297 

prietors.  Or  as  is  said  of  this  same  arrangement  among  the 
ancient  English,  "  their  occupation  of  the  land  as  cognationes 
resulted  from  their  enrolment  in  the  field,  where  each  kindred 
was  drawn  up  under  an  officer  of  its  own  lineage  and  appoint 
ment  ;"  and  so  close  was  this  dependence  that  "  a  thane  for 
feited  his  hereditary  freehold  by  misconduct  in  battle." 

Beyond  the  original  connexion  between  militancy  and  land 
owning,  which  naturally  arises  from  the  joint  interest  which 
those  who  own  the  land  and  occupy  it,  either  individually  or 
collectively,  have  in  resisting  aggressors,  there  arises  later  a 
further  connexion.  As,  along  with  successful  militancy,  there 
progresses  a  social  evolution  which  gives  to  a  dominant  ruler 
increased  power,  it  becomes  his  custom  to  reward  his  leading 
soldiers  by  grants  of  land.  Early  Egyptian  kings  "  bestowed 
on  distinguished  military  officers"  portions  of  the  crown 
domains.  When  the  barbarians  were  enrolled  as  Roman 
soldiers,  "  they  were  paid  also  by  assignments  of  land,  accord 
ing  to  a  custom  which  prevailed  in  the  Imperial  armies.  The 
possession  of  these  lands  was  given  to  them  on  condition  of 
the  son  becoming  a  soldier  like.his  father."  And  that  kindred 
usages  were  general  throughout  the  feudal  period,  is  a  familiar 
truth :  feudal  tenancy  being,  indeed,  thus  constituted ;  and 
inability  to  bear  arms  being  a  reason  for  excluding  women 
from  succession.  To  exemplify  the  nature  of  the  relation 
established,  it  will  suffice  to  name  the  fact  that  "  "William 
the  Conqueror  .  .  .  distributed  this  kingdom  into  about 
60,000  parcels,  of  nearly  equal  value  [partly  left  in  the  hands 
of  those  who  previously  held  it,  and  partly  made  over  to  his 
followers  as  either  owners  or  suzerains],  from  each  of  which 
the  service  of  a  soldier  was  due ;"  and  the  further  fact  that 
one  of  his  laws  requires  all  owners  of  land  to  "swear 
that  they  become  vassals  or  tenants,"  and  will  "  defend  their 
lord's  territories  and  title  as  well  as  his  person  "  by  "  knight- 
service  on  horseback." 

That  this  original  relation  between  landowning  and  mili 
tancy  long  survived,  we  are  shown  by  the  armorial  bearings 


298  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

of  county  families,  as  well  as  by  the  portraits  of  family  ances 
tors,  who  are  mostly  represented  in  military  costume. 

§  459.  Setting  out  with  tho  class  of  warriors,  or  men  bear 
ing  arms,  who  in  primitive  communities  are  owners  of  the 
land,  collectively  or  individually,  or  partly  one  and  partly  the 
other,  there  arises  the  question — How  does  this  class  dif 
ferentiate  into  nobles  and  freemen  ? 

The  most  general  reply  is,  of  course,  that  since  the  state 
of  homogeneity  is  by  necessity  unstable,  time  inevitably  brings 
about  inequalities  of  positions  among  those  whose  positions 
were  at  first  equal.  Before  the  semi-civilized  state  is  reached, 
the  differentiation  cannot  become  decided ;  because  there  can 
be  no  large  accumulations  of  wealth,  and  because  the  laws  of 
descent  do  not  favour  maintenance  of  such  accumulations  as 
are  possible.  But  in  the  pastoral,  and  still  more  in  the  agri 
cultural,  community,  especially  where  descent  through  males 
has  been  established,  several  causes  of  differentiation  come  into 
play.  There  is,  first,  unlikeness  of  kinship  to  the  head  man. 

Obviously,  in  course  of  generations,  the  younger  descendants 
of  the  younger  become  more  and  more  remotely  related  to 
the  eldest  descendant  of  the  eldest ;  and  social  inferiority 
arises.  As  the  obligation  to  execute  blood-revenge  for  a  mur 
dered  member  of  the  family  does  not  extend  beyond  a  certain 
degree  of  relationship  (in  ancient  France  not  beyond  the 
seventh),  so  neither  does  the  accompanying  distinction.  From 
the  same  cause  comes  inferiority  in  point  of  possessions. 
Inheritance  by  the  eldest  male  from  generation  to  genera 
tion,  works  the  effect  that  those  who  are  the  most  distantly 
connected  in  blood  with  the  head  of  the  group,  are  also  the 
poorest.  Then  there  cooperates  with  these  factors  a 

consequent  factor;  namely,  the  extra  power  which  greater 
wealth  gives.  For  when  there  arise  disputes  within  the  tribe, 
the  richer  are  those  who,  by  their  better  appliances  for 
defence  and  their  greater  ability  to  purchase  aid,  naturally 
have  the  advantage  over  the  poorer.  Proof  that  this  is  a 


POLITICAL  DIFFERENTIATION.  299 

potent  cause  is  found  in  a  fact  named  by  Sir  Henry  Maine. 
"  The  founders  of  a  part  of  our  modern  European  aristocracy, 
the  Danish,  are  known  to  have  been  originally  peasants  who 
fortified  their  houses  during  deadly  village  struggles  and  then 
used  their  advantage."  Such  superiorities  of  position, 

once  initiated,  are  increased  in  another  way.  Already  in  the 
last  chapter  we  have  seen  that  communities  are  to  a  certain 
extent  increased  by  the  addition  of  fugitives  from  other  com 
munities — sometimes  criminals,  sometimes  those  who  are 
oppressed.  While,  in  places  where  such  fugitives  belong  to 
races  of  superior  types,  they  often  become  rulers  (as  among 
many  Indian  hill-tribes,  whose  rajahs  are  of  Hindoo  extrac 
tion),  in  places  where  they  are  of  the  same  race  and  cannot 
do  this,  they  attach  themselves  to  those  of  chief  power  in 
their  adopted  tribe.  Sometimes  they  yield  up  their  freedom 
for  the  sake  of  protection :  a  man  makes  himself  a  slave  by 
breaking  a  spear  in  the  presence  of  his  wished  for  master,  as 
among  the  East  Africans,  or  by  inflicting  some  small  bodily 
injury  upon  him,  as  among  the  Fulahs.  In  ancient  Kome 
the  semi-slave  class  distinguished  as  clients,  originated  by  this 
voluntary  acceptance  of  servitude  with  safety.  But  where 
his  aid  promises  to  be  of  value  in  war,  the  fugitive  offers 
himself  as  a  warrior  in  exchange  for  maintenance  and  refuge. 
Other  things  equal,  he  chooses  for  master  some  one  marked 
by  superiority  of  power  and  property  ;  and  thus  enables  the 
man  already  dominant  to  become  more  dominant.  Such 
armed  dependents,  having  as  aliens  no  claims  to  the  lands  of 
the  group,  and  bound  to  its  head  only  by  fealty,  answer  in 
position  to  the  comites  as  found  in  the  early  German  commu 
nities,  and  as  exemplified  in  old  English  times  by  the 
"Huscaiias"  (Housecarls),  with  whom  nobles  surrounded 
themselves.  Evidently,  too,  followers  of  this  kind,  having 
certain  interests  in  common  with  their  protector  and  no  inte 
rests  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  community,  become,  in 
his  hands,  the  means  of  usurping  communal  rights  and  ele 
vating  himself  while  depressing  the  rest. 


300  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Step  by  step  the  contrast  strengthens.  Beyond  such  as 
have  voluntarily  made  themselves  slaves  to  a  head  man, 
others  have  become  enslaved  by  capture  in  the  wars  mean 
while  going  on,  others  by  staking  themselves  in  gaming, 
others  by  purchase,  others  by  crime,  others  by  debt.  And  of 
necessity  the  possession  of  many  slaves,  habitually  accom 
panying  wealth  and  power,  tends  further  to  increase  that 
wealth  and  power,  and  to  mark  off  still  more  the  higher  rank 
from  the  lower. 

And  then,  finally,  the  inferior  freeman  finds  himself  so 
much  at  the  mercy  of  the  superior  freeman,  or  noble,  and  his 
armed  followers  of  alien  origin,  that  it  becomes  needful  for 
safety's  sake  to  be  also  a  follower ;  and,  at  first  voluntary,  the 
relation  of  dependence  grows  more  and  more  compulsory. 
"  The  freeman  might  choose  his  Lord,  he  might  determine 
to  whom,  in  technical  phrase,  he  should  commend  himself ; 
but  a  Lord  he  must  have,  a  Lord  to  act  at  once  as  his  pro 
tector  and  as  his  surety." 

§  460.  Certain  concomitant  influences  generate  differences 
of  nature,  physical  and  mental,  between  those  members  of  a 
community  who  have  attained  superior  positions,  and  those  who 
have  remained  inferior.  Unlikenesses  of  status  once  initiated, 
lead  to  unlikenesses  of  life,  which,  by  the  constitutional 
changes  they  work,  presently  make  the  unlikenesses  of  status 
more  difficult  to  alter. 

First  there  comes  difference  of  diet  and  its  effects.  In  the 
habit,  common  among  primitive  tribes,  of  letting  the  women 
subsist  on  the  leavings  of  the  men,  and  in  the  accompanying 
habit  of  denying  to  the  younger  men  certain  choice  viands 
which  the  older  men  eat,  we  see  exemplified  the  inevitable 
proclivity  of  the  strong  to  feed  themselves  at  the  expense  of 
the  weak ;  and  when  there  arise  class-divisions,  there  habit 
ually  results  better  nutrition  of  the  superior  than  of  the 
inferior.  Forster  remarks  that  in  the  Society  Islands  the 
lower  classes  often  suffer  from  a  scarcity  of  food  which  never 


POLITICAL  DIFFERENTIATION.  301 

extends  to  the  upper  classes.  In  the  Sandwich  Islands  the 
flesh  of  such  animals  as  they  have,  is  eaten  principally  by 
the  chiefs.  Of  cannibalism  among  the  Fijians,  Seeman  says 
— "  the  common  people  throughout  the  group,  as  well  as 
women  of  all  classes,  were  by  custom  debarred  from  it." 
These  instances  sufficiently  indicate  the  contrast  that  every 
where  arises  between  the  diets  of  the  ruling  few  and  of  the 
subject  many.  Naturally  by  such  differences  in  diet,  and 
accompanying  differences  in  clothing,  shelter,  and  strain  on 
the  energies,  are  eventually  produced  physical  differences. 
Of  the  Fijians  we  read  that  "  the  chiefs  are  tall,  well  made, 
and  muscular ;  while  the  lower  orders  manifest  the  meagre- 
ness  arising  from  laborious  service  and  scanty  nourish 
ment."  The  chiefs  among  the  Sandwich  Islanders  "  are  tall 
and  stout,  and  their  personal  appearance  is  so  much  superior 
to  that  of  the  common  people,  that  some  have  imagined  them 
a  distinct  race."  Ellis,  verifying  Cook,  says  of  the  Tahitians, 
that  the  chiefs  are,  "  almost  without  exception,  as  much 
superior  to  the  peasantry  ...  in  physical  strength  as  they 
are  in  rank  and  circumstances  ;"  and  Erskine  notes  a  parallel 
contrast  among  the  Tongans.  That  the  like  holds  of  the 
African  races  may  be  inferred  from  Eeade's  remark  that — 

"  The  court  lady  is  tall  and  elegant  ;  her  skin  smooth  and  transparent ; 
her  beauty  has  stamina  and  longevity.  The  girl  of  the  middle  classes,  so 
frequently  pretty,  is  very  often  short  and  coarse,  and  soon  becomes  a 
matron  ;  while,  if  you  descend  to  the  lower  classes,  you.  will  find  good 
looks  rare,  and  the  figure  angular,  stunted,  sometimes  almost  de 
formed.57* 

Simultaneously  there  arise  between  rulers  and  ruled,  nn- 
likenesses  of  bodily  activity  and  skill.  Occupied,  as  those  of 
higher  rank  commonly  are,  in  the  chase  when  not  occupied 
in  war,  they  have  a  life-long  discipline  of  a  kind  conducive 
to  various  physical  superiorities ;  while,  contrariwise,  those 
occupied  in  agriculture,  in  carrying  burdens,  and  in  other 

*  "While  writing  I  find,  in  the  re* -entry-issued  "  Transactions  of  the  Anthro 
pological  Institute,"  proof  that  even  now  in  England,  the  professional  classes 
axe  both  taller  and  heavier  than  the  artizan  classes. 


302  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

drudgeries,  partially  lose  what  agility  and  address  they  natu 
rally  had.     Class-predominance  is  thus  further  facilitated. 

And  then  there  are  the  respective  mental  traits  produced 
by  daily  exercise  of  power  and  by  daily  submission  to  power. 
The  ideas,  and  sentiments,  and  modes  of  behaviour,  perpetu 
ally  repeated,  generate  on  the  one  side  an  inherited  fitness  for 
command,  and  on  the  other  side  an  inherited  fitness  for 
obedience;  with  the  result  that,  in  course  of  time,  there 
arises  on  both  sides  the  belief  that  the  established  relations  of 
classes  are  the  natural  ones. 

§  461.  By  implying  habitual  war  among  settled  societies, 
the  foregoing  interpretations  have  implied  the  formation  of 
compound  societies.  Such  class-divisions  as  have  been 
described,  are  therefore  usually  complicated  by  further  class- 
divisions  arising  from  the  relations  established  between  those 
conquerors  and  conquered  whose  respective  groups  already 
contain  class-divisions. 

This  increasing  differentiation  which  accompanies  increas 
ing  integration,  is  clearly  seen  in  such  semi-civilized  societies 
as  that  of  the  Sandwich  Islanders.  Their  ranks  are — • 
"  1.  King,  queens,  and  royal  family,  along  with  the  councillor  or 
chief  minister  of  the  king.  2.  The  governors  of  the  different  islands, 
and  the  chiefs  of  several  large  divisions.  Many  of  these  are  descendants 
of  those  who  were  kings  of  the  respective  islands  in  Cook's  time,  and 
until  subdued  by  T-amehameha.  3.  Chiefs  of  districts  or  villages,  who 
pay  a  regular  rent  for  the  land,  cultivating  it  by  means  of  their  depen 
dants,  or  letting  it  out  to  tenants.  This  rank  includes  also  the  ancient 
priests.  4.  The  labouring  classes — those  renting  small  portions  of  land, 
those  working  on  the  land  for  food  and  clothing,  mechanics,  musicians, 
and  dancers." 

And,  as  shown  elsewhere,  these  labouring  classes  are  other 
wise  divisible  into — artizans,  who  are  paid  wages ;  serfs, 
attached  to  the  soil ;  and  slaves.  Inspection  makes  it  tolera 
bly  clear  that  the  lowest  chiefs,  once  independent,  were  re 
duced  to  the  second  rank  when  adjacent  chiefs  conquered 
them  and  became  local  kings ;  and  that  they  were  reduced  to 
the  third  rank  at  the  same  time  that  these  local  kings  became 


.  POLITICAL  DIFFERENTIATION.  303 

chiefs  of  the  second  rank,  when,  by  conquest,  a  kingship  of 
the  whole  group  was  established.  Other  societies  in  kindred 
stages  show  us  kindred  divisions,  similarly  to  be  accounted 
for.  Among  the  New  Zealanders  there  are  six  grades ;  there 
are  six  among  the  Ashantees ;  there  are  five  among  the 
Abyssinians ;  and  other  more  or  less  compounded  African 
States  present  analogous  divisions.  Perhaps  ancient  Peru 
furnishes  as  cleai  a  case  as  any  of  the  superposition  of  ranks 
resulting  from,  subjugation.  The  petty  kingdoms  which  were 
massed  together  by  the  conquering  Yncas,  were  severally  left 
with  the  rulers  and  their  subordinates  undisturbed  ;  but  over 
the  whole  empire  there  was  a  superior  organization  of  Ynca 
rulers  of  various  grades.  That  kindred  causes  produced 
kindred  effects  in  early  Egyptian  times,  is  inferable  from 
traditions  and  remains  which  tell  us  both  of  local  struggles 

£D£~) 

which  ended  in  consolidation,  and  of  conquests  by  invading 
races ;  whence  would  naturally  result  the  numerous  divisions 
and  sub-divisions  which  Egyptian  society  presented :  an  in 
ference  justified  by  the  fact  that  under  Eoman  dominion, 
there  was  a  re-complication  caused  by  the  superposing  of 
Eoman  governing  agencies  upon  native  governing  agencies. 
Passing  over  other  ancient  instances,  and  coming  to  the 
familiar  case  of  our  own  country,  we  may  note  how,  from  the 
followers  of  the  conquering  Norman,  there  arose  the  two 
ranks  of  the  greater  and  lesser  barons,  holding  their  land 
directly  from  the  king,  while  the  old  English  thanes  were 
reduced  to  the  rank  of  sub-feudatories.  Of  course  where 
perpetual  wars  produce,  first,  small  aggregations,  and  then 
larger  ones,  and  then  dissolutions,  and  then  re-aggregations, 
and  then  unions  of  them,  various  in  their  extents,  as  happened 
in  mediaeval  Europe,  there  result  very  numerous  divisions. 
In  the  Merovingian  kingdoms  there  were  slaves  having  seven 
different  origins ;  there  were  serfs  of  more  than  one  grade ; 
there  were  freedmen — men  who,  though  emancipated,  did  not 
rank  with  the  fully  free ;  and  there  were  two  other  classes 
less  than  free — the  liten  and  the  coloni.  Of  the  free  there 

78 


304  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

were  three  classes — independent  landowners ;  freemen  in 
relations  of  dependence  with  other  freemen,  of  whom  there 
were  two  kinds ;  and  freemen  in  special  relations  with  the 
king,  of  whom  there  were  three  kinds. 

And  here,  while  observing  in  these  various  cases  how 
greater  political  differentiation  is  made  possible  by  greater 
political  integration,  we  may  also  observe  that  in  early  stages, 
while  social  cohesion  is  small,  greater  political  integration  is 
made  possible  by  greater  political  differentiation.  For  the 
larger  the  mass  to  be  held  together,  while  incoherent,  the  more 
numerous  must  be  the  agents  standing  in  successive  degree? 
of  subordination  to  hold  it  together. 


o 


§  462.  The  political  differentiations  which  militancy  origi 
nates,  and  which  for  a  long  time  increase  in  defmiteness,  so 
that  mixture  of  ranks  by  marriage  is  made  a  crime,  are  at 
later  stages,  and  under  other  conditions,  interfered  with, 
traversed,  and  partially  or  wholly  destroyed. 

Where,  for  ages  and  in  varying  degrees,  war  has  been  pro 
ducing  aggregations  and  dissolutions,  the  continual  breaking 
up  and  re-forming  of  social  bonds,  obscures  the  original 
divisions  established  in  the  ways  described:  instance  the 
state  of  things  in  the  Merovingian  kingdoms  just  named,, 
And  where,  instead  of  conquests  by  kindred  adjacent  societies, 
which  in  large  measure  leave  standing  the  social  positions 
and  properties  of  the  subjugated,  there  are  conquests  by  alien 
races  carried  on  more  barbarously,  the  original  grades  may  be 
practically  obliterated,  and,  in  place  of  them,  there  may  come 
grades  established  entirely  by  appointment  of  the  despotic 
conqueror.  In  parts  of  the  East,  where  such  over-runnings 
of  race  by  race  have  been  going  on  from  the  earliest  recorded 
times,  we  see  this  state  of  tilings  substantially  realized. 
There  is  little  or  nothing  of  hereditary  rank;  and  the  only 
rank  recognized  is  that  of  official  position.  Besides  the 
different  grades  of  appointed  state-functionaries,  there  are 
no  class-distinctions  having  political  meanings. 


POLITICAL   DIFFERENTIATION.  305 

A  tendency  to  subordination  of  the  original  ranks,  and  a 
substitution  of  new  ranks,  is  otherwise  caused :  it  accompanies 
the  progress  of  political  consolidation.  The  change  which 
occurred  in  China  illustrates  this  effect.  Gutzlatf  says — 

"  Mere  title  was  afterwards  (on  the  decay  of  the  feudal  system)  the 
reward  bestowed  by  the  sovereign  .  .  .  and  the  haughty  and  powerful 
giandees  of  other  countries  are  here  the  dependant  and  penurious 
servants  of  the  Crown.  .  .  .  The  revolutionary  principle  of  levelling 
all  classes  has  been  carried,  in  China,  to  a  very  great  extent.  .  .  .  This 
is  introduced  for  the  benefit  of  the  sovereign,  to  render  his  authority 
supreme." 

The  causes  of  such  changes  are  not  difficult  to  see.  In  the 
first  place  the  subjugated  local  rulers,  losing,  as  integration 
advances,  more  and  more  of  their  power,  lose,  consequently, 
more  and  more  of  their  actual,  if  not  of  their  nominal,  rank  : 
passing  from  the  condition  of  tributary  rulers  to  the  condition 
of  subjects.  Indeed,  jealousy  on  the  part  of  the  monarch 
sometimes  prompts  positive  exclusion  of  them  from  influential 
positions ;  as  in  France,  where  "  Louis  XIV.  systematically 
excluded  the  nobility  from  ministerial  functions."  Presently 
their  distinction  is  further  diminished  by  the  rise  of  com 
peting  ranks  created  by  State-authority.  Instead  of  the  titles 
inherited  by  the  land-possessing  military  chiefs,  which  were 
descriptive  of  their  attributes  and  positions,  there  come  to  be 
titles  conferred  by  the  sovereign.  Certain  of  the  classes  thus 
established  are  still  of  military  origin ;  as  the  knights  made 
on  the  battle-field,  sometimes  in  large  numbers  before  battle, 
as  at  Agincourt,  when  500  were  thus  created,  and  sometimes 
afterwards  in  reward  for  valour.  Others  of  them  arise  from 
the  exercise  of  political  functions  of  different  grades ;  as  in 
France,  where,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  hereditary  nobility 
was  conferred  on  officers  of  the  great  council  and  officers  of 
the  chamber  of  accounts.  The  administration  of  law,  too, 
originates  titles  of  honour.  In  France,  in  1607,  nobility  was 
granted  to  doctors,  regents,  and  professors  of  law  ;  and  u  the 
superior  courts  obtained,  in  1644,  the  privileges  of  nobility  of 
the  first  degree."  So  that,  as  Warnkcenig  remarks,  "  the 


306  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

original  conception  of  nobility  was  in  the  course  of  time  so 
much  widened  that  its  primitive  relation  to  the  possession  of 
a  fief  is  no  longer  recognizable,  and  the  whole  institution 
seems  changed."  These,  with  kindred  instances  which  our 
own  country  and  other  European  countries  furnish,  show  us 
both  how  the  original  class-divisions  become  blurred,  and 
how  the  new  class-divisions  are  distinguished  by  being  de- 
localized.  They  are  strata  which  run  through  the  integrated 
society,  having,  many  of  them,  no  reference  to  the  land  and 
no  more  connexion  with  one  place  than  with  another.  It  is 
true  that  of  the  titles  artificially  conferred,  the  higher  are 
habitually  derived  from  the  names  of  districts  and  towns  :  so 
simulating,  but  only  simulating,  the  ancient  feudal  titles  ex 
pressive  of  actual  lordship  over  territories.  The  other  modern 
titles,  however,  which  have  arisen  with  the  growth  of  political, 
judicial,  and  other  functions,  have  not  even  nominal  references 
to  localities.  This  change  naturally  accompanies  the  growing 
integration  of  the  parts  into  a  whole,  and  the  rise  of  an  or 
ganization  of  the  whole  which  disregards  the  divisions  among 
the  parts. 

More  effective  still  in  weakening  those  primitive  political 
divisions  initiated  by  militancy,  is  increasing  industrialism. 
This  acts  in  two  ways — firstly,  by  creating  a  class  having 
power  derived  otherwise  than  from  territorial  possessions  or 
official  positions;  and,  secondly,  by  generating  ideas  and 
sentiments  at  variance  with  the  ancient  assumptions  of  class- 
superiority.  As  we  have  already  seen,  rank  and 
wealth  are  at  the  outset  habitually  associated.  Existing 
uncivilized  peoples  still  show  us  this  relation.  The  chief  of 
a  kraal  among  the  Koranna  Hottentots  is  "  usually  the  per 
son  of  greatest  property."  In  the  Bechuana  language  "  the 
word  Jcosi  .  .  .  has  a  double  acceptation,  denoting  either  a 
chief  or  a  rich  man."  Such  small  authority  as  a  Chinook 
chief  has,  "rests  on  riches,  which  consists  in  wives,  children, 
slaves,  boats,  and  shells."  Eude  European  peoples,  like  the 
Albanians,  yield  kindred  facts :  the  heads  of  their  communes 


POLITICAL   DIFFERENTIATION.  307 

u  sont  en  general  les  gens  les  plus  riches."  Indeed  it  is 
manifest  that  before  the  development  of  commerce,  and  while 
possession  of  land  could  alone  give  largeness  of  means,  lord 
ship  and  riches  were  directly  connected;  so  that,  as  Sir 
Henry  Maine  remarks,  "the  opposition  commonly  set  up 
between  birth  and  wealth,  and  particularly  wealth  other  than 
landed  property,  is  entirely  modern."  When,  however,  with 
the  arrival  of  industry  at  that  stage  in  which  wholesale 
transactions  bring  large  profits,  there  arise  traders  who  vie 
with,  and  exceed,  many  of  the  landed  nobility  in  wealth ; 
find  when  by  conferring  obligations  on  kings  and  nobles,  such 
traders  gain  social  influence ;  there  comes  an  occasional 
removal  of  the  barrier  between  them  and  the  titled  classes. 
In  France  the  process  began  as  early  as  1271,  when  there 
were  issued  letters  ennobling  Eaoul  the  goldsmith — "  the 
first  letters  conferring  nobility  in  existence"  in  France.  The 
precedent  once  established  is  followed  with  increasing  fre 
quency;  and  sometimes,  under  pressure  of  financial  needs, 
there  grows  up  the  practice  of  selling  titles,  in  disguised 
ways  or  openly.  In  France,  in  1702,  the  king  ennobled  200 
persons  at  3,000  livres  a-head ;  in  1706,  500  persons  at 
6,000  livres  a-head.  And  then  the  breaking  down  of  the 
ancient  political  divisions  thus  caused,  is  furthered  by  that 
weakening  of  them  consequent  on  the  growing  spirit  of 
equality  fostered  by  industrial  life.  In  proportion  as  men 
are  habituated  to  maintain  their  own  claims  while  respect 
ing  the  claims  of  others,  which  they  do  in  every  act  of 
exchange,  whether  of  goods  for  money  or  of  services  for  pay, 
there  is  produced  a  mental  attitude  at  variance  with  that 
which  accompanies  subjection ;  and,  as  fast  as  this  happens, 
such  political  distinctions  as  imply  subjection,  lose  more  and 
more  of  that  respect  which  gives  them  strength. 

§  463.  Class-distinctions,  then,  date  back  to  the  beginnings 
of  social  life.  Omitting  those  small  wandering  assemblages 
which  are  so  incoherent  that  their  component  parts  are 


308  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

ever  changing  their  relations  to  one  another  and  to  the 
environment,  we  see  that  wherever  there  is  some  coherence 
and  some  permanence  of  relation  among  the  parts,  there 
begin  to  arise  political  divisions.  Eelative  superiority  of 
power,  first  causing  a  differentiation  at  once  domestic  anJ 
social,  between  the  activities  of  the  sexes  and  the  consequent 
positions  of  the  sexes,  presently  begins  to  cause  a  differentia 
tion  among  males,  shown  in  the  bondage  of  captives :  a 
master-class  and  a  slave-class  are  formed. 

Where  men  continue  the  wandering  life  in  pursuit  of  wild 
food  for  themselves  or  their  cattle,  the  groups  they  form  are 
debarred  from  doing  more  by  war  than  appropriate  one 
another's  units  individually;  but  where  men  have  passed 
into  the  agricultural  or  settled  state,  it  becomes  possible  for 
one  community  to  take  possession  bodily  of  another  com 
munity,  along  with  the  territory  it  occupies.  When  this 
happens  there  arise  additional  class-divisions.  The  conquered 
and  tribute-paying  community,  besides  having  its  headmen 
reduced  to  subjection,  has  its  people  reduced  to  a  state  such 
that,  while  they  continue  to  live  on  their  lands,  they  yie^d 
up,  through  the  intermediation  of  their  chiefs,  part  of  the 
produce  to  the  conquerors  :  so  foreshadowing  what  eventually 
becomes  a  serf-class. 

From  the  beginning  the  militant  class,  being  by  force  of 
arms  the  dominant  class,  becomes  the  class  which  owns  the 
source  of  food— the  land.  During  the  hunting  and  pastoral 
stages,  the  warriors  of  the  group  hold  the  land  collectively. 
On  passing  into  the  settled  state,  their  tenures  become 
partly  collective  and  partly  individual  in  sundry  ways,  and 
eventually  almost  wholly  individual.  But  throughout  long 
stages  of  social  evolution,  landowning  and  militancy  con 
tinue  to  be  associated. 

The  class-differentiation  of  which  militancy  is  the  active 
cause,  is  furthered  by  the  establishment  of  definite  descent, 
and  especially  male  descent,  and  by  the  transmission  of  posi 
tion  and  property  to  the  eldest  son  of  the  eldest  continually. 


POLITICAL   DIFFERENTIATION.  309 

Tliis  conduces  to  inequalities  of  position  and  wealth  between 
near  kindred  and  remote  kindred  ;  and  such  inequalities  once 
initiated,  tend  to  increase ;  since  it  results  from  them  that 
the  superior  get  greater  means  of  maintaining  their  power 
by  accumulating  appliances  for  offence  and  defence. 

Such  differentiation  is  augmented,  at  the  same  time  that  a 
new  differentiation  is  set  up,  by  the  immigration  of  fugitives 
who  attach  themselves  to  the  most  powerful  member  of  the 
group :  now  as  dependants  who  work,  and  now  as  armed 
followers — armed  followers  who  form  a  class  bound  to  the 
dominant  man  and  unconnected  with  the  land.  And  since, 
in  clusters  of  such  groups,  fugitives  ordinarily  flock  most  to 
the  strongest  group,  and  become  adherents  of  its  head,  they 
are  instrumental  in  furthering  those  subsequent  integrations 
and  differentiations  which  conquests  bring  about. 

Inequalities  of  social  position,  bringing  inequalities  in  the 
supplies  and  kinds  of  food,  clothing,  and  shelter,  tend  to 
establish  physical  differences  ;  to  the  further  advantage  of  the 
rulers  and  disadvantage  of  the  ruled.  And  beyond  the 
physical  differences,  there  are  produced  by  the  respective 
habits  of  life,  mental  differences,  emotional  and  intellectual, 
strengthening  the  general  contrast  of  nature. 

When  there  come  the  conquests  which  produce  compound 
societies,  and,  again,  doubly  compound  ones,  there  result 
superpositions  of  ranks.  And  the  general  effect  is  that,  while 
the  ranks  of  the  conquering  society  become  respectively 
higher  than  those  which  existed  before,  the  ranks  of  the  con 
quered  society  become  respectively  lower. 

The  class-divisions  thus  formed  during  the  earlier  stages 
of  militancy,  are  traversed  and  obscured  as  fast  as  many 
small  societies  are  consolidated  into  one  large  society.  Banks 
referring  to  local  organization  are  gradually  replaced  by  ranks 
referring  to  general  organization.  Instead  of  deputy  and 
sub-deputy  governing  agents  who  are  the  militant  owners  of 
the  sub-divisions  they  rule,  there  come  governing  agents  who 
more  or  less  clearly  form  strata  running  throughout  tho 


310  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

society  as  a  whole — a  concomitant  of  developed  political 
administration. 

Chiefly,  however,  we  have  to  note  that  while  the  higher 
political  evolution  of  large  social  aggregates,  tends  to  break 
down  the  divisions  of  rank  which  grew  up  in  the  small  com 
ponent  social  aggregates,  by  substituting  other  divisions, 
these  original  divisions  are  still  more  broken  down  by  grow 
ing  industrialism.  Generating  a  wealth  that  is  not  connected 
with  rank,  this  initiates  a  competing  power;  and  at  the 
same  time,  by  establishing  the  equal  positions  of  citizens 
before  the  law  in  respect  of  trading  transactions,  it  weakens 
those  divisions  which  at  the  outset  expressed  inequalities  of 
position  before  the  law. 

As  verifying  these  interpretations,  I  may  add  that  they 
harmonize  with  the  interpretations  of  ceremonial  insti 
tutions  already  given.  When  the  conquered  enemy  is  made 
a  slave,  and  mutilated  by  taking  a  trophy  from  his  body,  we 
see  simultaneously  originating  the  deepest  political  distinction 
and  the  ceremony  which  marks  it ;  and  with  the  continued 
militancy  that  compounds  and  re-compounds  social  groups, 
there  goes  at  once  the  development  of  political  distinctions 
and  the  development  of  ceremonies  marking  them.  And  as 
we  before  saw  that  growing  industrialism  diminishes  the 
rigour  of  ceremonial  rule,  so  here  we  see  that  it  tends  to 
destroy  those  class- divisions  which  militancy  originates,  and 
to  establish  quite  alien  ones  which  indicate  differences  of 
position  consequent  on  differences  of  aptitude  for  the  various 
ianctions  which  an  industrial  society  needs. 


CHAPTER  V. 

POLITICAL  FORMS  AND  FOKCES. 

§  464.  THE  conceptions  of  biologists  have  been  greatly  en 
larged  by  the  discovery  that  organisms  which,  when  adult, 
appear  to  have  scarcely  anything  in  common,  were,  in  their 
first  stages,  very  similar ;  and  that,  indeed,  all  organisms  start 
with  a  common  structure.  Recognition  of  this  truth  has  re 
volutionized  not  only  their  ideas  respecting  the  relations  of 
organisms  to  one  another,  but  also  their  ideas  respecting  the 
relations  of  the  parts  of  each  organism  to  one  another. 

If  societies  have  evolved,  and  if  that  mutual  dependence  of 
their  parts  which  cooperation  implies,  has  been  gradually 
reached,  then  the  implication  is  that  however  imlike  their 
developed  structures  become,  there  is  a  rudimentary  structure 
with  which  they  all  set  out.  And  if  there  can  be  recognized 
any  such  primitive  unity,  recognition  of  it  will  help  us  to 
interpret  the  ultimate  diversity.  We  shall  understand  better 
how  in  each  society  the  several  components  of  the  political 
agency  have  come  to  be  what  we  now  see  them;  and  also 
how  those  of  one  society  are  related  to  those  of  another. 

Setting  out  witli  an  unorganized  horde,  including  both 
sexes  and  all  ages,  let  us  ask  what  must  happen  when  some 
public  question,  as  that  of  migration,  or  of  defence  against 
enemies,  has  to  be  decided.  The  assembled  individuals  will 
fall,  more  or  less  clearly,  into  two  divisions.  The  elder,  the 
stronger,  and  those  whose  sagacity  and  courage  have  been 
proved  by  experience,  will  form  the  smaller  part,  who  carry 


312  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

on  the  discussion  ;  while  the  larger  part,  formed  of  the  young, 
the  weak,  and  the  undistinguished,  will  be  listeners,  who 
usually  do  no  more  than  express  from  time  to  time  assent  or 
dissent.  A  further  inference  may  safely  be  drawn.  In  the 
cluster  of  leading  men  there  is  sure  to  be  one  whose  weight 
is  greater  than  that  of  any  other — some  aged  hunter,  some 
distinguished  warrior,  some  cunning  medicine-man,  who  will 
have  more  than  his  individual  share  in  forming  the  resolution 
finally  acted  upon.  That  is  to  say,  the  entire  assemblage  will 
resolve  itself  into  three  parts.  To  use  a  biological  metaphor, 
there  will,  out  of  the  general  mass,  be  differentiated  a  nucleus 
and  a  nucleolus. 

These  first  traces  of  political  structure  which  we  infer 
d  priori  must  spontaneously  arise,  we  find  have  arisen  among 
the  rudest  peoples :  repetition  having  so  strengthened  them 
as  to  produce  a  settled  order.  When,  among  the  aborigines 
of  Victoria,  a  tribe  plans  revenge  on  another  tribe  supposed 
to  have  killed  one  of  its  members,  "  a  council  is  called  of  all 
the  old  men  of  the  tribe.  .  .  The  women  form  an  outer 
circle  round  the  men.  .  .  The  chief  [simply  '  a  native  of 
influence  ']  opens  the  council."  And  what  we  here  see  hap 
pening  in  an  assemblage  having  no  greater  differences  than 
those  based  on  strength,  age,  arid  capacity,  happens  when, 
later,  these  natural  distinctions  have  gained  definiteness.  In 
illustration  may  be  named  the  account  which  Schoolcraft 
gives  of  a  conference  at  which  the  Chippewas,  Ottawas,  and 
Pottowattomies  met  certain  United  States'  Commissioners : 
Schoolcraft  being  himself  present.  After  the  address  of  the 
head  commissioner  had  been  delivered,  the  speaking  on  be 
half  of  the  Indians  was  carried  on  by  the  principal  chiefs : 
the  lead  being  taken  by  "  a  man  venerable  for  his  age  and 
standing."  Though  Schoolcraft  does  not  describe  the  as- 

O  O 

semblage  of  undistinguished  people,  yet  that  they  were  pre 
sent  is  shown  by  a  passage  in  one  of  the  native  speeches  :— 
"  Behold  !  see  my  brethren,  both  young  and  old — the  warriors 
and  chiefs — the  women  and  children  of  mv  nation."  And 


POLITICAL   FORMS  AND   FORCES.  313 

that  Hie  political  order  observed  on  this  occasion  was  the 
usual  order,  is  implied  by  its  recurrence  even  in  parts  of 
America  where  chiefs  have  become  marked  off  by  ascribed 
nobility ;  as  instance  the  account  of  one  of  the  Central 
American  tribes,  who  "  have  frequent  reunions  in  their 
council-house  at  night.  The  hall  is  then  lighted  up  by  a 
large  fire,  and  the  people  sit  with  uncovered  heads,  listening 
respectfully  to  the  observations  and  decisions  of  the  ahuales 
— men  over  forty  years  of  age,  who  have  occupied  public 
positions,  or  distinguished  themselves  in  some  way."  Among 
peoples  unlike  in  type  and  remote  in  locality,  we  find,  modi 
fied  in  detail  but  similar  in  general  character,  this  primitive 
governmental  form.  Of  the  Hill  tribes  of  India  may  be  in 
stanced  the  Khonds,  of  whom  we  read  that — 

u  Assemblies  of  the  whole  tribe,  or  of  any  of  its  sub-divisions,  are  con 
vened,  to  determine  questions  of  general  importance.  The  members  of 
every  society,  however,  have  a  right  to  be  present  at  all  its  councils, 
and  to  give  their  voices  on  the  questions  mooted,  although  the  patri 
archs  alone  take  a  part  in  their  public  discussion"  ..."  The  federal 
patriarchs,  in  like  manner,  consult  with  the  heads  of  tribes,  and 
assemble  when  necessary  the  entire  population  of  the  federal  group." 

In  New  Zealand,  too,  the  government  was  conducted  in 
accordance  with  public  opinion  expressed  in  general  assem 
blies  ;  and  the  chiefs  "  could  not  declare  peace  or  war,  or  do 
anything  affecting  the  whole  people,  without  the  sanction  of 
the  majority  of  the  clan."  Of  the  Tahitians,  Ellis  tells  us 
that  the  king  had  a  few  chiefs  as  advisers,  but  that  no  affair 
of  national  importance  could  be  undertaken  without  consult 
ing  the  land-holders  or  second  rank,  and  also  that  public 
assemblies  were  held.  Similarly  of  the  Malagasy.  "  The 
greatest  national  council  in  Madagascar  is  an  assembly  of  the 
people  of  the  capital,  and  the  heads  of  the  provinces,  towns, 
villages,  &c."  The  king  usually  presides  in  person. 

Though  in  these  last  cases  we  see  considerable  changes  in 
the  relative  powers  of  the  three  components,  so  that  the  inner 
few  have  gained  in  authority  at  the  expense  of  the  outer 
many,  yet  all  three  are  still  present  •  and  they  continue  to 


314  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

be  present  when  we  pass  to  sundry  historic  peoples.  Even 
of  the  Phoenicians,  Movers  notes  that  "  in  the  time  of  Alex 
ander  a  war  was  decided  upon  by  the  Tyrians  without  the 
consent  of  the  absent  king,  the  senate  acting  together  with 
the  popular  assembly."  Then  there  is  the  familiar  case  of 
the  Homeric  Greeks,  whose  Agora,  presided  over  by  the  king, 
was  "  an  assembly  for  talk,  communication  and  discussion  to 
a  certain  extent  by  the  chiefs,  in  presence  of  the  people  as 
listeners  and  sympathisers,"  wh»  w^-re  seated  around ;  and 
that  the  people  were  not  always  passive  is  shown  by  the  story 
of  Thersites,  who,  ill-used  though  he  was  by  Odysseus  and 
derided  by  the  crowd  for  interfering,  had  first  made  his 
harangue.  Again,  the  king,  the  senate,  and  the  freemen,  in 
early  Eoman  times,  stood  in  relations  which  had  manifestly 
grown  out  of  those  existing  in  the  original  assembly ;  for 
though  the  three  did  not  simultaneously  co-operate,  yet  on 
important  occasions  the  king  communicated  his  proposals  -to 
the  assembled  burgesses,  who  expressed  their  approval  or  dis 
approval,  and  the  clan-chiefs,  forming  the  senate,  though  they 
did  not  debate  in  public,  had  yet  such  joint  power  that  they 
could,  on  occasion,  negative  the  decision  of  king  and  bur 
gesses.  Concerning  the  primitive  Germans,  Tacitus,  as  trans 
lated  by  Mr.  Freeman,  writes — 

"  On  smaller  matters  the  chiefs  debate,  on  greater  matters  all  men  ;  but 
so  that  those  things  whose  final  decision  rests  with  the  whole  people 
are  first  handled  by  the  chiefs.  .  .  .  The  multitude  sits  armed  in  such 
order  as  it  thinks  good ;  silence  is  proclaimed  by  the  priests,  who  have  also 
the  right  of  enforcing  it.  Presently  the  king  or  chief,  according  to  the 
age  of  each,  according  to  his  birth,  according  to  his  glory  in  war  or  his 
eloquence,  is  listened  to,  speaking  rather  by  the  influence  of  persuasion 
than  by  the  power  of  commanding.  If  their  opinions  give  offence, 
they  are  thrust  aside  with  a  shout ;  if  they  approved,  the  hearers  clash 
their  spears." 

Similarly  among  the  Scandinavians,  as  shown  us  in  Iceland, 
where,  besides  the  general  Al-thing  annually  held,  which  it 
was  "  disreputable  for  a  freeman  not  to  attend,"  and  at  which 
"  people  of  all  classes  in  fact  pitched  their  tents,"  there  were 
local  assemblies  called  Var-things  "  attended  by  all  the  free- 


POLITICAL  FOftMS   AND   FORCES.  315 

men  of  the  district,  with  a  crowd  of  retainers  .  .  .  both  for 
the  discussion  of  public  affairs  and  the  administration  of  jus 
tice  .  .  .  Within  the  circle  [formed  for  administering  justice] 
sat  the  judges,  the  people  standing  on  the  outside."  In  the  ac 
count  given  by  Mr.  Freeman  of  the  yearly  meetings  in  the  Swiss 
cantons  of  Uri  and  Appenzell,  we  may  trace  this  primitive 
political  form  as  still  existing ;  for  though  the  presence  of  the 
people  at  large  is  the  fact  principally  pointed  out,  yet  there  is 
named,  in  the  case  of  Uri,  the  body  of  magistrates  or  chosen 
chiefs  who  form  the  second  element,  as  well  as  the  head  magis 
trate  who  is  the  first  element.  And  that  in  ancient  England 
there  was  a  kindred  constitution  of  the  Witenagemot,  is  in 
directly  proved ;  as  witness  the  following  passage  from 
Freeman's  Growth  of  the  English  Constitution : — 

*  No  ancient  record  gives  us  any  clear  or  formal  account  of  the  constitu 
tion  of  that  body.  It-  is  commonly  spoken  of  in  a  vague  way  as  a 
gathering  of  the  wise,  the  noble,  the  great  men.  But,  alongside  pas 
sages  like  these,  we  find  other  passages  which  speak  of  it  in  a  way 
which  implies  a  far  more  popular  constitution.  King  Eadward  is  said 
to  be  chosen  King  by  *  all  folk.'  Earl  Godwine  '  makes  his  speech 
before  the  king  and  all  the  people  of  the  land.' " 

And  the  implication,  as  Mr.  Freeman  points  out,  is  that  the 
share  taken  by  the  people  in  the  proceedings  was  that  of 
expressing  by  shouts  their  approval  or  disapproval. 

This  form  of  ruling  agency  is  thus  shown  to  be  the  funda 
mental  form,  by  its  presence  at  the  outset  of  social  life  and 
by  its  continuance  under  various  conditions.  Not  among 
peoples  of  superior  types  only,  such  as  Aryans  and  some 
Semites,  do  we  find  it,  but  also  among  sundry  Malayo-Poly- 
nesians,  among  the  red  men  of  North  America,  the  Dravidian 
tribes  of  the  Indian  hills,  the  aborigines  of  Australia.  In 
fact,  as  already  implied,  governmental  organization  could  not 
possibly  begin  in  any  other  way.  On  the  one  hand,  no  con 
trolling  force  at  first  exists  save  that  of  the  aggregate  will  as 
manifested  in  the  assembled  horde.  On  the  other  hand,  lead 
ing  parts  in  determining  this  aggregate  will  are  inevitably 
taken  by  the  few  whose  superiority  is  recognized.  And  of 


316  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

these  predominant  few,  some  one  is  sure  to  be  most  pre 
dominant.  That  which  we  have  to  note  as  specially  significant, 
is  not  that  a  free  form  of  government  is  the  primitive  form ; 
though  this  is  an  implication  which  may  be  dwelt  upon.  NOT 
are  we  chiefly  concerned  with  the  fact  that  at  the  very  begin 
ning  there  shows  itself  that  separation  of  the  superior  few 
from  the  inferior  many,  which  becomes  marked  in  later 
stages  ;  though  this,  too,  is  a  fact  which  may  be  singled  out 
and  emphasized.  Nor  is  attention  to  be  mainly  directed  to 
the  early  appearance  of  a  man  whose  controlling  power  is 
greater  than  that  of  any  other ;  though  the  evidence  given  may 
be  cited  to  prove  this.  But  here  we  have  to  note,  particularly, 
the  truth  that  at  the  outset  may  be  discerned  the  vague  out 
lines  of  a  tri-une  political  structure. 

§  465.  Of  course  the  ratios  among  the  powers  of  these 
three  components  are  in  no  two  cases  quite  the  same ;  and,  as 
implied  in  sundry  of  the  above  examples,  they  everywhere 
undergo  more  or  less  change — change  determined  here  by  the 
emotional  natures  of  the  men  composing  the  group ;  there  by 
the  physical  circumstances  as  favouring  or  hindering  inde 
pendence  ;  now  by  the  activities  as  warlike  or  peaceful ;  and 
now  by  the  exceptional  characters  of  particular  individuals. 

Unusual  sagacity,  skill,  or  strength,  habitually  regarded  by 
primitive  men  as  supernatural,  may  give  to  some  member  of 
the  tribe  an  influence  which,  transmitted  to  a  successor  sup 
posed  to  inherit  his  supernatural  character,  establishes  an 
authority  subordinating  both  that  of  the  other  leading  men 
and  that  of  the  mass.  Or  from  a  division  of  labour  such  tlmt 
while  some  remain  exclusively  warriors  the  rest  are  in  a 
measure  otherwise  occupied,  it  may  result  that  the  two  supe 
rior  components  of  the  political  agency  get  power  to  over-ride 
the  third.  Or  the  members  of  the  third,  keeping  up  habits 
which  make  coercion  of  them  difficult  or  impossible,  may 
maintain  a  general  predominance  over  the  other  two.  And 
then  the  relations  of  these  three  governing  elements  to  the 


POLITICAL  FORMS   AND   FORCES.  317 

entire  community  may,  and  ordinarily  do,  undergo  change  by 
the  formation  of  a  passive  class  excluded  from  their  delibera 
tions — a  class  at  first  composed  of  the  women  and  afterwards 
containing  also  the  slaves  or  other  dependents. 

War  successfully  carried  on,  not  only  generates  this  passive 
class,  but  also,  implying  as  it  does  subjection  to  leaders, 
changes  more  or  less  decidedly  the  relative  powers  of  these 
three  parts  of  the  political  agency.  As,  other  things  equal, 
groups  in  which  there  is  little  subordination  are  subjugated 
by  groups  in  which  subordination  is  greater,  there  is  a  ten 
dency  to  the  survival  and  spread  of  groups  in  which  the  con 
trolling  power  of  the  dominant  few  becomes  relatively  great. 
In  like  manner,  since  success  in  war  largely  depends  on  that 
promptitude  and  consistency  of  action  which  singleness  of 
will  gives,  there  must,  where  warfare  is  chronic,  be  a  tendency 
for  members  of  the  ruling  group  to  become  more  and  more 
obedient  to  its  head :  failure  in  the  struggle  for  existence 
among  tribes  otherwise  equal,  being  ordinarily  a  consequence 
of  disobedience.  And  then  it  is  also  to  be  noted  that  the 
over-runnings  of  societies  one  by  another,  repeated  and  re- 
repeated  as  they  often  are,  have  the  effect  of  obscuring  and 
even  obliterating  the  traces  of  the  original  structure. 

While,  however,  recognizing  the  fact  that  during  political 
evolution  these  three  primitive  components  alter  their  propor 
tions  in  various  ways  and  degrees,  to  the  extent  that  some  of 
them  become  mere  rudiments  or  wholly  disappear,  it  will 
greatly  alter  our  conception  of  political  forms  if  we  remember 
that  they  are  all  derived  from  this  primitive  form — that  a 
despotism,  an  oligarchy,  or  a  democracy,  is  a  type  of  govern 
ment  in  which  one  of  the  original  components  has  greatly 
developed  at  the  expense  of  the  other  two;  and  that  the 
various  mixed  types  are  to  be  arranged  according  to  the 
degrees  in  which  one  or  other  of  the  original  components  has 
the  greater  influence. 

§  4G6.  Is  there  any  fundamental  unity  of  political  forces 


318  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

accompanying  this  fundamental  unity  of  political  forms? 
While  losing  sight  of  the  common  origin  of  the  structures, 
have  we  not  also  "become  inadequately  conscious  of  the 
common  source  of  their  powers  ?  How  prone  we  are  to  forget 
the  ultimate  while  thinking  of  the  proximate,  it  may  be  worth 
while  pausing  a  moment  to  observe. 

One  who  in  a  storm  watches  the  breaking-up  of  a  wreck  or 
the  tearing  down  of  a  sea-wall,  is  impressed  by  the  immense 
energy  of  the  waves.  Of  course,  when  it  is  pointed  out  that 
in  the  absence  of  winds  no  such  results  can  be  produced,  he 
recognizes  the  truth  that  the  sea  is  in  itself  powerless,  and 
that  the  power  enabling  it  to  destroy  vessels  and  piers  is 
given  by  the  currents  of  air  which  roughen  its  surface.  If  he 
stops  short  here,  however,  he  fails  to  identify  the  force  which 
works  these  striking  changes.  Intrinsically,  the.  air  is  just  as 
passive  as  the  water  is.  There  would  be  no  winds  were  it 
not  for  the  varying  effects  of  the  Sun's  heat  on  different  parts 
of  the  Earth's  surface.  Even  when  he  has  traced  back  thus 
far  the  energy  which  undermines  cliffs  and  makes  shingle,  he 
has  not  reached  its  source ;  for  in  the  absence  of  that  con 
tinuous  concentration  of  the  solar  mass  caused  by  the  mutual 
gravitation  of  its  parts,  there  would  be  no  solar  radiations. 

The  tendency  here  illustrated,  which  all  have  in  some 
degree  and  most  in  a  great  degree,  to  associate  power  with  the 
visible  agency  exercising  it  rather  than  with  its  incon 
spicuous  source,  has,  as  above  implied,  a  vitiating  influence 
on  conceptions  at  large,  and,  among  others,  on  political  ones. 
Though  the  habit,  general  in  past  times,  of  regarding  the 
powers  of  governments  as  inherent,  has  been,  by  the  growth 
of  popular  institutions,  a  good  deal  qualified ;  yet,  even  now, 
there  is  no  clear  apprehension  of  the  fact  that  governments 
are  not  themselves  powerful,  but  are  the  instrumentalities  of 
a  power.  This  power  existed  before  governments  arose ; 
governments  were  themselves  produced  by  it ;  and  it  ever 
continues  to  be  that  which,  disguised  more  or  less  completely, 
works  through  them.  Let  us  go  back  to  the  beginning. 


POLITICAL   FOKMS   AND   FORCES.  319 

The  Greenlanders  are  entirely  without  political  control; 
having  nothing  which  represents  it  more  nearly  than  the 
deference  paid  to  the  opinion  of  some  old  man,  skilled  in  seal- 
catching  and  the  signs  of  the  weather.  But  a  Greenlander 
who  is  aggrieved  by  another,  has  his  remedy  in  what  is  called 
a  singing  combat.  He  composes  a  satirical  poem,  and 
challenges  his  antagonist  to  a  satirical  duel  in  face  of  the 
tribe :  "  he  who  has  the  last  word  wins  the  trial."  And  then 
Crantz  adds — "  nothing  so  effectually  restrains  a  Greenlander 
from  vice,  as  the  dread  of  public  disgrace."  Here  we  see 
operating  in  its  original  unqualified  way,  that  governing 
influence  of  public  sentiment  which  precedes  more  special 
governing  influences.  The  dread  of  social  reprobation  is 

in  some  cases  enforced  by  the  dread  of  banishment.  Among 
the  otherwise  unsubordinated  Australians,  they  "  punish  each 
other  for  such  offences  as  theft,  sometimes  by  expulsion  from 
the  camp."  Of  one  of  the  Columbian  tribes  we  read  that 
"  the  Salish  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  any  regular  form  of 
government ;"  and  then,  further,  we  read  that  "  criminals  are 
sometimes  punished  by  banishment  from  their  tribe."  Certain 
aborigines  of  the  Indian  hills,  widely  unlike  these  Columbians 
in  type  and  in  mode  of  life,  show  us  a  similar  relation  between 
undeveloped  political  restraint  and  the  restraint  of  aggregate 
feeling.  Among  the  Bodo  and  the  Dhimals,  whose- village 
heads  are  simply  respected  elders  with  no  coercive  powers, 
those  who  offend  against  customs  "  are  admonished,  fined,  or 
excommunicated,  according  to  the  degree  of  the  offence." 
But  the  controlling  influence  of  public  sentiment  in  groups 
which  have  little  or  no  organization,  is  best  shown  in  the 
force  with  which  it  acts  on  those  who  are  bound  to  avenge 
murders.  Concerning  the  Australian  aborigines,  Sir  George 
Grey  writes : — 

*  The  holiest  duty  a  native  is  called  on  to  perform  is  that  of  avenging 
the  death  of  his  nearest  relation,  for  it  is  his  peculiar  duty  to  do  so  ; 
until  he  has  fulfilled  this  task,  he  is  constantly  taunted  by  the  old 
women  ;  his  wives,  if  he  is  married,  would  soon  quit  him  ;  if  he  is  un 
married,  not  a  single  young  woman  would  speak  to  him ;  his  mother 
79 


320  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

would  constantly  cry,  and  lament  that  she  should  ever  have  given 
birth  to  so  degenerate  a  son  ;  his  father  would  treat  him  with  contempt, 
and  reproaches  would  constantly  be  sounded  in  his  ear." 

We  have  next  to  note  that  for  a  long  time  after  political 
control  has  made  its  appearance,  it  remains  conspicuously 
subordinate  to  this  control  of  general  feeling ;  both  because, 
while  there  are  no  developed  governmental  structures,  the 
head  man  has  but  little  ability  to  enforce  his  will,  and  because 
such  ability  as  he  has,  if  unduly  exercised,  causes  desertion. 
All  parts  of  the  world  furnish  illustrations.  In  America 
among  the  Snake  Indians  "  each  individual  is  his  own  master, 
and  the  only  control  to  which  his  conduct  is  subjected,  is  the 
advice  of  a  chief  supported  by  his  influence  over  the  opinions 
of  the  rest  of  the  tribe."  Of  a  Chinook  chief  we  are  told 
that  his  ability  to  render  service  to  his  neighbours,  and  the 
popularity  which  follows  it,  is  at  once  the  foundation  and  the 
measure  of  his  authority."  If  a  Dakota  "  wishes  to  do  mis 
chief,  the  only  way  a  chief  can  influence  him  is  to  give  him 
something,  or  pay  him  to  desist  from  his  evil  intentions.  The 
chief  has  no  authority  to  act  for  the  tribe,  and  dare  not  do  it." 
And  among  the  Creeks,  more  advanced  in  political  organiza 
tion  though  they  are,  the  authority  of  the  elected  chiefs  "  con 
tinues  during  good  behaviour.  The  disapproval  of  the  body 
of  the  people  is  an  effective  bar  to  the  exercise  of  their  powers 
and  functions."  Turning  to  Asia,  we  read  that  the 

bais  or  chiefs  of  the  Khirgiz  "  have  little  power  over  them  for 
good  or  evil.  In  consideration  of  their  age  and  blood,  some 
deference  to  their  opinions  is  shown,  but  nothing  more." 
The  Ostyaks  "  pay  respect,  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word,  to 
their  chief,  if  wise  and  valiant,  but  this  homage  is  voluntary, 
and  founded  on  personal  regard."  And  of  the  Naga  chiefs 
Butler  says—"  Their  orders  are  obeyed  so  far  only  as  they 
accord  with  the  wishes  and  convenience  of  the  com 
munity."  So,  too,  is  it  in  parts  of  Africa ;  as  instance 
the  Koranna  Hottentots.  "  A  chief  or  captain  presides  over 
each  clan  or  kraal,  being  usually  the  person  of  greatest  pro- 


POLITICAL  FORMS  AND  FORCES.  321 

perty ;  but  his  authority  is  extremely  limited,  and  only  obeyed 
so  far  as  it  meets  the  general  approbation."  And  even  among 
the  more  politically-organized  Kaffirs,  there  is  a  kindred 
restraint.  The  king  "  makes  laws  and  executes  them  according 
to  his  sole  will.  Yet  there  is  a  power  to  balance  his  in  the 
people:  he  governs  only  so  long  as  they  choose  to  obey." 
They  leave  him  if  he  governs  ill. 

In  its  primitive  form,  then,  political  power  is  the  feeling  of 
the  community,  acting  through  an  agency  which  it  has  either 
informally  or  formally  established.  Doubtless,  from  the 
beginning,  the  power  of  the  chief  is  in  part  personal :  his 
greater  strength,  courage,  or  cunning,  enables  him  in  some 
degree  to  enforce  his  individual  will.  But,  as  the  evidence 
shows,  his  individual  will  is  but  a  small  factor ;  and  the  autho 
rity  he  wields  is  proportionate  to  the  degree  in  which  he 
expresses  the  wills  of  the  rest. 

§  467.  While  this  public  feeling,  which  first  acts  by  itself 
and  then  partly  through  an  agent,  is  to  some  extent  the  feeling 
spontaneously  formed  by  those  concerned,  it  is  to  a  much 
larger  extent  the  opinion  imposed  on  them  or  prescribed  for 
them.  In  the  first  place,  the  emotional  nature  prompting 
the  general  mode  of  conduct  is  derived  from  ancestors — is  a 
product  of  all  ancestral  activities ;  and  in  the  second  place, 
the  special  desires  which,  directly  or  indirectly,  determine 
the  courses  pursued,  are  induced  during  early  life  by  seniors, 
and  enlisted  on  behalf  of  beliefs  and  usages  which  the  tribe 
inherits.  The  governing  sentiment  is,  in  short,  mainly  the 
accumulated  and  organized  sentiment  of  the  past. 

It  needs  but  to  remember  the  painful  initiation  which,  at  a 
prescribed  age,  each  member  of  a  tribe  undergoes  (submitting 
to  circumcision,  or  knocking  out  of  teeth,  or  gashing  of  the 
flesh,  or  tatooing) — it  needs  but  to  remember  that  from  these 
imperative  customs  there  is  no  escape;  to  see  that  the 
directive  force  which  exists  before  a  political  agency  arises, 
and  which  afterwards  makes  the  political  agency  its  organ, 


322  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

is  the  gradually-formed  opinion  of  countless  preceding  gene 
rations  ;  or  rather,  not  the  opinion,  which,  strictly  speaking, 
is  an  intellectual  product  wholly  impotent,  but  the  emotion 
associated  with  the  opinion.  This  we  everywhere  find  to  bo 
at  the  outset  the  chief  controlling  power. 

The  notion  of  the  Tupis  that  "if  they  departed  from  the 
customs  of  their,  forefathers  they  should  be  destroyed,"  may 
be  named  as  a  definite  manifestation  of  the  force  with  which 
this  transmitted  opinion  acts.  In  one  of  the  rudest  tribes  of 
the  Indian  hills,  the  Juangs,  less  clothed  than  even  Adam 
and  Eve  are  said  to  have  been,  the  women  long  adhered  to 
their  bunches  of  leaves  in  the  belief  that  change  was  wrong. 
Of  the  Koranna  Hottentots  we  read  that  "when  ancient 
usages  are  not  in  the  way,  every  man  seems  to  act  as  is  right 
in  his  own  eyes."  Though  the  Damara  chiefs  "have  the 
power  of  governing  arbitrarily,  yet  they  venerate  the  tradi 
tions  and  customs  of  their  ancestors."  Smith  says,  "laws 
the  Araucanians  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have,  though  there 
are  many  ancient  usages  which  they  hold  sacred  and  strictly 
observe."  According  to  Brooke,  among  the  Dyaks  custom 
simply  seems  to  have  become  law,  and  breaking  the  custom 
leads  to  a  fine.  In  the  minds  of  some  clans  of  the  Malagasy, 
"  innovation  and  injury  are  ....  inseparable,  and  the  idea 
of  improvement  altogether  inadmissible." 

This  control  by  inherited  usages  is  not  simply  as  strong 
in  groups  of  men  who  are  politically  unorganized,  or  but 
little  organized,  as  it  is  in  advanced  tribes  and  nations,  but  it 
is  stronger.  As  Sir  John  Lubbock  remarks — "  No  savage  is 
free.  All  over  the  world  his  daily  life  is  regulated  by  a 
complicated  and  apparently  most  inconvenient  set  of  customs 
(as  forcible  as  laws),  of  quaint  prohibitions  and  privileges." 
Though  one  of  these  rude  societies  appears  structureless, 
yet  its  ideas  and  usages  form  a  kind  of  invisible  framework 
for  it,  serving  rigorously  to  restrain  certain  classes  of  its 
actions.  And  this  invisible  framework  has  been  slowly  and 
unconsciously  shaped,  during  daily  activities  impelled  by  pre- 


POLITICAL  FORMS  AND  FORCES.  323 

vailing  feelings  and  guided  by  prevailing  thoughts,  through 
generations  stretching  back  into  the  far  past. 

In  brief,  then,  before  any  definite  agency  for  social  control 
is  developed,  there  exists  a  control  arising  partly  from  the 
public  opinion  of  the  living,  and  more  largely  from  the  public 
opinion  of  the  dead. 

§  468  But  now  let  us  note  definitely  a  truth  implied  in 
some  of  the  illustrations  above  given — the  truth  that  when  a 
political  agency  has  been  evolved,  its  power,  largely  de 
pendent  on  present  public  opinion,  is  otherwise  almost  wholly 
dependent  on  past  public  opinion.  The  ruler,  in  part  the 
organ  of  the  wills  of  those  around,  is  in  a  still  greater  degree 
the  organ  of  the  wills  of  those  who  have  passed  away ;  and 
his  own  will,  much  restrained  by  the  first,  is  still  more 
restrained  by  the  last. 

For  his  function  as  regulator  is  mainly  that  of  enforcing 
the  inherited  rules  of  conduct  which  embody  ancestral  senti 
ments  and  ideas.  Everywhere  we  are  shown  this.  Among 
the  Arafuras  such  decisions  as  are  given  by  their  elders,  are 
"according  to  the  customs  of  their  forefathers,  which  are  held 
in  the  highest  regard."  So  is  it  with  the  Khirgiz  :  "  the  judg 
ments  of  the  Bis,  or  esteemed  elders,  are  based  on  the  known 
and  universally-recognized  customs."  And  in  Sumatra  "  they 
are  governed,  in  their  various  disputes,  by  a  set  of  long- 
established  customs  (adafy,  handed  down  to  them  from  their 
ancestors.  .  .  .  The  chiefs,  in  pronouncing  their  decisions,  are 
not  heard  to  say,  'so  the  law  directs/  but  'such  is  the 
custom.' " 

As  fast  as  custom  passes  into  law,  the  political  head  be 
comes  still  more  clearly  an  agent  through  whom  the  feelings  of 
the  dead  control  the  actions  of  the  living,  That  the  power 
he  exercises  is  mainly  a  j  ower  which  acts  through  him,  we 
see  on  noting  how  little  ability  he  has  to  resist  it  if  he 
wishes  to  do  so.  His  individual  will  is  practically  in 
operative  save  where  the  overt  or  tacit  injunctions  of  departed 


324  POLITICAL   INSTITUTION'S. 

•generations  leave  him  free.  Thus  in  Madagascar, 
where  there  is  no  law,  custom,  or  precedent,  the  word  of  the 
sovereign  is  sufficient."  Among  the  East  Africans,  "  the  only 
limit  to  the  despot's  power  is  the  Ada  or  precedent."  Of  the 
Javans,  Eaffies  writes — "  the  only  restraint  upon  the  will  of 
the  head  of  the  government  is  the  custom  of  the  country, 
and  the  regard  which  he  has  for  his  character  among  his  sub 
jects."  In  Sumatra  the  people  "  do  not  acknowledge  a  right 
in  the  chiefs  to  constitute  what  laws  they  think  proper,  or  to 
repeal  or  alter  their  ancient  usages,  of  which  they  are 
extremely  tenacious  and  jealous."  And  how  imperative  is  con 
formity  to  the  beliefs  and  sentiments  of  progenitors,  is  shown 
by  the  fatal  results  apt  to  occur  from  disregarding  them. 

'"The  King  of  Ashantee,  although  represented  as  a  despotic  monarch 
....  is  not  in  all  respects  beyond  control.'  He  is  under  an  *  obliga 
tion  to  observe  the  national  customs  which  have  been  handad  down  to 
the  people  from  remote  antiquity ;  and  a  practical  disregard  of  this 
obligation,  in  the  attempt  to  change  some  of  the  customs  of  their  fore 
fathers,  cost  Osai  Quamina  his  throne.' " 

Which  instance  reminds  us  how  commonly,  as  now  among 
the  Hottentots,  as  in  the  past  among  the  ancient  Mexicans, 
and  as  throughout  the  histories  of  civilized  peoples,  rulers 
have  engaged,  on  succeeding  to  power,  not  to  change  the  esta 
blished  order. 

§  469.  Doubtless  the  proposition  that  a  government  is  in 
the  main  but  an  agency  through  which  works  the  force  of 
public  feeling,  present  and  past,  seems  at  variance  with  the 
many  facts  showing  how  great  may  be  the  power  of  a  ruling 
man  himself.  Saying  nothing  of  a  tyrant's  ability  to  take 
lives  for  nominal  reasons  or  none  at  all,  to  make  groundless 
confiscations,  to  transfer  subjects  bodily  from  one  place  to 
another,  to  exact  contributions  of  money  and  labour  without 
stint,  we  are  apparently  shown  by  his  ability  to  begin  and 
carry  on  wars  which  sacrifice  his  subjects  wholesale,  that  his 
single  will  may  over-ride  the  united  wills  of  all  others.  In 
what  way,  then,  must  the  original  statement  be  qualified  ? 


POLITICAL  FORMS  AND   FORCES.  325 

While  holding  that,  in  unorganized  groups  of  men,  the 
feeling  manifested  as  public  opinion  controls  political  con 
duct,  just  as  it  controls  the  conduct  distinguished  as  cere 
monial  and  religious;  and  while  holding  that  governing 
agencies,  during  their  early  stages,  are  at  once  the  products 
of  aggregate  feeling,  derive  their  powers  from  it,  and  are 
restrained  by  it ;  we  must  admit  that  these  primitive  re 
lations  become  complicated  when,  by  war,  small  groups  are 
compounded  and  re-compounded  into  great  ones.  Where  the 
society  is  largely  composed  of  subjugated  people  held  down 
by  superior  force,  the  normal  relation  above  described  no 
longer  exists.  We  must  not  expect  to  find  in  a  rule  coercively 
established  by  an  invader,  the  same  traits  as  in  a  rule  that 
has  grown  up  from  within.  Societies  formed  by  conquest  may 
be,  and  frequently  are,  composed  of  two  societies,  which  are 
in  large  measure,  if  not  entirely,  alien ;  and  in  them  there 
cannot  arise  a  political  force  from  the  aggregate  will.  Under 
such  conditions  the  political  head  either  derives  his  power 
exclusively  from  the  feeling  of  the  dominant  class,  or  else, 
setting  the  diverse  feelings  originated  in  the  upper  and  lower 
classes,  one  against  the  other,  is  enabled  so  to  make  his  indi 
vidual  will  the  chief  factor. 

After  making  which  qualifications,  however,  it  may  still  be 
contended  that  ordinarily,  nearly  all  the  force  exercised  by 
the  governing  agency  originates  from  the  feeling,  if  not  of  the 
whole  community,  yet  of  the  part  which  is  able  to  manifest 
its  feeling.  Though  the  opinion  of  the  subjugated  and  un 
armed  lower  society  becomes  of  little  account  as  a  political 
lector,  yet  the  opinion  of  the  dominant  and  armed  upper 
society  continues  to  be  the  main  cause  of  political  action. 
What  we  are  told  of  the  Congo  people,  that  "  the  king,  who 
reigns  as  a  despot  over  the  people,  is  often  disturbed  in  the 
exercise  of  his  power  by  the  princes  his  vassals," — what  we 
are  told  of  the  despotically-governed  Dahomans,  that  "  the 
ministers,  war-captains,  and  feetishers  may  be,  and  often  are, 
individually  punished  by  the  king :  collectively  they  are  too 


326  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

strong  for  him,  and  without  their  cordial  cooperation  he  would 
soon  cease  to  reign ;"  is  what  we  recognize  as  having  been 
true,  and  as  being  still  true,  in  various  better-known  societies 
where  the  supreme  head  is  nominally  absolute.  From 
the  time  when  the  Eoman  emperors  were  chosen  by  the 
soldiers  and  slain  when  they  did  not  please  them,  to  the 
present  time  when,  as  we  are  told  of  Eussia,  the  desire  of  the 
army  often  determines  the  will  of  the  Czar,  there  have  been 
many  illustrations  of  the  truth  that  an  autocrat  is  politically 
strong  or  weak  according  as  many  or  few  of  the  influential 
classes  give  him  their  support ;  and  that  even  the  sentiments  of 
those  who  are  politically  prostrate  occasionally  affect  political 
action ;  as  instance  the  influence  of  Turkish  fanaticism  over 
the  decisions  of  the  Sultan. 

A  number  of  facts  must  be  remembered  if  we  are  rightly 
to  estimate  the  power  of  the  aggregate  will  in  comparison 
with  the  power  of  the  autocrat's  will.  There  is  the  fact  that 
the  autocrat  is  obliged  to  respect  and  maintain  the  great  mass 
of  institutions  and  laws  produced  by  past  sentiments  and 
ideas,  which  have  acquired  a  religious  sanction ;  so  that,  as  in 
ancient  Egypt,  dynasties  of  despots  live  and  die  leaving  the 
social  order  essentially  unchanged.  There  is  the  fact  that  a 
serious  change  of  the  social  order,  at  variance  with  general 
feeling,  is  likely  afterwards  to  be  reversed ;  as  when,  in  Egypt, 
Amenhotep  IV.,  spite  of  a  rebellion,  succeeded  in  establishing 
a  new  religion,  which  was  abolished  in  a  succeeding  reign ;  and 
there  is  the  allied  fact  that  laws  much  at  variance  with  the 
general  will  prove  abortive,  as,  for  instance,  the  sumptuary 
laws  made  by  mediaeval  kings,  which,  continually  re-enacted, 
continually  failed.  There  is  the  fact  that,  supreme  as  he  may 
be,  and  divine  as  the  nature  ascribed  to  him,  the  all-powerful 
monarch  is  often  shackled  by  usages  which  make  his  daily 
life  a  slavery :  the  opinions  of  the  living  oblige  him  to  fulfil 
the  dictates  of  the  dead.  There  is  the  fact  that  if  he  does  not 
conform,  or  if  he  otherwise  produces  by  his  acts  much 
adverse  feeling,  his  servants,  civil  and  military,  refuse  to  act, 


POLITICAL  FORMS  AND   FORCES.  327 

or  turn  against  him ;  and  in  extreme  cases  there  conies  an 
example  of  "  despotism  tempered  by  assassination."  And 
there  is  the  final  fact  that  habitually  in  societies  where 
an  offending  autocrat  is  from  time  to  time  removed,  another 
autocrat  is  set  up :  the  implication  being  that  the  average 
sentiment  is  of  a  kind  which  not  only  tolerates  but  desires 
autocracy.  That  which  some  call  loyalty  and  others  call 
servility,  both  creates  the  absolute  ruler  and  gives  him  the 
power  he  exercises, 

But  the  cardinal  truth,  difficult  adequately  to  appreciate,  is 
that  while  the  forms  and  laws  of  each  society  are  the  consoli 
dated  products  of  the  emotions  and  ideas  of  those  who  lived 
throughout  the  past,  they  are  made  operative  by  the  subordi 
nation  of  existing  emotions  and  ideas  to  them.  We  are 
familiar  with  the  thought  of  "  the  dead  hand  "  as  controlling 
the  doings  of  the  living  in  the  uses  made  of  property ;  but 
the  effect  of  "  the  dead  hand  "  in  ordering  life  at  large  through 
the  established  political  system,  is  immeasureably  greater. 
That  which,  from  hour  to  hour  in  every  country,  governed 
despotically  or  otherwise,  produces  the  obedience  making 
political  action  possible,  is  the  accumulated  and  organized 
sentiment  felt  towards  inherited  institutions  made  sacred  by 
tradition.  Hence  it  is  undeniable  that,  taken  in  its  widest 
acceptation,  the  feeling  of  the  community  is  the  sole  source  of 
political  power :  in  those  communities,  at  least,  which  are  not 
under  foreign  domination.  It  was  so  at  the  outset  of  social 
life,  and  it  still  continues  substantially  so. 

§  470.  It  has  come  to  be  a  maxim  of  science  that  in  the 
causes  still  at  work,  are  to  be  identified  the  causes  which, 
similarly  at  work  during  past  times,  have  produced  the  state 
of  things  now  existing.  Acceptance  of  this  maxim,  and  pur- 
suit  of  the  inquiries  suggested  by  it,  lead  to  verifications  of 
the  foregoing  conclusions. 

For  day  after  day,  every  public  meeting  illustrates  afresh 
this  same  differentiation  characterizing  the  primitive  political 


328  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

agency,  and  illustrates  afresh  the  actions  of  its  respective 
parts.  There  is  habitually  the  great  body  of  the  less  distin 
guished,  forming  the  audience,  whose  share  in  the  proceed 
ings  consists  in  expressing  approval  or  disapproval,  and  say 
ing  aye  or  no  to  the  resolutions  proposed.  There  is  the 
smaller  part,  occupying  the  platform — the  men  whose  wealth, 
rank,  or  capacity,  give  them  influence — the  local  chiefs,  by 
whom  the  discussions  are  carried  on.  And  there  is  the  chosen 
head,  commonly  the  man  of  greatest  mark  to  be  obtained, 
who  exercises  a  recognized  power  over  speakers  and  audience 
— the  temporary  king.  Even  an  informally-summoned 
assemblage  soon  resolves  itself  into  these  divisions  more  or 
less  distinctly ;  and  when  the  assemblage  becomes  a  perma 
nent  body,  as  of  the  men  composing  a  commercial  company, 
or  a  philanthropic  society,  or  a  club,  definiteness  is  quickly 
given  to  the  three  divisions — president  or  chairman,  board  or 
committee,  proprietors  or  members.  To  which  add  that, 
though  at  first,  like  the  meeting  of  the  primitive  horde  or  the 
modern  public  meeting,  one  of  these  permanent  associations 
voluntarily  formed,  exhibits  a  distribution  of  powers  such 
that  the  select  few  and  their  head  are  subordinate  to  the 
mass ;  yet,  as  circumstances  determine,  the  proportions  of  the 
respective  powers  usually  change  more  or  less  decidedly. 
Where  the  members  of  the  mass  besides  being  much  interested 
in  the  transactions,  are  so  placed  that  they  can  easily  co 
operate,  they  hold  in  check  the  select  few  and  their  head ; 
but  where  wide  distribution,  as  of  railway-shareholders, 
hinders  joint  action,  the  select  few  become,  in  large  measure, 
an  oligarchy,  and  out  of  the  oligarchy  there  not  unfrequently 
grows  an  autocrat :  the  constitution  becomes  a  despotism 
tempered  by  revolution. 

In  saying  that  from  hour  to  hour  proofs  occur  that  the 
force  possessed  by  a  political  agency  is  derived  from  aggregate 
feeling,  partly  embodied  in  the  consolidated  system  which  has 
come  down  from  the  past,  and  partly  excited  by  immediate 
circumstances,  I  do  not  refer  only  to  the  proofs  that  among 


POLITICAL   FORMS   AND   FORCES.  329 

ourselves  governmental  actions  are  habitually  thus  determined, 
and  that  the  actions  of  all  minor  bodies,  temporarily  or  per 
manently  incorporated,  are  thus  determined.  I  refer,  rather, 
to  illustrations  of  the  irresistible  control  exercised  by  popular 
sentiment  over  conduct  at  large.  Such  facts  as  that,  while 
general  opinion  is  in  favour  of  duelling  law  does  not  prevent 
it,  and  that  sacred  injunctions  backed  by  threats  of  damnation, 
fail  to  check  iniquitous  aggressions  on  foreign  peoples  when 
the  prevailing  passions  prompt  them,  alone  suffice  to  show 
that  legal  codes  and  religious  creeds,  with  the  agencies  en 
forcing  them,  are  impotent  in  face  of  an  adverse  state  of  mind, 
On  remembering  the  eagerness  for  public  applause  and  the 
dread  of  public  disgrace  which  stimulate  and  restrain  men,  we 
cannot  question  that  the  diffused  manifestations  of  feeling 
habitually  dictate  their  careers,  when  their  immediate  neces 
sities  have  been  satisfied.  It  requires  only  to  contemplate 
the  social  code  which  regulates  life,  down  even  to  the  colour 
of  an  evening  neck-tie,  and  to  note  how  those  who  dare  not 
break  this  code  have  no  hesitation  in  smuggling,  to  see  that 
an  unwritten  law  enforced  by  opinion  is  more  peremptory 
than  a  written  law  not  so  enforced.  And  still  more  on  ob 
serving  that  men  disregard  the  just  claims  of  creditors,  who 
for  goods  given  cannot  get  the  money,  while  they  are  anxious 
to  discharge  so-called  debts  of  honour  to  those  who  have 
rendered  neither  goods  nor  services,  we  are  shown  that  the 
control  of  prevailing  sentiment,  unenforced  by  law  and  reli 
gion,  may  be  more  potent  than  law  and  religion  together 
when  they  are  backed  by  sentiment  less  strongly  manifested. 
Looking  at  the  total  activities  of  men,  we  are  obliged  to  admit 
that  they  are  still,  as  they  were  at  the  outset  of  social  life, 
guided  by  the  aggregate  feeling,  past  and  present ;  and  that 
the  political  agency,  itself  a  gradually-developed  product  of 
such  feeling,  continues  still  to  be  in  the  main  the  vehicle  for 
a  specialized  portion  of  it,  regulating  actions  of  certain  kinds. 
Partly,  of  course,  I  am  obliged  here  to  set  forth  this  general 
truth  as  an  essential  element  of  political  theory.  My  excuse 


330  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

for  insisting  at  some  length  on  what  appears  to  be  a  trite  con 
clusion,  must  be  that,  however  far  nominally  recognized,  it  is 
actually  recognized  to  a  very  small  extent.  Even  in  our  own 
country,  where  non- political  agencies  spontaneously  produced 
and  worked  are  many  and  large,  and  still  more  in  most  other 
countries  less  characterized  by  them,  there  is  no  due  con 
sciousness  of  the  truth  that  the  combined  impulses  which  work 
through  political  agencies,  can,  in  the  absence  of  such  agencies, 
produce  others  through  which  to  work.  Politicians  reason  as 
though  State-instrumentalities  have  intrinsic  power,  which 
they  have  not,  and  as  though  the  feeling  which  creates  them 
has  not  intrinsic  power,  which  it  has.  Evidently  theii 
actions  must  be  greatly  affected  by  reversal  of  these  ideas. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
POLITICAL  HEADS— CHIEFS,  KINGS,  ETC. 

§  471.  Of  the  three  components  of  the  tri-une  political  struc 
ture  traceable  at  the  outset,  we  have  now  to  follow  the  develop 
ment  of  the  first.  Already  in  the  last  two  chapters  something 
has  been  said,  and  more  has  been  implied,  respecting  that 
most  important  differentiation  which  results  in  the  establish 
ment  of  a  headship.  What  was  there  indicated  under  its 
general  aspects  has  here  to  be  elaborated  under  its  special 
aspects. 

"  When  Eink  asked  the  Nicobarians  who  among  them  was 
the  chief,  they  replied  laughing,  how  could  he  believe  that 
one  could  have  power  against  so  many  ?"  I  quote  this  as  a 
reminder  that  there  is,  at  first,  resistance  to  the  assumption 
of  supremacy  by  one  member  of  a  group — resistance  which, 
though  in  some  types  of  men  small,  is  in  most  considerable, 
and  in  a  few  very  great.  To  instances  already  given  of  tribes 
practically  chief  less  may  be  added,  from  America,  the  Haidahs, 
among  whom  "  the  people  seemed  all  equal ;"  the  Californian 
tribes,  among  whom  "  each  individual  does  as  he  likes  ;"  the 
Navajos,  among  whom  "each  is  sovereign  in  his  o\\n  right  as 
a  warrior;"  and  from  Asia  the  Angamies,  who  "have  no 
recognized  head  or  chief,  although  they  elect  a  spokesman, 
who,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  is  powerless  and  irrespon 
sible." 

Such  small  subordination  as  rude  groups  show,  occurs  only 


332  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

when  the  need  for  joint  action  is  imperative,  and  control  ig 
required  to  make  it  efficient.  Instead  of  recalling  before- 
named  examples  of  temporary  chieftainship,  I  may  here  give 
some  others.  Of  the  Lower  Californians  we  read — "  In  hunt 
ing  and  war  they  have  one  or  more  chiefs  to  lead  them,  who 
are  selected  only  for  the  occasion."  Of  the  Flatheads*  chiefs 
it  is  said  that  "  with  the  war  their  power  ceases."  Among 
the  Sound  Indians  the  chief  "has  no  authority,  and  only 
directs  the  movements  of  his  band  in  warlike  incursions." 

As  observed  under  another  head,  this  primitive  insubordi 
nation  has  greater  or  less  play  according  as  the  environment 
and  the  habits  of  life  hinder  or  favour  coercion.  The  Lower 
Californians,  above  instanced  as  chiefless,  Baegert  says 
resemble  "  herds  of  wild  swine,  which  run  about  according 
to  their  own  liking,  being  together  to-day  and  scattered  to 
morrow,  till  they  meet  again  by  accident  at  some  future  time." 
"  The  chiefs  among  the  Chipewyans  are  now  totally  without 
power,"  says  Franklin;  and  these  people  exist  as  small 
migratory  bands.  Of  the  Abipones,  who  are  "  impatient  of 
agriculture  and  a  fixed  home,"  and  "  are  continually  moving 
from  place  to  place,"  Dobrizhoffer  writes — "they  neither  revere 
their  cacique  as  a  master,  nor  pay  him  tribute  or  attendance 
as  is  usual  with  other  nations."  The  like  holds  under  like 
conditions  with  other  races  remote  in  type.  Of  the  Bedouins 
Burckhardt  remarks  "  the  sheikh  has  no  fixed  authority ;"  and 
according  to  another  writer  "  a  chief,  who  has  drawn  the  bond 
of  allegiance  too  tight,  is  deposed  or  abandoned,  and  becomes 
a  mere  member  of  a  tribe  or  remains  without  one." 

And  now,  having  noted  the  original  absence  of  political 
control,  the  resistance  it  meets  with,  and  the  circumstances 
which  facilitate  evasion  of  it,  we  may  ask  what  causes  aid  its 
growth.  There  are  several ;  and  chieftainship  becomes  settled 
in  proportion  as  they  cooperate. 

§  472.  Among  the  members  of  the  primitive  group,  slightly 
unlike  in  various  ways  and  degrees,  there  is  sure  to  be  some 


POLITICAL  HEADS — CHIEFS,  KINGS,   ETC.  333 

one  who  has  a  recognized  superiority.    This  superiority  may 
be  of  several  kinds  which  we  will  briefly  glance  at. 

Though  in  a  sense  abnormal,  the  cases  must  be  recognized 
in  which  the  superiority  is  that  of  an  alien  immigrant.  The 
headmen  of  the  Khonds  "  are  usually  descended  from  some 
daring  adventurer"  of  Hindoo  blood.  Foisyth  remarks  the 
like  of  "  most  of  the  chiefs  "  in  the  highlands  of  Central  Asia. 
And  the  traditions  of  Bochica  among  the  Chibchas,  Amalivaca 
among  the  Tamanacs,  and  Quetzalcoatl  among  the  Mexicans, 
imply  kindred  origins  of  chieftainships.  Here,  however,  we 
ate  mainly  concerned  with  superiorities  arising  within  the 
tribe. 

The  first  to  be  named  is  that  which  goes  with  seniority. 
Though  age,  when  it  brings  incapacity,  is  often  among  rude 
peoples  treated  with  such  disregard  that  the  old  are  killed  or 
left  to  die,  yet,  so  long  as  capacity  remains,  the  greater  expe 
rience  accompanying  age  generally  insures  influence.  The 
chiefless  Esquimaux  show  "  deference  to  seniors  and  strong 
men."  Burchell  says  that  over  the  Bushmen,  old  men  seem 
to  exercise  the  authority  of  chiefs  to  some  extent ;  and  the 
like  holds  true  with  the  natives  of  Australia.  Among  the 
Fuegians  "  the  word  of  an  old  man  is  accepted  as  law  by  the 
young  people."  Each  party  of  Eock  Veddahs  "has  a  head 
man,  the  most  energetic  senior  of  the  tribe,"  who  divides  the 
honey,  &c.  Even  with  sundry  peoples  more  advanced  the 
like  holds.  The  Dyaks  in  North  Borneo  "  have  no  established 
chiefs,  but  follow  the  counsels  of  the  old  man  to  whom  they 
are  related;"  and  Edwards  says  of  the  ungoverned  Caribs 
that  "  to  their  old  men,  indeed,  they  allowed  some  kind  of 
authority/' 

Naturally,  in  rude  societies,  the  strong  hand  gives  predomi 
nance,  Apart  from  the  influence  of  age,  "bodily  strength 
alone  procures  distinction  among"  the  Bushmen.  The  leaders 
of  the  Tasmanians  were  tall  and  powerful  men :  '•'  instead  of 
an  elective  or  hereditary  chieftancy,  the  place  of  command 
was  yielded  up  to  the  bully  of  the  tribe."  A  remark  of 


334  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Shirt's  implies  a  like  origin  of  supremacy  among  the  Austra 
lians.  Similarly  in  South  America.  Of  people  on  the 
Tapajos,  Bates  tells  us  that  "  the  footmarks  of  the  chief  could 
be  distinguished  from  the  rest  by  their  great  size  and  the 
length  of  the  stride."  And  in  Bedouin  tribes  "  the  fiercest, 
the  strongest,  and  the  craftiest  obtains  complete  mastery  over 
his  fellows."  During  higher  stages  physical  vigour  long  con 
tinues  to  be  an  all-important  qualification;  as  in  Homeric 
Greece,  where  even  age  did  not  compensate  for  decline  of 
strength :  "  an  old  chief,  such  as  Peleus  and  Laertes,  cannot 
retain  his  position."  Everyone  knows  that  throughout 
Mediaeval  Europe,  maintenance  of  headship  largely  depended 
on  bodily  prowess.  And  even  but  two  centuries  ago  in  the 
Western  Isles  of  Scotland,  "  every  Heir,  or  young  Chieftain  of 
a  Tribe,  was  oblig'd  in  Honour  to  give  a  publick  Specimen  of 
his  Valour,  before  he  was  own'd  and  declar'd  Governor." 

Mental  superiority,  alone  or  joined  with  other  attributes, 
is  a  common  cause  of  predominance.  With  the  Snake  Indians, 
the  chief  is  no  more  than  "the  most  confidential  person 
among  the  warriors."  Schoolcraft  says  of  the  chief  acknow 
ledged  by  the  Creeks  that  "he  is  eminent  with  the  people 
only  for  his  superior  talents  and  political  abilities  ;"  and  that 
over  the  Comanches  "  the  position  of  a  chief  is  not  hereditary, 
but  the  result  of  his  own  superior  cunning,  knowledge,  or 
success  in  war."  A  chief  of  the  Coroados  is  one  "  who  by  his 
strength,  cunning,  and  courage  had  obtained  some  command 
over  them."  And  the  Ostiaks  "  pay  respect,  in  the  fullest 
sense  of  the  word,  to  their  chief,  if  wise  and  valiant;  but  this 
homage  is  voluntary,  and  not  a  prerogative  of  his  position." 

Yet  another  source  of  governmental  power  in  primitive 
tribes  is  largeness  of  possessions :  wealth  being  at  once  an 
indirect  mark  of  superiority  and  a  direct  cause  of  influence. 
With  the  Tacullies  "  any  person  may  become  a  miuty  or  chief 
who  will  occasionally  provide  a  village  feast."  "  Among  the 
Tolewas,  in  Del  Norte  Country,  money  makes  the  chief." 
The  Spokanes  have  "  no  regularly  recognized  chief,"  "  but  an 


POLITICAL  HEADS — CHIEFS,  KINGS,  ETC.  335 

intelligent  and  rich  man  often  controls  the  tribe  by  his 
influence."  Of  the  chiefless  Navajos  we  read  that  "every 
rich  man  has  many  dependants,  and  these  dependants  are 
obedient  to  his  will,  in  peace  and  in  war."  And  to  other 
evidence  that  it  is  the  same  in  Africa,  maybe  added  the  state 
ment  of  Heuglin  that  "  a  Dor  chief  is  generally  the  richest 
and  most  reputable  man  of  the  village  or  neighbourhood." 

But,  naturally,  in  societies  not  yet  politically  developed, 
acknowledged  superiority  is  ever  liable  to  be  competed  with 
or  replaced  by  superiority  arising  afresh. 

'*  If  an  Arab,  accompanied  by  his  own  relations  only,  has  been  suc 
cessful  on  many  predatory  excursions  against  the  enemy,  he  is  joined 
by  other  friends ;  and  if  his  success  still  continues,  he  obtains  the  repu 
tation  of  being  '  lucky;'  and  he  thus  establishes  a  kind  of  second,  or 
inferior  agydship  in  the  tribe." 

So  in  Sumatra — 

"A  commanding  aspect,  an  insinuating  manner,  a  ready  fluency  in 
discourse,  and  a  penetration  and  sagacity  in  unravelling  the  little  in 
tricacies  of  their  disputes,  are  qualities  which  seldom  fail  to  procure  to 
their  possessor  respect  and  influence,  sometimes,  perhaps,  superior  to 
that  of  an  acknowledged  chief." 

And  supplantings  of  kindred  kinds  occur  among  the  Tongans 
and  the  Dyaks. 

At  the  outset  then,  what  we  before  distinguished  as  the 
principle  of  efficiency  is  the  sole  principle  of  organization. 
Such  political  headship  as  exists,  is  acquired  by  one  whose 
fitness  asserts  itself  in  the  form  of  greater  age,  superior 
prowess,  stronger  will,  wider  knowledge,  quicker  insight,  or 
larger  wealth.  But  evidently  supremacy  which  thus  depends 
exclusively  on  personal  attributes  is  but  transitory.  It  is 
liable  to  be  superseded  by  the  supremacy  of  some  more  able 
man  from  time  to  time  arising ;  and  if  not  superseded,  is 
ended  by  death.  We  have,  then,  to  inquire  how  permanent 
chieftainship  becomes  established.  Before  doing  this,  how 
ever,  we  must  consider  more  fully  the  two  kinds  of  superiority 
which  especially  conduce  to  chieftainship,  and  their  modes  of 
operation. 

80 


336  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

§  473.  As  bodily  vigour  is  a  cause  of  predominance  within 
the  tribe  on  occasions  daily  occurring,  still  more  on  occasions 
of  war  is  it,  when  joined  with  courage,  a  cause  of  predomi 
nance.  War,  therefore,  tends  to  make  more  pronounced  any 
authority  of  this  kind  which  is  incipient.  Whatever  reluctai.  ce 
other  members  of  the  tribe  have  to  recognize  the  leadership 
of  any  one  member,  is  likely  to  be  over-ridden  by  their  desire 
for  safety  when  recognition  of  his  leadership  furthers  that 
safety. 

This  rise  of  the  strongest  and  most  courageous  warrior  to 
power  is  at  first  spontaneous,  and  afterwards  by  agreement 
more  or  less  definite :  sometimes  joined  with  a  process  of 
testing.  Where,  as  in  Australia,  each  "  is  esteemed  by  the 
rest  only  according  to  his  dexterity  in  throwing  or  evading  a 
spear,"  it  is  inferable  that  such  superior  capacity  for  war  as 
is  displayed,  generates  of  itself  such  temporary  chieftainship 
as  exists.  Where,  as  among  the  Comanches,  any  one  who 
distinguishes  himself  by  taking  many  "  horses  or  scalps,  may 
aspire  to  the  honours  of  chieftaincy,  and  is  gradually  inducted 
by  a  tacit  popular  consent,"  this  natural  genesis  is  clearly 
shown.  Very  commonly,  however,  there  is  deliberate  choice ; 
as  by  the  Flatheads,  among  whom,  "  except  by  the  war-chiefs 
no  real  authority  is  exercised."  Skill,  strength,  courage,  and 
endurance  are  in  some  cases  deliberately  tested.  The  King 
of  Tonga  has  to  undergo  a  trial :  three  spears  are  thrown  at 
him,  which  he  must  ward  off.  "  The  ability  to  climb  up  a 
large  pole,  well-greased,  is  a  necessary  qualification  of  a  fight 
ing  chief  among  the  Sea  Dyaks ;"  and  St.  John  says  that  in 
some  cases,  "  it  was  a  custom  in  order  to  settle  who  should  be 
chief,  for  the  rivals  to  go  out  in  search  of  a  head :  the  first  in 
finding  one  being  victor." 

Moreover,  the  need  for  an  efficient  leader  tends  ever  to 
re-establish  chieftainship  where  it  has  become  only  nominal 
or  feeble.  Edward  says  of  the  Caribs  that  "  in  war,  experi 
ence  had  taught  them  that  subordination  was  as  requisite  as 
courage  ;  they  therefore  elected  their  captains  in  their  general 


POLITICAL  HEADS— CHIEFS,   KINGS,  ETC.  337 

assemblies  with  great  solemnity ;"  and  "  put  their  pretensions 
to  the  proof  with  circumstances  of  outrageous  barbarity." 
Similarly,  "  although  the  Abipones  neither  fear  their  cacique 
as  a  judge,  nor  honour  him  as  a  master,  yet  his  fellow-soldiers 
follow  him  as  a  leader  and  governor  of  the  war,  whenever 
the  enemy  is  to  be  attacked  or  repelled." 

These  and  like  facts,  of  which  there  are  abundance,  have 
three  kindred  implications.  One  is  that  continuity  of  war 
conduces  to  permanence  of  chieftainship.  A  second  is  that, 
with  increase  of  his  influence  as  successful  military  head,  the 
chief  gains  influence  as  civil  head.  A  third  is  that  there  is 
thus  initiated  a  union,  maintained  through  subsequent  phases 
of  social  evolution,  between  military  supremacy  and  political 
supremacy.  Not  only  among  the  uncivilized  Hottentots, 
Malagasy,  and  others,  is  the  chief  or  king  head  of  the  army — 
not  only  among  such  semi-civilized  peoples  as  the  ancient 
Peruvians  and  Mexicans,  do  we  find  the  monarch  one  with 
the  Commander-in-chief ;  but  the  histories  of  extinct  and 
surviving  nations  all  over  the  world  exemplify  the  connexion. 
In  Egypt  "  in  the  early  ages,  the  offices  of  king  and  general 
were  inseparable."  Assyrian  sculptures  and  inscriptions 
represent  the  despotic  ruler  as  also  the  conquering  soldier;  as 
do  the  records  of  the  Hebrews.  Civil  and  military  headship 
were  united  among  the  Homeric  Greeks;  and  in  primitive 
Eome  "  the  general  was  ordinarily  the  king  himself."  That 
throughout  European  history  it  has  been  so,  and  partially 
continues  so  even  now  in  the  more  militant  societies,  needs 
no  showing. 

How  command  of  a  wider  kind  follows  military  command, 
we  cannot  readily  see  in  societies  which  have  no  records :  we 
can  but  infer  that  along  with  increased  power  of  coercion 
which  the  successful  head-warrior  gains,  naturally  goes  the 
exercise  of  a  stronger  rule  in  civil  affairs.  That  this  has 
been  so  among  peoples  who  have  known  histories,  there  is 
proof.  Of  the  primitive  Germans  Sohm  remarks  that  the 
Roman  invasions  had  one  result: — 


33 8  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

"  The  kingship  became  united  with  the  leadership  (become  peimanent) 
of  the  army,  and,  as  a  consequence,  raised  itself  to  a  power  [instituticn] 
in  the  State.  The  military  subordination  under  the  king-leader  fur 
thered  political  subordination  under  the  king.  ....  Kingship 
after  the  invasions  is  a  kingship  clothed  with  supreme  rights — a  kirg- 
ship  in  our  sense." 

In  like  manner  it  is  observed  by  Eanke  that  during  the  wars 
with  the  English  in  the  fifteenth  century — 

"The  French  monarchy,  whilst  struggling  for  its  very  existence, 
acquired  at  the  same  time,  and  as  the  result  of  the  struggle,  a  firmer 
organization.  The  expedients  adopted  to  carry  on  the  contest  grew,  as 
in  other  important  cases,  to  national  institutions." 

And  modern  instances  of  the  relation  between  successful 
militancy  and  the  strengthening  of  political  control,  are  fur 
nished  by  the  career  of  Napoleon  and  the  recent  history  of 
the  German  Empire. 

Headship  of  the  society,  then,  commonly  beginning  with 
the  influence  gained  by  the  warrior  of  greatest  power,  bold 
ness,  and  capacity,  becomes  established  where  activity  in 
war  gives  opportunity  for  his  superiority  to  show  itself  and 
to  generate  subordination  ;  and  thereafter  the  growth  of  civil 
governorship  continues  primarily  related  to  the  exercise  of 
militant  functions. 

§  474.  Very  erroneous,  however,  would  be  the  idea  formed 
if  no  further  origin  for  political  headship  were  named.  There 
is  a  kind  of  influence,  in  some  cases  operating  alone  and  in 
other  cases  cooperating  with  that  above  specified,  which  is  all- 
important.  I  mean  the  influence  possessed  by  the  medicine 
man. 

That  this  arises  as  early  as  the  other,  can  scarcely  be  said ; 
since,  until  the  ghost-theory  takes  shape,  there  is  no  origin 
for  it.  But  when  belief  in  the  spirits  of  the  dead  becomes 
current,  the  medicine-man,  professing  ability  to  control  them, 
and  inspiring  faith  in  his  pretensions,  is  regarded  with  a 
fear  which  prompts  obedience.  When  we  read  of  the 
Thlinkeets  that  the  "supreme  feat  of  a  conjuror's  power  is  to 


POLITICAL  HEADS — CHIEFS,   KINGS,  ETC.  330 

throw  .one  of  his  liege  spirits  into  the  body  of  one  who 
refuses  to  believe  in  his  power,  upon  which  the  possessed  is 
taken  with  swooning  and  fits/'  we  may  imagine  the  dread  he 
excites,  and  the  sway  he  consequently  gains.  From  some  of 
the  lowest  races  upwards  we  find  illustrations.  Fitzroy  says 
of  the  "  doctor-wizard  among  the  Fuegians  "  that  he  is  the 
most  cunning  and  most  deceitful  of  his  tribe,  and  that  he  has 
great  influence  over  his  companions.  "  Though  the  Tas- 
manians  were  free  from  the  despotism  of  rulers,  they  were 
swayed  by  the  counsels,  governed  by  the  arts,  or  terrified  by 
the  fears,  of  certain  wise  men  or  doctors.  These  could  not 
only  mitigate  suffering,  but  inflict  it."  A  chief  of  the  Haidahs 
"  seems  to  be  the  principal  sorcerer,  and  indeed  to  possess 
little  authority  save  from  his  connexion  with  the  preter 
human  powers."  The  Dakota  medicine-men — 

"  Are  the  greatest  rascals  in  the  tribe,  and  possess  immense  influence 
over  the  minds  of  the  young,  who  are  brought  up  in  the  belief  of 

their  supernatural  powers The  war-chief,  who  leads  the 

party  to  war,  is  always  one  of  these  medicine-men,  and  is  believed  to 
have  the  power  to  guide  the  party  to  success,  or  savo  it  from  defeat." 

Among  more  advanced  peoples  in  Africa,  supposed  abilities  to 
control  invisible  beings  similarly  give  influence — strengthen 
ing  authority  otherwise  gained.  It  is  so  with  the  Amazulu: 
a  chief  "  practises  magic  on  another  chief  before  fighting 
with  him;"  and  his  followers  have  great  confidence  in  him 
if  he  has  much  repute  as  a  magician.  Hence  the  sway 
acquired  by  Langalibalele,  who,  as  Bishop  Colenzo  says, 
"  knows  well  the  composition  of  that  intehzi  [used  for 
controlling  the  weather] ;  and  he  knows  well,  too,  the  war- 
medicine,  i.e.,  its  component  parts,  being  himself  a  doctor." 
Still  better  is  seen  the  governmental  influence  thus  acquired 
*n  the  case  of  the  king  of  Obbo,  who  in  time  of  drought  calls 
his  subjects  together  and  explains  to  them — 

"  how  much  he  regrets  that  their  conduct  has  compelled  him  to  afflict 
them  with  unfavourable  weather,  but  that  it  is  their  own  fault.  .  .  . 
He  must  have  goats  and  corn.  '  No  goats,  no  rain ;  that's  our  contract, 
my  friends,'  says  Katchiba.  .  .  .  Should  his  people  complain  of  too 


340  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

much  rain,  lie  threatens  to  pour  storms  and  lightning  upon  them  for 
ever,  unless  they  bring  him  so  many  hundred  baskets  of  corn,  &c., 
&c.  .  .  .  His  subjects  have  the  most  thorough  confidence  in  his  power." 

And  the  king  is  similarly  supposed  to  exercise  control  over  the 
weather  among  the  people  of  Loan  go. 

A  like  connexion  is  traceable  in  the  records  of  various 
extinct  peoples  in  both  hemispheres.  Of  Huitzilopochtli,  the 
founder  of  the  Mexican  power,  we  read  that  "  a  great  wizard 
he  had  been,  and  a  sorcerer ;"  and  every  Mexican  king  on 
ascending  the  throne  had  to  swear  "  to  make  the  sun  go  his 
course,  to  make  the  clouds  pour  down  rain,  to  make  the  rivers 
run,  and  all  fruits  to  ripen/'  Eeproaching  his  subjects  for 
want  of  obedience,  a  Chibcha  ruler  told  them  they  knew 
"that  it  was  in  his  power  to  afflict  them  with  pestilence, 
small-pox,  rheumatism,  and  fever,  and  to  make  to  grow  as 
much  grass,  vegetables,  and  plants  as  they  wanted."  Ancient 
Egyptian  records  yield  indications  of  a  similar  early  belief. 
Thothmes  III.,  after  being  deified,  "  was  considered  as  the 
luck-bringing  god  of  the  country,  and  a  preserver  against  the 
evil  influence  of  wicked  spirits  and  magicians."  And  it  was 
thus  with  the  Jews  : — 

"  Rabbinical  writings  are  never  weary  of  enlarging  upon  the  magical 
power  and  knowledge  of  Solomon.  He  was  represented  as  not  only 
king  of  the  whole  earth,  but  also  as  reigning  over  devils  and  evil  spirits, 
arid  having  the  power  of  expelling  them  from  the  bodies  of  men  and 
animals  and  also  of  delivering  people  to  them." 

The  traditions  of  European  peoples  furnish  kindred  evidence. 
As  before  shown  (§  198)  stories  in  the  Heims-kringla  saga 
imply  that  the  Scandinavian  ruler,  Odin,  was  a  medicine 
man  ;  as  were  also  Mort  and  Frey,  his  successors.  And  aftei 
recalling  the  supernatural  weapons  and  supernatural  achieve 
ments  of  early  heroic  kings,  we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  with 
them  were  in  some  cases  associated  those  ascribed  magical 
characters  whence  have  descended  the  supposed  powers  of 
kings  to  cure  diseases  by  touching.  We  shall  the  less  doubt 
this  on  finding  that  like  powers  were  attributed  to  subordinate 
rulers  of  early  origin.  There  existed  certain  Breton  noblea 


POLITICAL  HEADS — CHIEFS,  KINGS,  ETO.  341 

whose    spittle   and  touch  were  said  to  have  curative   pro 
perties. 

Thus  one  important  factor  in  the  genesis  of  political  head 
ship,  originates  with  the  ghost  theory,  and  the  concomitant 
rise  of  a  belief  that  some  men,  Laving  acquired  power  over 
ghosts,  can  obtain  their  aid.  Generally  the  chief  and  the 
medicine-man  are  separate  persons ;  and  there  then  exists 
between  them  some  conflict :  they  have  competing  authorities. 
But  where  the  ruler  joins  with  his  power  naturally  gained, 
this  ascribed  supernatural  power,  his  authority  is  necessarily 
much  increased.  Recalcitrant  members  of  his  tribe  who 
might  dare  to  resist  him  if  bodily  prowess  alone  could  decide 
the  struggle,  do  not  dare  if  they  think  he  can  send  one  of  his 
posse  comitatus  of  ghosts  to  torment  them.  That  rulers  desire 
to  unite  the  two  characters,  we  have,  in  one  case,  distinct 
proof.  Canon  Callaway  tells  us  that  among  the  Amazulu,  a 
chief  will  endeavour  to  discover  a  medicine-man's  secrets  and 
afterwards  kill  him. 

§  475.  Still  there  recurs  the  question — How  does  per 
manent  political  headship  arise  ?  Such  political  headship  as 
results  from  bodily  power,  or  courage,  or  sagacity,  even  when 
strengthened  by  supposed  supernatural  aid,  ends  with  the 
life  of  any  savage  who  gains  it.  The  principle  of  efficiency, 
physical  or  mental,  while  it  tends  to  produce  a  temporary 
differentiation  into  ruler  and  ruled,  does  not  suffice  to  produce 
a  permanent  differentiation.  There  has  to  cooperate  another 
principle,  to  which  we  now  pass. 

Already  we  have  seen  that  even  in  the  rudest  groups,  age 
gives  some  predominance.  Among  both  Fuegians  and 
Australians,  not  only  old  men,  but  also  old  women,  exercise 
authority.  And  that  this  respect  for  age,  apart  from  other 
distinction,  is  an  important  factor  in  establishing  political 
subordination,  is  implied  by  the  curious  fact  that,  in  sundry 
advanced  societies  characterized  by  extreme  governmental 
coercion,  the  respect  due  to  age  takes  precedence  of  all  other 


342  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

respect.  Sliarpe  remarks  of  ancient  Egypt  that  "  here  as  in 
Persia  and  Judsea  the  king's  mother  often  held  rank  above  his 
wife."  In  China,  notwithstanding  the  inferior  position  of 
women  socially  and  domestically,  there  exists  this  supremacy 
of  the  female  parent,  second  only  to  that  of  the  male  parent ; 
and  the  like  holds  in  Japan.  As  supporting  the  inference 
that  subjection  to  parents  prepares  the  way  for  subjection  to 
rulers,  I  may  add  a  converse  fact.  Of  the  Coroados,  whose 
groups  are  so  incoherent,  we  read  that — 

"  The  paje,  however,  has  as  little  influence  over  the  will  of  the  multi 
tude  as  any  other,  for  they  live  without  any  bond  of  social  union, 
neither  under  a  republican  nor  a  patriarchial  form  of  government. 
Even  family  ties  are  very  loose  among  them  ....  there  is  no 
regular  precedency  between  the  old  and  the  young,  for  age  appears  to 
enjoy  no  respect  among  them." 

And,  as  re-inforcing  this  converse  fact,  I  may  call  attention 
to  §  317,  where  it  was  shown  that  the  Mantras,  the  Caribs, 
the  Mapuches,  the  Brazilian  Indians,  the  Gallinomeros,  the 
Shoshones,  the  Navajos,  the  Caliibrnians,  the  Comanches, 
who  submit  very  little  or  not  at  all  to  chiefly  rule,  display  a 
filial  submission  which  is  mostly  small  and  ceases  early. 

But  now  under  what  circumstances  does  respect  for  age 
take  that  pronounced  form  seen  in  societies  distinguished  by 
great  political  subordination  ?  It  was  shown  in  §  319  that 
when  men,  passing  from  the  hunting  stage  into  the  pastoral 
stage,  began  to  wander  in  search  of  food  for  their  domesti 
cated  animals,  they  fell  into  conditions  favouring  the  forma 
tion  of  patriarchal  groups.  We  saw  that  in  the  primitive 
pastoral  horde,  the  man,  released  from  those  earlier  tribal 
influences  which  interfere  with  paternal  power,  and  prevent 
settled  relations  of  the  sexes,  was  so  placed  as  to  acquire 
headship  of  a  coherent  cluster :  the  father  became  by  right 
of  the  strong  hand,  leader,  owner,  master,  of  wife,  children, 
and  all  he  carried  with  him.  There  were  enumerated  the 
influences  which  tended  to  make  the  eldest  male  a  patriarch; 
and  it  was  shown  that  not  only  the  Semites,  Aryans,  and 
Turanian  races  of  Asia  have  exemplified  this  relation  between 


POLITICAL  HEADS — CHIEFS,  KINGS,  ETC.  343 

pastoral  habits  and  the  patriarchal  organization,  but  that  it 
recurs  in  South  African  races. 

Be  the  causes  what  they  may,  however,  we  find  abundant 
proof  that  this  family-supremacy  of  the  eldest  male,  common 
among  pastoral  peoples  and  peoples  who  have  passed  through 
the  pastoral  stage  into  the  agricultural  stage,  develops  into 
political  supremacy.  Of  the  Santals  Hunter  says  — 
11  The  village  government  is  purely  patriarchial.  Each  hamlet  has  an 
original  founder  (the  Manjhi-Hanan),  who  is  regarded  as  the  father  of 
the  community.  He  receives  divine  honours  in  the  sacred  grove,  and 
transmits  his  authority  to  his  descendants." 

Of  the  compound  family  among  the  Khonds  we  read  in  Mac- 
pherson  that — 

"  There  it  [paternal  authority]  reigns  nearly  absolute.  It  is  a  Khond's 
maxim  that  a  man's  father  is  his  god,  disobedience  to  whom  is  the 
greatest  crime ;  and  all  the  members  of  a  family  live  united  in  strict 
subordination  to  its  head  until  his  death." 

And  the  growth  of  simple  groups  into  compound  and 
doubly-compound  groups,  acknowledging  the  authority  of  one 
who  unites  family  headship  with  political  headship,  has  been 
made  familiar  by  Sir  Henry  Maine  and  others  as  common  to 
early  Greeks,  Romans,  Teutons,  and  as  still  affecting  social 
organization  among  Hindoos  and  Sclavs. 

Here,  then,  we  have  making  its  appearance,  a  factor  which 
conduces  to  permanence  of  political  headship.  As  was  pointed 
out  in  a  foregoing  chapter,  while  succession  by  efficiency 
gives  plasticity  to  social  organization,  succession  by  inherit 
ance  gives  it  stability.  No  settled  arrangement  can  arise  in 
a  primitive  community  so  long  as  the  function  of  each  unit 
is  determined  exclusively  by  his  fitness  ;  since,  at  his  death, 
the  arrangement,  in  so  far  as  he  was  a  part  of  it,  must  be 
recommenced.  Only  when  his  place  is  forthwith  filled  by 
one  whose  claim  is  admitted,  does  there  begin  a  differentia 
tion  which  survives  through  successive  generations.  And 
evidently  in  the  earlier  stages  of  social  evolution,  while  the 
coherence  is  small  and  the  want  of  structure  great,  it  is  requi 
site  that  the  principle  of  inheritance  should,  especially  in  re- 


344  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

spect  of  the  political  headship,  predominate  over  the  principle 
of  efficiency.    Contemplation  of  the  facts  will  make  this  clear. 

§  476.  Two  primary  forms  of  hereditary  succession  have  to 
be  considered.  The  system  of  kinship  through  females,  com 
mon  among  rude  peoples,  results  in  descent  of  property  and 
power  to  brothers  or  to  the  children  of  sisters;  while  the 
system  of  kinship  through  males,  general  among  advanced 
peoples,  results  in  descent  of  property  and  power  to  sons  01 
daughters.  We  have  first  to  note  that  succession  through 
females  is  less  conducive  to  stable  political  headships  than  is 
succession  through  males. 

From  the  fact  named  when  treating  of  the  domestic  rela 
tions,  that  the  system  of  kinship  through  females  arises  where 
unions  of  the  sexes  are  temporary  or  unsettled,  it  is  to  be 
inferred  that  this  system  characterizes  societies  which  are 
unadvanced  in  all  ways,  political  included.  We  saw  in  §  294, 
that  irregular  connexions  involve  paucity  and  feebleness  of 
known  relationships,  and  a  type  of  family  the  successive 
links  of  which  are  not  strengthened  by  so  many  collateral 
links.  A  common  consequence  is  that  along  with  descent 
through  females  there  either  goes  no  chieftainship,  or  such 
chieftainship  as  exists  is  established  by  merit,  or,  if  here 
ditary,  is  usually  unstable.  The  Australians  and  Tasmanians 
supply  typical  instances.  Among  the  Haidahs  and  other 
savage  peoples  of  Columbia,  "  rank  is  nominally  hereditary, 
for  the  most  part  by  the  female  line  ;"  and  actual  chieftain 
ship  "  depends  to  a  great  extent  on  wealth  and  ability  in 
war."  Of  other  North  American  tribes  the  Chippewas, 
Comanches,  and  Snakes,  show  us  the  system  of  kinship 
through  females  joined  with  either  absence  of  established 
headship  or  very  feeble  development  of  it.  Passing  to  South 
America,  the  Arawaks  and  the  Waraus  may  be  instanced  as 
having  female  descent  and  almost  nominal,  though  hereditary, 
chiefs ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  Caribs. 

A  group  of  facts  having  much  signilicance  may  now  be 


POLITICAL   HEADS — CHIEFS,  KINGS,   ETC.  345 

noted.  In  many  societies  where  descent  of  property  and 
rank  in  the  female  line  is  the  rule,  an  exception  is  made  in 
the  case  of  the  political  head  ;  and  societies  exemplifying  this 
exception  are  societies  in  which  political  headship  is  relatively 
stable.  Though  in  Fiji  there  is  kinship  through  females,  yet, 
according  to  Seemann,  the  ruler,  chosen  from  the  members  of 
the  royal  family,  is  "  generally  the  son "  of  the  late  ruler. 
In  Tahiti,  where  the  two  highest  ranks  follow  the  primitive 
system  of  descent,  male  succession  to  rulership  is  so  pro 
nounced  that,  on  the  birth  of  an  eldest  son  the  father  becomes 
simply  a  regent  on  his  behalf.  And  among  the  Malagasy, 
along  with  a  prevailing  kinship  through  females,  the  sovereign 
either  nominates  his  successor,  or,  failing  this,  the  nobles  ap 
point,  and  "  unless  positive  disqualification  exists,  the  eldest 
son  is  usually  chosen/'  Africa  furnishes  evidence  of 

varied  kinds.  Though  the  Congo  people,  the  Coast  Negroes, 
and  the  Inland  Negroes  have  formed  communities  of  some  size 
and  complexity,  notwithstanding  that  kinship  through  females 
obtains  in  the  succession  to  the  throne,  yet  we  read  of  the 
first  that  allegiance  is  "  vague  and  uncertain ;"  of  the  second 
that,  save  where  free  in  form,  the  government  is  "  an  insecure 
and  short-lived  monarchic  despotism ;"  and  of  the  third  that, 
where  the  government  is  not  of  mixed  type,  it  is  "  a  rigid  but 
insecure  despotism."  Meanwhile,  in  the  two  most  advanced 
and  powerful  states,  stability  of  political  headship  goes  along 
with  departure,  incipient  or  entire,  from  succession  through 
females.  In  Ashantee,  claims  to  the  crown  stand  in  this 
order — "  the  brother,  the  sister's  son,  the  son ;"  and  in  Dahomey 
there  is  male  primogeniture.  Further  instances  of 

this  transition  are  yielded  by  extinct  American  civilizations. 
The  Aztec  conquerors  of  Mexico  brought  with  them  the 
system  of  kinship  through  females,  and  consequent  law  of 
succession ;  but  this  law  of  succession  was  partially,  or  com 
pletely,  changed  to  succession  through  males.  In  Tezcuco 
and  Tlacopan  (divisions  of  Mexico)  the  eldest  son  inherited 
the  kingship  ;  and  in  Mexico  the  choice  of  a  king  was  limited 


346  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

to  tlio  sons  and  brothers  of  the  preceding  king.  Then,  of 
ancient  Peru,  Gomara  says — "  nephews  inherit,  and  not  sons, 
except  in  the  case  of  the  Yncas:"  this  exception  in  the 
case  of  the  Yncas,  having  the  strange  peculiarity  that 
"  the  first-born  of  this  brother  and  sister  \i.e.,  the  Ynca  and 
his  principal  wife]  was  the  legitimate  heir  to  the  king 
dom":  an  arrangement  which  made  the  line  of  descent 
unusually  narrow  and  definite.  And  here  we  are 

brought  back  to  Africa  by  the  parallelism  between  the  case 
of  Peru  and  that  of  Egypt.  "  In  Egypt  it  was  maternal 
descent  that  gave  the  right  to  property  and  to  the  throne. 
The  same  prevailed  in  Ethiopia.  If  the  monarch  married 
out  of  the  royal  family  the  children  did  not  enjoy  a  legiti 
mate  right  to  the  crown."  When  we  add  the  statement  that 
the  monarch  was  "  supposed  to  be  descended  from  the  gods, 
in  the  male  and  female  line ;"  and  when  we  join  with  this 
the  further  statement  that  there  were  royal  marriages  between 
brother  and  sister ;  we  see  that  like  causes  worked  like  effects 
in  Egypt  and  in  Peru.  For  in  Peru  the  Ynca  was  of  sup 
posed  divine  descent ;  inherited  his  divinity  on  both  sides ; 
and  married  his  sister  to  keep  the  divine  blood  unmixed. 
And  in  Peru,  as  in  Egypt,  there  resulted  royal  succession  in 
the  male  line,  where,  otherwise,  succession  through  females 
prevailed.  Ancient  Ceylon,  where  "  the  form  of  government 
was  at  all  times  an  unmitigated  despotism,"  appears  to  have 
furnished  a  parallel  case ;  for  Sir  J.  E.  Tennant  tells  us  that 
"  the  Singhelese  kings  frequently  married  their  sisters/' 

With  this  process  of  transition  from  the  one  law  of  descent 
to  the  other,  implied  by  these  last  facts,  may  be  joined  some 
processes  which  preceding  facts  imply.  In  New  Caledonia  a 
"  chief  nominates  his  successor,  if  possible,  in  a  son  or 
brother :"  the  one  choice  implying  descent  in  the  male  line 
and  the  other  being  consistent  with  descent  in  either  male  or 
female  line.  And  in  Madagascar,  where  the  system  of  female 
kinship  prevailed,  "  the  sovereign  nominated  his  successor — 
naturally  choosing  a  son/'  Further  it  is  manifest  that  where, 


POLITICAL  HEADS — CHIEFS,  KINGS,  ETC.  347 

as  iii  these  cases,  when  no  nomination  has  been  made  the 
nobles  choose  among  members  of  the  royal  family,  and  are 
determined  in  their  choice  by  eligibility,  there  may  be,  and 
naturally  is,  a  departure  from  descent  in  the  female  line ; 
and  this  system  of  descent  once  broken  through  is  likely  for 
several  reasons  to  be  abolished.  We  are  also  intro 

duced  to  another  transitional  process.  For  some  of  these  cases 
are  among  the  many  in  which  succession  to  rulership  is  fixed 
in  respect  of  the  family,  but  not  fixed  in  respect  of  the 
member  of  the  family — a  stage  implying  a  partial  but  incom 
plete  stability  of  the  political  headship.  Several  instances 
occur  in  Africa.  "  The  crown  of  Abyssinia  is  hereditary  in 
one  family,  but  elective  in  the  person,"  says  Bruce.  "  Among 
the  Timmanees  and  Bulloms,  the  crown  remains  in  the  same 
family,  but  the  chiefs  or  head  men  of  the  country,  upon  whom 
the  election  of  a  king  depends,  are  at  liberty  to  nominate  a 
very  distant  branch  of  that  family."  And  a  Kaffir  "  law 
requires  the  successor  to  the  king  should  be  chosen  from 
amongst  some  of  the  youngest  princes."  In  Java  and  Samoa, 
too,  while  succession  to  rulership  is  limited  to  the  family,  it 
is  but  partially  settled  with  respect  to  the  individual.  And 
the  like  held  in  Spain  (Aragon)  before  the  12th  century; 
where  "  a  small  number  of  powerful  barons  elected  their 
sovereign  on  every  vacancy,  though,  as  usual  in  other 
countries,  out  of  one  family." 

That  stability  of  political  headship  is  secured  by  establish 
ment  of  descent  in  the  male  line,  is,  of  course,  not  alleged. 
The  allegation  simply  is  that  succession  after  this  mode  con 
duces  better  than  any  other  to  its  stability.  Of  probable 
reasons  for  this,  one  is  that  in  the  patriarchal  group,  as 
developed  among  those  pastoral  races  from  which  the  leading 
civilize!  peoples  have  descended,  the  sentiment  of  subordina 
tion  to  the  eldest  male,  fostered  by  circumstances  in  the 
family  and  in  the  gens,  becomes  instrumental  to  a  wider 
subordination  in  the  larger  groups  eventually  formed.  Another 
probable  reason  is,  that  with  descent  in  the  male  line  there  is 


348  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

more  frequently  a  union  of  efficiency  with  supremacy.  The 
son  of  a  great  warrior,  or  man  otherwise  capable  as  a  ruler,  is 
more  likely  to  possess  kindred  traits  than  is  the  son  of  his 
sister ;  and  if  so,  it  will  happen  that  in  those  earliest  stages 
when  personal  superiority  is  requisite  as  well  as  legitimacy 
of  claim,  succession  in  the  male  line  will  conduce  to  main 
tenance  of  power  by  making  usurpation  more  difficult. 

There  is,  however,  a  more  potent  influence  which  aids  in 
giving  permanence  to  political  headship,  and  which  operates 
more  in  conjunction  with  descent  through  males  than  in  con 
junction  with  descent  through  females— an  influence  probably 
of  greater  importance  than  any  other. 

§  477.  When  showing,  in  §  475,  how  respect  for  age  gene 
rates  patriarchal  authority  where  descent  through  males  has 
arisen,  I  gave  cases  which  incidentally  showed  a  further  result ; 
namely,  that  the  dead  patriarch,  worshipped  by  his  descend 
ants,  becomes  a  family  deity.  In  sundry  chapters  of  Vol.  I. 
were  set  forth  at  length  the  proofs,  past  and  present,  furnished 
by  many  places  and  peoples,  of  this  genesis  of  gods  from 
ghosts.  Here  there  remains  to  be  pointed  out  the  strengthen 
ing  of  political  headship  which  inevitably  results. 

Descent  from  a  ruler  who  impressed  men  by  his  superiority, 
and  whose  ghost,  specially  feared,  is  propitiated  in  so  unusual 
a  degree  as  to  distinguish  it  from  ancestral  ghosts  at  large, 
exalte  and  supports  the  living  ruler  in  two  ways.  He  is 
assumed  to  inherit  from  his  great  progenitor  more  or  less  of 
the  power,  apt  to  be  thought  supernatural,  which  characterized 
him ;  and,  making  sacrifices  to  this  great  progenitor,  he  is 
supposed  to  maintain  such  relations  with  him  as  insure  divine 
aid.  Passages  in  Canon  Callaway's  account  of  the  Amazulu, 
show  the  influence  of  this  belief.  It  is  said,  "  the  Itongo 
[ancestral  ghost]  dwells  with  the  great  man,  and  speaks  with 
him ; "  and  then  it  is  also  said  (referring  to  a  medicine-man), 
"  the  chiefs  of  the  house  of  Uzulu  used  not  to  allow  a  mere 
inferior  to  be  even  said  to  have  power  over  the  heaven ;  for 


POLITICAL  HEADS — CHIEFS,  KINGS,  ETC.  349 

it  was  said  that  the  heaven  belonged  only  to  the  chief  of  that 
place."  These  facts  yield  a  definite  interpretation  of  others, 
like  the  following,  which  show  that  the  authority  of  the  ter 
restrial  ruler  is  increased  by  his  alleged  relation  to  the  celestial 
ruler ;  be  the  celestial  ruler  the  ghost  of  the  remotest  known 
ancestor  who  founded  the  society,  or  of  a  conquering  invader, 
or  of  a  superior  stranger. 

Of  the  chiefs  among  the  Kukis,  who  are  descendants  of 
Hindoo  adventurers,  we  read : — 

"All  these  Rajahs  are  supposed  to  have  sprung  from  the  same  stock, 
which  it  is  believed  originally  had  connection  with  the  gods  them 
selves  ;  their  persons  are  therefore  looked  upon  with  the  greatest 
respect  and  almost  superstitious  veneration,  and  their  commands  are  in 
every  case  law." 

Of  the  Tahitians  EUis  says  :— 

"The  god  and  the  king  were  generally  supposed  to  share  the  authority 
over  the  mass  of  mankind  between  them.  The  latter  sometimes  imper 
sonated  the  former.  .  .  .  The  kings,  in  some  of  the  islands,  were  sup 
posed  to  have  descended  from  the  gods.  Their  persons  were  always  sacred." 

According  to  Mariner,  "  Toritonga  and  Veachi  (hereditary 
divine  chiefs  in  Tonga,)  are  both  acknowledged  descendants 
of  chief  gods  who  formerly  visited  the  islands  of  Tonga/' 
And,  in  ancient  Peru  "  the  Ynca  gave  them  [his  vassals]  to 
understand  that  all  he  did  with  regard  to  them  was  by  an 
order  and  revelation  of  his  father,  the  Sun." 

This  re-inforcement  of  natural  power  by  supernatural 
power,  becomes  extreme  where  the  ruler  is  at  once  a  descend- 
ai.t  of  the  gods  and  himself  a  god  :  a  union  which  is  familiar 
among  peoples  who  do  not  distinguish  the  divine  from  the 
human  as  we  do.  It  was  thus  in  the  case  just  instanced — 
that  of  the  Peruvians.  It  was  thus  with  the  ancient  Egyp 
tians  :  the  monarch  "  was  the  representative  of  the  Divinity 
on  earth,  and  of  the  same  substance."  Not  only  did  he  in 
many  cases  become  a  god  after  death,  but  he  was  worshipped 
as  a  god  during  life ;  as  witness  this  prayer  to  Barneses  II. 
"  When  they  had  come  before  the  king  .  .  .  they  fell  down  to  the 
ground,  and  with  their  hands  they  prayed  to  the  king.  They  praised 
this  divine  benefactor  .  .  .  speaking  thus : — '  We  are  come  before 


350  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

thee,  the  lord  of  heaven,  lord  of  the  earth,  sun,  life  of  the  whole  world, 
lord  of  time  .  .  .  lord  of  prosperity,  creator  of  the  harvest,  fashioner 
and  former  of  mortals,  dispenser  of  breath  to  all  men ;  animator  of  the 
whole  company  of  the  gods  .  .  .  thou  former  of  the  great,  creator 
of  the  small  .  .  .  thou  our  lord,  our  sun,  by  whose  words  out  of  his 
mouth  Turn  lives  .  .  .  grant  us  life  out  of  thy  hands  .  .  .  and 
breath  for  our  nostrils.' " 

This  prayer  introduces  us  to  a  remarkable  parallel.  Barneses, 
whose  powers,  demonstrated  by  his  conquests,  were  regarded 
as  so  transcendant,  is  here  described  as  ruling  not  only  the 
lower  world  but  also  the  upper  world ;  and  a  like  royal  power 
is  alleged  in  two  existing  societies  where  absolutism  is  simi 
larly  unmitigated — China  and  Japan.  As  shown  when  treat 
ing  of  Ceremonial  Institutions  (§  34?)  both  the  Emperor  of 
China  and  the  Japanese  Mikado,  have  such  supremacy  in 
heaven  that  they  promote  its  inhabitants  from  rank  to  rank 
at  will. 

That  this  strengthening  of  political  headship,  if  not  by 
ascribed  godhood  then  by  ascribed  descent  from  a  god  (either 
the  apotheosized  ancestor  of  the  tribe  or  one  of  the  elder 
deities),  was  exemplified  among  the  early  Greeks,  needs  not 
be  shown.  It  was  exemplified,  too,  among  the  Northern 
Aryans.  "  According  to  the  old  heathen  faith,  the  pedigree 
of  the  Saxon,  Anglian,  Danish,  Norwegian,  and  Swedish  kings 
— probably  also  those  of  the  German  and  Scandinavian  kings 
generally — was  traced  to  Odin,  or  to  some  of  his  immediate 
companions  or  heroic  sons/' 

It  is  further  to  be  noted  that  a  god-descended  ruler  who  is 
also  chief  priest  of  the  gods  (as  he  habitually  is),  obtains  a 
moie  effective  supernatural  aid  than  does  the  ruler  to  whom 
magical  powers  alone  are  ascribed.  For  in  the  first  place  the 
invisible  agents  invoked  by  the  magician  are  not  conceived  to 
be  those  of  highest  rank ;  whereas  the  divinely-descended 
ruler  is  supposed  to  get  the  help  of  a  supreme  invisible  agent. 
And  in  the  second  place,  the  one  form  of  influence  over  these 
dreaded  superhuman  beings,  tends  much  less  than  the  othei 
to  become  a  permanent  attribute  of  the  ruler.  Though  among 


POLITICAL  HEADS — CHIEFS,  KINGS,  ETC.  351 

the  Chibchas,  we  find  a  case  in  which  magical  power  was 
transferred  to  a  successor — though  "  the  cazique  of  Sogamoso 
made  known  that  he  [Bochica]  had  left  him  heir  of  all  his 
sanctity,  and  that  he  had  the  same  power  of  making  rain 
when  he  liked,"  and  giving  health  or  sickness  (an  assertion 
believed  by  the  people) ;  yet  this  is  an  exceptional  case. 
Speaking  generally,  the  chief  whose  relations  with  the  other 
world  are  those  of  a  sorcerer  does  not  transmit  his  relations ; 
and  he  does  not  therefore  establish  a  supernatural  dynasty,  as 
does  the  chief  of  divine  descent. 

§  478.  And  now,  having  considered  the  several  factors 
which  cooperate  to  establish  political  headship,  let  us  consider 
the  process  of  cooperation  through  its  ascending  stages.  The 
truth  to  be  noted  is  that  the  successive  phenomena  which 
occur  in  the  simplest  groups,  habitually  recur  in  the  same 
order  in  compound  groups,  and  again  in  doubly-compound 
groups. 

As,  in  the  simple  group,  there  is  at  first  a  state  in  which 
there  is  no  headship ;  so,  when  simple  groups  which  have 
acquired  political  heads  possessing  slight  authorities,  are  asso 
ciated,  there  is  at  first  no  headship  of  the  cluster.  The 
Chinooks  furnish  an  example.  Describing  them  Lewis  and 
Clarke  say : — "  As  these  families  gradually  expand  into 
bands,  or  tribes,  or  nations,  the  paternal  authority  is  repre 
sented  by  the  chief  of  each  association.  This  chieftain,  how 
ever,  is  not  hereditary."  And  then  comes  the  further  fact, 
which  here  specially  concerns  us,  that  "  the  chiefs  of  the 
separate  villages  are  independent  of  each  other : "  there  is  no 
general  chieftain. 

As  headship  in  a  simple  group,  at  first  temporary,  ceases 
when  the  war  which  initiates  it  ends ;  so  in  a  cluster  of  groups 
which  severally  have  recognized  heads,  a  common  headship  at 
first  results  from  a  war,  and  lasts  no  longer  than  the  war. 
Falkner  says — "  In  a  general  war,  when  man}-  nations  enter 
into  an  alliance  against  a  common  enemy,"  the  PatagoniaEs 
81 


352  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

"  chose  an  Apo,  or  Commander-in-chief,  from  among  the 
oldest  or  most  celebrated  of  the  Caciques."  The  Indians  of 
the  Upper  Orinoco  live  "  in  hordes  of  forty  or  fifty  undei  a 
family  government,  and  they  recognize  a  common  chief  only 
in  times  of  war."  So  is  it  in  Borneo.  "  During  war  the 
chiefs  of  the  Sarcbas  Dyaks  give  an  uncertain  allegiance  to  a 
head  chief,  or  commander-in-chief."  It  has  been  the  same 
in  Europe.  Seeley  remarks  that  the  Sabines  "  seem  to  have 
had  a  central  government  only  in  war  time."  Again,  "  Ger 
many  had  anciently  as  many  republics  as  it  had  tribes.  Except 
in  time  of  war,  there  was  no  chief  common  to  all,  or  even  to 
any  given  confederation." 

This  recalls  the  fact,  indicated  when  treating  of  Political 
Integration,  that  the  cohesion  within  compound  groups  is  less 
than  that  within  simple  groups,  and  that  the  cohesion  within 
the  doubly  compound  is  less  than  that  within  the  compound. 
What  was  there  said  of  cohesion  may  here  be  said  of  the  sub 
ordination  conducing  to  it ;  for  we  find  that  when,  by  con 
tinuous  war,  a  permanent  headship  of  a  compound  group  has 
been  generated,  it  is  less  stable  than  the  headships  of  the  simple 
groups  are.  Often  it  lasts  only  for  the  life  of  the  man  who 
achieves  it ;  as  among  the  Karens  and  the  Maganga,  instanced 
in  §  226,  and  as  among  the  Dyaks,  of  whom  Boyle  says — 

"  It  is  an  exceptional  case  if  a  Dyak  chief  is  raised  to  an  acknow 
ledged  supremacy  over  the  other  chiefs.  If  he  is  so  raised  he  can  lay 
no  claim  to  his  power  except  that  of  personal  merit  and  the  consent  of 
his  former  equals ;  and  his  death  is  instantly  followed  by  the  disruption 
of  his  dominions." 

E  7en  where  there  has  arisen  a  headship  of  the  compound  group 
which  lasts  beyond  the  life  of  its  founder,  it  remains  for  a  long 
time  not  equal  in  stability  to  the  headships  of  the  component 
groups.  Pallas,  while  describing  the  Mongol  and  Kalmuck 
chiefs  as  having  unlimited  power  over  their  dependants,  says 
that  the  khans  had  in  general  only  an  uncertain  and  weak 
authority  over  the  subordinate  chiefs.  Concerning  the  Arau- 
canians,  Thompson  says  "  the  ulmenes  are  the  lawful  judges 


POLITICAL  HEADS — CHIEFS,  KINGS,  ETC.  353 

of  their  vassals,  and  for  this  reason  their  authority  is  less  pre 
carious  than  that  of  the  higher  officers  " — the  central  rulers. 
Of  the  Kaffirs  we  read : — "  They  are  all  vassals  of  the  king, 
chiefs,  as  well  as  those  under  them;  but  the  subjects  are 
generally  so  blindly  attached  to  their  chiefs,  that  they  will 
follow  them  against  the  king."  Europe  has  furnished  kindred 
examples.  Of  the  Homeric  Greeks  Mr.  Gladstone  writes  : — 
"  It  is  probable  that  the  subordination  of  the  sub-chief  to  his 
local  sovereign  was  a  closer  tie  than  that  of  the  local  sovereign 
to  the  head  of  Greece."  And  during  the  early  feudal  period 
in  the  West,  allegiance  to  the  minor  but  proximate  ruler  was 
stronger  than  that  to  the  major  but  remote  ruler. 

In  the  compound  group,  as  in  the  simple  group,  the  pro 
gress  towards  stable  headship  is  furthered  by  transition  from 
succession  by  choice  to  succession  by  inheritance.  During 
early  stages  of  the  independent  tribe,  chieftainship  when  not 
acquired  by  individual  superiority  tacitly  yielded  to,  is  ac 
quired  by  election.  In  North  America  it  is  so  with  the  Aleuts, 
the  Comanches,  and  many  more ;  in  Polynesia  it  is  so  with 
the  Land  Dyaks  ;  and,  before  the  Mahommedan  conquest,  it 
was  so  in  Java.  Among  the  hill-peoples  of  India  it  is  so  with 
the  Nagas  and  others.  In  sundry  regions  the  change  to  heredi 
tary  succession  is  shown  by  different  tribes  of  the  same  race. 
Of  the  Karens  we  read  that  "  in  many  districts  the  chieftain 
ship  is  considered  hereditary,  but  in  more  it  is  elective." 
Some  Chinook  villages  have  chiefs  who  inherit  their  powers, 
though  mostly  they  are  chosen.  Similarly,  the  com 

pound  group  is  at  first  ruled  by  an  elected  head.  Several 
examples  come  to  us  from  Africa.  Bastian  tells  us  that  "  in 
many  parts  of  the  Congo  region  the  king  is  chosen  by  the 
petty  princes."  The  crown  of  Yariba  is  not  hereditary: 
"  the  chiefs  invariably  electing,  from  the  wisest  and  most 
sagacious  of  their  own  body."  And  the  king  of  Ibu,  says 
Allen,  seems  to  be  "  elected  by  a  council  of  sixty  elders,  or 
chiefs  of  large  villages."  In  Asia  it  is  thus  with  the  Kukis. 
"  One,  among  all  the  Eajahs  of  each  class,  is  chosen  to  be  the  Prudham 


354  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

or  chief  Rajah  of  that  clan.  The  dignity  is  not  hereditary,  as  is  the 
case  with  the  minor  Eajahships,  but  is  enjoyed  by  each  Eajah  of  the 
clan  in  rotation.' 

So  has  it  been  in  Europe.  Though  by  the  early  Greeks  here 
ditary  right  was  in  a  considerable  measure  recognized,  yet  the 
case  of  Telemachus  implies  "  that  a  practice,  either  approach 
ing  to  election,  or  in  some  way  involving  a  voluntary  action 
on  the  part  of  the  subjects,  or  of  a  portion  of  them,  had  to  be 
gone  through."  The  like  is  true  of  ancient  Eome.  That  its 
monarchy  was  elective  "  is  proved  by  the  existence  in  later 
times  of  an  office  of  interrex,  which  implies  that  the  kingly 
power  did  not  devolve  naturally  upon  a  hereditary  successor." 
Later  on  it  was  thus  with  Western  peoples.  Up  to  the  begin 
ning  of  the  tenth  century  "  the  formality  of  election  sub 
sisted  .  .  .  in  every  European  kingdom ;  and  the  imper 
fect  right  of  birth  required  a  ratification  by  public  assent." 
And  it  was  once  thus  with  ourselves.  Among  the  early 
English  the  Bretwaldship,  or  supreme  headship  over  the 
minor  kingdoms,  was  at  first  elective ;  and  the  form  of  elec 
tion  continued  long  traceable  in  our  history.  Moreover,  it  is 
observable  that  the  change  to  hereditary  succession  is  by 
assent,  as  in  France.  "  The  first  six  kings  of  this  dynasty 
[the  Capetian]  procured  the  co-optation  of  their  sons,  by 
having  them  crowned  during  their  own  lives.  And  this  was 
not  done  without  the  consent  of  the  chief  vassals." 

The  stability  of  the  compound  headship,  made  greater  by 
efficient  leadership  in  war  and  by  establishment  of  hereditary 
succession,  is  further  increased  when  there  cooperates  the 
additional  factor — supposed  supernatural  origin  or  super 
natural  sanction.  Everywhere,  up  from  a  New  Zealand 
king,  who  is  strictly  tapu,  or  sacred,  we  may  trace  this  in 
fluence  ;  and  occasionally,  where  divine  descent  or  magical 
powers  are  not  claimed,  there  is  a  claim  to  origin  that  is 
extraordinary.  Asia  yields  an  example  in  the  Fodli  dynasty, 
which  reigned  150  years  in  South  Arabia — a  six-fingered 
dynasty,  regarded  with  awe  by  the  people  because  of  its  con- 


POLITICAL  HEADS — CHIEFS,  KINGS,  ETC.  355 

tinuously-inherited  malformation.  Europe  of  the  Merovin 
gian  period  yields  an  example.  In  pagan  times  the  king's 
race  had  an  alleged  divine  origin;  but  in  Christian  times, 
says  "Waitz,  when  they  could  no  longer  mount  back  to  the 
gods,  a  more  than  natural  origin  was  alleged :  "  a  sea-monster 
ravished  the  wife  of  Chlogio  as  she  sat  by  the  sea-shore, 
and  from  this  embrace  Merovech  sprang."  Later  days  show 
us  the  gradual  acquisition  of  a  sacred  or  semi-supernatural 
character,  where  it  did  not  originally  exist.  Divine  assent  to 
their  supremacy  was  asserted  by  the  Carolingian  kings. 
During  the  later  feudal  age,  rare  exceptions  apart,  kings 
"  were  not  far  removed  from  believing  themselves  near  rela 
tives  of  the  masters  of  heaven.  Kings  and  gods  were  col 
leagues."  In  the  17th  century  this  belief  was  endorsed  by 
divines.  "  Kings,"  says  Bossuet,  "  are  gods,  and  share  in  a 
manner  the  divine  independence." 

So  that  the  headship  of  a  compound  group,  arising  tempo 
rarily  during  war,  then  becoming,  with  frequent  cooperation 
of  the  groups,  settled  for  life  by  election,  passing  presently 
into  the  hereditary  form,  and  gaining  permanence  as  fast  as 
the  law  of  succession  grows  well-defined  and  undisputed, 
acquires  its  greatest  stability  only  when  the  king  is  regarded 
as  a  deputy  god,  or  when,  if  he  is  not  supposed  to  inherit  a 
divine  nature,  he  is  supposed  to  have  a  divine  commission. 

§  479.  Ascribed  divine  nature,  or  divine  descent,  or  divine 
commission,  naturally  gives  to  the  political  head  unlimited 
sway.  In  theory,  and  often  to  a  large  extent  in  practice,  he 
is  owner  of  his  subjects  and  of  the  territory  they  occupy. 

Where  militancy  is  pronounced,  and  the  claims  of  a  con 
queror  unqualified,  it  is  indeed  to  a  considerable  degree  thus 
with  those  uncivilized  peoples  who  do  not  ascribe  super 
natural  characters  to  their  rulers.  Among  the  Zulu  Kaffirs 
the  chief  "exercises  supreme  power  over  the  lives  of  his 
people ;"  the  Bheel  chiefs  "  have  a  power  over  the  lives  and 
property  of  their  own  subjects ;"  and  in  Fiji  the  subject  is 


356  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

property.  But  it  is  still  more  thus  where  the  ruler  is  con 
sidered  more  than  human.  Astley  tells  us  that  in  Loango 
the  king  is  "  called  samba  and  pongo,  that  is,  god :"  and, 
according  to  Proyart,  the  Loango  people  "say  their  lives 
and  goods  belong  to  the  king."  In  Wasoro  (East  Africa) 
"  the  king  has  unlimited  power  of  life  and  death  ...  in 
some  tribes  ...  he  is  almost  worshipped."  In  Msam- 
bara  the  people  say  "  we  are  all  slaves  of  the  Zumbe  (king), 
who  is  our  Mulungu"  [god].  "  By  the  state  law  of  Dahomey, 
as  at  Benin,  all  men  are  slaves  to  the  king,  and  most  women 
are  his  wives ;"  and  in  Dahomey  the  king  is  called  "  the 
spirit."  The  Malagasy  speak  of  their  king  as  "  our  god ;"  and 
he  is  lord  of  the  soil,  owner  of  all  property,  and  master  of 
his  subjects.  Their  time  and  services  are  at  his  command." 
In  the  Sandwich  Islands  the  king,  personating  the  god,  utters 
oracular  responses ;  and  his  power  "  extends  over  the  pro 
perty,  liberty,  and  lives  of  his  people."  Various  Asiatic 
rulers,  whose  titles  ascribe  to  them  divine  descent  and  nature, 
stand  in  like  relations  to  their  peoples.  In  Siam  "  the  king 
is  master  not  only  of  the  persons  but  really  of  the  property 
of  his  subjects :  he  disposes  of  their  labour  and  directs  their 
movements  at  will."  Of  the  Burmese  we  read — "  their  goods 
likewise,  and  even  their  persons  are  reputed  his  [the  king's] 
property,  and  on  this  ground  it  is  that  he  selects  for  his  con 
cubine  any  female  that  may  chance  to  please  his  eye."  In 
China  "there  is  only  one  who  possesses  authority— the 
Emperor.  ...  A  wang,  or  king,  has  no  hereditary  pos 
sessions,  and  lives  upon  the  salary  vouchsafed  by  the 
Emperor.  .  .  .  He  is  the  only  possessor  of  the  landed 
property."  And  the  like  is  alleged  of  the  divinely-descended 
Japanese  Mikado :  "  his  majesty,  although  often  but  a  child 
a  few  years  old,  still  dispensed  ranks  and  dignities,  and  the 
ownership  of  the  soil  always  in  reality  resided  in  him." 

Of  course,  where  the  political  head  has  unlimited  power — 
where,  as  victorious  invader,  his  subjects  lie  at  his  mercy,  or 
where,  as  divinely  descended,  his  will  may  not  be  questioned 


POLITICAL  HEADS— CHIEFS,  KINGS,  ETC.  357 

without  impiety,  or  where  he  unites  the  characters  of  con 
queror  and  god,  he  naturally  absorbs  every  kind  of  authority. 
He  is  at  once  military  head,  legislative  head,  judicial  head, 
ecclesiastical  head.  The  fully  developed  king  is  the  supreme 
centre  of  every  social  structure  and  director  of  every  social 
function. 

§  480.  In  a  small  tribe  it  is  practicable  for  the  chief  per 
sonally  to  discharge  all  the  duties  of  his  office.  Besides 
leading  the  other  warriors  in  battle,  he  has  time  to  settle 
disputes,  he  can  sacrifice  to  the  ancestral  ghost,  he  can  keep 
the  village  in  order,  he  can  inflict  punishments,  he  can  regu 
late  trading  transactions ;  for  those  governed  by  him  are  but 
few,  and  they  live  within  a  narrow  space.  When  he  acquires 
the  headship  of  many  united  tribes,  both  the  increased 
amount  of  business  and  the  wider  area  covered  by  his  sub 
jects,  put  difficulties  in  the  way  of  exclusively  personal 
administration.  It  becomes  necessary  to  employ  others  for 
the  purposes  of  gaining  information,  conveying  commands, 
seeing  them  executed ;  and  in  course  of  time  the  assistants 
thus  employed  grow  into  established  heads  of  departments 
with  deputed  authorities. 

While  this  development  of  governmental  structures  in 
creases  the  ruler's  power,  by  enabling  him  to  deal  with  more 
numerous  affairs,  it,  in  another  way,  decreases  his  power ;  for 
his  actions  are  more  and  more  modified  by  the  instrumentali 
ties  through  which  they  are  effected.  Those  who  watch  the 
working  of  administrations,  no  matter  of  what  kind,  have 
forced  upon  them  the  truth  that  a  head  regulative  agency  is 
at  once  helped  and  hampered  by  its  subordinate  agencies. 
In  a  philanthropic  association,  a  scientific  society,  or  a  club, 
those  who  govern  find  that  the  organized  officialism  which 
they  have  created,  often  impedes,  and  not  unfrequently 
defeats,  their  aims.  Still  more  is  it  so  with  the  immensely 
larger  administrations  of  the  State.  Through  deputies  the 
ruler  receives  his  information;  by  them  his  orders  are 


358  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

executed ;  and  as  fast  as  his  connexion  with  affairs  "becomes 
indirect,  his  control  over  affahs  diminishes ;  until,  in  extreme 
cases,  he  either  dwindles  into  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  his 
chief  deputy  or  has  his  place  usurped  by  him. 

Strange  as  it  seems,  the  two  causes  which  conspire  to  give 
permanence  to  political  headship,  also,  at  a  later  stage,  con 
spire  to  reduce  the  political  head  to  an  automaton,  executing 
the  wills  of  the  agents  he  has  created.  In  the  first  place, 
when  hereditary  succession  is  finally  settled  in  some  line  of 
descent  rigorously  prescribed,  the  possession  of  supreme 
power  becomes  independent  of  capacity  for  exercising  it. 
The  heir  to  a  vacant  throne  may  be,  and  often  is,  too  young 
for  discharging  its  duties ;  or  he  may  be,  and  often  is,  too 
feeble  in  intellect,  too  deficient  in  energy,  or  too  much  occu 
pied  with  the  pleasures  which  his  position  offers  in  unlimited 
amounts.  The  result  is  that  in  the  one  case  the  regent,  and 
in  the  other  the  chief  minister,  becomes  the  actual  ruler.  In 
the  second  place,  that  sacredness  which  supposed  divine  origin 
gives,  makes  him  inaccessible  to  the  ruled.  All  intercourse 
between  him  and  them  must  be  through  the  agents  he 
surrounds  himself  with.  Hence  it  becomes  difficult  or  im 
possible  for  him  to  learn  more  than  they  choose  him  to  know ; 
and  there  follows  inability  to  adapt  his  commands  to  the  re 
quirements,  and  inability  to  discover  whether  his  commands 
have  been  fulfilled.  His  authority  is  consequently  used  to 
give  effect  to  the  purposes  of  his  agents. 

Even  in  so  relatively  simple  a  society  as  that  of  Tonga, 
we  find  an  example.  There  is  an  hereditary  sacred  chief  who 
"  was  originally  the  sole  chief,  possessing  temporal  as  well  as 
spiritual  power,  and  regarded  as  of  divine  origin,"  but  who  is 
now  politically  powerless.  Abyssinia  shows  us  something 
analogous.  Holding  no  direct  communication  with  his  sub 
jects,  and  having  a  sacredness  such  that  even  in  council  he 
sits  unseen,  the  monarch  is  a  mere  dummy.  In  Gondar,  one 
of  the  divisions  of  Abyssinia,  the  king  must  belong  to  the 
royal  house  of  Solomon,  but  any  one  of  the  turbulent  chiefs 


POLITICAL  HEADS— CHIEFS,  KINGS,  ETC.  359 

who  has  obtained  ascendancy  by  force  of  arms,  becomes  a 
Eas-  -a  prime  minister  or  real  monarch  ;  though  he  requires 
"  a  titular  emperor  to  perform  the  indispensable  ceremony  of 
nominating  a  Eas,"  since  the  name,  at  least,  of  emperor  "  is 
deemed  essential  to  render  valid  the  title  of  Eas."  The  case 
of  Thibet  may  be  named  as  one  in  which  the  sacredness  of 
the  original  political  head  is  dissociated  from  the  claim  based 
on  hereditary  descent ;  for  the  Grand  Llama,  considered  as 
"  God  the  Father,"  incarnate  afresh  in  each  new  occupant  of 
the  throne,  is  discovered  among  the  people  at  large  by  certain 
indications  of  his  godhood.  But  with  his  divinity,  involving 
disconnexion  with  temporal  matters,  there  goes  absence  of 
political  power.  A  like  state  of  things  exists  in  Bhotan. 

"  The  Dhurma  Eaja  is  looked  upon  by  the  Bhotanese  in  the  same 
light  as  the  Grand  Lama  of  Thibet  is  viewed  by  his  subjects — namely 
as  a  perpetual  incarnation  of  the  Deity,  or  Bhudda  himself  in  a  corpo 
real  form.  During  the  interval  between  his  death  and  reappearance, 
or,  more  properly  speaking,  until  he  has  reached  an  age  sufficiently 
mature  to  ascend  his  spiritual  throne,  the  office  of  Dhurma  Eaja  is 
tilled  by  proxy  from  amongst  the  priesthood." 

And  then  along  with  this  sacred  ruler  there  co-exists  a  secular 
ruler.  Bhotan  "  has  two  nominal  heads,  known  to  us  and  to 
the  neighbouring  hill-tribes  under  the  Hindoostanee  names 
of  the  Dhurma  and  the  Deb  Eajas.  .  .  .  The  former  is 
the  spiritual  head,  the  latter  the  temporal  one."  Though  in 
this  case  the  temporal  head  has  not  great  influence  (probably 
because  the  priest-regent,  whose  celibacy  prevents  him  from 
founding  a  line,  stands  in  the  way  of  unchecked  assumption 
of  power  by  the  temporal  head),  still  the  existence  of  a  tem 
poral  head  implies  a  partial  lapsing  of  political  functions  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  original  political  head.  But  the  most 
remarkable,  and  at  the  same  time  most  familiar,  example,  is 
that  furnished  by  Japan.  Here  the  supplanting  of  inherited 
authority  by  deputed  authority  is  exemplified,  not  in  the 
central  government  alone,  but  in  the  local  governments. 
"  Next  to  the  prince  and  his  family  came  the  Jcaros  or  *  elders.'  Their 
office  became  hereditary,  and,  like  the  princes,  they  in  many  instances 


360  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

became  effete.  The  business  of  what  we  may  call  the  clan  would  thus 
fall  into  the  hands  of  any  clever  man  or  set  of  men  of  the  lower  ranks, 
who,  joining  ability  to  daring  and  unscrupulousness,  kept  the  princes 
and  the  karos  out  of  sight,  but  surrounded  with  empty  dignity,  and, 
commanding  the  opinion  of  the  bulk  of  the  samarai  or  military  class, 
wielded  the  real  power  themselves.  They  took  care,  however,  to  perform 
every  act  in  the  name  of  the  faineants,  their  lords,  and  thus  we  hear 
of  ...  daimios,  just  as  in  the  case  of  the  Emperors,  accomplishing 
deeds  ...  of  which  they  were  perhaps  wholly  ignorant." 

This  lapsing  of  political  power  into  the  hands  of  ministers 
was,  in  the  case  of  the  central  government,  doubly  illustrated. 
Successors  as  they  were  of  a  god-descended  conqueror  whose 
rule  was  real,  the  Japanese  Emperors  gradually  became  only 
nominal  rulers  ;  partly  because  of  the  sacredness  which  sepa 
rated  them  from  the  nation,  and  partly  because  of  the  early 
age  at  which  the  law  of  succession  frequently  enthroned 
them.  Their  deputies  consequently  gained  predominance. 
The  regency  in  the  ninth  century  "  became  hereditary  in  the 
Fujiwara  [sprung  from  the  imperial  house],  and  these  regents 
ultimately  became  all-powerful.  They  obtained  the  privilege 
of  opening  all  petitions  addressed  to  the  sovereign,  and  of  pre 
senting  or  rejecting  them  at  their  pleasure."  And  then,  in 
course  of  time,  this  usurping  agency  had  its  own  authority 
usurped  in  like  manner.  Again  succession  by  fixed  rule  was 
rigorously  adhered  to;  and  again  seclusion  entailed  loss  of 
hold  on  affairs.  "  High  descent  was  the  only  qualification  for 
office,  and  unfitness  for  functions  was  not  regarded  in  the 
choice  of  officials."  Besides  the  Shogun's  four  confidential 
officers,  "  no  one  else  could  approach  him.  Whatever  might 
be  the  crimes  committed  at  Kama  Koura,  it  was  impossible, 
through  the  intrigues  of  these  favourites,  to  complain  of 
them  to  the  Seogoun."  The  result  was  that  "  subsequently 
this  family  .  .  .  gave  way  to  military  commanders,  who," 
however,  often  became  the  instruments  of  other  chiefs. 

Though  less  definitely,  this  process  was  exemplified  during 
early  times  in  Europe.  The  Merovingian  kings,  to  whom  there 
clung  a  tradition  of  supernatural  origin,  and  whose  order  of 


POLITICAL  HEADS — CHIEFS,  KINGS,  ETC.  361 

succession  was  so  far  settled  that  minors  reigned,  fell  under 
the  control  of  those  who  had  become  chief  ministers.  Long 
before  Childeric,  the  Merovingian  family  had  ceased  to  govern. 

"  The  treasures  and  the  power  of  the  kingdom  had  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  prefects  of  the  palace,  who  were  called  l  mayors  of  the 
palace,'  and  to  whom  the  supreme  power  really  belonged.  The  prince 
was  obliged  to  content  himself  with  bearing  the  name  of  king,  having 
flowing  locks  and  a  long  beard,  sitting  on  the  chair  of  State,  and  repre 
senting  the  image  of  the  monarch." 

•*• 

§  481.  From  the  Evolution-standpoint  wo  are  thus  enabled 
to  discern  the  relative  beneficence  of  institutions  which,  con 
sidered  absolutely,  are  not  beneficent;  and  are  taught  to 
approve  as  temporary  that  which,  as  permanent,  we  abhor. 
The  evidence  obliges  us  to  admit  that  subjection  to  despots 
has  been  largely  instrumental  in  advancing  civilization. 
Induction  and  deduction  alike  prove  this, 

If,  on  the  one  hand,  we  group  together  those  wandering 
headless  hordes  which  are  found  here  and  there  over  the 
Earth,  they  show  us  that,  in  the  absence  of  political  organiza 
tion,  little  progress  has  taken  place ;  and  if  we  contemplate 
those  settled  simple  groups  which  have  but  nominal  heads, 
we  are  shown  that  though  there  is  some  development  of  the 
industrial  arts  and  some  cooperation,  the  advance  is  but 
small.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  glance  at  those  ancient 
societies  in  which  considerable  heights  of  civilization  were 
first  reached,  we  see  them  under  autocratic  rule.  In  America, 
purely  personal  government,  restricted  only  by  settled  customs, 
characterized  the  Mexican,  Central  American,  and  Chibcha 
states  ;  and  in  Peru,  the  absolutism  of  the  divine  king  was 
unqualified.  In  Africa,  ancient  Egypt  exhibited  very  con 
spicuously  this  connexion  between  despotic  control  and  social 
evolution.  Throughout  the  distant  past  it  was  repeatedly 
displayed  in  Asia,  from  the  Accadian  civilization  downwards ; 
and  the  still  extant  civilizations  of  Siam,  Burmah,  China,  and 
Japan,  re-illustrate  it.  Early  European  societies,  too,  where 
not  characterized  by  centralized  despotism,  were  still  cha- 


362  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

racterized  by  diffused  patriarchal  despotism.  Only  among 
modern  peoples,  whose  ancestors  passed  through  the  discipline 
given  under  this  social  form,  and  who  have  inherited  its 
effects,  is  civilization  being  dissociated  from  subjection  to 
individual  will. 

The  necessity  there  has  been  for  absolutism  is  best  seen  on 
observing  that,  during  inter-tribal  and  inter-national  conflicts, 
those  have  conquered  who,  other  things  equal,  were  the 
more  obedient  to  their  chiefs  and  kings.  And  since  in 
early  stages,  military  subordination  and  social  subordination 
go  together,  it  results  that,  for  a  long  time,  the  conquering 
societies  continued  to  be  the  despotically-governed  societies. 
Such  exceptions  as  histories  appear  to  show  us,  really  prove 
the  rule.  In  the  conflict  between  Persia  and  Greece,  the 
Greeks,  but  for  a  mere  accident,  would  have  been  ruined  by 
that  division  of  councils  which  results  from  absence  of  sub 
jection  to  a  single  head.  And  their  habit  of  appointing  a 
dictator  when  in  great  danger  from  enemies,  implies  that  the 
Romans  had  discovered  that  efficiency  in  war  requires  un 
divided  control. 

Thus,  leaving  open  the  question  whether,  in  the  absence  of 
war,  wandering  primitive  groups  could  ever  have  developed 
into  settled  civilized  communities,  we  conclude  that,  under 
such  conditions  as  there  have  been,  those  struggles  for 
existence  among  societies  which  have  gone  on  consolidating 
smaller  into  larger,  until  great  nations  have  been  produced, 
necessitated  the  development  of  a  social  type  characterized 
by  personal  rule  of  a  stringent  kind. 

§  482.  To  make  clear  the  genesis  of  this  leading  political 
institution,  let  us  set  down  in  brief  the  several  influences 
which  have  conspired  to  effect  it,  and  the  several  stages 
passed  through. 

In  the  rudest  groups,  resistance  to  the  assumption  of 
supremacy  by  any  individual,  usually  prevents  the  establish 
ment  of  settled  headship;  though  some  influence  is  com- 


POLITICAL  HEADS— CHIEFS,   KINGS,   ETC.  363 

monly  acquired  by  superiority  of  strength,  or  courage,  or 
sagacity,  or  possessions,  or  the  experience  accompanying  age. 

In  such  groups,  and  in  tribes  somewhat  more  advanced, 
two  kinds  of  superiority  conduce  more  than  all  others  to 
predominance — that  of  the  warrior  and  that  of  the  medicine 
man.  Usually  separate,  but  sometimes  united  in  the  same 
person,  and  then  greatly  strengthening  him,  both  of  these 
superiorities  tending  to  initiate  political  headship,  continue 
thereafter  to  be  important  factors  in  developing  it. 

At  first,  however,  the  supremacy  acquired  by  great  natural 
power,  or  supposed  supernatural  power,  or  both,  is  transitory 
— ceases  with  the  life  of  one  who  has  acquired  it.  So  long 
as  the  principle  of  efficiency  alone  operates,  political  headship 
does  not  become  settled.  It  becomes  settled  only  when  there 
cooperates  the  principle  of  inheritance. 

The  custom  of  reckoning  descent  through  females,  which 
characterizes  many  rude  societies  and  survives  in  others  that 
have  made  considerable  advances,  is  less  favourable  to  esta 
blishment  of  permanent  political  headship  than  is  the  custom 
of  reckoning  descent  through  males;  and  in  sundry  semi- 
civilized  societies  distinguished  by  permanent  political  head 
ships,  inheritance  through  males  has  been  established  in  the 
ruling  house  while  inheritance  through  females  survives  in 
the  society  at  large. 

Beyond  the  fact  that  reckoning  descent  through  males 
conduces  to  a  more  coherent  family,  to  a  greater  culture  of 
subordination,  and  to  a  more  probable  union  of  inherited 
position  with  inherited  capacity,  there  is  the  more  important 
fact  that  it  fosters  ancestor-worship,  and  the  consequent  re 
inforcing  of  natural  authority  by  supernatural  authority. 
Development  of  the  ghost-theory,  leading  as  it  does  to  special 
fear  of  the  ghosts  of  powerful  men,  until,  where  many  tribes 
have  been  welded  together  by  a  conque-or,  his  ghost  acquires 
in  tradition  the  pre-eminence  of  a  god,  produces  two  effects. 
In  the  first  place  his  descendant,  ruling  after  him,  is  supposed 
to  partake  of  his  divine  nature  ;  and  in  the  secoi:d  place,  by 


364  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

propitiatory  sacrifices  to  him,  is  supposed  to  obtain  his  aid. 
Rebellion  hence  conies  to  be  regarded  as  alike  wicked  and 
hopeless. 

The  processes  by  which  political  headships  are  established 
repeat  themselves  at  successively  higher  stages.  In  simple 
groups  chieftainship  is  at  first  temporary — ceases  with  the 
war  which  initiated  it.  When  simple  groups  that  have 
acquired  permanent  political  heads,  unite  for  military  pur 
poses,  the  general  chieftainship  is  originally  but  temporary. 
As  in  simple  groups  chieftainship  is  at  the  outset  habitually 
elective,  and  becomes  hereditary  at  a  later  stage ;  so  chief 
tainship  of  the  compound  group  is  habitually  elective  at  the 
outset,  and  only  later  passes  into  the  hereditary.  Similarly 
in  some  cases  where  a  doubly-compound  society  is  formed. 
Further,  this  later-established  power  of  a  supreme  ruler,  at 
first  given  by  election  and  presently  gained  by  descent,  is 
commonly  less  than  that  of  the  local  rulers  in  their  own 
localities  ;  and  when  it  becomes  greater,  it  is  usually  by  the 
help  of  ascribed  divine  origin  or  ascribed  divine  commission. 

Where,  in  virtue  of  supposed  supernatural  genesis  or 
authority,  the  king  has  become  absolute,  and,  owning  both 
subjects  and  territory,  exercises  all  powers,  he  is  obliged  by 
the  multiplicity  of  his  affairs  to  depute  his  powers.  There 
follows  a  reactive  restraint  due  to  the  political  machinery  he 
creates  ;  and  this  machinery  ever  tends  to  become  too  strong 
for  him.  Especially  where  rigorous  adhesion  to  the  rule  of 
inheritance  brings  incapables  to  the  throne,  or  where  ascribed 
divine  nature  causes  inaccessibility  save  through  agents,  or 
where  both  causes  conspire,  power  passes  into  the  hands  of 
deputies.  The  legitimate  ruler  becomes  an  automaton  and 
his  chief  agent  the  real  ruler ;  and  this  agent,  again,  in  some 
cases  passing  through  parallel  stages,  himself  becomes  an  auto 
maton  and  his  subordinates  the  rulers. 

Lastly,  by  colligation  and  comparison  of  the  facts,  we  are 
led  to  recognize  the  indirectly-achieved  benefits  which  have 
followed  the  directly-inflicted  evils  of  personal  government. 


POLITICAL  HEADS — CHIEFS,  KINGS,  ETC.  365 

Headship  of  the  conquering  chief  has  "been  a  normal  accom 
paniment  of  that  political  integration  without  which  any  high 
degree  of  social  evolution  would  probably  have  been  impos 
sible.  Only  by  imperative  need  for  combination  in  war  were 
primitive  men  led  into  cooperation.  Only  by  subjection  to 
imperative  command  was  such  cooperation  made  efficient. 
And  only  by  the  cooperation  thus  initiated  were  made  pos 
sible  those  other  forms  of  cooperation  characterizing  civilized 
life. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
COMPOUND  POLITICAL  HEADS. 

§  483.  In  the  preceding  chapter  we  traced  the  development 
of  the  first  element  in  that  tri-une  political  structure  which 
everywhere  shows  itself  at  the  outset.  We  pass  now  to  the 
development  of  the  second  element — the  group  of  leading 
men  among  whom  the  chief  is,  at  first,  merely  the  most  con 
spicuous.  Under  what  conditions  this  so  evolves  as  to  sub 
ordinate  the  other  two,  what  causes  make  it  narrower,  and 
what  causes  widen  it  until  it  passes  into  the  third,  we  have 
here  to  observe. 

If  the  innate  feelings  and  aptitudes  of  a  race  have  large 
shares  in  determining  the  sizes  and  cohesions  of  the  social 
groups  it  forms,  still  more  must  they  have  large  shares  in  de 
termining  the  relations  which  arise  among  the  members  of 
such  groups.  While  the  mode  of  life  followed  tends  to  gene 
rate  this  or  that  political  structure,  its  effects  are  always  com 
plicated  by  the  effects  of  inherited  character.  Whether  or 
not  the  primitive  state  in  which  governing  power  is  equally 
distributed  among  all  warriors  or  all  elders,  passes  into  the 
state  in  which  governing  power  is  monopolized  by  one, 
depends  in  part  on  the  life  of  the  group  as  predatory  or 
peaceful,  and  in  part  on  the  natures  of  its  members  as 
prompting  them  to  oppose  dictation  more  or  less  doggedly. 
A  few  facts  will  make  this  clear. 

The  A.rafuras  (Papuan  Islanders)  who  "  live  in  peace  and 


COMPOUND   POLITICAL  HEADS.  367 

brotherly  love,"  have  no  other  "  authority  among  them  than 
the  decisions  of  their  elders."  Among  the  harmless  Todas 
"  all  disputes  and  questions  of  right  and  wrong  are  settled 
either  by  arbitration  or  by  a  Punchayet — i.e.,  a  council  of 
five."  Of  the  Bodo  and  the  Dhimals,  described  as  averse  to 
military  service,  and  "  totally  free  from  arrogance,  revenge, 
cruelty,  and  fierte,"  we  read  that  though  each  of  their  small 
communities  has  a  nominal  head  who  pays  the  tribute  on  its 
behalf,  yet  he  is  without  power,  and  "  disputes  are  settled 
among  themselves  by  juries  of  elders."  In  these 

cases,  besides  absence  of  the  causes  which  bring  about  chiefly 
supremacy,  may  be  noted  the  presence  of  causes  which 
directly  hinder  it.  The  Papuans  generally,  typified  by  the 
Arafuras  above-named,  while  described  by  Modera,  Eoss, 
and  Kolff,  as  "  good-naTured,"  "  of  a  mild  disposition,"  kind 
and  peaceful  to  strangers,  are  said  by  Earl  to  be  unfit  for 
military  action :  "  their  impatience  of  control  .  .  .  utterly 
precludes  that  organization  which  would  enable"  the  Papuans 
"  to  stand  their  ground  against  encroachments."  The  Bodo 
and  the  Dhimals  while  "  they  are  void  of  all  violence  towards 
their  own  people  or  towards  their  neighbours"  also  "  resist 
injunctions,  injudiciously  urged,  with  dogged  obstinacy." 
And  of  a  kindred  "very  fascinating  people,"  the  Lepchas, 
amiable,  peaceful,  kind,  as  travellers  unite  in  describing 
them,  and  who  refuse  to  take  service  as  soldiers,  we  are  told 
that  they  will  "  undergo  great  privation  rather  than  submit 
to  oppression  or  injustice." 

Where  the  repugnance  to  control  is  strong,  an  uncen- 
tralized  political  organization  is  maintained  notwithstanding 
the  warlike  activities  which  tend  to  initiate  chieftainship. 
The  Nagas  "  acknowledge  no  king  among  themselves,  and 
deride  the  idea  of  such  a  personage  among  others ;"  their 
"  villages  are  continually  at  feud ;"  "  every  man  being  his  own 
master,  his  passions  and  inclinations  are  ruled  by  his  share  of 
brute  force."  And  then  we  further  find  that — 
"  Petty  disputes  and  disagreements  about  property  are  settled  by  a 
82 


368  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

council  of  elders,  the  litigants  voluntarily  submitting  to  their  arbitra 
tion.  But  correctly  speaking,  there  is  not  the  shadow  of  a  constituted 
authority  in  the  Naga  community,  and,  wonderful  as  it  may  seem,  this 
want  of  government  does  not  lead  to  any  marked  degree  of  anarchy." 
Similarly  among  the  warlike  tribes  of  North  America. 
Speaking  of  these  people  at  large,  Schoolcraft  says  that  "  they 
all  wish  to  govern,  and  not  to  be  governed.  Every  India  a 
thinks  he  has  a  right  to  do  as  he  pleases,  and  that  no  one  is 
better  than  himself;  and  he  will  fight  before  he  will  give  up 
what  he  thinks  right."  Of  the  Comanches,  as  an  example,  he 
remarks  that  "  the  democratic  principle  is  strongly  implanted 
in  them ;"  and  that  for  governmental  purposes  "  public 
councils  are  held  at  regular  intervals  during  the  year."  Fur 
ther,  we  read  that  in  districts  of  ancient  Central  America 
there  existed  somewhat  more  advanced  societies  which,  though 
warlike,  were  impelled  by  a  kindred  jealousy  to  provide 
against  monopoly  of  power.  The  government  was  carried  on 
by  an  elective  council  of  old  men  who  appointed  a  war  chief; 
and  this  war  chief,  "if  suspected  of  plotting  against  the 
safety  of  the  commonwealth,  or  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
supreme  power  in  his  own  hands,  was  rigorously  put  to  death 
by  the  council." 

Though  the  specialities  of  character  which  thus  lead  certain 
kinds  of  men  in  early  stages  to  originate  compound  political 
heads,  and  to  resist,  even  under  stress  of  war,  the  rise  of 
single  political  heads,  are  innate,  we  are  not  without  clues  to 
the  circumstances  which  have  made  them  innate ;  and  with 
a  view  to  interpretations  presently  to  be  made,  it  will  be 
useful  to  o-lance  at  these.  The  Comanches  and  kindred 

O 

tribes,  roaming  about  in  small  bands,  active  and  skilful 
horsemen,  have,  through  long  past  periods,  been  so  con 
ditioned  as  to  make  coercion  of  one  man  by  another  difficult. 
So,  too,  has  it  been,  though  in  another  way,  with  the  Nagas. 
"  They  inhabit  a  rough  and  intricate  mountain  range ;"  and 
their  villages  are  perched  "  on  the  crests  of  ridges."  Again, 
significant  evidence  is  furnished  by  a  remark  of  Captain 
Burton  to  the  effect  that  in  Africa,  as  in  Asia,  there  are  three 


COMPOUND  POLITICAL  HEADS.  369 

distinct  forms  of  government — military  despotisms,  feudal 
monarchies,  and  rude  republics:  the  rude  republics  being 
those  formed  by  "  the  Bedouin  tribes,  the  hill  people,  and  the 
jungle  races."  Clearly,  the  names  of  these  last  show  that 
they  inhabit  regions  which,  hindering  by  their  physical 
characters  a  centralized  form  of  government,  favour  a  more 
diffused  form  of  government,  and  the  less  decided  political 
subordination  which  is  its  concomitant. 

These  facts  are  obviously  related  to  certain  others  already 
named.  We  saw  in  §  17,  and  again  in  §  449,  that  it  is  rela 
tively  easy  to  form  a  large  society  if  the  country  is  one  within 
which  all  parts  are  readily  accessible,  while  it  has  barriers 
through  which  exit  is  difficult ;  and  that,  conversely,  forma 
tion  of  a  large  society  is  prevented,  or  greatly  delayed,  by 
difficulties  of  communication  within  the  occupied  area,  and 
by  facilities  of  escape  from  it.  Here  we  see,  further,  that  not 
only  is  political  integration  under  its  primary  aspect  of  in 
creasing  mass,  hindered  by  these  last-named  physical  condi 
tions,  but  that  there  is  hindrance  to  the  development  of  a  more 
integrated  form  of  government.  The  circumstances  which 
impede  social  consolidation  also  impede  the  concentration  of 
political  power. 

The  truth  here  chiefly  concerning  us,  however,  is  that  the 
continued  presence  of  the  one  or  the  other  set  of  conditions, 
fosters  a  character  to  which  either  the  centralized  political 
organization  or  the  diffused  political  organization  is  appro 
priate.  Existence,  generation  after  generation,  in  a  region 
where  despotic  control  has  arisen,  produces  an  adapted  type 
of  nature ;  partly  by  daily  habit  and  partly  by  survival  of 
those  most  fit  for  living  under  such  control.  Contrariwise,  in 
a  region  favouring  preservation  of  their  independence  by 
small  groups,  there  is  a  strengthening,  through  successive 
ages,  of  sentiments  averse  to  restraint ;  since,  not  only  are 
these  sentiments  exercised  in  all  members  of  a  group 
by  resisting  the  efforts  from  time  to  time  made  to  sub 
ordinate  it,  but,  on  the  average,  those  who  most  per- 


370  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

tinaciously  resist  are  those  who,  remaining  unsubdued,  and 
transmitting  their  mental  traits  to  posterity,  determine  the 
character  of  the  race. 

Having  thus  glanced  at  the  effects  of  the  factors,  external 
and  internal,  as  displayed  in  simple  tribes,  we  shall  under 
stand  how  they  cooperate  when,  by  migration  or  otherwise, 
such  tribes  fall  into  circumstances  favouring  the  growth  of 
large  societies. 

§  484.  The  case  of  an  uncivilized  people  of  the  nature  de 
scribed,  who  have  in  recent  times  shown  what  occurs  when 
union  of  small  groups  into  great  ones  is  prompted,  will  best 
initiate  the  interpretation. 

The  Iroquois  nations,  each  made  up  of  many  tribes  pre 
viously  hostile,  had  to  defend  themselves  against  European 
invaders.  Combination  for  this  purpose  among  these  five 
(and  finally  six)  nations,  necessitated  a  recognition  of  equality 
among  them ;  since  agreement  to  join  would  not  have  been 
arrived  at  had  it  been  required  that  some  divisions  should  be 
subject  to  others.  The  groups  had  to  cooperate  on  the  under 
standing  that  their  "rights,  privileges  and  obligations"  should 
be  the  same.  Though  the  numbers  of  permanent  and  here 
ditary  sachems  appointed  by  the  respective  nations  to  form 
the  Great  Council,  differed,  yet  the  voices  of  the  several 
nations  were  equal.  Omitting  details  of  the  organization,  we 
have  to  note,  first,  that  for  many  generations,  notwithstanding 
the  wars  which  this  league  carried  on,  its  constitution  re 
mained  stable — no  supreme  individual  arose;  and,  second, 
that  this  equality  among  the  powers  of  the  groups  co-existed 
with  inequality  within  each  group :  the  people  had  no  share 
in  its  government. 

A  clue  is  thus  furnished  to  the  genesis  of  those  compound 
heads  with  which  ancient  history  familiarizes  us.  We  are 
enabled  to  see  how  there  came  to  co-exist  in  the  same  socie 
ties,  some  institutions  of  a  despotic  kind,  W7ith  other  institu 
tions  of  a  kind  appearing  to  be  based  on  the  principle  of 


COMPOUND  POLITICAL  HEADS.  371 

i 

equality,  and  often  confounded  with  free  institutions.  Let  us 
recall  the  antecedents  of  those  early  European  peoples  who 
developed  governments  of  this  form. 

During  the  wandering  pastoral  life,  subordination  to  a 
single  head  was  made  habitual.  A  recalcitrant  member  of 
any  group  had  either  to  submit  to  the  authority  under  which 
he  had  grown  up,  or,  rebelling,  had  to  leave  the  group  and 
face  those  risks  which  unprotected  life  in  the  wilderness 
threatened.  The  establishment  of  this  subordination  was 
furthered  by  the  more  frequent  survival  of  groups  in  which 
it  was  greatest ;  since,  in  the  conflicts  between  groups,  those 
of  which  the  members  were  insubordinate,  ordinarily  being 
both  smaller  and  less  able  to  cooperate  effectually,  were  the 
more  likely  to  disappear.  But  now  to  the  fact  that  in  such 
families  and  clans,  obedience  to  the  father  and  to  the  patriarch 
was  fostered  by  circumstances,  has  to  be  added  the  fact  above 
emphasized,  that  circumstances  also  fostered  the  sentiment  of 
liberty  in  the  relations  between  clans.  The  exercise  of  power 
by  one  of  them  over  another,  was  made  difficult  by  wide 
scattering  and  by  great  mobility;  and  with  successful  oppo 
sition  to  external  coercion,  or  evasion  of  it,  carried  on  through 
numberless  generations,  the  tendency  to  resent  and  resist  all 
strange  authority  was  likely  to  become  strong. 

Whether,  when  groups  thus  disciplined  aggregate,  they 
assume  this  or  that  form  of  political  organization,  depends 
partly,  as  already  implied,  on  the  conditions  into  which  they 
fall.  Even  could  we  omit  those  differences  between  Mongols, 
Semites,  and  Aryans,  established  in  prehistoric  times  by 
causes  unknown  to  us,  or  even  had  complete  likeness  of 
nature  been  produced  among  them  by  long-continued  pastoral 
life ;  yet  large  societies  formed  by  combinations  of  their 
small  hordes,  could  be  similar  in  type  only  under  similar 
circumstances.  In  unfavourableness  of  circumstances  is  to 
be  found  the  reason  why  Mongols  and  Semites,  where  they 
have  settled  and  multiplied,  have  failed  to  maintain  the 
autonomies  of  their  hordes  after  combination  of  them,  and  to 


372  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

evolve  tlie  resulting  institutions.  Even  the  Aryans,  among 
whom  chiefly  the  less  concentrated  forms  of  political  rule 
have  arisen,  show  us  that  almost  everything  depends  on 
favourable  or  unfavourable  conditions  fallen  into.  Originally 
inheriting  in  common  the  mental  traits  generated  during 
their  life  in  the  Hindu  Koosh  and  its  neighbourhood,  the 
different  divisions  of  the  race  have  developed  different  insti 
tutions  and  accompanying  characters.  Those  of  them  who 
spread  into  the  plains  of  India,  where  great  fertility  made 
possible  a  large  population,  to  the  control  of  which  there 
were  small  physical  impediments,  lost  their  independence  of 
nature,  and  did  not  evolve  political  systems  like  those  which 
grew  up  among  their  Western  kindred,  under  circumstances 
furthering  maintenance  of  the  original  character. 

The  implication  is,  then,  that  where  groups  of  the  patri 
archal  type  fall  into  regions  permitting  considerable  growth 
of  population,  but  having  physical  structures  which  impede 
the  centralization  of  power,  compound  political  heads  will 
arise,  and  for  a  time  sustain  themselves,  through  cooperation 
of  the  two  factors — independence  of  local  groups  and  need 
for  union  in  war.  Let  us  consider  some  examples. 

§  485.  The  island  of  Crete  has  numerous  high  mountain 
valleys  containing  good  pasturage,  and  provides  many  seats 
for  strongholds — seats  which  ruins  prove  that  the  ancient 
inhabitants  utilized.  Similarly  with  the  mainland  of  Greece. 
A  complicated  mountain  system  cuts  off  its  parts  from  one 
another  and  renders  each  difficult  of  access.  Especially  is 
this  so  in  the  Peloponnesus  ;  and,  above  all,  in  the  part  occu 
pied  by  the  Spartans.  It  has  been  remarked  that  the  State 
which  possesses  both  sides  of  Taygetus,  has  it  in  its  power  to 
be  master  of  the  peninsula :  "  it  is  the  Acropolis  of  the  Pelo- 
ponnese,  as  that  country  is  of  the  rest  of  Greece." 

When,  over  the  earlier  inhabitants,  there  came  successive 
waves  of  Hellenic  conquerors,  these  brought  with  them  the 
type  of  nature  and  organization  common  to  the  Aryans,  dis- 


COMPOUND   POLITICAL  HEADS,  373 

playing  the  united  traits  above  described.  Such  a  people 
taking  possession  of  such  a  land,  inevitably  fell  in  course  of 
time  "  into  as  many  independent  clans  as  the  country  itself 
was  divided  by  its  mountain  chains  into  valleys  and  dis 
tricts."  From  separation  resulted  alienation  ;  so  that  those 
remote  from  one  another,  becoming  strangers,  became  ene 
mies.  In  early  Greek  times  the  clans,  occupying  mountain 
villages,  were  so  liable  to  incursions  from  one  another  that 
the  planting  of  fruit  trees  was  a  waste  of  labour.  There 
existed  a  state  like  that  seen  at  present  among  such  Indian- 
hill  tribes  as  the  Nagas. 

Though  preserving  the  tradition  of  a  common  descent,  and 
owning  allegiance  to  the  oldest  male  representative  of  the 
patriarch,  a  people  spreading  over  a  region  which  thus  cut  off 
from  one  another  even  adjacent  small  groups,  and  still  more 
those  remoter  clusters  of  groups  arising  in  course  of  genera 
tions,  would  inevitably  become  disunited  in  government: 
subjection  to  a  general  head  would  be  more  and  more  difficult 
to  maintain,  and  subjection  to  local  heads  would  alone  con 
tinue  practicable.  At  the  same  time  there  would  arise,  under 
such  conditions,  increasing  causes  of  insubordination.  When 
the  various  branches  of  a  common  family  are  so  separated  as 
to  prevent  intercourse,  their  respective  histories,  and  the  lines 
of  descent  of  their  respective  heads,  must  become  unknown, 
or  but  partially  known,  to  one  another  ;  and  claims  to  supre 
macy  made  now  by  this  local  head  and  now  by  that,  are  cer 
tain  to  be  disputed.  If  we  remember  how,  even  in  settled 
societies  having  records,  there  have  been  perpetual  conflicts 
about  rights  of  succession,  and  how,  down  to  our  own  day, 
there  are  frequent  law-suits  to  decide  on  heirships  to  titles 
and  properties,  we  cannot  but  infer  that  in  a  state  like  that 
of  the  early  Greeks,  the  difficulty  of  establishing  the  legiti 
macy  of  general  headships,  conspiring  with  the  desire  to 
assert  independence  and  the  ability  to  maintain  it,  inevitably 
entailed  lapse  into  numerous  local  headships.  Of  course, 
under  conditions  varying  in  each  locality,  splittings-up  of 


374  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

wider  governments  into  narrower  went  to  different  extents ; 
and  naturally,  too,  re-establishments  of  wider  governments  or 
extensions  of  narrower  ones  in  some  cases  took  place.  But, 
generally,  the  tendency  under  such  conditions  was  to  form 
small  independent  groups,  severally  having  the  patriarchal 
type  of  organization.  Hence,  then,  the  decay  of  such  king 
ships  as  are  implied  in  the  Iliad.  As  Grote  writes — "  When  we 
approach  historical  Greece,  we  find  that  (with  the  exception 
of  Sparta)  the  primitive,  hereditary,  unresponsible  monarch, 
uniting  in  himself  all  the  functions  of  government,  has  ceased 
to  reign."* 

Let  us  now  ask  what  will  happen  when  a  cluster  of  clans 
of  common  descent,  which  have  become  independent  and 
hostile,  are  simultaneously  endangered  by  enemies  to  whom 
they  are  not  at  all  akin,  or  but  remotely  akin  ?  Habitually 
they  will  sink  their  differences  and  cooperate  for  defence.  But 
on  what  terms  will  they  cooperate  ?  Even  among  friendly 
groups,  joint  action  would  be  hindered  if  some  claimed  supre 
macy  ;  and  among  groups  having  out-standing  feuds  there 
could  be  no  joint  action  save  on  a  footing  of  equality.  The 
common  defence  would,  therefore,  be  directed  by  a  body 

*  While  I  am  writing,  the  just-issued  third  volume  of  Mr.  Scene's  Celtic 
Scotland,  supplies  me  with  an  illustration  of  the  process  above  indicated.  It 
appears  that  the  original  Celtic  tribes  which  formed  the  earldoms  of  Moray, 
Buchan,  Athol,  Angus,  Menteith,  became  broken  up  into  clans ;  and  how 
influential  was  the  physical  character  of  the  country  in  producing  this  result, 
we  are  shown  by  the  fact  that  this  change  took  place  in  the  parts  of  them 
which  fell  within  the  highland  country.  Describing  the  smaller  groups 
•which  resulted,  Mr.  Skene  says : — "  While  the  clan,  viewed  as  a  single  com 
munity,  thus  consisted  of  the  chief,  with  his  kinsmen  to  a  certain  limited 
degree  of  relationship ;  the  commonalty  who  were  of  the  same  blood,  who  all 
bore  the  same  name,  and  his  dependents,  consisting  of  subordinate  septs  of 
native  men,  who  did  not  claim  to  be  of  the  blood  of  the  chief,  but  were  either 
probably  descended  from  the  more  ancient  occupiers  of  the  soil,  or  were 
broken  men  from  other  clans,  who  had  taken  protection  with  him.  .  .  . 
Those  kinsmen  of  the  chief  who  acquired  the  property  of  their  land  founded 
families.  .  .  .  The  most  influential  of  these  was  that  of  the  oldest  cadet  in 
the  family  which  had  been  longest  separated  from  the  main  stem,  and  usually- 
presented  the  appearance  of  a  rival  bouse  little  less  powerful  than  that  of  tho 
chief." 


COMPOUND   POLITICAL   HEADS.  375 

formed  of  the  heads  of  the  cooperating  small  societies  ;  and 
if  the  cooperation  for  defence  was  prolonged,  or  became 
changed  into  cooperation  for  offence,  this  temporary  control 
ling  body  would  naturally  grow  into  a  permanent  one,  holding 
the  small  societies  together.  The  special  characters  of 

this  compound  head  would,  of  course,  vary  with  the  circum 
stances.  Where  the  traditions  of  the  united  clans  agreed  in 
identifying  some  one  chief  as  the  lineal  representative  of  the 
original  patriarch  or  hero,  from  whom  all  descended,  prece 
dence  and  some  extra  authority  would  be  permitted  to  him. 
Where  claims  derived  from  descent  were  disputed,  personal 
superiority  or  election  would  determine  which  member  of  the 
compound  head  should  take  the  lead.  If  within  each  of  the 
component  groups  chiefly  power  was  unqualified,  there  would 
result  from  union  of  chiefs  a  close  oligarchy ;  while  the  close 
ness  of  the  oligarchy  would  become  less  in  proportion  as 
recognition  of  the  authority  of  each  chief  diminished.  And 
in  cases  where  there  came  to  be  incorporated  numerous 
aliens,  owing  allegiance  to  the  heads  of  none  of  the  compo 
nent  groups,  there  would  arise  influences  tending  still  more 
to  widen  the  oligarchy. 

Such,  we  may  conclude,  were  the  origins  of  those  com 
pound  headships  of  the  Greek  states  which  existed  at  the 
beginning  of  the  historic  period.  In  Crete,  where  there  sur 
vived  the  tradition  of  primitive  kingship,  but  where  disper 
sion  and  subdivision  of  clans  had  brought  about  a  condition 
in  which  "  different  towns  carried  on  open  feuds,"  there  were 
"  patrician  houses,  deriving  their  rights  from  the  early  ages  of 
royal  government,"  who  continued  "  to  retain  possession  of 
the  administration."  In  Corinth  the  line  of  Herakleid  kinga 
"  subsides  gradually,  through  a  series  of  empty  names,  into 
the  oligarchy  denominated  Bacchiadoe.  .  .  .  The  persons  so 
named  were  all  accounted  descendants  of  Herakles,  and  formed 
the  governing  caste  in  the  city."  So  was  it  with  Megara, 
According  to  tradition,  this  arose  by  combination  of  several 
villages  inhabited  by  kindred  tribes,  which,  originally  in 


376  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

antagonism  with  Corinth,  had,  probably  in  the  course  of  this 
antagonism,  become  consolidated  into  an  independent  state. 
At  the  opening  of  the  historic  period  the  like  had  happened 
in  Sikyon  and  other  places.  Sparta,  too,  "  always  maintained, 
down  to  the  times  of  the  despot  Nabis,  its  primitive  aspect 
of  a  group  of  adjacent  hill- villages  rather  than  a  regular  city." 
Though  in  Sparta  kingship  had  survived  under  an  anomalous 
form,  yet  the  joint  representatives  of  the  primitive  king,  still 
reverenced  because  the  tradition  of  their  divine  descent  was 
preserved,  had  become  little  more  than  members  of  the 
governing  oligarchy,  retaining  certain  prerogatives.  And 
though  it  is  true  that  in  its  earliest  historically-known  stage, 
the  Spartan  oligarchy  did  not  present  the  form  which  would 
spontaneously  arise  from  the  union  of  chiefs  of  clans  for  co 
operation  in  war — though  it  had  become  elective  within  a 
limited  class  of  persons ;  yet  the  fact  that  an  age  of  not  less 
than  sixty  was  a  qualification,  harmonizes  with  the  belief  that 
it  at  first  consisted  of  the  heads  of  the  respective  groups,  who 
were  always  the  eldest  sons  of  the  eldest ;  and  that  these 
groups  with  their  heads,  described  as  having  been  in  pre- 
Lykurgean  times,  "the  most  lawless  of  all  the  Greeks/' 
became  united  by  that  continuous  militant  life  which  dis 
tinguished  them.* 

*  As  bearing  on  historical  interpretations  at  large,  and  especially  on  inter 
pretations  to  be  made  in  this  work,  let  me  point  out  further  reasons  than 
those  given  by  Grote  and  others  for  rejecting  the  tradition  that  the  Spartan 
constitution  was  the  work  of  Lykurgus.  The  universal  tendency  to  ascribe 
an  effect  to  the  most  conspicuous  proximate  cause,  is  especially  strong  where 
the  effect  is  one  of  which  the  causation  is  involved.  Our  own  time  has  fur 
nished  an  illustration  in  the  ascription  of  Corn-law  Repeal  to  Sir  Kobert 
Peel,  and  after  him  to  Messrs.  Cobden  and  Bright :  leaving  Colonel  Thomp 
son  un-named.  In  the  next  generation  the  man  who  for  a  time  carried  en 
the  fight  single-handed,  and  forged  sundry  of  the  weapons  used  by  the  vio- 
tors,  will  be  unheard  of  in  connexion  with  it.  It  is  not  enough,  however,  to 
suspect  that  Lykurgus  was  simply  the  finisher  of  other  men's  work.  We 
may  reasonably  suspect  that  the  work  was  that  of  no  man,  but  simply  that 
of  the  needs  and  the  conditions.  This  may  be  seen  in  the  institution  of  the 
public  mess.  If  we  ask  Avhat  will  happen  with  a  small  people  who,  for  gene 
rations  spreading  as  conquerors,  have  a  contempt  for  all  industry,  and  who, 


COMPOUND   POLITICAL  HEADS.  877 

The  Romans  exemplify  the  rise  of  a  compound  headship 
tinder  conditions  which,  though  partially  different  from  those 
the  Greeks  were  subject  to,  were  allied  fundamentally.  In 
its  earliest-known  state,  Latium  was  occupied  by  village- 
communities,  which  were  united  into  cantons ;  while  these 
cantons  formed  a  league  headed  by  Alba — a  canton  regarded 
as  the  oldest  and  most  eminent.  This  combination  was  for 
joint  defence ;  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  each  group  of 
clan- villages  composing  a  canton,  had  an  elevated  stronghold 
in  common,  and  also  by  the  fact  that  the  league  of  cantons 
had  for  its  centre  and  place  of  refuge,  Alba,  the  most  strongly 
placed  as  well  as  the  oldest.  The  component  cantons  of  the 
league  were  so  far  independent  that  there  were  wars  between 
them ;  whence  we  may  infer  that  when  they  cooperated  for 
joint  defence  it  was  on  substantially  equal  terms.  Thus 
before  Eome  existed,  the  people  who  formed  it  had  been 
habituated  to  a  kind  of  life  such  that,  with  great  subordina 
tion  in  each  family  and  clan,  and  partial  subordination  within 
each  canton  (which  was  governed  by  a  prince,  council  of  elders, 
and  assembly  of  warriors),  there  went  a  union  of  heads  of 
cantons,  who  were  in  no  degree  subordinate  one  to  another. 
When  the  inhabitants  of  three  of  these  cantons,  the  Eamnians, 
Tides,  and  Luceres,  began  to  occupy  the  tract  on  which  Eome 
stands,  they  brought  with  them  their  political  organization. 

when  not  at  war,  pass  their  time  in  exercises  fitting  them  for  war,  it  becomes 
manifest  that  at  first  the  daily  assembling  to  carry  on  these  exercises  will  entail 
the  daily  bringing  of  provisions  by  each.  As  happens  in  those  pic-nics  in 
•which  all  who  join  contribute  to  the  common  repast,  a  certain  obligation 
respecting  quantities  and  qualities  will  naturally  arise — an  obligation  which, 
repeated  daily,  will  pass  from  custom  into  law :  ending  in  a  specification  of 
the  kinds  and  amounts  of  food.  Further,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  as  the  law 
thus  arises  in  an  age  when  food  is  coarse  and  unvaried,  the  simplicity  of  the 
diet,  originally  unavoidable,  will  eventually  be  considered  as  intended — as  an 
ascetic  regimen  deliberately  devised.  [When  writing  this  I  was  not  aware 
that,  as  pointed  out  by  Prof.  Paley  in  Fraser's  Magazine,  for  February, 
1881,  among  the  Greeks  of  later  times,  it  was  common  to  have  dinners  to 
which  each  guest  brought  his  share  of  provisions,  and  that  those  who  con 
tributed  little  and  consumed  much  were  objects  of  satire.  This  fact  increases 
the  probability  that  the  Spartan  mess  originated  as  suggested.] 


378  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

The  oldest  Eoman  patricians  bore  the  names  of  rural  clans 
belonging  to  these  cantons.  Whether,  when  seating  them 
selves  on  the  Palatine  hills  and  on  the  Quirinal,  they  pre 
served  their  cantonal  divisions,  is  not  clear ;  though  it  seems 
probable  a  priori.  But,  however  this  may  be,  there  is  proof 
that  they  fortified  themselves  against  one  another,  as  well  as 
against  outer  enemies.  The  "  mount-men "  of  the  Palatine 
and  the  "  hill-men  "  of  the  Quirinal  were  habitually  at  feud ; 
and  even  among  the  minor  divisions  of  those  who  occupied 
the  Palatine,  there  were  dissensions.  As  Monimsen  says, 
primitive  Eome  was  "  rather  an  aggregate  of  urban  settle 
ments  than  a  single  city,"  And  that  the  clans  who  formed 
these  settlements  brought  with  them  their  enmities,  is  to  be 
inferred  from  the  fact  that  not  only  did  they  fortify  the  hills 
on  which  they  fixed  themselves,  but  even  "  the  houses  of  the 
old  and  powerful  families  were  constructed  somewhat  after 
the  manner  of  fortresses." 

So  that  again,  in  the  case  of  Eome,  we  see  a  cluster  of 
small  independent  communities,  allied  in  blood  but  partially 
antagonistic,  which  had  to  cooperate  against  enemies  on  such 
terms  as  all  would  agree  to.  In  early  Greece  the  means  of 
defence  were,  as  Grote  remarks,  greater  than  the  means  of 
attack ;  and  it  was  the  same  in  early  Eome.  Hence,  while 
coercive  rule  within  the  family  and  the  group  of  related 
families  was  easy,  there  was  difficulty  in  extending  coercion 
over  many  such  groups :  fortified  as  they  were  against  one 
another.  Moreover,  the  stringency  of  government  within 
each  of  the  communities  constituting  the  primitive  city,  was 
diminished  by  facility  of  escape  from  one  and  admission  into 
another.  As  we  have  seen  among  simple  tribes,  desertions 
take  place  when  the  rule  is  harsh  ;  and  we  may  infer  that,  in 
primitive  Eome  there  was  a  check  on  exercise  of  force  by  the 
more  powerful  families  in  each  settlement  over  the  less 
powerful,  caused  by  the  fear  that  migration  might  weaken  the 
settlement  and  strengthen  an  adjacent  one.  Thus  the  cir 
cumstances  were  such  that  when,  for  defence  of  the  city,  co- 


COMPOUND   POLITICAL  HEADS.  379 

operation  became  needful,  the  heads  of  the  clans  included  in 
its  several  divisions  came  to  have  substantially  equal  powers. 
The  original  senate  was  the  collective  body  of  clan-elders; 
and  "  this  assembly  of  elders  was  the  ultimate  holder  of  the 
ruling  power :"  it  was  "  an  assembly  of  kings."  At 

the  same  time,  the  heads  of  families  in  each  clan,  forming 
the  body  of  burgesses,  stood,  for  like  reasons,  on  equal 
footing.  Primarily  for  command  in  war,  there  was  an  elected 
head,  who  was  also  chief  magistrate.  Though  not  having  the 
authority  given  by  alleged  divine  descent,  he  had  the  autho 
rity  given  by  supposed  divine  approval ;  and,  himself  bearing 
the  insignia  of  a  god,  he  retained  till  death  the  absoluteness 
appropriate  to  one.  But  besides  the  fact  that  the  choice, 
originally  made  by  the  senate,  had  to  be  again  practically 
made  by  it  in  case  of  sudden  vacancy ;  and  besides  the  fact 
that  eash  king,  nominated  by  his  predecessor,  had  to  be  ap 
proved  by  the  assembled  burgesses ;  there  is  the  fact  that  the 
king's  power  was  executive  only.  The  assembly  of  burgesses 
"  was  in  law  superior  to,  rather  than  co-ordinate  with,  the 
king."  Further,  in  the  last  resort  was  exercised  the  supreme 
power  of  the  senate ;  which  was  the  guardian  of  the  law 
and  could  veto  the  joint  decision  of  king  and  burgesses.  Thus 
the  constitution  was  in  essence  an  oligarchy  of  heads  of  clans, 
included  in  an  oligarchy  of  heads  of  houses — a  compound 
oligarchy  which  became  unqualified  when  kingship  was  sup 
pressed.  And  here  should  be  emphasized  the  truth, 
sufficiently  obvious  and  yet  continually  ignored,  that  the 
Roman  Republic  which  remained  when  the  regal  power  ended, 
differed  utterly  in  nature  from  those  popular  governments 
with  which  it  has  been  commonly  classed.  The  heads  of 
clans,  of  whom  the  narrower  governing  body  was  formed,  as 
well  as  the  heads  of  families  who  formed  the  wider  governing 
body,  were,  indeed,  jealous  of  one  another's  powers ;  and  in 
80  far  simulated  the  citizens  of  a  free  state  who  individually 
maintain  their  equal  rights.  But  these  heads  severally 
exercised  unlimited  powers  over  the  members  of  their  house- 


380  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

holds  and  over  their  clusters  of  dependents.  A  community 
of  which  the  component  groups  severally  retained  their  in 
ternal  autonomies,  with  the  result  that  the  rule  within  each 
remained  absolute,  was  nothing  but  an  aggregate  of  small 
despotisms.  Institutions  under  which  the  head  of  each 
group,  besides  owning  slaves,  had  such  supremacy  that  his 
wife  and  children,  including  even  married  sons,  had  no  more 
legal  rights  than  cattle,  and  were  at  his  mercy  in  life  and 
limb,  or  could  be  sold  into  slavery,  can  be  called  free  institu 
tions  only  by  those  who  confound  similarity  of  external  out 
line  with  similarity  of  internal  structure.* 

§  48G.  The  formation  of  compound  political  heads  in  later 
times,  repeats  this  process  in  essentials  if  not  in  details.  In 
one  way  or  other,  the  result  arises  when  a  common  need  for 
defence  compels  cooperation,  while  there  exists  no  means 
of  securing  cooperation  save  voluntary  agreement. 

Beginning  with  the  example  of  Venice,  we  notice  first  that 
the  region  occupied  by  the  ancient  Yeneti,  included  the  exten 
sive  marshy  tract  formed  of  the  deposits  brought  down  by 
several  rivers  to  the  Adriatic — a  tract  which,  in  Strabo's  day, 
was  "intersected  in  every  quarter  by  rivers,  streams,  and 
morasses  ;"  so  that  "  Aquileia  and  Eavenna  were  then  cities 
in  the  marshes."  Having  for  their  stronghold  this  region  full 
of  spots  accessible  only  to  inhabitants  who  knew  the  intri 
cate  ways  to  them,  the  Veneti  maintained  their  independence, 
spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  Eomans  to  subdue  them,  until  the 
time  of  Caesar.  In  later  days,  kindred  results  were 

more  markedly  displayed  in  that  part  of  this  region  specially 
characterized  by  inaccessibility.  From  early  ages  the  islets, 
or  rather  mud-banks,  on  which  Venice  stands,  were  inhabited 

*  I  should  have  thought  it  needless  to  insist  on  so  obvious  a  truth  had  it 
not  heen  that  even  still  there  continues  this  identification  of  things  so  utterly 
different.  Within  these  few  years  has  been  published  a  magazine-article  by 
a  distinguished  historian,  describing  the  corruptions  of  the  Roman  Republic 
during  its  latter  days,  with  the  appended  moral  that  such  ^ere,  and  are, 
likely  to  be  the  results  of  democratic  government ! 


COMPOUND   POLITICAL  HEADS.  381 

by  a  maritime  people.  Each  islet,  secure  in  the  midst  of  its 
tortuous  lagunes,  had  a  popular  government  of  annually- 
elected  tribunes.  And  these  original  governments,  existing 
at  the  time  when  there  came  several  thousands  of  fugitives, 
driven  from  the  mainland  by  the  invading  Huns,  survived 
under  the  form  of  a  rude  confederation.  As  we  have 
seen  happens  generally,  the  union  into  which  these  inde 
pendent  little  communities  were  forced  for  purposes  of  de 
fence,  was  disturbed  by  feuds ;  and  it  was  only  under  the 
stress  of  opposition  to  aggressing  Lombards  on  the  one  side 
and  Sclavonic  pirates  on  the  other,  that  a  general  assembly  of 
nobles,  clergy,  and  citizens,  appointed  a  duke  or  doge  to  direct 
the  combined  forces  and  to  restrain  internal  factions :  being 
superior  to  the  tribunes  of  the  united  islets  and  subject  only 
to  this  body  which  appointed  him.  What  changes 

subsequently  took  place — how,  beyond  the  restraints  imposed 
by  the  general  assembly,  the  doge  was  presently  put  under 
the  check  of  two  elected  councillors,  and  on  important  occa 
sions  had  to  summon  the  principal  citizens — how  there  came 
afterwards  a  representative  council,  which  underwent  from 
time  to  time  modifications — does  not  now  concern  us.  Here 
we  have  simply  to  note  that,  as  in  preceding  cases,  the  com 
ponent  groups  being  favourably  circumstanced  for  severally 
maintaining  their  independence  of  one  another,  the  impera 
tive  need  for  union  against  enemies  initiated  a  rude  compound 
headship,  which,  notwithstanding  the  centralizing  effects  of 
war,  long  maintained  itself  in  one  or  other  form. 

On  finding  allied  results  among  men  of  a  different  race  but 
occupying  a  similar  region,  doubts  respecting  the  process  of 
causation  must  be  dissipated.  Over  the  area,  half  land,  half 
water,  formed  of  the  sediment  brought  down  by  the  Ehine  and 
adjacent  rivers,  there  early  existed  scattered  families.  Living 
on  isolated  sand-hills,  or  in  huts  raised  on  piles,  they  were  so 
secure  amid  their  creeks  and  mud-banks  and  marshes,  that 
they  remained  unsubdued  by  the  Romans.  Subsisting  at  first 
by  fishing,  with  here  and  there  such  small  agriculture  as  was 


382  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

possible,  and  eventually  becoming  maritime  and  commercial, 
these  people,  in  course  of  time,  rendered  their  land  more 
habitable  by  damming  out  the  sea ;  and  they  long  enjoyed  a 
partial  if  not  complete  independence.  In  the  third  century, 
"the  low  countries  contained  the  only  free  people  of  the 
German  race."  Especially  the  Frisians,  more  remote  than 
the  rest  from  invaders,  "  associated  themselves  with  the  tribes 
settled  on  the  limits  of  the  German  Ocean,  and  formed  with 
them  a  connexion  celebrated  under  the  title  of  the  '  Saxon 
League.' "  Though  at  a  later  time,  the  inhabitants  of  the  low 
countries  fell  under  Frankish  invaders ;  yet  the  nature  of 
their  habitat  continued  to  give  them  such  advantages  in 
resisting  foreign  control,  that  they  organized  themselves  after 
their  own  fashion  notwithstanding  interdicts.  "  From  the 
time  of  Charlemagne,  the  people  of  the  ancient  Menapia,  now 
become  a  prosperous  commonwealth,  formed  political  associa 
tions  to  raise  a  barrier  against  the  despotic  violence  of  the 
Franks/'  Meanwhile  the  Frisians,  who,  after  centuries  of 
resistance  to  the  Franks,  were  obliged  to  yield  and  render 
small  tributary  services,  retained  their  internal  autonomy. 
They  formed  "a  confederation  of  rude  but  self-governed 
maritime  provinces : "  each  of  these  seven  provinces  being 
divided  into  districts  severally  governed  by  elective  heads 
with  their  councils,  and  the  whole  being  under  a  general 
elective  head  and  a  general  council. 

Of  illustrations  which  modern  times  have  furnished,  must 
be  named  those  which  again  show  us  the  effects  of  a  moun 
tainous  region.  The  most  notable  is,  of  course,  that  of 
Switzerland.  Surrounded  by  forests,  "among  marshes,  and 
rocks,  and  glaciers,  tribes  of  scattered  shepherds  had,  from  the 
early  times  of  the  Roman  conquest,  found  a  land  of  refuge 
from  the  successive  invaders  of  the  rest  of  Helvetia."  In  the 
labyrinths  of  the  Alps,  accessible  to  those  only  who  knew  the 
ways  to  them,  their  cattle  fed  unseen ;  and  against  straggling 
bands  of  marauders  who  might  discover  their  retreats,  they 
had  great  facilities  for  defence.  These  districts— which 


COMPOUND   POLITICAL  HEADS.  383 

eventually  became  the  cantons  of  Schweitz,  Uri,  and  Unter- 
walden,  originally  having  but  one  centre  of  meeting,  but 
eventually,  as  population  increased,  getting  three,  and  forming 
separate  political  organizations — long  preserved  complete  in 
dependence.  With  the  spread  of  feudal  subordination 
throughout  Europe,  they  became  nominally  subject  to  the 
Emperor;  but,  refusing  obedience  to  the  superiors  set  over 
them,  they  entered  into  a  solemn  alliance,  renewed  from  time 
to  time,  to  resist  outer  enemies.  Details  of  their  history  need 
not  detain  us.  The  fact  of  moment  is  that  in  these  three 
cantons,  which  physically  favoured  in  so  great  a  degree  the 
maintenance  of  independence  by  individuals  and  by  groups, 
the  people,  while  framing  for  themselves  free  governments, 
united  on  equal  terms  for  joint  defence.  And  it  was  these 
typical  "  Swiss,"  as  they  were  the  first  to  be  called,  whose 
union  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  larger  unions  which,  through 
varied  fortunes,  eventually  grew  up.  Severally  independent 
as  were  the  cantons  composing  these  larger  unions,  there  at 
first  existed  feuds  among  them,  which  were  suspended  during 
times  of  joint  defence.  Only  gradually  did  the  league  pass 
from  temporary  and  unsettled  forms  to  a  permanent  and 
settled  form.  Two  facts  of  significance  should  be 

added.  One  is  that,  at  a  later  date,  a  like  process  of  resist 
ance,  federation,  and  emancipation  from  feudal  tyranny, 
among  separate  communities  occupying  small  mountain 
valleys,  took  place  in  the  Grisons  and  in  the  Valaia :  regions 
which,  though  mountainous,  were  more  accessible  than  those 
of  the  Oberland  and  its  vicinity.  The  other  is  that  the  more 
level  cantons  neither  so  early  nor  so  completely  gained  their 
independence;  and,  further,  that  their  internal  constitutions 
were  less  free  in  form.  A  marked  contrast  existed  between 
the  aristocratic  republics  of  Berne,  Lucerne,  Pribourg,  and 
Soleure,  and  the  pure  democracies  of  the  forest  cantons  and 
the  Grisons:  in  the  last  of  which  "every  little  hamlet 
resting  in  an  Alpine  valley,  or  perched  on  mountain  era"*, 
was  an  independent  community,  of  which  all  the  members 
83 


384  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

were  absolutely  equal — entitled  to  vote  in  every  assembly, 
and  qualified  for  every  public  function."  "  Each  hamlet  had 
its  own  laws,  jurisdiction,  and  privileges ; "  while  the  hamlets 
were  federated  into  communes,  the  communes  into  districts, 
and  the  districts  into  a  league. 

Lastly,  with  the  case  of  Switzerland  may  be  associated  that 
of  San  Marino — a  little  republic  which,  seated  in  the  Apen 
nines,  and  having  its  centre  on  a  cliff  a  thousand  feet  high, 
has  retained  its  independence  for  fifteen  centuries.  Here 
8,000  people  are  governed  by  a  senate  of  60  and  by  captains 
elected  every  half-year  :  assemblies  of  the  whole  people  being 
called  on  important  occasions.  There  is  a  standing  army  of 
18;"  taxation  is  reduced  to  a  mere  nothing ; "  and  officials  are 
paid  by  the  honour  of  serving. 

One  noteworthy  difference  between  the  compound  heads 
arising  under  physical  conditions  of  the  kinds  exemplified, 
must  not  be  overlooked — the  difference  between  the  oligarchic 
form  and  the  popular  form.  As  shown  at  the  outset  of  this 
section,  if  each  of  the  groups  united  by  militant  cooperation 
is  despotically  ruled — if  the  groups  are  severally  framed  on 
the  patriarchal  type,  or  are  severally  governed  by  men  of 
supposed  divine  descent ;  then  the  compound  head  becomes 
one  in  which  the  people  at  large  have  no  share.  But  if,  as  in 
these  modern  cases,  patriarchal  authority  has  decayed ;  or  if 
belief  in  divine  descent  of  rulers  has  been  undermined  by  a 
creed  at  variance  with  it ;  or  if  peaceful  habits  have  weakened 
that  coercive  authority  which  war  ever  strengthens  ;  then  the 
compound  head  is  no  longer  an  assembly  of  petty  despots. 
With  the  progress  of  these  changes  it  becomes  more  and  more 
a  head  formed  of  those  who  exercise  power  not  by  right  of 
position  but  by  right  of  appointment. 

§  487.  There  are  other  conditions  which  favour  the  rise  of 
compound  heads,  temporary  if  not  permanent — those,  namely, 
which  occur  at  the  dissolutions  of  preceding  organizations. 
Among  peoples  habituated  for  ages  to  personal  rule,  having 


COMPOUND   POLITICAL  HEADS.  385 

sentiments  appropriate  to  it,  and  no  conception  of  anything 
else,  the  fall  of  one  despot  is  at  once  followed  by  the  rise  of 
another ;  or,  if  a  large  personally-governed  empire  collapses, 
its  parts  severally  generate  governments  for  themselves  of 
like  kind.  But  among  less  servile  peoples,  the  breaking  up 
of  political  systems  having  single  heads,  is  apt  to  be  followed 
by  the  establishment  of  others  having  compound  heads; 
especially  where  there  is  a  simultaneous  separation  into  parts 
which  have  not  local  governments  of  stable  kinds.  Under 
such  circumstances  there  is  a  return  to  the  primitive  state. 
The  pre-existing  regulative  system  having  fallen,  the  members 
of  the  community  are  left  without  any  controlling  power  save 
the  aggregate  will ;  and  political  organization  having  to  com 
mence  afresh,  the  form  first  assumed  is  akin  to  that  which  we 
see  in  the  assembly  of  the  savage  horde,  or  in  the  modern 
public  meeting.  Whence  there  presently  results  the  rule  of 
a  select  few  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  many. 

In  illustration  may  first  be  taken  the  rise  of  the  Italian 
republics.  When,  during  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  the 
German  Emperors,  who  had  long  been  losing  their  power  to 
restrain  local  antagonisms  in  Italy  and  the  outrages  of 
wandering  robber  bands,  failed  more  than  ever  to  protect 
their  subject  communities,  and,  as  a  simultaneous  result, 
exercised  diminished  control  over  them ;  it  became  at  once 
necessary  and  practicable  for  the  Italian  towns  to  develop 
political  organizations  of  their  own.  Though  in  these  towns 
there  were  remnants  of  the  old  Roman  organization,  this  had 
obviously  become  effete  ;  for,  in  time  of  danger,  there  was  an 
assembling  of  "  citizens  at  the  sound  of  a  great  bell,  to 
concert  together  the  means  for  their  common  defence." 
J)oubtless  on  such  occasions  were  marked  out  the  rudiments 
of  those  republican  constitutions  which  afterwards  arose. 
Though  it  is  alleged  that  the  German  Emperors  allowed  the 
towns  to  form  these  constitutions,  yet  we  may  reasonably 
conclude,  rather,  that  having  no  care  further  than  to  get  their 
tribute,  they  made  no  efforts  to  prevent  the  towns  from 


386  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

forming  them.  And  though  Sismondi  says  of  the  towns 
people — "  ils  chercherent  &  se  constituer  sur  le  modele  de  la 
republique  romaine ;"  yet  we  may  question  whether,  in  those 
dark  days,  the  people  knew  enough  of  Roman  institutions  to 
be  influenced  by  their  knowledge.  With  more  probability 
may  we  infer  that  "this  meeting  of  all  the  men  of  tho 
state  capable  of  bearing  arms  ...  in  the  great  square," 
originally  called  to  take  measures  for  repelling  aggressors — a 
meeting  which  must,  at  the  very  outset,  have  been  swayed 
by  a  group  of  dominant  citizens  and  must  have  chosen 
leaders,  was  itself  the  republican  government  in  its  incipient 
state.  Meetings  of  this  kind,  first  held  on  occasions  of 
emergency,  would  gradually  come  into  use  for  deciding  all 
important  public  questions.  Repetition  would  bring  greater 
regularity  in  the  modes  of  procedure,  and  greater  definiteness 
in  the  divisions  formed ;  ending  in  compound  political  heads, 
presided  over  by  elected  chiefs.  And  that  this  was  the  case 
in  those  early  stages  of  which  there  remain  but  vague 
accounts,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  a  similar,  though  some 
what  more  definite,  process  afterwards  occurred  at  Florence, 
when  the  usurping  nobles  were  overthrown.  Records  tell  us 
that  in  1250  "  the  citizens  assembled  at  the  same  moment  in 
the  square  of  Santa  Croce  ;  they  divided  themselves  into  fifty 
groups,  of  which  each  group  chose  a  captain,  and  thus 
formed  companies  of  militia  :  a  council  of  these  officers  was 
the  first-born  authority  of  this  newly  revived  republic." 
Clearly,  that  sovereignty  of  the  people  which,  for  a  time, 
characterized  these  small  governments,  would  inevitably  arise 
if  the  political  form  grew  out  of  the  original  public  meeting ; 
while  it  would  be  unlikely  to  have  arisen  had  the  political 
form  been  artificially  devised  by  a  limited  class. 

That  this  interpretation  harmonizes  with  the  facts  which 
modern  times  have  furnished,  scarcely  needs  pointing  out. 
On  an  immensely  larger  scale  and  in  ways  variously  modified, 
here  by  the  slow  collapse  of  an  old  rdgimc  and  there  by  com 
bination  for  war,  the  rise  of  the  first  French  Republic  and  of 


COMPOUND   POLITICAL  HEADS.  387 

the  American  Republic  have  similarly  shown  us  this  tendency 
towards  resumption  of  the  primitive  form  of  political  organi 
zation,  when  a  decayed  or  otherwise  incapable  government 
collapses.  Obscured  by  complicating  circumstances  and 
special  incidents  as  these  transformations  were,  we  may 
recognize  in  them  the  play  of  the  same  general  causes. 

§  488.  In  the  last  chapter  we  saw  that,  as  conditions  deter 
mine,  the  first  element  of  the  tri-une  political  structure  may 
be  differentiated  from  the  second  in  various  degrees :  begin 
ning  with  the  warrior-chief,  slightly  predominant  over  other 
warriors,  and  ending  with  the  divine  and  absolute  king 
widely  distinguished  from  the  select  few  next  to  him.  By 
the  foregoing  examples  we  are  shown  that  the  second  element 
is,  as  conditions  determine,  variously  differentiated  from  the 
third:  being  at  the  one  extreme  qualitatively  distinguished 
in  a  high  degree  and  divided  from  it  by  an  impassable  barrier, 
and  at  the  other  extreme  almost  merged  into  it. 

Here  we  are  introduced  to  the  truth  next  to  be  dealt  with ; 
that  rrot  only  do  conditions  determine  the  various  forms  which 
compound  heads  assume,  but  that  conditions  determine  the 
various  changes  they  undergo.  There  are  two  leading  kinds 
of  such  changes — those  through  which  the  compound  head 
passes  towards  a  less  popular  form,  and  those  through  which 
it  passes  towards  a  more  popular  form.  We  will  glance  at 
them  in  this  order. 

Progressive  narrowing  of  the  compound  head  is  one  of  tho 
concomitants  of  continued  military  activity.  Setting  out 
with  the  case  of  Sparta,  the  constitution  of  which  in  its  early 
form  differed  but  little  from  that  which  the  Iliad  shows 
us  existed  among  the  Homeric  Greeks,  we  first  see  the 
tendency  towards  concentration  of  power,  in  the  regula 
tion,  made  a  century  after  Lykurgus,  that  "in  case  the  people 
decided  crookedly,  the  senate  with  the  kings  should  reverse 
their  decisions ;"  and  then  we  see  that  later,  in  consequence 
of  the  gravitation  of  property  into  fewer  hands,  "  the  number 


388  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

of  qualified  citizens  went  on  continually  diminishing : "  the 
implication  being  not  only  a  relatively-increased  power  of  the 
oligarchy,  but,  probably,  a  growing  supremacy  of  the  wealthier 
members  within  the  oligarchy  itself.  Turning  to  the  case  of 
Home,  ever  militant,  we  find  that  in  course  of  time  inequali 
ties  increased  to  the  extent  that  the  senate  became  "an 
order  of  lords,  filling  up  its  ranks  by  hereditary  succession, 
and  exercising  collegiate  misrule."  Moreover,  "  out  of  the  evil 
of  oligarchy  there  emerged  the  still  worse  evil  of  usurpation 
of  power  by  particular  families."  In  the  Italian  Eepublics, 
again,  perpetually  at  war  one  with  another,  there  resulted  a 
kindred  narrowing  of  the  governing  body.  The  nobility, 
deserting  their  castles,  began  to  direct  "  the  municipal  govern 
ment  of  the  cities,  which  consequently,  during  this  period  of 
the  Eepublics,  fell  chiefly  into  the  hands  of  the  superior  fami 
lies."  Then  at  a  later  stage,  when  industrial  progress  had 
generated  wealthy  commercial  classes,  these,  competing  with 
the  nobles  for  power,  and  finally  displacing  them,  repeated 
within  their  respective  bodies  this  same  process.  The  richer 
gilds  deprived  the  poorer  of  their  shares  in  the  choice  of  the 
ruling  agencies ;  the  privileged  class  was  continually  dimi 
nished  by  "disqualifying  regulations;  and  newly  risen  families 
were  excluded  by  those  of  long  standing.  So  that,  as  Sis- 
mondi  points  out,  those  of  the  numerous  Italian  Eepublics 
which  remained  nominally  such  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  were,  like  "Sienna  and  Lucca,  each  governed 'by  a 
single  caste  of  citizens :  .  .  .  had  no  longer  popular  govern 
ments/'  A  kindred  result  occurred  among  the  Dutch. 
DuriiK'  the  wars  of  the  Flemish  cities  with  the  nobles  and 

O 

with  one  another,  the  relatively  popular  governments  of  the 
towns  were  narrowed.  The  greater  gilds  excluded  the  lesser 
from  the  ruling  body ;  and  their  members,  "  clothed  in  the 
municipal  purple  .  .  .  ruled  with  the  power  of  an  aristo 
cracy  .  .  .  the  local  government  was  often  an  oligarchy, 
while  the  spirit  of  the  burghers  was  peculiarly  democratic." 
And  with  these  illustrations  may  be  joined  that  furnished  by 


COMPOUND   POLITICAL   HEADS.  380 

those  Swiss  cantons  which,  physically  characterized  in  ways 
less  favourable  than  the  others  to  personal  independence, 
were  at  the  same  time  given  to  wars,  offensive  as  well  as 
defensive.  Berne,  Lucerne,  Fribourg,  Soleure,  acquired  politi 
cal  constitutions  in  large  measure  oligarchic  ;  and  in  "  Berne, 
where  the  nobles  had  always  been  in  the  ascendant,  the  entire 
administration  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  few  families, 
with  whom  it  had  become  hereditary." 

We  have  next  to  note  as  a  cause  of  progressive  modification 
in  compound  heads,  that,  like  simple  heads,  they  are  apt  to 
be  subordinated  by  their  administrative  agents.  The  earliest 
case  to  be  named  is  one  in  which  this  effect  is  exemplified 
along  with  the  last — the  case  of  Sparta.  Originally  appointed 
by  the  kings  to  perform  prescribed  duties,  the  ephors  first 
made  the  kings  subordinate,  and  eventually  subordinated  the 
senate  ;  so  that  they  became  substantially  the  rulers.  From 
this  we  may  pass  to  the  instance  supplied  by  Venice,  where 
power,  once  exercised  by  the  people,  gradually  lapsed  into 
the  hands  of  an  executive  body,  the  members  of  which, 
habitually  re-elected,  and  at  death  replaced  by  their  children, 
became  an  aristocracy,  whence  there  eventually  grew  the 
council  of  ten,  who  were,  like  the  Spartan  ephors,  "  charged 
to  guard  the  security  of  the  state  with  a  power  higher  than 
the  law;"  and  who  thus,  "restrained  by  no  rule,"  constituted 
the  actual  government.  Through  its  many  revolutions  and 
changes  of  constitution,  Florence  exhibited  like  tendencies. 
The  appoint  3d  administrators,  now  signoria,  now  priors, 
became  able,  during  their  terms  of  office,  to  effect  their 
private  ends  even  to  the  extent  of  suspending  the  constitu 
tion  :  getting  the  forced  assent  of  the  assembled  people,  who 
were  surrounded  by  armed  men.  And  then,  eventually,  the 
head  executive  agent,  nominally  re-elected  from  time  to  time 
but  practically  permanent,  became,  in  the  person  of  Cosmo  de' 
Medici,  the  founder  of  an  inherited  headship. 

But  the  liability  of  the  compound  political  head  to  become 
•ubject  to  its  civil  agents,  is  far  less  than  its  liability  to 


390  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

become  subject  to  its  military  agents.  From  the  earliest 
times  this  liability  has  been  exemplified  and  commented 
upon ;  and,  familiar  though  it  is,  I  must  here  illustrate  and 
emphasize  it,  because  it  directly  bears  on  one  of  the  cardinal 
truths  of  political  theory.  Setting  out  with  the  Greeks,  we 
observe  that  the  tyrants,  by  whom  oligarchies  were  so 
often  overthrown,  had  armed  forces  at  their  disposal.  Either 
the  tyrant  was  "  the  executive  magistrate,  upon  whom  the 
oligarchy  themselves  had  devolved  important  administrative 
powers ;"  or  he  was  a  demagogue,  who  pleaded  the  alleged 
interests  of  the  community,  "  in  order  to  surround"  himself 
"  with  armed  defenders  : "  soldiers  being  in  either  case  the 
agents  of  his  usurpation.  And  then,  in  Eome,  we  see  the  like 
done  by  the  successful  general.  As  MacchiavelK  remarks — 

"  For  the  further  abroad  they  [the  generals]  carried  their  arms,  the 
more  necessary  such  prolongations  [of  their  commissions]  appeared,  and 
the  more  common  they  became  ;  hence  it  arose,  in  the  first  place,  that 
but  a  few  of  their  Citizens  could  be  employed  in  the  command  of  armies, 
and  consequently  few  were  capable  of  acquiring  any  considerable  degree 
of  experience  or  reputation  ;  and  in  the  next,  that  when  a  Commander 
in  chief  was  continued  for  a  long  time  in  that  post,  he  had  an  oppor 
tunity  of  corrupting  his  army  to  such  a  degree  that  the  Soldiers  entirely 
threw  off  their  obedience  to  the  Senate,  and  acknowledged  no  authority 
but  his.  To  this  it  was  owing  that  Sylla  and  Marius  found  means 
to  debauch  their  armies  and  make  them  fight  against  their  country; 
and  that  Julius  Cassar  was  enabled  to  make  himself  absolute  in  Eome/3 

The  Italian  Eepublics,  again,  furnish  many  illustrations.  By 
the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  those  of  Lombardy 
"  all  submitted  themselves  to  the  military  power  of  some 
nobles  to  whom  they  had  entrusted  the  command  of  their 
militias,  and  thus  all  lost  their  liberty."  Later  times  and 
nearer  regions  yield  instances.  At  home,  Cromwell  showed 
how  the  successful  general  tends  to  become  autocrat.  In  the 
Netherlands  tho  same  thing  was  exemplified  by  the  Van 
Arteveldes,  father  and  son,  and  again  by  Maurice  of  Nassau ; 
and,  but  for  form's  sake,  it  would  be  needless  to  name  the  case 
of  Napoleon.  It  should  be  added  that  not  only  by  command 
of  armod  forces  is  the  military  chief  enabled  to  seize  on 


COMPOUND   POLITICAL  HEADS.  391 

supreme  power;  but  acquired  popularity,  especially  in  a 
militant  nation,  places  him  in  a  position  which  makes  it 
relatively  easy  to  do  this.  Neither  their  own  experience  nor 
the  experiences  of  other  nations  throughout  the  past,  pre 
vented  the  French  from  lately  making  Marshal  Macmahon 
executive  head ;  and  even  the  Americans,  in  more  than  once 
choosing  General  Grant  for  President,  proved  that,  predomi 
nantly  industrial  though  their  society  is,  militant  activity 
promptly  caused  an  incipient  change  towards  the  militant 
type,  of  which  an  essential  trait  is  the  union  of  civil  headship 
with  military  headship. 

From  the  influences  which  narrow  compound  political 
headships,  or  change  them  into  single  ones,  let  us  pass  to  the 
influences  which  widen  them.  The  case  of  Athens  is,  of 
course,  the  first  to  be  considered.  To  understand  this  we 
must  remember  that  up  to  the  time  of  Solon,  democratic 
government  did  not  exist  in  Greece.  The  only  actual  forms 
were  the  oligarchic  and  the  despotic ;  and  in  those  early  days, 
before  political  speculation  began,  it  is  unlikely  that  there 
was  recognized  in  theory,  a  social  form  entirely  unknown  in 
practice.  We  have,  therefore,  to  exclude  the  notion  that 
popular  government  arose  in  Athens  under  the  guidance  of 
any  preconceived  idea.  As  having  the  same  implication 
should  be  added  the  fact  that  (Athens  being  governed  by  an 
oligarchy  at  the  time)  the  Solonian  legislation  served  but  to 
qualify  and  broaden  the  oligarchy  and  remove  crying  in 
justices.  In  seeking  the  causes  of  change  which 
worked  through  Solon,  and  also  made  practicable  the  re-orga 
nization  he  initiated,  we  shall  find  them  to  lie  in  the  direct  and 
indirect  influences  of  trade.  Grote  comments  on  "  the  anxiety, 
Loth  of  Solon  and  of  Drako,  to  enforce  among  their  fellow- 
citizens  industrious  and  self-maintaining  habits : "  a  proof 
that,  even  before  Solon's  time,  there  was  in  Attica  little  or  no 
reprobation  of  "  sedentary  industry,  which  in  most  other  parts 
of  Greece  was  regarded  as  comparatively  dishonourable." 
Moreover,  Soldi  was  himself  in  early  life  a  trader;  and  his 


392  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

legislation  "  provided  for  traders  and  artizans  a  new  home  at 
Athens,  giving  the  first  encouragement  to  that  numerous 
town-population,  both  in  the  city  and  in  the  Peiraeus,  which 
we  find  actually  residing  there  in  the  succeeding  century." 
The  immigrants  who  flocked  into  Attica  because  of  its  greater 
security,  Solon  was  anxious  to  turn  rather  to  manufacturing 
industry  than  to  cultivation  of  a  soil  naturally  poor  ;  and  one 
result  was  "  a  departure  from  the  primitive  temper  of  Atti 
cism,  which  tended  both  to  cantonal  residence  and  rural  occu 
pation  ; "  while  another  result  was  to  increase  the  number  of 
people  who  stood  outside  those  gentile  and  phratric  divisions, 
which  were  concomitants  of  the  patriarchal  type  and  of  per 
sonal  rule.  And  then  the  constitutional  changes  made  by 
Solon  were  in  leading  respects  towards  industrial  organiza 
tion.  The  introduction  of  a  property-qualification  for  classes, 
instead  of  a  birth-qualification,  diminished  the  rigidity  of  the 
political  form  ;  since  aquirement  of  wealth  by  industry,  or 
otherwise,  made  possible  an  admission  into  the  oligarchy,  or 
among  others  of  the  privileged.  By  forbidding  self-enslave- 
ment  of  the  debtor,  and  by  emancipating  those  who  had  been 
self-enslaved,  his  laws  added  largely  to  the  enfranchised  class 
as  distinguished  from  the  slave-class.  Otherwise  regarded, 
this  change,  leaving  equitable  contracts  untouched,  prevented 
those  inequitable  contracts  under  which,  by  a  lien  on  himself, 
a  man  gave  more  than  an  equivalent  for  the  sum  he  borrowed. 
And  with  a  decreasing  number  of  cases  in  which  there  existed 
the  relation  of  master  and  slave,  went  an  increasing  number 
of  cases  in  which  benefits  were  exchanged  under  agreement. 
The  odium  attaching  to  that  lending  at  interest  which  ended 
in  slavery  of  the  debtor,  having  disappeared,  legitimate,  lending 
became  general  and  unopposed ;  the  rate  of  interest  was  free ; 
and  accumulated  capital  was  made  available.  Then,  as  co 
operating  cause,  and  as  ever-increasing  consequence,  came  the 
growth  of  a  population  favourably  circumstanced  for  acting 
in  concert  Urban  people  who,  daily  in  contact,  gather  one 
another's  ideas  and  feelings,  and  who,  by  quickly-diffused 


COMPOUND   POLITICAL  HEADS.  393 

intelligence  are  rapidly  assembled,  can  cooperate  far  more 
readily  than  people  scattered  through  rural  districts.  With 
all  which  direct  and  indirect  results  of  industrial  develop 
ment,  must  be  joined  the  ultimate  result  on  character,  pro 
duced  by  daily  fulfilling  and  enforcing  contracts — a  discipline) 
which,  while  requiring  each  man  to  recognize  the  claims  of 
others,  also  requires  him  to  maintain  his  own.  In  Solon 
himself  this  attitude  which  joins  assertion  of  personal  rights 
with  respect  for  the  rights  of  others,  was  well  exemplified ; 
since,  when  his  influence  was  great  he  refused  to  become  a 
despot,  though  pressed  to  do  so,  and  in  his  latter  days  he 
resisted  at  the  risk  of  death  the  establishment  of  a  despo 
tism.  In  various  ways,  then,  increasing  industrial 
activity  tended  to  widen  the  original  oligarchic  structure. 
And  though  these  effects  of  industrialism,  joined  with  subse 
quently-accumulated  effects,  .were  for  a  long  time  held  in 
check  by  the  usurping  Peisistratidse,  yet,  being  ready  to  show 
themselves  when,  some  time  after  the  expulsion  of  these 
tyrants,  there  came  the  Kleisthenian  revolution,  they  were 
doubtless  instrumental  in  then  initiating  the  popular  form  of 
government. 

Though  not  in  so  great  a  degree,  yet  in  some  degree,  the 
same  causes  operated  in  liberalizing  the  Eoman  oligarchy. 
Eome  "  was  indebted  for  the  commencement  of  its  import 
ance  to  international  commerce ;"  and,  as  Mommsen  points 
out,  "  the  distinction  between  Eome  and  the  mass  of  the 
other  Latin  towns,  must  certainly  be  traced  back  to  its  com 
mercial  position,  and  to  the  type  of  character  produced  by 
that  position  .  .  .  Eome  was  the  emporium  of  the  Latin 
districts."  Moreover,  as  in  Athens,  though  doubtless  to  a 
smaller  extent,  trade  brought  an  increasing  settlement  of 
strangers,  to  whom  rights  were  given,  and  who,  joined  with 
emancipated  slaves  and  with  clients,  formed  an  industrial 
population,  the  eventual  inclusion  of  which  in  the  burgess- 
body  caused  that  widening  of  the  constitution  effected  by 
Servius  Tullius. 


391  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

The  Italian  Eepublics  of  later  days  again  show  us,  in  nume 
rous  cases,  this  connexion  between  trading  activities  and  o 
freer  form 'of  rule.  The  towns  were  industrial  centres. 

"The  merchants  of  Genoa,  Pisa,  Florence,  and  Venice  supplied 
Europs  with  the  products  of  the  Mediterranean  and  of  the  East:  the 
hunkers  of  Lombardy  instructed  the  world  in  the  mysteries  of  finance, 
and  foreign  exchanges:  Italian  artificers  taught  the  workmen  of  other 
countries  the  highest  skill  in  the  manufactures  of  steel,  iron,  bronze, 
silk,  glass,  porcelain,  and  jewelry.  Italian  shops,  with  their  dazzling 
array  of  luxuries,  excited  the  admiration  and  envy  of  foreigners  from 
less  favoured  lands." 

Then,  on  looking  into  their  histories,  we  find  that  industrial 
gilds  were  the  bases  of  their  political  organizations ;  that  the 
upper  mercantile  classes  became  the  rulers,  in  some  cases 
excluding  the  nobles ;  and  that  while  external  wars  and  in 
ternal  feuds  tended  continually  to  revive  narrower,  or  more 
personal,  forms  of  rule,  rebellions  of  the  industrial  citizens 
occasionally  happening,  tended  to  re-establish  popular  rule. 

When  we  join  with  these  the  like  general  connexions  that 
arose  in  the  Netherlands  and  in  the  Hanse  towns — when  we 
remember  the  liberalization  of  our  own  political  institutions 
which  has  gone  along  with  growing  industrialism — when  we 
observe  that  the  towns  more  than  the  country,  and  the  great 
industrial  centres  more  than  the  small  ones,  have  given  the 
impulses  to  these  changes ;  it  becomes  unquestionable  that 
while  by  increase  of  militant  activities  compound  headships 
are  narrowed,  they  are  widened  in  proportion  as  industrial 
activities  become  predominant. 

§  489.  In  common  with  the  results  reached  in  preceding 
chapters,  the  results  above  reached  show  that  types  of  poli 
tical  organization  are  not  matters  of  deliberate  choice.  It  is 
common  to  speak  of  a  society  as  though  it  had,  once  upon  a 
time,  decided  on  the  form  of  government  which  thereafter 
existed  in  it.  Even  Mr,  Grote,  in  his  comparison  between  the 
institutions  of  ancient  Greece  and  those  of  mediaeval  Europe 
(vol.  iii.  pp.  10 — 12),  tacitly  implies  that  conceptions  of  the 


COMPOUND   POLITICAL  HEADS.  295 

advantages  or  disadvantages  of  tins  or  that  arrangement,  fur 
nished  motives  for  establishing  or  maintaining  it.  But,  as 
gathered  together  in  the  foregoing  sections,  the  facts  show 
that  as  with  the  genesis  of  simple  political  heads,  so  with 
the  genesis  of  compound  political  heads,  conditions  and  not 
intentions  determine. 

Recognizing  the  truth  that  independence  of  character  is  a 
fa3tor,  but  ascribing  this  independence  of  character  to  the 
continued  existence  of  a  race  in  a  habitat  which  facilitates 
evasion  of  control,  we  saw  that  with  such  a  nature  so  con 
ditioned,  cooperation  in  war  causes  the  union  on  equal  terms 
of  groups  whose  heads  are  joined  to  form  a  directive  council. 
And  according  as  the  component  groups  are  governed  more 
or  less  autocratically,  the  directive  council  is  more  or  less 
oligarchic.  We  have  seen  that  in  localities  differing  so 
widely  as  do  mountain  regions,  marshes  or  mud  islands,  and 
jungles,  men  of  different  races  have  developed  political  heads 
of  this  compound  kind.  And  on  observing  that  the  localities, 
otherwise  so  unlike,  are  alike  in  being  severally  made  up  of 
parts  difficult  of  access,  we  cannot  question  that  to  this  is 
mainly  due  the  governmental  form  under  which  their  in 
habitants  unite. 

Besides  the  compound  heads  which  are  thus  indigenous  in 
places  favouring  them,  there  are  other  compound  heads  which 
arise  after  the  break-up  of  preceding  political  organizations. 
Especially  apt  are  they  so  to  arise  where  the  people,  not 
scattered  through  a  wide  district  but  concentrated  in  a  town, 
can  easily  assemble  bodily.  Control  of  every  kind  having 
disappeared,  it  happens  in  such  cases  that  the  aggregate  will 
lias  free  play,  and  there  establishes  itself  for  a  time  that 
relatively-popular  form  with  which  all  government  begins ; 
but,  regularly  or  irregularly,  a  superior  few  become  differen 
tiated  from  the  many ;  and  of  predominant  men  some  one  is 
made,  directly  or  indirectly,  most  predominant. 

Compound  heads  habitually  become,  in  course  of  time, 
either  narrower  or  wider.  They  are  narrowed  by  militancy, 


396  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

which  tends  ever  to  concentrate  directive  power  in  fewer 
hands,  and,  if  continued,  almost  certainly  changes  them  into 
simple  heads.  Conversely,  they  are  widened  by  industrialism. 
This,  by  gathering  together  aliens  detached  from  the  restraints 
imposed  by  patriarchal,  feudal,  or  other  such  organizations; 
by  increasing  the  number  of  those  to  be  coerced  in  compa 
rison  with  the  number  of  those  who  have  to  coerce  them ;  by 
placing  this  larger  number  in  conditions  favouring  concerted 
action ;  by  substituting  for  daily-enforced  obedience,  the  daily 
fulfilment  of  voluntary  obligations  and  daily  maintenance  of 
claims ;  tends  ever  towards  equalization  of  citizenship. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 
CONSULTATIVE  BODIES. 

§  490.  Two  parts  of  the  primitive  tri-nne  political  struo- 
ture  have,  in  the  last  two  chapters,  been  dealt  with  sepa 
rately  ;  or,  to  speak  strictly,  the  first  has  been  considered  as 
independent  of  the  second,  and  again,  the  second  as  inde 
pendent  of  the  first :  incidentally  noting  its  relations  to  the 
third.  Here  we  have  to  treat  of  the  two  in  combination. 
Instead  of  observing  how  from  the  chief,  little  above  the  rest, 
there  is,  under  certain  conditions,  evolved  the  absolute  ruler, 
entirely  subordinating  the  select  few  and  the  many ;  and 
instead  of  observing  how,  under  other  conditions,  the  select 
few  become  an  oligarchy  tolerating  no  supreme  man,  and 
keeping  the  multitude  in  subjection ;  we  have  now  to  observe 
the  cases  in  which  there  is  established  a  cooperation  between 
the  first  and  the  second. 

After  chieftainship  has  become  settled,  the  chief  continues 
to  have  sundry  reasons  for  acting  in  concert  with  his  head 
men.  It  is  needful  to  conciliate  them ;  it  is  needful  to  get 
their  advice  and  willing  assistance ;  and,  in  serious  matters, 
it  is  desirable  to  divide  responsibility  with  them.  Hence  the 
prevalence  of  consultative  assemblies.  In  Samoa,  "  the  chief 
of  the  village  and  the  heads  of  families  formed,  and  still  form, 
the  legislative  body  of  the  place."  Among  the  Fulahs, 
*  before  undertaking  anything  important  or  declaring  war, 
the  king  [of  Kabbah]  is  obliged  to  summon  a  council  of 


398  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Mallams  and  the  principal  people."  Of  the  Mandingo  states 
we  read  that  "  in  all  affairs  of  importance,  the  king  calls  an 
assembly  of  the  principal  men,  or  elders,  by  whose  counsels 
lie  is  directed."  And  such  cases  might  be  multiplied  inde 
finitely. 

That  we  may  understand  the  essential  nature  of  this  in 
stitution,  and  that  we  may  see  why,  as  it  evolves,  it  assumes 
the  characters  it  does,  we  must  once  more  go  back  to  the 
beginning. 

§  491.  Evidence  coming  from  many  peoples  in  all  times, 
shows  that  the  consultative  body  is,  at  the  outset,  nothing 
more  than  a  council  of  war.  It  is  in  the  open-air  meeting  of 
armed  men,  that  the  cluster  of  leaders  is  first  seen  performing 
that  deliberative  function  in  respect  of  military  measures, 
which  is  subsequently  extended  toother  measures  Long  after 
its  deliberations  have  become  more  general  in  their  scope, 
there  survive  traces  of  this  origin. 

In  Koine,  where  the  king  was  above  all  things  the  general, 
and  where  the  senators,  as  the  heads  of  clans,  were,  at  the 
outset,  war-chiefs,  the  burgesses  were  habitually,  when  called 
together,  addressed  as  "spear-men:"  there  survived  the  title 
which  was  naturally  given  to  them  when  they  were  present 
as  listeners  at  war-councils.  So  during  later  days  in  Italy, 
when  the  small  republics  grew  up.  Describing  the  assem- 
blino-  of  "  citizens  at  the  sound  of  a  OTeat  bell,  to  concert 

O  O  ' 

together  the  means  of  their  common  defence,"  Sismondi  says 
— "  this  meeting  of  all  the  men  of  the  State  capable  of  bearing 
arms,  was  called  a  Parliament.'1  Concerning  the  gatherings 
of-  the  Poles  in  early  times  we  read : — "  Such  assemblies, 
before  the  establishment  of  a  senate,  and  while  the  kings  were 
limited  in  power,  were  of  frequent  occurrence,  and  .  .  .  were 
attended  by  all  who  bore  arms;"  and  at  a  later  stage  "the 
comitia  paludata,  which  assembled  during  an  interregnum, 
consisted  of  the  whole  body  of  nobles,  who  attended  in  the 
open  plain,  armed  and  equipped  as  if  for  battle."  In  Hungary, 


CONSULTATIVE  BODIES.  399 

too,  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  "  les 
eisgneurs,  a  cheval  et  armes  de  pied  en  cap  comme  pour  aller 
en  guerre,  se  reunissaient  dans  le  champ  de  courses  de  Eakos, 
pres  de  Pesth,  et  la  discutaient  en  plain  air  les  affaires  pub- 
liques."  Again,  "  the  supreme  political  council  is  the  nation 
in  arms,"  says  Stubbs  of  the  primitive  Germans ;  and  though, 
during  the  Merovingian  period,  the  popular  power  declined, 
yet  "  under  Chlodovech  and  his  immediate  successors,  the 
People  assembled  in  arms  had  a  real  participation  in  the 
resolutions  of  the  king."  Even  now  the  custom  of  going 
weapon  in  hand,  is  maintained  where  the  primitive  political 
form  remains.  "  To  the  present  day,"  writes  M.  de  Laveleye, 
"  the  inhabitants  of  the  outer  Ehodes  of  Appenzell  come  to 
the  general  assembly,  one  year  at  Hundwyl  and  the  other  at 
Trogen,  each  carrying  in  his  hand  an  old  sword  or  ancient 
rapier  of  the  middle  ages."  Mr.  Freeman,  too,  was  witness 
to  a  like  annual  gathering  in  Uri,  where  those  who  joined  to 
elect  their  chief  magistrate,  and  to  deliberate,  came  armed. 

It  may,  indeed,  be  alleged  that  in  early  unsettled  times, 
the  carrying  of  weapons  by  each  freeman  was  needful  for 
personal  safety ;  especially  when  a  place  of  meeting  far  from 
his  home  had  to  be  reached.  But  there  is  evidence  that 
though  this  continued  to  be  a  cause  for  going  prepared  for 
fight,  it  was  not  by  itself  a  sufficient  cause.  While  we  read 
of  the  ancient  Scandinavians  that  "  all  freemen  capable  of 
bearing  arms  were  admitted"  to  the  national  assembly,  and 
that  after  his  election  from  "  among  the  descendants  of  the 
sacred  stock,"  "  the  new  sovereign  was  elevated  amidst  the 
clash  of  arms  and  the  shouts  of  the  multitude  ;"  we  also  read 
that  "nobody,  not  even  the  king  or  his  champions,  were 
allowed  to  come  armed  to  the  assizes." 

Even  apart  from  such  evidence,  there  is  ample  reason  to 
infer  that  the  council  of  war  originated  the  consultative  body, 
and  gave  outlines  to  its  structure.  Defence  against  enemies 
was  everywhere  the  need  which  first  prompted  joint  deli 
beration.  For  other  purposes  individual  action,  or  action  in 
84 


400  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

small  parties,  might  suffice;  but  for  insuring  the  general 
safety,  combined  action  of  the  whole  horde  or  tribe  was  ne 
cessary  ;  and  to  secure  this  combined  action  must  have  been 
the  primary  motive  for  a  political  gathering.  Moreover, 
certain  constitutional  traits  of  early  assemblies  among  the 
civilized,  point  to  councils  of  war  as  having  initiated  them. 
If  we  ask  what  must  happen  when  the  predominant  men  of 
a  tribe  debate  military  measures  in  presence  of  the  rest,  the 
reply  is  that  in  the  absence  of  a  developed  political  organiza 
tion,  the  assent  of  the  rest  to  any  decision  must  be  obtained 
before  it  can  be  acted  upon ;  and  the  like  must  at  first  happen 
when  many  tribes  are  united.  As  Gibbon  says  of  the  diet  of 
the  Tartars,  formed  of  chiefs  of  tribes  and  their  martial 
trains,  "  the  monarch  who  reviews  the  strength,  must  consult 
the  inclination,  of  an  armed  people."  Even  if,  under  such 
conditions,  the  ruling  few  could  impose  their  will  on  the 
many,  armed  like  themselves,  it  would  be  impolitic  to  do  so  ; 
since  success  in  war  would  be  endangered  by  dissension. 
Hence  would  arise  the  usage  of  putting  to  the  surrounding 
warriors,  the  question  whether  they  agreed  to  the  course 
which  the  council  of  chiefs  had  decided  upon.  There  would 
grow  up  a  form  such  as  that  which  had  become  established 
for  governmental  purposes  at  large  among  the  early  Eomans, 
whose  king  or  general,  asked  the  assembled  burgesses  or 
"  spear-men,"  whether  they  approved  of  the  proposal  made ; 
or  like  that  ascribed  by  Tacitus  to  the  primitive  Germans, 
who,  now  with  murmurs  and  now  with  brandishing  of  spears, 
rejected  or  accepted  the  suggestions  of  their  leaders.  More 
over,  there  would  naturally  come  just  that  restricted  expres 
sion  of  popular  opinion  which  we  are  told  of.  The  Eoman 
burgesses  were  allowed  to  answer  only  "yes"  or  "no"  to  any 
question  put  to  them;  and  this  is  exactly  the  simple  answer 
which  the  chief  and  head  warriors  would  require  from  the 
rest  of  the  warriors  when  war  or  peace  were  the  alternatives. 
A  kindred  restriction  existed  among  the  Spartans.  In  addi 
tion  to  the  senate  and  co-ordinate  kings,  there  was  "an 


CONSULTATIVE  BODIES.  401 

Ekklesia  or  public  assembly  of  citizens,  convened  for  the 
purpose  of  approving  or  rejecting  propositions  submitted  to 
them,  with  little  or  no  liberty  of  discussion"^ — a  usage  quite 
explicable  if  we  assume  that  in  the  Homeric  agora,  from 
which  the  Spartan  constitution  descended,  the  assembled 
chiefs  had  to  gain  the  assent  of  their  followers  before  im 
portant  actions  could  be  undertaken. 

Concluding,  then,  that  war  originates  political  deliberation, 
and  that  the  select  body  which  especially  carries  on  this  deli 
beration  first  takes  shape  on  occasions  when  the  public  safety 
has  to  be  provided  for,  wye  shall  be  prepared  the  better  to 
understand  the  traits  which  characterize  the  consultative 
body  in  later  stages  of  its  development. 

§  492.  Already  we  have  seen  that  at  the  outset  the  militant 
class  was  of  necessity  the  land-owning  class.  In  the  savage 
tribe  there  are  no  owners  of  the  tract  occupied,  save  the  warriors 
who  use  it  in  common  for  hunting.  During  pastoral  life 
good  regions  for  cattle-feeding  are  jointly  held  against  intru 
ders  by  force  of  arms.  And  where  the  agricultural  stage  has 
been  reached,  communal  possession,  family  possession,  and 
individual  possession,  have  from  time  to  time  to  be  defended 
by  the  sword.  Hence,  as  was  shown,  the  fact  that  in  early 
stages  the  bearing  of  arms  and  the  holding  of  land  habitually 
go  together. 

While,  as  among  hunting  peoples,  land  continues  to  be  held 
in  common,  the  contrasts  which  arise  between  the  few  and 
the  many,  are  such  only  as  result  from  actual  or  supposed 
personal  superiority  of  one  kind  or  other.  It  is  true  that,  as 
pointed  out,  differences  of  wealth,  in  the  shape  of  chattels, 
boats,  slaves,  &c.,  cause  some  class-differentiations ;  and  that 
thus,  even  before  private  land-owning  begins,  quantity  of 
possessions  aids  in  distinguishing  the  governing  from  the 
governed.  When  the  pastoral  state  is  arrived  at  and  the 
patriarchal  type  established,  such  ownership  as  there  is  vests 
in  the  eldest  son  of  the  eldest ;  or  if,  as  Sir  Henry  Maine 


402  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

says,  he  is  to  be  considered  as  trustee  for  the  group,  still  his 
trusteeship  joins  with  his  military  headship  in  giving  him 
supremacy.  At  a  later  stage,  when  lands  come  to  be  occupied 
by  settled  families  and  communities,  and  land-ownership 
gains  defmiteness,  this  union  of  traits  in  each  head  of  a  group 
becomes  more  marked ;  and,  as  was  shown  when  treating  of 
the  differentiation  of  nobles  from  freemen,  several  influences 
conspire  to  give  the  eldest  son  of  the  eldest,  superiority  in 
extent  of  landed  possessions,  as  well  as  in  degree  of  power. 
Nor  is  this  fundamental  relation  changed  when  a  nobility  of 
service  replaces  a  nobility  of  birth,  and  when,  as  presently 
happens,  the  adherents  of  a  conquering  invader  are  rewarded 
by  portions  of  the  subjugated  territory.  Throughout,  the 
tendency  continues  to  be  for  the  class  of  military  superiors 
to  be  identical  with  the  class  of  large  landowners. 

It  follows,  then,  that  beginning  with  the  assemblage  of 
armed  freemen,  all  of  them  holding  land  individually  or  in 
groups,  whose  council  of  leaders,  deliberating  in  presence  of 
the  rest,  are  distinguished  only  as  being  the  most  capable 
warriors,  there  will,  through  frequent  wars  and  progressing 
consolidations,  be  produced  a  state  in  which  this  council  of 
leaders  becomes  further  distinguished  by  the  greater  estates, 
and  consequent  greater  powers,  of  its  members.  Becom 
ing  more  and  more  contrasted  with  the  armed  freemen  at 
large,  the  consultative  body  will  tend  gradually  to  subor 
dinate  it,  and,  eventually  separating  itself,  will  acquire  inde 
pendence. 

The  growth  of  this  temporary  council  of  war  in  which  the 
king,  acting  as  general,  summons  to  give  their  advice  the 
leaders  of  his  forces,  into  the  permanent  consultative  body  in 
which  the  king,  in  his  capacity  of  ruler,  presides  over  the 
deliberations  of  the  same  men  on  public  affairs  at  large,  is 
exemplified  in  various  parts  of  the  world.  The  consultative 
body  is  everywhere  composed  of  minor  chiefs,  or  heads  of 
clans,  or  feudal  lords,  in  whom  the  military  and  civil  rule  of 
local  groups  is  habitually  joined  with  wide  possessions;  and 


CONSULTATIVE  BODIES.  403 

the  examples  frequently  exhibit  this  composition  on  "both  a 
small  and  a  large  scale — both  locally  and  generally.  A 

rude  and  early  form  of  the  arrangement  is  shown  in  Africa. 
We  read  of  the  Kaffirs  that  "  every  chief  chooses  from  among 
his  most  wealthy  subjects  five  or  six,  who  act  as  counsellors 
to  him.  .  .  the  great  council  of  the  king  is  composed  of 
the  chiefs  of  particular  kraals."  A  Bechuana  tribe  <(  gene 
rally  includes  a  number  of  towns  or  villages,  each  having  its 
distinct  head,  under  whom  there  are  a  number  of  subordinate 
chiefs,"  who  "  all  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the  principal 
one.  His  power,  though  very  great  and  in  some  instances 
despotic,  is  nevertheless  controlled  by  the  minor  chiefs,  who 
in  their  pichos  or  pitshos,  their  parliament,  or  public  meetings, 
use  the  greatest  plainness  of  speech  in  exposing  what  they 
consider  culpable  or  lax  in  his  government."  Of  the  Wan- 
yarn  wezi,  Burton  says  that  the  Sultan  is  "  surrounded  by  a 
council  varying  from  two  to  a  score  of  chiefs  and  elders.  .  . 
His  authority  is  circumscribed  by  a  rude  balance  of  power ; 
the  chiefs  around  him  can  probably  bring  as  many  warriors 
into  the  field  as  he  can."  Similarly  in  Ashantee.  "  The 
caboceers  and  captains  .  .  .  claim  to  be  heard  on  all  ques 
tions  relating  to  war  and  foreign  politics.  Such  matters 
are  considered  in  a  general  assembly ;  and  the  king  sometimes 
finds  it  prudent  to  yield  to  the  views  and  urgent  representa 
tions  of  the  majority."  From  the  ancient  American 
states,  too,  instances  may  be  cited.  In  Mexico  "general 
assemblies  were  presided  over  by  the  king  every  eighty  days. 
They  came  to  these  meetings  from  all  parts  of  the  country ; " 
and  then  we  read,  further,  that  the  highest  rank  of  nobility, 
the  Teuctli,  "took  precedence  of  all  others  in  the  senate, 
both  in  the  order  of  sitting  and  voting  : "  showing  what  was 
the  composition  of  the  senate.  It  was  so,  too,  with  the 
Central  Americans  of  Vera  Paz.  "  Though  the  supreme  rule 
was  exercised  by  a  king,  there  were  inferior  lords  as  his 
coadjutors,  who  mostly  were  titled  lords  and  vassals  ;  they 
formed  the  royal  council  .  .  .  and  joined  the  king  in  his 


404  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

palace  as  often  us  they  were  called  upon."  Turning  to 

Europe,  mention  may  first  be  made  of  ancient  Poland. 
Originally  formed  of  independent  tribes,  "  each  governed  by 
its  own  kniaz,  or  judge,  whom  age  or  reputed  wisdom  had 
raised  to  that  dignity,"  and  each  led  in  war  by  a  temporary 
voivod  or  captain,  these  tribes  had,  in  the  course  of  that  com 
pounding  and  re-compounding  which  wars  produced,  differen 
tiated  into  classes  of  nobles  and  serfs,  over  whom  was  an 
elected  king.  Of  the  organization  which  existed  before  the 
king  lost  his  power,  we  are  told  that — 

"  Though  each  of  these  palatines,  bishops,  and  barons,  could  thus  advise 
his  sovereign,  the  formation  of  a  regular  senate  was  slow,  and  com 
pleted  only  when  experience  had  proved  its  utility.  At  first,  the  only 
subjects  on  which  the  monarch  deliberated  with  his  barons  related  to 
war :  what  he  originally  granted  through  courtesy,  or  through  diffidence 
in  himself,  or  with  a  view  to  lessen  his  responsibility  in  case  of  failure, 
they  eventually  claimed  as  a  right." 

So,  too,  during  internal  wars  and  wars  against  Borne,  the 
primitive  Germanic  tribes,  once  semi-nomadic  and  but  slightly 
orgam'zed,  passing  through  the  stage  in  which  armed  chiefs 
and  freemen  periodically  assembled  for  deliberations  on  war 
and  other  matters,  evolved  a  kindred  structure.  In  Carolin- 
gian  days  the  great  political  gathering  of  the  year  was 
simultaneous  with  the  great  military  levy ;  and  the  military 
element  entered  into  the  foreground.  Armed  service  being 
the  essential  thing,  and  questions  of  peace  and  war  being 
habitually  dominant,  it  resulted  that  all  freemen,  while  under 
obligation  to  attend,  had  also  a  right  to  be  present  at  the 
assembly  and  to  listen  to  the  deliberations.  And  then  con 
cerning  a  later  period,  as  Hallam  writes — 

"  In  all  the  German  principalities  a  form  of  limited  monarchy  pre 
vailed,  reiiecting,  on  a  reduced  scale,  the  general  constitution  of  the 
Empire.  As  the  Emperors  shared  their  legislative  sovereignty  with  the 
diet,  so  all  the  princes  who  belonged  to  that  assembly  had  their  own 
provincial  states,  composed  of  their  feudal  vassals  and  of  their  mediate 
towns  within  their  territory." 

In  France,  too,  provincial  estates  existed  for  local  rule ;  and 
there  were  consultative  assemblies  of  general  scope.  Thus 


CONSULTATIVE  BODIES.  405 

an  "  ordinance  of  1228,  respecting  the  heretics  of  Languedoc, 
is  rendered  with  the  advice  of  our  great  men  and  prad- 
hommes ; "  and  one  "  of  1246,  concerning  levies  and  re 
demptions  in  Anjou  and  Maine,"  says  that  "  having  called 
around  us,  at  Orleans,  the  barons  and  great  men  of  the  said 
counties,  and  having  held  attentive  counsel  with  them,"  &c. 

To  meet  the  probable  criticism  that  no  notice  has  been 
taken  of  the  ecclesiastics  usually  included  in  the  consultative 
body,  it  is  needful  to  point  out  that  due  recognition  of  them 
does  not  involve  any  essential  change  in  the  account  above 
given.  Though  modern  usages  lead  us  to  think  of  the  priest- 
class  as  distinct  from  the  warrior-class,  yet  it  was  not  origi 
nally  distinct.  With  the  truth  that  habitually  in  militant 
societies,  the  king  is  at  once  commander-in-chief  and  high 
priest,  carrying  out  in  both  capacities  the  dictates  of  his  deity, 
we  may  join  the  truth  that  the  subordinate  priest  is  usually  a 
direct  or  indirect  aider  of  the  wars  thus  supposed  to  be 
divinely  prompted.  In  illustration  of  the  one  truth  may  be 
cited  the  fact  that  before  going  to  war,  Kadama,  king  of 
Madagascar,  "  acting  as  priest  as  well  as  general,  sacrificed  a 
cock  and  a  heifer,  and  offered  a  prayer  at  the  tomb  of  Andria- 
Masina,  his  most  renowned  ancestor."  And  in  illustration  of 
the  other  truth  may  be  cited  the  fact  that  among  the  Hebrews, 
whose  priests  accompanied  the  army  to  battle,  we  read  of 
Samuel,  a  priest  from  childhood  upwards,  as  conveying  to 
Saul  God's  command  to  "smite  Amalek,"  and  as  having 
himself  hewed  Agag  in  pieces.  More  or  less  active  partici 
pation  in  war  by  priests  we  everywhere  find  in  savage  and 
semi-civilized  societies ;  as  among  the  Dakotas,  Mundrucus, 
Abipones,  Khonds,  whose  priests  decide  en  the  time  for  war, 
or  give  the  signal  for  attack ;  as  among  the  Tahitians,  whose 
priests  "  bore  arms,  and  inarched  with  the  warriors  to  battle;" 
as  among  the  Mexicans,  whose  priests,  the  habitual  instiga 
tors  of  wars,  accompanied  their  idols  in  front  of  the  army,  and 
"  sacrificed  the  first  taken  prisoners  at  once ;  "  as  among  the 
ancient  Egyptians,  of  whom  we  read  that  "  the  priest  of  a 


406  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

god  was  often  a  military  or  naval  commander."  And  the 
naturalness  of  tlie  connexion  thus  common  in  rude  and  in 
ancient  societies,  is  shown  by  its  revival  in  later  societies, 
notwithstanding  an  adverse  creed.  After  Christianity  had 
passed  out  of  its  early  non-political  stage  into  the  stage  in 
which  it  became  a  State-religion,  its  priests,  during  actively 
militant  periods,  re-acquired  the  primitive  militant  character. 
"  By  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  [in  France],  regular 
military  service  on  the  part  of  the  clergy  was  already  fully 
developed."  In  the  early  feudal  period,  bishops,  abbots,  and 
priors,  became  feudal  lords,  with  all  the  powers  and  responsi 
bilities  attaching  to  their  positions.  They  had  bodies  of  troops 
in  their  pay,  took  towns  and  fortresses,  sustained  sieges,  led 
or  sent  troops  in  aid  of  kings.  And  Orderic,  in  1094, 
describes  the  priests  as  leading  their  parishioners  to  battle, 
and  the  abbots  their  vassals.  Though  in  recent  times  Church 
dignitaries  do  not  actively  participate  o.  war,  yet  their 
advisatory  function  respecting  it — often  prompting  rather 
than  restraining — has  not  even  now  ceased ;  as  among  our 
selves  was  lately  shown  in  the  vote  of  the  bishops,  who,  with 
one  exception,  approved  the  invasion  of  Afghanistan. 

That  the  consultative  body  habitually  includes  ecclesiastics, 
does  not,  therefore,  conflict  with  the  statement  that,  beginning 
as  a  war-council,  it  grows  into  a  permanent  assembly  of  minor 
military  heads. 

§  493.  Under  a  different  form,  there  is  here  partially 
repeated  what  was  set  forth  when  treating  of  oligarchies  :  the 
difference  arising  from  inclusion  of  the  king  as  a  co-operative 
factor.  Moreover,  much  that  was  before  said  respecting  the 
influence  of  war  in  narrowing  oligarchies,  applies  to  that 
narrowing  of  the  primitive  consultative  assembly  by  which 
there  is  produced  from  it  a  body  of  land-owning  military 
nobles.  But  the  consolidation  of  small  societies  into  large 
ones  effected  by  war,  brings  other  influences  which  join  iu 
working  this  result. 


CONSULTATIVE  BODIES.  407 

lu  early  assemblies  of  men  similarly  armed,  it  must  happen 
that  though  the  inferior  many  will  recognize  that  authority 
of  the  superior  few  which  is  due  to  their  leaderships  as 
warriors,  to  their  clan-headships,  or  to  their  supposed  super 
natural  descent ;  yet  the  superior  few,  conscious  that  they  are 
no  match  for  the  inferior  many  in  a  physical  contest,  will  be 
obliged  to  treat  their  opinions  with  some  deference — will  not 
be  able  completely  to  monopolize  power.  But  as  fast  as 
there  progresses  that  class-differentiation  before  described,  and 
as  fast  as  the  superior  few  acquire  better  weapons  than  the 
inferior  many,  or,  as  among  various  ancient  peoples,  have  war- 
chariots,  or,  as  in  mediaeval  Europe,  wear  coats  of  mail  or  plate 
armour  and  are  mounted  on  horses,  they, feeling  their  advantage, 
will  pay  less  respect  to  the  opinions  of  the  many.  And  the 
habit  of  ignoring  their  opinions  will  be  followed  by  the  habit  of 
regarding  any  expression  of  their  opinions  as  an  impertinence. 

This  usurpation  will  be  furthered  by  the  growth  of  those 
bodies  of  armed  dependents  with  which  the  superior  few 
surround  themselves — mercenaries  and  others,  who,  while 
unconnected  with  the  common  freemen,  are  bound  by  fealty 
to  their  employers.  These,  too,  with  better  weapons  and 
defensive  appliances  than  the  mass,  will  be  led  to  regard 
them  with  contempt  and  to  aid  in  subordinating  them. 

Not  only  on  the  occasions  of  general  assemblies,  but  from 
day  to  day  in  their  respective  localities,  the  increasing  powers 
of  the  nobles  thus  caused,  will  tend  to  reduce  the  freemen 
more  and  more  to  the  rank  of  dependents ;  and  especially  so 
where  the  military  service  of  such  nobles  to  their  king  is 
dispensed  with  or  allowed  to  lapse,  as  happened  in  Denmark 
about  the  thirteenth  century. 

"  The  free  peasantry,  who  were  originally  independent  proprietors  of 
the  soil,  and  had  an  equal  suffrage  with  the  highest  nobles  in  the  land, 
were  thus  compelled  to  seek  the  protection  of  these  powerful  lords,  and 
to  come  under  vassalage  to  some  neighbouring  Herremand,  or  bishop, 
or  convent.  The  provincial  diets,  or  Lands-Ting,  were  gradually  super 
seded  by  the  general  nacional  parliament  of  the  Dannehof  Adel-Ting, 
or  Herredag  ;  the  latter  being  exclusively  composed  of  the  princes,  pre- 


408  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

lates,  and  other  great  men  of 'the  kingdom.  ...  As  the  influence 
of  the  peasantry  had  declined,  whilst  the  burghers  did  not  yet  enjoy 
any  share  of  political  power,  the  constitution,  although  disjointed  and 
fluctuating,  was  rapidly  approaching  the  form  it  ultimately  assumed  ; 
that  of  a  feudal  and  sacerdotal  oligarchy." 

Another  influence  conducing  to  loss  of  power  by  the  armed 
freemen,  and  gain  of  power  by  the  armed  chiefs  who  form 
the  consultative  body,  follows  that  widening  of  the  occupied 
area  which  goes  along  with  the  compounding  and  re-com 
pounding  of  societies.  As  Eichter  remarks  of  the  Mero 
vingian  period,  "  under  Chlodovech  and  his  immediate 
successors,  the  people  assembled  in  arms  had  a  real  participa 
tion  in  the  resolutions  of  the  king.  But,  with  the  increasing 
size  of  the  kingdom,  the  meeting  of  the  entire  people  became 
impossible  :  "  only  those  who  lived  near  the  appointed  places 
could  attend.  Two  facts,  one  already  given  under  another 
head,  may  be  named  as  illustrating  this  effect.  "The 
greatest  national  council  in  Madagascar  is  an  assembly  of  the 
people  of  the  capital,  and  the  heads  of  the  provinces,  districts, 
towns,  villages,"  &c. ;  and,  speaking  of  the  English  Witenage- 
mot,  Mr.  Freeman  says — "  sometimes  we  find  direct  mention 
of  the  presence  of  large  and  popular  classes  of  men,  as  the 
citizens  of  London  or  Winchester  : "  the  implication  in  both 
cases  being  that  all  freemen  had  a  right  to  attend,  but  that 
only  those  on  the  spot  could  avail  themselves  of  the  right. 
This  cause  for  restriction,  which  is  commented  upon  by  Mr. 
Freeman,  operates  in  several  ways.  When  a  kingdom  has 
become  large,  the  actual  cost  of  a  journey  to  the  place  fixed 
for  the  meeting,  is  too  great  to  be  borne  by  a  man  who  owns 
but  a  few  acres.  Further,  there  is  the  indirect  cost  entailed 
by  loss  of  time,  which,  to  one  who  personally  labours  or 
superintends  labour,  is  serious.  Again,  there  is  the  danger, 
which  in  turbulent  times  is  considerable,  save  to  those  who  go 
with  bodies  of  armed  retainers.  And,  obviously,  these  deter 
rent  causes  must  tell  where,  for  the  above  reasons,  the  incen 
tives  to  attend  have  become  small. 

Yet  one  more  cause  co-operates.      An  assembly  of  all  the 


CONSULTATIVE  CODIES.  409 

armed  freemen  included  in  a  large  society,  could  they  be 
gathered,  would  be  prevented  from  taking  active  part  in  the 
proceedings,  both  by  its  size  and  by  its  lack  of  organization. 
A  multitude  consisting  of  those  who  have  come  from  scattered 
points  over  a  wide  country,  mostly  unknown  to  one  another, 
unable  to  hold  previous  communication  and  therefore  without 
plans,  as  well  as  without  leaders,  cannot  cope  with  the  rela 
tively  small  but  well-organized  body  of  those  having  common 
ideas  and  acting  in  concert. 

ISTor  should  there  be  omitted  the  fact  that  when  the  causes 
above  named  have  conspired  to  decrease  the  attendance  of 
men  in  arms  who  live  afar  off,  and  when  there  grows  up  the 
usage  of  summoning  the  more  important  among  them,  it 
naturally  happens  that  in  course  of  time  the  receipt  of  a 
summons  becomes  the  authority  for  attendance,  and  the 
absence  of  a  summons  becomes  equivalent  to  the  absen-ce  of 
a  right  to  attend. 

Here,  then,  are  several  influences,  all  directly  or  indirectly 
consequent  upon  war,  which  join  in  differentiating  the  con 
sultative  body  from  the  mass  of  armed  freemen  out  of  which 
it  arises. 

§  494.  Given  the  ruler,  and  given  the  consultative  body 
thus  arising,  there  remains  to  ask — What  are  the  causes  of 
change  in  their  relative  powers  ?  Always  between  these  two 
authorities  there  must  be  a  struggle — each  trying  to  subordi 
nate  the  other.  Under  what  conditions,  then,  is  the  king 
enabled  to  over-ride  the  consultative  body  ?  and  under  what 
conditions  is  the  consultative  body  enabled  to  over-ride  the 
king  ? 

A  belief  in  the  superhuman  nature  of  the  king  gives  him 
an  immense  advantage  in  the  contest  for  supremacy.  If  he  is 
god-descended,  open  opposition  to  his  will  by  his  advisers  is 
out  of  the  question  ;  and  members  of  his  council,  singly  or  in 
combination,  dare  do  no  more  than  tender  humble  advice, 
Moreover,  if  the  line  of  succession  is  so  settled  that  there 


410  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

rarely  or  never  occur  occasions  on  which  the  king  has  to  be 
elected  by  the  chief  men,  so  that  they  have  no  opportunity  of 
choosing  one  who  will  conform  to  their  wishes,  they  are 
further  debarred  from  maintaining  any  authority.  Hence, 
habitually,  we  do  not  find  consultative  bodies  having  an  inde 
pendent  status  in  the  despotically-governed  countries  of  the 
East,  ancient  or  modern.  Though  we  read  of  the  Egyptian 
king  that  "  he  appears  to  have  been  attended  in  war  by  the 
council  of  the  thirty,  composed  apparently  of  privy  councillors, 
scribes,  and  high  officers  of  state,"  the  implication  is  that  the 
members  of  this  council  were  functionaries,  having  such 
powers  only  as  the  king  deputed  to  them.  Similarly  in 
Babylonia  and  Assyria,  attendants  and  others  who  performed 
the  duties  of  ministers  and  advisers  to  the  god-descended 
rulers,  did  not  form  established  assemblies  for  deliberative 
purposes.  In  ancient  Persia,  too,  there  was  a  like  condition. 
The  hereditary  king,  almost  sacred  and  bearing  extravagant 
titles,  though  subject  to  some  check  from  princes  and  nobles 
of  royal  blood  who  were  leaders  of  the  army,  and  who  ten 
dered  advice,  was  not  under  the  restraint  of  a  constituted 
body  of  them.  Throughout  the  history  of  Japan  down  to  our 
own  time,  a  kindred  state  of  things  existed.  The  Daimios 
were  required  to  reside  in  the  capital  during  prescribed  inter 
vals,  as  a  precaution  against  insubordination ;  but  they  were 
never,  while  there,  called  together  to  take  any  share  in  the 
government.  So  too  is  it  in  China.  We  are  told  that, 
"  although  there  is  nominally  no  deliberative  or  advisatory 
body  in  the  Chinese  government,  and  nothing  really  analo 
gous  to  a  congress,  parliament,  or  tiers  etat,  still  necessity 
compels  the  emperor  to  consult  and  advise  with  some  of  his 
officers."  Nor  does  Europe  fail  to  yield  us  evidence  of  like 
meaning.  I  do  not  refer  only  to  the  case  of  Russia,  but 
more  especially  to  the  case  of  France  during  the  time 
when  monarchy  had  assumed  an  absolute  form.  In  the  age 
when  divines  like  "Bossuet  taught  that  "  the  king  is  account 
able  to  no  one  .  the  whole  state  is  in  him,  and  the  will 


CONSULTATIVE  BODIES.  411 

of  the  whole  people  is  contained  in  his  "—  in  the  age  when 
the  king  (Louis  XIV.),  "  imbued  with  the  idea  of  his  omnipo 
tence  and  divine  mission,"  "  was  regarded  by  his  subjects  with 
adoration."  he  "  had  extinguished  and  absorbed  even  the 
minutest  trace,  idea,  and  recollection  of  all  other  authority 
except  that  which  emanated  from  himself  alone."  Along 
with  establishment  of  hereditary  succession  and  acquirement 
of  semi-divine  character,  such  power  of  the  other  estates  'is 
existed  in  early  days  had  disappeared. 

Conversely,  there  are  cases  showing  that  where  the  king 
has  never  had,  or  does  not  preserve,  the  prestige  of  supposed 
descent  from  a  god,  and  where  he  continues  to  be  elective, 
the  power  of  the  consultative  body  is  apt  to  over-ride  the 
royal  power,  and  eventually  to  suppress  it.  The  first  to  be 
named  is  that  of  Eome.  Originally  "  the  king  convoked  the 
senate  when  he  pleased,  and  laid  before  it  his  questions ;  no 
senator  might  declare  his  opinion  unasked ;  still  less  might  the 
senate  meet  without  being  summoned."  But  here,  where  the 
king,  though  regarded  as  having  divine  approval  was  not  held 
to  be  of  divine  descent,  and  where,  though  usually  nominated 
by  a  predecessor  he  was  sometimes  practically  elected  by  the 
senate,  and  always  submitted  to  the  form  of  popular  assent, 
the  consultative  body  presently  became  supreme.  "The 
senate  had  in  course  of  time  been  converted  from  a  corporation 
intended  merely  to  advise  the  magistrates,  into  a  board  com 
manding  the  magistrates  and  self-governing."  Afterwards 
"  the  right  of  nominating  and  cancelling  senators  originally 
belonging  to  the  magistrates  was  withdrawn  from  them  ;" 
and  finally,  "  the  irremovable  character  and  life-tenure  of  the 
members  of  the  ruling  order  who  obtained  seat  and  vote,  was 
definitely  consolidated:"  the  oligarchic  constitution  became 
pronounced.  The  history  of  Poland  yields  another  example. 
After  unions  of  simply-governed  tribes  had  produced  small 
states,  and  generated  a  nobility ;  and  after  these  small  states 
had  been  united  ;  there  arose  a  kingship.  At  first  elective,  as 
kingships  habitually  are,  this  continued  so — never  became 


412  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

hereditary.  On  the  occasion  of  each  election  out  of  the  royal 
clan,  there  was  an  opportunity  of  choosing  for  king  one  whose 
character  the  turbulent  nobles  thought  fittest  for  their  own 
purposes;  and  hence  it  resulted  that  the  power  of  the  king 
ship  decayed.  Eventually — 

"  Of  the  three  orders  into  which  the  state  was  divided,  the  king,  though 
his  authority  had  been  anciently  despotic,  was  the  least  important.  His 
dignity  was  unaccompanied  with  power  ;  he  was  merely  the  president 
of  the  senate,  and  the  chief  judge  of  the  republic." 

And  then  there  is  the  instance  furnished  by  Scandinavia, 
already  named  in  another  relation.  Danish,  Norwegian,  and 
Swedish  kings  were  originally  elective ;  and  though,  on  sundry 
occasions,  hereditary  succession  became  for  a  time  the  usage, 
there  were  repeated  lapses  into  the  elective  form,  with  the 
result  that  predominance  was  gained  by  the  feudal  chieftains 
and  prelates  forming  the  consultative  body. 

§  495.  The  second  element  in  the  tri-une  political  struc 
ture  is  thus,  like  the  first,  developed  by  militancy.  By  this 
the  ruler  is  eventually  separated  from  all  below  him ;  and  by 
this  the  superior  few  are  gradually  integrated  into  a  delibera 
tive  body,  separated  from  the  inferior  many. 

That  the  council  of  war,  formed  of  leading  warriors  who 
debate  in  presence  of  their  followers,  is  the  germ  out  of  which 
the  consultative  body  arises,  is  implied  by  the  survival  of 
usages  which  show  that  a  political  gathering  is  originally  a 
gathering  of  armed  men.  In  harmony  with  this  implication 
are  such  facts  as  that  after  a  comparatively  settled  state  has 
been  reached,  the  power  of  the  assembled  people  is  limited  to 
accepting  or  rejecting  the  proposals  made,  and  that  the  mem 
bers  of  the  consultative  body,  summoned  by  the  ruler,  who  is 
also  the  general,  give  their  opinions  only  when  invited  by  him 
to  do  so. 

Nor  do  we  lack  clues  to  the  process  by  which  the  primitive 
war-council  grows,  consolidates,  and  separates  itself.  Within 
the  warrior  class,  which  is  also  the  land-owning  class,  war 


CONSULTATIVE  BODIES.  413 

produces  increasing  differences  of  wealth  as  well  as  increas 
ing  differences  of  status;  so  that,  along  with  the  com 
pounding  and  re- compounding  of  groups,  brought  about 
by  war,  the  military  leaders  come  to  be  distinguished  as 
large  land-owners  and  local  rulers.  Hence  members  of  the 
consultative  body  become  contrasted  with  the  freemen  at 
large,  not  only  as  leading  warriors  are  contrasted  with  their 
followers,  but  still  more  as  men  of  wealth  and  authority. 

This  increasing  contrast  between  the  second  and  third 
elements  of  the  tri-une  political  structure,  ends  in  separation 
when,  in  course  of  time,  war  consolidates  large  territories. 
Armed  freemen  scattered  over  a  wide  area  are  deterred  from 
attending  the  periodic  assemblies  by  cost  of  travel,  by  cost  of 
time,  by  danger,  and  also  by  the  experience  that  multitudes 
of  men  unprepared  and  unorganized,  are  helpless  in  presence 
of  an  organized  few,  better  armed  and  mounted,  and  with 
bands  of  retainers.  So  that  passing  through  a  time  during 
which  only  the  armed  freemen  living  near  the  place  of  meet 
ing  attend,  there  comes  a  time  when  even  these,  not  being 
summoned,  are  considered  as  having  no  right  to  attend ;  and 
thus  the  consultative  body  becomes  completely  differentiated. 

Changes  in  the  relative  powers  of  the  ruler  and  the  con 
sultative  body  are  determined  by  obvious  causes.  If  the  king 
retains  or  acquires  the  repute  of  supernatural  descent  or 
authority,  and  the  law  of  hereditary  succession  is  so  settled 
as  to  exclude  election,  those  who  might  else  have  formed  a 
consultative  body  having  co-ordinate  power,  become  simply 
appointed  advisers.  But  if  the  king  has  not  the  prestige  of 
supposed  sacred  origin  or  commission,  the  consultative  body 
retains  power ;  and  if  the  king  continues  to  be  elective,  it  is 
liable  to  become  an  oligarchy. 

Of  course  it  is  not  alleged  that  all  consultative  bodies  have 
been  generated  in  the  way  described,  or  are  constituted  in 
like  manner.  Societies  broken  up  by  wars  or  dissolved  by 
revolutions,  may  preserve  so  little  of  their  primitive  organiza 
tions  that  there  remain  no  classes  of  the  kinds  out  of  which 


414  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

such  consultative  bodies  as  those  described  arise.  Or,  as  we 
see  in  our  own  colonies,  societies  may  have  been  formed  in 
ways  which  have  not  fostered  classes  of  land-owning  militant 
chiefs,  and  therefore  do  not  furnish  the  elements  out  of  which 
consultative  bodies,  in  their  primitive  shapes,  are  composed. 
Under  conditions  of  these  kinds  the  assemblies  answering  to 
them,  so  far  as  may  be,  in  position  and  function,  arise  under 
the  influence  of  tradition  or  example  ;  and  in  default  of  men 
of  the  original  kind  are  formed  of  others — generally,  how 
ever,  of  those  who  by  position,  seniority,  or  previous  official 
experience,  are  more  eminent  than  those  forming  popular 
assemblies.  It  is  only  to  what  may  be  called  normal  consulta 
tive  bodies  which  grow  up  during  that  compounding  and  re- 
compounding  of  small  societies  into  larger  ones  which  war 
effects,  that  the  foregoing  account  applies ;  and  the  senates, 
or  superior  chambers,  which  come  into  existence  under  later 
and  more  complex  conditions,  may  be  considered  as  homolo 
gous  to  them  in  function  and  composition  so  far  only  as  the 
new  conditions  permit. 


CHAPTER   IX. 
REPKE3ENTATIVE  BODIES. 

§  496.  Amid  the  varieties  and  complexities  of  political 
organization,  it  has  proved  not  impossible  to  discern  the  ways 
in  which  simple  political  heads  and  compound  political  heads 
are  evolved;  and  how,  under  certain  conditions,  the  two 
become  united  as  ruler  and  consultative  body.  But  to  see 
how  a  representative  body  arises,  proves  to  be  more  difficult ; 
for  both  process  and  product  are  more  variable.  Less  specific 
results  must  content  us. 

As  hitherto,  so  again,  we  must  go  back  to  the  beginning  to 
take  up  the  clue.  Out  of  that  earliest  stage  of  the  savage 
horde  in  which  there  is  no  supremacy  beyond  that  of  the 
man  whose  strength,  or  courage,  or  cunning,  gives  him  pre 
dominance,  the  first  step  is  to  the  practice  of  election — • 
deliberate  choice  of  a  leader  in  war.  About  the  conducting 
of  elections  in  rude  tribes,  travellers  say  little :  probably  the 
methods  used  are  various.  But  we  have  accounts  of  elections 
as  they  were  made  by  European  peoples  during  early  times. 
In  ancient  Scandinavia,  the  chief  of  a  province  chosen  by  the 
assembled  people,  was  thereupon  "  elevated  amidst  the  clash 
of  arms  and  the  shouts  of  the  multitude ; "  and  among  the 
ancient  Germans  he  was  raised  on  a  shield,  as  also  was  the 
popularly-approved  Merovingian  king.  Recalling,  as  this 
ceremony  does,  the  chairing  of  a  newly-elected  member  of 
parliament  up  to  recent  times ;  and  reminding  us  that  origi 
nally  an  election  was  by  show  of  hands  ;  we  are  taught  that 
the  choice  of  a  representative  was  once  identical  with  the 
85 


416  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

choice  of  a  chief.  Our  House  of  Commons  had  its  roots  in 
local  gatherings  like  those  in  which  uncivilized  tribes  select 
head  warriors. 

Besides  conscious  selection  there  occurs  among  rude  peoples 
selection  by  lot.  The  Samoans,  for  instance,  by  spinning  a 
cocoa-nut,  which,  on  coming  to  rest,  points  to  one  of  the  sur 
rounding  persons,  thereby  single  him  out.  Early  historic 
races  supply  illustrations ;  as  the  Hebrews  in  the  affair  of 
Saul  and  Jonathan,  and  as  the  Homeric  Greeks  when  fixing 
on  a  champion  to  fight  with  Hector.  In  both  these  last  cases 
there  was  belief  in  supernatural  interference:  the  lot  was 
supposed  to  be  divinely  determined.  And  probably  at  the 
outset,  choice  by  lot  for  political  purposes  among  the  Athe 
nians,  and  for  military  purposes  among  the  Romans,  as  also 
in  later  times  the  use  of  the  lot  for  choosing  deputies  in  some 
of  the  Italian  republics,  and  in  Spain  (as  in  Leon  during  the 
twelfth  century)  was  influenced  by  a  kindred  belief;  though 
doubtless  the  desire  to  give  equal  chances  to  rich  and  poor,  or 
else  to  assign  without  dispute  a  mission  which  was  onerous  or 
dangerous,  entered  into  the  motive  or  was  even  predominant. 
Here,  however,  the  fact  to  be  noted  is  that  this  mode  of 
choice  which  plays  a  part  in  representation,  may  also  be 
traced  back  to  the  usages  of  primitive  peoples. 

So,  too,  we  find  foreshadowed  the  process  of  delegation. 
Groups  of  men  who  open  negociations,  or  who  make  their 
submission,  or  who  send  tribute,  habitually  appoint  certain 
of  their  number  to  act  for  them.  The  method  is,  indeed, 
necessitated ;  since  a  tribe  cannot  well  perform  such  actions 
bodily.  Whence,  too,  it  appears  that  the  sending  of  repre 
sentatives  is,  at  the  first  stage,  originated  by  causes  like  those 
which  re-originate  it  at  a  later  stage.  For  as  the  will  of  the 
tribe,  readily  displayed  in  its  assemblies  to  its  own  members, 
cannot  be  thus  displayed  to  other  tribes,  but  must,  in  respect 
of  inter-tribal  matters  be  communicated  by  deputy ;  so  in  a 
large  nation,  the  people  of  each  locality,  able  to  govern  them* 
selves  locally,  but  unable  to  join  the  peoples  of  remote 


REPRESENTATIVE  BODIES.  417 

localities  in  deliberations  which  concern  them  all,  ha\e  to 
send  one  or  more  persons  to  express  their  will.  Distance  in 
both  cases  changes  direct  utterance  of  the  popular  voice  into 
indirect  utterance. 

Before  observing  the  conditions  under  which  this  singling 
out  of  individuals  in  one  or  other  way  for  specified  duties, 
comes  to  be  used  in  the  formation  of  a  representative  body, 
we  must  exclude  classes  of  cases  not  relevant  to  our  present 
inquiry.  Though  representation  as  ordinarily  conceived,  and 
as  here  to  be  dealt  with,  is  associated  with  a  popular  form  of 
government,  yet  the  connexion  between"  thorn  is  not  a  neces 
sary  one.  In  some  places  and  times  representation  has  co 
existed  with  entire  exclusion  of  the  masses  from  power.  In 
Poland,  both  before  and  after  the  so-called  republican  form 
was  assumed,  the  central  diet,  in  addition  to  senators 
nominated  by  the  king,  was  composed  of  nobles  elected  in 
provincial  assemblies  of  nobles :  the  people  at  large  being 
powerless  and  mostly  serfs.  In  Hungary,  too,  up  to  recent 
times,  the  privileged  class  which,  even  after  it  had  been 
greatly  enlarged  reached  only  "one-twentieth  of  the  adult 
males,"  alone  formed  the  basis  of  representation.  "  A  Hun 
garian  county  before  the  reforms  of  1848  might  be  called  a 
direct  aristocratical  republic : "  all  members  of  the  noble  class 
having  a  right  to  attend  the  local  assembly  and  vote  in 
appointing  a  representative  noble  to  the  general  diet;  but 
members  of  the  inferior  classes  having  no  shares  in  the 
government. 

Other  representative  bodies  than  those  of  an  exclusively 
aristocratic  kind,  must  be  named  as  not  falling  within  the 
scope  of  this  chapter.  As  Duruy  remarks— "Antiquity  was 
not  as  ignorant  as  is  supposed  of  the  representative  sys 
tem.  .  .  .  Each  Eoman  province  had  its  general  assem 
blies.  .  .  .  Thus  the  Lycians  possessed  a  true  legislative 
body  formed  by  the  deputies  of  their  twenty-three  towns." 
"This  assembly  had  even  executive  functions."  And  Gaul, 
Spain,  all  the  eastern  provinces,  and  Greece,  had  like  assent 


418  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

blies.  But,  little  as  is  known  of  them,  the  inference  is 
tolerably  safe  that  these  were  but  distantly  allied  in  genesis 
and  position  to  the  bodies  we  now  distinguish  as  representa 
tive.  Nor  are  we  concerned  with  those  senates  and  councils 
elected  by  different  divisions  of  a  town-population  (such  as 
were  variously  formed  in  the  Italian  republics)  which  served 
simply  as  agents  whose  doings  were  subject  to  the  directly- 
expressed  approval  or  disapproval  of  the  assembled  citizens. 
Here  we  must  limit  ourselves  to  that  kind  of  representative 
body  which  arises  in  communities  occupying  areas  so  large 
that  their  members  are  obliged  to  exercise  by  deputy  such 
powers  as  they  possess  ;  and,  further,  we  have  to  deal  exclu 
sively  with  cases  in  which  the  assembled  deputies  do  not 
replace  pre-existing  political  agencies  but  cooperate  with 
them. 

It  will  be  well  to  set  out  by  observing,  more  distinctly 
than  we  have  hitherto  clone,  what  part  of  the  primitive 
political  structure  it  is  from  which  the  representative  body, 
as  thus  conceived,  originates. 

§  497.  Broadly,  this  question  is  tacitly  answered  by  the 
contents  of  preceding  chapters.  For  if,  on  occasions  of  public 
deliberation,  the  primitive  horde  spontaneously  divides  into 
the  inferior  many  and  the  superior  few,  among  whom  some  one 
is  most  influential ;  and  if,  in  the  course  of  that  compounding 
and  re-compounding  of  groups  which  war  brings  about,  the 
recognized  war-chief  develops  into  the  king,  while  the  superior 
few  become  the  consultative  body  formed  of  minor  military 
leaders ;  it  follows  that  any  third  co-ordinate  political  power 
must  be  either  the  mass  of  the  inferior  itself,  or  else  some 
agency  acting  on  its  behalf.  Truism  though  this  may  be 
called,  it  is  needful  here  to  set  it  down;  since,  before 
inquiring  under  what  circumstances  the  growth  of  a  repre 
sentative  system  follows  the  growth  of  popular  power,  we 
have  to  recognize  the  relation  between  the  two. 

The  undistinguished  mass,  retaining  a  latent  supremacy  in 


REPRESENTATIVE  BODIES.  419 

simple  societies  not  yet  politically  organized,  though  it  is 
brought  under  restraint  as  fast  as  war  establishes  obedience, 
and  conquests  produce  class-differentiations,  tends,  when 
occasion  permits,  to  re-assert  itself.  The  sentiments  and 
beliefs,  organized  and  transmitted,  which,  during  certain 
stages  of  social  evolution,  lead  the  many  to  submit  to  the 
few,  come,  under  some  circumstances,  to  be  traversed  by  other 
sentiments  and  beliefs.  Passing  references  have  been  in 
several  places  made  to  these.  Here  we  must  consider  them 
seriatim  and  more  at  length. 

One  factor  in  the  development  of  the  patriarchal  group 
during  the  pastoral  stage,  was  shown  to  be  the  fostering  of 
subordination  to  its  head  by  war ;  since,  continually,  there 
survived  the  groups  in  which  subordination  was  greatest. 
But  if  so,  the  implication  is  that,  conversely,  cessation  of 
war  tends  to  diminish  subordination.  Members  of  the  com 
pound  family,  originally  living  together  and  fighting  together, 
become  less  strongly  bound  in  proportion  as  they  have  less 
frequently  to  cooperate  for  joint  defence  under  their  head. 
Hence,  the  more  peaceful  the  state  the  more  independent 
become  the  multiplying  divisions  forming  the  gens,  the 
phratry,  and  the  tribe.  With  progress  of  industrial  life  arises 
greater  freedom  of  action — especially  among  the  distantly- 
related  members  of  the  group. 

So  must  it  be,  too,  in  a  feudally-governed  assemblage. 
While  standing  quarrels  with  neighbours  are  ever  leading  to 
local  battles — while  bodies  of  men-at-arms  are  kept  ready, 
and  vassals  are  from  time  to  time  summoned  to  fight — 
while,  as  a  concomitant  of  military  service,  acts  of  homage 
are  insisted  upon ;  there  is  maintained  a  regimental  sub 
jection  running  through  the  group.  But  as  fast  as  aggres 
sions  and  counter-aggressions  become  less  frequent,  the 
carrying  of  arms  becomes  less  needful;  there  is  less  occa 
sion  for  periodic  expressions  of  fealty;  and  there  is  an 
increase  of  daily  actions  performed  without  direction  of  a 
superior,  whence  a  fostering  of  individuality  of  character. 


420  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

These  changes  are  furthered  by  the  decline  of  superstitious 
beliefs  concerning  the  natures  of  head  men,  general  and  local. 
As  before  shown,  the  ascription  of  superhuman  origin,  or 
supernatural  power,  to  the  king,  greatly  strengthens  his 
hands ;  and  where  the  chiefs  of  component  groups  have  a 
eacredness  due  to  nearness  in  blood  to  the  semi-divine 
ancestor  worshipped  by  all,  01  are  members  of  an  invading, 
god-descended  race,  their  authority  over  dependents  is  largely 
enforced.  By  implication  then,  whatever  undermines  ancestor- 
worship,  and  the  system  of  beliefs  accompanying  it,  favours 
the  growth  of  popular  power.  Doubtless  the  spread  of 
Christianity  over  Europe,  by  diminishing  the  prestige  of 
governors,  major  and  minor,  prepared  the  way  for  greater 
independence  of  the  governed. 

These  causes  have  relatively  small  effects  where  the  people 
are  scattered.  In  rural  districts  the  authority  of  political 
superiors  is  weakened  with  comparative  slowness.  Even  after 
peace  has  become  habitual,  and  local  heads  have  lost  their 
semi-sacred  characters,  there  cling  to  them  awe-inspiring 
traditions  :  they  are  not  of  ordinary  flesh  and  blood.  Wealth 
which,  through  long  ages,  distinguishes  the  nobleman  exclu 
sively,  gives  him  both  actual  power  and  the  power  arising 
from  display.  Fixed  literally  or  practically,  as  the  several 
grades  of  his  inferiors  are  during  days  when  locomotion  is 
difficult,  he  long  remains  for  them  the  solitary  sample  of  a 
great  man.  Others  are  only  known  by  hearsay ;  he  is  known 
by  experience.  Inspection  is  easily  maintained  by  him  over 
dependent  and  sub-dependent  people ;  and  the  disrespectful 
or  rebeUious,  if  they  cannot  be  punished  overtly,  can  be 
deprived  of  occupation,  or  otherwise  so  hindered  in  their 
lives  that  they  must  submit  or  migrate.  Down  to  our  own 
day,  the  behaviour  of  peasants  and  farmers  to  the  squire,  is 
suggestive  of  the  strong  restraints  which  kept  rural  popula 
tions  in  semi-servile  states  after  primitive  controlling 
influences  had  died  away. 

Converse  effects  may  be  expected  under  converse  condi- 


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 


422  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

opportunities  for  buying  and  selling,  which  are  habitually 
utilized;  and  this  connexion  between  the  assembling  of  many 
people  and  the  exchanging  of  commodities,  which  first  shows 
itself  at  intervals,  becomes  a  permanent  connexion  where 
many  people  become  permanently  assembled — where  a  town 
grows  up  in  the  neighbourhood  of  a  temple,  or  around  a 
stronghold,  or  in  a  place  favoured  by  local  circumstances  for 
some  manufacture. 

Industrial  development  further  aids  popular  emancipation 
by  generating  an  order  of  men  whose  power,  derived  from 
their  wealth,  competes  with,  and  begins  in  some  cases  to 
exceed,  the  power  of  those  who  previously  were  alone  wealthy 
— the  men  of  rank.  While  this  initiates  a  conflict  which 
diminishes  the  influence  previously  exercised  by  patriarchal 
or  feudal  heads  only,  it  also  initiates  a  milder  form  of  sub 
ordination.  Kising,  as  the  rich  trader  habitually  does  in  early 
times,  from  the  non-privileged  class,  the  relation  between 
him  and  those  under  him  is  one  from  which  there  is  excluded 
the  idea  of  personal  subjection.  In  proportion  as  the  indus 
trial  activities  grow  predominant,  they  make  familiar  a  con 
nexion  between  employer  and  employed  which  differs  from 
the  relation  between  master  and  slave,  or  lord  and  vassal,  by 
not  including  allegiance.  Under  earlier  conditions  there  does 
not  exist  the  idea  of  detached  individual  life — life  which 
neither  receives  protection  from  a  clan-head  or  feudal  supe 
rior,  nor  is  carried  on  in  obedience  to  him.  But  in  town 
populations,  made  up  largely  of  refugees,  who  either  become 
small  traders  or  are  employed  by  great  ones,  the  experience 
of  a  relatively-independent  life  becomes  common,  and  the 
conception  of  it  clear. 

And  the  form  of  cooperation  distinctive  of  the  industrial 
state  thus  arising,  fosters  the  feelings  and  thoughts  appro 
priate  to  popular  power.  In  daily  usage  there  is  a  balancing 
of  claims ;  and  the  idea  of  equity  is,  generation  after  genera 
tion,  made  more  definite.  The  relations  between  employer 
and  employed,  and  between  buyer  and  seller,  can  be  main- 


REPRESENTATIVE  BODIES.  423 

tained  only  on  condition  that  the  obligations  on  either  side 
are  fulfilled.  Where  they  are  not  fulfilled  the  relation  lapses, 
and  leaves  outstanding  those  relations  in  which  they  are  ful 
filled.  Commercial  success  and  growth  have  thus,  as  their 
inevitable  concomitants,  the  maintenance  of  the  respective 
rights  of  those  concerned,  and  a  strengthening  consciousness 
of  them. 

In  brief,  then,  dissolving  in  various  ways  the  old  relation 
of  status,  and  substituting  the  new  relation  of  contract  (to 
use  Sir  Henry  Maine's  antithesis),  progressing  industrialism 
brings  together  masses  of  people  who  by  their  circumstances 
are  enabled,  and  by  their  discipline  prompted,  to  modify  the 
political  organization  which  militancy  has  bequeathed. 

§  498.  It  is  common  to  speak  of  free  forms  of  government 
as  having  been  initiated  by  happy  accidents.  Antagonisms 
between  different  powers  in  the  State,  or  different  factions, 
have  caused  one  or  other  of  them  to  bid  for  popular  support, 
with  the  result  of  increasing  popular  power.  The  king's 
jealousy  of  the  aristocracy  has  induced  him  to  enlist  the 
sympathies  of  the  people  (sometimes  serfs  but  more  fre 
quently  citizens)  and  therefore  to  favour  them ;  or,  otherwise, 
the  people  have  profited  by  alliance  with  the  aristocracy  in 
resisting  royal  tyrannies  and  exactions.  Doubtless,  the  facts 
admit  of  being  thus  presented.  With  conflict  there  habitually 
goes  the  desire  for  allies ;  and  throughout  mediaeval  Europe 
while  the  struggles  between  monarchs  and  barons  were 
chronic,  the  support  of  the  towns  was  important.  Germany, 
France,  Spain,  Hungary,  furnish  illustrations. 

But  it  is  an  error  to  regard  occurrences  of  these  kinds  as 
causes  of  popular  power.  They  are  to  be  regarded  rather  as 
the  conditions  under  which  the  causes  take  effect.  These 
incidental  weakenings  of  pre-existing  institutions,  do  but 
furnish  opportunities  for  the  action  of  the  pent-up  force  which 
is  ready  to  work  political  changes.  Three  factors  in  this 
force  may  be  distinguished : — the  relative  mass  of  those  com- 


424  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

posing  the  industrial  communities  as  distinguished  from  those 
embodied  in  the  older  forms  of  organization ;  the  permanent 
sentimei  ts  and  ideas  produced  in  them  by  their  mode  of 
life ;  and  the  temporary  emotions  roused  by  special  acts  of 
oppression  or  by  distress.  Let  us  observe  the  cooperation  of 
these. 

Two  instances,  occurring  first  in  order  of  time,  are  fur 
nished  by  the  Athenian  democracy.  The  condition  which 
preceded  the  Solonian  legislation,  was  one  of  violent  dis 
sension  among  political  factions ;  and  there  was  also  "  a 
general  mutiny  of  the  poorer  population  against  the  rich,  re 
sulting  from  misery  combined  with  oppression."  The  more 
extensive  diffusion  of  power  effected  by  the  revolution  which 
Kleisthenes  brought  about,  occurred  under  kindred  circum 
stances.  The  relatively-detached  population  of  immigrant 
traders,  had  so  greatly  increased  between  the  time  of  Solon 
and  that  of  Kleisthenes,  that  the  four  original  tribes  forming 
the  population  of  Attica  had  to  be  replaced  by  ten.  And 
then  this  augmented  mass,  largely  composed  of  men  not 
under  clan-discipline,  and  therefore  less  easily  restrained  by 
the  ruling  classes,  forced  itself  into  predominance  at  a  time 
when  the  ruling  classes  were  divided.  Though  it  is  said  that 
Kleisthenes  "  being  vanquished  in  a  party  contest  with  his 
rival,  took  the  people  into  partnership" — though  the  change 
is  represented  as  being  one  thus  personally  initiated ;  yet  in 
the  absence  of  that  voluminous  popular  will  which  had  long 
been  growing,  the  .political  re-organization  could  not  have 
been  made,  or,  if  made,  could  not  have  been  maintained. 
The  remark  which  Grote  quotes  from  Aristotle,  "  that  sedi 
tions  are  generated  by  great  causes  but  out  of  small  incidents," 
if  altered  slightly  by  writing  "political  changes"  instead  of 
"seditions,"  fully  applies.  For  clearly,  once  having  been 
enabled  to  assert  itself,  this  popular  power  could  not  be  forth 
with  excluded.  Kleisthenes  could  not  under  such  circum 
stances  have  imposed  on  so  large  a  mass  of  men  arrangements 
at  variance  with  their  wishes.  Practically,  therefore,  it  was  the 


REPRESENTATIVE  BODIES.  425 

growing  industrial  power  which  then  produced,  and  thereafter 
preserved,  the  democratic  organization.  Turning  to 

Italy,  we  first  note  that  the  establishment  of  the  small 
republics,  referred  to  in  a  preceding  chapter  as  having  been 
simultaneous  with  the  decaj'  of  imperial  power,  may  here  be 
again  referred  to  more  specifically  as  having  been  simul 
taneous  with  that  conflict  of  authorities  which  caused  this 
decay.  Says  Sismondi,  "  the  war  of  investitures  gave  wing 
to  this  universal  spirit  of  liberty  and  patriotism  in  all  the 
municipalities  of  Lombardy,  of  Piedmont,  Venetia,  Eomagna, 
and  Tuscany."  In  other  words,  while  the  struggle  between 
Emperor  and  Pope  absorbed  the  strength  of  both,  it  became 
possible  for  the  people  to  assert  themselves.  And  at  a  later 
time,  Florence  furnished  an  instance  similar  in  nature  if 
somewhat  different  in  form. 

"At  the  moment  when  *  Florence  expelled  the  Medici,  that  republic 
was  bandied  between  three  different  parties.'  Savonarola  took  advan 
tage  of  this  state  of  affairs  to  urge  that  the  people  should  reserve  their 
power  to  themselves,  and  exercise  it  by  a  council.  His  proposition  was 
agreed  to,  and  this  '  council  was  declared  sovereign/  " 

In  the  case  of  Spain,  again,  popular  power  increased  during 
the  troubles  accompanying  the  minority  of  Fernando  IV. ; 
and  of  the  periodic  assemblies  subsequently  formed  by 
deputies  from  certain  towns  (which  met  without  authority  of 
the  Government)  we  read  that — 

"  The  desire  of  the  Government  to  frustrate  the  aspiring  schemes  of 
the  Infantes  de  la  Cerda,  and  their  numerous  adherents,  made  the 
attachment  of  these  assemblies  indispensable.  The  disputes  during  the 
minority  of  Alfonso  XI.  more  than  ever  favoured  the  pretensions  of 
the  third  estate.  Each  of  the  candidates  for  the  regency  paid  assiduous 
court  to  the  municipal  authorities,  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  the  neces 
sary  suffrages." 

And  how  all  this  was  consequent  on  industrial  development, 
appears  in  the  facts  that  many,  if  not  most,  of  these  associated 
towns,  had  arisen  during  a  preceding  age  by  the  re-coloniza 
tion  of  regions  desolated  during  the  prolonged  contests  of 
Moors  and  Christians ;  and  that  these  "  poblaciones,"  or  com 
munities  of  colonists,  which,  scattered  over  these  vast  tracts 


426  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

grew  into  prosperous  towns,  had  been  formed  of  serfs  and 
artizans  to  whom  various  privileges,  including  those  of  self- 
government,  were  given  by  royal  charter.  With 
which  examples  must  be  joined  the  example  familiar  to  all. 
For  in  England  it  was  during  the.  struggle  between  king  and 
barons,  when  the  factions  were  nearly  balanced,  and  when 
the  town-populations  had  been  by  trade  so  far  increased  that 
their  aid  was  important,  that  they  came  to  play  a  noticeable 
part,  first  as  allies  in  war  and  afterwards  as  sharers  in  govern 
ment.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  when  summoning  to  the 
parliament  of  1265,  not  only  knights  of  the  shire  but  also 
deputies  from  cities  and  boroughs,  Simon  of  Montfort  was 
prompted  by  the  desire  to  strengthen  himself  against  the 
royal  party  supported  by  the  Pope.  And  whether  he  sought 
thus  to  increase  his  adherents,  or  to  obtain  larger  pecuniary 
means,  or  both,  the  implication  equally  is  that  the  urban 
populations  had  become  a  relatively-important  part  of  the 
nation.  This  interpretation  harmonizes  with  subsequent 
events.  For  though  the  representation  of  towns  afterwards 
lapsed,  yet  it  shortly  revived,  and  in  1295  became  established. 
As  Hume  remarks,  such  an  institution  could  not  "have 
attained  to  so  vigorous  a  growth  and  have  flourished  in  the 
midst  of  such  tempests  and  convulsions,"  unless  it  had  been 
one,  "for  which  the  general  state  of  things  had  already  pre 
pared  the  nation :"  the  truth  here  to  be  added  being  that  this 
"general  state  of  things"  was  the  augmented  mass,  and  hence 
augmented  influence,  of  the  free  industrial  communities. 

Confirmation  is  supplied  by  cases  showing  that  power 
gained  by  the  people  during  times  when  the  regal  and  aris 
tocratic  powers  are  diminished  by  dissension,  is  lost  again  if, 
while  the  old  organization  recovers  its  stability  and  activity, 
industrial  growth  does  not  make  proportionate  progress. 
Spain,  or  more  strictly  Castile,  yields  an  example.  Such 
share  in  government  as  was  acquired  by  those  industrial 
communities  which  grew  up  during  the  colonization  of  the 
Waste  lands,  became,  in  the  space  of  a  few  reigns  characterized 


REPRESENTATIVE  BODIES.  427 

by  successful  wars  and  resulting  consolidations,  scarcely  more 
than  nominal 

§  499.  It  is  instructive  to  note  how  that  primary  incentive 
to  cooperation  which  initiates  social  union  at  large,  continues 
afterwards  to  initiate  special  unions  within  the  general  union. 
For  just  as  external  militancy  sets  up  and  carries  on  the 
organization  of  the  whole,  so  does  internal  militancy  set  up 
and  carry  OJL  the  organization  of  the  parts ;  even  when  those 
parts,  industrial  in  their  activities,  are  intrinsically  non- 
militant.  On  looking  into  their  histories  we  find  that  the 
increasing  clusters  of  people  who,  forming  towns,  lead  lives 
essentially  distinguished  by  continuous  exchange  of  services 
under  agreement,  develop  their  governmental  structures 
during  their  chronic  antagonisms  with  the  surrounding  mili 
tant  clusters. 

We  see,  first,  that  these  settlements  of  traders,  growing 
important  and  obtaining  royal  charters,  were  by  doing  this 
placed  in  quasi-militant  positions — became  in  modified  ways 
holders  of  fiefs  from  their  king,  and  had  the  associated  re 
sponsibilities.  Habitually  they  paid  dues  of  sundry  kinds 
equivalent  in  general  nature  to  those  paid  by  feudal  tenants ; 
and,  like  them,  they  were  liable  to  military  service.  In 
Spanish  chartered  towns  tc  this  was  absolutely  due  from  every 
inhabitant ;"  and  "  every  man  of  a  certain  property  was  bound 
to  serve  on  horseback  or  pay  a  fixed  sum."  In  France  "  in 
the  charters  of  incorporation  which  towns  received,  the 
number  of  troops  required  wras  usually  expressed."  And  in 
the  chartered  royal  burghs  of  Scotland  "  every  burgess  was  a 
direct  vassal  of  the  crown." 

Next  observe  that  industrial  towns  (usually  formed  by 
coalescence  of  pre-existing  rural  divisions  rendered  populous 
because  local  circumstances  favoured  some  form  of  trade,  and 
presently  becoming  places  of  hiding  for  fugitives,  and  of 
security  for  escaped  serfs)  began  to  stand  toward  the  small 
feudally-governed  groups  around  them,  in  relations  like  those 


428  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

in  which  these  stood  to  one  another :  competing  with  them 
for  adherents,  and  often  fortifying  themselves.  Sometimes, 
too,  as  in  France  in  the  13th  century,  towns  became  suze 
rains,  while  communes  had  the  right  of  war  in  numerous 
cases;  and  in  England  in  early  days  the  maritime  towns 
carried  on  wars  with  one  another. 

Again  there  is  the  fact  that  these  cities  and  boroughs, 
which  by  royal  charter  or  otherwise  had  acquired  powers  of 
administering  their  own  affairs,  habitually  formed  within 
themselves  combinations  for  protective  purposes.  In  England, 
in  Spain,  in  France,  in  Germany  (sometimes  with  assent  of 
the  king,  sometimes  notwithstanding  his  reluctance  as  in 
England,  sometimes  in  defiance  of  him,  as  in  ancient  Holland) 
there  rose  up  gilds,  which,  having  their  roots  in  the  natural 
unions  among  related  persons,  presently  gave  origin  to  frith- 
gilds  and  merchant-gilds ;  and  these,  defensive  in  their  rela 
tions  to  one  another,  formed  the  bases  of  that  municipal 
organization  which  carried  on  the  general  defence  against 
aggressing  nobles. 

Once  more,  in  countries'  where  the  antagonisms  between 
these  industrial  communities  and  the  surrounding  militant 
communities  were  violent  and  chronic,  the  industrial  com 
munities  combined  to  defend  themselves.  In  Spain  the 
"  poblaciones,"  which  when  they  flourished  and  grew  into 
large  places  were  invaded  and  robbed  by  adjacent  feudal 
lords,  formed  leagues  for  mutual  protection ;  and  at  a  latek 
date  there  arose,  under  like  needs,  more  extensive  confedera 
tions  of  cities  and  towns,  which,  under  severe  penalties  foi 
non-fulfilment  of  the  obligations,  bound  themselves  to  aid 
one  another  in  resisting  aggressions,  whether  by  king  or 
nobles.  In  Germany,  too,  we  have  the  perpetual  alliance 
entered  into  by  sixty  towns  on  the  Rhine  in  1255,  when, 
during  the  troubles  that  followed  the  deposition  of  the 
Emperor  Frederic  II.,  the  tyranny  of  the  nobles  had  become 
insupportable.  And  we  have  the  kindred  unions  formed 
under  like  incentives  in  Holland  and  in  France.  So  that, 


BEPKESENTATIVE  BODIES.  429 

both  in  small  and  in  large  ways,  the  industrial  groups  here 
and  there  growing  up  within  a  nation,  are,  in  many  cases, 
forced  by  local  antagonisms  partially  to  assume  activities 
and  structures  like  those  which  the  nation  as  a  whole  is 
forced  to  assume  in  its  antagonisms  with  nations  around. 

Here  the  implication  chiefly  concerning  us  is  that  if  indus 
trialism  is  thus  checked  by  a  return  to  militancy,  the  growth 
of  popular  power  is  arrested.  Especially  where,  as  happened 
in  the  Italian  republics,  defensive  war  passes  into  offensive 
war,  and  there  grows  up  an  ambition  to  conquer  other  terri 
tories  and  towns,  the  free  form  of  government  proper  to 
industrial  life,  becomes  qualified  by,  if  it  does  not  revert  to, 
the  coercive  form  accompanying  militant  life.  Or  where,  as 
happened  in  Spain,  the  feuds  between  towns  and  nobles  con 
tinue  through  long  periods,  the  rise  of  free  institutions  is 
arrested;  since,  under  such  conditions,  there  can  be  neither 
that  commercial  prosperity  which  produces  large  urban  popu 
lations,  nor  a  cultivation  of  the  associated  mental  nature. 
Whence  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  growth  of  popular  power 
accompanying  industrial  growth  in  England,  was  largely  due 
to  the  comparatively  small  amount  of  this  warfare  between 
the  industrial  groups  and  the  feudal  groups  around  them. 
The  effects  of  the  trading  life  were  less  interfered  with ;  and 
the  local  governing  centres,  urban  and  rural,  were  not  pre 
vented  from  uniting  to  restrain  the  general  centre. 

§  500.  And  now  let  us  consider  more  specifically  how  the 
governmental  influence  of  the  people  is  acquired.  By  the 
histories  of  organizations  of  whatever  kind,  we  are  shown 
that  the  purpose  originally  subserved  by  some  arrangement  is 
not  always  the  purpose  eventually  subserved.  It  is  so  here. 
Assent  to  obligations  rather  than  assertion  of  rights  has  ordi 
narily  initiated  the  increase  of  popular  power.  Even  the 
transformation  effected  by  the  revolution  of  Kleisthenes  at 
Athens,  took  the  form  of  a  re-distribution  of  tribes  and  denies 
for  purposes  of  taxation  and  military  service.  In  Home,  too, 


430  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

that  enlargement  of  the  oligarchy  which  occurred  under 
Servius  Tullius,  had  for  its  ostensible  motive  the  imposing  on 
plebeians  of  obligations  which  up  to  that  time  had  been 
borne  exclusively  by  patricians.  But  we  shall  best  under 
stand  this  primitive  relation  between  duty  and  power,  in 
which  the  duty  is  original  and  the  power  derived,  by  goicg 
back  once  more  to  the  beginning. 

For  when  we  remember  that  the  primitive  political  assembly 
is  essentially  a  war-council,  formed  of  leaders  who  debate  in 
presence  of  their  followers ;  and  when  we  remember  that  in 
early  stages  all  free  adult  males,  being  warriors,  are  called  on  to 
join  in  defensive  or  offensive  actions  ;  we  see  that,  originally, 
the  attendance  of  the  armed  freemen  is  in  pursuance  of  the 
military  service  to  which  they  are  bound,  and  that  such  power 
as,  when  thus  assembled,  they  exercise,  is  incidental.  Later 
stages  yield  clear  proofs  that  this  is  the  normal  order ;  for  it 
recurs  where,  after  a  political  dissolution,  political  organiza 
tion  begins  de  novo.  Instance  the  Italian  cities,  in  which,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  original  "parliaments,"  summoned  for 
defence  by  the  tocsin,  included  all  the  men  capable  of  bearing 
arms :  the  obligation  to  fight  coming  first,  and  the  right  to 
vote  coming  second.  And,  naturally,  this  duty  of  attendance 
survives  when  the  primitive  assemblage  assumes  other 
functions  than  those  of  a  militant  kind  ;  as  witness  the  before- 
named  fact  that  among  the  Scandinavians  it  was  "  disrepu 
table  for  freemen  not  to  attend  "  the  annual  assembly ;  and 
the  further  facts  that  in  France  the  obligation  to  be  present  at 
the  hundred-court  in  the  Merovingian  period,  rested  upon  all 
full  freemen  ;  that  in  the  Carolingian  period  "  non-attendanco 
is  punished  by  fines"  ;  that  in  England  the  lower  freemen,  as 
well  as  others,  were  "bound  to  attend  the  shire-moot  and 
hundred-moot "  under  penalty  of  "  large  fines  for  neglect  of 
duty ;"  and  that  in  the  thirteenth  century  in  Holland,  when 
the  burghers  were  assembled  for  public  purposes,  "  anyone 
ringing  the  town  bell,  except  by  general  consent,  and  anyone 
not  appearing  when  it  tolls,  are  liable  to  a  fine." 


REPRESENTATIVE  BODIES.  431 

After  recognizing  this  primitive  relation  between  popular 
duty  and  popular  power,  we  shall  more  clearly  understand 
the  relation  as  it  re-appears  when  popular  power  begins  to 
revive  along  with  the  growth  of  industrialism.  For  here, 
again,  the  fact  meets  us  that  the  obligation  is  primary  and  the 
power  secondary.  It  is  mainly  as  furnishing  aid  to  the  ruler, 
generally  for  war  purposes,  that  the  deputies  from  towns 
begin  to  share  in  public  affairs.  There  recurs  under  a  com 
plex  form,  that  which  at  an  early  stage  we  see  in  a  simple 
form.  Let  us  pause  a  moment  to  observe  the  transition. 

As  was  shown  when  treating  of  Ceremonial  Institutions, 
the  revenues  of  rulers  are  derived,  at  first  wholly  and  after 
wards  partially,  from  presents.  The  occasions  on  which 
assemblies  are  called  together  to  discuss  public  affairs  (mainly 
military  operations  for  which  supplies  are  needed)  naturally 
become  the  occasions  on  which  the  expected  gifts  are  offered 
and  received.  When  by  successful  wars  the  militant  king 
consolidates  small  societies  into  a  large  one — when  there 
comes  an  "  increase  of  royal  power  in  intension  as  the  king 
dom  increases  in  extension  "  (to  quote  the  luminous  expres 
sion  of  Prof.  Stubbs) ;  and  when,  as  a  consequence,  the  quasi- 
voluntary  gifts  become  more  and  more  compulsory,  though 
still  retaining  such  names  as  donum  and  aiucilium;  it  generally 
happens  that  these  exactions,  passing  a  bearable  limit,  lead  to 
resistance :  at  first  passive  and  in  extreme  cases  active.  If 
by  consequent  disturbances  the  royal  power  is  much  weakened, 
the  restoration  of  order,  if  it  takes  place,  is  "likely  to  take 
place  on  the  understanding  that,  with  such  modifications  as 
may  be  needful,  the  primitive  system  of  voluntary  gifts  shall 
be  re-established.  Thus,  when  in  Spain  the  death  of  Sancho  T. 
was  followed  by  political  dissensions,  the  deputies  from  thirty- 
two  places,  who  assembled  at  Valladolid,  decided  that  demands 
made  by  the  king  beyond  the  customary  dues  should  be 
answered  by  death  of  the  messenger  ;  and  the  need  for  gaining 
the  adhesion  of  the  towns  during  the  conflict  with  a  pre 
tender,  led  to  an  apparent  toleration  of  this  attitude.  Simi- 
80 


432  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

larly  in  the  next  century,  during  disputes  as  to  the  regency 
while  Alphonso  XI.  was  a  minor,  the  cortes  at  Burgos 
demanded  that  the  towns  should  "  contribute  nothing  beyond 
what  was  prescribed  in"  their  charters.  Kindred  causes 
wrought  kindred  results  in  France;  as  when,  by  an  insur* 
rectionary  league,  Louis  Hutin  was  obliged  to  grant  charters 
to  the  nobles  and  burgesses  of  Picardy  and  of  Normandy, 
renouncing  the  right  of  imposing  undue  exactions;  and  as 
when,  on  sundry  occasions,  the  States-general  were  assembled 
for  the  purpose  of  reconciling  the  nation  to  imposts  levied 
to  carry  on  wars.  Nor  must  its  familiarity  cause  us  to  omit; 
the  instance  furnished  by  our  own  history,  when,  after  pre 
liminary  steps  towards  that  end  at  St.  Alban's  and  St. 
Edmund's,  nobles  and  people  at  Eunnymede  effectually 
restrained  the  king  from  various  tyrannies,  and,  among  others, 
from  that  of  imposing  taxes,  without  the  consent  of  his  sub 
jects. 

And  now  what  followed  from  arrangements  which,  with 
modifications  due  to  local  conditions,  were  arrived  at  in  several 
countries  under  similar  circumstances  ?  Evidently  when  the 
king,  hindered  from  enforcing  unauthorized  demands,  had  to 
obtain  supplies  by  asking  his  subjects,  or  the  more  powerful 
of  them,  his  motive  for  summoning  them,  or  their  representa 
tives,  became  primarily  that  of  getting  these  supplies.  The 
predominance  of  this  motive  for  calling  together  national 
assemblies,  may  be  inferred  from  its  predominance  previously 
shown  in  connexion  with  local  assemblies ;  as  instance  a 
writ  of  Henry  I.  concerning  shire-moots,  in  which,  professing 
to  restore  ancient  custom,  he  says — "  I  will  cause  those  courts 
to  be  summoned  when  I  will  for  my  own  sovereign  necessity, 
at  my  pleasure."  To  vote  money  is  therefore  the  primary 
purpose  for  which  chief  men  and  representatives  are  as 
sembled. 

§  501.  From  the  ability  to  prescribe  conditions  under  which 
money  will  be  voted,  grows  the  ability,  and  finally  the  right, 


REPRESENTATIVE  BODIES.  433 

to  join  in  legislation.  This  connexion  is  vaguely  typified  in 
early  stages  of  social  evolution.  Making  gifts  and  getting 
rodress  go  together  from  the  beginning.  As  was  said  of  Gulab 
Singh,  when  treating  of  presents— "  even  in  a  crowd  one 
could  catch  his  eye  by  holding  up  a  rupee  and  crying  out, 
'  Maharajah,  a  petition/  He  would  pounce  down  like  a  hawk 
en  the  money,  and,  having  appropriated  it,  would  patiently 
hear  out  the  petitioner."*  I  have  in  the  same  place  given 
further  examples  of  this  relation  between  yielding  support  to 
the  governing  agency,  and  demanding  protection  from  it ;  and 
the  examples  there  given  may  be  enforced  by  such  others  as 
that,  among  ourselves  in  early  days,  "  the  king's  court  itself, 
though  the  supreme  judicature  of  the  kingdom,  was  open  to 
none  that  brought  not  presents  to  the  king/'  and  that, 
as  shown  by  the  exchequer  rolls,  every  remedy  for  a  grievance 
or  security  against  aggression  had  to  be  paid  for  by  a  bribe : 
a  state  of  things  which,  as  Hume  remarks,  was  paralleled  on 
the  Continent. 

Such  being  the  original  connexion  between  support  of  the 
political  head  and  protection  by  the  political  head,  the  inter 
pretation  of  the  actions  of  parliamentary  bodies,  when  they 
arise,  becomes  clear.  Just  as  in  rude  assemblies  of  king, 
military  chiefs,  and  armed  freemen,  preserving  in  large 
measure  the  primitive  form,  as  those  in  France  during  the 
Merovingian  period,  the  presentation  of  gifts  went  along  with 
the  transaction  of  public  business,  judicial  as  well  as  military 
— just  as  in  our  own  ancient  shire-moot,  local  government,  in 
cluding  the  administration  of  justice,  was  accompanied  by  the 
furnishing  of  ships  and  the  payment  of  "  a  composition  for 
the  feorm-fultum,  or  sustentation  of  the  king  ;"  so  when,  after 
successful  resistance  to  excess  of  royal  power,  there  came 

*  Eeference  to  the  passage  since  made  shows  not  only  this  initial  relation, 
but  still  more  instructively  shows  that  at  the  very  beginning  there  arises  the 
question  whether  protection  shall  come  first  and  payment  afterwards,  or  pay 
ment  first  and  protection  afterwards.  For  the  passage  continues  : — "  Once  a 
man  after  this  fashion  making  a  complaint,  when  the  Maharajah  was  taking 
the  rupee,  closed  his  hand  on  it,  and  said, '  No,  first  hear  what  I  have  to  say.'  " 


434  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

assemblies  of  nobles  and  representatives  summoned  by  the 
king,  there  re-appeared,  on  a  higher  platform,  these  simulta 
neous  demands  for  money  on  the  one  side  and  for  justice  on 
the  other.  We  may  assume  it  as  certain  that  with  an  average 
humanity,  the  conflicting  egoisms  of  those  concerned  will  be 
the  main  factors ;  and  that  on  each  side  the  aim  will  be  to 
give  as  little,  and  get  as  much,  as  circumstances  allow.  France, 
Spain,  and  England,  yield  examples  which  unite  in  showing 
this. 

When  Charles  V.  of  France,  in  1357,  dismissing  the  States- 
general  for  alleged  encroachments  on  his  rights,  raised  money 
by  further  debasing  the  coinage,  and  caused  a  sedition  in 
Paris  which  endangered  his  life,  there  was,  three  months  later, 
a  re-convocation  of  the  States,  in  which  the  petitions  of  the 
former  assembly  were  acceded  to,  while  a  subsidy  for  war 
purposes  was  voted.  And  of  an  assembled  States-general  in 
1366,  Hallam  writes  : — "  The  necessity  of  restoring  the  coinage 
is  strongly  represented  as  the  grand  condition  upon  which 
they  consented  to  tax  the  people,  who  had  been  long  defrauded 
by  the  base  money  of  Philip  the  Fair  and  his  successors." 
Again,  in  Spain,  the  incorporated  towns,  made  liable  by  their 
charters  only  for  certain  payments  and  services,  had  continually 
to  resist  unauthorized  demands ;  while  the  kings,  continually 
promising  not  to  take  more  than  their  legal  and  customary 
dues,  were  continually  breaking  their  promises.  In  1328 
Alfonso  XL  "  bound  himself  not  to  exact  from  his  people,  or 
cause  them  to  pay,  any  tax,  either  partial  or  general,  not 
hitherto  established  by  law,  without  the  previous  grant  of  all 
the  deputies  convened  by  the  Cortes."  And  how  little  such 
pledges  were  kept  is  shown  by  the  fact  that,  in  1393,  the  Cortes 
who  made  a  grant  to  Henry  III.,  joined  the  condition  that— 
"  He  should  swear  before  one  of  the  archbishops  not  to  take  or  demand 
any  money,  service,  or  loan,  or  anything  else  of  the  cities  and  towns,  nor 
of  individuals  belonging  to  them,  on  any  pretence  of  necessity,  until  the 
three  estates  of  the  kingdom  should  first  be  duly  summoned  and 
assembled  in  Cortes  according  to  ancient  usage." 
Similarly  in  England  during  the  time  when  parliamentary 


REPRESENTATIVE  BODIES.  435 

power  was  being  established.  While,  with  national  consoli 
dation,  the  royal  authority  had  been  approaching  to  absolute 
ness,  there  had  been,  by  reaction,  arising  that  resistance  which, 
resulting  in  the  Great  Charter,  subsequently  initiated  the 
prolonged  struggle  between  the  king,  trying  to  break  through 
its  restraints,  and  his  subjects  trying  to  maintain  .and  to 
strengthen  them.  The  twelfth  article  of  the  Charter  having 
promised  that  no  scutage  or  aid  save  those  which  were  esta 
blished  should  be  imposed  without  consent  of  the  national 
council,  there  perpetually  recurred,  both  before  and  after  the 
expansion  of  Parliament,  endeavours  on  the  king's  part  to 
get  supplies  without  redressing  grievances,  and  endeavours  on 
the  part  of  Parliament  to  make  the  voting  of  supplies  con 
tingent  on  fulfilment  of  promises  to  redress  grievances. 

On  the  issue  of  this  struggle  depended  the  establishment  of 
popular  power ;  as  we  are  shown  by  comparing  the  histories 
of  the  French  and  Spanish  Parliaments  with  that  of  the 
English  Parliament.  Quotations  above  given  prove  that  the 
Cortes  originally  established,  and  for  a  time  maintained,  the 
right  to  comply  with  or  to  refuse  the  king's  requests  for 
money,  and  to  impose  their  conditions ;  but  they  eventually 
failed  to  get  their  conditions  fulfilled. 

"  In  the  struggling  condition  of  Spanish  liberty  under  Charles  I.,  the 
crown  began  to  neglect  answering  the  petitions  of  Cortes,  or  to  use  un 
satisfactory  generalities  of  expression.  This  gave  rise  to  many  remon 
strances.  The  deputies  insisted,  in  1523,  on  having  answers  before  they 
granted  money.  They  repeated  the  same  contention  in  1525,  and 
obtained  a  general  law,  inserted  in  the  Eecopilacion,  enacting  that  the 
king  should  answer  all  their  petitions  before  he  dissolved  the  assembly. 
This,  however,  was  disregarded  as  before." 

And  thereafter  rapidly  went  on  the  decay  of  parliamentary 
power.  Different  in  form  but  the  same  in  nature,  was  the 
change  which  occurred  in  France.  Having  at  one  time,  as 
shown  above,  made  the  granting  of  money  conditional  on  the 
obtainment  of  justice,  the  States-general  was  induced  to 
Burrender  its  restraining  powers.  Charles  VII. — 
"obtained  from  the  States  of  the  royal  domains  which  met  in  1439  that 


436  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

they  [the  tallies]  should  be  declared  permanent,  and  from  1444  he  levied 
them  as  such,  i.e.  uninterruptedly  and  without  previous  vote.  .  .  . 
The  permanence  of  the  tallies  was  extended  to  the  provinces  annexed 
to  the  crown,  but  these  preserved  the  right  of  voting  them  by  their  pro 
vincial  estates.  ...  In  the  hands  of  Charles  VII.,  and  Louis  XL, 
the  royal  impost  tended  to  be  freed  from  all  control.  .  .  .  Its  amount 
increased  more  and  more." 

Whence,  as  related  by  Dareste,  it  resulted  that  "  when  the 
tallies  and  aides  .  .  .  had  been  made  permanent,  the 
convocation  of  the  States-general  ceased  to  be  necessary. 
They  were  little  more  than  show  assemblies."  But  in  our 
own  case,  during  the  century  succeeding  the  final  establish 
ment  of  Parliament,  frequent  struggles  necessitated  by  royal 
evasions,  trickeries,  and  falsehoods,  brought  increasing  power 
to  withhold  supplies  until  petitions  had  been  attended  to. 

Admitting  that  this  issue  was  furthered  by  the  conflicts  of 
political  factions,  which  diminished  the  coercive  power  of  the 
king,  the  truth  to  be  emphasized  is  that  the  increase  of  a  free 
industrial  population  was  its  fundamental  cause.  The  calling 
together  knights  of  the  shire,  representing  the  class  of  small 
landowners,  which  preceded  on  several  occasions  the  calling 
together  deputies  from  towns,  implied  the  growing  im 
portance  of  this  class  as  one  from  which  money  was  to  be 
raised ;  and  when  deputies  from  towns  were  summoned  to  the 
Parliament  of  1295,  the  form  of  summons  shows  that  the 
motive  was  to  get  pecuniary  aid  from  portions  of  the  popula 
tion  which  had  become  relatively  considerable  and  rich. 
Already  the  king  had  on  more  than  one  occasion  sent  special 
agents  to  shires  and  boroughs  to  raise  subsidies  from  them 
for  his  wars.  Already  he  had  assembled  provincial  councils 
formed  of  representatives  from  cities,  boroughs,  and  market- 
towns,  that  he  might  ask  them  for  votes  of  money.  And 
when  the  great  Parliament  was  called  together,  the  reason  set 
forth  in  the  writs  was  that  wars  with  Wales,  Scotland,  and 
France,  were  endangering  the  realm :  the  implication  being 
that  the  necessity  for  obtaining  supplies  led  to  this  recogni 
tion  of  the  towns  as  well  as  the  counties. 


REPRESENTATIVE   BODIES.  437 

So  too  was  it  in  Scotland.  The  first  known  occasion  on 
which  representatives  from  burghs  entered  into  political 
action,  was  when  there  was  iirgent  need  for  pecuniary  help 
from  all  sources;  namely,  "at  Cambuskenneth  on  the  loth 
day  of  July,  1326,  when  Bruce  claimed  from  his  people  a 
revenue  to  meet  the  expenses  of  his  glorious  war  and  the 
necessities  of  the  State,  which  was  granted  to  the  monarch 
by  the  earls,  barons,  burgesses,  and  free  tenants,  in  full 
parliament  assembled." 

In  which  cases,  while  we  are  again  shown  that  the  obliga 
tion  is  original  and  the  power  derived,  we  are  also  shown  that 
it  is  the  increasing  mass  of  those  who  carry  on  life  by  volun 
tary  cooperation  instead  of  compulsory  cooperation — partly 
the  rural  class  of  small  freeholders  and  still  more  the  urban 
class  of  traders — which  initiates  popular  representation. 

§  502.  Still  there  remains  the  question — How  does  the 
representative  body  become  separate  from  the  consultative 
body  ?  Eetaining  the  primitive  character  of  councils  of  war, 
national  assemblies  were  in  the  beginning  mixed.  The  dif 
ferent  "  arms,"  as  the  estates  were  called  in  Spain,  originally 
formed  a  single  body.  Knights  of  the  shire  when  first  sum 
moned,  acting  on  behalf  of  numerous  smaller  tenants  of  the 
king  owing  military  service,  sat  and  voted  with  the  greater 
tenants.  Standing,  as  towns  did  at  the  outset,  very  much  in  the 
position  of  fiefs,  those  who  represented  them  were  not  unallied 
in  legal  status  to  feudal  chiefs ;  and,  at  first  assembling  with 
these,  in  some  cases  remained  united  with  them,  as  appears  to 
have  been  habitually  the  case  in  France  and  Spain.  Under 
what  circumstances,  then,  do  the  consultative  and  representa 
tive  bodies  differentiate  ?  The  question  is  one  to  which  there 
seems  no  very  satisfactory  answer. 

Quite  early  we  may  see  foreshadowed  a  tendency  to  part, 
determined  by  unlikeness  of  functions.  During  the  Carolin-" 
gian  period  in  France,  there  were  two  annual  gatherings :  a 
larger  which  all  the  armed  freemen  had  a  right  to  attend,  and 


438  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

a  smaller  formed  of  the  greater  personages  deliberating  on 
more  special  affairs. 

"  If  the  weather  was  fine,  all  this  passed  in  the  open  air ;  if  not,  in 
distinct  buildings  .  .  .  When  the  lay  and  ecclesiastical  lords  were 
.  .  .  separated  from  the  multitude,  it  remained  in  their  option  to  sifc 
together,  or  separately,  according  to  the  affairs  of  which  they  had  to 
treat." 

And  that  unlikeness  of  functions  is  a  cause  of  separation 
we  find  .evidence  in  other  places  and  times.  Describing  the 
armed  national  assemblies  of  the  Hungarians,  originally 
mixed,  Levy  writes  : — "  La  derniere  reunion  de  ce  genre  eut 
lieu  quelque  temps  avant  la  bataille  de  Mohacs ;  mais  bientot 
apres,  la  diete  se  divisa  en .  deux  chambres :  la  table  des 
magnats  et  la  table  des  deputes."  In  Scotland,  again,  in 
1367 — 8,  the  three  estates  having  met,  and  wishing,  for 
reasons  of  economy  and  convenience,  to  be  excused  from 
their  functions  as  soon  as  possible,  "  elected  certain  persons  to 
hold  Parliament,  who  were  divided  into  two  bodies,  one  for 
the  general  affairs  of  the  king  and  kingdom,  and  another,  a 
smaller  division,  for  acting  as  judges  upon  appeals."  In  the 
case  of  England  we  find  that  though,  in  the  writs  calling 
together  Simon  of  Montfort's  Parliament,  no  distinction  was 
made  between  magnates  and  deputies,  yet  when,  a  generation 
after,  Parliament  became  established,  the  writs  made  a  dis 
tinction  :  "  counsel  is  deliberately  mentioned  in  the  invitation 
to  the  magnates,  action  and  consent  in  the  invitation  to 
representatives."  Indeed  it  is  clear  that  since  the  earlier- 
formed  body  of  magnates  was  habitually  summoned  for 
consultative  purposes,  especially  military,  while  the  represen 
tatives  afterwards  added  were  summoned  only  to  grant 
money,  there  existed  from  the  outset  a  cause  for  separation. 
Sundry  influences  conspired  to  produce  it.  Difference  of 
language,  still  to  a  considerable  extent  persisting  and  imped 
ing  joint  debate,  furnished  a  reason.  Then  there  was  the 
effect  of  class-feeling,  of  which  we  have  definite  proof. 
Though  they  were  in  the  same  assembly,  the  deputies  from 
boroughs  "  sat  apart  both  from  the  barons  and  knights,  who 


REPRESENTATIVE   BODIES.  439 

disdained  to  mix  with  such  mean  personages ; "  and  probably 
the  deputies  themselves,  little  at  ease  in  presence  of  imposing 
superiors,  preferred  sitting  separately.  Moreover,  it  was 
customary  for  the  several  estates  to  submit  to  taxes  in  dif 
ferent  proportions ;  and  this  tended  to  entail  consultation 
among  the  members  of  each  by  themselves.  Finally,  we  read 
that  "  after  they  [the  deputies]  had  given  their  consent  to 
the  taxes  required  of  them,  their  business  being  then  finished, 
they  separated,  even  though  the  Parliament  still  continued  to 
sit,  and  to  canvass  the  national  business."  In  which  last  fact 
we  are  clearly  shown  that  though  aided  by  other  causes, 
unlikeness  of  duties  was  the  essential  cause  which  at  length 
produced  a  permanent  separation  between  the  representative 
body  and  the  consultative  body. 

Thus  at  first  of  little  account,  and  growing  in  power  only 
because  the  free  portion  of  the  community  occupied  in  pro 
duction  and  distribution  grew  in  mass  and  importance,  so  that 
its  petitions,  treated  with  increasing  respect  and  more  fre 
quently  yielded  to,  began  to  originate  legislation,  the  repre 
sentative  body  came  to  be  that  part  of  the  governing  agency 
which  more  and  more  expresses  the  sentiments  and  ideas  of 
industrialism.  While  the  monarch  and  upper  house  are  the 
products  of  that  ancient  regime  of  compulsory  cooperation 
the  spirit  of  which  they  still  manifest,  though  in  decreasing 
degrees,  the  lower  house  is  the  product  of  that  modern  regime 
of  voluntary  cooperation  which  is  replacing  it ;  and  in  an 
increasing  degree,  this  lower  house  carries  out  the  wishes  of 
people  habituated  to  a  daily  life  regulated  by  contract  instead 
of  by  status. 

§  503.  To  prevent  misconception  it  must  be  remarked, 
before  summing  up,  that  an  account  of  representative  bodies 
which  have  been  in  modern  days  all  at  once  created,  is  not 
here  called  for.  Colonial  legislatures,  consciously  framed  in 
conformity  with  traditions  brought  from  the  mother-country, 
illustrate  the  genesis  of  senatorial  and  representative  bodies 


440  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

in  but  a  restricted  sense :  showing,  as  they  do,  how  the 
structures  of  parent  societies  reproduce  themselves  in  derived 
societies,  so  far  as  materials  and  circumstances  allow;  but 
not  showing  how  these  structures  were  originated.  Still  less 
need  we  notice  those  cases  in  which,  after  revolutions,  peoples 
who  have  lived  under  despotisms  are  led  by  imitation  sud 
denly  to  establish  representative  bodies.  Here  we  are  con 
cerned  only  with  the  gradual  evolution  of  such  bodies. 

Originally  supreme,  though  passive,  the  third  element  in 
the  tri-une  political  structure,  subjected  more  and  more  as 
militant  activity  develops  an  appropriate  organization,  begins 
to  re-acquire  power  when  war  ceases  to  be  chronic.  Subordi 
nation  relaxes  as  fast  as  it  becomes  less  imperative.  Awe  of 
the  ruler,  local  or  general,  and  accompanying  manifestations 
of  fealty,  decrease ;  and  especially  so  where  the  prestige  of 
supernatural  origin  dies  out.  Where  the  life  is  rural  the  old 
relations  long  survive  in  qualified  forms  ;  but  clans  or  feudal 
groups  clustered  together  in  towns,  mingled  with  numbers  of 
unattached  immigrants,  become  in  various  ways  less  con 
trollable  ;  while  by  their  habits  their  members  are  educated 
to  increasing  independence.  The  small  industrial  groups 
thus  growing  up  within  a  nation  consolidated  arid  organized 
by  militancy,  can  but  gradually  diverge  in  nature  from  the 
rest.  For  a  long  time  they  remain  partially  militant  in  their 
structures  and  in  their  relations  to  other  parts  of  the  com 
munity.  At  first  chartered  towns  stand  substantially  on  the 
footing  of  fiefs,  paying  feudal  dues  and  owing  military 
service.  They  develop,  within  themselves,  unions,  more  or  less 
coercive  in  character,  for  mutual  protection.  They  often 
carry  on  wars  with  adjacent  nobles  and  with  one  another. 
They  not  uncommonly  form  leagues  for  joint  defence.  And 
where  the  semi-militancy  of  towns  is  maintained,  industrial 
development  and  accompanying  increase  of  popular  power 
are  arrested. 

But  where  circumstances  have  favoured  manufacturing  and 
commercial  activities,  and  growth  of  the  population  devoted 


REPRESENTATIVE   BODIES.  441 

to  them,  this,  as  it  becomes  a  large  component  of  the  society, 
makes  its  influence  felt.  The  primary  obligation  to  render 
money  and  service  to  the  head  of  the  State,  often  reluctantly 
complied  with,  is  resisted  when  the  exactions  are  great ;  and 
resistance  causes  conciliatory  measures.  There  comes  asking 
assent  rather  than  resort  to  compulsion.  If  absence  of 
violent  local  antagonisms  permits,  then  on  occasions  when 
the  political  head,  rousing  anger  by  injustice,  is  also  weakened 
by  defections,  there  comes  cooperation  with  other  classes 
of  oppressed  subjects.  Men  originally  delegated  simply 
that  they  may  authorize  imposed  burdens,  are  enabled  as 
the  power  behind  them  increases,  more  and  more  firmly  to 
insist  on  conditions ;  and  the  growing  practice  of  yielding  to 
their  petitions  as  a  means  to  obtaining  their  aid,  initiates  the 
practice  of  letting  them  share  in  legislation. 

Finally,  in  virtue  of  the  general  law  of  organization  that 
difference  of  functions  entails  differentiation  and  division  of 
the  parts  performing  them,  there  comes  a  separation.  At 
first  summoned  to  the  national  assembly  for  purposes  par 
tially  like  and  partially  unlike  those  of  its  other  members, 
the  elected  members  show  a  segregating  tendency,  which, 
where  the  industrial  portion  of  the  community  continues  to 
gain  power,  ends  in  the  formation  of  a  representative  body 
distinct  from  the  original  consultative  body. 


CHAPTER  X. 

MINISTEIES. 

§  504.  Men  chosen  by  the  ruler  to  help  him,  we  meet  with 
in  early  stages  of  social  evolution — men  whose  positions  and 
duties  are  then  vague  and  variable.  At  the  outset  there  is 
nothing  to  determine  the  selection  of  helpers  save  considera 
tions  of  safety,  or  convenience,  or  liking.  Hence  we  find 
ministers  of  quite  different  origins. 

Eelationship  leads  to  the  choice  in  some  places  and  times; 
as  with  the  Bachassins,  among  whom  the  chief's  brother 
conveys  his  orders  and  sees  them  executed;  as  of  old  in 
Japan,  where  the  Emperor's  son  was  prime  minister  and  the 
daimios  had  cadets  of  their  families  as  counsellors;  as  in 
ancient  Egypt  where  "  the  principal  officers  of  the  Court  or 
administration  appear  to  have  been  at  the  earliest  period  the 
relatives  "  of  the  king.  Though  in  some  cases  family -jealousy 
excludes  kinsmen  from  these  places  of  authority,  in  other 
cases  family-feeling  and  trust,  and  the  belief  that  the  desire 
for  family-predominance  will  ensure  loyalty,  lead  to  the 
employment  of  brothers,  cousins,  nephews,  &c. 

More  general  appears  to  be  the  unobtrusive  growth  of  per-> 
sonal  attendants,  or  household  servants,  into  servants  of  State. 
Those  who  are  constantly  in  contact  with  the  ruler  have 
opportunities  of  aiding  or  hindering  intercourse  with  him, 
of  biassing  him  by  their  statements,  and  of  helping  or 
impeding  the  execution  of  his  commands;  and  they  thus 
gain  power,  and  tend  to  become  advising  and  executive 


MINISTRIES.  443 

agents.      From    the    earliest  times  onwards   we  meet  with 
illustrations.     In  ancient  Egypt — 

"  The  office  of  fan-bearer  to  the  king  was  a  highly  honourable  post, 
which  none  but  the  royal  princes,  or  the  sons  of  the  first  nobility,  were 
permitted  to  hold.  These  constituted  a  principal  part  of  his  staff ;  and 
in  the  field  they  either  attended  on  the  monarch  to  receive  his  orders, 
or  were  despatched  to  have  the  command  of  a  division." 
In  Assyria  the  attendants  who  thus  rose  to  power  were  not 
relatives,  but  were  habitually  eunuchs;  and  the  like  hap 
pened  in  Persia.  "  In  the  later  times,  the  eunuchs  acquired 
a  vast  political  authority,  and  appear  to  have  then  filled  all 
the  chief  offices  of  state.  They  were  the  king's  advisers  in 
the  palace,  and  his  generals  in  the  field."  Kindred  illustra 
tions  are  furnished  by  the  West.  Shown  among  the  primitive 
Germans,  the  tendency  for  officers  of  the  king's  household  to 
become  political  officers,  was  conspicuous  in  the  Merovingian 
period :  the  seneschal,  the  marshal,  the  chamberlain,  grew 
into  public  functionaries.  Down  to  the  later  feudal  period 
in  France,  the  public  and  household  administrations  of  the 
king  were  still  undistinguished.  So  was  it  in  old  English 
times.  According  to  Kemble,  the  four  great  officers  of  the 
Court  and  Household  were  the  Hrsege  Thegn  (servant  of  the 
wardrobe) ;  the  Steallere  and  Horsthegn  (first,  Master  of  the 
Horse,  then  General  of  the  Household  Troops,  then  Constable 
or  Grand  Marshal) ;  the  Discthegn  (or  thane  of  the  table — 
afterwards  Seneschal) ;  the  Butler  (perhaps  Byrele  or  Scenca). 
The  like  held  under  the  conquering  Normans ;  and  it  holds  in 
a  measure  down  to  the  present  time. 

Besides  relatives  and  servants,  friends  are  naturally  in  some 
cases  fixed  on  by  the  ruler  to  get  him  information,  give  him 
advice,  and  carry  out  his  orders.  Among  ancient  examples  the 
Hebrews  furnish  one.  .Remarking  that  in  the  small  kingdoms 
around  Israel  in  earlier  times,  it  was  customary  for  the  ruler 
to  have  a  single  friend  to  aid  him,  Ewald  points  out  that 
under  David,  with  a  larger  State  and  a  more  complex  ad 
ministration,  "  the  different  departments  are  necessarily  more 
subdivided,  and  new  offices  of  '  friends  '  or  ministers  of  the 


444  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

king  assume  a  sort  of  independent  importance."  Like 
needs  produced  kindred  effects  in  the  first  days  of  the  Eoman 
empire.  Duruy  writes  : — 

"  Augustus,  who  called  himself  a  plain  Roman  citizen,  could  not,  like  a 
king,  have  ministers,  but  only  friends  who  aided  him  with  their  experi 
ence.  .  .  .  The  multitude  of  questions  .  .  .  induced  him  afterwards  to 
distribute  the  chief  affairs  regularly  among  his  friends.  .  .  .  This  council 
was  gradually  organized." 

And  then  in  later  days  and  other  regions,  we  see  that  out  of 
the  group  known  as  "  friends  of  the  king  "  there  are  often 
some,  or  there  is  one,  in  whom  confidence  is  reposed  and  to 
whom  power  is  deputed.  In  Eussia  the  relation  of  Lefort  to 
Peter  the  Great,  in  Spain  that  of  Albuquerque  to  Don  Pedro, 
and  among  ourselves  that  of  Gaveston  to  Edward  II., 
sufficiently  illustrate  the  genesis  of  ministerial  power  out  of 
the  power  gained  by  personal  friendship  and  consequent 
trust.  And  then  with  instances  of  this  kind  are  to  be 
joined  instances  showing  how  attachment  between  the  sexes 
comes  into  play.  Such  facts  as  that  after  Albuquerque  fell, 
all  offices  about  the  court  were  filled  by  relations  of  the 
king's  mistress  ;  that  in  France  under  Louis  XV.  "  the  only 
visible  government  was  that  by  women"  from  Mme.  de 
Prie  to  Mme.  du  Barry ;  and  that  in  Eussia  during  the  reign 
of  Catherine  II.,  her  successive  lovers  acquired  political 
power,  and  became  some  of  them  prime  ministers  and 
practically  autocrats ;  will  serve  adequately  to  recall  a  ten 
dency  habitually  displayed. 

Eegarded  as  able  to  help  the  ruler  supernaturally  as  well 
as  naturally,  the  priest  is  apt  to  become  his  chosen  ally  and 
agent.  The  Tahitians  may  be  named  as  having  a  prime 
minister  who  is  also  chief  priest.  In  Africa,  among  the 
Eggarahs  (Inland  Negroes),  a  priest  "  officiates  as  minister  of 
war."  '  How  political  power  of  priests  results  from  their  sup 
posed  influence  with  the  gods,  is  well  shown  by  the  case  of 
Mizteca  (part  of  Mexico). 

"The  high-priests  were  highly  respected  by  the  caziques,  who  did 
nothing  without  their  advice  ;  they  commanded  armies,  and  ruled  the 


MINISTRIES.  445 

state,  reproved  vice,  and  when  there  was  no  amendment,  threatened 
famine,  plague,  war,  and  the  anger  of  the  gods." 

Other  places  in  ancient  America — Guatemala,  Vera  Paz,  &c., 
furnish  kindred  facts ;  as  do  historic  peoples  from  the  earliest 
times  downwards.  In  ancient  Egypt  the  king's  advisers 
mostly  belonged  to  the  priestly  caste.  Under  the  Eoman 
emperors  ecclesiastics  became  ministers  and  secret  counsellors. 
In  mediaeval  days  Dominican  and  Franciscan  monks  held  the 
highest  political  offices.  And  in  later  times  the  connexion 
was  shown  by  the  ministerial  power  of  cardinals,  or,  as  in 
Eussia,  of  patriarchs.  This  acquisition  of  leading  political 
functions  by  functionaries  of  the  church,  has  in  some  cases 
special  causes  in  addition  to  the  general  cause.  A  royal 
chaplain  (uniting  the  character  of  personal  attendant  with 
that  of  priest)  stands  in  a  relation  to  the  king  which  almost 
necessitates  acquisition  of  great  influence.  Moreover,  being 
fitted  by  culture  for  secretarial  work,  he  falls  naturally  into 
certain  State-duties ;  as  he  did  into  those  of  chancellor  among 
ourselves  in  early  days. 

Eecognizing  the  fact  that  at  the  outset,  these  adminis 
trative  agents,  whatever  further  characters  they  have,  are 
usually  also  soldiers,  and  are  included  in  the  primitive  consul 
tative  body,  of  which  they  become  specialized  parts,  we  may 
say  of  them  generally,  that  they  are  relatives,  friends,  attend 
ants,  priests,  brought  into  close  relations  with  the  ruler,  out 
of  whom  he  is  obliged  by  stress  of  business  to  choose  assist 
ants  ;  and  that  at  first  vague  and  irregular,  their  appointments 
and  functions  gradually  acquire  definiteness. 

§  505.  Amid  much  that  is  too  indefinite  for  generalization, 
a  few  tolerably  constant  traits  of  ministers,  and  traits  of 
ministries,  may  be  briefly  indicated. 

That  a  trusted  agent  commonly  acquires  power  over  his 
principal,  is  a  fact  everywhere  observable.  Even  in  a  gen 
tleman's  household  a  head  servant  of  long  standing  not 
unfrequently  gains  such  influence,  that  his  master  is  in 


446  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

various  matters  guided  by  him — almost  controlled  by  him. 
With  chief  officers  of  State  it  has  often  been  the  same ;  and 
especially  where  hereditary  succession  is  well  established. 
A  ruler  who,  young,  or  idle,  or  pleasure-seeking,  performs  his 
duties  by  proxy,  or  who,  through  personal  liking  or  entire 
trust,  is  led  to  transfer  his  authority,  presently  becomes  so 
ill  informed  concerning  affairs,  or  so  unused  to  modes  of  pro 
cedure,  as  to  be  almost  powerless  in  the  hands  of  his  agent. 

Where  hereditary  succession  pervades  the  society  and  fixes 
its  organization,  there  is  sometimes  shown  a  tendency  to 
inheritance,  not  of  the  rulership  only,  but  also  of  these 
offices  which  grow  into  deputy-rulerships.  Under  the  Nor 
man  dukes  before  the  Conquest,  the  places  of  seneschal, 
cup-bearer,  constable,  and  chamberlain,  were  "  hereditary 
grand  serjeanties."  In  England  in  Henry  II.'s  time,  succes 
sion  to  the  posts  of  high-steward,  constable,  chamberlain,  and 
butler,  followed  from  father  to  son  in  the  houses  of  Leicester, 
Miles,  Vere,  and  Albini.  So  was  it  with  the  Scotch  in  King 
David's  reign :  "  the  offices  of  great  steward  and  high  constable 
had  become  hereditary  in  the  families  of  Stewart  and  De 
Morevil."  And  then  in  Japan  the  principle  of  inheritance  of 
ministerial  position  had  so  established  itself  as  to  insure 
ministerial  supremacy.  In  these  cases  there  come 

into  play  influences  and  methods  like  those  which  conduce  to 
hereditary  kingship.  When,  as  during  the  later  feudal  period 
in  France,  we  see  efforts  made  to  fix  in  certain  lines  of 
descent,  the  chief  offices  of  State  (efforts  which,  in  that  case, 
sometimes  succeeded  and  sometimes  failed),  we  are  shown 
that  ministers  use  the  facilities  which  their  places  give  them, 
to  establish  succession  to  these  places  in  their  own  families, 
in  the  same  way  that  early  kings  do.  Just  as,  during  the 
stage  of  elective  kingship,  the  king  is  apt  to  use  the  advan 
tages  derived  from  his  position  to  secure  the  throne  for  his 
son,  by  getting  him  chosen  during  his  own  life,  and  thus  to 
initiate  hereditary  succession ;  so  the  minister  who  has  been 
allowed  to  acquire  great  power,  is  prompted  to  employ  it  for 


MINISTRIES.  447 

the  purpose  of  establishing  a  monopoly  of  his  office  among 
his  own  descendants.  Generally  his  desire  is  effectually 
antagonized  by  that  of  the  ruler;  but  where,  as  in  Japan, 
seclusion  of  the  ruler  impedes  his  hold  on  affairs,  this  desire 
of  the  minister  takes  effect. 

Since  there  ever  tend  to  arise  these  struggles  between  a 
king  and  one  or  more  of  those  who  serve  him — since  his  efforts 
to  maintain  his  authority  are  sometimes  so  far  defeated  that 
he  is  obliged  to  accept  assistants  who  are  hereditary ;  there 
results  a  jealousy  of  thos°  whose  interests  are  at  variance 
with  his  own,  and  aii  endeavour  to  protect  himself  by  ex 
cluding  them  from  office.  There  comes  a  motive  for  choosing 
as  ministers  men  who,  having  no  children,  cannot  found 
houses  which,  growing  powerful,  may  compete  for  supremacy ; 
and  hence  in  certain  times  the  preference  for  celibate  priests. 
Or,  from  allied  motives,  men  neither  clerical  nor  military  are 
selected ;  as  in  France,  where  in  the  15th  and  17th  centuries, 
members  of  the  bourgeois  class  came  to  be  preferred.  A  policy 
like  that  shown  in  the  befriending  of  towns  as  a  set-off  against 
feudal  chiefs,  prompted  the  official  employment  of  citizens 
instead  of  nobles.  Under  other  conditions,  again,  there  is  a 
jealousy  of  ecclesiastics  and  an  exclusion  of  them  from  power. 
For  generations  before  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great,  the  head 
of  the  church  in  Russia  was  "  considered  the  second  person  in 
the  empire ;  he  was  consulted  on  all  State-affairs,  until  at 
length,  their  [his]  spiritual  pride  outrunning  all  decorum, 
venturing  upon,  and  even  attempting  to  control  the  sovereign 
power,  it  was  resolved  by  Peter  the  Great  to  abolish  the 
patriarchate  altogether."  Between  Louis  XIV.  and  the  Pope, 
there  was  a  conflict  for  supremacy  over  the  French  church ; 
and  on  more  occasions  than  one,  certain  of  the  clergy 
encouraged  "the  absolutist  pretensions  of  the  Eoman  Pontiffs  :" 
the  result  being  that  such  prelates  as  held  office  were  those 
who  subordinated  clerical  to  political  aims,  and  that  by 
Louis  XIV.,  after  1661,  "  no  churchman  was  allowed  to  touch 
the  great  engine  of  State-government "  Among  ourselves  may 
87 


448  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

be  traced,  if  less  clearly,  the  working  of  kindred  tendencies, 
During  the  loth  century,  "  clergymen  were  secretaries  of 
government,  the  privy  seals,  cabinet  councillors,  treasurers 
of  the  crown,  ambassadors,  commissioners  to  open  parlia 
ment,  and  to  Scotland;  presidents  of  the  king's  council, 
supervisors  of  the  royal  works,  chancellors,  keepers  of  the 
records,  the  masters  of  the  rolls,  &c. ;"  but  with  antagonism  to 
the  Church  came  partial,  and  in  later  days  complete,  disappear 
ance  of  the  clerical  element  from  the  administration.  Under 
Henry  VIII.  the  King's  secretary,  and  afterwards  the  chan 
cellor,  ceased  to  be  ecclesiastics  ;  while  of  the  council  of  six 
teen  executors  appointed  to  govern  during  the  minority  of 
his  son,  three  only  were  in  holy  orders.  And  though,  during 
a  subsequent  temporary  revival  of  papal  influence,  there  was 
a  re-acquirement  of  ministerial  position  by  priests,  they  after 
wards  again  ceased  to  be  chosen. 

Whether  a  ruler  is  able  to  prevent  high  offices  of  State 
from  being  held  by  men  whose  ambitions  and  interests  he 
fears,  depends,  however,  upon  his  acquirement  of  adequate 
predominance.  A  class  which,  being  powerful,  is  excluded 
as  therefore  dangerous,  being  still  more  powerful,  cannot  be 
excluded;  and  is  apt  either  to  monopolize  administrative 
functions  or  practically  to  dictate  the  choice  of  ministers.  In 
ancient  Egypt,  where  the  priesthood  was  pre-eminent  in 
influence,  the  administration  was  chiefly  officered  by  its 
members,  with  the  result  that  at  one  time  there  was  usurpa 
tion  of  the  kingship  by  priests ;  and  the  days  during  which 
the  Catholic  church  was  most  powerful  throughout  Europe, 
were  the  clays  during  which  high  political  posts  were  very 
generally  held  by  prelates.  In  other  cases  supremacy  of 
the  military  class  is  shown ;  as  in  Japan,  where  soldiers  have 
habitually  been  the  ministers  and  practically  usurpers ;  as  in 
feudal  England,  when  Henry  III.  was  obliged  by  the  barons 
to  accept  Hugh  Le  Despenser  as  chief  justiciary,  and  other 
nominees  as  officers  of  his  household  ;  or  as  when,  in  the 
East,  down  to  our  own  time,  changes  of  ministry  are  insisted 


MINISTRIES.  449 

on  by  the  soldiery.  Naturally  in  respect  of  these  administra 
tive  offices,  as  in  respect  of  all  other  places  of  power,  there 
arises  a  conflict  between  the  chiefs  of  the  warrior  class,  who 
are  the  agents  of  the  terrestrial  ruler,  and  the  chiefs  of  the 
clerical  class,  who  profess  to  be  agents  of  the  celestial  ruler ; 
and  the  predominance  of  the  one  or  the  other  class,  is  in 
many  cases  implied  by  the  extent  to  which  it  fills  the  chief 
offices  of  State. 

Such  facts  show  us  that  where  there  has  not  yet  been 
established  any  regular  process  for  making  the  chief  advisers 
and  agents  of  the  ruler  into  authorized  exponents  of  public 
opinion,  there  nevertheless  occurs  an  irregular  process  by 
which  some  congruity  is  maintained  between  the  actions  of 
these  deputy  rulers  and  the  will  of  the  community ;  or,  at 
any  rate,  the  will  of  that  part  which  can  express  its  will. 

§  506.  Were  elaboration  desirable,  and  collection  of  the 
needful  data  less  difficult,  a  good  deal  might  here  be  added 
respecting  the  development  of  ministries. 

Of  course  it  could,  in  multitudinous  cases,  be  shown 
how,  beginning  as  simple,  they  become  compound — the  soli 
tary  assistant  to  the  chief,  helping  him  in  all  ways,  develop 
ing  into  the  numerous  great  officers  of  the  king,  dividing 
among  them  duties  which  have  become  extensive  and  in 
volved.  Along  with  this  differentiation  of  a  ministry  might 
also  be  traced  the  integration  of  it  that  takes  place  under 
certain  conditions :  the  observable  change  being  from  a  state 
in  which  the  departmental  officers  separately  take  from  the 
ruler  their  instructions,  to  a  state  in  which  they  form  an 
incorporated  body.  There  might  be  pursued  an  inquiry 
respecting  the  conditions  under  which  this  incorporated  body 
gains  power  and  accompanying  responsibility ;  with  the  pro 
bable  result  of  showing  that  development  of  an  active 
executive  council,  and  accompanying  reduction  of  the  original 
executive  head  to  an  automatic  state,  characterizes  that  re 
presentative  form  of  government  proper  to  the  industrial 


450  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

type.  But  while  results  neither  definite  nor  important  arc 
likely  to  be  reached,  the  reaching  of  such  as  are  promised 
would  necessitate  investigation  at  once  tedious  and  unsatis 
factory. 

For  such  ends  as  are  here  in  view,  it  suffices  to  recognize 
the  general  facts  above  set  forth.  As  the  political  head  is  at 
first  but  a  slightly-distinguished  member  of  the  group — now 
a  chief  whose  private  life  and  resources  are  like  those  of  any 
other  warrior,  now  a  patriarch  or  a  feudal  lord  who,  becoming 
predominant  over  other  patriarchs  or  other  feudal  lords,  at  first 
lives  like  them  on  revenues  derived  from  private  possessions 
— so  the  assistants  of  the  political  head  take  their  rise  from 
the  personal  connexions,  friends,  servants,  around  him :  they 
are  those  who  stand  to  him  in  private  relations  of  blood,  or 
liking,  or  service.  With  the  extension  of  territory,  the  in 
crease  of  affairs,  and  the  growth  of  classes  having  special 
interests,  there  come  into  play  influences  which  differentiate 
some  of  those  who  surround  the  ruler  into  public  functionaries, 
distinguished  from  members  of  his  family  and  his  household. 
And  these  influences,  joined  with  special  circumstances,  de 
termine  the  kinds  of  public  men  who  come  into  power. 
Where  the  absoluteness  of  the  political  head  is  little  or  not 
at  all  restrained,  he  makes  arbitrary  choice  irrespective  of 
rank,  occupation,  or  origin.  If,  being  predominant,  there  are 
nevertheless  classes  of  whom  he  is  jealous,  exclusion  of  these 
becomes  his  policy ;  while  if  his  predominance  is  inadequate, 
representatives  of  such  classes  are  forced  into  office.  And 
this  foreshadows  the  system  under  which,  along  with  decline 
of  monarchical  power,  there  grows  up  an  incorporated  body 
of  ministers  having  for  its  recognized  function  to  execute 
the  public  will 


CHAPTER  XL 

LOCAL  GOVERNING  AGENCIES. 

§  507.  This  title  is  needed  because  tlie  classes  of  facts  to 
be  here  dealt  with,  cover  a  wider  area  than  those  comprehended 
under  the  title  "  Local  Governments." 

We  have  to  deal  with  two  kinds  of  appliances  for  control, 
originally  one  but  gradually  becoming  distinguished.  Alike 
among  peoples  characterized  by  the  reckoning  of  kinship 
through  females,  and  among  peoples  characterized  by  descent 
of  property  and  power  through  males,  the  regulative  system 
based  on  blood-relationship  is  liable  to  be  involved  with,  and 
subordinated  by,  a  regulative  system  originating  from  military 
leadership.  Authority  established  by  triumph  in  war,  nol 
unfrequently  comes  into  conflict  with  authority  derived  from 
the  law  of  succession,  when  this  has  become  partially  settled, 
and  initiates  a  differentiation  of  political  headship  from  family 
headship.  We  have  seen  that,  from  primitive  stages  upwards, 
the  principle  of  efficiency  and  the  principle  of  inheritance  are 
both  at  work  in  determining  men's  social  positions;  and  where, 
as  happens  in  many  cases,  a  war-chief  is  appointed  when  the 
occasion  arises,  notwithstanding  the  existence  of  a  chief  of 
acknowledged  legitimacy,  there  is  a  tendency  for  transmitted 
power  to  be  over -ridden  by  power  derived  from  capacity. 
From  the  beginning,  then,  there  is  apt  to  grow  up  a  species  of 
government  distinct  from  family-government ;  and  the  apti 
tude  takes  effect  where  many  family-groups,  becoming  united, 

88 


452  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

carry  on  militant  activities.  The  growth  of  the  family  into 
the  gens,  of  the  gens  into  the  phratry,  of  the  phratry  into  the 
tribe,  implies  the  multiplication  of  groups  more  and  more 
remotely  akin,  and  less  and  less  easily  subordinated  by  the 
head  of  some  nominally-leading  group ;  and  when  local  aggre 
gation  brings  interfusion  of  tribes  which,  though  of  the  sarno 
stock,  have  lost  their  common  genealogy,  the  rise  of  some 
headship  other  than  the  headships  of  family-groups  becomes 
imminent.  Though  such  political  headship,  passing  through 
the  elective  stage,  often  becomes  itself  inheritable  after  the 
same  manner  as  the  original  family-headships,  yet  it  consti 
tutes  a  new  kind  of  headship. 

Of  the  local  governing  agencies  to  which  family-headships 
and  political  headships  give  origin,  as  groups  become  com 
pounded  and  re-compounded,  we  will  consider  first  the  poli 
tical,  as  being  most  directly  related  to  the  central  governing 
agencies  hitherto  dealt  with. 

§  503.  According  to  the  relative  powers  of  conqueror  and 
conquered,  war  establishes  various  degrees  of  subordination. 
Here  the  payment  of  tribute  and  occasional  expression  of 
homage,  interfere  but  little  with  political  independence ;  and 
there  political  independence  is  almost  or  quite  lost.  Generally, 
however,  at  the  outset  the  victor  either  finds  it  necessary  to 
respect  the  substantial  autonomies  of  the  vanquished  societies, 
or  finds  it  his  best  policy  to  do  this.  Hence,  before  inte 
gration  has  proceeded  far,  local  governments  are  usually 
nothing  more  than  those  governments  of  the  parts  which 
existed  before  they  were  united  into  a  whole. 

We  find  instances  of  undecided  subordination  everywhere, 
Tn  Tahiti  "  the  actual  influence  of  the  king  over  the  haughty 
and  despotic  district  chieftains,  was  neither  powerful  nor 
permanent."  Of  our  own  political  organization  in  old  English 
times  Kemble  writes  : — "  the  whole  executive  government 
may  be  considered  as  a  great  aristocratic  association,  of  which 
the  ealdormen  were  the  constituent  earls,  and  the  king  little 


LOCAL  GOVERNING  AGENCIES.  453 

more  than  president."  Similarly  during  early  feudal  times ; 
as,  for  example,  in  France.  "  Under  the  first  Capetians,  we 
find  scarcely  any  general  act  of  legislation.  .  .  .  Everything 
was  local,  and  all  the  possessors  of  fiefs  first,  and  afterwards 
all  the  great  suzerains,  possessed  the  legislative  power  within 
theii  domains."  This  is  the  kind  of  relation  habitually  seen 
durbg  the  initial  stages  jf  those  clustered  groups  in  which 
one  group  has  acquired  power  over  the  rest. 

In  cases  where  the  successful  invader,  external  to  the  cluster 
instead  of  internal,  is  powerful  enough  completely  to  subju 
gate  all  the  groups,  it  still  happens  that  the  pre-existing  local 
organizations  commonly  survive.  Ancient  American  states 
yield  examples.  "  When  the  kings  of  Mexico,  Tezcuco,  nnd 
Tacuba  conquered  a  province,  they  used  to  maintain  in  their 
authority  all  the  natural  chiefs,  the  highest  as  well  as  the 
lower  ones."  Concerning  certain  rulers  of  Chibcha  com 
munities,  who  became  subject  to  Bogota,  we  read  that  the 
Zipa  subdued  them,  but  left  them  their  jurisdiction  and  left 
the  succession  to  the  caziqueship  in  their  families.  And  as 
was  pointed  out  under  another  head,  the  victorious  Yncas 
left  outstanding  the  political  headships  and  administrations  of 
the  many  small  societies  they  consolidated.  Such  is,  in  fact, 
the  most  convenient  policy.  As  is  remarked  by  Sir  Henry 
Maine,  "  certain  institutions  of  a  primitive  people,  their  cor 
porations  and  village-communities,  will  always  be  preserved 
by  a  suzerain-state  governing  them,  on  account  of  the  facilities 
which  they  afford  to  civil  and  fiscal  administration;"  and  the 
like  may  be  said  of  the  larger  regulative  structures.  Indeed 
the  difficulty  of  suddenly  replacing  an  old  local  organization 
by  an  entirely  new  one,  is  so  great  that  almost  of  necessity  the 
old  one  is  in  large  measure  retained. 

The  autonomies  of  local  governments,  thus  sometimes 
scarcely  at  all  interfered  with  and  in  other  cases  but  partially 
suppressed,  manifest  themselves  in  various  ways.  The 
original  independence  of  groups  continues  to  be  shown 
by  the  right  of  private  war  between  them.  They  retain  theii 


454  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

local  gods,  their  ecclesiastical  organizations,  their  religious 
festivals.  And  in  time  of  general  war  the  contingents  they 
•severally  furnish  remain  separate.  Egyptian  nomes,  Greek 
cities,  feudal  lordships,  yield  illustrations. 

§  509.  The  gradual  disappearance  of  local  autonomies  h 
a  usual  outcome  of  the  struggle  between  the  governments  of 
the  paits,  which  try  to  retain  their  powers,  and  the  central 
government,  which  tries  to  diminish  their  powers. 

In  proportion  as  his  hands  are  strengthened,  chiefly  by 
successful  wars,  the  major  political  head  increases  his 
restraints  over  the  minor  political  heads ;  first  by  stopping 
private  wars  among  them,  then  by  interfering  as  arbitrator, 
then  by  acquiring  an  appellate  jurisdiction.  Where  the  local 
rulers  have  been  impoverished  by  their  struggles  with  one 
another,  or  by  futile  attempts  to  recover  their  independence, 
or  by  drafts  made  on  their  resources  for  external  wars — where, 
also,  followers  of  the  central  ruler  have  grown  into  a  new  order 
of  nobles,  with  gifts  of  conquered  or  usurped  lands  as  rewards 
for  services ;  the  way  is  prepared  for  administrative  agencies 
centrally  appointed.  Thus  in  France,  when  the  monarch 
became  dominant,  the  seigneurs  were  gradually  deprived  of 
legislative  authority.  Royal  confirmation  became  requisite 
to  make  signorial  acts  valid;  and  the  crown  acquired  the 
exclusive  right  of  granting  charters,  the  exclusive  right  of 
ennobling,  the  exclusive  right  of  coining.  Then  with  decline 
in  the  power  of  the  original  local  rulers  came  deputies  of  the 
king  overlooking  them  :  provincial  governors  holding  office  at 
the  king's  pleasure  were  nominated.  In  subsequent  periods 
grew  up  the  administration  of  intendants  and  their  sub-dele 
gates,  acting  as  agents  of  the  crown ;  and  whatever  small  local 
powers  remained  were  exercised  under  central  supervision. 
English  history  at  various  stages  yields  kindred  illustrations. 
When  Mercia  was  formed  out  of  petty  kingdoms,  the  local 
kings  became  ealdormen ;  and  a  like  change  took  place 
afterwards  on  a  larger  scale.  "  From  the  time  of  Ecyberht 


LOCAL  GOVERNING  AGENCIES.  455 

onwards  there  is  a  marked  distinction  between  the  King  and 
the  Ealdorman.  The  King  is  a  sovereign,  the  Ealdormaii 
is  only  a  magistrate."  Just  noting  that  under  Cnut,  eal- 
dormen  became  subordinated  by  the  appointment  of  earls, 
and  again  that  under  William  I.  earldoms  were  filled  up  afresh, 
we  observe  that  after  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  had  weak- 
oned  them,  the  hereditary  nobles  had  their  local  powers  inter 
fered  with  by  those  of  centrally-appointed  lords-lieutenant. 
Not  only  provincial  governing  agencies  of  a  personal  kind 
come  to  be  thus  subordinated  as  the  integration  furthered  by 
war  progresses,  but  also  those  of  a  popular  kind.  The  old 
English  Scirgerefa,  who  presided  over  the  Sciregemot,  was  at 
first  elective,  but  was  afterwards  nominated  by  the  king. 
Under  a  later  regime  there  occurred  a  kindred  change: 
"  9  Edward  II.  abolished  the  popular  right  to  election"  to  the 
office  of  sheriff'.  And  similarly,  "from  the  beginning  of 
Edward  IIL's  reign,  the  appointment  of  conservators  "  of  the 
peace,  who  were  originally  elected,  "was  vested  in  the  crown/' 
"  and  their  title  changed  to  that  of  justices." 

With  sufficient  distinctness  such  facts  show  us  that,  rapidly 
where  a  cluster  of  small  societies  is  subjugated  by  an 
invader,  and  slowly  where  one  among  them  acquires  an 
established  supremacy,  the  local  rulers  lose  their  directive 
powers  and  become  executive  agents  only ;  discharging  what 
ever  duties  they  retain  as  the  servants  of  newer  local  agents. 
In  the  course  of  political  integration,  the  original  governing 
centres  of  the  component  parts  become  relatively  automatic 
in  theii  functions. 

§  510.  A  further  truth  to  be  noted  is  that  there  habitually 
exists  a  kinship  in  structure  between  the  general  government 
and  the  local  governments.  Several  causes  conspire  to  pro 
duce  this  kinship. 

Where  one  of  a  cluster  of  groups  has  acquired  power 
over  the  rest,  either  directly  by  the  victories  of  its  ruler 
over  them,  or  indirectly  by  his  successful  leadership  oi 


456  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

the  confederation  in  war,  this  kinship  becomes  a  matter  of 
course.  For  under  such  conditions  the  general  government 
is  but  a  development  of  that  which  was  previously  one  of 
the  local  governments.  We  have  a  familiar  illustration 
furnished  by  old  English  times  in  the  likeness  between  the 
hundred-moot  (a  small  local  governing  assembly),  the 
shire-moot  (constituted  in  an  analogous  way,  but  having 
military,  judicial,  and  fiscal  duties  of  a  wider  kind,  and 
headed  by  a  chief  originally  elected),  and  the  national 
witanagemot  (containing  originally  the  same  class-elements, 
though  in  different  proportions,  headed  by  a  king,  also  at  first 
elected,  and  discharging  like  functions  on  a  larger  scale). 
This  similarity  recurs  under  another  phase.  Sir  Henry  Maine 
says  :— 

"  It  has  often,  indeed,  been  noticed  that  a  Feudal  Monarchy  was  an 
exact  counterpart  of  a  Feudal  Manor,  but  the  reason  of  the  correspon 
dence  is  only  now  beginning  to  dawn  upon  us,  which  is,  that  both  of 
them  were  in  their  origin  bodies  of  assumed  kinsmen  settled  on  land 
and  nn  lergoing  the  same  transmutation  of  ideas  through  the  fact  of 
set!  lenient." 

Of  France  in  the  early  feudal  period,  Maury  says,  "the 
court  of  every  great  feudatory  was  the  image,  of  course 
slightly  reduced,  of  that  of  the  king ;"  and  the  facts  he  names 
curiously  show  that  locally,  as  generally,  there  was  a  develop 
ment  of  servants  into  ministerial  officers.  Kindred  evidence 
comes  from  other  parts  of  the  world — Japan,  several  African 
States,  sundry  Polynesian  islands,  ancient  Mexico,  Mediaeval 
India,  &c. ;  where  forms  of  society  essentially  similar  to  those 
of  the  feudal  system  exist  or  have  existed. 

Where  the  local  autonomy  has  been  almost  or  quite 
destroyed,  as  by  a  powerful  invading  race  bringing  with  it 
another  type  of  organization,  we  still  see  the  same  thing ;  for 
its  tendency  is  to  modify  the  institutions  locally  as  it 
modifies  them  generally,  From  early  times  eastern  king 
doms  have  shown  us  this ;  as  instance  the  provincial  rulers, 
or  satraps,  of  the  Persians.  "  While  .  .  .  they  remained  in 
office  they  were  despotic — they  represented  the  Great  King, 


LOCAL  GOVERNING  AGENCIES.  457 

and  were  clothed  with  a  portion  of  his  majesty,  .  .  .  They 
wielded  the  power  of  life  and  death."  And  down  to  the 
present  day  this  union  of  central  chief- despot  with  local  sub- 
despots  survives ;  as  is  implied  by  Bawlinson's  remark  that 
these  ancient  satraps  had  "  that  full  and  complete  authority 
which  is  possessed  by  Turkish  pashas  and  modern  Persian 
khans  or  beys — an  authority  practically  uncontrolled."  Other 
ancient  societies  of  quite  other  types  displayed  this  tendency 
to  assimilate  the  structures  of  the  incorporated  parts  to  thafc 
of  the  incorporating  whole.  Grecian  history  shows  us  that 
oligarchic  Sparta  sought  to  propagate  oligarchy  as  a  form  of 
government  in  dependent  territories,  while  democratic  Athens 
propagated  the  democratic  form.  And,  similarly,  where 
Eome  conquered  and  colonized,  there  followed  the  Eoman 
municipal  system. 

This  last  instance  reminds  us  that  as  the  character  of  the 
general  government  changes,  the  character  of  the  local 
government  changes  too.  In  the  Roman  empire  that  progress 
towards  a  more  concentrated  form  of  rule  which  con 
tinued  militancy  brought,  spread  from  centre  to  periphery. 
"  Under  the  Republic  every  town  had,  like  Rome,  a  popular 
assembly  which  was  sovereign  for  making  the  law  and  '  creat 
ing' magistrates;"  but  with  the  change  towards  oligarchic 
and  personal  rule  in  Rome,  popular  power  in  the  provinces 
decreased :  "  the  municipal  organization,  from  being  demo 
cratic,  became  aristocratic."  In  France,  as  monarchical  power 
approached  absoluteness,  similar  changes  were  effected  in 
another  way.  The  government  seized  on  municipal  offices, 
*  erecting  them  into  hereditary  offices,  and  .  .  .  selling  them 
at  the  highest  price :  .  .  .  a  permanent  mayor  and  assessors 
were  imposed  upon  all  the  municipalities  of  the  kingdom,  which 
ceased  to  be  elective  ;  "  and  then  these  magistrates  began  to 
assume  royal  airs — spoke  of  the  sanctity  of  their  magistracy, 
the  veneration  of  the  people,  &c.  Our  own  history  interest 
ingly  shows  simultaneous  movements  now  towards  freer,  and 
now  towards  less  free,  forms,  locally  and  generally.  When, 


458  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

under  King  John,  the  central  government  was  liberalized, 
towns  acquired  the  power  to  elect  their  own  magistrates. 
Conversely  when,  at  the  Restoration,  monarchical  powei 
increased,  there  was  a  framing  of  the  "  municipalities  on  a 
more  oligarchical  model."  And  then  comes  the  familiar  case 
of  the  kindred  liberalizations  of  the  central  government 
and  the  local  governments  which  have  occurred  in  our  own 
time. 

§  511.  From  those  local  governing  agencies  which  have 
acquired  a  political  character,  we  turn  now  to  those  which 
have  retained  the  primitive  family  character.  Though  with 
the  massing  of  groups,  political  organization  and  rule  become 
separate  from,  and  predominant  over,  family-organization 
and  rule,  locally  as  well  as  generally,  yet  family- organization 
and  rule  do  not  disappear  ;  but  in  some  cases  retaining  their 
orginal  nature,  in  some  cases  give  origin  to  other  local 
organizations  of  a  governmental  kind.  Let  us  first  note  how 
wide-spread  is  the  presence  of  the  family-cluster,  considered 
as  a  component  of  the  political  society. 

Among  the  uncivilized  Bedouins  we  see  it  existing  sepa 
rately :  "every  large  family  with  its  relations  constituting  a 
small  tribe  by  itself."  But,  says  Palgrave,  "  though  the  clan 
and  the  family  form  the  basis  and  are  the  ultimate  expression 
of  the  civilized  Arab  society,  they  do  not,  as  is  the  case 
among  the  Bedouins,  sum  it  up  altogether."  That  is,  political 
union  has  left  outstanding  the  family-organization,  but  has 
added  something  to  it.  And  it  was  thus  with  Semitic  societies 
of  early  days,  as  those  of  the  Hebrews.  Everywhere  it  has 
been  thus  with  the  Ayrans. 

4  The  [Irish]  Sept  is  f  body  of  kinsmen  whose  progenitor  is  no  longer 
living,  "but  whose  descent  from  him  is  a  reality.  .  .  .  An  association  of 
tins  sort  is  well  known  to  the  law  of  India  as  the  Joint  Undivided 
Family.  .  .  .  The  family  thus  formed  by  the  continuance  of  several 
generations  in  union,  is  identical  in  outline  with  a  group  very  familiar 
to  the  students  of  the  older  Roman  law — the  Agnatic  Kindred." 
Not  only  where  descent  in  the  male  line  has  been  established, 


LOCAL   GOVERNING   AGENCIES.  459 

but  also  where  the  system  of  descent  through  females  con 
tinues,  this  development  of  the  family  into  gens,  phratry, 
and  tribe,  is  found.  It  was  so  with  such  ancient  American 
peoples,  as  those  of  Yucatan,  where,  within  each  town,  tribal 
divisions  were  maintained ;  and,  according  to  Mr.  Morgan 
and  Major  Powell,  it  is  still  so  with  such  American  tribes  as 
the  Iroquois  and  the  Wyandottes. 

After  its  inclusion  in  a  political  aggregate,  as  before  its  in 
clusion,  the  family-group  evolves  a  government  <^<m-political 
in  nature.  According  to  the  type  of  race  and  the  system 
of  descent,  this  family-government  may  be,  as  among  ancient 
Semites  and  Ayrans,  an  unqualified  patriarchal  despotism ;  or 
it  may  be,  as  among  the  Hindoos  at  present,  a  personal  rule 
arising  by  selection  of  a  head  from  the  leading  family  of  the 
group  (a  selection  usually  falling  on  the  eldest) ;  or  it  may 
be,  as  in  American  tribes  like  those  mentioned,  the  govern 
ment  of  an  elected  council  of  the  gens,  which  elects  its  chief. 
That  is  to  say,  the  triune  structure  which  tends  to  arise  in 
any  incorporated  assembly,  is  traceable  in  the  compound 
family-group,  as  in  the  political  group :  the  respective  com 
ponents  of  it  being  variously  developed  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  people  and  the  conditions. 

The  government  of  each  aggregate  of  kinsmen  repeats, 
on  a  small  scale,  functions  like  those  of  the  government  of 
the  political  aggregate.  As  the  entire  society  revenges  itself 
on  other  such  societies  for  injury  to  its  members,  so  does  the 
family- cluster  revenge  itself  on  other  family-clusters  included 
in  the  same  society.  This  fact  is  too  familiar  to  need  illus 
tration!  but  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  even  now,  in  parts  of 
Europe  where  the  family-organization  survives,  the  family 
vendettas  persist.  "  L'Albanais  vous  dira  froidement  .  .  . 
Akeni-Dgiak?  avez-vous  du  sang  h  venger  dans  votre 
famille;"  and  then,  asking  the  name  of  your  tribe,  he  puts  his 
hand  on  his  pistol.  With  this  obligation  to  take  vengeance 
goes,  of  course,  reciprocal  responsibility.  The  family  in  all 
its  branches  is  liable  as  a  whole,  and  in  each  part,  for  tho 


460  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

injuries  done  by  its  members  to  members  of  other  families ; 
just  as  the  entire  society  is  held  liable  by  other  entire 
societies.  This  responsibility  holds  not  alone  for  lives  taken 
by  members  of  the  family-group,  but  also  for  damages  they 
do  to  property,  and  for  pecuniary  claims. 

|:  Dans  les  districts  Albanais  libres,  les  dettes  sont  contractces  a  terme. 
En  cas  de  non-paiement,  on  a  recours  aux  chefs  de  la  tribu  du 
dubiteur,  et  si  ceux-ci  refusent  de  faire  droit,  on  arrete  le  premier 
venu  qui  appartient  a  cette  tribu,  et  on  1'accable  de  mauvais  traitements 
jusqu'a  CG  qu'il  s'entende  avec  le  veritable  debiteur,  ou  qu'il  paie  lui- 
meme  ses  dettes,  risque  a  se  pouvoir  ensuite  devant  les  anciens  de  sa 
tribu  ou  de  poursuivre.  par  les  armes  celui  qui  lui  a  valu  ce  dommage." 

And  of  the  old  English  msegth  we  read  that  "  if  any  one  was 
imprisoned  for  theft,  witchcraft,  &c.,  his  kindred  must  pay 
the  fine  .  .  .  and  must  become  surety  for  his  good  conduct 
on  his  release." 

While,  within  the  political  aggregate,  each  compound 
family-group  thus  stood  towards  other  such  included  groups 
in  quasi-political  relations,  its  government  exercised  internal 
control.  In  the  gens  as  constituted  among  the  American 
peoples  above  named,  there  is  administration  of  affairs  by  its 
council.  The  gentile  divisions  among  historic  peoples  were 
ruled  by  their  patriarchs  ;  as  are  still  those  of  the  Hindoos  by 
their  chosen  elders.  And  then  besides  this  judicial  organi 
zation  within  the  assemblage  of  kindred,  there  is  the  religious 
organization,  arising  from  worship  of  a  common  ancestor, 
which  entails  periodic  joint  observances. 

Thus  the  evidence  shows  us  that  while  the  massing 
together  of  groups  by  war,  has,  for  its  concomitant,  develop 
ment  of  a  political  organization  which  dominates  over  the 
organizations  of  communities  of  kindred,  yet  these  com 
munities  of  kindred  long  survive,  and  partially  retain  their 
autonomies  and  their  constitutions. 

§  512,  Social  progress,  however,  transforms  them  in  sundry 
ways — differentiating  them  into  groups  which  gradually  lose 
their  family-characters.  One  cause  is  change  from  the  wander- 


LOCAL   GOVERNING  AGENCIES.  461 

ing  life  to  the  settled  life,  with  the  implied  establishment  of 
definite  relations  to  the  land,  and  the  resulting  multipli 
cation  and  interfusion. 

To  show  that  this  process  and  its  consequences  aro 
general,  I  may  name  the  calpulli  of  the  ancient  Mexicans, 
which  "  means  a  district  inhabited  by  a  family  ...  of  ancient 
origin  ;"  whose  members  hold  estates  which  "  belong  not  to 
each  inhabitant,  but  to  the  calpulli ;  "  who  have  chiefs  chosen 
out  of  the  tribe;  and  who  "  meet  for  dealing  with  the  com 
mon  interests,  and  regulating  the  apportionment  of  taxes,  and 
also  what  concerns  the  festivals."  And  then  I  may  name 
as  being  remote  in  place,  time,  and  race,  the  still-existing 
Russian  mir,  or  village-commune ;  which  is  constituted  by 
descendants  of  the  same  family-group  of  nomads  who  became 
settled ;  which  is  "  a  judicial  corporation  .  .  .  proprietor  of 
the  soil,  of  which  individual  members  have  but  the  usufruct 
or  temporary  enjoyment;"  which  is  governed  by  "  the  heads 
of  families,  assembled  in  council  under  the  presidency  of  the 
starosta  or  mayor,  whom  they  have  elected."  Just  noting  these 
allied  examples,  we  may  deal  more  especially  with  the  Teu 
tonic  mark,  which  was  "  formed  by  a  primitive  settlement  of 
a  family  or  kindred,"  when,  as  said  by  Cresar  of  the  Suevi, 
the  land  was  divided  among  "  gentes  et  cognationes  homi- 
num.''  In  the  words  of  Kemble,  marks  were — 

"  Great  family-unions,  comprising  households  of  various  degrees  of 
wealth,  rank,  and  authority;  some  in  direct  descent  from  the  common 
ancestors,  01  from  the  hero  of  the  particular  tribe  ;  others,  more  dis 
tantly  connected  .  .  .  ;  some,  admitted  into  communion  by  marriage, 
others  by  adoption,  others  by  emancipation ;  but  all  recognizing  a 
brotherhood,  a  kinsmanship  or  sibsceuft ;  all  standing  together  as  one 
unit  in  respect  of  other  similar  communities  ;  all  governed  by  the  same 
judges  and  led  by  the  same  captains  ;  all  sharing  in  the  same  religious 
rites  ;  and  all  known  to  themselves  and  to  their  neighbours  by  one 
general  name." 

To  which  add  that,  in  common  with  family-groups  as  already 
described,  the  cluster  of  kindred  constituting  the  mark  had, 
like  both  smaller  and  larger  clusters,  a  joint  obligation  to 


POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

defend  and  avenge  its  members,  and  a  joint  responsibility  for 
their  actions. 

And  now  we  are  prepared  for  observing  sundry  influences 
•which  conspire  to  change  the  grouping  of  kindred  into  poli 
tical  grouping,  locally  as  well  as  generally.  In  the  first  place, 
there  is  that  admission  of  strangers  into  the  family,  gens,  or 
tribe,  which  we  have  before  recognized  as  a  normal  process, 
from  savage  life  upwards.  Livingstone,  remarking  of  the 
Bakwains  that  "  the  government  is  patriarchal,"  describes 
each  chief  man  as  having  his  hut  encircled  by  the  huts  of  his 
•wives,  relatives,  and  dependents,  forming  a  kotla :  "  a  poor 
man  attaches  himself  to  the  kotla  of  a  rich  one  and  is  con 
sidered  a  child  of  the  latter."  Here  we  see  being  done 
informally,  that  which  was  formally  done  in  the  Roman 
household  and  the  Teutonic  mark.  In  proportion  as  the 
adopted  strangers  increase,  and  in  proportion  also  as  the 
cluster  becomes  diluted  by  incorporating  with  itself  emanci 
pated  dependents,  the  links  among  its  members  become 
weakened  and  its  character  altered.  In  the  second  place, 
when,  by  concentration  and  multiplication,  different  clusters 
of  kindred  placed  side  by  side,  become  interspersed,  and  there 
ceases  to  be  a  direct  connexion  between  locality  and  kinship, 
the  family  or  gentile  bonds  are  further  weakened.  And  then 
there  eventually  results,  both  for  military  and  fiscal  pur 
poses,  the  need  for  a  grouping  based  on  locality  instead  of  on 
relationship.  An  early  illustration  is  furnished  by  the 
Kleisthenian  revolution  in  Attica,  which  made  a  division  of 
the  territory  into  denies,  replacing  for  public  purposes  tribal 
divisions  by  topographical  divisions,  the  inhabitants  of  each 
of  which  had  local  administrative  powers  and  public  respon 
sibilities. 

We  are  here  brought  to  the  vexed  question  about  the  origin 
of  ty things  and  hundreds.  It  was  pointed  out  that  the 
ancient  Peruvians  had  civil  as  well  as  military  divisions 
into  tens  and  hundreds,  with  their  respective  officers.  In 
China,  where  there  is  pushed  to  an  extreme  the  principle  of 


LOCAL  GOVERNING  AGENCIES.  463 

making  groups  responsible  for  their  members,  the  clan-divi 
sions  are  not  acknowledged  by  the  government,  but  only  the 
tythings  and  hundreds  :  the  implication  being  that  these  last 
were  results  of  political  organization  as  distinguished  from 
family-organization.  In  parts  of  Japan,  too,  "  there  is  a  sort  of 
subordinate  system  of  wards,  and  heads  of  tens  and  hundreds, 
in  the  Otonos  of  towns  and  villages,  severally  and  collectively 
responsible  for  each  other's  good  conduct."  We  have  seen 
that  in  Rome,  the  groupings  into  hundreds  and  tens,  civil 
as  well  as  military,  became  political  substitutes  for  the 
gentile  groupings.  Under  the  Frankish  law,  "  the  tything- 
man  is  Dccanus,  the  hundred-man  Centenarius ; "  and  what 
ever  may  have  been  their  indigenous  names,  divisions  into 
tens  and  hundreds  appear  to  have  had  (judging  from  the  state 
ments  of  Tacitus)  an  independent  origin  among  the  Germanic 
races. 

And  now  remembering  that  these  hundreds  and  tythings, 
formed  within  the  marks  or  other  large  divisions,  still 
answered  in  considerable  degrees  to  groups  based  on  kinship 
(since  the  heads  of  families  of  which  they  were  constituted  as 
local  groups,  were  ordinarily  closer  akin  to  one  another 
than  to  the  heads  of  families  similarly  grouped  in  other  parts 
of  the  mark),  we  go  on  to  observe  that  there  survived  in 
them,  or  were  re-developed  in  them,  the  family-organization, 
rights,  and  obligations.  I  do  not  mean  merely  that  by 
their  hundred-moots,  &c.,  they  had  their  internal  administra 
tions  ;  but  I  mean  chiefly  that  they  became  groups  which 
had  towards  other  groups  the  same  joint  claims  and  duties 
which  family-groups  had.  Responsibility  for  its  members, 
previously  attaching  exclusively  to  the  cluster  of  kindied 
ii  respective  of  locality,  was  in  a  large  measure  transferred  to 
the  local  cluster  formed  but  partially  of  kindred.  For  this 
transfer  of  responsibility  an  obvious  cause  arose  as  the 
gentes  and  tribes  spread  and  became  mingled.  "While  the 
family-community  was  small  and  closely  aggregated,  an  offence 
committed  by  one  of  its  members  against  another  such  com  - 


464  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

munity  could  usually  be  brought  home  to  it  bodily,  if  nofc 
to  the  sinning  member;  and  as  a  whole  it  had  to  take 
the  consequences.  But  when  the  family- community,  multi 
plying,  began  to  occupy  a  wide  area,  and  also  became  inter 
fused  with  other  family-communities,  the  transgressor,  while 
often  traceable  to  some  one  locality  within  the  area,  was 
often  not  identifiable  as  of  this  or  that  kindred;  and  the  con 
sequences  of  his  act,  when  they  could  not  be  visited  on  his 
family,  which  was  not  known,  were  apt  to  be  visited  on  the 
inhabitants  of  the  locality,  who'  were  known.  Hence  the 
genesis  of  a  system  of  suretyship  which  is  so  ancient  and 
so  widespread.  Here  are  illustrations  : — 

"This  then  is  my  will,  that  every  man  be  in  surety,  both  within  the 
towns  and  without  the  towns." — Eadg.  ii.  Supp.  §  3. 

"  And  we  will  that  every  freeman  be  brought  into  a  hundred  and  into 
a  tithing,  who  desires  to  be  entitled  to  lad  or  wer,  in  case  any  one  should 
slay  him  after  he  have  reached  the  age  of  xii  years :  or  let  him  not  other 
wise  be  entitled  to  any  free  rights,  be  he  householder,  be  he  follower."— 
Cnut,  ii.  §  xx. 

"...  in  all  the  vills  throughout  the  kingdom,  all  men  are  bound  to  be 
in  a  guarantee  by  tens,  so  that  if  one  of  the  ten  men  offend,  the  other 
nine  may  hold  him  to  right." — Edw.  Conf.,  xx. 

Speaking  generally  of  this  system  of  mutual  guarantee,  as 
exhibited  among  the  Eussians,  as  well  as  among  the  Franks, 
Koutorga  says — 

"  Tout  membre  de  la  societe  devait  entrer  dans  une  decanie,  laquellc 
avait  pour  mission  la  defence  et  la  garantie  de  tous  en  general  et  de 
chacun  en  particulier  ;  c'est-a-dire  que  la  decanie  devait  venger  le  citoy en 
qui  lui  appartenait  et  exiger  le  wehrgeld,  s'il  avait  ete  tue ;  mais  en 
meme  temps  elle  se  portait  caution  pour  tous  les  seins." 

In  brief,  then,  this  form  of  local  governing  agency, 
developing  out  of,  and  partially  replacing,  the  primitive 
family-form,  was  a  natural  concomitant  of  the  multiplication 
and  mixture  resulting  from  a  settled  life. 

§  513.  There  remains  to  be  dealt  with  an  allied  kind  of  local 
governing  agency — a  kind  which,  appearing  to  have  been 
once  identical  with  the  last,  eventually  diverged  from  it 


LOCAL   GOVERNING  AGENCIES.  465 

Kemble  concludes  that  the  word  "  gegyldan "  means 
u  those  who  mutually  pay  for  one  another  .  .  .  the  associates 
of  the  tithing  and  the  hundred ; "  and  how  the  two  were 
originally  connected,  we  are  shown  by  the  statement  that  as 
late  as  the  10th  century  in  London,  the  citizens  were  united 
into  frithgylds,  "  or  associations  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
peace,  each  consisting  of  ten  men ;  while  ten  such  gylds 
were  gathered  into  a  hundred."  Prof.  Stubbs  writes  : — 

"The  collective  responsibility  for  producing  an  offender,  which  had 
lain  originally  on  the  msegth  or  kindred  of  the  accused,  was  gradually 
devolved  on  the  voluntary  association  of  the  guild ;  and  the  guild  super 
seded  by  the  local  responsibility  of  the  tithing." 

Here  we  have  to  ask  whether  there  are  not  grounds  for  con 
cluding  that  this  transfer  of  responsibility  originally  took 
place  through  development  of  the  family-cluster  into  the 
gild,  in  consequence  of  the  gradual  loss  of  the  family-cha 
racter  by  incorporation  of  unrelated  members.  That  we  do 
not  get  evidence  of  this  in  written  records,  is  probably  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  earlier  stages  of  the  change  took  place 
before  records  were  common.  But  we  shall  see  reasons  foi 
believing  in  such  earlier  stages  if  we  take  into  account  facts 
furnished  by  extinct  societies  and  societies  less  developed 
than  those  of  Europe. 

Of  the  skilled  arts  among  the  Peruvians,  Prescott  re 
marks  : — "  these  occupations,  like  every  other  calling  and 
office  in  Peru,  always  descended  from  father  to  son ; "  and 
Clavigero  says  of  the  Mexicans  "  that  they  perpetuated  the 
arts  in  families  to  the  advantage  of  the  State : "  the  reason 
Gomara  gives  why  "  the  poor  taught  their  sons  their  own 
trades/'  being  that  "  they  could  do  so  without  expense  " — a 
reason  of  general  application.  Heeren's  researches  into 
ancieni,  Egyptian  usages,  have  led  him  to  accept  the  state 
ment  of  early  historians,  that  "  the  son  was  bound  to  carry 
on  the  trade  of  his  father  and  that  alone ; "  and  he  cites  a 
papyrus  referring  to  an  institution  naturally  connected  with 
this  usage — "  the  guild  or  company  of  curriers  or  leather- 


466  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

dressers."  Then  of  the  Greeks,  Hermann  tell  us  that  various 
arts  and  professions  were — • 

"  peculiar  to  certain  families,  whose  claims  to  an  exclusive  exercise  of 
them  generally  ascended  to  a  fabulous  origin.  We  moreover  find 
*  pupil  and  son '  for  many  successive  generations  designated  by  the  same 
term ;  and  closely  connected  with  the  exclusiveness  and  monopoly  of 
many  professions,  is  the  little  respect  in  which  they  were,  in  some 
instances,  held  by  the  rest  of  the  people  :  a  circumstance  which  Greek 
authors  themselves  compare  with  the  prejudice  of  caste  prevalent  among 
other  nations." 

China,  as  at  present  existing,  yields  evidence  : — 

"  The  popular  associations  in  cities  and  towns  are  chiefly  based  upon  a 
community  of  interests,  resulting  either  from  a  similarity  of  occupation, 
when  the  leading  persons  of  the  same  calling  form  themselves  into 
guilds,  or  from  the  municipal  regulations  requiring  the  householders 
living  in  the  same  street  to  unite  to  maintain  a  police,  and  keep  the 
peace  of  their  division.  Each  guild  has  an  assembly-hall,  where  its 
members  meet  to  hold  the  festival  of  their  patron  saint." 

And,  as  I  learn  from  the  Japanese  minister,  a  kindred  state  of 
things  once  existed  in  Japan.  Children  habitually  followed 
the  occupations  of  their  parents;  in  course  of  generations 
there  resulted  clusters  of  relatives  engaged  in  the  same  trade  ; 
and  these  clusters  developed  regulative  arrangements  within 
themselves.  Whether  the  fact  that  in  Japan,  as  in  the  East 
generally,  the  clustering  of  traders  of  one  kind  in  the  same 
street,  arises  from  the  original  clustering  of  the  similarly- 
occupied  kindred,  I  find  no  evidence;  but  since,  in  early 
times,  mutual  protection  of  the  members  of  a  trading  kindred, 
as  of  other  kindred,  was  needful,  this  seems  probable.  Fur 
ther  evidence  of  like  meaning  may  be  disentangled  from  the 
involved  phenomena  of  caste  in  India.  In  No.  CXLII  of 
the  Calcutta  Review,  in  an  interesting  essay  by  Jogendra 
Ohandra  Ghosh,  caste  is  regarded  as  "  a  natural  development 
of  the  Indian  village-communities ; "  as  "  distinguished  not 
only  by  the  autonomy  of  each  guild,"  "  but  by  the  mutual 
relations  between  these  autonomous  guilds ; "  and  as  being 
eo  internally  organized  "  that  caste  government  does  not 
'ecoguize  the  finding  or  the  verdict  of  any  court  other  than 


LOCAL  GOVERNING   AGENCIES.  467 

what  forms  part  of  itself."  In  answer  to  my  inquiries,  the 
writer  of  this  essay  has  given  me  a  mass  of  detailed  informa 
tion,  from  which  I  extract  the  following : — 

"  A  Hindoo  joint  family  signifies  (1)  that  the  members  all  mess  together ; 
(2)  and  live  in  the  same  house ;  (3)  that  the  male  members  and  un 
married  girls  are  descended  from  a  common  ancestor  ;  and  (4)  that  the 
male  members  put  their  incomes  together.  .  .  .  The  integral  character 
of  the  family  is  destroyed  when  the  joint  mess  and  common  purse  cease 
to  exist.  However,  the  branches  thus  disunited  continue  to  observe 
certain  close  relations  as  gnatis  up  to  some  seven  or  fourteen  generations 
from  the  common  ancestor.  Beyond  that  limit  they  are  said  to  bo 
merely  of  the  same  gotra" 

Passing  over  the  detailed  constitution  of  a  caste  as  consist 
ing  of  many  such  gotras,  and  of  the  groups  produced  by  their 
intermarriages  under  restrictions  of  exogamy  of  the  gotras 
and  endogamy  of  the  caste — passing  over  the  feasts,  sacrificial 
and  other,  held  among  members  of  the  joint  family  when 
their  groups  have  separated ;  I  turn  to  the  facts  of  chief 
significance.  Though,  under  English  rule,  inheritance  of 
occupation  is  no  longer  so  rigorous,  yet — 

"  the  principle  is  universally  recognized  that  every  caste  is  bound  to 
follow  a  particular  occupation  and  no  other.  .  .  .  The  partition  of  the 
land,  or  the  house  as  well,  is  governed  by  the  law  of  equal  succession  ; 
and  as  fresh  branches  set  up  new  houses,  they  are  found  all  clustered 
together,  with  the  smallest  space  between  them  for  roadway.  .  .  .  But 
when,  as  in  bazaars,  men  take  up  houses  for  commercial  purposes,  the 
clustering  is  governed  either  by  family  and  caste-relations,  or  by 
common  avocations  [which  imply  some  caste-kinship]  and  facility  of 
finding  customers." 

In  which  facts  we  may  see  pretty  clearly  that  were  there 
none  of  the  complications  consequent  on  the  intermarriage 
regulations,  there  would  simply  result  groups  united  by 
accupation  as  well  as  by  ancestry,  clustering  together,  and 
Having  their  internal  governments. 

Be  turning  from  consideration  of  these  facts  supplied  by 
other  societies,  let  us  now  observe  how  numerous  are  the 
reasoiis  for  concluding  that  the  gild,  familiar  to  us  as  a 
union  of  similarly-occupied  workers,  was  originally  a  union 
of  kindred.  In  the  primitive  compound  family  there  was 
89 


408  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

worship  of  the  common  ancestor ;  and  the  periodic  sacrificial 
feasts  were  occasions  on  which  all  the  descendants  assembled. 
Describing  the  origin  of  gilds,  Thierry  writes : — 
"  Dans  1'ancienne  Scandinavie,  ceux  qui  se  reunissaient  aux  e"poques 
solennelles  pour  sacrifier  ensemble  terminaient  la  ceremonie  par  un 
festin  religieux.  Assis  autour  du  feu  et  de  la  chaudiere  du  sacrifice,  ils 
buvaient  a  la  ronde  et  vidaient  successivement  trois  cornes  remplies  de 
biere,  1'une  pour  les  dieux,  1'autre  pour  les  braves  du  vieux  temps,  et  la 
troisieme  pour  les  parents  et  les  amis  dont  les  tombes,  marquees  par  des 
monticules  de  gazon,  se  voyaient  §a  et  la  dans  la  plaine  ;  on  appelait 
celle-ci  la  coupe  de  Tamitie.  Le  nom  d'amitie  (minne)  se  donnait  aussi 
quelquefois  a  la  reunion  de  ceux  qui  offraient  en  commun  le  sacrifice, 
et,  d'ordinaire,  cette  reunion  6tait  appelee  ghilde" 
And  Brentano,  giving  a  similar  account,  says — "  '  Gild  '  meant 
originally  the  sacrificial  meal  made  up  of  the  common  contri 
butions  ;  then  a  sacrificial  banquet  in  general ;  and  lastly  a 
society."  Here  we  find  a  parallelism  with  the  observances  of 
the  Hindoo  joint-family,  consisting  of  clusters  of  relatives 
carrying  on  the  same  occupation,  who  meet  at  feasts  which 
were  primarily  sacrificial  to  ancestors;  and  we  find  a 
parallelism  with  the  religious  observances  of  such  clusters 
of  similarly-occupied  relatives  as  the  Asklepiadae  among 
the  Greeks ;  and  we  find  a  parallelism  with  the  gild- 
feasts  of  the  ancestor-worshipping  Chinese,  held  in  honour  of 
the  patron  saint :  all  suggesting  the  origin  of  those  religious 
services  and  feasts  habitual  in  early  gilds  of  our  own 
society.  To  state  briefly  the  further  likenesses  of 

nature : — We  have,  in  the  primitive  compound  family, 
the  obligation  of  blood-revenge  for  slain  relatives ;  and  in 
early  gilds,  as  in  ancient  Sleswig,  there  was  blood-revenge 
for  members  of  the  gild.  We  have,  in  the  compound 
family,  responsibility  for  transgressions  of  its  members ;  and 
gilds  were  similarly  responsible :  the  wergylds  falling  in  part 
on  them,  after  murders  were  compounded  for  by  money.  We 
have,  in  the  compound  family,  joint  claims  to  sustenance 
derived  from  the  common  property  and  labour ;  and  in  the 
gild  we  have  the  duty  of  maintaining  incapable  members. 
Within  the  family  there  was  control  of  private  conduct,  either 


LOCAL  GOVEKNING  AGENCIES.  469 

"by  a  despotic  Lead  or  by  a  council,  as  there  is  now  within  tho 
local  clusters  of  the  Hindoo  castes ;  and  in  like  manner  the 
ordinances  of  gilds  extended  to  the  regulation  of  personal 
habits.  Lastly,  this  family  or  caste  government,  as  still 
shown  us  in  India,  includes  in  its  punishments  excommuni 
cation ;  and  so,  too,  was  there  outlawry  from  the  gild.* 

It  is  inferable,  then,  that  the  gild  was  evolved  from  the 
family.  Continuance  of  a  business,  art,  or  profession,  among 
descendants,  is,  in  early  stages,  almost  inevitable.  Acquisi 
tion  of  skill  in  it  by  early  practice  is  easy  ;  the  cost  of  teaching 
is  inappreciable  ;  and  retention  of  the  "  craft "  or  "  mystery  " 
within  the  family  is  desirable :  there  being  also  the  reason 
that  while  family-groups  are  in  antagonism,  the  teaching  of 
one  another's  members  cannot  usually  be  practicable.  But 
in  course  of  time  there  come  into  play  influences  by  which 
the  character  of  the  gild  as  an  assemblage  of  kindred 
is  obscured.  Adoption,  which,  as  repeatedly  pointed  out, 
is  practised  by  groups  of  all  kinds,  needs  but  to  become 
common  to  cause  this  constitutional  change.  We  have  seen 
that  among  the  Greeks,  "pupil"  and  "son"  had  the  same  name. 
At  the  present  time  in  Japan,  an  apprentice,  standing  in  the 
position  of  son  to  his  master,  calls  him  "  father ;"  and  in  our 
own  craft-gilds  "the  apprentice  became  a  member  of  the 
family  of  his  master,  who  instructed  him  in  his  trade,  and 
who,  like  a  father,  had  to  watch  over  his  morals,  as  well  as 
his  work."  The  eventual  admission  of  the  apprentice 
into  the  gild,  when  he  was  a  stranger  in  blood  to  its  mem 
bers,  qualified,  in  so  far,  its  original  nature;  and  where, 
through  successive  generations,  the  trade  was  a  prospeious 

*  A  friend  who  has.  read  this  chapter  in  proof,  points  out  to  me  passages 
In  \rhioh  Brentano  draws  from  these  parallelisms  a  like  inference.  .Re 
ferring  to  the  traits  of  certain  fully-developed  gilds,  he  says  : — "  If  we  con- 
neet  them  with  what  historians  relate  about  the  family  in  those  days,  w« 
may  Btill  recognize  in  them  the  germ  from  which,  in  later  times,  at  a  certain 
stage  of  civilization,  the  Gild  had  necessarily  to  develop  itself  ,  .  .  the  family 
appears  as  the  pattern  and  original  type,  alter  which  all  the  later  Gilds  were 
formed." 


470  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

one,  tempting  masters  to  get  more  help  than  their  own  sons 
could  furnish,  this  process  would  slowly  bring  about  predomi 
nance  of  the  unrelated  members,  and  an  ultimate  loss  of  the 
family-character.  After  which  it  would  naturally  happen 
that  the  growing  up  of  new  settlements  and  towns,  bringing 
together  immigrants  who  followed  the  same  calling  but  were 
Dot  of  the  same  blood,  would  lead  to  the  deliberate  forma 
tion  of  gilds  after  the  pattern  of  those  existing  in  older 
places :  an  appearance  of  artificial  origin  being  the  result ; 
just  as  now,  in  our  colonies,  there  is  an  apparently  artificial 
origin  of  political  institutions  which  yet,  as  .being  fashioned 
like  those  of  the  mother-country,  where  they  were  slowly 
evolved,  are  traceable  to  a  natural  origin. 

Any  one  who  doubts  the  transformation  indicated,  may  be 
reminded  of  a  much  greater  transformation  of  allied  kind. 
The  gilds  of  London, — goldsmiths',  fishmongers',  and  the 
rest,— were  originally  composed  of  men  carrying  on  the 
trades  implied  by  their  names ;  but  in  each  of  these  com 
panies  the  inclusion  of  persons  of  other  trades,  or  of  no  trade, 
has  gone  to  the  extent  that  few  if  any  of  the  members  carry 
on  the  trades  which  their  memberships  imply.  If,  then, 
the  process  of  adoption  in  this  later  form,  has  so  changed 
the  gild  that,  while  retaining  its  identity,  it  has  lost  its 
distinctive  trade-character,  we  are  warranted  in  concluding 
that  still  more  readily  might  the  earlier  process  of  adop 
tion  into  the  simple  family  or  the  compound  family  practis 
ing  any  craft,  eventually  change  the  gild  from  a  cluster 
of  kindred  to  a  cluster  formed  chiefly  of  unrelated  persons. 

§  514.  Involved  and  obscure  as  the  process  has  been,  the 
evolution  of  local  governing  agencies  is  thus  fairly  compre 
hensible.  We  divide  them  into  two  kinds,  which,  starting 
from  a  common  root,  have  diverged  as  fast  as  small  societies 
have  been  integrated  into  large  ones. 

Through  successive  stages  of  consolidation,  the  political 
heads  of  the  once-separate  parts  pass  from  independence  to 


LOCAL  GOVERNING   AGENCIES.  471 

dependence,  and  end  in  being  provincial  agents — first  partially- 
conquered  chiefs  paying  tribute  ;  then  fully-conquered  chiefs 
governing  under  command ;  then  local  governors  who  are 
appointed  by  the  central  governor  and  hold  power  jndei 
approval :  becoming  eventually  executive  officers. 

There  is  habitually  a  kinship  in  character  between  tho 
controlling  systems  of  the  parts  and  the  controlling  system 
of  the  whole  (assuming  unity  of  race),  consequent  on  the 
fact  that  both  are  ultimately  products  of  the  same  individual 
nature.  With  a  central  despotism  there  goes  local  despotic 
rule ;  with  a  freer  form  of  the  major  government  there  goes 
a  freer  form  of  the  minor  governments ;  and  a  change  either 
way  in  the  one  is  followed  by  a  kindred  change  in  the 
other. 

While,  with  the  compounding  of  small  societies  into  large 
ones,  the  political  ruling  agencies  which  develop  locally  as 
well  as  generally,  become  separate  from,  and  predominant 
over,  the  ruling  agencies  of  family-origin,  these  last  do  not 
disappear ;  but,  surviving  in  their  first  forms,  also  give 
origin  to  differentiated  forms.  The  assemblage  of  kindred  long 
continues  to  have  a  qualified  semi- political  autonomy,  with 
internal  government  and  external  obligations  and  claims. 
And  while  family-clusters,  losing  their  definiteness  by  inter 
fusion,  slowly  lose  their  traits  as  separate  independent 
societies,  there  descend  from  them  clusters  which,  in  some 
cases  united  chiefly  by  locality  and  in  others  chiefly  by 
occupation,  inherit  their  traits,  and  constitute  governing 
agencies  supplementing  the  purely  political  ones. 

It  may  be  added  that  these  supplementary  governing 
agencies,  proper  to  the  militant  type  of  society,  dissolve  as 
the  industrial  type  begins  to  predominate.  Defending  their 
members,  held  responsible  for  the  transgressions  of  their 
members,  and  exercising  coercion  over  their  members,  they 
are  made  needful  by,  and  bear  the  traits  of,  a  regime  of 
chronic  antagonisms  ;  and  as  these  die  away  their  raistm 
d'etre  disappears.  Moreover,  artificially  restricting,  as  they 


472  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

do,  the  actions  of  each  memher,  and  also  making  him  re 
sponsible  for  other  deeds  than  his  own,  they  are  at  variance 
with  that  increasing  assertion  of  individuality  which  accom 
panies  developing  industrialism. 


CHAPTER   XII. 
MILITARY   SYSTEMS. 

§  515.  Indirectly,  much  has  already  been  said  concerning 
the  subject  now  to  be  dealt  with.  Originally  identical  as  is 
the  political  organization  with  the  military  organization,  it 
has  been  impossible  to  treat  of  the  first  without  touching  on 
the  second.  After  exhibiting  the  facts  under  one  aspect  we 
have  here  to  exhibit  another  aspect  of  them ;  and  at  the  same 
time  to  bring  into  view  classes  of  related  facts  thus  far  unob 
served.  But,  first,  let  us  dwell  a  moment  on  the  alleged 
original  identity. 

In  rude  societies  all  adult  males  are  warriors ;  and,  conse 
quently,  the  army  is  the  mobilized  community,  and  the  com 
munity  is  the  army  at  rest,  as  was  remarked  in  §  259. 

With  this  general  truth  we  may  join  the  general  truth 
that  the  primitive  military  gathering  is  also  the  primitive  poli 
tical  gathering.  Alike  in  savage  tribes  and  in  communities 
like  those  of  our  rude  ancestors,  the  assemblies  which  are 
summoned  for  purposes  of  defence  and  offence,  are  the 
assemblies  in  which  public  questions  at  large  are  decided. 

Next  stands  the  fact,  so  often  named,  that  in  the  normal 
course  of  social  evolution,  the  military  head  grows  into  tho 
political  head.  This  double  character  of  leading  warrior  and 
civil  ruler,  early  arising,  ordinarily  continues  through  long 
stages ;  and  where,  as  not  unfrequently  happens,  military 
headship  becomes  in  a  measure  separated  from  political 


474  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

headship,  continued  warfare  is  apt  to  cause  a  re-identifi 
cation  of  them. 

As  societies  become  compounded  and  re-compounded,  coin 
cidence  of  military  authority  with  political  authority  is  shown 
in  detail  as  well  as  in  general — in  the  parts  as  in  the  whole. 
The  minor  war-chiefs  are  also  minor  civil  rulers  in  their 
several  localities;  and  the  commanding  of  their  respective 
groups  of  soldiers  in  the  field,  is  of  like  nature  with  the 
governing  of  their  respective  groups  of  dependents  at  home. 

Once  more,  there  is  the  general  fact  that  the  economic 
organizations  of  primitive  communities,  coincide  with  their 
military  organizations.  In  savage  tribes  war  and  hunting 
are  carried  on  by  the  same  men  ;  while  their  wives  (and  their 
slaves  where  they  have  any)  do  the  drudgery  of  domestic 
life.  And,  similarly,  in  rude  societies  that  have  become 
settled,  the  military  unit  and  the  economic  unit  are  the  same. 
The  soldier  is  also  the  landowner. 

Such,  then,  being  the  primitive  identity  of  the  political 
organization  with  military  organization,  we  have  in  this 
chapter  to  note  the  ways  in  which  the  two  differentiate. 

§  516.  We  may  most  conveniently  initiate  the  inquiry  by 
observing  the  change  which,  during  social  evolution,  takes 
place  in  the  incidence  of  military  obligations  ;  and  by  recog 
nizing  the  accompanying  separation  of  the  fighting  body  from 
the  rest  of  the  community. 

Though  there  are  some  tribes  in  which  military  service 
(for  aggressive  war  at  any  rate)  is  not  compulsory,  as  the 
Comanches,  Dakotas;  Chippewas,  whose  war-chiefs  go  about 
enlisting  volunteers  for  their  expeditions ;  yet  habitually  where 
political  subordination  is  established,  every  man  not  privately 
possessed  as  a  chattel  is  bound  to  fight  when  called  on.  There 
have  been,  and  are,  some  societies  of  considerably- advanced 
structures  in  which  this  state  of  things  continues.  In  ancient 
Peru  the  common  men  were  all  either  actually  in  the  army 
or  formed  a  reserve  occupied  in  labour ;  and  in  modern  Siaiu 


MILITARY   SYSTEMS.  475 

the  people  "  are  all  soldiers,  and  owe  six  months'  service 
yearly  to  their  prince."  But,  usually,  social  progress  is  accom 
panied  by  a  narrowed  incidence  of  military  obligation. 

When  the  enslavement  of  captives  is  followed  by  the  rear 
ing  of  their  children  as  slaves,  as  well  as  by  the  consigning 
of  criminals  and  debtors  to  slavery — when,  as  in  some  cases, 
there  is  joined  with  the  slave-class  a  serf-class  composed  of 
subjugated  people  not  detached  from  their  homes ;  the  com 
munity  becomes  divided  into  two  parts,  on  one  of  which  only 
does  military  duty  fall.  Whereas,  in  previous  stages,  the 
division  of  the  whole  society  had  been  into  men  as  fighters 
and  women  as  workers,  the  division  of  workers  now  begins  to 
include  men ;  and  these  continue  to  form  an  increasing  part 
of  the  total  male  population.  Though  we  are  told  that  in 
Ashantee  (where  everyone  is  in  fact  owned  by  the  king)  the 
slave-population  "  principally  constitutes  the  military  force," 
and  that  in  Kabbah  (among  the  Fiilahs)  the  army  is  com 
posed  of  slaves  liberated  "  on  consideration  of  their  taking  up 
arms  ;"  yet,  generally,  those  in  bondage  are  not  liable  to  mili 
tary  service  :  the  causes  being  partly  distrust  of  them  (as  was 
shown  among  the  Spartans  when  forced  to  employ  the  helots) 
partly  contempt  for  them  as  defeated  men  or  the  offspring  of 
defeated  men,  and  partly  a  desire  to  devolve  on  others,  labours 
at  once  necessary  and  repugnant.  Causes  aside,  however,  the 
evidence  proves  that  the  army  at  this  early  stage  usually 
coincides  with  the  body  of  freemen  ;  who  are  also  the  body 
of  landowners.  This,  as  before  shown  in  §  458,  was  the 
case  in  Egypt,  Greece,  Home,  and  Germany.  How  natural 
is  this  incidence  of  military  obligation,  we  see  in  the  facts 
that  in  ancient  Japan  and  mediaeval  India,  there  were 
systems  of  military  tenure  like  that  of  the  middle  ages  in 
Europe ;  and  that  a  kindred  connexion  had  arisen  even  in 
societies  like  those  of  Tahiti  and  Samoa. 

Extent  of  estate  being  a  measure  of  its  owner's  ability 
to  bear  burdens,  there  grows  up  a  connexion  between 
the  amount  of  land  held  and  the  amount  of  military  aid 


476  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

to  be  rendered.  Thus  in  Greece  under  Solon,  those  whose 
properties  yielded  less  than  a  certain  revenue  were  exempt 
from  duty  as  soldiers,  save  in  emergencies.  In  Borne,  with  a 
view  to  better  adjustment  of  the  relation  between  means  and 
requirements,  there  was  a  periodic  "  revision  of  the  register  of 
landed  property,  which  was  at  the  same  time  the  levy-roll." 
Throughout  the  middle  ages  this  principle  was  acted  upon 
by  proportioning  the  numbers  of  warriors  demanded  to  the 
sizes  of  the  fiefs ;  and  again,  afterwards,  by  requiring  from 
parishes  their  respective  contingents. 

A  dissociation  of  military  duty  from  land-ownership 
begins  when  land  ceases  to  be  the  only  source  of  wealth. 
The  growth  of  a  class  of  free  workers,  accumulating  pro 
perty  by  trade,  is  followed  by  the  imposing  on  them,  also,  of 
obligations  to  fight  or  to  provide  fighters.  Though,  as  appa 
rently  in  the  cases  of  Greece  and  Kome,  the  possessions  in 
virtue  of  which  citizens  of  this  order  at  first  become  liable, 
are  lands  in  which  they  have  invested ;  yet,  at  later  stages, 
they  become  liable  as  possessors  of  other  property.  Such,  at 
least,  is  the  interpretation  we  may  give  to  the  practice  of 
making  industrial  populations  furnish  their  specified  numbers 
of  warriors ;  whether,  as  during  the  Eoman  conquests,  it  took 
the  shape  of  requiring  "  rich  and  populous  "  towns  to  maintain 
cohorts  of  infantry  or  divisions  of  cavalry,  or  whether,  as  with 
chartered  towns  in  mediaeval  days,  there  was  a  contract  with 
the  king  as  suzerain,  to  supply  him  with  stated  numbers  of 
men  duly  armed. 

Later  on,  the  same  cause  initiates  a  further  change.  As 
fast  as  industry  increases  the  relative  quantity  of  trans 
ferable  property,  it  becomes  more  easy  to  compound  for 
service  in  war ;  either  by  providing  a  deputy  or  by  paying  to 
the  ruler  a  sum  which  enables  him  to  provide  one.  Origi 
nally  the  penalty  for  non-fulfilment  of  military  obligation 
was  loss  of  lands  ;  then  a  heavy  fine,  which,  once  accepted, 
it  became  more  frequently  the  custom  to  bear;  then  an 
habitual  compounding  for  the  special  services  demanded; 


MILITARY   SYSTEMS.  477 

then  a  levying  of  dues,  such  as  those  called  scutages,  in  place 
of  special  compositions.  Evidently,  industrial  growth  made 
this  change  possible  ;  both  by  increasing  the  population  from 
which  the  required  numbers  of  substitutes  could  be  obtained, 
and  by  producing  the  needful  floating  capital. 

So  that  whereas  in  savage  and  semi-civilized  communities 
of  warlike  kinds,  the  incidence  of  military  obligation  is  such 
that  each  free  man  has  to  serve  personally,  and  also  to  pro 
vide  his  own  arms  and  provisions ;  the  progress  from  this 
state  in  which  industry  does  but  occupy  the  intervals  between 
wars  to  a  state  in  which  war  does  but  occasionally  break  the 
habitual  industry,  brings  an  increasing  dissociation  of  mili 
tary  obligation  from  free  citizenship :  military  obligation  at 
the  same  time  tending  to  become  a  pecuniary  burden  levied 
in  proportion  to  property  of  whatever  kind.  Though  where 
there  is  a  conscription,  personal  service  is  theoretically  due 
from  eacli  on  whom  the  lot  falls,  yet  the  ability  to  buy  a  sub 
stitute  brings  the  obligation  back  to  a  pecuniary  one.  And 
though  we  have  an  instance  in  our  own  day  of  universal 
military  obligation  not  thus  to  be  compounded  for,  we  see 
that  it  is  part  of  a  reversion  to  the  condition  of  predominant 
militancy. 

§  517.  An  aspect  of  this  change  not  yet  noted,  is  the 
simultaneous  decrease  in  the  ratio  which  the  fighting  part  of 
the  community  bears  to  the  rest.  With  the  transition  from 
nomadic  habits  to  settled  habits,  there  begins  an  economic 
resistance  to  militant  action,  which  increases  as  industrial  life 
develops,  and  diminishes  the  relative  size  of  the  military  body. 

Though  in  tribes  of  hunters  the  men  are  as  ready  for  war 
ut  one  time  as  at  another,  yet  in  agricultural  societies  there 
obviously  exists  an  impediment  to  unceasing  warfare.  In 
the  exceptional  case  of  the  Spartans,  the  carrying  on  of  rural 
industry  was  not  allowed  to  prevent  daily  occupation  of  all 
freemen  in  warlike  exercjses ;  but,  speaking  generally,  the 
sowing  and  reaping  of  crops  hinder  the  gathering  together 


POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

of  freemen  for  offensive  or  defensive  purposes.  Hence  in 
course  of  time  come  decreased  calls  on  them.  The  ancient 
Suevi  divided  themselves  so  as  alternately  to  share  war- 
duties  and  farm-work :  each  season  the  active  warriors  re 
turned  to  till  the  land,  while  their  places  were  "  supplied  by 
the  husbandmen  of  the  previous  year."  Alfred  established 
in  England  a  kindred  alternation  between  military  service 
and  cultivation  of  the  soil.  In  feudal  times,  again,  the  same 
tendency  was  shown  by  restrictions  on  the  duration  and 
amount  of  the  armed  aid  which  a  feudal  tenant  and  his  re 
tainers  had  to  give — now  for  sixty,  for  forty,  for  twenty  days, 
down  even  to  four ;  now  alone,  and  again  with  specified  num 
bers  of  followers ;  here  without  limit  of  distance,  and  there 
within  the  bounds  of  a  county.  Doubtless,  insubordination 
often  caused  resistances  to  service,  and  consequent  limitations 
of  this  kind.  But  manifestly,  absorption  of  the  energies  in 
industry,  directly  and  indirectly  antagonized  militant  action ; 
with  the  result  that  separation  of  the  fighting  body  from  the 
general  body  of  citizens  was  accompanied  by  a  decrease  in  its 
relative  mass. 

There  are  two  cooperating  causes  for  this  decrease  of  its 
relative  mass,  which  are  of  much  significance.  One  is  the 
increasing  costliness  of  the  soldier,  and  of  war  appliances, 
which  goes  along  with  that  social  progress  made  possible  by 
industrial  growth.  In  the  savage  state  each  warrior  provides 
his  own  weapons  ;  and,  on  war-excursions,  depends  on  himself 
for  sustenance.  At  a  higher  stage  this  ceases  to  be  the  case. 
"When  chariots  of  war,  and  armour,  and  siege-implements 
come  to  be  used,  there  are  presupposed  sundry  specialized  and 
skilled  artizan-classes ;  implying  a  higher  ratio  of  the  industrial 
part  of  the  community  to  the  militant  part.  And  when, 
later  on,  there  are  introduced  rire-arms,  artillery,  ironclads, 
torpedoes,  and  the  like,  we  see  that  there  must  co-exist 
a  large  and  highly-organized  body  of  producers  and  dis 
tributors  ;  alike  to  furnish  the  required  powers  and  bear  the 
entailed  cost.  That  is  to  say,  the  war-machinery,  both  living 


MILITARY   SYSTEMS.  479 

and  dead,  cannot  be  raised  in  efficiency  without  lowering 
the  ratio  it  bears  to  those  sustaining  structures  which  give  it 
efficiency. 

The  other  cooperating  cause  which  simultaneously  comes 
into  play,  is  directly  due  to  the  compounding  and  re-compound- 
i  ng  of  societies.  The  larger  nations  become,  and  the  greater  the 
distances  over  which  their  military  actions  range,  the  more 
expensive  do  those  actions  grow.  It  is  with  an  army  as  with 
a  limb,  the  effort  put  forth  is  costly  in  proportion  to  the 
remoteness  of  the  acting  parts  from  the  base  of  operations. 
Though  it  is  true  that  a  body  of  victorious  invaders  may  raise 
some,  or  the  whole,  of  its  supplies  from  the  conquered  society, 
yet  before  it  has  effected  conquest  it  cannot  do  this,  but  is 
dependent  for  maintenance  on  its  own  society,  of  which  it 
then  forms  an  integral  part :  where  it  ceases  to  form  an 
integral  part  and  wanders  far  away,  living  on  spoils,  like 
Tatar  hordes  in  past  ages,  we  are  no  longer  dealing  with 
social  organization  and  its  laws,  but  with  social  destruction. 
Limiting  ourselves  to  societies  which,  permanently  localized, 
preserve  their  individualities,  it  is  clear  that  the  larger  the 
integrations  formed,  the  greater  is  the  social  strain  conse 
quent  on  the  distances  at  which  fighting  has  to  be  done ;  and 
the  greater  the  amount  of  industrial  population  required  to 
bear  the  strain.  Doubtless,  improved  means  of  communica 
tion  may  all  at  once  alter  the  ratio ;  but  this  does  not  conflict 
with  the  proposition  when  qualified  by  saying — other  things 
equal. 

In  three  ways,  therefore,  does  settled  life,  and  the  develop 
ment  of  civilization,  so  increase  the  economic  resistance  to 
militant  action,  as  to  cause  decrease  of  the  ratio  boine  by 
the  militant  part  to  the  non-militant  part. 

§  518.  With  those  changes  in  the  incidence  of  military 
obligation  which  tend  to  separate  the  body  of  soldiers 
from  the  body  of  workers,  and  with  those  other  changes 
which  tend  to  diminish  its  relative  size,  there  go  changes 


450  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

which  tend  to  differentiate  it  in  a  further  way.  The  first  of 
these  to  be  noted  is  the  parting  of  military  headship  from 
political  headship. 

We  have  seen  that  the  commencement  of  social  organization 
is  the  growth  of  the  leading  warrior  into  the  civil  governor. 
To  illustrative  facts  before  named  may  be  added  the  fact 
that  an  old  English  ruler,  as  instance  Hengist,  was  originally 
called  "  Here-toga  " — literally  army-leader ;  and  the  office 
developed  into  that  of  king  only  after  settlement  in  Britain. 
But  with  establishment  of  hereditary  succession  to  political 
headship,  there  comes  into  play  an  influence  which  tends  to 
make  the  chief  of  the  State  distinct  from  the  chief  of  the 
army.  That  antagonism  between  the  principle  of  inheritance 
and  the  principle  of  efficiency,  everywhere  at  work,  has  from 
the  beginning  been  conspicuous  in  this  relation,  because  of 
the  imperative  need  for  efficient  generalship.  Often,  as  shown 
in  §  473,  there  is  an  endeavour  to  unite  the  two  qualifications ; 
as,  for  example,  in  ancient  Mexico,  where  the  king,  before  being 
crowned,  had  to  fill  successfully  the  position  of  commander- 
in-chief.  But  from  quite  early  stages  we  find  that  where 
hereditary  succession  has  been  established,  and  there  does  not 
happen  to  be  inheritance  of  military  capacity  along  with 
political  supremacy,  it  is  common  for  headship  of  the  warriors 
to  become  a  separate  post  filled  by  election.  Says  Waitz, 
"  among  the  Guaranis  the  chieftainship  generally  goes  from 
father  to  first-born  son.  The  leader  in  war  is,  however, 
elected,"  In  Ancient  Nicaragua  "  the  war-chief  was  elected 
by  the  warriors  to  lead  them,  on  account  of  his  ability  and 
bravery  in  battle  ;  but  the  civil  or  hereditary  chief  often 
accompanies  the  army."  Of  the  New  Zealanders  we  read 
that  "  hereditary  chiefs  were  generally  the  leaders,"  but  not 
always:  others  being  chosen  on  account  of  bravery.  And 
among  the  Sakarran  Dyaks  there  is  a  war  chief,  in  addition 
to  the  ordinary  chief.  In  the  case  of  the  Bedouins  the  original 
motive  has  been  defeated  hi  a  curious  way. 
''  During  a  campaign  in  actual  warfare,  the  authority  of  the  sheikh 


MILITARY   SYSTEMS.  481 

of  the  tribe  is  completely  set  aside,  and  the  soldiers  are  wholly  under 
the  command  of  the  agyd.  .  .  .  The  office  of  agyd  is  hereditary  in  a 
certain  family,  from  father  to  son  ;  and  the  Arabs  submit  to  the  com 
mands  of  an  agyd,  whom  they  know  to  be  deficient  both  in  bravery  and 
judgment,  rather  than  yield  to  the  orders  of  their  sheikh  during  the 
actual  expedition  ;  for  they  say  that  expeditions  headed  by  the  sheikh, 
are  always  unsuccessful." 

It  should  be  added  that  in  some  cases  we  see  coming  into 
play  further  motives.  Forster  tells  us  that  in  Tahiti  the 
king  sometimes  resigns  the  post  of  commander-in-chief  of 
the  fighting  force,  to  one  of  his  chiefs  :  conscious  either  of  his 
own  unfitness  or  desirous  of  avoiding  danger.  And  then  in 
some  cases  the  anxiety  of  subjects  to  escape  the  evils  follow 
ing  loss  of  the  political  head,  leads  to  this  separation ;  as 
when,  among  the  Hebrews,  "  the  men  of  David  sware  unto 
him,  saying,  Thou  shalt  go  no  more  out  with  us  to  battle, 
that  thou  quench  not  the  light  of  Israel ; "  or  as  when,  in 
France  in  923,  the  king  was  besought  by  the  ecclesiastics 
and  nobles  who  surrounded  him,  to  take  no  part  in  the  im 
pending  fight. 

At  the  same  time  the  ruler,  conscious  that  military  com 
mand  gives  great  power  to  its  holder,  frequently  appoints  as 
army-leader  his  son  or  other  near  relative :  thus  trying  to 
prevent  the  usurpation  so  apt  to  occur  (as,  to  add  another 
instance,  it  occurred  among  the  Hebrews,  whose  throne  was 
several  times  seized  by  captains  of  the  host).  The  Iliad  shows 
that  it  was  usual  for  a  Greek  king  to  delegate  to  his  heir 
the  duty  of  commanding  Ins  troops.  In  Merovingian  times 
kings'  sons  frequently  led  their  fathers'  armies  ;  and  of  the 
Carolingians  we  read  that  while  the  king  commanded  the 
main  levy,  "  over  other  armies  his  sons  were  placed,,  and  to 
them  the  business  of  commanding  was  afterwards  increas 
ingly  transferred."  It  was  thus  in  ancient  Japan.  When  the 
emperor  did  not  himself  command  his  troops,  "  this  change 
was  only  committed  to  members  of  the  Imperial  house," 
and  "  the  power  thus  remained  with  the  sovereign."  In 
ancient  Peru  there  was  a  like  alternative.  "  The  army  was 


482  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

put  under  the  direction  of  some  experienced  chief  of  the  royal 
blood,  or,-  more  frequently,  headed  by  the  Ynca  in  person." 

The  widening  civil  functions  of  the  political  head,  obviously 
prompt  this  delegation  of  military  functions.  But  while  the 
discharge  of  both  becomes  increasingly  difficult  as  the  nation 
enlarges ;  and  while  the  attempt  to  discharge  both  is  danger 
ous  ;  there  is  also  danger  in  doing  either  by  deputy.  At  the 
same  time  that  there  is  risk  in  giving  supreme  command  of  a 
distant  army  to  a  general,  there  is  also  risk  in  going  with  the 
army  and  leaving  the  government  in  the  hands  of  a  vice 
gerent  ;  and  the  catastrophes  from  the  one  or  the  other 
cause,  which,  spite  of  precautions,  have  taken  place,  show  us 
alike  that  there  is,  during  social  evolution,  an  inevitable  ten 
dency  to  the  differentiation  of  the  military  headship  from  the 
political  headship,  but  that  this  differentiation  can  become 
permanent  only  under  certain  conditions. 

The  general  fact  would  appear  to  be  that  while  militant 
activity  is  great,  and  the  whole  society  has  the  organiza 
tion  appropriate  to  it,  the  state  of  equilibrium  is  one  in  which 
the  political  head  continues  to  be  also  the  militant  head ; 
that  in  proportion  as  there  grows  up,  along  with  industrial 
life,  a  civil  administration  distinguishable  from  the  military 
administration,  the  political  head  tends  to  become  increas 
ingly  civil  in  his  functions,  and  to  delegate,  now  occasionally, 
now  generally,  his  militant  functions ;  that  if  there  is  a 
return  to  great  militant  activity,  with  consequent  reversion  to 
militant  structure,  there  is  liable  to  occur  a  re-establishment 
of  the  primitive  type  of  headship,  by  usurpation  on  the  part 
of  the  successful  general — either  practical  usurpation,  where 
the  king  is  too  sacred  to  be  displaced,  or  complete  usurpation 
where  he  is  not  too  sacred;  but  that  where,  along  with 
decreasing  militancy,  there  goes  increasing  civil  life  and  ad 
ministration,  headship  of  the  army  becomes  permanently 
differentiated  from  political  headship,  and  subordinated  to  it, 

§  519.  While,  in  the  course  of  social  evolution,  there  has 


MILITARY   SYSTEMS.  483 

been  going  on  this  separation  of  the  fighting  body  from  the 
community  at  large,  this  diminution  in  its  relative  mass,  and 
this  establishment  of  a  distinct  headship  to  it,  there  has  been 
going  on  an  internal  organization  of  it. 

The  fighting  body  is  a*  first  wholly  without  structure. 
Among  savages  a  battle  is  a  number  of  single  combats:  the 
chief,  if  there  is  one,  being  but  the  warrior  of  most  mark,  who 
fights  like  the  rest.  Through  long  stages  this  disunited  action 
continues.  The  Iliad  tells  of  little  more  than  the  personal  en 
counters  of  heroes,  which  were  doubtless  "multiplied  in  detail 
by  their  unmentioned  followers ;  and  after  the  decay  of  that 
higher  military  organization  which  accompanied  Greek  and 
Eoman  civilization,  this  chaotic  kind  of  fighting  recurred 
throughout  mediaeval  Europe.  During  the  early  feudal 
period  everything  turned  on  the  prowess  of  individuals.  War, 
says  Gautier,  consisted  of  "bloody  duels ;"  and  even  much 
later  the  idea  of  personal  action  dominated  over  that  of  com 
bined  action.  But  along  with  political  progress,  the  subjec 
tion  of  individuals  to  their  chief  is  increasingly  shown  by 
fulfilling  his  commands  in  battle.  Action  in  the  field 
becomes  in  a  higher  degree  concerted,  by  the  absorption  of 
their  wills  in  his  will. 

A  like  change  presently  shows  itself  on  a  larger  scale. 
While  the  members  of  each  component  group  have  their  actions 
more  and  more  combined,  the  groups  themselves,  of  which 
an  army  is  composed,  pass  from  disunited  action  to  united 
action.  When  small  societies  are  compounded  into  a  larger 
one,  their  joint  body  of  warriors  at  first  consists  of  the  tribal 
clusters  and  family-clusters  assembled  together,  but  retaining 
their  respective  individualities.  The  head  of  each  Hottentot 
kraal,  "  has  the  command,  under  the  chief  of  his  nation,  of  the 
troops  furnished  out  by  his  kraal."  Similarly,  the  Malagasy 
*  kept  their  own  respective  clans,  and  every  clan  had  its  own 
leader."  Among  the  Chibchas,  "  each  cazique  and  tribe  carne 
with  different  signs  on  their  tents,  fitted  out  with  the  mantles 
by  which  they  distinguished  themselves  from  each  other."  A. 
90 


484:  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

kindred  arrangement  existed  in  early  Eoman  times  :  the  city- 
army  was  "  distributed  into  tribes,  curiae,  and  families."  It 
was  so,  too,  with  the  Germanic  peoples,  who,  in  the  field, 
"  arranged  themselves,  when  not  otherwise  tied,  in  families 
and  affinities;"  or,  as  is  said  by  Kemble  of  our  ancestors  in 
old  English  times,  "  each  kindred  was  drawn  up  under  an 
officer  of  its  own  lineage  and  appointment,  and  the  several 
members  of  the  family  served  together/'  This  organization, 
or  lack  of  organization,  continued  throughout  the  feudal  period. 
In  France,  in  the  14th  century,  the  army  was  a  "  horde  of 
independent  chiefs,  each  with  his  own  following,  each  doing 
his  own  will ;"  and,  according  to  Froissart,  the  different  groups 
"  were  so  ill-informed  "  that  they  did  not  always  know  of  a 
discomfiture  of  the  main  body. 

Besides  that  increased  subordination  of  local  heads  to  the 
general  head  which  accompanies  political  integration,  and 
which  must  of  course  precede  a  more  centralized  and  com 
bined  mode  of  military  action,  two  special  causes  may  be 
recognized  as  preparing  the  way  for  it. 

One  of  these  is  unlikeness  of  kinds  in  the  arms  used. 
Sometimes  the  cooperating  tribes,  having  habituated  them 
selves  to  different  weapons,  come  to  battle  already  marked 
off  from  one  another.  In  such  cases  the  divisions  by 
weapons  correspond  with  the  tribal  divisions ;  as  seems  to 
have  been  to  some  extent  the  case  with  the  Hebrews,  among 
whom  the  men  of  Benjamin,  of  Gad,  and  of  Judah,  were 
partially  thus  distinguished.  But,  usually,  the  unlikenesses  of 
arms  consequent  on  unlikenesses  of  rank,  initiate  these  milit 
ary  divisions  which  tend  to  traverse  the  divisions  arising  from 
tribal  organization.  The  army  of  the  ancient  Egyptians 
included  bodies  of  charioteers,  of  cavalry,  and  of  foot ;  and 
the  respective  accoutrements  of  the  men  forming  these  bodies, 
differing  in  their  costliness,  implied  differences  of  social  posi 
tion.  The  like  may  be  said  of  the  Assyrians.  Similarly,  the 
Iliad  shows  us  among  the  early  Greeks  a  state  in  which  the 


MILITARY  SYSTEMS.  485 

contrasts  in  weapons  due  to  contrasts  in  wealth,  had  not 
yet  resulted  in  differently-armed  bodies,  such  as  are  formed 
at  later  stages  with  decreasing  regard  for  tribal  or  local  divi 
sions.  And  it  was  so  in  Western  Europe  during  times  when 
each  feudal  superior  led  his  own  knights,  and  his  followers  of 
inferior  grades  and  weapons.  Though  within  each  group  there 
were  men  differing  alike  in  their  rank  and  in  their  arms,  yet 
what  we  may  call  the  vertical  divisions  between  groups  were 
not  traversed  by  those  horizontal  divisions  throughout  the 
whole  army,  which  unite  all  who  are  similarly  armed.  This 
wider  segregation  it  is,  however,  which  we  observe  taking 
place  with  the  advance  of  military  organization.  The  supre 
macy  acquired  by  the  Spartans  was  largely  due  to  the  fact 
that  Lykurgus  "  established  military  divisions  quite  distinct 
from  the  civil  divisions,  whereas  in  the  other  states  of  Greece, 
until  a  period  much  later  .  .  .  the  two  were  confounded — 
the  hoplites  or  horsemen  of  the  same  tribe  or  ward  being 
marshalled  together  on  the  field  of  battle."  With  the  pro 
gress  of  the  Roman  arms  there  occurred  kindred  changes. 
The  divisions  came  to  be  related  less  to  rank  as  dependent 
on  tribal  organization,  and  more  to  social  position  as  deter 
mined  by  property ;  so  that  the  kinds  of  arms  to  be  borne 
and  the  services  to  be  rendered,  were  regulated  by  the  sizes 
of  estates,  with  the  result  of  "  merging  all  distinctions  of  a 
gentile  and  local  nature  in  the  one  common  levy  of  the  com 
munity."  In  the  field,  divisions  so  established  stood  thus  : — 
"  The  four  first  ranks  of  each  phalanx  were  formed  of  the  full-armed 
hoplites  of  the  first  class,  the  holders  of  an  entire  hide  [?] ;  in  the  fifth 
and  sixth  were  placed  the  less  completely  equipped  farmers  of  the  second 
and  third  class  ;  the  two  last  classes  were  annexed  as  rear  ranks  to  the 
phalanx. 

And  though  political  distinctions  of  clan-origin  were  not 
thus  directly  disregarded  in  the  cavalry,  yet  they  were  in 
directly  interfered  with  by  the  addition  of  a  larger  troop  of 
lion-burgess  cavalry.  That  a  system  of  divisions  which  tends 
to  obliterate  those  of  rank  and  locality,  has  been  reproduced 


4:86  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

during  the  re-development  of  military  organization  in  modern 
times,  is  a  familiar  fact. 

A  concomitant  cause  of  this  change  has  all  along  been 
that  interfusion  of  the  gentile  and  tribal  groups  entailed  by 
aggregation  of  large  numbers.  As  before  pointed  out.  the 
Kleisthenian  re-organization  in  Attica,  and  the  Servian  re 
organization  in  Eome,  were  largely  determined  by  the  im 
practicability  of  maintaining  the  correspondence  between 
tribal  divisions  and  military  obligations ;  and  a  redistribution 
of  military  obligations  naturally  proceeded  on  a  numerical 
basis.  By  various  peoples,  we  find  this  step  in  organization 
taken  for  civil  purposes  or  military  purposes,  or  both.  To 
cases  named  in  §  512,  may  be  added  that  of  the  Hebrews, 
who  were  grouped  into  tens,  fifties,  hundreds  and  thousands. 
Even  the  barbarous  Araucanians  divided  themselves  into 
regiments  of  a  thousand,  sub-divided  into  companies  of  a 
hundred.  Evidently  numerical  grouping  conspires  with 
classing  by  arms  to  obliterate  the  primitive  divisions. 

This  transition  from  the  state  of  incoherent  clusters,  each 
having  its  own  rude  organization,  to  the  state  of  a  coherent 
whole,  held  together  by  an  elaborate  organization  running 
throughout  it,  of  course  implies  a  concomitant  progress  in 
the  centralization  of  command.  As  the  primitive  horde 
becomes  more  efficient  for  war  in  proportion  as  its  members 
grow  obedient  to  the  orders  of  its  chief;  so,  the  army  formed 
of  aggregated  hordes  becomes  more  efficient  in  proportion  as 
the  chiefs  of  the  hordes  fall  under  the  power  of  one  supreme 
chief.  And  the  above-described  transition  from  aggregated 
tribal  and  local  groups  to  an  army  formed  of  regular 
divisions  and  sub- divisions,  goes  along  with  the  development 
of  grades  of  commanders,  successively  subordinated  one  to 
another.  A  controlling  system  of  this  kind  is  developed 
by  the  uncivilized,  where  considerable  military  efficiency  has 
been  reached ;  as  at  present  among  the  Araucanians,  the 
Zulus,  the  Uganda  people,  who  have  severally  three  grades  of 
officers;  as  in  the  past  among  the  ancient  Peruvians  and 


MILITARY   SYSTEMS.  487 

ancient  Mexicans,  who  had  respectively  several  grades ;  and 
aa  also  among  the  ancient  Hebrews. 

§  520.  One  further  general  change  has  to  be  noticed — the 
change  from  a  state  in  which  the  army  now  assembles  and 
now  disperses,  as  required,  to  a  state  in  which  it  becomes 
pei  manently  established. 

While,  as  among  savages,  the  male  adults  are  all  warriors, 
the  fighting  body,  existing  in  its  combined  form  only  during 
war,  becomes  during  peace  a  dispersed  body  carrying  on  in 
parties  or  separately,  hunting  and  other  occupations;  and 
similarly,  as  we  have  seen,  during  early  stages  of  settled  life 
the  armed  freemen,  owning  land  jointly  or  separately,  all 
having  to  serve  as  soldiers  when  called  on,  return  to  their 
farming  when  war  is  over :  there  is  no  standing  army.  But 
though  after  the  compounding  of  small  societies  into  larger 
ones  by  war,  and  the  rise  of  a  central  power,  a  kindred  system 
long  continues,  there  come  the  beginnings  of  another  system. 
Of  course,  irrespective  of  form  of  goverment,  frequent  wars 
generate  .permanent  military  forces;  as  they  did  in  early 
times  among  the  Spartans ;  as  later  among  the  Athenians ; 
and  as  among  the  Romans,  when  extension  of  territory 
brought  frequent  needs  for  repressing  rebellions.  Eecognizing 
these  cases,  we  may  pass  to  the  more  usual  cases,  in  which 
a  permanent  military  force  originates  from  the  body  of  armed 
attendants  surrounding  the  ruler.  Early  stages  show  us 
this  nucleus.  In  Tahiti  .the  king  or  chief  had  warriors 
among  his  attendants ;  and  the  king  of  Ashantee  has  a  body 
guard  clad  in  skins  of  wild  beasts — leopards,  panthers,  &c. 
As  was  pointed  out  when  tracing  the  process  of  political 
differentiation,  there  tend  everywhere  to  gather  round  a  pre 
dominant  chieftain,  refugees  and  others  who  exchange  armed 
service  for  support  and  protection ;  and  so  enable  the  pre 
dominant  chieftain  to  become  more  predominant.  Hence  the 
comites  attached  to  the  princeps  in  the  early  German  com 
munity,  the  huscarlas  or  housecarls  surrounding  old  English 


488  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

kings,  and  the  antrustions  of  the  Merovingian  rulers.  These 
armed  followers  displayed  in  little,  the  characters  of  a  stand 
ing  army ;  not  simply  as  being  permanently  united,  but  also 
as  being  severally  bound  to  their  prince  or  lord  by  relations 
of  personal  fealty,  and  as  being  subject  to  internal  govern 
ment  under  a  code  ol  martial  law,  apart  from  the  govern 
ment  of  the  freemen ;  as  was  especially  shown  in  the  large 
assemblage  of  them,  amounting  to  6,000,  which  was  formed 
by  Cnut. 

In  this  last  case  we  see  how  small  body-guards,  growing  as 
the  conquering  chief  or  king  draws  to  his  standard  adven 
turers,  fugitive  criminals,  men  who  have  fled  from  injustice, 
&c.,  pass  unobtrusively  into  troops  of  soldiers  who  fight  for 
pay.  The  employment  of  mercenaries  goes  back  to  the 
earliest  times — being  traceable  in  the  records  of  the  Egyptains 
at  all  periods ;  and  it  continues  "to  re-appear  under  certain 
conditions :  a  primary  condition  being  that  the  ruler  shall 
have  acquired  a  considerable  revenue.  Whether  of  home 
origin  or  foreign  origin,  these  large  bodies  of  professional 
soldiers  can  be  maintained  only  by  large  pecuniary  means ; 
and,  ordinarily,  possession  of  these  means  goes  along  with 
such  power  as  enables  the  king  to  exact  dues  and  fines.  In 
early  stages  the  members  of  the  fighting  body,  when  sum 
moned  for  service,  have  severally  to  provide  themselves  not 
only  with  their  appropriate  arms,  but  also  with  the  needful 
supplies  of  all  kinds :  there  being,  while  political  organiza 
tion  is  little  developed,  neither  the  resources  nor  the  adminis 
trative  machinery  required  for  another  system.  But  the 
economic  resistance  to  militant  action,  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  increases  as  agricultural  life  spreads,  leading  to  occa 
sional  non-attendance,  to  confiscations,  to  heavy  fines  in 
place  of  confiscations,  then  to  fixed  money-payments  in  place 
of  personal  services,  results  in  the  growth  of  a  revenue  which 
serves  to  pay  professional  soldiers  in  place  of  the  vassals  who 
have  compounded.  And  it  then  becomes  possible,  instead  of 
hiring  many  such  substitutes  for  short  times,  to  hire  a  smaller 


MILITARY  SYSTEMS.  489 

number  continuously — so  adding  to  the  original  nucleus  of  a 
permanent  armed  force.  Every  further  increase  of  royal 
power,  increasing  the  ability  to  raise  money,  furthers  this 
differentiation.  As  Eanke  remarks  of  France,  "standing 
armies,  imposts,  and  loans,  all  originated  together." 

Of  course  the  primitive  military  obligation  falling  on  all 
freemen,  long  continues  to  be  shown  in  modified  ways. 
Among  ourselves,  for  instance,  there  were  the  various  laws 
under  which  men  were  bound,  according  to  their  incomes,  to 
have  in  readiness  specified  supplies  of  horses,  weapons,  and 
accoutrements,  for  themselves  and  others  when  demanded. 
Afterwards  came  the  militia-laws,  under  which  there 
fell  on  men  in  proportion  to  their  means,  the  obligations 
to  provide  duly  armed  horse-soldiers  or  foot-soldiers,  per 
sonally  or  by  substitute,  to  be  called  out  for  exercise  at 
specified  intervals  for  specified  numbers  of  days,  and  to  be 
provided  with  subsistence.  There  may  be  instanced,  again, 
such  laws  as  those  under  which  in  France,  in  the  15th  cen 
tury,  a  corps  of  horsemen  was  formed  by  requiring  all  the 
parishes  to  furnish  one  each.  And  there  are  the  various  more 
modern  forms  of  conscription,  used,  now  to  raise  temporary 
forces,  and  now  to  maintain  a  permanent  army.  Everywhere, 
indeed,  freemen  remain  potential  soldiers  when  not  actual 
soldiers. 

§  52  L.  Setting  out  with  that  undifferentiated  state  of  the 
body  politic  in  which  the  army  is  co-extensive  with  the 
adult  nale  population,  we  thus  observe  several  ways  in 
which  there  goes  on  the  evolution  which  makes  it  a 
specialized  part. 

There  is  the  restriction  in  relative  mass,  which,  first  seen 
in  the  growth  of  a  slave-population,  engaged  in  work  instead 
of  war,  becomes  more  decided  as  a  settled  agricultural  life 
occupies  freemen,  and  increases  the  obstacles  to  military 
service.  There  is,  again,  the  restriction  caused  by  that 
growing  costliness  of  the  individual  soldier  accompanying 


490  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

the  development  of  arms,  accoutrements,  and  ancillary  ap 
pliances  of  warfare.  And  there  is  the  yet  additional  restric 
tion  caused  by  the  intenser  strain  which  military  action  puts 
on  the  resources  of  a  nation,  in  proportion  as  it  is  carried 
on  at  a  greater  distance. 

With  separation  of  the  fighting  body  from  the  body-politic 
at  large,  there  very  generally  goes  acquirement  of  a  sepa 
rate  head.  Active  militancy  ever  tends  to  maintain  union 
of  civil  rule  with  military  rule,  and  often  causes  re-union  of 
them  where  they  have  become  separate;  but  with  the 
primary  differentiation  of  civil  from  military  structures,  is 
commonly  associated  a  tendency  to  the  rise  of  distinct  con 
trolling  centres  for  them.  This  tendency,  often  defeated  by 
usurpation  where  wars  are  frequent,  takes  effect  under  oppo 
site  conditions ;  and  then  produces  a  military  head  subordi 
nate  to  the  civil  head. 

While  the  whole  society  is  being  developed  by  differen 
tiation  of  the  army  from  the  rest,  there  goes  on  a  develop 
ment  within  the  army  itself.  As  in  the  primitive  horde  trw 
progress  is  from  the  uncombined  fighting  of  individuals  to 
combined  fighting  under  direction  of  a  chief;  so,  on  a  larger 
scale,  when  small  societies  are  united  into  great  ones,  the 
progress  is  from  the  independent  fighting  of  tribal  and  local 
groups,  to  fighting  under  direction  of  a  general  commander. 
And  to  effect  a  centralized  control,  there  arises  a  graduated 
system  of  officers,  replacing  the  set  of  primitive  heads  of 
groups,  and  a  system  of  divisions  which,  traversing  the 
original  divisions  of  groups,  establish  regularly-organized 
masses  having  different  functions. 

With  developed  structure  of  the  fighting  body  comes  per 
manence  of  it.  While,  as  in  early  times,  men  are  gathered 
together  for  small  wars  and  then  again  dispersed,  efficient 
organization  of  them  is  impracticable.  It  becomes  practicable 
only  among  men  who  are  constantly  kept  together  by  wars 
or  preparations  for  wars  ;  and  bodies  of  such  men  growing  up, 
replace  the  temporarily-summoned  bodies. 


MILITARY   SYSTEMS.  491 

Lastly,  we  must  not  omit  to  note  that  while  the  army 
becomes  otherwise  distinguished,  it  becomes  distinguished  by 
retaining  and  elaborating  the  system  of  status ;  though  in  the 
rest  of  the  community,  as  it  advances,  the  system  of  contract 
is  spreading  and  growing  definite.  Compulsory  cooperation 
continues  to  be  the  principle  of  the  military  part,  however 
widely  the  principle  of  voluntary  cooperation  comes  into  play 
tihroughout  the  civil  part. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
JUDICIAL  AND  EXECUTIVE  SYSTEMS. 

§  522.  That  we  may  be  prepared  for  recognizing  the 
primitive  identity  of  military  institutions  with  institutions 
for  administering  justice,  let  us  observe  how  close  is  the  kin 
ship  between  the  modes  of  dealing  with  external  aggression 
and  internal  aggression,  respectively. 

We  have  the  facts,  already  more  than  once  emphasized,  that 
at  first  the  responsibilities  of  communities  to  one  another 
are  paralleled  by  the  responsibilities  to  one  another  of  family- 
groups  within  each  community ;  and  that  the  kindred  claims 
are  enforced  in  kindred  ways.  Various  savage  tribes  show  us 
that,  originally,  external  war  has  to  effect  an  equalization  of 
injuries,  either  directly  in  kind  or  indirectly  by  compen 
sations.  Among  the  Chinooks,  "  has  the  one  party  a  larger 
number  of  dead  than  the  other,  indemnification  must  be 
made  by  the  latter,  or  the  war  is  continued ;"  and  among  the 
Arabs  "  when  peace  is  to  be  made,  both  parties  count  up  their 
dead,  and  the  usual  blood-money  is  paid  for  excess  on  either 
side."  By  which  instances  we  are  shown  that  in  the  wars 
between  tribes,  as  in  the  family-feuds  of  early  times,  a 
death  must  be  balanced  by  a  death,  or  else  must  be  com 
pounded  for ;  as  it  once  was  in  Germany  and  in  England,  by 
specified  numbers  of  sheep  and  cattle,  or  by  money. 

Not  only  are  the  wars  which  societies  carry  on  to  effect  the 
righting  of  alleged  wrongs,  thus  paralleled  by  family-feuds  in 
the  respect  that  for  retaliation  in  kind  there  may  be  substi- 


JUDICIAL  AND   EXECUTIVE   SYSTEMS.  493 

tuted  a  penalty  adjudged  by  usage  or  authority ;  but  tbey  are 
paralleled  by  feuds  between  individuals  in  the  like  respect. 
From  the  first  stage  in  which  each  man  avenges  himself  by 
force  on  a  transgressing  neighbour,  as  the  whole  community 
does  on  a  transgressing  community,  the  transition  is  to  a 
stage  in  which  he  has  the  alternative  of  demanding  justice  at 
the  hands  of  the  ruler.  We  see  this  beginning  in  such  places 
as  the  Sandwich  Islands,  where  an  injured  person  who  is  too 
weak  to  retaliate,  appeals  to  the  king  or  principal  chief;  and 
in  quite  advanced  stages,  option  between  the  two  methods 
of  obtaining  redress  survives.  The  feeling  shown  down  to  the 
13th  century  by  Italian  nobles,  who  "  regarded  it  as  dis 
graceful  to  submit  to  laws  rather  than  do  themselves  justice 
by  force  of  arms,"  is  traceable  throughout  the  history  of 
Europe  in  the  slow  yielding  of  private  rectification  of  wrongs 
to  public  arbitration.  "A  capitulary  of  Charles  the  Bald 
bids  them  [the  freemen]  go  to  court  armed  as  for  war,  for 
they  might  have  to  fight  for  their  jurisdiction ;"  and  our  own 
history  furnishes  an  interesting  example  in  the  early  form  of 
an  action  for  recovering  land :  the  "  grand  assize  "  which  tried 
the  cause,  originally  consisted  of  knights  armed  with  swords. 
Again  we  have  evidence  in  such  facts  as  that  in  the  12th 
century  in  France,  legal  decisions  were  so  little  regarded 
that  trials  often  issued  in  duels.  Further  proof  is  yielded  by 
such  facts  as  that  judicial  duels  (which  were  the  authorized 
substitutes  for  private  wars  between  families)  continued  in 
France  down  to  the  close  of  the  14th  century;  that  in 
England,  in  1768,  a  legislative  proposal  to  abolish  trial  by 
battle,  was  so  strongly  opposed  that  the  measure  was  dropped ; 
and  that  the  option  of  such  trial  was  not  disallowed  till  1819. 
We  may  observe,  also,  that  this  self-protection  gradually 
gives  place  to  protection  by  the  State,  only  under  stress  of 
public  needs — especially  need  for  military  efficiency.  Edicts 
of  Charlemagne  and  of  Charles  the  Bald,  seeking  to  stop  the 
disorders  consequent  on  private  wars,  by  insisting  on  appeals 
to  the  ordained  authorities,  and  threatening  punishment  of 


4:94:  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

those  who  disobeyed,  sufficiently  imply  the  motive ;  and  this 
motive  was  definitely  shown  in  the  feudal  period  in  France, 
by  an  ordinance  of  1296,  which  "  prohibits  private  wars  aiid 
judicial  duels  so  long  as  the  king  is  engaged  in  war." 

Once  more  the  militant  nature  of  legal  protection  is  seen 
ir.  the  fact  that,  as  at  first,  so  now,  it  is  a  replacing  of  indi 
vidual  armed  force  by  the  armed  force  of  the  State — always 
in  reserve  if  not  exercised.  "The  sword  of  justice"  is  a 
phrase  sufficiently  indicating  the  truth  that  action  against 
the  public  enemy  and  action  against  the  private  enemy  are  in 
the  last  resort  the  same. 

Thus  recognizing  the  original  identity  of  the  functions,  we 
shall  be  prepared  for  recognizing  the  original  identity  of  the 
structures  by  which  they  are  carried  on. 

§  523.  For  that  primitive  gathering  of  armed  men  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  is  at  once  the  council  of  war  and  the 
political  assembly,  is  at  the  same  time  the  judicial  body. 

Of  existing  savages  the  Hottentots  show  this.  The  court 
of  justice  "  consists  of  the  captain  and  all  the  men  of  the 
kraal.  .  .  .  'Tis  held  in  the  open  fields,  the  men  squatting  in 
a  circle.  ...  All  matters  are  determined  by  a  majority."  .  .  . 
If  the  prisoner  is  "  convicted,  and  the  court  adjudges  him 
worthy  of  death,  sentence  is  executed  upon  the  spot."  The 
captain  is  chief  executioner,  striking  the  first  blow ;  and  is 
followed  up  by  the  others.  The  records  of  various  historic 
peoples  yield  evidence  of  kindred  meaning.  Taking  first 
the  Greeks  in  Homeric  days,  we  read  that  "  sometimes  the 
king  separately,  sometimes  the  kings  or  chiefs  or  Gerontes, 
in  the  plural  number,  are  named  as  deciding  disputes  and 
awarding  satisfaction  to  complainants;  always  however  in 
public,  in  the  midst  of  the  assembled  agora,"  in  which 
the  popular  sympathies  were  expressed:  the  meeting  thus 
described,  being  the  same  with  that  in  which  questions 
of  war  and  peace  were  debated.  That  in  its  early  form 
the  Eoman  gathering  of  "  spearmen,"  asked  by  the  king  to 


JUDICIAL   AND   EXECUTIVE   SYSTEMS.  495 

say  "  yes "  or  "  no  "  to  a  proposed  military  expedition  or  to 
some  State-measure,  also  expressed  its  opinion  concerning 
criminal  charges  publicly  judged,  is  implied  by  the  fact  that 
"  the  king  could  not  grant  a  pardon,  for  that  privilege  was 
vested  in  the  community  alone."  Describing  the  gatherings 
of  the  primitive  Germans,  Tacitus  says : — "  The  multitude 
sits  armed  in  such  order  as  it  thinks  good  ...  It  is  lawful 
also  in  the  Assembly  to  bring  matters  for  trial  and  to  bring 
charges  of  capital  crimes  ...  In  the  same  assembly  chiefs 
are  chosen  to  administer  justice  throughout  the  districts  and 
villages.  Each  chief  in  so  doing  has  a  hundred  companions  of 
the  commons  assigned  to  him,  to  strengthen  at  once  his  judg 
ment  and  his  dignity."  A  kindred  arrangement  is  ascribed  by 
Lelevel  to  the  Poles  in  early  times,  and  to  the  Slavs  at  large. 
Among  the  Danes,  too,  "in  all  secular  affairs,  justice  was 
administered  by  the  popular  tribunal  of  the  Lands- Ting  for 
each  province,  and  by  the  Herreds-Ting  for  the  smaller  dis 
tricts  or  sub-divisions."  Concerning  the  Irish  in  past  times, 
Prof.  Leslie  quotes  Spenser  to  the  effect  that  it  was  their 
usage  "  to  make  great  assemblies  together  upon  a  rath  or  hill, 
there  to  parley  about  matters  and  wrongs  between  township 
and  township,  or  one  private  person  and  another."  And  then 
there  comes  the  illustration  furnished  by  old  English  times 
The  local  moots  of  various  kinds  had  judicial  functions ;  and 
the  witenagemot  sometimes  acted  as  a  high  court  of  justice. 

Interesting  evidence  that  the  original  military  assembly 
was  at  the  same  time  the  original  judicial  assembly,  is  sup 
plied  by  the  early  practice  of  punishing  freemen  for  non- 
attendance.  Discharge  of  military  obligation  being  imperative 
the  fining  of  those  who  did  not  come  to  the  armed  gathering 
naturally  followed;  and  fining  for  absence  having  become 
the  usage,  survived  when,  as  for  judicial  purposes,  the  need 
for  the  presence  of  all  was  not  imperative.  Thence  the 
interpretation  of  the  fact  that  non-attendance  at  the  hundred- 
court  was  thus  punishable. 

In  this  connexion  it  may  be  added  that,  in  some  cases 


£96  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

where  the  primitive  form  continued,  there  was  manifested  an 
incipient  differentiation  between  the  military  assembly  and 
the  judicial  assembly.  In  the  Carolingian  period,  judicial 
assemblies  began  to  be  held  under  cover ;  and  freemen  were 
forbidden  to  bring  their  arms.  As  was  pointed  out  in  §  491, 
among  the  Scandinavians  no  one  was  allowed  to  come  armed 
when  the  meeting  was  for  judicial  purposes.  And  since  we 
also  read  that  in  Iceland  it  was  disreputable  (not  punishable) 
for  a  freeman  to  be  absent  from  the  annual  gathering,  the 
implication  is  that  the  imperativeness  of  attendance  dimi 
nished  with  the  growing  predominance  of  civil  functions. 

§  524.  The  judicial  body  being  at  first  identical  with  the 
politico-military  body,  has  necessarily  the  same  triune 
structure ;  and  we  have  now  to  observe  the  different  forms  it 
assumes  according  to  the  respective  developments  of  its  three 
components.  We  may  expect  to  find  kinship  between  these 
forms  and  the  concomitant  political  forms. 

Where,  with  development  of  militant  organization,  the 
power  of  the  king  has  become  greatly  predominant  over  that 
of  the  chiefs  and  over  that  of  the  people,  his  supremacy  is 
shown  by  his  judicial  absoluteness,  as  well  as  by  his  absolute 
ness  in  political  and  military  affairs.  Such  shares  as  the 
elders  and  the  multitude  originally  had  in  trying  causes, 
almost  or  quite  disappear.  But  though  in  these  cases  the 
authority  of  the  king  as  judge,  is  unqualified  by  that  of  his 
head  men  and  his  other  subjects,  there  habitually  survive 
traces  of  the  primitive  arrangement.  For  habitually  his 
decisions  are  given  in  public  and  in  the  open  air.  Petitioners 
for  justice  bring  their  cases  before  him  when  he  makes  his 
appearance  out  of  doors,  surrounded  by  his  attendants  and 
by  a  crowd  of  spectators ;  as  we  have  seen  in  §  372  that  they 
do  down  to  the  present  day  in  Kashmere.  By  the  Hebrew 
rulers,  judicial  sittings  were  held  "in  the  gates" — the 
usual  meeting-places  of  Eastern  peoples.  Among  the  early 
Romans  the  king  administered  justice  "in  the  place  of 


JUDICIAL  AND  EXECUTIVE  SYSTEMS.  497 

public  assembly,  sitting  on  a  '  chariot-seat.' "  Mr.  Gomme's 
Primitive  Folk-Moots  contains  sundry  illustrations  showing 
that  among  the  Germans  in  old  times,  the  Konigs-stuhl,  or 
king's  judgment-seat,  was  on  the  green  sward ;  that  in  other 
cases  the  stone  steps  at  the  town-gates  constituted  the  seat 
befoi  e  which  causes  were  heard  by  him ;  and  that  again, 
in  early  French  usage,  trials  often  took  place  under  trees. 
According  to  Joinville  this  practice  long  continued  in  France. 

**  Many  a  time  did  it  happen  that,  in  summer,  he  [Lewis  IX]  would  go 
and  sit  in  the  forest  of  Yincennes  after  mass,  and  would  rest  against  an 
oak,  and  make  us  sit  round  him  ...  he  asked  them  with  his  own 
mouth,  '  Is  there  any  one  who  has  a  suit  ?'...!  have  seen  him  some 
times  in  summer  come  to  hear  his  people's  suits  in  the  garden  of  Paris." 

And  something  similar  occurred  in  Scotland  under  David  I. 
All  which  customs  among  various  peoples,  imply  survival  of 
the  primitive  judicial  assembly,  changed  only  by  concentra 
tion  in  its  head  of  power  originally  shared  by  the  leading 
men  and  the  undistinguished  mass. 

Where  the  second  component  of  the  triune  political 
structure  becomes  supreme,  this  in  its  turn  monopolizes 
judicial  functions.  Among  the  Spartans  the  oligarchic 
senate,  and  in  a  measure  the  smaller  and  chance-selected 
oligarchy  constituted  by  the  ephors,  joined  judicial  functions 
with  their  political  functions.  Similarly  in  Athens  under  the 
aristocratic  rule  of  the  Eupatridse,  we  find  the  Areopagus 
formed  of  its  members,  discharging,  either  itself  or  through  its 
nine  chosen  Archons,  the  duties  of  deciding  causes  and 
executing  decisions.  In  later  days,  again,  we  have  the  case  of 
the  Venetian  council  of  ten.  And  then,  certain  incidents  of 
the  middle  ages  instructively  show  us  one  of  the  processes  by 
which  judicial  power,  as  well  as  political  power,  passes  from 
the  hands  of  the  freemen  at  large  into  the  hands  of  a 
smaller  and  wealthier  class.  In  the  Carolingian  period, 
besides  the  bi-annual  meetings  of  the  hundred- court,  it  was — • 

"  convoked  at  the  Grafs  will  and  pleasure,  to  try  particular  cases  .  .  . 
in  the  one  case,  as  in  the  other,  non-attendance  was  punished  ...  it  was 
found  that  the  Grafs  used  their  right  to  summon  these  extraordinary 


4:98  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Courts  in  excess,  with  a  view,  by  repeated  fines  and  amercements,  to 
ruin  the  small  freeholders,  and  thus  to  get  their  abodes  into  their  own 
hands.  Charlemagne  introduced  a  radical  law-reform  .  .  .  the  great 
body  of  the  freemen  were  released  from  attendance  at  the  Gebotent 
Dinge,  at  which,  from  thenceforth,  justice  was  to  be  administered  under 
the  presidency,  ex  officio,  of  the  Centenar,  by  ...  permanent  jurymen 
•  .  .  chosen  de  melioribus — i.e.,  from  the  more  well-to-do  freemen." 

But  in  other  cases,  and  especially  where  concentration 
in  a  town  renders  performance  of  judicial  functions  less 
burdensome,  we  see  that  along  with  retention  or  acquire 
ment  of  predominant  power  by  the  third  element  in  the 
triune  political  structure,  there  goes  exercise  of  judicial  func 
tions  by  it.  The  case  of  Athens,  after  the  replacing  of  oli 
garchic  rule  by  democratic  rule,  is,  of  course,  the  most 
familiar  example  of  this.  The  Kleisthenian  revolution  made 
the  annually-appointed  magistrates  personally  responsible  to 
the  people  judicially  assembled  ;  and  when,  under  Perikles, 
there  were  established  the  dikasteries,  or  courts  of  paid  jurors 
chosen  by  lot,  the  administration  of  justice  was  transferred 
almost  wholly  to  the  body  of  freemen,  divided  for  convenience 
into  committees.  Among  the  Frieslanders,  who  in  early  times 
were  enabled  by  the  nature  of  their  habitat  to  maintain  a 
free  form  of  political  organization,  there  continued  the  popu 
lar  judicial  assembly: — "  When  the  commons  were  summoned 
for  any  particular  purpose,  the  assembly  took  the  name  of  the 
Bodthing.  The  bodthing  was  called  for  the  purpose  of  passing 
judgment  in  cases  of  urgent  necessity."  And  M.  de  Laveleye, 
describing  the  Teutonic  mark  as  still  existing  in  Holland, 
"  especially  in  Drenthe,"  a  tract  "  surrounded  on  all  sides  by 
a  marsh  and  bog  "  (again  illustrating  the  physical  conditions 
favourable  to  maintenance  of  primitive  free  institutions),  goes 
on  to  say  cf  the  inhabitants  as  periodically  assembled  :  — 
"  They  appeared  in  arms ;  and  no  one  could  absent  himself,  under  pain 
of  a  fine.  This  assembly  directed  all  the  details  as  to  the  enjoyment  of 
the  common  property ;  appointed  the  works  to  be  executed ;  imposed 
pecuniary  penalties  for  the  violation  of  rules,  and  nominated  the  officers 
charged  with  the  executive  power." 

The  likeness  between  the  judicial  form  and  the  political 


JUDICIAL  AND   EXECUTIVE   SYSTEMS.  499 

form  is  further  shown  where  the  government  is  neither  despotic 
nor  oligarchic,  nor  democratic,  but  mixed.  For  in  our  own 
case  we  see  a  system  of  administering  justice  which,  like  the 
political  system,  unites  authority  that  is  in  a  considerable 
degree  irresponsible,  with  popular  authority.  In  old  English 
times  a  certain  power  of  making  and  enforcing  local  or  "  bye- 
laws"  was  possessed  by  the  town  ship  ;  and  in  more  important 
and  definite  ways  the  hundred-moot  and  the  shire-moot  dis 
charged  judicial  and  executive  functions:  their  respective 
officers  being  at  the  same  time  elected.  But  the  subsequent 
growth  of  feudal  institutions,  followed  by  the  development  of 
royal  power,  was  accompanied  by  diminution  of  the  popular 
share  in  judicial  business,  and  an  increasing  assignment  of  it 
to  members  of  the  ruling  classes  and  to  agents  of  the  crown. 
And  at  present  we  see  that  the  system,  as  including  the 
power  of  juries  (which  arose  by  selection  of  representative 
men,  though  not  in  the  interest  of  the  people),  is  in  part 
popular;  that  in  the  summary  jurisdiction  of  unpaid  magis 
trates  who,  though  centrally  appointed,  mostly  belong  to  the 
wealthy  classes,  and  especially  the  landowners,  it  is  in  part 
aristocratic ;  that  in  the  regal  commissioning  of  judges  it 
continues  monarchic  ;  and  that  yet,  as  the  selection  of  magis 
trates  and  judges  is  practically  in  the  hands  of  a  ministry 
executing,  on  the  average,  the  public  will,  royal  power  and 
class-power  in  the  administration  of  justice  are  exercised 
under  popular  control. 

§  525.  A  truth  above  implied  and  now  to  be  definitely 
observed,  is  that  along  with  the  consolidation  of  small  societies 
into  large  ones  effected  by  war,  there  necessarily  goes  an 
increasing  discharge  of  judicial  functions  by  deputy. 

As  the  primitive  king  is  very  generally  himself  both 
Commander-in-chief  and  high  priest,  it  is  not  unnatural  that 
his  delegated  judicial  functions  should  be  fulfilled  both  by 
priests  and  soldiers.  Moreover,  since  the  consultative  body, 
whem  it  becomes  established  and  separated  from  the  multi- 
91 


500  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

tude,  habitually  includes  members  of  both  these  classes,  such 
judicial  powers  as  it  exercises  cannot  at  the  outset  be  mono 
polized  by  members  of  either.  And  this  participation  ig 
further  seen  to  arise  naturally  on  remembering  how,  as  before 
shown,  priests  have  in  so  many  societies  united  military 
functions  with  clerical  functions ;  and  how,  in  other  cases, 
becoming  local  rulers,  having  the  same  tenures  and  obliga 
tions  with  purely  military  local  rulers,  they  acquire,  in  com- 
mon  with  them,  local  powers  of  judgment  and  execution ;  as 
did  mediaeval  prelates.  Whether  the  ecclesiastical  class  or 
the  class  of  warrior-chiefs  acquires  judicial  predominance, 
probably  depends  mainly  on  the  proportion  between  men's 
fealty  to  the  successful  soldier,  and  their  awe  of  the  priest 
as  a  recipient  of  divine  communications. 

Among  the  Zulus,  who,  with  an  undeveloped  mythology, 
have  no  great  deities  and  resulting  organized  priesthood,  the 
king  "  shares  his  power  with  two  soldiers  of  his  choice.  These 
two  form  the  supreme  judges  of  the  country."  Similarly 
with  the  Eggarahs  (Inland  Negroes),  whose  fetish-men  do  not 
form  an  influential  order,  the  first  and  second  judges  are 
"  also  commanders  of  the  forces  in  time  of  war."  Passing 
to  historic  peoples,  we  have  in  Attica,  in  Solon's  time,  the 
nine  archons,  who,  while  possessing  a  certain  sacredness  as 
belonging  to  the  Eupatridse,  united  judicial  with  military 
functions — more  especially  the  polemarch.  In  ancient  "Rome, 
that  kindred  union  of  the  two  functions  in  the  consuls, 
who  called  themselves  indiscriminately,  prcetores  or  judices, 
naturally  resulted  from  their  inheritance  of  both  functiono 
from  the  king  they  replaced ;  but  beyond  this  there  is  the 
fact  that  though  the  pontiffs  had  previously  been  judges  in 
secular  matters  as  well  as  in  sacred  matters,  yet,  after  the  esta 
blishment  of  the  republic,  the  several  orders  of  magistrates  were 
selected  from  the  non-clerical  patricians, — the  original  soldier- 
class.  And  then  throughout  the  middle  ages  in  Europe,  wo 
have  the  local  milicary  chiefs,  whether  holding  positions  like 
those  of  old  English  thanes  or  like  those  of  feudal  barons,  acting 


JUDICIAL   AND    EXECUTIVE    SYSTEMS.  501 

as  judges  in  their  respective  localities.  Perhaps  the  clearest 
illustration  is  that  furnished  by  Japan,  where  a  long-con 
tinued  and  highly-developed  military  regime,  has  been 
throughout  associated  with  the  monopoly  of  judicial  func 
tions  by  the  military  class  :  the  apparent  reason  being  that 
in  presence  of  the  god-descended  Mikado,  supreme  in  heaven 
as  on  earth,  the  indigenous  Shinto  religion  never  developed. 
a  divine  ruler  whose  priests  acquired,  as  his  agents,  an  autho 
rity  competing  with  terrestrial  authority. 

But  mostly  there  is  extensive  delegation  of  judicial  powers 
to  the  sacerdotal  class,  in  early  stages.  We  find  it  among 
existing  uncivilized  peoples,  as  the  Kalmucks,  whose  priests, 
besides  playing  a  predominant  part  in  the  greatest  judicial 
council,  exercise  local  jurisdiction :  in  the  court  of  each  sub 
ordinate  chief,  one  of  the  high  priests  is  head  judge.  Of 
extinct  uncivilized  or  semi-civilized  peoples,  may  be  named 
the  Indians  of  Yucatan,  by  whom  priests  were  appointed  as 
judges  in  certain  cases — judges  who  took  part  in  the  execu 
tion  of  their  own  sentences.  Originally,  if  not  afterwards,  the 
giving  of  legal  decisions  was  a  priestly  function  in  ancient 
Egypt ;  and  that  the  priests  were  supreme  judges  among 
the  Hebrews  is  a  familiar  fact :  the  Deuteronomic  law  con 
demning  to  death  any  one  who  disregarded  their  verdicts. 
In  that  general  assembly  of  the  ancient  Germans  which,  as 
we  have  seen,  exercised  judicial  powers,  the  priests  were 
prominent ;  and,  according  to  Tacitus,  in  war  "  none  but  the 
priests  are  permitted  to  judge  offenders,  to  inflict  bonds  or 
stripes ;  so  that  chastisement  appears  not  as  an  act  of  military 
discipline,  but  as  the  instigation  of  the  god  whom  they  sup 
pose  present  with  warriors."  In  ancient  Britain,  too,  accord 
ing  to  Csesar,  the  druids  alone  had  authority  to  decide  in  both 
civil  and  criminal  cases,  and  executed  their  own  sentences : 
the  penalty  for  disobedience  to  them  being  excommunication. 
Grimm  tells  us  that  the  like  held  among  the  Scandinavians. 
"  In  their  judicial  character  the  priests  seem  to  have  exercised 
a  good  deal  of  control  over  the  people  ...  In  Iceland,  even 


502  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

under  Christianity,  the  judges  retained  the  name  and  several 
of  the  functions  of  heathen  go^ar."  And  then  we  have  the 
illustration  furnished  by  that  rise  of  ecclesiastics  to  the  posi 
tions  of  judges  throughout  mediaeval  Europe,  which  accom 
panied  belief  in  their  divine  authority.  When,  as  during  the 
Merovingian  period  and  after,  "  the  fear  of  hell,  the  desire  of 
winning  heaven,"  and  other  motives,  prompted  donations  and 
bequests  to  the  Church,  till  a  large  part  of  the  landed  pro 
perty  fell  into  its  hands — when  there  came  increasing 
numbers  of  clerical  aud  semi-clerical  dependents  of  the 
Church,  over  whom  bishops  exercised  judgment  and  disci 
pline — when  ecclesiastical  influence  so  extended  itself  that, 
while  priests  became  exempt  from  the  control  of  laymen,  lay 
authorities  became  subject  to  priests ;  there  was  established 
a  judicial  power  of  this  divinely-commissioned  class  to  which 
even  kings  succumbed.  So  was  it  in  England  too.  Before  the 
Conquest,  bishops  had  become  the  assessors  of  ealdormen  in 
the  scire-gemot,  and  gave  judgments  on  various  civil  matters. 
With  that  recrudescence  of  military  organization  which  fol 
lowed  the  Conquest,  came  a  limitation  of  their  jurisdiction 
to  spiritual  offences  and  causes  concerning  clerics.  But 
in  subsequent  periods  ecclesiastical  tribunals,  bringing  under 
canon  law  numerous  ordinary  transgressions,  usurped  more 
and  more  the  duties  of  secular  judges :  their  excommuni 
cations  being  enforced  by  the  temporal  magistrates.  More 
over,  since  prelates  as  feudal  nobles  were  judges  in  their 
respective  domains  ;  and  since  many  major  and  minor  judicial 
offices  in  the  central  government  were  filled  by  prelates; 
it  resulted  that  the  administration  of  justice  was  largely,  if 
Dot  mainly,  in  the  hands  of  priests. 

This  sharing  of  delegated  judicial  functions  between  the 
military  class  and  the  priestly  class,  with  predominance  here 
of  the  one  and  there  of  the  other,  naturally  continued  while 
there  was  no  other  class  having  wealth  and  influence.  But 
with  the  increase  of  towns  and  the  multiplication  of  traders, 
who  accumulated  riches  and  acquired  education,  previously 


JUDICIAL   AND   EXECUTIVE   SYSTEMS.  503 

possessed  only  by  ecclesiastics,  judicial  functions  fell  more 
and  more  into  their  hands.  Sundry  causes  conspired  to  pro 
duce  this  transfer.  One  was  lack  of  culture  among  the 
nobles,  and  their  decreasing  ability  to  administer  laws,  ever 
increasing  in  number  and  in  complexity.  Another  was  the 
political  unfitness  of  ecclesiastics,  who  grew  distasteful  to 
rulers  in  proportion  as  they  pushed  further  the  powers  and 
privileges  which  their  supposed  divine  commission  gave  them. 
Details  need  not  detain  us.  The  only  general  fact  needing 
to  be  emphasized,  is  that  this  transfer  ended  in  a  differen 
tiation  of  structures.  For  whereas  in  earlier  stages,  judicial 
functions  were  discharged  by  men  who  were  at  the  same  time 
either  soldiers  or  priests,  they  came  now  to  be  discharged  by 
men  exclusively  devoted  to  them. 

§  526.  Simultaneously,  the  evolution  of  judicial  systems 
is  displayed  in  several  other  ways.  One  of  them  is  the  ad 
dition  of  judicial  agents  who  are  locomotive  to  the  pre-exist 
ing  stationary  judicial  agents. 

During  the  early  stages  in  which  the  ruler  administers 
justice  in  person,  he  does  this  now  in  one  place  and  now  in 
another ;  according  as  affairs,  military  or  judicial,  carry  him  to 
this  or  that  place  in  his  kingdom.  Societies  of  various  types 
in  various  times  yield  evidence.  Historians  of  ancient  Peru 
tell  us  that  "  the  Ynca  gave  sentence  according  to  the 
crime,  for  he  alone  was  judge  wheresoever  he  resided,  and 
all  persons  wronged  had  recourse  to  him."  Of  the  German 
emperor  in  the  12th  century  we  read  that  "  not  only  did 
he  receive  appeals,  but  his  presence  in  any  duchy  or  county 
suspended  the  functions  of  the  local  judges."  France 
in  the  15th  century  supplies  an  instance.  King  Charles 
"  spent  two  or  three  years  in  travelling  up  and  down  the 
kingdom  .  .  maintaining  justice  to  the  satisfaction  of  his 
subjects."  In  Scotland  something  similar  was  done  by 
David  I.,  who  "  settled  marches,  forest  rights,  and  rights  of 
pasture : "  himself  making  the  marks  which  recorded  his 


504:  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

decisions,  or  seeing  them  made.  In  England,  "Edgar  and 
Canute  had  themselves  made  judicial  circuits ;"  and  there  is 
good  evidence  of  such  judicial  travels  in  England  up  to  the 
time  of  the  Great  Charter.  Sir  Henry  Maine  has  quoted 
documents  showing  that  King  John,  in  common  with  earlier 
kings,  moved  about  the  country  with  great  activity,  and  held 
his  court  wherever  he  might  happen  to  be. 

Of  course  with  the  progress  of  political  integration  and 
consequent  growing  power  of  the  central  ruler,  there  come 
more  numerous  cases  in  which  appeal  is  made  to  him  to  rectify 
the  wrongs  committed  by  local  rulers ;  and  as  State-business 
at  large  augments  and  complicates,  his  inability  to  do  this 
personally  leads  to  doing  it  by  deputy.  In  France,  in  Char 
lemagne's  time,  there  were  the  "  Missi  Regii,  who  held 
assizes  from  place  to  place ;"  and  then,  not  forgetting  that 
during  a  subsequent  period  the  chief  heralds  in  royal  state,  as 
the  king's  representatives,  made  circuits  to  judge  and  punish 
transgressing  nobles,  we  may  pass  to  the  fact  that  in  the  later 
feudal  period,  when  the  business  of  the  king's  court  became 
too  great,  commissioners  were  sent  into  the  provinces  to 
judge  particular  cases  in  the  king's  name :  a  method  which 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  there  developed  further.  But 
in  England,  in  Henry  II.'s  time,  kindred  causes  prompted 
kindred  steps  which  initiated  a  permanent  system.  Instead 
of  listening  to  the  increasing  number  of  appeals  made  to  his 
court,  personally  or  through  his  lieutenant  the  justiciar,  the 
king  commissioned  his  constable,  chancellor,  and  co-justiciar 
to  hear  pleas  in  the  different  counties.  Later,  there  came  a 
larger  number  of  these  members  of  the  central  judicial  court 
who  made  these  judicial  journeys  :  part  of  them  being  clerical 
and  part  military.  And  hence  eventually  arose  the  esta 
blished  circuits  of  judges  who,  like  their  prototypes,  had  to 
represent  the  king  and  exercise  supreme  authority. 

It  should  be  added  that  here  again  we  meet  with  proofs 
that  in  the  evolution  of  arrangements  conducing  to  the  main 
tenance  of  individual  rights,  the  obligations  are  primary  and 


JUDICIAL  AND   EXECUTIVE   SYSTEMS.  503 

the  claims  derived.  For  the  business  of  these  travelling 
judges,  like  the  business  of  the  king's  court  by  which  they 
were  commissioned,  was  primarily  fiscal  and  secondarily 
judicial.  They  were  members  of  a  central  body  that  was  at 
once  Exchequer  and  Curia  Regis,  in  which  financial  functions 
at  first  predominated  ;  and  they  were  sent  into  the  provinces 
largely,  if  not  primarily,  for  purposes  of  assessment :  as  in 
stance  the  statement  that  in  1168,  "  the  four  Exchequer 
officers  who  assessed  the  aid  pur  filU  marier,  acted  not  only 
as  taxers  but  as  judges."  In  which  facts  we  see  harmony 
with  those  before  given,  showing  that  support  of  the  ruling 
agency  precedes  obtainment  of  protection  from  it. 

§  527.  With  that  development  of  a  central  government 
which  accompanies  consolidation  of  small  societies  into  a  large 
one,  and  with  the  consequent  increase  of  its  business,  entailing 
delegation  of  functions,  there  goes,  in  the  judicial  organiza 
tion  as  in  the  other  organizations,  a  progressive  differen 
tiation.  The  evidence  of  this  is  extremely  involved;  both 
for  the  reason  that  in  most  cases  indigenous  judicial  agencies 
have  been  subordinated  but  not  destroyed  by  those  which 
conquest  has  originated,  and  for  the  reason  that  kinds  of 
power,  as  well  as  degrees  of  power,  have  become  distinguished. 
A  few  leading  traits  only  of  the  process  can  here  be  indicated. 

The  most  marked  differentiation,  already  partially  implied, 
is  that  between  the  lay,  the  ecclesiastical,  and  the  military 
tribunals.  Erom  those  early  stages  in  which  the  popular 
assembly,  with  its  elders  and  chief,  condemned  military  de 
faulters,  decided  on  ecclesiastical  questions,  and  gave  judg 
ments  about  offences,  there  has  gone  on  a  divergence  which, 
accompanied  by  disputes  and  struggles  concerning  jurisdiction, 
has  parted  ecclesiastical  courts  and  courts  martial  from  the 
courts  administering  justice  in  ordinary  civil  and  criminal 
eases.  Just  recognizing  these  cardinal  specializations,  we 
may  limit  our  attention  to  the  further  specializations  which 
have  taken  place  within  the  last  of  the  three  structures. 


506  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Originally  the  ruler,  with  or  without  the  assent  of  tlie 
assembled  people,  not  only  decides :  lie  executes  his  deci 
sions,  or  sees  them  executed.  For  example,  in  Dahomey  the 
king  stands  by,  and  if  the  deputed  officer  does  not  please 
him,  takes  the  sword  out  of  his  hand  and  shows  him 
how  to  cut  off  a  head.  An  account  of  death-punishment 
among  the  Bedouins  ends  with  the  words — "  the  executioner 
being  the  sheikh  himself."  Our  own  early  history  affords 
traces  of  personal  executive  action  by  the  king ;  for  there 
came  a  time  when  he  was  interdicted  from  arresting  any 
one  himself,  and  had  thereafter  to  do  it  in  all  cases  by 
deputy.  And  this  interprets  for  us  the  familiar  truth  that, 
through  his  deputies  the  sheriffs,  who  are  bound  to  act 
personally  if  they  cannot  themselves  find  deputies,  the 
monarch  continues  to  be  theoretically  the  agent  who  carries 
the  law  into  execution :  a  truth  further  implied  by  the  fact 
that  execution  in  criminal  cases,  nominally  authorized  by 
him  though  actually  by  his  minister,  is  arrested  if  his  assent 
is  withheld  by  his  minister.  And  these  facts  imply  that  a 
final  power  of  judgment  remains  with  the  monarch,  not 
withstanding  delegation  of  his  judicial  functions.  How  this 
happens  we  shall  see  on  tracing  the  differentiation. 

Naturally,  when  a  ruler  employs  assistants  to  hear  com 
plaints  and  redress  grievances,  he  does  not  give  them  abso 
lute  authority ;  but  reserves  the  power  of  revising  their 
decisions.  We  see  this  even  in  such  rude  societies  as  that 
of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  where  one  who  is  dissatisfied  with 
the  decision  of  his  chief  may  appeal  to  the  governor,  and 
from  the  governor  to  the  king;  or  as  in  ancient  Mexico, 
where  "  none  of  the  judges  were  allowed  to  condemn  to  death 
without  communicating  with  the  king,  who  had  to  pass  the 
sentence."  And  the  principle  holds  where  the  political  head 
ship  is  compound  instead  of  simple.  "  When  the  hegemony 
of  Athens  became,  in  fact,  more  and  more  a  dominion,  the 
civic  body  of  Attica  claimed  supreme  judicial  authority  over 
all  the  allies.  The  federal  towns  only  retained  their  lower 


JUDICIAL  AND   EXECUTIVE   SYSTEMS.  507 

courts."  Obviously  by  such  changes  are  produced  unlikenesses 
of  degree  and  differences  of  kind  in  the  capacities  of  judicial 
agencies.  As  political  subordination  spreads,  the  local 
assemblies  which  originally  judged  and  executed  in  cases  of 
all  kinds,  lose  part  of  their  functions;  now  by  restriction 
in  range  of  jurisdiction,  now  by  subjection  of  their  decisions 
to  supervision,  now  by  denial  of  executive  power.  To  trace 
up  the  process  from  early  stages,  as  for  instance  from  the 
stage  in  which  the  old  English  tything-moot  discharged 
administrative,  judicial,  and  executive  functions,  or  from  the 
stage  in  which  the  courts  of  feudal  nobles  did  the  like, 
is  here  alike  impracticable  and  unnecessary.  Reference  to 
such  remnants  of  power  as  vestries  and  manorial  courts 
possess,  will  sufficiently  indicate  the  character  of  the  change. 
But  along  with  degradation  of  the  small  and  local  judicial 
agencies,  goes  development  of  the  great  and  central  ones ; 
and  about  this  something  must  be  said. 

Eeturning  to  the  time  when  the  king  with  his  servants 
and  chief  men,  surrounded  by  the  people,  administers  justice 
in  the  open  air,  and  passing  to  the  time  when  his  court,  held 
more  frequently  under  cover  and  consequently  with  less  of 
the  popular  element,  still  consists  of  king  as  president  and 
his  household  officers  with  other  appointed  magnates  as  coun 
sellors  (who  in  fact  constitute  a  small  and  permanent  part 
of  that  general  consultative  body  occasionally  summoned) ; 
we  have  to  note  two  causes  which  cooperate  to  produce  a 
division  of  these  remaining  parts  of  the  original  triune  body 
^one  cause  being  the  needs  of  subjects,  and  the  other  the 
desire  of  the  king.  So  long  as  the  king's  court  is  held 
wherever  he  happens  to  be,  there  is  an  extreme  hindrance  to 
the  hearing  of  suits,  and  much  entailed  loss  of  money  and 
time  to  suitors.  To  remedy  this  evil  came,  in  our  own 
case,  the  provision  included  in  the  Great  Charter  that  the 
common  pleas  should  no  longer  follow  the  king's  court,  but 
be  held  in  some  certain  place.  This  place  was  fixed  in  the 
palace  of  Westminster.  And  then  as  Blackstonc  points  out — 


508 


POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 


"This  precedent  was  soon  after  copied  by  King  Philip  the  Fair  in 
France,  who  about  the  year  1302,  fixed  the  parliament  of  Paris  to  abide 
constantly  in  that  metropolis  ;  which  before  used  to  follow  the  person 
of  the  king  wherever  he  went  .  .  .  And  thus  also,  in  1495,  the  Emperor 
Maximilian  I.  fixed  the  imperial  chamber,  which  before  always  travelled 
with  the  court  and  household,  to  be  constantly  at  Worms." 

As  a  sequence  of  these  changes  it  of  course  happens  that 
suits  of  a  certain  kind  come  habitually  to  be  decided  with 
out  the  king's  presence  :  there  results  a  permanent  transfer  of 
part  of  his  judicial  power.  Again,  press  of  business  or 

love  of  ease  prompts  the  king  himself  to  hand  over  such 
legal  matters  as  are  of  little  interest  to  him.  Thus  in 
France,  while  we  read  that  Charles  V.,  when  regent,  cat  in 
his  council  to  administer  justice  twice  a  week,  and  Charles  VI. 
once,  we  also  read  that  in  1370  the  king  declared  he  would 
no  longer  try  the  smaller  causes  personally.  Once  initiated 
and  growing  into  a  usage,  this  judging  by  commission,  be 
coming  more  frequent  as  affairs  multiply,  is  presently  other 
wise  furthered :  there  arises  the  doctrine  that  the  king  ought 
not,  at  any  rate  in  certain  cases,  to  join  in  judgment.  Thus 
"  at  the  trial  of  the  duke  of  Brittany  in  1378,  the  peers  of 
France  protested  against  the  presence  of  the  king."  Again 
"  at  the  trial  of  the  Marquis  of  Saluces,  under  Francis  I., 
that  monarch  was  made  to  see  that  he  could  not  sit."  When 
Lewis  XIII.  wished  to  be  judge  in  the  case  of  the  Duke  de 
la  Yalette,  he  was  resisted  by  the  judges,  who  said  that  it 
was  without  precedent.  And  in  our  own  country  there  came 
a  time  when  "James  I.  was  informed  by  the  judges  that  he 
had  the  right  to  preside  in  the  court,  but  not  to  express  his 
opinion  :"  a  step  towards  that  exclusion  finally  reached. 

While  the  judicial  business  of  the  political  head  thus  lapses 
into  the  hands  of  appointed  agencies,  these  agencies  them 
selves,  severally  parting  with  certain  of  their  functions  one  to 
another,  become  specialized.  Among  ourselves,  even  before 
there  took  place  the  above-named  separation  of  the  per 
manently-localized  court  of  common  pleas,  from  the  king's 
court  which  moved  about  with  him,  there  had  arisen  within 


JUDICIAL  AND   EXECUTIVE   SYSTEMS.  509 

the  king's  court  an  incipient  differentiation.  Causes  concern 
ing  revenue  were  dealt  with  in  sittings  distinguished  from 
the  general  sittings  of  the  king's  court,  by  being  held  in 
another  room ;  and  establishment  of  this  custom  produced 
a  division.  Adaptation  of  its  parts  to  unlike  ends  led  to 
divergence  of  them;  until,  out  of  the  original  Curia  Regis  ,\\u\ 
come  the  court  of  exchequer  and  the  court  of  common  pleas ; 
leaving  behind  the  court  of  king's  bench  as  a  remnant  of  the 
original  body.  When  the  office  of  justiciar  (who,  represent 
ing  the  king  in  his  absence,  presided  over  these  courts)  was 
abolished,  the  parting  of  them  became  decided ;  and  though, 
for  a  length  of  time,  competition  for  fees  led  to  trenching  on 
one  another's  functions,  yet,  eventually,  their  functions 
became  definitely  marked  off.  A  further  important 

development,  different  but  allied,  took  place.  We  have  seen 
that  when  appointing  others  to  judge  for  him,  the  king 
reserves  the  power  of  deciding  in  cases  which  the  law 
has  not  previously  provided  for,  and  also  the  power  of 
supervising  the  decisions  made  by  his  deputies.  Naturally 
this  power  comes  to  be  especially  used  to  over-ride  deci 
sions  which,  technically  according  to  law,  are  practically 
unjust:  the  king  acquires  an  equity  jurisdiction.  At  first 
exercised  personally,  this  jurisdiction  is  liable  to  be  deputed ; 
and  in  our  own  case  was  so.  The  chancellor,  one  of  the 
king's  servants,  who  "  as  a  baron  of  the  exchequer  and  as  a 
leading  member  of  the  curia"  had  long  possessed  judicial  func 
tions,  and  who  was  the  officer  to  present  to  the  king  petitions 
concerning  these  "matters  of  grace  and  favour,"  became 
presently  himself  the  authority  who  gave  decisions  in  equity 
qualifying  the  decisions  of  law ;  and  thus  in  time  resulted 
the  court  of  chancery.  Minor  courts  with  minor  functions 
also  budded  out  from  the  original  Curia  Regis.  This  body 
included  the  chief  officers  of  the  king's  household,  each  of 
whom  had  a  jurisdiction  in  matters  pertaining  to  his  special 
business ;  and  hence  resulted  the  court  of  the  chamberlain, 
the  court  of  the  steward,  the  court  of  the  earl  marshal  (now 


510  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

at  Herald's  College),  the  court  of  the  constable  (no  longer 
extant),  the  court  of  the  admiral,  &c. 

In  brief,  then,  we  find  proofs  that,  little  trace  as  its  struc 
ture  now  shows  of  such  an  origin,  our  complex  judicial 
system,  alike  in  its  supreme  central  parts  and  in  its  various 
small  local  parts,  has  evolved  by  successive  changes  out  of 
the  primitive  gathering  of  people,  head  men,  and  chief, 

§  528.  Were  further  detail  desirable,  there  might  here  be 
given  an  account  of  police-systems  ;  showing  their  evolution 
from  the  same  primitive  triune  body  whence  originate  the 
several  organizations  delineated  in  this  and  preceding  chapters. 
As  using  force  to  subdue  internal  aggressors,  police  are  like 
soldiers,  who  use  force  to  subdue  external  aggressors  ;  and  the 
two  functions,  originally  one,  are  not  even  now  quite  sepa 
rated  either  in  their  natures  or  their  agents.  For  besides 
being  so  armed  that  they  are  in  some  countries  scarcely  dis 
tinguishable  from  soldiers,  and  besides  being  subject  to  mili 
tary  discipline,  the  police  are,  in  case  of  need,  seconded  by 
soldiers  in  the  discharging  of  their  duties.  To  indicate  the 
primitive  identity  it  will  suffice  to  name  two  facts.  During 
the  Merovingian  period  in  France,  armed  bands  of  serfs, 
attached  to  the  king's  household  and  to  the  households 
of  dukes,  were  employed  both  as  police  and  for  garrison  pur 
poses  ;  and  in  feudal  England,  the  posse  comitatus,  consisting 
of  all  freemen  between  fifteen  and  sixty,  under  command 
of  the  sheriff,  was  the  agent  for  preserving  internal  peace  at 
the  same  time  that  it  was  available  for  repelling  invasions, 
though  not  for  foreign  service — an  incipient  differentiation 
between  the  internal  and  external  defenders  which  became 
in  course  of  time  more  marked.  Letting  this  brief  indication 
suffice,  it  remains  only  to  sum  up  the  conclusions  above 
reached. 

Evidences  of  sundry  kinds  unite  in  showing  that  judicial 
action  and  military  action,  ordinarily  having  for  their  common 
end  the  rectification  of  real  or  alleged  wrongs,  are  closely 


JUDICIAL   AND    EXECUTIVE   SYSTEMS.  511 

allied  at  the  outset.  The  sword  is  the  ultimate  resort  in 
either  case :  use  of  it  being  in  the  one  case  preceded  by  a 
war  of  words  carried  on  before  some  authority  whose  aid  is 
invoked,  while  in  the  other  case  it  is  not  so  preceded.  As 
is  said  by  Sir  Henry  Maine,  "the  fact  seems  to  be  that 
contention  in  Court  takes  the  place  of  contention  in  aims, 
but  only  gradually  takes  its  place." 

Thus  near  akin  as  the  judicial  and  military  actions  origi 
nally  are,  they  are  naturally  at  first  discharged  by  the  same 
agency — the  primitive  triune  body  formed  of  chief,  head  men, 
and  people.  This  which  decides  on  affairs  of  war  and  settles 
questions  of  public  policy,  also  gives  judgments  concerning 
alleged  wrongs  of  individuals  and  enforces  its  decisions. 

According  as  the  social  activities  develop  one  or  other 
element  of  the  primitive  triune  body,  there  results  one  or 
other  form  of  agency  for  the  administration  of  law.  If 
continued  militancy  makes  the  ruling  man  all-powerful,  he 
becomes  absolute  judicially  as  in  other  ways  :  the  people  lose 
all  share  in  giving  decisions,  and  the  judgments  of  the  chief 
men  who  surround  him  are  overridden  by  his.  If  con 
ditions  favour  the  growth  of  the  chief  men  into  an  oligarchy, 
the  body  they  form  becomes  the  agent  for  judging  and  punish 
ing  offences  as  for  other  purposes :  its  acts  being  little  or  not 
at  all  qualified  by  the  opinion  of  the  mass.  While  if  the  sur 
rounding  circumstances  and  mode  of  life  are  such  as  to 
prevent  supremacy  of  one  man,  or  of  the  leading  men,  its 
primitive  judicial  power  is  preserved  by  the  aggregate  of 
freemen — or  is  regained  by  it  where  it  re-acquires  predomi 
nance.  And  where  the  powers  of  these  three  elements  are 
mingled  in  the  political  organization,  they  are  also  mingled 
in  the  judicial  organization. 

In  those  cases,  forming  the  great  majority,  in  which 
habitual  militancy  entails  subjection  of  the  people,  partial  or 
complete,  and  in  which,  consequently,  political  power  and 
judicial  power  come  to  be  exercised  exclusively  by  the  several 
orders  of  chief  men,  the  judicial  organization  which  arises  as 


512  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

the  society  enlarges  and  complicates,  is  officered  by  the 
sacerdotal  class,  or  the  military  class,  or  partly  the  one  and 
partly  the  other:  their  respective  shares  being  apparently 
dependent  on  the  ratio  between  the  degree  of  conscious 
subordination  to  the  human  ruler  and  the  degree  of  conscious 
subordination  to  the  divine  ruler,  whose  will  the  priests  are 
supposed  to  communicate.  But  with  the  progress  of  indus 
trialism  and  the  rise  of  a  class  which,  acquiring  property  and 
knowledge,  gains  consequent  influence,  the  judicial  system 
comes  to  be  largely,  and  at  length  chiefly,  officered  by  men 
derived  from  this  class ;  and  these  men  become  distinguished 
from  their  predecessors  not  only  as  being  of  other  origin, 
but  also  as  being  exclusively  devoted  to  judicial  functions. 

While  there  go  on  changes  of  this  kind,  there  go  on 
changes  by  which  the  origio ally-simple  and  comparatively- 
uniform  judicial  system,  is  rendered  increasingly  complex. 
Where,  as  in  ordinary  cases,  there  has  gone  along  with 
achievement  of  supremacy  by  the  king,  a  monopolizing 
of  judicial  authority  by  him,  press  of  business  presently 
obliges  him  to  appoint  others  to  try  causes  and  give  judg 
ments  :  subject  of  course  to  his  approval.  Already  his  court, 
originally  formed  of  himself,  his  chief  men,  and  the  sur 
rounding  people,  has  become  supreme  over  courts  constituted 
in  analogous  ways  of  local  magnates  and  their  inferiors — so 
initiating  a  differentiation ;  and  now  by  delegating  certain  of 
his  servants  or  assessors,  at  first  with  temporary  commissions 
to  hear  appeals  locally,  and  then  as  permanent  itinerant  judges, 
a  further  differentiation  is  produced.  And  to  this  are  added 
yet  further  differentiations,  kindred  in  nature,  by  which  other 
assessors  of  his  court  are  changed  into  the  heads  of 
specialized  courts,  which  divide  its  business  among  them. 
Though  this  particular  course  has  been  taken  in  but  a  single 
case,  yet  it  serves  to  exemplify  the  general  principle  under 
which,  in  one  way  or  other,  there  arises  out  of  the  primitive 
simple  judicial  body,  a  centralized  and  heterogeneous  judicial 


organization. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 
LAWS. 

§  529.  If,  going  back  once  more  to  the  primitive  horde,  we 
ask  what  happens  when  increase  of  numbers  necessitates 
migration — if  we  ask  what  it  is  which  causes  the  migrating 
part  to  fall  into  social  arrangements  like  those  of  the  parent 
part,  and  to  behave  in  the  same  way ;  the  obvious  reply  is 
that  the  inherited  natures  of  its  members,  regulated  by  the 
ideas  transmitted  from  the  past,  cause  these  results.  That 
guidance  by  custom  which  we  everywhere  find  among  rude 
peoples,  is  the  sole  conceivable  guidance  at  the  outset. 

To  recall  vividly  the  truth  set  forth  in  §  467,  that  the  rudest 
men  conform  their  lives  to  ancestral  usages,  I  may  name  such 
further  illustrations  as  that  the  Sandwich  Islanders  had 
"  a  kind  of  traditionary  code  .  .  .  followed  by  general  con 
sent;"  and  that  by  the  Bechuanas,  government  is  carried  on 
according  to  "  long-acknowledged  customs."  A  more  specific 
statement  is  that  made  by  Mason  concerning  the  Karens, 
among  whom  <:  the  elders  are  the  depositaries  of  the  laws,  both 
moral  and  political,  both  civil  and  criminal,  and  they  give 
them  as  they  receive  them,  and  as  they  have  been  brought 
down  from  past  generations"  orally.  Here,  however,  we 
have  chiefly  to  note  that  this  government  by  custom,  persists 
through  long  stages  of  progress,  and  even  still  largely  in 
fluences  judicial  administration.  Instance  the  fact  that  as 
late  as  the  14th  century  in  France,  an  ordinance  declared  that 
f<  the  whole  kingdom  is  regulated  by  '  custom,'  and  it  is  as 


POLITICAL  INSTITUTION'S. 

'  custom*  that  some  of  our  subjects  make  use  of  the  written 
la\v."  Instance  the  fact  that  our  own  Common  Law  is  mainly 
an  embodiment  of  the  "  customs  of  the  realm,"  which  have 
gradually  become  established :  its  older  part,  nowhere  existing 
in  the  shape  of  enactment,  is  to  be  learnt  only  from  text 
books  ;  and  even  parts,  such  as  mercantile  law,  elaborated  in 
modern  times,  are  known  only  through  reported  judgments, 
given  in  conformity  with  usages  proved  to  have  been  pre 
viously  followed.  Instance  again  the  fact,  no  less  signi 
ficant,  that  at  the  present  time  custom  perpetually  re-appears 
as  a  living  supplementary  factor ;  for  it  is  only  after  judges' 
decisions  have  established  precedents  which  pleaders  after 
wards  quote,  and  subsequent  judges  follow,  that  the  applica 
tion  of  an  act  of  parliament  becomes  settled.  So  that  while 
in  the  course  of  civilization  written  law  tends  to  replace 
traditional  usage,  the  replacement  never  becomes  complete. 

And  here  we  are  again  reminded  that  law,  whether  written 
or  unwritten,  formulates  the  rule  of  the  dead  over  the  living. 
In  addition  to  that  power  which  past  generations  exerciso 
over  present  generations  by  transmitting  their  natures,  bodily 
and  mental ;  and  in  addition  to  the  power  they  exercise  over 
them  by  bequeathed  private  habits  and  modes  of  life ;  there 
is  this  power  they  exercise  through  these  regulations  for 
public  conduct  handed  down  orally  or  in  writing.  Among 
savages  and  in  barbarous  societies,  the  authority  of  laws  thus 
derived  is  unqualified ;  and  even  in  advanced  stages  of  civili 
zation,  characterized  by  much  modifying  of  old  laws  and 
making  of  new  ones,  conduct  is  controlled  in  a  far  greater 
degree  by  the  body  of  inherited  laws  than  by  those  laws 
which  the  living  make. 

I  emphasize  these  obvious  truths  for  the  purpose  of  point 
ing  out  that  they  imply  a  tacit  ancestor-worship.  I  wish  to 
make  it  clear  that  when  asking  in  any  case — What  is  the 
Law  ?  we  are  asking — What  was  the  dictate  of  our  fore 
fathers  ?  And  my  object  in  doing  this  is  to  prepare  the  way 
for  showing  that  unconscious  conformity  to  the  dictates  of  the 


LAWS.  515 

dead,  thus  shown,  is,  in  early  stages,  joined  with  conscious 
conformity  to  their  dictates. 

§  530.  For  along  with  development  of  the  ghost-theory, 
there  arises  the  practice  of  appealing  to  ghosts,  and  to  the  gods 
evolved  from  ghosts,  for  directions  in  special  cases,  in  addi 
tion  to  the  general  directions  embodied  in  customs.  There 
come  methods  by  which  the  will  of  the  ancestor,  or  the  dead 
chief,  or  the  derived  deity,  is  sought ;  and  the  reply  given, 
usually  referring  to  a  particular  occasion,  originates  in  some 
cases  a  precedent,  from  which  there  results  a  law  added  to  the 
body  of  laws  the  dead  have  transmitted. 

The  seeking  of  information  and  advice  from  ghosts,  takes 
here  a  supplicatory  and  there  a  coercive  form.  The  Veddahs, 
who  ask  the  spirits  of  their  ancestors  for  aid,  believe  that 
in  dreams  they  tell  them  where  to  hunt ;  and  then  we  read 
of  the  Scandinavian  diviners,  that  they  "  dragged  the  ghosts 
of  the  departed  from  their  tombs  and  forced  the  dead  to  tell 
them  what  would  happen :"  cases  which  remind  us  that 
among  the  Hebrews,  too,  there  were  supernatural  directions 
given  in  dreams  as  well  as  information  derived  from  invoked 
spirits.  This  tendency  to  accept  special  guidance  from  the 
dead,  in  addition  to  the  general  guidance  of  an  inherited  code, 
is  traceable  in  a  transfigured  shape  even  among  ourselves  ;  for 
besides  conforming  to  the  orally-declared  wish  of  a  deceased 
parent,  children  are  often  greatly  influenced  in  their  conduct 
by  considering  what  the  deceased  parent  would  have  desired 
or  advised:  his  imagined  injunction  practically  becomes  a 
supplementary  law. 

Here,  however,  we  are  chiefly  concerned  with  that  more 
developed  form  of  such  guidance  which  results  where  the 
spirits  of  distinguished  men,  regarded  with  special  fear  and 
trust,  become  deities.  Ancient  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  reveal 
two  stages  of  it.  The  "Instructions"  recorded  by  King 
Bash'otephet  are  given  by  his  father  in  a  dream.  "  Son  of  the 
Sun  Amenemhat — deceased : — He  says  in  a  dream — unto  his 
92 


516  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

son  the  Lord  intact, — -he  says  rising  up  like  a  god : — >f  Listen 
to  what  I  speak  unto  thee.'"  And  then  another  tablet 
narrates  how  Thothmes  IV,  travelling  when  a  prince,  and 
taking  his  siesta  in  the  shade  of  the  Sphinx,  was  spoken  to  in  i 
dream  by  that  god,  who  said — "Look  at  me!  ...  Answer 
me  that  you  will  do  me  what  is  in  my  heart "  &c. ;  and  wheu 
he  ascended  the  throne,  Thothmes  fulfilled  the  injunction. 
Analogous  stages  were  well  exemplified  among  the  ancient 
Peruvians.  There  is  a  tradition  that  Huayna  Ccapac,  wish 
ing  to  marry  his  second  sister,  applied  for  assent  to  the  dead 
body  of  his  father;  "but  the  dead  body  gave  no  answer, 
while  fearful  signs  appeared  in  the  heavens,  portending 
blood."  Moreover,  as  before  pointed  out  in  §  477,  "  the  Ynca 
gave  them  (the  vassals)  to  understand  that  all  he  did  with 
regard  to  them  was  by  an  order  and  revelation  of  his  father, 
the  Sun."  Turning  to  extant  races,  we  see  that  in  the  Poly 
nesian  Islands,  where  the  genesis  of  a  pantheon  by  ancestor 
worship  is  variously  exemplified,  divine  direction  is  habitually 
sought  through  priests.  Among  the  Tahitians,  one  "  mode  by 
which  the  god  intimated  his  will/'  was  to  enter  the  priest, 
who  then  "  spoke  as  entirely  under  supernatural  influence." 
Mariner  tells  us  that  in  Tonga,  too,  when  the  natives  wished 
to  consult -the  gods,  there  was  a  ceremony  of  invocation;  and 
the  inspired  priest  then  uttered  the  divine  command.  Similar 
beliefs  and  usages  are  described  by  Turner  as. existing  in 
Samoa.  Passing  to  another  region,  we  find  among  the  Todas 
of  the  Indian  hills,  an  appeal  for  supernatural  guidance  in 
judicial  matters. 

"  When  any  dispute  arises  respecting  their  wives  or  their  buffaloes,  it 
has  to  be  decided  by  the  priest,  who  affects  to  become  possessed  by  the 
Bell-god,  and  .  .  .  pronounces  the  deity's  decision  upon  the  point  in 
dispute." 

These  instances  serve  to  introduce  and  interpret  for  us 
those  which  the  records  of  historic  peoples  yield.  Taking 
first  the  Hebrews,  we  have  the  familiar  fact  that  the  laws 
for  general  guidance  were  supposed  to  be  divinely  communi 
cated  ;  and  we  have  the  further  fact  that  special  directions 


LAWS.  517 

were  often  sought.  Through  the  priest  who  accompanied 
the  army,  the  commander  "  inquired  of  the  Lord  "  about  any 
military  movement  of  importance,  and  sometimes  received 
very  definite  orders;  as  when,  before  a  battle  with  the 
Philistines,  David  is  told  to  "  fetch  a  compass  behind  them, 
and  come  upon  them  over  against  the  mulberry  trees." 
Sundry  Ayran  peoples  furnish  evidence.  In  common  with 
other  Indian  codes,  the  code  of  Manu,  "  accordiug  to  Hindoo 
mythology,  is  an  emanation  from  the  supreme  God."  So, 
too,  was  it  with  the  Greeks.  Not  forgetting  the  tradition 
that  by  an  ancient  Cretan  king,  a  body  of  laws  was  brought 
down  from  the  mountain  where  Jupiter  was  said  to  be  buried, 
we  may  pass  to  the  genesis  of  laws  from  special  divine  com 
mands,  as  implied  in  the  Homeric  poems.  Speaking  of  these 
Grote  says  : — 

"  The  appropriate  Greek  word  for  human  laws  never  occurs  :  amidst  a 
very  wavering  phraseology,  we  can  detect  a  gradual  transition  from  the 
primitive  idea  of  a  personal  goddess,  Themis,  attached  to  Zeus,  first  to 
his  sentences  or  orders  called  Themistes,  and  next  by  a  still  farther 
remove  to  various  established  customs  which  those  sentences  were 
believed  to  sanctify — the  authority  of  religion  and  that  of  custom 
coalescing  into  one  indivisible  obligation." 

Congruous  in  nature  was  the  belief  that  "  Lycurgus  ob 
tained  not  only  his  own  consecration  .to  the  office  of  legis 
lator,  but  his  laws  themselves  from  the  mouth  of  the  Delphic 
God."  To  which  add  that  we  have  throughout  later  Greek 
times,  the  obtainment  of  special  information  and  direc 
tion  through  oracles.  Evidence  that  among  the  Romans  there 
had  occurred  a  kindred  process,  is  supplied  by  the  story  that 
the  ancient  laws  were  received  by  Numa  from  the  goddess 
Egeria ;  and  that  Numa  appointed  augurs  by  whose  inter 
pretation  of  signs  the  will  of  the  gods  was  to  be  ascertained. 
Even  in  the  9th  century,  under  the  Carolingians,  there  were 
brought  before  the  nobles  "  articles  of  law  named  capitula, 
which  the  king  himself  had  drawn  up  by  the  inspiration  of 
God." 

Without  following  out  the  influence  of  like  beliefs  in  later 


518  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

times,  as  seen  in  trial  by  ordeal  and  trial  by  judicial 
combat,  in  both  of  which  God  was  supposed  indirectly  to 
give  judgment,  the  above  evidence  makes  it  amply  manifest 
that,  in  addition  to  those  injunctions  definitely  expressed,  or 
embodied  in  usages  tacitly  accepted  from  seniors  and 
through  them  from  remote  ancestors,  there  are  further  in 
junctions  more  consciously  attributed  to  supernatural  beings 
— either  the  ghosts  of  parents  and  chiefs  who  were  personally 
known,  or  the  ghosts  of  more  ancient  traditionally-known 
chiefs  which  have  been  magnified  into  gods.  Whence  it 
follows  that  originally,  under  both  of  its  forms,  law  embodies 
the  dictates  of  the  dead  to  the  living. 

§  531.  And  here  we  are  at  once  shown  how  it  happens  that 
throughout  early  stages  of  social  evolution,  no  distinction  is 
made  between  sacred  law  and  secular  law.  Obedience  to 
established  injunctions  of  whatever  kind,  originating  in 
reverence  for  supposed  supernatural  beings  of  one  or  other 
order,  it  results  that  at  first  all  these  injunctions  have  the 
same  species  of  authority. 

The  Egyptian  wall-sculptures,  inscriptions,  and  papyri, 
everywhere  expressing  subordination  of  the  present  to  the 
past,  show  us  the  universality  of  the  religious  sanction  for 
rules  of  conduct.  Of  the  Assyrians  Layard  says : — 

"  The  intimate  connection  between  the  public  and  private  life  of  the 
Assyrians  and  their  religion,  is  abundantly  proved  by  the  sculptures. 
...  As  among  most  ancient  Eastern  nations,  not  only  all  public  and 
social  duties,  but  even  the  commonest  forms  and  customs,  appear  to 
have  been  more  or  less  influenced  by  religion.  .  .  .  All  his  [the  king's] 
acts,  whether  in  war  or  peace,  appear  to  have  been  connected  with  the 
national  religion,  and  were  believed  to  be  under  the  special  protection 
and  superintendence  of  the  deity." 

That  among  the  Hebrews  there  existed  a  like  connexion,  is 
conspicuously  shown  us  in  the  Pentateuch ;  where,  besides 
the  commandments  specially  so-called,  and  besides  religious 
ordinances  regulating  feasts  and  sacrifices,  the  doings  of  the 
priests,  the  purification  by  scapegoat,  &c.,  there  are  numerous 


LAWS.  519 

directions  for  daily  conduct — directions  concerning  kinds  of 
food  and  modes  of  cooking ;  directions  for  proper  farming  in 
respect  of  periodic  fallows,  not  sowing  mingled  grain,  &c. ; 
directions  for  the  management  of  those  in  bondage,  male  and 
female,  and  the  payment  of  hired  labourers  ;  directions  about 
trade-transactions  and  the  sales  of  lands  and  houses ;  along 
with  sumptuary  laws  extending  to  the  quality  and  fringes  of 
garments  and  the  shaping  of  beards:  instances  sufficiently 
showing  that  the  rules  of  living,  down  even  to  small  details, 
had  a  divine  origin  equally  with  the  supreme  laws  of  con 
duct.  The  like  was  true  of  the  Ayrans  in  early  stages. 
The  code  of  Manu  was  a  kindred  mixture  of  sacred  and 
secular  regulations — of  moral  dictates  and  rules  for  carrying 
on  ordinary  affairs.  Says  Tiele  of  the  Greeks  after  the  Doric 
migration : — "  No  new  political  institutions,  no  fresh  culture, 
no  additional  games,  were  established  without  the  sanction  of 
the  Pythian  oracle."  And  again  we  read — 
"  Chez  les  Grecs  et  chez  les  Eomains,  comme  chez  les  Hindous,  la  loi  fut 
d'abord  une  partie  de  la  religion.  Les  anciens  codes  des  cites  etaient 
un  ensemble  de  rites  de  prescriptions  liturgiques  de  prieres,  en  meme 
temps  que  de  dispositions  legislatives.  Les  regies  du  droit  de  propriety 
et  du  droit  de  succession  y  etaient  eparses  au  milieu  des  regies  des 
sacrifices,  de  la  sepulture  et  du  culte  des  morts." 

Originating  in  this  manner,  law  acquires  stability.  Possess 
ing  a  supposed  supernatural  sanction,  its  rules  have  a  rigidity 
enabling  them  to  restrain  men's  actions  in  greater  degrees 
than  could  any  rules  having  an  origin  recognized  as  natural. 
They  tend  thus  to  produce  settled  social  arrangements  ;  both 
directly,  by  their  high  authority,  and  indirectly  by  limiting 
the  actions  of  the  living  ruler.  As  was  pointed  out  in  §  468, 
early  governing  agents,  not  daring  to  transgress  inherited 
usages  and  regulations,  are  practically  limited  to  interpreting 
and  enforcing  them :  their  legislative  power  being  exercised 
only  in  respect  of  matters  not  already  prescribed  for.  Thus 
of  the  ancient  Egyptians  we  read : — "  It  was  not  on  his 
[the  king's]  own  will  that  his  occupations  depended,  but  on 
those  rules  of  duty  and  propriety  which  the  wisdom  of  his 


520  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

ancestors  had  framed,  with  a  just  regard  for  the  welfare  of 
the  king  and  of  his  people."  And  how  persistent  is  this 
authority  of  the  sanctified  past  over  the  not-yet-sanctified 
present,  we  see  among  ourselves,  in  the  fact  that  every  legis 
lator  has  to  bind  himself  by  oath  to  maintain  certain  political 
arrangements  which  our  ancestors  thought  good  for  us. 

While  the  unchangeableness  of  law,  due  to  its  supposed 
sacred  origin,  greatly  conduces  to  social  order  during  those 
early  stages  in  which  strong  restraints  are  most  needed,  there 
of  course  results  an  unadaptiveness  which  impedes  progress 
when  there  arise  new  conditions  to  be  met.  Hence  come  into 
use  those  "  legal  fictions,"  by  the  aid  of  which  nominal 
obedience  is  reconciled  with  actual  disobedience.  Alike  in 
Roman  law  and  in  English  law,  as  pointed  out  by  Sir  Henry 
Maine,  legal  fictions  have  been  the  means  of  modifying 
statutes  which  were  transmitted  as  immutable  ;  and  so  fitting 
them  to  new  requirements :  thus  uniting  stability  with  that 
plasticity  which  allows  of  gradual  transformation. 

§  532.  Such  being  the  origin  and  nature  of  laws,  it  becomes 
manifest  that  the  cardinal  injunction  must  be  obedience. 
Conformity  to  each  particular  direction  pre-supposes  allegiance 
to  the  authority  giving  it ;  and  therefore  the  imperativeness 
of  subordination  to  this  authority  is  primary. 

That  direct  acts  of  insubordination,  shown  in  treason  and 
rebellion,  stand  first  in  degree  of  criminality,  evidently  fol 
lows.  This  truth  is  seen  at  the  present  time  in  South 
Africa.  "  According  to  a  horrible  law  of  the  Zulu  despots, 
when  a  chief  is  put  to  death  they  exterminate  also  his  sub 
jects."  It  was  illustrated  by  the  ancient  Peruvians,  among 
whom  "  a  rebellious  city  or  province  was  laid  waste,  and  its 
inhabitants  exterminated ; "  and  again  by  the  ancient  Mexi 
cans,  by  whom  one  guilty  of  treachery  to  the  king  "  was  put 
to  death,  with  all  his  relations  to  the  fourth  degree."  A 
like  extension  of  punishment  occurred  in  past  times  in  Japan, 
where,  when  "  the  offence  is  committed  against  the  state, 


LAWS.  521 

punishment  is  inflicted  upon  the  whole  race  of  the  offender.** 
Of  efforts  thus  wholly  to  extinguish  families  guilty  of  dis 
loyalty,  the  Merovingians  yielded  an  instance :  king  Gunt- 
chram  swore  that  the  children  of  a  certain  rebel  should  be 
destroyed  up  to  the  ninth  generation.  And  these  examples 
naturally  recall  those  furnished  by  Hebrew  traditions.  When 
Abraham,  treating  Jahveh  as  a  terrestrial  superior  (just  as 
existing  Bedouins  regard  as  god  the  most  powerful  living 
ruler  known  to  them)  entered  into  a  covenant  under  which, 
for  territory  given,  he,  Abraham,  became  a  vassal,  circumcision 
was  the  prescribed  badge  of  subordination ;  and  the  sole 
capital  offence  named  was  neglect  of  circumcision,  implying 
insubordination  :  Jahveh  olsewhere  announcing  himself  as  "  a 
jealous  god,"  and  threatening  punishment  "  upon  the  children 
unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate  me." 
And  the  truth  thus  variously  illustrated,  that  during  stages  in 
which  maintenance  of  authority  is  most  imperative,  direct  dis 
loyalty  is  considered  the  blackest  of  crimes,  we  trace  down 
through  later  stages  in  such  facts  as  that,  in  feudal  days,  so 
long  as  the  fealty  of  a  vassal  was  duly  manifested,  crimes, 
often  grave  and  numerous,  were  overlooked. 

Less  extreme  in  its  flagitiousness  than  the  direct  dis 
obedience  implied  by  treason  and  rebellion,  is,  of  course,  the 
indirect  disobedience  implied  by  breach  of  commands.  This, 
however,  where  strong  rule  has  been  established,  is  regarded 
as  a  serious  offence,  quite  apart  from,  and  much  exceeding,  that 
which  the  forbidden  act  intrinsically  involves.  Its  greater 
gravity  was  distinctly  enunciated  by  the  Peruvians,  among 
whom,  says  Garcilasso,  "  the  most  common  punishment  wag 
death,  for  they  said  that  a  culprit  was  not  punished  for  the 
delinquencies  he  had  committed,  but  for  having  broken  the 
commandment  of  the  Ynca,  who  was  respected  as  God."  The 
like  conception  meets  us  in  another  country  where  the  ab 
solute  ruler  is  regarded  as  divine.  Sir  E.  Alcock  quotes 
Thunberg  to  the  effect  that  in  Japan,  "  most  crimes  are 
punished  with  death,  a  sentence  which  is  inflicted  with  lesa 


POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

regard  to  the  magnitude  of  the  crime  than  to  the  audacity  of 
the  attempt  to  transgress  the  hallowed  laws  of  the  empire." 
And  then,  beyond  the  criminality  which  disobeying  the  ruler 
involves,  there  is  the  criminality  involved  by  damaging  the 
ruler's  property,  where  his  subjects  and  their  services  belong 
wholly  or  partly  to  him.  In  the  same  way  that  maltreating 
a  slave,  and  thereby  making  him  less  valuable,  comes  to  be 
considered  as  an  aggression  on  his  owner — in  the  same  way 
that  even  now  among  ourselves  a  father's  ground  for  proceed 
ing  against  a  seducer  is  loss  of  his  daughter's  services  ;  so, 
where  the  relation  of  people  to  monarch  is  servile,  there  arises 
the  view  that  injury  done  by  one  person  to  another,  is  injury 
done  to  the  monarch's  property.  An  extreme  form  of  this 
view  is  alleged  of  Japan,  where  cutting  and  maiming  of  the 
king's  dependents  "  becomes  wounding  the  king,  or  regicide." 
And  hence  the  general  principle,  traceable  in  European  juris 
prudence  from  early  days,  that  a  transgression  of  man  against 
man  is  punishable  mainly,  or  in  large  measure,  as  a  trans 
gression  against  the  State.  It  was  thus  in  ancient  Home :. 
"  every  one  convicted  of  having  broken  the  public  peace, 
expiated  his  offence  with  his  life."  An  early  embodiment 
of  the  principle  occurs  in  the  Salic  law,  under  which  "  to  the 
wclirgeld  is  added,  in  a  great  number  of  cases,  .  .  .  the  fred, 
a  sum  paid  to  the  king  or  magistrate,  in  reparation  for  the 
violation  of  public  peace;"  and  in  later  days,  the  fine  paid 
to  the  State  absorbed  the  wehrgeld.  Our  own  history  simi 
larly  shows  us  that,  as  authority  extends  and  strengthens,  the 
guilt  of  disregarding  it  takes  precedence  of  intrinsic  guilt. 
"  '  The  king's  peace  '  was  a  privilege  which  attached  to  the 
sovereign's  court  and  castle,  but  which  he  could  confer  on 
other  places  and  persons,  and  which  at  once  raised  greatly 
the  penalty  of  misdeeds  committed  in  regard  to  them." 
Along  with  the  growing  check  on  the  right  of  private  revenge 
for  wrongs — along  with  the  increasing  subordination  cf  minor 
and  local  jurisdictions — along  with  that  strengthening  of  a 
centiv.1  authority  which  these  changes  imply, "  offences  against 


LAWS. 


523 


the  law  become  offences  against  the  king,  and  the  crime  of 
disobedience  a  crime  of  contempt  to  be  expiated  by  a  special 
sort  of  fine."  And  we  may  easily  see  how,  where  a  ruler 
gains  absolute  power,  and  especially  where  he  has  the  prestige 
of  divine  origin,  the  guilt  of  contempt  comes  to  exceed  ihe 
intrinsic  guilt  of  the  forbidden  act. 

A  significant  truth  may  be  added.  On  remembering  that 
Peru,  and  Japan  till  lately,  above  named  as  countries  in 
which  the  crime  of  disobedience  to  the  ruler  was  considered 
so  great  as  practically  to  equalize  the  flagitiousness  of  all 
forbidden  acts,  had  societies  in  which  militant  organization, 
carried  to  its  extreme,  assimilated  the  social  government  at 
large  to  the  government  of  an  army ;  we  are  reminded  that 
even  in  societies  like  our  own,  there  is  maintained  in  the 
army  the  doctrine  that  insubordination  is  the  cardinal 
offence.  Disobedience  to  orders  is  penal  irrespective  of  the 
nature  of  the  orders  or  the  motive  for  the  disobedience ;  and 
an  act  which,  considered  in  itself,  is  quite  innocent,  may  be 
visited  with  death  if  done  in  opposition  to  commands. 

While,  then,  in  that  enforced  conformity  to  inherited 
customs  which  plays  the  part  of  law  in  the  earliest  stages,  we 
see  insisted  upon  the  duty  of  obedience  to  ancestois  at  large, 
irrespective  of  the  injunctions  to  be  obeyed,  which  are 
often  trivial  or  absurd — while  in  the  enforced  conformity  to 
special  directions  given  in  oracular  utterances  by  priests,  or  in 
"  themistes,"  &c.,  which  form  a  supplementary  source  of  law, 
we  see  insisted  upon  the  duty  of  obedience,  in  small  things 
as  in  great,  to  certain  recognized  spirits  of  the  dead,  or  deities 
derived  from  them ;  we  also  see  that  obedience  to  the  edicts 
of  the  terrestrial  ruler,  whatever  they  may  be,  becomes,  as  his 
power  grows,  a  primary  duty. 

§  533.  "What  has  been  said  in  the  foregoing  sections  brings 
out  with  clearness  the  truth  that  rules  for  the  regulation  of 
conduct  have  four  sources.  Even  in  early  stages  we  see  that 
beyond  the  inherited  usages  which  have  a  quasi-religious  sane- 


POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

tion  ;  and  beyond  the  special  injunctions  of  deceased  leaders, 
which  have  a  more  distinct  religious  sanction ;  there  is  some, 
though  a  slight,  amount  of  regulation  derived  from  the  will 
of  the  predominant  man ;  and  there  is  also  the  effect,  vague 
but  influential,  of  the  aggregate  opinion.  Not  dwelling  on  the 
first  of  these,  which  is  slowly  modified  by  accretions  derived 
from  the  others,  it  is  observable  that  in  the  second  we  have 
the  germ  of  the  law  afterwards  distinguished  as  divine ;  that 
in  the  third  we  have  the  germ  of  the  law  which  gets  its  sanc 
tion  from  allegiance  to  the  living  governor ;  and  that  in  the 
fourth  we  have  the  germ  of  the  law  which  eventually  becomes 
recognized  as  expressing  the  public  wilL 

Already  I  have  sufficiently  illustrated  those  kinds  of  laws 
which  originate  personally,  as  commands  of  a  feared  invisible 
ruler  and  a  feared  visible  ruler.  But  before  going  further,  it 
will  be  well  to  indicate  more  distinctly  the  kind  of  law  which 
originates  impersonally,  from  the  prevailing  sentiments  and 
ideas,  and  which  we  find  clearly  shown  in  rude  stages  before 
the  other  two  have  become  dominant.  A  few  extracts  will 
exhibit  it.  Schoolcraft  says  of  the  Chippewayans — 
"  Thus,  though  they  have  no  regular  government,  as  every  man  is  lord  in 
his  own  family,  they  are  influenced  more  or  less  by  certain  principles 
which  conduce  to  their  general  benefit." 

Of  the  unorganized  Shoshones  Bancroft  writes — 

"  Every  man  does  as  he  likes.     Private  revenge,  of  course,  occasionally 

overtakes  the  murderer,  or,  if  the  sympathies  of  the  tribe  be  with  the 

murdered  man,  he  may  possibly  be  publicly  executed,  but  there  are  no 

fixed  laws  for  such  cases." 

In  like  manner  the  same  writer  tells  us  of  the  Haidahs  that — 

"  Crimes  have  no  punishment  by  law  ;  murder  is  settled  for  with  rela- 

tives  of  the  victim,  by  death  or  by  the  payment  of  a  large  sum  ;  and 

soinetimes  general  or  notorious  offenders,  especially  medicine-men,  are 

put  to  death  by  an  agreement  among  leading  men." 

Even  where  government   is  considerably  developed,  public 

opinion  continues  to  be  an  independent  source  of  law.     Ellis 

Bays  that — 

M  In  cases  of  theft  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  those  who  had  been  robbed 

retaliated  upon  the  guilty  party,  by  seizing  whatever  they  could  find  j 


LAWS.  525 

and  this  mode  of  obtaining  redress  was  so  supported  by  public  opinion, 
that  the  latter,  though  it  might  be  the  stronger  party,  dare  not  offer 
resistance." 

By  which  facts  we  are  reminded  that  where  central  authority 
and  administrative  machinery  are  feeble,  the  laws  thus  inform 
ally  established  by  aggregate  feeling  are  enforced  by  making 
revenge  for  wrongs  a  socially-imposed  duty  ;  while  failure  to 
revenge  is  made  a  disgrace,  and  a  consequent  danger.'  In 
ancient  Scandinavia,  "  a  man's  relations  and  friends  who  had 
not  revenged  his  death,  would  instantly  have  lost  that  repu 
tation  which  constituted  their  principal  security."  So  that, 
obscured  as  this  source  of  law  becomes  when  the  popular  ele 
ment  in  the  triune  political  structure  is  entirely  subordinated, 
yet  it  was  originally  conspicuous,  and  never  ceases  to  exist. 
And  now  having  noted  the  presence  of  this,  along  with  the 
other  mingled  sources  of  law,  let  us  observe  how  the  several 
sources,  along  with  their  derived  laws,  gradually  become 
distinguished. 

Recalling  the  proofs  above  given  that  where  there  has 
been  established  a  definite  political  authority,  inherited  from 
apotheosized  chiefs  and  made  strong  by  divine  sanction,  ]aws 
of  all  kinds  have  a  religious  character ;  we  have  first  to  note 
that  a  differentiation  takes  place  between  those  regarded  as 
sacred  and  those  recognized  as  secular.  An  illustration  of 
this  advance  is  furnished  us  by  the  Greeks.  Describing  the 
state  of  things  exhibited  in  the  Homeric  poems,  Grote  re 
marks  that  "there  is  no  sense  of  obligation  then  existing, 
between  man  and  man  as  such — and  very  little  between 
each  man  and  the  entire  community  of  which  he  is  a  member;" 
while,  at  the  same  time,  "  the  tie  which  binds  a  man  to  his 
father,  his  kinsman,  his  guest,  or  any  special  promisee 
towards  whom  he  has  taken  the  engagement  of  an  oath,  is 
conceived  in  conjunction  with  the  idea  of  Zeus,  as  witness 
and  guarantee :"  allegiance  to  a  divinity  is  the  source  of 
obligation.  But  in  historical  Athens,  "  the  great  impersonal 
authority  called  '  The  Laws '  stood  out  separately,  both  as 


526  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

guide  and  sanction,  distinct  from  religious  duty  or  private 
sympathies."  And  at  the  same  time  there  arose  the  distinc 
tion  between  breach  of  the  sacred  law  and  breach  of  the 
secular  law :  "  the  murderer  came  to  be  considered,  first  as 
having  sinned  against  the  gods,  next  as  having  deeply  injured 
the  society,  and  thus  at  once  as  requiring  absolution  and 
deserving  punishment."  A  kindred  differentiation 

early  occurred  in  Rome.  Though,  during  the  primitive 
period,  the  head  of  the  State,  at  once  king  and  high  priest, 
and  in  his  latter  capacity  dressed  as  a  god,  was  thus  the 
mouth-piece  of  both  sacred  law  and  secular  law;  yet,  after 
wards,  with  the  separation  of  the  ecclesiastical  and  political 
authorities,  carne  a  distinction  between  breaches  of  divine 
ordinances  and  breaches  of  human  ordinances.  In  the 
words  of  Sir  Henry  Maine,  there  were  "laws  punishing 
sins.  There  were  also  laws  punishing  torts.  The  con 
ception  of  offence  against  God  produced  the  first  class  of 
ordinances ;  the  conception  of  offence  against  one's  neighbour 
produced  the  second ;  but  the  idea  of  offence  against  the  State 
or  aggregate  community  did  not  at  first  produce  a  true 
criminal  jurisprudence."  In  explanation  of  the  last  statement 
it  should,  however,  be  added  that  since,  during  the  regal 
period,  according  to  Mornmsen,  "judicial  procedure  took  the 
form  of  a  public  or  a  private  process,  according  as  the  king 
interposed  of  his  own  motion,  or  only  when  appealed  to  by 
the  injured  party;"  and  since  "the  former  course  was  taken 
only  in  cases  which  involved  a  breach  of  the  public  peace ;" 
it  must  be  inferred  that  when  kingship  ceased,  there  survived 
the  distinction  between  transgression  against  the  individual 
and  transgression  against  the  State,  though  the  mode  of 
dealing  with  this  last  had  not,  for  a  time,  a  definite 
fc  im.  Again,  even  among  the  Hebrews,  more  per 

sistently  theocratic  as  their  social  system  was,  we  see  a  con 
siderable  amount  of  this  change,  at  the  same  time  that  we 
are  shown  one  of  its  causes.  The  Mishna  contains  many 
detailed  civil  laws ;  and  these  manifestly  resulted  from  the 


LAWS.  527 

growing  complication  of  affairs.  The  instance  is  one  showing 
us  that  primitive  sacred  commands,  originating  as  they  do  in 
a  comparatively  undeveloped  state  of  society,  fail  to  cover 
the  cases  which  arise  as  institutions  become  involved.  In 
respect  of  these  there  consequently  grow  up  rules  having 
a  known  human  authority  only.  By  accumulation  of  such 
rules,  is  produced  a  body  of  human  laws  distinct  from  the 
divine  laws ;  and  the  offence  of  disobeying  the  one  becomes 
unlike  the  offence  of  disobeying  the  other.  Though 

in  Christianized  Europe,  throughout  which  the  indigenous 
religions  were  superseded  by  an  introduced  religion,  the 
differentiating  process  was  interfered  with;  yet,  on  setting 
out  from  the  stage  at  which  this  introduced  religion  had 
acquired  that  supreme  authority  proper  to  indigenous  re 
ligions,  we  see  that  the  subsequent  changes  were  of  like 
nature  with  those  above  described.  Along  with  that  mingling 
of  structures  shown  in  the  ecclesiasticisin  of  kings  and  the 
secularity  of  prelates,  there  went  a  mingling  of  political  and 
religious  legislation.  Gaining  supreme  power,  the  Church 
interpreted  sundry  civil  offences  as  offences  against  God; 
and  even  those  which  were  left  to  be  dealt  with  by  the 
magistrate  were  considered  as  thus  left  by  divine  ordi 
nance.  But  subsequent  evolution  brought  about  stages 
in  which  various  transgressions,  held  to  be  committed 
against  both  sacred  and  secular  law,  were  simultaneously 
expiated  by  religious  penance  and  civil  punishment ;  and  there 
followed  a  separation  which,  leaving  but  a  small  remnant  of 
ecclesiastical  offences,  brought  the  rest  into  the  category  of 
offences  against  the  State  and  against  individuals. 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  differentiation  of  equal,  if  not 
greater,  significance,  between  those  laws  which  derive  their 
obligation  from  the  will  of  the  governing  agency,  and  those  laws 
which  derive  their  obligation  from  the  consensus  of  individual 
interests — between  those  laws  which,  having  as  their  direct  end 
the  maintenance  of  authority,  only  indirectly  thereby  conduce 
to  social  welfare,  and  those  which,  directly  and  irrespective 


528  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

of  authority,  conduce  to  social  welfare :  of  which  last,  law, 
in  its  modern  form,  is  substantially  an  elaboration.  Already 
I  have  pointed  out  that  the  kind  of  law  initiated  by  the 
consensus  of  individual  interests,  precedes  the  kind  of  law 
initiated  by  political  authority.  Already  I  have  said  that 
though,  as  political  authority  develops,  laws  acquire  the  shape 
of  commands,  even  to  the  extent  that  those  original  prin 
ciples  of  social  order  tacitly  recognized  at  the  outset,  come 
to  be  regarded  as  obligatory  only  because  personally  enacted, 
yet  that  the  obligation  derived  from  the  consensus  of  indi 
vidual  interests  survives,  if  obscured.  And  here  it  remains 
to  show  that  as  the  power  of  the  political  head  declines — as 
industrialism  fosters  an  increasingly  free  population — as 
the  third  element  in  the  triune  political  structure,  long  sub 
ordinated,  grows  again  predominant ;  there  again  grows  pre 
dominant  this  primitive  source  of  law  —  the  consensus  of 
individual  interests.  We  have  further  to  note  that  in  its 
re-developed  form,  as  in  its  original  form,  the  kind  of  law 
hence  arising  has  a  character  radically  distinguishing  it  from 
the  kinds  of  law  thus  far  considered.  Both  the  divine 
laws  and  the  human  laws  which  originate  from  personal 
authority,  have  inequality  as  their  common  essential  principle ; 
while  the  laws  which  originate  impersonally,  in  the  consensus  of 
individual  interests,  have  equality  as  their  essential  principle. 
Evidence  is  furnished  at  the  very  outset.  For  what  is  this 
lex  talionis  which,  in  the  rudest  hordes  of  men,  is  not  only 
recognized  but  enforced  by  general  opinion  ?  Obviously,  as 
enjoining  an  equalization  of  injuries  or  losses,  it  tacitly 
assumes  equality  of  claims  among  the  individuals  concerned. 
The  principle  of  requiring  "an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for 
a  tooth,"  embodies  the  primitive  idea  of  justice  everywhere : 
the  endeavour  to  effect  an  exact  balance  being  sometimes 
quite  curious.  Thus  we  read  in  Arbousset  and  Daumas  : — 
"  A  Basuto  whose  son  had  been  wounded  on  the  head  with  a  staff,  came 
to  entreat  me  to  deliver  up  the  offender, — '  with  the  same  staff  and  on 
the  same  spot  where  my  son  was  beaten,  will  I  give  a  blow  on  the  head 
of  the  man  who  did  it.' " 


LAWS.  529 

A  kindred  effort  to  equalize  in  this  literal  way,  the  offence 
and  the  expiation,  occurs  in  Abyssinia  ;  where,  when  the 
murderer  is  given  over  to  his  victim's  family,  "the  nearest 
of  kin  puts  him  to  death  with  the  same  kind  of  weapon  as 
that  with  which  he  had  slain  their  relative."  As  the  last 
case  shows,  this  primitive  procedure,  when  it  does  not  assume 
the  form  of  inflicting  injury  for  injury  between  individuals, 
assumes  the  form  of  inflicting  injury  for  injury  between 
families  or  tribes,  by  taking  life  for  life.  With  the  instances 
given  in  §  522  may  be  joined  one  from  Sumatra. 
*'  When  in  an  affray  [between  families],  there  happen  to  be  several 
persons  killed  on  both  sides,  the  business  of  justice  is  only  to  state 
the  reciprocal  losses,  in  the  form  of  an  account  current,  and  order  the 
balance  to  be  discharged  if  the  numbers  be  unequal." 
And  then,  from  this  rude  justice  which  insists  on  a  balancing 
of  losses  between  families  or  tribes,  it  results  that  so  long  as 
their  mutual  injuries  are  equalized,  it  matters  not  whether 
the  blameable  persons  are  or  are  not  those  who  suffer ;  and 
hence  the  system  of  vicarious  punishment — hence  the  fact  that 
vengeance  is  wreaked  on  any  member  of  the  transgressing 
family  or  tribe.  Moreover,  ramifying  in  these  various  ways, 
the  principle  applies  where  not  life  but  property  is  con 
cerned.  Schoolcraft  tells  us  that  among  the  Dakotas, "injury 
to  property  is  sometimes  privately  revenged  by  destroying 
other  property  in  place  thereof;"  and  among  the  Araucanians, 
families  pillage  one  another  for  the  purpose  of  making  their 
losses  alike.  The  idea  survives,  though  changed  in 

form,  when  crimes  come  to  be  compounded  for  by  gifts  or 
payments.  Very  early  we  see  arising  the  alternative  between 
submitting  to  vengeance  or  making  compensation.  Kane 
says  of  certain  North  American  races,  that  "  horses  or  other 
Indian  valuables  "  were  accepted  in  compensation  for  murder. 
"With  the  Dakotas  "  a  present  of  white  wampum,"  if  accepted, 
condones  the  offence.  Among  the  Araucanians,  homicides 
"  can  screen  themselves  from  punishment  by  a  composition 
with  the  relations  of  the  murdered."  Eecalling,  as  these  few 
instances  do,  the  kindred  alternatives  recognized  throughout 


530  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

primitive  Europe,  they  also  make  us  aware  of  a  significant 
difference.  For  with  the  rise  of  class-distinctions  in  primitive 
Europe,  the  rates  of  compensation,  equal  among  members  of 
each  class,  had  ceased  to  be  equal  between  members  of  dif 
ferent  classes.  Along  with  the  growth  of  personally- derived 
law,  there  had  been  a  departure  from  the  impersonally- 
derived  law  as  it  originally  existed. 

But  now  the  truth  to  be  noted  is  that,  with  the  relative 
weakening  of  kingly  or  aristocratic  authority  and  relative 
strengthening  of  popular  authority,  there  revives  the  partially- 
suppressed  kind  of  law  derived  from  the  consensus  of  indi 
vidual  interests ;  and  the  kind  of  law  thus  originating  tends 
continually  to  replace  all  other  law.  For  the  chief  business 
of  courts  of  justice  at  present,  is  to  enforce,  without  respect  of 
persons,  the  principle,  recognized  before  governments  arose, 
that  all  members  of  the  community,  however  otherwise  dis 
tinguished,  shall  be  similarly  dealt  with  when  they  aggress 
one  upon  another.  Though  the  equalization  of  injuries  by 
retaliation  is  no  longer  permitted ;  and  though  the  Govern 
ment,  reserving  to  itself  the  punishment  of  transgressors,  does 
little  to  enforce  restitution  or  compensation  ;  yet,  in  pur 
suance  of  the  doctrine  that  all  men  are  equal  before  the  law, 
it  has  the  same  punishment  for  transgressors  of  every  class. 
And  then  in  respect  of  unfulfilled  contracts  or  disputed  debts, 
from  the  important  ones  tried  at  Assizes  to  the  trivial  ones 
settled  in  County  Courts,  its  aim  is  to  maintain  the  rights  and 
obligations  of  citizens  without  regard  for  wealth  or  rank.  Of 
course  in  our  transition  state  the  change  is  incomplete.  But 
the  sympathy  with  individual  claims,  and  the  consensus  of 
individual  interests  accompanying  it,  lead  to  an  increasing 
predominance  of  that  kind  of  law  which  provides  directly 
for  social  order;  as  distinguished  from  that  kind  of  law 
which  indirectly  provides  for  social  order  by  insisting  on 
obedience  to  authority,  divine  or  human.  With  decline  of 
the  r&jiriM  of  status  and  growth  of  the  regime  of  contract, 
personally-derived  law  more  aiid  more  gives  place  to  iinper- 


LAWS,  531 

sonally-derived  law ;  and  this  of  necessity,  since  a  formulated 
inequality  is  implied  by  the  compulsory  cooperation  of  the 
one,  while,  by  the  voluntary  cooperation  of  the  other,  there  is 
implied  a  formulated  equality. 

So  that,  having  first  differentiated  from  the  laws  of  sup 
posed  divine  origin,  the  laws  of  recognized  human  origin 
subsequently  re-differentiate  into  those  which  ostensibly  have 
the  will  of  the  ruling  agency  as  their  predominant  sanction, 
and  those  which  ostensibly  have  the  aggregate  of  priv.'ite 
interests  as  their  predominant  sanction ;  of  which  two  the  last 
tends,  in  the  course  of  social  evolution,  more  and  more  to 
absorb  the  first.  Necessarily,  however,  while  militancy  con 
tinues,  the  absorption  remains  incomplete ;  since  obedience 
to  a  ruling  will  continues  to  be  in  some  cases  necessary. 

§  534.  A  right  understanding  of  this  matter  is  so  important, 
that  I  must  be  excused  for  briefly  presenting  two  further 
aspects  of  the  changes  described  :  one  concerning  the  accom 
panying  sentiments,  and  the  other  concerning  the  accompany 
ing  theories. 

As  laws  originate  partly  in  the  customs  inherited  from  the 
undistinguished  dead,  partly  in  the  special  injunctions  of  the 
distinguished  dead,  partly  in  the  average  will  of  the  undis 
tinguished  living,  and  p  irtly  in  the  will  of  the  distinguished 
living,  the  feelings  responding  to  them,  allied  though  differ 
ent,  are  mingled  in  proportions  that  vary  under  diverse  cir 
cumstances. 

According  to  the  nature  of  the  society,  one  or  other  sanction 
predominates ;  and  the  sentiment  appropriate  to  it  obscures 
the  sentiments  appropriate  to  the  others,  without,  however, 
obliterating  them.  Thus  in  a  theocratic  society,  the  crime  of 
murder  is  punished  primarily  as  a  sin  against  God ;  but  not 
without  there  being  some  consciousness  of  its  criminality  as 
a  disobedience  to  the  human  ruler  who  enforces  the  divine 
command,  as  well  as  an  injury  to  a  family,  and,  by  implication, 
to  the  community.  Where,  as  among  the  Bedouins  or  in 
93 


532  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Sumatra,  there  is  no  such  supernaturally-derived  injunction, 
and  no  consequent  reprobation  of  disobedience  to  it,  the  loss 
entailed  on  the  family  of  the  victim  is  the  injury  recognized  ; 
and,  consequently,  murder  is  not  distinguished  from  man 
slaughter.  Again,  in  Japan  and  in  Peru,  unqualified  abso 
luteness  of  the  living  ruler  is,  or  was,  accompanied  by  the 
belief  that  the  criminality  of  murder  consisted  primarily  in 
transgression  of  his  commands ;  though  doubtless  the  establish 
ment  of  such  commands  implied,  both  in  ruler  and  people, 
some  recognition  of  evil,  individual  or  general,  caused  by 
breach  of  them.  In  ancient  Kome,  the  consciousness  of 
injury  done  to  the  community  by  murder  was  decided ;  and 
the  feeling  enlisted  on  behalf  of  public  order  was  that  which 
mainly  enforced  the  punishment.  And  then  among  ourselves 
when  a  murder  is  committed,  the  listener  to  an  account  of  it 
shudders  not  mainly  because  the  alleged  command  of  God 
has  been  broken,  nor  mainly  because  there  has  been  a  breach 
of  "  the  Queen's  peace ;"  but  his  strongest  feeling  of  repro 
bation  is  that  excited  by  the  thought  of  a  life  taken  away, 
with  which  is  joined  a  secondary  feeling  due  to  the  diminution 
of  social  safety  which  every  such  act  implies.  In  these 

different  emotions  which  give  to  these  several  sanctions 
their  respective  powers,  we  see  the  normal  concomitants  of 
the  social  states  to  which  such  sanctions  are  appropriate. 
More  especially  we  see  how  that  weakening  of  the  sentiments 
offended  by  breaches  of  authority,  divine  or  human,  which 
accompanies  growth  of  the  sentiments  offended  by  injuries 
to  individuals  and  the  community,  is  naturally  joined  with 
revival  of  that  kind  of  law  which  originates  in  the  consensus 
of  individual  interests — the  law  which  was  dominant  before 
personal  authority  grew  up,  and  which  again  becomes  domi 
nant  as  personal  authority  declines. 

At  the  same  time  there  goes  on  a  parallel  change  of  theory. 
Along  with  a  rule  predominantly  theocratic,  there  is  current 
a  tacit  or  avowed  doctrine,  that  the  acts  prescribed  or  for 
bidden  are  made  right  or  wrong  solely  by  divine  command ; 


LAWS.  533 

end  though  this  doctrine  survives  through  subsequent  stages 
(as  it  does  still  in  our  own  religious  world),  yet  belief  in  it 
becomes  nominal  rather  than  real.  Where  there  has  been 
established  an  absolute  human  authority,  embodied  in  a 
single  individual,  or,  as  occasionally,  in  a  few,  there  comes 
the  theory  that  law  has  no  other  source  than  the  will  of  this 
authority :  acts  are  conceived  as  proper  or  improper  accord 
ing  as  "they  do  or  do  not  conform  to  its  dictates.  With 
progress  towards  a  popular  form  of  government,  this  theory 
becomes  modified  to  the  extent  that  though  the  obligation  to 
do  this  and  refrain  from  that  is  held  to  arise  from  State^ 
enactment ;  yet  the  authority  which  gives  this  enactment  its 
force  is  the  public  desire.  Still  it  is  observable  that  along 
with  a  tacit  implication  that  the  consensus  of  individual 
interests  affords  the  warrant  for  law,  there  goes  the  overt 
assertion  that  this  warrant  is  derived  from  the  formulated 
will  of  the  majority :  no  question  being  raised  whether  this 
formulated  will  is  or  is  not  congruous  with  the  consensus  of 
individual  interests.  In  this  current  theory  there  obviously 
survives  the  old  idea  that  there  is  no  other  sanction  for  law 
than  the  command  of  embodied  authority ;  though  the  autho 
rity  is  now  a  widely  different  one. 

But  this  theory,  much  in  favour  with  *  philosophical 
politicians,"  is  a  transitional  theory.  The  ultimate  theory, 
which  it  foreshadows,  is  that  the  source  of  legal  obligation  is 
the  consensus  of  individual  interests  itself,  and  not  the  will  of 
a  majority  determined  by  their  opinion  concerning  it ;  which 
may  or  may  not  be  right.  Already,  even  in  legal  theory, 
especially  as  expounded  by  French  jurists,  natural  law  or 
law  of  nature,  is  recognized  as  a  source  of  formulated  law : 
the  admission  being  thereby  made  that,  primarily  certain  in 
dividual  claims,  and  secondarily  the  Asocial  welfare  furthered 
by  enforcing  such  claims,  furnish  a  warrant  for  law,  ante- 
ceding  political  authority  and  its  enactments.  Already  in 
the  qualification  of  Common  Law  by  Equity,  which  avowedly 
proceeds  upon  the  law  of  "  honesty  and  reason  and  of  nations? 


POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

there  is  involved  the  pre-supposition  that,  as  similarly-con* 
stituted  beings,  men  have  certain  rights  in  common,  main 
tenance  of  which,  while  directly  advantageous  to  them  in 
dividually,  indirectly  benefits  the  community  ;  and  that  thus 
the  decisions  of  equity  have  a  sanction  independent  alike  of 
customary  law  and  parliamentary  votes.  Already  in  respect 
of  religious  opinions  there  is  practically  conceded  the  right  of 
the  individual  to  disobey  the  law,  even  though  it  expresses 
the  will  of  a  majority.  "Whatever  disapproval  there  may  be 
of  him  as  a  law-breaker,  is  over-ridden  by  sympathy  with  his 
assertion  of  freedom  of  judgment.  There  is  a  tacit  recog 
nition  of  a  warrant  higher  than  that  of  State-enactments, 
whether  regal  or  popular  in  origin.  These  ideas  and  feelings 
are  all  significant  of  progress  towards  the  view,  proper  to  the 
developed  industrial  state,  that  the  justification  for  a  law  is 
that  it  enforces  one  or  other  of  the  conditions  to  harmonious 
social  cooperation ;  and  that  it  is  unjustified  (enacted  by  no 
matter  how  high  an  authority  or  how  general  an  opinion)  if 
it  traverses  these  conditions. 

And  this  is  tantamount  to  saying  that  the  impersonally- 
derived  law  which  revives  as  personally-derived  law  declines, 
and  which  gives  expression  to  the  consensus  of  individual 
interests,  becomes,  in  its  final  form,  simply  an  applied  system 
of  ethics — or  rather,  of  that  part  of  ethics  which  concerns 
men's  just  relations  with  one  another  and  with  the  community. 

§  535.  Ke turning  from  this  somewhat  parenthetical  dis 
cussion,  we  might  here  enter  on  the  development  of  laws,  not 
generally  but  specially ;  exhibiting  them  as  accumulating  in 
mass,  as  dividing  and  sub-dividing  in  their  kinds,  as  becom 
ing  increasingly  definite,  as  growing  into  coherent  and  com 
plex  systems,  as  undergoing  adaptations  to  new  conditions. 
But  besides  occupying  too  much  space,  such  an  .exposition 
would  fall  outside  the  lines  of  our  subject.  Present  require 
ments  are  satisfied  by  the  results  above  set  forth,  which  may 
be  summarized  as  follows. 


LAWS. 


535 


Setting  out  with  the  truth,  illustrated  even  in  the  very 
rudest  tribes,  that  the  ideas  conveyed,  sentiments  inculcated, 
and  usages  taught,  to  children  by  parents  who  themselves 
were  similarly  taught,  eventuate  in  a  rigid  set  of  customs ;  we 
recognize  the  fact  that  at  first,  as  to  the  last,  law  is  mainly 
an  embodiment  of  ancestral  injunctions. 

To  the  injunctions  of  the  undistinguished  dead,  which, 
qualified  by  the  public  opinion  of  the  living  in  cases  not 
prescribed  for,  constitute  the  code  of  conduct  before  any 
political  organization  has  arisen,  there  come  to  be  added  the 
injunctions  of  the  distinguished  dead,  when  there  have  arisen 
chiefs  who,  in  some  measure  feared  and  obeyed  during  life, 
after  death  give  origin  to  ghosts  still  more  feared  and  obeyed. 
And  when,  during  that  compounding  of  societies  effected 
by  war,  such  chiefs  develop  into  kings,  their  remembered 
commands  and  the  commands  supposed  to  be  given  by  their 
ghosts,  become  a  sacred  code  of  conduct,  partly  embodying 
and  partly  adding  to  the  code  pre-established  by  custom. 
The  living  ruler,  able  to  legislate  only  in  respect  of  matters 
unprovided  for,  is  bound  by  these  transmitted  commands  of 
the  unknown  and  the  known  who  have  passed  away ;  save 
only  in  cases  where  the  living  ruler  is  himself  regarded  as 
divine,  in  which  cases  his  injunctions  become  laws  having 
a  like  sacredness.  Hence  the  trait  common  to  societies  in 
early  stages,  that  the  prescribed  rules  of  conduct  of  whatever 
kind  have  a  religious  sanction.  Sacrificial  observances, 
public  duties,  moral  injunctions,  social  ceremonies,  habits 
of  life,  industrial  regulations,  and  even  modes  of  dressing, 
stand  on  the  same  footing. 

Maintenance  of  the  unchangeable  rules  of  conduct  thus 
originating,  which  is  requisite  for  social  stability  during  those 
stages  in  which  the  type  of  nature  is  yet  but  little  fitted  for 
harmonious  social  cooperation, pre-supposes  implicit  obedience; 
and  hence  disobedience  becomes  the  blackest  crime.  Treason 
and  rebellion,  whether  against  the  divine  or  the  human  ruler 
bring  penalties  exceeding  all  others  in  severity.  The  breaking 


536  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

of  a  law  is  punished  not  because  of  the  intrinsic  criminality  of 
the  act  committed,  but  because  of  the  implied  insubordina 
tion.  And  the  disregard  of  governmental  authority  continues, 
through  subsequent  stages,  to  constitute,  in  legal  theory,  the 
primary  element  in  a  transgression. 

In  societies  that  become  large  and  complex,  there  arise  forma 
of  activity  and  intercourse  not  provided  for  in  the  sacred  code  ; 
and  in  respect  of  these  the  ruler  is  free  to  make  regulations. 
As  such  regulations  accumulate  there  comes  into  exist 
ence  a  body  of  laws  of  known  human  origin ;  and  though 
this  acquires  an  authority  due  to  reverence  for  the  men  who 
made  it  and  the  generations  which  approved  it,  yet  it  has  not 
the  sacredness  of  the  god-descended  body  of  laws :  human 
law  differentiates  from  divine  law.  But  in  societies  which 
remain  predominantly  militant,  these  two  bodies  of  laws 
continue  similar  in  the  respect  that  they  have  a  personally- 
derived  authority.  The  avowed  reason  for  obeying  them  is 
that  they  express  the  will  of  a  divine  ruler,  or  the  will  of  a 
human  ruler,  or,  occasionally,  the  will  of  an  irresponsible 
oligarchy. 

But  with  the  progress  of  industrialism  and  growth  of  a 
free  population  which  gradually  acquires  political  power,  the 
humanly-derived  law  begins  to  sub-divide;  and  that  part 
which  originates  in  the  consensus  of  individual  interests, 
begins  to  dominate  over  the  part  which  originates  in  the 
authority  of  the  ruler.  So  long  as  the  social  type  is  one 
organized  on  the  principle  of  compulsory  cooperation,  law, 
having  to  maintain  this  compulsory  cooperation,  must  be 
primarily  concerned  in  regulating  status,  maintaining  in 
equality,  enforcing  authority ;  and  can  but  secondarily  con 
sider  the  individual  interests  of  those  forming  the  mass. 
But  in  proportion  as  the  principle  of  voluntary  cooperation 
more  and  more  characterizes  the  social  type,  fulfilment  of 
contracts  and  implied  assertion  of  equality  in  men's  lights, 
become  the  fundamental  requirements,  and  the  consensus  of 
individual  interests  the  chief  source  of  law :  such  authority 


LAWS.  537 

as  law  otherwise  derived  continues  to  have,  being  recognized 
as  secondary,  and  insisted  upon  only  because  maintenance  of 
law  for  its  own  sake  indirectly  furthers  the  general  welfare. 

Finally,  we  see  that  the  systems  of  laws  belonging  to  these 
successive  stages,  are  severally  accompanied  by  the  senti 
ments  and  theories  appropriate  to  them;  and  that  the 
theories  at  present  current,  adapted  to  the  existing  compromise 
between  militancy  and  industrialism,  are  steps  towards  the 
ultimate  theory,  in  conformity  with  which  law  will  have  no 
other  justification  than  that  gained  by  it  as  maintainer  of  the 
conditions  to  complete  life  in  the  associated  state. 


CHAPTER  XV. 
PBOPEETY. 

§  5S6.  The  fact  referred  to  in  §  292,  that  even  intelligent 
animals  display  a  sense  of  proprietorship,  negatives  the  belief 
propounded  by  some,  that  individual  property  was  not  recog 
nized  by  primitive  men.  When  we  see  the  claim  to  exclusive 
possession  understood  by  a  dog,  so  that  he  fights  in  defence 
of  his  master's  clothes  if  left  in  charge  of  them,  it  becomes 
impossible  to  suppose  that  even  in  their  lowest  state  men 
were  devoid  of  those  ideas  and  emotions  which  initiate  private 
ownership.  All  that  may  be  fairly  assumed  is  that  these 
ideas  and  sentiments  were  at  first  IOBS  developed  than  they 
have  since  become. 

It  is  true  that  in  some  extremely  rude  hordes,  rights  of  pro 
perty  are  but  little  respected.  Lichtenstein  tells  us  that 
among  the  Bushmen,  "  the  weaker,  if  he  would  preserve  his 
own  life,  is  obliged  to  resign  to  the  stronger,  his  weapons,  his 
wife,  and  even  his  children;"  and  there  are  some  degraded 
North  American  tribes  in  which  there  is  no  check  on  the 
more  powerful  who  choose  to  take  from  the  less  powerful : 
their  acts  are  held  to  be  legitimized  by  success.  But  absence 
of  the  idea  of  property,  and  the  accompanying  sentiment, 
is  no  more  implied  by  these  forcible  appropriations  than  it 
is  implied  by  the  forcible  appropriation  which  a  bigger 
schoolboy  makes  of  the  toy  belonging  to  a  less.  It 

is  also  true  that  even  where  force  is  not  used,  individual 


PROPERTY.  539 

claims  are  in  considerable  degrees  over-ridden  or  imperfectly 
maintained.  We  read  of  the  Chippewayans  that  "  Indian 
law  requires  the  successful  hunter  to  share  the  spoils  of  the 
chase  with  all  present ;"  and  Hillhouse  says  of  the  Arawaks 
that  though  individual  property  is  "  distinctly  marked 
amongst  them,"  "yet  they  are  perpetually  borrowing  and 
lending,  without  the  least  care  about  payment."  But  such 
instances  merely  imply  that  private  ownership  is  at  first  ill- 
defined,  as  we  might  expect,  a  priori,  that  it  would  be. 

Evidently  the  thoughts  and  feelings  which  accompany  the 
act  of  taking  possession,  as  when  an  animal  clutches  its  prey, 
and  which  at  a  higher  stage  of  intelligence  go  along  with  the 
grasping  of  any  article  indirectly  conducing  to  gratification, 
are  the  thoughts  and  feelings  to  which  the  theory  of  property 
does  but  give  a  precise  shape.  Evidently  the  use  in  legal 
documents  of  such  expressions  as  "  to  have  and  to  hold,"  and 
to  be  "seized"  of  a  thing,  as  well  as  the  survival  up  to 
comparatively  late  times  of  ceremonies  in  which  a  portion 
(rock  or  soil)  of  an  estate  bought,  representing  the  whole, 
actually  passed  from  hand  to  hand,  point  back  to  this 
primitive  physical  basis  of  ownership.  Evidently  the  de 
veloped  doctrine  of  property,  accompanying  a  social  state  in 
which  men's  acts  have  to  be  mutually  restrained,  is  a 
doctrine  which  on  the  one  hand  asserts  the  freedom  to  take 
and  to  keep  within  specified  limits,  and  denies  it  beyond 
those  limits — gives  positiveness  to  the  claim  while  restricting 
it.  And  evidently  the  increasing  definiteness  thus  given  to 
rights  of  individual  possession,  may  be  expected  to  show  itself 
first  where  definition  is  relatively  easy  and  afterwards  where 
it  is  less  easy.  This  we  shall  find  that  it  does. 

§  537.  While  in  early  stages  it  is  difficult,  not  to  say  impos 
sible,  to  establish  and  mark  off  individual  claims  to  parts  of 
the  area  wandered  over  in  search  of  food,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
mark  off  the  claims  to  movable  things  and  to  habitations ; 
and  these  claims  we  find  habitually  recognized.  The  follow- 


540  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

ing  passage  from  Bancroft  concerning  certain  Xorth  American 
savages,  well  illustrates  the  distinction  : — 
"Captain  Cook  found  among  the  Ahts  very  'strict  notions  of  their 
having  a  right  to  the  exclusive  property  of  everything  that  their 
country  produces,'  so  that  they  claimed  pay  for  even  wood,  water,  and 
grass.     The  limits  of  tribal  property  are  very  clearly  denned,  but  indi 
viduals  rarely  claim  any  property  in  land.     Houses  belong  to  the  men 
who   combine  to  build  them.     Private  wealth  consists  of  boats  and 
implements  for  obtaining  food,  domestic  utensils,  slaves,  and  blankets." 
A  like  condition  is  shown  us  by  the  Comanches : — 

"  They  recognize  no  distinct  rights  of  meum  and  tuum,  except  to  per 
sonal  property ;  holding  the  territory  they  occupy,  and  the  game  that 
depastures  upon  it,  as  common  to  all  the  tribe  :  the  latter  is  appro 
priated  only  by  capture." 

And  the  fact  that  among  these  Comanches,  as  among  other 
peoples,  "  prisoners  of  war  belong  to  the  captors,  and  may  be 
sold  or  released  at  their  will,"  further  shows  that  the  right  of 
property  is  asserted  where  it  is  easily  defined.  Of  the 
Brazilian  Indians,  again,  Von  Martius  tells  us  that, — 

"  Huts  and  utensils  are  considered  as  private  property ;  but  even  with 
regard  to  them  certain  ideas  of  common  possession  prevail.  The  same 
hut  is  often  occupied  by  more  families  than  one ;  and  many  utensils  are 
the  joint  property  of  all  the  occupants.  Scarcely  anything  is  considered 
strictly  as  the  property  of  an  individual  except  his  arms,  accoutrements, 
pipe,  and  hammock." 

Dr.  Rink's  account  of  the  Esquimaux  shows  that  among 
them,  too,  while  there  is  joint  ownership  of  houses  made 
jointly  by  the  families  inhabiting  them,  there  is  separate 
ownership  of  weapons,  fishing  boats,  tools,  etc.  Thus  it  is 
made  manifest  that  private  right,  completely  recognized 
where  recognition  of  it  is  easy,  is  partially  recognized  where 
partial  recognition  only  is  possible — where  the  private  rights 
of  companions  are  entangled  with  it.  Instances  of  other 
kinds  equally  prove  that  among  savages  claims  to  possession 
are  habitually  marked  off  when  practicable  :  if  not  fully,  yet 
partially.  Of  .the  Chippewayans  "who  have  no  regular 
government "  to  make  laws  or  arbitrate,  we  yet  read  that, — 
u  In  the  former  instance  [when  game  is  taken  in  inclosures  by  a  nunt- 
hig  party],  the  game  is  divided  among  those  who  have  been  engaged  iu 


PROPERTY.  541 

the  pursuit  of  it.  In  the  latter  [when  taken  in  private  traps]  it  is  con 
sidered  as  private  property;  nevertheless,  any  unsuccessful  hunter 
passing  by,  may  take  a  deer  so  caught,  leaving  the  head,  skin,  and 
saddle,  for  the  owner." 

In  cases,  still  more  unlike,  but  similar  in  the  respect  that 
there  exists  an  obvious  connexion  between  labour  expended 
and  benefit  achieved,  rude  peoples  re-illustrate  this  same 
Individ ualization  of  property.  Burckhardt  tells  us  of  the 
Bedouins  that  wells  "  are  exclusive  property,  either  of  a  whole 
tribe,  or  of  individuals  whose  ancestors  dug  the  wells." 

Taken  together  such  facts  make  it  indisputable  that  in  early 
stages,  private  appropriation,  carried  to  a  considerable  extent, 
is  not  carried  further  because  circumstances  render  extension 
of  it  impracticable. 

§  538.  Eecognition  of  this  truth  at  once  opens  the  way  to 
explanation  of  primitive  land-ownership ;  and  elucidates  the 
genesis  of  those  communal  and  family  tenures  which  have 
prevailed  so  widely. 

While  subsistence  on  wild  food  continues,  the  wandering 
horde  inhabiting  a  given  area,  must  continue  to  make  joint  use 
of  the  area;  both  because  no  claim  can  be  shown  by  any 
member  to  any  portion,  and  because  the  marking  out  of  small 
divisions,  if  sharing  were  agreed  upon,  would  be  impracticable. 
Where  pastoral  life  has  arisen,  ability  to  drive  herds  hither 
and  thither  within  the  occupied  region  is  necessary.  In  the 
absence  of  cultivation,  cattle  and  their  owners  could  not 
survive  were  each  owner  restricted  to  one  spot:  there  is 
nothing  feasible  but  united  possession  of  a  wide  tract.  And 
when  there  conies  a  transition  to  the  agricultural  stage, 
cither  directly  from  the  hunting  stage  or  indirectly  through 
the  pastoral  stage,  several  causes  conspire  to  prevent,  or  to 
check,  the  growth  of  private  land-ownership. 

There  is  first  the  traditional  usage.  Joint  ownership  con 
tinues  after  circumstances  no  longer  render  it  imperative, 
because  departure  from  the  sacred  example  of  forefathers  is 
resisted.  Sometimes  the  resistance  is  insuperable ;  as  with 


542  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

the  Rechabites  and  the  people  of  Petra,  who  by  their  vov/ 
"were  not  allowed  to  possess  either  vineyards  or  corn 
fields  or  houses  "  but  were  bound  "  to  continue  the  nomadic 
life."  And  obviously,  where  the  transition  to  a  settled  state 
is  effected,  the  survival  of  habits  and  sentiments  esta 
blished  during  the  nomadic  state,  must  long  prevent  posses 
sion  of  land  by  individuals.  Moreover,  apart  from 
opposing  ideas  and  customs,  there  are  physical  difficulties 
in  the  way.  Even  did  any  member  of  a  pastoral  horde  which 
had  become  partially  settled,  establish  a  claim  to  exclusive 
possession  of  one  part  of  the  occupied  area,  little  advantage 
could  be  gained  before  there  existed  the  means  of  keeping  out 
the  animals  belonging  to  others.  Common  use  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  surface  must  long  continue  from  mere  inability 
to  set  up  effectual  divisions.  Only  small  portions  can  at  first 
be  fenced  off.  Yet  a  further  reason  why  land-owning 
by  individuals,  and  land-owning  by  families,  establish  them 
selves  very  slowly,  is  that  at  first  each  particular  plot  has 
but  a  temporary  value.  The  soil  is  soon  exhausted;  and 
in  the  absence  of  advanced  arts  of  culture  becomes  useless. 
Such  tribes  as  those  of  the  Indian  hills  show  us  that  primitive 
cultivators  uniformly  follow  the  practice  of  clearing  a  tract  of 
ground,  raising  from  it  two  or  three  crops,  and  then  abandon 
ing  it :  the  implication  being  that  whatever  private  claim  had 
arisen,  lapses,  and  the  surface,  again  becoming  wild,  reverts  to 
the  community. 

Thus  throughout  long  stages  of  incipient  civilization,  the 
impediments  in  the  way  of  private  land-ownership  are  great 
and  the  incentives  to  it  small.  Besides  the  fact  that  primitive 
men,  respecting  the  connexion  between  effort  expended  and 
benefit  gained,  and  therefore  respecting  the  right  of  property 
in  things  made  by  labour,  recognize  no  claim  thus  estab 
lished  by  an  individual  to  a  portion  of  land;  and  besides  the 
fact  that  in  the  adhesion  to  inherited  usage  and  the  inability 
effectually  to  make  bounds,  there  are  both  moral  and  physical 
obstacles  to  the  establishment  of  any  such  individual 


PROPERTY.  543 

monopoly ;  there  is  the  fact  that  throughout  early  stages 
of  settled  life,  no  motive  to  maintain  permanent  private 
possession  of  land  comes  into  play.  Manifestly,  therefore,  it 
is  not  from  conscious  assertion  of  any  theory,  or  in  pur 
suance  of  any  deliberate  policy,  that  tribal  and  communal 
proprietorship  of  the  areas  'occupied  originate;  but  simply 
from  the  necessities  of  the  case. 

Hence  the  prevalence  among  unrelated  peoples  of  this 
public  ownership  of  land,  here  and  there  partially  qualified 
by  temporary  private  ownership.  Some  hunting  tribes  of 
North  America  show  us  a  stage  in  which  even  the  com 
munal  possession  is  still  vague.  Concerning  the  Dakotas 
Schoolcraft  says — 

"  Each  village  has  a  certain  district  of  country  they  hunt  in,  but  do  not 
object  to  families  of  other  villages  hunting  with  them.  Among  the 
Dacotas,  I  never  knew  an  instance  of  blood  being  shed  in  any  disputes 
or  difficulties  on  the  hunting  grounds." 

Similarly  of  the  Comanches,  he  remarks  that  "  no  dispute 
ever  arises  between  tribes  with  regard  to  their  hunting 
grounds,  the  whole  being  held  in  common."  Of  the  semi- 
settled  and  more  advanced  Iroquois,  Morgan  tells  us  that — 
"No  individual  could  obtain  the  absolute  title  to  land,  as  that  was 
vested  by  the  laws  of  the  Iroquois  in  all  the  people  ;  but  he  could 
reduce  unoccupied  lands  to  cultivation  to  any  extent  he  pleased ;  and  so 
long  as  he  continued  to  use  them,  his  right  to  their  enjoyment  was  pro 
tected  and  secured." 

Sundry  pastoral  peoples  of  South  Africa  show  us  the  sur 
vival  of  such  arrangements  under  different  conditions. 

"  The  land  which  they  [the  Bechuanas]  inhabit  is  the  common  pro 
perty  of  the  whole  tribe,  as  a  pasture  for  their  herds." 

"  Being  entirely  a  pastoral  people,  the  Damaras  have  no  notion  of 
permanent  habitations.  The  whole  country  is  considered  public  pro 
perty.  .  .  .  There  is  an  understanding  that  he  who  arrives  first  at  any 
given  locality,  is  the  master  of  it  as  long  as  he  chooses  to  remain  there." 

Kaffir  custom  "does  not  recognize  private  property  in  the  soil 
beyond  that  of  actual  possession." 

"  No  one  possesses  landed  property  "  [among  the  Koosas]  ;  "  he  sowa 
his  corn  wherever  he  can  find  a  convenient  spot." 
And  various  of  the  uncivilized,  who  are  mainly  or  wholly 


544:  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

agricultural,  exhibit  but  slight  modifications  of  this  usage. 
Though  by  the  New  Zealanders  some  extra  claim  of  the  chief 
is  recognized,  yet  "  all  free  persons,  male  and  female,  consti 
tuting  the  nation,  were  proprietors  of  the  soil:"  there  is  a 
qualified  proprietorship  of  land,  obtained  by  cultivation, 
which  does  not  destroy  the  proprietorship  of  the  nation  or 
ti  ibe.  In  Sumatra,  cultivation  gives  temporary  ownership  but 
nothing  more.  We  read  that  the  ground  "  on  which  a  man 
plants  or  builds,  with  the  consent  of  his  neighbours,  becomes 
a  species  of  nominal  property " ;  but  when  the  trees  which 
he  has  planted  disappear  in  the  course  of  nature,  "  the  land 
reverts  to  the  public."  From  a  distant  region  may  be  cited  an 
instance  where  the  usages,  though  different  in  form,  involve 
the  same  principle.  Among  the  modern  Indians  of  Mexico — 

"  Only  a  house-place  and  a  garden  are  hereditary ;  the  fields  belong  to 
the  village,  and  are  cultivated  every  year  without  anything  being  paid 
for  rent.  A  portion  of  the  land  is  cultivated  in  common,  and  the  pro 
ceeds  are  devoted  to  the  communal  expenses." 

This  joint  ownership  of  land,  qualified  by  individual  owner 
ship  only  so  far  as  circumstances  and  habits  make  it  easy  to 
mark  off  individual  claims,  leads  to  different  modes  of  using 
the  products  of  the  soil,  according  as  convenience  dictates. 
Anderson  tells  us  that  in  "  Damara-land,  the  carcases  of  all 
animals — whether  wild  or  domesticated — are  considered 
public  property."  Among  the  Todas — 

"  Whilst  the  land  is  in  each  case  the  property  of  the  village  itself, 
.  .  .  the  cattle  which  graze  on  it  are  the  private  property  of  individuals, 
being  males.  .  .  .  The  milk  of  the  entire  herd  is  lodged  in  the  palthchi, 
village  dairy,  from  which  each  person,  male  and  female,  receives  for  his 
or  her  daily  consumption ;  the  uncorisumed  balance  being  divided,  as 
personal  and  saleable  property,  amongst  the  male  members  of  all  ages, 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  cattle  which  each  possesses  in  the  herd." 

And  then  in  some  cases  joint  cultivation  leads  to  a  kindred 
system  of  division. 

"  When  harvest  is  over,"  the  Congo  people  "  put  all  the  kidney-beans 
into  one  heap,  the  Indian  wheat  into  another,  and  so  of  other  grain  : 
then  giving  the  Macolonte  [chief]  enough  for  his  maintenance,  and  laying 
aside  what  they  design  for  sowing,  the  rest  is  divided  at  so  much  to 


PEOPERTY.  545 

every  cottage,  according  to  the  number  of  people  each  contains.  Then 
all  the  women  together  till  and  sow  the  land  for  a  new  harvest." 

In  Europe  an  allied  arrangement  is  exhibited  by  the  southern 
Slavs.  "  The  fruits  of  agricultural  labour  are  consumed  in 
common,  or  divided  equally  among  the  married  couples ;  but 
the  produce  of  each  man's  industrial  labour  belongs  to  him 
individually."  Further,  seme  of  the  Swiss  allmends  show 
us  a  partial"  survival  of  this  system ;  for  besides  lands  which 
have  become  in  large  measure  private,  there  are  "  communal 
vineyards  cultivated  in  common/'  and  "there  are  also  cornlands 
cultivated  in  the  same  manner,"  and  "the  fruit  of  their  joint 
labour  forms  the  basis  of  the  banquets,  at  which  all  the 
members  of  the  commune  take  part." 

Thus  we  see  that  communal  ownership  and  family  owner 
ship  at  first  arose  and  long  continued  because,  in  respect  of  land, 
no  other  could  well  be  established.  Records  of  the  civilized 
show  that  with  them  in  the  far  past,  as  at  present  with  the 
uncivilized,  private  possession,  beginning  with  movables, 
extends  itself  to  immovables  only  under  certain  conditions. 
We  have  evidence  of  this  in  the  fact  named  by  Mayer,  that 
*  the  Hebrew  language  has  no  expression  for  '  landed  pro 
perty  ;  * "  and  again  in  the  fact  alleged  by  Mommsen  of  the 
Romans,  that  "  the  idea  of  property  was  primarily  associated 
not  with  immovable  estate,  but  with  '  estate  in  slaves  and 
cattle/  "  And  if,  recalling  the  circumstances  of  pastoral  life, 
as  carried  on  alike  by  Semites  and  Ayrans,  we  remember  that, 
as  before  shown,  the  patriarchal  group  is  a  result  of  it ;  we 
may  understand  how,  in  passing  into  the  settled  state,  there 
would  be  produced  such  forms  of  land-tenure  by  the  clan  and 
the  family  as,  with  minor  variations,  characterized  primitive 
European  societies.  It  becomes  conprehensible  why  among 
the  Romans  "  in  the  earliest  times,  the  arable  land  was  cul 
tivated  in  common,  probably  by  the  several  clans ;  each  of 
these  tilled  its  own  land,  and  thereafter  distributed  the  pro 
duce  among  the  several  households  belonging  to  it."  We  are 
shown  that  there  naturally  arose  such  arrangements  as  those 


54:6  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

of  the  ancient  Teutonic  mark — a  territory  held  "  by  a  primi 
tive  settlement  of  a  family  or  kindred,"  each  free  male 
member  of  which  had  "  a  right  to  the  enjoyment  of  the 
woods,  the  pastures,  the  meadow,  and  the  arable  land  of  the 
mark ;"  but  whose  right  was  "  of  the  nature  of  usufruct  or 
possession  only,"  and  whose  allotted  private  division  became 
each  season  common  grazing  land  after  the  crop  had  been 
taken  off,  while  his  more  permanent  holding  was  limited  to 
his  homestead  and  its  immediate  surroundings.  And  we  may 
perceive  how  the  community's  ownership  might  readily,  as 
circumstances  and  sentiments  determined,  result  here  in  an 
annual  use  of  apportioned  tracts,  here  in  a  periodic  re-par 
titioning,  and  here  in  tenures  of  more  permanent  kinds, — still 
subject  to  the  supreme  right  of  the  whole  public. 

§  539.  Induction  and  deduction  uniting  to  show,  as  they  do, 
that  at  first  land  is  common  property,  there  presents  itself  the 
question — How  did  possession  of  it  become  individualized  ? 
There  can  be  little  doubt  as  to  the  general  nature  of  the 
answer.  Force,  in  one  form  or  other,  is  the  sole  cause 
adequate  to  make  the  members  of  a  society  yield  up  their 
joint  claim  to  the  area  they  inhabit.  Such  force  may  be  that 
of  an  external  aggressor  or  that  of  an  internal  aggressor ;  but 
in  either  case  it  implies  militant  activity. 

The  first  evidence  of  this  which  meets  us  is  that  the  primi 
tive  system  of  land-ownership  has  lingered  longest  where 
circumstances  have  been  such  as  either  to  exclude  war  or 
to  minimize  it.  Already  I  have  referred  to  a  still-extant 
Teutonic  mark  existing  in  Drenthe,  "  surrounded  on  all  sides 
by  marsh  and  bog,"  forming  "  a  kind  of  island  of  sand  and 
heath  ;"  and  this  example,  before  named  as  showing  the  sur 
vival  of  free  judicial  institutions  where  free  institutions  at 
large  survive,  simultaneously  shows  the  communal  land- 
ownership  which  continues  while  men  are  unsubordinated. 
After  this  typical  case  may  be  named  one  not  far  distant, 
and  somewhat  akin — that,  namely,  which  occurs  "in  the 


PROPERTY.  547 

sandy  district  of  the  Campine  and  beyond  the  Meuse,  in 
the  Ardennes  region,"  where  there  is  great  "  want  of  commu- 
nicati^n  :"  the  implied  difficulty  of  access  and  the  poverty  of 
suriace  making  relatively  small  the  temptation  to  invade. 
So  that  while,  says  Laveleye,  "  except  in  the  Ardennes, 
the  lord  had  succeeded  in  usurping  the  eminent  domain, 
VN  ithout  however  destroying  the  inhabitants'  rights  of  user," 
in  the  Ardennes  itself,  the  primitive  communal  possession 
survived.  Other  cases  show  that  the  mountainous  character 
of  a  locality,  rendering  subjugation  by  external  or  internal 
force  impracticable,  furthers  maintenance  of  this  primitive 
institution,  as  of  other  primitive  institutions.  In  Switzerland, 
and  especially  in  its  Alpine  parts,  the  allmends  above  men 
tioned,  which  are  of  the  same  essential  nature  as  the  Teutonic 
marks,  have  continued  down  to  the  present  day.  Sundry 
kindred  regions  present  kindred  facts.  Ownership  of  land  by 
family-communities  is  still  to  be  found  "  in  the  hill-districts 
of  Lombardy."  In  the  poverty-stricken  and  mountainous  por 
tion  of  Auvergne,  as  also  in  the  hilly  and  infertile  depart 
ment  of  Nievre,  there  are  still,  or  recently  have  been,  these 
original  joint-ownerships  of  land.  And  the  general  remark 
concerning  the  physical  circumstances  in  which  they  occur,  is 
that  "  it  is  to  the  wildest  and  most  remote  spots  that  we 
must  go  in  search  of  them" — a  truth  again  illustrated 
"  in  the  small  islands  of  Hoedic  and  Honat,  situated  not  far 
from  Belle  Isle"  on  the  French  coast,  and  also  incur  own 
islands  of  Orkney  and  Shetland. 

Contrariwise,  we  find  that  directly  by  invasion,  and  in 
directly  by  the  chronic  resistance  to  invasion  which  gene 
rates  those  class-inequalities  distinguishing  the  militant  type, 
there  is  produced  individualization  of  land-ownership,  in  one 
or  other  form.  All  the  world  over,  conquest  gives  a  posses 
sion  that  is  unlimited  because  there  is  no  power  to  dispute 
it.  Along  with  other  spoils  of  war,  the  land  becomes  a  spoil  ; 
and,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  conquering  society,  is 
owned  wholly  by  the  despotic  conqueror,  or,  partially  and  iu 
94 


548  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

dependent  ways,  by  his  followers.  Of  the  first  result  there 
are  many  instances.  "  The  kings  of  Abyssinia  are  above  all 
laws  .  .  .  the  land  and  persons  of  their  subjects  are  equally 
their  property."  "  In  Kongo  the  king  hath  the  sole  property 
of  goods  and  lands,  which  he  can  grant  away  at  pleasure/1 
And  §  479  contains  sundry  other  examples  of  militant  socie 
ties  in  which  the  monarch,  otherwise  absolute,  is  absolute 
possessor  of  the  soil.  Of  the  second  result  instances  were 
given  in  §  458  ;  and  I  may  here  add  some  others.  Ancient 
Mexico  supplies  one. 

"  Montezuma  possessed  in  most  of  the  villages  .  .  .  and  especially  in 
those  he  had  conquered,  fiefs  which  he  distributed  among  those  called 
*  the  gallant  fellows  of  Mexico.3  These  were  men  who  had  distinguished 
themselves  in  war." 

Under  a  more  primitive  form  the  like  was  done  in  Iceland  by 
the  invading  Norsemen. 

"  When  a  chieftain  had  taken  possession  of  a  district,  he  allotted  to 
each  of  the  freemen  who  accompanied  him  a  certain  portion  of  land, 
erected  a  temple  (hof ),  and  became,  as  he  had  been  in  Norway,  the 
chief,  the  pontiff,  and  the  judge  of  the  herad." 

But,  as  was  shown  when  treating  of  political  differentia 
tion,  it  is  not  only  by  external  aggressors  that  the  joint  pos 
session  by  all  freemen  of  the  area  they  inhabit  is  over-ridden. 
It  is  over-ridden,  also,  by  those  internal  aggressors  whose 
power  becomes  great  in  proportion  as  the  militancy  of  the 
society  becomes  chronic.  With  the  personal  subordination 
generated  by  warfare,  there  goes  such  subordination  of  owner 
ship,  that  lands  previously  held  absolutely  by  the  community, 
come  to  be  held  subject  to  the  claims  of  the  local  magnate; 
until,  in  course  of  time,  the  greater  part  of  the  occupied  area 
falls  into  his  exclusive  possession,  and  only  a  small  part  con 
tinues  to  be  common  property. 

To  complete  the  statement  it  must  be  added  that  occasion 
ally,  though  rarely,  the  passing  of  land  into  private  hands 
takes  place  neither  by  forcible  appropriation,  nor  by  the  gra 
dual  encroachment  of  a  superior,  but  by  general  agieement 
Where  there  exists  that  form  of  communal  ownership  undei 


PROPEBTY.  549 

which  joint  cultivation  is  replaced  by  separate  cultivation  of 
parts  portioned  out — where  there  results  from  this  a  system 
of  periodic  redistribution,  as  of  old  in  certain  Greek  states,  as 
among  the  ancient  Suevi,  and  as  even  down  to  our  own  times 
in  some  of  the  Swiss  allmends ;  ownership  of  land  by  indi 
viduals  may  and  does  arise  from  cessation  of  the  redistribu 
tion.  Says  M.  de  Laveleye  concerning  the  Swiss  allmends — 
"in  the  work  of  M.  Rowalewsky,  we  see  how  the  communal 
lands  became  private  property  by  the  periodic  partitioning 
becoming  more  and  more  rare,  and  finally  falling  into 
desuetude/*  When  not  otherwise  destroyed,  land-owning  by 
the  commune  tends  naturally  to  end  in  this  way.  For  besides 
the  inconveniences  attendant  on  re-localization  of  the  mem 
bers  of  the  commune,  positive  losses  must  be  entailed  by  it 
on  many.  Out  of  the  whole  number,  the  less  skilful  and  less 
diligent  will  have  reduced  their  plots  to  lower  degrees  of 
fertility ;  and  the  rest  will  have  a  motive  for  opposing  a  re 
distribution  which,  depriving  them  of  the  benefits  of  past 
labours,  makes  over  these  or  parts  of  them  to  the  relatively 
unworthy.  Evidently  this  motive  is  likely,  in  course  of 
time,  to  cause  refusal  to  re-divide;  and  permanent  private 
possession  will  result. 

§  540.  An  important  factor  not  yet  noticed  has  cooperated 
in  individualizing  property,  both  movable  and  fixed ;  namely, 
the  establishment  of  measures  of  quantity  and  value.  Only 
the  rudest  balancing  of  claims  can  be  made  before  there  come 
into  use  appliances  for  estimating  amounts.  At  the  outset, 
ownership  exists  only  in  respect  of  things  actually  made  or 
obtained  by  the  labour  of  the  owner;  and  is  therefore  nar 
rowly  limited  in  range.  But  when  exchange  arises  and 
spreads,  first  under  the  inde finite  form  of  barter  and  then 
under  the  definite  form  of  sale  and  purchase  by  means  of  a 
circulating  medium,  it  becomes  easy  for  ownership  to  extend 
itself  to  other  things.  Observe  how  clearly  this  extension 
depends  on  the  implied  progress  of  industrialism. 


550  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

It  was  pointed  out  in  §  319  that  during  the  pastoral  stage, 
it  is  impracticable  to  assign  to  each  member  of  the  family- 
community,  or  to  each  of  its  dependents,  such  part  of  the  pro 
duce  or  other  property  as  is  proportionate  to  the  value  of  his 
labour.     Though  in  the  case  of  Jacob  and  Laban  the  bargain 
made  for  services  was  one  into  which  some  idea  of  equiva 
lence  entered,  yet  it  was  an  extremely  rude  idea ;  and  by  no 
such  bargains  could  numerous  transactions,  or  transactions  of 
smaller  kinds,  be  effected.     On  asking  what  must  happen 
when  the  patriarchal  group,  becoming  settled,  assumes  one  or 
other  enlarged   form,   we  see  that  reverence  for  traditional 
usages,  and  the  necessity  of  union  for  mutual  defence,  con 
spire  to  maintain  the  system  of  joint  production  and  joint 
consumption :  individualization  of  property  is  still  hindered. 
Though  under  such  conditions  each  person  establishes  private 
ownership  in  respect  of  things  on  which  he  has  expended 
separate   labour,   or  things   received  in   exchange  for  such 
products  of  his  separate  labour ;  yet  only  a  small  amount  of 
property  thus  distinguished  as  private,  can  be  acquired.     The 
greater  part  of  his  labour,  mixed  with  that  of  others,  brings 
returns  inseparable  from  the  returns  of  their  labours  ;  and  the 
united  returns  must  therefore  be  enjoyed  in  common.     But 
as  fast  as  it  becomes  safer  to  dispense  with  the  protection  of 
the  family-group  ;  and  as  fast  as  increasing  commercial  inter 
course  opens  careers  for  those  who  leave  their  groups ;  and  as 
fast  as  the  use  of  money  and  measures  gives  definiteness  to 
exchanges ;  there  come  opportunities  for  accumulating  indi 
vidual  possessions,  as  distinguished  from  joint  possessions. 
And  since  among  those  who  labour  together  and  live  together, 
there  will  inevitably  be  some    who   feel  restive   under  the 
imposed  restraints,  and  also  some  (usually  the  same)  who 
feel  dissatisfied  with  the  equal  sharing  among  those  whose 
labours  are  not  of  equal  values ;   it  is  inferable  that  these 
opportunities  will  be  seized :  private  ownership  will  spread 
at  the   expense   of   public   ownership.      Some   illustrations 
may  be  given.     Speaking  of  the  family-communities  of  the 


PROPERTY.  551 

Southern  Slavs,  mostly  in  course  of  dissolution,  M.  de 
Laveleye  says — 

"  The  family-group  was  far  more  capable  of  defending  itself  against  the 
severity  of  Turkish  rule  than  were  isolated  individuals.  Accordingly, 
it  is  in  this  part  of  the  southern  Slav  district  that  family-communities 
are  best  preserved,  and  still  form  the  basis  of  social  order." 

The  influence  of  commercial  activity  as  conducing  to  dis 
integration,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  these  family-commu 
nities  ordinarily  hold  together  only  in  rural  districts. 

"  In  the  neighbourhood  of  the  towns  the  more  varied  life  has  weakened 
the  ancient  family-sentiment.  Many  communities  have  been  dissolved, 
their  property  divided  and  sold,  and  their  members  have  degenerated 
into  mere  tenants  and  proletarians." 

And  then  the  effect  of  a  desire,  alike  for  personal  independ 
ence  and  for  the  exclusive  enjoyment  of  benefits  consequent 
on  superiority,  is  recognized  in  the  remark  that  these  family- 
communities — 

"  cannot  easily  withstand  the  conditions  of  a  society  in  which  men  are 
striving  to  improve  their  own  lot,  as  well  as  the  political  and  social 
organization  under  which  they  live.  .  .  .  Once  the  desire  of  self -aggran 
disement  awakened,  man  can  no  longer  support  the  yoke  of  the  zadruga. 
...  To  live  according  to  his  own  will,  to  work  for  himself  alone,  to 
drink  from  his  own  cup,  is  now  the  end  preeminently  sought." 

That  this  cause  of  disintegration  is  general,  is  implied  by 
passages  concerning  similar  communities  still  existing  in  the 
hill-districts  of  Lombardy — that  is,  away  from  the  centres  of 
mercantile  activity.  Growing  averse  to  the  control  of  the 
house-futhers,  the  members  of  these  communities  say — 

" '  Why  should  we  and  all  our  belongings  remain  in  subjection  to  a 
master  ?  It  were  far  the  best  for  each  to  work  and  think  for  himself. 
As  the  profits  derived  from  any  handicraft  form  a  sort  of  private 
yecidium,  the  associates  are  tempted  to  enlarge  this  at  the  expense  of 
the  common  revenue."  And  then  "  the  craving  to  live  independently 
carries  him  away,  and  he  quits  the  community." 

All  which  evidence  shows  that  the  progress  of  industrialism 
is  the  general  cause  of  this  growing  individualization  of  pro 
perty  ;  for  such  progress  is  pre-supposed  alike  by  the  greater 
security  which  makes  it  safe  to  live  separately,  by  the  in- 


552  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

creased  opportunity  for  those  sales  which  further  the  accu 
mulation  of  a  peculium,  and  by  the  use  of  measures  of 
quantity  and  value :  these  being  implied  primarily  by  such 
sales,  and  secondarily  by  the  sale  and  division  of  all  that  has 
been  held  in  common. 

Spread  of  private  ownership,  which  thus  goes  along  with 
decay  of  the  system  of  status  and  growth  of  the  system 
of  contract,  naturally  passes  on  from  movable  property  to 
fixed  property.  For  when  the  multiplication  of  trading 
transactions  has  made  it  possible  for  each  member  of  a 
family-community  to  accumulate  a  peculium ;  and  when  the 
strengthening  desire  for  individual  domestic  life  has  im 
pelled  the  majority  of  the  community  to  sell  the  land  which 
they  have  jointly  inherited ;  the  several  portions  of  it, 
whether  sold  to  separate  members  of  the  body  or  to  strangers, 
are  thus  reduced  by  definite  agreement  to  the  form  of  indi 
vidual  properties;  and  private  ownership  of  land  thereby 
acquires  a  character  apparently  like  that  of  other  private 
ownership.  In  other  ways,  too,  this  result  is  furthered 

by  developing  industrialism.  If,  omitting  as  not  relevant 
the  cases  in  which  the  absolute  ruler  allows  no  rights  of  pro 
perty,  landed  or  other,  to  his  subjects,  we  pass  to  the  cases  in 
which  a  conqueror  recognizes  a  partial  ownership  of  land  by 
those  to  whom  he  has  parcelled  it  out  on  condition  of  render 
ing  services  and  paying  dues,  we  see  that  the  private  land- 
ownership  established  by  militancy  is  an  incomplete  one.  It 
has  various  incompletenesses.  The  ownership  by  the  suzerain 
is  qualified  by  the  rights  he  has  made  over  to  his  vassals ; 
the  rights  of  the  vassals  are  qualified  by  the  conditions  of 
their  tenure  ;  and  they  are  further  qualified  by  the  claims  of 
serfs  and  other  dependents,  who,  while  bound  to  specified 
services,  have  specified  shares  of  produce.  But  with  the 
decline  of  militancy  and  concomitant  disappearance  of  vassal 
age,  the  obligations  of  the  tenure  diminish  and  finally  almost 
lapse  out  of  recognition  ;  while,  simultaneously,  abolition  of 
serfdom  destroys  or  obscures  the  other  claims  which  qualified 


PROPERTY.  553 

private  land-ownership.*  As  both  changes  are  accompani 
ments  of  a  developing  industrialism,  it  follows  that  in  these 
ways  also,  the  individualization  of  property  in  land  is 
furthered  by  it. 

At  first  sight  it  seems  fairly  inferable  that  the  absolute 
ownership  of  land  by  private  persons,  must  be  the  ultimate 
state  which  industrialism  brings  about.  But  though  indus 
trialism  has  thus  far  tended  to  individualize  possession  of 
land,  while  individualizing  all  other  possession,  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  the  final  stage  is  at  present  reached. 
Ownership  established  by  force  does  not  stand  on  the  same 
footing  as  ownership  established  by  contract ;  and  though 
multiplied  sales  and  purchases,  treating  the  two  ownerships 
in  the  same  way,  have  tacitly  assimilated  them,  the  assimi 
lation  may  eventually  be  denied.  The  analogy  furnished 
by  assumed  rights  of  possession  over  human  beings,  helps 
us  to  recognize  this  possibility.  For  while  prisoners  of  war, 
taken  by  force  and  held  as  property  in  a  vague  way  (being  at 
first  much  on  a  footing  with  other  members  of  a  household), 
were  reduced  more  definitely  to  the  form  of  property  when 
the  buying  and  selling  of  slaves  became  general ;  and  while 
it  might,  centuries  ago,  have  been  thence  inferred  that  the 
ownership  of  man  by  man  was  an  ownership  in  course  of 
being  permanently  established  ;  yet  we  see  that  a  later  stage 
of  civilization,  reversing  this  process,  has  destroyed  owner 
ship  of  man  by  man.  Similarly,  at  a  stage  still  more  advanced 
it  may  be  that  private  ownership  of  land  will  disappear.  As 
that  primitive  freedom  of  the  individual  which  existed  before 
war  established  coercive  institutions  and  personal  slavery, 
comes  to  be  re-established  as  militancy  declines ;  so  it  seems 
possible  that  the  primitive  ownership  of  land  by  the  com 
munity,  which,  with  the  development  of  coercive  institutions, 
lapsed  in  large  measure  or  wholly  into  private  ownership,  will 

*  In  our  own  case  the  definite  ending  of  these  tenures  took  place  in  1C60 ; 
\vhen,  for  feudal  obligations  (a  burden  on  landowners)  was  substituted  ?i 
beer-excise  (a  burden  on  the  community). 


554  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

be  revived  as  industrialism  further  develops.  The  regime  of 
contract,  at  present  so  far  extended  that  the  right  of  property 
in  movables  is  recognized  only  as  having  arisen  by  exchange 
of  services  or  products  under  agreements,  or  by  gift  from  those 
who  had  acquired  it  under  such  agreements,  may  be  further 
extended  so  far  that  the  products  of  the  soil  will  be  recog 
nized  as  property  only  by  virtue  of  agreements  between  indi 
viduals  as  tenants  and  the  community  as  landowner.  Even 
now,  among  ourselves,  private  ownership  of  land  is  not  abso 
lute.  In  legal  theory  landowners  are  directly  or  indirectly 
tenants  of  the  Crown  (which  in  our  day  is  equivalent  to  the 
State,  or,  in  other  words,  the  Community);  and  the  Community 
from  time  to  time  resumes  possession  after  making  due  com 
pensation.  Perhaps  the  right  of  the  Community  to  the 
land,  thus  tacitly  asserted,  will  in  time  to  come  be  overtly 
asserted ;  and  acted  upon  after  making  full  allowance  for  the 
accumulated  value  artificially  given. 

§  541.  The  rise  and  development  of  arrangements  which 
fix  and  regulate  private  possession,  thus  admit  of  tolerably 
clear  delineation. 

The  desire  to  appropriate,  and  to  keep  that  which  has  been 
appropriated,  lies  deep,  not  in  human  nature  only,  but  in 
animal  nature :  being,  indeed,  a  condition  to  survival.  The 
consciousness  that  conflict,  and  consequent  injury,  may  pro 
bably  result  from  the  endeavour  to  take  that  which  is  held 
by  another,  ever  tends  to  establish  and  strengthen  the  custom 
of  leaving  each  in  possession  of  whatever  he  has  obtained  by 
labour ;  and  this  custom  takes  among  primitive  men  the  shape 
of  an  overtly-admitted  claim. 

This  claim  to  private  ownership,  fully  recognized  in  respect 
of  movables  made  by  the  possessor,  and  fully  or  partially 
recognized  in  respect  of  game  killed  on  the  territory  over 
which  members  of  the  community  wander,  is  not  recognized 
in  respect  of  this  territory  itself,  or  tracts  of  it.  Property  is 
individualized  as  far  as  circumstances  allow  individual  claims 


PROPERTY.  555 

to  be  marked  off  with  some  definiteness ;  but  it  is  not  indi 
vidualized  in  respect  of  land,  because,  under  the  conditions, 
no  individual  claims  can  be  shown,  or  could  be  effectually 
marked  off  were  they  shown. 

With  the  passage  from  a  nomadic  to  a  settled  state,  owner 
ship  of  land  by  the  community  becomes  qualified  by  indi 
vidual  ownership;  but  only  to  the  extent  that  those  who 
clear  and  cultivate  portions  of  the  surface  have  undisturbed 
enjoyment  of  its  produce.  Habitually  the  public  claim  sur 
vives  ;  and  either  when,  after  a  few  crops,  the  cleared  tract 
is  abandoned,  or  when,  after  transmission  to  descendants,  it 
has  ceased  to  be  used  by  them,  it  reverts  to  the  community. 
And  this  system  of  temporary  ownership,  congruous  with 
the  sentiments  and  usages  inherited  from  ancestral  nomads, 
is  associated  also  with  an  undeveloped  agriculture :  land 
becoming  exhausted  after  a  few  years. 

Where  the  patriarchal  form  of  organization  has  been 
carried  from  the  pastoral  state  into  the  settled  state,  and, 
sanctified  by  tradition,  is  also  maintained  for  purposes  of 
mutual  protection,  possession  of  land  partly  by  the  cian  and 
partly  by  the  family,  long  continues ;  at  the  same  time  that 
there  is  separate  possession  of  things  produced  by  separate 
labour.  And  while  in  some  cases  the  communal  land- 
ownership,  or  family  land-ownership,  survives,  it  in  other 
cases  yields  in  various  modes  and  degrees  to  qualified  forms 
of  private  ownership,  mostly  temporary,  and  subject  to 
supreme  ownership  by  the  public. 

But  war,  both  by  producing  class-differentiations  within 
each  society,  and  by  effecting  the  subjugation  of  one  society 
by  another,  undermines  or  destroys  communal  proprietorship 
of  land ;  and  partly  or  wholly  substitutes  for  it,  either  the 
unqualified  proprietorship  of  an  absolute  conqueror,  or  pro 
prietorship  by  a  conqueror  qualified  by  the  claims  of  vassals 
holding  it  under  certain  conditions,  while  their  claims  are 
in  turn  qualified  by  those  of  dependents  attached  to  the  soil. 
That  is  to  say,  the  system  of  status  which  militancy  develops, 


556  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

involves  a  graduated  ownership  of  land  as  it  does  a  graduated, 
ownership  of  persons. 

Complete  individualization  of  ownership  is  an  accompani 
ment  of  industrial  progress.  From  the  beginning,  things 
identified  as  products  of  a  man's  own  labour  are  recognized 
as  his  ;  and  throughout  the  course  of  civilization,  communal 
possession  and  joint  household  living,  have  not  excluded  the 
recognition  of  a  peculium  obtained  by  individual  effort.  Accu 
mulation  of  movables  privately  possessed,  arising  in  this  way, 
increases  as  militancy  is  restrained  by  growing  industrialism ; 
because  this  pre-supposes  greater  facility  for  disposing  of 
industrial  products ;  because  there  come  along  with  it 
measures  of  quantity  and  value,  furthering  exchange ;  and 
because  the  more  pacific  relations  implied,  render  it  safer 
for  men  to  detach  themselves  from  the  groups  in  which  they 
previously  kept  together  for  mutual  protection.  The  indi 
vidualization  of  ownership,  extended  and  made  more  definite 
by  trading  transactions  under  contract,  eventually  affects 
the  ownership  of  land.  Bought  and  sold  by  measure  and  for 
money,  land  is  assimilated  in  this  respect  to  the  personal 
property  produced  by  labour ;  and  thus  becomes,  in  the 
general  apprehension,  confounded  with  it.  But  there  is 
reason  to  suspect  that  while  private  possession  of  things  pro 
duced  by  labour,  will  grow  even  more  definite  and  sacred  than 
at  present ;  the  inhabited  area,  which  cannot  be  produced  by 
labour,  will  eventually  be  distinguished  as  something  which 
may  not  be  privately  possessed.  As  the  individual,  primitively 
owner  of  himself,  partially  or  wholly  loses  ownership  of  him 
self  during  the  militant  regime,  but  gradually  resumes  it  as 
the  industrial  regime  develops ;  so,  possibly,  the  communal 
proprietorship  of  land,  partially  or  wholly  merged  in  the 
ownership  of  dominant  men  during  evolution  of  the  militant 
type,  will  be  resumed  as  the  industrial  type  becomes  fully 
evolved. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

REVENUE. 

§  542.  Broadly  dividing  the  products  of  men's  labours  into 
the  part  which  remains  with  them  for  private  purposes  and 
the  part  taken  from  them  for  public  purposes ;  and  recog 
nizing  the  truism  that  the  revenue  constituted  by  this  last 
part  must  increase  with  the  development  of  the  public  organi 
zation  supported  by  it ;  we  may  be  prepared  for  the  fact  that 
in  early  stages  of  social  evolution,  nothing  answering  to 
revenue  exists. 

The  political  head  being  at  first  distinguished  from  other 
members  of  the  community  merely  by  some  personal  supe 
riority,  his  power,  often  recognized  only  during  war,  is, 
if  recognized  at  other  times,  so  slight  as  to  bring  him  no  mate 
rial  advantage.  Habitually  in  rude  tribes  he  provides  for 
himself  as  a  private  man.  Sometimes,  indeed,  instead  of 
gaining  by  his  distinction  he  loses  by  it.  Among  the  Dako- 
tas  "  the  civil-chiefs  and  war-chiefs  are  distinguished  from 
the  rest  by  their  poverty.  They  generally  are  poorer  clad 
than  any  of  the  rest."  A  statement  concerning  the  Abipones 
shows  us  why  this  occasionally  happens. 

"  The  cacique  has  nothing,  either  in  his  arms  or  his  clothes,  to  distin 
guish  him  from  a  common  man,  except  the  peculiar  oldness  and  shabbi- 
n^ss  of  them  ;  for  if  he  appears  in  the  streets  with  new  and  handsome 
apparel,  .  .  .  the  first  person  he  meets  will  boldly  cry,  Give  me  that 
dress  .  .  .  and  unless  he  immediately  parts  with  it,  he  becomes  the 
Beoff  and  the  scorn  of  all,  and  hears  himself  called  covetous." 
Among  the  Patagonians  the  burdens  entailed  by  relieving 
und  protecting  inferiors,  lead  to  abdication.  Many  "  born 


558  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Caciques  refuse  to  have  any  vassals ;  as  they  cost  them  dear, 
and  yield  but  little  profit." 

Generally,  however,  and  always  where  war  increases  his 
piedominance,  the  leading  warrior  begins  to  be  distinguished 
by  wealth  accruing  to  him  in  sundry  ways.  The  superiority 
which  gains  him  supremacy,  implying  as  it  mostly  does 
greater  skill  and  energy,  conduces  to  accumulation :  not 
uncommonly,  as  we  have  seen,  (§  472)  the  primitive  chief  is 
also  the  rich  man.  And  this  possession  of  much  private 
property  grows  into  a  conspicuous  attribute  when,  in  the 
settled  state,  land  held  by  the  community  begins  to  be  appro 
priated  by  its  more  powerful  members.  Eulers  habitually 
become  large  landowners.  In  ancient  Egypt  there  were  royal 
lands.  Of  the  primitive  Greek  king  we  read  that  "  an  ample 
domain  is  assigned  to  him  [?  taken  by  him]  as  an  appur 
tenance  of  his  lofty  position."  And  among  other  peoples  in 
later  times,  we  find  the  monarch  owning  great  estates.  The 
income  hence  derived,  continues  to  the  last  to  represent  that 
revenue  which  the  political  head  originally  had,  when  he 
began  to  be  marked  off  from  the  rest  only  by  some  personal 
merit. 

Such  larger  amount  of  private  means  as  thus  usually  dis 
tinguishes  the  head  man  at  the  outset,  augments  as  successful 
war,  increasing  his  predominance,  brings  him  an  increasing 
portion  of  the  spoils  of  conquered  peoples.  In  early  stages  it 
is  the  custom  for  each  warrior  to  keep  whatever  he  personally 
takes  in  battle ;  while  that  which  is  taken  jointly  is  in  some 
cases  equally  divided.  But  of  course  the  chief  is  apt  to  get 
an  extra  share ;  either  by  actual  capture,  or  by  the  willing 
award  of  his  comrades,  or,  it  may  be,  by  forcible  appropriation. 
And  as  his  power  grows,  this  forcible  appropriation  is  yielded 
to,  sometimes  tacitly,  sometimes  under  protest;  as  we  are 
shown  by  the  central  incident  in  the  Iliad.  Through  later 
stages  his  portion  of  plunder,  reserved  before  division  of  the 
remainder  among  followers,  continues  to  be  a  source  of 
revenue.  And  where  he  becomes  absolute,  the  property  taken 


REVENUE.  559 

from  the  vanquished,  lessened  only  by  such  portions  as  he 
gives  in  reward  for  services,  augments  his  means  of  sup 
porting  his  dependents  and  maintaining  his  supremacy. 

To  these  sources  of  income  which  may  be  classed  as  inci 
dental,  is  simultaneously  added  a  source  which  is  constant. 
When  predominance  of  the  chief  has  become  so  decided  that 
he  is  feared,  he  begins  to  receive  propitiatory  presents; 
at  first  occasionally  and  afterwards  periodically.  Already  in 
§§  369-71,  when  treating  of  presents  under  their  ceremo 
nial  aspects,  I  have  given  illustrations ;  and  many  more 
may  be  added.  Describing  the  king  among  the  Homeric 
Greeks,  Grote  writes— "Moreover  he  receives  frequent  pre 
sents,  to  avert  his  enmity,  to  conciliate  his  favour,  or  to 
buy  off  his  exactions."  So,  too,  of  the  primitive  German's, 
we  are  told  by  Tacitus  that  "it  is  the  custom  of  the 
states  to  bestow  by  voluntary  and  individual  contribution 
on  the  chiefs,  a  present  of  cattle  or  of  grain,  which,  while 
accepted  as  a  compliment,  supplies  their  wants."  And  gifts 
to  the  ruler  voluntarily  made  to  obtain  good  will,  or  prevent 
ill  will,  continue  to  be  a  source  of  revenue  until  quite  late 
stages.  Among  ourselves  "during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
the  custom  of  presenting  Xew  Year's  gifts  to  the  sovereign 
was  carried  to  an  extravagant  height ;"  and  even  "  in  the 
reign  of  James  I.  the  money  gifts  seem  to  have  been  con 
tinued  for  some  time." 

Along  with  offerings  of  money  and  goods  there  go  offerings 
of  labour.  Not  unfrequently  Ln  primitive  communities,  it  is  the 
custom  for  all  to  join  in  building  a  new  house  or  clearing  a  plot 
of  ground  for  one  of  their  number :  such  benefits  being  recipro 
cated.  Of  course  the  growing  predominance  of  a  political 
head,  results  in  a  more  extensive  yielding  of  gratuitous  labour 
for  his  benefit,  in  these  and  other  ways.  The  same  motives 
which  prompt  gifts  to  the  ruler  prompt  offers  of  help  to  him 
more  than  to  other  persons ;  and  thus  the  custom  of  working 
for  him  grows  into  a  usage.  We  read  of  the  village  chief 
among  the  Guaranis  that  "his  subjects  cultivated  for  him 


560  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

his  plantation,  and  he  enjoyed  certain  privileges  on  divi 
sion  of  the  spoils  of  the  chase.  Otherwise  he  possessed  no 
marks  of  distinction."  And  the  like  practice  was  followed 
by  some  historic  races  during  early  stages.  In  ancient  Eome 
it  was  "  the  privilege  of  the  king  to  have  his  fields  tilled  by 
taskwork  of  the  burgesses." 

§  543.  Growth  of  the  regular  and  definite  out  of  the  irre 
gular  and  indefinite,  variously  exemplified  in  the  foregoing 
chapters,  is  here  again  exemplified  very  clearly.  For,  as 
already  said,  it  is  from  propitiatory  presents  and  services,  at 
first  spontaneous  and  incidentaf,  that  there  eventually  come 
taxes  specified  in  their  amounts  and  times  of  payment. 

It  needs  but  to  observe  how  such  a  custom  as  that  of 
making  wedding-presents  has  acquired  a  partially  coercive 
character,  to  understand  how,  when  once  there  begins  the 
practice  of  seeking  the  good  will  of  the  headman  by  a  gift, 
this  practice  is  apt  to  be  established.  One  having  gained  by 
it,  another  follows  his  example.  The  more  generally  the 
example  is  followed  the  greater  becomes  the  disadvantage  to 
those  who  do  not  follow  it.  Until  at  length  all  give  because 
none  dare  stand  conspicuous  as  exceptions.  Of  course  if 
some  repeat  the  presents  upon  such  occasions  as  first  prompted 
them,  others  have  to  do  the  like ;  and  at  length  the  periodic 
obligation  becomes  so  peremptory,  that  the  gift  is  demanded 
when  it  is  not  offered.  In  Loango,  where  presents  are  expected 
from  all  free  subjects,  "if  the  king  thinks  they  do  not  give 
enough,  he  sends  slaves  to  their  places  to  take  what  they 
have."  Among  the  Tongans,  who  from  time  to  time  give  their 
king  or  chief  "  yams,  mats,  gnatoo,  dried  fish,  live  birds,  &c.,M 
the  quantity  is  determined  "  generally  by  the  will  of  eacli 
individual,  who  will  always  take  care  to  send  as  much  as  he 
can  well  afford,  lest  the  superior  chief  should  be  offended 
with  him,  and  deprive  him  of  all  that  he  has."  At  the 
present  time  in  Cashmere,  at  the  spring  festival,  "  it  is  the 
custom  ...  for  the  Maharajah's  servants  to  bring  him  a 


REVENUE.  561 

nazar,  a  present.  .  .  .  This  has  now  become  so  regulated  that 
every  one  is  on  these  days  [festivals]  obliged  to  give  from  a 
10th  to  a  12th  of  his  monthly  pay.  .  .  .  The  name  of  each  is 
read  from  a  list,  and  the  amount  of  his  nazar  is  marked 
down :  those  that  are  absent  will  have  the  sum  deducted 
from  their  pay."  Traces  of  a  like  transition  are  seen  in  the 
fact  that  in  ancient  times  crowns  of  gold,  beginning  as 
jrifts  made  by  dependent  states  to  Eastern  rulers,  and  by 
Eoman  provinces  to  generals  or  pro-consuls,  became  sums  of 
money  demanded  as  of  right ;  and  again  in  the  fact  that  in 
our  o\\n  early  history,  we  read  of  "exactions  called  benevo 
lences." 

Similarly  with  the  labour  which,  at  first  voluntarily  given 
to  the  chief,  comes,  as  his  power  grows,  to  be  compulsory. 
Here  are  some  illustrations  showing  stages  in  the  transition. 
A  Kafir  chief  "  summons  the  people  to  cultivate  his  gardens,  reap  hia 
crops,  and  make  his  fences  ;  but  in  this,  as  in  other  respects,  he  has  to 
consult  the  popular  will,  and  hence  the  manual  labour  required  by 
the  chiefs  has  always  been  of  very  limited  duration." 

In  the  Sandwich  Islands,  "  when  a  chief  wants  a  house,  he  requires 
the  labour  of  all  who  hold  lands  under  him.  .  .  .  Each  division  of  the 
people  has  a  part  of  the  house  allotted  by  the  chief  in  proportion  to  its 
number." 

In  ancient  Mexico  "the  personal  and  common  service  which  fur 
nished  the  water  and  wood  required  every  day  in  the  houses  of  the 
chiefs,  was  distributed  from  day  to  day  among  the  villages  and  quar 
ters." 

It  was  the  same  in  Yucatan  :  "  the  whole  community  did  the  sowing 
for  the  lord,  looked  after  the  seed,  and  harvested  what  was  required 
for  him  and  his  house." 

So  in  the  adjacent  regions  of  Guatemala  and  San  Salvador, 
"  the  tribute  was  paid  by  means  of  the  cultivation  of  estates." 
And  in  Madagascar  "  the  whole  population  is  liable  to  be 
employed  on  government  work,  without  remuneration,  and 
for  any  length  of  time." 

Occurring  among  peoples  unallied  in  blood  and  unlike  in 
their  stages  of  civilization,  these  facts  show  the  natural 
growing  up  of  a  forced  labour  system  such  as  that  which 
existed  iuring  feudal  times  throughout  Europe,  when  laboui 


562  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

was  exacted  from  dependents  by  local  rulers,  and  became 
also  a  form  of  tribute  to  the  central  ruler ;  as  instance  the 
specified  numbers  of  days'  work  which,  before  the  Eevolution, 
had  to  be  given  by  French  peasants  to  the  State  under  the 
name  of  corvee. 

After  presents  freely  given  have  passed  into  presents 
expected  and  finally  demanded,  and  volunteered  help  has 
passed  into  exacted  service,  the  way  is  open  for  a  further 
step.  Change  from  the  voluntary  to  the  compulsory,  accom 
panied  as  it  necessarily  is  by  specification  of  the  amounts 
of  commodities  and  work  required,  is  apt  to  be  followed 
eventually  by  substitution  of  money  payments.  During 
stages  in  which  there  has  not  arisen  a  circulating  medium, 
the  ruler,  local  or  general,  is  paid  his  revenue  in  kind.  In 
Fiji  a  chiefs  house  is  supplied  with  daily  food  by  his  depen 
dents  ;  and  tribute  is  paid  by  the  chiefs  to  the  king  "in  yams, 
taro,  pigs,  fowls,  native  cloth,  &c."  In  Tahiti,  where  besides 
supplies  derived  from  «  the  hereditary  districts  of  the  reigning 
family,"  there  were  "  requisitions  made  upon  the  people;"  the 
food  was  generally  brought  cooked.  In  early  European 
societies,  too,  the  expected  donations  to  the  ruler  continued  to 
be  made  partly  in  goods,  animals,  clothes,  and  valuables  of 
all  kinds,  long  after  money  was  in  use.  But  the  convenience 
both  of  giver  and  receiver  prompts  commutation,  when  the 
values  of  the  presents  looked  for  have  become  settled.  And 
from  kindred  causes  there  also  comes,  as  we  have  seen  in  a 
previous  chapter,  commutation  of  military  services  and  com 
mutation  of  labour  services.  No  matter  what  its  nature,  that 
which  was  at  first  spontaneously  offered,  eventually  becomes 
a  definite  sum  taken,  if  need  be,  by  force — a  tax. 

§  544,  At  the  same  time  his  growing  power  enables  the 
political  head  to  enforce  demands  of  many  other  kinds. 
European  histories  furnish  ample  proofs. 

Besides  more  settled  sources  of  revenue,  there  had,  in  the 
early  feudal  period,  been  established  such  others  as  are  typi- 


KEVENUK.  563 

cally  illustrated  by  a  statement  concerning  the  Dukes  of 
Normandy  in  the  12th  century.  They  profited  by  escheats 
(lands  reverting  to  the  monarch  in  default  of  posterity  of  the 
first  baron) ;  by  guardianships  and  reliefs ;  by  seizure  of  the 
property  of  deceased  prelates,  usurers,  excommunicated  per 
sons,  suicides,  and  certain  criminals;  and  by  treasure-trove. 
They  were  paid  for  conceded  privileges ;  and  for  confirmations 
of  previous  concessions.  They  received  bribes  when  desired 
to  do  justice ;  and  were  paid  fines  by  those  who  wished  to  be 
maintained  in  possession  of  property,  or  to  get  liberty  to 
exercise  certain  rights.  In  England,  under  the  Norman 
kings,  there  were  such  other  sources  of  revenue  as  composi 
tions  paid  by  heirs  before  taking  possession ;  sales  of  ward 
ships  ;  sales  to  male  heirs  of  rights  to  choose  their  wives ; 
sales  of  charters  to  towns,  and  subsequent  re-sales  of  such 
charters ;  sales  of  permissions  to  trade ;  and  there  was  also 
what  was  called  "  moneyage  " — a  shilling  paid  every  three 
years  by  each  hearth  to  induce  the  king  not  to  debase  the 
coinage.  Advantage  was  taken  of  every  favourable  oppor 
tunity  for  making  and  enforcing  a  demand ;  as  we  see  in  such 
facts  as  that  it  was  customary  to  mulct  a  discharged  official, 
and  that  Eichard  I.  "  compelled  his  father's  servants  to  re 
purchase  their  offices." 

Showing  us,  as  such  illustrations  do,  that  these  arbitrary 
seizures  and  exactions  are  numerous  and  heavy  in  proportion 
as  the  power  of  the  ruler  is  little  restrained,  the  implication  is 
that  they  reach  their  extreme  where  the  social  organization  i^ 
typically  militant.  Evidence  that  this  is  so,  was  given  in 
§  443 ;  and  in  the  next  chapter,  under  another  head,  we  shall 
meet  with  more  of  it. 

§  545.  While,  in  the  ways  named  in  the  foregoing  sections, 
there  arise  direct  taxes,  there  simultaneously  arise,  and 
insensibly  diverge,  the  taxes  eventually  distinguished  as 
indirect.  These  begin  as  demands  made  on  those  who  have 
got  considerable  quantities  of  commodities  exposed  in  transit, 
95 


564:  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

or  on  sale ;  and  of  which  parts,  originally  offered  as  presents, 
are  subsequently  seized  as  dues. 

Under  other  heads  I  have  referred  to  the  familiar  fact  that 
travellers  among  rude  peoples  make  propitiatory  gifts  ;  and 
by  frequent  recurrence  the  reception  of  these  generates  a 
claim.  Narratives  of  recent  African  explorers  confirm  the 
statements  of  Livingstone,  who  describes  the  Portuguese  traders 
among  the  Quanga  people  as  giving  largely,  because  "  if  they 
did  not  secure  the  friendship  of  these  petty  chiefs,  many 
slaves  might  be  stolen  with  their  loads  while  passing  through 
the  forests  ; "  and  who  says  of  a  Balonda  chief  that  "  he 
seemed  to  regard  these  presents  as  his  proper  dues,  and  as  a 
cargo  of  goods  had  come  by  Senhor  Pascoal,he  entered  the  house 
for  the  purpose  of  receiving  his  share."  Various  cases  show 
that  instead  of  attempting  to  take  all  at  the  risk  of  a  fight,  the 
head  man  enters  into  a  compromise  under  which  part  is  given 
without  a  fight ;  as  instance  the  habitual  arrangement  with 
Bedouin  tribes,  which  compound  for  robbery  of  travellers  by 
amounts  agreed  upon ;  or  as  instance  the  mountain  Bhils  of 
India,  whose  chiefs  have  "  seldom  much  revenue  except 
plunder,"  who  have  officers  "  to  obtain  information  of  unpro 
tected  villagers  and  travellers,"  and  who  claim  "  a  duty  on 
goods  passing  their  hills  :  "  apparently  a  composition  accepted 
when  those  who  carry  the  goods  are  too  strong  to  be  robbed 
without  danger.  Where  the  protection  of  individuals  depends 
mainly  on  family-organizations  and  clan-organizations,  the 
subject  as  well  as  the  stranger,  undefended  when  away  from 
his  home,  similarly  becomes  liable  to  this  qualified  black 
mail.  Now  to  the  local  ruler,  now  to  the  central  ruler, 
according  to  their  respective  powers,  he  yields  up  part  of  his 
goods,  that  possession  of  the  rest  may  be  guaranteed  him, 
and  his  claims  on  buyers  enforced.  This  state  of  things  waa 
illustrated  in  ancient  Mexico,  where — 

"  Of  all  the  goods  which  were  brought  into  the  market,  a  certain  portion 
was  paid  in  tribute  to  the  king,  who  was  on  his  part  obliged  to  do  justice 
to  the  merchants,  and  to  protect  their  property  and  their  persons." 


REVENUE.  565 

We  trace  the  like  iu  the  records  of  early  European  peoples. 
Part  of  the  revenue  ol?  the  primitive  Greek  king,  consisted  of 
"  the  presents  paid  for  licences  to  trade  " — presents  which 
in  all  probability  were  at  first  portions  of  the  commodities 
to  be  sold.  At  a  later  period  in  Greece  there  obtained  a 
practice  that  had  doubtless  descended  from  this.  "  To  these 
men  [magistrates  of  markets]  a  certain  toll  or  tribute  was 
paid  by  all  those  who  brought  anything  to  sell  in  the  market/' 
In  western  Europe  indirect  taxation  had  a  kindred  origin. 
The  trader,  at  the  mercy  of  the  ruler  whose  territory  he 
entered,  had  to  surrender  part  of  his  merchandise  in  con 
sideration  of  being  allowed  to  pass.  As  feudal  lords,  swoop 
ing  down  from  their  castles  on  merchants  passing  along 
neighbouring  roads  or  navigable  rivers,  took  by  force  portions 
of  what  they  had,  when  they  did  not  take  all;  so  their 
suzerains  laid  hands  on  what  they  pleased  of  cargoes  enter 
ing  their  ports  or  passing  their  frontiers:  their  shares 
gradually  becoming  denned  by  precedent.  In  England, 
though  there  is  no  clear  proof  that  the  two  tuns  which  the 
king  took  from  wine-laden  ships  (wine  being  then  the  chief 
import)  was  originally  an  unqualified  seizure ;  yet,  since  this 
quantity  was  called  "the  king's  prisage"  we  have  good 
reason  for  suspecting  that  it  was  so ;  and  that  though,  after 
wards,  the  king's  officer  gave  something  in  return,  this,  being 
at  his  option,  was  but  nominal.  The  very  name  "  customs," 
eventually  applied  to  commuted  payments  on  imports,  points 
back  to  a  preceding  time  when  this  yielding  up  of  portions 
of  cargoes  had  become  established  by  usage.  Confirmation 
of  this  inference  is  furnished  by  the  fact  that  internal  traders 
were  thus  dealt  with.  So  late  as  1309  it  was  complained 
"that  the  officers  appointed  to  take  articles  for  the  king's  use 
in  fairs  and  markets,  took  more  than  they  ought,  and  made 
a  profit  of  the  surplus." 

Speaking  generally  of  indirect  taxes,  we  may  say  that 
arising  when  the  power  of  the  ruler  becomes  sufficient  to 
change  gifts  into  exactions,  they  at  first  differ  from  other 


566  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

exactions  simply  in  this,  that  they  are  enforced  on  occasions 
when  the  subject  is  more  than  usually  at  the  ruler's  mercy ; 
either  because  he  is  exposing  commodities  for  sale  where 
they  can  be  easily  found  and  a  share  taken ;  or  because  he  is 
transferring  them  from  one  part  of  the  territory  to  another, 
and  can  be  readily  stopped  and  a  portion  demanded  ;  or 
because  he  is  bringing  commodities  into  the  territory,  and 
can  have  them  laid  hands  on  at  one  of  the  few  places  of 
convenient  entrance.  The  shares  appropriated  by  the  ruler, 
originally  in  kind,  are  early  commuted  into  money  where 
the  commodities  are  such  as,  by  reason  of  quantity  or  dis 
tance,  he  cannot  consume :  instance  the  load-penny  payable 
at  the  pit's  mouth  on  each  waggon-load  to  the  old-English 
kings.  And  the  claim  comes  to  be  similarly  commuted  in 
other  cases,  as  fast  as  increasing  trade  brings  a  more  abundant 
circulating  medium,  and  a  greater  quantity  of  produced  and 
imported  commodities ;  the  demanded  portions  of  which  it 
becomes  more  difficult  to  transport  and  to  utilize. 

§  546.  No  great  advantage  would  be  gained  by  here  going 
into  details.  The  foregoing  general  facts  appear  to  be  all  that 
it  is  needful  for  us  to  note. 

From  the  outset  the  growth  of  revenue  has,  like  that  growth 
of  the  political  headship  which  it  accompanies,  been  directly 
or  indirectly  a  result  of  war.  The  property  of  conquered 
enemies,  at  first  goods,  cattle,  prisoners,  and  at  a  later 
stage,  land,  coming  in  larger  share  to  the  leading  warrior, 
increases  his  predominance.  To  secure  his  good  will,  which 
it  is  now  important  to  do,  propitiatory  presents  and  help  in 
labour  are  given;  and  these,  as  his  power  further  grows, 
become,  periodic  and  compulsory.  Making  him  more  despotic 
at  the  same  time  that  it  augments  his  kingdom,  continuance 
of  this  process  increases  his  ability  to  enforce  contribu 
tions,  alike  from  his  original  subjects  and  from  tributaries ; 
while  the  necessity  for  supplies,  now  to  defend  his  kingdom, 
now  to  invade  adjacent  kingdoms,  is  ever  made  the  plea  for 


HE  VENUE.  567 

increasing  his  demands  of  established  kinds  and  for  making 
new  ones.  Under  stress  of  the  alleged  needs,  portions  of 
their  goods  are  taken  from  subjects  whenever  they  are  ex 
posed  to  view  for  purposes  of  exchange.  And  as  the  primitive 
presents  of  property  and  labour,  once  voluntary  and  variable, 
but  becoming  compulsory  and  periodic,  are  eventually  com 
muted  into  direct  taxes ;  so  these  portions  of  the  trader's 
goods  which  were  originally  given  for  permission  to  trade  and 
then  seized  as  of  right,  come  eventually  to  be  transformed 
into  percentages  of  value  paid  as  tolls  and  duties. 

But  to  the  last  as  at  first,  and  under  free  governments  as 
under  despotic  ones,  war  continues  to  be  the  usual  reason  for 
imposing  new  taxes  or  increasing  old  ones ;  at  the  same  time 
that  the  coercive  organization  in  past  times  developed  by 
wa,r,  continues  to  be  the  means  of  exacting  them. 


CHAPTEE  XYII. 

THE  MILITANT  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY. 

§  547.  Preceding  chapters  have  prepared  the  way  for 
framing  conceptions  of  the  two  fundamentally-unlike  kinds 
of  political  organization,  proper  to  the  militant  life  and  the 
industrial  life,  respectively.  It  will  be  instructive  here  to 
arrange  in  coherent  order,  those  traits  of  the  militant  type 
already  incidentally  marked,  and  to  join  with  them  various 
dependent  traits ;  and  in  the  next  chapter  to  deal  in  like 
manner  with  the  traits  of  the  industrial  type. 

During  social  evolution  there  has  habitually  been  a  min 
gling  of  the  two.  But  we  shall  find  that,  alike  in  theory  arid 
in  fact,  it  is  possible  to  trace  with  due  clearness  those  oppo 
site  characters  which  distinguish  them  in  their  respective 
complete  developments.  Especially  is  the  nature  of  the 
organization  which  accompanies  chronic  militancy,  capable  of 
being  inferred  a  priori  and  proved  a  posteriori  to  exist  in 
numerous  cases.  While  the  nature  of  the  organization 
accompanying  pure  industrialism,  of  which  at  present  we 
have  little  experience,  will  be  made  clear  by  contrast ;  and 
such  illustrations  as  exist  of  progress  towards  it  will  become 
recognizable. 

Two  liabilities  to  error  must  be  guarded  against.  We  have 
to  deal  with  societies  compounded  and  re-compounded  in 
various  degrees ;  and  we  have  to  deal  with  societies  which, 
differing  in  their  stages  of  culture,  have  their  structures 
elaborated  to  different  extents.  We  shall  be  misled,  there 
fore,  unless  our  comparisons  are  such  as  take  account  of  un- 
likenesses  in  size  and  in  civilization.  Clearly,  characteristics 
of  the  militant  type  which  admit  of  being  displayed  by  a  vast 


THE   MILITANT  TYPE  OF   SOCIETY.  569 

nation,  may  not  admit  of  being  displayed  by  a  horde  of 
Bavages,  though  this  is  equally  militant.  Moreover,  as  insti 
tutions  take  long  to  acquire  their  finished  forms,  it  is  not  to 
be  expected  that  all  militant  societies  will  display  the 
organization  appropriate  to  them  in  its  completeness.  Bather 
may  we  expect  that  in  most  cases  it  will  be  incompletely 
displayed. 

In  face  of  these  difficulties  the  best  course  will  be  to  con 
sider,  first,  what  are  the  several  traits  which  of  necessity  mili 
tancy  tends  to  produce;  and  then  to  observe  how  far  these  traits 
are  conjointly  shown  in  past  and  present  nations  distinguished 
by  militancy.  Having  contemplated  the  society  ideally 
organized  for  war,  we  shall  be  prepared  to  recognize  in  real 
societies  the  characters  which  war  has  brought  abouo. 

§  548.  For  preserving  its  corporate  life,  a  society  is  im 
pelled  to  corporate  action ;  and  the  preservation  of  its  cor 
porate  life  is  the  more  probable  in  proportion  as  its  corporate 
action  is  the  more  complete.  For  purposes  of  offence  and 
defence,  the  forces  of  individuals  have  to  be  combined ;  and 
where  every  individual  contributes  his  force,  the  probability 
of  success  is  greatest.  Numbers,  natures,  and  circumstances 
being  equal,  it  is  clear  that  of  two  tribes  or  two  larger 
societies,  one  of  which  unites  the  actions  of  all  its  capable 
members  while  the  other  does  not,  the  first  will  ordinarily  be 
the  victor.  There  must  be  an  habitual  survival  of  commu 
nities  in  which  militant  cooperation  is  universal. 

This  proposition  is  almost  a  truism.  But  it  is  needful  here, 
as  a  preliminary,  consciously  to  recognize  the  truth  that  the 
social  structure  evolved  by  chronic  militancy,  is  one  in  which 
all  men  fit  for  fighting  act  in  concert  against  other  societies. 
ISuch  further  actions  as  they  carry  on  they  can  carry  on 
eepaiately ;  but  this  action  they  must  carry  on  jointly. 

§  549.  A  society's  power  of  self-preservation  will  be  great 
in  proportion  as,  besides  the  direct  aid  of  all  who  can  fight, 


5  TO  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

there  is  given  the  indirect  aid  of  all  who  cannot  fight.  Sup 
posing  them  otherwise  similar,  those  communities  will  sur 
vive  in  which  the  efforts  of  combatants  are  in  the  greatest 
degree  seconded  by  those  of  non-combatants.  In  a  purely 
militant  society,  therefore,  individuals  who  do  not  bear  arms 
have  to  spend  their  lives  in  furthering  the  maintenance  of 
those  who  do.  Whether,  as  happens  at  first,  the  non-com 
batants  are  exclusively  the  women ;  or  whether,  as  happens 
later,  the  class  includes  enslaved  captives;  or  whether,  as 
happens  later  still,  it  includes  serfs ;  the  implication  is  the 
same.  For  if,  of  two  societies  equal  in  other  respects,  the 
first  wholly  subordinates  its  workers  in  this  way,  while  the 
workers  in  the  second  are  allowed  to  retain  for  themselves 
the  produce  of  their  labour,  or  more  of  it  than  is  needful  for 
maintaining  them ;  then,  in  the  second,  the  warriors,  not 
otherwise  supported,  or  supported  less  fully  than  they  might 
else  be,  will  have  partially  to  support  themselves,  and  will  be 
so  much  the  less  available  for  war  purposes.  Hence  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  between  such  societies,  it  must  usually 
happen  that  the  first  will  vanquish  the  second.  The  social 
type  produced  by  survival  of  the  fittest,  will  be  one  in  which 
the  fighting  part  includes  all  who  can  bear  arms  and  be 
trusted  with  arms,  while  the  remaining  part  serves  simply  as 
a  permanent  commissariat. 

An  obvious  implication,  of  a  significance  to  be  hereafter 
pointed  out,  is  that  the  non-combatant  part,  occupied  in  sup 
porting  the  combatant  part,  cannot  with  advantage  to  the 
self-preserving  power  of  the  society  increase  beyond  the  limit 
at  winch  it  efficiently  fulfils  its  purpose.  For,  otherwise, 
some  who  might  be  fighters  are  superfluous  workers ;  and  the 
fighting  power  of  the  society  is  made  less  than  it  might  be. 
Hence,  in  the  militant  type,  the  tendency  is  for  the  body  of 
warriors  to  bear  the  largest  practicable  ratio  to  the  body  of 
workers. 

§  550.  Given  two  societies  of  which  the  members  are  all 


THE  MILITANT  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY.          571 

either  warriors  or  those  who  supply  the  needs  of  warriors, 
and,  other  things  equal,  supremacy  will  be  gained  by  that  in 
which  the  efforts  of  all  are  most  effectually  combined.  In 
open  warfare  joint  action  triumphs  over  individual  action. 
Military  history  is  a  history  of  the  successes  of  men  trained 
to  move  and  fight  in  concert. 

Not  only  must  there  be  in  the  fighting  part  a  combination 
such  that  the  powers  of  its  units  may  be  concentrated,  but 
there  must  be  a  combination  of  the  subservient  part  with  it. 
Jf  the  two  are  so  separated  that  they  can  act  independently, 
the  needs  of  the  fighting  part  will  not  be  adequately  met.  If 
to  be  cut  off  from  a  temporary  base  of  operations  is  danger 
ous,  still  more  dangerous  is  it  to  be  cut  off  from  the  per 
manent  base  of  operations ;  namely,  that  constituted  by  the 
body  of  non-combatants.  This  has  to  be  so  connected  with  the 
body  of  combatants  that  its  services  may  be  fully  available.  Evi 
dently,  therefore,  development  of  the  militant  type  involves  a 
close  binding  of  the  society  into  a  whole.  As  the  loose  group 
of  savages  yields  to  the  solid  phalanx,  so,  other  things  equal, 
must  the  society  of  which  the  parts  are  but  feebly  held 
together,  yield  to  one  in  which  they  are  held  together  by 
strong  bonds. 

§  551.  But  in  proportion  as  men  are  compelled  to  co 
operate,  their  self-prompted  actions  are  restrained.  By  as 
much  as  the  unit  becomes  merged  in  the  mass,  by  so  much 
does  he  lose  his  individuality  as  a  unit.  And  this  leads  us 
to  note  the  several  ways  in  which  evolution  of  the  militant 
type  entails  subordination  of  the  citizen. 

His  life  is  not  his  own,  but  is  at  the  disposal  of  his  society. 
So  long  as  he  remains  capable  of  bearing  arms  he  has  no 
alternative  but  to  fight  when  called  on  ;  and,  where  militancy 
is  extreme,  he  cannot  return  as  a  vanquished  man  under 
penalty  of  death. 

Of  course,  with  this  there  goes  possession  of  such  liberty 
only  as  military  obligations  allow.  He  is  free  to  pursue  his 


572  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

private  ends  only  when  the  tribe  or  nation  has  no  need  of 
him ;  and  when  it  has  need  of  him,  his  actions  from  hour  to 
hour  must  conform,  not  to  his  own  will  but  to  the  public 
will. 

So,  too,  with  his  property.  Whether,  as  in  many  cases, 
what  he  holds  as  private  he  so  holds  by  permission  only,  or 
whether  private  ownership  is  recognized,  it  remains  true  that 
in  the  last  resort  he  is  obliged  to  surrender  whatever  is 
demanded  for  the  community's  use. 

Briefly,  then,  under  the  militant  type  the  individual  is 
owned  by  the  State.  While  preservation  of  the  society  is  the 
primary  end,  preservation  of  each  member  is  a  secondary  end 
— an  end  cared  for  chiefly  as  subserving  the  primary  end. 

§  552.  Fulfilment  of  these  requirements,  that  there  shall 
"be  complete  corporate  action,  that  to  this  end  the  non-com 
batant  part  shall  be  occupied  in  providing  for  the  combatant 
part,  that  the  entire  aggregate  shall  be  strongly  bound 
together,  and  that  the  units  composing  it  must  have  their 
individualities  in  life,  liberty,  and  property,  thereby  sub 
ordinated,  presupposes  a  coercive  instrumentality.  No  such 
union  for  corporate  action  can  be  achieved  without  a  power 
ful  controlling  agency.  On  remembering  the  fatal  results 
caused  by  division  of  counsels  in  war,  or  by  separation  into 
factions  in  face  of  an  enemy,  we  see  that  chronic  militancy 
tends  to  develop  a  despotism ;  since,  other  things  equal,  those 
societies  will  habitually  survive  in  which,  by  its  aid,  the 
corporate  action  is  made  complete. 

And  this  involves  a  system  of  centralization.  The  trait 
made  familiar  to  us  by  an  army,  in  which,  under  a  com- 
mander-in-chief  there  are  secondary  commanders  over  large 
masses,  and  under  these  tertiary  ones  over  smaller  masses, 
and  so  on  down  to  the  ultimate  divisions,  must  characterize 
the  social  organization  at  large.  A  militant  society  requires 
a  regulative  structure  of  this  kind,  since,  otherwise,  its 


THE   MILITANT  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  573 

corporate  action  cannot  be  made  most  effectual.  Without 
such  grades  of  governing  centres  diffused  throughout  the  non- 
combatant  part  as  well  as  the  combatant  part,  the  entire 
forces  of  the  aggregate  cannot  be  promptly  put  forth.  Unless 
the  workers  are  under  a  control  akin  to  that  which  the 
fighters  are  under,  their  indirect  aid  cannot  be  insured  in  full 
amount  and  with  due  quickness. 

And  this  is  the  form  of  a  society  characterized  by  status — 
a  society,  the  members  of  which  stand  one  towards  another  in 
successive  grades  of  subordination.  From  the  despot  down 
to  the  slave,  all  are  masters  of  those  below  and  subjects  of 
those  above.  The  relation  of  the  child  to  the  father,  of  the 
father  to  some  superior,  and  so  on  up  to  the  absolute  head,  is 
one  in  which  the  individual  of  lower  status  is  at  the  mercy 
of  one  of  higher  status. 

§  553.  Otherwise  described,  the  process  of  militant  organi 
zation  is  a  process  of  regimentation,  which,  primarily  taking 
place  in  the  army,  secondarily  affects  the  whole  com 
munity. 

The  first  indication  of  this  we  trace  in  the  fact  everywhere 
visible,  that  the  military  head  grows  into  a  civil  head — 
usually  at  once,  and,  in  exceptional  cases,  at  last,  if  militancy 
continues.  Beginning  as  leader  in  war  he  becomes  ruler  in 
peace ;  and  such  regulative  policy  as  he  pursues  in  the  one 
sphere,  he  pursues,  so  far  as  conditions  permit,  in  the  other. 
Being,  as  the  non-combatant  part  is,  a  permanent  commis 
sariat,  the  principle  of  graduated  subordination  is  extended 
to  it.  Its  members  come  to  be  directed  in  a  way  like  that  in 
wliich  the  warriors  are  directed — not  literally,  since  by  dis 
persion  of  the  one  and  concentration  of  the  other  exact  paral 
lelism  is  prevented ;  but,  nevertheless,  similarly  in  principle. 
Labour  is  carried  on  under  coercion ;  and  supervision  spreads 
everywhere. 

To  suppose  that  a  despotic  military  head,  daily  maintain* 


574  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

ing  regimental  control  in  conformity  with  inherited  traditions, 
will  not  impose  on  the  producing  classes  a  kindred  control,  is 
to  suppose  in  him  sentiments  and  ideas  entirely  foreign  to  his 
circumstances. 

§  554.  The  nature  of  the  militant  form  of  government  will 
be  further  elucidated  on  observing  that  it  is  both  positively 
regulative  and  negatively  regulative.  It  does  not  simply 
restrain ;  it  also  enforces.  Besides  telling  the  individual 
what  he  shall  not  do,  it  tells  him  what  he  shall  do. 

That  the  government  of  an  army  is  thus  characterised 
needs  no  showing.  Indeed,  commands  of  the  positive  kind 
given  to  the  soldier  are  more  important  than  those  of  the 
negative  kind :  fighting  is  done  under  the  one,  while  order  is 
maintained  under  the  other.  But  here  it  chiefly  concerns  us 
to  note  that  not  only  the  control  of  military  life  but  also  the 
control  of  civil  life,  is,  under  the  militant  type  of  govern 
ment,  thus  characterized.  There  are  two  ways  in  which  the 
ruling  power  may  deal  with  the  private  individual.  It  may 
simply  limit  his  activities  to  those  which  he  can  carry  on 
without  aggression,  direct  or  indirect,  upon  others ;  in  which 
case  its  action  is  negatively  regulative.  Or,  besides  doing 
this,  it  may  prescribe  the  how,  and  the  where,  and  the  when, 
of  his  activities — may  force  him  to  do  things  which  he  would 
not  spontaneously  do — may  direct  in  greater  or  less  detail  his 
mode  of  living  ;  in  which  case  its  action  is  positively  regula 
tive.  Under  the  militant  type  this  positively  regulative 
action  is  widespread  and  peremptory.  The  civilian  is  in  a 
condition  as  much  like  that  of  the  soldier  as  difference  of 
occupation  permits. 

And  this  is  another  way  of  expressing  the  truth  that  the 
fundamental  principle  of  the  militant  type  is  compulsory  co 
operation.  While  this  is  obviously  the  principle  on  which 
the  members  of  the  combatant  body  act,  it  no  less  certainly 
must  be  the  principle  acted  on  throughout  the  non-combatant 
body,  if  military  efficiency  is  to  be  great ;  since,  otherwise, 


THE   MILITANT   TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  575 

the  aid  which  the  non-combatant  body  has  to  furnish  cannot 
be  insured. 

§  555.  That  binding  together  by  which  the  units  of  a 
militant  society  are  made  into  an  efficient  fighting  structure, 
tends  to  fix  the  position  of  each  in  rank,  in  occupation,  and 
in  locality. 

In  a  graduated  regulative  organization  there  is  resistance 
to  change  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  grade.  Such  change  is 
made  difficult  by  lack  of  the  possessions  needed  for  filling 
superior  positions  ;  and  it  is  made  difficult  by  the  opposition 
of  those  who  already  fill  them,  and  can  hold  inferiors  down. 
Preventing  intrusion  from  below,  these  transmit  their  respec 
tive  places  and  ranks  to  their  descendants ;  and  as  the 
principle  of  inheritance  becomes  settled,  the  rigidity  of  the 
social  structure  becomes  decided.  Only  where  an  "  egali 
tarian  despotism  "  reduces  all  subjects  to  the  same  political 
status — a  condition  of  decay  rather  than  of  development — 
does  the  converse  state  arise. 

The  principle  of  inheritance,  becoming  established  in 
respect  of  the  classes  which  militancy  originates,  and  fixing 
the  general  functions  of  their  members  from  generation  to 
generation,  tends  eventually  to  fix  also  their  special  functions. 
Not  only  do  men  of  the  slave-classes  and  the  artizan-classes 
succeed  to  their  respective  ranks,  but  they  succeed  to  the 
particular  occupations  carried  on  in  them.  This,  which  is  a 
result  of  the  tendency  towards  regimentation,  is  ascribable 
primarily  to  the  fact  that  a  superior,  requiring  from  each  kind 
of  wrorker  his  particular  product,  has  an  interest  in  replacing 
him  at  death  by  a  capable  successor;  while  the  woiker, 
prompted  to  get  aid  in  executing  his  tasks,  has  an  interest 
in  bringing  up  a  son  to  his  own  occupation:  the  will  of  the 
son  being  powerless  against  these  conspiring  interests.  Undei 
the  system  of  compulsory  cooperation,  therefore,  the  prin 
ciple  of  inheritance,  spreading  through  the  producing  organi 
sation,  causes  a  relative  rigidity  in  this  also. 


576  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

A  kindred  effect  is  shown  in  the  entailed  restraints  on 
movement  from  place  to  place.  In  proportion  as  the  indi 
vidual  is  subordinated  in  life,  liberty,  and  property,  to  his 
society,  it  is  needful  that  his  whereabouts  shall  be  constantly 
known.  Obviously  the  relation  of  the  soldier  to  his  officer, 
and  of  this  officer  to  his  superior,  is  such  that  each  must  bo 
ever  at  hand ;  and  where  the  militant  type  is  fully  developed 
the  like  holds  throughout  the  society.  The  slave  cannot 
leave  his  appointed  abode ;  the  serf  is  tied  to  his  allotment ; 
the  master  is  not  allowed  to  absent  himself  from  his  locality 
without  leave. 

So  that  the  corporate  action,  the  combination,  the  cohesion, 
the  regimentation,  which  efficient  militancy  necessitates, 
imply  a  structure  which  strongly  resists  change. 

§  556.  A  further  trait  of  the  militant  type,  naturally 
accompanying  the  last,  is  that  organizations  other  than  those 
forming  parts  of  the  State-organization,  are  wholly  or  par 
tially  Depressed.  The  public  combination  occupying  all  fields, 
excludes  private  combinations. 

For  the  achievement  of  complete  corporate  action  there 
must,  as  we  have  seen,  be  a  centralized  administration,  not 
only  throughout  the  combatant  part  but  throughout  the  non- 
combatant  part;  and  if  there  exist  unions  of  citizens  which 
act  independently,  they  in  so  far  diminish  the  range  of  this 
centralized  administration.  Any  structures  which  are  not 
portions  of  the  State-structure,  serve  more  or  less  as  limita 
tions  to  it,  and  stand  in  the  way  of  the  required  unlimited 
subordination.  If  private  combinations  are  allowed  to  exist, 
it  will  be  on  condition  of  submitting  to  an  official  regulation 
such  as  greatly  restrains  independent  action ;  and  since 
private  combinations  officially  regulated  are  inevitably  hin 
dered  from  doing  things  not  conforming  to  established 
routine,  and  are  thus  debarred  from  improvement,  they  cannot 
habitually  thrive  and  grow.  Obviously,  indeed,  such  com 
binations,  based  on  the  principle  of  voluntary  cooperation, 


THE  MILITANT  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY.  577 

are  incongruous  with  social  arrangements  based  on  the  prin 
ciple  of  compulsory  cooperation.  Hence  the  militant  type 
is  characterized  by  the  absence,  or  comparative  rarity,  of 
bodies  of  citizens  associated  for  commercial  purposes,  for 
propagating  special  religious  views,  for  achieving  philan 
thropic  ends,  &c. 

Private  combinations  of  one  kind,  however,  are  congruous 
with  the  militant  type — the  combinations,  namely,  which  are 
formed  for  minor  defensive  or  offensive  purposes.  We  have, 
as  examples,  those  which  constitute  factions,  very  general  in 
militant  societies ;  those  which  belong  to  the  same  class  as 
primitive  guilds,  serving  for  mutual  protection  ;  and  those 
which  take  the  shape  of  secret  societies.  Of  such  bodies  it 
may  be  noted  that  they  fulfil  on  a  small  scale  ends  like  those 
which  the  whole  society  fulfils  on  a  large  scale — the  ends  of 
self-preservation,  or  aggression,  or  both.  And  it  in  ay  be 
further  noted  that  these  small  included  societies  are  organized 
on  the  same  principle  as  the  large  including  society — the 
principle  of  compulsory  cooperation.  Their  governments  are 
coercive :  in  some  cases  even  to  the  extent  of  killing  those  of 
their  members  who  are  disobedient. 

§  557.  A  remaining  fact  to  be  set  down  is  that  a  society 
of  the  militant  type  tends  to  evolve  a  self-sufficient  sustain 
ing  organization.  With  its  political  autonomy  there  goes 
what  we  may  call  an  economic  autonomy.  Evidently  if  it 
carries  on  frequent  wars  against  surrounding  societies,  its 
commercial  intercourse  with  them  must  be  hindered  or  pre 
vented  :  exchange  of  commodities  can  go  on  to  but  a  small 
extent  between  those  who  are  continually  fighting.  A  mili 
tant  society  must,  therefore,  to  the  greatest  degree  practicable, 
provide  internally  the  supplies  of  all  articles  needful  for 
carrying  on  the  lives  of  its  members.  Such  an  economic 
state  as  that  which  existed  during  early  feudal  times,  when, 
as  in  France,  "  the  castles  made  almost  all  the  articles  used 
in  them,"  is  a  state  evidently  entailed  on  groups,  small  or 


578  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

large,  which  are  in  constant  antagonism  with  surrounding 
groups.  If  there  does  not  already  exist  within  any  group  so 
circumstanced,  an  agency  for  producing  some  necessary 
article,  inability  to  obtain  it  from  without  will  lead  to  the 
establishment  of  an  agency  for  obtaining  it  within. 

Whence  it  follows  that  the  desire  "  not  to  be  dependent  on 
foreigners  "  is  one  appropriate  to  the  militant  type  of  society. 
So  long  as  there  is  constant  danger  that  the  supplies  of 
needful  things  derived  from  other  countries  will  be  cut  off  by 
the  breaking  out  of  hostilities,  it  is  imperative  that  there 
shall  be  maintained  a  power  of  producing  these  supplies  at 
home,  and  that  to  this  end  the  required  structures  shall  be 
maintained.  Hence  there  is  a  manifest  direct  relation 
between  militant  activities  and  a  protectionist  policy. 

§  558.  And  now  having  observed  the  traits  which  may  be 
expected  to  establish  themselves  by  survival  of  the  fittest 
during  the  struggle  for  existence  among  societies,  let  us 
observe  how  these  traits  are  displayed  in  actual  societies, 
similar  in  respect  of  their  militancy  but  otherwise  dissimilar. 

Of  course  in  small  primitive  groups,  however  warlike  they 
may  be,  we  must  not  look  for  more  than  rude  outlines  of  the 
structure  proper  to  the  militant  type.  Being  loosely  aggre 
gated,  definite  arrangement  of  their  parts  can  be  earned  but 
to  a  small  extent.  Still,  so  far  as  it  goes,  the  evidence  is  to 
the  point.  The  fact  that  habitually  the  fighting  body  is  co 
extensive  with  the  adult  male  population,  is  so  familiar  that 
no  illustrations  are  needed.  An  equally  familiar  fact  is  that 
the  women,  occupying  a  servile  position,  do  all  the  unskilled 
labour  and  bear  the  burdens ;  with  which  may  be  joined  the 
fact  that  not  un frequently  during  war  they  carry  the  supplier, 
as  in  Asia  among  the  Bhils  and  Khonds,  as  in  Polynesia 
among  the  New  Caledonians  and  Sandwich  Islanders,  as  in 
America  among  the  Comanches,  Mundrucus,  Patagonians  : 
their  office  as  forming  the  permanent  commissariat  being  thus 
clearly  shown.  We  see,  too,  that  where  the  enslaving  of 


THE  MILITANT  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY.          5 79 

captives  has  arisen,  these  also  serve  to  support  and  aid  the 
combatant  class  ;  acting  during  peace  as  producers  and  during 
war  joining  the  women  in  attendance  on  the  army,  as  among 
the  New  Zealanders,  or,  as  among  the  Malagasy,  beiug  then 
exclusively  the  carriers  of  provisions,  &c.  Again,  in  these 
first  stages,  as  in  later  stages,  we  are  shown  that  private, 
claims  are,  in  the  militant  type,  over-ridden  by  public  claims. 
The  life  of  each  man  is  held  subject  to  the  needs  of  the 
group ;  and,  by  implication,  his  freedom  of  action  is  similarly 
held.  So,  too,  with  his  goods  ;  as  instance  the  remark  made 
of  the  Brazilian  Indians,  that  personal  property,  recognized 
but  to  a  limited  extent  during  peace,  is  scarcely  at  all  recog 
nized  during  war ;  and  as  instance  Hearne's  statement  con 
cerning  certain  hyperborean  tribes  of  North  America  when 
about  to  make  war,  that  ''•  property  of  every  kind  that  could 
be  of  general  use  now  ceased  to  be  private."  To  which  add 
the  cardinal  truth,  once  more  to  be  repeated,  that  where  no 
political  subordination  exists  war  initiates  it.  Tacitly  or 
overtly  a  chief  is  temporarily  acknowledged ;  and  he  gains 
permanent  power  if  war  continues.  From  these  beginnings 
of  the  militant  type  which  small  groups  show  us,  let  us  pass 
to  its  developed  forms  as  shown  in  larger  groups. 

"  The  army,  or  what  is  nearly  synonymous,  the  nation  of 
Dahome,"  to  quote  Burton's  words,  furnishes  us  with  a  good 
example  :  the  excessive  militancy  being  indicated  by  the  fact 
that  the  royal  bedroom  is  paved  with  skulls  of  enemies. 
Here  the  king  is  absolute,  and  is  regarded  as  supernatural  in 
character — he  is  the  "  spirit ;"  and  of  course  he  is  the  religious 
head — he  ordains  the  priests.  He  absorbs  in  himself  all 
powers  and  all  rights  :  "  by  the  state-law  of  Dahorne  ...  all 
men  are  slaves  to  the  king."  He  "is  heir  to  all  his  subjects;" 
and  he  takes  from  living  subjects  whatever  he  likes.  When 
we  add  that  there  is  a  frequent  killing  of  victims  to  carry 
messages  to  the  other  world,  as  well  as  occasions  on  which 
numbers  are  sacrificed  to  supply  deceased  kings  with  attend 
ants,  we  are  shown  that  life,  liberty,  and  property,  are  at  the 


580  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

entire  disposal  of  the  State  as  represented  by  its  head.  In 
both  the  civil  and  military  organizations,  the  centres  and  sub- 
centres  of  control  are  numerous.  Names,  very  generally 
given  by  the  king  and  replacing  surnames,  change  "with 
every  rank  of  the  holder;"  and  so  detailed  is  the  regimenta 
tion  that  "the  dignities  seem  interminable."  There  are 
numerous  sumptuary  laws  :  and,  according  to  Waitz,  no  one 
wears  any  other  clothing  or  weapons  than  what  the  king  gives 
Mm  or  allows  him.  Under  penalty  of  slavery  or  death,  "  no 
man  must  alter  the  construction  of  his  house,  sit  upon  a  chair, 
or  be  carried  on  a  hammock,  or  drink  out  of  a  glass/'  without 
permission  of  the  king. 

The  ancient  Peruvian  empire,  gradually  established  by  the 
conquering  Yncas,  may  next  be  instanced.  Here  the  ruler, 
divinely  descended,  sacred,  absolute,  was  the  centre  of  a 
system  which  minutely  controlled  all  life.  His  headship  was 
at  once  military,  political,  ecclesiastical,  judicial;  and  the 
entire  nation  was  composed  of  those  who,  in  the  capacity  of 
soldiers,  labourers,  and  officials,  were  slaves  to  him  and  his 
deified  ancestors.  Military  service  was  obligatory  on  all 
taxable  Indians  who  were  capable ;  and  those  of  them  who 
had  served  their  prescribed  terms,  formed  into  reserves,  had 
then  to  work  under  State-superintendence.  The  army  having 
heads  over  groups  of  ten,  fifty,  a  hundred,  five  hundred,  a 
thousand,  ten  thousand,  had,  besides  these,  its  superior  com 
manders  of  Ynca  blood.  The  community  at  large  was  subject 
to  a  parallel  regimentation :  the  inhabitants  registered  in 
groups,  being  under  the  control  of  officers  over  tens,  fifties, 
hundreds,  and  so  on.  And  through  these  successive  grades 
of  centres,  reports  ascended  to  the  Ynca-governors  of  great 
divisions,  passing  on  from  them  to  the  Ynca;  while  his  orders 
descended  "  from  rank  to  rank  till  they  reached  the  lowest." 
There  was  an  ecclesiastical  organization  similarly  elaborate, 
having,  for  example,  five  classes  of  diviners ;  and  there  was 
an  organization  of  spies  to  examine  and  report  upon  the 
doings  of  the  other  officers.  Everything  was  under  public 


THE  MILITANT  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY.          581 

Inspection.  There  were  village-officers  who  overlooked  the 
ploughing,  sowing,  and  harvesting.  When  there  was  a  defi 
ciency  of  rain,  measured  quantities  of  water  were  supplied 
by  the  State.  All  who  travelled  without  authority  were 
punished  as  vagabonds ;  but  for  those  who  were  authorized 
to  travel  for  public  purposes,  there  were  establishments  sup 
plying  lodging  and  necessaries.  "  It  was  the  duty  of  the 
deourions  to  see  that  the  people  were  clothed ;"  and  the  kinds 
of  cloth,  decorations,  badges,  &c.,  to  be  worn  by  the  different 
ranks  were  prescribed.  Besides  this  regulation  of  external 
life  there  was  regulation  of  domestic  life.  The  people  were 
required  to  "  dine  and  sup  with  open  doors,  that  the  judges 
might  be  able  to  enter  freely;"  and  these  judges  had  to  see 
that  the  house,  clothes,  furniture,  &c.,  were  kept  clean  and  in 
order,  and  the  children  properly  disciplined :  those  who  mis 
managed  their  houses  being  flogged.  Subject  to  this  minute 
control,  the  people  laboured  to  support  this  elaborate  State- 
organization.  The  political,  religious,  and  military  classes 
were  exempt  from  tribute  ;  while  the  labouring  classes  when 
not  serving  in  the  army,  had  to  yield  up  all  produce  beyond 
that  required  for  their  bare  sustenance.  Of  the  whole  empire, 
one-third  was  allotted  for  supporting  the  State,  one-third  for 
supporting  the  priesthood  who  ministered  to  the  manes  of 
ancestors,  and  the  remaining  third  had  to  support  the  workers. 
Besides  giving  tribute  by  tilling  the  lands  of  the  Sun  and  the 
King,  the  workers  had  to  till  the  lands  of  the  soldiers  on  duty, 
as  well  as  those  of  incapables.  And  they  also  had  to  pay 
tribute  of  clothes,  shoes,  and  arms.  Of  the  lands  on  which  the 
people  maintained  themselves,  a  tract  was  apportioned  to 
each  man  according  to  the  size  of  his  family.  Similarly  with 
the  produce  of  the  flocks.  Such  moiety  of  this  in  each  dis 
trict  as  was  not  required  for  supplying  public  needs,  was 
periodically  shorn,  and  the  wool  divided  by  officials.  These 
arrangements  were  in  pursuance  of  the  principle  that  "  the 
private  property  of  each  man  was  held  by  favour  of  the  Ynca, 
and  according  to  their  laws  he  had  no  other  title  to  it."  Thus 


582  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

the  people,  completely  possessed  by  the  State  in  person,  pro 
perty,  and  labour,  transplanted  to  this  or  that  locality  as  the 
Ynca  directed,  and,  when  not  serving  as  soldiers,  living  under 
a  discipline  like  that  within  the  army,  were  units  in  a  cen 
tralized  regimented  machine,  moved  throughout  life  to  the 
greatest  practicable  extent  by  the  Ynca's  will,  and  to  the 
least  practicable  extent  by  their  own  wills.  And,  naturally, 
along  with  militant  organization  thus  carried  to  its  ided 
limit,  there  went  an  almost  entire  absence  of  any  other 
organization.  They  had  no  money;  "they  neither  sold 
clothes,  nor  houses,  nor  estates ;"  and  trade  was  represented 
among  them  by  scarcely  anything  more  than  some  bartering 
of  articles  of  food. 

So  far  as  accounts  of  it  show,  ancient  Egypt  presented 
phenomena  allied  in  their  general,  if  not  in  their  special,  cha 
racters.  Its  predominant  militancy  during  remote  unrecorded 
times,  is  sufficiently  implied  by  the  vast  population  of  slaves 
who  toiled  to  build  the  pyramids ;  and  its  subsequent  con 
tinued  militancy  we  are  shown  alike  by  the  boasting  records 
of  its  kings,  and  the  delineations  of  their  triumphs  on  its 
temple-walls.  Along  with  this  form  of .  activity  we  have,  as 
before,  the  god-descended  ruler,  limited  in  his  powers  only  by 
the  usages  transmitted  from  his  divine  ancestors,  who  was  at 
once  political  head,  high-priest,  and  commander-in-chief. 
Under  him  was  a  centralized  organization,  of  which  the  civil 
part  was  arranged  in  classes  and  sub-classes  as  definite  as 
were  those  of  the  militant  part.  Of  the  four  great  social  divi 
sions — priests,  soldiers,  traders,  and  common  people,  beneath 
whom  came  the  slaves — the  first  contained  more  than  a  score 
different  orders ;  the  second,  some  half-dozen  beyond  those 
constituted  by  military  grades  ;  the  third,  nearly  a  dozen ;  and 
the  fourth,  a  still  greater  number.  Though  within  the  ruling 
classes  the  castes  were  not  so  rigorously  defined  as  to  prevent 
change  of  function  in  successive  generations,  yet  Herodotus 
and  Diodorus  state  that  industrial  occupations  descended 
from  father  to  son :  "  every  particular  trade  and  manufacture 


THE  MILITANT  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY.          583 

was  earned  on  by  its  own  craftsmen,  and  none  changed  from 
one  trade  to  another."  How  elaborate  was  the  regimentation 
may  be  judged  from  the  detailed  account  of  the  staff  of 
officers  and  workers  engaged  in  one  of  their  vast  quarries : 
the  numbers  and  kinds  of  functionaries  paralleling  those  of 
an  army.  To  support  this  highly-developed  regulative  organi- 
ration,  civil,  military,  and  sacerdotal  (an  organization  which 
held  exclusive  possession  of  the  land)  the  lower  classes 
laboured.  "  Overseers  were  set  over  the  wretched  people, 
who  were  urged  to  hard  work  more  by  the  punishment  of  the 
stick  than  words  of  warning."  And  whether  or  not  official 
oversight  included  domiciliary  visits,  it  at  any  rate  went  to 
the  extent  of  taking  note  of  each  family.  "  Every  man  was 
required  under  pain  of  death  to  give  an  account  to  the  magis 
trate  of  how  he  earned  his  livelihood." 

Take,  now,  another  ancient  society,  which,  strongly  con 
trasted  in  sundry  respects,  shows  us,  along  with  habitual  mili 
tancy,  the  assumption  of  structural  traits  allied  in  their 
fundamental  characters  to  those  thus  far  observed.  I  refer 
to  Sparta.  That  warfare  did  not  among  the  Spartans  evolve 
a  single  despotic  head,  while  in  part  due  to  causes  which,  as 
before-  shown,  favour  the  development  of  compound  political 
heads,  was  largely  due  to  the  accident  of  their  double  king 
ship  :  the  presence  of  two  divinely-descended  chiefs  pre 
vented  the  concentration  of  power.  But  though  from  this 
cause  there  continued  an  imperfectly  centralized  government, 
the  relation  of  this  government  to  members  of  the  community 
was  substantially  like  that  of  militant  governments  in  general. 
Notwithstanding  the  serfdom,  and  in  towns  the  slavery,  of 
the  Helots,  and  notwithstanding  the  political  subordination 
of  the  Perioeki,  they  all,  in  common  with  the  Spartans  proper, 
were  under  obligation  to  military  service :  the  working  func 
tion  of  the  first,  and  the  trading  function,  so  far  as  it  existed, 
which  was  carried  on  by  the  second,  were  subordinate  to  the 
militant  function,  with  which  the  third  was  exclusively  occu 
pied.  And  the  civil  divisions  thus  marked  re-appeared  in 


584  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

the  military  divisions  :  "at  the  battle  of  Platsea.  every  Spartan 
hoplite  had  seven  Helots,  and  every  Perioeki  hoplite  one  Helot 
to  attend  him."  The  extent  to  which,  by  the  daily  military 
discipline,  prescribed  military  mess,  and  fixed  contributions  of 
food,  the  individual  life  of  the  Spartan  was  subordinated  to 
public  demands,  from  seven  years  upwards,  needs  mention 
only  to  show  the  rigidity  of  the  restraints  which  here,  as 
elsewhere,  the  militant  type  imposes — restraints  which  were 
further  shown  in  the  prescribed  age  for  marriage,  the  preven 
tion  of  domestic  life,  the  forbidding  of  industry  or  any  money- 
seeking  occupation,  the  interdict  on  going  abroad  without 
leave,  and  the  authorized  censorship  under  which  his  days 
and  nights  were  passed.  There  was  fully  carried  out  in  Sparta 
the  Greek  theory  of  society,  that "  the  citizen  belongs  neither 
to  himself  nor  to  his  family,  but  to  his  city."  So  that  though 
in  this  exceptional  case,  chronic  militancy  was  prevented 
from  developing  a  supreme  head,  owning  the  individual  citizen 
in  body  and  estate,  yet  it  developed  an  essentially  identical 
relation  between  the  community  as  a  whole  and  its  units. 
The  community,  exercising  its  power  through  a  compound 
head  instead  of  through  a  simple  head,  completely  enslaved 
the  individual.  While  the  lives  and  labours  of  the  Helots 
were  devoted  exclusively  to  the  support  of  those  who  formed 
the  military  organization,  the  lives  and  labours  of  those  who 
formed  the  military  organization  were  exclusively  devoted  to 
the  service  of  the  State :  they  were  slaves  with  a  difference. 

Of  modern  illustrations,  that  furnished  by  Eussia  will 
suffice.  Here,  again,  with  the  wars  which  effected  conquests 
and  consolidations,  came  the  development  of  the  victorious 
commander  into  the  absolute  ruler,  who,  if  not  divine  by 
alleged  origin,  yet  acquired  something  like  divine  prestige. 
"  All  men  are  equal  before  God,  and  the  Eussians'  God  is  the 
Emperor,"  says  De  Custine:  "the  supreme  governor  is  so  raised 
above  earth,  that  he  sees  no  difference  between  the  serf  and  the 
lord."  Under  the  stress  of  Peter  the  Great's  wars,  which,  as 
the  nobles  complained,  took  them  away  from  their  homes,  "not, 


THE  MILITANT  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  585 

as  formerly,  for  a  single  campaign,  but  for  long  years,"  they 
became  "  servants  of  the  State,  without  privileges,  without 
dignity,  subjected  to  corporal  punishment,  and  burdened  with 
onerous  duties  from  which  there  was  no  escape."  "Any 
noble  who  refused  to  serve  ['the  State  in  the  Army,  the 
Fleet,  or  the  Civil  Administration,  from  boyhood  to  old  age/] 
was  not  only  deprived  of  his  estate,  as  in  the  old  times,  but 
was  declared  to  be  a  traitor,  and  might  be  condemned  to 
capital  punishment."  "  Under  Peter/'  says  Wallace,  "  all 
offices,  civil  and  military,"  were  "  arranged  in  fourteen  classes 
or  ranks ;"  and  he  "  defined  the  obligations  of  each  with 
microscopic  minuteness.  After  his  death  the  work  was 
carried  on  in  the  same  spirit,  and  the  tendency  reached  its 
climax  in  the  reign  of  Nicholas."  In  the  words  of  De  Custine, 
"  the  tchinn  [the  name  for  this  organization]  is  a  nation 
formed  into  a  regiment ;  it  is  the  military  system  applied  to 
all  classes  of  society,  even  to  those  who  never  go  to  war." 
With  this  universal  regimentation  in  structure  went  a  regi 
mental  discipline.  The  conduct  of  life  was  dictated  to  the 
citizens  at  large  in  the  same  way  as  to  soldiers.  In  the  reign 
of  Peter  and  his  successors,  domestic  entertainments  were 
appointed  and  regulated  ;  the  people  were  compelled  to  change 
their  costumes ;  the  clergy  to  cut  off  their  beards ;  and  even 
the  harnessing  of  horses  was  according  to  pattern.  Occupa 
tions  were  controlled  to  the  extent  that  "  no  boyard  could 
enter  any  profession,  or  forsake  it  when  embraced,  or  retire 
from  public  to  private  life,  or  dispose  of  his  property,  or  travel 
into  any  foreign  country,  without  the  permission  of  the  Czar." 
This  omnipresent  rule  is  well  expressed  in  the  close  of 
certain  rhymes,  for  which  a  military  officer  was  sent  to 
Siberia : — 

"  Tout  se  fait  par  ukase  ici ; 
C'e&t  par  ukase  que  Ton  voyage, 
C'est  par  ukase  que  Ton  rit." 

Taking  thus  the  existing  barbarous  society  of  Dahomey, 
formed  of  negroes,  the  extinct  semi-civilized  empire  of  the 


586  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Yncas,  whose  subjects  were  remote  in  blood  from  these,  the 
ancient  Egyptian  empire  peopled  by  yet  other  races,  the 
community  of  the  Spartans,  again  unlike  in  the  type  of  its 
men,  and  the  existing  Eussian  nation  made  up  of  Slavs  and 
Tatars,  we  have  before  us  cases  in  which  such  similarities  of 
social  structure  as  exist,  cannot  be  ascribed  to  inheritance  oi 
a  common  character  by  the  social  units.  The  immense 
contrasts  between  the  populations  of  these  several  societies, 
too,  varying  from  millions  at  the  one  extreme  to  thousands  at 
the  other,  negative  the  supposition  that  their  common  struc 
tural  traits  are  consequent  on  size.  Nor  can  it  be  supposed 
that  likenesses  of  conditions  in  respect  of  climate,  surface, 
soil,  flora,  fauna,  or  likenesses  of  habits  caused  by  such  con 
ditions,  can  have  had  anything  to  do  with  the  likenesses  of 
organization  in  these  societies ;  for  their  respective  habitats 
present  numerous  marked  unlikenesses.  Such  traits  as  they 
one  and  all  exhibit,  not  ascribable  to  any  other  cause,  must 
thus  be  ascribed  to  the  habitual  militancy  characteristic  of 
them  all.  The  results  of  induction  alone  would  go  far  to 
warrant  this  ascription ;  and  it  is  fully  warranted  by  their 
correspondence  with  the  results  of  deduction,  as  set  forth 
above. 

§  559.  Any  remaining  doubts  must  disappear  on  observing 
how  continued  militancy  is  followed  by  further  development 
of  the  militant  organization.  Three  illustrations  will  suffice. 

When,  during  Eoman  conquests,  the  tendency  for  the  suc 
cessful  general  to  become  despot,  repeatedly  displayed,  finally 
took  effect— when  the  title  imperator,  military  in  its  primary 
meaning,  became  the  title  for  the  civil  ruler,  showing  us  on  a 
higher  platform  that  genesis  of  political  headship  oat  of  mili 
tary  headship  visible  from  the  beginning — when,  as  usually 
happens,  an  increasingly  divine  character  was  acquired  by 
the  civil  ruler,  as  shown  in  the  assumption  of  the  sacred 
name  Augustus,  as  well  as  in  the  growth  of  an  actual  worship 
of  him  ;  there  simultaneously  became  more  pronounced  those 


THE  MILITANT  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY.          587 

further  traits  which  characterize  the  militant  type  in  its 
developed  form.  Practically,  if  not  nominally,  the  other 
powers  of  the  State  were  absorbed  by  him.  In  the  words  of 
Duruy,  he  had — 

u  The  right  of  proposing,  that  is,  of  making  laws  ;  of  receiving  and 
trying  appeals,  i.e.  the  supreme  jurisdiction  ;  of  arresting  by  the  tribu- 
nitian  veto  every  measure  and  every  sentence,  i.e.  of  putting  his  will  in 
opposition  to  the  laws  and  magistrates ;  of  summoning  the  senate  or  the 
people  and  presiding  over  it,  i.e.  of  directing  the  electoral  assemblies  as 
he  thought  fit.  And  these  prerogatives  he  will  have  not  for  a  single 
year  but  for  life ;  not  in  Eome  only  .  .  .  but  throughout  the  empire ; 
not  shared  with  ten  colleagues,  but  exercised  by  himself  alone  ;  lastly, 
without  any  account  to  render,  since  he  never  resigns  his  office." 

Along  with  these  changes  went  an  increase  in  the  number 
and  definiteness  of  social  divisions.  The  Emperor — 

"  Placed  between  himself  and  the  masses  a  multitude  of  people  regu 
larly  classed  by  categories,  and  piled  one  above  the  other  in  such  a  way 
that  this  hierarchy,  pressing  with  all  its  weight  upon  the  masses  under 
neath,  held  the  people  and  factious  individuals  powerless.  What 
remained  of  the  old  patrician  nobility  had  the  foremost  rank  in  the  city; 
.  .  .  below  it  came  the  senatorial  nobility,  half  hereditary ;  below  that 
the  moneyed  nobility  or  equestrian  order — three  aristocracies  super 
posed.  .  .  .  The  sons  of  senators  formed  a  class  intermediate  between 
the  senatorial  and  the  equestrian  order.  ...  In  the  2nd  century  the 
senatorial  families  formed  an  hereditary  nobility  with  privileges." 

At  the  same  time  the  administrative  organization  was  greatly 
extended  and  complicated. 

"  Augustus  created  a  large  number  of  new  offices,  as  the  superintend 
ence  of  public  works,  roads,  aqueducts,  the  Tiber-bed,  distribution  of 
corn  to  the  people.  .  .  .  He  also  created  numerous  ofiices  of  procurators 
for  the  financial  administration  of  the  empire,  and  in  Home  there  were 
1,060  municipal  officers." 

The  structural  character  proper  to  an  army  spread  in  a  double 
^ay :  military  officers  acquired  civil  functions  and  function 
aries  of  a  civil  kind  became  partially  military.  The  magis 
trates  appointed  by  the  Emperor,  tending  to  replace  those 
appointed  by  the  people,  had,  along  with  their  civil  authority, 
military  authority ;  and  while  "  under  Augustus  the  prefects 
of  the  pretorium  were  only  military  chiefs,  .  .  .  they  gradually 
possessed  themselves  of  the  whole  civil  authority,  and  finally 


588  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

became,  after  the  Emperor,  the  first  personages  in  the  empire." 
Moreover,  the  governmental  structures  grew  by  incorporating 
bodies  of  functionaries  who  were  before  independent.  "  In 
his  ardour  to  organize  everything,  he  aimed  at  regimenting 
the  law  itself,  and  made  an  official  magistracy  of  that  which 
had  always  been  a  free  profession."  To  enforce  the  rule  of 
this  extended  administration,  the  army  was  made  permanent, 
and  subjected  to  severe  discipline.  With  the  continued 
growth  of  the  regulating  and  coercing  organization,  the  drafts 
on  producers  increased ;  and,  as  shown  by  extracts  in  a  pre 
vious  chapter  concerning  the  Eoman  regime  in  Egypt  and  in. 
Gaul,  the  working  part  of  the  community  was  reduced  more 
and  more  to  the  form  of  a  permanent  commissariat.  In  Italy 
the  condition  eventually  arrived  at  was  one  in  which  vast 
tracts  were  "  intrusted  to  freedmen,  whose  only  consideration 
was  .  .  .  how  to  extract  from  their  labourers  the  greatest 
amount  of  work  with  the  smallest  quantity  of  food." 

An  example  under  our  immediate  observation  may  next  be 
taken — that  of  the  German  Empire.  Such  traits  of  the 
militant  type  in  Germany  as  were  before  manifest,  have, 
since  the  late  war,  become  still  more  manifest.  The  army, 
active  and  passive,  including  officers  and  attached  function 
aries,  has  been  increased  by  about  100,000  men ;  and  changes 
in  1875  and  1880,  making  certain  reserves  more  available, 
have  practically  caused  a  further  increase  of  like  amount. 
Moreover,  the  smaller  German  States,  having  in  great  part 
surrendered  the  administration  of  their  several  contingents, 
the  German  army  has  become  more  consolidated;  and  even 
the  armies  of  Saxony,  Wiirtemberg,  and  Bavaria,  being  sub 
ject  to  Imperial  supervision,  have  in  so  far  ceased  to  be  in 
dependent.  Instead  of  each  year  granting  military  supplies, 
as  had  been  the  practice  in  Prussia  before  the  formation  of 
the  North  German  Confederation,  the  Parliament  of  the 
Empire  was,  in  1871,  induced  to  vote  the  required  annual 
sum  for  three  years  thereafter  ;  in  1874  it  did  the  like  for  the 
succeeding  seven  years;  and  again  in  1880  the  greatly 


THE  MILITANT  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY.          589 

increased  amount  for  the  augmented  army  was  authorized  for 
the  seven  years  then  following :  steps  obviously  surrendering 
popular  checks  on  Imperial  power.  Simultaneously,  military 
officialism  has  been  in  two  ways  replacing  civil  officialism. 
Subaltern  officers  are  rewarded  for  long  services  by  appoint 
ments  to  civil  posts — local  communes  being  forced  to  give 
them  the  preference  to  civilians  ;  and  not  a  few  members  of 
the  higher  civil  service,  and  of  the  universities,  as  well  as 
teachers  in  the  public  schools,  having  served  as  "  volunteers 
of  one  year,"  become  commissioned  officers  of  the  Landwehr. 
During  the  struggles  of  the  so-called  Kulturkampf,  the  eccle 
siastical  organization  became  more  subordinated  by  the 
political.  Priests  suspended  by  bishops  were  maintained  in 
their  offices ;  it  was  made  penal  for  a  clergyman  publicly  to 
take  part  against  the  government ;  a  recalcitrant  bishop  had 
his  salary  stopped ;  the  curriculum  for  ecclesiastics  was  pre 
scribed  by  the  State,  and  examination  by  State-officials  re 
quired  ;  church  discipline  was  subjected  to  State-approval ; 
and  a  power  of  expelling  rebellious  clergy  from  the  country 
was  established.  Passing  to  the  industrial  activities  we  may 
note,  first,  that  through  sundry  steps,  from  1873  onwards, 
there  has  been  a  progressive  transfer  of  railways  into  the 
hands  of  the  State ;  so  that,  partly  by  original  construction 
(mainly  of  lines  for  military  purposes),  and  partly  by  pur 
chase,  three-fourths  of  ail  Prussian  railways  have  been  made 
government  property  ;  and  the  same  percentage  holds  in  the 
other  German  States :  the  aim  being  eventually  to  make 
them  all  Imperial.  Trade  interferences  have  been  extended 
iii  various  ways — by  protectionist  tariffs,  by  revival  of  the 
usury  laws,  by  restrictions  on  Sunday  labour.  Through  its 
postal  service  the  State  has  assumed  industrial  functions — 
presents  acceptances,  receives  money  on  bills  of  exchange 
that  are  due,  as  also  on  ordinary  bills,  which  it  gets  receipted; 
and  until  stopped  by  shopkeepers'  protests,  undertook  to  pro 
cure  books  from  publishers.  Lastly  there  come  the  measures 
for  extending,  directly  and  indirectly,  the  control  over  popular 


590  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

life.  On  the  one  hand  there  are  the  laws  under  which,  up 
to  the  middle  of  last  year,  224  socialist  societies  have  been 
closed,  180  periodicals  suppressed,  317  hooks,  &c.,  forbidden; 
and  under  which  sundry  places  have  been  reduced  to  a 
partial  state  of  siege.  On  the  other  hand  may  be  named 
Prince  Bismarck's  scheme  for  re-establishing  guilds  (bodies 
which  by  their  regulations  coerce  their  members),  and  his 
scheme  of  State-insurance,  by  the  help  of  which  the  artizun 
would,  in  a  considerable  degree,  have  his  hands  tied.  Though 
these  measures  have  not  been  carried  in  the  forms  proposed, 
yet  the  proposal  of  them  sufficiently  shows  the  general  ten 
dency.  In  all  which  changes  we  see  progress  towards  a  more 
integrated  structure,  towards  increase  of  the  militant  part  as 
compared  with  the  industrial  part,  towards  the  replacing  of 
civil  organization  by  military  organization,  towards  the 
strengthening  of  restraints  over  the  individual  and  regulation 
of  his  life  in  greater  detail.* 

The  remaining  example  to  be  named  is  that  furnished  lay 
our  own  society  since  the  revival  of  military  activity — a 
revival  which  has  of  late  been  so  marked  that  our  illustrated 
papers  are,  week  after  week,  occupied  with  little  else  than 
scenes  of  warfare.  Already  in  the  first  volume  of  The  Prin 
ciples  of  Sociology,  I  have  pointed  out  many  ways  in  which 
the  system  of  compulsory  cooperation  characterizing  the 
militant  type,  has  been  trenching  on  the  system  of  voluntary 
cooperation  characterizing  the  industrial  type ;  and  since 
those  passages  appeared  (July,  1876),  other  changes  in  the 
same  direction  have  taken  place.  Within  the  military 
organization  itself,  we  may  note  the  increasing  assimilation 
of  the  volunteer  forces  to  the  regular  army,  now  going  to  the 
extent  of  proposing  to  make  them  available  abroad,  so  that 
instead  of  defensive  action  for  which  they  were  created,  they 

*  Tin's  chapter  was  originally  published  in  the  Contemporary  Review  for 
Sept.,  1881.  Since  that  date  a  further  movement  of  German  society  in  tho 
same  general  direction  has  been  shown  by  the  pronounced  absolutism  of  the 
imperial  rescript  of  Jan.,  1882,  endorsing  Prince  Bisruarck's  scheme  of  State- 
socialism. 


THE   MILITANT  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  591 

can  be  used  for  offensive  action ;  and  we  may  also  note 
that  the  tendency  shown  in  the  army  during  the  past  genera 
tion  to  sink  the  military  character  whenever  possible,  by 
putting  on  civilian  dresses,  is  now  checked  by  an  order  to 
officers  in  garrison  towns  to  wear  their  uniforms  when  off 
duty,  as  they  do  in  more  militant  countries.  Whether,  since 
the  date  named,  usurpations  of  civil  functions  by  military 
men  (which  had  in  1873-4  gone  to  the  extent  that  thero 
were  97  colonels,  majors,  captains,  and  lieutenants  employed" 
from  time  to  time  as  inspectors  of  science  and  art  classes) 
have  gone  further,  I  cannot  say ;  but  there  has  been  a  mani 
fest  extension  of  the  militant  spirit  and  discipline  among  the 
police,  who,  wearing  helmet-shaped  hats,  beginning  to  carry 
revolvers,  and  looking  upon  themselves  as  half  soldiers,  have 
come  to  speak  of  the  people  as  "  civilians."  To  an  increasing 
extent  the  executive  has  been  over-riding  the  other  govern 
mental  agencies ;  as  in  the  Cyprus  business,  and  as  in  the 
doings  of  the  Indian  Viceroy  under  secret  instructions  from 
home.  In  various  minor  ways  are  shown  endeavours  to  free 
officialism  from  popular  checks ;  as  in  the  desire  expressed  in 
the  House  of  Lords  that  the  hanging  of  convicts  in  prisons, 
entrusted  entirely  to  the  authorities,  should  have  no  other 
witnesses;  and  as  in  the  advice  given  by  the  late  Home 
Secretary  (on  llth  May,  1878)  to  the  Derby  Town  Council, 
that  it  should  not  interfere  with  the  chief  constable  (a  mili 
tary  man)  in  his  government  of  the  force  under  him — a  step 
towards  centralizing  local  police  control  in  the  Home  Office. 
Simultaneously  we  see  various  actual  or  prospective  exten 
sions  of  public  agency,  replacing  or  restraining  private  agency. 
There  is  the  "  endowment  of  research,"  which,  already  par 
tially  carried  out  by  a  government  fund,  many  wish  to  carry 
further ;  there  is  the  proposed  act  for  establishing  a  registra 
tion  of  authorized  teachers  ;  there  is  the  bill  which  provides 
central  inspection  for  local  public  libraries;  there  is  the 
scheme  for  compulsory  insurance — a  scheme  showing  us  in 
au  instructive  manner  the  way  in  which  the  regulating  policy 


592  POLITICAL  fNSTITUTIONS. 

extends  itself :  compulsory  charity  having  generated  impro 
vidence,  there  comes  compulsory  insurance  as  a  remedy  for 
the  improvidence.  Other  proclivities  towards  institutions 
belonging  to  the  militant  type,  are.  seen  in  the  increasing 
demand  for  some  form  of  protection,  and  in  the  lamentations 
uttered  by  the  "  society  papers  "  that  duelling  has  gone  out 
Nay,  even  through  the  party  which  by  position  and  function 
is  antagonistic  to  militancy,  we  see  that  militant  discipline  is 
spreading ;  for  the  caucus-system,  established  for  the  better 
organization  of  liberalism,  is  one  which  necessarily,  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  centralizes  authority  and  controls 
individual  action. 

Besides  seeing,  then,  that  the  traits  to  be  inferred  a  priwi 
as  characterizing  the  militant  type,  constantly  eyist  in 
societies  which  are  permanently  militant  in  high  degjaes,  we 
also  see  that  in  other  societies  increase  of  militant  activity  is 
followed  by  development  of  such  traits. 

§  560.  In  some  places  I  have  stated,  and  in  other  places 
implied,  that  a  necessary  relation  exists  between  the  structure 
of  a  society  and  the  natures  of  its  citizens.  Here  it  will  be 
well  to  observe  in  detail  the  characters  proper  to,  and 
habitually  exemplified  by,  the  members  of  a  typically  militant 
society. 

Other  things  equal,  a  society  will  be  successful  in  war  in 
proportion  as  its  members  are  endowed  with  bodily  vigour 
and  courage.  And,  on  the  average,  among  conflicting  societies 
there  will  be  a  survival  and  spread  of  those  in  which  the 
physical  and  mental  powers  called  for  in  battle,  are  not  only 
most  marked  but  also  most  honoured.  Egyptian  and  Assyrian 
sculptures  and  inscriptions,  show  us  that  prowess  was  the 
thing  above  all  others  thought  most  worthy  of  record.  Of 
the  words  good,  just,  &c.,  as  used  by  the  ancient  Greeks, 
Grote  remarks  that  they  "  signify  the  man  of  birth,  wealth, 
influence  and  daring,  whose  arm  is  strong  to  destroy  or  to 
protect,  whatever  may  be  the  turn  of  his  moral  sentiments ; 


THE  MILITANT  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY.          593 

while  the  opposite  epithet,  bad,  designates  the  poor,  lowly, 
and  weak,  from  whose  dispositions,  be  they  ever  so  virtuous 
society  has  little  to  hope  or  to  fear."  In  the  identification  of 
virtue  with  bravery  among  the  Romans,  we  have  a  like  im 
plication.  During  early  turbulent  times  throughout  Europe, 
the  knightly  character,  which  was  the  honourable  character, 
primarily  included  fearlessness :  lacking  this,  good  qualities 
were  of  no  account ;  but  with  this,  sins  of  many  kinds,  great 
though  they  might  be,  were  condoned. 

If,  among  antagonist  groups  of  primitive  men,  some  tole 
rated  more  than  others  the  killing  of  their  members— if, 
while  some  always  retaliated  others  did  not ;  those  which  did 
not  retaliate,  continually  aggressed  on  with  impunity,  would 
either  gradually  disappear  or  have  to  take  refuge  in  unde 
sirable  habitats.  Hence  there  is  a  survival  of  the  unfor 
giving.  Further,  the  lex  talionis,  primarily  arising  between 
antagonist  groups,  becomes  the  law  within  the  group ;  and 
chronic  feuds  between  component  families  and  clans,  every 
where  proceed  upon  the  general  principle  of  life  for  life. 
Under  the  militant  regime  revenge  becomes  a  virtue,  and 
failure  to  revenge  a  disgrace.  Among  the  Fijians,  who  foster 
anger  in  their  children,  it  is  not  infrequent  for  a  man  to 
commit  suicide  rather  than  live  under  an  insult;  and  in  other 
cases  the  dying  Fijian  bequeathes  the  duty  of  inflicting 
vengeance  to  his  children.  This  sentiment  and  the  resulting 
practices  we  trace  among  peoples  otherwise  wholly  alien,  who 
are,  or  have  been,  actively  militant.  In  the  remote  East  may 
be  instanced  the  Japanese.  They  are  taught  that  "with  the 
flayer  of  his  father  a  man  may  not  live  under  the  same 
heaven  ;  against  the  slayer  of  his  brother  a  man  must  never 
have  to  go  home  to  fetch  a  weapon ;  with  the  slayer  of  his 
friend  a  man  may  not  live  in  the  same  State."  And  in  the 
West  may  be  instanced  France  d'uring  feudal  days,  when  the 
relations  of  one  killed  or  injured  were  required  by  custom  to 
retaliate  on  any  relations  of  the  offender — even  those  living 
at  a  distance  and  knowing  nothing  of  the  matter.  Down  to 


594  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

the  time  of  the  Abbe  Brantome,  the  spirit  was  such  that  that 
ecclesiastic,  enjoining  on  his  nephews  by  his  will  to  avenge 
any  unredressed  wrongs  done  to  him  in  his  old  age,  says  of 
himself — "  I  may  boast,  and  I  thank  God  for  it,  that  I  never 
received  an  injury  without  being  revenged  on  the  author  of 
it."  That  where  militancy  is  active,  revenge,  private  as  well 
as  public,  becomes  a  duty,  is  well  shown  at  the  present  time 
among  the  Montenegrins — a  people  who  have  been  at  war 
with  the  Turks  for  centuries.  "  Dans  le  Montenegro,"  says 
Bone*,  "  on  dira  d'un  homme  d'une  natrie  [clan]  ayant  tue  un 
individu  d'une  autre :  Cette  natrie  nous  doit  une  tete,  et  il 
faut  que  cette  dette  soit  acquittee,  car  qui  ne  se  venge  pas  ne 
se  sancitie  pas." 

Where  activity  in  destroying  enemies  is  chronic,  destruc 
tion  will  become  a  source  of  pleasure ;  where  success  in  sub 
duing  fellow-men  is  above  all  things  honoured,  there  will 
arise  delight  in  the  forcible  exercise  of  mastery ;  and  with 
pride  in  spoiling  the  vanquished,  will  go  disregard  for  the 
rights  of  property  at  large.  As  it  is  incredible  that  men 
should  be  courageous  in  face  of  foes  and  cowardly  in  face  of 
friends,  so  it  is  incredible  that  the  other  feelings  fostered 
by  perpetual  conflicts  abroad  should  not  come  into  play 
at  home.  We  have  just  seen  that  with  the  pursuit  of 
vengeance  outside  the  society,  there  goes  the  pursuit  of  ven 
geance  inside  the  society ;  and  whatever  other  habits  of 
thought  and  action  constant  war  necessitates,  must  show 
their  effects  on  the  social  life  at  large.  Facts  from  various 
places  and  times  prove  that  in  militant  communities  the 
claims  to  life,  liberty,  and  property,  are  little  regarded.  The 
Pahomnns,  warlike  to  the  extent  that  both  sexes  are  warriors, 
and  by  whom  slave-hunting  invasions  are,  or  were,  annually 
undertaken  "  to  furnish  funds  for  the  royal  exchequer,"  show 
their  bloodthirstiness  by  their  annual  "  customs,"  at  which 
multitudinous  victims  are  publicly  slaughtered  for  the  popu 
lar  gratification.  The  Fijians,  again,  highly  militant  in  their 
activities  and  type  of  organization,  who  display  their  reckless- 


THE  MILITANT  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY.          595 

ness  of  life  not  only  by  killing  their  own  people  for  cannibal 
feasts,  but  by  destroying  immense  numbers  of  their  infanta 
and  by  sacrificing  victims  on  such  trivial  occasions  as  launch 
ing  a  new  canoe,  so  much  applaud  ferocity  that  to  commit  a 
murder  is  a  glory.  Early  records  of  Asiatics  and  Europeans 
show  us  the  like  relation.  What  accounts  there  are  of  the 
primitive  Mongols,  who,  when  united,  massacred  western 
peoples  wholesale,  show  us  a  chronic  reign  of  violence,  both 
within  and  without  their  tribes ;  while  domestic  assassina 
tions,  which  from  the  beginning  have  characterized  the  mili* 
tant  Turks,  continue  to  characterize  them  down  to  our  own 
day.  In  proof  that  it  was  so  with  the  Greek  and  Latin  races 
it  suffices  to  instance  the  slaughter  of  the  two  thousand  heloU 
by  the  Spartans,  whose  brutality  was  habitual,  and  the 
murder  of  large  numbers  of  suspected  citizens  by  jealous 
Roman  emperors,  who  also,  like  their  subjects,  manifested 
their  love  of  bloodshed  in  their  arenas.  That  where 

life  is  little  regarded  there  can  be  but  little  regard  for  liberty, 
follows  necessarily.  Those  who  do  not  hesitate  to  end  another's 
activities  by  killing  him,  will  still  less  hesitate  to  restrain  his 
activities  by  holding  him  in  bondage.  Militant  savages, 
whose  captives,  when  not  eaten,  are  enslaved,  habitually  show 
us  this  absence  of  regard  for  fellow-men's  freedom,  which 
characterizes  the  members  of  militant  societies  in  general. 
How  little,  under  the  regime  of  war,  more  or  less  markedly 
displayed  in  all  early  historic  societies,  there  was  any  sen 
timent  against  depriving  men  of  their  liberties,  is  suffi 
ciently  shown  by  the  fact  that  even  in  the  teachings  of 
primitive  Christianity  there  was  no  express  condemnation  of 
slavery.  Naturally  the  like  holds  with  the  right  of 

property.  "Where  mastery  established  by  force  is  honourablei 
claims  to  possession  by  the  weaker  are  likely  to  be  little 
respected  by  the  stronger.  In  Eiji  it  is  considered  chief-like 
to  seize  a  subject's  goods;  and  theft  is  virtuous  if  undis 
covered.  Among  the  Spartans  "  the  ingenious  and  success 
ful  pilferer  gained  applause  with  his  booty."  In  mediaeval 

97 


596  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Europe,  with  perpetual  robberies  of  one  society  by  another 
there  went  perpetual  robberies  within  each  society.  Under 
the  Merovingians  "  the  murders  and  crimes  it  [The  Ecclesias 
tical  History  of  the  Franks]  relates,  have  almost  all  for  their 
object  the  possession  of  the  treasure  of  the  murdered  per 
sons."  And  under  Charlemagne  plunder  by  officials  was 
chronic :  the  moment  his  back  was  turned,  "  the  provo.sts  of 
the  king  appropriated  the  funds  intended  to  furnish  food  and 
clothing  for  the  artisans." 

Where  warfare  is  habitual,  and  the  required  qualities  most 
needful  and  therefore  most  honoured,  those  whose  lives  do  not 
display  them  are  treated  with  contempt,  and  their  occupations 
regarded  as  dishonourable.  In  early  stages  labour  is  the 
business  of  women  and  of  slaves — conquered  men  and  the 
descendants  of  conquered  men ;  and  trade  of  every  kind, 
carried  on  by  subject  classes,  long  continues  to  be  identified 
with  lowness  of  origin  and  nature.  In  Dahomey,  "  agricul 
ture  is  despised  because  slaves  are  employed  in  it."  "  The 
Japanese  nobles  and  placemen,  even  of  secondary  rank, 
entertain  a  sovereign  contempt  for  traffic/'  Of  the  ancient 
Egyptians  Wilkinson  says,  "  their  prejudices  against  mecha 
nical  employments,  as  far  as  regarded  the  soldier,  were  equally 
strong  as  in  the  rigid  Sparta."  "  For  trade  and  commerce 
the  [ancient]  Persians  were  wont  to  express  extreme  con 
tempt,"  writes  Eawlinson.  That  progress  of  class-differentia 
tion  which  accompanied  the  conquering  wars  of  the  Romans, 
was  furthered  by  establishment  of  the  rule  that  it  was  dis 
graceful  to  take  money  for  work,  as  also  by  the  law  forbid 
ding  senators  and  senators'  sons  from  engaging  in  speculation. 
And  how  great  has  been  the  scorn  expressed  by  the  militant 
classes  for  the  trading  classes  throughout  Europe,  down  to 
quite  recent  times,  needs  no  showing. 

That  there  may  be  willingness  to  risk  life  for  the  benefit  of 
the  society,  there  must  be  much  of  the  feeling  called  patriot 
ism.  Though  the  belief  that  it  is  glorious  to  die  for  one's 
country  cannot  be  regarded  as  essential,  since  mercenaries 


THE  MILITANT  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY.  597 

fight  without  it ;  yet  it  is  obvious  that  such  a  belief  conduces 
greatly  to  success  in  war ;  and  that  entire  absence  of  it  is  so 
unfavourable  to  offensive  and  defensive  action  that  failure 
and  subjugation  will,  other  things  equal,  be  likely  to  result. 
Hence  the  sentiment  of  patriotism  is  habitually  established 
by  the  survival  of  societies  the  members  of  which  are  most 
characterized  by  it. 

With  this  has  to  be  united  the  sentiment  of  obedience.  The 
possibility  of  that  united  action  by  which,  other  things  equal, 
war  is  made  successful,  depends  on  the  readiness  of  indivi 
duals  to  subordinate  their  wills  to  the  will  of  a  commander 
or  ruler.  Loyalty  is  essential.  In  early  stages  the  manifes 
tation  of  it  is  but  temporary ;  as  among  the  Araucanians  who, 
ordinarily  showing  themselves  "  repugnant  to  all  subordina 
tion,  are  then  [when  war  is  impending]  prompt  to  obey,  and 
submissive  to  the  will  of  their  military  sovereign  "  appointed 
for  the  occasion.  And  with  development  of  the  militant  type 
this  sentiment  becomes  permanent.  Erskine  tells  us  that  the 
Fijians  are  intensely  loyal :  men  buried  alive  in  the  founda 
tions  of  a  king's  house,  considered  themselves  honoured  by 
being  so  sacrificed ;  and  the  people  of  a  slave  district  "  said  it 
was  their  duty  to  become  food  and  sacrifice  for  the  chiefs."  So 
in  Dahomey,  there  is  felt  for  the  king  "  a  mixture  of  love 
and  fear,  little  short  of  adoration."  In  ancient  Egypt  again, 
where  "  blind  obedience  was  the  oil  which  caused  the  harmo 
nious  working  of  the  machinery  "  of  social  life,  the  monu 
ments  on  every  side  show  with  wearisome  iteration  the  daily 
acts  of  subordination — of  slaves  and  others  to  the  dead  man, 
of  captives  to  the  king,  of  the  king  to  the  gods.  Though  for 
reasons  already  pointed  out,  chronic  war  did  not  generate  in 
Sparta  a  supreme  political  head,  to  whom  there  could  be 
shown  implicit  obedience,  yet  the  obedience  shown  to  the 
political  agency  which  grew  up  was  profound :  individu.il 
wills  were  in  all  things  subordinate  to  the  public  will  ex 
pressed  by  the  established  authorities.  Primitive  Rome,  too, 
though  without  a  divinely-descended  king  to  whom  submis- 


598  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

sion  could  be  shown,  displayed  great  submission  to  an  ap 
pointed  king,  qualified  only  by  expressions  of  opinion  on 
special  occasions ;  and  the  principle  of  absolute  obedience, 
slightly  mitigated  in  the  relations  of  the  community  as  a 
whole  to  its  ruling  agency,  was  unmitigated  within  its  com 
ponent  groups.  That  throughout  European  history,  alike  on 
small  and  on  large  scales,  we  see  the  sentiment  of  loyalty 
dominant  where  the  militant  type  of  structure  is  pronounced, 
is  a  truth  that  will  be  admitted  without  detailed  proof. 

From  these  conspicuous  traits  of  nature,  let  us  turn  to 
certain  consequent  traits  which  are  less  conspicuous,  and 
which  have  results  of  less  manifest  kinds.  Along  with 
loyalty  naturally  goes  faith — the  two  being,  indeed,  scarcely 
separable.  Eeadiness  to  obey  the  commander  in  war,  implies 
belief  in  his  military  abilities ;  and  readiness  to  obey  him 
during  peace,  implies  belief  that  his  abilities  extend  to  civil 
affairs  also.  Imposing  on  men's  imaginations,  each  new  con 
quest  augments  his  authority.  There  come  more  frequent 
and  more  decided  evidences  of  his  regulative  action  over 
men's  lives ;  and  these  generate  the  idea  that  his  power  is 
boundless.  Unlimited  confidence  in  governmental  agency  is 
fostered.  Generations  brought  up  under  a  system  which  con 
trols  all  affairs,  private  and  public,  tacitly  assume  that  affairs 
can  only  thus  be  controlled.  Those  who  have  experience  of 
no  other  regime  are  unable  to  imagine  any  other  regime. 
In  such  societies  as  that  of  ancient  Peru,  for  example,  where, 
as  we  have  seen,  regimental  rule  was  universal,  there  were  no 
materials  for  framing  the  thought  of  an  industrial  life  spon 
taneously  carried  on  and  spontaneously  regulated. 

By  implication  there  results  repression  of  individual  initia 
tive,  and  consequent  lack  of  private  enterprise.  In  propor 
tion  as  an  army  becomes  organized,  it  is  reduced  to  a  state  in 
which  the  independent  action  of  its  members  is  forbidden. 
And  in  proportion  as  regimentation  pervades  the  society  at 
large,  each  member  of  it,  directed  or  restrained  at  every  turn, 
has  little  or  no  power  of  conducting  his  business  otherwise 


THE  MILITANT  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  599 

than  by  established  routine.  Slaves  can  do  only  what  they 
are  told  by  their  masters  ;  their  masters  cannot  do  anything 
that  is  unusual  without  official  permission  ;  and  no  permission 
is  to  be  obtained  from  the  local  authority  until  superior  autho 
rities  through  their  ascending  grades  have  been  consulted 
Hence  the  mental  state  generated  is  that  of  passive  accept 
ance  and  expectancy.  Where  the  militant  type  is  fully 
developed,  everything  must  be  done  by  public  agencies ;  not 
only  for  the  reason  that  these  occupy  all  spheres,  but  for  the 
further  reason  that  did  they  not  occupy  them,  there  would 
arise  no  other  agencies :  the  prompting  ideas  and  sentiments 
having  been  obliterated. 

There  must  be  added  a  concomitant  influence  on  the  intel 
lectual  nature,  which  cooperates  with  the  moral  influences 
just  named.  Personal  causation  is  alone  recognized,  and  the 
conception  of  impersonal  causation  is  prevented  from  develop 
ing.  The  primitive  man  has  no  idea  of  cause  in  the  modern 
sense.  The  only  agents  included  in  his  theory  of  things  are 
living  persons  and  the  ghosts  of  dead  persons.  All  unusual 
occurrences,  together  with  those  usual  ones  liable  to  variation, 
he  ascribes  to  supernatural  beings.  And  this  system  of  inter 
pretation  survives  through  early  stages  of  civilization ;  as  we 
see,  for  example,  among  the  Homeric  Greeks,  by  whom  wounds, 
deaths,  and  escapes  in  battle,  were  ascribed  to  the  enmity  or 
the  aid  of  the  gods,  and  by  whom  good  and  bad  acts  were  held 
to  be  divinely  prompted.  Continuance  and  development  of 
militant  forms  and  activities  maintain  this  way  of  thinking. 
In  the  first  place,  it  indirectly  hinders  the  discovery  of 
causul  relations.  The  sciences  grow  out  of  the  arts — begin 
as  generalizations  of  truths  which  practice  of  the  arts  makes 
manifest.  In  proportion  as  processes  of  production  multiply 
in  their  kinds  and  increase  in  their  complexities,  more 
numerous  uniformities  come  to  be  recognized  ;  and  the  ideas 
of  necessary  relation  and  physical  cause  arise  and  develop. 
Consequently,  by  discouraging  industrial  progress,  militancy 
checks  the  replacing  of  ideas  of  personal  agency  by  ideas  of 


600  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

impersonal  agency.  In  the  second  place,  it  does  the  like  by 
direct  repression  of  intellectual  culture.  Naturally  a  life 
occupied  in  acquiring  knowledge,  like  a  life  occupied  in 
industry,  is  regarded  with  contempt  by  a  people  devoted  to 
arms.  The  Spartans  clearly  exemplified  this  relation  in  ancient 
times ;  and  it  was  again  exemplified  during  feudal  ages  in 
Europe,  when  learning  was  scorned  as  proper  only  for  clerks 
and  the  children  of  mean  people.  And  obviously,  in  propor 
tion  as  warlike  activities  are  antagonistic  to  study  and  the 
spread  of  knowledge,  they  further  retard  that  emancipation 
from  primitive  ideas  which  ends  in  recognition  of  natural 
uniformities.  In  the  third  place,  and  chiefly,  the  effect  in 
question  is  produced  by  the  conspicuous  and  perpetual  expe 
rience  of  personal  agency  which  the  militant  regime  yields. 
In  the  army,  from  the  commander-in-chief  down  to  the 
private  undergoing  drill,  every  movement  is  directed  by  a 
superior;  and  throughout  the  society,  in  proportion  as  its 
regimentation  is  elaborate,  things  are  hourly  seen  to  go  thus 
or  thus  according  to  the  regulating  wills  of  the  ruler  and  his 
subordinates.  In  the  interpretation  of  social  affairs,  personal 
causation  is  consequently  alone  recognized.  History  comes 
to  be  made  up  of  the  doings  of  remarkable  men ;  and  it  is 
tacitly  assumed  that  societies  have  been  formed  by  them. 
Wholly  foreign  to  the  habit  of  mind  as  is  the  thought  of 
impersonal  causation,  the  course  of  social  evolution  is  unper- 
ceived.  The  natural  genesis  of  social  structures  and  functions 
is  an  utterly  alien  conception,  and  appears  absurd  when 
alleged.  The  notion  of  a  self-regulating  social  process  is 
unintelligible.  So  that  militancy  moulds  the  citizen  into  a 
form  not  only  morally  adapted  but  intellectually  adapted — a 
form  which  cannot  think  away  from  the  entailed  system. 

§  561.  In  three  ways,  then,  we  are  shown  the  character  of 
the  militant  type  of  social  organization.  Observe  the  con- 
gruities  which  comparison  of  results  discloses. 

Certain  conditions,  manifest  a  priori,  have  to  be  fulfilled  by 


THE  MILITANT  TYPE   OF  SOCIETY.  601 

a  society  fitted  for  preserving  itself  in  presence  of  anta 
gonist  societies.  To  be  in  the  highest  degree  efficient,  the 
corporate  action  needed  for  preserving  the  corporate  life  must 
be  joined  in  by  every  one.  Other  things  equal,  the  fighting 
power  will  be  greatest  where  those  who  cannot  fight,  labour 
exclusively  to  support  and  help  those  who  can :  an  evident 
implication  being  that  the  working  part  shall  be  no  larger 
than  is  required  for  these  ends.  The  efforts  of  all  being 
utilized  directly  or  indirectly  for  war,  will  be  most  effectual 
when  they  are  most  combined ;  and,  besides  union  among  the 
combatants,  there  must  be  such  union  of  the  non-combatants 
with  them  as  renders  the  aid  of  these  fully  and  promptly 
available.  To  satisfy  these  requirements,  the  life,  the  actions, 
and  the  possessions,  of  each  individual  must  be  held  at  the 
service  of  the  society.  This  universal  service,  this  combina 
tion,  and  this  merging  of  individual  claims,  pre-suppose  a 
despotic  controlling  agency.  That  the  will  of  the  soldier- 
chief  may  be  operative  when  the  aggregate  is  large,  there 
must  be  sub-centres  and  sub-sub-centres  in  descending  grades, 
through  whom  orders  may  be  conveyed  and  enforced,  both 
throughout  the  combatant  part  and  the  non-combatant  part. 
As  the  commander  tells  the  soldier  both  what  he  shall  not  do 
and  what  he  shall  do  ;  so,  throughout  the  militant  community 
at  large,  the  rule  is  both  negatively  regulative  and  positively 
regulative :  it  not  only  restrains,  but  it  directs :  the  citizen 
as  well  as  the  soldier  lives  under  a  system  of  compulsory 
cooperation.  Development  of  the  militant  type  involves 
increasing  rigidity,  since  the  cohesion,  the  combination,  the 
subordination,  and  the  regulation,  to  which  the  units  of  a 
society  are  subjected  by  it,  inevitably  decrease  their  ability 
to  change  their  social  positions,  their  occupations,  their  locali 
ties. 

On  ir  specting  sundry  societies,  past  and  present,  large  and 
small,  which  are,  or  have  been,  characterized  in  high  degrees 
by  militancy,  we  are  shown,  a  posteriori,  that  amid  the  dif 
ferences  due  to  race,  to  circumstances,  and  to  degrees  of 


602  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

development,  there  are  fundamental  similarities  of  the  kinds 
above  inferred  a  priori.  Modern  Dahomey  and  Russia,  as 
well  as  ancient  Peru,  Egypt,  and  Sparta,  exemplify  that 
owning  of  the  individual  by  the  State  in  life,  liberty,  and 
goods,  which  is  proper  to  a  social  system  adapted  for  war. 
And  that  with  changes  further  fitting  a  society  for  warlike 
activities,  there  spread  throughout  it  an  officialism,  a  dictation, 
and  a  superintendence,  akin  to  those  under  which  soldiers 
live,  we  are  shown  by  imperial  Eome,  by  imperial  Germany, 
and  by  England  since  its  late  aggressive  activities. 

Lastly  comes  the  evidence  furnished  by  the  adapted  cha 
racters  of  the  men  who  compose  militant  societies.  Making 
success  in  war  the  highest  glory,  they  are  led  to  identify  good 
ness  with  bravery  and  strength.  Revenge  becomes  a  sacred 
duty  with  them ;  and  acting  at  home  on  the  law  of  retaliation 
which  they  act  on  abroad,  they  similarly,  at  home  as  abroad, 
are  ready  to  sacrifice  others  to  self :  their  sympathies,  con 
tinually  deadened  during  war,  cannot  be  active  during  peace. 
They  must  have  a  patriotism  which  regards  the  triumph  of 
their  society  as  the  supreme  end  of  action ;  they  must  pos 
sess  the  loyalty  whence  flows  obedience  to  authority;  and 
that  they  may  be  obedient  they  must  have  abundant  faith. 
With  faith  in  authority  and  consequent  readiness  to  be 
directed,  naturally  goes  relatively  little  power  of  initiation. 
The  habit  of  seeing  everything  officially  controlled  fosters  the 
belief  that  official  control  is  everywhere  needful;  while  a  course 
of  life  which  makes  personal  causation  familiar  and  negatives 
experience  of  impersonal  causation,  produces  an  inability  t} 
conceive  of  any  social  processes  as  carried  on  under  self- 
regulating  arrangements.  And  these  traits  of  individual 
nature,  needful  concomitants  as  we  see  of  the  militant  type, 
are  those  which  we  observe  in  the  members  of  actual  militant 
societies. 


CHAPTER  XYIIL 

THE  INDUSTKIAL  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY. 

§  562.  Having  nearly  always  to  defend  themselves  against 
external  enemies,  while  they  have  to  carry  on  internally  tho 
processes  of  sustentation,  societies,  as  remarked  in  the  last 
chapter,  habitually  present  us  with  mixtures  of  the  structures 
adapted  to  these  diverse  ends.  Disentanglement  is  not  easy. 
According  as  either  structure  predominates  it  ramifies  through 
the  other :  instance  the  fact  that  where  the  militant  type  is 
much  developed,  the  worker,  ordinarily  a  slave,  is  no  more 
free  than  the  soldier;  while,  where  the  industrial  type  is 
much  developed,  the  soldier,  volunteering  on  specified  terms, 
acquires  in  so  far  the  position  of  a  free  worker.  In  the  one 
case  the  system  of  status,  proper  to  the  fighting  part,  pervades 
the  working  part ;  while  in  the  other  the  system  of  contract, 
proper  to  the  working  part,  affects  the  fighting  part.  Especi 
ally  does  the  organization  adapted  for  war  obscure  that 
adapted  for  industry.  While,  as  we  have  seen,  the  militant 
type  as  theoretically  constructed,  is  so  far  displayed  in  many 
societies  as  to  leave  no  doubt  about  its  essential  nature,  the 
industrial  type  has  its  traits  so  hidden  by  those  of  the  still- 
dominant  militant  type,  that  its  nature  is  nowhere  more  than 
very  partially  exemplified.  Saying  thus  much  to  exclude 
expectations  which  cannot  be  fulfilled,  it  will  be  well  also  to 
exclude  certain  probable  misconceptions. 

In  the  first  place,  industrialism  must  not  be  confounded 
with  industriousness.  Though  the  members  of  an  industrially- 
organized  society  are  habitually  industrious,  and  are,  indeed, 


604:  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

when  the  society  is  a  developed  one,  obliged  to  be  so ;  yet  it 
must  not  be  assumed  that  the  industrially-organized  society 
is  one  in  which,  of  necessity,  much  work  is  done.  Where 
the  society  is  small,  and  its  habitat  so  favourable  that  life 
may  be  comfortably  maintained  with  but  little  exertion,  the 
social  relations  which  characterize  the  industrial  type  may  co 
exist  with  but  very  moderate  productive  activities.  It  ia 
not  the  diligence  of  its  members  which  constitutes  the 
society  an  industrial  one  in  the  sense  here  intended,  but  the 
form  of  cooperation  under  which  their  labours,  small  or  great 
in  amount,  are  carried  on.  This  distinction  will  be  best  under 
stood  on  observing  that,  conversely,  there  may  be,  and  often 
is,  great  industry  in  societies  framed  on  the  militant  type. 
In  ancient  Egypt  there  was  an  immense  labouring  population 
and  a  large  supply  of  commodities,  numerous  in  their  kinds, 
produced  by  it.  Still  more  did  ancient  Peru  exhibit  a  vast 
community  purely  militant  in  its  structure,  the  members  of 
which  worked  unceasingly.  We  are  here  concerned,  then,  not 
with  the  quantity  of  labour  but  with  the  mode  of  organi 
zation  of  the  labourers.  A  regiment  of  soldiers  can  be  set 
to  construct  earth- works;  another  to  cut  down  wood;  another 
to  bring  in  water ;  but  they  are  not  thereby  reduced  for  the 
time  being  to  an  industrial  society.  The  united  individuals 
do  these  several  things  under  command ;  and  having  no 
private  claims  to  the  products,  are,  though  industrially  oc 
cupied,  not  industrially  organized.  And  the  same  holds 
throughout  the  militant  society  as  a  whole,  in  proportion  as 
the  regimentation  of  it  approaches  completeness. 

The  industrial  type  of  society,  properly  so  called,  must 
also  be  distinguished  from  a  type  very  likely  to  be  con 
founded  with  it — the  type,  namely,  in  which  the  component 
individuals,  while  exclusively  occupied  in  production  and 
distribution,  are  under  a  regulation  such  as  that  advocated 
by  socialists  and  communists.  For  this,  too,  involves  in 
another  form  the  principle  of  compulsory  cooperation, 
Directly  or  indirectly,  individuals  are  to  be  prevented  from 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  605 

severally  and  independently  occupying  themselves  as  they 
please ;  are  to  be  prevented  from  competing  with  one  another 
in  supplying  goods  for  money ;  are  to  he  prevented  from 
hiring  themselves  out  on  such  terms  as  they  think  fit.  There 
can  he  no  artificial  system  for  regulating  labour  which  does 
not  interfere  with  the  natural  system.  To  such  extent  as 
men  are  debarred  from  making  whatever  engagements  they 
like,  they  are  to  that  extent  working  under  dictation.  Xo 
matter  in  what  way  the  controlling  agency  is  constituted,  it 
stands  towards  those  controlled  in  the  same  relation  as  does 
the  controlling  agency  of  a  militant  society.  And  how  truly 
the  rfyime  which  those  who  declaim  against  competition 
would  establish,  is  thus  characterized,  we  see  both  in  the  fact 
that  communistic  forms  of  organization  existed  in  early 
societies  which  were  predominantly  warlike,  and  in  the  fact 
that  at  the  present  time  communistic  projects  chiefly  originate 
among,  and  are  most  favoured  by,  the  more  warlike  societies. 
A  further  preliminary  explanation  may  be  needful.  The 
structures  proper  to  the  industrial  type  of  society  must  not 
be  looked  for  in  distinct  forms  when  they  first  appear.  Con 
trariwise,  we  must  expect  them  to  begin  in  vague  unsettled 
forms.  Arising,  as  they  do,  by  modification  of  pre-existing 
structures,  they  are  necessarily  long  in  losing  all  trace  of 
these.  For  example,  transition  from  the  state  in  which  the 
labourer,  owned  like  a  beast,  is  maintained  that  he  may  work 
exclusively  for  his  master's  benefit,  to  the  condition  in  which 
he  is  completely  detached  from  master,  soil,  and  locality,  and 
free  to  work  anywhere  and  for  anyone,  is  through  gradations. 
Again,  the  change  from  the  arrangement  proper  to  militancy, 
under  which  subject-persons  receive,  in  addition  to  main 
tenance,  occasional  presents,  to  the  arrangement  under  which, 
in  place  of  both,  they  received  fixed  wages,  or  salaries,  or 
fees,  goes  on  slowly  and  unobtrusively.  Once  more  it  is 
observable  that  the  process  of  exchange,  originally  indefinite, 
has  become  definite  only  where  industrialism  is  considerably 
developed.  Barter  began,  not  with  a  distinct  intention  of 


G06  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

giving  one  thing  for  another  thing  equivalent  in  value,  but  it 
began  by  making  a  present  and  receiving  a  present  in  return ; 
and  even  now  in  the  East  there  continue  traces  of  this 
primitive  transaction.  In  Cairo  the  purchase  of  articles  from 
a  shopkeeper  is  preceded  by  his  offer  of  coffee  and  cigarettes; 
and  during  the  negotiation  which  ends  in  the  engagement  of 
a  dakabeah,  the  dragoman  brings  gifts  and  expects  to  receive 
them.  Add  to  which  that  there  exists  under  such  conditions 
none  of  that  definite  equivalence  which  characterizes  ex 
change  among  ourselves :  prices  are  not  fixed,  but  vary 
widely  with  every  fresh  transaction.  So  that  throughout  our 
interpretations  we  must  keep  in  view  the  truth,  that  the 
structures  and  functions  proper  to  the  industrial  type  dis 
tinguish  themselves  but  gradually  from  those  proper  to  the 
militant  type. 

Having  thus  prepared  the  way,  let  us  now  consider  what 
are,  a  priori,  the  traits  of  that  social  organization  which, 
entirely  unfitted  for  carrying  on  defence  against  external 
enemies,  is  exclusively  fitted  for  maintaining  the  life  of  the 
society  by  subserving  the  lives  of  its  units.  As  before  iii 
treating  of  the  militant  type,  so  here  in  treating  of  the  indus 
trial  type,  we  will  consider  first  its  ideal  form. 

§  563.  While  corporate  action  is  the  primary  requirement 
in  a  society  which  has  to  preserve  itself  in  presence  of  hostile 
societies,  conversely,  in  the  absence  of  hostile  societies, 
corporate  action  is  no  longer  the  primary  requirement. 

The  continued  existence  of  a  society  implies,  first,  that  it 
shall  not  be  destroyed  bodily  by  foreign  foes,  and  implies, 
second,  that  it  shall  not  be  destroyed  in  detail  by  failure  of 
its  members  to  support  and  propagate  themselves.  If  danger 
of  destruction  from  the  first  cause  ceases,  there  remains  only 
danger  of  destruction  from  the  second  cause.  Sustentation 
of  the  society  will  now  be  achieved  by  the  self-sustentation 
and  multiplication  of  its  units.  If  his  own  welfare  and  the 
welfare  of  his  offspring  is  fully  achieved  by  each,  the  welfare 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  607 

of  the  society  is  by  implication  achieved.  Comparatively 
little  corporate  activity  is  now  required.  Each  man  may 
maintain  himself  by  labour,  may  exchange  his  products  for 
the  products  of  others,  may  give  aid  and  receive  payment, 
may  enter  into  this  or  that  combination  for  carrying  on  an 
undertaking,  small  or  great,  without  the  direction  of  the 
society  as  a  whole.  The  remaining  end  to  be  achieved  by 
public  action  is  to  keep  private  actions  within  due  bounds  ; 
and  the  amount  of  public  action  needed  for  this  becomes 
small  in  proportion  as  private  actions  become  duly  self- 
bounded. 

So  that  whereas  in  the  militant  type  the  demand  for  cor 
porate  action  is  intrinsic,  such  demand  for  corporate  action 
as  continues  in  the  industrial  type  is  mainly  extrinsic — is 
called  for  by  those  aggressive  traits  of  human  nature  which 
chronic  warfare  has  fostered,  and  may  gradually  diminish  as, 
under  enduring  peaceful  life,  these  decrease. 

§  564.  In  a  society  organized  for  militant  action,  the  indi 
viduality  of  each  member  has  to  be  so  subordinated  in  life, 
liberty,  and  property,  that  he  is  largely,  or  completely,  owned 
by  the  State ;  but  in  a  society  industrially  organized,  no  such 
subordination  of  the  individual  is  called  for.  There  remain 
no  occasions  on  which  he  is  required  to  risk  his  life 
while  destroying  the  lives  of  others;  he  is  not  forced  to 
leave  his  occupation  and  submit  to  a  commanding  officer; 
and  it  ceases  to  be  needful  that  he  should  surrender  for  public 
purposes  whatever  property  is  demanded  of  him. 

Under  the  industrial  regime  the  citizen's  individuality, 
instead  of  being  sacrificed  by  the  society,  has  to  be  defended 
by  the  society.  Defence  of  his  individuality  becomes  the 
society's  essential  duty.  That  after  external  protection  is  no 
longer  called  for,  internal  protection  must  become  the  cardinal 
function  of  the  State,  and  that  effectual  discharge  of  this 
function  must  be  a  predominant  trait  of  the  industrial  type, 
may  be  readily  shown. 


608  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

For  it  is  clear  that,  other  things  equal,  a  society  in  which 
life,  liberty,  and  property,  are  secure,  and  all  interests  justly 
regarded,  must  prosper  more  than  one  in  which  they  are  not ; 
and,  consequently,  among  competing  industrial  societies, 
there  must  be  a  gradual  replacing  of  those  in  which  personal 
rights  are  imperfectly  maintained,  by  those  in  which  they  are 
perfectly  maintained.  So  that  by  survival  of  the  fittest  must 
be  produced  a  social  type  in  which  individual  claims,  con 
sidered  as  sacred,  are  trenched  on  by  the  State  no  further 
than  is  requisite  to  pay  the  cost  of  maintaining  them,  or 
rather,  of  arbitrating  among  them.  Tor  the  aggressiveness  of 
nature  fostered  by  militancy  having  died  out,  the  corporate 
function  becomes  that  of  deciding  between  those  conflicting 
claims,  the  equitable  adjustment  of  which  is  not  obvious  to 
the  persons  concerned. 

§  565.  With  the  absence  of  need  for  that  corporate  action 
by  which  the  efforts  of  the  whole  society  may  be  utilized  for 
war,  there  goes  the  absence  of  need  for  a  despotic  controlling 
agency. 

Not  only  is  such  an  agency  unnecessary,  but  it  cannot 
exist.  For  since,  as  we  see,  it  is  an  essential  requirement  of 
the  industrial  type,  that  the  individuality  of  each  man  shall 
have  the  fullest  play  compatible  with  the  like  play  of  other 
men's  individualities,  despotic  control,  showing  itself  as  it 
must  by  otherwise  restricting  men's  individualities,  is  neces 
sarily  excluded.  Indeed,  by  his  mere  presence  an  autocratic 
ruler  is  an  aggressor  on  citizens.  Actually  or  potentially 
exercising  power  not  given  by  them,  he  in  so  far  restrain 
their  wills  more  than  they  would  be  restrained  by  mutua* 
limitation  merely. 

§  566.  Such  control  as  is  required  under  the  industrial 
type,  can  be  exercised  only  by  an  appointed  agency  for  ascer 
taining  and  executing  the  average  will ;  and  a  representative 
agency  is  the  one  bpst  fitted  for  doing  this. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  609 

Unless  the  activities  of  all  are  homogeneous  in  kind,  which 
they  cannot  be  in  a  developed  society  with  its  elaborate  divi 
sion  of  labour,  there  arises  a  need  for  conciliation  of  diver 
gent  interests;  and  to  the  end  of  insuring  an  equitable 
adjustment,  each  interest  must  be  enabled  duly  to  express 
itself.  It  is,  indeed,  supposable  that  the  appointed  agency 
should  be  a  single  individual.  But  no  such  single  individual 
could  arbitrate  justly  among  numerous  classes  variously  occu 
pied,  without  hearing  evidence :  each  would  have  to  send 
representatives  setting  forth  its  claims.  Hence  the  choice 
would  lie  between  two  systems,  under  one  of  which  the 
representatives  privately  and  separately  stated  their  cases  to 
an  arbitrator  on  whose  single  judgment  decisions  depended ; 
and  under  the  other  of  which  these  representatives  stated 
their  cases  in  one  another's  presence,  while  judgments  were 
openly  determined  by  the  general  consensus.  Without  insist 
ing  on  the  fact  that  a  fair  balancing  of  class -interests  is  more 
likely  to  be  effected  by  this  last  form  of  representation  than 
by  the  first,  it  is  sufficient  to  remark  that  it  is  more  congruous 
with  the  nature  of  the  industrial  type ;  since  men's  indi 
vidualities  are  in  the  smallest  degree  trenched  upon.  Citizens 
who,  appointing  a  single  ruler  for  a  prescribed  time,  may 
have  a  majority  of  their  wills  traversed  by  his  during  this 
time,  surrender  their  individualities  in  a  greater  degree  than 
do  those  who,  from  their  local  groups,  depute  a  number  of 
rulers ;  since  these,  speaking  and  acting  under  public  inspec 
tion  and  mutually  restrained,  habitually  conform  their  deci 
sions  to  the  wills  of  the  majority. 

§  567.  The  corporate  life  of  the  society  being  no  longer  in 
danger,  and  the  remaining  business  of  government  being  that 
of  maintaining  the  conditions  requisite  for  the  highest  indi 
vidual  life,  there  comes  the  question — What  are  these  condi-  • 
tions  ? 

Already  they  have  been  implied  as  comprehended  under 
the  administration  of  justice  ;  but  so  vaguely  is  the  meaning 


610  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

of  this  phrase  commonly  conceived,  that  a  more  specific  state 
ment  must  be  made.  Justice  then,  as  here  to  be  understood, 
means  preservation  of  the  normal  connexions  between  acts 
and  results — the  obtainment  by  each  of  as  much  benefit  as 
Ids  efforts  are  equivalent  to — no  more  and  no  less.  Living 
and  working  within  the  restraints  imposed  by  one  another's 
presence,  justice  requires  that  individuals  shall  severally 
take  the  consequences  of  their  conduct,  neither  increased  nor 
decreased.  The  superior  shall  have  the  good  of  his  superiority ; 
and  the  inferior  the  evil  of  his  inferiority.  A  veto  is  there 
fore  put  on  all  public  action  which  abstracts  from  some  men 
part  of  the  advantages  they  have  earned,  and  awards  to  other 
men  advantages  they  have  not  earned. 

That  from  the  developed  industrial  type  of  society  there 
are  excluded  all  forms  of  communistic  distribution,  the  inevi 
table  trait  of  which  is  that  they  tend  to  equalize  the  lives  of 
good  and  bad,  idle  and  diligent,  is  readily  proved.  For  when, 
the  struggle  for  existence  between  societies  by  war  having 
ceased,  there  remains  only  the  industrial  struggle  for  existence, 
the  final  survival  and  spread  must  be  on  the  part  of  those 
societies  which  produce  the  largest  number  of  the  best  indi 
viduals — individuals  best  adapted  for  life  in  the  industrial  state. 
Suppose  two  societies,  otherwise  equal,  in  one  of  which  the  supe 
rior  are  allowed  to  retain,  for  their  own  benefit  and  the  benefit 
of  their  offspring,  the  entire  proceeds  of  their  labour ;  but  in 
the  other  of  which  the  superior  have  taken  from  them  part  of 
these  proceeds  for  the  benefit  of  the  inferior  and  their  offspring. 
Evidently  the  superior  will  thrive  and  multiply  more  in  the 
first  than  in  the  second.  A  greater  number  of  the  best 
children  will  be  reared  in  the  first ;  and  eventually  it  will 
outgrow  the  second.  It  must  not  be  inferred  that  private  and 
voluntary  aid  to  the  inferior  is  negatived,  but  only  public 
and  enforced  aid.  Whatever  effects  the  sympathies  of  the 
better  for  the  worse  spontaneously  produce,  cannot,  of  course, 
be  interfered  with  ;  and  will,  on  the  whole,  be  beneficial.  For 
while,  on  the  average,  the  better  will  not  carry  such  efforts  so 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY.  611 

fur  as  to  impede  their  own  multiplication,  they  will  carry 
them  far  enough  to  mitigate  the  ill-fortunes  of  the  worse  with 
out  helping  them  to  multiply. 

§568.  Otherwise  regarded,  this  system  under  which  the 
efforts  of  each  bring  neither  more  nor  less  than  their  natural 
returns,  is  the  system  of  contract. 

We  have  seen  that  the  regime  of  status  is  in  all  ways 
proper  to  the  militant  type.  It  is  the  concomitant  of  that 
graduated  subordination  by  which  the  combined  action  of  a 
fighting  body  is  achieved,  and  which  must  pervade  the  fighting 
society  at  large  to  insure  its  corporate  action.  Under  this 
regime,  the  relation  between  labour  and  produce  is  traversed 
by  authority.  As  in  the  army,  the  food,  clothing,  &c.,  received 
by  each  soldier  are  not  direct  returns  for  work  done,  but  are 
arbitrarily  apportioned,  while  duties  are  arbitrarily  enforced ; 
so  throughout  the  rest  of  the  militant  society,  the  superior 
dictates  the  labour  and  assigns  such  share  of  the  returns  as 
he  pleases.  But  as,  with  declining  militancy  and  growing 
industrialism,  the  power  and  range  of  authority  decrease 
while  uncontrolled  action  increases,  the  relation  of  contract 
becomes  general ;  and  in  the  fully-developed  industrial  type 
it  becomes  universal. 

Under  this  universal  relation  of  contract  when  equitably 
administered,  there  arises  that  adjustment  of  benefit  to  effort 
which  the  arrangements  of  the  industrial  society  have  to 
achieve.  If  each  as  producer,  distributor,  manager,  adviser, 
teacher,  or  aider  of  other  kind,  obtains  from  his  fellows  such 
payment  for  his  service  as  its  value,  determined  by  the 
demand,  warrants;  then  there  results  that  correct  appor 
tioning  of  reward  to  merit  which  ensures  the  prosperity  of 
the  superior. 

§  569.  Again   changing   the  point  of  view,   we   see   that 
whereas  public  control  in  the  militant  type  is  both  positively 
regulative  and  negatively  regulative,  in  the  industrial  type  it 
98 


612  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

is  negatively  regulative  only.  To  the  slave,  to  the  soldier,  01 
to  other  member  of  a  community  organized  for  war,  authority 
says — "  Thou  shalt  do  this ;  thou  shalt  not  do  that/'  But  to 
the  member  of  the  industrial  community,  authority  gives 
only  one  of  these  orders — "  Thou  shalt  not  do  that." 

For  people  who,  carrying  on  their  private  transactions  ly 
voluntary  cooperation,  also  voluntarily  cooperate  to  form  and 
support  a  governmental  agency,  are,  by  implication,  people 
who  authorize  it  to  impose  on  their  respective  activities,  only 
those  restraints  which  they  are  all  interested  in  maintaining — 
the  restraints  which  check  aggressions.  Omitting  criminals 
(who  under  the  assumed  conditions  must  be  very  few,  if  not 
a  vanishing  quantity),  each  citizen  will  wish  to  preserve  unin- 
vaded  his  sphere  of  action,  while  not  invading  others'  spheres, 
and  to  retain  whatever  benefits  are  achieved  within  it.  The 
very  motive  which  prompts  all  to  unite  in  upholding  a  public 
protector  of  their  individualities,  will  also  prompt  them  to 
unite  in  preventing  any  interference  with  their  individuali 
ties  beyond  that  required  for  this  end. 

Hence  it  follows  that  while,  in  the  militant  type,  regi 
mentation  in  the  army  is  paralleled  by  centralized  adminis 
tration  throughout  the  society  at  large  ;  in  the  industrial  type, 
administration,  becoming  decentralized,  is  at  the  same  time 
narrowed  in  its  range.  Nearly  all  public  organizations  save 
that  for  administering  justice,  necessarily  disappear;  since 
they  have  the  common  character  that  they  either  aggress  on 
the  citizen  by  dictating  his  actions,  or  by  taking  from  him 
more  property  than  is  needful  for  protecting  him,  or  by  both. 
Those  who  are  forced  to  send  their  children  to  this  or  that 
school,  those  who  have,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  help  in  sup 
porting  a  State  priesthood,  those  from  whom  rates  are  demanded 
that  parish  officers  may  administer  public  charity,  those  who 
arc  taxed  to  provide  gratis  reading  for  people  who  wil]  not 
save  money  for  library  subscriptions,  those  whose  businesses 
aie  carried  on  under  regulation  by  inspectors,  those  who  have 
to  pay  the  costs  of  State  science-and-art-teaching,  State 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  TYPE   OF  SOCIETY.  613 

emigration,  &c.,  all  have  their  individualities  trenched  upon, 
either  by  compelling  them  to  do  what  they  would  not  spon 
taneously  do,  or  by  taking  away  money  which  else  would  have 
furthered  their  private  ends.  Coercive  arrangements  of  such 
kinds,  consistent  with  the  militant  type,  are  inconsistent  with 
the  industrial  type. 

§  570.  With  the  relatively  narrow  range  of  public  organi 
zations,  there  goes,  in  the  industrial  type,  a  relatively  wide 
range  of  private  organizations.  The  spheres  left  vacant  by  the 
one  are  filled  by  the  other. 

Several  influences  conspire  to  produce  this  trait.  Those 
motives  which,  in  the  absence  of  that  subordination  necessi 
tated  by  war,  make  citizens  unite  in  asserting  their  indi 
vidualities  subject  only  to  mutual  limitations,  are  motives 
which  make  them  unite  in  resisting  any  interference  with 
their  freedom  to  form  such  private  combinations  as  do  not 
involve  aggression.  Moreover,  beginning  with  exchanges  of 
goods  and  services  under  agreements  between  individuals,  the 
principle  of  voluntary  cooperation  is  simply  carried  out  in  a 
larger  way  by  individuals  who,  incorporating  themselves, 
contract  with  one  another  for  jointly  pursuing  this  or  that 
business  or  function.  And  yet  again,  there  is  entire  con- 
gruity  between  the  representative  constitutions  of  such  private 
combinations,  and  that  representative  constitution  of  the 
public  combination  which  we  see  is  proper  to  the  industrial 
type.  The  same  law  of  organization  pervades  the  society  in 
general  and  in  detail.  So  that  an  inevitable  trait  of  the 
industrial  type  is  the  multiplicity  and  heterogeneity  of  asso 
ciations,  political,  religious,  commercial,  professional,  philan 
thropic,  and  social,  of  all  sizes. 

§  571.  Two  indirectly  resulting  traits  of  the  industrial  type 
must  be  added.  The  first  is  its  relative  plasticity. 

So  long  as  corporate  action  is  necessitated  for  national  self- 
preservation — so  long  as,  to  effect  combined  defence  or  offence, 


614  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

there  is  maintained  that  graduated  subordination  which  ties 
all  inferiors  to  superiors,  as  the  soldier  is  tied  to  his  officer — • 
so  long  as  there  is  maintained  the  relation  of  status,  which 
tends  to  fix  men  in  the  positions  they  are  severally  born  to ; 
there  is  insured  a  comparative  rigidity  of  social  organization. 
But  with  the  cessation  of  those  needs  that  initiate  and  pre 
serve  the  militant  type  of  structure,  and  with  the  establish 
ment  of  contract  as  the  universal  relation  under  which  efforts 
are  combined  for  mutual  advantage,  social  organization  loses 
its  rigidity.  No  longer  determined  by  the  principle  of  inheri 
tance,  places  and  occupations  are  now  determined  by  the 
principle  of  efficiency ;  and  changes  of  structure  follow  when 
men,  not  bound  to  prescribed  functions,  acquire  the  functions 
for  which  they  have  proved  themselves  most  fit.  Easily  modi 
fied  in  its  arrangements,  the  industrial  type  of  society  is 
therefore  one  which  adapts  itself  with  facility  to  new  require 
ments. 

§  572.  The  other  incidental  result  to  be  named  is  a  ten 
dency  towards  loss  of  economic  autonomy. 

While  hostile  relations  with'  adjacent  societies  continuj, 
each  society  has  to  be  productively  self-sufficing ;  but  with 
the  establishment  of  peaceful  relations,  this  need  for  self- 
sufficingness  ceases.  As  the  local  divisions  composing  one 
of  our  great  nations,  had,  while  they  were  at  feud,  to  produce 
each  for  itself  almost  everything  it  required,  but  now  per 
manently  at  peace  with  one  another,  have  become  so  far 
mutually  dependent  that  no  one  of  them  can  satisfy  its  wants 
without  aid  from  the  rest;  so  the  great  nations  themselves,  at 
present  forced  in  large  measure  to  maintain  their  economic 
autonomies,  will  become  less  forced  to  do  this  as  war  de 
creases,  and  will  gradually  become  necessary  to  one  another. 
While,  on  the  one  hand,  the  facilities  possessed  by  each  for 
certain  kinds  of  production,  will  render  exchange  mutually 
advantageous ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  citizens  of  each  will, 
under  the  industrial  regime,  tolerate  no  such  restraints  on 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  615 

their  individualities  as  are  implied  by  interdicts  on  exchange 
or  impediments  to  exchange. 

With  the  spread  of  industrialism,  therefore,  the  tendency 
is  towards  the  breaking  down  of  the  divisions  between 
nat-ionalities,  and  the  running  through  them  of  a  common 
organization:  if  not  under  a  single  government,  then  under 
a  federation  of  governments. 


o 


§  573.  Such  being  the  constitution  of  the  industrial  type 
of  society  to  be  inferred  from  its  requirements,  we  have  now 
to  inquire  what  evidence  is  furnished  by  actual  societies 
that  approach  towards  this  constitution  accompanies  the 
progress  of  industrialism. 

As,  during  the  peopling  of  the  Earth,  the  struggle  for  ex 
istence  among  societies,  from  small  hordes  up  to  great 
nations,  has  been  nearly  everywhere  going  on ;  it  is,  as  before 
said,  not  to  be  expected  that  we  should  readily  find  examples 
of  the  social  type  appropriate  to  an  exclusively  industrial 
life.  Ancient  records  join  the  journals  of  the  day  in  proving 
that  thus  far  no  civilized  or  semi-civilized  nation  has  fallen 
into  circumstances  making  needless  all  social  structures  for 
resisting  aggression;  and  from  every  region  travellers'  ac 
counts  bring  evidence  that  almost  universally  among  the 
uncivilized,  hostilities  between  tribes  are  chronic.  Still,  a 
few  examples  exist  which  show,  with  tolerable  clearness,  the 
outline  of  the  industrial  type  in  its  rudimentary  form — the 
form  which  it  assumes  where  culture  has  made  but  little  pro 
gress.  We  will  consider  these  first ;  and  then  proceed  to 
disentangle  the  traits  distinctive  of  the  industrial  type  as 
exhibited  by  large  nations  which  have  become  predominantly 
industrial  in  their  activities. 

Among  the  Indian  hills  there  ate  many  tribes  belonging  to 
different  races,  but  alike  in  their  partially-nomadic  habits. 
Mostly  agricultural,  their  common  practice  is  to  cultivate  a 
patch  of  ground  while  it  yields  average  crops,  and  when  it  ia 
exhausted  to  go  elsewhere  ar  d  repeat  the  process.  They  have 


POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

fled  before  inrading  peoples,  and  have  here  and  there  found 
localities  in  which  they  are  able  to  carry  on  their  peaceful 
occupations  unmolested :  the  absence  of  molestation  being,  in 
somes  cases,  due  to  their  ability  to  live  in  a  malarious  atmo 
sphere  which  is  fatal  to  the  Aryan  races.  Already,  under 
other  heads,  I  have  referred  to  the  Bodo  and  to  the  Dhiraals 
as  wholly  unmilitary,  as  lacking  political  organization,  as 
being  without  slaves  or  social  grades,  and  as  aiding  one 
another  in  their  heavier  undertakings ;  to  the  Todas,  who, 
leading  tranquil  lives,  are  "  without  any  of  those  bonds  of 
union  which  man  in  general  is  induced  to  form  from  a  sense 
of  danger,"  and  who  settle  their  disputes  by  arbitration  or  by 
a  council  of  five ;  to  the  Mishmies  as  being  unwarlike,  as 
having  but  nominal  chiefs,  and  as  administering  justice  by 
an  assembly ;  and  I  have  joined  with  these  the  case  of  a 
people  remote  in  locality  and  race — the  ancient  Pueblos  of 
North  America — who,  sheltering  in  their  walled  vil'ages  and 
righting  only  when  invaded,  similarly  united  with  their 
habitually  industrial  life  a  free  form  of  government :  "  the 
governor  and  his  council  are  [were]  annually  elected  by  the 
people/'  Here  I  may  add  sundry  kindred  examples. 

As  described  in  the  Indian  Government  Eeport  for  1869 — 
70,  "  the  '  white  Karens '  are  of  a  mild  and  peaceful  disposi 
tion,  .  .  .  their  chiefs  are  regarded  as  patriarchs,  who  have 
little  more  than  a  nominal  authority ; "  or,  as  said  of  them  by 
Lieut.  McMahon,  "  they  possess  neither  laws  nor  dominant 
authority."  Instance,  again,  the  "  fascinating  "  Lepchas  ; 
not  industrious,  but  yet  industrial  in  the  sense  that  their 
social  relations  are  of  the  non-militant  type.  Though  I  find 
nothing  specific  said  about  the  system  under  which  they  live 
in  their  temporary  villages  ;  yet  the  facts  told  us  sufficiently 
imply  its  uncoercive  character.  They  have  no  castes ;  "  family 
and  political  feuds  are  alike  unheard  of  amongst  them  ; " 
"  they  are  averse  to  soldiering  ;  "  they  prefer  taking  refuge  in 
the  jungle  and  living  on  wild  food  "  to  enduring  any  injustice 
or  harsh  treatment " — traits  which  negative  ordinary  politico] 


THE  INDUSTRIAL   TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  617 

control.  Take  next  the  "  quiet,  unoffensive  M  Santals,  wlio, 
while  they  fight  if  need  be  with  infatuated  bravery  to  resist 
aggression,  are  essentially  unaggressive.  These  people  "  are 
industrious  cultivators,  and  enjoy  their  existence  unfettered 
by  caste."  Though,  having  become  tributaries,  there  habi 
tually  exists  in  each  village  a  head  appointed  by  the  Indian 
Government  to  be  responsible  for  the  tribute,  &c. ;  yet  the 
nature  of  their  indigenous  government  remains  sufficiently 
clear.  While  there  is  a  patriarch  who  is  honoured,  but  who 
rarely  interferes,  "  every  village  has  its  council  place,  .  .  . 
where  the  committee  assemble  and  discuss  the  affairs  of  the 
village  and  its  inhabitants.  All  petty  disputes,  both  of  a 
civil  and  criminal  nature,  are  settled  there."  What  little  is 
told  us  of  tribes  living  in  the  Shervaroy  Hills  is,  so  far  as  it 
goes,  to  like  effect.  Speaking  generally  of  them,  Shortt  says 
they  "  are  essentially  a  timid  and  harmless  people,  addicted 
chiefly  to  pastoral  and  agricultural  pursuits ; "  and  more 
specifically  describing  one  division  of  them,  he  says  "  they 
lead  peaceable  lives  among  themselves,  and  any  dispute  that 
may  arise  is  usually  settled  by  arbitration."  Then,  to  show 
that  these  social  traits  are  not  peculiar  to  any  one  variety  of 
man,  but  are  dependent  on  conditions,  I  may  recall  the 
before-named  instance  of  the  Papuan  Arafuras,  who,  without 
any  divisions  of  rank  or  hereditary  chieftainships,  live  in 
harmony,  controlled  only  by  the  decisions  of  their  assembled 
elders.  In  all  which  cases  we  may  discern  the  leading  traits 
above  indicated  as  proper  to  societies  not  impelled  to  corpo 
rate  action  by  war.  Strong  centralized  control  not  being 
required,  such  government  as  exists  is  exercised  by  a  council, 
informally  approved—  a  rude  representative  government ; 
claas -distinctions  do  not  exist,  or  are  but  faintly  indicated — 
the  relation  of  status  is  absent ;  whatever  transactions  take 
place  between  individuals  are  by  agreement ;  and  the  furic- 
tiuii  which  the  ruling  body  has  to  perform,  becomes  substan 
tially  limited  to  protecting  private  life  by  settling  such  disputes 
as  arise,  and  inflicting  mild  punishments  for  small  offences. 


618  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Difficulties  meet  us  when,  turning  to  civilized  societies,  we 
seek  in  them  for  traits  of  the  industrial  type.  Consoli 
dated  and  organized  as  they  have  all  been  by  wars  actively 
carried  on  throughout  the  earlier  periods  of  their  existence, 
and  mostly  continued  down  to  recent  times ;  and  having 
simultaneously  been  developing  within  themselves  organiza 
tions  for  producing  and  distributing  commodities,  which  have 
little  by  little  become  contrasted  with  those  proper  to  mili 
tant  activities ;  the  two  are  everywhere  presented  so  mingled 
that  clear  separation  of  the  first  from  the  last  is,  as  said  at 
the  outset,  scarcely  practicable.  Radically  opposed,  however, 
as  is  compulsory  cooperation,  the  organizing  principle  of  the 
militant  type,  to  voluntary  cooperation,  the  organizing  prin 
ciple  of  the  industrial  type,  we  may,  by  observing  the  decline 
of  institutions  exhibiting  the  one,  recognize,  by  implication, 
the  growth  of  institutions  exhibiting  the  other.  Hence  if,  in 
passing  from  the  first  states  of  civilized  nations  in  which  war 
is  the  business  of  life,  to  states  in  which  hostilities  are  but 
occasional,  we  simultaneously  pass  to  states  in  which  the 
ownership  of  tho  individual  by  his  society  is  not  so  con 
stantly  and  strenuously  enforced,  in  which  the  subjection  of 
rank  to  rank  is  mitigated,  in  which  political  rule  is  no  longer 
autocratic,  in  which  the  regulation  of  citizens'  lives  is  dimi 
nished  in  range  and  rigour,  while  the  protection  of  them  is 
increased  ;  we  are,  by  implication,  shown  the  traits  of  a  de 
veloping  industrial  type.  Comparisons  of  several  kinds 
disclose  results  which  unite  in  verifying  this  truth. 

Take,  first,  the  broad  contrast  between  the  early  condition 
of  the  more  civilized  European  nations  at  large,  and  their 
later  condition.  Setting  out  from  the  dissolution  of  the 
Roman  empire,  we  observe  that  for  many  centuries  during 
which  conflicts  were  effecting  consolidations,  and  dissolutions, 
and  re-consolidations  in  endless  variety,  such  energies  as 
were  not  directly  devoted  to  war  were  devoted  to  little  else 
than  supporting  the  organizations  which  carried  on  war :  the 
working  part  of  each  community  did  not  exist  for  its  own 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  TYPE  OF  SOCIETY.  619 

sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  fighting  part.  While  militancy 
was  thus  high  and  industrialism  undeveloped,  the  reign  of 
superior  strength,  continually  being  established  by  societies 
one  over  another,  was  equally  displayed  within  each  society. 
Prom  slaves  and  serfs,  through  vassals  of  different  grades  up 
to  dukes  and  kings,  there  was  an  enforced  subordination  by 
which  the  individualities  of  all  were  greatly  restricted.  And 
at  the  same  time  that,  to  carry  on  external  aggression  or 
resistance,  the  ruling  power  in  each  group  sacrificed  the 
personal  claims  of  its  members,  the  function  of  defending  its 
members  from  one  another  was  in  but  small  degree  discharged 
by  it :  they  were  left  to  defend  themselves.  If  with 

these  traits  of  European  societies  in  mediaeval  times,  we  com 
pare  their  traits  in  modern  times,  we  see  the  following 
essential  differences.  First,  with  the  formation  of  nations 
covering  large  areas,  the  perpetual  wars  within  each  area 
have  ceased ;  and  though  the  wars  between  nations  which 
from  time  to  time  occur  are  on  larger  scales,  they  are  less 
frequent,  and  they  are  no  longer  the  business  of  all  freemen. 
Second,  there  has  grown  up  in  each  country  a  relatively  large 
population  which  carries  on  production  and  distribution  for 
its  own  maintenance ;  so  that  whereas  of  old,  the  working 
part  existed  for  the  benefit  of  the  fighting  part,  now  the 
fighting  part  exists  mainly  for  the  benefit  of  the  working 
part — exists  ostensibly  to  protect  it  in  the  quiet  pursuit  of 
its  ends.  Third,  the  system  of  status,  having  under  some  of 
its  forms  disappeared  and  under  others  become  greatly  miti 
gated,  has  been  almost  universally  replaced  by  the  system  of 
contract.  Only  among  those  who,  by  choice  or  by  conscrip 
tion,  are  incorporated  in  the  military  organization,  ioes  the 
system  of  status  in  its  primitive  rigour  still  hold  so  long 
as  they  remain  in  this  organization.  Fourth,  with  this  de 
crease  of  compulsory  cooperation  and  increase  of  voluntary 
cooperation,  there  have  diminished  or  ceased  many  minor 
restraints  over  individual  actions.  Men  are  less  tied  to  their 
localities  than  they  were ;  they  are  not  obliged  to  profess 


620  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

certain  religious  opinions ;  they  are  less  debarred  from  ex 
pressing  their  political  views;  they  no  longer  have  their 
dresses  and  modes  of  living  dictated  to  them;  they  are 
comparatively  little  restrained  from  forming  private  com 
binations  and  holding  meetings  for  one  or  other  purpose — • 
political,  religious,  social.  Fifth,  while  the  individualities  of 
citizens  are  less  aggressed  upon  by  public  agency,  they  are 
more  protected  by  public  agency  against  aggression.  Instead 
of  a  regime  under  which  individuals  rectified  their  private 
wrongs  by  force  as  well  as  they  could,  or  else  bribed  the  ruler, 
general  or  local,  to  use  his  power  in  their  behalf,  there  has 
come  a  rfyiine  under  which,  while  much  less  self-protection 
is  required,  a  chief  function  of  the  ruling  power  and  its 
agents  is  to  administer  justice.  In  all  ways,  then,  we  are 
shown  that  with  this  relative  decrease  of  militancy  and 
relative  increase  of  industrialism,  there  has  been  a  change 
from  a  social  order  in  which  individuals  exist  for  the  benefit 
of  the  State,  to  a  social  order  in  which  the  State  exists  for 
the  benefit  of  individuals. 

When,  instead  of  contrasting  early  European  communities 
at  large  with  European  communities  at  large  as  they  now 
exist,  we  contrast  the  one  in  which  industrial  development 
has  been  less  impeded  by  militancy  with  those  in  which  it 
has  been  more  impeded  by  militancy,  parallel  results  are 
apparent.  Between  our  own  society  and  continental  societies, 
as  for  example,  France,  the  differences  which  have  gradually 
arisen  may  be  cited  in  illustration.  After  the  con 

quering  "Normans  had  spread  over  England,  there  was  esta 
blished  here  a  much  greater  subordination  of  local  rulers  to 
the  general  ruler  than  existed  in  France;  and,  as  a  result, 
there  was  not  nearly  so  much  internal  dissension.  Says 
Hallam,  speaking  of  this  period,  "we  read  very  little  of 
private  wars  in  England."  Though  from  time  to  time,  as 
under  Stephen,  there  were  rebellions,  and  though  there  were 
occasional  fights  between  nobles,  yet  for  some  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  up  to  the  time  of  King  John,  the  subjection  main- 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  621 

tained  secured  comparative  order.  Further,  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  such  general  wars  as  occurred  were  mostly  carried  on 
abroad.  Descents  on  our  coasts  were  few  and  unimportant, 
and  conflicts  with  Wales,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  entailed  but 
few  intrusions  on  English  soil.  Consequently,  there  was  a 
relatively  small  hindrance  to  industrial  life  and  the  growth 
of  social  forms  appropriate  to  it.  Meanwhile,  the  condition 
of  France  was  widely  different.  During  this  period  and  long 
after,  besides  wars  with  England  (mostly  fought  out  on 
French  soil)  and  wars  with  other  countries,  there  were  going 
on  everywhere  local  wars.  From  the  10th  to  the  14th  century 
perpetual  fights  between  suzerains  and  their  vassals  occurred, 
as  well  as  fights  of  vassals  with  one  another.  Not  until 
towards  the  middle  of  the  14th  century  did  the  king  begin 
greatly  to  predominate  over  the  nobles;  and  only  in  the 
15th  century  was  there  established  a  supreme  ruler  strong 
enough  to  prevent  the  quarrels  of  local  rulers.  How  great 
was  the  repression  of  industrial  development  caused  by 
internal  conflicts,  may  be  inferred  from  the  exaggerated 
language  of  an  old  writer,  who  says  of  this  period,  during 
which  the  final  struggle  of  monarchy  with  feudalism  was 
going  on,  that  "agriculture,  traffic,  and  all  the  mechanical 
arts  ceased."  Such  being  the  contrast  between  the 

small  degree  in  which  industrial  life  was  impeded  by  war  in 
England,  and  the  great  degree  in  which  it  was  impeded  by 
war  in  France,  let  us  ask — what  were  the  political  contrasts 
which  arose.  The  first  fact  to  be  noted  is  that  in  the  middle 
of  the  13th  century  there  began  in  England  a  mitigation  of 
villeinage,  by  limitation  of  labour-services  and  commutation 
of  them  for  money,  and  that  in  the  14th  century  the  trans 
formation  of  a  servile  into  a  free  population  had  in  great 
measure  taken  place ;  while  in  France,  as  in  other  continental 
countries,  the  old  condition  survived  and  became  worse.  As 
Mr.  Freeman  says  of  this  period — "in  England  villeinage 
was  on  the  whole  dying  out,  while  in  many  other  countries  it 
was  getting  harder  and  harder."  Besides  this  spreading  sub- 


622  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

stitution  of  contract  for  status,  which,  taking  place  first  in 
the  industrial  centres,  the  towns,  afterwards  went  on  in  the 
rural  districts,  there  was  going  on  an  analogous  enfranchise 
ment  of  the  noble  class.  The  enforced  military  obligations  of 
vassals  were  more  and  more  replaced  by  money  payments  or 
scutages ;  so  that  by  King  John's  time,  the  fighting  services 
of  the  upper  class  had  been  to  a  great  extent  compounded 
for,  like  the  labour  services  of  the  lower  class.  After  dimi 
nished  restraints  over  persons,  there  came  diminished  invasions 
of  property.  By  the  Charter,  arbitrary  tallages  on  towns  and 
non-military  king's  tenants  were  checked ;  and  while  the 
aggressive  actions  of  the  State  were  thus  decreased,  its  pro 
tective  actions  were  extended :  provisions  were  made  that 
justice  should  be  neither  sold,  delayed,  nor  denied.  All 
which  changes  were  towards  those  social  arrangements  which 
we  see  characterize  the  industrial  type.  Then,  in  the  next 
place,  we  have  the  subsequently-occurring  rise  of  a  represen 
tative  government ;  which,  as  shown  in  a  preceding  chapter 
by  another  line  of  inquiry,  is  at  once  the  product  of  industrial 
growth  and  the  form  proper  to  the  industrial  type.  But  in 
France  none  of  these  changes  took  place.  Villeinage  remain 
ing  unmitigated  continued  to  comparatively  late  times ;  com 
pounding  for  military  obligation  of  vassal  to  suzerain  was  less 
general ;  and  when  there  arose  tendencies  towards  the  esta 
blishment  of  an  assembly  expressing  the  popular  will,  they 
proved  abortive.  Detailed  comparisons  of  subsequent 

periods  and  their  changes  would  detain  us  too  long :  it  must 
suffice  to  indicate  the  leading  facts.  Beginning  with  the  date 
at  which,  under  the  influences  just  indicated,  parliamentary 
government  was  finally  established  in  England,  we  find  that 
for  a  century  and  a  half,  down  to  the  Wars  of  the  Eoses,  the 
internal  disturbances  were  few  and  unimportant  compared 
with  those  which  took  place  in  France ;  and  at  the  same 
time  (remembering  that  the  wars  between  England  and 
France,  habitually  taking  place  on  French  soil,  affected  the 
state  of  France  more  than  that  of  England)  we  note  that 


THF   INDUSTRIAL   TYPE  OF  SOCIETY.  623 

France  carried  on  serious  wars  with  Flanders,  Castille  and 
Navarre  besides  the  struggle  with  Burgundy:  the  result 
being  that  while  in  England  popular  power  as  expressed  by 
the  House  of  Commons  became  settled  and  increased,  such 
power  as  the  States  General  had  acquired  in  France,  dwindled 
away.  Not  forgetting  that  by  the  Wars  of  the  Eoses,  lasting 
over  thirty  years,  there  was  initiated  a  return  towards 
absolutism;  let  us  contemplate  the  contrasts  which  subse 
quently  arose.  For  a  century  and  a  half  after  these  civil  con- 
flicts  ended,  there  were  but  few  and  trivial  breaches  of  internal 
peace ;  while  such  wars  as  went  on  with  foreign  powers,  not 
numerous,  took  place  as  usual  out  of  England.  During  this 
period  the  retrograde  movement  which  the  Wars  of  the 
Eoses  set  up,  was  reversed,  and  popular  power  greatly  in 
creased  ;  so  that  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Bagehot,  "  the  slavish 
parliament  of  Henry  VIII.  grew  into  the  murmuring  parlia 
ment  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  mutinous  Parliament  of 
James  I.,  and  the  rebellious  parliament  of  Charles  I/'  Mean 
while  France,  during  the  first  third  of  this  period,  had  been 
engaged  in  almost  continuous  external  wars  with  Itaty, 
Spain,  and  Austria ;  while  during  the  remaining  two-thirds, 
it  suffered  from  almost  continuous  internal  wars,  religious 
and  political :  the  accompanying  result  being  that,  notwith 
standing  resistances  from  time  to  time  made,  the  monarchy 
became  increasingly  despotic.  Fully  to  make  manifest 

the  different  social  types  which  had  been  evolved  under  these 
different  conditions,  we  have  to  compare  not  only  the  respec 
tive  political  constitutions  but  also  the  respective  systems  of 
social  control.  Observe  what  these  were  at  the  time  when 
there  commenced  that  reaction  which  ended  in  the  French 
revolution.  In  harmony  with  the  theory  of  the  militant  type, 
that  the  individual  is  in  life,  liberty,  and  property,  owned  by 
the  State,  the  monarch  was  by  some  held  to  be  the  universal 
proprietor.  The  burdens  he  imposed  upon  landowners  were 
so  grievous  that  a  part  of  them  preferred  abandoning  their 
estates  to  paying.  Then  besides  the  taking  of  property  by 


624:  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

the  State,  there  was  the  taking  of  labour.  One-fo.irth  of  tha 
working  days  in  the  year  went  to  the  corvees,  due  now  to  the 
king  and  now  to  the  feudal  lord.  Such  liberties  as  were 
allowed,  had  to  be  paid  for  and  again  paid  for :  the  municipal 
privileges  of  towns  being  seven  times  in  twenty-eight  years 
withdrawn  and  re-sold  to  them.  Military  services  of  nobles 
and  people  were  imperative  to  whatever  extent  the  king 
demanded ;  and  conscripts  were  drilled  under  the  lash.  At 
the  same  time  that  the  subjection  of  the  individual  to  the 
State  was  pushed  to  such  an  extreme  by  exactions  of  money 
and  services  that  the  impoverished  people  cut  the  grain  whilo 
it  was  green,  ate  grass,  and  died  of  starvation  in  multitudes, 
the  State  did  little  to  guard  their  persons  and  homes.  Con 
temporary  writers  enlarge  on  the  immense  numbers  of  high 
way  robberies,  burglaries,  assassinations,  and  torturings  of 
people  to  discover  their  hoards.  Herds  of  vagabonds,  levying 
blackmail,  roamed  about;  and  when,  as  a  remedy,  penalties 
were  imposed,  innocent  persons  denounced  as  vagabonds  were 
sent  to  prison  without  evidence.  No  personal  security  could 
be  had  either  against  the  ruler  or  against  powerful  enemies. 
In  Paris  there  were  some  thirty  prisons  where  untried  and 
unsentenced  people  might  be  incarcerated  ;  and  the  "  brigand 
age  of  justice"  annually  cost  suitors  forty  to  sixty  millions 
of  francs.  While  the  State,  aggressing  on  citizens  to  such 
extremes,  thus  failed  to  protect  them  against  one  another,  it 
was  active  in  regulating  their  private  lives  and  labours. 
[Religion  was  dictated  to  the  extent  that  Protestants  were  im 
prisoned,  sent  to  the  galleys,  or  whipped,  and  their  ministers 
hanged.  The  quantity  of  salt  (on  which  there  was  a  heavy 
tax)  to  be  consumed  by  each  person  was  prescribed ;  as  were 
also  the  modes  of  its  use.  Industry  of  every  kind  was  super 
vised.  Certain  crops  were  prohibited ;  and  vines  destroyed 
that  were  on  soils  considered  unfit.  The  wheat  that  might 
be  bought  at  market  was  limited  to  two  bushels ;  and  sales 
took  place  in  presence  of  dragoons.  Manufacturers  were 
regulated  in  their  processes  and  products  to  the  extent  that 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  TYPE  OF   SOCIETY.  625 

there  was  destruction  of  improved  appliances  and  of  goods 
not  made  according  to  law,  as  well  as  penalties  upon  in 
ventors.  Regulations  succeeded  one  another  so  rapidly  that 
amid  their  multiplicity,  government  agents  found  it  difficult 
to  carry  them  out ;  and  with  increasing  official  orders  there 
en  me  increasing  swarms  of  public  functionaries.  Turning 
now  to  England  at  the  same  period,  we  see  that  along  with 
progress  towards  the  industrial  type  of  political  structure, 
carried  to  the  extent  that  the  House  of  Commons  had  become 
the  predominant  power,  there  had  gone  a  progress  towards 
the  accompanying  social  system.  Though  the  subjection  of 
the  individual  to  the  State  was  considerably  greater  than  now, 
it  was  far  less  than  in  France.  His  private  rights  were  not 
sacrificed  in  the  same  unscrupulous  way;  and  he  was  not  in 
danger  of  a  lettre  de  cachet.  Though  justice  was  very  imper 
fectly  administered,  still  it  was  not  administered  so  wretchedly: 
there  was  a  fair  amount  of  personal  security,  and  aggressions 
on  property  were  kept  within  bounds.  The  disabilities  of 
Protestant  dissenters  were  diminished  early  in  the  century ; 
and,  later  on,  those  of  Catholics.  Considerable  freedom  of 
the  press  was  acquired,  showing  itself  in  the  discussion  of 
political  questions,  as  well  as  in  the  publication  of  par 
liamentary  debates ;  and,  about  the  same  time,  there  came 
free  speech  in  public  meetings.  While  thus  the  State 
aggressed  on  the  individual  less  and  protected  him  more,  it 
interfered  to  a  smaller  extent  with  his  daily  transactions. 
Though  there  was  much  regulation  of  commerce  and  industry, 
yet  it  was  pushed  to  no  such  extreme  as  that  which  in  France 
subjected  agriculturists,  manufacturers,  and  merchants,  to  an 
army  of  officials  who  directed  their  acts  at  every  turn.  In 
brief,  the  contrast  between  our  state  and  that  of  France  was 
such  as  to  excite  the  surprise  and  admiration  of  various  French 
writers  of  the  time  ;  from  whom  Mr.  Buckle  quotes  numerous 
passages  showing  this. 

Most  significant  of  all,  however,  are  the  changes  in  England 
itself,  first  retrogressive  and  then  progressive,  that  occurred 


626  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

during  the  war-period  which  extended  from  1775  to  1815, 
and  during  the  subsequent  period  of  peace.     At  the  end  of 
the  last  century  and  the  beginning  of  this,  reversion  towards 
ownership  of  the  individual  by  the  society  had  gone  a  long 
way.     "  To  statesmen,  the  State,  as  a  unit,  was  all  in  all,  and 
it  is  really  difficult  to  find  any  evidence  that  the  people  were 
thought  of  at  all,  except  in  the  relation  of  obedience."     "  The 
Government  regarded  the  people  with  little  other  view  than 
as  a  taxable  and  soldier-yielding  mass."     While  the  militant 
part  of  the  community  had  greatly  developed,  the  industrial 
part  had  approached  towards  the  condition  of  a  permanent 
commissariat.      By   conscription   and    by  press-gangs,   was 
carried  to  a  relatively  vast  extent  that  sacrifice  of  the  citizen 
in  life  and  liberty  which  war   entails ;   and  the  claims  to 
property  were  trenched  on  by  merciless  taxation,  weighing 
down  the  middle  classes  so  grievously  that  they  had  greatly 
to  lower  their  rate  of  living,  while  the  people  at  large  were 
so  distressed  (partly  no  doubt  by  bad  harvests)  that  "  hun 
dreds  ate  nettles  and  other  weeds."     "With  these  major  aggres 
sions   upon  the   individual   by    the   State,   went  numerous 
minor  aggressions.      Irresponsible   agents  of  the   executive 
were  empowered  to  suppress  public  meetings  and  seize  their 
leaders :  death  being  the  punishment  for  those  who  did  not 
disperse  when  ordered.     Libraries  and  news-rooms  could  not 
be  opened  without  licence ;  and  it  was  penal  to  lend  books 
without  permission.     There  were  "  strenuous  attempts  made 
to  silence  the  press ;"  and  booksellers  dared  not  publish  works 
by  obnoxious   authors.     "  Spies   were  paid,  witnesses  were 
suborned,  juries  were  packed,  and  the  habeas  corpus  Act  being 
constantly  suspended,  the  Crown  had  the  power  of  imprison 
ing  without   inquiry   and   without  limitation."     While   the 
Government  taxed  and  coerced  and  restrained  the  citizen  to 
this  extent,  its  protection  of  him  was  inefficient.     It  is  true 
that  the  penal  code  was  made  more  extensive  and  more  severe. 
The  definition  of  treason  was  enlarged,  and  numerous  offences 
were  made  capital  which  were  not  capital  before ;  so  that 


TOE   INDUSTRIAL  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  627 

there  was  "a  vast  and  absurd  variety  of  offences  for  which 
men  and  women  were  sentenced  to  death  by  the  score  :"  there 
was  "  a  devilish  levity  in  dealing  with  human  life."  But  at 
the  same  time  there  was  not  an  increase,  but  rather  a  decrease, 
of  security.  As  says  Mr.  Pike  in  his  History  of  Crime  in 
England,  "  it  became  apparent  that  the  greater  the  strain  of 
the  conflict  the  greater  is  the  danger  of  a  reaction  towards 
violence  and  lawlessness."  Turn  now  to  the  opposite 

picture.  After  recovery  from  the  prostration  which  prolonged 
wars  had  left,  and  after  the  dying  away  of  those  social  per 
turbations  caused  by  impoverishment,  there  began  a  revival  of 
traits  proper  to  the  industrial  type.  Coercion  of  the  citizen 
by  the  State  decreased  in  various  ways.  Voluntary  enlist 
ment  replaced  compulsory  military  service ;  and  there  dis 
appeared  some  minor  restraints  over  personal  freedom,  as 
instance  the  repeal  of  laws  which  forbade  artizans  to  travel 
where  they  pleased,  and  which  interdicted  trades-unions. 
With  these  manifestations  of  greater  respect  for  personal 
freedom,  may  be  joined  those  shown  in  the  amelioration  of  the 
penal  code:  the  public  whipping  of  females  being  first 
abolished ;  then  the  long  list  of  capital  offences  being  reduced 
until  there  finally  remained  but  one ;  and,  eventually,  the  pillory 
and  imprisonment  for  debt  being  abolished.  Such  penalties 
on  religious  independence  as  remained  disappeared ;  first  by 
removal  of  those  directed  against  Protestant  Dissenters,  and 
then  of  those  which  weighed  on  Catholics,  and  then  of 
some  which  told  specially  against  Quakers  and  Jews.  By 
the  Parliamentary  Eeform  Bill  and  the  Municipal  Eeform 
Bill,  vast  numbers  were  removed  from  the  subject  classes 
to  the  governing  classes.  Interferences  with  the  business- 
transactions  of  citizens  were  diminished  by  allowing  fveo 
trade  in  bullion,  by  permitting  joint-stock  banks,  by  abolish 
ing  multitudinous  restrictions  on  the  importation  of  com 
modities — leaving  eventually  but  few  which  pay  duty.  More 
over  while  these  and  kindred  changes,  such  as  the  removal 
of  restraining  burdens  on  the  press,  decreased  the  impedi- 
99 


C28  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

ments  to  free  actions  of  citizens,  the  protective  action  of 
the  State  was  increased.  By  a  greatly-improved  police  system, 
by  county  courts,  and  so  forth,  personal  safety  and  claims 
to  property  were  better  secured. 

Not  to  elaborate  the  argument  further  by  adding  the  case 
of  the  United  States,  which  repeats  with  minor  differences 
the  same  relations  of  phenomena,  the  evidence  given  ade 
quately  supports  the  proposition  laid  down.  Amid  all  the 
complexities  and  perturbations,  comparisons  show  us  with 
sufficient  clearness  that  in  actually-existing  societies  those 
attributes  which  we  inferred  must  distinguish  the  industrial 
type,  show  themselves  clearly  in  proportion  as  the  social 
activities  are  predominantly  characterized  by  exchange  of 
services  under  agreement. 

§  574  As,  in  the  last  chapter,  we  noted  the  traits  of  cha 
racter  proper  to  the  members  of  a  society  which  is  habitually 
at  war;  so  here,  we  have  to  note  the  traits  of  character 
proper  to  the  members  of  a  society  occupied  exclusively  in 
peaceful  pursuits.  Already  in  delineating  above,  the  rudi 
ments  of  the  industrial  type  of  social  structure  as  exhibited 
in  certain  small  groups  of  unwarlike  peoples,  some  indications 
of  the  accompanying  personal  qualities  have  been  given;  but 
it  will  be  well  now  to  emphasize  these  and  add  to  them, 
before  observing  the  kindred  personal  qualities  in  more 
advanced  industrial  communities. 

Absence  of  a  centralized  coercive  rule,  implying  as  it  does 
feeble  political  restraints  exercised  by  the  society  over  its 
units,  is  accompanied  by  a  strong  sense  of  individual  freedom, 
and  a,  determination  to  maintain  it.  The  amiable  Bodo  and 
Dhimals,  as  we  have  seen,  resist  "injunctions  injudiciously 
urged  with  dogged  obstinacy."  The  peaceful  Lepchas  "  un 
dergo  great  privations  rather  than  submit  to  oppression  or 
injustice."  The  "simple-minded  Santal"  has  a  "strong 
natural  sense  of  justice,  and  should  any  attempt  be  made  to 
coerce  him,  he  flies  the  country."  Similarly  of  a  tribe  not 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  629 

before  mentioned,  the  Jakuns  of  the  South  Malayan  Peninsula, 
who,  described  as  "  entirely  inoffensive,"  personally  brave 
"but  peaceful,  and  as  under  no  control  but  that  of  popularly- 
appointed  heads  who  settle  their  disputes,  are  also  described 
as  "  extremely  proud :"  the  so-called  pride  being  exemplified 
by  the  statement  that  their  remarkably  good  qualities  "induced 
several  persons  to  make  attempts  to  domesticate  them,  but 
such  essays  have  generally  ended  in  the  Jakuns'  disappearance 
on  the  slightest  coercion." 

With  a  strong  sense  of  their  own  claims,  these  un warlike 
men  display  unusual  respect  for  the  claims  of  others.  This  is 
shown  in  the  first  place  by  the  rarity  of  personal  collisions 
among  them.  Hodgson  says  that  the  Bodo  and  the  Dhimals 
"  are  void  of  all  violence  towards  their  own  people  or  towards 
their  neighbours."  Of  the  peaceful  tribes  of  the  Neilgherry 
Hills,  Colonel  Ouchterlony  writes: — "drunkenness  and 
violence  are  unknown  amongst  them.'*  Campbell  remarks  of 
the  Lepchas,  that "  they  rarely  quarrel  among  themselves."  The 
Jakuns,  too,  "  have  very  seldom  quarrels  among  themselves ;" 
and  such  disputes  as  arise  are  settled  by  their  popularly-chosen 
heads  "without  fighting  or  malice/'  In  like  manner  the 
Arafuras  "  live  in  peace  and  brotherly  love  with  one  another." 
Further,  in  the  accounts  of  these  peoples  we  read  nothing 
about  the  lex  talionis.  In  the  absence  of  hostilities  with  adja 
cent  groups  there  does  not  exist  within  each  group  that 
"  sacred  duty  of  blood-revenge "  universally  recognized  iu 
military  tribes  and  nations.  Still  more  significantly,  we 
find  evidence  of  the  opposite  doctrine  and  practice.  Says 
Campbell  of  the  Lepchas — "  they  are  singularly  forgiving  of 
injuries  .  .  .  making  mutual  amends  and  concessions." 

Naturally,  with  respect  for  others'  individualities  thus 
shown,  goes  respect  for  their  claims  to  property.  Already  in 
the  preliminary  chapter  I  have  quoted  testimonies  to  the 
great  honesty  of  the  Bodo  and  the  Dhimals,  the  Lepchas,  the 
Santals,  the  Todas,  and  other  peoples  kindred  in  their  form  of 
social  life ;  and  here  I  may  add  further  ones.  Of  the  Lepchas, 


630  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

Hooker  remarks  : — "  in  all  my  dealings  with  these  people,  they 
proved  scrupulously  honest."  "Among  the  pure  Santals," 
writes  Hunter,  "  crime  and  criminal  officers  are  unknown ;" 
while  of  the  Hos,  belonging  to  the  same  group  as  the  Santals, 
Dalton  says,  "  a  reflection  on  a  man's  honesty  or  veracity 
may  be  sufficient  to  send  him  to  self-destruction."  Shortt 
testifies  that  "  the  Todas,  as  a  body,  have  never  been  convicted 
of  heinous  crimes  of  any  kind  ;"  and  concerning  other  tribes 
of  the  Shervaroy  Hills,  he  states  that  "crime  of  a  serious 
nature  is  unknown  amongst  them."  Again  of  the  Jakuns  we 
read  that  "  they  are  never  known  to  steal  anything,  not  even 
the  most  insignificant  trifle."  And  so  of  certain  natives  of 
Malacca  who  "  are  naturally  of  a  commercial  tarn,"  Jukes 
writes  : — "  no  part  of  the  world  is  freer  from  crime  than  the 
district  of  Malacca ;"  "  a  few  petty  cases  of  assault,  or  of 
disputes  about  property  .  .  .  are  all  that  occur." 

Thus  free  from  the  coercive  rule  which  warlike  activities 
necessitate,  and  without  the  sentiment  which  makes  the 
needful  subordination  possible — thus  maintaining  their  own 
claims  while  respecting  the  like  claims  of  others — thus 
devoid  of  the  vengeful  feelings  which  aggressions  without 
and  within  the  tribe  generate ;  these  peoples,  instead  of  the 
bloodthirstiness,  the  cruelty,  the  selfish  trampling  upon  in 
feriors,  characterizing  militant  tribes  and  societies,  display,  in 
unusual  degrees,  the  humane  sentiments.  Insisting  on  their 
amiable  qualities,  Hodgson  describes  the  Bodo  and  the 
Dhimals  as  being  "  almost  entirely  free  from  such  as  are 
unamiable."  Kemarking  that  "  while  courteous  and  hos 
pitable  he  is  firm  and  free  from  cringing,"  Hunter  tells  113 
of  the  Santal  that  he  thinks  "  uncharitable  men  "  will  suffer 
after  death.  Saying  that  the  Lepchas  are  "  ever  foremost  i  n 
the  forest  or  on  the  bleak  mountain,  and  ever  ready  to  help, 
to  carry,  to  encamp,  collect,  or  cook,"  Hooker  adds — "  they 
cheer  on  the  traveller  by  their  unostentatious  zeal  in  his 
service  ;"  and  he  also  adds  that,  "a  present  is  divided  equally 
amongst  many,  without  a  syllable  of  discontent  or  grudging 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  631 

look  or  word."  Of  the  Jakuns,  too,  Favre  tells  us  that 
"  they  are  generally  kind,  affable,  inclined  to  gratitude  and  to 
beneficence : "  their  tendency  being  not  to  ask  favours  but  to 
confer  them.  And  then  of  the  peaceful  Arafuras  we  learn 
from  Kolff  that— 

"  They  have  a  very  excusable  ambition  to  gain  the  name  of  rich  men, 
by  paying  the  debts  of  their  poorer  villagers.  The  officer  [M.  Bik], 
whom  I  quoted  above,  related  to  me  a  very  striking  instance  of  thia. 
At  Affara  he  was  present  at  the  election  of  the  village  chiefs,  two  indi 
viduals  aspiring  to  the  station  of  Orang  Tua.  The  people  chose  the 
elder  of  the  two,  which  greatly  afflicted  the  other,  but  he  soon  after 
wards  expressed  himself  satisfied  with  the  choice  the  people  had  made, 
and  said  to  M.  Bik,  who  had  been  sent  there  on  a  commission,  '  What 
reason  have  I  to  grieve  ;  whether  I  am  Orang  Tua  or  not,  I  still  have 
it  in  my  power  to  assist  my  fellow  villagers.'  Several  old  men  agreed 
to  this,  apparently  to  comfort  him.  Thus  the  only  use  they  make  of 
their  riches  is  to  employ  it  in  settling  differences." 

With  these  superiorities  of  the  social  relations  in  perma 
nently  peaceful  tribes,  go  superiorities  of  the  domestic  rela 
tions.  As  I  have  before  pointed  out  (§  327),  while  the  status 
of  women  is  habitually  very  low  in  tribes  given  to  war  and 
in  more  advanced  militant  societies,  it  is  habitually  very  high 
in  these  primitive  peaceful  societies.  The  Bodo  and  the 
Dhimals,  the  Kocch,  the  Santals,  the  Lepchas,  are  monogamic, 
as  were  also  the  Pueblos ;  and  along  with  their  monogamy 
habitually  goes  a  superior  sexual  morality.  Of  the  Lepchas 
Hooker  says — "  the  females  are  generally  chaste,  and  the 
marriage  tie  is  strictly  kept."  Among  the  Santals  "  unchas- 
tity  is  almost  unknown,"  and  "  divorce  is  rare."  By  the 
Bodo  and  the  Dhimals,  "  polygamy,  concubinage  and  adultery 
are  not  tolerated;"  "chastity  is  prized  in  man  and  woman, 
married  and  unmarried."  Further  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the 
behaviour  to  women  is  extremely  good.  "  The  Santal  treats 
the  female  members  of  his  family  with  respect ; "  the  Bodo 
and  the  Dhimals  "  treat  their  wives  and  daughters  with  con 
fidence  and  kindness ;  they  are  free  from  all  out- door  work 
whatever."  And  even  among  the  Todas,  low  as  are  the  forma 
of  their  sexual  relations,  "  the  wives  are  treated  bv  their 


632  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

husbands  witli  marked  respect  and  attention."  Moreover,  we 
are  told  concerning  sundry  of  these  unwarlike  peoples  that 
the  status  of  children  is  also  high ;  and  there  is  none  of  that 
distinction  of  treatment  between  boys  and  girls  which 
characterizes  militant  peoples. 

Of  course  on  turning  to  the  civilized  to  observe  the  form 
of  individual  character  which  accompanies  the  industrial 
form  of  society,  we  encounter  the  difficulty  that  the  per 
sonal  traits  proper  to  industrialism,  are,  like  the  social 
traits,  mingled  With  those  proper  to  militancy.  It  is  mani^ 
festly  thus  with  ourselves.  A  nation  which,  besides  its 
occasional  serious  wars,  is  continually  carrying  on  small  wars 
with  uncivilized  tribes — a  nation  which  is  mainly  ruled  in 
Parliament  and  through  the  press  by  men  whose  school- 
discipline  led  them  during  six  days  in  the  week  to  take 
Achilles  for  their  hero,  and  on  the  seventh  to  admire  Christ 
— a  nation  which,  at  its  public  dinners,  habitually  toasts  its 
army  and  navy  before  toasting  its  legislative  bodies ;  has  not 
so  far  emerged  out  of  militancy  that  we  can  expect  either  the 
institutions  or  the  characteristics  proper  to  industrialism 
to  be  shown  with  clearness.  In  independence,  in  honesty,  in 
truthfulness,  in  humanity,  its  citizens  are  not  likely  to  be  the 
equals  of  the  uncultured  but  peaceful  peoples  above  de 
scribed.  All  we  may  anticipate  is  an  approach  to  those 
moral  qualities  appropriate  to  a  state  undisturbed  by  inter 
national  hostilities ;  and  this  we  find. 

In  the  first  place,  with  progress  of  the  regime  of  contract 
lias  come  growth  of  independence.  Daily  exchange  of  ser 
vices  under  agreement,  involving  at  once  the  maintenance  of 
personal  claims  and  respect  for  the  claims  of  others,  haa 
fostered  a  normal  self-assertion  and  consequent  resistance  to 
unauthorized  power.  The  facts  that  the  word  "  indepen 
dence/'  in  its  modern  sense,  was  not  in  use  among  us  before 
the  middle  of  the  last  century,  and  that  on  the  continent 
independence  is  less  markedly  displayed,  suggest  the  con 
nexion  between  this  trait  and  a  developing  industrialism. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   TYPE    OF    SOCIETY.  633 

The  trait  is  shown  in  the  multitudinousness  of  religious  sects, 
in  the  divisions  of  political  parties,  and,  in  minor  ways,  by 
the  absence  of  those  "  schools  "  in  art,  philosophy,  &c..  which, 
among  continental  peoples,  are  formed  by  the  submission  of 
disciples. to  an  adopted  master.  That  Englishmen  show,  more 
than  their  neighbours,  a  jealousy  of  dictation,  and  a  determi 
nation  to  act  as  they  think  fit,  will  not,  I  think,  be  disputed. 

The  diminished  subordination  to  authority,  which  is  the 
obverse  of  this  independence,  of  course  implies  decrease  of 
loyalty.  Worship  of  the  monarch,  at  no  time  with  us  reach 
ing  the  height  it  did  in  France  early  in  the  last  century,  or 
in  Russia  down  to  recent  times,  has  now  changed  into  a 
respect  depending  very  much  on  the  monarch's  personal 
character.  Our  days  witness  no  such  extreme  servilities  of 
expression  as  were  used  by  ecclesiastics  in  the  dedication  of 
the  Bible  to  King  James,  nor  any  such  exaggerated  adulations 
as  those  addressed  to  George  III.  by  the  House  of  Lords. 
The  doctrine  of  divine  right  has  long  since  died  away ;  belief 
in  an  indwelling  supernatural  power  (implied  by  the  touching 
for  king's  evil,  &c.)  is  named  as  a  curiosity  of  the  past ;  and 
the  monarchical  institution  has  come  to  be  defended  on  grounds 
of  expediency.  So  great  has  been  the  decrease  of  this  senti 
ment  which,  under  the  militant  rfyime,  attaches  subject  to 
ruler,  that  now-a-days  the  conviction  commonly  expressed  is 
that,  should  the  throne  be  occupied  by  a  Charles  II.  or  a 
George  IV.,  there  would  probably  result  a  republic.  And 
this  change  of  feeling  is  shown  in  the  attitude  towards  the 
Government  as  a  whole.  For  not  only  are  there  many  who 
dispute  the  authority  of  the  State  in  respect  of  sundry 
matters  besides  religious  beliefs,  but  there  are  some  who 
passively  resist  what  they  consider  unjust  exercises  of  its 
authority,  and  pay  fines  or  go  to  prison  rather  than  submit. 

As  this  last  fact  implies,  along  with  decrease  of  loyalty  has 
gone  decrease  of  faith,  not  in  monarchs  only  but  in  govern 
ments.  Such  belief  in  royal  omnipotence  as  existed  in 
ancient  Egypt,  where  the  power  of  the  ruler  was  supposed  to 


634  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

extend  to  the  other  world,  as  it  is  even  now  supposed  to  do 
in  China,  has  had  no  parallel  in  the  West ;  but  still,  among 
Euroj sean  peoples  in  past  times,  that  confidence  in  the  soldier- 
king  essential  to  the  militant  type,  displayed  itself  among 
other  ways  in  exaggerated  conceptions  of  his  ability  to  rectify 
mischiefs,  achieve  benefits,  and  arrange  things  as  he  willed 
If  we  compare  present  opinion  among  ourselves  with  opinion 
in  early  days,  we  find  a  decline  in  these  credulous  expecta 
tions.  Though,  during  the  late  retrograde  movement  towards 
militancy,  State-power  has  been  invoked  for  various  ends, 
and  faith  in  it  has  increased ;  yet,  up  to  the  commencement 
of  this  reaction,  a  great  change  had  taken  place  in  the  other 
direction.  After  the  repudiation  of  a  State-enforced  creed, 
there  came  a  denial  of  the  State's  capacity  for  determining 
religious  truth,  and  a  growing  movement  to  relieve  it  from 
the  function  of  religious  teaching ;  held  to  be  alike  needless 
and  injurious.  Long  ago  it  had  ceased  to  be  thought  that 
Government  could  do  any  good  by  regulating  people's  food, 
clothing,  and  domestic  habits ;  and  over  the  multitudinous 
processes  carried  on  by  producers  and  distributors,  constitut 
ing  immensely  the  larger  part  of  our  social  activities,  we  no 
longer  believe  that  legislative  dictation  is  beneficial.  More 
over,  every  newspaper  by  its  criticisms  on  the  acts  of  ministers 
and  the  conduct  of  the  House  of  Commons,  betrays  the 
diminished  faith  of  citizens  in  their  rulers.  NOT  is  it  only 
by  contrasts  between  past  and  present  among  ourselves  that 
we  are  shown  this  trait  of  a  more  developed  industrial  state. 
It  is  shown  by  kindred  contrasts  between  opinion  here  arid 
opinion  abroad.  The  speculations  of  social  reformers  in 
France  and  in  Germany,  prove  that  the  hope  for  benefits  to 
be  achieved  by  State-agency  is  far  higher  with  them  than 
with  us. 

Along  with  decrease  of  loyalty  and  concomitant  decrease  of 
faith  in  the  powers  of  governments,  lias  gone  decrease  of 
patriotism — patriotism,  that  is,  under  its  original  form.  To 
light  "  for  king  and  country "  is  an  ambition  which  now-a- 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  635 

days  occupies  but  a  small  space  in  men's  minds ;  and  though 
there  is  among  us  a  majority  whose  sentiment  is  represented 
by  the  exclamation — "  Our  country,  right  or  wrong !  "  yet 
there  are  large  numbers  whose  desire  for  human  welfare  at 
large,  so  far  oveiride?  their  desire  for  national  prestige,  that 
they  object  to  sacrificing  the  first  to  the  last.  The  spirit  of 
self-criticism,  which  in  sundry  respects  leads  us  to  make  un 
favourable  comparisons  between  ourselves  and  our  continental 
neighbours,  leads  us  more  than  heretofore  to  blame  ourselves 
for  wrong  conduct  to  weaker  peoples.  The  many  and  strong 
reprobations  of  our  dealings  with  the  Afghans,  the  Zulus,  and 
the  Boers,  show  that  there  is  a  large  amount  of  the  feeling 
reprobated  by  the  "  Jingo  "-class  as  unpatriotic. 

That  adaptation  of  individual  nature  to  social  needs,  which, 
in  the  militant  state,  makes  men  glory  in  war  and  despise 
peaceful  pursuits,  has  partially  brought  about  among  us  a 
converse  adjustment  of  the  sentiments.  The  occupation  of 
the  soldier  has  ceased  to  be  so  much  honoured,  and  that  of 
the  civilian  is  more  honoured.  During  the  forty  years'  peace, 
the  popular  sentiment  became  such  that  "  soldiering "  was 
spoken  of  contemptuously;  and  those  who  enlisted,  habitually 
the  idle  and  the  dissolute,  were  commonly  regarded  as  having 
completed  their  disgrace.  Similarly  in  America  before  the 
late  civil  war,  such  small  military  gatherings  and  exercises  as 
from  time  to  time  occurred,  excited  general  ridicule.  Mean 
while  we  see  that  labours,  bodily  and  mental,  useful  to  self 
and  others,  have  come  to  be  not  only  honourable  but  in  a 
considerable  degree  imperative.  In  America  the  adverse 
comments  on  a  man  who  does  nothing,  almost  force  him  into 
some  active  pursuit;  and  among  ourselves  the  respect  for 
industrial  life  has  become  such  that  men  of  high  rank  put 
their  sons  into  business. 

While,  as  we  saw,  the  compulsory  cooperation  proper  to 
militancy,  forbids,  or  greatly  discourages,  individual  initiative, 
the  voluntary  cooperation  which  distinguishes  industrialism, 
gives  free  scope  to  individual  initiative,  and  develops  it  by 


636  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

letting  enterprise  bring  its  normal  advantages.  Those  who 
are  successfully  original  in  idea  and  act,  prospering  and 
multiplying  in  a  greater  degree  than  others,  produce,  in  course 
of  time,  a  general  type  of  nature  ready  to  undertake  new 
things.  The  speculative  tendencies  of  English  and  American 
capitalists,  and  the  extent  to  which  large  undertakings,  both 
at  home  and  abroad,  are  carried  out  by  them,  sufficiently 
indicate  this  trait  of  character.  Though,  along  with  consider 
able  qualifications  of  militancy  by  industrialism  on  the  con 
tinent,  there  has  occurred  there,  too,  an  extension  of  private 
enterprise;  yet  the  fact  that  while  many  towns  in  France  and 
Germany  have  been  supplied  with  gas  and  water  by  English 
companies,  there  is  in  England  but  little  of  kindred  achieve 
ment  by  foreign  companies,  shows  that  among  the  more 
industrially-modified  English,  individual  initiative  is  more 
decided. 

There  is  evidence  that  the  decline  of  international  hostili 
ties,  associated  as  it  is  with  the  decline  of  hostilities  between 
families  and  between  individuals,  is  followed  by  a  weakening 
of  revengeful  sentiments.  This  is  implied  by  the  fact  that  in 
our  own  country  the  more  serious  of  these  private  wars  early 
ceased,  leaving  only  the  less  serious  in  the  form  of  duels, 
which  also  have  at  length  ceased :  their  cessation  coinciding 
with  the  recent  great  development  of  industrial  life — a  fact 
with  which  may  be  joined  the  fact  that  in  the  more  militant 
societies,  France  and  Germany,  they  have  not  ceased.  So 
much  among  ourselves  has  the  authority  of  the  lex  talionis 
waned,  that  a  man  whose  actions  are  known  to  be  prompted 
by  the  wish  for  vengeance  on  one  who  has  injured  him,  is 
reprobated  rather  than  applauded. 

With  decrease  of  the  aggressiveness  shown  in  acts  of 
violence  and  consequent  acts  of  retaliation,  has  gone  decrease 
of  the  aggressiveness  shown  in  criminal  acts  at  large.  That 
this  change  has  been  a  concomitant  of  the  change  from  a 
more  militant  to  a  more  industrial  state,  cannot  be  doubted 
by  one  who  studies  the  history  of  crime  in  England.  Says 


THE  INDUSTRIAL   TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  637 

Mr.  Pike  in  his  work  on  that  subject,  "  the  close  connexion 
between  the  military  spirit  and  those  actions  which  are  now 
legally  defined  to  be  crimes,  has  been  pointed  out,  again  and 
again,  in  the  course  of  this  history."  If  we  compare  a  past 
age  in  which  the  effects  of  hostile  activities  had  been  less 
qualified  by  the  effects  of  peaceful  activities  than  they  are  in 
our  own  age,  we  see  a  marked  contrast  in  respect  of  the 
numbers  and  kinds  of  offences  against  person  and  property. 
We  have  no  longer  any  English  buccaneers ;  wreckers  have 
ceased  to  be  heard  of;  and  travellers  do  not  now  prepare 
themselves  to  meet  highwaymen.  Moreover,  that  flagitious- 
ness  of  the  governing  agencies  themselves,  which  was  shown 
by  the  venality  of  ministers  and  members  of  Parliament,  and 
by  the  corrupt  administration  of  justice,  has  disappeared. 
With  decreasing  amount  of  crime  has  come  increasing  repro 
bation  of  crime.  Biographies  of  pirate  captains,  suffused 
frith  admiration  of  their  courage,  no  longer  find  a  place  in 
our  literature  ;  and  the  sneaking  kindness  for  "  gentlemen  of 
the  road,"  is,  in  our  days,  but  rarelv  displayed.  Many  as  are 
the  transgressions  which  our  journals  report,  they  have  greatly 
diminished ;  and  though  in  trading  transactions  there  is  much 
dishonesty  (chiefly  of  the  indirect  sort)  it  needs  but  to  read 
Defoe's  English  Tradesman,  to  see  how  marked  has  been  the 
improvement  since  his  time.  Nor  must  we  forget  that  the 
change  of  character  which  has  brought  a  decrease  of  unjust 
actions,  has  brought  an  increase  of  beneficent  actions  ;  as  seen 
in  paying  for  slave- emancipation,  in  nursing  the  wounded 
soldiers  of  our  fighting  neighbours,  in  philanthropic  efforts  of 
countless  kinds. 

§  575.  As  with  the  militant  type  then,  so  with  the  indus 
trial  type,  three  lines  of  evidence  converge  to  show  us  its 
essential  nature.  Let  us  set  down  briefly  the  several  results, 
that  we  may  observe  the  correspondences  among  them. 

On  considering  what  must  be  the  traits  of  a  society 
organized  exclusively  for  carrying  on  internal  activities,  so  as 


638  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

most  efficiently  to  subserve  the  lives  of  citizens,  we  find  them 
to  be  these.  A  corporate  action  subordinating  individual 
actions  by  uniting  them  in  joint  effort,  is  no  longer  requisite. 
Contrariwise,  such  corporate  action  as  remains  has  for  its 
end  to  guard  individual  actions  against  all  interferences  not 
necessarily  entailed  by  mutual  limitation  :  the  type  of  sociefy 
in  which  this  function  is  best  discharged,  being  that  which 
must  survive,  since  it  is  that  of  which  the  members  will  most 
prosper.  Excluding,  as  the  requirements  of  the  industrial 
type  do,  a  despotic  controlling  agency,  they  imply,  as  the 
only  congruous  agency  for  achieving  such  corporate  action  as 
is  needed,  one  formed  of  representatives  who  serve  to  express 
the  aggregate  will.  The  function  of  this  controlling  agency, 
generally  defined  as  that  of  administering  justice,  is  more 
specially  defined  as  that  of  seeing  that  each  citizen  gains 
neither  more  nor  less  of  benefit  than  his  activities  normally 
bring ;  and  there  is  thus  excluded  all  public  action  involving 
any  artificial  distribution  of  benefits.  The  regime  of  status 
proper  to  militancy  having  disappeared,  the  regime  of  contract 
which  replaces  it  has  to  be  universally  enforced;  and  this 
negatives  interferences  between  efforts  and  results  by  arbitrary 
apportionment.  Otherwise  regarded,  the  industrial  type  is 
distinguished  from  the  militant  type  as  being  not  both  posi 
tively  regulative  and  negatively  regulative,  but  as  being 
negatively  regulative  only.  With  this  restricted  sphere  for 
corporate  action  comes  an  increased  sphere  for  individual 
action ;  and  from  that  voluntary  cooperation  which  is  the 
fundamental  principle  of  the  type,  arise  multitudinous  private 
combinations,  akin  in  their  structures  to  the  public  com 
bination  of  the  society  which  includes  them.  Indirectly  it 
results  that  a  society  of  the  industrial  type  is  distinguished 
by  plasticity ;  and  also  that  it  tends  to  lose  its  economic 
autonomy,  and  to  coalesce  with  adjacent  societies. 

The  question  next  considered  was,  whether  these  traits  of 
the  industrial  type  as  arrived  at  by  deduction  are  inductively 
verified;  and  we  found  that  in  actual  societies  they  are  visible 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  639 

more  or  less  clearly  in  proportion  as  industrialism  is  more  or 
less  developed.  Glancing  at  those  small  groups  of  uncultured 
people  who,  wholly  unwarlike,  display  the  industrial  type  in 
its  rudimentary  form,  we  went  on  to  compare  the  structures 
of  European  nations  at  large  in  early  days  of  chronic  mili 
tancy,  with  their  structures  in  modern  days  characterized  by 
progressing  industrialism ;  and  we  saw  the  differences  to  be 
of  the  kind  implied.  We  next  compared  two  of  these 
societies,  France  and  England,  which  were  once  in  kindred 
states,  but  of  which  the  one  has  had  its  industrial  life  much 
more  repressed  by  its  militant  life  than  the  other ;  and  it 
became  manifest  that  the  contrasts  which,  age  after  age,  arose 
between  their  institutions,  were  such  as  answer  to  the  hypo 
thesis.  Lastly,  limiting  ourselves  to  England  itself,  and  first 
noting  how  recession  from  such  traits  of  the  industrial  type 
as  had  shown  themselves,  occurred  during  a  long  war-period, 
we  observed  how,  during  the  subsequent  long  period  of  peace 
beginning  in  1815,  there  were  numerous  and  decided  ap 
proaches  to  that  social  structure  which  we  concluded  must 
accompany  developed  industrialism. 

We  then  inquired  what  type  of  individual  nature  accom 
panies  the  industrial  type  of  society  ;  with  the  view  of  seeing 
whether,  from  the  character  of  the  unit  as  well  as  from  the 
character  of  the  aggregate,  confirmation  is  to  be  derived. 
Certain  uncultured  peoples  whose  lives  are  passed  in  peaceful 
occupations,  proved  to  be  distinguished  by  independence, 
resistance  to  coercion,  honesty,  truthfulness,  forgivingness, 
kindness.  On  contrasting  the  characters  of  our  ancestors 
during  more  warlike  periods  with  our  own  characters,  we  see 
that,  with  an  increasing  ratio  of  industrialism  to  militancy, 
have  come  a  growing  independence,  a  less-marked  loyalty,  a 
smaller  faith  in  governments,  and  a  more  qualified  patriotism ; 
and  while,  by  enterprising  action,  by  diminished  faith  in 
authority,  by  resistance  to  irresponsible  power,  there  has  been 
shown  a  strengthening  assertion  of  individuality,  there  has 
accompanied  it  a  growing  respect  for  the  individualities  of 


640  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

others,  as  is  implied  by  the  diminution  of  aggressions  upon 
them  and  the  multiplication  of  efforts  for  their  welfare. 

To  prevent  misapprehension  it  seems  needful,  before  closing, 
to  explain  that  these  traits  are  to  be  regarded  less  as  the 
immediate  results  of  industrialism  than  as  the  remote  results 
of  non-militancy.  It  is  not  so  much  that  a  social  life  passed 
in  peaceful  occupations  is  positively  moralizing,  as  that  a 
social  life  passed  in  war  is  positively  demoralizing.  Sacrifice 
of  others  to  self  is  in  the  one  incidental  only ;  while  in  the 
other  it  is  necessary.  Such  aggressive  egoism  as  accom 
panies  the  industrial  life  is  extrinsic  ;  whereas  the  aggressive 
egoism  of  the  militant  life  is  intrinsic.  Though  generally 
unsympathetic,  the  exchange  of  services  under  agreement  is 
now,  to  a  considerable  extent,  and  may  be  wholly,  carried  on 
with  a  due  regard  to  the  claims  of  others — may  be  constantly 
accompanied  by  a  sense  of  benefit  given  as  well  as  benefit 
received  ;  but  the  slaying  of  antagonists,  the  burning  of  their 
houses,  the  appropriation  of  their  territory,  cannot  but  be 
accompanied  by  vivid  consciousness  of  injury  done  them, 
and  a  consequent  brutalizing  effect  on  the  feelings — an  effect 
wrought,  not  on  soldiers  only,  but  on  those  who  employ  them 
and  contemplate  their  deeds  with  pleasure.  The  last  form  of 
social  life,  therefore,  inevitably  deadens  the  sympathies  and 
generates  a  state  of  mind  which  prompts  crimes  of  trespass ; 
while  the  first  form,  allowing  the  sympathies  free  play  if  it 
does  not  directly  exercise  them,  favours  the  growth  of  altru 
istic  sentiments  and  the  resulting  virtues. 

NOTE. — This  reference  to  the  natural  genesis  of  a  higher  moral  nature, 
recalls  a  controversy  some  time  since  carried  on.  In  a  "  Symposium  "  pub 
lished  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  for  April  and  May,  1877,  was  discussed 
"  the  influence  upon  morality  of  a  decline  in  religious  belief  :  "  the  question 
eventually  raised  being  whether  morality  can  exist  without  religion.  Not 
much  difficulty  in  answering  this  question  will  be  felt  by  those  who,  from 
the  conduct  of  the  rude  tribes  described  in  this  chapter,  turn  to  that  of 
Europeans  during  a  great  part  of  the  Christian  era  ;  with  its  innumerable  and 
immeasurable  public  and  private  atrocities,  its  bloody  aggressive  wars,  its 
ceaseless  family-vendettas,  its  bandit  barons  and  fighting  bishops,  its  massa 
cres,  political  and  religious,  its  torturings  and  burnings,  its  all-pervading  crinv 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  TYPE   OF   SOCIETY.  641 

from  the  assassinations  of  and  by  kings  down  to  the  lyings  and  petty  thefts  of 
slaves  and  serfs.  Nor  do  the  contrasts  between  our  own  conduct  at  the 
present  time  and  the  conduct  of  these  so-called  savages,  leave  us  in  doubt  con 
cerning  the  right  answer.  When,  after  reading  police  reports,  criminal  assize 
proceedings,  accounts  of  fraudulent  bankruptcies,  &c.,  which  in  our  journals 
accompany  advertisements  of  sermons  and  reports  of  religious  meetings, 
•we  learn  that  the  "  amiable  "  Bodo  and  Dhimals,  who  are  so  "  honest  and 
truthful,"  "  have  no  word  for  God,  for  soul,  for  heaven,  for  hell"  (though 
they  have  ancestor-worship  and  some  derivative  beliefs),  we  find  ourselves 
unable  to  recognize  the  alleged  connexion.  If,  side  by  side  with  narratives  of 
bank-frauds,  rail  way -jobbings,  turf-chicaneries,  &e.,  among  people  who  are 
anxious  that  the  House  of  Commons  should  preserve  its  theism  untainted,  wo 
place  descriptions  of  the  "  fascinating  "  Lepchas,  who  are  so  "  wonderfully 
honest,"  but  who  "profess  no  religion,  though  acknowledging  the  existence 
of  good  and  bad  spirits  "  (to  the  last  of  whom  only  they  pay  any  attention), 
we  do  not  see  our  way  to  accepting  the  dogma  which  our  theologians  think  so 
obviously  true  ;  nor  will  acceptance  of  it  be  made  easier  when  we  add  the 
description  of  the  conscientious  Santal,  who  "  never  thinks  of  making  money 
by  a  stranger,"  and  "  feels  pained  if  payment  is  pressed  upon  him  "  for  food 
offered  ;  but  concerning  whom  we  are  told  that  "  of  a  supreme  and  beneficent 
God  the  Santal  has  no  conception."  Admission  of  the  doctrine  that  right 
conduct  depends  on  theological  conviction,  becomes  difficult  on  reading  that 
the  Veddahs  who  are  "almost  devoid  of  any  sentiment  of  religion  "  and  have 
no  idea  "  of  a  Supreme  Being,"  nevertheless  "  think  it  perfectly  inconceivable 
that  any  person  should  ever  take  that  which  does  not  belong  to  him,  or 
strike  his  fellow,  or  say  anything  that  is  untrue."  After  finding  that  among 
the  select  of  the  select  who  profess  our  established  creed,  the  standard  of 
truthfulness  is  such  that  the  statement  of  a  minister  concerning  cabinet 
transactions  is  distinctly  falsified  by  the  statement  of  a  seceding  minister  j 
and  after  then  recalling  the  marvellous  veracity  of  these  godless  Bodo  and 
Dhimals,  Lepchas,  and  other  peaceful  tribes  having  kindred  beliefs,  going  to 
euch  extent  that  an  imputation  of  falsehood  is  enough  to  make  one  of  the 
Hos  destroy  himself ;  we  fail  to  see  that  in  the  absence  of  a  theistic  belief 
there  can  be  no  regard  for  truth.  When,  in  a  weekly  journal  specially  repre 
senting  the  university  culture  shared  in  by  our  priests,  we  find  a  lament  over 
the  moral  degradation  shown  by  our  treatment  of  the  Boers — when  wre  arc 
held  degraded  because  we  have  not  slaughtered  them  for  successfully  resist 
ing  our  trespasses— when  we  see  that  the  "sacred  duty  of  blood  revenge," 
which  the  cannibal  savage  insists  upon,  is  insisted  upon  by  those  to  who7n 
the  Christian  religion  was  daily  taught  throughout  their  education ;  and 
when,  from  contemplating  this  fact,  we  pass  to  the  fact  that  the  unreligious 
Lepchas  "  are  singularly  forgiving  of  injuries,"  the  assumed  relation  between, 
humanity  and  theism  appears  anything  but  congruous  with  the  evidence.  If, 
with  the  ambitions  of  our  church-going  citizens,  who  (not  always  in  very 
honourable  ways)  strive  to  get  fortunes  that  they  may  make  great  displays, 
and  gratify  themselves  by  thinking  that  at  death  they  will  "cut  up  well,"  wo 
compare  the  ruubitions  of  the  Arafurap,  among  whom  wealth  is  desired  that 


64:2  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

its  possessor  may  pay  the  debts  of  poorer  men  and  settle  differences,  we  are 
obliged  to  reject  the  assumption  that  "  brotherly  love  "  can  exist  only  us  a 
consequence  of  divine  injunctions,  with  promised  rewards  and  threatened 
punishments ;  for  of  these  Araf uras  we  read  that — 

"  Of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  they  hare  not  the  least  conception.  To 
all  my  enquiries  on  the  subject  they  answered,  '  No  Arafura  hns  ever  returned 
to  us  after  death,  therefore  we  know  nothing  of  a  future  state,  and  this  is 
the  first  time  we  have  heard  of  it.'  Their  idea  was,  when  you  are  dead 
there  is  an  end  of  you.  Neither  have  they  any  notion  of  the  creation  of  the 
world.  They  only  answered,  '  None  of  us  were  aware  of  this,  we  have  never 
heard  anything  about  it,  and  therefore  do  not  know  who  has  done  it  all.' " 

The  truth  disclosed  by  the  facts  is  that,  so  far  as  men's  moral  states  are  con 
cerned,  theory  is  almost  nothing  and  practice  is  almost  everything.  No 
matter  how  high  their  nominal  creed,  nations  given  to  political  burglarbs  to 
get  "scientific  frontiers,"  and  the  like,  will  have  among  their  members  many 
vrho  "  annex  "  others'  goods  for  their  own  convenience  ;  and  with  the  orga 
nized  crime  of  aggressive  war,  'will  go  criminality  in  the  behaviour  of  one 
citizen  to  another.  Conversely,  as  these  uncultivated  tribes  prove,  no  matter 
how  devoid  they  are  of  religious  beliefs,  those  who,  generation  after  genera 
tion  remaining  unmolested,  inflict  no  injuries  upon  others,  have  their  altru 
istic  sentiments  fostered  by  the  sympathetic  intercourse  of  a  peaceful  daily 
life,  and  display  the  resulting  virtues.  We  need  teaching  that  it  is  impossible 
to  join  injustice  and  brutality  abroad  with  justice  and  humanity  at  home. 
What  a  pity  these  Heathens  cannot  be  induced  to  send  missionaries  among 
the  Olvribtians  I 


CHAPTER  XIX. 
POLITICAL  EETEOSPECT  AND  PROSPECT. 

§  576.  In  the  foregoing  chapters  little  has  been  said 
concerning  the  doctrine  .of  Evolution  at  large,  as  re-illus 
trated  by  political  evolution ;  though  doubtless  the  observant 
reader  has  occasionally  noted  how  the  transformations  de 
scribed  conform  to  the  general  law  of  transformation.  Here, 
in  summing  up,  it  will  be  convenient  briefly  to  indicate  their 
conformity.  Already  in  Part  II,  when  treating  of  Social 
Growth,  Social  Structures,  and  Social  Functions,  the  outlines 
of  this  correspondence  were  exhibited ;  but  the  materials  for 
exemplifying  it  in  a  more  special  way,  which  have  been  brought 
together  in  this  Part,  may  fitly  be  utilized  to  emphasize  afresh 
a  truth  not  yet  commonly  admitted. 

That  under  its  primary  aspect  political  development  is  a 
process  of  integration,  is  clear.  By  it  individuals  originally 
separate  are  united  into  a  whole  ;  and  the  union  of  them  into 
a  whole  is  variously  shown.  In  the  earliest  stages  the  groups 
of  men  are  small,  they  are  loose,  they  are  not  unified  by 
subordination  to  a  centre.  But  with  political  progress  comes 
the  compounding,  re-compounding,  and  re-re-compounding  of 
groups  until  great  nations  are  produced.  Moreover,  with  that 
settled  life  and  agricultural  development  accompanying  poli 
tical  progress,  there  is  not  only  a  formation  of  societies 
covering  wider  areas,  but  an  increasing  density  of  their  popu 
lations.  Further,  the  loose  aggregation  of  savages  passes  into 
100 


644  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

the  coherent  connexion  of  citizens;  at  one  stage  coercively 
bound  to  one  another  and  to  their  localities  by  family-ties  and 
class-ties,  and  at  a  later  stage  voluntarily  bound  together  by 
their  mutually-dependent  occupations.  Once  more,  there  is 
that  merging  of  individual  wills  in  a  governmental  will,  which 
reduces  a  society,  as  it  reduces  an  army,  to  a  consolidated 
body. 

An  increase  of  heterogeneity  at  the  same  time  goes  on  in 
many  ways.  Everywhere  the  horde,  when  its  members  co 
operate  for  defence  or  offence,  begins  to  differentiate  into  a 
predominant  man,  a  superior  few,  and  an  inferior  many. 
With  that  massing  of  groups  which  war  effects,  there  grow 
out  of  these,  head  chief,  subordinate  chiefs,  and  warriors; 
and  at  higher  stages  of  integration,  kings,  nobles,  and  people : 
each  of  the  two  great  social  strata  presently  becoming  dif 
ferentiated  within  itself.  When  small  societies  have  been 
united,  the  respective  triune  governing  agencies  of  them  grow 
unlike :  the  local  political  assemblies  falling  into  subordina 
tion  to  a  central  political  assembly.  Though,  for  a  time,  the 
central  one  continues  to  be  constituted  after  the  same  manner 
as  the  local  ones,  it  gradually  diverges  in  character  by  loss 
of  its  popular  element.  While  these  local  and  central  bodies 
are  becoming  contrasted  in  their  powers  and  structures,  they 
are  severally  becoming  differentiated  in  another  way.  Origi 
nally  each  is  at  once  military,  political,  and  judicial;  but 
by  and  by  the  assembly  for  judicial  business,  no  longer  armed, 
ceases  to  be  like  the  politico-military  assembly:  and  the 
politico-military  assembly  eventually  gives  origin  to  a  con 
sultative  body,  the  members  of  which,  when  meeting  fcr 
political  deliberation,  come  unarmed.  Within  each  of  these 
divisions,  again,  kindred  changes  subsequently  occur.  While 
themselves  assuming  more  specialized  forms,  local  judicial 
agencies  fall  under  the  control  of  a  central  judicial  agency ; 
and  the  central  judicial  agency,  which  has  separated  from  the 
original  consultative  body,  subdivides  into  parts  or  courts 
which  take  unlike  kinds  of  business.  The  central  political 


POLITICAL  RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT.  645 

body,  too,  where  its  powers  do  not  disappear  by  absorption  in 
those  of  the  supreme  head,  tends  to  complicate;  as  in  our 
own  case  by  the  differentiation  of  a  privy  council  from  the 
original  consultative  body,  and  again  by  the  differentiation  of 
a  cabinet  from  the  privy  council :  accompanied,  in  the  other 
direction,  by  division  of  the  consultative  body  into  elective  and 
non-elective  parts.  While  these  metamorphoses  are  going  on, 
the  separation  of  the  three  organizations,  legislative,  judicial, 
and  executive,  progresses.  Moreover,  with  progress  in  these 
major  political  changes  goes  that  progress  in  minor  political 
changes  which,  out  of  family-go veruments  and  clan-govern 
ments,  evolves  such  governments  as  those  of  the  tything,  the 
gild,  and  the  municipality.  Thus  in  all  directions  from 
primitive  simplicity  there  is  produced  ultimate  complexity, 
through  modifications  upon  modifications. 

With  this  advance  from  small  incoherent  social  aggre 
gates  to  great  coherent  ones,  which,  while  becoming  integrated 
pass  from  uniformity  to  multiformity,  there  goes  an  advance 
from  indefmiteness  of  political  organization  to  definiteness 
of  political  organization.  Save  inherited  ideas  and  usages, 
nothing  is  fixed  in  the  primitive  horde.  But  the  dif 
ferentiations  above  described,  severally  beginning  vaguely, 
grow  in  their  turns  gradually  more  marked.  Class-divisions, 
absent  at  first  and  afterwards  undecided,  eventually  acquire 
great  distinctness :  slaves,  serfs,  freemen,  nobles,  king,  become 
separated,  often  by  impassable  barriers,  and  their  positions 
shown  by  mutilations,  badges,  dresses,  &c.  Powers  and  obli 
gations  which  were  once  diffused  are  parted  off  and  rigorously 
maintained.  The  various  parts  of  the  political  machinery  como 
to  be  severally  more  and  more  restricted  in  their  ranges  of 
duties ;  and  usage,  age  by  age  accumulating  precedents,  brings 
every  kind  of  official  action  within  prescribed  bounds.  This 
increase  of  definiteness  is  everywhere  well  shown  by  the 
development  of  laws.  Beginning  as  inherited  sacred  injunc 
tions  briefly  expressed,  these  have  to  be  applied  after  some 
prescribed  method,  and  their  meanings  in  relation  to  par- 


646  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

ticular  cases  made  clear.  Rules  of  procedure  become  step 
by  step  detailed  and  formal,  while  interpretations  change 
the  general  command  into  specialized  commands  to  meet 
incidental  circumstances;  and  gradually  there  grows  up  a 
legal  system  everywhere  precise  and  fixed.  How  pronounced 
is  this  tendency  is  interestingly  shown  in  our  system  of 
Equity,  which,  arising  to  qualify  the  unduly  defined  and 
rigid  applications  of  Law,  itself  slowly  multiplied  its  tech 
nicalities  until  it  grew  equally  defined  and  rigid. 

To  meet  an  obvious  criticism  it  must  be  added  that  these 
changes  from  societies  which  are  small,  loose,  uniform,  and 
vague  in  structure,  to  societies  which  are  large,  compact, 
multiform,  and  distinct  in  structure,  present  varieties  of 
characters  under  varieties  of  conditions,  and  alter  as  the 
conditions  alter.  Different  parts  of  a  society  display  the 
transformation,  according  as  the  society's  activities  are  of 
one  or  other  kind.  Chronic  war  generates  a  compulsory 
cohesion,  and  produces  an  ever-greater  heterogeneity  and  defi- 
niteness  in  that  controlling  organization  by  which  unity  of 
action  is  secured ;  while  that  part  of  the  organization  which 
carries  on  production  and  distribution,  exhibits  these  traits  of 
evolution  in  a  relatively  small  degree.  Conversely,  when 
joint  action  of  the  society  against  other  societies  decreases, 
the  traits  of  the  structure  developed  for  carrying  it  on  begin 
to  fade ;  while  the  traits  of  the  structure  for  carrying  on  pro 
duction  and  distribution  become  more  decided :  the  increasing 
cohesion,  heterogeneity,  and  defmiteness,  begin  now  to  be 
shown  throughout  the  industrial  organization.  Hence  the 
phenomena  become  complicated  by  a  simultaneous  evolution 
of  one  part  of  the  social  organization  and  dissolution  of 
another  part — a  mingling  of  changes  well  illustrated  in  our 
own  society. 

§  577.  With  this  general  conception  before  us,  which, 
without  more  detailed  recapitulation  of  the  conclusions 
reached,  will  sufficiently  recall  them,  we  may  turn  from 


POLITICAL   RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT.  647 

retrospect  to  prospect ;  and  ask  through  what  phases  political 
evolution  is  likely  hereafter  to  pass. 

Such  speculations  concerning  higher  political  types  as  we 
may  allow  ourselves,  must  be  taken  with  the  understanding 
that  such  types  are  not  likely  to  become  universal.  As  in  the 
past  so  in  the  future,  local  circumstances  must  be  influential 
in  determining  governmental  arrangements;  since  these 
depend  in  large  measure  on  the  modes  of  life  which  ';he 
climate,  soil,  flora,  and  fauna,  necessitate.  In  regions  like 
those  of  Central  Asia,  incapable  of  supporting  considerable 
populations,  there  are  likely  to  survive  wandering  hordes 
under  simple  forms  of  control.  Large  areas  such  as  parts  of 
Africa  present,  which  prove  fatal  to  the  higher  races  of  men, 
and  the  steaming  atmospheres  of  which  cause  enervation, 
may  continue  to  be  inhabited  by  lower  races  of  men,  subject 
to  political  arrangements  adapted  to  them.  And  in  con 
ditions  such  as  those  furnished  by  small  Pacific  Islands,  mere 
deficiency  of  numbers  must  negative  the  forms  of  government 
which  become  alike  needful  and  possible  in  large  nations. 
Recognizing  the  fact  that  with  social  organisms  as  with  indi 
vidual  organisms,  the  evolution  of  superior  types  does  not 
entail  the  extinction  of  all  inferior  ones,  but  leaves  many  of 
these  to  survive  in  habitats  not  available  by  the  superior,  we 
may  here  restrict  ourselves  to  the  inquiry — What  are  likely  to 
be  the  forms  of  political  organization  and  action  in  societies 
that  are  favourably  circumstanced  for  carrying  social  evolu 
tion  to  its  highest  stage  ? 

Of  course  deductions  respecting  the  future  must  be  drawn 
from  inductions  furnished  by  the  past.  We  must  assume 
that  hereafter  social  evolution  will  conform  to  the  same 
principles  as  heretofore.  Causes  which  have  everywhere 
produced  certain  effects  must,  if  they  continue  at  work,  be 
expected  to  produce  further  effects  of  like  kinds.  If  we  see 
that  political  transformations  which  have  arisen  under  cer 
tain  conditions,  admit  of  being  carried  further  in  the  same 
directions,  we  must  conclude  that  they  will  be  carried  further 


64:8  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

if  the  conditions  are  maintained ;  and  that  they  will  go  on 
until  they  reach  limits  beyond  which  there  is  no  scope  for 
them. 

Not  indeed  that  any  trustworthy  forecast  can  be  made 
concerning  proximate  changes.  All  that  has  gone  before 
unites  to  prove  that  political  institutions,  fundamentally 
determined  in  their  forms  by  the  predominance  of  one  or 
other  of  the  antagonist  modes  of  social  action,  the  militant 
and  the  industrial,  will  be  moulded  in  this  way  or  in  that  way 
according  as  there  is  frequent  war  or  habitual  peace.  Hence 
we  must  infer  that  throughout  approaching  periods,  every 
thing  will  depend  on  the  courses  which  societies  happen  to 
take  in  their  behaviour  to  one  another — courses  which  cannot 
be  predicted.  On  the  one  hand,  in  the  present  state  of  armed 
preparation  throughout  Europe,  an  untoward  accident  may 
bring  about  wars  which,  lasting  perhaps  for  a  generation,  will 
re-develop  the  coercive  forms  of  political  control.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  long  peace  is  likely  to  be  accompanied  by  so 
vast  an  increase  of  manufacturing  and  commercial  activity, 
with  accompanying  growth  of  the  appropriate  political  struc 
tures  within  each  nation,  and  strengthening  of  those  ties 
between  nations  which  mutual  dependence  generates,  that 
hostilities  will  be  more  and  more  resisted  and  the  organization 
adapted  for  the  carrying  them  on  will  decay. 

Leaving,  however,  the  question — What  are  likely  to  be  the 
proximate  political  changes  in  the  most  advanced  nations  ? 
and  inferring  from  the  changes  which  civilization  has  thus  far 
wrought  out,  that  at  some  time,  more  or  less  distant,  the 
industrial  type  will  become  permanently  established,  let  ua 
now  ask — What  is  to  be  the  ultimate  political  regime  ? 

§  578.  Having  so  recently  contemplated  at  length  the 
political  traits  of  the  industrial  type  as  inferable  a  priori,  and 
as  partially  exemplified  a  posteriori  in  societies  most  favour 
ably  circumstanced  for  evolving  them,  there  remains  only  to 
present  these  under  a  united  and  more  concrete  form,  with 


POLITICAL   BETBOSPECT  AND   PROSPECT.  649 

some  dependent  ones  which  have  not  been  indicated.  We 
will  glance  first  at  the  implied  political  structures,  and  next 
at  the  implied  political  functions. 

What  forms  of  governmental  organization  must  be  the  out/ 
come  of  voluntary  cooperation  carried  to  its  limit  ?  We  have 
already  seen  that  in  the  absence  of  those  appliances  for 
coercion  which  accompany  the  militant  type,  whatever  *egis- 
lative  and  administrative  structures  exist,  must  be,  in  general 
and  in  detail,  of  directly  or  indirectly  representative  origin. 
The  presence  in  them  of  functionaries  not  deriving  their 
powers  from  the  aggregate  will,  and  not  changeable  by  the 
aggregate  will,  would  imply  paxtial  continuance  of  that  regime 
of  status  which  the  regime  of  contract  has,  by  the  hypothesis, 
entirely  replaced.  But  assuming  the  exclusion  of  all  irre 
sponsible  agents,  what  particular  structures  will  best  serve 
to  manifest  and  execute  the  aggregate  will  ?  This  is  a 
question  to  which  only  approximate  answers  can  be  given. 
There  are  various  possible  organizations  through  which  the 
general  consensus  of  feeling  and  opinion  may  display  itself 
and  issue  in  action ;  and  it  is  very  much  a  question  of  con 
venience,  rather  than  of  principle,  which  of  these  shall  be 
adopted.  Let  us  consider  some  of  their  varieties. 

The  representatives  constituting  the  central  legislature 
may  form  one  body  or  they  may  form  two.  If  there  is  but 
one,  it  may  consist  of  men  directly  elected  by  all  qualified 
citizens;  or  its  members  may  be  elected  by  local  bodies  which 
have  themselves  arisen  by  direct  election ;  or  it  may  include 
members  some  of  whom  are  elected  in  the  one  way  and  some 
in  the  other.  If  there  are  two  chambers,  the  lower  one  may 
arise  in  the  first  of  the  three  ways  named ;  while  the  second 
arises  in  one  of  several  ways.  It  may  consist  of  members 
chosen  by  local  representative  bodies ;  or  it  may  be  chosen 
by  the  lower  chamber  out  of  its  own  number.  Its  members 
may  either  have  no  test  of  eligibility,  or  they  may  be  required 
to  have  special  qualifications  :  experience  in  administration, 
for  example.  Then  besides  these  various  forms  of  the 


650  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

legislature,  there  are  the  various  modes  in  which  it  may  be 
partially  or  wholly  replaced.  Entire  dissolution  and  re 
election  of  one  body  or  of  both  bodies  may  occur  at  intervals, 
either  the  same  for  the  two  or  different  for  the  two,  and  either 
simultaneously  or  otherwise ;  or  the  higher  body,  though 
representative,  may  be  permanent,  while  the  lower  is  change  * 
able;  or  the  changing  of  one  or  both,  at  given  intervals, 
may  be  partial  instead  of  complete — a  third  or  a  fourth 
may  vacate  their  seats  annually  or  biennially,  and  may  or 
may  not  be  eligible  for  re-election.  So,  too,  thero  are 

various  modes  by  which  the  executive  may  originate  con 
sistently  with  the  representative  principle.  It  may  be  simple 
or  it  may  be  compound ;  and  if  compound,  the  members  of  it 
may  be  changeable  separately  or  altogether.  The  political 
head  may  be  elected  directly  by  the  whole  community,  or  by 
its  local  governing  bodies,  or  by  one  or  by  both  of  its  central 
representative  bodies ;  and  may  be  so  elected  for  a  term  or 
for  life.  His  assistants  or  ministers  may  be  chosen  by  him 
self  ;  or  he  may  choose  one  who  chooses  the  rest ;  or  they 
may  be  chosen  separately  or  bodily  by  one  or  other  legis 
lature,  or  by  the  two  united.  And  the  members  of  the 
ministry  may  compose  a  group  apart  from  both  chambers,  or 
may  be  members  of  one  or  the  other. 

Concerning  these,  and  many  other  possible  arrangements 
which  may  be  conceived  as  arising  by  modification  and  com 
plication  of  them  (all  apparently  congruous  with  the  require 
ment  that  the  making  and  administration  of  laws  shall  con 
form  to  public  opinion)  the  choice  is  to  be  guided  mainly  by 
regard  for  simplicity  and  facility  of  working.  But  it  seems 
likely  that  hereafter,  as  heretofore,  the  details  of  constitutional 
forms  in  each  society,  will  not  be  determined  on  d  priori 
grounds,  or  will  be  but  partially  so  determined.  We  may 
conclude  that  they  will  be  determined  in  large  measure  by 
the  antecedents  of  the  society ;  and  that  between  societies  of 
the  industrial  type,  there  will  be  differences  of  political 
organization  consequent  on  genealogical  differences.  Recog- 


POLITICAL    RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT.  651 

nizing  the  analogies  furnished  by  individual  organizations, 
which  everywhere  show  us  that  structures  evolved  during 
the  earlier  stages  of  a  type  for  functions  then  requisite, 
usually  do  not  disappear  at  later  stages,  but  become  re 
moulded  in  adaptation  to  functions  more  or  less  different; 
we  may  suspect  that  the  political  institutions  appropriate  to 
the  industria*  type,  will,  in  each  society,  continue  to  bear 
traces  of  the  earlier  political  institutions  evolved  for  other 
purposes  ;  as  we  see  that  even  now  the  new  societies  growing 
up  in  colonies,  tend  thus  to  preserve  marks  of  earlier  stages 
passed  through  by  ancestral  societies.  Hence  we  may  infer 
that  societies  which,  in  the  future,  have  alike  become  com 
pletely  industrial,  will  not  present  identical  political  forms; 
but  that  to  the  various  possible  forms  appropriate  to  the  type, 
they  will  present  approximations  determined  partly  by  their 
own  structures  in  the  past  and  partly  by  the  structures  of 
the  societies  from  which  they  have  been  derived.  Eecognizing 
this  probability,  let  us  now  ask  by  what  changes  our  owii 
political  constitution  may  be  brought  into  congruity  with 
the  requirements. 

Though  there  are  some  who  contend  that  a  single  body  of 
representatives  is  sufficient  for  the  legislative  needs  of  a 
free  nation,  yet  the  reasons  above  given  warrant  the  suspicion 
that  the  habitual  duality  of  legislatures,  of  which  the  rudi 
ments  are  traceable  in  the  earliest  political  differentiation,  is 
not  likely  to  be  entirely  lost  in  the  future.  That  spontaneous 
division  of  the  primitive  group  into  the  distinguished  few  and 
the  undistinguished  many,  both  of  which  take  part  in  deter 
mining  the  actions  of  the  group — that  division  which,  with 
reviving  power  of  the  undistinguished  many,  reappears  when 
there  is  formed  a  body  representing  it,  which  cooperates  with 
the  body  formed  of  the  distinguished  few  in  deciding  on 
national  affairs,  appears  likely  to  continue.  Assuming  that 
as  a  matter  of  course  two  legislative  bodies,  if  they  exist 
hereafter,  must  both  arise  by  representation,  direct  or  indirect, 
it  seems  probable  that  an  upper  and  a  lower  chamber  may 


652  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

continue  to  display  a  contrast  in  some  degree  analogous  to 
that  which  they  have  displayed  thus  far.  For  however  great 
the  degree  of  evolution  reached  by  an  industrial  society,  it 
cannot  abolish  the  distinction  between  the  superior  and  the 
inferior— the  regulators  and  the  regulated.  Whatever  ar 
rangements  for  carrying  on  industry  may  in  times  to  come  be 
established,  must  leave  outstanding  the  difference  between 
those  whose  characters  and  abilities  raise  them  to  the  higher 
positions,  and  those  who  remain  in  the  lower.  Even  should 
all  kinds  of  production  and  distribution  be  eventually  carried 
on  by  bodies  of  cooperators,  as  a  few  are  now  to  some  extent, 
such  bodies  must  still  have  their  appointed  heads  and  com 
mittees  of  managers.  Either  from  an  electorate  constituted 
not,  of  course,  of  a  permanently-privileged  class,  but  of  a 
class  including  all  heads  of  industrial  organizations,  or  from 
an  electorate  otherwise  composed  of  all  persons  occupied  in 
administration,  a  senate  may  perhaps  eventually  be  formed 
consisting  of  the  representatives  of  directing  persons  as  dis 
tinguished  from  the  representatives  of  persons  directed.  Of 
course  in  the  general  government,  as  in  the  government  of 
each  industrial  body,  the  representatives  of  the  class  regu 
lated  must  be  ultimately  supreme ;  but  there  is  reason  for 
thinking  that  the  representatives  of  the  regulating  class 
might  with  advantage  exercise  a  restraining  power.  Evidently 
the  aspect  of  any  law  differs  according  as  it  is  looked  at  from 
above  or  from  below — by  those  accustomed  to  rule  or  by 
those  accustomed  to  be  ruled.  The  two  aspects  require  to  bo 
coordinated.  Without  assuming  that  differences  between  the 
interests  of  these  bodies  will,  to  the  last,  make  needful  dif 
ferent  representations  of  them,  it  may  reasonably  be  con 
cluded  that  the  higher,  experienced  in  administration,  may 
with  advantage  bring  its  judgments  to  bear  in  qualifying  the 
judgments  of  the  lower,  less  conversant  with  affairs ;  and  that 
social  needs  are  likely  to  be  most  effectually  met  by  laws 
issuing  from  their  joint  deliberations.  Far  from  suggesting 
an  ultimate  unification  of  the  two  legislative  bodies,  the  facts 


POLITICAL  RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT.  653 

of  evolution,  everywhere  showing  advance  in  specialization, 
suggest  rather  that  one  or  both  of  such  two  bodies,  now 
characterizing  developed  political  organizations,  will  further 
differentiate.  Indeed  we  have  at  the  present  moment  indi 
cations  that  such  a-  change  is  likely  to  take  place  in  cur 
own  House  of  Commons.  To  the  objection  that  the  duality 
of  a  legislative  body  impedes  the  making  of  laws,  the  reply 
is  that  a  considerable  amount  of  hindrance  to  change  is 
desirable.  Even  as  it  is  now  among  ourselves,  immense  mis 
chiefs  are  done  by  ill-considered  legislation ;  and  any  change 
which  should  further  facilitate  legislation  would  increase 
such  mischiefs. 

Concerning  the  ultimate  executive  agency,  it  appears  to  be 
an  unavoidable  inference  that  it  must  become,  in  some  way 
or  other,  elective ;  since  hereditary  political  headship  is  a 
trait  of  the  developed  militant  type,  and  forms  a  part  of  that 
regime  of  status  which  is  excluded  by  the  hypothesis. 
Guided  by  such  evidence  as  existing  advanced  societies 
afford  us,  we  may  infer  that  the  highest  State-office,  in  what 
ever  way  filled,  will  continue  to  decline  in  importance ;  and 
that  the  functions  to  be  discharged  by  its  occupant  will 
become  more  and  more  automatic.  There  requires  an  instru 
mentality  having  certain  traits  which  we  see  in  our  own 
executive,  joined  with  certain  traits  which  we  see  in  the 
executive  of  the  United  States.  On  the  one  hand,  it  is  need 
ful  that  the  men  who  have  to  carry  out  the  will  of  the 
majority  as  expressed  through  the  legislature,  should  be 
removable  at  pleasure;  so  that  there  may  be  maintained  the 
needful  subordination  of  their  policy  to  public  opinion.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  needful  that  displacement  of  them  shall 
leave  intact  all  that  part  of  the  executive  organization  re 
quired  for  current  administrative  purposes.  In  our  own  case 
these  requirements,  fulfilled  to  a  considerable  extent,  fall  short 
of  complete  fulfilment  in  the  respect  that  the  political  head 
is  not  elective,  and  still  exercises,  especially  over  the  foreign 
policy  of  the  nation,  a  considerable  amount  of  power.  It 


654  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

the  United  States,  while  these  requirements  are  fulfilled  in 
the  respect  that  the  political  head  is  elective,  and  cannot 
compromize  the  nation  in  its  actions  towards  other  nations, 
they  are  not  fulfilled  in  the  respect  that  far  from  being  an 
automatic  centre,  having  actions  restrained  by  a  ministry 
responsive  to  public  opinion,  he  exercises,  during  his  term  of 
office,  much  independent  control.  Possibly  in  the  future,  the 
benefits  of  these  two  systems  may  be  united  and  their  evils 
avoided.  The  strong  party  antagonisms  which  accompany 
our  state  of  transition  having  died  away,  and  the  place  of 
supreme  State-officer  having  become  one  of  honour  rather 
than  one  of  power,  it  may  happen  that  appointment  to  this 
place,  made  during  the  closing"  years  of  a  great  career  to 
mark  the  nation's  approbation,  will  be  made  without  any 
social  perturbation,  because  without  any  effect  on  policy; 
and  that,  meanwhile,  such  changes  in  the  executive  agency 
as  are  needful  to  harmonize  its  actions  with  public  opinion, 
will  be,  as  at  present  among  ourselves,  changes  of  minis 
tries. 

Eightly  to  conceive  the  natures  and  workings  of  the  central 
political  institutions  appropriate  to  the  industrial  type,  we 
must  assume  that  along  with  the  establishment  of  them  there 
has  gone  that  change  just  named  in  passing — the  decline  of 
party  antagonisms.  Looked  at  broadly,  political  parties  are 
seen  to  arise  directly  or  indirectly  out  of  the  conflict  between 
militancy  and  industrialism.  Either  they  stand  respectively  for 
the  coercive  government  of  the  one  and  the  free  government 
of  the  other,  or  for  particular  institutions  and  laws  belonging 
to  the  one  or  the  other,  or  for  religious  opinions  and  organiza 
tions  congruous  with  the  one  or  the  other,  or  for  principles 
and  practices  that  have  been  bequeathed  by  the  one  or  the 
other,  and  survived  under  alien  conditions.  Habitually  if  we 
trace  party  feeling  to  its  sources,  we  find  on  the  one  side 
maintenance  of,  and  on  the  other  opposition  to,  some  form  of 
inequity.  Wrong  is  habitually  alleged  by  this  side  against 
that ;  and  there  must  be  injustice  either  in  the  thing  done  or 


POLITICAL  RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT.  655 

in  the  allegation  concerning  it.  Hence  as  fast  as  the  regime 
of  voluntary  cooperation  with  its  appropriate  ideas,  senti 
ments,  and  usages,  pervades  the  whole  society — as  fast  as 
there  disappear  all  those  arrangements  which  in  any  way 
trench  upon  the  equal  freedom  of  these  or  those  citizens, 
party  warfare  must  practically  die  away.  Such  differences 
of  opinion  only  can  remain  as  concern  matters  of  detail  and 
minor  questions  of  administration.  Evidently  there  is 
approach  to  such  a  state  in  proportion  as  the  graver  injus 
tices  descending  from  the  militant  type  disappear.  Evidently, 
too,  one  concomitant  is  that  increasing  subdivision  of  parties 
commonly  lamented,  which  promises  to  bring  about  the 
result  that  no  course  can  be  taken  at  the  dictation  of  any  one 
moiety  in  power ;  but  every  course  taken,  having  the  assent  of 
the  average  of  parties,  will  be  thereby  proved  in  harmony 
with  the  aggregate  will  of  the  community.  And  clearly,  with 
this  breaking  up  of  parties  consequent  on  growing  indivi 
duality  of  nature,  all  such  party-antagonisms  as  we  now 
know  must  cease. 

Concerning  local  government  we  may  conclude  that  as 
centralization  is  an  essential  trait  of  the  militant  type,  de 
centralization  is  an  essential  trait  of  the  industrial  type. 
With  that  independence  which  the  regime  of  voluntary 
cooperation  generates,  there  arises  resistance  not  only  to 
dictation  by  one  man,  and  to  dictation  by  a  class,  but  even  to 
dictation  "by  a  majority,  when  it  restrains  individual  action 
in  ways  not  necessary  for  maintaining  harmonious  social 
relations.  One  result  must  be  that  the  inhabitants  of  each 
locality  will  object  to  be  controlled  by  the  inhabitants  of 
other  localities,  in  matters  of  purely  local  concern.  In  respect 
of  such  laws  as  equally  apply  to  all  individuals,  and  such 
laws  as  affect  the  inhabitants  of  each  locality  in  their 
intercourse  with  those  of  other  localities,  the  will  of  the 
majority  of  the  community  will  be  recognized  as  authorita 
tive  ;  but  in  respect  of  arrangements  not  affecting  the  com 
munity  at  large,  but  affecting  only  the  members  forming  one 


656  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

part,  we  may  infer  that  there  will  arise  such  tendency  to 
resist  dictation  by  members  of  other  parts,  as  will  involve 
the  carrying  of  local  rule  to  the  greatest  practicable  limit. 
Municipal  and  kindred  governments  may  be  expected  to 
exercise  legislative  and  administrative  powers,  subject  to  no 
greater  control  by  the  central  government  than  is  needful  for 
the  concord  of  the  whole  community. 

Neither  these  nor  any  other  speculations  concerning  ulti 
mate  political  forms  can,  however,  be  regarded  as  anything 
more  than  tentative.  They  are  ventured  here  simply  as 
foreshadowing  the  general  nature  of  the  changes  to  be  anti 
cipated  ;  and  in  so  far  as  they  are  specific,  can  be  at  the  best 
but  partially  right.  We  may  be  sure  that  the  future  will 
bring  unforeseen  political  arrangements  along 'with  many 
other  unforeseen  things.  As  already  implied,  there  will  pro 
bably  be  considerable  variety  in  the  special  forms  of  the 
political  institutions  of  industrial  societies :  all  of  them 
bearing  traces  of  past  institutions  which  have  been  brought 
into  congruity  with  the  representative  principle.  And  here 
I  may  add  that  little  stress  need  be  laid  on  one  or  other 
speciality  of  form ;  since,  given  citizens  having  the  pre 
supposed  appropriate  natures,  and  but  small  differences  in 
the  ultimate  effects  will  result  from  differences  in  the 
machinery  used. 

§  579.  Somewhat  more  definitely,  and  with  somewhat 
greater  positiveness,  may  we,  I  think,  infer  the  political 
functions  carried  on  by  those  political  structures  proper  to 
the  developed  industrial  type.  Already  these  have  been 
generally  indicated ;  but  here  they  must  be  indicated  some 
what  more  specifically. 

We  have  seen  that  when  corporate  action  is  no  longer 
needed  for  preserving  the  society  as  a  whole  from  destruction 
or  injury  by  other  societies,  the  end  which  remains  for  it  is 
that  of  preserving  the  component  members  of  the  society 
from  destruction  or  injury  by  one  another :  injury,  as  here 


POLITICAL  RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.  657 

interpreted,  including  not  only  immediate,  but  also  remote, 
breaches  of  equity.  Citizens  whose  natures  have  through 
many  generations  of  voluntary  cooperation  and  accompanying 
regard  for  one  another's  claims,  been  moulded  into  the  appro 
priate  form,  will  entirely  agree  to  maintain  such  political 
institutions  as  may  continue  needful  for  insuring  to  each  that 
the  activities  he  carries  on  within  limits  imposed  by  the 
activities  of  others,  shall  bring  to  him  all  the  directly-resulting 
benefits,  or  such  benefits  as  indirectly  result  under  voluntary 
agreements ;  and  each  will  be  ready  to  yield  up  such  small 
portion  of  the  proceeds  of  his  labour,  as  may  be  required  to 
maintain  the  agency  for  adjudicating  in  complex  cases  where 
the  equitable  course  is  not  manifest,  and  for  such  legislative 
and  administrative  purposes  as  may  prove  needful  for 
effecting  an  equitable  division  of  all  natural  advantages. 
Eesistance  to  extension  of  government  beyond  the  sphere 
thus  indicated,  must  eventually  have  a  two-fold  origin — 
egoistic  and  altruistic. 

In  the  first  place,  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  citizens 
having  the  characters  indicated,  will,  in  their  corporate 
capacity,  agree  to  impose  on  themselves  individually,  other 
restraints  than  those  necessitated  by  regard  for  one  another's 
spheres  of  action.  Each  has  had  fostered  in  him  by  the  dis 
cipline  of  daily  life  carried  on  under  contract,  a  sentiment 
prompting  assertion  of  his  claim  to  free  action  within  the 
implied  limits ;  and  there  cannot  therefore  arise  in  an  aggre 
gate  of  such,  any  sentiment  which  would  tolerate  further 
limits.  And  that  any  part  should  impose  such  further  limits 
on  the  rest,  is  also  contrary  to  the  hypothesis ;  since  it  pre- 
:upposes  that  political  inequality,  or  status,  which  is  excluded 
by  the  industrial  type.  Moreover,  it  is  manifest  that  the 
taking  from  citizens  of  funds  for  public  purposes  other  than 
those  above  specified,  is  negatived.  For  while  there  will 
ever  be  a  unanimous  desire  to  maintain  for  each  and  all  the 
conditions  needful  for  severally  carrying  on  their  private 
activities  and  enjoying  the  products,  the  probabilities  are 


658  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

immense  against  agreement  for  any  other  public  end.  And 
in  the  absence  of  such  agreement,  there  must  arise  resistance 
by  the  dissentients  to  the  costs  and  administrative  restraints 
required  for  achieving  such  other  end.  There  must  be  dis 
satisfaction  and  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  minority  from 
whom  certain  returns  of  their  labours  are  taken,  not  for 
fulfilling  their  own  desires,  but  for  fulfilling  the  desires  of 
others.  There  must  be  an  inequality  of  treatment  which 
does  not  consist  with  the  regime  of  voluntary  cooperation 
fully  carried  out. 

At  the  same  time  that  the  employment  of  political  agencies 
for  other  ends  than  that  of  maintaining  equitable  relations 
among  citizens,  will  meet  with  egoistic  resistance  from  a 
minority  who  do  not  desire  such  other  ends,  it  will  also  meet 
with  altruistic  resistance  from  the  rest.  In  other  words, 
the  altruism  of  the  rest  will  prevent  them  from  achieving 
such  further  ends  for  their  own  satisfaction,  at  the  cost  of 
dissatisfaction  to  those  who  do  not  agree  with  them.  To  one 
who  is  ruled  by  a  predominant  sentiment  of  justice,  the 
thought  of  profiting  in  any  way,  direct  or  indirect,  at  the 
expense  of  another,  is  repugnant;  and  in  a  community  of 
such,  none  will  desire  to  achieve  by  public  agency  at  the  cost 
of  all,  benefits  which  a  part  do  not  participate  in,  or  do  not 
wish  for.  Given  in  all  citizens  a  quick  sense  of  equity,  and 
it  must  happen,  for  example,  that  while  those  who  have  no 
children  will  protest  against  the  taking  away  of  their  pro 
perty  to  educate  the  children  of  others,  the  others  will  no 
less  protest  against  having  the  education  of  their  children 
partially  paid  for  by  forced  exactions  from  the  childless, 
from  the  unmarried,  and  from  those  whose  means  are  iu 
many  cases  less  than  their  own.  So  that  the  eventual  limi 
tation  of  State-action  to  the  fundamental  one  described,  is 
insured  by  a  simultaneous  increase  of  opposition  to  other 
actions  and  a  decrease  of  desire  for  them. 

§  580.  The  restricted  sphere  for  political  institutions  thus 


POLITICAL  RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT.  659 

inferred  as  characterizing  the  developed  industrial  type,  may 
also  be  otherwise  inferred. 

For  this  limitation  of  State-functions  is  one  outcome  of 
that  process  of  specialization  of  functions  which  accompanies 
organic  and  super-organic  evolution  at  large.  Be  it  in  an 
animal  or  be  it  in  a  society,  the  progress  of  organization  is 
constantly  shown  by  the  multiplication  of  particular  sxruc- 
tures  adapted  to  particular  ends.  Everywhere  we  see  the 
law  to  be  that  a  part  which  originally  served  several  pur 
poses  and  achieved  none  of  them  well,  becomes  divided  into 
parts  each  of  which  performs  one  of  the  purposes,  and, 
acquiring  specially-adapted  structures,  performs  it  better. 
Throughout  the  foregoing  chapters  we  have  seen  this  truth 
variously  illustrated  by  the  evolution  of  the  governmental 
organization  itself.  It  remains  here  to  point  out  that  it  is 
further  illustrated  in  a  larger  way,  by  the  division  which  has 
arisen,  and  will  grow  ever  more  decided,  between  the  func 
tions  of  the  governmental  organization  as  a  whole,  and  the 
functions  of  the  other  organizations  which  the  society  in 
cludes. 

Already  we  have  seen  that  in  the  militant  type,  political 
control  extends  over  all  parts  of  the  lives  of  the  citizens. 
Already  we  have  seen  that  as  industrial  development  brings 
the  associated  political  changes,  the  range  of  this  control 
decreases  :  ways  of  living  are  no  longer  dictated  ;  dress  ceases 
to  be  prescribed ;  the  rules  of  class-subordination  lose  their 
peremptoriness ;  religious  beliefs  and  observances  are  not 
insisted  upon ;  modes  of  cultivating  the  land  and  carrying  on 
manufactures  are  no  longer  fixed  by  law ;  and  the  exchange 
of  commodities,  both  within  the  community  and  with  other 
communities,  becomes  gradually  unshackled.  That  is  to 
Bay,  as  industrialism  has  progressed,  the  State  has  re 
treated  from  the  greater  part  of  those  regulative  actions  it 
once  undertook.  This  change  has  gone  along  with  an  in 
creasing  opposition  of  citizens  to  these  various  kinds  of  con 
trol,  and  a  decreasing  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  State  to 
101 


660  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

exercise  them.  Unless  we  assume  that  the  end  has  now  been 
reached,  the  implication  is  that  with  future  progress  of  in 
dustrialism,  these  correlative  changes  will  continue.  Citizens 
will  carry  still  further  their  resistance  to  State-dictation; 
while  the  tendency  to  State-dictation  will  diminish.  Though 
recently,  along  with  re-invigoration  of  militancy,  there  have 
gone  extensions  of  governmental  interference,  yet  this  is  in- 
terpretable  as  a  temporary  wave  of  reaction.  We  may  expect 
that  with  the  ending  of  the  present  retrograde  movement  and 
resumption  of  unchecked  industrial  development,  that  in 
creasing  restriction  of  State-functions  which  has  unquestion 
ably  gone  on  during  the  later  stages  of  civilization,  will  be 
resumed ;  and,  for  anything  that  appears  to  the  contrary, 
will  continue  until  there  is  reached  the  limit  above  indi 
cated. 

Along  with  this  progressing  limitation  of  political  functions, 
has  gone  increasing  adaptation  of  political  agencies  to  the 
protecting  function,  and  better  discharge  of  it.  During 
unqualified  militancy,  while  the  preservation  of  the  society  as 
a  whole  against  other  societies  was  the  dominant  need,  the 
preservation  of  the  individuals  forming  the  society  from 
destruction  or  injury  by  one  another,  was  little  cared  for ;  and 
in  so  far  as  it  was  cared  for,  was  cared  for  mainly  out  of  re 
gard  for  the  strength  of  the  whole  society,  and  its  efficiency 
for  war.  But  those  same  changes  which  have  cut  off  so 
many  political  functions  at  that  time  exercised,  have  greatly 
developed  this  essential  and  permanent  political  function. 
There  has  been  a  growing  efficiency  of  the  organization  for 
guarding  life  and  property ;  due  to  an  increasing  demand  on 
the  part  of  citizens  that  their  safety  shall  be  insured,  and  an 
increasing  readiness  on  the  part  of  the  State  to  respond. 
Evidently  our  own  time,  with  its  extended  arrangements 
for  administering  justice,  and  its  growing  wish  for  codifi 
cation  of  the  law,  exhibits  a  progress  in  this  direction ;  which 
will  end  only  when  the  State  undertakes  to  administer 
civil  justice  to  the  citizen  free  of  cost,  as  it  now  undertakes, 


POLITICAL  RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT.  661 

free  of  cost,  to  protect  his  person  and  punish  criminal  aggres 
sion  on  him. 

And  the  accompanying  conclusion  is  that  there  will  be 
simultaneously  carried  further  that  trait  which  already 
characterizes  the  most  industrially-organized  societies — the 
performance  of  increasingly-numerous  and  increasingly-im 
portant  functions  by  other  organizations  than  those  which 
form  departments  of  the  government.  Already  in  our  own 
case  private  enterprise,  working  through  incorporated  bodies 
of  citizens,  achieves  ends  undreamed  of  as  so  achievable  in 
primitive  societies ;  and  in  the  future,  other  ends  undreamed 
of  now  as  so  achievable,  will  be  achieved. 

§  581.  A  corollary  having  important  practical  bearings 
may  be  drawn.  The  several  changes  making  up  the  trans 
formation  above  indicated,  are  normally  connected  in  their 
amounts  ;  and  mischief  must  occur  if  the  due  proportions 
among  them  are  not  maintained.  There  is  a  certain  right 
relation  to  one  another,  and  a  right  relation  to  the  natures  of 
citizens,  \vhich  may  not  be  disregarded  with  impunity. 

The  days  when  "  paper  constitutions "  were  believed  in 
have  gone  by — if  not  with  all,  still  with  instructed  people. 
The  general  truth  that  the  characters  of  the  units  determine 
the  character  of  the  aggregate,  though  not  admitted  overtly 
and  fully,  is  yet  admitted  to  some  extent — to  the  extent  that 
most  politically-educated  persons  do  not  expect  forthwith 
completely  to  change  the  state  of  a  society  by  this  or  that 
kind  of  legislation.  But  when  fully  admitted,  this  truth 
carries  with  it  the  conclusion  that  political  institutions  can 
not  be  effectually  modified  faster  than  the  characters  of 
citizens  are  modified;  and  that  if  greater  modifications  are  by 
any  accident  produced,  the  excess  of  change  is  sure  to  be 
undone  by  some  counter-change.  When,  as  in  France,  people 
undisciplined  in  freedom  are  suddenly  made  politically  free, 
they  show  by  some  plebiscite  that  they  willingly  deliver  over 
their  power  to  an  autocrat,  or  they  work  their  parliamentary 


662  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

system  in  such  way  as  to  make  a  popular  statesman  into  a 
dictator.  When,  as  in  the  United  States,  republican  insti 
tutions,  instead  of  being  slowly  evolved,  are  all  at  once 
created,  there  grows  up  within  them  an  agency  of  wire 
pulling  politicians,  exercising  a  real  rule  which  overrides  the 
nominal  rule  of  the  people  at  large.  When,  as  at  home,  an 
extended  franchise,  very  soon  re-extended,  vastly  augments 
the  mass  of  those  who,  having  before  been  controlled  are 
made  controllers,  they  presently  fall  under  the  rule  of  an 
organized  body  that  chooses  their  candidates  and  arranges 
for  them  a  political  programme,  which  they  must  either 
accept  or  be  powerless.  So  that  in  the  absence  of  a  duly- 
adapted  character,  liberty  given  in  one  direction  is  lost  in 
another. 

Allied  to  the  normal  relation  between  character  and  in 
stitutions,  are  the  normal  relations  among  institutions  them 
selves  ;  and  the  evils  which  arise  from  disregard  of  the  second 
relations  are  allied  to  those  which  arise  from  disregard  of  the 
first.  Substantially  there  is  produced  the  same  general 
effect.  The  slavery  mitigated  in  one  direction  is  intensified  in 
another.  Coercion  over  the  individual,  relaxed  here  is  tightened 
there.  For,  as  we  have  seen,  that  change  which  accompanies 
development  of  the  industrial  type,  and  is  involved  by  the 
progress  towards  those  purely  equitable  relations  which  the 
regime  of  voluntary  cooperation  brings,  implies  that  the 
political  structures  simultaneously  become  popular  in  their 
origin  and  restricted  in  their  functions.  But  if  they  become 
more  popular  in  their  origin  without  becoming  more  restricted 
in  their  functions,  the  effect  is  to  foster  arrangements  which 
benefit  the  inferior  at  the  expense  of  the  superior ;  and  by  so 
doing  work  towards  degradation.  Swayed  as  individuals  aie 
on  the  average  by  an  egoism  which  dominates  over  their 
altruism,  it  must  happen  that  even  when  they  become  so  far 
equitable  in  their  sentiments  that  they  will  not  commit  direct 
injustices,  they  will  remain  liable  to  commit  injustices  of 
indirect  kinds.  And  since  the  majority  must  eve,r  be  formed 


POLITICAL  RETROSPECT  AND  PROSPECT.  663 

of  the  inferior,  legislation,  if  unrestricted  in  its  range,  will 
inevitably  be  moulded  by  them  in  such  way  as  more  or 
less  remotely  to  work  out  to  their  own  advantage,  and  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  superior.  The  politics  of  trades'-unions 
exemplify  the  tendency.  Their  usages  have  become  such 
that  the  more  energetic  and  skilful  workmen  are  not  allowed 
to  profit  to  the  full  extent  of  their  capacities ;  because,  if 
they  did  so,  they  would  discredit  and  disadvantage  those  of 
lower  capacities,  who,  forming  the  majority,  establish  and 
enforce  the  usages.  In  multitudinous  ways  a  like  tendency 
must  act  through  a  political  organization,  if,  while  all  citizens 
have  equal  powers,  the  organization  can  be  used  for  other 
purposes  than  administering  justice.  State-machineries 
worked  by  taxes  falling  in  more  than  due  proportion  on  those 
whose  greater  powers  have  brought  them  greater  means,  will 
give  to  citizens  of  smaller  powers  more  benefits  than  they 
have  earned.  And  this  burdening  of  the  better  for  the  benefit 
of  the  worse,  must  check  the  evolution  of  a  higher  and  more 
adapted  nature  :  the  ultimate  result  being  that  a  community 
by  which  this  policy  is  pursued,  will,  other  things  equal,  fail 
in  competition  with  a  community  which  pursues  the  purely 
equitable  policy,  and  will  eventually  disappear  in  the  race  of 
civilization. 

In  brief,  the  diffusion  of  political  power  unaccompanied  by 
the  limitation  of  political  functions,  issues  in  communism. 
For  the  direct  defrauding  of  the  many  by  the  few,  it  sub 
stitutes  the  indirect  defrauding  of  the  few  by  the  many :  evil 
proportionate  to  the  inequity,  being  the  result  in.  the  one  case 
as  in  the  other. 

§  582.  But  the  conclusion  of  profoundest  moment  to  which 
all  lines  of  argument  converge,  is  that  the  possibility  of  a  high 
social  state,  political  as  well  as  general,  fundamentally  de 
pends  on  the  cessation  of  war.  After  all  that  has  been  said 
it  is  needless  to  emphasize  afresh  the  truth  that  persistent 
militancy,  maintaining  adapted  institutions,  must  inevitably 


664  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

prevent,  or  else  neutralize,  changes  in  the  direction  of  more 
equitable  institutions  and  laws ;  while  permanent  peace  will  of 
necessity  be  followed  by  social  ameliorations  of  every  kind. 

From  war  has  been  gained  all  that  it  had  to  give.  Tho 
peopling  of  the  Earth  by  the  more  powerful  and  intelligent 
races,  is  a  benefit  in  great  measure  achieved ;  and  what 
remains  to  be  done,  calls  for  no  other  agency  than  the 
quiet  pressure  of  a  spreading  industrial  civilization  on  a 
barbarism  which  slowly  dwindles.  That  integration  of  simple 
groups  into  compound  ones,  and  of  these  into  doubly  com 
pound  ones,  which  war  has  effected,  until  at  length  great 
nations  have  been  produced,  is  a  process  already  carried  as 
far  as  seems  either  practicable  or  desirable.  Empires  formed 
of  alien  peoples  habitually  fall  to  pieces  when  the  coercive 
power  which  holds  them  together  fails ;  and  even  could  they 
be  held  together,  would  not  form  harmoniously-working 
wholes  :  peaceful  federation  is  the  only  further  consolidation 
to  be  looked  for.  Such  large  advantage  as  war  has  yielded 
by  developing  that  political  organization  which,  beginning 
with  the  leadership  of  the  best  warrior  has  ended  in  complex 
governments  and  systems  of  administration,  has  been  fully 
obtained ;  and  there  only  remains  for  the  future  to  preserve 
and  re-mould  its  useful  parts  while  getting  rid  of  those  no 
longer  required.  So,  too,  that  organization  of  labour  initiated 
by  war — an  organization  which,  setting  out  with  the  relation 
of  owner  and  slave  and  developing  into  that  of  master  and 
servant,  has,  by  elaboration,  given  us  industrial  structures 
having  numerous  grades  of  officials,  from  head-directors  down 
to  foremen — has  been  developed  quite  as  far  as  is  requisite 
for  combined  action ;  and  has  to  be  hereafter  modified,  not 
in  the  direction  of  greater  military  subordination,  but  rather  in 
the  opposition  direction.  Again,  the  power  of  continuous 
application,  lacking  in  the  savage  and  to  be  gained  only  under 
that  coercive  discipline  which  the  militant  type  of  society 
establishes,  has  been  already  in  large  measure  acquired  by 
the  civilized  man;  and  such  further  degree  of  it  as  is  needed, 


POLITICAL  RETROSPECT  AND   PROSPECT.  665 

will  be  produced  under  the  stress  of  industrial  competition  in 
free  communities.  Nor  is  it  otherwise  with  great  public 
works  and  developed  industrial  arts.  Though,  in  the  canal 
cut  by  the  Persians  across  the  isthmus  of  Athos,  and  again 
in  a  canal  of  two  miles  long  made  by  the  Fijians,  we  see 
both  that  war  is  the  first  prompter  to  such  undertakings  and 
that  the  despotic  rule  established  by  it  is  the  needful  agency 
for  carrying  them  out ;  yet  we  also  see  that  industrial  evolu 
tion  has  now  reached  a  stage  at  which  commercial  advantage 
supplies  a  sufficient  stimulus,  and  private  trading  corporations 
a  sufficient  power,  to  execute  works  far  larger  and  more 
numerous.  And  though  from  early  days  when  flint  arrow 
heads  were  chipped  and  clubs  carved,  down  to  present  days 
when  armour-plates  a  foot  thick  are  rolled,  the  needs  of 
defence  and  offence  have  urged  on  invention  and  mechanical 
skill ;  yet  in  our  own  generation  steam-hammers,  hydraulic 
rams,  and  multitudinous  new  appliances  from  locomotives  to 
telephones,  prove  that  industrial  needs  alone  have  come  to 
furnish  abundant  pressure  whereby,  hereafter,  the  industrial 
arts  will  be  further  advanced.  Thus,  that  social  evolution 
which  had  to  be  achieved  through  the  conflicts  of  societies 
with  one  another,  has  already  been  achieved ;  and  no  further 
benefits  are  to  be  looked  for. 

Only  further  evils  are  to  be  looked  for  from  the  conti 
nuance  of  militancy  in  civilized  nations.  The  general  lesson 
taught  by  all  the  foregoing  chapters  is  that,  indispensable  as 
has  been  this  process  by  which  nations  have  been  conso 
lidated,  organized,  and  disciplined,  and  requisite  as  has  been 
the  implied  coercion  to  develop  certain  traits  of  individual 
human  nature,  yet  that,  beyond  the  unimaginable  amount  of 
Buffering  directly  involved  by  the  process,  there  has  been  an 
unimaginable  amount  of  suffering  indirectly  involved ;  alike 
by  the  forms  of  political  institutions  necessitated,  and  by  the 
accompanying  type  of  individual  nature  fostered.  And  they 
show  by  implication  that  for  the  diminution  of  this  suffering, 
not  only  of  the  direct  kind  but  of  the  indirect  kind,  the  one 


666  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

thing  needful  is  the  checking  of  international  antagonisms 
and  the  diminution  of  those  armaments  which  are  at  once 
cause  and  consequence  of  them.  With  the  repression  of 
militant  activities  and  decay  of  militant  organizations,  \*  ill 
come  amelioration  of  political  institutions  as  of  all  other  insti 
tutions.  Without  them,  no  such  ameliorations  are  permanently 
possible.  Liberty  overtly  gained  in  name  and  form  will  be 
unobtrusively  taken  away  in  fact. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected,  however,  that  any  very  marked 
effects  are  to  be  produced  by  the  clearest  demonstration 
of  this  truth — even  by  a  demonstration  beyond  all  question. 
A  general  congruity  has  to  be  maintained  between  the  social 
state  at  any  time  necessitated  by  circumstances,  and  the 
accepted  theories  of  conduct,  political  and  individual.  Such 
acceptance  as  there  may  be  of  doctrines  at  variance  with  the 
temporary  needs,  can  never  be  more  than  nominal  in  degree, 
or  limited  in  range,  or  both.  The  acceptance  which  guides 
conduct  will  always  be  of  such  theories,  no  matter  how 
logically  indefensible,  as  are  consistent  with  the  average 
modes  of  action,  public  and  private.  All  that  can  be  done 
by  diffusing  a  doctrine  much  in  advance  of  the  time,  is  to 
facilitate  the  action  of  forces  tending  to  cause  advance.  The 
forces  themselves  can  be  but  in  small  degrees  increased; 
but  something  may  be  done  by  preventing  mis-direction  of 
them.  Of  the  sentiment  at  any  time  enlisted  on  behalf  of  a 
higher  social  state,  there  is  always  some  (and  at  the  present 
time  a  great  deal)  which,  having  the  broad  vague  form  of 
sympathy  with  the  masses,  spends  itself  in  efforts  for  their 
welfare  by  multiplication  of  political  agencies  of  one  or  other 
kind.  Led  by  the  prospect  of  immediate  beneficial  results, 
those  swayed  by  this  sympathy  are  unconscious  that  they 
are  helping  further  to  elaborate  a  social  organization  at 
variance  with  that  required  for  a  higher  form  of  social  life, 
and  are,  by  so  doing,  increasing  the  obstacles  to  attainment 
of  that  higher  form.  On  a  portion  of  such  the  foregoing 
chapters  may  have  some  effect  by  leading  them  to  con- 


POLITICAL  RETROSPECT  AND   PKOSPECT.  667 

sider  whether  the  arrangements  they  are  advocating  involve 
increase  of  that  public  regulation  characterizing  the  militant 
type,  or  whether  they  tend  to  produce  that  greater  indi 
viduality  and  more  extended  voluntary  cooperation,  charac 
terizing  the  industrial  type.  To  deter  here  and  there  one 
from  doing  mischief  by  imprudent  zeal,  is  the  chief  proxi 
mate  effect  to  be  hoped  for. 


REFERENCES. 


To  find  the  authority  for  any  statement  in  the  text,  the  reader  is  to 
proceed  as  follows : — Observing  the  number  of  the  section  in  "which 
the  statement  occurs,  he  will  first  look  out,  in  the  following  pages, 
the  corresponding  number,  which  is  printed  in  conspicuous  type. 
Among  the  references  succeeding  this  number,  he  will  then  look 
for  the  name  of  the  tribe,  people,  or  nation  concerning  which  the 
statement  is  made  (the  names  in  the  references  standing  in  the  same 
order  as  that  which  they  have  in  the  text) ;  and  that  it  may  more 
readily  catch  the  eye,  each  such  name  is  printed  in  Italics.  In  the 
parenthesis  following  the  name,  will  be  found  the  volume  and  page 
of  the  work  referred  to,  preceded  by  the  first  three  or  four  letters  of 
the  author's  name ;  and  where  more  than  one  of  his  works  has  been 
used,  the  first  three  or  four  letters  of  the  title  of  the  one  containing 
the  particular  statement.  The  meanings  of  these  abbreviations, 
employed  to  save  the  space  that  would  be  occupied  by  frequent 
repetitions  of  full  titles,  is  shown  at  the  end  of  the  references  ;  where 
will  be  found  arranged  in  alphabetical  order,  these  initial  syllables  of 
authors'  names,  &c.,  and  opposite  to  them  the  full  titles  of  the  works 
referred  to. 


CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

§343.  Australians  (Mitch,  ii,  68;  i,  87;  Ang.  i,  59) — Tasmaniant 
(Bon.  pp.  3,  37,  226) — Esquimaux  (ref.  lost) — Comanches  (Bane,  i,  519)— 
Araucanians  (Smith,  196) — Bedouins  (Bur.  — ) — Arabs  (Lyon,  53) — 
Balonda  (Liv.  296) — Malagasy  (Ell.  "  Hist."  i,  258)— Samoans  (Tur. 
289).  §  344.  Chinese  (Will,  ii,  69)— TaUtians  (Ell.  "  Pol.  Res."  i,  —  ; 

ii,  369)  —  Tongans  (Mar.  ii,  78,  100)  —  Ancient  Mexicans  (Dur.  i,  ch.  26)  — 
Peru  (Gar.  bk.  ii,  ch.  12) — Japanese  (Ale.  i,  63)—  England  (Whar.  469) — 
Tahitians  (Ell.  "  Pol.  Ees."  ii,  216)— Sandwich  Islanders  (Ell.  "  Hawaii," 
393-4)—  Nicaraguans  (Ovi.  bk.  xlii,  ch.  2  &  3)— Peruvians  (Acos.  bk.  v,  ch.  25) 
— Hebrews  (Kue.  i,  292-3) — Medieval  Europe  (ref.  lost).  5  345. 

Tongans  (Mar.  i,  146,  note)—  Fijians  (Wil.  i,  233)— Siamese  (La  Loub.  i, 
353)— Chinese  (Will,  i,  313)— Japanese  (Stein.  — ).  §  346.  Mongol 

(Timk.  i,  196)  —  Philippines  (Jag.  161)  —  Chittagong  Hill  Tribes  (Lew. 
118)  —  Burmese  (Fyt.  ii,  69)  —  Samoans  (Tur.  346)  —  Esquimaux  (Beech,  i, 
242)—  New  Zealanders  (Cook,  "  Last  Yoy."  49)—  Snake  Indians  (Lew.  &  01, 
266) — Comanches  (Marcy,  29) — Fuegians  (Eth.  S.  "Trans."  i,  263) — Loango 
(Pink.  Voy.  xvi,  331)—  BatoJca  (Liv.  551)— Balonda  (Liv.  276)—  Loango 
(Ast.  iii,  228)  —  Fuegians  (U.  S.  Ex.  i,  127)  —  Fiji  (Wil.  i,  37)  — 
Australia**  (Mitch,  i,  87)  —  New  Zealanders  (Ang.  ii,  32-75)  —  Centra! 


2  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

South  Africa  (Liv.  —  ) — Shoshones  (Bane,  i,  438) — Australians  (Aug.  i, 
59)— rate  (Ersk.  334)— Samoan  (Tur.  194)—  Africa  (Liv.  —  )— Peruvians 
(Cie.  168)  —  Egyptians  (Wilk.  plates)  —  Moslem  (Klun.  106)  —  Tahitians 
(Hawk.  i.  447)—  A^r*  (Bar.  i,  I75)—Ta$manians  (West,  ii,  7)—  Arabs 
(Bak.  S6)—Kamschadales  (Krash.  212-3).  §  347.  Patagonians  (Falk. 

121)—  Madagascar  (Ell.  "Hist,"  ii,  258)— Samoans  (Tur.  348)  —  Fijiant 
(Ersk.  254)  —  AsJiantees  (Dup.  43)  —  Yorulas  (Lan.  i,  125)  —  Madagascar 
(ref.  lost)— CAtwa  (Staun.  345)  —  Chibchas  (Sim.  267)  —  Samoa  (Tur.  314) 

—  Madagascar  (Ell.  "  Visits,"  127)  —  Japanese  (Stein.  — )  -—  Chinese  (Mil. 
94)— -Rome  (Beck.  213) — Assyrians  (Raw.  i,  503-4)  —Mexico  (Her.  iii,  203; 
Torq.  bk.  ix,  ch.  20)— Nicaragua  (Squ.  ii,  346)— Pert*  (Piz.  225;  Xer.  48)— 
Chibchas  (Pied.  bk.  i,  ch.  5)— Uganda  (Speke,  294— Dahomey  (Bur.  i,  244) 

—  Alyssinians  (Duf.  71 ;  Bru.  iv,  454,  417)  —New  Zealand  (Thorn,  i,  114) 
—Egypt  (Eb.  i,  352)— China  (Hue,  "Trav."  ii,  261;    Gutz.  ii,  311;    Will, 
i,  331-2  ;    ii,  68-9)— Japanese  (Dick.  79  ;    Hit.  ii,  43)— Chivalry  (Scott,  3-4) 
— France  (Lcb.  vol.  xiii,  passim  ;  Cher.  536-7)  — England  (Nob.  passim)— 
Peru  (Acos.  bk.  v,  ch.  6)—  Madagascar  (Ell.  "  Hist."  i,  356)—  England  (Nob. 
46  &  passim) — France    (Leb.   vol.   xiii,  passim)  —  England    (Nob.   315-6). 
§  349.   Vate  (Tur.  393)—  Shoshones  (Bane,  i,  438)—  Mishmu  (Coop.  190)— 
Santals  (As.  S.  B.  xx,  582) — Koossas  (Lich.  i,  288) — Ashantee  (Beech.  211) 
— Ceris  and  Opatas  (Bane,  i,  581) — Chichimecs  (Bane,  i,  629).  §  350. 
Hebrews  (Judges  vii,  25 ;    1  Samuel  xvii,  54)  —  Chichimecs  (Bane,  i,  629)  — 
Abipones  (Dob.  ii,  408) — Mundrucus  (Hen.  475) — New  Zealanders  (Thorn,  i, 
130)  —  Congo  (Tuck.  101)—  Ashantee  (Dup.  227)— Persia  (Mor.  186)— Timour 
(Gib.  ch.  Ixv)—  Dahomey  (Bur.  i,  218  ;  Dal.  76)—  Northern  Celebes  (ref.  lost) 
—DyaJcs  (Boyle,  170-1)—  Kukis  (As.  S.  B.  ix,  837)—  Borneo  (St.  John,ii,  27). 
§  351.  Ashantee  (Earn.  ISO)— Tahitians  (Hawk,  ii,  161)— Fate'  (Tur.  393) 

—  Boigu  (Roy.  G.  S.  xx,  96)  —  Tupis  (South,  i,  222)  —  Caribs  (Ed.  i,  35)  — 
Moxos  (Hutch.  34)— Central  Americans  (Fan.  315)— Poland  (Gib.  ch.  Ixiv) 
—  Constantine  (Gib.  ch.  xlviii)  —  Montenegro  (The  Times,  Dec.  14,  1876). 
§  352.  Mexicans  (Nouv.  xcix,  134;  Saha.  bk.  ix,  c.  15) — Yucatan  (Her.  iv, 
174)  —  Abipones  (Dob.  ii,  408)  —  Shoshones  (Lew.  &  Cl.  309)  —Nagas  (As, 
S.  B.  ix,  959)— Mandans  (Cat.  i,  136)— Cochimis  (Bane,  i,  567).         §  353, 
Mexicans  (Bane,  i,  581) — Californians  (Bane,  i,  380)  —  Khonds  (Macph.  57) 
—Egyptians  (Dim.  i,  131)— -Abyssinians  (Bru.  vi,  116-17;    Heri.  188-9)— 
Hebrews  (1  Sam.  xviii,  25,  27).    *         §  354.   Osages  (Tylor,  "Prim.  Cult." 
i,  416)— Ojibways  (Hind,  ii,  123).  §  355.   Gauls  (Lehue'rou,  371 ;  Par, 
320, 658)—  Jeivs  (2  Maccabees  xv,  30 ;  2  Sam.  iv,  12) .         §  356.  Gauls  (Diod. 
i,  315)  —  Timour  (Gib.  ch.  Ixv)  —  Khonds  (Macph.  57)  —  Tahitians  (Ell. 
"  Pol.  Kes."  i,  488)—  Philistines  (I  Sam.  xxxi,  10)— Greeks  (Pot.  ii,  109-10) 
—Fijians  (U.S.  Ex.  iii,  ch.  Ixxx)— Flemish  (Cher.  358)— French  (Leb.  vi, 
127).           §  357.  Scotland  (Burt.  i,  398)—  Khonds  (Macph.  46)— Athenian* 
(Gi-ote,  iii,  382)—  Fiji  (Wil.  i,  31)—  Panthay  (Baber)— Fiji  (Ersk.  454)— 
Shoshones  (Bane,  i,  433)  —  Chichimecs  (Bane,  i,  629)  —  Hebrews  (1  Sam.  xi, 
1-2)—  Bulgarians  (Gib.  ch.  Iv).  §  358.  Araucanians  (Thomp.,  G.  i, 
406) — Hadrians  (Dun.  i,  174) — Hebreivs  (Judges  i,  6-7)  —  Fiji  (Wil.  i,  30, 
198,  177)  —  Charruas  (Hutch.  48  et  seq.)  —  Mandans  (ref.  lost)  —  Tonga 
(Mar.  ii,  210-11)—  Australians  (Mitch,  ii,  345)—  Hottentot  (Pink.  Toy.  xvi, 
141)  —Egypt  (Wilk.  i,  307)  —Japanese  (Busk,  241).  §  359.  Central 
Americans  (Her.  iv,  136)  —Ashantees  (Ram.  216)  —  Anc.  Mexico  (Clav.  bk. 
vii,  c.  17)— Honduras  (Her.  iv,  140)—  Miztecs  (Her.  iii,  262-3)—  Zapotecas 
(Her.  iii,  269)  —  Hebrews  (Knobel,  226-7)  —  Burmese  (Sang.  124)  —  Gond 
(Fors.  164)—  Astrachan  (Bell,  i,  43)— Hebrews  (2  Kings,  xix).  §  360. 
Sandwich  Islands  (Ell.  "  Hawaii,"  165-6 ;  Ell.  W.  ii,  69)— Australians  (Ang. 
ii,  217  ;  Hay.  103-4)—  Anc.  Peruvians  (Cie.  177, 181).             §  361.  Britain 
(Cox  and  Jones,  88)—  Kalmucks  (Pal.  — )— Chinese  (Will,  ii,  224)— Greeks 
and  Romans  (Smith,  W.  s.v.  "  Coma  ")  —  Nootkas  (Bane,  i,  195)  —  Caribs 
(Ed.  i,42)—  Nicaragua  (Her.  iii,  298)— Central  Americans  (Cog.bk.  iVjCh.4)^ 


REFERENCES.  3 

Ancient  Mexicans   (Zur.  Ill)  —  Chibchas   (Pied.    bk.  i,  ch.  2)  —  Itzaex 


iii,  56)  —  Europe  (Due.  379)  —  Clovis  and  Alaric  (Due.  383)  —  Dacotahs 
(Lew.  &  Cl.  64)  —  Caribs  (Ed.  i,  42)  — Hebrews  (Leviticus  xxi,  5;  Jer.  xvi, 
6)  —  Greeks  and  jRomans  (Smith,  W.  s.v.  "  Coma  ")  —  Greeks  (Pot.  ii, 
198-9;  Soph.  47;  Beck.  398;  Smith,  W.  s.v.  "Coma")  —  Romans  (ref. 
lost)  —  Hebrews  (Jer.  xli,  5) — Arabians  (Krehl,  32-3) — Ancient  Peru 
(Acosta,  bk.  v,  ch.  5)—Tahitians  (Hawk,  i,  468)— France  (Guizot "  Col."  — ). 
§  362.  Spoleto  (Crib.  — )  —  Phrygian  (Dun.  i,  531)  —  Mexicans  (Brin. 
147)—  Hottentots  (Kol.  i,  112)—  Phoenicians  (Mov.  i,  362)—  San  Salvador 
(Squ.  ''Coll."  87)—  Moses  (Exod.  iv,  24-26)— Antiochus  (1  Mace,  i,  48-60)— 
Mattathias  (1  Mace,  ii,  45-6) — Hyrcanus  (Jos.  i,  525) — Aristobulus  (Jos.  i, 
532)—Tongans  (Mar.  ii,  59)— Berbers  (Rohlfs,  45).  §  363.  Kaffirs 

(G-ard.  264) — Jews  (Jerem.  xli,  5) — Samoans  (Tur.  187) — Central  Americans 
(Mart.  338).  §  364.  Huns  (Jor.  215)— Turks  (Pell,  i,  158,  note)  — 

Lacedaemonians  (Pot.  ii,  204)  —  Hebrews  (Levit.  xix,  28  —  Scandinavians 
(Heim.  i,  224,  225)  —  Andamans  (Eth.  S.  "Trans."  ii,  36)  —  Abeokuta 
(Bur.  i,  104)  —  Cuebas  (Bane,  i,  753)  —  Peruvians  (Cie.  311)  —  Sandwich 
Islanders  (Ell.  W.  ii,  152)  —  Darian  Indians  (Bane,  i,  771)  —  Sandwich- 
Islanders  (Ell.  "  Hawaii,"  166) — Eastern  (reference  lost) — Hebrews  (Dent, 
xxxii,  5;  Rev.  vii,  2-3;  xiv,  1,  9,  10) — Arabs  (Thomson,  i,  91) — Christians 
(Kal.  ii,  429-30) >—  Mexico  (Torq.  bk.  ix,  ch.  3D—  Angola  (Bast.  76)  — 
Tongans  (Mar.  ii,  268).  §  365.  Bechuanas  (Lich.  ii,  331)  —  Damaras 

(And.  224)— Congo  (Tuck.  80)— Itzaex  (Fan.  313)— Abipones  (Dob.  ii,  35). 
§  368.  Ancient  Peruvians  (Gar.  bk.  ii,  ch.  4).  §  369.  Mexico  (Torq. 

bk.  xiv,  ch.  9)  —  Chibchas  (Sim.  251)  —  Yucatan  (Landa,  §  xx)  —  Tahitiam 
(Forst.  370)  —  Fiji  (Wil.  i,  28)  —  Tahiti  (Ell.  "Pol.  Res."  i,  319)  —Fiji 
(Ersk.  — )— Malagasy  (Drur.  220).  §  370.  Timbuctoo  (Cail.  ii,  53)— 

Kaffirs  (Lich.  i,  287,  271)—  Vera  Paz  (Torq.  bk.  xi,  ch.  19)  —  Chibchas 
(Pied.  bk.  i,  ch.  5)  —  Mexicans  (Tern,  x,  404)  —  Peru  (Guz.  91)  —  Hebrews 
(2  Chron.  ix,  23-4;  1  Sam.  x,  27)  —  Japan  (Dick.  325 ;  Ksem.  49)  —  China 
(Chin.  Rep.  iii,  110-11)—  Burmah  (Yule,  76)— Merovingians  (Bouq.  ii,  647) 
—England  (Rob.  20).  §  371.  Persia  (Mai.  ii,  477-8)— Tonga  (Mar.  i, 

232,  note)—  Mexicans  (Dur.  i,  ch.  25 ;  Tern,  xvi,  288-9) — Montezuma  (Gal. 
117 ;  Tern,  x,  405)  —  Merovingians  and  Carolingians  (Wai.  ii,  557 ;  iv, 
91-5-8;  Gruer.  "St.  Pere,"  introd.  j  Leber,  vii,  — ;  Guer.  "St.  Pere," 
introd.)—  English  (Stuhbs,  i,  278).  §  372.  Chibchas  (Pied.  bk.  ii,  ch. 

4) —  Sumatra  (Mars.  211) — Jummoo  (Drew  "  Jum."  15) — Anglo-Saxons 
(Broom,  27)— Normans  (Moz.  s.v.  "  Orig.  Writ.;"  Black,  iii,  279)—Kirffhis 
(ref.  lost) — France  (Guizot,  "  Hist."  iii,  ^60 ;  Cher.  s.v.  "  Epices  ") — English 
(Rob.  1 ;  Stubbs,  i,  384)  -Spain  (Rose,  i,  79)— Bechuanas  (Burch.  i,  544)  — 
Dahomey  (For.  i,  34)— East  (Van  Len.  ii,  592).  §  373.  Congo  (Tuck. 

116)  —  Tonquin  (Tav.  description  of  plates)  —  New  Caledonians  (Tur.  88)  — 
Veddah  (Eth.  S.  "Trans."  ii,  301)—  Dyaks  (Brooke,  ii,  73)— Greeks  (Guhl, 
283)  —  Zulu  (Gard.  96)  —  Hebreivs  (Levit.'  i)  —  Greeks  (Pot.  i,  239)  — 
Hebrews  (I  Sam.  xxi,  6)  —  England  (Hook,  541).  §  374.  Ancient 

Mexico  (Saha.  bk.  iii,  ch.  1,  §  3-4)  —  Kukis  (As.  S.  B.  xxiv,  630)  —  Battas 
(Mars.  386)—£uxtars  (His.  17)  -Dahomey  (Bur.  ii,  153 ;  For.  i,  174)— 
Ashantees  (Beech.  189)  —  Tahitians  (Ell.  "  Pol.  Res."  ii,  271)  —  Central 
America  (Ovi.  bk.  xlii,  ch.  2  and  3)  —  Greeks  (Pot.  i,  172,  24,7)— Early 
Christians  (Hook,  540-1) — Mediaeval  (Guer.  "  N.  Dame,"  i,  p.  xiv). 
§  375.  China  (Staun.  351)—  Kukis  (But.  94)— Dahomey  (For.  ii,  243)— Ger 
mans  (Tac.xiv)—  French  (Duc.96 ;  Moris,  bk.  i,  ch.59).  "  §  376.  Austra 
lians  (Hawk,  iii,  634)  —  Osti/aks  (Bell,  ii,  I8ty—Julifunda  (Park,  —)—Norlh 
American  Indians  (Cat.  i,  223,  note) — rucatanes?  (Landa,  §  xxiii) — Japanese 
(Mit.  i,  112,  142)  —Himalayas  (Mark.  108)— Bootan  fTurn.  223,72:—  licme 


4:  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

(Cor.  14-15)—  France  (Du  M.  115).  §  379.  Joloffs  (Mol.  31)— Kaffir* 
(Shoot.  99) — Ancient  Peruvians  (Cie.  262;  Xer.  68)—  Mexico  (Tern,  xvi, 
333-4)— AsJiantee  (Beech.  94-6)—  Dahomey  (Bur.  i,  296) )— M adagascar 
(Ell.  "  Visits,"  127)— Siam  (Bowr.  ii,  \V$)— Mogul  (Tav.  ii,  67)— Jummoo 
(Drew,  "North.  Bar."  47)  — Japan  (Ksem.  49,  66,  11)—  France  (Tocq.  225). 
§  380.  Spain  (Rose  i,  119)— Japan  (Kami.  51 .;  46).  §  381.  WahTidbees 

(Pal.  ii,  110)  —  Persia  (Tav.  bk.  v,  ch.  xiy,  235)  —  Africa  (Grant,  48)  — 
Trench  (Kules,  150).  §  383.  Shoshones  (Lew.  &  Cl.  265)  —  Batoka 

(Liv.  55 V)— Tonga  (Forst.  361)  —  Africa  (Laird  i,  192)—  Peru  (Gar.  bk.  iii, 
ch.  2  ;  Markham  94).  §  384.  Chibcha  (Sim. 264)—  Borghoo  (Lan.  ii,  183) 

— Asia  (Camp.  147;  Bowr.  ii,  270)— Polynesia  (Cook,  "Last  Voy."  304)— 
Jews  (2  Sam.  ix,  6)  —  Bithynia  (Mon.  — )  —  Bootan  (Turn.  80)  —  Coast 
Negroes  (Bos.  317) — Brass  (Laird  i,  97) —  Congo  (Tuck.  125)  — Niger  (All. 
&  T.  i,  392)  —  Russia  (ref.  lost)  —  China  (Will,  ii,  68-9)  —  Hebrews 
(Gen.  xxxiii,  3;  xvii.  17  ;  Dan.  ii,  46  ;  iii,  6) — Mongols  (Pall. — ) — Japanese 
(Koem.  50).  §  385.  Dahomey  (Bur.  i,  261)  —  Mexicans  (Dur.  i, 

207)  —New  Caledonians  (Ersk.  356)—  Dahomey  (Bur.  i,  262)— Siam  (Bowr. 
i,  128)— Cambodia  (Bowr.  ii,  31)— Zulu  (Gard.  203)—  Loango  (Ast.  iii,  221) 
—  Dahomey  (Bur.  i,  250 ;  ii,  45)  —  Japan  (Dick.  30)  —  China  (Pink,  vii, 
238)  —  Europe  (Ste.  Pal.  ii,  197-8)  —  Japanese  (Chin.  Rep.  iii,  200)  — 
China  (Will,  ii,  68)  —  Soosoos  (Wint.  i,  123)  —  Samoa  (Tur.  332)  —Ancient 
Mexicans  (Nouv.  xcviii,  200)  —  Chinese  (Will,  ii,  68)  —  Congoese  (Bast.  143). 
§  386.  Loango  (Ast.  iii,  228)  —  Uganda  (Speke,  331)—  Balonda  (Liv.  296) 
—Karague  (Grant,  140)— JY;*  (Wil.  i,  35-6)— JEioe  (Laird  i,  388)— Ancient 
Mexicans  (Diaz,  ch.  71) — Abyssinians  (Har.  iii,  170)  — Malagasy  (Drur. 
67-8) — Ancient  Peru  (Xer.  68)  — Persia  (Por.  i,  464)  —  Tonga  (Mar.  i,  227 
note) — Arabian  (Pax.  iv,43) — Orientals  (ref.  lost)— Mexico  (Clav.  bk.  vi,  ch.8) 
— Peru  (Acos.  bk.  v,  ch.  4;  Gar.  bk.  ii,  ch.  8) — Greeks  (Smith,  W.s.v.  "Sal- 
tatio")— Pepin  (Bouq.  v,  433) .  §  387.  Africa  (Bur. "  Dah."  i,  259-60 ; 

All.  &T.  i,  345  ;  Liv.  276,  296 ;  All.  &  T.  i,  392)—  Jews  (Jos.ii,  287)— Turkey 
(Whiteii,239;  i,232)—  Jeios(\ Kings xx, 32;  Josh.vii,6).  §388.  Uganda 
(Grant,  224)— Chinese  (Doo.  i,  121)—  Mongol  (Hue,  "  Chin.  Emp."  i,  54)— 
Malagasy  (Drur.  78) — Siamese  (La  Loub.  i,  179)  —  Unyanyembe  (Grant, 
52)—  Sumatra  (Mars.  281) — Greeks  (ref.  lost; — Siamese  (Bowr.  i,  128) — 
China  (Will,  ii,  68) .  §  389.  Fijians  (Ersk.  297)—Otaheitans  (Hawk,  ii, 

84) — Soudan  (Tylor,  "Early  Hist."  50)  —  Uganda  (Speke,  374) — Abyssinia 
(Har.  iii,  171)  —  Tahitians  (Ell.  "  Pol.  Res."  ii,  352  ;  Forst.  361)  —  Gold 
Coast  (Cruic.  ii,  282 ;  ref.  lost)— Spain  (Ford,  "  Gatherings,"  249)—  Dahomey 
(Bur.  i,  49)  —  Gold  Coast  (Cruic.  ii,  282)  — Ancient  America  (Anda.  58; 
Tern.  —)—Burmah  (Yule,  79)—  Persia  (Mor.  241)— Ancient  Mexico  (Diaz, 
ch.  91)  —  Peru  (Anda.  58)  —  Dahomey  (Dal.  p.  vii)  —  France  (Com. 
bk.  ii,  ch.  3  ;  St.  Sim.  xi,  378)  —  Hebrews  (Isa.  xxxii,  11)  —  East  (Pax.  iv, 
136)—  Peru  (Gar.  bk.  vi,  ch.  21)—  Damaras  (And.  231)  —  Turks  (White  ii, 
96).  §  390.  Toorkee  (Grant,  333)  —  Slave  Coast  (Bos.  318)  —  China 

(Gray,  i,  211)—  Mosquitos  (Bane,  i,  741)— Arabs  (Mai.  — ;  Nieb.  ii;  247). 
§  391.  Kamschadales  (Krash.  177)—  Uganda  (Grant,  228).  §  392.  Poles 
(Spen.  i,  156-7)— Turkish  (White  ii,  303)— Siam  (Bowr.  i,  127 ;  La  Loub. 
ii,  178)  —  Russia  (ref.  lost).  §393.  Tupis  (Stade,  151,  59)— Africa 

(Mol.  288)— Sandwich  Is.  (Ell.  "Hawaii,"  385)—  France  (La  Sale,  196)— 
Spain  (Ford,  "  Handbook,"  p.  Ixi).  §  394.  France  (Cher,  ii,  1131)— 

Hebrews  (2  Sam.  xiv,  22 ;  Isaiah  xlviii,  20 ;  2  Kings  xvi,  7)  —  Europe 
(Due.  393)  —  Samoan  (Tur.  348).  §  395.  Egypt  (ref.  lost)  —  Siam 

(Bowr.  i,  127)  —  Turkey  (White  ii,  52)  —Bulgarians  (Times,  12  Dec.  1876) 
— French  (Sully  — )  —  Delhi  (Tav.  ii,  84-5)  —  Russia  (ref.  lost)  —  France 
(ref.  lost)— Chinese  (Gray  i,  211)  —  India  (Pax.  ii,  74)  —  Persians  (Tav. 
bk.  v,  ch.  iii,  205).  §  396.  Snakes  (Lew.  &  Cl.  266)  —  Araucanians 

(Smith,  195-6)— Arabs  (Lyon,  53)— Chinese  (Du  H.ii,  185)— France  (Mon.  — ). 
§  397.  Abipones  (Dob.  ii,  204)— Samoa  (Ersk.  107)—  Javans  (Raf.  i,  366)— 


Mexican  (Gal.  28)—  Kaffirs  (Shoot.  221)— Samoa  (Ersk.  44)— Siam  (Bowr. 
i,  276)  —  China  (Chin.  Eep.  iv,  157)  —  Siam  (Bowr.  i,  127-9)  —  Chinese 
(Du  H.  ii,  177)— Siamese  (La  Loub.  i,  166-7)—  Japanese  (Stein.  299-300)— 
Germany  (G-er.  124;  May.  i,  395)  —  France  (Chal.  ii,  31)  —  Samoa  (Tur. 
340).  §  398.  Dacotahs  (ref.  lost)— F«WaA*  (Eth.  S.  "  Trans."  ii,  298) 

—  China  (Chin.  Eep.  iv,  157).  §  400.  Tupis  (South,  i,  222;    Stade, 
145) _  Creeks  (ref.  lost)  —  Nicaragua  (Ovi.  bk.  xiii,  ch.  1)  —Fiji  (Wil.  i, 
55)  —  Mexico  (Dur.   i,    102-3)  —  Fiji  (ref.   lost).  §  401,  Tiipit 
(South,  i,  239)  —  Guatemala  (Xim.  163,  etc.)  —  Dahomey  (Bur.  ii,  407)  — 
Usambara  (Krapf,  395)— Zulu  (G-ard.  91 ;  Shoot.  290)—  Kaffir   (Shoot.  99) 

—  Samoa  (Ersk.  44)  —  Mexicans  (Her.  iii,  204)  —  Chibchas  (Her.  v,  86)  — 
Peruvians  (Our.  bk.  iii,  ch.  8)  —  Surmah   (Daily   News,  24,  Mar.   1879). 
§  402.    Todas    (ref.    lost)  —  Tartars   (Pink,    vii,    591)  —  Madagascar 
(Ell.  "  Hist."  i,  261)  —  Dahomey  (Bur.  i,  262)  —  Ancient  Mexicans  (Mot. 
31)  —  Kasias  (As.  S.  B.  xiii,  620).  §  403.  China  and  Japan  (Ale.  ii, 
843) — Zulus    (ref.  lost) — Nicaraguans   (Squ.   ii,   357-8) — Dahomey    (Bur. 
i,  273)  —  Asia  (Tav.  ii,  24)  —  Zulus  (Gard.  91)  —  Japanese  (Mit.  i,  202)  — 
Siam    (Bowr.   i,   275)  —  China   (Hue,  i,   268)  —  Siam    (Pink,    ix,   86)  — 
Russia  (Wahl,  35)  —Dyaks  (St.  John  ii,  103)—  Kasias  (As.  S.  B.  xiii,  620) 

—  Bechuana    (Thomp.   i,    174).  §404.  Teutonic    (Mul.   ii,   280). 
§405.  King  (Mul.  ii,  284)—  Abyssinia   (Bru.  iv,  452)—  France  (Cher. 
66-7)—  Merovingian  (Mioh.  i,  174,  note).  §  406.  Samoa  (Tur.  281) 
— Siam  (Pink,  ix,  584  ;  La  Loub.  i,  237)— Chinese  (Will,  ii,  71 ;    i,  521)— 
Home  (Mom.  ii,  3Q8-9)—Mecklenburgh  (Spen.  i,  44)—  Spain  (Ford  "  Hand 
book,"  p.  Ixi).              §  407.  Dahomey  (Bur.  i,  52)— Surman  (Yule,  194)— 
China  (Will,  i,  317)— Europe  (Ger.  91)—  Russia  (Sala,  252).  §  408. 
UJcuni  (Grant,  92)  —  Zulus  (ref.  lost)  —  Uganda  (Speke,    290)  —  Chichi- 
•necs  (Church,  iv,  513)  —  Yucatanese  (Landa,  §  xxix).              §  409.  Japan 
(Busk,  21)—  Madagascar  (Ell.  "  Visits,"  — )  —  Uganda  (Speke,  375)— Japan 
(Dick.  49)—  Hebrews  (Ew.  iii,  73)—  Zeus  (Pan.  bk.  ix,  c.  40)—  Franks 
(Wai.  ii,  130;   Greg.  bk.  vii,  ch.  33;   Leb.  xiii,  259-65)  — Araucanians 
(ref.  lost)  —  Uganda    (Speke,    429)  —  France    (ref.   lost).  §  410. 
Peruvians  (Gar.  bk.  vii,  ch.  6 ;    Markham,  54,  note)  —  Sandwich  Is.  (Ell. 
"  Hawaii,"    142)  —  Fijians  (U.  S.   Ex.  iii,  79)  —  Chibchas  (Sim.  269)  — 
Mexicans  (Clav.  bk.  vii,  chs.  22  &  24).             §  411.    ThlinJceets  (Bane,  i, 
109)— China  (Du  H.  i,  278).             §  412.  Africa  (rsf.  lost;  Heug.  92-3) 

—  Greeks  (Guhl,  232)  — Sandwich,  Is.  (Hawk,  ii,  192)  —  Tonga  (Hawk.  — ) 
—Fundah  (Laird  i,  202)— Arabs  (Pal.  — )— Gaul  (Quich.  25-31;  57-66)— 
Rome  (Gruhl,   485)— Madagascar   (Ell.  "  Hist."  i,  279)— Siam  (La  Loub. 
i,  75)— Mongol  (Bell  i,  344)—  France  (Le  Grand,   ii,   184;— ref.  lost)— 
China  (Staun.  244) — Japan  (Ksem.  43).  §413.   Guatemala   (Ath. 
p.  1537)  —  Chibchas  (Or.  24-5)  —  Cimbri  (Tac.  15)—  Ashantee  (Dup.  71)— 
Malagasy  (Ell.  "  Hist."  i,  284)— Dakota*  (Lew.  &  Cl.  44)—  Kulcis  (As.  S.  B. 
xxiv,  646) — Dyaks   (Boyle,  95) — New  Zealand  (Thorn,  i,  164)—  Mandans 
(Cat.  i,  101)—  Nagas  (As.  S.  B.  viii,  464)— Hottentots  (Kol.  i,  198)—  Snakes 
(Low.  &  Cl.  315)— Congo  (Tuck.  362)— Chibchas  (Acos.  219  ;  Sim.  253)— 
Peru  (Gar.  bk.  iv,  ch.  11) — France  (ref.  lost) — New  Zealanders  (Hawk,  iii, 
457)— Astrachan  (Bell,  i,  43).            §  414.  Rome  (Mom.  ii,  335,  n. ;  Guhl, 
497-8)—  France   (ref.  lost).             §415.  Tahitians  (Ell.   "Pol.  Res."  ii, 
354)—  Home  (Mom.i,  72)—  Mexicans  (Torq.  bk.  xiv,  ch.  4)— Peru  (Gar.  bk.  i, 
ch.  213) — Some  (Guhl,  479) — Russia  (Cust.  — ;  Wag.  ii,  21) — Germany 
(Spen.  ii,  176).             §  416.  LombocJc  (Wai.  i,  344)— Surma  (Yule,  163)— 
Siam  (Bowr.  i,  125)—  Dacotahs  (School,  iv,  69) — Abipones  (Dob.  ii,  106)— 
Mishmis  (As.  S.  B.  v,  195-6)—  Sambaras  (Cail.  i,  377)  —  Gold  Coast  (Bos. 
112).               §  417.   Guatemala  (Juar.  194-5)— Tanna  (Tur.  77)—  Mexican* 
(Dur.  i,  55 ;  Her.  iii,  198)— Hottentot  (Kol.  i,  50-51)—  Egyptians  (Wilk.  iii, 
360-3).             §  418.  Mexico  (Clav.  — )— Dahomey  (Dal.  98;  Bur.  i,  217)— 
Japan  (Stein.  — )  —  Surmah  (Yule,  139 ;    Sang.  127 ;    Symes  — ,  185-6). 


6  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

§419.  Chilchas  (Sim.  253)—  Madagascar  (Ell.  "Hist."  i,  283)—  Romans 
(Ghihl,  513)—  Japan  (Ksem.  70)— China  (Will,  i,  404)— Turkey  (White,  i, 
4B)—Siam  (Bowr.,  i,  117)— Congo  (Bast.  57)— Assyrians  (Raw.  i,  495)— 
India  (ref.  lost) — SYaw  (Bowr.  i,  425)— China  (Ghitz.  ii,  278) — Java  (Raf.  i, 
Sl2)—Utlatlan  (Torq.  bk.  xi,  ch.  IS)— Dahomey  (Waitz,  ii,  87)— Siamese 
(Bowr.  i,  H6)—Joloffs  (Bast.  57).  §  420.  Tasmanians  (Bon.  "  Daily 

Lite,"  64)— Australia  (Sturt,  ii,  64)— Zfco»d  (Macph.  56)— Tahiti  (E1L 
"Pol.  Res."  i,  222)—Fijians  (U.  S.  Ex.  iii,  332;  See.  179)— CSWJcAo*  (Sim. 
253)— /Saw  Salvador  (Her.  iv,  149)—  Pert*  (Acos.  bk.  iv,  ch.  22).  §  421. 

Society  Islands  (Forst.  271)— Fijian  (Ersk.  430)— Sumatra  (Mars.  47)— 
Indians  (ref.  lost)— ZYz£ift  (EU.  "Pol.  Res."  i,  173)— Karague  (Speke,  210  & 
231)— Tahiti  (Cham.  *.«.  "  Ava")— Guatemala  (Xim.  157).  §424. 

JY/i  (— ;  Wil.  i,  39)—  J>ar>r  (ref.  lost)  —  Burgundy  (Quick  299)— JVawce 
(Ste.  Beuve,  ref.lost).  §  425.  New  Zealand  (Ang.  i,  319  ;  Thorn,  i,  190). 

§  428.  Abyssinia  (Bra.  vi,  16)  —  Mexicans  (Clav.  bk.  vi,  ch.  20). 
§  429.  Fiji  (Ersk.  462;  Wil.  i,  39  ;  i,  37)— Uganda  (Speke,  298  ;  Stan,  i, 
369  ;  Speke,  256  &  258)—  Siamese  (Bowr.  i,  434)— Fiji  (U.  S.  Ex.  iii,  326)— 
Loango  (Ast.  iii,  226) — Ashantee  (Cruic.  i,  109) — Siamese  (La  Loub.  i,  186 
&  172) — China  (Pink,  vii,  265;  Hue,  "Chin.  Empire,"  i,  212) — Japan 
(Dick.  45)— Russia  (Cust.  — )— Siamese  (La  Loub.  i,  172  ;  Bowr.  i,  435)— 
Burma  (Sjmes,  244)  —  China  (Will,  i,  509 ;  Hue,  "  Chin."  ii,  289). 
§  431.  Japan  (ref.  lost)—  Russia  (Cust.  —}— Spain  (ref.  lost).  §  432. 

China  (Will,  i,  509). 


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(If  not  otherwise   specified,   London  is   to  be  understood  as  the  place  of 

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Alc.^Alcock  (Sir  R.).  The  Capital  of  the  Tycoon.     1863. 

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Anda. — Andagoya  (P.  de)  Proceedings  ofP.Davila.  (Hakluyt  Society.)  1865. 
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As.  S.  B. — Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal.     Journal.     Calcutta,  v.y. 
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Cor.— Cortet  (E.)  Es.mi  sur  les  fetes  religieuses.     Paris,  1867. 

Cox  &  Jones — Cox  (Rev.  Sir  G.  W.)  and  Jones  (E.  H.)  Popular  romances  of 

the  Middle  Ages.     1871. 

Cruic. — Cruickshank  (B.)  Eighteen  years  on  the  Gold  Coatt  of  Africa.  1853. 
Cust.— Custine  (Marq.  de)  Russia.     Trans.     1844. 
Dal. — Dalzel  (A.)  History  of  Dahomey.     1793. 
Diaz— Diaz  de  Castillo  (B.)  Memoirs  [1598].     Trans.     1844. 
Dick.— Dickson  (W.)  Japan.     1879. 

Diod. — Diodorus  Siculus.     Historical  Library.     Trans.     Booth.     1814. 
Dob. — Dobrizhoffer  (M.)  Account  of  Abipones  of  Paraguay.    Trans.    1822. 
Doo.  — Doolittle  (Rev.  J.)     Social  life  of  the  Chinese.     New  York,  1867. 
Drew— Drew  (F.)  The  Jummoo  and  Kashmir  territories.     1875. 

„ The  northern  barrier  of  India.    1877. 

Drur. — Drury  (R.)  Madagascar  :  fifteen  years'  captivity  on  that  island.  1731. 
Due. — Ducange  (Ch.  Dufresne,  sr.)  Dissertations  sur  Vhistoire  de  S.  Louys. 

(In  Petitot,  Collection  de  Memoires,  tome  iii.     Paris,  1819.) 
Duf. — Dufton  (H.)  Narrative  of  a  journey  through  Abyssinia.     1867. 
Du  H.— Du  Halde  (J.  B.)  General' description  of  China.     Trans.  1736. 
Du  M. — Du  Meril  (Edel.)  Etudes  sur  quelques  points  d'archeoloaie.     Paris, 

1862. 

Dun. — Duncker  (Max.)  History  of  antiquity.     Trans.    1877-82. 
Dup.—  Dupuia  (Jas.)  Journal  of  a  residence  in  Ashantee.     1824. 
102 


8  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Bur. — Duran  (Fr.  D.)  Historia  de  las  Indias  de  Nueva  Espana.     Mexico, 

1867. 

Eb. — Ebers  (G-.)  JEgypten  und  die  Biicher  Move's.     Leipzig,  1868. 
Ed.— Edwards  (B.)  History  of  the  British  Colonies  in  the  West  Indies.  1793. 
Ell.— Ellis  (Rev.  W.)  Polynesian  Researches.     1829. 

„        Tour  through  Hawaii.     1827. 

„ History  of  Madagascar.     1838. 

Three  visits  to  Madagascar.     1858. 


Ell.,  W. — Ellis  (W.)  Narrative  of  voyage  of   Capts.   Cook  and  Clerlce  i* 

search  of  a  North-  West  Passage.     1782. 
Ersk. — Erskine  (Capt.  J.  E.)  Journal  of  a  cruise  among  the  islands  of  the 

Western  Pacific.     1853. 
Eth.  S.— Ethnological  Society.     Journal.     Vol.  iii,  1854. 

„     „ Transactions.    N.S. 

Ew.— Ewald  (G-.  H.  A.)  History  of  Israel.     Trans.     Yol.  iii,  1878. 
Talk.— Falkner  (T.)  Description  of  Patagonia.     Hereford,  1774. 
Fan. — Fancourt  (C.  St.  J.)  History  of  Yucatan.     1854. 
For. — Forbes  (F.  E.)  Dahomey  and  the  Dahomans.     1851. 
Ford — Ford  (E.)  Gatherings  from  Spain.     1846. 

,,  -  Handbook  for  travellers  in  Spain.     1847. 

Forst. — Forster  (OK)  Observations  during  a  voyage  round  the  ivorld.     1778. 
Fors. — Forsyth  (Capt.  J.)  Highlands  of  Central  India.     1871. 
Fyt. — Fytche  (Gen.  A.)  Surma  past  and  present.     1878. 
Gal. — Gallatin  (A.)  Notes  on  the  semi- civilized  nations   of  Mexico.       (In 

Transactions  of  the  American  Ethnological  Soc.,  vol.  i.     lr«jw  York. 

1845.) 

Gait. —  Galton  (F.)  Narrative  of  an  explorer  in  tropical  south  Aft  ica.  1853. 
Gar. — Garcilasso  de  la  Vega.    First  part  of  the  Royal  Commentaries  of  the 

Yncas.     Trans.  (Hakluyt  Soc.).     1869-71. 
Gard. — Gardiner  (A.  F.)  Narrative  of  a  journey  to   the  Zoolu    Country. 

1836. 

Ger. — German  Home  Life.     1877. 
Gib.— Gibbon  (E.)  Decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.     Edited  by  H. 

H.  Milman.    1838. 

Grant— Grant  (J.  A.)  A  walk  across  Africa.     1864. 

Gray — Gray  (Archdn.  J.  H.)  China,  its  laws,  manners,  and' customs.     1878. 
Greg. — Gregory    of    Tours.      Historia    ecclesiastica    Francorum.       Paris; 

1836-8. 

Grote— Grote  (G.)  History  of  Greece.     1872. 
Guer. — Guerard  (B.)  La  Polyptique  de  V Abbe  Irminon.     Paris,  1844. 

„ Cartulaire  de  VEglise  de  Notre-Dame  de  Paris.    Paris, 

1850. 

,, Cartulaire  de   V "Abb aye  de  Saint-Pere  de   Chartres. 

Paris,  1840. 
Gub.1— Guhl   (E.)    and   Koner  (W.)      Life  of   the   Greeks   and  Romans. 

Trans.  1877. 

Guizot — Guizot  (F.)  The  History  of  Civilization.   Trans.    Bonn's  Ed.   1856. 
„ Collection  des  memoires  relatifs  a  Vhistoire  de  France. 

Paris,  1823. 

Gutz.— Gutzlaff  (Eev.  K  F.  A.)  China  opened.     1838. 
Guz.— Guzman  (A.  E.  de)  Life  and  Acts,  A.D.  1518  to  1543.     (Hakluyt 

Soc.)     1862. 

Har.— Harris  (Sir  W.  C.)  Highlands  of  ^Ethiopia.     1844. 
Hawk. — Hawkesworth  (J.)  Account  of  the  voyages  undertaken  for  making 

discoveries  in  the  southern  hemisphere.     1773. 

Hay. — Haygarth  (H,  W.)  Recollections  of  bush  life  in  Australia.     1848. 
lleim. — Heimskringla ;    or,    Chronicle  of  the  Kings  of  Norway.      Trans, 

from  Snorro  Sturleson  by  S.  Laing.     1814. 


REFERENCES.  9 

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Her. — Herrera  (Ant.  de)  The  general  history  of  the  continent  and  islands  of 

America.     Trans.     1725-6. 
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1869. 

Hind— Hind  (H.  Y.)  Canadian  Red  River  exploring  expedition.     1860. 
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Hue — Hue  (L'Abbe)  Travels  in  Tartary,  Thibet,  and  China.     (In  National 
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„      The  Chinese  Umpire.     Trans.     1855. 

Hutch.— Hutchinson  (T.  J.)  The  Parana.     1868. 

Jag. — Jagor  (F.)  Travels  in  the  Philippines.     Trans.    1875. 

Jor. — Jornandes   (Episc.  Ravenn.)    De  Q-etarum  sive   Gothorum   origine  et 

rebus  gestis.     (In  L.  A.  Muratori,   Rermn  Ital.  Script.  Mediol.  1723. 

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Jos.— Josephus  (Flavins)  Works.     Trans.  Whiston.    1825. 
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Trans.     1824. 

Kaera. — Ksempfer  (E.)  Account  of  Japan.     (Universal  Lib.)     1853. 
KaL— Kalisch  (M.)  Commentary  on  the  Old  Testament — Leviticus.    1867-72. 
Klun. — Klmizinger  (C.  B.)  Upper  Egypt.     1878. 

Rnobel — Knobel  (Aug.)  Die  Bilcher  Exodus  und  Leviticus.     Leipzig,  18SO. 
EoL— Kolben  (P.)  Present  state  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.     Trans.    1731. 
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Krash. — Krasbeninnikov   (S.    P.)    History   of  Kamschatka.     Trans,   by  J. 

Grieve,     Glocester,  1764. 
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Kue.— Kuenen  (A.)  The  Religion  of  Israel.     Trans.     1874-5. 
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Africa,  by  the  Niger.     1837. 

La  Loub. — La  Loubere  (M.  de)  Du  royaume  de  Siam  en  1687-8.     Amst.  1691. 
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1830. 
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de  France.     Paris,  1826-38. 
Le  Grand — Le  Grand  d'Aussy  (P.  J.  B.)  Fabliaux  ou  contes  du  Xlle  et  du 

XI He  siecle.     Paris,  1779-81. 
Lehuerou — Lebuerou   (J.    M.)     Histoire   des  institutions    Carolingiennes, 

Paris,  1813. 

Lew. — Lewin  (T.  H.)  Wild  races  of  south-eastern  India.    1870. 
Lew.  &  Cl.— Lewis   (M.)  and   Clarke  (W.)    Travels   to   the  source  of  the 

Missouri.     1817. 

Lich.— Lichtenstein  (H.)  Travels  in  southern  Africa.     Trans.     1812-15. 
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1857. 

Lyon — Lyon  (Capt.  G-.  F.)  Travels  in  northern  Africa.     1821. 
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Cutfack.     Calcutta,  1842. 

Mai. — Malcolm  (Sir  J.)  History  of  Persia.     1815. 
Marcy— Marcy  (Col.  R.  B.)  Thirty  years  of  army  life  on  the  border.     New 

York,  1866. 


10  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Mar. — Mariner  (W.)  Account  of  the  natives  of  the  Tonga  islands.     1818. 
Markham — Markham   (C.  R.)  Reports  on  the  discovery  of  Peru.     (Hakluyt 

Soc.)     1872. 

Mark. — Markham  (Col.  F.)  Shooting  in  the  Himalayas.     1854. 
Mars.— Marsden  (W.)  History  of  Sumatra.     1811. 

Mart. — Martyr  ab  Angleria  (Petrus)  De  rebus  oceanicis  Decades  tres.    Colo 
nise,  1574. 

May. — Mayhew  (H.)  German  life  and  manners.     1864. 
Mich.  —  Michelet  (J.)  History  of  France      Trans.    1844-6. 
Mil.— Milne  (Rev.  W.  C.)  Life  in  China.     1858. 
Mitch. — Mitchell  (Sir  T.  L.)    Three  ".xpeditions  into  the  interior  of  Eastern 

Australia.     1839. 

Mil.— Mitford  (A.  B.)   Tales  of  old  Japan.     1871. 
Mol. — Mollien  (Or.  T.)  Travels  in  the  interior  of  Africa  to  the  source*  of  th« 

Senegal  and  Gambia.     Trans.    1820. 

Mom. — Mommsen  (Th.)  History  of  Rome.     Trans.     1868. 
Mons. — Monstrelet  (E.  de)   Chronicles.     Trans.     1840. 
Mor. — Morier  (J.)   Second  journey  through  Persia.     1818. 
Mot. — Motoiinia    (Fr.   T.    Benavente)     Historia   de  los  Indios  de  Nueva 

Espana.     (In    Coleccion   de  documentos  para  la  historia   de  Mexico. 

Mexico,  1858.) 

Mov.— Movers  (F.  C.)  Die  Phonizier.     Bonn,  1841-56. 
Moz. — Mozley  (H.  N.)  and  Whiteley  (G.  S.)  Conci.se  law  dictionary.  1876. 
Mul. — Miiller  (F.  Max)  Lectures  on  the  science  of  language.     1873. 
Nieb. — Niebuhr  (M.)   Travels  through  Arabia.     Trans.     Edinb.  1792. 
Nob.— Noble  (Rev.  M.)  History  of  the  College  of  Arms.     1804. 
Nouv. — Nouvelles  annales  des  voyayes.     Tomes  98,  99.     Paris,  1843. 
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Madrid,  1851-55. 
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eastern  Arabia.     1865. 
Pall. — Pallas  (P.  S.)    Voyages  dans  les  gouvernements  meridionaux  de   la 

Russie.     Trad.     Paris,  1805. 

Par. — Pai'deesus  (J.  M.)  Loi  .fatigue.     Paris,  1843. 

Park — Park  (Mungo)   Travels  in  Africa,     (Pinkerton's  Voyages,  vol.  xvi.) 
Pan. — Pausanias.   Description  of  Greece.     Trans.     1824. 
Pax. — Paxton  (G.)  Illustrations  of  Scripture.     Edinb.  1843. 
Pell.— Pelloutier  (S.)  Histoire  des  Celtes.     Paris,  1770-71. 
Pied. — Fiedrahita  (L.  Fernandez  de)  Historia  del  nuevo  reyno  de  Granada. 

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Pink— Pinkerton  (J.)    General  collection  of  voyages.     1808-14. 
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Babylonia.     1821-2. 

Pot. — Potter  (J.)  ArchcBologia  Graca.     Edinb.  1827. 
Quich. — Quicherat  (J.)  Histoire  du  costume  en  France.     Paris,  1875. 
Raf.— Raffles  (Sir  T.  S.)  History  of  Java.     1817. 
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Raw. — Rawlinson    ((*.)    The  five  great  monarchies  of  the   ancient  eastern 

world.     1871. 
Rob.— Roberts  (George)   Social  history  of  the  southern  counties  of  England 

1856. 

Rohlfs— Rohlfs  (G.)  Adventures  in  Morocco.     1874. 
Rose— Rose  (Rev.  H.  J.)    Untrodden  Spain.     1874. 
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Saha. — Sahagun   (Bernardino  de)    Historia  general  de  las  cosas  de  nueva 

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St.  John— St.  John  (Sir  Spencer)  Life  in  the  forests  of  the  far  east.      1862. 
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Stade — Stade  (Hans)  Captivity  in  Brazil.      Trans.  (Hakluyt  Soc.)     1874. 
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Stubbs— Stubbs  (Bp.  W.)  Constitutional  history  of  England.  Oxford,  1874. 
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Sully— Sully  (Max.  Due  de)  Memoirs.     Trans.     1774. 
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Thomp. — Thompson  (Geo.)  Travels  and  adventures  in  Southern  Africa.  1827. 
Thomp.,  Gr. — Thompson  (Col.  Geo.)  The  ivar  in  Paraguay.     1869. 
Thorn. — Thomson  (A.  S.)  The  story  of  New  Zealand.     1859. 
Thomson— Thomson  (W.  M.)  The  Land  and  the  Boole.     1859. 
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12  CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Turn. — Turner    (Capt.    S.)  Embassy  to  the  court  of  the   Teshoo  Lama  in 

Thibet.     1800. 
Tyl. — Tylor  (E.  B.).     Researches  into  the  early  history  of  mankind.     1878. 

.,,        Primitive  culture.     1871. 

V.  S.  Ex. —  United   States  Exploring  Expedition.      (Coram.   C.    Wilkes.) 

Phil.  1845. 
Ur. — Uricoechea  (E.)  Memoria   sobre   las   antiguedades   Neo-Granadinas. 

Berlin,  1854. 
Van  Len. — Van  Lennep   (H.  J.)      "Bible  lands,  their  modern  customs  and 

manners.  1875. 
Wag. — Wagner  (M.)     Travels  in  Persia,  Georgia,  and  Koordistan.     Trans. 

1856. 

Wahl— Wahl  (O.  W.)  The  Land  of  the  Czar.     1875. 
Wai. — Waitz  (Geo.)  Deutsche  Verfassungsgeschichte.      Kiel.    Vols.  i  and  ii 

(2nd  ed.),  1865-70;  vols.  iii  and  iv,  1860-1. 

Waitz — Waitz  (T.)  Anthropologie  der  Naturvollcer.     Leipzig,  1859-72. 
Wai.— Wallace  (A.  E.)  The  Malay  Archipelago.     1869. 
West — West  (J.)  History  of  Tasmania.     Launceston,  Tasmania,  1852. 
Whar.— Wharton  (J.  S.)  Laio  Lexicon.     1876. 
White— White  (C.)  Three  years  in  Constantinople.     1845. 
Wilk. — Wilkinson  (Sir.  J.  Gr.)  Manners  and  customs  of  the  ancient  Egyptians. 

Ed.  by  S.  Birch,  1878. 
Will. — Williams  (S.  W.)  The  middle  kingdom;  geography,  ^c.,  of  the  Chinese 

empire.     1848. 

Wil. — Williams  (Eev.  T.)  and  Calvert  (J.)  Fiji  and  the  Fijians.     1860. 
Wint. — Winterbottom  (T.)  Account  of  the  native  Africans  in  the  neighbour 
hood  of  Sierra  Leone.     1803. 
Xer. — Xeres  (F.  de)  Account  of  Cuzco.  (In  Reports  on  the  discovery  of  Peru. 

Trans.     (Hakluyt  Soc.)     1872.) 
Xirn. — Ximenes  (F.)  Las  historias  del  origen  de  los  Indios  de  Guatemala. 

Viena,  1857. 

Yule— Yule  (Col.  H.)  Narrative  of  mission  to  Ava.     1858. 
Zur. — Zurita   (Al.  de)  Rapports  sur  les  dijferentes  classes  de  chefs  de   In 

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Vol.  xi.    Paris,  1840.) 


REFERENCES. 

(For  explanation  see  the  first  page  of  References.'} 


POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

§  437.  Santals  (Hunt.  "Ann."i,  2±8)—Sowrahs  (Short*  Pt.  iii,  38)— 
Todas  (Hark.  18;  Metz,  13;  Hark.  ll^—Tipperahs  (Hunt.  "Stat."vi, 
53)—  Marias  [Gonds]  (Glas.  No.  xxxix,  ±Y)—Khonds  (Macph.  vii,  196)— 
Santals  (Hunt.  "Ann."  i,  215-6)—  Lepchas  (Eth.  Soc.  "Jour."  N.  S.  i,  150) 
—Bodo  &  Dhimals  (As.  S.B.  xviii,  74£)—Carnattcs  (Hunt.  "  Die."  10)— 
Chakmds  (Hunt.  "Stat."  vi,  48)—  Santals  (Hunt.  "Ann."  i,  215-6  ;  Dalt. 
217)—  Bodo  &  Dhimals  (As.  S.B.  xviii,  745)—  Lepchas  (Hook,  i,  175  ;  Eth. 
Soc.  "Jour."  N.S.  i,  154)— New  Guinea  (D'Alb.  45,  48,  58-9)— Fijians 
(ref.  lost) — Dahomey  (Bur.  i,  195,  note  ;  ii,  190,  note) — Mexicans  (Tern. 
x.  212  ;  Clav.  bk.  vij  ch.  18  ;  Diaz,  ch.  208  ;  Her.  iii,  208-9)— Cent.  Amer 
icans  (Landa  §  xxiv  ;  Gall,  i,  104  ;  Her.  iii,  223  ;  Pres.  bk.  i,  ch.  iv  ;  Her. 
iv,  ll^—Veddahs  (Bail,  ii,  228;  Ten.  ii,  445  ;  Prid.  i,  461).  §  442. 

Digger  Indians  (Kel.  i,  252-3)— Chaco  Indians  (Hutch.  28ff)—Unyoro 
(Eth.  Soc.  "  Trans."  1867,  234-5)— New  Zealand  (Hawk,  iii,  470)—  Belu- 
chces  (Eth.  Soc.  "Jour."  i,  109)— Greeks  (Cur.  i,  115-6)— Carolingians 
(Dun.  i,  101).  §  443.  Egyptians  (Wilk.  i,  330-336)— Roman  (Lact. 
cc.  7,  23,  Salv.  bk.  v)—  France  (Guiz.  iii,  251-2  ;  Clam,  i,  355-438,  ii, 
160-230,  i,  pp.  xxv-\i)—Gwalior  ("The  Statesman,"  Aug.  1880,  218-19) 
—Japan  (ref.  lost)— Byzantium  (Gib.  iii,  303,  ch.  liii).  §  446. 
Rome  (Duruy  iii,  126-7).  §  448.  Bechuanas  (Burch.  ii,  532) — Greeks 
(Horn.  "  Iliad,"  bk.  i)—Khonds  (Macph.  43).  §  449.  Scminoles  and 
Snakes  (School.  "I.T."  v.260)—  Peruvians  ($<ya\.  "Peru,"  19;  Cie.  ch.xiii) 
— Equatorial  Africa  (Grant — ) — Abors  (As.  S.B.  xiv,  426) — Damaras  (ref. 
lost) — Rookies  (As.  S.  B.  xxiv,  633) — Mishmees  (Coop.  228) — Bachapins 
(Burch.  ii,  512).  §  450.  Bushmen  (Lich.  ii,  194)—  Rock  VeddaJis 
(Ten.  ii,  440)—  New^  Zealand  (ref.  lost)—  S.^  Americans  (Humb.  ii,  412) 
—Athenians  (Gro.  iii,  88) — Romans  (Mom.  i,  65) — Greeks  (Gro.  iii,  77) 
—Rome  (Coul.  "  C.  Ant."  146  ;  Mom.  i,  67)— India  (Maine,  "  E.  H."  107) 
—Greeks  (Gro.  ii,  312-3).  §  451 .  Karens  (As.  S.  B.  xxxvii,  152)— Hot 
tentots  (Kol.  i,  287)—  New  Cal.  (Tur.  85-6)— Samoa  (Tur.  291)— Greece 
(Gro.  iv,  430;  ii,  359)— Fulbe  (Bar.  ii,  510)— Damaras  (Roy.  G.  S.,  1852, 
159)— Peru  (Onde.  152-3).  §  452.  Patagoniam  (Falk.  123)— Chinook* 
(Kane,  215)— Abipones  (Dob.  ii,  I05)—Balonda  (Liv.  2Q8)—£uk£i 


14  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

(M'Cull.  xxvii,  58) — American  Indians  (Morg.  341) — Britain  (Burt 
ii,  72;  Mart.  "Hist."  i,  343)— Mexicans  (Zur.  — )— Peru  (Garc.  bk. 
iv,  ch.  8,  and  bk.  v,  ch.  9)— Japanese  (Dick.  305).  §  454.  Fuegians 
([Hawk.]  "  Hawkesworth's  Voyages,"  ii,  p.  58) — Coroados  (Spix.  ii,  244). 
§  455.  Bodo  and  Dhimals  (Hodg.  158)—Lepchas  (Eth.  Soc.  "Jour." 
N.  S.  i,  U^—Arafuras  (ref.  lost).  §  456.  N.  A.  Indians  (Kane, 
2U-5—Nootkas  (Bane,  i,  195)— Fern  Pax  (Xim.  202-3)— Honduras  (Her. 
iv,  \my-Dyaks  (St.  John  — ).  §  457.  Neiv  Zealanders  (Thorn,  i,  148) 
—Sandwich  Islands  (Ell.  "Tour"  397)—  Fiji  (Ersk.  —~)—Scot.  (Maine, 
"E.  I.,"  133)— British  (Pear,  i,  YZ)— English  (Stubbs,  ii,  493)—  Scotland 
(Innes,  "Mid.  Ages,"  141-2).  §  458.  Egypt  (Shar.  i,  189;  Ken.  ii, 
42)— Rome  (Mom.  i,  95)— Germans  (Stubbs,' i,  34)— English  (Kern,  i, 
69;  Hall.  "M.  A."  ii,  295)— Egyptians  (Wilk.  i,  150,  note)— Roman 
(Coul.,  Revue,  xcix,  246)—  England  (Hall.  "M.  A."  ch.  ii,  pt.  1 ;  Ree. 
i,  34-6).  §  459.  Danish  (Maine,  "E.  I."  84-5)—  Med.  Eur.  (Free. 
"N.  C."  i,  96-7).  §460.  Fijians  (See.  179;  Wilkes,  iii,  73-4) 
—Sandwich  Islanders  (Ell.  "Tour"  7-8)— Tahitians  (Ell.  "Pol.  Res." 
ii,  16)—  Africa  (Rea.  241).  §  461.  Sandwich  Islanders  (Ell.  "  Tour." 
392-3).  §  462.  China  (Gutz.  ii,  305-6)—  France  (ref.  lost;  Warn,  i, 
549-50)— Hottentots  (Thomp.  ii,  30)—Bechuanas  (Burch.  ii,  347)— 
Chinooks  (Wai.  iii,  338)— Albania  (Boue,  iii,  254)— Birth,  &c.  (Maine, 
"E.  H."  134)— France  (A.  L.  F.  ii,  645).  §  464.  Australians 
(Sm.  i,  \03}—Chippewas,  &c.  (School.  "  Travels,"  340-1)—  Cent.  Amer. 
(Bane,  i,  W£)—Khonds  (Macph.  32  and  27)— New  Zea.  (Thorn,  i,  95} 
—Tahitians  (Ell.  "  P.  R."  ii,  3^—Madag.  (Ell.  "  M."  i,  378)— 
Phoenicians  (Mov.  ii,  pt.  i,  541)— Greeks  (Gro.  ii,  92)— Pr.  Ger.  (Tac. 
in  Free.  "  Eng.  Const."  17)— Iceland  (Mall.  291-3)— Siviss( Free.  "  E.  C." 
pp.  1-7)— Old  Eng.  (Free.  "  E.  C."  60).  §  466.  Greenlanders  (Crantz, 
i,  164-5)- Australians  (Shirt,  —}-Salish  (ref.  lost;  Dom.  ii,  343-4)— 
Bodo  and  Dhimals  (Hodg.  159) — Australians  (Grey,  ii,  240) — Snakes 
(L.  and  C.  W&) -Chinooks  (L.  and  C.  443)— Dakotas  (School.  "  I.  T." 
ii,  182)— Creeks  (School.  "  I.  T."  i,  275')—Khirgiz  (Wood,  3£&)—Ostyalcs 
("Rev.  Sib."  ii,  W$)-Nagas  (But.  UQ^-Kor.  Hottentots  (Thomp.  ii, 
30)— Kaffirs  (Lich.  i,  286-7).  §  467.  Tupis  (Sou.  i,  250)— Juangs  (I)alt. 
156)— Kor.  Hottentots  (Thomp.  ii,  30)— Kaffirs  (Shoo.  102)-—Damaras 
(ref.  lost1)—  Araucanians  (Smith,  243)— Dyaks  (Broo.  i,  129)— Malagasy 
(Ell.  "  H.  M."  i,  146)— Savages  (Lubb.  445).  §  468.  Arafuras  (Kolft, 
161)— Khirgiz (Mich.—  ^—Sumatrans  (Mars.  ZlD—Madag.  (Ell.  "  Hist 
Madag."  i,  377  >—East  Afriains  (Bur.  "  C.  A."  ii,  361)—  javans  (Raff,  i, 
274)— Sumatra  (Mars.  W^—Ashantee  (Beech.  90-1).  §  469.  Congo 
(Pink,  xvi,  517)~Dahomans  (Bur.  i,  263).  §  471.  Nicobarians  (Bast. 
iii,  384)—  Haidahs  (Bane,  i,  lQS)—Californians  (Bane,  i,  348)—Navajos 
(Bane.  i.  508) — Angamies  (As.  S.  B.  xxiv,  650 — Lower  Caltfornians  (Bane. 
i,  565)—Flatheads  (Bane,  i,  275)— Sound  Indians  (Bane,  i,  217)— Lower 
Californians  (Bane,  i,  565) — Chippewayans  (Frank.  159) — Abipones  (Dob. 
ii,  102)— Bedouins  (Ram.  9).  §  472.  Khonds  (Camp,  50)— Cent. 
India  (Fors.  9) — Esquimaux  (ref.  lost)—Fuegians  (Fitz.  ii,  179) — Reck 
Veddahs  (Ten.  ii,  440)— Dyaks  (ref.  lost)— Caribs  (Edw.  i,  49)— Bushmen 
(Lich.  ii,  194)— Tasmanians  (Lloyd,  56;  Dove,  i,  253 )— Tapajos  (Bates 
%Z2-3)--Bedowns  (Bur.  "  El  Med."  iii,  44:)— Greece  (Gro.  ii,  87)— Scot. 
(Martin,  M.  101)  Snake  Indians  (L.  and  C.  306)— Creeks  (School. 
"I.  T."  v,  279)— Comanches  (School.  "I.  T."  ii,  130)—Coroadcs  (Spix, 
ii,  234)—  Ostydks  ("  Rev.  Sib."  ii,  2Qty—Tacidlies  (Bane,  i,  l23)—Tolewas 
(Bane,  i,  348)  —  Spokanes  (ref.  lost)—  6)  —  Navajos  (Bane,  i,  508)— 
Dors  (Heug.  195)— Arabs  (Burck.  i,  300)— Sumatra  (Mars.  211), 
§  473.  Australians  (Eth.  Soc.  Trans.,  N.  S.,  iii,  25Q)— Comanches 


REFERENCES.  15 

(School.  "I.  T."i,  23l)—Flatheads  (Bane,  i,  275)—  Dyaks  (Low,  209; 
St.  John  —}—Caribs  (Edw.  i,  4ff)—Abipones  (Dob.  ii,  103)—  Egypt 
(Tay.  16)  —  Rome  (Mom.  i,  79)  —  Germans  (Sohm  i,  9)—  French  (Ranke,  i, 
75).  §  474.  Thlinkeets  (Bane,  iii,  \48)—Fuegians  (Fitz.  ii,  178)— 
Tasmanians  (Bon.  175)  —  Haidahs  (Bane,  iii,  150)  —  Dakotas  (School, 
"I.  T."  iv,  495)—  Amazulu  (Call.  340,  note  86)—  Obbo  (Bak.  i,  318-9)— 
Mexicans  (Bane,  iii,  295  ;  Clav.  bk.  vii,  ch.  7)  —  Chibchas  (Pied.  bk.  ii, 
ch.  T)—  Egypt  (Brag,  i,  406)—  Jews  (Sup.  Rel.  i,  117-18).  §475.  Egypt 
(Shar.  ii,  2)—Coroados  (Spix,  ii,  244-5)—  Santals  (Hunt.  "Ann."  i,  216-7) 
—Khonds  (Macph.  47).  §  476.  Haidahs  (Bane,  i,  \Ql}—Fiji  (See.  232) 
—Tahitians  (Ell.  "P.  R."  ii,  346;  Hawk,  ii,  121)—  Madagascar  (Ell. 
"H.  M."  i,  34Q-8)—Congoese  (ref.  lost)—  Coast  Negroes  (ref.  lost)— 
I.iland  Negroes  (ref.  lost)  —  Peru  (Gom.  ch.  124  ;  Garc.  bk.  iv,  ch.  9)  — 
Egypt  (Wilk.  i,  161  note  ;  162  note)—  Ceylon  (Ten.  i,  497  ;  ii,  459)—  New 
Caledonia  (ref.  lost)  —  Madagascar  (Ell.  "  H.  M."  i,  342)  —  Abyssinia 
(Bru.  iv,  488)—Timmanees  (Wint.  i,  124)—  Kaffir  (Arb.  Uty—Aragon 
(Hall,  ii,  43-4).  §  477.  Amazulu  (Call.  208  ;  390)—  Xw/hs  (As.  S.B. 
xxiv,  625)—  Tahitians  (Ell.  "P.R."ii,  341)—  Tonga  (Mar.  ii,  76)—  Peru 
(Garc.  bk.  i,  ch.  ^—Egyptians  (Wilk.  i,  321-2  and  note;  Brag,  ii,  35-36) 
—Aryans  (Gro.  i,  618)—'  Chibchas  (Sim.  261-2).  §  478.  Chinooks  (L. 
and  C.  443  ;  Wai.  iii,  338)  —  Patagonians  (Falk.  121)—  Orinoco  Indians 
(ref.  lost)—  Borneo  (Low,  183)—  Sabines  (ref.  lost^  —  Germans  (Dunh.  i, 
IT)—  Dyaks  (Boy.  183)—  Kalmucks  (Pall,  i,  527)—  Araucanians  (Thomps. 
i,  405)—  Kaffirs  (Lich.  i,  286)—  Greeks  (Glad,  iii,  10-11)—  Karens  (As.  S.B. 
xxxvii,  131)—  Congo  (Bast.  "  Af.  R."  58)—  Yariba  (Lan.  ii,  223)—  Ibu 
(All.  and  T.  i,  234)—  Kukis  (But.  91)—  Greeks  (Glad,  iii,  51-2)—  Rome 
(ref.  lost)  —  Europe  (ref.  lost)  —  French  (Hall.  ch.  i)  —  Merovingians 
(Wai.  ii,  45-6,  —  )—  France  (Meray,  45;  Boss,  ii,  56;  St.  Sim.  iii',  69). 
§  479.  Zulus  (Eth.  Soc.  "  Trans."  N.  S.,  v,  291)—  Bheels  (Mai.  "  C.  I."  i, 
551)—  Loango(A*t.  iii,  223  ;  Pink,  xvi,  511}—  East  Africa  (Bur.  "C.  A."ii, 


361)—  Msambara(Kr&yi,  384  note)  —Dahome  (Bur.  i,  226)—  Malagasy  (Ell. 
"  H.  M."  i,  MX)—  Sandwich  Islands  (Ell.  "  Tour,"  401)—  Siam  (Bowr.  i, 
422-3)—  Burmah  (Sang.  58)—  China  (Gutz.  ii,  251)—  Japan  (Ad.  i,  11). 
§48O.  Tonga  (Ersk.  126)—  Gondar  (Har.  iii,  10,  3£)—Bhotan  (Ren.  16- 
17)—  Japan  (Ad.  i,  74,  17;  Tits.  223;  Ad.  i.  11,  70)—  Merovingian  (E<rin. 
123-4).  §  483.  Arafuras  (Kolff,  IQl^—Todas  (Eth.  Soc.  "  Trans."  N.  S., 
vii,  241)—  Bodo  and  Dhimdls  (As.  S.B.  xviii,  708)—  Papuans  (Kolff.  6 
Earl  —  )  —  Bodo  and  D.  (ref.  lost)  —  Lepchas  (Eth.  Soc.  "Jour."  July, 
186&)-Nagas(A&.  S.  B.  xxiv,  608-9;  ix,  950)—  N.  A.  Indians  (School. 
"I.  T."ii,  l8S)—Comanches  (School.  "  I.  T."  ii,  130;  Bane,  i,  509)— 
Central  America  (Squi.  "Nic."  ii,  340-1)—  jVa^as  (As.  S.  B.  xxiv,  607)— 


Africa  (Bur.  "  Abeo."  i,  276).  §  485.  Greece  (Toz.  284-5  ;  Herm.  14  ; 

Gro.  ii,  103)—  Scotland  (Ske.  iii,  323-4)—  Crete  (Cur.  i,  182;  178-9)— 
Corinth  (Gro.  iii,  2)  —  Sparta  (Gro.  ii,  passim")  —  Latins  (Mom.  i,  30  ;  80  ; 
87  ;  84).  §  486.  Venice  (Sis.  i,  300-313)—  Netherlands  (Gra.  10,  11,  20  ; 
Mot.  i,  38)—Suritz.  (Vieus.  39)—  Orisons  (May,  i,  B55)—San.  Mar.  (Bent. 
80815).  §487.  Ital.  Repub.  (Sis.  [Lard.]  21  ;  Sis.  i.  371  ;  Sis.  [Lard.] 
22  ;  83).  §  488.  Sparta  (ref.  lost  ;  Gro.  ii,  90)  -Rome  (Mom.  ii,  326)— 
Ital.  Repub.  (Hall,  i,  368;  Sis.  [Lard.]  280)—  Holland  (May,  ii,  17-18)— 
Berne  (May  i,  SIS)—  Venice  (Sis.  [Lard.]  121)—  Greece  (Gro.  iii,  25; 
Cur.  i,  250)—  Romans  (Macch.  iii,  429)—  Ital.  Repub.  (Sis.  [Lard.]  80)— 
Athens  (Gro.  iii,  181-5)  —  Rome  (Mom.  bk.  i.,  ch.  4,  passim)  —  Italian 
Repub.  (May,  i,  281-2).  §  490.  Samoa  (Tur.  '284)—Fulahs  (L.  and 

O.  ii,  85)—Mandingo  (Park  i,  15).  §  491.  Italian  Rep.  (Sis.  [Lard.] 
21-2)—  Poles  (Dunh.  278;  285)—  Hungarians  (LeVy,  165)—  Germans 
(Stubbs,  i,  G3)—Merov.  (Rich.  119-20)—  Appenzal  (Lav.  65)—  Uri  (Free. 


16  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

"E.  C."  7)— Scandinavia  (C.  and  W.,  i,  157-8;  ref.  lost)— Tatars  (Gib. 
ii,  16)—  Sparta  (Gro.— ).  §  492.  Kaffirs  (Lich.  i,  28Q)—Bechuanas 
(Moff.  66)  —  Wanyamwezi  (Bur.  "C.  A."  ii,  362)— Ashantee  (Beech.  91) 
— Mexico  (Zur.  106  ;  Clav.  bk.  vii,  ch.  13)— Kern  Paz  (Tor.  bk.  xi,  ch.  20) 
—Poland  (Dunh.  278,  279-80)— Germans  (Hall,  ii,  93)— France  (ref. 
lost)—  Madag.  (Ell.  "  H.  M."  ii,  252)— Hebrews  (1  Samuel,  ch.  xv>— 
Tahitians  (Ell.  "P.  R."ii,  489)—  Mexicans  (Saha.  bk.  viii,  ch.  M)— Egypt 
(Wilk.  i,  159)— France  (Roth,  317-20).  §  493.  Denmark(G.  and  \V.  i, 
262-3)— France  (Rich.  ll9-2ff)—Madag.  (Ell.  "  H.  M.,"i,  378)— England 
(Free.  "E.G."  60).  §  494.  Egi/pt  ( Wilk.  i,  160  note)—  Persia  (Raw.  iii, 
223)— China  (Will.  i,324)~France  (Boss.  ii,56,113,v,4;  Pul.i,8-9;  St.  Sim. 
iii,  69)—  Rome  (Mom.  i,  71-2 ;  iii,  361)—  Poland  (Dunh.  282).  §  496. 
Scandinavia  (C.  and  W.,  i,  1£8) — Hungary  (Patt.  i,  66;  253) — Rome 
(Dur.  iii,  376-8).  §498.  Greece  (Gro.  iii,  124-5;  iv,  169)—  Italy  (Sis. 
[L.]  23  ;  291)  -Spain  (Dunh.  iv,  158)— England  (Hume,  ii,  54).  §  499. 
Spain  (Hall,  ii,  7 '-8)— France  (ref.  loaf)— Scotland  (Burt.  ii,  85).  §  500. 
Scandinavia  (Mall.  291-5)— France  (Mor.  379-80)—  England  (Stubbs,  i, 
448-9)—  Holland  (Mot.  i,35)—  Anglo-Sax.  (Stubbs,  i,  192)—  Spain  (Dunh. 
iv,  158)—  England  (Stubbs,  i,  450).  §  501.  England  (Hume,  i,  466-7  ; 
Stubbs,  i,  137)—  France  (Hall,  i,  230)—  Spain  (Hall,  ii,  25,  29)— France 
(Dar.  "  Ad."ii,  57-8;  Clam,  ii,  3-4;  Dar.  "  Ad."  i,  78)— Scotland  (Innea, 
"  Leg.  An.,"  116).  §  502.  France  (Ord.  ii,  201)— Hungary  (Levy,  165) 
— Scotland  (lanes,  "Leg.  An.,"  119)—  England  (Hume,  — ).  §504. 
Egypt  (Wilk.  iii,  371)—  Persia  (Raw.  iii,  221)— England  (Kern,  ii,  105-11) 
—Hebrews  (Ew.  iii,  266-7)—  Rome  (Dur.  iii,  175) — France  (Gon.  — ) — 
Eggarahs  (All.  and  T.  i,  321)—Miztcca  (Her.  iii,  265).  §  505.  Normans 
and  Old  English  (Stubbs,  i,  390)— Scot.  (Innes,  "Mid.  Ages,"  120-1)— 
Russia  (Fowl,  i,  379)—  France  (Jer.  ii,  158-9 ;  Kit.  iii,  210)— England 
(Turn,  vi,  132).  §  508.  Tahiti  (Ell.  "P.  R."  ii,  —)— England  (Kem.  ii, 
U2)—  France  (Gui.  iii,  233-4)— Mexico,  &c.  (Zur.  QQ-l^—Chibchas  (Acos. 
188-90)—  Med.  Europe  (Maine,  "  V.  C."  235-6).  §  509.  England  (Free. 
"  N.  C."i,  80;  Fis.  301 ;  Hall.  "M.  A."ch.  viii).  §  510.  Feudal  (Maine, 
"E.  I."  77)— France  (Mau.  cvii,  584)— Persians  (Raw.  iii,  418 ;  426)— 
Rome  (Dur.  v,  83  4^— France  (Thie.  i,  365-6;  Cher.  "  Hist."  ii,  138-9)— 
England  (Hall.  "  C.  H."  ch.  xii).  §  511.  Bedouins  (Burck.  "Notes  "  5 ; 
Pal.  "Ency.  Brit."  ii,  249)— Irish  (Maine,  "  E.  I."  105-6)— Albania 
(Bone",  ii,  86 ;  iii,  359)— England  (You.  147).  §  512.  Mexico  (Zur.  50  62) 
—Russia  ( Lav.  8,  9)— Teutons  (Stubbs,  i,  56  ;  Coes.  vi,  22 ;  Kem.  i,  56-7) 
— Bakwains  (Liv.  14) — Japan  (Ale.  ii,  241) — Franks  (Kem.  i,  238) — 
England  (Thor.  i,  274  ;  386; 450)— Russia  (Kou.  229).  §  513.  England 
(Kem.  i,  240-3;  Stubbs,— ~)—Peru  (Pres.  72)—  Mexico  (Clav.  bk.  vii,  ch.  5  ; 
Gom.  —}— Egypt  (Heer.  ii,  139)— Greece  (Herm.  10)— China  (Will,  i, 
388) — India  (Gho.  passim} — Scandinavia  (ref.  lost ;  Bren.  Ixviii) — 
England (Bi'Qn.  Ixix-lxx.)  §  516.  Siam.  (Loub.  i.  237 )—Ashante (Beech. 
l29)—Fulahs  (L.  and  O.  ii,  87)— Rome  ( Mom.  i.  99-100).  §  517.  Suevi 
Stubbs,  i,  15).  §  518.  Guaranis  (Waitz,  iii,  422)-- Nicaragua  (Squi. 
"  Nic."  ii,  342)— New  Zealand  (ref.  lost) — Bedouins  (Burck.  — )— 
Tahiti  (Forst.  377)— Hebrews  (2  Sam.  xxi,  lT)—Carotingian(W&L  iv,  522) 
—Japan  (Ad.  i,  15)— Peru  (Pres.  35).  §  519.  Hottentots  (Kol.  i,  85)— 
Malagasy  (Ell  "H.  M."ii,253>—  Chibchas(Sim.  269)— Rome(Coul.  "C.  A." 
158)— Germans  (Stubbs,!,  34)— Old  England  (Kem.  i.  69)— France  (Kit.  i, 
399 ;  Froiss.  i,  168)—  Sparta  (Gro.  —~)—Rome  (Mom.  i,  98-9).  §  520. 
France  (Ranke,  i,  83).  §  522.  Chinooks  (Waitz,  iii,  338)— Arabs  (Bur. 
"  El  Med."  iii,  47)— Italy  (Sis.  [L.]  90 )— France  (Maine,  Fort.  Rev.  614) 
—England  (Ree,  i,  153-4)— France  (Gui.  — ).  §  523.  Hottentots 
(Kol.  i,  291-6)— Greece  (Gro.  ii,  99-100)—  Rome  (Mom.  i,  159)— Germans 


REFERENCES.  1 7 

ac.  cap.  xi,  xii)— Danes  (C.  and  W.  i,  263)— -7mA  (Les.  xvii,  312) 
524.  Hebrews  (Dent,  xxi,  19) — Romans  (Mom.  i,  158) — France  (Join. 
0-11)—  Carolingian  (Mor.  379-80;  Sohm,  i,  §  \$)—Frieslanders  (ref. 
lost)— Holland  (Lav.  282-3).  §  525.  Zulus  (Arb.  Hty—Eggarahs  (All. 
and  T.  i,  326)— Germans  (Tac.  c.  7)— Scandinavia  (Grimm,  i,  93)  §  526, 
Peril  (Her.  iv,  337)—  Germany  (Dunh.  1,  120)— France  (Bay.  i,  70-1)— 
Scotland  (Innes,  "L.  A."  221)— England  (Stubbs,  i,  443,  673)— drawee 
(HaL~,  i,  239).  §  527.  Bedouins  ("Ram.  in  Syria,"  9)—  Mexicans 
(I)ur.  i,  216)—  Athens  (Cur.  ii,  450)— France  and  Germany  (Black,  hi, 
41)_ }'rance  (Due.  11-12;  A.  L.  F.,  v,  346-7;  Dar.  "  Ad."  — )— England 
(Ms.  238  ;  Stubbs,  ii,  292).  §  528.  Court,  &c.  (Maine,  "E.  I.  "289). 

§  529.  Sandwich  L  (Ell.  399)— Bechuanas  (ref.  lost)— Karens  (As.  S.  B. 
xxxvii,  131)— France  (Kocnigs.  186).  §  53O.  Scandinavia  (Mall.  117) 
—Egypt  (Rec.  ii,  11 ;  xii,  48)— Peru  (Santa  C.  107  ;  Gar.  bk.  i,  ch.  23)— 
Tahiiians  (Ell.  "P.R."ii,  235)— Todas  (Metz,  17-18)-tfe&m(w(2Sam.  v. 
22-25)— India  (Maine,  "A.  L."  18)— Greece  (Gro.  ii,  111-2;  Herm.  48)— 
France  (Hinc.  ii,  201).  §  531.  Assyrians  (Lay.  ii,  473-4)— Greeks  (Tie. 
217  ;  Coul.  221)-^.y^(Wilk.  i,  164).  §  532.  Zulus  (Arb.  161  note)— 
Peru  (ref.  lost) — Mexicans  (Tern,  x,  78)— Japan  (ref.  lost) — France 
(Greg.  bk.  vii,  ch.  21)— Peruvians  (Garc.  bk.  ii.  ch.  12)— Japan  (Ale.  i, 
63)—  Rome  (Mom.  i,  159)—  Salic  (Gui.  i,  464)— Scotland  (Innes,  "Mid. 
Ages,"  197)— England  (Stubbs,  i,  211).  §  533.  Chippewayans  (School. 
"I.T."  v,  l1T)—Shoshones(Ba,nc.  i,  435)— Haidahs  (Bane,  i',  168)— Sand 
wich  L  (Ell.  "Tour,  "400)— Greece  (Gro.  ii,  107,  110, 129)— Rome  (Maine, 
"A.  L."  372;  Mom.  ii,  130)—  Basutos  (Arb.  37)— Abyssinia  (Par.  ii, 
204-5)—  Sumatra  (Mars.  249)— Dakotas  (School.  "I.  T."  ii,  185)—^. 
Americans  (Kane,  115) — Dakotas (Morg.  331) — Araucanians  (Thomps.  i, 
405).  §  536.  Bushmen  (Lich.  ii,  194)—  Chippewayans  Bane,  i,  118)— 
Arawaks  (Roy.  G.  S.  ii,231).  §  537.  Ahts  (Bane,  i,  lQl)—Comanches 
(School.  "I.  T."  i,  232)— Brazilians  (Roy.  G.  S.  ii,  195-6)— Chippewayans 
(School.  "I.  T."  v,  177)— Bedouins  (ref.  lost).  §  538.  Rechabites,<L-c. 
(Ew.iv,  79-80;  Kue.i,  181-2)— Dakotas  (School.  "I.  T."ii,  185)— Comanches 
(School.  "I.  T."  ii,  l$l*)—Iroquois  (Morg.  326)— Bechuanas (Eurch.  ii,531) 
—Samaras  (And.  114-15)  —  Kafirs  (Shoot.  16)— Koosas  (Lich.  i,  271)— 
New  Zealanders  (Thorn,  i,  96) — Sumatrans  (Mars.  244-5) — Mexicans  (Sart. 
QSy—Damaras  (And.  147)— Todas  (Marsh.  206)— Congo  (Pink.  xvi,168)— 
Slavs  (Lav.  185) — Siuiss  (Lav.  82) — Hebrews  (Mayer,  i,  362  note) — Some 
(Mom.  i,  160, 193)— Teutons  (Stubbs,  i,  56).  §  539.  Drenthe  (Lav.  282) 
—Ardennes  (Lav.  301)  —  Lombardy  (Lav.  215)— drawee  (Lav.  212)— 
Abyssinia  (Bruce,  iv,462)— Kongo  (Ast.  iii,258) — Mexico  (Tern,  x,  253-4) 
—Iceland  (Mall.  289)— Swiss  (Lav.  83).  §  540.  Slavs  (Lav.  189;  194-5) 
—Lombardy  (Lav.  216).  §  542.  Dakotas  (School.  "I.T. "  iv,  69)—Abi- 
pones  (Dob.  ii,  \Q^—Patagonians  (Falk.  123)— Greece  (Gro.  ii,  84  ;  85)— 
Germans  (Tac.  xv) — England  (Dyer  3)  —  Guaranis  (Wai.  iii,  422) — Rome 
(Mom.  — ).  §  543.  Loango  (Pink,  xvi,  51T)—Tongans  (Mar.  i,  231 
note) — Cashmere  (Drew  68-70) — Kaffirs  (Shoot.  104) — Sandwich  Islands 
(Ell.  "Tour,"  292)— Mexico  (Zur.  250-1)—  Yucatan  (Landa  § xx)— Guate 
mala,  etc.  (Zur.  407)— Madagascar  (Ell.  "  M."  i,  316)- -Fiji  (See.  232)— 
Tahiti  (E1L  "P.  R."ii,  361).  §  544.  England  (Stubbs  ii,  612-3).  §  545. 
Quango,  and  Balonda  (Liv.  296,  m^—Bhils  (Mai.  i,  "C.  I. "551-2; 
185)— Mexico  (Clav.  bk.  vii,  ch.  37)— Greece  (Glad,  iii,  62;  Pot.  90)— 
England  (Ling,  iii,  7).  §  557.  France  (Dar.  "  Cl.  Ag."  537).  §  558. 
Americans  (Hearne,  151) — Dahomey  (Bur.  i,  220-5  ;  226  ;  Dalz.  175  ;  Bur. 
i,  52.  note)— Peru  (Gar.  bk.  ii,  chap,  xv ;  bk.  vi,  chap,  viii ;  bk.  v,  chap. 
xi)— Egypt  (Shar.  i,  188  ;  Brag,  i,  51 ;  Shar.  i,  182)— Sparta  (Gro.  vol. 
ii,  pt.  ii,  chap,  vi)— Russia  (Gust,  ii,  2 ;  Wai.  289;  Cust.— ;  Bell,  ii,  237). 


18  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

§  559.  Rome  (Dur.  iii,  155-60 ;  iii,  183-7,  9 ;  iii,  173-4  ;  iii,  172-3, ;  iii,  176) 

— Italy  (Sis.  [Lard.]  8-9).  §  560.  Greeks  (Gro.  ii,  88)— Japan  (Mit.  i, 
32-3)— France  (Corn,  xxvii  (1873),  72)—  Montenegro  (Boue",  ii,  86)— 
Dahomey  (For.  i,  20)— Sparta  (Thirl,  i,  329)— Merovingian  (Amp.  ii,  305; 
reg.  lost)— Dahomey  (Bur.  ii,  248)— Japan  (M.  arid  C.,  34)—  Egypt 
(Wilk.  i,  189)— Persia  (Raw.  iii,  242)—Araucanians  (Thomps.  i,  406)  — 
Fiji  (Ersk.  464)  —Dahomey  (Dalz.  69)  —Egypt  (Brag,  i,  53).  §  573.  Toclas 
£Shortt,  pt.  i,  9)—  Pueblos  (Bane,  i,  546)  —  Karens  (Gov.  Stat.  61; 
j»fcM.  81^— Lepchas  (Hook,  i,  129-30;  Eth.  Soc.  "Jour."  N.  S.  i,  150-1) 
—Santdls  (Hunt.  "Ann."  — ;  "Stat."  xiv,  33Q)—Shervarog  (Shortt, 
pt.  ii,  7;  42)— Todas  (Shortt,  pt.  i,  7-9;  Hark.  \Q-\1} -Arafuras  (Kolff. 
161-3) — England  (Hall.,  chap,  viii) — France  (Lev.  ii,  48)-^-England 
(Free.  "  Sk."  232;  Bage.  281)—  France  (Taine,  passim)  —  England 
(Mart.  "Intro."  17;  Buck.  vol.  ii,  ch.  5;  Pike,  ii,  574).  §574. 
Bode  and  D.  (As.  S.  B.  xviii,  745-6)— Lepchas  (Eth.  Soc.  "Jour."  N.  S.  i, 
152)—  Santdl  (Hunt.  "  Ann."  i,  209;  As.  S.B.  xx,  554)— Jakuns  (Fav. 
ii,  266-7)—  Bode  and  D.  (As.  S.B.  xviii,  745)  -NeilgherryH.  (Ouch.  69)— 
Lepchas  (Eth.  Soc.  "Jour."  N.  S.  i,  lofy—Jakutns  (Fav.  ii,  266)— 
Arafuras  (Kolff.  161-3)—  Lepchas  (Eth.  Soc.  "Jour."  N.  S.  i,  150-1; 
Hook,  i,  176)— Santdls  (Hunt,  "  Ann."i,  217)  -Hos  (Dalt.  206)— Todas 
(Shortt,  pt.  i,  Y)—ShervaroyH.  (Shortt,  — ) — Jakuns  (Fav.  ii,  266) — 
Malacca  (Jukes,  219-20)— Bodo  and  D.  (As.  S.B.  xviii,  W)—Santdl 
(Hunt.  "Ann."  i,  209-10)—  Lepchas  ( Hook,  i,  176,  129)— Jakuns  (Fav.  ii, 
266)—  Arafuras  (Kolff.  163-4)—  Lepchas  (Hook,  i,  134)— Santdls  (Hunt. 
"Ann."  208~)—Bodo  and  Dhimals  (As.  S.B.  xviii,  7Q8)—Santd,l  (Hunt,  i, 
ZYiy—Bodo  and  Dhimals  (As.  S.B.  xviii,  744)— Todas  (Eth,  Soc, 
"  Trans."  vii,  254). 


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A.L.F. — Anciennes  lois  frangaises,  e"d.  Jourdain,  Isambert,  et  Decrasy, 

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Bowr. — Bowring  (Sir  John)  The  Kingdom  and  People  of  Siam.     1857. 
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Broo. — Brooke  (Chas.)  Ten  Years  in  Sarawak.     1866. 
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Brag.— Brugsch  (Dr.  H.)  History  of  Egypt.     Trans.    1879. 
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Bur.— Burton  (Sir  R.  F.)  Mission  to  Gelele,  King  of  Dahome.    1864. 
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Crantz— Crantz  (David)  History  of  Greenland.    Trans.     1820. 

Cur.— Curtius  (E.)  History  of  Greece.     Trans.     1868-73. 

Cust. — Custine  (Marquis  A.  de)  Empire  of  the  Czar.     Trans.     1843. 

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France.     Paris,  1848. 
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Ingram  Lockhart.     1844. 
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Dob. — Dobrizhofter  (Martin)  Account  of  the  Abipones.     Trans.     1822. 
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History  of  Poland  (in  Lardner's  Cyclopedia).     1830. 


„  ,,        History  of  Spain  „  ,,  1832. 

TT.  D.)& 


Dur. — Duran  (Fr.  D.)  Historia  de  las  Indicts  de  Nueva  Espafia.    Mexico, 

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Duruy — Duruy  (V.)  Histoire  des  Romains.     Paris,  1876. 

,,  ,,         ,,     Histoire  de  France.     Nouv.  e"d.     Paris,  1860. 

Dyer— Dyer  (T.  F.  Thistleton)  British  Popular  Customs.     1876. 
Ed.— Edwards  (B.)  History  of  the  British  West  Indies.     1801-19. 
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,,         ,,  ,,          History  of  Madagascar.     1838. 

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Gra.— Grattan  (T.  C.)  History  of  the  Netherlands.    (In  Lardner's  Cyclo.) 

1830. 
Greg.— Gregory  of  Tours.     Histories  Ecclesiasticce  Francorum,  libri  x. 

Paris,  1836-8. 
Grey— Grey  (Sir  Geo.)  Journals  of  two  Expeditions  of  Discovery  in 

Australia.     1841. 
Grimm— Grimm    (Jacob)  Teutonic  Mythology.      Trans,  by  Stallybrass, 

1880-3. 

Gro.  — G  rote  (G. )  History  of  Greece.     1 846-56. 

Guiz.—Gmzot(F.}  The  History  of  Civilization.  Trans.  (Bonn's  Ed.)  1856. 
Gutz.— Gutzlaff  (Rev.  C.)  China  Opened.     1838. 
Hall.— Hallam,  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages,     llth  Ed.     1855. 

,,  ,,      Constitutional  History.     1854. 

Hark.— Harkness  (Capt.  Henry)  The'Neilgherry  Hills.     1832. 
Har.— Harris  (Sir  W.  C.)  Highlands  of  ^Ethiopia.     1844. 
Hawk. — Hawkesworth  (Dr.  J.)  Account  of  Voyages  of  Discovery  in  the 

Southern  Hemisphere.    1773. 

Haz.— Hazlitt  (W.  Carew)  History  of  the  Venetian  Republic.     1860. 
Hearne — Hearne  (Saml.)  Journey  from  Prince  of  W 'ales' 's  Fort  to  tJie 

Northern  Ocean.     Dublin,  1796. 
Ileer. — Heeren  (A.  H.  L.)  Reflections  on  the  Ancient  Nations  of  Africa. 

Trans.     Oxford,  1832. 
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Trans.     Oxford,  1836. 
Ifer. — Herrera  (Ant.  de)  The  General  History  of  the  vast  Continent  and 

Islands  of  America.     Trans.     1725-6. 
Heug. — Heuglin  (Th.  von)  Reise  in  das  Gebiet  des  Weissen  Nil.   Leipzig, 

1869. 

Hinc. — Hmcm&T,DeOrdinePalatii.  Epistola.  Ed.byM.Prou.  Paris,  1884. 

Hodg.— Hodgson  (B.  H.')  Kocch,  Bddo,  and  Dhimdl  Tribes.  Calcutta,  1847. 

Horn. -Homer.  The  Iliad.  Trans.by  A.  Lang,  W.  Leaf,  and  E.  Myers.  1883. 

„  ,,       The  Odyssey.  Trans,  by  S.  H  Butcher  and  A.  Lang.  1879. 


22  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

Hook.— Hooker  (Sir  J.  D.)  Himalayan  Journals.     1854. 

Hue — Hue    (Prgtre  Missionnaire)  Recollections  of  a  Journey  through 

Tartary,  Thibet,  and  China.     Trans.     1852. 

,,  The  Chinese  Empire.     1855. 

Humb. — Humboldt  (A.  von)  Personal  Narrative  of  Travels  to  the  Equi< 

noctial  Regions  of  America.     Trans.     1852-3.     (Bonn.) 
Hume — Hume  (D.)  History  of  England.     1854-5. 
Hunt.— Hunter  (W.  W.)  Annals  of  Rural  Bengal.     1868. 
,,  ,,  ,,         Statistical  Account  of  Bengal.     1875-7. 

,,  ,,  ,,          Comparative   Dictionary  of  the  Languages  of 

India  and  High  Asia.     1868. 
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1865. 

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,,  ,,          ,,      Lectures    on  Scotch   Legal   Antiquities.      Edinb. 

1872. 

Jer.— Jervis  (Rev.  W.  H.)  History  of  the  Galilean  Church  to  the  Revolu 
tion.     1872. 

Join. — Joinville  (J.  de)  Saint  Louis.     Trans,  bv  Hutton.     1868. 
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Kane — Kane  (Paul)  Wanderings  of  an  Artist  among  Indians  of  North 

America.     1859. 

KeL— Kelly  (W.)  Excursion  to  California.     1851. 
Kem.— Kemble  (J.  M.)  The  Saxons  in  England.     1876. 
Ken. — Kenrick  (Rev.  John)  Ancient  Egypt  under  the  Pharaohs.     1850. 
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en  France.    Paris,  1851. 

Kol.— Kolben  (P.)  Present  State  of  the  Cape  of  Good-Hope.  Trans.  1731. 
Kolff—  Kolff  (D.  H.)  Voyages  of  the  Dutch  brig  Dourga.  Trans.  1840. 
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M.  Chopin.     Paris,  1839. 

Krapf— Krapf  ( J.  L.)  Travels  in  Eastern  Africa.     1860. 
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Lav. — Layard  (Sir  A.  H.)  Nineveh  and  its  Remains.     1849. 
Lei. — Lelewel  (Joachim)  Histoire  de  Pologne.     Paris,  1844. 
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L,  &  C.— Lewis  (Capt.  M.)  and  Clarke  (Capt.  W.)  Travels  to  the  Sourct 

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Lich. — Lichtenstein  (Henry)  Travels  in  Southern  Africa.     1812-15. 
Ling. — Lingard  (Rev.  Dr.  John)  History  of  England.     1849. 
Liv. — Livingstone  (D.)  Popular  Account  of  Missionary  Travels,  cfcc.  in 

South  Africa.     1861. 


REFEKENCE8.  23 

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1862. 

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Condition  of  Man.     1882. 

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,,  ,,  ,,       Ancient  Law.     1861. 

Mai. — Malcolm  (Sir  J.)  Memoir  of  Central  India.     1832. 

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Mall. — Mallet  (P.  H.)  Northern  Antiquities.     Trans,  by  Bishop  Percy. 

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Mich.—  Michie  (Alex.)  Siberian  Overland  Route.     1864. 
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Eastern  Australia.     1839. 

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Mom.— Mommsen  (Theod.)  History  of  Rome.  Trans.  Dickson.  1862. 
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Mor. — Movier  (SirR.  B.  D.j  in  Cobden  Club  Essays  on  Local  Government 

and  Taxation.     1875. 

Mot.— Motley  (J.  L.)  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic.     1855. 
103 


24  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

Mov.— Movers  (F.  C.)  Die  Phoenizier.    Bonn  u.  Berlin,  1841-56. 

Onde. — Ondegarde  (P.  de)  Report  in  Narratives  of  the  Rites  and  Laws  of 

the  Yncas.     Translated  by  Markham.     1873. 
Ord.—Ordonnances  des  rois  de  France.     Paris,  1723,  &c. 
Ouch  —  Ouchterlony  (Col.)  A  Geographical  and  Statistical  Memoir  of  a 

Survey  of  the  Neilgherry  Mountains.     1847.     [Printed  with  Shortt's 

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and  Eastern  Arabia.     1865. 
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Arabia. 
Pall. — Pallas  (P.  S.)  Voyages  en  differences  Provinces  de  I' Empire  de 

Russie,  &c.     Paris,  1788-93. 

Park— Park  (Mungo)  Travels  in  the  Interior  of  Africa.     Edinb.  1858. 
Par. — Parkyns  (Mansfield)  Life  in  Abyssinia.     1853. 
Patt. — Patterson  (Arthur  J.)  The  Magyars :  their  Country  and  Institu 
tions.     1869. 
Pear. — Pearson  (C.  H.)  History  of  England  during  the  Early  and  Middle 

Ages.     1867. 
Pied. — Piedrahita  (L.   Fernandez    de)  Historia    del    Nuevo  Reyno  de 

Granada.     Amberes,  1688. 

Pike— Pike  (L.  O.)  History  of  Crime  in  England.     1873-6. 
Pink. — Pinkerton   (J.)    General    Collection    of    Voyaqes    and    Travels. 

1808-14. 
Pot. — Potter    (Bp.   John)  Archceologia  Grceca ;    or,  the  Antiquities  of 

Greece.     1837. 

Pres.— Prescott  (W.  H.)  Conquest  of  Peru.     1847. 
Prid. — Pridham  (Chas.)  Historical,  Political,  and  Statistical  Account  of 

Ceylon.     1849. 

PuL— Puliga  (Comtesse  de)  Madame  de  Sevigne.     1873. 
Raf.— Raffles  (Sir  T.  S.)  History  of  Java.     1817. 
Ram. — Rambles  in  Syria.     1864. 
Ranke — Ranke    (Leop.)    The   Civil    Wars    and    Monarchy  in  France. 

Trans.  1852. 

Raw. — Rawlinson  (G.)  Five  Great  Monarchies.     1862-7. 
Rea.— lieade  (W.  Wimvood)  Savage  Africa.     1863. 
Rec. — Records  of  the  Past,  being  English  Translations  of  the  Assyrian  and 

Egyptian  Monuments.     1873-81. 

Ree.— Reeves  (J.)  History  of  the  English  Law.     New  ed.     1869. 
Ren.— Rennie  (Dr.  D.  F.)  B'hotan  and  the  Story  of  the  Dooar  War.    18G6. 
Rev.  Sib. — Revelations  of  Siberia.     1853. 
Rich. — Richter  (G.)  Annalen  der  deutschcn  Geschichte  im  Miltelalter. 

Halle,  1873. 

Roth.— Roth  (P.)  Feudalalit'dt  und  Unterthanenverband.   Weimar,  1863. 
Roy.  G.  S. — Royal  Geographical  Soc.  Journal.     1852. 
Sana.—  Sahagun  (Fr.   Bernardino  de)  Historia  General  de  las  Cosas  dt> 

Neuva  Espana  [1569].     Por  C.  M.  de  Bustamente.     Mexico,  1829-30. 
Saint  John— St.  John  (Sir  Spenser)  Life  in  the  Forests  of  the  Far  East. 

1863. 
Saint  Sim. — Saint-Simon   (Due  de)  Memoirs.     Abridged  by  St.  John. 

1857. 

Salv. — Salvianus,  De  Gubernatione  Dei.     Paris,  16C8. 
Sang. — Sangermano  (Father)  Description  of  the  Burmese  Empire.     Rome, 

1833. 
Santa  C. — Santa  Cruz  in  Narratives  of  the  Rites  and  Laws  of  the  Ynca*. 

Translated  by  Cl.  R.  Markham.     (Hakluyt  Society.)     1873. 


REFERENCES.  25 

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8hool. — Schoolcraft  (H.  R.)  Expedition  to  the  Sources  of  the  Mississippi 

River.     Philadelphia,  1855. 

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Shar.— Sharpe  (Samuel)  History  of  Egypt.     1876. 
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London,  1857. 

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Firme  en  el  Nuevo  Reyno  de  Granada.    1624.     In   Kingsborough's 

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2b  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

Thor. — Thorpe  (B.)  Diplomatarium  Anglicum  (Evi  Saxonici,  a  Collection 
of  English  Charters,  &c.  1865. 

Tie. — Tiele  ( C.  P. )  Outlines  of  the  History  of  Religion  to  the  Spread  of 
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Tits. — Titsingh  (I.)  Annales  des  Empereurs  de  Japon.     1834. 

Tor. — Torquemada  (J.  de)  Monarquia  Indiana.     Madrid,  1723. 

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Turn. — Turner  (Sharon)  History  of  England.     1839. 

Tur. — Turner  (Rev.  G.)  Nineteen  Years  in  Polynesia.     1861. 

Vieus.— Vieusseux  (A.)  History  of  Switzerland.     1840. 

Wai. — Waitz  (Georg)  Deutsche  Verfassungsgeschichte,  Kiel,  Vols.  i  and 
ii,  second  edition,  1865-70;  Vols.  iii  and  iv,  1860-1. 

Waitz — Waitz  (Dr.  Theodor)  Anthropologie  der  Naturvolker.  Leipzig, 
1859,  etc. 

Wai.— Wallace  (D.  M.)  Russia.     1877. 

Warn. — Warnkoenig  (L.  A.)  und  Stein  (L.)  Franzosische  Staats-  und 
Rechtsgeschichte.  Basel,  1846. 

Wilkes — Wilkes  (Capt.  C.)  Narrative  of  United  States  Exploring  Expe 
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Wilk. — Wilkinson  (Sir  J.  G.)  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient 
Egyptians.  New  edition,  by  Samuel  Birch.  1878. 

Wil.  —Williams  (Rev.  T. )  Fiji  and  the  Fijians.     1858. 

Will.— Williams  (S.  Wells)  The  Middle  Kingdom,     1848. 

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Wood — Wood  (Lieut.  J.)  Journey  to  the  Source  of  River  Oxus.     1841. 

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Viena,  1857. 

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1840. 


THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

OF 

HERBERT    SPENCER 


FIRST  PRINCIPLES. 

1  vol.     $2.00. 
CONTENTS. 

PART  I. — THE  UNKNOWABLE. 

1.  Religion  and  Science.  4.  The  Relativity  of   all  KnowU 

2.  Ultimate  Religious  Ideas.  edge. 

3.  Ultimate  Scientific  Ideas.  5.  The  Reconciliation. 

PART  II. — THE  KNOWABLE. 

1.  Philosophy  defined.  13.  Simple  and  Compound  Evolu- 

2.  The  Data  of  Philosophy.  tion. 

8.  Space,   Time,   Matter,    Motion,  14.  The  Law  of  Evolution. 

and  Force.  15.  The   Law   of    Evolution    (con- 

4.  The  Indestructibility  of  Matter.  tinued). 

5.  The  Continuity  of  Motion.  16.  The   Law  of    Evolution    (con- 

6.  The  Persistence  of  Force  tinued). 

7.  The    Persistence   of   Relations  17.  The   Law   of    Evolution    (con- 

among  Forces.  eluded). 

8.  The  Transformation  and  Equiv-     18.  The  Interpretation  of  Evolution. 

alencc  of  Forces.  19.  The  Instability  of  the  Homoge- 

9.  The  Direction  of  Motion.  neous. 

10.  The  Rhythm  of  Motion.  20.  The  Multiplication  of  Effects. 

11.  Recapitulation,   Criticism,    and     21.  Segregation. 

Recommencement.  22.  Equilibration. 

12.  Evolution  and  Dissolution.  28.  Dissolution. 

24.  Summary  and  Conclusion. 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  BIOLOGY. 

2  vols.     $4.00. 
CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  I. 

PART  I. — THE  DATA  OF  BIOLOGY. 

1.  Organic  Matter.  4.  Proximate  Definition  of  Life. 

2.  The  Action  of  Forces  on  Or-     5.  The     Correspondence     between 

game  Matter.     .  Life  and  its  Circumstances. 

3.  The  Reactions  of  Organic  Mat-     6.  The  Degree  of  Life  varies  as  the 

tcr  on  Forces.  Degree  of  Correspondence. 

7.  The  Scope  of  Biology. 


SPENCEK'S  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY. 


PART  II. — THE  INDUCTIONS  OF  BIOLOGY. 


1.  Growth. 

2.  Development. 

3.  Function. 

4.  Waste  and  Repair. 
6.  Adaptation. 

6.  Individuality. 


7.  Genesis. 

8.  Heredity. 

9.  Variation. 

10.  Genesis,  Heredity,  and  Varia 

tion. 

11.  Classification. 
12.  Distribution. 


PART  III. — THE  EVOLUTION  OP  LIFE. 


1.  Preliminary. 

2.  General  Aspects  of  the  Special- 

Creation  Hypothesis. 

3.  General  Aspects  of  the  Evolu 

tion  Hypothesis. 

4.  The  Arguments  from  Classifica 

tion. 

5.  The  Arguments  from  Embryol 

ogy. 

6.  The  Arguments  from  Morphol 

ogy. 


7.  The  Arguments  from  Distribu 

tion. 

8.  How    is     Organic     Evolution 

caused  ? 

9.  External  Factors. 

10.  Internal  Factors. 

11.  Direct  Equilibration. 

12.  Indirect  Equilibration. 

13.  The  Cooperation  of  the  Factors. 

14.  The  Convergence  of  the  Evi 

dences. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  II. 
PART  IV. — MORPHOLOGICAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


1.  The  Problems  of  Morphology. 

2.  The  Morphological  Composition 

of  Plants. 

3.  The  Morphological  Composition 

of  Plants  (continued). 

4.  The  Morphological  Composition 

of  Animals. 

6.  The  Morphological  Composition 
of  Animals  (continued). 

6.  Morphological  Differentiation  in 

Plants. 

7.  The  General  Shapes  of  Plants. 

8.  The  Shapes  of  Branches. 


9.  The  Shapes  of  Leaves. 

10.  The  Shapes  of  Flowers. 

11.  The  Shapes  of  Vegetal  Cells. 

12.  Changes   of    Shape    otherwise 

caused. 

13.  Morphological  Differentiation  in 

Animals. 

14.  The  General  Shapes  of  Animals. 

1 5.  The  Shapes  of  Vertebrate  Skel  e- 

tons. 

16.  The  Shapes  of  Animal  Cells. 

17.  Summary  of  Morphological  De 

velopment. 


PART  V. — PHYSIOLOGICAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


1.  The  Problems  of  Physiology. 

2.  Differentiations  among  the  Out 

er  and  Inner  Tissues  of  Plants. 

3.  Differentiations  among  the  Out 

er  Tissues  of  Plants. 

4.  Differentiations   among  the   In 

ner  Tissues  of  Plants. 

5.  Physiological      Integration      in 

Plants. 


6.  Differentiations      between     the 

Outer  and  Inner  Tissues  of 
Animals. 

7.  Differentiations  among  the  Out 

er  Tissues  of  Animals. 

8.  Differentiations  among  the  In 

ner  Tissues  of  Animals. 

9.  Physiological  Integration  in  Ani 

mals. 


10.  Summary  of  Physiological  Development. 


SPENCER'S  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY.  3 

PART  VI. — LAWS  OP  MULTIPLICATION. 

1.  The  Factors.  8.  Antagonism  between  Expendi- 

2.  A  priori  Principle.  ture  and  Genesis. 

3.  Obverse  a  pr,  iori  Principle.  9.  Coincidence  between  High  Nu- 

4.  Difficulties  of  Inductive  Verifi-  trition  and  Genesis. 

cation.  10.  Specialties     of     these     Rela* 
6.  Antagonism     between     Growth  tions. 

and  Asexual  Genesis.  11.  Interpretation    and    Qualifica- 

6,  Antagonism     between     Growth  tion. 

and  Sexual  Genesis.  12.  Multiplication  of    the   Human 

7.  Antagonism    between    Develop-  Race. 

ment  and    Genesis,   Asexual     13.  Human  Evolution   in  the  Fu- 
and  Sexual.  ture. 

APPENDIX. 

A  Criticism  on  Professor  Owen's  The-     On  Circulation  and  the  Formation 
ory  of  the  Vertebrate  Skeleton.  of  Wood  in  Plants. 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  PSYCHOLOGY. 

2  vols.     $4.00. 
CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  L 
PART  I. — THE  DATA  OP  PSYCHOLOGY. 

1.  The  Nervous  System.  4.  The  Conditions  essential  to  Ner- 

2.  The  Structure  of  the    Nervous  vous  Action. 

System.  5.  Nervous   Stimulation   and  Ner- 

3.  The  Functions  of  the  Nervous  vous  Discharge. 

System.  6.  ^Estho-Physiology. 

PART  II. — THE  INDUCTIONS  OF  PSYCHOLOGY. 

1.  The  Substance  of  Mind.  6.  The  Revivability  of    Relations 

2.  The  Composition  of  Mind.  between  Feelings. 

3.  The  Relativity  of  Feelings.  7.  The  Associability  of  Feelings. 

4.  The  Relativity  of  Relations  be-     8.  The   Associability  of  Relations 

tween  Feelings.  between  Feelings. 

5.  The  Revivability  of  Feelings.          9.  Pleasures  and  Pains. 

PART  III. — GENERAL  SYNTHESIS. 

1    Life  and    Mind    as   Correspon-      6.  The  Correspondence  as  increas- 
dence.  ing  in  Specialty. 

2.  The   Correspondence   as   Direct       7.  The  Correspondence  as  increas- 

and  Homogeneous.  ing  in  Generality. 

3.  The   Correspondence  as   Direct      8.  The  Correspondence  as  increas- 

but  Heterogeneous.  ing  in  Complexity. 

4.  The  Correspondence  as  extend-      9.  The  Coordination  of  Correspon. 

ing  in  Space.  dences. 

6.  The  Correspondence  as  extend-     10.  The  Integration  of  Correspon* 

ing  in  Time.  dences. 

11.  The  Correspondences  in  their  Totality. 


SPENCER'S    SYNTHETIC    PHILOSOPHY, 


PART  IV. — SPECIAL  SYNTHESIS. 


1.  The  Nature  of  Intelligence. 

2.  The  Law  of  Intelligence. 

3.  The  Growth  of  Intelligence. 

4.  Reflex  Action. 


5.  Instinct. 

6.  Memory. 

7.  Reason. 

8.  The  Feelings. 
The  Will. 


PART  V. — PHYSICAL  SYNTHESIS. 


1.  A  Further  Interpretation  need 

ed. 

2.  The  Genesis  of  Nerves. 

3.  The  Genesis  of  Simple  Nervous 

Systems. 

4.  The  Genesis  of  Compound  Ner 

vous  Systems. 

6.  The   Genesis    of    Doubly   Com 
pound  Nervous  Systems. 


6.  Functions  as  related   to  these 

Structures. 

7.  Physical  Laws    as   thus  inter 

preted. 

8.  Evidence  from  Normal  Varia 

tions. 

9.  Evidence  from  Abnormal  Va 

riations. 
10.  Results. 


APPENDIX. 
On  the  Action  of  Anaesthetics  and  Narcotics. 

CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  II. 
PART  VI. — SPECIAL  ANALYSIS. 


1.  Limitation  of  the  Subject. 

2.  Compound  Quantitative  Reason 

ing. 

3.  Compound  Quantitative  Reason 

ing  (continued). 

4.  Imperfect  and  Simple  Quantita 

tive  Reasoning. 

5.  Quantitative  Reasoning  in  gen 

eral. 

6.  Perfect  Qualitative  Reasoning. 

7.  Imperfect  Qualitative   Reason 

ing. 

8.  Reasoning  in  general. 

9.  Classification,  Naming,  and  Rec 

ognition. 

10.  The  Perception  of  Special  Ob 

jects. 

11.  The  Perception  of  Body  as  pre 

senting  Dynamical,  Statico- 
Dynamical,  and  Statical  Attri 
butes. 

12.  The  Perception  of  Body  as  pre 

senting  Statico-Dynamical  and 
Statical  Attributes. 


13.  The    Perception    of    Body  as 

presenting     Statical      Attri 
butes. 

14.  The  Perception  of  Space. 

15.  The  Perception  of  Time. 

16.  The  Perception  of  Motion. 

17.  The     Perception     of     Resist 

ance. 

18.  Perception  in  general. 

19.  The  Relations  of  Similarity  and 

Dissimilarity. 

20.  The   Relations   of   Cointension 

and  Non-Cointension. 

21.  The  Relations  of  Coextension 

and  Non-Coextension. 

22.  The  Relations  of   Coexistence 

and  Non-Coexistence. 

23.  The  Relations  of  Connature  and 

Non-Connature. 

24.  The  Relations  of  Likeness  and 

Unlikeness. 

25.  The  Relation  of  Sequence. 

26.  Consciousness  in  general. 

27.  Results. 


PART  VII. — GENERAL  ANALYSIS. 

1.  The  Final  Question.  11.  The  Universal  Postulate. 

2.  The  Assumption  of  Metaphysi-     12.  The  Test  of  Relative  Validity. 

cians.  13.  Its  Corollaries. 

3.  The  Words  of  Metaphysicians.       14.  Positive   Justification  of  Real- 

4.  The  Reasonings  of  Metaphysi-  ism. 

cians.  [ism.  15.  The  Dynamics  of  Consciousness. 

5.  Negative  Justification  of  Real-  16.  Partial  Differentiation  of  Sub- 

6.  The  Argument  from  Priority.  ject  and  Object. 

7.  The  Argument  from  Simplicity.  17.  Completed    Differentiation    of 

8.  The  Argument   from  Distinct-  Subject  and  Object. 

9.  A  Criterion  wanted.  [ness.  18.  Developed   Conception  of   the 
10.  Propositions   qualitatively    dis-  Object. 

tinguished.  19.  Transfigured  Realism. 

PART  VIII. — CONGRUITIES. 

1.  Preliminary.  4.  Co-ordination  of  Special  Analy- 

2.  Co-ordination  of   Data   and    In-  ses. 

ductions.  5.  Co-ordination  of  General  Analy- 

3.  Co-ordination  of  Syntheses.  ses. 

6.  Final  Comparison. 

PART  IX. — COROLLARIES. 

1.  Special  Psychology.  5.  Sociality  and  Sympathy. 

2.  Classification.  6.  Egoistic  Sentiments. 

3.  Development  of  Conceptions.  7.  Ego- Altruistic  Sentiments. 

4.  Language  of  the  Emotions.  8.  Altruistic  Sentiments. 

9.  ^Esthetic  Sentiments. 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SOCIOLOGY. 

Three  Vols.     $6.00. 

CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 

PART  I. — THE  DATA  OP  SOCIOLOGY. 

1.  Super-Organic  Evolution.  9.  The  Ideas  of  the  Animate  and 

2.  The  Factors  of  Social  Phenom-  the  Inanimate. 

ena.  10.  The  Ideas  of  Sleep  and  Dreams. 

3.  Original  External  Factors.  11.  The  Ideas  of  Swoon,  Apoplexy, 

4.  Original  Internal  Factors.  Catalepsy,  Ecstasy,  and  other 

5.  The  Primitive  Man — Physical.  Forms  of  Insensibility. 

6.  The  Primitive  Man — Emotional.  12.  The  Ideas  of  Death  and  Resur- 

7.  The  Primitive  Man — Intellect-  rection. 

ual.  13.  The    Ideas   of    Souls,    Ghosts, 

8.  Primitive  Ideas.  Spirits,  Demons. 


SPENCEK'S  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY. 

PART  I. — THE  DATA  OF  SOCIOLOGY. — (Continued.) 

14.  The  Ideas  of  Another  Life.  Altars ;  Sacrifice,  Fasting,  and 

15.  The  Ideas  of  Another  World.  Propitiation;  Praise,  Prayer. 

16.  The     Ideas     of     Supernatural     20.  .Ancestor- Worship  in  general. 

Agents.  21.  Idol  Worship  and  Fetich- Wor- 

17.  Supernatural  Agents  as  causing  ship. 

Epilepsy  and  Convulsive  Ac-  22.  Animal-Worship, 

tions,  Delirium  and  Insanity,  23.  Plant-Worship. 

Disease  and  Death.  24.  Nature- Worship. 

18.  Inspiration,    Divination,    Exor-  25.  Deities. 

cisra,  and  Sorcery.  26.  The  Primitive  Theory  of  Things. 

19.  Sacred    Places,    Temples,    and     27.  The  Scope  of  Sociology. 

PART  II. — THE  INDUCTIONS  OF  SOCIOLOGY. 

1.  What  is  a  Society?  7.  The  Sustaining  System. 

2.  A  Society  is  an  Organism.  8.  The  Distributing  System. 

3.  Social  Growth.  9.  The  Regulating  System. 

4.  Social  Structures.  10.  Social  Types  and  Constitutions. 

5.  Social  Functions.  11.  Social  Metamorphoses. 

6.  Systems  of  Organs.  12.  Qualifications  and  Summary. 

PART  III. — DOMESTIC  INSTITUTIONS. 

1.  The  Maintenance  of  Species.  6.  Polyandry. 

2.  The    Diverse    Interests   of    the       7.  Polygyny. 

Species,  of  the  Parents,  and  8.  Monogamy, 

of  the  Offspring.  9.  The  Family. 

3.  Primitive  Relations  of  the  Sexes.  10.  The  Status  of  Women. 

4.  Exogamy  and  Endogamy.  11.  The  Status  of  Children. 

5.  Promiscuity.  12.  Domestic  Retrospect  and  Pros 

pect. 

CONTENTS   OF  VOLUME  II. 
PART  IV. — CEREMONIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

1  Ceremony  in  general.  7.  Forms  of  Address. 

2.  Trophies.  8.  Titles. 

3.  Mutilations.  9.  Badges  and  Costumes. 

4.  Presents.  10.  Further  Class-Distinctions. 

5.  Visits.  11.  Fashion. 

6.  Obeisances.  12.  Ceremonial     Retrospect      and 

Prospect 

PART  V. — POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

1.  Preliminary.  3.  Political  Integration. 

2.  Political    Organization    in    gen-     4.  Political  Differentiation. 

eral.  5.  Political  Forms  and  Forces. 


SPENCER'S  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY. 


PART  V. — POLITICAL 

6.  Political  Heads— Chiefs, 

Kings,  etc. 

7.  Compound  Political  Heads. 

8.  Consultative  Bodies. 

9.  Representative  Bodies. 

10.  Ministries. 

11.  Local  Governing  Agencies. 

12.  Military  Systems. 


INSTITUTIONS. — ( Continued.) 

13.  Judicial  and  Executive  Systems. 

14.  Laws. 

15.  Property. 

16.  Revenue. 

17.  The  Militant  Type  of  Society. 

18.  The  Industrial  Type  of  Society. 

19.  Political  Retrospect  and  Pros 

pect. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  HI. 
PART  VI. — ECCLESIASTICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 


1.  The  Religious  Idea. 

2.  Medicine- Men  and  Priests. 

3.  Priestly  Duties  of  Descendants. 

4.  Eldest     Male     Descendants    as 

Quasi-Priests. 

5.  The  Ruler  as  Priest. 

6.  The  Rise  of  a  Priesthood. 

7.  Polytheistic     and    Monotheistic 

Priesthoods. 

8.  Ecclesiastical  Hierarchies. 

9.  An  Ecclesiastical  System    as  a 

Social  Bond. 


10.  The     Military     Functions     of 

Priests. 

11.  The  Civil  Functions  of  Priests. 

12.  Church  and  State. 

13.  Non-conformity. 

14.  The  Moral  Influences  of  Priest 

hoods. 

15.  Ecclesiastical    Retrospect   and 

Prospect. 

16.  Religious  Retrospect  and  Pros 

pect. 


PART  VII. — PROFESSIONAL  INSTITUTIONS. 


1.  Professions  in  General. 

2.  Physician  and  Surgeon. 

3.  Dancer  and  Musician. 

4.  Orator    and     Poet,   Actor    and 

Dramatist. 

5.  Biographer,  Historian,  and  Man 

of  Letters. 


6.  Man  of  Science  and  Philosopher. 

7.  Judge  and  Lawyer. 

8.  Teacher. 

9.  Architect. 

10.  Sculptor. 

11.  Painter. 

12.  Evolution  of  the  Professions. 


PART  VIII. — INDUSTRIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 


1.  Introductory. 

2.  Specialization  of  Functions  and 

Division  of  Labor. 

3.  Acquisition  and  Production. 

4.  Auxiliary  Production. 
6.  Distribution. 

6.  Auxiliary  Distribution. 

7.  Exchange. 

8.  Auxiliary  Exchange. 

9.  Interdependence    and   Integra 

tion. 

10.  The  Regulation  of  Labor. 

11.  Paternal  Regulation. 


12.  Patriarchal  Regulation. 

13.  Communal  Regulation. 

14.  Gild  Regulation. 

15.  Slavery. 

16.  Serfdom. 

17.  Free  Labor  and  Contract. 

18.  Compound  Free  Labor. 

19.  Compound  Capital. 

20.  Trade-Unionism. 

21.  Co-operation. 

22.  Socialism. 

23.  The  Near  Future. 
21.  Conclusion. 


THE   PRINCIPLES   OF   ETHICS. 

2  vols.     $4.00. 

CONTENTS   OF  VOLUME  I. 
PART  I. — THE  DATA  OP  ETHICS. 

1.  Conduct  in  General.  10.  Relativity       of      Pains       and 

2.  The  Evolution  of  Conduct.  Pleasures. 

3.  Good  and  Bad  Conduct.  11.  Egoism  versus  Altruism. 

4.  Ways  of  judging  Conduct.  12.  Altruism  versus  Egoism. 
6.  The  Physical  View.  13.  Trial  and  Compromise. 

6.  The  Biological  View.  14.  Conciliation. 

7.  The  Psychological  View.  15.  Absolute   Ethics   and  Relative 

8.  The  Sociological  View.  Ethics. 

9.  Criticisms  and  Explanations.  16.  The  Scope  of  Ethics. 

Appendix  to  Part  I. — The  Conciliation. 

PART  II. — THE  INDUCTIONS  OF  ETHICS. 

1.  The  Confusion  of  Ethical  Thought.  8.  Humanity. 

2.  What  Ideas  and  Sentiments  are  9.  Veracity. 

3.  Aggression.  [Ethical.  10.  Obedience. 

4.  Robbery.  11.  Industry. 

5.  Revenge.  12.  Temperance. 

6.  Justice.  13.  Chastity. 

7.  Generosity.  14.  Summary  of  Inductions. 

PART  III. — THE  ETHICS  OF  INDIVIDUAL  LIFE. 

1.  Introductory.  6.  Culture. 

2.  Activity.  7.  Amusements. 

3.  Rest.  8.  Marriage. 

4.  Nutrition.  9.  Parenthood. 

5.  Stimulation.  10.  General  Conclusions. 

CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  II. 
PART  IV. — THE  ETHICS  OF  SOCIAL  LIFE:  JUSTICE. 

1.  Animal  Ethics.  11.  The  Rights  to  the  Uses  of  Nat- 

2.  Sub-Human  Justice.  ural  Media. 

3.  Human  Justice.  12.  The  Right  of  Property. 

4.  The  Sentiment  of  Justice.  13.  The  Right  of  Incorporeal  Prop- 

5.  The  Idea  of  Justice.  erty. 

6.  The  Formula  of  Justice.  14.  The  Rights  of  Gift  and  Bequest. 

7.  The  Authority  of  this  Formula.  15.  The  Rights  of  Free  Exchange 

8.  Its  Corollaries.  and  Free  Contract. 

9.  The  Right  to  Physical  Integrity.  16.  The  Right  of  Free  Industry. 

10.  The  Rights  to  Free  Motion  and  17.  The  Rights  of  Free  Belief  and 

Locomotion.  Worship. 


SPENCER'S  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY.  9 

PART  IV. — THE  ETHICS  OF  SOCIAL  LIFE:  JUSTICE. — (Continued.) 

18.  The  Rights  of  Free  Speech  and     22.  Political  Rights— so  called. 

Publication.  23.  The  Nature  of  the  State. 

19.  A  Retrospect  with  an  Addition.  24.  The  Constitution  of  the  State. 

20.  The  Rights  of  Women.  25.  The  Duties  of  the  State. 

21.  The  Rights  of  Children.  26  to  29.  The  Limits  of  State-Duties. 

PART  V. — THE  ETHICS  OF  SOCIAL  LIFE  :  NEGATIVE  BENEFICENCE. 

1 .  Kinds  of  Altruism.  6.   Restraints  on  Displays  of  Ability. 

2.  Restraints  on  Free  Competition.  6.  Restraints  on  Blame. 

3.  Restraints  on  Free  Contract.  7.  Restraints  on  Praise. 

4.  Restraints    on  Undeserved  Pay-  8.  The  Ultimate  Sanctions. 

ments. 

PART  VI. — THE  ETHICS  OF  SOCIAL  LIFE:  POSITIVE  BENEFICENCE. 

1.  Marital  Beneficence.  6.  Pecuniary  Aid  to  Relatives  and 

2.  Parental  Beneficence.  Friends. 

3.  Filial  Beneficence.  7.  Relief  of  the  Poor. 

4.  Aiding  the  Sick  and  the  Injured.  8.  Social  Beneficence. 

5.  Succour  to  the  Ill-Used  and  the  9.  Political  Beneficence. 

Endangered.  10.  Beneficence  at  Large. 

APPENDICES. — A.  The  Kantian  Idea  of  Rights.     B.  The  Land  Question. 
C.  The  Moral  Motive.     D.   Conscience  in  Animals. 


SETS   OF   SPENCER'S  WORKS. 

16  vols.     12mo. 

Comprising  the  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY,  10  vols. ;  ESSAYS,  3  vols. ;  SOCIAL 
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6.  American  Races.  7.  Hebrews  and  Phoenicians.  8.  French. 


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D.  APPLETON  &  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

NEW  EDITION  OF  PROF.  HUXLEY'S  ESSAYS. 

/COLLECTED   ESSA  VS.     By  THOMAS  H.  HUXLEY. 

^**  New  complete  edition,  with  revisions,  the  Essays  being  grouped 
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VOL.        I.— METHOD   AND   RESULTS. 

VOL.       II.— DARWINIANA. 

VOL.  III.— SCIENCE   AND   EDUCATION. 

VOL.  IV.— SCIENCE    AND   HEBREW  TRADITION. 

VOL.       V.— SCIENCE   AND   CHRISTIAN   TRADITION. 

VOL.  VI.— HUME. 

VOL.  VII.— MAN'S   PLACE   IN   NATURE. 

VOL.  VIII.— DISCOURSES,   BIOLOGICAL  AND   GEOLOGICAL. 

VOL.  IX.— EVOLUTION  AND  ETHICS,  AND   OTHER  ESSAYS. 

"  Mr.  Huxley  has  covered  a  vast  variety  of  topics  during  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century.  It  gives  one  an  agreeable  surprise  to  look  ever  the  tables  of  contents  and 
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than  a  few  months  ago  [1893!,  so  they  may  be  considered  his  final  and  most  authorita 
tive  utterances." — Chicago  Times. 

"  It  was  inevitable  that  his  essays  should  be  called  for  in  a  completed  form,  and  they 
will  be  a  source  of  delight  and  profit  to  all  who  read  them.  He  has  always  commanded 
a  hearing,  and  as  a  master  of  the  literary  style  in  writing  scientific  essays  he  is  worthy 
of  a  place  among  the  great  English  essayists  of  the  day.  This  edition  of  his  essays 
will  be  widely  read,  and  gives  his  scientific 'work  a  permanent  form"— Boston  Herald. 

"A  man  whose  brilliancy  is  so  constant  as  that  of  Prof.  Huxley  will  always  com 
mand  readers ;  and  the  utterances  which  are  here  collected  are  not  the  least  in  weight 
and  luminous  beauty  of  those  with  which  the  author  has  long  delighted  the  reading 
world." — Philadelphia  Press. 

"The  connected  arrangement  of  the  essays  which  their  reissue  permits  brings  into 
fuller  relief  Mr.  Huxley's  masterly  powers  of  exposition.  Sweeping  the  subject-matter 
clear  of  all  logomachies,  he  lets  the  light  of  common  day  fall  upon  it.  He  shows  that 
the  place  of  hypothesis  in  science,  as  the  starting  point  of  verification  of  the  phenomena 
to  be  explained,  is  but  an  extension  of  the  assumptions  which  underlie  actions  in  every 
day  affairs;  and  that  the  method  of  scientific  investigation  is  only  the  method  which 
rules  the  ordinary  business  of  life." — London  Chronicle. 


New  York:  D.  APPLETON    fc  CO.,  72  Fifth  Avenue. 


D.  APPLETON  &  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

T\EGENERATION.     By  Professor   MAX   NORDAU. 
*-r     Translated  from  the  second  edition  of  the  German  work.     8vo. 
Cloth,  $3.50. 

"A  powerful,  trenchant,  savage  attack  on  all  the  leading  literary  and  artistic  idols  ot 
the  time  by  a  man  of  great  intellectual  power,  immense  range  of  knowledge,  and  the 
possessor  of  a  lucid  style  rare  among  German  writers,  and  becoming  rarer  everywhere, 
owing  to  the  very  influences  which  Nordau  attacks  with  such  unsparing  energy,  such 
( eager  hatred." — London  Chronicle. 

"  The  wit  and  learning,  the  literary  skill  and  the  scientific  method,  the  righteous  in 
dignation,  and  the  ungoverned  prejudice  displayed  in  Herr  Max  Nordau's  treatise  on 
'  Degeneration '  attracted  to  it,  on  its  first  appearance  in  Germany,  an  attention  that 
was  partly  admiring  and  partly  astonished." — London  Standard. 

"  Let  us  say  at  once  that  the  English-reading  public  should  be  grateful  for  an 
English  rendering  of  Max  Nordau's  polemic.  It  will  provide  society  with  a  subject 
that  may  last  as  long  as  the  present  Government.  .  .  .  We  read  the  pages  without 
finding  one  dull,  sometimes  in  reluctant  agreement,  sometimes  with  amused  content, 
sometimes  with  angry  indignation." — London  Saturday  Review. 

"Herr  Nordau's  book  fills  a  void,  not  merely  in  the  systems  of  Lombroso,  as  he 
says,  but  in  all  existing  systems  of  English  and  American  criticism  with  which  we  are 
acquainted.  It  is  not  literary  criticism,  pure  and  simple,  though  it  is  not  lacking  in 
literary  qualities  of  a  high  order,  but  it  is  something  which  has  long  been  needed,  for 
of  literary  criticism,  so  called,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  there  is  always  an  abundance; 
but  it  is  scientific  criticism— the  penetration  to  and  the  interpretation  of  the  spirit 
within  the  letter,  the  apprehension  of  motives  as  well  as  means,  and  the  comprehension 
of  temporal  effects  as  well  as  final  results,  its  explanation,  classification,  and  largely 
condemnation,  for  it  is  not  a  healthy  condition  which  he  has  studied,  but  its  absence, 
its  loss  ;  it  is  degeneration.  .  .  .  He  has  written  a  great  book,  which  every  thoughtful 
lover  of  art  and  literature  and  every  serious  student  of  sociology  and  morality  should 
read  carefully  and  ponder  slowly  and  wisely." — Richard  Henry  Stoddard,  in  The 
Mail  and  Express. 

"  The  book  is  one  of  more  than  ordinary  interest.  Nothing  just  like  it  has  ever 
been  written.  Agree  or  disagree  with  its  conclusions,  wholly  or  in  part,  no  one  can 
Fail  to  recognize  the  force  of  its  argument  and  the  timeliness  of  its  injunctions."—  Chi 
cago  Evening  Post. 

"  A  most  absorbing  book,  and  is  likely  to  displace  '  Trilby'  as  a  subject  of  popular 
discussion." — Chicago  Tribune. 

"  A  ponderous  volume  whose  every  page  is  full  of  interest.  So  full  is  it  in  detail,  so 
scientific  in  its  method,  so  irresistible  in  its  invitation  to  controversy,  that  it  must  get 
the  worlds  of  arts  and  letters  by  the  ears." — New  York  Recorder. 

"  The  intense  interest  currently  shown  in  the  subject  treated  in  the  book,  the  original 
ideas  it  offers,  and  the  imperturbable  spirit  of  the  scientific  investigator  which  animates 
and  sustains  the  author,  will  unquestionably  command  for  it  in  this  country  the  atten 
tion  it  has  received  abroad ;  and  it  may  be  safely  predicted  that  '  Degeneration ' 
already  known  here  in  literary  circles,  is  destined  to  attain  an  immediate  and  widespread 
popularity . "—Philadelphia  Telegraph . 

"This  fascinating  and  most  suggestive  book  gives  a  picture  of  the  aesthetic  mani 
festations  of  the  times,  drawn  with  rare  adroitness,  vigor,  and  command  of  satire,  and 
it  will  be  found  to  hold  a  place  which  has  not  been  occupied." — Cincinnati  Commercial- 
Gazette. 

"  Certain  to  arouse  a  storm  of  discussion." — Philadelphia  Ledger. 

"The  interest  which  'Degeneration  '  causes  in  the  reader  is  intense." — New  York 
Times. 

New  York  :  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,   72  Fifth  Avenue. 


D.   APPLETON  &   CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

ENIUS  AND  DEGENERATION.  A  Study  in 
Psychology.  By  Dr.  WILLIAM  HIRSCH.  Translated  from  the 
second  edition  of  the  German  work.  Uniform  with  "  Degen 
eration."  Large  Svo.  Cloth,  $3.50. 

Dr.  Hirsch's  acute  and  suggestive  study  of  modern  tendencies  was 
begun  before  "Degeneration"  was  published,  with  the  purpose  of  pre 
senting  entirely  opposite  deductions  and  conclusions.  The  appearance  of 
Dr.  Nordau's  famous  book,  with  its  criticisms  upon  Dr.  Hirsch'  s  position, 
enabled  the  latter  to  extend  the  scope  of  his  work,  which  becomes  a  scien 
tific  answer  to  Dr.  Nordau,  although  this  was  not  its  specific  purpose 
originally.  Dr.  Nordau  has  startled  the  reading  world  by  his  cry  of  "  De 
generation  "  ;  Dr.  Hirsch  opposes  his  conclusions  by  demonstrating  the 
difference  between  "Genius"  and  "Degeneration,"  and  analyzing  the 
social,  literary,  and  artistic  manifestations  of  the  day  dispassionately  and 
with  a  wealth  of  suggestive  illustrations.  In  a  brilliant  explanation  of  the 
psychology  of  genius  he  shows  that  Lombroso  and  Nordau  make  no  dis 
tinction  between  scientific  genius  based  upon  hard  work  and  artistic  genius  ; 
nor  between  genius  and  talent.  He  points  to  Goethe  as  an  example  of  a 
perfectly  developed  genius.  He  answers  specifically  Nordau's  claim  that 
this  is  an  age  of  hysterical  disorder,  and  after  an  extended,  brilliant,  and 
informing  discussion  of  Art  and  Insanity,  in  which  he  shows  himself  a  con 
firmed  Wagnerian,  he  summarizes  his  conclusions  by  absolutely  declining  to 
accept  Nordau's  point  of  view.  The  field  which  he  traverses  is  too  broad  to 
be  measured  in  this  note,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  book  is  one  which 
must  be  read  by  every  reader  of  Nordau,  and  should  be  read  by  every 
intelligent  person  who  wishes  to  understand  the  spirit  of  his  time  and  the 
lessons  which  history  teaches  the  psychologist. 

"  The  first  intelligent,  rational,  and  scientific  study  of  a  great  subject.  ...  In  the 
development  of  his  argument  Dr.  Hirsch  frequently  finds  it  necessary  to  attack  the 
positions  assumed  by  Nordau  and  Lombroso,  his  two  leading  adversaries.  .  .  .  Only 
calm  and  sober  reason  endure.  Dr.  Hirsch  possesses  that  calmness  and  sobriety.  His 
work  will  find  a  permanent  place  among  the  authorities  of  science." — New  York 
Herald. 

"  Dr.  Hirsch's  researches  are  intended  to  bring  the  reader  to  the  conviction  that 
'  no  psychological  meaning  can  be  attached  to  the  word  genius.'  .  .  .  While  all  men 
of  genius  have  common  traits,  they  are  not  traits  characterise  of  genius ;  they  are 
such  as  are  possessed  by  other  men,  and  more  or  less  by  all  .nen.  .  .  .  Dr.  Hirsch 
believes  that  most  of  the  great  men,  both  of  art  and  of  science,  were  misunderstood  by 
their  contemporaries,  and  were  only  appreciated  after  they  were  dead."— Miss  T.  L. 
Gilder,  in  the  Sunday  Worla. 


New  York :   D.  APPLETON   &  CO.,  72  Fifth  Avenue. 


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Spencer,  Herbert 

The  principles  of 
sociology