nstant operation of various and permanent causes contributed
to unite the vagrant Hords into national communities, under the command
of a supreme head. The weak were desirous of support, and the strong
were ambitious of dominion; the power, which is the result of union,
oppressed and collected the divided force of the adjacent tribes;
and, as the vanquished were freely admitted to share the advantages of
victory, the most valiant chiefs hastened to range themselves and their
followers under the formidable standard of a confederate nation. The
most successful of the Tartar princes assumed the military command, to
which he was entitled by the superiority, either of merit or of power.
He was raised to the throne by the acclamations of his equals; and the
title of Khan expresses, in the language of the North of Asia, the full
extent of the regal dignity. The right of hereditary succession was long
confined to the blood of the founder of the monarchy; and at this moment
all the Khans, who reign from Crimea to the wall of China, are
the lineal descendants of the renowned Zingis. But, as it is the
indispensable duty of a Tartar sovereign to lead his warlike subjects
into the field, the claims of an infant are often disregarded; and some
royal kinsman, distinguished by his age and valor, is intrusted with the
sword and sceptre of his predecessor. Two distinct and regular taxes are
levied on the tribes, to support the dignity of the national monarch,
and of their peculiar chief; and each of those contributions amounts
to the tithe, both of their property, and of their spoil. A Tartar
sovereign enjoys the tenth part of the wealth of his people; and as
his own domestic riches of flocks and herds increase in a much larger
proportion, he is able plentifully to maintain the rustic splendor of
his court, to reward the most deserving, or the most favored of his
followers, and to obtain, from the gentle influence of corruption, the
obedience which might be sometimes refused to the stern mandates of
authority. The manners of his subjects, accustomed, like himself, to
blood and rapine, might excuse, in their eyes, such partial acts of
tyranny, as would excite the horror of a civilized people; but the power
of a despot has never been acknowledged in the deserts of Scythia. The
immediate jurisdiction of the khan is confined within the limits of his
own tribe; and the exercise of his royal prerogative has been moderated
by the ancient institut