er
age or any other part of the world.

After the northern nations had subdued the provinces of the Roman
empire, they were obliged to establish a system of government which
might secure their conquests, as well against the revolt of their
numerous subjects who remained in the provinces, as from the inroads
of other tribes, who might be tempted to ravish from them their new
acquisitions. The great change of circumstances made them here depart
from those institutions which prevailed among them while they remained
in the forests of Germany; yet was it still natural for them to retain,
in their present settlement, as much of their ancient customs as was
compatible with their new situation.

The German governments, being more a confederacy of independent warriors
than a civil subjection, derived their principal force from many
inferior and voluntary associations which individuals formed under a
particular head or chieftain, and which it became the highest point
of honor to maintain with inviolable fidelity. The glory of the chief
consisted in the number, the bravery, and the zealous attachment of his
retainers; the duty of the retainers required that they should accompany
their chief in all wars and dangers, that they should fight and perish
by his side, and that they should esteem his renown or his favor a
sufficient recompense for all their services.[*] The prince himself was
nothing but a great chieftain, who was chosen from among the rest on
account of his superior valor or nobility; and who derived his power
from the voluntary association or attachment of the other chieftains.

[* Tacit. de Mor. Germ.]

When a tribe, governed by these ideas, and actuated by these principles,
subdued a large territory, they found that, though it was necessary to
keep themselves in a military posture, they could neither remain united
in a body, nor take up their quarters in several garrisons, and that
their manners and institutions debarred them from using these expedients
the obvious ones, which, in a like situation, would have been employed
by a more civilized nation. Their ignorance in the art of finances,
and perhaps the devastations inseparable from such violent conquests,
rendered it impracticable for them to levy taxes sufficient for the pay
of numerous armies; and their repugnance to subordination, with their
attachment to rural pleasures, made the life of the camp or garrison,
if perpetuated during peaceful times, extre