Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/253

247 THE UNITY OF HISTORY. 247 all the collegiate sovereignties of the modern world, or, in other words, of our Governments in which the sovereign power is exercised by the people or shared between the people and the King." When Britain was finally subjugated by the Romans, the Roman laws were established in every part of the con- quered country and Britain became a diocese in the pre- fecture of Gaul. It was divided into provinces under the direction of the president or consular. The curia or rul- ing body was composed of senators and decurions, but the controlling power existed in the provincial councils and assemblies. Deputies and magistrates from the cities attended them, as well as the great land proprietors; and the council assembled at stated times of the year. "Whether these councils," as Sir Francis Palgrave says, "were engrafted or not upon institutions subsisting among the conquered nations, they became one of the elements, indeed, the main element, out of which were formed the legislative assemblies of modern Europe." After the connection with Rome was severed the Britons were divided into rival communities. Then came the Teutonic occupation of the country, when the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons obtained a permanent foothold. The Saxon element was a migration, not a mere conquest, and the Teutons carried with them the elements of civilization. It was in the village moots of Friesland and Sleswick that our forerunners taught England to be the mother of par- liaments that beginner of popular government or de- mocracy which we have inherited. Ancient Germany, the primeval abode of the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, con- sisted of many free and independent states. These again were divided into provinces, each of which formed a sep- arate civil community ; and there was a great council rep- resentative of them all.