SIXTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, 13th January, 1868.

J. BIRKBECK NEVINS, M.D., VICE-PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

The Rev. W. A. Whitworth, B.A., and Mr. C. H. Stearn, were unanimously elected Ordinary Members.

The Hon. Secretary read a letter from Dr. Baker Edwards, of Montreal, late one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society, in acknowledgment of the address presented to him by the Society, and expressing his hearty thanks for their expression of good will, which he valued most highly and very cordially reciprocated.

Mr. Moore then exhibited a living specimen of the Proteus anguinus, which he said was an object of very considerable interest. They were indebted for it to Mr. John Dove, who was then present, and who brought it himself from the celebrated grotto of Adelsberg, in Carinthia, on the road from Vienna to Trieste. Although these creatures had been long known, they were rarely seen; they resembled an eel with legs, so much were their bodies elongated. They were quite blind; at any rate the eyes were extremely small, and covered by the skin, through which they were with difficulty discerned as round back spots. The powers of the sight must therefore be very small, if they existed at all.

A singular circumstance was that although this specimen had only been exposed to the ordinary light of the room, the

black spots indicating the position of the eye had become more visible than when Mr. Dove first obtained it; it was a subterranean specimen, and the skin was of a white or Mr. Dove stated the animal was more lively

flesh colour.

by night than by day.

Mr. Moore then showed two little creatures which Mr. Dove obtained from the same cave. They looked very like ants, but were supposed to be beetles. He thought they were greatly indebted to Mr. Dove for his kindness in bringing these specimens for their inspection.

Mr. Moore next exhibited a group of fossils (Andrias, Schenchzen, Tscudi), of the order of the miocene tertiary, from Eningen, Switzerland, the original of which is to be found in the British Museum. About a century since it was thought that this fossil was a human skeleton, but Cuvier had proved that it was an amphibious reptile, belonging to the group already mentioned.

The following Paper was then read:

ON SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE TEUTONIC
RACES IN EARLY TIMES.

By J. A. PICTON, F.S.A.

THE civilised life of modern times presents so complicated an aspect, its springs of action are so manifold, its relations so multifarious, that the analytical inquiry into its primitive elements is an exceedingly difficult task.

And yet if we would rightly comprehend the political and social phenomena of the present time; if we would understand the distinctive features of the various nations of modern Europe, it is necessary that we should investigate, in a general way at least, the condition of the original stocks out of which these goodly branches have grown. The spring at the fountain-head gives the character to the river which flows from it; and the physical and mental condition of our early ancestors has imparted its bias and tone to every period of our history.

On the present occasion, I propose to institute an inquiry, necessarily brief and slight, into the early social condition of the Teutonic race. This is the stock to which we as Englishmen belong, and from which we derive most, both of our good and evil qualities. The sources from which I have principally drawn my illustrations are the early laws of the three principal Teutonic tribes, the Franks, the Alemanni, and the Anglo-Saxons.

The laws of a people are an unerring test of their condition; of their government, personal relations, their prevalent vices and virtues, their manners, customs, property

--

and mode of life. Every law shews us by implication the state of things requiring it, and thus pictures in strong colours the general state of society existing at the time of its enactment.

Our earliest notices of the German races are derived from Cæsar, but the fullest account handed down from classical times is found in the Germania of Tacitus. The picture there presented is that of a people just advanced into what is called by ethnologists the iron age,* divided into numerous tribes with no regular government; electing their kings. or chiefs as necessity required, but usually from particular families. The law was administered in assemblies of the whole people, called by Tacitus Concilia, equivalent to the folc-mot of our Saxon ancestors, or the Thing of our more Northern relatives.‡ Ignorant of letters as they are said to have been, § their laws and customs must, at this period, have been handed down by tradition only.

About the year A. D. 360, letters were introduced amongst the Goths of Moesia, and the Scriptures translated into their language by their bishop, Ulphilas. They had also a collection of written laws, which have unfortunately been lost.

Our business at present is with the Western branches of the great Teutonic stock. The multitude of separate clans named by Cæsar and Tacitus gradually crystalised into tribes, and these again formed themselves into confederacies, which ultimately became nations. The three great western Confederacies, or nations, were the Franks, the Alemanni, and the Anglo-Saxons.

* Ne ferrum quidem superest sicut ex genere telorum colligitur.-Tac., Ger.

sec. 6.

+ Reges ex nobilitate, duces ex virtute sumunt.-Tac., sec. 7.

De minoribus rebus principes consultant; de majoribus omnes.-Tac., sec. 11. § Literarum secreta viri pariter ac feminæ ignorant.—Tac. sec. 19.

The Franks are first heard of A. D. 240, when Aurelian, afterwards Emperor, encountered an invading force, and drove them back across the Rhine. Many derivations have been suggested for the name, but the most probable is that supported by the high authority of Gibbon and Grimm, that it implied a Confederacy or nation of free men. The Franks were separated into two divisions, the Ripuarians who inhabited the neighbourhood of the Rhine, and the Salian or Salic Franks, whose original seat was on the river Saal.

There is a mythical account of a king Pharamond, who is said to have flourished in the fifth century; to have established the monarchy, and to have collected the Salic laws. The story, however, rests on no solid foundation.

There can be no doubt that the laws of the Franks are the earliest illustrations of the condition of the German races, and in their original condition are of very high antiquity. They bear internal evidence of having been originally prepared before the existence of a kingly government over the whole nation.

They were revised by king Clotaire A. D. 593, and enlarged and extended by Charlemagne A. D. 768-814. The existing text is in Latin of a barbarous dialect. There are several versions, some of them interspersed with old Frankish words, the import of which it is extremely difficult to determine. Two versions are given in Schilter's Thesaurus Antiquitatum Teutonicarum.*

The Alemanni were a collection of tribes principally seated in the ancient Rhotia, between the sources of the Rhine and Danube. The name is supposed to be derived from the extent of the confederation, meaning "all men" in the old German, alle männer. They are first noticed * Ulma, Danielis Bartholomæi, 1727 a. D., 3 vols. fol.