the Celts, who appear to have separated the judicial from the military office--authority from power--with all that jealous care in which may be traced the anxiety of the original founders of the system to preserve an equal balance between two rival castes. The _Vergobreith_ amongst the Ædui was strictly prohibited from crossing the frontiers of the confederacy,[28] and was of course incapacitated from holding the office of _Toshach_ during the continuance of his supreme magistracy. That this prohibition lasted only during the year of office is evident from the example of Cotus, who, failing in his attempt to succeed his brother Vedeliacus as _Vergobreith_, appears immediately afterwards as _Toshach_ of the Æduan cavalry. As the _Vergobreith_ was inaugurated by the Druids,[29] and as that class monopolized the whole administration of the laws, it is very evident that the noble who was chosen for the supreme magistracy resigned his military character during his year of office, and was enrolled, as it were, for that period amongst the ranks of the Druids. Had such a personage existed as a permanent and hereditary _Vergobreith_ giving law to the whole Celtic race, this sacred character would have become equally permanent and hereditary, and the ruler of the Celtic people would have resembled, in this respect, the monarchs of the great eastern empires of antiquity.[30] The Gauls, however, never appear to have arrived, in historical times, at the same point of unity in their political, as in their religious, constitution; and the Hierophant, or Arch-Druid, elected for life, stood alone, and without any parallel, amongst the equestrian order. Long after the introduction of Christianity, and a thousand years after the time of Cæsar, the old principle of separating the judicial from the military functions is still clearly discernible in the Welsh “Laws of Howel Dha.” Two officers were appointed over every royal _Commot_, the _Cynghellwr_ and the _Maer_, the former administering justice, the latter collecting the royal dues and following the king to battle; and the same system is traceable in Gaelic Scotland, where, under the Teutonic disguise of _Thane_ and _Deempster_, it is easy to discover the types of the Cymric Maer and Cynghellwr.