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gration of families; tribes; or nations in search of new settlements。 4。 Colonization; military; agricultural; commercial; industrial; religious; or penal。 5。 War 145 and conquest。 6。 The revolt; separation; and independence of provinces。 7。 The intermingling of the conquerors and conquered; and by amalgamation forming a new people。 These are all the ways known to history; and in none of these ways does a people; absolutely destitute of all organization; constitute itself a state; and institute and carry on civil government。
The family; the tribe; the colony are; if incomplete; yet incipient states; or inchoate nations; with an organization; individuality; and a centre of social life of their own。 The families and tribes that migrate in search of new settlements carry with them their family and tribal organizations; and retain it for a long time。 The Celtic tribes retained it in Gaul till broken up by the Roman conquest; under Caesar Augustus; in Ireland; till the middle of the seventeenth century; and in Scotland; till the middle of the eighteenth。 It subsists still in the hordes of Tartary; the Arabs of the Desert; and the Berbers or Kabyles of Africa。
Colonies; of whatever description; have been founded; if not by; at least under; the authority of the mother country; whose political constitution; laws; manners; and customs they carry with them。 They receive from the parent state 146 a political organization; which; though subordinate; yet constitutes them embryonic states; with a unity; individuality; and centre of public life in themselves; and which; when they are detached and recognized as independent; render them complete states。 War and conquest effect great national changes; but do not; strictly speaking; create new states。 They simply extend and consolidate the power of the conquering state。
Provinces revolt and become independent states or nations; but only when they have previously existed as such; and have retained the tradition of their old constitution and independence; or when the administration has erected them into real though dependent political communities。 A portion of the people of a state not so erected or organized; that has in no sense had a distinct political existence of its own; has never separated from the national body and formed a new and independent nation。 It cannot revolt; it may rise up against the government; and either revolutionize and take possession of the state; or be put down by the government as an insurrection。 The amalgamation of the conquering and the conquered forms a new people; and modifies the institutions of both; but does not necessarily form a 147 new nation or political community。 The English of to…day are very different from both the Normans and the Saxons; or Dano…Saxons; of the time of Richard Coeur de Lion; but they constitute the same state or political community。 England is still England。
The Roman empire; conquered by the Northern barbarians; has been cut up into several separate and independent nations; but because its several provinces had; prior to their conquest by the Roman arms; been independent nations or tribes; and more especially because the conquerors themselves were divided into several distinct nations or confederacies。 If the barbarians had been united in a single nation or state; the Roman empire most likely would have changed masters; indeed; but have retained its unity and its constitution; for the Germanic nations that finally seated themselves on its ruins had no wish to destroy its name or nationality; for they were themselves more than half Romanized before conquering Rome。 But the new nations into which the empire has been divided have never been; at any moment; without political or governmental organization; continued from the constitution of the conquering tribe or nation; modified more or less by what was retained from the empire。
148 It is not pretended that the constitutions of states cannot be altered; or that every people starts with a constitution fully developed; as would seem to be the doctrine of De Maistre。 The constitution of the family is rather economical than political; and the tribe is far from being a fully developed state。 Strictly speaking; the state; the modern equivalent for the city of the Greeks and Romans; was not fully formed till men began to build and live in cities; and became fixed to a national territory。 But in the first place; the eldest born of the human race; we are told; built a city; and even in cities we find traces of the family and tribal organization long after their municipal existencein Athens down to the Macedonian conquest; and in Rome down to the establishment of the Empire; and; in the second place; the pastoral nations; though they have not precisely the city or state organization; yet have a national organization; and obey a national authority。 Strictly speaking; no pastoral nation has a civil or political constitution; but they have what in our modern tongues can be expressed by no other term。 The feudal regime; which was in full vigor even in Europe from the tenth to the close of the fourteenth century; had nothing to do with cities; and really recognized no state 149 proper; yet who hesitates to speak of it as a civil or political system; though a very imperfect one?
The civil order; as it now exists; was not fully developed in the early ages。 For a long time the national organizations bore unmistakable traces of having been developed from the patriarchal; and modelled from the family or tribe; as they do still in all the non…Christian world。 Religion itself; before the Incarnation; bore traces of the same organization。 Even with the Jews; religion was transmitted and disused; not as under Christianity by conversion; but by natural generation or family adoption。 With all the Gentile tribes or nations; it was the same。 At first the father was both priest and king; an when the two offices were separated; the priests formed a distinct and hereditary class or caste; rejected by Christianity; which; as we have seen; admits priests only after the order of Melchisedech。 The Jews had the synagogue; and preserved the primitive revelation in its purity and integrity; but the Greeks and Romans; more fully than any other ancient nations; preserved or developed the political order that best conforms to the Christian religion; and Christianity; it is worthy of remark; followed in the track of the Roman armies; and it gains 150 a permanent establishment only where was planted; or where it is able to plant; the Graeco…Roman civilization。 The Graeco…Roman republics were hardly less a schoolmaster to bring the world to Christ in the civil order; than the Jewish nation was to bring it to Him in the spiritual order; or in faith and worship。 In the Christian order nothing is by hereditary descent; but every thing is by election of grace。