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the american republic-第29章

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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。  
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