第 23 节
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公主站记 更新:2021-04-30 17:05 字数:9321
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。 The Christian dispensation is teleological; palingenesiac; and the whole order; prior to the Incarnation; was initial; genesiac; and continued by natural generation; as it is still in all nations and tribes outside of Christendom。 No non…Christian people is a civilized people; and; indeed; the human race seems not anywhere; prior to the Incarnation; to have attained to its majority: and it is; perhaps; because the race were not prepared for it; that the Word was not sooner incarnated。 He came only in the fulness of time; when the world was ready to receive him。
The providential constitution is; in fact; that with which the nation is born; and is; as long as the nation exists; the real living and efficient constitution of the state。 It is the source of the vitality of the state; that which controls or governs its action; and determines its destiny。 151 The constitution which a nation is said to give itself; is never the constitution of the state; but is the law ordained by the state for the government instituted under it。 Thomas Paine would admit nothing to be the constitution but a written document which he could fold up and put in his pocket; or file away in a pigeon…hole。 The Abbe Sieyes pronounced politics a science which he had finished; and he was ready to turn you out constitutions to order; with no other defect than that they had; as Carlyle wittily says; no feet; and could not go。 Many in the last century; and some; perhaps; in the present; for folly as well as wisdom has her heirs; confounded the written instrument with the constitution itself。 No constitution can be written on paper or engrossed on parchment。 What the convention may agree upon; draw up; and the people ratify by their votes; is no constitution; for it is extrinsic to the nation; not inherent and living in itis; at best; legislative instead of constitutive。 The famous Magna Charta drawn up by Cardinal Langton; and wrung from John Lackland by the English barons at Runnymede; was no constitution of England till long after the date of its concession; and even then was no constitution of the state; but a set of restrictions on power。 The constitution is 152 the intrinsic or inherent and actual constitution of the people or political community itself; that which makes the nation what it is; and distinguishes it from every other nation; and varies as nations themselves vary from one another。
The constitution of the state is not a theory; nor is it drawn up and established in accordance with any preconceived theory。 What is theoretic in a constitution is unreal。 The constitutions conceived by philosophers in their closets are constitutions only of Utopia or Dreamland。 This world is not governed by abstractions; for abstractions are nullities。 Only the concrete is real; and only the real or actual has vitality or force。 The French people adopted constitution after constitution of the most approved pattern; and amid bonfires; beating of drums; sound of trumpets; roar of musketry; and thunder of artillery; swore; no doubt; sincerely as well as enthusiastically; to observe them; but all to no effect; for they had no authority for the nation; no hold on its affections; and formed no element of its life。 The English are great constitution…mongersfor other nations。 They fancy that a constitution fashioned after their own will fit any nation that can be persuaded; wheedled; or bullied into 153 trying it on; but; unhappily; all that have tried it on have found it only an embarrassment or encumbrance。 The doctor might as well attempt to give an individual a new constitution; or the constitution of another man; as the statesman to give a nation any other constitution than that which it has; and with which it is born。
The whole history of Europe; since the fall of the Roman empire; proves this thesis。 The barbarian conquest of