It is not to an audience which speaks the English language that I need
to argue the point that the preservation of local self-government is of
the highest importance for the maintenance of a rich and powerful
national life. As we contemplate the vicissitudes of local
self-government in the various portions of the Aryan world, we see the
contrasted fortunes of France and England illustrating for us most
forcibly the significance of this truth. For the preservation of local
self-government in England various causes may be assigned; but of these
there are two which may be cited as especially prominent. In the first
place, owing to the peculiar circumstances of the Teutonic settlement of
Britain, the civilization of England previous to the Norman Conquest was
but little affected by Roman ideas or institutions. In the second place
the thrusting down of the old thegnhood by the Norman Conquest (to which
I have already alluded) checked the growth of a _noblesse_ or _adel_ of
the continental type,--a nobility raised above the common people like a
separate caste. For the old thegnhood, which might have grown into such
a caste, was pushed down into a secondary position, and the peerage
which arose after the Conquest was something different from a
_noblesse_. It was primarily a nobility of office rather than of rank or
privilege.
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