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 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.
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