The jurisdictions of the great
barons and of the cities became at length united into kingdoms. The
increase of commerce brought these kingdoms into relations with each
other, and diplomacy grew out of national necessities. As the countries
improved and the facilities and occasions for intercommunication and
commerce increased, the principle of political unity must needs
comprehend a wider range. At first, it took in only the component parts
of kingdoms, and then the kingdoms in the form of great national leagues
of more or less permanence. This form of political unity may be very
imperfect, but it is nevertheless unity consummated in the best possible
manner which the system of separate thrones would permit. Changes in the
conditions and relations of peoples render changes in their political
forms an absolute necessity. The facilities for education,
intercommunication, travel, and commerce, are the great unitizers of
peoples and nations.
A great, overgrown empire, which has been built up by arbitrary power,
may fall to pieces, because it is not bound together by the ligaments
which an ubiquitous commerce affords. Another, because thus interlaced
and woven together, cannot be sundered. The dependence of part on part
and the facilities of transportation from one section to another, render
such an empire a really vital organism, which cannot be divided without
destroying the whole; but since nations, as individuals, are tenacious
of life, the whole cannot be destroyed, and the empire cannot be
divided.
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