Their sympathies have been with the rebellion all through the
war; and that they have not interfered more actively than they have, is
not to be attributed to their sincere love for justice and neutrality,
but to their own weakness--to the complicated nature of their own
diplomacy, and its critical status just now, when there is danger of
bursting volcanoes in their own midst.
It is a law of history that any political system of some degree of
prevalence seeks to extend itself; indeed, this is a law of all
movement, whether physical, chemical, social, or political. There is a
political leaven which permeates the whole mass, and brings it into the
same condition. It resulted once in the general prevalence of feudalism;
it afterward touched the cities of civilizing Europe, and they became
independent, and leagued together for a common purpose. It operated
again, and governments of organized and more orderly character came
into existence all over what was once feudal Europe. The prevailing
system, or that which is animated by the strongest and most active
principle, necessitates whatever is unlike it to become of the same
character with itself, even though it might seem like the surrender of
the better for the worse. This is very aptly shown by the fact that
under feudalism allodial titles were voluntarily surrendered for feudal
ones.
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