WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:06.040
<v Speaker 1>Chapter sixteen of Considerations on Representative Government. This LibriVox recording

2
00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:10.199
<v Speaker 1>is in the public domain. Considerations on Representative Government by

3
00:00:10.279 --> 00:00:16.359
<v Speaker 1>John Stuart Mill, Chapter sixteen of Nationality as connected with

4
00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:21.359
<v Speaker 1>Representative Government. A portion of mankind may be said to

5
00:00:21.399 --> 00:00:25.160
<v Speaker 1>constitute a nationality if they are united among themselves by

6
00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:28.679
<v Speaker 1>common sympathies which do not exist between them and any others,

7
00:00:29.239 --> 00:00:31.879
<v Speaker 1>which make them co operate with each other more willingly

8
00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:34.920
<v Speaker 1>than with other people, desire to be under the same government,

9
00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.079
<v Speaker 1>and desire that it should be government by themselves or

10
00:00:38.119 --> 00:00:42.759
<v Speaker 1>a portion of themselves exclusively. This feeling of nationality may

11
00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:46.000
<v Speaker 1>have been generated by various causes. Sometimes it is the

12
00:00:46.039 --> 00:00:50.240
<v Speaker 1>effect of identity of race and descent, community of language,

13
00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:54.560
<v Speaker 1>and community of religion greatly contribute to it. Geographical limits

14
00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:57.240
<v Speaker 1>are one of its causes, but the strongest of all

15
00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:01.399
<v Speaker 1>is identity of political antecedents, the possession of a national

16
00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:06.760
<v Speaker 1>history and consequent community of recollections, collective pride and humiliation,

17
00:01:07.239 --> 00:01:11.120
<v Speaker 1>pleasure and regret connected with the same incidents in the past.

18
00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:17.040
<v Speaker 1>None of these circumstances, however, are either indispensable or necessarily

19
00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:22.519
<v Speaker 1>sufficient by themselves. Switzerland has a strong sentiment of nationality,

20
00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:26.000
<v Speaker 1>though the Cantons are of different races, different languages, and

21
00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:30.319
<v Speaker 1>different religions. Sicily has hitherto felt itself quite distinct in

22
00:01:30.439 --> 00:01:36.120
<v Speaker 1>nationality from Naples, notwithstanding identity of religion, almost identity of language,

23
00:01:36.120 --> 00:01:41.239
<v Speaker 1>and a considerable amount of common historical antecedents. The Flemish

24
00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:45.200
<v Speaker 1>and the Walloon provinces of Belgium, notwithstanding diversity of race

25
00:01:45.239 --> 00:01:48.840
<v Speaker 1>and language, have a much greater feeling of common nationality

26
00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:52.480
<v Speaker 1>than the former have with Holland, or the latter with France.

27
00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:57.319
<v Speaker 1>Yet in general the national feeling is proportionally weakened by

28
00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:00.079
<v Speaker 1>the failure of any of the causes which contribute to

29
00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:04.239
<v Speaker 1>identity of language, literature, and to some extent, of race.

30
00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:08.840
<v Speaker 1>And recollections have maintained the feeling of nationality and considerable

31
00:02:08.879 --> 00:02:12.599
<v Speaker 1>strength among the different portions of the German name, though

32
00:02:12.599 --> 00:02:15.199
<v Speaker 1>they have at no time been really united under the

33
00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:18.520
<v Speaker 1>same government. But the feeling has never reached to making

34
00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:21.360
<v Speaker 1>the separate states desire to get rid of their autonomy.

35
00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:25.840
<v Speaker 1>Among Italians, an identity far from complete of language and literature,

36
00:02:26.199 --> 00:02:29.479
<v Speaker 1>combined with a geographical position which separates them by a

37
00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:33.879
<v Speaker 1>distinct line from other countries, and perhaps more than everything else,

38
00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:36.919
<v Speaker 1>the possession of a common name, which makes them all

39
00:02:36.919 --> 00:02:43.199
<v Speaker 1>glory in the past. Achievements in arts, arms, politics, religious primacy, science,

40
00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:46.759
<v Speaker 1>and literature of any who share the same designation give

41
00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:50.039
<v Speaker 1>rise to an amount of national feeling in the population, which,

42
00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:54.000
<v Speaker 1>though still imperfect, has been sufficient to produce the great

43
00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:58.479
<v Speaker 1>events now passing before us, notwithstanding a great mixture of races,

44
00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:01.639
<v Speaker 1>and although they have never, in either ancient or modern

45
00:03:01.719 --> 00:03:05.120
<v Speaker 1>history been under the same government, except while that government

46
00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:08.520
<v Speaker 1>extended or was extending itself over the greater part of

47
00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:12.919
<v Speaker 1>the known world, where the sentiment of nationality exists in

48
00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:16.719
<v Speaker 1>any force, there is a primafacee case for uniting all

49
00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:19.800
<v Speaker 1>the members of the nationality under the same government, and

50
00:03:19.879 --> 00:03:23.560
<v Speaker 1>a government to themselves apart. This is merely saying that

51
00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:26.759
<v Speaker 1>the question of government ought to be decided by the governed.

52
00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:30.000
<v Speaker 1>One hardly knows what any division of the human race

53
00:03:30.039 --> 00:03:32.800
<v Speaker 1>should be free to do, if not to determine with

54
00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:35.719
<v Speaker 1>which of the various collective bodies of human beings they

55
00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:39.960
<v Speaker 1>choose to associate themselves. But when a people are ripe

56
00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:43.840
<v Speaker 1>for free institutions, there is a still more vital consideration.

57
00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:48.280
<v Speaker 1>Free institutions are next to impossible in a country made

58
00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:52.280
<v Speaker 1>up of different nationalities. Among a people without fellow feeling,

59
00:03:52.599 --> 00:03:56.039
<v Speaker 1>especially if they read and speak different languages, the united

60
00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:59.919
<v Speaker 1>public opinion necessary to the working of representative government cannot egg.

61
00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:05.759
<v Speaker 1>The influences which form opinions and decide political acts are

62
00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:09.280
<v Speaker 1>different in the different sections of the country. In altogether

63
00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:12.319
<v Speaker 1>different set of leaders have the confidence of one part

64
00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:16.680
<v Speaker 1>of the country and of another. The same books, newspapers, pamphlets,

65
00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:19.959
<v Speaker 1>speeches do not reach them. One section does not know

66
00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:25.079
<v Speaker 1>what opinions or what instigations are circulating in another. The

67
00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:28.439
<v Speaker 1>same incidents, the same acts, the same system of government

68
00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:31.839
<v Speaker 1>affect them in different ways, and each fears more injury

69
00:04:31.879 --> 00:04:35.160
<v Speaker 1>to itself from the other nationalities than from the common arbiter,

70
00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:39.160
<v Speaker 1>the state. Their mutual antipathies are generally much stronger than

71
00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:42.680
<v Speaker 1>jealousy of the government. That any one of them feels

72
00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:45.680
<v Speaker 1>aggrieved by the policy of the common ruler is sufficient

73
00:04:45.720 --> 00:04:50.079
<v Speaker 1>to determine another to support that policy. Even if all

74
00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:52.720
<v Speaker 1>are aggrieved, none feel that they can rely on the

75
00:04:52.759 --> 00:04:57.000
<v Speaker 1>others for fidelity. In a joint resistance, the strength of

76
00:04:57.079 --> 00:05:00.439
<v Speaker 1>none is sufficient to resist alone, and each may readasonably

77
00:05:00.519 --> 00:05:04.439
<v Speaker 1>think that it consults its own advantage, most by bidding

78
00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:08.759
<v Speaker 1>for the favor of the government against the rest. Above all,

79
00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:12.079
<v Speaker 1>the grand and only reliable security in the last resort

80
00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:16.079
<v Speaker 1>against the despotism of the government, is in that case

81
00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:19.759
<v Speaker 1>wanting the sympathy of the army with the people. The

82
00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:22.399
<v Speaker 1>military are the part of every community in whom, from

83
00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:25.480
<v Speaker 1>the nature of the case, the distinction between their fellow

84
00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:30.079
<v Speaker 1>countrymen and foreigners is the deepest and strongest. To the

85
00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:33.439
<v Speaker 1>rest of the people. Foreigners are merely strangers to the soldier.

86
00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:36.000
<v Speaker 1>They are men against whom he may be called at

87
00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:39.519
<v Speaker 1>a week's notice to fight for life or death. The

88
00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:42.639
<v Speaker 1>difference to him is that between friends and enemies. We

89
00:05:42.759 --> 00:05:45.879
<v Speaker 1>may almost say between fellow men and another kind of animals.

90
00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:49.319
<v Speaker 1>For as respects the enemy, the only law is that

91
00:05:49.399 --> 00:05:52.399
<v Speaker 1>of force, and the only mitigation the same as in

92
00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:57.319
<v Speaker 1>the case of other animals that of simple humanity. Soldiers

93
00:05:57.319 --> 00:06:00.319
<v Speaker 1>to whose feelings half or three fourths of the subject

94
00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:03.480
<v Speaker 1>of the same government, our foreigners will have no more

95
00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:06.519
<v Speaker 1>scruple in mowing them down, and no more desire to

96
00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:09.240
<v Speaker 1>ask the reason why, than they would have in doing

97
00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:13.360
<v Speaker 1>the same thing against declared enemies. An army composed of

98
00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:17.680
<v Speaker 1>various nationalities has no other patriotism than devotion to the flag.

99
00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:21.759
<v Speaker 1>Such armies have been the executioners of liberty through the

100
00:06:21.800 --> 00:06:26.199
<v Speaker 1>whole duration of modern history. The sole bond which holds

101
00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:29.360
<v Speaker 1>them together is their officers and the government which they serve,

102
00:06:29.800 --> 00:06:32.759
<v Speaker 1>And their only idea, if they have any of public duty,

103
00:06:33.160 --> 00:06:36.959
<v Speaker 1>is obedience to orders. A government, thus, supported by keeping

104
00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:40.279
<v Speaker 1>its Hungarian regiments in Italy and its Italian in Hungary,

105
00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:44.040
<v Speaker 1>can long continue to rule in both places with the

106
00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:47.759
<v Speaker 1>iron rod of foreign conquerors. If it be said that

107
00:06:47.879 --> 00:06:50.600
<v Speaker 1>so broadly marked a distinction between what is due to

108
00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:53.240
<v Speaker 1>a fellow countryman and what is due merely to a

109
00:06:53.319 --> 00:06:57.240
<v Speaker 1>human creature is more worthy of savages than of civilized beings,

110
00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:01.439
<v Speaker 1>and ought with the utmost energy to be contented. No

111
00:07:01.519 --> 00:07:06.000
<v Speaker 1>one holds that opinion more strongly than myself. But this object,

112
00:07:06.439 --> 00:07:09.480
<v Speaker 1>one of the worthiest to which human endeavor can be directed,

113
00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:13.279
<v Speaker 1>can never, in the present state of civilization, be promoted

114
00:07:13.319 --> 00:07:17.639
<v Speaker 1>by keeping different nationalities of anything like equivalent strength under

115
00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:21.680
<v Speaker 1>the same government. In a barbarous state of society, the

116
00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:25.360
<v Speaker 1>case is sometimes different. The government may then be interested

117
00:07:25.399 --> 00:07:28.800
<v Speaker 1>in softening the antipathies of the races that peace may

118
00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:32.480
<v Speaker 1>be preserved on the country more easily governed. But when

119
00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:35.399
<v Speaker 1>there are either free institutions or a desire for them

120
00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:39.040
<v Speaker 1>in any of the peoples artificially tied together, the interest

121
00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:42.759
<v Speaker 1>of the government lies in an exactly opposite direction. It

122
00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:46.639
<v Speaker 1>is then interested in keeping up and envenoming their antipathies,

123
00:07:47.079 --> 00:07:50.160
<v Speaker 1>that they may be prevented from coalescing, and it may

124
00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:52.560
<v Speaker 1>be enabled to use some of them as tools for

125
00:07:52.639 --> 00:07:56.079
<v Speaker 1>the enslavement of others. The Austrian court has now for

126
00:07:56.120 --> 00:08:00.000
<v Speaker 1>a whole generation made these tactics its principal means of government,

127
00:08:00.759 --> 00:08:03.519
<v Speaker 1>with what fatal success at the time of the Vienna

128
00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:08.199
<v Speaker 1>Insurrection and the Hungarian contest, the world knows too well. Haply,

129
00:08:08.279 --> 00:08:11.639
<v Speaker 1>there are now signs that improvement is too far advanced

130
00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:16.839
<v Speaker 1>to permit this policy to be any longer successful. For

131
00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:20.480
<v Speaker 1>the preceding reasons, it is in general a necessary condition

132
00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:24.279
<v Speaker 1>of free institutions that the boundaries of governments should coincide

133
00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:28.920
<v Speaker 1>in the main with those of nationalities. But several considerations

134
00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:32.159
<v Speaker 1>are liable to conflict in practice with this general principle.

135
00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:36.440
<v Speaker 1>In the first place, its application is often precluded by

136
00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:40.279
<v Speaker 1>geographical hindrances There are parts even of Europe in which

137
00:08:40.279 --> 00:08:44.000
<v Speaker 1>different nationalities are so locally intermingled that it is not

138
00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:48.320
<v Speaker 1>practicable for them to be under separate governments. The population

139
00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:54.039
<v Speaker 1>of Hungary is composed of Magyars, Slovaks, Croats, Serbs, Roumans,

140
00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:57.559
<v Speaker 1>and in some districts Germans, so mixed up as to

141
00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:01.639
<v Speaker 1>be incapable of local separation, and there is no course

142
00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:04.120
<v Speaker 1>open to them but to make a virtue of necessity

143
00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:08.279
<v Speaker 1>and reconcile themselves to living together under equal rights and laws.

144
00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:12.440
<v Speaker 1>Their community of servitude, which dates only from the destruction

145
00:09:12.519 --> 00:09:16.279
<v Speaker 1>of Hungarian independence in eighteen forty nine, seems to be

146
00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:19.600
<v Speaker 1>ripening and disposing them for such an equal union. The

147
00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:22.639
<v Speaker 1>German colony of East Prussia is cut off from Germany

148
00:09:22.679 --> 00:09:26.159
<v Speaker 1>by part of the ancient Poland, and, being too weak

149
00:09:26.200 --> 00:09:30.200
<v Speaker 1>to maintain separate independence, must, if geographical continuity is to

150
00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:33.840
<v Speaker 1>be maintained, be either under a non German government, or

151
00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:37.399
<v Speaker 1>the intervening Polish territory must be under a German one.

152
00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:40.879
<v Speaker 1>Another considerable region in which the dominant element of the

153
00:09:40.919 --> 00:09:45.519
<v Speaker 1>population is German, the provinces of Kurland, Esthonia and Livonia,

154
00:09:46.120 --> 00:09:49.120
<v Speaker 1>is condemned by a local situation to form part of

155
00:09:49.159 --> 00:09:52.840
<v Speaker 1>a Slavonian state. In eastern Germany itself there is a

156
00:09:52.919 --> 00:09:59.159
<v Speaker 1>large Slavonic population. Bohemia is principally Slavonic, Silesia and other

157
00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:03.360
<v Speaker 1>districts parti. So the most united country in Europe, France

158
00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:07.759
<v Speaker 1>is far from being homogeneous independently of the fragments of

159
00:10:07.799 --> 00:10:12.679
<v Speaker 1>foreign nationalities at its remote extremities. It consists, as language

160
00:10:12.679 --> 00:10:17.639
<v Speaker 1>and history prove of two portions, one occupied almost exclusively

161
00:10:17.679 --> 00:10:22.000
<v Speaker 1>by a Gallo Roman population, while in the other the Frankish,

162
00:10:22.279 --> 00:10:27.559
<v Speaker 1>Burgundian and other Teutonic races form a considerable ingredient when

163
00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:32.000
<v Speaker 1>proper allowance has been made for geographical exigencies, another more

164
00:10:32.039 --> 00:10:37.279
<v Speaker 1>purely moral and social consideration offers itself. Experience proves that

165
00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:40.200
<v Speaker 1>it is possible for one nationality to merge and be

166
00:10:40.279 --> 00:10:44.279
<v Speaker 1>absorbed in another, and when it was originally an inferior

167
00:10:44.360 --> 00:10:47.279
<v Speaker 1>and more backward portion of the human race, the absorption

168
00:10:47.559 --> 00:10:51.639
<v Speaker 1>is greatly to its advantage. Nobody can suppose that it

169
00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:54.639
<v Speaker 1>is not more beneficial to a Breton or a Basque

170
00:10:54.679 --> 00:10:57.759
<v Speaker 1>of French Navarre to be brought into the current of

171
00:10:57.799 --> 00:11:01.399
<v Speaker 1>the ideas and feelings of a highly civilized and cultivated people,

172
00:11:01.879 --> 00:11:04.679
<v Speaker 1>to be a member of the French nationality, admitted on

173
00:11:04.759 --> 00:11:08.799
<v Speaker 1>equal terms to all the privileges of French citizenship, sharing

174
00:11:08.840 --> 00:11:12.639
<v Speaker 1>the advantages of French protection and the dignity and prestige

175
00:11:12.679 --> 00:11:16.200
<v Speaker 1>of French power, then to sulk on his own rocks,

176
00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:20.120
<v Speaker 1>the half savage relic of past times, revolving in his

177
00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:24.240
<v Speaker 1>own little mental orbit, without participation or interest in the

178
00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:28.399
<v Speaker 1>general movement of the world. The same remark applies to

179
00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:31.519
<v Speaker 1>the Welshmen or the Scottish Highlander as members of the

180
00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:37.679
<v Speaker 1>British nation. Whatever really tends to be. The admixture of

181
00:11:37.919 --> 00:11:41.799
<v Speaker 1>nationalities and the blending of their attributes and peculiarities in

182
00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:44.639
<v Speaker 1>a common union is a benefit to the human race,

183
00:11:45.639 --> 00:11:49.240
<v Speaker 1>not by extinguishing types, of which in these cases sufficient

184
00:11:49.320 --> 00:11:53.039
<v Speaker 1>examples are sure to remain, but by softening their extreme

185
00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:57.360
<v Speaker 1>forms and filling up the intervals between them. The United

186
00:11:57.399 --> 00:12:00.600
<v Speaker 1>People like a crossed breed of animals, but in a

187
00:12:00.639 --> 00:12:04.480
<v Speaker 1>still greater degree, because the influences in operation are moral

188
00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:09.639
<v Speaker 1>as well as physical. Inherits the special aptitudes and excellences

189
00:12:09.639 --> 00:12:13.519
<v Speaker 1>of all its progenitors protected by the admixture from being

190
00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:19.519
<v Speaker 1>exaggerated into the neighboring vices. But to render this admixture possible,

191
00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:24.639
<v Speaker 1>there must be peculiar conditions. The combinations of circumstances which

192
00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:30.559
<v Speaker 1>occur and which effect the result are various. The nationalities

193
00:12:30.559 --> 00:12:33.679
<v Speaker 1>brought together under the same government may be about equal

194
00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:36.519
<v Speaker 1>in numbers and strength, or they may be very unequal.

195
00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:40.480
<v Speaker 1>If unequal, the least numerous of the two may either

196
00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:45.080
<v Speaker 1>be the superior in civilization or the inferior. Supposing it

197
00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:49.320
<v Speaker 1>to be superior, it may either, through that superiority, be

198
00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:52.919
<v Speaker 1>able to acquire ascendency over the other, or it may

199
00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:57.080
<v Speaker 1>be overcome by brute strength and reduced to subjection. This

200
00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:00.399
<v Speaker 1>last is a sheer mischief to the human race, and

201
00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:04.320
<v Speaker 1>one which civilized humanity, with one accord, should rise in arms.

202
00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:08.879
<v Speaker 1>To prevent. The absorption of Greece by Macedonia was one

203
00:13:08.919 --> 00:13:12.200
<v Speaker 1>of the greatest misfortunes which ever happened to the world.

204
00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:15.360
<v Speaker 1>That of any of the principal countries of Europe by

205
00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:19.799
<v Speaker 1>Russia would be a similar one if the smaller nationality

206
00:13:19.919 --> 00:13:23.480
<v Speaker 1>supposed to be the more advanced and improvement is able

207
00:13:23.519 --> 00:13:27.120
<v Speaker 1>to overcome the greater, as the Macedonians reinforced by the

208
00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:31.559
<v Speaker 1>Greeks did Asia and the English India. There is often

209
00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:35.200
<v Speaker 1>a gain to civilization, but the conquerors and the conquered

210
00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:39.240
<v Speaker 1>cannot in this case live together under the same free institutions.

211
00:13:40.039 --> 00:13:43.360
<v Speaker 1>The absorption of the conquerors in the less advanced people

212
00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:47.240
<v Speaker 1>would be an evil. These must be governed as subjects,

213
00:13:47.879 --> 00:13:50.000
<v Speaker 1>and the state of things is either a benefit or

214
00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:53.519
<v Speaker 1>a misfortune according as the subjugated people have or have

215
00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:56.440
<v Speaker 1>not reached the state in which it is an injury

216
00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:00.080
<v Speaker 1>not to be under a free government, and according as

217
00:14:00.120 --> 00:14:03.720
<v Speaker 1>the conquerors do or do not use their superiority in

218
00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:06.840
<v Speaker 1>a manner calculated to fit the conquered for a higher

219
00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:11.519
<v Speaker 1>stage of improvement. This topic will be particularly treated of

220
00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:16.720
<v Speaker 1>in a subsequent chapter. When the nationality which succeeds in

221
00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:19.799
<v Speaker 1>overpowering the other is both the most numerous and the

222
00:14:19.799 --> 00:14:23.759
<v Speaker 1>most improved, and especially if the subdued nationality is small

223
00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:28.279
<v Speaker 1>and has no hope of reasserting its independence, then if

224
00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:31.240
<v Speaker 1>it is governed with any tolerable justice, and if the

225
00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:34.679
<v Speaker 1>members of the more powerful nationality are not made odious

226
00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:39.480
<v Speaker 1>by being invested with exclusive privileges, the smaller nationality is

227
00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:43.919
<v Speaker 1>gradually reconciled to its position and becomes amalgamated with the

228
00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:49.799
<v Speaker 1>larger No bas Breton or even any Alsatian has the

229
00:14:49.879 --> 00:14:53.279
<v Speaker 1>smallest wish at the present day to be separated from France.

230
00:14:54.320 --> 00:14:56.919
<v Speaker 1>If all Irishmen have not yet arrived at the same

231
00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:01.159
<v Speaker 1>disposition towards England, it is partly because they are sufficiently

232
00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:06.279
<v Speaker 1>numerous to be capable of constituting a respectable nationality by themselves,

233
00:15:06.639 --> 00:15:10.200
<v Speaker 1>but principally because until of late years they had been

234
00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:13.679
<v Speaker 1>so atrociously governed that all their best feelings combined with

235
00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:17.759
<v Speaker 1>their bad ones in rousing bitter resentment against the Saxon rule.

236
00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:22.639
<v Speaker 1>This disgrace to England and calamity to the whole Empire, has,

237
00:15:23.159 --> 00:15:26.759
<v Speaker 1>it may be truly said, completely ceased for nearly a generation.

238
00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:31.200
<v Speaker 1>No Irishman is now less free than an Anglo Saxon,

239
00:15:31.399 --> 00:15:34.120
<v Speaker 1>nor has a less share of every benefit, either to

240
00:15:34.200 --> 00:15:37.360
<v Speaker 1>his country or to his individual fortunes, than if he

241
00:15:37.399 --> 00:15:40.600
<v Speaker 1>were sprung from any other portion of the British dominions.

242
00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:44.759
<v Speaker 1>The only remaining real grievance of Ireland, that of the

243
00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:48.320
<v Speaker 1>State Church, is one which half or nearly half the

244
00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:51.440
<v Speaker 1>people of the larger island have in common with them.

245
00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:54.240
<v Speaker 1>There is now next to nothing except the memory of

246
00:15:54.279 --> 00:15:58.039
<v Speaker 1>the past and the difference in the predominant religion to

247
00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:01.399
<v Speaker 1>keep apart two races, perhaps the most fitted of any

248
00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:04.399
<v Speaker 1>two in the world, to be the completing counterpart of

249
00:16:04.440 --> 00:16:09.000
<v Speaker 1>one another. The consciousness of being at last treated not

250
00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:13.000
<v Speaker 1>only with equal justice but with equal consideration is making

251
00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:15.799
<v Speaker 1>such rapid way in the Irish nation as to be

252
00:16:15.799 --> 00:16:18.600
<v Speaker 1>wearing off all feelings that could make them insensible to

253
00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:21.720
<v Speaker 1>the benefits which the less numerous and less wealthy people

254
00:16:22.279 --> 00:16:27.200
<v Speaker 1>must necessarily derive from being fellow citizens instead of foreigners,

255
00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:30.120
<v Speaker 1>to those who are not only their nearest neighbors, but

256
00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:33.440
<v Speaker 1>the wealthiest and one of the freest, as well as

257
00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:38.240
<v Speaker 1>most civilized and powerful nations of the earth. The cases

258
00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:41.559
<v Speaker 1>in which the greatest practical obstacles exist to the blending

259
00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:44.679
<v Speaker 1>of nationalities are when the nationalities which have been bound

260
00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:47.480
<v Speaker 1>together are nearly equal in numbers and in the other

261
00:16:47.519 --> 00:16:52.399
<v Speaker 1>elements of power. In such cases, each confiding in its

262
00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:56.080
<v Speaker 1>strength and feeling itself capable of maintaining an equal struggle

263
00:16:56.120 --> 00:16:58.960
<v Speaker 1>with any of the others, is unwilling to be merged

264
00:16:59.080 --> 00:17:04.279
<v Speaker 1>in it. Each cultivates with party obstinacy, its distinctive peculiarities

265
00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:09.680
<v Speaker 1>obsolete customs and even declining languages are revived to deepen

266
00:17:09.720 --> 00:17:14.720
<v Speaker 1>the separation. Each deems itself tyrannized over if any authority

267
00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:18.200
<v Speaker 1>is exercised within itself by functionaries of a rival race,

268
00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:22.200
<v Speaker 1>and whatever is given to one of the conflicting nationalities

269
00:17:22.279 --> 00:17:25.039
<v Speaker 1>is considered to be taken from all the rest. When

270
00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:28.279
<v Speaker 1>nations thus divided are under a despotic government, which is

271
00:17:28.319 --> 00:17:31.119
<v Speaker 1>a stranger to all of them, or which those sprung

272
00:17:31.160 --> 00:17:33.839
<v Speaker 1>from one, yet feeling greater interest in its own power

273
00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:38.079
<v Speaker 1>than in any sympathies of nationality, assigns no privilege to

274
00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:43.079
<v Speaker 1>either nation, and chooses its instruments indifferently from all. In

275
00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:46.559
<v Speaker 1>the course of a few generations, identity of situation often

276
00:17:46.599 --> 00:17:50.200
<v Speaker 1>produces harmony of feeling, and the different races come to

277
00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:55.559
<v Speaker 1>feel towards each other as fellow countrymen, particularly if they

278
00:17:55.599 --> 00:17:59.440
<v Speaker 1>are dispersed over the same tract of country. But if

279
00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:02.799
<v Speaker 1>the era of aspiration to free government arrives before this

280
00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:07.440
<v Speaker 1>fusion has been effected, the opportunity has gone by for

281
00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:12.240
<v Speaker 1>effecting it from that time. If the unreconciled nationalities are

282
00:18:12.279 --> 00:18:16.400
<v Speaker 1>geographically separate, and especially if their local position is such

283
00:18:16.440 --> 00:18:20.039
<v Speaker 1>that there is no natural fitness or convenience in their

284
00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:23.000
<v Speaker 1>being under the same government. As in the case of

285
00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:27.079
<v Speaker 1>an Italian province under a French or German yoke, there

286
00:18:27.119 --> 00:18:30.599
<v Speaker 1>is not only an obvious propriety, but if either freedom

287
00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:34.400
<v Speaker 1>or concord is cared for, a necessity for breaking the

288
00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:38.160
<v Speaker 1>connection altogether. There may be cases in which the provinces,

289
00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:42.519
<v Speaker 1>after separation might usefully remain united by a federal tie.

290
00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:45.240
<v Speaker 1>But it generally happens that if they are willing to

291
00:18:45.319 --> 00:18:49.920
<v Speaker 1>forego complete independence and become members of a federation, each

292
00:18:49.960 --> 00:18:52.720
<v Speaker 1>of them has other neighbors with whom it would prefer

293
00:18:52.799 --> 00:18:56.319
<v Speaker 1>to connect itself, having more sympathies in common, if not

294
00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:02.720
<v Speaker 1>also greater community of interest of Chapter sixteen. Recording by

295
00:19:02.759 --> 00:19:03.400
<v Speaker 1>Bill Burst