The
people being thus taken, as it were, into council, though not
sharing the supreme power, the political education given by the
central authority is carried home, much more effectually than it could
otherwise be, to the local chiefs and to the population generally;
while, at the same time, a tradition is kept up of government by
general consent, or at least, the sanction of tradition is not given
to government without it, which, when consecrated by custom, has so
often put a bad end to a good beginning, and is one of the most
frequent causes of the sad fatality which in most countries has
stopped improvement in so early a stage, because the work of some
one period has been so done as to bar the needful work of the ages
following. Meanwhile, it may be laid down as a political truth, that
by irresponsible monarchy rather than by representative government can
a multitude of insignificant political units be welded into a
people, with common feelings of cohesion, power enough to protect
itself against conquest or foreign aggression, and affairs
sufficiently various and considerable of its own to occupy worthily
and expand to fit proportions the social and political intelligence of
the population.
* Italy, which alone can be quoted as an exception, is only so in
regard to the final stage of its transformation. The more difficult
previous advance from the city isolation of Florence, Pisa, or
Milan, to the provincial unity of Tuscany or Lombardy, took place in
the usual manner.
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