The same process is going on in the East, though it has not advanced so far, having begun there several centuries later, and the Graeco-Roman constitution was far feebler there than in the West at the epoch of the conquest.The Germanic tribes that conquered the West had long had close relations with the empire, had served as its allies, and even in its armies, and were partially Romanized.Most of their chiefs had received a Roman culture; and their early conversion to the Christian faith facilitated the revival and permanence of the old Roman constitution.In the East it was different.The conquerors had no touch of Roman civilization, and, followers of the Prophet, they were animated with an intense hatred, which, after the conquest, was changed into a superb contempt, of Christians and Romans.They had their civil constitution in the Koran; and the Koran, in its principles, doctrines, and spirit, is exclusive and profoundly intolerant.The Graeco-Roman constitution was always much weaker in the East, and had far greater obstacles to overcome there than in the West; yet it has survived the shock of the conquest.Throughout the limits of the ancient Empire of the East, the barbaric constitution has received and is daily receiving rude blows, and, but as reenforced by barbarians lying outside of the boundaries of that empire, would be no longer able to sustain itself.The Greek or Christian populations of the empire are no longer in danger of being exterminated or absorbed by the Mohammedan state or population.They are the only living and progressive people of the Ottoman Empire, and their complete success in absorbing or expelling the Turk is only a question of time.They will, in all present probability, reestablish a Christian and Roman East in much less time from the fall of Constantinople in , than it took the West from the fall of Rome in to put an end to the feudal or barbaric constitution founded by its Germanic invaders.
Indeed, the Roman constitution, laws, and civilization not only gain the mastery in the nations seated within the limits of the old Roman Empire, but extend their power through out the whole civilized world.The Graeco-Roman civilization is, in fact, the only civilization now recognized, and nations are accounted civilized only in proportion as they are Romanized and Christianized.The Roman law, as found in the Institutes, Pandects, and Novellae of Justinian, or the Corpus Legis Civilis, is the basis of the law and jurisprudence of all Christendom.
The Graeco-Roman civilization, called not improperly Christian civilization, is the only progressive civilization.The old feudal system remains in England little more than an empty name.
The king is only the first magistrate of the kingdom, and the House of Lords is only an hereditary senate.Austria is hard at work in the Roman direction, and finds her chief obstacle to success in Hungary, with the Magyars whose feudalism retains almost the full vigor of the Middle Ages.Russia is moving in the same direction; and Prussia and the smaller Germanic states obey the same impulse.Indeed, Rome has survived the conquest--has conquered her conquerors, and now invades every region from which they came.The Roman Empire may be said to be acknowledged and obeyed in lands lying far beyond the farthest limits reached by the Roman eagles, and to be more truly the mistress of the world than under Augustus, Trajan, or the Antonines.Nothing can stand before the Christian and Romanized nations, and all pagandom and Mohammedom combined are too weak to resist their onward march.
All modern European revolutions result only in reviving the Roman Empire, whatever the motives, interests, passions, or theories that initiate them.The French Revolution of the last century and that of the present prove it.France, let people say what they will, stands at the head of the European civilized world, and displays en grand all its good and all its bad tendencies.
When she moves, Europe moves; when she has a vertigo, all European nations are dizzy; when she recovers her health, her equilibrium, and good sense, others become sedate, steady, and reasonable.She is the head, nay, rather, the heart of Christendom--the head is at Rome--through which circulates the pure and impure blood of the nations.It is in vain Great Britain, Germany, or Russia disputes with her the hegemony of European civilization.They are forced to yield to her at last, to be content to revolve around her as the centre of the political system that masters them.The reason is, France is more completely and sincerely Roman than any other nation.The revolutions that have shaken the world have resulted in eliminating the barbaric elements she had retained, and clearing away all obstacles to the complete triumph of Imperial Rome.
Napoleon III.is for France what Augustus was for Rome.The revolutions in Spain and Italy have only swept away the relics of the barbaric constitution, and aided the revival of Roman imperialism.In no country do the revolutionists succeed in establishing their own theories; Caesar remains master of the field.Even in the United States, a revolution undertaken in favor of the barbaric system has resulted in the destruction of what remained of that system--in sweeping away the last relics of disintegrating feudalism, and in the complete establishment of the Graeco-Roman system, with important improvements, in the New World.
