The conformity and
analogy of which I speak, incapable, like everything else, of preserving
perfect trust and tranquillity among men, has a strong tendency to
facilitate accommodation, and to produce a generous oblivion of the
rancor of their quarrels. With this similitude, peace is more of peace,
and war is less of war. I will go further. There have been periods of
time in which communities apparently in peace with each other have been
more perfectly separated than in later times many nations in Europe have
been in the course of long and bloody wars. The cause must be sought in
the similitude throughout Europe of religion, laws, and manners. At
bottom, these are all the same. The writers on public law have often
called this _aggregate_ of nations a commonwealth. They had reason. It
is virtually one great state, having the same basis of general law, with
some diversity of provincial customs and local establishments. The
nations of Europe have had the very same Christian religion, agreeing in
the fundamental parts, varying a little in the ceremonies and in the
subordinate doctrines. The whole of the polity and economy of every
country in Europe has been derived from the same sources. It was drawn
from the old Germanic or Gothic Custumary,--from the feudal
institutions, which must be considered as an emanation from that
Custumary; and the whole has been improved and digested into system and
discipline by the Roman law.
Pages:
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332