The Empire and the Papacy it was their great object
to destroy; and this, now openly avowed and steadfastly acted upon,
might have been discerned with very little acuteness of sight, from the
very first dawnings of the Revolution, to be the main drift of their
policy: for they professed a resolution to destroy everything which can
hold states together by the tie of opinion.
Exploding, therefore, all sorts of balances, they avow their design to
erect themselves into a new description of empire, which is not grounded
on any balance, but forms a sort of impious hierarchy, of which France
is to be the head and the guardian. The law of this their empire is
anything rather than the public law of Europe, the ancient conventions
of its several states, or the ancient opinions which assign to them
superiority or preeminence of any sort, or any other kind of connection
in virtue of ancient relations. They permit, and that is all, the
temporary existence of some of the old communities: but whilst they give
to these tolerated states this temporary respite, in order to secure
them in a condition of real dependence on themselves, they invest them
on every side by a body of republics, formed on the model, and dependent
ostensibly, as well as substantially, on the will of the mother republic
to which they owe their origin. These are to be so many garrisons to
check and control the states which are to be permitted to remain on the
old model until they are ripe for a change.
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