ty of character, interest, and opinion,
and which arrests the action of the sovereign by the influence of a
divided patriotism. The presence of different nations under the same
sovereignty is similar in its effect to the independence of the Church
in the State. It provides against the servility which flourishes under
the shadow of a single authority, by balancing interests, multiplying
associations, and giving to the subject the restraint and support of a
combined opinion. In the same way it promotes independence by forming
definite groups of public opinion, and by affording a great source and
centre of political sentiments, and of notions of duty not derived from
the sovereign will. Liberty provokes diversity, and diversity preserves
liberty by supplying the means of organisation. All those portions of
law which govern the relations of men with each other, and regulate
social life, are the varying result of national custom and the creation
of private society. In these things, therefore, the several nations
will differ from each other; for they themselves have produced them, and
they do not owe them to the State which rules them all. This diversity
in the same State is a firm barrier against the intrusion of the
government beyond the political sphere which is common to all into the
social department which escapes legislation and is ruled by spontaneous
laws. This sort of interference is characteristic of an absolute
government, and is sure to provoke a reaction, and finally a remedy.
That intolerance of social freedom which is natural to absolutism is
sure to find a corrective in the national diversities, which no other
force could so efficiently provide. The co-existence of several nations
under the same State is a test, as well as the best security of its
freedom. It is also one of the chief instruments of civilisation; and,
as such, it is in the natural and providential order, and indicates a
state of greater advancement than the national unity which is the ideal
of modern liberalism.

The combination of different nations in one State is as necessary a
condition of civilised life as the combination of men in society.
Inferior races are raised by living in political union with races
intellectually superior. Exhausted and decaying nations are revived by
the contact of a younger vitality. Nations in which the elements of
organisation and the capacity for government have been lost, either
through the demoralising influen