colonies, to retain them when vanquished in a state of
subjection. Great roads stretched from one town to another; the
multitude of cross roads which now intersect each other in every
direction, was unknown. They had nothing in common with that
multitude of little monuments, villages, churches, castles,
villas, and cottages, which now cover our provinces. Rome has
bequeathed to us nothing, either in its capital or its provinces,
but the _municipal character_, which produced immense monuments
on certain points, destined for the use of the vast population
which was there assembled together.

"From this peculiar conformation of society in Europe, under the
Roman dominion, consisting of a vast conglomeration of cities,
with each a dependent territory, all independent of each other,
arose the absolute necessity for a central and absolute
government. One municipality in Rome might conquer the world: but
to retain it in subjection, and provide for the government of all
its multifarious parts, was a very different matter. This was one
of the chief causes of the general adoption of a strong
concentrated government under the empire. Such centralized
despotism not only succeeded in restraining and regulating all
the incoherent members of the vast dominion, but the idea of a
central irresistible authority insinuated itself into men's minds
every where, at the same time, with wonderful facility. At first
sight, one is astonished to see, in that prodigious and
ill-united aggregate of little republics, in that accumulation of
separate municipalities, spring up so suddenly an unbounded
respect for the sacred authority of the empire. But the truth is,
it had become a matter of absolute necessity, that the bond which
held together the different parts of this heterogeneous dominion
should be very powerful; and this it was which gave it so ready a
reception in the minds of men.

"But when the vigour of the central power declined during a
course of ages, from the pressure of external warfare, and the
weakness of internal corruption, this necessity was no longer
felt. The capital ceased to be able to provide for the provinces,
it rather sought protection from them. During four centuries, the
central power of the emperors incessantly struggled against this