method upon which Rome
proceeded there was an essential element of weakness. The simple device
of representation, by which political power is equally retained in all
parts of the community while its exercise is delegated to a central
body, was entirely unknown to the Romans. Partly for this reason, and
partly because of the terrible military pressure to which the frontier
was perpetually exposed, the Roman government became a despotism which
gradually took on many of the vices of the Oriental type. The political
weakness which resulted from this allowed Europe to be overrun by
peoples organized in clans and tribes, and for some time there was a
partial retrogression toward the disorder characteristic of primitive
ages. The retrogression was but partial and temporary, however; the
exposed frontier has been steadily pushed eastward into the heart of
Asia; the industrial type of society is no longer menaced by the
predatory type; the primeval clan-system has entirely disappeared as a
social force; and warfare, once ubiquitous and chronic, has become local
and occasional.

The third and highest method of forming great political bodies is that
of _federation_. The element of fighting was essential in the two lower
methods, but in this it is not essential. Here there is no conquest, but
a voluntary union of small political groups into a great political
group. Each little group preserves its local independence intact, while
forming part of an indissoluble whole. Obviously this method of
political union requires both high intelligence and high ethical
development In early times it was impracticable. It was first attempted,
with brilliant though ephemeral success, by the Greeks, but it failed
for want of the device of representation. In later times it was put into
operation, with permanent success, on a small scale by the Swiss, and on
a great scale by our forefathers in England. The coalescence of shires
into the kingdom of England, effected as it was by means of a
representative assembly, and accompanied by the general retention of
local self-government, afforded a distinct precedent for such a gigantic
federal union as men of English race have since constructed in America.
The principle of federation was there, though not the name. And here we
hit upon the fundamental contrast between the history of England and
that of France. The method by which the modern French nation has been
built up has been the Roman method of conques