Transcription

If we consider the state of some of the most orderly governments in the world, we shall find that they are much less homogeneous than our own. France is actually divided into several distinct provinces -- and they are still divided by distinct laws and customs, and even by a different language. we are better acquainted with the British Kingdoms : If the diversity in question is incompatible with a common government, then the prosperous state of that country will prove that there is no such diversity : Yet the fact is that the narrow territories of Britain and Ireland are inhabited by people, in different stages of civilization -- who speak several different languages -- who glory in the victories obtained by their ancestors when mutually hostile, and whose remembrance of former injuries is embittered by mutual scorn and national hatred. Till lately their interests have sacrificed to commercial monopolies, and their rights as men abridged by a policy which continued to be jealous after it had ceased to be vindictive. Their customs, manners, and principles of government, and religion, are, apparently, the least likely to assimilate together. The