CONTENTS. THE NATURAL BOUNDARIES OF EMPIRES. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL REMARKS. Ir is of great importance to nations that desire to live in peace, that their territorial limits should be fixed and certain. When there is a state of doubt respecting the possessions of a private individual, it produces a state of excitement which is unfavourable to happiness: but with nations it is much more the case, for millions of persons are sometimes thrown into a state of uneasiness, anxiety, and war, on account of a very trivial circumstance relating to the boundary of their empire. In this essay, an attempt is made to point out certain natural lines of demarcation between states, and to shew that, in the history of all nations, B there is a constant tendency to approach them. Like a pendulum vibrating freely in space, while, to a common observer, nothing can appear more irregular than its motion, the philosopher knows where it will finally rest: thus the boundaries of empires, which appear so fluctuating and irregular, have a certain limit to which they irresistibly tend. All the councils of statesmen, all the manœuvres of politicians, all the conflicts of armies, all the crimes, the contests, the energies of human political action, have this and no other final result. Let us, therefore, endeavour to ascertain for all nations the laws by which their political boundaries are governed. The limits of empires are controlled by two causes- the physical geography of the soil, and the power of man: the first is durable, the last is variable; and thus in examining history we find that the first produces the most permanent effect. The Turks and Persians have, in modern times, renewed the ancient contest between the Romans and Parthians, and have fought for many a century without gaining one square mile of territory. The ancient Grecians fought for a thousand years, and their small republics, at the termination of the contest, retained their original boundaries. |