2 34 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



liospitable land at the mouth of the Rhine and the Scheldt, no Motley 

 would have had occasion to write the history of their immortal repub- 

 lic. It was because the Alps furnished protection from the barbarians 

 that plundered the adjacent countries that the Swiss became famous 

 in the history of freedom. But for the lagoons of the Adriatic bar- 

 ring the advance of foot and horse, the world would never have heard 

 of the Venetians, who maintained their state for more than a thou- 

 sand years. The populations in all the countries of Europe, espe- 

 cially those of northern Italy, where modern civilization made its 

 earliest and most glorious conquests, that were able to raise a wall 

 against the floods of disorder that raged about them, soon passed from 

 the shadows of barbarism, and only returned to them again because 

 of the ferocity of political dissensions and the devastation and degra- 

 dation of war. In southern France, where Roman civilization suf- 

 fered least from the inroads of the barbarians, the people became 

 much more enlightened and civilized than in northern France, where 

 it suffered most. The energies of the northern boroughs were devoted 

 to a struggle with feudalism, and, as a consequence, municipal free- 

 dom and civilization made little headway. Those of the southern 

 were devoted, to use the words of Guizot, to " internal organization, 

 amelioration, and progress." The inhabitants thought only of estab- 

 lishing " independent republics." 



As here implied, peace is the progenitor of political freedom. It 

 destroyed the monopoly of power enjoyed first by the one and later by 

 the few, and conferred upon the many a voice in the control of their 

 lives and property. The pacific states of antiquity were free states 

 — Athens, Corinth, Rhodes, and Carthage. The industrial popula- 

 tions that escaped the anarchy of the middle ages were also free. 

 When war ceases to be the main business of life, there is a relaxation 

 of the bonds of despotism. They are not required to resist aggression 

 nor to promote it. By useless and vexatious regulations they inter- 

 fere with production and exchange. Moreover, a people trained to 

 the management of their private enterprises, learn to manage public 

 enterprises and demand a share in the work. The genius shown by 

 the Dutch in the art of self-government was acquired during the 

 centuries that they were left to themselves and their industries. The 

 charters granted to them by their rulers conceded nothing new; they 

 confirmed only the prescriptive rights and privileges evolved from 

 industrial needs. The free governments of Venice, Barcelona, and 

 other industrial cities of Europe, particularly those of the famous 

 Hanseatic League, had a similar origin. " The cities are the work of 

 the traders," says M. Pirenne, an eminent Belgian scholar; "they 

 exist only because of them. AVhcther of Roman or non-Roman 

 origin, seat of a bishop, monastery, or castle, free or subject to the 



