St. Clair and Wayne 357 



history of England merely taught her what to avoid. 

 The English colonies were subject to the British 

 Crown, and therefore to Great Britain. The new 

 American States, themselves colonies in the old 

 Greek sense, were subject only to a government 

 which they helped administer on equal terms with 

 the old States. No State was subject to another, 

 new or old. All paid a common allegiance to a 

 central power which was identical with none. 



The absolute novelty of this feature, as the world 

 then stood, fails to impress us now because we are 

 so used to it. But it was at that time without prec 

 edent; and though since then the idea has made 

 rapid progress, there seems in most cases to have 

 been very great difficulty in applying it in practice. 

 The Spanish-American States proved wholly unable 

 to apply it at all. In Australia and South Africa 

 all that can be said is that events now apparently 

 show a trend in the direction of adopting this sys 

 tem. At present all these British colonies, as re 

 gards one another, are independent but disunited; 

 as regards the mother country, they remain united 

 with her, but in the condition of dependencies. 



The vital feature of the ordinance was the prohi 

 bition of slavery. This prohibition was not retro 

 active; the slaves of the French villagers, and of 

 the few American slaveholders who had already 

 settled round them, were not disturbed in their con 

 dition. But all further importation of slaves, and 

 the holding in slavery of any not already slaves, 

 were prohibited. The prohibition was brought 



