The North American Review, Vol. 127

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Excerpt from The North American Review, Vol. 127: July-August, 1878IN different times and countries, patriotism has different work to do. For the last two or three centuries its business has usually been the bridling of tyrants, the dethroning Of arbitrary kings and the setting up of constitutional ones, or the getting rid of kings altogether, in short, the extension of popular liberties at the ex pense of the wearers of crowns and bearers Of sceptres. Going farther back, we see another state of things. Toward the end of the middle ages we find the relations of kings and peoples the re verse of what they afterward became. We find oppression divided and diffused in the persons of a multitude of feudal tyrants, and the masses looking to their sovereign as a protector. The feudal oppressor was both his enemy and theirs, and the progress of monarchical centralization was in the interest both of prince and peasant. It was not until feudalism was prostrate that the masses ceased to bless their sovereign as a friend, and began to curse him as a tyrant.Still farther back in the centuries we find feudalism itself acting a part which could not have been spared in the reorganiza tion of society. The foe of one generation is the friend of another, and there is scarcely a form of government so bad that it has not.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.