The History of Freedom, and Other EssaysActon, John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron
Philosophy
The History of Freedom, and Other Essays
Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron
History; History -- Philosophy; Liberty -- History
The first liberal movement, that of the Carbonari in the south of
Europe, had no specific national character, but was supported by the
Bonapartists both in Spain and Italy. In the following years the
opposite ideas of 1813 came to the front, and a revolutionary movement,
in many respects hostile to the principles of revolution, began in
defence of liberty, religion, and nationality. All these causes were
united in the Irish agitation, and in the Greek, Belgian, and Polish
revolutions. Those sentiments which had been insulted by Napoleon, and
had risen against him, rose against the governments of the restoration.
They had been oppressed by the sword, and then by the treaties. The
national principle added force, but not justice, to this movement,
which, in every case but Poland, was successful. A period followed in
which it degenerated into a purely national idea, as the agitation for
repeal succeeded emancipation, and Panslavism and Panhellenism arose
under the auspices of the Eastern Church. This was the third phase of
the resistance to the settlement of Vienna, which was weak, because it
failed to satisfy national or constitutional aspirations, either of
which would have been a safeguard against the other, by a moral if not
by a popular justification. At first, in 1813, the people rose against
their conquerors, in defence of their legitimate rulers. They refused to
be governed by usurpers. In the period between 1825 and 1831, they
resolved that they would not be misgoverned by strangers. The French
administration was often better than that which it displaced, but there
were prior claimants for the authority exercised by the French, and at
first the national contest was a contest for legitimacy. In the second
period this element was wanting. No dispossessed princes led the Greeks,
the Belgians, or the Poles. The Turks, the Dutch, and the Russians were
attacked, not as usurpers, but as oppressors,--because they misgoverned,
not because they were of a different race. Then began a time when the
text simply was, that nations would not be governed by foreigners. Power
legitimately obtained, and exercised with moderation, was declared
invalid. National rights, like religion, had borne part in the previous
combinations, and had been auxiliaries in the struggles for freedom, but
now nationality became a paramount claim, which was to assert itself
alone, which might put forward as pretexts the rights of rulers, the
liberties of the people, the safety of religion, but which, if no such
union could be formed, was to prevail at the expense of every other
cause for which nations make sacrifices.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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