Page:Studies in constitutional law Fr-En-US (1891).pdf/181

Rh the preponderance of landed property, which by its nature is limited in amount, and subject to a natural monopoly. In all societies the development of science, a domain open to all gifted men, equalizes the differences based upon the preponderating influence of experience and tradition, the inheritance of certain corporations and certain families. In all societies, thanks to the improved means of communication and the activity of commerce, distant regions are brought nearer, their inhabitants mingle together, and tend to lose the feeling of a separate life and destiny. Everywhere we see a daily diminution of the differences between localities, persons, ideas, and interests. In fact everything which serves as framework or support to special or partial groups, intermediate between the State and the individual, has received a shock, and has been undermined or destroyed. It is certain then that sooner or later all nations will go through the conditions out of which, in 1789, the French political system arose. By the slow action of these causes, we see that in England, as well as in America, democratic equality and national homogeneity are growing side by side, and are bringing about the day, which is still distant, but inevitable, when these two countries will possess a simple political constitution founded on law, on the express will of the numerical majority. Law will then be founded on logic alone, and logic, left mistress of the field by the gradual retreat of tradition and custom, will express its will and find its satisfaction in systematic ideas. Logic will in consequence be forced to rely on its own resources alone, and from these, combined with a more