Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1851-08-23

Astounding in all that bespoke high prosperity and
cultivation, before Roman Power had yet passed
the limits Of Italy, remains footstool to the Turk
Neither Egypt Northern Africa, nor Western
Asia, all once parts of the Roman Empire, have to
the present time recovered even moderate
share of ancient grandeur. Not confounding the
moral or intellectual condition of Italy with even
that of Greece, much less with that of Northern
Africa or Western Asia, ,ohere, at this day, let rs
ask, is heard the name of ITALY in the strife OF
emulation of Nations! Can she be heard in the
decision of her own fate? Once mistress Of i'm
mense regions Of Europe, Asia, and Africa, her
eagles scared entirely round and the Mediter-
ranean Sea; but now, do her children command
even the soil they cultivate! No; and why do they
not! Because, since the breaking up of the Ro-
man Empire-the dissolution of that Union which
bound together its various parts-they have become
no longer Italians Lombards, Huns, Sicilians, Sar-
dinians, Genoese, Tuscans, Neapolitans, Romans,
&c. Their masters are beyond the Alps. ITALY
is hardly generic term.
But, turning from the wreck of fallen greatness,
let us contemplate the effect of Union in great
People.
From the death Of julius Caesar, forty years
before the Christian Era, and for more than three
hundred years after that era, ROME the capital
of an Empire, comprising, in Europe, all Italy, all
the Gauls, Spain, Greece, Illyricum, Dacea, and
Panonia, with part of Britain and Germany in
.Asia, Asia Minor, Paphlagona, Syria, Judea with
parts of Mesopotamia and Medea; and, in africa,
Egypt, Lydia, Numidia, and Mauritania with
what no other nation had ever possessed before)
all the islands of the Mediterranean and the con-
Meeting smaller seas.
When Roman power thus stretched over such
vast extent, including the then known civilized
world, what was "Trans-Alpine Gaul,'' now
FRANCE! Roman Province; and it remained
such, until, by the gradual decline and final extinc-
ton of that Power, its former constituent parts be-
came elements in new Constitutions.
What is now FRANCE extends over rather more
surface than was included in Trans-Alpine Gaul.
1t would be foreign to purpose to trace the par
ticulars of its conquest and possession by the Ro-
mans, until the invasion and settlement of it by the
German people, known to history under the name
of Franks; from whom it derived its name Of
France, or country of the Franks; under which
name that people has existed as nation fourteen
hundred and thirty years.
The recapitulation of the events of her history,
which would show how FRANCE, among the Gov
ernments of Europe, has survived many ages of
revolution, and stands in the first order of Ma
tons, would be process too tedious both for our
time and for the patience of our readers. Suffice it
to say, that, through ages of internal conflict and
revolution, and after suffering and finally repel-
ling invasions by the Mahomedans from the
South and of the Normans from the North, the
last Carlovingean King (LoUIs ". having died, he
was succeeded by HUGH CAPET, whose posterity
reigned over France to the tragic death of Louis
XVI. on the 18th of January, 1893, through
period of eight hundred years; fact in itself
strong proof Of some enduring principle in the cha
racter of French society," though constantly, in all
that time, in more or less declared state of dis
turhance.
In the early ages of the Capetan Kings, the
rivalry between France and England produced the
most important events, which, together with the
mania Of the Crusades, gave peculiar character
to that long period of the history of both nations
1t was one of alternate dislocaton and restoration
The English conquests and possessions in Northern
France "a fertile source of and rivalry retarded
improvement in every branch of human policy.
To these dstracting causes were added the rival
res pretensions and turbulence Of the great Barons
and still more powerful and ambitious Ducal princes.
| OF the latter, the one who most deeply influenced
his own and after ages was CHARLES, Duke of Bur-
gundy. destined to act part which ended in his
own ruin; but which brought into action new ele-
ments, which are yet active in modern policy.
FRANCE was imperceptbly urged forward to act a
most salutary and enduring part, the real moving
power though not then seen to be by the actors.
The effects were beyond the men of that age, and
have not perhaps in recent time received their
due allowance in the philosophy of history.
It will sound strangely, but it is true, that FRANCE
has both directly and indirectly sustained every one
of the three most influential Republics Of modern
ages Switzerland, Dutch Netherlands, and the
Anglo Saxon United States of North America. II
can be shown, distinctly as any other general
historical facts, that the Helvetan and North Ame-
rican Republics would not have been sustained in
the last century had France remained Neutral, and
much less, had that Nation taken ground against
their existence instead of for it. In thus acting, we
know II NAV he said that France acted from