and obeyed in lands lying far beyond the farthest limits
reached by the Roman eagles, and to be more truly the mistress of the
world than under Augustus, Trajan, or the Antonines. Nothing can stand
before the Christian and Romanized nations, and all pagandom and
Mohammedom combined are too weak to resist their onward march.

All modern European revolutions result only in reviving the Roman
Empire, whatever the motives, interests, passions, or theories that
initiate them. The French Revolution of the last century and that of
the present prove it. France, let people say what they will, stands at
the head of the European civilized world, and displays en grand all its
good and all its bad tendencies. When she moves, Europe moves; when she
has a vertigo, all European nations are dizzy; when she recovers her
health, her equilibrium, and good sense, others become sedate, steady,
and reasonable. She is the head, nay, rather, the heart of
Christendom--the head is at Rome--through which circulates the pure and
impure blood of the nations. It is in vain Great Britain, Germany, or
Russia disputes with her the hegemony of European civilization. They
are forced to yield to her at last, to be content to revolve around her
as the centre of the political system that masters them. The reason
is, France is more completely and sincerely Roman than any other
nation. The revolutions that have shaken the world have resulted in
eliminating the barbaric elements she had retained, and clearing away
all obstacles to the complete triumph of Imperial Rome. Napoleon III.
is for France what Augustus was for Rome. The revolutions in Spain and
Italy have only swept away the relics of the barbaric constitution, and
aided the revival of Roman imperialism. In no country do the
revolutionists succeed in establishing their own theories; Caesar
remains master of the field. Even in the United States, a revolution
undertaken in favor of the barbaric system has resulted in the
destruction of what remained of that system--in sweeping away the last
relics of disintegrating feudalism, and in the complete establishment
of the Graeco-Roman system, with important improvements, in the New
World.

The Roman system is republican, in the broad sense of the term, because
under it power is never an estate, never the private for the public
good. As it existed under the Caesars, and is revived in modern times,
whether under the imperial or the democratic form,