XXX. But the national prejudice of which we have spoken hitherto, is,
if we may so call it, an innocent vice compared to another, which by
being more common, is more pernicious. I speak of that preposterous
affection, which is not relative to a republic at large, but applies
to a particular district or territory which we call our own. I do not
deny, that by the term country, is understood not only the republic
or state of which we are members, and which may be called our common
country, but also the province, diocese, city or district, where every
one drew his first breath, and which on that account may be termed
his particular country; but it is certain, the phrase “love of our
country,” cannot be supposed to be confined or apply to our country
according to this second definition, but according to the first;
for that is the sense, in which it is recommended and enforced, by
examples, persuasions, and apophthegms, of historians, orators, and
philosophers. The country to which we should sacrifice our lives in
heroic arms, and which we ought to esteem superior to all our private
interests, and as the creditor of all our possible obsequies and
services, is that body of state, under which we are united in one
civil government, and protected by, and bound to the observance of the
same laws. Thus Spain is the proper object of the love of a Spaniard,
France of a Frenchman, and Poland of a Polander. But this should be
understood, not to relate to such people, who by migrating to, and
settling in other countries, make themselves members of other states,
in which case, the duty they owe to the country where they reside, and
are protected, ought to prevail over the affection they bear to the
country in which they were born; and on this distinction, we shall
in the sequel make an important remark. The dividing of a kingdom
into provinces or districts, which is done for the convenience of
administering justice, and conducting other business of government,
has a material influence over, and is in a great measure the cause of
dividing men’s hearts.
XXXI. The particular or limited love of one’s country, instead of
being useful to a state, is in many respects injurious and hurtful,
because it induces a division in the minds of those, who ought to
be reciprocally united for the sake of making more firm and stable,
the bond of common society; and because also this limited love of
our country, is an incentive to civil wars, and revolts against the
sovereign power; for always when a particular province or district
fancies itself aggrieved, all the individuals of it think the
redressing the grievances of their injured country, an obligation
superior to all others; and finally, this confined principle, is an
obstacle to the right administration of justice among all classes of
people, and in every judicial and ministerial department.
XXXII. This last inconvenience is so common and apparent, as to be
hidden from no man; and what is worse, no one endeavours to hide it.
This pestilence of partiality to countrymen is, to the perversion and
corruption of good regulation, introduced and cherished in the most
bare-faced manner, into those departments which are vested with the
power of distributing honourable and useful employments. What sanctuary
has been able to protect or preserve us, from the violencies of this
declared enemy of reason and equity? How many hearts, inaccessible to
the temptations of gold, insensible to the allurements of ambition,
intrepid, and proof against the threats of power, have suffered
themselves to be miserably deluded and perverted, by national passion?
Now-a-days, if a man is a candidate for an office or employment, he
always reckons upon as many protectors as he has countrymen, who have
any concern or interest in the disposal of it. His pretensions being
unreasonable, to a man swayed by national or provincial prejudice,
are no objection, because the only merit with such a one, is the
candidate’s being his countryman. We have seen men, in other respects
of unimpeachable integrity, who were much infected with this malady;
from hence I have been inclined to conclude, that this is an infernal
machine, artfully invented by the Devil, to subdue those souls, who
by all other ways are invincible; but alas, Achilles, although in one
little part only, you are vulnerable, what does it avail you, if Paris,
in shooting the arrow, has the skill and address to hit that little
part?