See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1825-1828.
NATIONALISTS, OR HOME RULERS, Irish.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1885-1886.
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NATIONALITY, The Principle of.
"Among the French a nationality is regarded as the work of
history, ratified by the will of man. The elements composing
it may be very different in their origin. The point of
departure is of little importance; the only essential thing is
the point reached. The Swiss nationality is the most complete.
It embraces three families of people, each of which speaks its
own language. Moreover, since the Swiss territory belongs to
three geographical regions, separated by high mountains,
Switzerland, which has vanquished the fatality of nature, from
both the ethnographical and geographical point of view, is a
unique and wonderful phenomenon. But she is a confederation,
and for a long time has been a neutral country. Thus her
constitution has not been subjected to the great ordeal of
fire and sword. France, despite her diverse races—Celtic,
German, Roman, and Basque—has formed a political entity that
most resembles a moral person. The Bretons and Alsacians, who
do not all understand the language of her government, have not
been the least devoted of her children in the hour of
tribulation. Among the great nations France is the nation par
excellence. Elsewhere the nationality blends, or tends to
blend, with the race, a natural development and, hence, one
devoid of merit. All the countries that have not been able to
unite their races into a nation, have a more or less troubled
existence. Prussia has not been able to nationalize (that is
the proper word to use) her Polish subjects; hence she has a
Polish question, not to mention at present any other. England
has an Irish question. Both Turkey and Austria have a number
of such questions. Groups of people in various parts of the
Austrian Empire demand from the Emperor that they may be
allowed to live as Germans, Hungarians, Tsechs, Croatians, in
fact, even as Italians. They do not revolt against him; on the
contrary, each of them offers him a crown. The time is,
however, past when a single head can wear several crowns;
to-day every crown is heavy. These race claims are not merely
a cause of internal troubles; the agitations that they arouse
may lead to great wars. Evidently no state will ever interpose
between Ireland and England, but, while quarrels take place
between Germans and Slavs, there will intervene the two
conflicting forces of Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism,
formidable results and final consequences of ethnographical
patriotism. Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism are, indeed, not
forces officially acknowledged and organized. The Emperor of
Germany can honestly deny that he is a Pan-Germanist, and the
Tsar that he is a Pan-Slavist. Germans and Slavs of Austria,
and Slavs of the Balkans, may, for their part, desire to
remain Austrian or independent, as they are to-day. It is none
the less true, however, that there is in Europe an old quarrel
between two great races, that each of them is represented by a
powerful empire, and that these empires cannot forever remain
unconcerned about the quarrels of the two races. … The chief
application of the principle of nationality has been the
formation of the Italian and German nations. In former times
the existence, in the centre of the Continent, of two objects
of greed was a permanent cause of war. Will the substitution
of two important states for German anarchy and Italian
polyarchy prove a guaranty of future peace?"
_E. Lavisse,
General View of the Political History of Europe,
chapter 5, sections 6-7._
NATIONALRATH, The.
See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1848-1890.