Gibbon on Liberty

Gerald Vouga commented last month on the resounding “No” from both French and Dutch voters to the proposed EU constitution (“Imperial Dreams and Political Realities”). Individual citizens in each country will have had various motives for this rejection, and doubtless some were more creditable than others.

Overall, however, the vote indicated the deep suspicion ordinary Europeans have for any further surrender of national sovereignty to a bunch of morally challenged bureaucrats in Brussels. It showed that most people in France and Holland feel their liberties can only be impaired. In light of this, it is interesting to read what one of our greatest historians had to say about the importance of national independence for keeping tyranny at bay.

The division of Europe into a number of independent states, connected, however, with each other, by the general resemblance of religion, language, and manners, is productive of the most beneficial consequences to the liberty of mankind.

A modern tyrant, who should find no resistance either in his own breast or in his people, would soon experience a gentle restraint from the example of his equals, the dread of present censure, the advice of his allies, and the apprehension of his enemies.

The object of his displeasure, escaping from the narrow limits of his dominions, would easily obtain, in a happier climate, a secure refuge, a new fortune adequate to his merit, the freedom of complaint, and perhaps the means of revenge.

But the empire of the Romans filled the world, and, when that empire fell into the hands of a single person, the world became a safe and dreary prison for his enemies… To resist was fatal, and it was impossible to fly.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776, Chapter 3

September 2005