These effects are the increased importance--I may now say the
increased independence--of the local units; of these local units
themselves as distinguished from the heads who rule over them.
The change had made these units more organic parts of the state than
they had ever been before: we have seen them first made prominent by
being the seats of the rulers of the _civitas_, and now we are to see
them gain a more significant advance by coming into relation with the
head of the state directly, instead of through the personal power of
their lord. For the local ruler has yielded his individual
pre-eminence to the central government; and when this fails to
maintain its authority, in any community whose inhabitants are capable
of fostering the seeds of independence once sown, it is difficult if
not impossible for a successor to repossess himself of the privileges
which have been forfeited. In any state where the seat of central
authority is distant or its power only exercised feebly and at
intervals, the local units secure much greater independence and
importance, through the very necessity of performing many functions
left unheeded by the ruler of all; and if the people are self-reliant
in character, they will in time develop a sort of self-government
which, although it would not at first think of questioning the
theoretical right and overlordship of the central power, will
eventually brook but little interference with its modes of procedure
and with its exercise of functions, which the lapse of time has
transformed from enforced duties into jealously guarded privileges.
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