It was not a land nor a crisis in which there was peril of centralization: Local municipal government was in truth the only force left.

There was no possibility of its being merged in a central authority which did not exist.

The country was without a centre.

There was small chance of apoplexy where there was no head.

The danger lay in the mutual repulsiveness of these atoms of sovereignty--in the centrifugal tendencies which were fast resolving a nebulous commonwealth into chaos.