parable. We see how closely they were connected in
ancient Rome. It is fit that its imitators should know at what rate they
pay (and in what coin) for those exemptions from taxes, occasioned by
the burthens imposed upon other nations.

In general we find, that all nations are inclined to push to the extreme
those means by which they have attained wealth or power; and it will
also be found that their ruin is thereby brought on with greater
rapidity.

---
{37} The reader must see the allusion is to England and France; but, in
point of time, their situation is absolutely different. France is
farther advanced in luxury than England. Rome was far behind Carthage.
The Romans exceeded their rivals in perseverance; in following up their
plans, and in attention to their liberty. The contrary is the case with
France and England.

The French, indeed, resemble the Romans in restlessness and
ambition; but not in their mode of exerting the former, or of gratifying
the latter: the resemblance, therefore, is a very faint one, even where it
does hold at all. The English, in whatever they may resemble the
Carthaginians, such as they have been represented, neither do it in
their want of faith and honour, nor in their progress towards decline.
The different wars with Rome, in which Carthage came off a loser and
became tributary, though only for a limited time, were not the only
causes of its decline. The trade of Alexandria, which was better
situated for commerce, had diminished the resources of Carthage; so
that it was, in every sense of the word, a falling nation. It will be seen,
in the subsequent part of this inquiry, how, from the different modes
of making war and also the different effects of wealth in the present
times, the comparison is still less founded.
-=-

[end of page #38]

Had the Romans stopped the career of conquest at an earlier period,
they probably would not have so soon sunk into a state of corruption.
It is very probable, that if Caesar had never attempted the useless
conquest of Britain, he never would have succeeded in conquering the
liberties of his own country. The reputation of having conquered an
island, and the passage of the British Channel, made way for the
passage of the Rubicon, and the battle of Pharsalia.

Conquerors must be paid as well as common soldiers: and though
every man may have his price, and money and dignities may be a
sufficient reward for the most part, there are some who despise any