pe as to counterbalance those: and, indeed, (except so
far as military skill is accidental,) it is to be found principally in
nations who have a sufficient degree of wealth to exercise it and call it
into action.

We shall see that the first revolutions in the world were effected by
the natural strength, energy, and bravery of poor nations triumphing
over those that were less hardy, in consequence of the enjoyment of
wealth, until the time of the Romans; who, like other nations, first
triumphed by means of superior energy and bravery; and, afterwards
by making war a trade, continued, by having regular standing armies,
to conquer the nations who had only temporary levies, or militias, to
fight in their defence.

The triumph of poor nations, over others in many respects their
superiors, continued during the middle ages, but the wealth acquired
by certain nations then was not wrested from them by war, but by an
accidental and unforeseen change in the channel through which it

---
{21} An idea has gone abroad, since the successes of the French
armies, that money is not necessary to war, even in the present times.
It will be shewn, in its proper place, that the French armies were
maintained at very great expense, and that a poor country could not
have done what France did.
-=-

flowed. At the same time that this change took place, without the
intervention of force, the art of war changed in favour of wealthy
nations, but the changes took place by slow degrees, and the power of
nations now may almost be estimated by their disposable incomes.

This change, however, has by no means secured the prosperity of
wealthy nations; it has only prevented poor ones, unable by means of
fair competition to do by conquest what they could not effect by
perseverance in arts and industry; for, in other respects, though it
makes the prosperity of a nation more dependant =sic= on wealth, and
more independent of violence; it prevents any nation from preserving
its political importance after it loses its riches. It does not by any
means interrupt that progress by which poor nations gradually rise up
and rival richer ones in arts. It has not done away the advantages that
arise from superior industry and attention to business, or from the
gradual introduction of knowledge amongst the more ignorant,
thereby lessening their inferiority, and tending to bring nations to a
level; on the contrary, by increasing the advantages, and securing the
gra