Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/155

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Civil Liberty, &c.
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Establishment of an Aristocracy. In This Instance, too, I speak not of the Probability, but the Expediency of the Measure.

3. The Limitation of extended Conquest and Empire might seem an Object worthy the Attention of the highest Powers.—Rome perished by its Avidity of unbounded Empire. Colonies, when peopled beyond a certain Degree, become a Burthen to the Mother Country: They exhaust her Numbers; they distract her Attention; they divide her compacted Strength. Such Extent of Colonies, as may be necessary to maintain the Empire of the Seas, will always be a just Object of British Regard. More than this, sound Policy perhaps could hardly dictate.

4. This Limitation is of more Importance, as it would naturally set Bounds to another Excess: I mean, That of Trade and Wealth. This, the Writer knows, is of all other Topics the most unpopular: Notwithstanding which, he presumes to persist in what appears to Him a demon-