Let not the example of Spain be produced against me, it rather
proves what I affirm. To preserve America she did what even despotic
power itself does not attempt: she destroyed the inhabitants. To
preserve her colony, she was obliged to keep it dependent even for its
subsistence.
In the Netherlands, she essayed to render herself arbitrary; and as
soon as she abandoned the attempt, her perplexity increased. On the one
hand the Walloons would not be governed by Spaniards; and on the other,
the Spanish soldiers refused to submit to Walloon officers.
[30]
In Italy she maintained her ground, merely by exhausting herself and
by enriching that country. For those who would have been pleased to have
got rid of the king of Spain were not in a humour to refuse his gold.
