10.9. 9. Of Conquests made by a Monarchy.
If a monarchy can long subsist
before it is weakened by its increase, it will become formidable; and
its strength will remain entire, while pent up by the neighbouring
monarchies.
It ought not, therefore, to aim at conquests beyond the natural
limits of its government. So soon as it has passed these limits, it is
prudence to stop.
In this kind of conquest things must be left as they were found --
the same courts of judicature, the same laws, the same customs, the same
privileges: there ought to be no other alteration than that of the army
and of the name of the sovereign.
When a monarchy has extended its limits by the conquest of
neighbouring provinces, it should treat those provinces with great
lenity.
If a monarchy has been long endeavouring at conquest, the provinces
of its ancient demesne are generally ill-used. They are obliged to
submit both to the new and to the ancient abuses; and to be depopulated
by a vast metropolis, that swallows up the whole. Now if, after having
made conquests round this demesne, the conquered people were treated
like the ancient subjects, the state would be undone; the taxes sent by
the conquered provinces to the capital would never return; the
inhabitants of the frontiers would be ruined, and consequently the
frontiers would be weaker; the people would be disaffected; and the
subsistence of the armies designed to act and remain there would become
more precarious.
Such is the necessary state of a conquering monarchy: a shocking
luxury in the capital; misery in the provinces somewhat distant; and
plenty in the most remote. It is the same with such a monarchy as with
our planet; fire at the centre, verdure on the surface, and between both
a dry, cold, and barren earth.
