ference of a stranger as powerful as himself; for it will happen that they may be invited by the discontented, or urged by ambition or fear. Thus the Etolians invited the Romans into Greece; and in every province that they entered they were always invited by the inhabitants of the country. The reason is obvious: whenever a powerful stranger enters a country, all those who in that very country feel themselves inferior in force join the new comer from a motive of envy, which animates them against all those who were more powerful than they. As to those little states, the stranger will not be put to any the least trouble or expence concerning them in order to influence them in his favour: they forminstantly of themselves a part of his force; he has only to take care that they do not acquire any accession of strength among themselves, and he will easily with his own troops and their succours, weaken and humiliate the more powerful, and consequently be able to retain quiet possession of the country. He who does not know how to put those measures in practice will soon lose all that he has acquired, ąnd must, while he keeps it, experience an infinity of troubles, difficulties, and embarrassments.
The Romans, in the provinces which they conquered, carefully practised this system; they sent thither colonies, they supported the lesser powers without increasing their strength; they diminished
