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that their nobles and gentry increase not too much; otherwise, the 

 common people will be dispirited, reduced to an abject state, and be- 

 come little better than slaves to the nobility: as we see in coppices, if 

 the staddles are left too numerous, there will never be clean under- 

 wood; but the greatest part degenerates into shrubs and bushes. So 

 in nations, where the nobility is too numerous, the commonalty will 

 be base and cowardly; and, at length, not one head in a hundred 

 among them prove fit for a helmet, especially with regard to the in- 

 fantry, which is generally the prime strength of an army. Whence, 

 though a nation be full-peopled, its force may be small. We need no 

 clearer proof of this than by comparing England and France. For 

 though England be far inferior in extent and number of inhabitants, 

 yet it has almost constantly got the better of France in war: for this 

 reason, that the rustics, and lower sort of people in England, make 

 better soldiers than the peasants of France. And in this respect it 

 was a very political and deep foresight of Henry the Seventh of Eng- 

 land, to constitute lesser settled farms, and houses of husbandry, with 

 a certain fixed and inseparable proportion of land annexed, sufficient 

 for a life of plenty: so that the proprietors themselves, or at least the 

 renters, and not hirelings, might occupy them. For thus a nation 

 may acquire that character which Virgil gives of ancient Italy: "A 

 country strong in arms, and rich of soil," 



" Terra potens armis, atque ubere glebse." Virgil.* 



We must not here pass over a sort of people, almost peculiar to Eng- 

 land, viz., the servants of our nobles and gentry; as the lowest of this 

 kind are no way inferior to the yeomanry for foot-service. And it is 

 certain that the hospitable magnificence and splendor, the attendance 

 and large train, in use among the nobility and gentry of England, add 

 much to our military strength; as, on the other hand, a close retired 

 life among the nobility causes a want of forces. 



It must be earnestly endeavored, that the tree of monarchy, like the 

 tree of Nebuchadnezzar, have its trunk sufficiently large and strong, 

 to support its branches and leaves; or that the natives be sufficient to 

 keep the foreign subjects under: whence those states best consult their 

 greatness, which are liberal of naturalization. For it were vain to 

 think a handful of men, how excellent soever in spirit and counsel, 

 should hold large and spacious countries under the yoke of empire. 

 This, indeed, might perhaps be done for a season, but it cannot be 

 lasting. The Spartans were reserved and difficult in receiving for- 

 eigners among them; and, therefore, so long as they ruled within their 

 own narrow bounds, their affairs stood firm and strong; but soon after 

 they began to widen their borders, and extend their dominion farther 

 than the Spartan race could well command the foreign crowd, their 

 power sunk of a sudden. Never did commonwealth receive new citi- 

 zens so profusely as the Roman; whence its fortune was equal to so 

 prudent a conduct: and thus the Romans acquired the most extensive 

 empire on the globe. It was their custom to give a speedy denization, 

 and in the highest degree; that is, not only a right of commerce, of 



