[Footnote 1: Upon Roscommon's Tr. of Horace's 'Art of Poetry'.]
[Footnote 2: provoked to]
* * * * *
No. 180. Wednesday, September 26, 1711. Steele.
'... Delirant Reges, plectuntur Achivi.'
Hor.
The following Letter [1] has so much Weight and good Sense, that I
cannot forbear inserting it, tho' it relates to an hardened Sinner, whom
I have very little Hopes of reforming, _viz. Lewis_ XIV. of _France_.
_Mr_. SPECTATOR,
'Amidst the Variety of Subjects of which you have treated, I could
wish it had fallen in your way to expose the Vanity of Conquests. This
Thought would naturally lead one to the _French_ King, who has been
generally esteemed the greatest Conqueror of our Age, 'till her
Majesty's Armies had torn from him so many of his Countries, and
deprived him of the Fruit of all his former Victories. For my own
Part, if I were to draw his Picture, I should be for taking him no
lower than to the Peace of _Reswick_ [2], just at the End of his
Triumphs, and before his Reverse of Fortune: and even then I should
not forbear thinking his Ambition had been vain and unprofitable to
himself and his People.
As for himself, it is certain he can have gained nothing by his
Conquests, if they have not rendered him Master of more Subjects, more
Riches, or greater Power. What I shall be able to offer upon these
Heads, I resolve to submit to your Consideration.
To begin then with his Increase of Subjects. From the Time he came of
Age, and has been a Manager for himself, all the People he had
acquired were such only as he had reduced by his Wars, and were left
in his Possession by the Peace; he had conquered not above one third
Part of _Flanders_, and consequently no more than one third Part of
the Inhabitants of that Province.
About 100 Years ago the Houses in that Country were all Numbered, and
by a just Computation the Inhabitants of all Sorts could not then
exceed 750000 Souls. And if any Man will consider the Desolation by
almost perpetual Wars, the numerous Armies that have lived almost ever
since at Discretion upon the People, and how much of their Commerce
has removed for more Security to other Places, he will have little
Reason to imagine that their Numbers have since increased; and
therefore with one third Part of that Province that Prince can have
gained no more than one third Part of the Inhabitants, or 250000 new
Subjects, even tho' it should be supposed they were all contented to
live still in their native Country. and transfer their Allegiance to a
new Master.
The Fertility of this Province, its convenient Situation for Trade and
Commerce, its Capacity for furnishing Employment and Subsistence to
great Numbers, and the vast Armies that have been maintained here,
make it credible that the remaining two Thirds of _Flanders_ are equal
to all his other Conquests; and consequently by all he cannot have
gained more than 750000 new Subjects, Men, Women and Children,
especially if a Deduction shall be made of such as have retired from
the Conqueror to live under their old Masters.
It is Time now to set his Loss against his Profit, and to shew for the
new Subjects he had acquired, how many old ones he had lost in the
Acquisition: I think that in his Wars he has seldom brought less into
the Field in all Places than 200000 fighting Men, besides what have
been left in Garrisons; and I think the common Computation is, that of
an Army, at the latter End of a Campaign, without Sieges or Battle,
scarce Four Fifths can be mustered of those that came into the Field
at the Beginning of the Year. His Wars at several Times till the last
Peace have held about 20 Years; and if 40000 yearly lost, or a fifth
Part of his Armies, are to be multiplied by 20, he cannot have lost
less than 800000 of his old Subjects, all able-body'd Men; a greater
Number than the new Subjects he had acquired.
But this Loss is not all: Providence seems to have equally divided the
whole Mass of Mankind into different Sexes, that every Woman may have
her Husband, and that both may equally contribute to the Continuance
of the Species. It follows then, that for all the Men that have been
lost, as many Women must have lived single, and it were but Charity to
believe they have not done all the Service they were capable of doing
in their Generation. In so long a Course of Years great part of them
must have died, and all the rest must go off at last without leaving
any Representatives behind. By this Account he must have lost not only
800000 Subjects, but double that Number, and all the Increase that was
reasonably to be expected from it.
It is said in the last War there was a Famine in his Kingdom, which
swept away two Millions of his People. This is hardly credible: If the
loss was only of one fifth Part of that Sum, it was very great. But
'tis no wonder there should be Famine, where so much of the People's
Substance is taken away for the King's Use, that they have not
sufficient left to provide against Accidents: where so many of the Men
are taken from the Plough to serve the King in his Wars, and a great
part of the Tillage is left to the weaker Hands of so many Women and
Children. Whatever was the Loss, it must undoubtedly be placed to the
Account of his Ambition.
And so must also the Destruction or Banishment of 3 or 400000 of his
reformed Subjects; he could have no other Reasons for valuing those
Lives so very cheap, but only to recommend himself to the Bigotry of
the _Spanish_ Nation.
How should there be Industry in a Country where all Property is
precarious? What Subject will sow his Land that his Prince may reap
the whole Harvest? Parsimony and Frugality must be Strangers to such a
People; for will any Man save to-day what he has Reason to fear will
be taken from him to-morrow? And where is the Encouragement for
marrying? Will any Man think of raising Children, without any
Assurance of Cloathing for their Backs, or so much as Food for their
Bellies? And thus by his fatal Ambition he must have lessened the
Number of his Subjects not only by Slaughter and Destruction, but by
preventing their very Births, he has done as much as was possible
towards destroying Posterity itself.
Is this then the great, the invincible _Lewis?_ This the immortal Man,
the _tout-puissant_, or the Almighty, as his Flatterers have called
him? Is this the Man that is so celebrated for his Conquests? For
every Subject he has acquired, has he not lost three that were his
Inheritance? Are not his Troops fewer, and those neither so well fed,
or cloathed, or paid, as they were formerly, tho' he has now so much
greater Cause to exert himself? And what can be the Reason of all
this, but that his Revenue is a great deal less, his Subjects are
either poorer, or not so many to be plundered by constant Taxes for
his Use?
It is well for him he had found out a Way to steal a Kingdom; if he
had gone on conquering as he did before, his Ruin had been long since
finished. This brings to my Mind a saying of King _Pyrrhus_, after he
had a second time beat the _Romans_ in a pitched Battle, and was
complimented by his Generals; _Yes_, says he, _such another Victory
and I am quite undone_. And since I have mentioned _Pyrrhus_, I will
end with a very good, though known Story of this ambitious mad Man.
When he had shewn the utmost Fondness for his Expedition against the
_Romans, Cyneas_ his chief Minister asked him what he proposed to
himself by this War? Why, says _Pyrrhus_, to conquer the _Romans_, and
reduce all _Italy_ to my Obedience. What then? says _Cyneas_. To pass
over into _Sicily_, says _Pyrrhus_, and then all the _Sicilians_ must
be our Subjects. And what does your Majesty intend next? Why truly,
says the King, to conquer _Carthage_, and make myself Master of all
_Africa_. And what, Sir, says the Minister is to be the End of all
your Expeditions? Why then, says the King, for the rest of our Lives
we'll sit down to good Wine. How, Sir, replied Cyneas, to better than
we have now before us? Have we not already as much as we can drink?
[3]
Riot and Excess are not the becoming Characters of Princes: but if
Pyrrhus and Lewis had debauched like Vitellius, they had been less
hurtful to their People.'
Your humble Servant,