England: a treaty of peace is to be set on foot, and if their alliance
is not to be depended on, yet it is to be made as firm as possible; and
they are to be called friends, but suspected as enemies: therefore the
Scots are to be kept in readiness, to be let loose upon England on every
occasion: and some banished nobleman is to be supported underhand (for
by the league it cannot be done avowedly) who has a pretension to the
crown, by which means that suspected prince may be kept in awe. Now when
things are in so great a fermentation, and so many gallant men are
joining councils, how to carry on the war, if so mean a man as I should
stand up, and wish them to change all their councils, to let Italy
alone, and stay at home, since the kingdom of France was indeed greater
than could be well governed by one man; that therefore he ought not to
think of adding others to it: and if after this, I should propose to
them the resolutions of the Achorians, a people that lie on the
south-east of Utopia, who long ago engaged in war, in order to add to
the dominions of their prince another kingdom, to which he had some
pretensions by an ancient alliance. This they conquered, but found that
the trouble of keeping it was equal to that by which it was gained; that
the conquered people were always either in rebellion or exposed to
foreign invasions, while they were obliged to be incessantly at war,
either for or against them, and consequently could never disband their
army; that in the meantime they were oppressed with taxes, their money
went out of the kingdom, their blood was spilt for the glory of their
king, without procuring the least advantage to the people, who received
not the smallest benefit from it even in time of peace; and that their
manners being corrupted by a long war, robbery and murders everywhere
abounded, and their laws fell into contempt; while their king,
distracted with the care of two kingdoms, was the less able to apply his
mind to the interests of either. When they saw this, and that there
would be no end to these evils, they by joint councils made an humble