Their ruling passion, and sole steady guide, was the glory of the Roman name, and the wish to spread the Roman power.

No wonder, then, if their armies and military leaders, as soon as they had destroyed all foreign enemies from whom anything was to be dreaded, turned their swords upon each other.

The ferocious cruelties of Sylla and Marius, of Catiline, and of Antony and Octavius, and the despotism of the empire, were the necessary consequences of a long course of action pursued upon such blind and selfish principles.

Therefore, admiring as I do your scheme of martial policy, and agreeing with you that a British military power may, and that the _present_ state of the world requires that it _ought_ to be, predominant in Italy, and Germany, and Spain; yet still, I am afraid that you look with too much complacency upon conquest by British arms, and upon British military influence upon the Continent, for _its own sake_.

Accordingly, you seem to regard Italy with more satisfaction than Spain.