Page:Mun - England's treasure by forraign trade.djvu/130

 end, when the work had been brought to any good perfection, the possession and power would no doubt have come to the Lords, the States General, even as we know they have lately gotten divers places of great Strength and Wealth in the East Indies, in the names and with the purse of their Merchants, whereby also their actions herein have been obscur'd & made less notorious unto the world, untill they had obtain'd their ends, which are of such consequence, that it doth much concern this Nation in particular, carefully to observe their proceedings, for they notoriously follow the steps of that valiant and politick Captain, Philip of Macedon, whose Maxim was, That where force could not prevail, he alwayes used bribes, and money to corrupt those who might advance his fortune; by which policy he gave foundation to a Monarchy; & what know we but that the Dutch may aim at some such Soveraignty, when they shall find their Indian attempts and other subtil plots succeed so prosperously? Do we not see their Lands are now become too little to contain this swelling people, whereby their Ships and Seas are made the Habitations of great multitudes? and yet, to give them further breed, are they not spared from their own wars to enrich the State and themselves by Trade and Arts? whilest by this policy many thousands of strangers are also drawn thither for performance of their martial employments, whereby the great revenue of their Excises is so much the more encreased, and all things so subtilly contrived, that although the