e conduct of all my great designs. It was the
son of Philip who planted Greek colonies in Asia as far as the Indies;
who formed projects of trade more extensive than his empire itself; who
laid the foundations of them in the midst of his wars; who built
Alexandria, to be the centre and staple of commerce between Europe, Asia,
and Africa, who sent Nearchus to navigate the unknown Indian seas, and
intended to have gone himself from those seas to the Pillars of
Hercules--that is, to have explored the passage round Africa, the
discovery of which has since been so glorious to Vasco de Gama. It was
the son of Philip who, after subduing the Persians, governed them with
such lenity, such justice, and such wisdom, that they loved him even more
than ever they had loved their natural kings; and who, by intermarriages
and all methods that could best establish a coalition between the
conquerors and the conquered, united them into one people. But what,
sir, did you do to advance the trade of your subjects, to procure any
benefit to those you had vanquished, or to convert any enemy into a
friend?

_Charles_.--When I might easily have made myself King of Poland, and was
advised to do so by Count Piper, my favourite Minister, I generously gave
that kingdom to Stanislas, as you had given a great part of you conquests
in India to Porus, besides his own dominions, which you restored to him
entire after you had beaten his army and taken him captive.

_Alexander_.--I gave him the government of those countries under me and
as my lieutenant, which was the best method of preserving my power in
conquests where I could not leave garrisons sufficient to maintain them.
The same policy was afterwards practised by the Romans, who of all
conquerors, except me, were the greatest politicians. But neither was I
nor were they so extravagant as to conquer only for others, or dethrone
kings with no view but merely to have the pleasure of bestowing their
crowns on some of their subjects without any advantage to ourselves.
Nevertheless, I will own that my expedition to India was an exploit of
the son of Jupiter, not of the son of Philip. I had done better if I had
stayed to give more consistency to my Persian and Grecian Empires,
instead of attempting new conquests and at such a distance so soon. Yet
even this war was of use to hinder my troops from being corrupted by the
effeminacy of Asia, and to keep up that universal awe of my name which in
those c