oppressed
nation in shaking off the yoke of tyranny. They indeed help their
friends, not only in defensive, but also in offensive wars; but they
never do that unless they had been consulted before the breach was made,
and being satisfied with the grounds on which they went, they had found
that all demands of reparation were rejected, so that a war was
unavoidable. This they think to be not only just, when one neighbour
makes an inroad on another, by public order, and carry away the spoils;
but when the merchants of one country are oppressed in another, either
under pretence of some unjust laws, or by the perverse wresting of good
ones. This they count a juster cause of war than the other, because
those injuries are done under some colour of laws. This was the only
ground of that war in which they engaged with the Nephelogetes against
the Aleopolitanes, a little before our time; for the merchants of the
former having, as they thought, met with great injustice among the
latter, which, whether it was in itself right or wrong, drew on a
terrible war, in which many of their neighbours were engaged; and their
keenness in carrying it on being supported by their strength in
maintaining it, it not only shook some very flourishing states, and very
much afflicted others, but after a series of much mischief ended in the
entire conquest and slavery of the Aleopolitanes, who though before the
war they were in all respects much superior to the Nephelogetes, were
yet subdued; but though the Utopians had assisted them in the war, yet
they pretended to no share of the spoil.

But though they so vigorously assist their friends in obtaining
reparation for the injuries they have received in affairs of this
nature, yet if any such frauds was committed against themselves,
provided no violence was done to their persons, they would only on their
being refused satisfaction forbear trading with such a people. This is
not because they consider their neighbours more than their own citizens;
but since their neighbours trade every one upon his own stock, fraud is
a more sensible injury to them than it is to the Utopians, among whom
the public in such a case only suffers. As they expect nothing in return
for the merchandises they export but that in which they so much abound,
and is of little use to them, the loss does not much affect them; they
think therefore it would be too severe to revenge a loss attended with
so little inconvenience either to th