CHAP. V.
How we ought to govern Cities and Principalities which before they were conquered were governed by their own Laws.
When the states which we have acquired, placed in the circumstances we have described, have been used to live free and to be governed by their own laws, he who has conquered has three ways of preserving them.
The first, is to destroy them.
The second, to inhabit them.
The third to grant them their laws, to draw a tribute from them, and to establish in them a small number of persons to form a government which may keep the country in peace. This new government created by the prince will be sensible that it exists only by his favour and his power, and it is therefore interested to do every thing in its power to maintain it. Besides, we can more easily preserve a city accustomed to enjoy its liberty by employing in it only a small number of its citizens than by any other means.
The Lacedemonians and the Romans furnish us
