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| Benjamin Franklin +760 
the present, have produced any independency in 
Spain that could be supported. The same may be 
observed of France. 
And let it not be said that the neighbourhood of 
these to the seat of government has prevented a 
separation. While our strength at sea continues, the 
banks of the Ohio, in point of easy and expeditious 
conveyance of troops, are nearer to London than 
the remote parts of France and Spain to their respec- 
tive capitals, and much nearer than Connaught and 
Ulster were in the days of Queen Elizabeth. Nobody 
foretells the dissolution of the Russian monarchy 
from its extent; yet I will venture to say the eastern 
parts of it are already much more inaccessible from 
Petersburg than the country on the Mississippi 1S 
from London,—I mean, more men, in less time, 
might be conveyed to the latter than the former dis- 
tance. The rivers Oby, Jenessa, and Lena do not 
facilitate the communication half so well by their 
course, nor are they half so practicable as the Ameri- 
can rivers. To this I shall only add the observation 
of Machiavel, in his Prince: that a government sel- 
dom long preserves its dominion over those who are 
foreigners to it; who, on the other hand, fall with 
great ease, and continue inseparably annexed to the 
government of their own nation; which he proves by 
the fate of the English conquests in France. Yet 
with all these disadvantages, so difficult is it to over- 
turn an established government, that it was not 
without the assistance of France and England that 
the United Provinces supported themselves; which 
teaches us that—