No province was free from a most onerous public debt; and that debt was far from operating like the same engagement contracted in modern states, by which, as the creditor is thrown into the power of the debtor, they often add considerably to their strength, and to the number and attachment of their dependants.

The prince in this latter case borrows from a subject or from a stranger.

The one becomes more the subject, and the other less a stranger.

But in the Roman provinces the subject borrowed from his master, and he thereby doubled his slavery.

The overgrown favorites and wealthy nobility of Rome advanced money to the provincials; and they were in a condition both to prescribe the terms of the loan and to enforce the payment.