Registerforthatyear。—M。]
[Footnote!:ThegallantstrugglesoftheCorsicansfortheirindependence，underPaoli，werebroughttoacloseintheyear1769。Thisvolumewaspublishedin1776。SeeBotta，Storiad\'Italia，vol。xiv。—M。]
[Footnote!!:Malta，itneedscarcelybesaid，isnowinthepossessionoftheEnglish。Wehavenot，however，thoughtitnecessarytonoticeeverychangeinthepoliticalstateoftheworld，sincethetimeofGibbon。—M]
Thislongenumerationofprovinces，whosebrokenfragmentshaveformedsomanypowerfulkingdoms，mightalmostinduceustoforgivethevanityorignoranceoftheancients。Dazzledwiththeextensivesway，theirresistiblestrength，andtherealoraffectedmoderationoftheemperors，theypermittedthemselvestodespise，andsometimestoforget，theoutlyingcountrieswhichhadbeenleftintheenjoymentofabarbarousindependence；andtheygraduallyusurpedthelicenseofconfoundingtheRomanmonarchywiththeglobeoftheearth。^88Butthetemper，aswellasknowledge，ofamodernhistorian，requireamoresoberandaccuratelanguage。HemayimpressajusterimageofthegreatnessofRome，byobservingthattheempirewasabovetwothousandmilesinbreadth，fromthewallofAntoninusandthenorthernlimitsofDacia，toMountAtlasandthetropicofCancer；thatitextendedinlengthmorethanthreethousandmilesfromtheWesternOceantotheEuphrates；thatitwassituatedinthefinestpartoftheTemperateZone，betweenthetwenty—fourthandfifty—sixthdegreesofnorthernlatitude；andthatitwassupposedtocontainabovesixteenhundredthousandsquaremiles，forthemostpartoffertileandwell—cultivatedland。^89
[Footnote88:Bergier，Hist。desGrandsChemins，l。iii。c。1，2，3，4，averyusefulcollection。]