Note 99 — BOOK XVIII.
William Robson translation
It does not become us, as translators, to enter into controversy with our original, otherwise, much might be said in reply to this truly conservative paragraph. But, as readers of history, we think we may be permitted to observe, that the advantages pointed out in the first lines of it do not appear in the history of Venice. She was never so great or so prosperous as when purely mercantile. When territory was acquired, and nobility arose, corruption and decay soon followed.—Trans.