n despotism, that beneath
its shadow was developed the type of the modern gentleman.

CHAPTER IV.

THE REPUBLICS.

The different Physiognomies of the Italian Republics--The Similarity of
their Character as Municipalities--The Rights of Citizenship--Causes of
Disturbance in the Commonwealths--Belief in the Plasticity of
Constitutions--Example of Genoa--Savonarola's
Constitution--Machiavelli's Discourse to Leo X.--Complexity of Interests
and Factions--Example of Siena--Small Size of Italian Cities--Mutual
Mistrust and Jealousy of the Commonwealths--The notable Exception of
Venice--Constitution of Venice--Her wise System of Government--Contrast
of Florentine Vicissitudes--The Magistracies of Florence--Balia and
Parlamento--The Arts of the Medici--Comparison of Venice and Florence in
respect to Intellectual Activity and Mobility--Parallels between Greece
and Italy--Essential Differences--The Mercantile Character of Italian
Burghs--The 'Trattato del Governo della Famiglia'--The Bourgeois Tone of
Florence, and the Ideal of a Burgher--Mercenary Arms.

The despotisms of Italy present the spectacle of states founded upon
force, controlled and molded by the will of princes, whose object in
each case has been to maintain usurped power by means of mercenary arms
and to deprive the people of political activity. Thus the Italian
principalities, however they may differ in their origin, the character
of their administration, or their relation to Church and Empire, all
tend to one type. The egotism of the despot, conscious of his selfish
aims and deliberate in their execution, formed the motive principle in
all alike.

The republics on the contrary are distinguished by strongly marked
characteristics. The history of each is the history of the development
of certain specific qualities, which modified the type of municipal
organization common to them all. Their differences consist chiefly in
the varying forms which institutions of a radically similar design
assumed, and also in those peculiar local conditions which made the
Venetians Levant merchants, the Perugians captains of adventure, the
Genoese admirals and pirates, the Florentines bankers, and so forth.
Each commonwealth contracted a certain physiognomy through the prolonged
action of external circumstances and by the maintenance of some
political predilection. Thus Siena, excluded from maritime commerce by
its situation, remained, broadly speaking, faithful to the G