ta d'ottenere i magistrate; e in somma che sono
_participes imperandi et parendi_.' No Italian had any notion of
representative government in our sense of the term. The problem was
always how to put the administration of the state most conveniently
into the hands of the fittest among those who were qualified as
burghers, and how to give each burgher his due share in the government;
not how to select men delegated from the whole population. The wisest
among their philosophical politicians sought to establish a mixed
constitution, which should combine the advantages of principality,
aristocracy, and democracy. Starting with the fact that the eligible
burghers numbered some 5,000, and with the assumption that among these
the larger portion would be content with freedom and a voice in the
administration, while a certain body were ambitious of honorable
distinctions, and a few aspired to the pomp of titular presidency, they
thought that these several desires might be satisfied and reconciled in
a republic composed of a general assembly of the citizens, a select
Senate, and a Doge. In these theories the influence of Aristotelian
studies[4] and the example of Venice are apparent. At the same time it
is noticeable that no account whatever is taken of the remaining 95,000
who contributed their wealth and industry to the prosperity of the
city.[5] The theory of the State rests upon no abstract principle like
that of the divine right of the Empire, which determined Dante's
speculation in the Middle Ages, or that of the divine right of kings,
with which we Englishmen were made familiar in the seventeenth century,
or that again of the rights of men, on which the democracies of France
and America were founded. The right contemplated by the Italian
politicians is that of the burghers to rule the commonwealth for their
advantage. As a matter of fact, Venice was the only Italian republic
which maintained this kind of oligarchy with success through centuries
of internal tranquillity. The rest were exposed to a series of
revolutions which ended at last in their enslavement.

[1] Villari, _Life of Savonarola_, vol. i. p. 259, may be consulted
concerning the further distinction of Benefiziati, Statuali,
Aggravezzati, at Florence. See also Varchi, vol. i. pp. 165-70.
Consult Appendix ii.

[2] It must be mentioned that a provision for admitting deserving
individuals to citizenship formed part of the Florentine
Co