nto being by laws of natural selection within the limits of a
single province. Every municipality has a separate nomenclature for its
magistracies, a somewhat different method of distributing administrative
functions. In one place there is a Doge appointed for life; in another
the government is put into commission among officers elected for a
period of months. Here we find a Patrician, a Senator, a Tribune; there
Consuls, Rectors, Priors, Ancients, Buonuomini, Conservatori. At one
period and in one city the Podesta seems paramount; across the border a
Captain of the People or a Gonfaloniere di Giustizia is supreme. Vicars
of the Empire, Exarchs, Catapans, Rectors for the Church, Legates,
Commissaries, succeed each other with dazzling rapidity. Councils are
multiplied and called by names that have their origin and meaning buried
in the dust of archaeology. Consigli del Popolo, Credenza, Consiglio del
Comune, Senato, Gran Consiglio, Pratiche, Parlamenti, Monti, Consiglio
de' Savi, Arti, Parte Guelfa, Consigli di Dieci, di Tre, I Nove, Gli
Otto, I Cento--such are a few of the titles chosen at random from the
constitutional records of different localities.

Not one is insignificant. Not one but indicates some moment of
importance in the social evolution of the state. Not one but speaks of
civil strife, whereby the burgh in question struggled into individuality
and defined itself against its neighbor. Like fossils, in geological
strata, these names survive long after their old uses have been
forgotten, to guide the explorer in his reconstruction of a buried past.
While one town appears to respect the feudal lordship of great families,
another pronounces nobility to be a crime, and forces on its citizens
the reality or the pretense of labor. Some recognize the supremacy of
ecclesiastics. Others, like Venice, resist the least encroachment of the
Church, and stand aloof from Roman Christianity in jealous isolation.
The interests of one class are maritime, of another military, of a third
industrial, of a fourth financial, of a fifth educational. Amalfi, Pisa,
Genoa, and Venice depend for power upon their fleets and colonies; the
little cities of Romagna and the March supply the Captains of adventure
with recruits; Florence and Lucca live by manufacture; Milan by banking;
Bologna, Padua, Vicenza, owe their wealth to students attracted by their
universities. Foreign alliances or geographical affinities connect one
center with the E