not suffer any
of their citizens either to be, or to live as gentlemen; but on the
contrary, while preserving a strict equality among themselves, are
bitterly hostile to all those gentlemen and lords who dwell in their
neighbourhood; so that if by chance any of these fall into their hands,
they put them to death, as the chief promoters of corruption and the
origin of all disorders.

But to make plain what I mean when I speak of _gentlemen_, I say that
those are so to be styled who live in opulence and idleness on the
revenues of their estates, without concerning themselves with the
cultivation of these estates, or incurring any other fatigue for their
support. Such persons are very mischievous in every republic or country.
But even more mischievous are they who, besides the estates I have
spoken of, are lords of strongholds and castles, and have vassals and
retainers who render them obedience. Of these two classes of men the
kingdom of Naples, the country round Rome, Romagna, and Lombardy are
full; and hence it happens that in these provinces no commonwealth or
free form of government has ever existed; because men of this sort are
the sworn foes to all free institutions.

And since to plant a commonwealth in provinces which are in this
condition were impossible, if these are to be reformed at all, it can
only be by some one man who is able there to establish a kingdom; the
reason being that when the body of the people is grown so corrupted that
the laws are powerless to control it, there must in addition to the laws
be introduced a stronger force, to wit, the regal, which by its
absolute and unrestricted authority may curb the excessive ambition and
corruption of the great. This opinion may be supported by the example of
Tuscany, in which within a narrow compass of territory there have long
existed the three republics of Florence, Lucca, and Siena, while the
other cities of that province, although to a certain extent dependent,
still show by their spirit and by their institutions that they preserve,
or at any rate desire to preserve, their freedom: and this because
there are in Tuscany no lords possessed of strongholds, and few or
no gentlemen, but so complete an equality prevails, that a prudent
statesman, well acquainted with the history of the free States of
antiquity, might easily introduce free institutions. Such, however, has
been the unhappiness of this our country, that, up to the present hour,
it has never p