find that the nations of the south and the tribes of the north, Phenicians Trojans and Greeks, Gauls Goths and Vandals; and in more modern times, that Spaniards French and Austrians, have invaded, subdued, or ravaged its several provinces in their turns with various success, and with very different consequences. The Phenicians established themselves in Etruria: the Greeks principally occupied the southern provinces: the Trojans fixed themselves in Latium, the heart and centre of the country; and the Celtic tribes seized the fertile territories extending along the banks of the Po, and stretching from the Alps to the Apennines. The Phenicians and Greeks brought with them their arts and sciences, established flourishing cities, and laid the foundations of the future glory and prosperity of the country. The barbarians of the north never passed their frozen barriers without bringing devastation and ruin in their train. If they made a transient incursion, like a tempest they swept away every thing within their range of havoc; if they settled, they lay like an army of locusts, a dead weight on the soil, and ages passed over their iron generations before they were softened into civilization and humanity. To the Trojans was reserved the nobler lot of establishing the Roman power, of taming and breaking the fierce spirit of the northern savages, of carrying the arts and sciences of the southern colonists to the highest degree of perfection, of uniting the strength, the genius, the powers of Italy in one centre, and of melting down the whole into one vast mass of interest and of empire.

Previous to the establishment of the Roman sovereignty, Italy, though independent and free, was weak because divided into petty states, and incapable not only of conquest, but even of long and successful defence. During the era of Roman

The

glory, Italy united under one head and directed by one principle, displayed talents and energies which astonished and subdued the Universe, and furnished the brightest examples of virtue and courage, of wisdom and of success that emblazon the pages of history. After the fall of the empire, Italy was again divided and again weakened, frequently invaded with success, and repeatedly insulted with impunity. Venetians, it is true, rose to a high degree of pre-eminence and consideration; but they retained even in their greatness the spirit of a petty republic, and alive to their own, but indifferent to the general interest, they too often conspired against their common country, and to further their own projects, abetted the cause of its oppressors. The sovereign Pontiffs alone seem to have inherited the spirit of the Romans, and like them to have kept their eyes ever fixed on one grand object, as long as its attainment seemed possible; that object was the expulsion of the barbarians and the annihilation of all foreign influence in Italy. They have failed, though more than once on the very point of success, and their failure, as was foreseen, has at length left Italy at the disposal of one of the most insulting and wantonly mischievous nations that ever invaded its fair domains. What may be the duration, or what the consequences of the present dependent and degraded state of that country, it is difficult to conjecture; but should it terminate in the union of all its provinces under one active government seated in Rome, (and there is at least a possibility that such may be the result,) such an event would compensate all its past sufferings, and place it once more within the reach of independence, of empire, and of renown. The power which the present sovereign of Italy and of France enjoys, is peculiarly his own; and like that of Charlemagne, will probably be wrested from the grasp of his feeble successors.

Whoever then becomes master of Italy, if he should possess abilities, will find all the materials of greatness ready for his use; an Italian army, a rich territory, an immense population, and a national character bold, penetrating, calm, and persevering; with such means at his command he may defy all foreign power or influence, perhaps stand up the rival of France, and share with the British monarch, the glory of being the umpire and the defender of Europe. No country in reality is better calculated to oppose the gigantic pride of France than Italy; strong in its natural situation, big with resources, magna parens frugum, magna virum, teeming with riches and crowded with inhabitants, the natural mistress of the Mediterranean, she might blockade the ports, or pour her legions on the open coast of her adversary at pleasure, and baffle her favourite projects of southern conquest, with ease and certainty.

But the fate of Italy, and indeed of Europe, hangs still uncertain and undecided; nor is it given to human sagacity to divine the permanent consequences that will follow the grand revolutions which have, during the last fifteen years, convulsed the political system. To turn, therefore, from dubious conjectures about futurity to observations on the past; Liberty, which has seldom visited any country more than once, and many not at all, has twice smiled on Italy, and during many a happy age covered her fertile surface with republics, bold, free, and independent. Such were the Sabines, Latins, Volsci, Samnites, most of the Etrurian tribes, and all the Greek colonies, previous to the era of Roman preponderance; and such the States of Siena, Pisa, Florence, Lucca, Genoa, and Venice, that rose out of the ruins of the empire, flourished in the midst of barbarism, and transmitted the principles and the spirit of ancient

3

liberty down to modern times. Of these commonwealths, some were equal, and two were superior, in power policy and duration, to the proudest republics of Greece, not excepting Lacedemon and Athens; and like them enjoyed the envied privilege of producing poets and historians to record and to illustrate their institutions and achievements. The reader, who peruses these records, will applaud the spirit of liberty and patriotism that animated almost all the Italian republics during the periods to which I allude, and he will admire the opulence and prosperity that accompanied and rewarded that spirit, as well as the genius and the talents that seemed to wait upon it, or to start up instantaneous at its command.

While contemplating the splendid exhibition of the virtues and powers of the human mind, called into action and perfected in these latter as in those more ancient commonwealths of Greece and Rome, the candid reader will perhaps feel himself disposed to question that grand axiom of politicians, that monarchy, when lodged in the hands of a perfectly wise and good prince, is the best mode of government. If peace, security, and tranquillity, were the sole or even the principal objects of the human mind in the present state of existence, such a position might be true; and in admitting its truth, man must resign his dignity, and sacrifice the powers and the accomplishments of his nature to ease and to indolence. But the intention of Providence seems to be very different. He has bestowed upon man great intellectual powers, and endowed him with wonderful energies of soul, and his Will must be, that these powers and energies should be put forth, and developed and matured by exertion. Now, the more perfect the monarchy, the less occasion there is for the talents and exertions of subjects. The

wisdom of the prince pervades every branch of administration and extends to every corner of the empire; it remedies every disorder, and provides for every contingency: the subject has nothing to do but to enjoy, and to applaud the vigilance and foresight of his sovereign. That a state so governed is very delightful in description, and very prosperous in reality, I admit; but what are its fruits, and what the result of its prosperity? Ease, or rather indolence, pride, and luxury. No manly talents ripen, no rough hardy virtues prosper under its influence. Look at the Roman empire under Trajan and the Antonines, the most accomplished princes that have ever adorned a throne, whose era is represented by Gibbon as constituting the happiest period of human history. Peace, justice, and order, reigned, it is true, in every province, and the Capital received every day additional embellishments.

But what great men arose to distinguish and immortalize this age of happiness? of happiness? The two Plinys, Tacitus, and Suetonius. Look next at the great republic in the days of Cicero, when jarring factions and clashing interests roused every passion, and awakened every energy: when every virtue and every vice stood in array and struggled for the mastery. -See, what talents were displayed! what genius blazed! what noble characters arose on all sides! Lucretius, Sallust, Cato, Pompey, Cicero, and Cæsar, all sprang up in the midst of public fermentation, and owe their virtues, their acquirements, and their fame to the stormy vicissitudes of a popular government. Behold again the glories of the Augustan age, all a splendid reflection of the setting sun of liberty. Virgil, Horace, and Titus Livius, were nursed, educated, and formed under the Republic; they speak its lofty