are accused of shamefully abandoning their privileges and their wealth to the grand duke, who, parfimonious, in the exteme, as to his own perfon and government, is thought folicitous of feconding, by his heavy purfe, the wild projects of his brother the emperor Jofeph, the little republic of St. Marino, on the contrary, has been increafing its populousness,confirming its ftrength, and extending the bafis of its government. For thefe advantages it is indebted to its mountainous fituation, virtuous manners, and total want of ambition; which laft-mentioned qualities, as ancient hiftory teaches us, are far from being characteristic of republican government; though a republic that is without them can neither fubfift happily itself, nor allow happiness to its neighbours. In the republics of Italy (St. Mafino alone excepted), the people, at large, are excluded, by the circumfiance of their birth, from any principal fhare in the fovereignty. Inftead of one royal mafter, they are fubjects, of co petty princes; and their condition is far lefs eligible than that of the fubjects of monarchies; because the latter cannot be collectiveIv degraded by the rank of a monarch, which, excluding comparifon, is fuperior to envy; and are individoally entitled to afpire, by their talents and merits, to the exercite of every magiftracy, and to the enjoy ment of every preferment and every honour which their king and country can beflow. The republic of St. Marino, on the other hand, like feveral commonwealths of antiquity, and like fome leffer cantons of Switzerland, for the greater are univerfally moulded after the rigid Italian model, contains, what is found by experience to be, a due mixture of popular government among fo fimple a people, and in fo fmall a ftate. The council of fixty is equally compofed of nobili and cittadini, patricians and ple beians. This council, which may be called the fenate, conducts the ordinary branches of public admi niftration; but the arengo, or af fembly of the people, containing a reprefentative from every houfe or family, is fummoned for the purpose of elections and on other important emergencies: it has always ap proved the decifions of the fenate. In chufing fenators and magiftrates, the refpect of the citizens for hereditary worth cominonly raifes the fon to the dignity before held by his father. Indeed moft profellions and employments defcend in lineal fucceflion among this fimple people; a circumftance which explains a very extraordinary fact, mentioned by Mr. Additon, that in two pur chafes, made refpectively in the years 1100 and 1170, the names of the commithioners or agents, on the part of the republic, thould be the fame in both tranfaction; though the deeds were executed at the to substantiate), yet this local depreffion would be compenfated and overbalanced by the diftinguithed micrit of the popes, in the prefervation, advancement, and diffusion, of learning, civility, and elegant arts; to which Rome, in barbarous ages, offered the only, or the fafeft, afylum; and of which the ftill exhibits the most inestimable models. In the shop of an eminent book£ller and publisher, of an ancient and celebrated republic of Italy, I was explaining to a young patrician the nature of an English circulating hbrary. Why don't you, faid he, turning to the bookfeller, introduce fuch an inftitution? the other replied, fino tripto princip➡we have too many princes. 'difiance distance of feventy years from each other. Notwithstanding the natural and proper influence of wealth, and birth, and merit, the liberties and properties of individuals are incomparably more fafe in St. Marino than they can ever poffibly be under the capricious tyranny of a levelling democracy; and the people, at large, have the firmeft fecurity, that their fuperiors will not abuse their juft pre-eminence, fince all the plebeians of full age are trained to arms, and commanded by a fort of military tribune of their own choofing, whole employment is inferior in dignity to that of the capitaneos, or confuls, yet altogether diftinct from the jurifdiction of thofe patrician magiftrates. This important military officer is overlooked by Mr. Addison, who has alfo omitted to mention the treasurer of the republic. The bufinefs of the latter confifts in collecting and adminiftering the public contributions, and in paying the Pipendiati, or penfionaries, whofe falaries, as may be imagined, are extremely moderate; that of the commiffareo, or chief judge, amounting only to fixty pounds a year. His income is confiderably augmented by the fportule, or fees; paid by the litigant parties; fo that his whole appointments fall little thort of one hundred pounds per annum; a fum, which, in this primitive commonwealth, is found fufficient to fpport the dignity of a chief juf the account of a war, in which the commonwealth affifted pope Pius II. againft Malatefta, prince of Rimini; in the records of the purchase of two castles, with their dependent diftricts, in the years 1100 and 1170; and in the well-authenticated narrative of the foundation of the ftate above fourteen hundred years ago by St. Marino, a Dalmatian architect, who, having finifhed, with much honour, the repairs of Rimini, retired to this folitary mountain, practised the aufterities of a hermit, wrought miracles, and, with the affiftance of a few admirers, built a church, and founded a city, which his reputation for fanctity fpeedily reared, extended, and filled with inhabitants. In the principal church, which, as well as that of the Francifans, contains fome good pictures, the ftatue of this faint and law-giver is erected near the high altar. He holds a mountain in his hand, and is crowned with three caftles; emblems which, from what has been above faid, appear fitly chofen for the arms of the republic. Mr. Addifon obferves, that the origin of St. Marino must be acknowledged to be far nobler than that of Rome, which was an afylum for robbers and murderers, whereas St. Marino was the refort of perfons eminent for their piety and devotion. This obfervation appears to me to be erroneous in two refpects, decorating with unfair- honours the one republic, and heaping unmerited difgrace on the other. If piety founded St. Marino, with this piety much fuperftition was intermixed; a fuperftition unfriendly to the best principles of fociety, and hoftile to the favourite ends of nature; preaching celibacy, and exacting mortiĢi cation, cation, the hideous offspring of ignorance and terror, detefting men as criminals, and trembling at God as a tyrant. But Rome, according to the only hiftorian who has circumftantially and authentically defcribed its early tranfactions, was an expanfion of Alba Longa, itfelf a Grecian colony, which, according to the immemorial and facred cuftom of its mother-country, diffused into new settlements the exuberance of a flourishing population, produced by the wifeft and moft liberal inftitutions. According to the fame admirable historian, the manly difcernment of Romulus offered an afylum not merely for robbers and murderers, but for those who were threatened with murder or robbery, who fpurned fubjection, or fled from oppreffion; for, amidst the lawlets turbulence of ancient Italy, the weak needed protectors against the ftrong, the few againft the many; and Rome, at her earliest age, already fyftematically affifted the weakest party; thus adopting, in her infancy, that politic heroifm that was deftined, by firm and majestic fteps, to conduct her manhood and maturity to the fair fovereignty of confenting nations. Both in their origin and in their progrefs, Rome and St. Marino form the natural objects, not, indeed, of a comparison, but, of a striking contraft; and comprefled as is the latter republic between the dominions of the pope and thole of the grand duke, to whofe fubjects St. Marino is bound to allow a free paffage through its territory, its citizens would deferve ridicule or pity, did they affect the character, or imitate the maxims, of thofe mag nanimous fenators, who, for the face of more than two centuries, fwayed the politics and controuled the revolutions of the world. Convinced that their independence refults from their infignificancy, the fenators of St. Marino failed, when we read in Mr. Addifon, Thefe republicans would fell their liberties dear to any that attacked them." We had not the indelicacy to defire them to interpret this fmile; or to make, ourfelves, any comment upon it, being perfuaded, that, precarious and fhadowy as their liberty is, their rational knowledge and their virtues have enabled them to extract from it both fubftantial and permanent enjoyment, and make them live happier here, amidft rocks and fnows, than are their Tufcan and Roman neighbours in rich plains and warm vallies. To the inhabitants of this little. ftate, the arengo, the council, the different offices of magiftracy, innocent rural labours, and military exercifes, equally ufeful and inno cent, fupply a continual fucceffion of manly engagements. Hopes and fears refpecting the fafety of their country awaken curiofity and excite inquiry. They read the ga zettes of Europe with intereft; they ftudy hiftory with improvement; in converfation, their queftions are pertinent and their anfwers fatisfactory, Contrary to what has been obferved by travellers of other Italians, the citizens of St. Marino delight in literary conversation; and Mr. Addifon remarks, that he hardly met with an unlettered man in their re public. In fpeaking of Beccaria'sbook on ftyle, then recently pub lifhed, one of the fenators faid, that Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus. it was a treatife on ftyle, in a very bad ftyle, abounding in falle ornaments and epigrammatic gallicifm. Another obferved, he wifhed that fashionable writer, who had been commented on by Voltaire, an author still more fashionable and pernicious than himself, would confine himfelf to fuch harmlefs topics as rhetoric and ftyle; for his hook on Crimes and Punishments was calculated to do much ferious mifchief, at leaft to prevent much pofitive good; becaufe in that popular work he had declaimed very perfuafively against capital punish ments, in a country long difgraced by capital crimes, which were fcarcely ever capitally punished. The love of letters which diftinguishes the people of St. Marino makes them regret that they are feldom vifited by literary travellers. Of ourown countrymen, belonging to this defeription, they mentioned with much refpect Mr. Addifon and Il Signor Giovanni Symonds, now, profeffor of history in the univerfity of Cambridge. We were proud of being claffed with fuch men by the honeft fimplicity of thefe virtuous mountaineers, whom we left with regret, moft heartily withing to them the continuance of their liberties; which, to men of their character, and theirs only, are real and folid bleffings. Account of the celebrated Confpiracy of the Pazzi at Florence; from Rofcoe's Life of Lorcuzo de' Me dici. A Tranfaction, in which a pope, a cardinal, an archbishop, and feveral other ecclefiaftics, affociated themselves with a band of rufSans, to destroy two men who were an honour to their age and country; and purpofed to perpetrate their crime at a feafon of hofpitality, in the fanctuary of a Chriftian church, and at the very moment of the elevation of the hoft, when the audience bowed down before it, and the aflaffins were prefumed to be in the immediate prefence of their God. At the head of this confpiracy were Sixtus IV. and his nephew Girolamo Riario. Raffaelle Riario, the nephew of this Girolamo, who, although a young man then purfuing his ftudies, had lately been raised to the dignity of cardinal, was rather an inftrument than an accomplice in the fcheme. The enmity of Sixtus to Lorenzo had for fome time been apparent, and if not occafioned by the affiftance which Lorenzo had afforded to Nicolo Vitelli, and other independent nobles, whofe dominions Sixtus had either threatened or attacked, was certainly increased by it. The deftruction of the Medici appeared therefore to Sixtus as the removal of an obftacle that thwarted all his views; and by the accomplishment of which the fmall furrounding ftates would become an easy prey. There is, however, great reafon to believe that the pope did not confine his ambition to thefe fubordinate governments, but that, if the confpiracy had fucceeded to his with, he meant to have grafped at the dominion of Florence itfelf. The alliance lately formed between the Florentines, the Venetians, and the duke of Milan, which was principally effected by Lorenzo de' Medici, and by which the pope found himfelf prevented from difturbing the peace of Italy, was an additional and powerful motive of refentment. One of the firft proofs of the difpleafure of the pope was his depriving Lorenzo Lorenzo of the office of treasurer of the papal fee, which he gave to the Pazzi, a Florentine family, who as well as the Medici had a public bank at Rome, and who afterwards became the coadjutors of Sixtus in the execution of his trea,herous purpose. This family was one of the nobleft and moft refpectable in Florence; numerous in its members, and poffelled of great wealth and influence. Of three brothers, two of whom had filled the office of gonfaloniere, only one was then living.-- This confpiracy, of which Sixtus and his nephew were the real inftigators, was firft agitated at Rome, where the intercourfe between the count Girolamo Riario and Francefco de' Pazzi, in confequence of the office held by the latter, afforded them an opportunity of communicating to each other their mutual jealoufy of the power of the Medici, and their defire of depriving them of their influence in Florence; in which event, it is highly probable, the Pazzi were to have exerciled the chief authority in the city, under the patronage if not under the atowed dominion of the papal fee. The principal agent engaged in the undertaking was Francelco Salviati, archbishop of Pifa, to which rank he had lately been promoted by Sixtus, in oppofition to the withes of the Medici, who had for fome time endeavoured to prevent him from exerciting his epifcopal functions. If it be allowed that the unfavourable character given of him by Politian is exaggerated, it is generally agreed tat his qualistes were the reverfe thole which ought to have been the recommendations to fuch high preferment. The other confpira tors were Giacopo Salviati, brother of the archbishop, Giacopo Poggio, one of the fons of the celebrated Poggio Bracciolini, and who, like all the other fons of that eminent fcholar, had obtained no small share of literary reputation; Bernardo Bandini, a daring libertine, rendered defperate by the confequences of his excefles; Giovan Battifta Monteficco, who had diftinguished himfelf by his military talents as one of the Condotteiri of the armies of the pope; Antonio Maffei, a prieft of Volterra; and Stefano da Bagnone, one of the apoftolic fcribes; with feveral others of inferior note. In the arrangement of their plan, which appears to have been concerted with great precaution and fecrecy, the confpirators foon di covered that the dangers which they had to encounter were not lo likely to arife from the difficulty of the attempt, as from the fubfequent refentment of the Florentines, a great majority of whom were ftrongly attached to the Medici. Hence it became neceflary to provide a military force, the affiftance of which might be equally requifite, whether the enterprize proved abortive or fuccessful. By the influence of the pope, the king of Naples, who was then in alliance with him, and on one of whofe fons he had recently beftowed a cardinal's hat, was alfo induced to countenance the attempt. Thefe preliminaries being adjufted, Girolamo wrote to his nephew cardinal Riario, then at Pifa, ordering him to obey whatever directions he might receive from the archbishop. A body of two thoufand men were defined approach by different routes to to wards |