Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/284

260 260 ITALIAN WARS. At the period before us, the principal states of Italy were, the republics of Venice and Florence, the duchy of Milan, the papal see, and the king- dom of Naples. The others may be regarded mere- ly as satellites, revolving round some one or other of these superior powers, by whom their respective movements were regulated and controlled. Venice may be considered as the most formidable of the great powers, taking into consideration her wealth, her powerful navy, her territory in the north, and princely colonial domain. There was no govern- ment in that age which attracted such general ad- miration, both from natives and foreigners ; who seem to have looked upon it as affording the very best model of political wisdom. ^ Yet there was no country where the citizen enjoyed less positive freedom ; none whose foreign relations were conducted with more absolute selfishness, and with a more narrow, bargaining spirit, savouring rather of a company of traders than of a great and power- ful state. But all this was compensated, in the eyes of her contemporaries, by the stability of her institutions, which still remained unshaken, amidst revolutions which had convulsed or overturned every other social fabric in Italy. *^ 1811 - 19,) torn. viii. pp. 32, 74,) but from the imputations they con- tained on the court of Rome. 5"Aquel Senado i Sefioria de Venecianos," says Gonzalo de Oviedo, " donde me parece a mi que esta recogido todo el saber 6 prudencia de los liombres liuma- nos ; porque es la gente del mundo quo mejor se sabe gobernar; e la republica, que mas tiempo ha du- rado en el mundo por la buena forma de su regimiento, € donde con mejor mancra han los hombres vivido en comunidad sin tener Rey ;" &c. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 44. 6 Of all the incense which poets and politicians have olTered to the Queen of the Adriatic, none is