*04| 
are accused of shamefully abandon- 
ing their privileges and their wealth 
to the grand duke, who, parsimo- 
nious, in the extreme, as to his own 
person and government, is thought 
solicitous of seconding, by his heavy 
purse, the wild projects of his bro- 
ther. the emperor Joseph, the little 
republic of St. Marino, on the 
contrary, has been increasing its* 
populousness, confirming its strength, 
and extending the basis of its go- 
vernment. For these advantages it 
is indebted to its. mountainous  si- 
_ tuation, virtuous manners, and total 
want of ambition; which last-men- 
tioned qualities, as ancient history 
teaches us, are far from being cha- 
racteristic of republican govern- 
ment ; though a republic that is 
without them can neitker subsist 
happily itself, nor allow happiness 
to its neighbours. 
In the republics of Italy (St. Ma- 
tino alone excepted) the people, at 
large, are excluded, by the circum- 
Stance of their birth, from any princi- 
pal share in the sovereignty, Instead 
of one royal master, they are subjects 
of 600 * petty princes; and their 
condition is far less eligible than that 
of the subjects of monarchies ; be- 
cause the luttercannot be collective- 
ly degraded by the rank of a mo- 
narceby which excluding comparison, 
1S Superior to envy ; and are indivi- 
dually entitled to aspire, by their 
talents and merits, to the exercise of 
every magistracy, and to the enjoys 
ment of every preferment and every 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1795. 
honour which their king and couns 
try can bestow. The republi¢é of 
St. Marino, on the other-hand, like 
several commonweaiths of antiquity, 
and like some lesser cantons of 
Switzerland, for the greater are 
universally moulded after the rigid 
Italian model, contains, what is 
fuund by experience to be, a due 
mixture of popular government 
among 30 simple a people, and in 
so small a statee The council of 
sixty is equally composed of mobilé 
and cittadini, patricians and ple- 
beians. This council, which may 
be called the senate, conduets the 
ordinary branches of public admi- 
nistration ; but the arengo, or as- 
sembly of the people, containing a 
representative from every house or 
family, is summoned for the purpose 
of elections and on other important 
emergencies: it has always ap- 
proved the decisions of the senate. 
In chusing senators and magistrates, 
the respect of the citizens for here- 
ditary worth commonly raises the 
son to the dignity before held by 
his father. Indeed most professions 
and employments descend in lineal 
succession among this simple people : 
a circumstance which explains a 
very extraordinary fact, mentioned 
by Mr. Addison, that in two pur- 
chases, made respectively in the 
years 1100 and -1170, the names 
of the commissioners or agents, on 
the part of the republic, should be 
the same in both transactions; though 
the deeds were executed at the 
a 
which would require a very complex and elaborate investigation to substantiate), 
yet this local depression would be compensated and overbalanced by the distingnish- 
ec merit of the popes, in the preservation, advancement, and diffusion, of learning, 
civility, and elegant airs ; to which Rome, in barbarous ages offered the only, er the 
safest, asylum ; and of which she still exhibits the most inestimable models, 
* In the shop of an eminent bookseller and publisher, of an ancient and cele- 
brated republic of Italy, I was explaining to a young patrician the natureof an En- 
glish circulating library. Why don't you, said he, turning to the bookseller, intro- 
duce such an institution? the ether replied, seno troppe principi —we have too many 
princes. 
distance 
