A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA.
The elements and definitions in most of the arts and sciences are understood alike, by men of education, in all the nations of Europe; but in the science of legislation, which is not one of the least importance to be understood, there is a confusion of languages, as if men were but lately come from Babel.
Scarcely any two writers, much less nations, agree in using words in the same sense.
Such a latitude, it is true, allows a scope for politicians to speculate, like merchants with false weights, artificial credit, or base money, and to deceive the people, by making the same word adored by one party, and execrated by another.
The union of the people, in any principle, rule, or system, is thus rendered impossible; because superstition, prejudice, habit, and passions, are so differently attached to words, that you can scarcely make any nation understand itself.
The words monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, king, prince, lords, commons, nobles, patricians, plebeians, if carefully attended to, will be found to be used in different senses, perpetually, by different nations, by different writers in the same nation, and even by the same writers in different pages.
The word king, for example.
Ask a Frenchman, What is a king?
His answer will be, A man with a crown and sceptre, throne and footstool, anointed at Rheims, who has the making, executing, and interpreting of all laws.
Ask an Englishman.
His idea will comprehend the throne, footstool, crown, sceptre, and anointing, with one third of the legislative power and the whole of the executive, with an estate in his office to him and his heirs.
Ask a Pole; and he tells you, It is a magistrate chosen for life, with scarcely any power at all.
Ask an inhabitant of Liege; and he tells you, It is a bishop, and his office is only for life.
The word prince is another remarkable instance.
In Venice, it means the senate, and sometimes, by courtesy, the doge, whom some of the Italian writers call a mere testa di legno.
In France, the eldest sons of dukes are princes, as well as the descendants of the blood royal; in Germany, even the rhingraves are princes; and in Russia, several families, not descended from nor allied to royal blood, anciently obtained, by grant of the sovereign, the title of prince, descendible to all their posterity; the consequence of which has been, that the number of princes in that country is at this day prodigious; and the philosopher of Geneva, in imitation of the Venetians, professedly calls the executive power, wherever lodged, the Prince.
How is it possible that whole nations should be made to comprehend the principles and rules of government, until they shall learn to understand one another’s meaning by words?
But of all the words in all languages, perhaps there has been none so much abused in this way as the words republic, commonwealth, and popular state.
In the Rerum Publicarum Collectio, of which there are fifty and odd volumes, and many of them very incorrect, France, Spain, and Portugal, the four great empires, the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman, and even the Ottoman, are all denominated republics.
If, indeed, a republic signifies nothing but public affairs, it is equally applicable to all nations; and every kind of government, despotisms, monarchies, aristocracies, democracies, and every possible or imaginable composition of them are all republics.
There is, no doubt, a public good and evil, a commonwealth and a common impoverishment in all of them.
Others define a republic to be a government of more than one.
This will exclude only the despotisms; for a monarchy administered by laws, requires at least magistrates to register them, and consequently more than one person in the government.
Some comprehend under the term only aristocracies and democracies, and mixtures of these, without any distinct executive power.
Others, again, more rationally, define a republic to signify only a government, in which all men, rich and poor, magistrates and subjects, officers and people, masters and servants, the first citizen and the last, are equally subject to the laws.
This, indeed, appears to be the true and only true definition of a republic.
The word res, every one knows, signified in the Roman language wealth, riches, property; the word publicus, quasi populicus, and per syncope pôplicus, signified public, common, belonging to the people; res publica, therefore, was publica res, the wealth, riches, or property of the people.
Res populi, and the original meaning of the word republic could be no other than a government in which the property of the people predominated and governed; and it had more relation to property than liberty.
It signified a government, in which the property of the public, or people, and of every one of them, was secured and protected by law.
This idea, indeed, implies liberty; because property cannot be secure unless the man be at liberty to acquire, use, or part with it, at his discretion, and unless he have his personal liberty of life and limb, motion and rest, for that purpose.
It implies, moreover, that the property and liberty of all men, not merely of a majority, should be safe; for the people, or public, comprehends more than a majority, it comprehends all and every individual; and the property of every citizen is a part of the public property, as each citizen is a part of the public, people, or community.
The property, therefore, of every man has a share in government, and is more powerful than any citizen, or party of citizens; it is governed only by the law.
There is, however, a peculiar sense in which the words republic, commonwealth, popular state, are used by English and French writers; who mean by them a democracy, or rather a representative democracy; a “government in one centre, and that centre the nation;” that is to say, that centre a single assembly, chosen at stated periods by the people, and invested with the whole sovereignty; the whole legislative, executive, and judicial power, to be exercised in a body, or by committees, as they shall think proper.
This is the sense in which it was used by Marchamont Nedham, and in this sense it has been constantly used from his time to ours, even by writers of the most mathematical precision, the most classical purity, and extensive learning.
What other authority there may be for this use of those words is not known; none has been found, except in the following observations of Portenari, in which there are several other inaccuracies; but they are here inserted, chiefly because they employ the words republic, commonwealth, and popular state, in the same sense with the English and French writers.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
JOHN ADAMS - DEFENSE OF U.S. CONSTITUTION
Re: JOHN ADAMS - DEFENSE OF U.S. CONSTITUTION
A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
“We may say with the philosopher, that six things are so necessary to a city, that without them it cannot stand."
1. The first is provisions, without which its inhabitants cannot live.
2. The second is clothes, habitations, houses, and other things, which depend upon the arts, without which civil and political life cannot subsist.
3. The third is arms, which are necessary to defend the city from its enemies, and to repress the boldness of those who rebel against the laws.
4. The fourth is money, most necessary to a city in peace and in war.
5. The fifth is the care of divine worship.
6. The sixth is the administration of justice, and the government of the people.
For the first are necessary, cultivators of the land; for the second, artificers; for the third, soldiers; for the fourth, merchants and capitalists; for the fifth, priests; for the sixth, judges and magistrates.
Seven sorts of men, therefore, are necessary to a city: husbandmen, artificers, soldiers, merchants, rich men, priests, and judges.
“But, according to the same philosopher, as in the body natural not all those things, without which it is never found, are parts of it, but only instruments subservient to some uses, as in animals, the horns, the nails, the hair, so not all those seven sorts of men are parts of the city; but some of them, namely, the husbandmen, the artificers, and the merchants, are only instruments useful to civil life, as is thus demonstrated."
"A city is constituted for felicity, as to its ultimate end; and human felicity, here below, is reposed, according to the same philosopher, in the operations of virtue, and chiefly in the exertions of wisdom and prudence; those men, therefore, are not parts of a city, the operations of whom are not directed to those virtues; such are the husbandmen who are occupied, not in wisdom and prudence, but in laboring the earth; such are the artisans, who fatigue themselves night and day to gain a livelihood for themselves and their poor families; such, finally, are the merchants, who watch and labor continually, not in wisdom and prudence, but in the acquisition of gold."
"It is therefore clear, that neither husbandmen, artificers, nor merchants, are parts of a city, nor ought to be numbered among the citizens, but only as instruments which subserve certain uses and conveniences of the city.”
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
“We may say with the philosopher, that six things are so necessary to a city, that without them it cannot stand."
1. The first is provisions, without which its inhabitants cannot live.
2. The second is clothes, habitations, houses, and other things, which depend upon the arts, without which civil and political life cannot subsist.
3. The third is arms, which are necessary to defend the city from its enemies, and to repress the boldness of those who rebel against the laws.
4. The fourth is money, most necessary to a city in peace and in war.
5. The fifth is the care of divine worship.
6. The sixth is the administration of justice, and the government of the people.
For the first are necessary, cultivators of the land; for the second, artificers; for the third, soldiers; for the fourth, merchants and capitalists; for the fifth, priests; for the sixth, judges and magistrates.
Seven sorts of men, therefore, are necessary to a city: husbandmen, artificers, soldiers, merchants, rich men, priests, and judges.
“But, according to the same philosopher, as in the body natural not all those things, without which it is never found, are parts of it, but only instruments subservient to some uses, as in animals, the horns, the nails, the hair, so not all those seven sorts of men are parts of the city; but some of them, namely, the husbandmen, the artificers, and the merchants, are only instruments useful to civil life, as is thus demonstrated."
"A city is constituted for felicity, as to its ultimate end; and human felicity, here below, is reposed, according to the same philosopher, in the operations of virtue, and chiefly in the exertions of wisdom and prudence; those men, therefore, are not parts of a city, the operations of whom are not directed to those virtues; such are the husbandmen who are occupied, not in wisdom and prudence, but in laboring the earth; such are the artisans, who fatigue themselves night and day to gain a livelihood for themselves and their poor families; such, finally, are the merchants, who watch and labor continually, not in wisdom and prudence, but in the acquisition of gold."
"It is therefore clear, that neither husbandmen, artificers, nor merchants, are parts of a city, nor ought to be numbered among the citizens, but only as instruments which subserve certain uses and conveniences of the city.”
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: JOHN ADAMS - DEFENSE OF U.S. CONSTITUTION
A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
We must pause here and admire!
The foregoing are not only the grave sentiments of Portenari and of Aristotle, but form the doctrine almost of the whole earth, and of all mankind; not only every despotism, empire, and monarchy, in Asia, Africa, and Europe, but every aristocratical republic, has adopted it
in all its latitude.
There are only two or three of the smallest cantons in Switzerland, besides England, who allow husbandmen, artificers, and merchants, to be citizens, or to have any voice or share in the government of the state, or in the choice or appointment of any who have.
There is no doctrine, and no fact, which goes so far as this towards forfeiting to the human species the character of rational creatures.
Is it not amazing, that nations should have thus tamely surrendered themselves, like so many flocks of sheep, into the hands of shepherds, whose great solicitude to devour the lambs, the wool, and the flesh, scarcely leave them time to provide water or pasture for the animals, or even shelter against the weather and the wolves?
It is, indeed, impossible that the several descriptions of men, last enumerated, should, in a great nation and extensive territory, ever assemble in a body to act in concert; and the ancient method of taking the sense of an assembly of citizens in the capital, as in Rome for example, for the sense of all the citizens of a whole republic, or a large empire, was very imperfect, and extremely exposed to corruption; but, since the invention of representative assemblies, much of that objection is removed, though even that was no sufficient reason for excluding farmers, merchants, and artificers, from the rights of citizens.
At present a husbandman, merchant, or artificer, provided he has any small property, by which he may be supposed to have a judgment and will of his own, instead of depending for his daily bread on some patron or master, is a sufficient judge of the qualifications of a person to represent him in the legislature.
A representative assembly, fairly constituted, and made an integral part of the sovereignty, has power forever to control the rich and illustrious in another assembly, and a court and king, where there is a king.
This, too, is the only instrument by which the body of the people can act; the only way in which their opinions can be known and collected; the only means by which their wills can be united, and their strength exerted, according to any principle or continued system.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
We must pause here and admire!
The foregoing are not only the grave sentiments of Portenari and of Aristotle, but form the doctrine almost of the whole earth, and of all mankind; not only every despotism, empire, and monarchy, in Asia, Africa, and Europe, but every aristocratical republic, has adopted it
in all its latitude.
There are only two or three of the smallest cantons in Switzerland, besides England, who allow husbandmen, artificers, and merchants, to be citizens, or to have any voice or share in the government of the state, or in the choice or appointment of any who have.
There is no doctrine, and no fact, which goes so far as this towards forfeiting to the human species the character of rational creatures.
Is it not amazing, that nations should have thus tamely surrendered themselves, like so many flocks of sheep, into the hands of shepherds, whose great solicitude to devour the lambs, the wool, and the flesh, scarcely leave them time to provide water or pasture for the animals, or even shelter against the weather and the wolves?
It is, indeed, impossible that the several descriptions of men, last enumerated, should, in a great nation and extensive territory, ever assemble in a body to act in concert; and the ancient method of taking the sense of an assembly of citizens in the capital, as in Rome for example, for the sense of all the citizens of a whole republic, or a large empire, was very imperfect, and extremely exposed to corruption; but, since the invention of representative assemblies, much of that objection is removed, though even that was no sufficient reason for excluding farmers, merchants, and artificers, from the rights of citizens.
At present a husbandman, merchant, or artificer, provided he has any small property, by which he may be supposed to have a judgment and will of his own, instead of depending for his daily bread on some patron or master, is a sufficient judge of the qualifications of a person to represent him in the legislature.
A representative assembly, fairly constituted, and made an integral part of the sovereignty, has power forever to control the rich and illustrious in another assembly, and a court and king, where there is a king.
This, too, is the only instrument by which the body of the people can act; the only way in which their opinions can be known and collected; the only means by which their wills can be united, and their strength exerted, according to any principle or continued system.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: JOHN ADAMS - DEFENSE OF U.S. CONSTITUTION
A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
It is sometimes said, that mobs are a good mode of expressing the sense, the resentments, and feelings of the people.
Whig mobs to be sure are meant!
But if the principle is once admitted, liberty and the rights of mankind will infallibly be betrayed; for it is giving liberty to tories and courtiers to excite mobs as well as to patriots; and all history and experience shows, that mobs are more easily excited by courtiers and princes, than by more virtuous men, and more honest friends of liberty.
It is oftn said, too, that farmers, merchants, and mechanics, are too inattentive to public affairs, and too patient under oppression.
This is undoubtedly true, and will forever be so; and, what is worse, the most sober, industrious, and peaceable of them, will forever be the least attentive, and the least disposed to exert themselves in hazardous and disagreeable efforts of resistance.
The only practicable method, therefore, of giving to farmers, &c. the equal right of citizens, and their proper weight and influence in society, is by elections, frequently repeated, of a house of commons, an assembly which shall be an essential part of the sovereignty.
The meanest understanding is equal to the duty of saying who is the man in his neighborhood whom he most esteems, and loves best, for his knowledge, integrity, and benevolence.
The understandings, however, of husbandmen, merchants, and mechanics, are not always the meanest; there arise, in the course of human life, many among them of the most splendid geniuses, the most active and benevolent dispositions, and most undaunted bravery.
The moral equality that nature has unalterably established among men, gives these an undoubted right to have every road opened to them for advancement in life and in power that is open to any others.
These are the characters which will be discovered in popular elections, and brought forward upon the stage, where they may exert all their faculties, and enjoy all the honors, offices, and commands, both in peace and war, of which they are capable.
The dogma of Aristotle, and the practice of the world, is the most unphilosophical, the most inhuman and cruel that can be conceived.
Until this wicked position, which is worse than the slavery of the ancient republics, or modern West Indies, shall be held up to the derision and contempt, the execration and horror, of mankind, it will be to little purpose to talk or write about liberty.
This doctrine of Aristotle is the more extraordinary, as it seems to be inconsistent with his great and common principles, “that a happy life must arise from a course of virtue; that virtue consists in a medium; and that the middle life is the happiest."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
It is sometimes said, that mobs are a good mode of expressing the sense, the resentments, and feelings of the people.
Whig mobs to be sure are meant!
But if the principle is once admitted, liberty and the rights of mankind will infallibly be betrayed; for it is giving liberty to tories and courtiers to excite mobs as well as to patriots; and all history and experience shows, that mobs are more easily excited by courtiers and princes, than by more virtuous men, and more honest friends of liberty.
It is oftn said, too, that farmers, merchants, and mechanics, are too inattentive to public affairs, and too patient under oppression.
This is undoubtedly true, and will forever be so; and, what is worse, the most sober, industrious, and peaceable of them, will forever be the least attentive, and the least disposed to exert themselves in hazardous and disagreeable efforts of resistance.
The only practicable method, therefore, of giving to farmers, &c. the equal right of citizens, and their proper weight and influence in society, is by elections, frequently repeated, of a house of commons, an assembly which shall be an essential part of the sovereignty.
The meanest understanding is equal to the duty of saying who is the man in his neighborhood whom he most esteems, and loves best, for his knowledge, integrity, and benevolence.
The understandings, however, of husbandmen, merchants, and mechanics, are not always the meanest; there arise, in the course of human life, many among them of the most splendid geniuses, the most active and benevolent dispositions, and most undaunted bravery.
The moral equality that nature has unalterably established among men, gives these an undoubted right to have every road opened to them for advancement in life and in power that is open to any others.
These are the characters which will be discovered in popular elections, and brought forward upon the stage, where they may exert all their faculties, and enjoy all the honors, offices, and commands, both in peace and war, of which they are capable.
The dogma of Aristotle, and the practice of the world, is the most unphilosophical, the most inhuman and cruel that can be conceived.
Until this wicked position, which is worse than the slavery of the ancient republics, or modern West Indies, shall be held up to the derision and contempt, the execration and horror, of mankind, it will be to little purpose to talk or write about liberty.
This doctrine of Aristotle is the more extraordinary, as it seems to be inconsistent with his great and common principles, “that a happy life must arise from a course of virtue; that virtue consists in a medium; and that the middle life is the happiest."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: JOHN ADAMS - DEFENSE OF U.S. CONSTITUTION
A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
“In every city the people are divided into three sorts, the very rich, the very poor, and the middle sort."
"If it is admitted that the medium is the best, it follows that, even in point of fortune, a mediocrity is preferable."
"The middle state is most compliant to reason."
"Those who are very beautiful, or strong, or noble, or rich, or, on the contrary, those who are very poor, weak, or mean, with difficulty obey reason."
"The former are capricious and flagitious; the latter, rascally and mean; the crimes of each arising from their different excesses."
"Those who excel in riches, friends, and influence, are not willing to submit to command or law; this begins at home, where they are brought up too delicately, when boys, to obey their preceptors."
"The constant want of what the rich enjoy makes the poor too mean; the poor know not how to command, but are in the habit of being commanded, too often as slaves."
"The rich know not how to submit to any command; nor do they know how to rule over freemen, or to command others, but despotically."
"A city composed only of the rich and the poor, consists but of masters and slaves, not freemen; where one party despise, and the other hate; where there is no possibility of friendship, or political community, which supposes affection."
"It is the genius of a free city to be composed, as much as possible, of equals; and equality will be best preserved when the greatest part of the inhabitants are in the middle state."
"These will be best assured of safety as well as equality; they will not covet nor steal, as the poor do, what belongs to the rich; nor will what they have be coveted or stolen; without plotting against any one, or having any one plot against them, they will live free from danger."
"For which reason, Phocylides wisely wishes for the middle state, as being most productive of happiness."
"It is plain then that the most perfect community must be among those who are in the middle rank; and those states are best instituted wherein these are a larger and more respectable part, if possible, than both the other; or, if that cannot be, at least than either of them separate; so that, being thrown into the balance, it may prevent either scale from preponderating."
"It is, therefore, the greatest happiness which the citizen can enjoy, to possess a moderate and convenient fortune."
"When some possess too much, and others nothing at all, the government must either be in the hands of the meanest rabble, or else a pure oligarchy."
"The middle state is best, as being least liable to those seditions and insurrections which disturb the community; and for the same reason extensive governments are least liable to these inconveniences; for there those in the middle state are very numerous; whereas, in small ones, it is easy to pass to the two extremes, so as hardly to have any medium remaining, but the one half rich, and the other poor."
"We ought to consider, as a proof of this, that the best lawgivers were those in the middle rank of life, among whom was Solon, as is evident from his poems, and Lycurgus, for he was not a king; and Charondas, and, indeed, most others."
"Hence, so many free states have changed either to democracies or oligarchies; for whenever the number of those in the middle state has been too small, those who were the more numerous, whether the rich or the poor, always overpowered them, and assumed to themselves the administration."
"When, in consequence of their disputes and quarrels with each other, either the rich get the better of the poor, or the poor of the rich, neither of them will establish a free state, but, as a record of their victory, will form one which inclines to their own principles, either a democracy or an oligarchy."
"It is, indeed, an established custom of cities, not to desire an equality, but either to aspire to govern, or, when they are conquered, to submit.”
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
“In every city the people are divided into three sorts, the very rich, the very poor, and the middle sort."
"If it is admitted that the medium is the best, it follows that, even in point of fortune, a mediocrity is preferable."
"The middle state is most compliant to reason."
"Those who are very beautiful, or strong, or noble, or rich, or, on the contrary, those who are very poor, weak, or mean, with difficulty obey reason."
"The former are capricious and flagitious; the latter, rascally and mean; the crimes of each arising from their different excesses."
"Those who excel in riches, friends, and influence, are not willing to submit to command or law; this begins at home, where they are brought up too delicately, when boys, to obey their preceptors."
"The constant want of what the rich enjoy makes the poor too mean; the poor know not how to command, but are in the habit of being commanded, too often as slaves."
"The rich know not how to submit to any command; nor do they know how to rule over freemen, or to command others, but despotically."
"A city composed only of the rich and the poor, consists but of masters and slaves, not freemen; where one party despise, and the other hate; where there is no possibility of friendship, or political community, which supposes affection."
"It is the genius of a free city to be composed, as much as possible, of equals; and equality will be best preserved when the greatest part of the inhabitants are in the middle state."
"These will be best assured of safety as well as equality; they will not covet nor steal, as the poor do, what belongs to the rich; nor will what they have be coveted or stolen; without plotting against any one, or having any one plot against them, they will live free from danger."
"For which reason, Phocylides wisely wishes for the middle state, as being most productive of happiness."
"It is plain then that the most perfect community must be among those who are in the middle rank; and those states are best instituted wherein these are a larger and more respectable part, if possible, than both the other; or, if that cannot be, at least than either of them separate; so that, being thrown into the balance, it may prevent either scale from preponderating."
"It is, therefore, the greatest happiness which the citizen can enjoy, to possess a moderate and convenient fortune."
"When some possess too much, and others nothing at all, the government must either be in the hands of the meanest rabble, or else a pure oligarchy."
"The middle state is best, as being least liable to those seditions and insurrections which disturb the community; and for the same reason extensive governments are least liable to these inconveniences; for there those in the middle state are very numerous; whereas, in small ones, it is easy to pass to the two extremes, so as hardly to have any medium remaining, but the one half rich, and the other poor."
"We ought to consider, as a proof of this, that the best lawgivers were those in the middle rank of life, among whom was Solon, as is evident from his poems, and Lycurgus, for he was not a king; and Charondas, and, indeed, most others."
"Hence, so many free states have changed either to democracies or oligarchies; for whenever the number of those in the middle state has been too small, those who were the more numerous, whether the rich or the poor, always overpowered them, and assumed to themselves the administration."
"When, in consequence of their disputes and quarrels with each other, either the rich get the better of the poor, or the poor of the rich, neither of them will establish a free state, but, as a record of their victory, will form one which inclines to their own principles, either a democracy or an oligarchy."
"It is, indeed, an established custom of cities, not to desire an equality, but either to aspire to govern, or, when they are conquered, to submit.”
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: JOHN ADAMS - DEFENSE OF U.S. CONSTITUTION
A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
These are some of the wisest sentiments of Aristotle; but can you reconcile them with his other arbitrary doctrine, and tyrannical exclusion of husbandmen, merchants, and tradesmen, from the rank and rights of citizens?
These, or at least, those of them who have acquired property enough to be exempt from daily dependence on others, are the real middling people, and generally as honest and independent as any; these, however, it must be confessed, are too inattentive to public and national affairs, and too apt to submit to oppression.
When they have been provoked beyond all bearing, they have aimed at demolishing the government, and when they have done that, they have sunk into their usual inattention, and left others to erect a new one as rude and ill-modelled as the former.
A representative assembly, elected by them, is the only way in which they can act in concert; but they have always allowed themselves to be cheated by false, imperfect, partial, and inadequate representations of themselves, and have never had their full and proper share of power in a state.
But to proceed with Portenari.
“The other kinds of men,” says he, “namely, the rich, the soldiers, the priests, and the judges, are parts of the city, and properly citizens."
"The first, because riches are instruments for generating and conserving virtue in the citizens."
"The second, because it is necessary that military men, besides the virtue of fortitude, should be adorned with prudence, to know the times and occasions proper for undertaking an enterprise."
"The third, because the priests ought to be examples of every virtue to the people, and give themselves to the contemplation of divine things."
"The fourth, because the judges and rectors of a city, to judge and govern rightly, have occasion more than all the others for science and prudence, which are the true lights and guides of human actions.”
If these are proper arguments for admitting these descriptions of men into the order of citizens, instead of being reasons for excluding merchants, &c. they are of proportional weight for admitting them.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
These are some of the wisest sentiments of Aristotle; but can you reconcile them with his other arbitrary doctrine, and tyrannical exclusion of husbandmen, merchants, and tradesmen, from the rank and rights of citizens?
These, or at least, those of them who have acquired property enough to be exempt from daily dependence on others, are the real middling people, and generally as honest and independent as any; these, however, it must be confessed, are too inattentive to public and national affairs, and too apt to submit to oppression.
When they have been provoked beyond all bearing, they have aimed at demolishing the government, and when they have done that, they have sunk into their usual inattention, and left others to erect a new one as rude and ill-modelled as the former.
A representative assembly, elected by them, is the only way in which they can act in concert; but they have always allowed themselves to be cheated by false, imperfect, partial, and inadequate representations of themselves, and have never had their full and proper share of power in a state.
But to proceed with Portenari.
“The other kinds of men,” says he, “namely, the rich, the soldiers, the priests, and the judges, are parts of the city, and properly citizens."
"The first, because riches are instruments for generating and conserving virtue in the citizens."
"The second, because it is necessary that military men, besides the virtue of fortitude, should be adorned with prudence, to know the times and occasions proper for undertaking an enterprise."
"The third, because the priests ought to be examples of every virtue to the people, and give themselves to the contemplation of divine things."
"The fourth, because the judges and rectors of a city, to judge and govern rightly, have occasion more than all the others for science and prudence, which are the true lights and guides of human actions.”
If these are proper arguments for admitting these descriptions of men into the order of citizens, instead of being reasons for excluding merchants, &c. they are of proportional weight for admitting them.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: JOHN ADAMS - DEFENSE OF U.S. CONSTITUTION
A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
“As to the form of government, which is the other part of the animated city, let us say with those wise men who have written of civil dominion and public administration, as Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, Plutarch, and others, that the simple forms of good government are three, to which are opposed three other forms of bad government."
"The first form of good government is monarchy, or kingship, and is the absolute and independent dominion of one man alone, who has for the ultimate end of his operations the public good, and the best state of the city, and who has the same relation to his subjects that the shepherd has to his flock, and the father to his children."
"Such were the monarchies of the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Macedonians, Scythians, Egyptians, and Romans, from the beginning of their reign to the creation of the consuls, and, after the extinction of the Roman republic, under the empire of many Cæsars."
"To monarchy is opposed that form of government which is called tyranny, in which one lords it alone, who has no thoughts of the public good, but whose aim is to depress and exterminate the citizens, to whom he shows himself a monster, rapacious after their property, and a cruel wild beast after their lives; such were Phalaris in Agrigentum, Dionysius in Syracuse, and Nero in Rome."
“The second form of good government is aristocracy, according to which the dominion is held by those who, above all others, are adorned with virtue, prudence, and benevolence; who directing all their actions to the utility and common dignity of the city, procure it a happy and blessed state."
"This species of government is called also the regimen of the better sort, (optimates,) either because the best men of the city bear rule, or because they look, in all their operations, to the best and most perfect state of the city."
"This manner of government was used by the Spartans."
"To this form of government is opposed oligarchy, which is a principality of the most rich and powerful, who, for the most part, are few; who, by depressing and robbing of their property the less rich, and crushing the poor with intolerable weight, make a government full of arrogance and of violence, and are like wolves among lambs."
"Such was the dominion of the Triumvirs in Rome, who having oppressed the republic, proscribed and put to death many good citizens, and plundered their property; exalting the seditious and perverse, and abasing good men, they distempered Rome with their contagious wickedness; and of a city, the capital of the world, they made it a den of robbers."
“The third form of good government, not having a proper name, was called by the Greeks politeia, and by the Latins, respublica, names common to every species of government."
"This is the dominion of the multitude, namely, of the whole body of the city, composed of all sorts of citizens, rich and poor, nobles and plebeians, wise and foolish, which is also called a popular government."
"All this body, which contains men, some endowed with prudence and wisdom, some inclined to virtue and persuadable to all good works, by the conversation and familiarity which they have with the prudent and learned, employ all their care, labor, and industry, to the end that the city flourish in all those things which are necessary and convenient for living well and happily, such as was at one time the government of the Athenians."
"To this species of good government is opposed democracy; according to which the most abject plebeians, and the vilest vulgar, hold the domination for their own private interest, by which they oppress the rich and the noble, and aggrandize and enrich the poor and the ignoble, as the two brothers, the Gracchi, began to do in Rome."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
“As to the form of government, which is the other part of the animated city, let us say with those wise men who have written of civil dominion and public administration, as Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, Plutarch, and others, that the simple forms of good government are three, to which are opposed three other forms of bad government."
"The first form of good government is monarchy, or kingship, and is the absolute and independent dominion of one man alone, who has for the ultimate end of his operations the public good, and the best state of the city, and who has the same relation to his subjects that the shepherd has to his flock, and the father to his children."
"Such were the monarchies of the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Macedonians, Scythians, Egyptians, and Romans, from the beginning of their reign to the creation of the consuls, and, after the extinction of the Roman republic, under the empire of many Cæsars."
"To monarchy is opposed that form of government which is called tyranny, in which one lords it alone, who has no thoughts of the public good, but whose aim is to depress and exterminate the citizens, to whom he shows himself a monster, rapacious after their property, and a cruel wild beast after their lives; such were Phalaris in Agrigentum, Dionysius in Syracuse, and Nero in Rome."
“The second form of good government is aristocracy, according to which the dominion is held by those who, above all others, are adorned with virtue, prudence, and benevolence; who directing all their actions to the utility and common dignity of the city, procure it a happy and blessed state."
"This species of government is called also the regimen of the better sort, (optimates,) either because the best men of the city bear rule, or because they look, in all their operations, to the best and most perfect state of the city."
"This manner of government was used by the Spartans."
"To this form of government is opposed oligarchy, which is a principality of the most rich and powerful, who, for the most part, are few; who, by depressing and robbing of their property the less rich, and crushing the poor with intolerable weight, make a government full of arrogance and of violence, and are like wolves among lambs."
"Such was the dominion of the Triumvirs in Rome, who having oppressed the republic, proscribed and put to death many good citizens, and plundered their property; exalting the seditious and perverse, and abasing good men, they distempered Rome with their contagious wickedness; and of a city, the capital of the world, they made it a den of robbers."
“The third form of good government, not having a proper name, was called by the Greeks politeia, and by the Latins, respublica, names common to every species of government."
"This is the dominion of the multitude, namely, of the whole body of the city, composed of all sorts of citizens, rich and poor, nobles and plebeians, wise and foolish, which is also called a popular government."
"All this body, which contains men, some endowed with prudence and wisdom, some inclined to virtue and persuadable to all good works, by the conversation and familiarity which they have with the prudent and learned, employ all their care, labor, and industry, to the end that the city flourish in all those things which are necessary and convenient for living well and happily, such as was at one time the government of the Athenians."
"To this species of good government is opposed democracy; according to which the most abject plebeians, and the vilest vulgar, hold the domination for their own private interest, by which they oppress the rich and the noble, and aggrandize and enrich the poor and the ignoble, as the two brothers, the Gracchi, began to do in Rome."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: JOHN ADAMS - DEFENSE OF U.S. CONSTITUTION
A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
“Three, therefore, are the simple forms of good government, monarchy, aristocracy, and that which by a common name is called a republic; and from these, mixed together, four others may result."
The first is compounded of all the three, as was that of the Lacædemonians, instituted by Lycurgus, who, selecting the good from the three former, composed out of them one of the most perfect kind.
Such, also, was the Roman republic, in which the power of the consuls was like the regal authority; that of the senate was aristocratical; and that of the people resembled the popular state.
The second form of mixed government is composed of monarchy and aristocracy, such as, according to some, is the most serene republic of Venice, in which the annual podestàs have a power similar to a regal authority, and the senate are an assembly or collection of the optimates; although others contend that it is a perfect aristocracy.
The third is mixed of a monarchy and a republic; and the fourth of a republic and an aristocracy; of which two species of mixed government we have no examples to allege.
“But to return to the three simple forms; it is the common opinion of the learned, that monarchy holds the first rank above all others, resembling the power of God Almighty, who alone governs the world; resembling the heart, which alone vivifies all the parts of the animal; and resembling the sun, which alone illuminates the celestial bodies, as well as the lower world."
"It is very true, that to a monarchy ought to be elevated only that citizen, according to the philosopher, who, exceeding others in the ordinary course, in riches, wisdom, prudence, and benevolence, is like a god upon earth; such as would be the man who should be adorned with heroic virtue, according to which, performing all the labors of virtue in the utmost perfection and supreme excellency, he would appear to be not the son of a mortal, but of God."
"But it being impossible, or at least most difficult, to find a man so rare, it has happened, that, laying aside monarchy, the philosophers have disputed which of the other two forms of good government is better accommodated, more practicable, and more profitable, for the regimen of cities and of peoples."
"Some were of opinion that this praise was due to an aristocracy; nevertheless Aristotle confutes them, because in the aristocratical government the magistracies and the honors being always in the hands of a few, there is great danger that the multitude, perpetually excluded from public management, should be tumultuous, and conspire against the lives of the principal men, to the great damage of the whole city; because in these revolts the force and violence of the people regard friends no more than enemies; it is mad, and most horribly pillages, murders, and abuses, all that comes in its way."
"It remains, then, that the third species of good government, which is the popular government, in which the citizens alternately command and obey, must be the most useful, and better adjusted to the nature of man, in whose soul the Divinity has stamped the desire of ruling; with such limitations and temperaments, however, as, says the same philosopher, that the vile plebeians may not have magistrates appointed for their ignorance and imprudence, which are the two fountains of all civil calamities; but that the plebeians may not be totally despised, and that all occasion of insurrections may be taken away, power should be given them of joining with the other citizens in the election of magistrates, and of calling them to account for their administration.”
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
“Three, therefore, are the simple forms of good government, monarchy, aristocracy, and that which by a common name is called a republic; and from these, mixed together, four others may result."
The first is compounded of all the three, as was that of the Lacædemonians, instituted by Lycurgus, who, selecting the good from the three former, composed out of them one of the most perfect kind.
Such, also, was the Roman republic, in which the power of the consuls was like the regal authority; that of the senate was aristocratical; and that of the people resembled the popular state.
The second form of mixed government is composed of monarchy and aristocracy, such as, according to some, is the most serene republic of Venice, in which the annual podestàs have a power similar to a regal authority, and the senate are an assembly or collection of the optimates; although others contend that it is a perfect aristocracy.
The third is mixed of a monarchy and a republic; and the fourth of a republic and an aristocracy; of which two species of mixed government we have no examples to allege.
“But to return to the three simple forms; it is the common opinion of the learned, that monarchy holds the first rank above all others, resembling the power of God Almighty, who alone governs the world; resembling the heart, which alone vivifies all the parts of the animal; and resembling the sun, which alone illuminates the celestial bodies, as well as the lower world."
"It is very true, that to a monarchy ought to be elevated only that citizen, according to the philosopher, who, exceeding others in the ordinary course, in riches, wisdom, prudence, and benevolence, is like a god upon earth; such as would be the man who should be adorned with heroic virtue, according to which, performing all the labors of virtue in the utmost perfection and supreme excellency, he would appear to be not the son of a mortal, but of God."
"But it being impossible, or at least most difficult, to find a man so rare, it has happened, that, laying aside monarchy, the philosophers have disputed which of the other two forms of good government is better accommodated, more practicable, and more profitable, for the regimen of cities and of peoples."
"Some were of opinion that this praise was due to an aristocracy; nevertheless Aristotle confutes them, because in the aristocratical government the magistracies and the honors being always in the hands of a few, there is great danger that the multitude, perpetually excluded from public management, should be tumultuous, and conspire against the lives of the principal men, to the great damage of the whole city; because in these revolts the force and violence of the people regard friends no more than enemies; it is mad, and most horribly pillages, murders, and abuses, all that comes in its way."
"It remains, then, that the third species of good government, which is the popular government, in which the citizens alternately command and obey, must be the most useful, and better adjusted to the nature of man, in whose soul the Divinity has stamped the desire of ruling; with such limitations and temperaments, however, as, says the same philosopher, that the vile plebeians may not have magistrates appointed for their ignorance and imprudence, which are the two fountains of all civil calamities; but that the plebeians may not be totally despised, and that all occasion of insurrections may be taken away, power should be given them of joining with the other citizens in the election of magistrates, and of calling them to account for their administration.”
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: JOHN ADAMS - DEFENSE OF U.S. CONSTITUTION
A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
“All these opinions appear to be not unbecoming; for, although the plebeians be not qualified of themselves to judge who are fit for the administration of the affairs of the city, and to know the failings of those who have governed, nevertheless, by the conversation and practice which they have in such things with the wise men, it is presumed that, from daily intercourse with these, and from common fame and public reputation, which daily circulates concerning men who are wise and good in government, they may have so much light, that they may discern the apt from the inept, and good behavior from bad."
This may suffice to have said concerning the different forms of government according to the writers before cited, in order to explain the following account of the form of government in Padua, and the various changes it passed through.
“In the four hundred and fifty-second year of the Christian era, Padua was miserably destroyed by Attila, King of the Huns."
The Paduans, who then fled for safety to the islands in the Adriatic, could not return for fifty years to rebuild their city, for the many armies of barbarians who infested Italy till 493, when Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, killed Odoacer, King of the Heruli, and remained unrivalled in the dominion of Italy.
But Justinian, the emperor, having, in 535, sent Belisarius, and afterwards, in 552, Narses, to drive away the Goths from Italy, Padua, in that war, which lasted with alternate victories and defeats of the Goths and the Greeks, eighteen years, was subjected sometimes by one and sometimes by the other.
Afterwards, under the government of exarchs, till 601, it was a second time burned and destroyed by Aginulphus, King of the Lombards.
It was afterwards restored by the Paduans, assisted by the Venetians, and remained under the dominion of the Lombards, till they were exterminated by Charlemagne, King of France, in 774.
It became subject to the Kings of France of the race of Charlemagne, and after them to the Berengarii, and finally to the emperors of Germany, from Otho I. to Henry the Fourth, according to the German, and the Third, according to the Italian historians.
In a word, Padua lived under foreign law six hundred and twenty-nine years, namely, from 452 to 1081; thirty-three years before which period, namely, in 1048, a few rays of liberty began to dawn, because the Emperor Henry III., (as appears by public instruments preserved in the archives of the cathedral of Padua,) granted, for the repose of his soul, and that of Agnese his wife, to Bernard Maltravers, Bishop of Padua, the prerogative of coining money, building fortresses and castles with towers and ramparts, erecting mills, and to be, as it were, prince of the city.
Afterwards, Henry IV., his son, at the solicitation of the Queen Bertha, his wife, and on account of the prayers of Milo, Bishop of Padua, his relation, gave liberty, in 1081, to the Paduans, conceding to them, that, for the future, they might live according to their own laws, and have a triumphal chariot, (carroccio,) which was the principal sign of a free city.
This carroccio, for a perpetual memorial of the benefit received by the intercession of Queen Bertha, was called by the Paduans by her name.
Henry also granted them the faculty of making of the body of their nobility a senate, who, for the government of the city, created annually two consuls.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
“All these opinions appear to be not unbecoming; for, although the plebeians be not qualified of themselves to judge who are fit for the administration of the affairs of the city, and to know the failings of those who have governed, nevertheless, by the conversation and practice which they have in such things with the wise men, it is presumed that, from daily intercourse with these, and from common fame and public reputation, which daily circulates concerning men who are wise and good in government, they may have so much light, that they may discern the apt from the inept, and good behavior from bad."
This may suffice to have said concerning the different forms of government according to the writers before cited, in order to explain the following account of the form of government in Padua, and the various changes it passed through.
“In the four hundred and fifty-second year of the Christian era, Padua was miserably destroyed by Attila, King of the Huns."
The Paduans, who then fled for safety to the islands in the Adriatic, could not return for fifty years to rebuild their city, for the many armies of barbarians who infested Italy till 493, when Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, killed Odoacer, King of the Heruli, and remained unrivalled in the dominion of Italy.
But Justinian, the emperor, having, in 535, sent Belisarius, and afterwards, in 552, Narses, to drive away the Goths from Italy, Padua, in that war, which lasted with alternate victories and defeats of the Goths and the Greeks, eighteen years, was subjected sometimes by one and sometimes by the other.
Afterwards, under the government of exarchs, till 601, it was a second time burned and destroyed by Aginulphus, King of the Lombards.
It was afterwards restored by the Paduans, assisted by the Venetians, and remained under the dominion of the Lombards, till they were exterminated by Charlemagne, King of France, in 774.
It became subject to the Kings of France of the race of Charlemagne, and after them to the Berengarii, and finally to the emperors of Germany, from Otho I. to Henry the Fourth, according to the German, and the Third, according to the Italian historians.
In a word, Padua lived under foreign law six hundred and twenty-nine years, namely, from 452 to 1081; thirty-three years before which period, namely, in 1048, a few rays of liberty began to dawn, because the Emperor Henry III., (as appears by public instruments preserved in the archives of the cathedral of Padua,) granted, for the repose of his soul, and that of Agnese his wife, to Bernard Maltravers, Bishop of Padua, the prerogative of coining money, building fortresses and castles with towers and ramparts, erecting mills, and to be, as it were, prince of the city.
Afterwards, Henry IV., his son, at the solicitation of the Queen Bertha, his wife, and on account of the prayers of Milo, Bishop of Padua, his relation, gave liberty, in 1081, to the Paduans, conceding to them, that, for the future, they might live according to their own laws, and have a triumphal chariot, (carroccio,) which was the principal sign of a free city.
This carroccio, for a perpetual memorial of the benefit received by the intercession of Queen Bertha, was called by the Paduans by her name.
Henry also granted them the faculty of making of the body of their nobility a senate, who, for the government of the city, created annually two consuls.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: JOHN ADAMS - DEFENSE OF U.S. CONSTITUTION
A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
“There was, therefore, formed a government mixed of monarchy and aristocracy, says the historian; of monarchy, because the consuls, according to the manner of kings, had the power of life and death; and of aristocracy, because the senate, exclusively of the plebeians, was composed only of patricians or nobles."
These, as the desire of enlarging dominion is insatiable, not contented to have the government of the city, procured, partly by imperial grants, and partly by other means, jurisdiction of blood in their castles situated in the country of Padua, assuming the titles of proceri, peers or barons, and a little afterwards the yet higher ones of marquises, counts, and castellans.
Padua was ruled by this form of government about eighty years, in peace and tranquillity; but peace being the nurse of riches, and riches of ambition, the consular dignity began to be ardently desired by all men, and caballed for by every artifice.
In the progress of these contests, as one would not give way to another, and as it all depended on a few of the most powerful, the city became divided into factions, which finally, in 1177, came to arms, and civil wars ensued, which for some years filled the city with slaughter, burnings, revolt, and confusion; so that the consulate, becoming feeble, was now intermitted, and then exercised, according as the power of different parties prevailed.
But finally, this magistracy, serving no longer for the maintenance of the public good, but merely as an instrument of revenge against enemies, and having become most pernicious, not less to the plebeians than to the patricians, was, in 1194, abrogated and totally extinguished.
“The good government, composed of monarchy and aristocracy,” as our author calls it, though nobody will agree with him in opinion at this day, “being changed, by the malice of men, into the bad one of oligarchy, and this by its noxious qualities being in a short time annihilated, there arose another species of government, mixed of monarchy and a republic, in this form: The Paduans instituted four councils; the first was of eighteen, whom they called the Anziani, three of whom were drawn by lot every three months."
"They were afterwards reduced to the number of sixteen, and then drawn to the number of four every four months."
"The office of these magistrates was, together with the podestà, to exert themselves with all their influence and power to conciliate and appease all discords and dissensions among the citizens, not only in civil affairs, but in criminal prosecutions; to see that the decrees of the senate regarding the public utility were observed; that the buildings going to decay should be rebuilt or repaired; that the streets, public roads, and walks should be kept in order, free, and unincumbered with obstructions; that in the principal quarters of the city instruments should be provided for extinguishing or preventing the progress of fire, such as buckets, vessels and ropes for drawing water, ladders, hatchets, pickaxes, iron bars, &c.; and, finally, to suggest to the other councils all those things which might be of public utility."
"And that they might be enabled to do this, all public letters from foreign princes, and from all magistrates within the dominion of Padua, were read in their presence."
"No man was admitted to this council of the anziani who was not a Paduan by birth, and an inhabitant of the city for at least thirty years without interruption, and who had not a foundation of property among his fellow citizens of at least two hundred pounds a year."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Volume III, continued ...
CHAPTER NINTH. PADUA, continued ...
“There was, therefore, formed a government mixed of monarchy and aristocracy, says the historian; of monarchy, because the consuls, according to the manner of kings, had the power of life and death; and of aristocracy, because the senate, exclusively of the plebeians, was composed only of patricians or nobles."
These, as the desire of enlarging dominion is insatiable, not contented to have the government of the city, procured, partly by imperial grants, and partly by other means, jurisdiction of blood in their castles situated in the country of Padua, assuming the titles of proceri, peers or barons, and a little afterwards the yet higher ones of marquises, counts, and castellans.
Padua was ruled by this form of government about eighty years, in peace and tranquillity; but peace being the nurse of riches, and riches of ambition, the consular dignity began to be ardently desired by all men, and caballed for by every artifice.
In the progress of these contests, as one would not give way to another, and as it all depended on a few of the most powerful, the city became divided into factions, which finally, in 1177, came to arms, and civil wars ensued, which for some years filled the city with slaughter, burnings, revolt, and confusion; so that the consulate, becoming feeble, was now intermitted, and then exercised, according as the power of different parties prevailed.
But finally, this magistracy, serving no longer for the maintenance of the public good, but merely as an instrument of revenge against enemies, and having become most pernicious, not less to the plebeians than to the patricians, was, in 1194, abrogated and totally extinguished.
“The good government, composed of monarchy and aristocracy,” as our author calls it, though nobody will agree with him in opinion at this day, “being changed, by the malice of men, into the bad one of oligarchy, and this by its noxious qualities being in a short time annihilated, there arose another species of government, mixed of monarchy and a republic, in this form: The Paduans instituted four councils; the first was of eighteen, whom they called the Anziani, three of whom were drawn by lot every three months."
"They were afterwards reduced to the number of sixteen, and then drawn to the number of four every four months."
"The office of these magistrates was, together with the podestà, to exert themselves with all their influence and power to conciliate and appease all discords and dissensions among the citizens, not only in civil affairs, but in criminal prosecutions; to see that the decrees of the senate regarding the public utility were observed; that the buildings going to decay should be rebuilt or repaired; that the streets, public roads, and walks should be kept in order, free, and unincumbered with obstructions; that in the principal quarters of the city instruments should be provided for extinguishing or preventing the progress of fire, such as buckets, vessels and ropes for drawing water, ladders, hatchets, pickaxes, iron bars, &c.; and, finally, to suggest to the other councils all those things which might be of public utility."
"And that they might be enabled to do this, all public letters from foreign princes, and from all magistrates within the dominion of Padua, were read in their presence."
"No man was admitted to this council of the anziani who was not a Paduan by birth, and an inhabitant of the city for at least thirty years without interruption, and who had not a foundation of property among his fellow citizens of at least two hundred pounds a year."
TO BE CONTINUED ...