On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
With dlF reject for M . de Sismondi , and with a ffutf af *^ preciation of the feelings and motives that have biassed him , we must yet affirm that no private politics ought t 6 prejudice even a draoiatist , to whom so much latitude is allowed , and far less an historian * to whom no such latitude is allowed ( and whose statements consequently pass unsuspected ) when he portrays the characters of those who have swayed or influenced the destinies of naiiohs , It may be no very large admission to concede to M . die Sismondi that Cosmo extinguished the name of a nominal republic . He did something worse , or at atl events mote substantial . From the station of a private gentleman of the Medici family , he became by his own commanding intellect , energies , and consummate political abilities , the greatest sovereign among the Italian states . To term him a " usurper" is absurd ; and if when he had possessed himself of absolute power he exercised it in such a
tnanner as to obtain the general appellation of " the Ju&t , " there can be no great proof of liberalism in classing him among the herd of despots . No good is gained by the aspersion : much good is perilled in the attempt . But , independent of theories , the actual benefit derived from his acute policy by the Florentines and others , is easily proved from well-attested facts . His gaining sovereignty over Siena , Pisa , Arizzo , Pistoia , &c , appears in the eyes of M . de Sismondi only as a multiplication of crimes and tyrannies ; whereas it was absolutely necessary to that peace whiph Cosmo always sought to preserve , since these little republics , uniting themselves with France * continually brought war between Francis and the Emperor into the
very heart of the country . Whatever sympathy we may entertain with the politics of M . de Sigmondi , it is not to be disguised that Florence w $ . s unable to maintain herself as a , real republic , and that Cosmo ' s sovereign sway and energetic policy alone preserved her from falling — -as did nearly all the other Italian states—into the hands df the French King or to the German Empire . Previous to the reign of Co $ mo , Florence had been subject to continual wars dur . ing thirty-three yealrs ; and under various circumstances these wars continued until he had subdued Siena . } 3 e Jthen Succeeded in establishing a peace whidh lasted upjw ^ rds of two hund red years ; in fact , until the invasion of Italy by Napoleon , No just estimate can be formed of the policy of Cosmo the Firfei , except through a sound comprehension of the chavfteter ipf thp times in which Ke livfed . Foot centuries of p ^ ace—i ^ efcptetfdetit with the arts , with science , and with leArnii ^ ,
Untitled Article
SiO Ctoffttf de ? tittMci .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 1, 1837, page 240, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1830/page/50/
-