Were we to characterize a republic, we should say it was a state in
which power, both theoretically and practically, is derived from the
nation, with a constant responsibility of the agents of the public to
the people--a responsibility that is neither to be evaded nor denied.
That such a system is better on a large than on a small scale, though
contrary to brilliant theories which have been written to uphold
different institutions, must be evident on the smallest reflection,
since the danger of all popular governments is from popular mistakes;
and a people of diversified interests and extended territorial
possessions, are much less likely to be the subjects of sinister
passions than the inhabitants of a single town or county. If to this
definition we should add, as an infallible test of the genus, that a
true republic is a government of which all others are jealous and
vituperative, on the instinct of self-preservation, we believe there
would be no mistaking the class. How far Venice would have been
obnoxious to this proof, the reader is left to judge for himself.
CHAPTER I.
"I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs,
A palace and a prison on each hand;
I saw from out the wave her structures rise,
As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand;
A thousand years their cloudy wings expand
Around me, and a dying glory smiles
O'er the far times, when many a subject land
Looked to the winged lions' marble piles,
Where Venice sat in state, throned on her hundred isles.
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