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How blest would an earnest student of the romances of Mrs. Radcliffe be, if it were announced to him, some fine morning, that he had just been elected King of Italy, that his residences, for the future, were to be a palace in Florence in the winter, and a beautiful castle on the slope of the Apennines in the hot season! What blissful visions would float across the mirror of his mind,-promenades through picture and statue galleries, festal entertainments, crowds of richly attired Signores and Senoras, in splendidly furnished ball-rooms, cool walks in the shade of hill - forests in the summer's heat, or delightful perusal of the Mysteries of Udolpho, or the Sicilian Romance, during the sultry moon, protected by the thick foliage of an oak from heat and glare! All these and many another mode of enjoyment is at the command of the King of Italy for the time being. Is he a happy man? Much less, in our opinion, than a Dublin shopman, who after his week's toil enjoys a half holiday's relaxation with an entertaining volume, sauntering on the canal's bank, or among the old thorns of Phoenix Park.

But why should not the inhabitant of Florence, in possession of a city of palaces, of a fine climate, and of a mountain refuge from summer heat, enjoy a large portion of human

felicity? No reason in the world why he should not, but a spirit of perverseness by which a great number of his fellow-men are actuated. It is the will of Providence that every one, man and woman, should employ their heads, or their hands, or both, at something beneficial to their fellowcreatures or themselves. But one division of the race must have the enjoyment of the world's luxuries without the labour. Rather than adopt a course of honest exertion to procure for themselves the muchcoveted indulgencies, they will deprive the other division of their goods, and, in case of resistance, their lives. Consequently, this right minded portion is obliged to be at the expense of supporting public guardians of life and property, and of equally supporting the common enemy in secure buildings, where he is deprived of his power of doing harm.

Even where force or knavery is not resorted to, the lazy and selfish division counts among its constituents a large number of individuals, who, being in possession of much more than is needful for their wants or comfort in their several stations, do not share with those who have need. They do not enjoy these goods themselves, and uncharitably keep them from those to whom they

would afford comfort or needful support. Thus is the sum of human happiness much diminished by the selfishness of one division of the human race.

If the people of any municipality, and its dependant territory on the face of Europe, seemed destined to enjoy the largest possible share of earthly felicity, they were the dwellers by the river Arno, from time immemorial. Beautiful scenery, healthful climate, and worldly prosperity, were the attendant handmaids on their condition. But we find deadly hate, envy, and contention combining to inflect misery on the magnates and citizens of Florence, since the dawn of its history. Our intention in the present paper being merely to dwell on interesting circumstances connected with the fortunes of the great Medicis family, we can afford but a passing glance at Florentine affairs before the era of the grandfather of Lorenzo the Magnificent.

ANTIQUE FLORENCE.

The now insignificent town of Fiesole, seated on the brow of a hill, about three miles from Florence, claims a higher antiquity than that city. It was a place of strength upwards of two centuries before the Christian era; and still preserves a portion of its ancient Cyclopean wall. Merchants who resorted thither for business purposes, did not approve its troublesome ascent; and began to set up for themselves tents and slight structures at the base of the hill by the Arno; and thus was laid, as it were, the foundation of the future city, noted throughout the civilised world for arts and traffic. This took place at least a century before the birth of Christ; for there is mention of a Roman colony here in the time of Sylla. In the days of Charlemagne (742-814), the city began to be spoken of. It was then governed by a duke, and inferior officers elected by the citizens and approved by him. In the eleventh

century, Pope Clement VII., becoming sovereign of Florence, an impetus was given to its commerce, and it assumed the condition of a free city.

At that early period the trade of Florence was extensive, and its artisans were famed for their excellent workmanship in gold and jewels. The Florentines chiefly belonged to the Guelf, or Papal party, when there was any question in dispute between Pope and Emperor, but did not suffer much from the ill-feeling of the two factions, till the year 1215, when a Guelf noble, Buondelmonti, broke off his intended marriage with a young lady of the Amidei, a Ghibelline family, and took to wife a Guelphite lady. The Amidei interested the Überté and the other Ghibelline families in the quarrel, and the bridegroom was murdered on the Ponte Vecchio. Bloody reprisals were taken by his party, and for thirty years, and more, internal hatred and its bloody results agitated Florence. Visitors of our day, who would prefer to see in the old city, buildings of a lighter and less sombre character, will do well to recollect that the original owners consulted strength and capability of defence against some unfriendly fellow-citizen, rather than amenity of appearance in his civic fortress.

In the end of the same century, we find the Government invested in twelve magistrates (two for each of the six sections of the city), and two superior chiefs. One of these, called the Podesta, was invested with supreme authority in civil and criminal cases; the other was the head of the city and country militia, in which the youth were obliged to serve. order not to excite prejudice among the proud families, these two chiefs were selected from families outside Florence and its dependencies. In A.D. 1254 was first struck, the beautiful gold coin, the Florin, with the lily on one side, and the head of St. John the Baptist on the other.

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From this time till near the middle of the thirteenth century, we find the city steadily increasing in importance, though disturbed with the quarrels of its Guelphic and Ghibelline chiefs, and impeded by some bloody struggles with its neighbours. From 1293, the supreme chief was called the Gonfalonier (standardbearer), but so jealous were the Florentines ever of the long retention of power in any one's hands, that their standard-bearer was relieved of his burthen at the end of two months.

In the middle of the fourteenth century, we find the nobles destitute of any effective influence in the state; and the chief management resting in the hands of the democratic families, the Alberti, the Ricci, and their patrician rivals, the Albizzi. In the year 1348, occurred the terrible pestilence, so well-remembered by the readers of the Decamerone. One hundred thousand of the inhabitants perished in it.

RISE OF THE MEDICIS.

About the beginning of the thirteenth century, the great family with which our paper is chiefly occupied began to distinguish themselves as benefactors to their city, by their attention to its traffic and the share they took in public affairs. From 1378, when Salvaestro dei Medicis filled the office of Gonfalonier, the importance of the family held on increasing, till Giovanni dei Medicis, who died in 1429, left to his sons, Cosmo and Lorenzo, an inheritance of wealth and honours not previously found attendant in any Florentine family.

Before we proceed further, it seems advisable to remove an obstacle out of the way of some few of our readers, to whom the words Guelphs and Ghibellines present no definite ideas. Since the early irruption of the Goths into the plains and valleys of Italy, the German Emperors have ever indulged in the sin of covetousness for

that earthly paradise. The scope of our paper does not allow us to detail the attempts successful and the reverse-to gain a footing on Italian soil under Henry IV., Henry the Proud, Henry the Lion, and Frederick Red-beard, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. These attempts were always resisted by the Popes and as many of the little municipalities as wished to preserve free and popular governments, and restrict German influence to districts north of the Alps. As a rule, Florence, Bologna, and Milan, exhibited a Guelphic or anti-German spirit, while Pisa, Arezzo, and Verona, supported the Ghibelline or proGerman pretensions. themselves are said to be corruptions of two German patronymics, Waiblinger and Welf. The families to whom these surnames belonged had been at open feud with each other for a long time; and at the battle of Weinsberg in Suabia, 1140, Duke Conrad of Hohenstaufen, and Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, of the family of Wolf, both claimants of the Empire, raised the war cries Hoch Waiblinger! and Hoch Welf! to animate their followers. These names assumed the sounds of Ghibellini and Guelfi in the mouths of the Italians.

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THE FORTUNES OF COSMO DE MEDICIS.

But, as mentioned above, the Great Giovanni has died, and left to his sons, Cosmo and Lorenzo, a nearly incalculable amount of property, and more care and anxiety connected with it than the generality of even mercantile men would willingly receive, even if accompanied by all the treasures of Europe and Asia. It was supposed that the ex-Pope, Balthazar Cossa, had revealed to Cosmo a hidden treasure of immense value. But even that could scarcely account for the mighty traffic which he was directing a few years later in all the countries between Persia and Spain, both kingdoms included. The

Great Turk was on intimate business fice to maintain several ordinary

relations with Cosmo. He allowed his agents to take up their posts in the best positions of Thrace and Asia Minor for business, having for political reasons dislodged the agents of Genoa and Venice. The Emirs of Babylon and the Egyptian Mamelukes, facilitated for him the transit of silks and other precious articles from the East. He even purchased the relics of their once greatness from the existing descendants of the emperors of Constantinople.

The chief families in Florence, besides the Medicis, were the Strozzi, the Petrucci, the Barbadori, and the Albizzé. These, though not much united among themselves, felt a common fear and dislike of Cosmo. His riches, and consequent influence, would at the desirable moment give him uncontrolled authority in his native city. To preserve their liberties, and allow a due portion of well-being to families other than the Medicis, Cosmo, as head of the house, must be deposed from his pride of place. In a council held by these families, Cosmo's destruction was resolved on; but they could not act without consent given by the people. So a general So a general meeting was called, and the merchant accused of high crimes and misdemeanours against the common weal. "He was the cause," so the accusers declared, "of the present misery of Florence. He manufactured at Lyons and Antwerp, for France, Spain, and England, goods which these countries had erewhile got directly from Florence. Thus he took the bread out of the mouths of his fellow-citizens, to enrich absolute strangers, on the mere pretence of getting things done at a cheaper rate. Florentine merchants, the highest in credit, could expect nothing but ruin. His mighty resources enabled him to make liberal advances to needy folk, to give extra credit, and otherwise monopolise a business which would suf

houses. His boundless riches enabled him to purchase the finest stuffs and the rarest spices on the spot, and have them removed at low freights, and his agents sold them at cheaper rates by one-third than they could be got from others. Thus an affluence of purchasers resorted to his establishments, while those of his fellow-traders were left to mind themselves."

The outcry outcry against against monster houses, some years since, is yet remembered. Let us suppose that the Lord Mayor of the day called a meeting at the general request of the citizens, and that a popular orator brought a series of charges of similar nature with those quoted against one monster man of the halfdozen occupying the city, and that by general acclamation a vote of imprisonment in Newgate was passed against the person of this big shopkeeper. Yet this is what was done in the bosom of the enlightened, mercantile, and free city of Florence. We desire no acquaintance with freedom of that complexion. Like the generality of the inhabitants of the Peninsula, the Florentines had a decided turn for the "pleasant art of money-catching;" and to find their Pactolus turned out of the channel in which they themselves were watching, angered them exceedingly, and they would punish the constructor of the dam and the new channels in body and goods. Cosmo was arrested, and kept under bolt and bar till his rivals in silkmercery, spicery, jewels, and carved gold, could decide on his fate.

And, indeed, these worthies were now thrown into sore embarrassment. They knew the inconstant temperament of their fellow-citizens, that they were scarcely for eight days in the one frame of mind; that, perhaps, acted on by the remembrance of Cosmo's liberality and munificence, they might be heard within a week clamouring for his

release, or perversely elect a Gonfalonier (the election day was at hand) deep in the prisoner's good graces, and the caged lion be let out, prepared to fall on them with tooth and claw, and their new condition be ten times worse than that from which they had sinned to some purpose to be set free. The secret council of the unfriendly families consequently resolved on his death, but differed as to the means of accomplishing it.

The greater number were for bringing him to public trial, and by dint of allegations, true or plausible, have him executed with the full knowledge and consent of the people; but the more acute-minded dreaded the necessary delay, and the fickle character of the people, and the unforeseen circumstances that might arise to frustrate the design. It was therefore resolved that Cosmo, the great selfish and criminal interferer with their mercantile interests should die-not indeed by the violent mode sanctioned by law. He would merely cease to live while immured for his offences.

To Rodolph, chief of the Perucci family, was entrusted the commission of seeing the great merchant on his way to the other life, and he took that duty on himself with much ap. parent relish. He sought out Frederic Malavotta, the superintendent of prisons, entered into conversation with him, spoke of his prisoner, of the undesirableness of setting him at liberty again, of the service his death would render to his fellow-citizens; and when, after a series of skilful probing sand thrustings, he guessed that his proposition would meet no ungracious reception, he boldly named a high sum which would be all Malavotta's own, provided he allowed no food to be set before the prisoner but such as would be provided by him, Rodolph Perucci, or his confidential officials.

Malavotta was one of those who would do a good in preference to an

evil action, provided that either would be of the same advantage to him. Perucci had not said in so many words that the food to be furnished would prove a viaticum for the journey into the unknown land, but it was easy to guess that such would be the result. He reflected that parties who offered such a recompense for an apparently slight service would enlarge the offer if they saw need. So he used such terms in the answer he gave as to imply that if he did not yield at that first summons, the second or third would probably find him acquiescent.

But while the conspirators were complacently preparing their food and their poisons, Cosmo, who seems to have had an intuitive sense of what was awaiting him, steadily refused nourishment of every kind for the period of four days, and thereby effectually frightened the time-serving Malavotta. "He will assuredly die of hunger," said he, “and I shall not touch one florin of the promised reward. This won't do." He prepared a supper worthy of an emperor's table, brought it into his prisoner's room, invited him to fall to, and set him a good example by consuming a portion of every eatable, and drinking a glass from every flask.. Cosmo required no pressing, but made a temperate meal, as behoved a man who had fasted ninety-six hours.

After supper, Cosmo artfully directed the conversation into the channel of his own affairs, and managed to dazzle the eyes of his host by insinuating the incredible value of his hidden property, the portion seized on being but a small part of what he really owned. This theme was so skilfully handled that Malavotta inwardly blessed his stars that he had not given a formal consent to the proposal of the enemy. fore they parted for the night, the superintendent, at Cosmo's request, promised to bring Farganacia, the inimitable buffoon and parasite, to

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