CHAPTER V. Fiat Justitia. THE news of the sudden usurpation of Milan by the nephew of the rightful lord, spread quickly throughout all Italy. Partly, however, from the character of the elder Visconti, partly from the frequent occurrence of such events in a turbulent age, it appears to have created little surprise. The usurper was hailed as a deliverer by the oppressed inhabitants of Milan, and not one of the Lombard towns espoused the cause of their captive sovereign. At that period, indeed, and for long afterwards, the fate of cities, and even of nations, usually depended on the character of one individual. The history of the age, more especially in Italy, is but a series of sudden revolutions, in which the boldest adventurer was generally the most successful: for the monarchical principle, which afterwards governed Europe, was not yet properly defined in any country. The feudal system, which flourished in its greatest vigour in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, still prevailed to a sufficient extent to enable the more powerful nobles of most countries in Europe, to render the authority of the sovereign extremely precarious; for it required in these times, a monarch of more than ordinary ability to restrain within due limits the ambition of his great vassals. We find accordingly, that the history of the Middle Ages in every country abounds with contests betwixt the nobles and their sovereign, until the genius of Louis XI. in France, of Ferdinand V. in Spain, and of Henry VII. in England, curbed the overgrown power of their chief feudatories, established the royal authority on a solid basis, and first developed the resources of each of their respec tive kingdoms. The tyrannical manner in which all of these monarchs effected their object, has been justly censured. Ambition was undoubtedly the ruling motive of all, and the ambition of princes is seldom productive of benefit to their subjects; but, at that time, the order of a well regulated despotism was far preferable to the precarious freedom, which was held only at the caprice of a number of petty tyrants. Italy, which in these time was so far in advance of the rest of Europe in civilization, was never incorporated into one state Her princes and republics were engaged in continual wars, which both impoverished her resources, and rendered her easily as ssailable from without. Hence, after the establishment of the great European monarchies, she became an easy prey to her more powerful neighbours; and for two centuries after her first invasion by Charles VIII., the plains of Lombardy continued to be the battle-field of France, Spain, and Germany; each ambitious of possessing the fairest portion of Europe, and all equally indifferent to the fate of its inhabi tants. It is now necessary, however, to return to Alfred, whom we left at Venice, in no very agreeable predicament. On the morning following his imprisonment, and after a night of harrassing suspense, he was summoned to appear before the Council of Ten. This celebrated tribunal, instituted about the middle of the fourteenth century, was at first composed of a commission of senators, appointed to investigate and punish the conspiracy of the Quirini, a powerful and ambitious family who made a desperate attempt to subvert the Venetian government. The authority of the Council was only to be exercised in the suppression of the conspiracy, and was to cease whenever that object was accomplished. Its sittings were prolonged, however, under various pretences, from week to week, and from month to month, until they were finally declared permanent. The establishment of this hereditary oligarchy immediately reduced the authority, both of the senate and of the Doge, to a shadow : like the Decemvirs of ancient Rome, they speedily usurped the whole power in the state, executive as well as legislative; they even declared wars, and concluded treaties, which the Decemvirs never dared to do; and they exercised, by means of their secret executions, a much more despotic authority over their fellow citizens, than the Roman tyrants ever established. Nor was its jurisdiction confined to Venice alone; wherever the standard of the republic was planted, its influence was felt. By its authority, the governors of colonies and of conquered provinces were empowered to remove, by means of secret assassination, any suspected individual whom it might be deemed inexpedient to bring to open trial; and the declaration of the governor, that he considered any one dangerous to the state, both warranted him in removing the suspected person by any possible means, and acquitted him of all responsibility—a terrible engine of tyranny to be placed in the hands of any one individual.* *There is a curious remark made on the subject of the establishment of this tribunal, by a Venetian writer, the cavalier Saranzo. "This Council was not established by common consent, nor by the deliberation of the legitimate authorities, He says, |