ected of treason, and that he had
better relinquish the exercise of his burghership. By free use of this
engine of Admonition, the Guelf College rendered their enemies
voiceless in the State, and were able to pack the Signory and the
councils with their own creatures. Another important defect in the
Florentine Constitution was the method of imposing taxes. This was
done by no regular system. The party in power made what estimate it
chose of a man's capacity to bear taxation, and called upon him for
extraordinary loans. In this way citizens were frequently driven into
bankruptcy and exile; and since to be a debtor to the State deprived a
burgher of his civic rights, severe taxation was one of the best ways
of silencing and neutralising a dissentient.

I have enumerated these several causes of weakness in the Florentine
State-system, partly because they show how irregularly the
Constitution had been formed by the patching and extension of a simple
industrial machine to suit the needs of a great commonwealth; partly
because it was through these defects that the democracy merged
gradually into a despotism. The art of the Medici consisted in a
scientific comprehension of these very imperfections, a methodic use
of them for their own purposes, and a steady opposition to any
attempts made to substitute a stricter system. The Florentines had
determined to be an industrial community, governing themselves on the
co-operative principle, dividing profits, sharing losses, and exposing
their magistrates to rigid scrutiny. All this in theory was excellent.
Had they remained an unambitious and peaceful commonwealth, engaged in
the wool and silk trade, it might have answered. Modern Europe might
have admired the model of a communistic and commercial democracy. But
when they engaged in aggressive wars, and sought to enslave
sister-cities like Pisa and Lucca, it was soon found that their simple
trading constitution would not serve. They had to piece it out with
subordinate machinery, cumbrous, difficult to manage, ill-adapted to
the original structure. Each limb of this subordinate machinery,
moreover, was a _point d'appui_ for insidious and self-seeking party
leaders.

Florence, in the middle of the fourteenth century, was a vast beehive
of industry. Distinctions of rank among burghers, qualified to vote
and hold office, were theoretically unknown. Highly educated men, of
more than princely wealth, spent their time in shops and
counti