Poisoned Gabriel Adorno a Merchant of the faction of the Guelphs was chosen to succeed him and Governed seven years until Dominico de Campo Fregozo a Merchant of the Gibelline faction displaced him the 13. of August 1370. and was installed in his place That was the beginning of the long Quarrel betwixt the Adorno's and Fregozo's The Adorno's and Fregozo's divided which during the space of 180. years held the City of Genoa in continual divisions and factions which ended not but by the extinction of one of these Families the Montaldo's and Guarco's who were very powerful maintained the Fregozo's and Antoniot Adorno who having been Elected Duke expelled and restored in the years 1383. 1390. and 1392. was for the fourth time Master of the Republick in the year 1396. not thinking himself strong enough to maintain his Authority against his powerful Enemies by the mediation of the Cardinal Louis of Fieschi and of Anthony Count of Lavagna his brother with the universal consent of all the Genoese made over to Charles VI. The resignation of Genoa to Charles VI. King of France and his Successors the Sovereign Lordship of the Republick and of all the States that depend on it the resignation was made by an Authentick Treaty of the 25. of October and the 27. of November the Arms of France were set up upon the Gates and the great Tower of the Palace and in presence of all the People Antoniot Adorno delivered the Keys of the Gates and the Battoon of Command into the hands of the Kings Ambassadors which were presently given back to him as to the Governour for the King That Treaty was put in execution Confirmed with Charles VII and afterwards confirmed a second time by all the Orders of the City of Genoa with Charles VII in the year 1458. so that the Kings of France enjoyed it during an Age and a half It s Rebellion by Andrew Doria. until the revolt of Andrew Doria made it rebel against Francis the first This happened in the year 1528. two years after the imprisonment of that more valiant than fortunate King and after that revolt Aristocracy setled in Genoa in the year 1528. they settled a kind of Arisstocratical Government which continues to this day and which according to the model of that of Venice admits of none but the Nobles to the administration of publick Affairs They chose twelve reformers for making new Laws Laws concerning the Doge the first of which was that the Duke or Doge should continue but two years in office that his Government should expire on the last of December And that his authority might be the more stinted it was added that he could not be continued that after that day he should have no Power that none of his Name and Family should be chosen immediatly after him and that he himself could not again enter into that dignity till after the expiration of five years that he be full fifty years of age and have an allowance of Six thousand Livres a year reduced since to Four thousand that after his reign he should be perpetual Procurator of the Republick if he committed no Fault in his Office which should be examined by the Syndicks within 8. days after the conclusion of his administration The Government of Genoa consists of two Councils the one called the great Council Two Councils in Genoa and the other the little in both which the Doge Head of the Republick presides who as hath been said is changed every two years and hath always for his assessors twelve Senators eight Procurators and those who have carried the supream Dignity of Doge The great Council The great Council is made up of all the Nobles of the State in general provided they be present and two and twenty years of age compleat These Gentlemen are about seven hundred in number who constitute near an hundred and fifty Noble Familes some of which are but the branches of others or adopted into them In this Council properly the Supream power resides and of that number of seven hundred the two hundred who constitute the little Council are yearly chosen and in this manner the Election is made A few days before the new year begins the Doge with the Senators How the little Council is chosen Procurators and the old Doges assemble the little Council which by Plurality of voices chuses thirty Nobles whom they look upon to be the best Citizens most zealous for the publick Good and in greatest Reputation for probity and honour which thirty chuse out of the seven hundred Gentlemen of the great Council the two hundred who are to make up the little Council for the year following which begins the first of January and it happens almost always that those of the foregoing year are for most part continued if there be no weighty cause nor secret reasons of State for excluding them so that it may be said that the choice which at present they make is onely for supplying the Places of those who are dead or absent or who have been preferred to more considerable employments I have told you that for presiding in those two Councils the Doge had for Assessors twelve Senators and eight Procurators They continue in Office two years and every Six Months three Senators and two Procurators are substituted in the Place of those that go out the Election being performed in this manner The Election of Senators and Procurators There is a box called the Seminary wherein are the names of sixscore Gentlemen of Fourty years of Age at least in billets and seeing there are a great many names yearly taken out either for filling the places of Senators Procurators and sometimes of the Doge or of those who die or are taken up about other employments the number of these sixscore billets must yearly be made compleat The box called the Seminary and for that purpose in the beginning of June the little Council is called and upon the report made to them of the number that is necessary to fill up the Seminary every Gentleman of the little Council proposes a Person fourty years old whom he judges worthy to be put in and amongst all those who are proposed this Council chuses double the number of what is necessary for supplying the number that is wanting in the box How it is filled and then that double number chosen by the little Council is proposed to the great Council of seven hundred which rejects one half and retains the other whose names are put into the Lottery box Out of this box every six months five names are taken by hazard three for Senators and two for Procurators so that it may be said that the Government of that Republick depends wholly upon fortune and that unfortunate merit and the honestest man of the State many times by the capriciousness of obstinate fate lies buried in obscurity at the bottom of the box The Election of
THE Present State OF GENOVA WITH THE ARTICLES OF THE Treaty of Cession TO THE FRENCH KING AND An Account of the late ACTIONS of the French Fleet before it and of the Damages there sustain'd by the Bombs and Carcasses To which is added A LETTER from the Republick of Genoua to the City of Argiers upon that Subject LONDON Printed for Randall Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1687. THE Present State OF GENOA OF all Countries in the world The situation of Genoa the Territory of GENOA seems to be the most abandoned of Nature but instead thereof above all others the most assisted by humane Industry since among the dry sands of a barren Sea and the high cliffs of craggy and bare Mountains men have built one of the stateliest Cities in the Earth filled it with magnificent Palaces adorned it with pompous publick Structures enriched it with exquisite Pictures inestimable Statues precious Furniture planted about it the most delightfull Gardens of Europe and in a word seeing all that can contribute to Pleasure and support Luxury is there to be found in abundance The truth is he that casts his eyes upon the sumptuous palaces that make the New-street and that of Balbi must confess that the meanest of them is fit to receive the Greatest Prince in the World. It s original The City of Genoa is so ancient that it is impossible to trace it to its original some concluding from conjecture and some allusion of name Janua attribute the foundation thereof to Janus tho in all appearance that name hath been given it by the Latins thereby to denote that it is the door of Italy But whatever its beginning was it is certain that in the time of the Commonwealth of Rome it was the capital City of Liguria and under the protection of that Republick seeing as Titus Livius reports Genoa as an Allie of the Romans was destroyed by Mago Admiral of Carthage and Brother to Hannibal Destroyed by Mago during the second Punick War and that the Goverment thereof was continued to the Praetor Spurius Lucretius that he might rebuild it and repair the Haven which by his diligence he accomplished in the space of a year The same Livy relates that that fickle City with the rest of Liguria revolted against Rome at the time when that Republick having destroyed Carthage and subdued Africa Greece and Asia was at the highest pitch of grandeur Makes war against Rome He says that in that defection the Genoese with Fourty thousand men attacked Pisa that the Consul Minutius had much adoe to defend it that the War as being of great danger and importance was managed against them by both the Consuls that many bloody Battels were fought in which the Ligurians had so great advantage that Rome in extream consternation was forced to appoint Prayers and Vows for the publick safety which shews in what power Genoa was at that time It was at length absolutely reduced under the dominion of Rome and continued so under the Caesars then under the Kings of the Herules or Goths who Possessed Italy and afterwards under the Greek Emperours and the Exarchs of Ravenna Possessed by the Lombards But the Lombards having utterly destroyed the Roman Empire in Italy Assaulted took and Sackt Genoa in the year 670. and that City remained in their hands Conquered by Charlemagne until Charlemagne having overcome Didier the last King of Lombardy and made him Prisoner conquered all Italy whereof he made Pepin his Eldest son King and gave the Government of Genoa to Count Ademar his Kinsman who shortly after in the year 806. commanding the Fleet of which Charlemagne had made him Admiral defeated the Saracens at Sea and after a bloody Battel which he gained upon them in the Island of Corsica wherein nevertheless he died reconquered that Island which by that means was annexed to the State of Genoa The union of the Island of Corsica to the state of Genoa from which it hath never been separated since It is certain that after the Death of Charlemagne Genoa and the Island of Corsica remained under the dominion of the French of which Count Boniface was Governour for Louis the Debonnaire in the year 828. It is also certain that it fell to the share of Lotharius eldest son of Louis the Debonnaire with the rest of the States of Italy and that his Successors peaceably enjoyed it but after the Death of Charles the Gross which happened in the year 888. the Empire and Kingdom of Italy were all of a sudden dismembred by the weakness of Charles the Simple who was so far from reuniting all that belonged to his Crown that to the Age of Twenty five years he had several Regents substituted to him with the Title of King. These Usurpers that they might Peaceably enjoy what was within the Kingdom shamefully suffered the Empire and the fair flowers of the State without to be invaded and under their very Nose permitted Italy to be disputed and rent into pieces by the Wars which Louis the Son of Bozon King of Provence had against Berenger The French lose the State of Genoa Son of Everard Duke of Frioli who had caused himself to be Proclaimed King of Italy in Pavia whilst Guy Duke of Spoleto his competitour attempted the same thing in Padua and so many Princes having intruded into the States which Charlemagne had Conquered beyond the Alps and having successively killed or dispossessed one another Genoa Genoa falls to the first Possessor as all the rest fell to him that could first possess it so that during the revolution which Providence was preparing in France in favour of Hugh Capet the last Kings of the second race having their hands full on 't by the affairs of Germany and the maintaining their own Crown divisions increased daily in Italy Destroyed by the Saracens and gave occasion to the Saracens to make a descent at Genoa which they unexpectedly surprised in the year 936. sacked and burnt it carrying away all that could be put on board their Ships but they were met betwixt Corsica and Sardinia by the Fleet of the Genoese upon their return from cruising and were engaged with so bad a success for the Infidels that they were wholly defeated Reestablished the Slaves retaken and the City reestablished upon its ashes After that dismal desolation it continued during the space of 450. years The uncertain state of Genoa sometimes in an Anarchy sometimes in a kind of Republican Government and sometimes under the dominion of several Princes At length the People weary of the divisions which these changes of State caused amongst their chief Citizens Returns to the French. resolved to return under the dominion of the Kings of France who were become lawful Lords of Genoa from the time that Charlemagne reckoned it amongst his other Conquests The cause of that Revolution was that in the year 1363. Simon Bocca negra Duke of Genoa having been
arrested and clap'd up into Prison for several years and that without any form of Justice but by a formality of Matchiavilian Policy which they call est informata conscientia To return then again to Coloma the forged Packet being come into Spain it was believed to be his and Orders were presently dispatched to discharge the Sequestration The Governour of Milan incensed against Coloma whom he thought to be the real Author of that Release set so many Engines at work against him that he hath got him to be recalled and that unfortunate Minister could never discover the Cheat till he had lost his place at Genoa and his Credit at Court where the Genoese are still so cunning as to render him suspected of discovering the secrets of his Residence to Monsieur de Saint Olon Envoy of France The Protectors of the House or Bank of St. George The bank of St. George make another Magistracy or particular Court. It is a kind of Body independent of the Republick and as a State within a State. This Bank which is governed by very laudable Constitutions owes its Original to the publick necessities It is a sacred depost of all the Wealth of the People and in this manner it was established The Treasure of the State having been exhausted by long and continual Wars The establishment of the Bank of St. George it was resolved to borrow considerable sums of Money and to engage for them the Revenues of the publick Impositions so that in stead of assigning as is usual in France payments upon the duties of the Town Genoa made over the duties themselves and other Rights to their Creditors to the end they might receive them and reimburse themselves with their own hands To facilitate the execution of this they were allowed to form amongst themselves a Council of four hundred Directors to take out of this Council a Magistrate Its Directors and Protectors eight Protectors and other inferiour Officers who take care to bring into the publick stock of St. George the Impositions assigned and to make the distribution of them amongst the Creditors of the Republick according to their several Debts with power to judg Sovereignly according to the Laws of the State all Suits Civil and Criminal that arise upon that account and the mutual Credit betwixt the Republick and that Bank is so punctually observed that what necessity soever the State hath been reduced to it was never proposed to meddle with these Sacred Revenues and that the most Criminal Rebels and Strangers in War with the Republick have alwayes been regularly payed the interest of their principal A wise and politick Maxim that cannot be too much commended and which hath so well maintained that Bank that the Money not onely of all the private Genoese but also of an infinite number of Strangers has been put into it and that its Money and Credit are inexhaustible So true it is that publick Purses as well as private cannot subsist but by a long experienced Integrity and Justice and that when a Prince can once persuade his people of this honesty all mens Coffers will open freely of themselves when necessities do urge The Riches of the Genoese Vast is the Riches which the Genoese have heaped up during a long Peace and the continual good success of a well-setled Commerce Their wealth is proud in outward appearance and their luxury prodigious but that Republick is far more wealthy than strong far more haughty than valiant and it is easier to subdue it than to make it a sincere Friend because that people may become good and useful Subjects but they will always be jealous and unsincere Neighbours Poverty made them industrious Labour rendered them powerful and victorious at Sea that Power settled their great Commerce which brought them Wealth and this introduced Luxury Licentiousness and the effeminacy of Peace wherein their dastardized Vertue hath for a long time languished Their care is to swell their Revenues their amusement and diversion to rear stately Palaces and their delight to plant sumptuous Gardens more fit for the reception of Kings than of Merchants and Sea-faring Men. Nevertheless whilst the Subjects increase daily in Riches the body Politick decays its Dignity declines and all its Grandeur at present consists in the pompous Attire wherewith that people set off their Doge and the imaginary pretensions that make them vie if they could with Crowned Heads in all the Courts of Europe The Revenue of the Republick Notwithstanding the prodigious wealth of the Citizens yet the constant Revenue of the Republick exceeds not eight hundred thousand Crowns a year The truth is it might be improved to more if the Governours were so faithful as not to employ to their private uses part of that which is imposed for publick necessities It s Charge Upon that Revenue the Republick entertains three thousand Foot in constant pay who in time of Peace are sufficient to garrison the places not onely of the main Land but also of the Island of Corsica The next Charge of the Republick is the constant maintaining of six Galleys which amounts to ten thousand Crowns a year a piece They have since armed four new ones but the fund for maintaining them is setled upon extraordinary impositions The two Residents which they entertain in France and Spain cost them twelve thousand Crowns a year but the greatest charge is employed in the maintaining of two Rota's or Courts of Justice the Civil and Criminal their Chancellours Secretaries or Clarks Judges of the Sea-coasts and Isle of Corsica Officers and other inferiour Ministers of Justice who as in other States are of a prodigious number a grievance to the people and an abuse that cannot be too much reformed The remaining part of the Revenue is employed for the charges of forein Ministers and paying the interest of borrowed Money put into their Chambers such as the Chamber of St. John Baptist and the Chamber of St. Bernard which are much like to the Chamber of the City of London And all these Charges being defrayed if any surplus remain it is divided amongst the Doge and the more powerful Senators and Nobles who so order matters by their secret Intrigues and close Combinations that they always govern the Republick successfully and impropriate to themselves the Places and Offices to the exclusion of all the rest Besides the vast Wealth that renders the Capital one of the richest Cities of Europe The people have been so industrious in cultivating their Lands that they enrich the Inhabitants by the plentiful crops of Corn Fruit Oil and Wine which both the Riviera's produce for so they call the Coasts of Liguria to the East and West of the City of Genoa Prodigious quantities of Oils The truth is to the West-side the Territories alone of Dian Porto Moriso and Vintimiglia in good years yield above four hundred thousand Tun of these sweet and precious Oils which are the delights of the North
never for two years together refused to man his sustenance Out of these publick Grananaries all the Bakers are obliged to buy their Corn with which they supply the people with bread and they are prohibited under severe Penalties to buy it elsewhere Private Persons nevertheless are permitted to bake their own bread at home but since bread is at a very reasonable rate the Republick being content with a moderate profit few give themselves the trouble of making particular provisions besides that the Republick sets a price upon the Corn according to the plentifulness of the Crop and none can buy till the publick Granaries be first supplied And when there is a scarcity in Liguria the Magistrate appointed for the regulation of Provisions causes Corn to be brought from Sicily or Africa to be put into the publick Granaries that the crop of the Country may be for the use of the Country People the other Towns and private Families As to Wine As to Wine every private Person is allowed to furnish himself and freely to buy for his provion but no person whosoever in Genoa dares to sell or retail it out no not Vintners and they who keep Victualling Houses The Republick reserves to itself alone the right of selling Wine by retail and for the more convenient distribution thereof there is in every quarter a publick Cellar always full of Wine of two different prices which never rise nor fall Fondaqui publick Cellars They call these publick Cellars Fondaqui over every one of which an Overseer is put to whom the Wine is delivered upon account and who brings the Money that it is sold for to the publick Cash He is strictly prohibited not to after the Wine either by mingling one sort with another or adding Water strict inspection is taken into that and they are not onely punished by great Fines but are sent to the Galleys so that there is seldom any complaint made of them The Cellars are filled as fast as they are emptied and the provision is always for two years Though this Policy as to Wine seems to be somewhat inconvenient and that it would seem that Princes who have considerable duties from the retail of Wines in Taverns ought not to approve it nevertheless it hath certainly its advantages not only because it prevents Drunkenness and the disorders which attend it but also because the profit which the Republick draws from the retailing of Wine comes clear into the publick stock whereas the duties that in other places are raised from Vintners pass through so many Hands and to the profit of so many Leeches before they come to the publick Treasury that the Prince receives but a very small share of the profit of that Imposition besides that thereby the adulterations and poisonings of Wine by the Wine-Coopers and Vintners are prevented Money is reckoned at Genoa by Livres and Sols The Money but the 20 s of Genoa are worth but 12 s of France and so the sous of Genoa is but worth seven Deniers of France and a fifth Denier by that reason a French Crown and Patacoon are there worth five Livres And a Louis-d'or is there valued at 18. 6. s 8. den That 's to say three Louis d'ors are there worth fifty five Livres Genoese Money They Coin certain pieces of Silver which they call Genuines Genuines that are worth seven Livres of their Money which are four Liv. 4 s of France they are of a very fine allay being of eleven Deniers and six grains fine and the neighbouring States melt them down for Coining their Money which is of a baser Standard They have four different Pistols which pass at the same value and which they call the Quatrostampe these are the Louis-d'ors the Pistol of Spain the Pistol of Genoa and that of Florence which are of the same weight and Coined of Gold of twenty two Carrats with two grains of allay All other Pistols are current there at somewhat less value Their Genuines of Silver are in great esteem in Savoy and pass as far as Lyon but on this side of it there are few of them to be seen though there be few pieces of coined Silver in Europe that equal them in goodness There are three sorts of Persons Three sorts of Persons in Genoa the least in number but the most powerful are the Nobles The Nobles who govern the States and possess great Estates and considerable Inheritances in the Territories of the Catholick King which links them close to the Crown of Spain by an indispensable necessity of Interests And they who engage not blindly in that stronger side have little share in the Government and cannot but be much dissatisfied with the present State. The second sort is that of the Merchants The Merchants who mind nothing but their Trade These have naturally a Republican Soul but they are onely wedded to Spain by the consideration of the profitableness of their Commerce which if it succeeded under the protection of another Sovereign they would by degrees fall off from the Spaniards They have a pretty good inclination to France upon account that they think Justice there impartially distributed without distinction of Persons whereas at Genoa they feel a Tyranny which is so much the more uneasie that it increases as fast as the Nobles who compose the State do multiply The last sort the weakest and yet the greatest is made up of the Populace the Artificers and the Poor who not only through the common inclination which misery gives desire a change in hopes of bettering their condition but likewise I may say would be willing to be under the protection of France upon more honourable Motives All the Forces of Genoa consist in six Galleys which they constantly entertain and to which of late they have added four new ones for reasons well enough known to all Europe They have laid up the two great Men of War which conveyed their Merchant Ships for the Trade of Spain And this they have done upon the resentment of a secret displeasure they conceived and which they expressed to Captain Palavicini who going to Spain suffered his Ships to be visited For there is no Nation in the World more haughty and vain than the Genoese The Pride of the Genoese They are nevertheless resolved to fit out three Men of War in place of those two which they have unrigged There are Their Shipping as I have already said ten or twelve great Ships well equipped belonging to private Persons wherewith they trade into the Levant the West and Africa and in the two Riviera's there are about three hundred Barks great and small and two hundred Coralines which are onely employed in fishing for Coral upon the Coasts of Corsica and Sardinia The two Riviera's or Coasts of Liguria can furnish six or seven thousand good Seamen And if all the Militia of the main Land were raised it 's thought they might amount to fifty or threescore thousand
passes in the Mountains that divide their States and two or three thousand Dragoons posted in the avenues of these Passes would be enough to hinder all relief Men may land not onely without Musquet shot but it is easie for them also in landing to lodge under Covert either on the side of Bizagne or on the side of S. Peter des Arenes Batteries may be raised betwixt the Fanal and the new Mole without the reach of any assault which would batter down the City on all sides besides there is nothing more easie than to cut the Aqueducts which make the Milns to go and furnish the City with fresh water so that the People without Bread and Water starved with hunger and thirst would quickly cry for Peace the whole City is also full of common Sewers and subterranean Vaults which discharge themselves into the Sea and nothing hinders but Mines and other Engines may be made to play which would overthrow the Walls that cross those Sewers and make in them as many breaches as might be thought fit from whence it may be concluded that that City is supported more by its name haughtiness and outward appearance than by any solid strength That Republick then though exceeding rich is notwithstanding in it self very weak for two reasons First Because the profound Peace it hath for a long time enjoyed has inured the People to softness and luxury and secondly because though the private Persons be extreme wealthy yet the Revenues of the State are but very moderate and it is no easie matter in Common-wealths to impose new Taxes for defraying the charges of War which always displeases the People who are naturally inclined to rest But to remedy this weakness which the Genoese themselves are sensible enough of they are so straitly linked in Interest with the Spaniards that they will always be supported with all the Forces of that Kingdom That strict Alliance is founded not onely on what I have already said of the great Estates which the Genoese possess in the Territories of the Catholick King but also because the Milanese borders upon the States of Genoa and that Final Final which belongs to the Spaniards is a place apart and situated betwixt Albegnao and Savona in the middle of the States of this Republick which inviron it on all hands so that Milan can have no communication with that important Maritime place but by passing through the Lands of Genoa which are bordered on the West by the Mountains of Piemont The limits of the State of Genoa on the North by Montferrat and the Milanese on the East by the States of the Dukes of Florence and Parma and on the South by the Sea of Liguria Some time before the Pyrenean Peace the Spaniards fearing that the French might seize Final proposed to sell it to the Genoese the price was agreed upon Genoa bargains for Final but the Marquess de los Balbaces a Grandee of Spain of the House of Spinola as a faithful Subject preferring the Interest of the King he served before that of his own Country opposed it He was Counsellour of State for the Affairs of Italy and with much vigour and stedfastness he represented that if Final were abandoned and the Genoese should afterwards break with Spain it would be impossible to send relief in to the Milanese but that if the Genoese should abandon Spain relief might always be sent by Final and Montferrat without being obliged to them His reasons were good because at that time Montferrat was not in the hands of the French but if at present Genoa abandoned Spain Milan would be without relief because to go from Final to Milan Montferrat being shut there is a necessity of passing through the State of Genoa The advice of Los Balbaces was followed And is disappointed the Treaty of Final was broken off and the Genoese thereupon conceived so great indignation against Balbaces their Country-man that they deprived him of all his priviledges which were to go with his Servants armed to have the Cushion at Church and to be visited by the Nobility without the permission of the Doge which obliged him wholly to renounce Genoa and to settle in Spain Final then is one of the chief links that unites Genoa with the Catholick King. Nevertheless what Efforts soever Spain makes in favour of that Republick yet it can give them but very moderate assistances by Land because it can onely help them with the Forces of the Milanese which it dares not ungarison But by Sea it can defend them with all the Galleys of the Squadrons of Naples Sicily Sardinia and Spain So that provided a powerful Prince who intended to attack Genoa had a Fleet strong enough to give a check to the Naval forces of Spain it would be easie for him by Piemont and Montferrat to assault that Republick by Land and in a short time to triumph over its pride with a smaller number of men than one may imagine and so much the rather that Commerce being the Soul of that Republick a Fleet cruising before their Harbours would no sooner interrupt their Trade but that the People and Artificers would be reduced to extremity besides that Genoa the Country furnishing but very little Corn is obliged to supply it self from Sicily and Africa by Sea and that finding themselves besieged by Land and blocked up by Sea with little relief from the Forces of the Milanese and out of condition of being revictualled from any where else it would quickly be reduced to the last pinch having but very few standing Soldiers and the Militia of the Country altogether undisciplined But if the Nobility as well as People of Genoa could be once cleared of the false notions they have conceived of a Government contrary to that under which they live if once they could be persuaded that the Republican yoke gives instead of one lawful Master an hundred insatiable Tyrants that it is a Hydra of many Heads which seldom agree in their resolutions that a King governs alone in imitation of the Deity whereas popular Assemblies are for the most part but a confused Babylon that by an inclination of Nature which tends always to perfection all Republicks soon or late terminate in a Monarchy as heretofore Rome and Florence in later days furnish the Genoese with almost a domestick instance if they would also call to mind that they freely gave themselvs over to Charles VI. and his Successours upon conditions religiously observed on the part of our Kings who by consequent are their true and lawful Sovereigns If to all these Reasons they added serious reflections upon the incomparable Virtues of the greatest King that ever France had and that touched with a remorse for a revolt that made them shake off his Dominion they would sincerely return under his Royal Protection to what pitch of grandeur might not that rich Republick advance what Traffick might not the Genoese aspire to under the triumphant banner of France and what Corsaires durst appear in the Mediterranean when our Squadrons joined to twenty Galleys that Genoa might entertain should cruise from Europe to Africa against these infesters of the Seas I say that Genoa which commonly sends out but six Galleys might easily maintain not onely twenty but also six men of War at least to convey their Merchant Ships if that Republick were again under the protection of the Kings of France for seeing then they could have no cause to fear a War from their Neighbours all their Revenues might be wholly employed in Navigation that they might become Masters of all the Trade of the Mediterranean and successfully carry it on as far as the East and West Indies And as the Nobles of Genoa are extraordinarily rich and have no less Wit and Courage than Wealth what employments might not they render themselves capable of under a King who with wonderful exactness knows how to discern the merit of his Subjects and who would furnish them with continual occasions of cultivating a genius that is dastardized by pleasures and of employing a Courage which by an unactive Peace languishes in idleness The principal Dignities of the State the highest Commands in the Army the considerable Offices of the Kingdom would be as much the recompences of their merit as of their sincere submissions and it would be a pleasant thing to see them share in the good fortune and glory of a State whose Interests would go hand in hand with their own Genoa and Marseilles united under the Standard of the Flower-de-luce would give the Law from Cadiz to the Dardanelles keep all Barbary in awful respect and make the Sultan tremble even in the Seraglio of Constantinople The Treasures of the Ligurians would daily increase by the free Trade that they might have in their own hands and that great Commerce drawing into the Coffers of the King's Subjects all the Money of Europe would render his own the more inexhaustible for the enlargement of that high Power to which his Virtues buoyed up by extraordinary fortune have raised him May Heavens grant that that invincible Monarch may reunite to his Crown that precious Flower which a revolt heretofore struck out of it and that Louis the Great and the Genoese may contend who shall have the better on 't he by Clemency and they by profound Submissions