DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0286
2d8
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. VII
trates, and the administration of their laws;
that is to say, the essential forms of a republic,
and only employed the name and authority of
the Pontiff to repress the ambition of powerful
and factious citizens, or to awe the hostility of
their neighbors the Dukes of Modena, and of
their rivals the Venetians. Hence, they always
resisted every encroachment on their privileges,
and not unfrequently, expelled the papal legates
when inclined to overstrain the prerogatives of
their office. This guarded and conditional de-
pendence produced at Bologna all the advan-
tages that accompany liberty; industry, com-
merce, plenty, population, knowledge, and re-
finement.
The French, in their late invasion, found, but
did not leave, the Bolognese in possession of
these blessings. They deprived their city of its
freedom and independence, separated it from the
Roman state, and annexed it to the Italian Re-
public, to share with it the name of a Common-
wealth, and, to bear, in reality, the oppressive
yoke of an avaricious and insulting tyrant. Mr.
Burke, speaking of this event, says, “ The Pon-
tiff has seen his free fertile and happy city and
state of Bologna, the cradle of regenerated law,
the seat of sciences and of arts, the chosen spot
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. VII
trates, and the administration of their laws;
that is to say, the essential forms of a republic,
and only employed the name and authority of
the Pontiff to repress the ambition of powerful
and factious citizens, or to awe the hostility of
their neighbors the Dukes of Modena, and of
their rivals the Venetians. Hence, they always
resisted every encroachment on their privileges,
and not unfrequently, expelled the papal legates
when inclined to overstrain the prerogatives of
their office. This guarded and conditional de-
pendence produced at Bologna all the advan-
tages that accompany liberty; industry, com-
merce, plenty, population, knowledge, and re-
finement.
The French, in their late invasion, found, but
did not leave, the Bolognese in possession of
these blessings. They deprived their city of its
freedom and independence, separated it from the
Roman state, and annexed it to the Italian Re-
public, to share with it the name of a Common-
wealth, and, to bear, in reality, the oppressive
yoke of an avaricious and insulting tyrant. Mr.
Burke, speaking of this event, says, “ The Pon-
tiff has seen his free fertile and happy city and
state of Bologna, the cradle of regenerated law,
the seat of sciences and of arts, the chosen spot