be in great part the stuff from which a prosperous State is to be rebuilt
in Venice, if ever the fallen edifice rise again. They have sometimes a
certain independence of character, which a better condition of things, and
further education, would perhaps lift into honesty; though as yet they
seem not to scruple to take any unfair advantage, and not to know that
commercial success can never rest permanently on a system of bad faith.
Below this class is the populace, between which and the patrician order a
relation something like Roman clientage existed, contributing greatly to
the maintenance of exclusively aristocratic power in the State. The
greatest conspiracy (that of Marin Falier) which the commons ever moved
against the oligarchy was revealed to one of the nobility by his plebeian
creature, or client; and the government rewarded by every species of
indulgence a class in which it had extinguished even the desire of popular
liberty. The heirs of the servile baseness which such a system as this
must create are not yet extinct. There is still a helplessness in many of
the servant class, and a disposition to look for largess as well as wages,
which are the traits naturally resulting from a state of voluntary
submission to others. The nobles, as the government, enervated and
debauched the character of the poor by public shows and countless
holidays; as individuals, they taught them to depend upon patrician favor,
and not upon their own plebeian industry, for support. The lesson was an
evil one, hard to be unlearned, and it is yet to be forgotten in Venice.
Certain traits of soft and familiar dependence give great charm to the
populace; but their existence makes the student doubtful of a future to
which the plebeians themselves look forward with perfect hope and
confidence. It may be that they are right, and will really rise to the
dignity of men, when free government shall have taught them that the
laborer is worthy of his hire--after he has earned it. This has been the
result, to some degree, in the kingdom of Italy, where the people have
found that freedom, like happiness, means work.