country; whereas if it had planted such colonies without the
bounds of Italy it would have alienated the citizens, and given a
root to liberty abroad, that might have sprung up foreign or
savage, and hostile to her: wherefore it never made any such
dispersion of itself and its strength, till it was under the yoke
of the Emperors, who, disburdening themselves of the people, as
having less apprehension of what they could do abroad than at
home, took a contrary course.

The Mamelukes (which, till any man show me the contrary, I
shall presume to have been a commonwealth consisting of an army,
whereof the common soldier was the people, the commissioned
officer the Senate, and the general the prince) were foreigners,
and by nation Circassians, that governed Egypt; wherefore these
never durst plant themselves upon dominion, which growing
naturally up into the national interest, must have dissolved the
foreign yoke in that province.

The like in some sort may be said of Venice, the government
whereof is usually mistaken; for Venice, though it does not take
in the people, never excluded them. This commonwealth, the orders
whereof are the most democratical or popular of all others, in
regard of the exquisite rotation of the Senate, at the first
institution took in the whole people; they that now live under
the government without participation of it, are such as have
since either voluntarily chosen so to do, or were subdued by
arms. Wherefore the subject of Venice is governed by provinces,
and the balance of dominion not standing, as has been said, with
provincial government; as the Mamelukes durst not cast their
government upon this balance in their provinces, lest the