The people see the nobles, who rule them, calm and self possessed, however great the danger, and remain confident and tranquil; while in Genoa each misfortune is the signal for a struggle between contending factions.

The occasion is seized to throw blame and contumely upon those in power, and the people give way to alternate outbursts of rage and depression.
"I do not say there are no faults in the government of Venice, but taking her altogether there is no government in Europe to compare with it.

During the last three hundred years, the history of every other city in Italy, I may say of every other nation in Europe, is one long record of intestine struggle and bloodshed, while in Venice there has not been a single popular tumult worthy of the name.

It is to the strength, the firmness, and the moderation of her government that Venice owes her advancement, the respect in which she is held among nations, as much as to the commercial industry of her people.
"She alone among nations could for years have withstood the interdict of the pope, or the misfortunes that have sometimes befallen her.

She alone has never felt the foot of the invader, or bent her neck beneath a foreign yoke to preserve her existence.