ists, as they are called, could muster any force, would be more sanguinary even than that which deluged France with blood for so many years, and deprived her of A MILLION OF INHABITANTS.
Machiavelli considers, in the 7th chapter, the two means of arriving at sovereignty, by fortune and talents, and quotes as examples, Francis Sforza[1] and Cæsar Borgia. The latter owed his sovereignty to the fortune of his father Pope Alexander VI, and lost it when his father was no more, notwithstanding his employing every means of success.—Machiavelli here declares the difficulty of laying the foundations of a permanent government after arriving at the throne; and we find Cæsar Borgia failed in the attempt, which proves Buonaparte's superiority over that bold, active, and enterprising man, whom our author points
- ↑ It was customary amongst the hired or mercenary troops to give their leaders a nom de guerre; whence the romantic names of Sforza, Forte in Braccio, Fracassa, &c.—like the puritanic Praise God Bare-bones, &c.
