lity or impracticability, the utility or inutility, of a ſimple democracy, if we could find a number of examples of it. From the frightful pictures of a democratical city, drawn by the maſterly pencils of ancient philoſophers and hiſtorians, it may be conjectured that ſuch governments exiſted in Greece and Italy, at leaſt for ſhort ſpaces of time: but no particular hiſtory of any one of them is come down to us; nor are we able to procure any more ſatisfaction to our curioſity from modern hiſtory. If ſuch a phenomenon is at this time to be ſeen in the world, it is probably in ſome of thoſe ſtates which have the name of democracies, or at leaſt in ſuch as have preſerved ſome ſhare in the government to the people. Let us travel to ſome of thoſe countries, and examine their laws.
The republic of St. Marino, in Italy, is ſometimes quoted as an inſtance; and therefore it is of ſome importance to examine, 1. Whether in fact this is a ſimple democracy; and, 2. Whether, if it were ſuch, it is not owing to particular circumſtances, which do not belong to any other people, and prove it to be improper for any other, eſpecially the United States of America, to attempt to imitate it.
The republic of St. Marino, as Mr. Addiſon informs us, ſtands on the top of a very high and craggy mountain, generally hid among the clouds, and ſometimes under ſnow, even when the weather is clear and warm in all the country about it.
This mountain, and a few hillocks that lie ſcattered about the bottom of it, is the whole circuit of the dominion. They have, what they call, three caſtles, three convents, and five
