in Spain, often amusingly startle strangers in that country.[16] When an Italian talks with ardour of his _patria_, or devotes his energies to illustrate its history or its heroes, he means not Dante's land, "Circled by sea and Alps, parted by Apennine," but the village which gave him birth, or, at most, the province in which he dwells. Such is the boasted and burning patriotism of Young Italy, however her advocates may gloss over the fact. [Footnote 16: This was written under Gregory XVI. Time will show how far the more enlarged and generous policy essayed by his successor can abate long and deeply rooted prejudices on the one hand, without fostering undue expectations on the other. As yet (1850) the experiment has signally failed.[*A]] [Footnote *A: As we know, it succeeded ten years later.] These are, however, matters belonging rather to speculation than to history, and from which it is time to return. That we have not unreasonably questioned the tendency of the old Italian democracies to promote individual felicity, and the safety of personal rights, may be presumed from the dictum of one whose prepossessions are all in their favour. The views stated in the following passage in the main bear out those observations we have hazarded, and illustrate the tendency of republicanism, in its sternest forms, to pass under oligarchy or despotism. "Our ancient republicans loved their institutions, not so much in proportion to the amount of happiness and security which they afforded to the mass, as to the share that each individual was allowed to take in the sovereignty of the state. Liberty was for them rather an essential element of life than a source of enjoyment. Public spirit was the mainspring which determined all private exertion. Freedom they understood to be the identification of every citizen with the state. Hence patriotism gradually prevailed over liberty. Every one was vitally interested in the advancement of his country's greatness and power, endangered his life and property, sacrificed his domestic comforts, and even submitted to vexatious and arbitrary laws, whenever the safety of the republic seemed to require it. In their eagerness to assert the supremacy of their native state, they acceded to the concentration of power into one or a few hands, and gave rise to the establishment of oligarchy and despotism. But those patricians and tyrants still constituted the state, and although the sovereignty with which they had been provisionally invested became, in their hands, oppressive and permanent, yet those national governments were looked upon with devotion and pride, as the emanation of popular will and the depositaries of popular power."[17] [Footnote 17: MARIOTTI'S _Italy_, II., p. 298, first edition.] CHAPTER II Origin of the Counts of Montefeltro, and of their sovereignty in Urbino and the surrounding country--Their early genealogy--Guido, Count of Urbino--Antonio, Count of Urbino.