[Footnote *82: Cf. CELLI, _Storia della Sollevazione di Urbino contro il Duca Guidobaldo, 1572-4_ (Torino, 1892).] The following letter, to the young Duke upon his succession, is printed in the correspondence of Girolamo Muzio, his preceptor, whose advices, though somewhat long, well merit attention, totally opposed as they are in spirit to then prevailing principles of government, and anticipating opinions even in our day charily developed in Italy. It is, above all, interesting to discover, on such satisfactory evidence, the political views which must have been inculcated on Francesco Maria from his early years, and which bore some seed in after life, notwithstanding the natural defects of his temper, and the crotchets imbibed from a false philosophy. Had such counsels been generally given and followed, constitutional government in Italy would now have been neither a mockery nor a bone of contention. "Men tried by difficulties and crosses nerve themselves to endure them; yet, knowing how your Excellency has long suffered from many troubles and annoyances, I shall undertake no vain task in wishing to offer consolation in this your new vexation and trial. I need not now say with what grief I have heard of the late sad event, knowing as you do how true a servant I was of his Excellency our Sovereign. On the contrary, I shall address myself to talk of certain considerations which appear to me beseeming the succession you have obtained, through a long and noble ancestry, meaning to speak to you with the freedom and loyalty which a servant should display when his master's interests are at stake; and upon this understanding I shall begin. "I remember more than once, while conversing with the illustrious Duchess your mother, to have lamented the manner in which I observed the government of the state conducted, praying the Almighty to protect you from the risk of being expelled from it, as there would have been no reasonable hope of the people recalling you again; a fact of which her good sense was fully aware. It would be long and irksome were I to repeat the various matters that I disapproved of, but from them I can deduce certain rules which it seems to me you ought to adopt for regulation of your authority, and the maintenance of justice, so as to reacquire and preserve the affection of your subjects. But, Sire, permit me to drop ceremonious designations, in order more readily to express my views.