It being the whim of Francesco Maria to unite in his person the opposite characters of monarch and philosopher, manifold inconsistencies were the natural consequence. In the address to his subjects, which we have quoted in reference to his second marriage, we have seen him dwell on the government of a minor as the greatest evil that could befall a people. Yet scarcely had he obtained the blessing of an heir than he began to devise steps for devolving prematurely upon his child the responsibility of sovereignty, and thereby releasing himself from those cares of state which reached him even at Castel Durante, and jarred upon his morbid love of seclusion and books. To this motive, at least, seem attributable the measures which we are now to detail, although he apparently excused them to himself as a wise precaution, in anticipation of his own death ere his son should have attained maturity. But, whatever may have been his real inducement, the scheme, so novel in that age, of imparting to his subjects a share in the government, was obviously calculated to gratify his love of philosophic speculation, while it threw upon others those duties and anxieties from which the prevailing desire of his advancing years was to escape. His first step towards this plan was taken in 1696, by ordaining that the episcopal cities of Urbino, Pesaro, Gubbio, Sinigaglia, Fossombrone, Cagli, and S. Leo, with the province of Massa Trabaria, should send him a leet of their inhabitants most qualified for the administration of affairs. Selecting one from each, he constituted them into a council of state, to sit permanently in Urbino: on this body he conferred the most ample powers to govern in his name, and, in the case of his death, to become the regency. In order fully to explain this project, we quote the state documents relating to it, which have been printed by Marini in his _Saggio di S. Leo_. These will be rendered more intelligible by premising that the inhabitants of towns were then divided into four classes,--the nobility, the merchants and wealthy citizens, the master artisans, and the operative artisans. Each of these chose their own prior, and the prior of the nobles was the gonfaloniere, to whom, among other duties, was confided the standard in battle. These political rights did not extend to peasants, menial servants, nor mechanics of the baser callings. "To the magnificent and our well-beloved, the Gonfaloniere and Priors of S. Leo, and to the Four, and the Parliament of the province of Montefeltro, THE DUKE OF URBINO. "Magnificent and well-beloved,