Gianotti expressed the hope that the Pope’s authority might induce Doria to risk his fortunes with those of Italy, and he thinks there could not be obstacles on the part of the French monarch, because political prudence would counsel him to ally himself with Genoa, without seeking to govern her as a subject province: “rather,” he adds, “the French king should refuse to govern Genoa, as such power would involve most embarrassments for himself. The French king should make allies of the Genoese, solely in order to detach them from his enemies.” He makes a similar suggestion to all the Italian states, especially Siena and Florence, “who for common interests ought to make common cause.” He argues that such a policy would free these states from that dependence on the empire, which some believed necessary to their existence, and would give them the repute of being able to live without leaning on foreign support. He advocates the policy which adjusts itself to the conveniences and changes of the times, and enforces this reasoning by the conduct and aims of the Emperor which left the Italians no hope but in war. He advises that arms and munitions both of offence and defence be acquired with as much haste as possible; that friendship be cultivated with foreign powers. “_Peace_,” he concludes, “_may be more fatal than war_, for the former must in the end subject us to despotism, while war may fortify our present liberties and restore those of which we have been defrauded.”[32] This apparent digression upon the discourse of the Florentine statesman is very much to our purpose, and that his counsels were warmly welcomed by the Count Lavagna is manifest, for his scheme is moulded upon Gianotti’s plan. The Florentine laid down three rules of policy,--That our provinces, especially Genoa, break with the Emperor; that they form alliance with France--not to put themselves in her power, but to keep her from becoming their enemy,--and that, without seeking material aid from France, all the Republics should make vigorous preparation for war against the empire. On these principles Fieschi constructed his too-much calumniated plot. Those who have written about it, without studying the character of the times, rather as romancers than historians, have transmitted us a fable that he sought the supreme control of the Republic; but he sought no other end than to bring back the government to its ancient principles. Revolution in Genoa never aimed at enslaving the people. In those centuries we had foreign generals and ministers among us, but never absolute rulers; and if these ministers attempted tyranny, they paid for their audacity with their blood, like Opizzino d’Alzate, or were expelled, like Trivulzio and others.