The Bravo

Bravo, The

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Title: The Bravo
Author: J. Fenimore Cooper
Release Date: December 1, 2003 [EBook #10363]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE BRAVO
A TALE
BY J. FENIMORE COOPER
"Giustizia in palazzo, e pane in piazza."

1872.

PREFACE
It is to be regretted the world does not discriminate more justly in its
use of political terms. Governments are usually called either
monarchies or republics. The former class embraces equally those
institutions in which the sovereign is worshipped as a god, and those in
which he performs the humble office of a manikin. In the latter we find
aristocracies and democracies blended in the same generic appellation.
The consequence of a generalization so wide is an utter confusion on
the subject of the polity of states.
The author has endeavored to give his countrymen, in this book, a
picture of the social system of one of the _soi-disant_ republics of the
other hemisphere. There has been no attempt to portray historical
characters, only too fictitious in their graver dress, but simply to set
forth the familiar operations of Venetian policy. For the justification of
his likeness, after allowing for the defects of execution, he refers to the
well-known work of M. Daru.
A history of the progress of political liberty, written purely in the
interests of humanity, is still a desideratum in literature. In nations
which have made a false commencement, it would be found that the
citizen, or rather the subject, has extorted immunity after immunity, as
his growing intelligence and importance have both instructed and
required him to defend those particular rights which were necessary to
his well-being. A certain accumulation of these immunities constitutes,
with a solitary and recent exception in Switzerland, the essence of
European liberty, even at this hour. It is scarcely necessary to tell the
reader, that this freedom, be it more or less, depends on a principle
entirely different from our own. Here the immunities do not proceed
from, but they are granted to, the government, being, in other words,
concessions of natural rights made by the people to the state, for the
benefits of social protection. So long as this vital difference exists
between ourselves and other nations, it will be vain to think of finding

analogies in their institutions. It is true that, in an age like this, public
opinion is itself a charter, and that the most despotic government which
exists within the pale of Christendom, must, in some degree, respect its
influence. The mildest and justest governments in Europe are, at this
moment, theoretically despotisms. The characters of both prince and
people enter largely into the consideration of so extraordinary results;
and it should never be forgotten that, though the character of the latter
be sufficiently secure, that of the former is liable to change. But,
admitting every benefit which possibly can flow from a just
administration, with wise and humane princes, a government which is
not properly based on the people, possesses an unavoidable and
oppressive evil of the first magnitude, in the necessity of supporting
itself by physical force and onerous impositions, against the natural
action of the majority.
Were we to characterize a republic, we should say it was a state in
which power, both theoretically and practically, is derived from the
nation, with a constant responsibility of the agents of the public to the
people--a responsibility that is neither to be evaded nor denied. That
such a system is better on a large than on a small scale, though contrary
to brilliant theories which have been written to uphold different
institutions, must be evident on the smallest reflection, since the danger
of all popular governments is from popular mistakes; and a people of
diversified interests and extended territorial possessions, are much less
likely to be the subjects of sinister passions than the inhabitants of a
single town or county. If to this definition we should add, as an
infallible test of the genus, that a true republic is a government of
which all others are jealous and vituperative, on the instinct of
self-preservation, we believe there would be no mistaking the class.
How far Venice would have been obnoxious to this proof, the reader is
left to judge for himself.
CHAPTER I.
"I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs, A palace and a prison on
each hand; I saw from out the