258 ITALIAN WARS. PART II. Foreign rela- tions con- ducted by the sove- reign. period. The object of these combinations was some positive act of aggression or resistance, for jDurposes of conquest or defence, not for the main- tenance of any abstract theory of political equili- brium. This was the result of much deeper reflec- tion, and of prolonged experience. The management of the foreign relations of the nation, at the close of the fifteenth century, was resigned wholly to the sovereign. The people took no further part or interest in the matter, than if it had concerned only the disposition of his private property. His measures were, therefore, often characterized by a degree of temerity and precipita- tion, that could not have been permitted under the salutary checks afforded by popular interposition. A strange insensibility, indeed, was shown to the rights and interests of the nation. War was re- garded as a game, in which the sovereign parties engaged, not on behalf of their subjects, but ex- clusively on their own. Like desperate gamblers, they contended for the spoils or the honors of victory, with so much the more recklessness as their own station was too elevated to be materially prejudiced by the results. They contended with all the ani- mosity of personal feeling ; every device, however paltry, was resorted to ; and no advantage was deemed unwarrantable, which could tend to secure the victory. The most profligate maxims of state policy were openly avowed by men of reputed hon- or and integrity. In short, the diplomacy of that day is very generally characterized by a low cun ning, subterfuge, and petty trickery, which would
