LETTERS 
 
 FHOM THE 
 
 NORTH OF riALY. 
 
 VOL. II.
 
 London: I'm.ikI hi C. Knuorth, 
 
 l;,Mi-V.ird. T<ni|,ie-l;jr.
 
 
 V 
 
 LETTERS 
 
 NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 HENRY HALL AM, Esq. 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 With discourse tluit shifts and changes, 
 That at random rovts and ranges. 
 Hither, th.tlier, here and there. 
 Over ocean, tartli and air ; 
 To the pole and to the tropic. 
 Overrunning every topic — 
 — Tell us, is he diuuk or mad? 
 — No, believe ine, grave and sad. 
 
 THE BIRDS, MS. Traiultun. 
 
 VOL. IL 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 1819. 
 
 # 
 a^^""
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 TO 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 On the Venetian Dialect— its Origin and Character— On 
 Venetian Poetry and Music, as connected with it — on 
 the other Dialects of Italy Page 1 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 On the Italian Language— its proper Designation and 
 Character — its extreme Difficulties— to be distin- 
 guished from the Florentine or Tuscan, which has a 
 Physiognomy of its own — a Sunmiary of its Beauties 
 and Defects— its Origin, and the Character of the 
 Parent Tongue — on its Pronunciation . . . . l6 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 On the Necessity of Italian to a Traveller — Extraordi- 
 nary Italian Linguist at Bologna 52 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 Conduct of the Imperial Government at Venice . . 56
 
 yi CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 Fiscal System of Austria in Italy, &c 68 
 
 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 State of Tythes in Italy, &c 82 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII. 
 
 Originality of character common amongst the ancient 
 Venetians 91 
 
 LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 On Venetian and Italian Mercantile Character, &c. 98 
 
 LETTER XL. 
 
 Account of the ancient Venetian Nobility — Causes of its 
 Ruin, &c J 04 
 
 LETTER XLI. 
 
 Characteristics of Italy, Moral and Physical . . 115 
 
 LETTER XLII. 
 
 On the coincidence of popular Superstitions . . 125 
 
 LETTER XLItl. 
 
 Observations on the Architecture of St. Mark's at Ve- 
 nice, &c 12y 
 
 LETTER XLIV. 
 
 Visit to the Island of Torzelo, and Reflections excited 
 by it 130
 
 CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 LETTER XLV. 
 
 Fresco Paintings in San Rocco — Restitution of ancient 
 Monuments to Venice, &.c 136 
 
 LETTER XLVL 
 
 On the Possibility of a Union of the Italian Provinces 139 
 
 LETTER XLVIL 
 
 Description of the Fire in Ca Corner — Conduct of the 
 J\ustrian Government and Troops — Mode of con- 
 structing the Foundations of Houses in Venice — of 
 supplying the City with fresh Water .... 142 
 
 LETTER XLVIIL 
 
 Venetian Festivals, Customs, and Table — Difference of 
 National Taste, &c 159 
 
 LETTER XLIX. 
 Other Festivals and Customs, &c 171 
 
 LETTER L. 
 
 On the Discoveries of the early Venetiarrs . . . 176 
 
 LETTER LL 
 
 Notions of Delicacy comparative amongst different Na- 
 tions 182 
 
 LETTER LIE 
 
 Visit to Bassatio 1 85 
 
 LETTER LIIL 
 Journey homewards. — Milan 201
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER LIV. 
 
 Oil tlic Poetry of Pahini — State of Manners in Italy, 
 as inlhicnced by the Government 204 
 
 LETTER LV. 
 
 Turin, and Italian Recollections 218
 
 
 LETTERS 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 Ou the Venetian Dialect — its Origin and Character — 
 Venetian Poetry and Music, as connected with it — 
 On the other Dialects of Italy. 
 
 Venice, November, 1817. 
 
 The Venetian is the language generally spoken 
 here, and indeed in all the considerable towns 
 of this state, except a few, such as Brescia and 
 Bergamo, which have a dialect of their own. 
 Of such towns it may be observed, that they 
 were not comprehended in the tract of country 
 inhabited by the ancient Veneti, but settled by 
 the Cisalpine Gauls. 
 
 The colour of the ancient language of this 
 people glimmered througli their Latin, as may 
 
 VOL. II. B
 
 2 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 be seen in inscriptions collected by Maffe'i,^ 
 and it should sccni probable that the original 
 dialects of the different races of settlers in Italy- 
 arc one remote cause of the variety of jargons 
 A\ hich at present prevail there. 
 
 (^f these the Venetian is undoubtedly the 
 best. It is softer and more winning than the 
 Tuscan, though it falls far beneath it in dignity 
 and force. The judgment however of a fo- 
 reigner is of little weioht. It has had better 
 testimonies borne to its merits by Bettmelli, 
 and a host of Italian writers, who may naturally 
 be supposed to have had a nicer and more dis- 
 criminating sense of its perfections. In all the 
 lighter and gayer walks of poetry it is delight- 
 ful ; and the Venetian verse is, I should say, 
 compared with the verse of other nations, very 
 much what Venetian painting is as to that of 
 the rest of Europe. 
 
 Venice is indeed a little world by itself, with 
 arts of its own and manners of its own. It is 
 original in almost every thing; in its language 
 its pictures, its poetry, and its music ; wdiich 
 
 * The Latin lapidary inscriptions found in the subalpine 
 towns of Italy often mark the provinciality of the authors. 
 Thus the W, one of the most characteristic marks of a tramon- 
 tane alphabet, is to be found in those of the Gallic colonies.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. J 
 
 however, may be all said to be qiiales dtcct esse 
 sorores. 
 
 But our business is at present w itli tlic lan- 
 guage. This is principally of Latin blood dashed 
 with Greek, Sclavonic, and I know not what. 
 The mixture of Greek,* which is infused in it, 
 is however, perhaps, not greater than what pre- 
 vails in the Italian ; and, I believe, the original 
 of many words which are usually considered as 
 aliens might be found either in the pure or 
 corrupter ages of latinity : for the inflections 
 and deflections which these suffer, deceive our 
 eyes, and it is often as difficult to trace such 
 in their new forms, as it is to recognize the 
 root of a plant in the variety and luxuriance 
 of its branches. Who, for instance, would at 
 first sight imagine that the Latin word forma 
 was only the Doric /xo^fpisi turned inside out? or 
 what rrenchmen would recognize wasp in the 
 waps of provincial English? The same prin- 
 ciple of change naturally prevails in the Italian 
 dialects, and I recollect being called upon by a 
 lower Florentine to look at a certain warden 
 " where there were stautcy 
 
 * Many familiar Venetian words are taken from the Greek, 
 as Magari ! (Maxagjo?), which answers to the conditional felice 
 me ! of the Italian. 
 
 B '1
 
 4 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 The instances I have quoted are of one 
 description ; there is a much larger class of 
 another, which follow the natural and uniform 
 bent of the language. Thus caleghicr, which 
 has puzzled some etymologists, is \'enctian for 
 a shoe-maker: this word should, according to 
 the Italian rules of inflection, be calegajo, as 
 bottegkier makes bottegajo. Now considering 
 the thing under this point of view, we see that 
 tr and ajo are mere tails, and that the body of 
 the word is caliga, the short boot amongst the 
 Romans, from which Caligula took his name. 
 Following therefore a simple rule of analogy, 
 caleghier is a boot or shoe-maker. 
 
 But referring to what I have said in a pre- 
 ceding paragraph as well as in the last, I have 
 no doubt that one skilled in disentangling sylla- 
 bles, which get absolutely matted in time, might 
 find in Du Cange the parentage of many words, 
 whose derivation most puzzles us in Venetian. 
 
 Still there are vocables which cannot be as- 
 cribed to a Latin stem. Thus much is cer- 
 tain. But the mode of their introduction may 
 be a subject of doubt and inquiry. Some con- 
 tend (and such is the vulgar opinion) that the 
 influx of these is to be ascribed to the inter- 
 course of the Venetians with the barbarians, and 
 the Greeks of Constantinople. A very little
 
 lETTEKS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 5 
 
 consideration liowevcr will shew the fallacy of 
 such a supposition.* 
 
 It is to be observed that the language is very 
 nearly the same throughout the tract of country 
 which has been termed inland and maritime 
 Venice; that is, the region inhabited by the 
 ancient Veneti, which corresponds, in a great 
 degree, with the modern limits of the Venetian 
 state. Now it is quite clear that the dialect of 
 maritime Venice could not have receixed acces- 
 sions of speech from the barbarians, for they 
 never entered the lagoon ; and it is equally clear 
 that many parts of inland Venice were as little 
 likely to naturalize Greek words from Constan- 
 tinople, since they had no communication with 
 that city. 
 
 Could we suppose that the candle had been 
 thus lit at both ends, each would retain some 
 signs of such a process, but this is so far from 
 being the case, that the language of Venice is 
 the same as that of Verona, and I should say 
 that as little difference, in this respect, existed 
 between the two cities, as may be traced be- 
 tween two contiguous counties in England. 
 Reasoning therefore from the uniformit}- of their 
 
 * See Filiasi su' primi c sccondi Vcncti. 
 
 b3
 
 6 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 dialect, even at the two extremities of the tract 
 through which it is spoken, is it not a fair in- 
 duction that the aliens, to which I have alluded, 
 had been tor ages and ages denizened in the 
 language ? 
 
 Let us try this theory a little farther. All 
 writers are agreed that the ancient Vetieti, or 
 Venetians, were a race differing in blood from 
 the Gallic tribes who peopled the rest of Lom- 
 bardy. Latizi, almost the only man who has 
 carried right principles of reasoning into inves- 
 tigations of national monuments, and who may 
 be classed amongst the most ingenious and accu- 
 rate of authors, I think, supposes the Veneti to 
 have been a Greek and Celtic mixture, obseiving, 
 that the infusion of Greek which he discovered 
 in their inscriptions was purer than that which 
 he found in the remains of the Etrurians* This 
 then may, at least, account for whatever there 
 •was or is of Greek in the language of this 
 people. But whatever were the elements of 
 their tongue, it is notorious they had one to them- 
 selves, however it was composed. This was 
 afterwards, as that of all the aboriginal Italians, 
 merged in the Latin, but many proofs might 
 
 * iSoggio di Lingua Etrusca.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 7 
 
 be adduced that, (like that of the Gauls, &c.) 
 it communicated something of its own colour 
 to the mass in which it mixed: For the lapidary 
 inscriptions, furnished by the Venetian district 
 and collected by Mafj'ei, shew the same sort of 
 ancient provinciality, (though of a different 
 dye,) which marks those of the Gallic colonies; 
 and in them may be seen some of the same 
 commutations of letters, which are common at 
 present in the Venetian dialect. In the EpisioUe 
 ad FamiUares of Cicero there is a letter in which 
 he mentions words as current in these provinces 
 which were not known at Rome. Livy was 
 accused of patav'mity or padumiism, (whatever 
 might be meant by the charge ;) and it was said 
 of Catullus that he had introduced new forms 
 of speech into the Latin. Circumstances might 
 be addiicetl in proof of these being Veronisms. 
 Thus he calls a torrent proww*, and is, I believe, 
 singular in its use. It may, perhaps, be sup- 
 posed, that this was the mere substitution for 
 the substantive of one of its ordinary and ap- 
 propriate epithets ; but it is to be remarked that 
 pronio still signifies torrent in the })ro\ ince of 
 Verona. 
 
 I have already Innted my belief that what I 
 have here attempted to jirove, aj)plied probably 
 to all Italy. In additional confirmation of this 
 notion, Algarutti, somewhere, mentions a letter 
 
 li 4
 
 8 LETTERS FROM THft NOllTH OF ITALY. 
 
 of Varus to Virgil, in wliich, commenting on an 
 epigram, he criticizes the word putus, averring 
 it not to be Latin. Now putto, though natu- 
 raUzed in ItaHan, is at present, I beUeve, only 
 familiarly used in the Mantuan and neighbouring 
 districts, and would not be understood by the 
 uneducated in Tuscany. 
 
 Whether or no the position I have contended 
 for extends south as well as north, I have, I think, 
 made it good in the Venetian province. If 
 therefore there is, as I have first shewn, reason 
 to suppose that foreign words, such as have 
 been described, were of early introduction, (and 
 there is every ground for saying that such ex- 
 isted in the language of the Veneti and tainted 
 the Latin, when adopted by them,) it seems to me 
 equally reasonable to suppose that these same 
 anomalies have been transmitted to the dialect 
 which has succeeded to the Latin. 
 
 Li rejecting however the idea that the Greek, 
 Sclavonic, or other terms which puzzle us in 
 Venetian are of modern origin, I do not mean 
 to say that modern Sclavonic slang, (such as 
 oaths, &c.) has not crept into use, in (compara- 
 tively speaking) modern times ; but these oaths, 
 for instance, merely float upon the surface, and 
 are no more incorporated with the language than 
 Gaelic interjections are in certain of the Scotch
 
 LETTERS TllOM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 9 
 
 dialects, or than English oaths (adopted for the 
 convenience of trade) arc in the French of 
 Jersey and Guernsey.* 
 
 Havino- now brought all the little learning of 
 M'hich I am possessed, to bear upon the origin of 
 the Venetian dialect, and indeed exhausted my 
 ammunition ; I proceed to give some account of 
 its more modern history. Partially cultivated 
 for a time, it was early superseded by the Italian, 
 as a written language ; nor M'as this change con- 
 fined to literary men, any more here than in the 
 rest of Italy : for it may now be said that all 
 classes throughout the peninsula, who can write, 
 compose in something as like Italian as they can 
 brew it. 
 
 The dialects have however remained every 
 where in oral use amongst the vulgar, and the 
 vernacular of Venice (as well as some others) 
 almost as much amongst high as low. As to 
 the latter class indeed, it is hardly an exaggera- 
 tion to say they are as ignorant of Italian as of 
 English. t 
 
 * 'I'lic inhabitants of these islands surrendered their own 
 natural oaths on becoming Hugonots ; but rinding the want of 
 them in their maritime intercourse with Southampton and 
 Weymouth, adopted English ones. 
 
 t My she servant here said one morning to my own, in my 
 presence, Vago ad impizar el Jogo ; vd ben dito cussi ? — Si — ■ 
 Gho piuser, perche mi voggio imparar a parlor in Inglese. The
 
 10 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 But though the Venetian ceased to exist as a 
 written language, either as employed in serious 
 branches of literature or the concerns of business, 
 as the gay pursued tilting as a sport after it had 
 ceased to be a mode of real combat, so certain 
 airy wits have descended into this deserted arena 
 and given no contemptible proofs of activity and 
 grace. 
 
 The happiest efforts of these poets have usu- 
 ally been what we term Venetian ballads, a 
 great number of which, though cruelly disfi- 
 gured, are current in England. The music to 
 which these songs are set is well known in 
 London. But no idea can be formed of them 
 by hearing them any where but at Venice, 
 For the pronunciation, if ever to be imitated, 
 is only to be caught from Venetian lips, and 
 nothing can be more ludicrous in the eyes and 
 ears of one who " has swam in a gondola," than 
 the gay or impassioned strain of the poetry, con- 
 trasted with the stucco-face of the statue which 
 doles it forth at home. Here it is seconded by 
 all the nice inflections of voice, all the grace of 
 gesture, and all that play of features which dis- 
 tinguishes the Venetian women. It is now how- 
 
 absurdity of this jargon consists in the woman's tliinking that 
 she was speaking English, whereas the slight deviation which 
 she made from her own dialect was into Italian.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 1 1 
 
 ever almost as difficult to find one who can sing 
 a Venetian ballad as one who can chaunt verses 
 from Tasso. 
 
 This poet has been, as you know, translated 
 into all or nearly all the Italian dialects, but 
 with most success into that of this state, minis- 
 tering matter for their music to the gondoleers 
 of former times. But " the songs of other 
 years " have died away. I requested one, the 
 other da}', from a man who was said to be 
 amongst the last depositories of them ; but 
 found I had touched a tender string in asking 
 for a song of Sion. He shook his head, and 
 told me that, " in times like these, he had no 
 heart to sing." 
 
 This boat-music was destined for the silence 
 and solitude of the night; but it should seem 
 that some of our countrymen entertain very 
 different notions on this subject; as I saw lately 
 a sober-looking Englishman, with his wife and 
 child, embarked on the grand canal at mid-day, 
 with two violins and a drum. Yet they did not 
 look like people who would have paraded Bond 
 Street, at tlie time of high water with fiddles in 
 a barouche. 
 
 But 1 have somehow or other got from Ve- 
 netian poetry to A^cnetian music, and from a 
 gondola into a carriage. I have however, I
 
 12 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 believe, said all I had to communicate upon 
 these subjects. 
 
 In the mean time something yet remains to 
 be said upon the dialects of Italy in general. 
 These are all, I repeat, like the Venetian, the 
 bastard progeny of the Latin, however alloyed 
 by baser metal, and nearly allied to the modem 
 Italian. Notwithstanding this, the mixture of 
 foreign words which has been introduced into 
 them and the twist which has been given to 
 their own natural roots, renders them extremely 
 difficult to be understood. Hence the reports 
 of travellers, who describe long conversations 
 held with the peasantry of Italy, are to be re- 
 ceived with great caution, and I can say with 
 truth that I once passed some da3'^s at Bologna, 
 without being able to gather even the general 
 sense of what w^as said to me by any of the 
 uneducated. Yet, when my ear had insensibly 
 accustomed itself to this jargon at the theatre, 
 from the mouth of one of the masques, de? 
 scribed in a former letter, I found that its 
 elements were already known to me, and might 
 be considered (to use a mean but expressive 
 metaphor) as Tuscan vocables gutted and 
 trussed. The running title indeed of a J3olognese 
 poem, which is now lying on my table, may
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 13 
 
 serve as an illustration of this : it is entitled 
 L D^sgrazie cV B'rtuldin. This sort of clisem- 
 bowelment, as well as the torture of their inflec- 
 tions, seems to have been the common destiny 
 of the dialects. Words leave letters as we 
 leave hiijfsj'isrc behind us in our travels. Thus 
 the Tuscan word capo, has lost its /> by the time 
 it arrives at Venice, and becomes cao. In its 
 further progress to IMilan, it drops its a and 
 becomes co ; in which state it may be found in 
 the Inferno of Dante, who uses the expression 
 /;/ CO del pontc. From Capo and co then may be 
 learned the general principle of change through- 
 out the peninsula. 
 
 After statins: the Venetian to be the best of 
 the dialects, I will (though I cannot venture 
 to discriminate intermediate shades) state what 
 I conceive to be decidedly the w^orst. These are, 
 the vernacular of Bologna,* Genoa and IMilan. 
 Yet one of these (however harsh and inelegant) 
 is distinguished by that spirit of poetry which 
 is peculiar to Italy. Thus the holly is called in 
 
 * It is very difficult to understand what Dante has said re- 
 specting the Bolognese dialect. The only supposition which 
 can explain his encomium is, cither, that it has totally changed 
 its character, a thing which appears impossible, or that Dante, 
 in his inveterate hatred to Florence, sought to exalt another 
 city at its expense. The latter is my own belief.
 
 14 l.ETTEKS I'KOM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 IVIilauese tlic lion-laurel, and tlie strawberry, 
 May-scarlet. 
 
 When I was first in this country,! began making 
 a collection of popular poetry, for the purpose of 
 illustrating the different dialects, but having lost 
 a part of my cabinet, never had the courage to 
 resume the task. I regret this the more, as I am 
 convinced it is the only way of making an esti- 
 mate of them : for though specimens of these may 
 be found amongst the works of the learned, and 
 a collection of the various translations of Tasso 
 already referred to, might be thought sufhcient 
 to the purpose, it is evident that the provincial 
 dialect of scholars must savour of the more 
 general and polished language in which they 
 read and compose. This observation may indeed 
 be stretched farther, and it may be said that 
 even those who approach the educated can hardly 
 be considered as credible witnesses in such a 
 matter. Yet it is thus that foreigners are con- 
 tinually deceived, who consider the speech of 
 a servitor di piazza as a specimen of the lan- 
 guage of the place where he plies. / fell into 
 this mistake on my first visit to Italy : 1 re- 
 member that walking to see some piece of 
 antiquity in the neighbourhood of Rome, my 
 attention was caught by a wild flower in the 
 fields, when the laquais de place observing it,
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. \5 
 
 said, " Covimanda die lo carpa ? " Had I left 
 the city next day, I should probahly have re- 
 marked upon the mixture of hitinity still to be 
 found in the vernacular of Rome : I stayed long 
 enough to discover that it had no more of this 
 than many of its sister dialects, and that my 
 laquais de place talked like a cardinal.* 
 
 * TIic polished language of Rome, which differs toto ccclo 
 from the vulgar vernacular, is to be considered as sophisticated 
 Italian. The assemblage of priests from different parts of Italy 
 has rendered a lingua aulica more especially necessary there, 
 and this has naturally taken a very strong tinge from the Latin, 
 such being the language of church and chancery. 
 
 This influx of latinisms has a very bad effect, and renders 
 the Italian of Rome particularly disagreeable to me. The rea- 
 son seems to be this : Though almost all Italian words have a 
 similar origin, they have by long intermixture acquired a 
 character of their own. Now the introduction of a quantity 
 of crude materials changes the colour and flavour of the mess, 
 into which they are cast.
 
 ( 16 ) 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 On the Italian Language — its proper Designation and 
 Character — its extreme Difficulties — to be distinguished 
 from the Florentine or Tuscan, which has a Phj/si- 
 o<r/iomi/ of its ozvn — a Summary of its Beauties and 
 Defects — its Origin, and the Character of the Parent 
 Tongue — on its Pronunciation. 
 
 Venice, November, 1817- 
 
 The general view which I have taken of the 
 Italian dialects naturally leads to the considera- 
 tion of the tongue, which is to be considered as 
 the queen and empress of them all : this has 
 been by some called Florentiiie, by some Tuscan j 
 and by others, (and these are more numerous,) 
 Italian. 
 
 But as something more than is at first appa- 
 rent, depends upon its name, it will not be amiss 
 to examine the grounds upon which these dif- 
 ferent designations rest. If this language is to 
 be called Flcroitine, as contended by Machiavel 
 and others, the term would restrict its elements 
 to such as are furnished by Florence, excluding 
 words of common currency in neighbouring cities, 
 as iSienna,' 8ic. But for this principle the veriest
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 17 
 
 provincial purist would scarcely contend. Again, 
 iF it is to be Tuscan, this name would, on the 
 same grounds, confine its vocabulary to the 
 limits of the dukedom : but almost all the 
 classical authors of the peninsula have disdained 
 so narrow a lield. I conclude, therefore, that 
 it is more properly as well as more popularly 
 called Italiaji ; but in an examination of its 
 character 1 shall throw more lights on its de- 
 signation. 
 
 The Italian (to describe it as accurately as I 
 can) is an ideal language, which has indeed what 
 may be termed the Tuscan for its base,* but re- 
 ceives and naturalizes forms of speech from all 
 the provinces ; being, as Alonti, echoing Dante, 
 says, to be found every where in parts, but no 
 AV'here as a whole. 
 
 It is perhaps this character Mhich renders 
 it a delightful vehicle for verse, even in the 
 eyes of those who will not allow it to be 
 such for prose; for wheth.er poetry, in the ab- 
 
 * This I take to be undeniable by a fair critic ; yet the not 
 admitting this principle (for I do not find it any where ad- 
 mitted) has given the Tuscans their only vantage ground in this 
 long disputed argument. 
 
 VOL. IT. C
 
 18 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 stract, be, or be not (as is contended) a thing 
 essentially ideal, such is undoubtedly the spirit 
 of Italian poetry. As is the statue then, such 
 should be the drapery. For conceive an ideal 
 work of the finest sculpture, clothed in a grace- 
 h\\ but familiar dress : such a vision disgusts us 
 as soon .as formed. But give the same figure 
 drapery of composition, and it pleases. It is 
 for this reason that all attempts to translate 
 Petrarch into English have so egregiously failed. 
 To catch and preserve his spirit of diction in a 
 vernacular language, is as hopeless as it would 
 be to fix the fugitive tints of the rainbow and 
 paint them in body colours. 
 
 But having called up Petrarch as a witness, I 
 cannot immediately dismiss him, as I have occa- 
 sion for him again as an evidence who is to speak 
 yet more directly to my first position. This poet 
 is acknowledged to have been one of the main 
 reformers, if not one of the architects, of his 
 language. And from what mine did he extract 
 his materials ? Not out of " quarries which he 
 found at home." For, though a Tuscan born, 
 he never, I believe, passed any length of time 
 in his native province, which he left young, and 
 with the vernacular dialect of which he could 
 not have been familiarly acquainted. A large
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALV. 1^ 
 
 part of his materials may be said to be " pcre- 
 grini mar mi — 
 
 Da dotta mano in varie forme sculti."* 
 
 Ariosto. 
 
 Nor was he licentious in this ; for tlie permis- 
 sion of importation on wliich he acted is to be 
 found in the Vucabolario dclla Crusca, which has 
 (no matter to what extent or under what reser- 
 vations) completely established the principle. 
 
 But without adopting the laws of this capri- 
 cious code in their detail, for indeed they are 
 too contradictory to be capable of complete 
 observation, let us see what appears to have 
 governed the great mass of Italian writers. I 
 have already said that Tuscan forms the base of 
 their Italian, but it remains to shew what modi- 
 fications it has undergone, and what clianges 
 have been grafted upon it. I shall illustrate 
 these as familiarly as I can. 
 
 In every language words get naturally dis- 
 torted from their original meaning, and of this I 
 might adduce various examples in our own. 
 They sometimes have it improperly enlarged, 
 but oftener contracted, as in the case of the 
 English words aspersions and audacious, which 
 
 * Rare foreign marbles, wrought by cunning hand. 
 C 2
 
 20 LETTERS FUOM THE NOUTH OF ITALY. 
 
 admitted either a good or bad signification, in 
 the time of Shakspearc ; but which are both 
 now taken only in an evil sense. They some- 
 times however also extend their pretensions. 
 This has been done by the word inveterate. 
 Thus, though to say an inveterate enemy is cor- 
 rect, you will, I think, agree with me, that to 
 talk of any one being inveterate against another 
 Avould be a barbarism, were it not now sanctioned 
 by the use of porters and of peers. Of such 
 abuses the Tuscan is full : It has been the task 
 of the compilers of the Italian, to reform them, 
 to polish right and left, rubbing off the rust, 
 perhaps the precious rust of antiquity ; — to 
 clothe words according to an uniform system of 
 orthography, and recast all incorrect forms of 
 phraseology. 
 
 These changes, you may say, have been ef- 
 fected or attempted in all languages ; but these 
 reformers have introduced amongst others, one 
 which is single in its kind. Though they have 
 accepted many Tuscan or Florentine words, they 
 have rejected many others, not only of what are 
 vulgarly called Jine words, but several amongst 
 those which are the most familiar. Thus cesoje 
 means scissars at Florence, but forbid is the 
 word adopted into general Italian use ; and I 
 might adduce a variety of similar examples.
 
 LETTIUS FROM TIIK NORTH OF ITALY. '21 
 
 Other (litteicnces were also introclucccl in coin- 
 poundiiig this huiguagc, which have produced 
 a yet wider effect. The changes I aUude to 
 affect both syntax and prosody : every one, for 
 example, at all conversant with the language, 
 knows that the penultimate syllable of the indi- 
 cative-imperfect tense is long, (as we should 
 express it,) and pronounced long, both in Italian 
 verse and prose ; whereas the Florentines make 
 it short, pronouncing amavUmo amavamo. More- 
 over it would be endless to cite misconstructions 
 and misconjugations allowed in the Tuscan and 
 rcjecteil in the Italia?!. 
 
 So much for modiiications of the Tuscan base ; 
 but you will always keep in recollection its 
 wider admission of foreign graces. This cha- 
 racter of the order, or rather this disposition to 
 receive any character, renders the Italian an 
 engine applicable to all purposes in the hands 
 of those who know how to wield it; and the 
 English notion of this language, which sees in 
 it only a vehicle for pathetic or amatory verse, 
 appears to me founded upon a very superficial 
 view of the subject. This magnificent machine 
 may be better compared to an organ, which has 
 all the sources of harmony within itself; from 
 the trumpet-stop to the flageolet. Take, as a 
 proof, two authors, wlio have both graced the 
 
 c 3
 
 22 LETTEKS EROIM THE NOUTII OF ITALY. 
 
 language in Avhich they wrote, and both ex- 
 hibited the most singular contra.^t of powers : I 
 mean A [fieri and Metastas'io. Have we not 
 here the trumpet and the flute? 
 
 But the ItaHan is not only susceptible of the 
 apparently contradictory qualities of softness 
 and strength; it is capable of uniting principled 
 more substantially opposite ; it not only hardens 
 and melts, but contracts or dilates as it is moulded 
 by the artist. Our critics at home are very 
 severe upon the diffusive character of the Italian 
 prosers, yet it would be impossible for any lan- 
 guage with which I am acquainted, to produce 
 a more extraordinary model of vigour and com- 
 pression than is to be found in the translation of 
 Tacitus by Davanzati. If however it is objected 
 to me, that, judging him by the principles I 
 have myself laid down, this author wrote rather 
 in Florentine * than in Italian, dealing largely 
 
 * I cannot perhaps bring this distinction better home to the 
 understanding of a reader not acquainted with the subject of 
 controversy, than by citing an observation of Monti: He says 
 that the " Jerusalem Dcli\ercd " of Tasso might be as well 
 translated from Italian into Florentine (add, into any given sub- 
 division of Tuscan) as into any other dialect of the peninsula. 
 Indeed many works might be cited as written in pure Florentine, 
 as the Teatro Antico Fiorentino, the Canfi Carnascialcscki, Sx.
 
 LETTERS IROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 23 
 
 in words and phrases that are unintelligible out 
 ot" Florence, I will take another writer, who 
 equally illustrates my position, I mean Machia- 
 vel, as severe and concise as Davanzati. I press 
 him into my service, though inlisted on the 
 other side of the question ; for he cannot surely 
 be said to write in Florentiiie, who has rejected 
 all local modes of speech, and is intelligible to 
 to every one who can read Italian. For it is 
 singular that, whilst this author insists the 
 language under consideration should be called 
 Flor^entine, I should cite his writings as models 
 of the purest Italian. He seems to be himself 
 aware of the contradiction, wliich exists be- 
 tween the fact he contends for, and the tone of 
 his and almost all other literary works ; for he 
 confesses that the written language of Italy dif- 
 fers considerably from that of Florence; but, by 
 way of obviating the deduction, says, " Is not this 
 the case every where, and does not the literary 
 necessarily differ from the colloquial language?" 
 The ob\ ious answer to this would be another 
 question, " In what degree? " for on this every 
 thing depends. Thus the French or Fnglish, 
 as spoken, differs from itself as Avritten ; but 
 this distinction docs not consist in any essential 
 change. No new elements are introduced into 
 the written language : the difference is seen in 
 
 c 4
 
 'i4 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 superiority of elegance and arrangement. The 
 English do not recur to Scotland, nor the French 
 to Provence for words and phraseology. The 
 Italian, on the contrary, is almost unlimited in 
 his range. It is hence, perhaps, that some of 
 the fe.w lights of the language have shot their 
 rays from spots where it was unknown, but 
 as Latin is in Hungary. This is equally true 
 of the present as of former ages, and you will 
 recollect that our friend Ugo FoscolOy to whom 
 I should give the first place amongst the mo- 
 dern Italians, is, strictly speaking, a Venetian 
 Creole.* But in discussing the merits of the 
 Italian, the questions of name and character 
 are necessarily getting continually involved ; I 
 shall disentangle my skein and keep it clear as 
 long as I can. 
 
 Speaking of the genius of the Italian ; I said 
 that it was an engine applicable to all purposes. 
 Yet though this instrument, " govern its ven- 
 tages but rightly, Avill discourse most eloquent 
 music ; " like other weapons of the art, it makes 
 woeful discord in the hands of him who is not 
 perfect in its management. This is so difficult, 
 that few French or English, with the exception 
 
 * Of Venetian origin, but a native of Zante.
 
 LETTEllS FROM THE NORTH OE ITALY. 25 
 
 of Menage, Milton and Mathias, who, I sup- 
 pose, triumphed in the spiiit of alliteration, 
 have ever cultivated it with success. But let 
 us look to the peninsula itself, to Tuscany,* if 
 you will, or indeed to the very spot from which 
 I date, as affording the hest illustration of the 
 truth of my position. Goldoni was, as every 
 one knows, horn a Venetian. As such, he was 
 necessarily educated in the study of the Italian, 
 which, as I have already said, is the written 
 language of the whole peninsula, and in which 
 he himself wrote ahout forty volumes in octavo: 
 he passed moreover six years of his life in Tus- 
 cany : yet with all his exercise and all his 
 advantages he never arrived at composing in 
 Italian with force, purity, or precision. This 
 man went to France, and a trifling anecdotef 
 which he has given of himself, shews how lit- 
 tle he then knew of the language of the coun- 
 try to which he was hound. Yet a few years 
 
 * I should say that the present Tuscan school was tlic worst 
 in the peninsula. 
 
 t lie tells us that on his voyage to some southern port of 
 France, his fear was increased during a gale of wind by a 
 Frenchman's exclaiming Voild ! on the approach of every heavy 
 sea. This he imagined was an injunction to make more sail, 
 confoundins tela with voilti. See his Memoirs.
 
 25 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 after tliis we fincl him writing a comedy in 
 French,* which was received with applause; 
 and the lang'uagc of which has, I bcHeve, es- 
 caj)e{i criticism. 
 
 But, to rise a Httle higher in the scale than 
 poor Golcloni, and cite one, who, unlike him, 
 zaas eminently successful in point of style, I 
 mean the author of Galateo: by what sacrifices 
 was this perfection purchased? We are told, if 
 my recollection serves me, that he employed 
 thirt}^ or forty years in its composition. Now 
 is life long enough to bestow such a space of 
 time, on what might be comprized in a moderate 
 sized duodecimo? 
 
 I have cited this work ; since, though it is a 
 model of Italian elegance, there is nothing in the 
 matter (which I have just measured) that 
 need have cost an hour's thought to the com- 
 poser. 
 
 But in what, it may be asked, consists the 
 difficulty of Italian composition? In the first 
 place, I should say in the choice of terms, almost 
 all marked by some indescribable difference, the 
 abundance of which, in itself, puzzles and con- 
 founds — above all, in the exercise of the right 
 
 * Lc Buurrcau bievfaisant .
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 27 
 
 of importing foreign terms, the trade in w liicL 
 cannot absolutely be called free, but requires con- 
 siderable exertion of judgment. Nor docs it in- 
 deed consist only in the selection of materials ; it 
 lies in the very architecture of the language, the 
 structure of its sentences being schemed on dis- 
 tinct principles from those of the other tongues 
 of Europe. In this country a man fagots 
 his notions as they fall, content if' each bundle 
 is properly secured. The binder thinks this is 
 done, if no link be wanting in his chain of rea- 
 soning : little attention is paid to the rest, as is 
 witnessed by the S^ris of Bishop Berkley. His 
 ascent by a long flight of easy steps from 
 tar-water to the Trinity is perhaps the happiest 
 specimen of subtle but well connected reasoning 
 which exists; yet the more mechanical part of 
 the performance, however esteemed by us, would 
 disgust the Italian workman, who must consider 
 it as coarsely wrought, in comparison of his own 
 models of exact and delicate execution. His 
 mode of composing may be compared to the 
 process of dove-tailing. Add that each sen- 
 tence is blended into that which follows, with 
 such a nice gradation of shade, that the aid of 
 stops may be considered as unnecessary in a' 
 well written Italian work. Hence it is that 
 foreigners who attempt this language, if they
 
 28 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALV. 
 
 succeed in the outline, rarely succeed in giving 
 it the chiar' oscuro which it requires. 
 
 I am sensiJjle that these observations may 
 sound extravagant to the French or English; 
 who consider Italian as of easy acquisition. I 
 cannot perhaps better illustrate the cause of this 
 popular mistake and the real state of the fact, 
 than b}^ citing a comparison made use of to me 
 at a time when I shared the general delusion, 
 by an Italian who (no common occurrence) was 
 intimately acquainted with his own language. 
 " This," he said, " might be likened to a coquette, 
 from whom it was easy to obtain a kind look, a 
 squeeze of the hand, or a smile, but with whom 
 there was no going farther." It is now six years 
 since I heard this comparison, and every suc- 
 ceeding year has more deeply impressed me 
 with a conviction of its truth. 
 
 We have indeed a crowd of witnesses to this 
 point in the host of Italian writers, who have 
 failed in their pursuit. To descend to our own 
 times ; how very few have succeeded in it ? 
 These wnite in a colloquial jargon, replete with 
 provincial gibberish and Gallicisms ; while a yet 
 more powerful party flies at higher game, and 
 ^oes to the thirteenth century in search of an 
 antiquated phraseology, which is become half 
 unintelligible to the present. Tiiis last may be
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 129 
 
 considered as the prevaiHiig folly of the day, 
 though it should seem to be the least explical)lc. 
 That a people shouUl neglect or adulterate 
 their own language is sufficiently intelligible, 
 and referable to those very common motives, 
 ignorance and laziness : but the causes which 
 should have incited them to a contiary and 
 very troublesome pursuit are not ecjually appa- 
 rent. While, on the other hand, the inconve- 
 niences which must result from this pedantic 
 passion might, one should think, have been 
 obvious to an}' but the besotted sect of the ti^e- 
 ccntisti. Algarotti, with great reason, attacks 
 the folly of his countrymen for recurring to the 
 French for military terms, where exact equiva- 
 lents are to be found in Italian. But this 
 argument will not carry far, since it will not of 
 course bear upon sciences either unknown, or 
 imperfectly cultivated, at the time the Italian 
 was supposed to have been perfectioned. And 
 are new terms in natm^al history or geology 
 to be excluded, because these studies were un- 
 known to tlie writers of the thirteenth century ? 
 who, if they had found or distinguished feldspar 
 or a mammoth's bones amongst the Alps, would 
 have called the first a sort of a stone, and the 
 second a sort of a beast. Y'et, notwithstandino-
 
 30 LETTERS FllOiM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 the absurdity of its tenets, tliis sect, like others, 
 luis increased, deriving nourishment from its 
 own extravagances ; though there have not been 
 wanting men of judgment to expose them. 
 
 Having pointed out the difficulties of this 
 lanq-ua<>:e and the extravagances of those who 
 have written in it, let us ascend to the first 
 great cause which has led them astray. In all 
 cases where art is greatly predominant, art is 
 necessarily apt to degenerate into aifectation. 
 An Englishman (to take the first-turn metaphor) 
 writes very much as he rides. He gets on 
 horseback how he can, and being somehow or 
 other shaken into his scat, goes straight forward 
 to his object, while the Italian is more anxious to 
 shew his grace than to get to his journey's end. 
 His seat indeed is strong, his posture is elegant, 
 and the animal he bestrides is perhaps obedient 
 to his will ; but after all, all is but vanity, and, 
 nine times out of ten, the object is mere caper 
 and caracole. 
 
 I ought, however, when enlarging on the 
 pow^ers of this language, to have made some ne- 
 cessary exceptions. As an ideal language and 
 having no precise standard of idiomatic phraseo- 
 logy, it must (however applicable to other sub- 
 jects) fail in those of familiar humour, and it is
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 31 
 
 therefore an unrittin<»; vehicle for comedy. Va- 
 rious causes* have been assigned for the failure 
 of this amongst a j3eople which appears pecu- 
 liarly fitted for its cultivation. Various others 
 might he alleged with equal plausibility : but 
 the main and effectual bar to its success appears 
 to me to be founded in what I have adduced. 
 For comedy is to be judged by the many, and 
 can only be thoroughly intelligible to them, by 
 dealing in a phraseology which is in common 
 currency, and on which, custom has stamped a 
 certain and recognized sense. Hence what is 
 by us called idiom, serves in all the more ordi- 
 nary purposes of literature, as coin in the smaller 
 and more familiar intercourse of trade. 
 
 But here circumstances render the currency 
 of a common specie impossible, at least with 
 any equality of exchange. For suppose the 
 Tuscan to have been adopted, or (to give more 
 force to my argument) something less abstract, 
 as the Florentine ; the rihoboli Fiorentini '\ 
 might excite much merriment amidst the ^vq- 
 (\\xe\\te.Ysoi the Mercatovecchioy without perhaps 
 
 * Many of these arc merely second causes, such as the bad 
 composition of the theatrical corps, their faulty declamation, 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 t Proverbial modes of diction peculiar to I'lorenciv
 
 52 LETTEllS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALV. 
 
 l)cing fully felt by those of the Meixato ?iuovo;* 
 and tlic humour would, at any rate, be consi- 
 dered as vulgar, by all the educated of Florence 
 itself : for it is a nice point in all languages to 
 steer between familiarity and vulgarity, and a 
 thousand inelegancies of diction have perhaps 
 no fault in themselves, being mere vulgarities 
 of convention ; held vulgar, because they are 
 only common in an inferior class of society. 
 Thus to i^ide in a coach is voted vulgar in Eng- 
 lish, and pincer tharpe is, as I am told, con- 
 sidered so in French : but if idiomatic phra- 
 seology is left wholly to the ])eople, it must, 
 upon tiiis principle, become wholly vulgar. But 
 tliis would be the smallest part of the evil : this 
 style of diction, perhaps voted vulgar in Florence 
 itself, would not be at all intelligible without 
 her walls. As a simple proof, open any volume 
 
 * The Florentine, itself, is subdivided by the learned into 
 two dialects, to wit, that of the mercato xecchiu and the merca- 
 to nuoxo ; but a lower Florentine once told me, that the people 
 acknowledge others, (I think four,) assigning a separate one to 
 each of the parishes of the CamulJuli. 
 
 There is, perhaps, more than one mode of speech current 
 in our own monstrous metropolis, but I do not think any lower 
 Londoner would say, he recognized different dialects in Wap- 
 ping and Westminster.
 
 LETTERS FKOM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 33 
 
 of the Teatro Comico Fiore??thw, and you, who 
 know the written language of Italy, will, I 
 think, be continually at fault. Nor would a 
 foreigner only tind difficulties; for an accom- 
 phshed Italian might l)e often aground. The 
 comic authors therefore, writing for all Italy, 
 have necessarily adopted a language wliich is 
 common to the peninsula; but this, as I have 
 already mentioned, is for other reasons insuffi- 
 cient to their end. 
 
 For the same reason that Italian is insufficient 
 to the ends of the stage, I should also say it 
 was naturally, though not necessarily ill adapted 
 to the purposes of business ; it might even be 
 said to those of conversation which requires pre- 
 cision. Because, as there is no living standard 
 to refer to, and the Italians, considered gene- 
 rally, are not a reading nation, and so do not 
 seek this standard in books, the majority of them 
 never learn the full value and force of words. 
 When they are therefore ignorant of the right 
 one, they either seek its equivalent in their own 
 provincial dialect or supply its want by a galli- 
 cism or a periphrasis. The consequences of this, 
 in the interchange of what I will call metaphy- 
 sical terms, are easily conceived : but the evil 
 does not stop here ; for, from the want of any 
 
 VOL. II. D
 
 34 LKTTERS FllOM THE NOUTFI OF [TALY. 
 
 small rcc(),t»"nizc(l coin, if ideas are not exchanged 
 in the provincial currency of the place, the thing 
 itself may be said to be given instead of its sym- 
 bol. As a })roof of this, as much witliin your 
 reach as mine, look owtshutttrs in Baretti's Dic- 
 tionary, and you will iind them described, not 
 translated in Italian : that is, not the single word 
 given, which is their equivalent in that language, 
 l)ut a regular definition, as finestra cli legno al cli 
 J'liori, al di dentro di quella d'l %:ctro, all which 
 mioht have been simiified in thesin<>;le word im- 
 
 s n o 
 
 posla. Ask, on the other hand, another, (as a 
 Venetian, for instance,) what is Italian for shut- 
 ters, and he will tell you scuri. Imagine then 
 these two principles widely acted upon ; that is, 
 a dozen people dealing in definitions instead of 
 equivalents, or ])laying at cross-purposes, by using 
 terms to which different parts of the company 
 annex either a different value, or no value at 
 all. To offer you also written evidence of my 
 second assertion, look at the Italian newspapers, 
 and I will venture to maintain that, from Turin 
 to Naples, you will not find one but what is 
 filled with provincialisms, unintelligible but for 
 the assistance of the context. 
 
 Having balanced the beauties and defects of 
 the Italian, let us now look to the mine that has
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 35 
 
 furnislicd the ore, of which, tliough iciincd niul 
 amalg-aiiiatetl with otiicr metals, it has been 
 principally composed. 
 
 Of all living, inartificial tongues, the Tuscan, 
 or (to take hold of something more palpable) the 
 Florentine, is the most poetical and picturcs(iue. 
 But it is rarely that foreigners fish deep enough 
 to fnid its pearls, for these are only to be collected 
 amongst the lowest orders of the people. The 
 upper ranks of Florence, who do not think them- 
 selves under the necessity of studying Italian 
 o-rammaticallv, vet seek to assimilate their tone 
 to that of the rest of Italy, make a miserable 
 medley, and are perhaps the worst models of 
 speech in the peninsula. The people, on the 
 contrary, are content, as My. VVhistlecraft says, 
 
 " To talk as their good mothers us'd to teach," 
 
 that is, in the very pith and poetry of Boccac- 
 cio. I mean of course his phraseology, and do 
 not extend my observation to the elegant, but 
 laboured construction of his sentences,* 
 
 " Which neither is, nor was, nor e'er could be " 
 
 • 'Boccaccio is considorod by Barttli as one of tlie £!;reat cor- 
 rupters of the Italian school, and as having Ix't-n of as pestilent 
 example in literature as in morals. Without adopting the 
 violence of this kill-cow criti.-, (Ariilarco Scaniinbue, as he 
 
 D 'i
 
 36 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 the natural order of conversation or composition 
 in any country or age. It would, least of all, 
 be so in Florence, the dialect of which is re- 
 markable for the absence of art, and is indebted 
 for this to its peculiar character. 
 
 It has been often remarked that the language 
 of savages and hunters, &c. is replete with pic- 
 ture. We may say also (for the same reason) 
 that our sailors never speak but in metaphor. 
 They talk of the wind " coming in spiteful puffs, 
 of pulling agaifist a heart-breaki7ig stream, and 
 of an iron-bound coast, c^'C." If they would tell 
 you that the tide begins to abate of its force, 
 they say that the tide is grown an old man. — 
 But I am insisting npon what is, I believe, 
 generally acknowledged. Another thing, how- 
 ever, not generally recognized, is, equally true ; 
 namely, that not only the language of the 
 description of men I have specified, is peculiarly 
 picturesque, but that the speech of the lower 
 orders is always more so than that of the upper — 
 that those who are yclept "base and mechanical," 
 have their imagery, and that in all countries, the 
 
 justly styles himself,) there is, I believe, truth in his accusation. 
 Bui the style of Boccaccio is exquisite — granted; and so is 
 Lord Bacon's ; yet few, I suppose, would j)ropose the chan- 
 cellor as a model.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 37 
 
 language of polished society (j3robal)ly tVom tlieir 
 habits of abstraction) is that whicli is most deii- 
 cicnt in vigour and originality : Thus, whilst the 
 gentleman drones out his common-place modes 
 of speech, the journeyman distiller talks almost 
 in the tone of Dante, of a silent spirit, (mesLw- 
 ing a tasteless one,) the barber, of a razor's cut- 
 ting sxvect* and the labourer, of its being cruel 
 cold. The Florentines, however, give in to tbis 
 style of speech more than any other people, and 
 put passion, life, and figure into every thing they 
 say. 1 recollect asking my M'ay of one to a par- 
 ticular house, and he told me to go straight 
 forwards to the bottom of the street, and it 
 would tumble on my head. My servant, who, 
 I believe, I have already said, was of the 
 same city, appearing not to comprehend some 
 directions I was giving him, I asked him if he 
 understood me ; he answered " Yes, for I al- 
 ways spoke in relief^ (cue parlava sempre 
 scoLPiTO.) Another Florentine, describing to 
 me an accident which had happened to a coach, 
 the horses of which had broken loose from their 
 traces, leaving the carriage to roll down a hill 
 
 * A carpenter will even christen a chissrl or saw which cutjs 
 clean, " 5weet-lips." 
 
 o 3
 
 J8 LETTERS FROIM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 liy itself, observed, in the course of liis story, 
 " AUorcfic capltd in fondo, dove era piu docile a 
 fermarsi " — Compare this with Virgil's 
 
 ncque audit ciirrus habenas, 
 
 and decide which is tlie most poetical. 
 
 This figurati\e mode of expression is, of 
 course, in a great measure rubbed smooth by the 
 polish which the language has received in being- 
 ground into Italian. 
 
 But this is not the only beauty which has been 
 sacrificed. Thus one characteristic has not gene- 
 rally been transferred into the artificial language 
 which must appear most precious in the eyes of 
 an Englishman — I mean a brevity of expression, 
 which is, I think, as remarkable as that which 
 distinguishes his own vernacular tongue ; the 
 Florentines coining a verb out of every noun, and 
 thus condensing into one word what would other- 
 wise cost three. As an instance of how far this, 
 is carried, I should mention that, asking my ser- 
 vant once whether he was comfortable on the 
 coach-box, he answered me that he was very 
 well oif, adding " chh gid si moleggid' — " for 
 here one springs it." 
 
 Passing to other modifications of the Tuscan, 
 more particularly to corrected irregularities of 
 grammar, I am not even sure that these have not
 
 LETTERS FROM TIIK NORTH OF ITAI-Y. 3.9 
 
 been somcw hat rashly dealt w ith ; lor such, 
 though uiiaccompaniccl by any specific i'orce or 
 elegance, sometimes give the same wild grace to 
 language which neglect does to female beauty, 
 and are not, therefore, to be lightly loptaway or 
 reformed. But there is yet another grammatical 
 irregularity wliich is deserving of closer consi- 
 deration-^! mean such as gives force to ex- 
 pression, and is moreover often indicative of 
 national character and habits. Thus a thorough- 
 paced Florentine, announcing to another his in- 
 tention of dining with you, M'ould, I believe, 
 say, " Vado a pranzo in casa il Signor Ilallam;''' 
 but if he Mas speaking of your house in any 
 other way than that indicative of frequenting it, 
 as of its being well or ill built, &:c. he would say 
 " La casa del Signor liallam — '' This exemp- 
 tion of the genitive from inflection in tlic first 
 instance, is a sort of domestication of it, Avhicli 
 pleases me much. Take, as a specimen of ano- 
 ther species of irregularity, the omission of the 
 defmitearticle before certain words, as Arno; since 
 his dear river is so familiar to the Florentine, that 
 it becomes to him as a living person. Something 
 of this kind is to be found in Greek, and in Ens- 
 lish, for we have still left us some stray ungram- 
 inatical graces which have escaped tliosc Spar- 
 
 D 4
 
 40 LETTERS FKOM THE NORTH OF ITALY, 
 
 tacuscs Messrs. Lowth and Blair.* Thus, in, 
 Greek, the definite article is not, I beheve, at- 
 tached to tlie word /Aao-tKi^, and in EngUsh we 
 
 * These persons may be considered as having attempted to 
 latinize a language whose genius is hostile to the attempt — to 
 reduce it to something like the principles of Italian — to divest 
 it of its peculiar physiognomy, and shape all the anomaliesj 
 which I have mentioned, to a rigorous standard of analogy. 
 The last object appears the most justifiable in theory; yet it 
 would be difficult to produce a more ridiculous effect than that 
 which often results from this attempt at precision ; and I shall 
 cite a sentence of Mr. Blair's, made absurd by a single mono- 
 syllable, inserted upon the principle of grammatical analogy, 
 " If at sometimes he falls much below himself, at other times 
 he rises above every poet of the ancient or modern world." — 
 Character of Milton. 
 
 I may, perhaps, at first sight, appear inconsistent, when I 
 protest ^.gainst the conversion of English into British, after con- 
 tending that Tuscan was to be generalized into Italian. But I 
 consider every language as having a character of its own, which 
 Ought not to be forced out of its bias. Now the language of 
 the peninsula took from its birth the bent, in which I contend it 
 should be indulged; while the English is radically vernacular. 
 If I am asked whether I would, therefore, have it run wild, I 
 say " No;" but I would not have it unnecessarily grafted froni 
 a foreign stock, or twisted and tortured out of its natural 
 growth. In short I would have men consider their language, 
 like the other institutions of their ancestors, in a religious, but 
 uot superstitious spirit of reverence.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 41 
 
 leave it out before parliament; omissions which 
 prove how much these two words were, or arc 
 familiarized both to Greeks and EngHsh, and 
 which giv^c a characteristic cast to the national 
 lan«2:uau:e of both. Bnt all such features have 
 been obliterated m the process I have described. 
 
 To sum up, as far as I have gone, the contents 
 of this long letter, without reference to their 
 order, I should say then that Italian was not 
 Tuscan, though in great part fashioned out of it 
 that, without pretending to determine on which 
 side the scale inclines upon the whole, it may be 
 averred that many beauties have been sacrificed, 
 and many accessions received in the process; that 
 the latter, however, are greater in theory than in 
 practice ; and that the chase of the beautiful ideal 
 has, in a vast variety of cases, led Italian authors 
 out of the right road, dazzled them with false 
 lights, and lost them in the pursuit of an ignis 
 fatfius. 
 
 It is not, however, the only charge against an 
 ideal language that it is apt to adopt a tawdry 
 and ditfusive character of expression; it often 
 assumes a fantastic one, eschewing what is real 
 as necessarily ignoble. Thus I remember once 
 objecting to an Italian translator of Shakspeare, 
 that he had deviated essentially from his original, 
 in what he put into the mouth of one of the sen-
 
 42 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 tiiicls in Hamlet, viz. of " not an insect having 
 stirred," whereas he says in the EngHsh, that 
 " not a i\iousE had stirred." Hut he overruled 
 my ol)jection by the remark, that such illustra- 
 tions were too mean for the Italian stage.* I 
 next reproached him with having substituted a 
 fillet (benda) for the handkerchief in the tragedy 
 of Othello, observing that the handkerchief was 
 a more probable meansof mischief than the fillet, 
 and that, according to my northern notions, the 
 very familiarity of the instrument produced 
 effect, as contrasted with the powerful passions 
 which it put in motion. Here, however, he again 
 turned my battery by informing me that the 
 word handkerchief could not be used in Italian 
 poetr}^ And though this might be considered as 
 an absurd refinement by a Pindemonte or a Fos- 
 colo, it is, I am persuaded, a principle which 
 would influence a host of peninsular purists. 
 
 Having at length done with the Italian, and 
 Italian ideal, I am inclined to throw out a few 
 speculations on the character of the parent 
 tongue, which, I believe, was influenced by 
 
 * The poets of another age were of another opinion. Ariost» 
 makes the Ore's wife say of him, 
 
 " Che scnte fm a un topo che sia in casa."
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 45 
 
 the same circumstances as concuncd in the for- 
 mation of its offspring-. To put this as shortly as 
 I can, that the Latin, cultivated by the Romans, 
 was no more the Lai in spoken in Latium than 
 modern Italian is the Italian which is spoken in 
 Tuscany. This notion is not my own; and I 
 recollect thinking it a iar-fetched conjecture 
 wli'en it was broached to me. Some school-boy 
 recollections, however, carried me back to my 
 Quintilian; and I found in this hint a key to 
 passages which were before unintelligible. In- 
 deed without it, how can we well explain the 
 difficulty which he says there was in teaching chil- 
 dren Latin with precision? A month's residence 
 in modern Florence might illustrate his position. 
 The natives of that citv, as I have alreadv 
 said, speak their own vernacular with spirit, 
 where they do not seek to assimilate their speech 
 to that of the rest of Italy ; hut, for the want of 
 liaving studied this last criticall}^ they uni- 
 formly massacre it in the attempt. A more 
 unquestionable coniirmation of the opinion I 
 have thrown out may, liowever, perhaps be 
 found in the author I have just cited. I allude 
 to a passage which seems to prove the legality of 
 a naturalization of provincial phrases. I have 
 already said something on this point incidentally
 
 44 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 to another subject,* and have cited various au- 
 thorities, but I shall now confine myself to 
 Quintilian. Speaking of the patavinity of Livy, 
 he says, (I quote from very distant recollec- 
 tion,) " if it can be fairly objected to an author, 
 that he has introduced modes of speech from 
 any of the provinces of Italy." 
 
 In fine, that the Latin of the learned (or at 
 least what, according to Quintilian, ought to have 
 been the Latin of the learned) was as much an 
 ideal language as its daughter the Italian, seems 
 clear to me; but what was the language of 
 the people can hardly be precisely ascertained. 
 It may however admit a doubt whether it came 
 as near the lingua aidica of those days, as the 
 Tuscan does to the modern Italian. 
 
 But since we are upon this subject, I cannot 
 leave untouched the speculations of Maffei and 
 some others, who contend they have made out 
 the features of the ancient vulgar tongue of 
 Rome in the modern Italian which, according to 
 them, is a mere continuation of it, having only 
 undergone such changes as time must necessarily 
 introduce. These are wide words : let us see if 
 
 * In the preceding letter, on the supposed Venctianisms of 
 Catullus, &c.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY, 45 
 
 we can come to any thing like a closer conclu- 
 sion, reasoning from the data which arc left 
 to us. 
 
 One great and singular point of resemblance 
 there certainly is between the Italian and what 
 I will call the ancient, as well as vulgar, Latin, 
 if- we may judge from rustic inscriptions. The 
 thing 1 allude to is tlie use, as a nominative, 
 of what, in good Latin, became the ablative 
 case. Thus we find in these animo used in- 
 stead of a?iij?ius, &c. It may be seen in Lanzis 
 Saggio di Lingua Etrusca, that the great grand- 
 fathers of the Catos and Cetheguses were not 
 worth a nominative, the ablative serving as such 
 when required ; and even when a later age adopted 
 the refinement of setting up a nominative it did 
 not pass current with the people. This was 
 natural ; for it may be remarked, that in all coun- 
 tries, imperfections of speech linger amongst tlic 
 less polished orders of society. 
 
 But some yet more material points of resem- 
 blance have been discovered. Many elementarj 
 Italian words, considered by some as the influx 
 of later and barbarous times, have been traced 
 to the Latin source : these may be said to have 
 been for a long while borne to the bottom, and 
 to have risen again to the surface, amid the roll 
 and revolutions of the stream. Some such have
 
 46 LETTKTiS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 been cited from Plautus, by Monti, in his late 
 pliilological work, as casa, testa, Jocus^ bdlus, and 
 others, which, though grammatically moulded 
 by the poet, were, it should seem, as popu- 
 larly used, as their modern Italian derivatives, 
 and in substitution for classical terms ; as casa 
 instead of d.om\] s, Jociis instead of ignis, testa 
 instead of caput, and bellus instead of pulcheu. 
 
 It is not, however, enough to point out par- 
 ticular features of resemblance, where general 
 likeness is wanting ; and it may be contended, 
 that the vulgar Latin, though there might be sin- 
 gle points of resemblance, differed radically from 
 the modern Italian. I doubt whether we know 
 enough of it, to decide whether this be true or 
 not ; as all our conjectures must be drawn on 
 this point from the written and not the popular 
 tongue of ancient Italy : yet it would not per- 
 haps be a rash assertion that there was some 
 tendency even in the written towards the pre- 
 sent speech of the peninsula. 
 
 Thus, the auxiliary verbs, considered as 
 the strongest marks of distinction betwixt the 
 dead and living languages, may yet be traced, 
 though faintly, in the ancient written Latin, 
 and it docs not appear a far-fetched conjecture, 
 that their use should have been more frequent 
 in the vulgar. For the passion of the people
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALV. 47 
 
 for such useful implements and of such easy 
 management, is notorious in modern Europe,* 
 and was for the same reason prohably equally 
 ueneral amonijst the ancient inhabitants of La- 
 tium. It does not seem to me, therefore, that 
 these seeds could havie lain dormant for ages, and 
 only have sprung and sprouted in the corruption 
 of the language. 
 
 I know, however, it is thought by many, 
 that the auxiliary verbs, now gen'Dral in all 
 the languages of Europe, were introduced by 
 the barbarians who inundated it. That they 
 existed in tlieir variety of jargons there is no 
 doubt, but I believe they sprung spontaneously 
 both in Greek and Latin, and grew without a 
 graft. 
 
 Languages may indeed be compared to ma- 
 chinery, which is always complicated in the 
 beginning, each part I)eing adapted to one only 
 
 * Thus to take my proofs from places most present to my 
 observation or recollection — The Venetian has only tlie inde- 
 finite perfect in his languaire, always ^however perfectly com- 
 pleted the action nia) be) making use of the auxiliary verb to 
 rig out a jury-tense. Ex. gr. lie says " son anda," and has 
 Jio etpiivalent for the Italian Aiiddi. In tfil^ same way the 
 Hampshire-man says " I did go;" and never, '• I went," al- 
 ways supposing him to be unsophisticated. 
 
 #
 
 48 LETTERS EROM THE NORTH OF VtALlTi 
 
 purpose: In the course of time, things are sitil- 
 plificd, and one engine is made appHcal)le to" 
 many. The same process may be detected in 
 all hinguages. The ancient Greek, for instance, 
 had a dual or definite plural, as well as an inde- 
 finite one ; the Otaheitans, we are told, re- 
 fining on this principle, have a quintal, com- 
 prizing four of these ingenious inconveniences. 
 But the Greeks soon found their dual useless; 
 and the Otaheitans, as they advance in civili- 
 zation, will probably make a similar discover3\ 
 The Arab has, according to report, 100 names 
 for a camel, and the Gael about as many for 
 a mountain. These are not synonymcs, but 
 different shades of language. Accordingly the 
 Gael, who has learned English, finds it is less 
 troublesome to use epithets, each of which may 
 serve many substantives, than to distinguish 
 many substantives by some mark which is ex- 
 clusively peculiar to each. 
 
 The aiLviliaries are of the nature of these 
 examples. It is more troublesome to twist 
 verbs into a multiplicity of inflections, each 
 being a fixed appendage to its principle, than to 
 call in the aid of shall, will, and have, who are 
 scrubs of all work, and can be tacked to any 
 verb which advertizes for a tense. 
 
 The natural explanation of all this seems
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 49 
 
 to be that the power of abstractiiii;- is one of 
 man's later acquisitions, and it is tlierefore in a 
 late stage of society that this takes place. But 
 when we look back to aticiait languages with 
 attention, we may see that the principle of 
 auxiliary verbs has ahva} s existed, and if we 
 examine living ones, shall detect it in endea- 
 vouring to extend itself; even where its pro- 
 gress may have escaped general observation. 
 Ask, for instance, an Italian grammarian how 
 many auxiliary verbs he acknowledges, and he 
 will tell you, two only. Vet it might easily be 
 shewn that others have made good their preten- 
 sions to be considered as signs, de facto, if not 
 de jure. Ex. gr. The Romaic 3^« or ^i7m and 
 English JVill have their equivalent in his 
 language, as, Viiol piovere, it xvill rain ; Voglio 
 dire lanimo mio, I will speak my mind, ^c. or 
 the same sign stands in the place of shall, as, 
 Vogliamo andare ? Shall we go 7 
 
 AVide as is the range which I have taken 
 through the birth, parentage, and education of 
 the Italian, 1 have hitherto neglected one point; 
 I mean its pronunciation ; and 1 am the less 
 inclined to leave it untouched, as it throws some 
 additional light upon the character of the lan- 
 guage, and will come in aiil of what I have 
 already advanced : for this too is, in the strictest 
 
 VOL. H. a
 
 jO LLITEUS FROM THE NOIlTll 01 ITALY. 
 
 sense of the word, ideal ; but as I do not want 
 you to take the assertion on trust, you may 
 try its truth by chasing Itahan pronunciation 
 through every place wliere it has left an echo. 
 Can that of Florence, for instance, be taken as 
 a standard ? — Certainly not : for it is proverbi- 
 ally ridiculed for its harsh and guttural sounds. 
 Can that of any other city then in the duke- 
 dom ? — I still answer " No ; not even Sienna." 
 Because, all over Tuscany, the ci is uttered in 
 a way which is not esteemed correct by the 
 rest of Italy, and because the diphthongal vow- 
 els are sounded there, as no where else ; that is 
 to say, one of them is omitted; and words 
 composed asj'voco, S^c. are pronounced as if they 
 were written yoco, S^c. Where then shall we 
 look for the polar star which is to determine 
 our course ? I recollect reading in Veneronis 
 Grammar that it is to be found at Rome, as is 
 inferred from the proverb of Lingua Toscana in 
 hocca Romaua ; and the currency this has ac- 
 quired, made me, notwithstanding a protest of 
 Barctti% honour it without question or doubt. 
 I, however, hesitated on hearing the Romanx«;z- 
 tilena, (a vile effeminate drawl,) and set myself 
 to inquire of what ^r?fi it really Avas. I may 
 have searched ill ; but I have vainly runmiaged 
 for it in all the books which concern this Ian-
 
 LETTERS mOM THE NORTH 01- ITALY. 51 
 
 guage, and every thing, and every saying wliicU 
 relates to it. I, at length, looked a little more 
 closely to my reporter, and finding his Grammar 
 by no means correct, in(jnired into his qualifi- 
 cations. The result was, that he was a French- 
 man; I forget his name; hut recollect being 
 told he had no jMctcnsion to that of Vene?^o?n, 
 which was apparently assumed merely to sell 
 his book, he having no sort of connection with 
 Italy. I therefore take tlie liberty, till some 
 one shall affirm the thing on some better autho- 
 rity, to consider the proverb of Lingua Toscana 
 in bocca Romana as a lie to which rhyme has 
 given currency. 
 
 What then, you will say, is to be considered 
 as the rule of pronunciation ? I answer, that 
 the rules of declamation, as well as those of 
 composition, are to be sought in different pro- 
 vinces, and these will form in their complex 
 some imaginary model of excellence. 
 
 I have woven my web, which I fear you may 
 find ill-spun ; but I will not quarrel with you, 
 though, as Hamlet says, you should think 
 " my words much too light for the bore of the 
 matter." 
 
 E 2
 
 ( 52 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 On the Necessity of lialian to a Traveller — Extraordi- 
 nary Italian Linguist at Bologna. 
 
 Venice, November, 1817. 
 
 After having expended so much fire on the 
 Italian language, you will perhaps be inclined 
 to reproach me, for having omitted a point very 
 interesting to the traveller, if not to the philo- 
 logist : to wit, whether a knowledge of this lan- 
 guage is necessary to the tourist in Italy. As 
 to this ; I should say, that it depends upon the 
 object of the traveller ; for, if he merely goes 
 in search of monuments of art and antiquities, 
 he may do very well with no other language 
 but his own; for the Italian is so quick of un- 
 derstanding, that a sign or a look is enough to 
 speak your meaning : and this is not thrown 
 out at random ; for I know an instance of an 
 Englishman who travelled over a great part of 
 the peninsula on foot without any knowledge of 
 Italian, or even of French : but if the traveller's 
 views are more extensive, and embrace the
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 53 
 
 study of manners, Italian is absolutely neces- 
 sary. 
 
 It is to be premised, in the first place, that 
 though French is very general in Italy, there 
 are many cultivated Italians, who camiot speak 
 it with fluency ; and, in the next place, that 
 those who do, will merely address themselves 
 in it to you, M'hile all general conversation 
 is carried on in Italian. But the Italian who 
 does speak it becomes a different person, on va- 
 rying his language. This apparent change of 
 character may be observed in England. Let us 
 suppose a foreigner, a German, for instance, not 
 familiar with French phraseology, to be conver- 
 sing with an Englishman who is, in French. The 
 Englishman, speaking of a dish which pleases 
 him, says " it is a dish to be eat on all fours,'' 
 or talks of " fatiguing a sallad," or speaking of 
 colours, raves about " the thigh-colour of an 
 agitated nymph."* The foreigner naturally 
 sets him down either for a beast, or a fool ; 
 whilst, on the contrary, the man is neither the 
 one nor the other, but merely adapts himself to 
 the idiom of the language in which he speaks. 
 We may therefore infer from what I have stated, 
 
 * Couteur de cuisse de ni/ife atiue ; a fashionable Paribian tint 
 during the year 1817. 
 
 £ 3
 
 54 LKTTEUS FUOM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 that, let the Itahan speak French well or ill, the 
 rational traveller's object in conversing with him 
 is in part defeated ; for if he speaks it well, his 
 natural character is seen through a doubtful me- 
 dium; if ill, it is a fatigue to figure in a duet, 
 w here both are out of tune. The second case is 
 by far the most frequent ; for languages (though 
 he is a better linguist than the Englishman) are 
 not usually the strong side of the Italian. 
 
 But as this country has been fertile in every 
 variety of genius, from that which handles the 
 pencil to that w^hich sweeps the skies with the 
 telescope ; so even in this, her least favourite 
 beat, she has produced men who, in early life, 
 have embraced such a circle of languages, as one 
 should hardly imagine three ages would have 
 enabled them to attain. Thus the wonders which 
 are related of one of these, Pico di Mirandola, I 
 always considered as fabulous, till I was myself 
 the vv'itness of acquisitions which can scarcely 
 be considered as less extraordinary. 
 
 The livina: lion to whom 1 allude is the Sio^nor 
 Mezzofanti, of Bologna, who, when I saw him, 
 though he was only thirty-six years old, read 
 twenty and conversed in eighteen languages. 
 This is the least marvellous part of the story ; 
 he spoke all these fluently, and those, of which I 
 could judge, with the most extraordinary pre-
 
 LF.TTFRS FROAI TIIK NOIITII OF ITA I.V. 55 
 
 cision. I had the pleasure of dining in his 
 company formerly in the house of a Bolognese 
 lady, at whose table a German officer declared 
 that he could not have distinguished him from 
 a German. He passed the whole of the next 
 
 day with G and myself, and G told 
 
 me he should have taken him for an English- 
 man, who had been some time out of England. 
 A Smyrniotc servant, who was witii me, 
 bore equal testimony to his skill in other lan- 
 guages, and declared that he might pass for a 
 Greek or a Turk, throughout the dominions of 
 the Grand Signior. But what most surprized 
 me was his accuracy ; for during long and re- 
 peated conversations in English, he ncser once 
 misapplied the sig}i of a tense, that fearful stum- 
 bling-block to Scotch and Irish, in whose wri- 
 tings there is almost always to be found some 
 abuse of these indefinable niceties. 
 
 The marvel was, if possible, rendered more 
 marvellous by this gentleman's accomplish- 
 ments and information, things rare in linguists, 
 who generally mistake the means for the end. 
 It ought also to be stated, that his various ac- 
 quisitions had been all made in Bologna, from 
 which, when I saw him, he had never wandered 
 above thirty miles. 
 
 e4
 
 ( S6 ) 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 Conduct of the Imperial Government at Venice. 
 
 Venice, November, 1817- 
 
 We are told that on Louis XIV. expressing, 
 when a child, his admiration at the despotic 
 power possessed by the Turkish sultans, one of 
 his courtiers had the honesty to draw his atten- 
 tion to the number of those who had perished 
 by the bowstring. But it is a vulgar view of 
 the subject to imagine that absolute princes are 
 subjected to no heavier penalty. A miserable 
 end is bad, but a miserable life is yet worse. I 
 call his a miserable life, who is deprived of the 
 exercise of free-will, while he is seated beneath 
 the shadow of power. Amongst the strange 
 contradictions which are to be found in despotic 
 governments, the theory and practice of which 
 are generally at variance, this is, I believe, one 
 of the most ordinary. I do not, however, mean 
 to say that there have not existed in diiferent 
 ages and different countries absolute monarchs 
 of extraordinary mind and talents, who have
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OI ITALY. 5/ 
 
 been able to guide or stem opinion, and who 
 have really reigned : but I sj)cak of w hat I 
 believe to be the ease in a great majority of 
 instances. This is easily accounted for, since 
 despotism cannot rest upon its own base. De- 
 spotic monarchs, therefore, seek as narrow a 
 one for it as possible, and plant it (where 
 they do not lind this done to their hand) upon 
 the prejudices of the people. Hence in such 
 states there is a constant reciprocation of 
 slavery, through every link of the chain which 
 binds empire together. As a proof; who arc 
 more enslaved to established usages than the 
 Emperors of China and INIorocco ? The Emperor 
 of China may indeed cane his mandarins, and 
 the Emperor of Morocco may behead his people 
 at pleasure ; but should either attempt any libe- 
 ral or useful reform, he would be instantly 
 hurled from his throne. We may say that all 
 monarchy is built upon opinion. Constitutional 
 kings in mixed monarchies, which are rationally 
 constituted, generally speaking have to defer to 
 the enlightened part of the public. Absolute mo- 
 narchs are more usually the tools of the ignorant 
 and hypocritical. To a European instance ; the 
 Emperor of Austria is sometimes stigmatized in 
 Italy as a wayward tyrant, at once foolish and 
 faithless, professing great religion and morality.
 
 58 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 and violating, in practice, every precept of Gocf 
 and man. The following notice may serve to shew 
 how far these accusations are founded in truth, 
 and how far he is a willing instrument in perpe- 
 trating the mischief which is attributed to him. 
 The whole of Italy rung w\ih the gracious pro- 
 fessions which he made to his new subjects on 
 visiting his ItaHan states ; of his promise to abo- 
 hsh provincial custom-houses, to diminish the 
 burdens under which his subjects were groaning, 
 S^c. ^c. S^c. Princes, however, too often find a 
 dispensation from these sort of promises in the 
 necessities of the state, and the circumstances of 
 the times. We will therefore pass by these and 
 their non-performance, and look to others of a 
 diiferent description, for the violation of which 
 it would be difficult to find other excuse than 
 that which serves as a text to my letter. 
 
 When the Emperor visited Venice in 1815, 
 he inspected in person all the public institutions, 
 churches, hospitals, and prisons. On his visit- 
 ing the prison of the Riva degli Schiavoni, the 
 keeper informed him of whatever was interest- 
 ing in the history of those confined in it, or 
 the immediate cause of their imprisonment. 
 Amongst others he pointed out two boys, the 
 eldest of whom was not above fifteen years old, 
 and who, by the French laws, which remained
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 59 
 
 in force, had been sentenced to five years' im- 
 prisonment for stealing some fruit, observing 
 that two years of that period had aheady elapsed; 
 and he ventured to suggest, in a case where the 
 punishment was so evidently disproportioned to 
 the offence, his Imperial Majesty would find a 
 happy occasion for exercising his mercy. He 
 made the reply, which he vouchsafed to every 
 petition which was presented him, o^ Sara fat to;* 
 but never redeemed his promise, either in this 
 or in the innuuierable other occasions, where 
 he had pledged it, and always in the same 
 form of words. During his six weeks' stay at 
 Venice, he was positively besieged by sup- 
 pliants, and one of those about him has re- 
 ported, that the number of their petitions 
 amounted to 40,000; all which were received 
 with the invariable answer of Sara fatto, yet I 
 have been assured, that no instance is known of 
 a single promise having been fulfilled. This 
 statement, though made by one whose evidence 
 would appear unexceptionable, must, I think, 
 when tried by arithmetic, be considered as ex- 
 aggerated; for you will observe that, allowing 
 this imperial assurance-machine to have been at 
 work for only twelve hours out of the four and 
 
 ^^mtmmm Mill ■ ^» .. .. ■ ■ ■ ■ — — ■■■— 1.^ M .« ■ I !■ 
 
 * It shall be done.
 
 60 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALT. 
 
 twenty, it would have delivered about a Jie a se- 
 cond, a power that appears almost incredible. 
 But allowing this statement to be overcharged, 
 it is universally agreed that numerous petitions 
 were graciously received, and compliance pro- 
 mised, but in no one known instance per- 
 formed. 
 
 Are we to attribute this conduct to forgetful- 
 ness — to indiiference ? I have, without affecta- 
 tion, too good an opinion of the Emperor's 
 intentions, to accuse him of what may be 
 considered as crimes in a sovereign. All is to 
 be attributed to his not being a free agent ; but 
 if a doubt could remain on this subject the fol- 
 lowing anecdote will, I think, remove it. 
 
 An officer who had, by his services, arrived at 
 the rank of captain in the French navy, but 
 who had only been able to obtain a lieutenant's 
 commission in the Austrian service, on the 
 Imperialists taking possession of Venice, peti- 
 tioned the Emperor to be re-instated in his 
 original rank. His prayer was backed by the 
 commandant of the Austrian marine, who con- 
 firmed the statement of his claims, and strongly 
 recommended him as a meritorious officer. The 
 Emperor said that he considered his case as a 
 very hard one, and would himself transmit it to 
 the Aulic Chamber, to whom he would enjoin
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF IT ALT. 61 
 
 his restoration to the rank he had formerly 
 filled. The officer relied npon the word of his 
 sovereigTi, hut, after some weeks, the com- 
 inandant of the marine received a letter from 
 the Aiilic Council, returning tlie petition in 
 question, and stating that the petitioner was at 
 liberty to quit the Imperial service, if he did 
 not think proper to hold such a commission as 
 they had been pleased to assign him ; that they 
 were astonished at the general's presuming to 
 support sucli a document, knowing, as he must 
 have done, their sentiments from the existence 
 of the commission itself. They recommended 
 to him, moreover, not to be guilty of a similar 
 act of indiscretion in future ; as, in such case, 
 they could not consider him as longer worthy 
 of the high situation entrusted to his charge. 
 
 But this man, some will say, was a former 
 servant of France, and was, as such, entitled to 
 no better measure than that which he received. 
 I have a case in point for such as feel or reason 
 in this manner. A Venetian 2:entleman, o-o- 
 vernor of the fortress of the Lido, in pursuance 
 of orders, fired upon, and repulsed a French 
 brig, which was attempting to enter the port, a 
 few days before the i^cvolutionlsemejit of Venice. 
 Buonaparte insisted on his punishment, and he 
 was moreover excluded from all future com-
 
 6:2 LETTERS FROM THK \URT1I OF ITALY. 
 
 inancl (luring tlie new systeni of things. This 
 HKin, reduced to poverty, sought grace at the 
 feet of the Emperor, who assured liim of his 
 protection and assistance. — He died neglected 
 and in misery, and one of his sons is now em- 
 ployed in piecing the tesselated pavement in 
 the church of St. Mark ! 
 
 It will not he out of its place to remark here, 
 that France, though an aggressor in the begin- 
 ning, was perhaps, in the last instance, justified 
 in her hostilities to Venice, which that power 
 had provoked by a diversion favourable to 
 Austria. 
 
 The treatment of this man, independently of 
 the object in confirmation of which I have told 
 the story, may serve to shew the treatment 
 which his Imperial Majesty's Italian subjects are 
 destined to receive, whatever be their claims. 
 But I might say, that every day offers fresh 
 proofs of the hopelessness of these, almost every 
 of^ce being now filled with Germans, from the 
 clerk and corporal to the judge and general, 
 all unacquainted with the language, and unex- 
 perienced in the habits, of the country. 
 
 This must be considered as a perverse system 
 of policy in any country, but it is most pecu- 
 liarly mischievous to the interests of its authors 
 in this. The Venetian revolution cast adrift an
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 6'3 
 
 immense number of persons, who lived upon the 
 employments of the state. It was hardly to be 
 expected that the beggarly government of 
 Austria should make an adequate provision ibr 
 them, but it might at least have given employ- 
 ment to hundreds, were it only in the subaltern 
 departments of its innumerable petty establish 
 nients. But a more dangerous source of discon- 
 tent has been opened in all the Austro-Italiaii 
 provinces by this illiberal system of exclusion. 
 There is a host of needy military adventurers, 
 late in the service of the kingdom of Italy w ho 
 are now either pining in the inferior ranKS of 
 the imperial army, or being too proud to descend 
 in the scale of service, are actually without the 
 means of obtaining their daily bread. These 
 men are, of course, all ripe for revolution, and 
 ready for any chance or change that may pre- 
 sent itself. But if the fate of those who have 
 been turned adrift is pitiable, that of many 
 who have remained in the vessel is hardly 
 to be envied, these being put on short allow- 
 ance, and having scarcely wherewithal to sup- 
 port a miserable existence. In the time of the 
 French a subaltern in the Venetian marine 
 had three franks a day : he has now one and a 
 half
 
 ^U LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 The Venetians received this paternal treat- 
 ment at the hands of his Imperial Majesty im- 
 mediately on returning under his dominion, and 
 indeed have no legal right " to think themselves 
 ill-used ;" but the Milanese have this melancholy 
 resource. Till latcl}^ they enjoyed certain pri- 
 vileges, which they imagined they liad ensured 
 by a capitulation,* under which they subjected 
 themselves to their invaders. I am now, how- 
 ever, told that, by the new organisation lately 
 sent to IVIilan from Vienna, there are only two 
 Italians left in the higher departments of that 
 government. 
 
 The Milanese have hitherto confined their 
 revenge to teaching their magpies and jack- 
 dawst to rail upon their ostensible tyrant. But 
 
 * The immediate violation of the most essential article of 
 this might have taught the Milanese how little was to be hoped 
 from its other stipulations. 
 
 By the capitulation made in 1815, the Austrians engaged not 
 to enter the city, but to leave a certain circle about it unvio- 
 lated ; in the mean time the infamous murder of Prina and the 
 surrender of Paris gave them courage to violate their engage- 
 ments, and they took military possession of Milan, onl}' two 
 days after having solemnly stipulated to respect it. 
 
 t The magpies and jackdaws of Milan saluted the Emperor, 
 ©n his last visit, with the cry of " Va xia Chccco," or, " Get
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 65 
 
 will their rage always find so innocent a vent? 
 God grant it may ! for I see nothing that this 
 miscrahlc country could hope from a revolution. 
 
 If the IMilanese, however, have not reaped 
 the benefits they expected from their capitula- 
 tion, they have gained something by shewing 
 their teeth ; for the minor impositions of Milan 
 are at least somewhat milder than at A'enicc, 
 and, as a simple proof of this, I should state that 
 a letter from Venice to Milan pays much less 
 than one from Milan to Venice, though the road 
 runs nearly on a flat, and no reason can be 
 assigned for the diiference. 
 
 How much more rational was the system pur- 
 sued by the French, who, opening the road to all 
 Italians, peculiarly encouraged national talents 
 and worth! I do not believe I exaggerate when 
 I say that, excepting the line of country an- 
 nexed to France, there was not a Frenchman 
 employed, even as a sub-prefect, in Italy. Tlie 
 only one who held any civil official situation 
 in this city was the director of the post. In 
 military matters it was indeed otherwise ; for 
 the commandants in all towns were, I believe, 
 
 away, Frank !" This circumstance was omitted in the otTicial 
 account of his Imperial Majesty's reception. 
 VOL. II. F
 
 66 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 French; but that Buonaparte sliould deviate in 
 tliis particular from his general system, and not 
 choose to part with the staff of power, can 
 hardly be objected to him. In my general horror 
 of his system, (of which I have by no means di- 
 vested myself,) I could not, at first, understand 
 why he was here preferred to his successor; but 
 1 can say, with truth, that on coming to Italy 
 the scales fell from my eyes, and I instantly dis- 
 cerned and acknowledged the justice of the pre- 
 ference shewn to his administration by the Ita- 
 lians over that of a race which seems rather 
 Chinese than European. 
 
 At least I am not single in these sentiments ; 
 for I never yet met with an Englishman, who 
 knew enough of the language of Italy to in- 
 form himself of what was passing about him, — I 
 never knew one employed or unemployed, 
 
 " whether whig or tory, 
 
 Whether he went to meeting or to church," 
 
 M^histlecraft. 
 
 who did not feel what / feel, and generally in 
 a much keener degree than myself. 
 
 All the misery which I have thus described 
 as heaped upon Italy is, I repeat, in my firm 
 belief, inflicted by an unwilling instrument.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 67 
 
 The Emperor of Austria has the reputation of 
 an amiable private character, and the princes of 
 his house have shewn talent as well as good 
 intentions, whenever they have been unfetteied 
 from the gyves of the Aulic Council. 
 
 F 2
 
 ( es ) 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 Fiscal Sj/stem of Austria in Italy, S^r. 
 
 Venice, November, 1817- 
 
 I SHALL attempt in my present letter to give 
 you some idea of Austria's ^5c«/ administration 
 of these provinces, from which you will judge 
 whether Lomhardy has, in this respect, reason to 
 be content with her change of masters. It is but 
 just to state, that the system is not to be exclu- 
 sively attributed to the head of the sour-crout na- 
 tions, and that Austria is not to be considered as 
 more weak or tyrannical tlian her neighbours; 
 who are all, like the emperor, excellent persons 
 in private life, and all scourges of the countries 
 subject to their sway. 
 
 But as it would be a useless task to trace this 
 scheme of oppression, through all its variations, 
 I shall give you that of the government of the 
 state from which I write, which is, however, as 
 I have hinted, a little more severe than the other 
 great division of Lomhardy, known under the 
 name of the Milanese. 
 
 I have already mentioned, incidentally to other
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 69 
 
 matters, the taxes upon flesh, fowl, fish, flour, &c. ; 
 but to give a more comprehensive idea of these, 
 I shall state that every eatable and drinkable is 
 not only taxed, &c. but seized and cessed under 
 whatever various foim it may present itself. 
 Thus grain, flour, and bread, pay each a sepaiate 
 impost. It is the same with bull and beef, &c. ; and 
 mark, that not an article is brought to the place 
 I date from, no not even a cabbage, but what 
 pays its miserable fraction of a farthing. Such 
 revenue, it is obvious, can only be collected at an 
 expense, which must run away with the profit. 
 But these petty taxes, which are almost unpro- 
 ductive to the government, thougii grievous in 
 the extreme to the subject, are, to speak fami- 
 liarly, mere flea-bites in comparison to the other 
 Vampire-pulls of the Austrian eagle. 
 
 I pass to these more cruel evacuations. The 
 most serious of them, known by the name of la 
 prediale, which prevails over Italy, is levied as 
 well on land as on all descriptions of actual and 
 tangible property. These pay 25 per cent, upon 
 their annual produce, that produce being calcu- 
 lated by public appraisers, and estimated accord- 
 ing to the valuation made by them, under the 
 French administration. This tax is collected in 
 four even and quarterly ])ayments. There are, in 
 addition to this, what arc called extra taxes (so- 
 
 F 3
 
 70 LETTERS FROM 'I'HE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 pra-impostc) which proprietors })ay, and which 
 are known by the various denominations of 
 stradale, communale, reimposta, S^c. The taxes 
 of this latter description have amounted, during 
 the three years of Austrian government, to about 
 12 per cent, a year. The whole amount, there- 
 fore, of these greater taxes would be '^1 per cent. 
 — always speaking of annual produce. 
 
 It is but justice to declare that this appears 
 to me to have been heavier in the time of the 
 French; since, according to the best official in- 
 formation I can obtain, the aggregate produce of 
 their main taxes amounted from 42 to 44 per 
 cent. 
 
 The question, howevei', whether Italy was 
 more severely taxed under the French or Aus- 
 trians, is not to be determined by this compari- 
 son, because the system of frontier custom- 
 houses, such as at present are established at the 
 interval of every few miles, as between Padua 
 and Venice, Vicenza and Padua, though all situ- 
 ated within the same state — this monstrous 
 piece of folly, I say, did not exist under the 
 French, who were cruel task-masters, but not 
 ignorant of their own interest, if careless of that 
 of the people whom they had united to them. We 
 must, therefore, in addition to the 37 per cent, 
 levied by the Austrians, throw in the innume-
 
 LETTERS FRO:\r THE NORTH OF ITALY. 71 
 
 rablc petty duties levied upon different articles 
 in transitu. 
 
 It ouglit, however, to ];e stated that the next 
 most foolish and iniquitous tax still existing, 
 was even of old Venetian origin, and was pre- 
 served by the French, I mean that which bears 
 upon all beasts in life, lump, or leavings, from 
 the wholesale bull Avhich enters the city with 
 horns fixed and tail Hying, down to the lowest 
 garbage which is extracted from him when he 
 has laid down his life in the slaughter-house.* 
 
 But questions of taxation are not only to be 
 tried by numbers ; and the last species of impost 
 which I have described is a striking illustration 
 of this truth. Taxes are, as any child knows, 
 more or less mischievous, not only in proportion 
 
 * The smallest piece of entrails belonging to a beast, of 
 whatever condition, pays under a tax, the title of which I copy 
 from an official paper : " Dazio sugli animali bovini, porcini, 
 pecorini, carni, grassina e minuzzami" that is, tax upon beasts ; 
 ox, swine, and sheep, flesh, fat, and ofl'al. As this could not 
 touch the countryman who killed his own mutton, another 
 engine was levelled at him under the lillc of poll-tax, or 
 " dazio testatico." Such was, however, the misery of last year, 
 that this could not be collected. The deficiency was, however, 
 in some way or other to be made up, and a tax upon stamped 
 paper infinitely wider than that of otirs, was augmented in pro- 
 portion to the failure of the poll-tax. 
 
 F 4
 
 72 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 to tlieir extent, but with reference to their 
 nature and their apphcation. Brought to this 
 last test, I should give a decided preference to 
 French economy. Under this, I see the com- 
 pletion of magnificent public Avorks, and the 
 foundation of establishments for the encourage- 
 ment of art, of fine public roads, and a secure 
 police. On the other side, I see all the sources 
 of wealth cut oflT from the country where they 
 spring and which they watered, to be diverted 
 into a desert which its inhabitants have not the 
 skill or the activity to fertilize. Thus a striking 
 instance of the mode in which the ancient pro- 
 vinces of Austria are favoured at the expense of 
 her new acquisitions is afforded by her mode of 
 supplying the wants of her armies. These are 
 supplied with all necessaries, where the thing 
 is practicable, out of her hereditary transalpine 
 dominions, though necessarily at a much greater 
 expense; a curious contrast to the conduct of 
 France, who fed and clothed her Gallo-Italian 
 armies entirely with the products of the pe- 
 ninsula. 
 
 But to leave all question of the distribution or 
 application of taxes, and to return to that of the 
 amount, under the French and Austrian regi- 
 men in Italy; I mean taxes of every kind, 
 whether on land, on articles of consumption, or
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 73 
 
 duties, &c. &c. &c. I am assured by another au- 
 thority, (my own opinion leans a diflfcrent way,) 
 that these are so much more oppressive at pre- 
 sent, that where French Italy paid thirty mil- 
 lions of francs, Austrian Italy now pays forty. 
 And you will recollect that the Lombard and 
 Venetian states are at least a third less than was 
 the kingdom of Italy. If this fact, which I have 
 heard confidently averred,"^ be true, the excess of 
 present taxation must arise out of provincial im- 
 ports and exports: for I cannot be deceived in 
 the statement which I have given you respect- 
 ing the prediale, &c. 
 
 Whether the French system of raising a re- 
 venue in Italy was more or less nefarious than 
 that of the Austrians, it must be acknowledged 
 that the mode of collecting it, as well as the 
 formation of the main system of taxation, origi- 
 nated with the former. It is scarcely possible 
 
 * Were I to measure these warring statements by the autho- 
 rity of the men who furnished them, I should lean rather to this 
 last than that which I have most relied upon. But the account 
 favourable to Austria was given me in detail, and the details 
 seemed consistent with each other. On the other hand, that 
 which spoke most in favour of France, was an assertion unsup- 
 ported by actual proofs. After all, the accounts arc not abso- 
 lutely inconsistent.
 
 74 LETTERS FROIM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 to conceive any thing more monstrous than this 
 mode of collection, which, adopted by the Aus- 
 trians, remains unmodified and unmitigated to 
 the present hour. 
 
 I have aheady stated that the payment of the 
 prediale, &c. is to be made quarterly ; the failure 
 of this payment at quarter-day is visited by the 
 mulct of an additional live per cent, if the pay- 
 ment be not made oood within the four-and- 
 
 o 
 
 twenty hours of the day of receipt. This penalty 
 " drinks deep;" but that which awaits further de- 
 fault, to pursue my quotation, " drinks cup and 
 all." For if the tax, together with its penalties, 
 is not paid at the conclusion of the term of fif- 
 teen days, (for so much more law is afforded the 
 debtor,) the receive?' threatens what is called un 
 oppignorazionc, in plain English, a distress, and 
 this he may levy upon house, lands, or move- 
 ables, as he shall think fit. If, notwithstanding 
 this intimation, the tax and penalties are not 
 paid, the distress is actually levied; and this be- 
 ing done, in addition to the tax itself and its 
 penalties, the expenses of the distress are also to 
 be defrayed by the defaulter. If he does not 
 voluntarily defray all these accumulated charges, 
 a new distress is levied upon other lands, other 
 houses, and other moveables. Thus, you sec, 
 there is an eternal repetition of the Gallico-Italian
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALV. 75 
 
 scene of Moli^ie, " che fare ? — seignare, pur- 
 gai'e, e dysterisare'' But tlic matter is not 
 mended, and the old question is renewed of che 
 fare ? — re-seignare, xc-purgare, et re-clt/steri- 
 zare* 
 
 Tlie distress is now levied according: to the 
 mode of the country, that is, the property of the 
 defaulter is put under sequestration, but this/>ef;/e 
 forlc et dure does not extort payment. The next 
 step of the receiver, under such circumstances, 
 is to send him a " diffida.'' After this ominous 
 intimation, he proceeds to sell his distrained 
 property by auction, but if the sale of it more 
 than covers the debt, is supposed to return him 
 the overplus. There is still moreover a last 
 liope held out to him ; though his property is 
 sold, he has two months good allowed him to 
 recover it, by the payment of the same price at 
 which it was purchased. This is, however, to 
 be considered as scarcely more than a nominal 
 grace, since the expenses and difficulties at- 
 tending this transaction are such as to render it 
 usually much more advisable to acquiesce in the 
 loss. I should observe that no legal claim \\ hat- 
 
 * In applying this to Venice, I might say Xanthe, retro pro- 
 pera ; for this, as well as IMoliiiic's best buffoncry, is taken from 
 a Venetian farce.
 
 76 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 ever ever stands in the way of the harpy claws 
 of the imperial eagle. To give you, however, 
 some more precise notion of the habits of this 
 obscene bird, take the following anecdote, re- 
 specting which I shall observe, that the circum- 
 stances came under my own immediate obser- 
 vation. 
 
 A Venetian gentleman, some time absent 
 from Venice, together with other property in 
 houses, was owner of a magazine, which a tenant 
 held by a livello, or hfe-lease. This man having 
 been long in arrears of rent, the gentleman 
 began to lose patience, and was recurring to 
 rigorous proceedings, when he was informed, 
 by the supposed tenant, that he was no longer 
 possessor of the magazine, the government 
 having seized upon it for the non-payment of 
 the prediale ! Every day offers similar instances 
 of ruthless rapine. 
 
 While such are the burdens and visitations 
 which vex and break down the landed pro- 
 prietor, the monied proprietor, whether he 
 put his gold out to interest, or whether he brood 
 over his bags, withholding his wealth from 
 healthful circulation, — the monied proprietor is 
 untouched either by direct or indirect taxation. 
 
 But, considering the general system of go- 
 vernment, there is another point in which the
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALV. 77 
 
 conduct of the French will appear in a very 
 superior light, if contrasted with that of the 
 Austrians; I mean that of legislation. Under 
 the French, Italy enjoyed all the incalculable 
 advantages of a code, which allowed the cross- 
 examination of witnesses, and gave publicity to 
 all the proceedings of justice. This was indeed 
 so under the ancient government of V^enice ; bu1> 
 a criminal code was given her by France infi- 
 nitely superior to what she possessed in the time 
 of her republic. But the system of open pleadings 
 and examinations has given way to one which 
 has abolished the oral examination of witnesses, 
 and to these principles, perhaps yet more pre- 
 cious in Italy* than elsewhere, has been substi- 
 tuted that of written depositions and secret ap- 
 plications to the judges. 
 
 When I imagined I had done with my fiscal 
 
 * There is, I should suppose, no getting at truth in any 
 country but through the oral examination and cross-examina- 
 tion of witnesses; and the immense number of judicial murders 
 which took place in old France, is no doubt to be attributed to 
 the system of written depositions : but a late Venetian judge 
 once insisted, with me, tliat this system was more particularly 
 mischievous here. He observed, that the ingenuity of the Ita- 
 lian always enabled him to dress up a story on paper, but that 
 his passionate temperament as universally led him into contra- 
 dictions on cross-examination.
 
 7S LETTERS FllOM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 notices and was sliding into other things, a new 
 tax was notified on land, which is supposed to 
 have been imposed in order to make up for the 
 deficiency which will naturally follow in the 
 custom-house revenue, in consequence of the 
 late prohibitive decrees. It is, however, impos- 
 sible to enumerate all these changes as they 
 arise ; this would be to attempt to give the 
 weight and measure of a body which is con- 
 tinually growing. 
 
 You will exclaim, How do the proprietors 
 exist under these accumulated burdens? To 
 this I answer, that an immense number of them 
 are ruined, and those who yet keep together a 
 part of their inheritance, remain without heart 
 or hope. Were the dues of the church in like 
 proportion, they must be absolutely crushed, but 
 these are fortunately light in Italy. To begin 
 with Venice, they are very inconsiderable ; but 
 perhaps some account of the clerical ceconomy 
 of this place may be acceptable. 
 
 Venice is now divided into thirty parishes. 
 The rectors of them have their estates as the Patri- 
 arch has ; the minimum of their respective in- 
 come being fixed at seven hundred franks, or 
 about thirty pounds sterling ; but it is to be un- 
 derstood that more than half of them enjoy a 
 revenue of at least double the amount. The
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 79 
 
 minimum of the salary of the vicars and coadju- 
 tors of these, as they arc called, (and there arc 
 many such in each parish,) is fixed, as I un- 
 derstand it, at four hundred francs. In general, 
 this last body depend on the auxiliary masses 
 which they celebrate, each of which is paid by 
 the person who causes it to be said, at the rate 
 of about fifteen-pence of our money. 
 
 The income of bishops, to reascend in the scale, 
 in like manner, depends, on fixed property oir 
 funds, but, if it falls beneath a given sum, is, as 
 well as the preceding deficits, to be made good 
 out of the cassa di beni demaniali, as is also that 
 of the country rectors, whose minimum is about 
 thirty pounds a year, arising, as I before stated, 
 out of tythes : But these have often other 
 sources of revenue, in lands or funds. The 
 tythes collected, I mean in the Venetian state, 
 except in some few cases, such as I shall specify 
 in a more general view of this subject, often do 
 not exceed the fortieth instead of the tenth allot- 
 ment of produce as with us. In consequence, 
 the livings of the clergy are moderate in the 
 Stato Veneto : From what I can learn there are 
 not above fifty considerable ones. These, how- 
 ever, are rich, there being perhaps as many 
 which amount to three hundred pounds a year, a
 
 so LETTERS FROM THE NORTIJ OF ITALY. 
 
 large sum here, more particularly in the country ; 
 for we must allow that men arc not only rich 
 or poor in ])roportion to what they hat'e and 
 what that will buy, but also in proportion to 
 what they want. Now in Italy, not only neces- 
 saries are cheaper, but (more particularly out of 
 great cities) fewer things are necessary ; so that 
 I should almost rate this sum spent in a parson- 
 age in Italy as much more than equivalent to a 
 thousand pounds a year spent in a rectory in Eng- 
 land, where, from greater commerce, the modes 
 of artificial life are more generally multiphed and 
 diffused. 
 
 I should not conclude my account of the Ve- 
 netian clergy, without giving some little insight 
 into its character, but that this is now melted 
 into that of the Italian clergy, monastical or re- 
 gular, and is of course no longer animated by the 
 spirit which distinguished it in the days of Fra 
 Paolo. 
 
 The Patriarch, however, retains his authority, 
 as a sort of puny pope, and grants divorces as in 
 the time of the Venetian republic. You will 
 recollect you and I having once discussed the 
 principle of these divorces, which appears such a 
 manifest infringement of the maxims of the 
 Roman Catholic church. What we imagined, 
 I find confirmed upon inquiry : these do not,
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH Ol ITAl V. b 1 
 
 in any degree, compromise the doctrine of mar- 
 riage being a sacrament, and tlierelore indis- 
 soluble; since the union, however sanctioned, 
 has always been held to be conditional as to 
 certain points ; and these divorces w ere and are 
 granted on the allegation of circumstances which 
 would have rendered a marriage void ah initio^ 
 according to tlie long established maxims of 
 Rome. 
 
 vol.. II.
 
 ( B2 ) 
 
 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 State of Tythes in Italy, S^c. 
 
 Venice, December, 1817- 
 
 I PROCEED to give you some general notices on 
 tythes as collected in northern Italy ; but these 
 tally so well with my transappennine recollec- 
 tions that I believe (with the exception of Tus- 
 cany, where they were commuted for money by 
 Leopold) they will apply, at least in the main, 
 to the southern provinces of the peninsula. I 
 trust my statement will be correct; but I ought 
 not to conceal from you that I have been obliged 
 to condemn, on after-examination, some notices 
 on this subject, on the accuracy of which I relied. 
 The fact is, that there is nothing so difficult as to 
 collect information of this description in Italy. 
 In the first place, the people are not accustomed 
 to the examination of public documents, as with 
 us; such being for the most part inaccessible 
 but to public functionaries. In the next place 
 they are not less presumptuous on account of 
 their ignorance, but answer your queries with a 
 confidence, which imposes till repeated proofs
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 83 
 
 of the absence of exactness destroy the imposi- 
 tion. A pecuHar difficulty lias been added to 
 the general ones wliich attend such a research, 
 in the Venetian state. The taxes upon landed 
 property under the aristocracy were called by 
 the name of tythes, or decime, and there was an 
 office at the Rialto, entitled La Magistratura 
 delle Dechne, for their administration. Hence, 
 I am persuaded, arose many of the mistakes 
 which I detected, though in my inquiries I had 
 sought to guard against such, and particularly 
 specified that I confined my questions to decime 
 ecclesiastiche. 
 
 There was the less excuse for the blunders I 
 allude to, since, though decima is the Italian 
 word for tythe, the ecclesiastic tythe in the 
 Venetian State is usually termed Quai^antese : 
 though the payment made to the church, or its 
 representative, is not limited to the fortieth part 
 of the produce, as the name would import. 
 
 As little is it to be supposed that payment 
 of a tenth is to be implied by decima, for there 
 is no general rule respecting the quantum of 
 these contributions throughout Italy. In some 
 places it is a payment of one in forty, in others 
 of one in ten, in others of one in eleven, of 
 one in fifteen, and of one in twenty. This 
 variety seems to have sprung out of local cir- 
 
 (; 2
 
 84 LETTERS I ROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 cumstances, at least in the first instance, and to 
 have been afterwards confirmed by custom. 
 What gives weight to this supposition is that 
 the proportion paid is usually highest in moun- 
 tainous and unproductive tracts, where it seems 
 to have been necessary to tax the proprietors 
 hardest lor the maintenance of a minister. 
 
 Though the question of quantity is vague 
 and various, the quality of articles subject to 
 tythes, is determined on a more general princi- 
 ple. This is, I believe, almost every where 
 payable solely on omni genere frugum et ani- 
 malium, as it is expressed. But even these words 
 are not to be construed according to their strict 
 acceptation ; for though grapes, as forming an 
 article of necessity, are tythcable, other fruits, 
 wherever grown, thouglf articles of common 
 consumption, are not included in the description; 
 being considered as mere articles of luxur3^ 
 
 Another important modification of this prin- 
 ciple, is, I believe, general in Italy : the tythe 
 on grain is paid but on one harvest ; where more 
 than one, of whatever .description, is reaped. 
 This is never locally commuted, but always 
 taken in kind, though the beasts are usually 
 (perhaps always) redeemed by money. 
 
 It is, I suppose, on the principle of the ex- 
 emption of fruits, not productive of a certain pro-
 
 LETTERS TROM THE NOUTII OF ITAT.V. 8j 
 
 fit, that what v/e should call orchards, walled in 
 of old, (in this part of Italy termed broli, and 
 I believe, in Italian law-language, terreni casa- 
 li,) though perhaps producing other tythcable 
 things,* do not contribute. Sometimes, also, 
 particular lands are tythe free, though they do 
 not come under this description, the causes of 
 such immunity, as in other countries, being 
 forgot. 
 
 The most important and general exemption 
 however, of which I am aware is that of waste 
 lands, which are for ever exempted from tythe, 
 on being newly inclosed, unless they should be 
 lands which, having been once cultivated, and 
 having once paid, run waste, and are afterwards 
 rendered anew productive ; there being a general 
 rule applicable in this case where not contra- 
 vened by local custom or rights ; the maxim of 
 soliti solvere solvant. 
 
 It is singular enough that England should be 
 the only country in Europe where the principle 
 
 * The bvoli in the north of Italy are usually oblong pieces 
 of walled ground, planted with fruit trees, witii grain growing 
 under them, as you see grass or potatoes in an English orchard. 
 A cradle-walk usually runs round tluni parallel with the walls, 
 which is also productive ; as its sides and roof are covered 
 with vines. 
 
 G 3
 
 S6 LETTERS FROM TIIK NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 of exempting waste lands newly inclosed, tor a 
 shorter or longer period, from tythe, lias not 
 been practically adopted. The effect is visible; 
 for it is the country in Europe where most 
 waste land is to be found. Waste land however 
 is not here, as you will have seen, exempted 
 expressly as waste, which was the case m old 
 France, but incidentally to the maxim of ad- 
 mitting no new claims on the part of the church, 
 the rights of which are determined by prescrip- 
 tion. 
 
 This leads to much litigation, particularly in 
 the case I have cited, because it must be a mat- 
 ter of doubt, whether lands newly put into cul- 
 tivation have not formerly been productive, 
 and taxed as such. Such a doubt would, at 
 first sight indeed, appear incapable of solution; 
 but the difficulty is generally provided for by 
 the institutions of the country : for, in most 
 places, a register exists, kept from time imme- 
 morial, either by the church or its representative, 
 descriptive of the lands now, or once, subject 
 to tythes; as well as indicative of the proportion 
 in which they contributed ; i. e. whether one in 
 ten, or one in forty, &c. To illustrate this docu- 
 ment, a map is also often to be found in the pos- 
 session of tythe owners, whether lay or ecclesi- 
 astical, in which the lands are laid down accord-
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 87 
 
 ing to tlie specification in the register : and these 
 are the two touchstones by which sucli (jucs- 
 tions are tried. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, that disputes fre- 
 quently arise as to claims or exemptions, this 
 debate set at rest, nothing is more rare, at least 
 in the Venetian State, than small squabbles 
 between parishioners and tythe owners, whether 
 priests or lay-men, though the latter are the most 
 rigorous creditors: Tor these usually send agents 
 into the field in harvest-time, to watch over the 
 conduct of the farmer ; a precaution unusual 
 with the clergy, who deservedly pique themselves 
 on their moderation, and take contentedly what- 
 ever is given them. As a striking jjroof of this, 
 I should mention that I was once assured by a 
 Venetian judge, that he did not recollect a suit 
 moved against the farmer for a fraudulent or 
 insufficient payment of tythe, and that, how- 
 ever eager he had seen priests to maintain the 
 interests of their order, he had never had reason 
 to accuse them of individual greediness. 
 
 What is the cause of the extraordinary con- 
 trast afforded as to this matter, by the clergy of 
 Italy and that of England ? The only probable 
 conjecture which I can assign, is, that the lay 
 owners are not so important and powerful a body 
 
 G 4
 
 88 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 as witli US, and therefore " bear their faculties 
 more meekly " than those of England. For it 
 is the influence of these men which bears out and 
 encourag'cs the church in the exaction of her 
 dues. As a proof of this, the lay impropriator 
 is always the most rigid claimant ; and though 
 our church is much more severe than the Italian 
 in the article of tythes, it is notorious that the 
 clergyman rarely gets what he has, by law, a 
 right to. My inference then, is this. The lay 
 impropriator is naturally the greedy person ; but 
 in Italy, he enjoys comparatively little consider- 
 ation, and has therefore less courage to squabble 
 for his rights, and consequently influences less 
 by his example. 
 
 The singular spirit of self-denial which I 
 have stated, would naturally lead one to expect 
 something evangelical in the Italian clergy, but 
 though there are to be found amongst them mo- 
 dels of apostolical piety, I do not believe that this 
 is the real characteristic of the class at large. At 
 least an unfavourable inference is to be drawn 
 from the little consideration which they enjoy in 
 this country, always excepting the Roman State. 
 Out of this, you rarely meet priests, (who are 
 not distinguished by learning or talents) unless it 
 is in the house of some bigoted person, who hopes 
 eternal happiness through their mediation.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 8.9 
 
 But their friendly reception, by the religiously 
 inclined, is by no means general. I recollect 
 when I was last in Italy, living on a familiar 
 footing in a family, the mistress of which was 
 a woman of strong religious feelings, and what 
 is in this country called devout. Being struck 
 by the absence of priests, I at last, when 1 
 thought our intimacy might justify such a li- 
 berty, expressed my surprize at never having 
 seen one in the house. She answered " that 
 she hoped I never should — that she considered 
 them as mischievous men, who sowed discord 
 in families with the view of acquiring their di- 
 rection, which, as far as she was concerned, she 
 was resolved they should never obtain;" observ- 
 ing, very much in the tone of Shadwell, on, 
 
 " The fatal mischiefs which domestic priests 
 Brought oil the best of families in halt/ 
 Where their dull patrons give them line enough. 
 First with the women they insinuate 
 (Whose fear and folly makes them slaves to them) 
 And give them ill opinions of their husbands. 
 Oft they divide them, if the women rule not ; 
 But if they govern them, their reign is sure. 
 Then they've the secrets of the faniilv, 
 Dispose o' the children, place and then displace 
 Whom, and when they think fit, See." 
 
 The Lancashire Witches.
 
 90 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 I believe that this lady was not at all singular 
 in her opinions, though I cannot tell, from per- 
 sonal experience, how far they were founded in 
 truth. Were I indeed merely to speak from 
 what I have seen, I should have to report most 
 favourabl}'' of the Italian country clergy, who 
 live quietly, and, like the old parochial clergy of 
 France, never mix indecently in the pleasures 
 or bustle of the world.
 
 ( 91 ) 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII. 
 
 Originality of Character common amongst the ancient 
 Venetians. 
 
 Venice, December, 1817. 
 
 The system of taxation, instituted by France, 
 and persisted in by Austria, and which forms 
 the subject of one of my last letters, is so much 
 the more heavily felt by tlie inhabitants of the 
 Venetian state, from their having been perhaps 
 the people least directly or indirectly taxed, that 
 have ever been subjected to a regular system of 
 imposts. For the Venetian republic laid the 
 foundations of its fiscal system, at a period 
 when commerce aftbrded it the only substantial 
 source of revenue; and when it became pos- 
 sessed of territory, did not apply itself, in earnest, 
 to the extraction of wealth from this new mine; 
 probably because the nobles being, for the most 
 part, the possessors of the soil, did not chuse 
 to tax themselves. The taxes then both on 
 moveable and landed property were light in 
 the time of the Venetian republic, and princi-
 
 ,92 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 pally consisted, as till lately in America, on du- 
 ties, whether of export or import. 
 
 It is indeed the fashion to consider the ex- 
 tinguished republic of Venice as presenting the 
 most atrocious system of administration that 
 ever existed in Europe. I am inclined to think 
 that its practical atrocities of every kind have 
 been greatly exaggerated. I will mention to 
 you some circumstances which have guided my 
 opinion. To the point. 
 
 The first thing that I expected to witness in 
 Venice, which must be supposed to be still, to a 
 degree, under the influence of the impulse given 
 it by the ancient form of government, was a 
 system of manners, more or less indicative of 
 its supposed character. I mean indicative of 
 that system of espionage, which I thought, at 
 least, would have shew n itself in some order or 
 other of the people. But I can assure you that 
 in my different visits to this city and its subor- 
 dinate towns, I have not only not found any 
 thing which savoured of the spirit of division, 
 (I except the case of the Caste km i and the Ni- 
 coloti,) but am ready to maintain that I never 
 visited any country, where the people seemed 
 equally linked in love. You cannot walk the 
 town for a day without being struck by this 
 universal spirit of kindness. The young man,
 
 I.J.TTKUS lUO.M THE NOltTlI OF TIALV. 93 
 
 who is perhaps loaded with a burden, if he de- 
 sires an old man to make way for him, addresses 
 him by the title q^ father, the old man answers 
 him with that of son, and you hear continually 
 " caro pare" and *' carofid" from the mouth of 
 the lowest of the mob. Your servant calls the 
 kitchen-maid his sister, and she hails him as her 
 brother. The Venetians really give you the 
 idea of being; members of one 2;reat familv. 
 It is true that throughout Italy you may ob- 
 serve the inhabitants of every petty city hang 
 together more than in any other country, a con- 
 sequence undoubtedly of their affections being 
 centered within a narrow focus : But this fact 
 is peculiarly remarkable in Venice. 
 
 You will probably allow the justice of the 
 inference I draw from this; but I am not 
 ccjually sure that I shall have your assent to 
 another of my conclusions. If I can depend 
 upon stories and anecdotes in circulation, the 
 Venetians were disting-uishcd for 2:reat origina- 
 lity of character, though this has been depressed 
 under the iron crown of France and the leaden 
 sceptre of Austria. For myself, I see in this 
 an unequivocal proof of their having been in 
 the enjoyment of a very considerable degree of 
 civil liberty, for you may remark that originality 
 of character is never to be found under despotic
 
 94 LETTERS FROM 'JHE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 governments, except in such persons as are 
 placed by circumstances beyond the reach of 
 power. A Potcmkin or a Prince de Ligne there- 
 fore are scarcely contradictions to my theory. 
 
 I might furnish a thousand instances in sup- 
 port of the fact, from which I have drawn tliis 
 inference, but I shall content myself with copy- 
 ing one portrait which was given me to day ; 
 this, not only as an illustration, but as affording 
 some sort of relief to the matter of my preceding- 
 letters. 
 
 But to my picture : tlie person from whom I 
 shall attempt this sketch was a woman, who 
 died a few years ago. Though not born noble, 
 or ennobled by marriage, she, somehow or other, 
 by her intrigues, obtained a very lucrative em- 
 ployment for her son, who was the support of 
 her family ; her husband being a drunken brute, 
 who was a burden to it. Though the custom 
 of the country, and the degrading vices of her 
 husband, might have palliated (if example can 
 palliate such things) her entering into a wider 
 field of gallantry, she confined herself to one 
 lover, with whom she lived forty years, and to 
 whom she gave proofs of a devotion which 
 would pass in England for heroic, if the tie 
 which united them had been of a difllerent de- 
 scription. But though her known inaccessi-
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 9j 
 
 bility, and indeed latterly her age, prevented her 
 from being- pursued as an object of gallantry, 
 her wit and powers of pleasing, secured to 
 licr a little court to the very end of her life, 
 to the last moment of which she enjoyed such 
 animal spirits as are generally supj)osed only to 
 be compatible with youth and healtlL But the 
 most extraordinary part of this woman's charac- 
 ter was her philosophy, which, while it wore the 
 stamp of the other sex, did not take from the 
 tenderness of her own, as long as that tender- 
 ness could be useful to its object. She never, 
 however, suffered this to interfere unnecessarily 
 with her interests or pleasures, and cast it away 
 the instant it became of no avail. 
 
 Two or three anecdotes of her will be illus- 
 trative of these facts. Her husband had broken 
 his leg in some debauch, and her son, of whom 
 she was passionately fond, at the same time 
 was seized with a dangerous illness: yet she was, 
 during this dreadful period, never distracted 
 by the variety of calls upon her attention, but 
 passed from one sick room to the other with a 
 method and activity which appeared inimitable.* 
 
 • Having, upon one occasion, been brought tu the bed-side 
 •f her husband, who she found iiad called her only to hear hi'^
 
 96 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 Her son escaped on this occasion, but died before 
 his mothei". ^V'hen the news was brought her 
 by the priest who had comforted him in his last 
 moments, she, for a moment, sunk under the 
 shock; but a few seconds after, recollected he 
 had that morning changed a dollar for some 
 purpose, and that the change must be in his 
 bed. 
 
 She had attended her lover during a long 
 sickness with the same anxious zeal she had 
 bestowed upon her husband and son, scarcely 
 allowing herself a moment of repose. He too 
 died under her care. Those who had seen her 
 half distracted during his sufferings, imagined 
 that her life was wound up in his ; but to 
 their infinite surprize, she was seen, the very 
 morning after, walking, cahii and unconcerned, 
 in the Piazza di San Marco. To some friends, 
 Avho ventured to intimate their surprize, she 
 observed, that to keep her lover in life, she 
 would have cracked her heart-strings ; but she 
 was too sensible of the folly of regret ever to 
 indulge in so useless a passion. 
 
 complaints, she quickly observed, " Si, sigc c bcvc, pcrc/te vu 
 no se boil da oltro ; intanto 7i/i vago da quest' altru cfie muore." 
 " Yes, howl and drink, for you are fit for nothing else. In the 
 meantime, I am going to the one who is dying :" i. e. her son.
 
 LETTERS FUOM THE NORTH Ol' ITALY. 97 
 
 I might cite various ignoblcr traits of eccentri- 
 city. Take one: a Venetian, who thed not very 
 long ago, made a provision of torches for his 
 funeral, artificially loaded with crackers, antici- 
 pating, to a confidential friend, the hubbub that 
 would result from the explosion ; which he had 
 calculated must take place in the most inconve- 
 nient spots. It would be an unpaidonable omis- 
 sion were I not to state that this posthumous 
 joke verified the most sanguine expectations of 
 its projector. 
 
 VOL. 11.
 
 ( 98 ) 
 
 LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 On Venetian and Italian Mercantile Character, S^c. 
 
 Venice, December, ISlf- 
 
 Though some faint traces yet exist of the old 
 Venetian character, it should be observed that 
 these are, generally speaking, nearly worn out. 
 The ?nost remarkable, as contrasted with the rest 
 of Italy, certainly is so. The probity of Panta- 
 loon was proverbial, and the honour and punc- 
 tuality of a Venetian merchant were, I believe, 
 recognized throughout the various provinces of 
 Italy, That this is not now the case, I attribute 
 to the Austrians; but you will, perhaps, be in- 
 clined to treat my opinions, on this point, like 
 those of the old fellow-commoner of Cam- 
 bridge ; who ascribed every evil in life, even that 
 of the dogs' befouling his staircase, " to those 
 damned presbyterians." 
 
 But I am inclined to be more liberal ; and, 
 instead of merely ascribing the change of the 
 mercantile character in Venice to the Austrians, 
 as such, am almost inclined to believe, that pub- 
 lic honesty is scarcely compatible with their law.
 
 LETTERS 1-ltOM THE NOH'I 11 OF ITA I.V. 99 
 
 What this is, may be guessed from the consti- 
 tution of tlieir tribunals, as well as the code itself, 
 which they administer. A tribunal here is com- 
 posed of different poor judges. This bodes ill : — 
 but, at least, numbers promise security against 
 corruption. — Not at all. — In each tribunal one 
 judge is charged with the particular examination 
 of a cause. This man, termed a relater, examines 
 the papers and aihdavits, and by his opinions his 
 brothers are necessarily guided; tor men will 
 not, it may be guessed, go out of their way in 
 search of labours and responsibility. Bribe the 
 relatore then, and your business is done. 
 
 But this is only one faulty stone in the struc- 
 ture. Alas, the whole fabric is rotten, the whole 
 code, civil and criminal; which, in various ways, 
 serves as a cloak to villany of e\ cry various 
 description. An English merchant had a debt 
 of eight hundred pounds due to him from a 
 person of respectaljility, I mean of respectability 
 in the mercantile world of Venice, and came 
 here with the view of recoNcring it. The matter 
 came before the chaml)er of commerce, and the 
 thing was so clear, that, alter sundry dirty fetches, 
 the defendant was obliged to pay the money into 
 court. Still the plaintiff was no farther advanced, 
 and tlie said money was not to be reco\cred 
 
 H 2
 
 ]()0 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALV. 
 
 from the gripe of justice. Month after month 
 j)assecl away; and at hist a person, who inte- 
 rested himself officially for the creditor, declared 
 his intention of applying, on his behalf, to the 
 British ambassador at Vienna, and bringing the 
 matter, through him, under the cognizance of 
 the emperor. The answer of the tribunal was, 
 " If you do, your appeal can be of no avail; cer- 
 tain forms are allowed by our law, and these 
 cannot be superseded by the emperor himself; 
 but let the prosecutor wait till Christmas, and he 
 will have his money." To all remonstrances it 
 ^va.s answered, " Wait till Christmas — / cajinot 
 tell you more — but wait till Christmas, and the 
 eight hundred pounds will be forthcoming;" 
 Christmas came, and the money zvas paid, nearly 
 an equal sum having been consumed in the 
 litigation. The friend of the poor English mer- 
 chant now learnt the secret cause of the delays 
 which had been thrown in the way of his client. 
 Christmas is the period when the principal of 
 money, put out at interest, can be called in; 
 and this equitable court, it seems, gambled at 
 usury with the money of its suitors. 
 
 An English gentleman, conversant with this 
 place, talking once with me about the mercantile 
 classes of Venice, assured me that he did not
 
 LETTERS FROM THE XOUTH OF ITALY. 101 
 
 apeak paradoxically when he gave by much the 
 highest rank in the scale of honesty to the Jews, 
 the second to the Venetians, and the lowest of 
 all to the Germans who are settled here, and 
 who are amongst the principal money-agents of 
 the city. 
 
 But if mercantile honour does not stand higli 
 amongst any class at Venice, it must be con- 
 fessed that it is at a low ebb all over the penin- 
 sula; and I do not hesitate to say that, measuring 
 such men by our English standard, I never met 
 with an honest banker in Italy. This is a strong 
 assertion; hut I will state on what it is founded. 
 They not only universally dabble in petty gains, 
 whicli a London merchant would be ashamed 
 of, but put upon you bold and downright 
 frauds. Thus, Friday is the day on which the 
 rate of exchange is settled ; I go tlie Wed- 
 nesday following to my banker and draw upon 
 him for a hundred pounds, and he gives me, in 
 the coin of the country, five pounds less than I 
 ought to receive. I count my money, and tell 
 him, that, according to the last declared state of 
 the exchange, I ought to have more; bu^ he re- 
 plies, that he will not cash my bills ujjon other 
 terms. I am told that the law affords a rcniedv in 
 this case; but how am 1 to obtain it? 1 am a bird 
 
 H 3
 
 102 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY, 
 
 of passage, perched for a little space, and months 
 must roll away, in a paper-war of replies and re- 
 joinders, before I can bring my artillery to bear: 
 for there is no mesne process here, excepting that 
 of the bastinado. 
 
 But the tricks of mercantile men are not al- 
 ways confined to such petty frauds, and I might 
 select some proofs of my position both from 
 " continent and isle;" I will take the most fla- 
 grant I am acquainted with. The scene lies in 
 Sicilv. An Enolish merchant there, after a lonff 
 legal warfare with some mercliants of the island, 
 brought his foes to an agreement, which was 
 signed in form. Some time afterwards, these 
 men, repenting them of their act, went to the 
 Englishman, and desired to see the paper again. 
 He, sillily enough, put it into the hands of their 
 spokesman, who instantly tore it to bits. I 
 should not dwell on an individual act of base- 
 ness, had it received the chastisement which it 
 merited from society; but I never heard that this 
 piece of villany brought with it any ill conse- 
 quences to its perpetrator. 
 
 As riches are every thing in Italy, it being 
 premised tliat most mercantile men here are 
 what we shoidd call rogues, it may be observed 
 that their roguery is usually in proportion to
 
 LETTERS FKOiM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 103 
 
 their rank. The banking knight is naught; but 
 the banking duke is a knave protest.* 
 
 In assigning, however, the liighest rank in 
 roguery to the greatest and richest amongst the 
 commercial men, I am tar from meaning to over- 
 look the claims ot" subordinate dabblers in mo- 
 ney or things vendible. A shopkeeper who has 
 only one price is a thing rare in Italy; and I do 
 not exaggerate, when I say that an Englishman, 
 on his first visit, usually pays doidjle what would 
 be asked of one experienced in the prices of the 
 place. 
 
 * In Alficri's Life, I find the following confirmation of my 
 opinion. He has just been speaking of an Italian banker's 
 trick, and pursues: " Ma io non avea neppure bisogno di aver 
 provato questa cortesia banchieresca, per fissare la mia opinione 
 di codesta classe di gente, che sempre mi h scmbrata una 
 delle piu vili c pessime del mondo sociale, e cib tanto piil quanta 
 esei si van rnaschcrando da signori," <§c. — vol. i. p. 33. 
 
 H 4
 
 ( 104 ) 
 
 LETTER XL. 
 
 Account of the ancient Venetian Nobility — Causes of its 
 Ruin, S)C. 
 
 Venice, December, 1817- 
 
 I GAVE you in a former letter from Vicenza 
 some Italian stanzas, in which Gritti, the Vene- 
 tian poet, has sketched his own portrait ; I am 
 now tempted to give you another unpublished 
 draught by the same painter, in which he, in 
 a few lines, threw off that of the indigent 
 Venetian noble. I have seen this, as well as 
 the former stanzas given by me, better combed 
 and curled ; but I prefer them in their dishe- 
 velled state, which bears with it evidence of 
 their having been rhapsodies of the moment. 
 
 " Sono iin povero ladro aristocratico 
 Errante per la Veneta palude, 
 Che i denti per il mio duro panatico 
 Aguzzo in su la cote e in su 1' incude ; 
 Mi slombo in piedi, e a seder' mi snatico, 
 Ballottando or la fame, or la virtude :
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OT ITALY. 10.5 
 
 Piego, piango, minaccio, insisto, adulo, 
 Ed ho me stesso, e la iiiia patria in ciilo."* 
 
 Some annotations are necessary to make this 
 stanza intelligible. I should observe that, in his 
 " Mi slombo in piedi,'' Gritti appears to allude 
 to the multitude of bows made b} the pursuers 
 of patronage, under the porticos of the Procu- 
 ratie, the spot frequented by the members of 
 the maggior cousigiw, previous to its assend^ling ; 
 and in the '' a seder mi snafico,'' to a wooden 
 chair in which the Venetian nobles sate, whilst 
 balloting ; a mode of voting by which all the 
 patronage of the republic was distributed I It 
 is scarcely necessary to obserNc, that a large 
 part of these petty princes existed by this : but 
 a more detailed account of the Venetian aristo- 
 cracy may be, in some respects, new even to 
 you. 
 
 The nobles of Venice, though all equal in the 
 
 * I'm a poor peer of Venice loose among her 
 
 Marshes! With standins; hows I've double grown, 
 And in my trade of place and pension-monger, 
 Sate till I've ground my buttocks to the bone ; 
 Balloting now for mf.rit, now for hunger: 
 Breaking, myself, my teeth, u|)on a stone, 
 I crave, cringe, storm, and sliivc, thro' life's short farce, 
 And vote friends, self and country all
 
 106 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 eye of the law, were fancifully divided into 
 three classes ; the first distinguislicd as that of 
 the sayigue bid or sangue colombin, i. e. hlue 
 blood or pigeon's blood ; the second, as the divi- 
 sion of the 7norel de mezo, or the middle piece, 
 and the poorest of all as Bernaboti, or Barna- 
 bites; from their inhabiting small and cheap 
 houses in the parish of St. Barnabas. 
 
 It will be easily conceived that the poor 
 nobility must have been numerous in a state 
 which considered all the legitimate sons of a 
 patrician as noble; where commerce no longer 
 offered a resource, and the only profession left 
 was that of the law. This class, therefore, sub- 
 sisting upon the employments of the republic, 
 civil or military, at home and abroad, was neces- 
 sarily ruined by the revolution. But the cause 
 of the almost general havoc which involved 
 the Venetian aristocracy is not so immediately 
 visible; the less so, as the laws of the fode-com- 
 messo, which corresponds with our entail, were 
 sufficiently rigorous in old Venice.* 
 
 * Property did not, however, descend generally in entirety 
 to the eldest lineal heir of the house in Italy as with us ; there 
 being families where only a considerable preference was given
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 107 
 
 I shall try, acconlino- to the information I 
 have received, to explain how this was accom- 
 plished. The first and foremost cause was the 
 excessive indolence and profusion of the last 
 generations of the nobility, who appear to have 
 resembled the ancestor of Sir Roger de Coverley ; 
 who, he tells us, " would sign a deed for a 
 mortgage, covering one half his estate, with his 
 glove on : " with this difference, however, that 
 the Venetian patrician could only mortgage his 
 estate during his own natural life; a circum- 
 stance which, it appears at first sight, should 
 have been the protection of the ancient houses of 
 Venice. The protection was, however, in most 
 instances of no avail. 
 
 to the eldest son. There was also a usage in most Venetian 
 families termed the Mazorasco, (not to be confounded with the 
 Italian maiorasco and the French majorat,) which ensured a 
 certain portion to the eldest collateral descendant, should he 
 be older than the lineal one. 
 
 Property is now divided in Italy, on the death of a possessor, 
 as it is in modern France. A father, at his death, can only dis- 
 poseof one small part of his property at his own will and plea- 
 sure ; this varying according to the number of his children: 
 the other must be equally divided amongst them, whether male 
 or female. If, moreover, he should, in the exercise of this 
 jight of preference, favour a child by a single jot more than 
 the law permits, even this privilege becomes void, and all the 
 children share and share alike, withyut the least regard to the 
 dispositions of the testator.
 
 108 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 In almost all countries the laws of honour 
 often contravene the laws of the land, often 
 mischievously ; but they sometimes come in aid 
 of sound morality. Such was their effect here. 
 The law of the Jede-commesso allowed a son to 
 charge himself with the debts of a father, with- 
 out prejudice to his successors ; but it being 
 considered as a point of honour to take up 
 this burden, the sons son succeeded to it, and 
 the debts of one generation were perpetuated 
 through diverse succeeding ones. 
 
 Things were in this state when the old go- 
 vernment was overthrown, and the law oi Jede- 
 commesso abolished here, as well as all over the 
 countries revolutionized by France. The con- 
 sequence was the immediate seizure of property 
 so encumbered. This was inevitable; and the 
 creditor of the family of Cor7ih\ or any other 
 Venetian house, seized upon his own. 
 
 Thus one of the indirect consequences of the 
 revolution was the destruction of an immense 
 number of Venetian families of the sanj^ue bid 
 and morhl de mezo. It was, however, more im- 
 mediately destructive to those denominated the 
 Barnabites, who were at once cut off from all 
 the lucrative offices of the state. Nor was this 
 all : the daughters of the indigent nobility had
 
 LETTERS FUOM THE NOKTll OF ITALY. 1 OJ) 
 
 all of them pensions which they brought in 
 dowry to their hus])ands ; but place and pen- 
 sion, though bestowed for hfe, were anniliilated, 
 and, in the place of these, a miserable stipend 
 of two Venetian livres a day (not (juite ten-pence 
 Englisli) was bestowed on those wlio conde- 
 scended to accej)t of it, by tlie nmshrooni muni- 
 cipality which flourished for its day out of the 
 ruins of the aristocracy. Poor as this pittance 
 was, even in this country where necessaries bear 
 a price out of all proportion to luxuries, num- 
 bers did accept it, under the idea that it would 
 be increased under happier circumstances ; but 
 the French, it will be easily believed, did not 
 augment it, and (what could scarcely be be- 
 lieved but by those versed in the proceedings of 
 the cabinet of Vienna) the Austrian government 
 dipt this miserable mite, and clogged it with 
 conditions, which neither the revolutionary mu- 
 nicipality nor the French were illiberal enough 
 to impose. 
 
 The municipality gave their compensation, 
 and, the whole of the terra jtrma being in pos- 
 session of the enemy, perhaps they could give 
 no more — the m.unicipality gave it as unre- 
 stricted as the pensions it was to replace : the 
 French made no alteration in the system ; but 
 the Austrians have not only limited it to per-
 
 110 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 sons not having- two hunclrcd ducats a-year, 
 (twenty-five pounds sterling,) but have insisted 
 upon its being spent in their own dominions. 
 Of the rigour with which this condition is ex- 
 acted, take the following example : — A lady, 
 ignorant of the regulations which had been in- 
 troduced, was absent two years in the south of 
 France ; she returned, and claimed the arrears 
 of her pension, without having specified where 
 she had been. The arrears were paid after the 
 usual difficulties, but her absence having been 
 ascertained, she was ordered to disgorge her 
 prey, under the threat of being excluded from 
 all further provision.* 
 
 * I should have mentioned that another violent, though par- 
 tial, change in property was introduced by the abolition of the 
 law oi fede-commcsso. Succession to entailed property as well 
 as nobility was forfeited by a misalliance ; the issue of such 
 marriage being considered as a sort of political mestis, and de- 
 scending into the class styled that of secretaries, and the estate 
 going to the next heir male wherever he might be found. 
 
 It should, however, be stated, that the law respecting mis- 
 alliance did not extend so widely as might be expected, this only 
 excepting the daughters of such as were incapable of being in- 
 scribed in the libro d'oro : and the exercisers of all the liberal 
 professions, such as the advocate, physician, apothecary, and 
 even the music-master, might aspire to it. 
 
 Still one class of women was excepted, precisely that with 
 which such misalliances were most frequently contracted, I
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. I 1 1 
 
 I have said, after the usual diflicultics : I will 
 now illustrate these. Another lady claimed 
 seveti months arrears of pension, due during a 
 residence in Lombardy and tlie Venetian state. 
 Now this was a claim verifiable by a single in- 
 strument, her passport, wiiich ascertained the 
 day of her arrival in every town, by the signa- 
 ture of accredited officers of the Austrian police. 
 Notwithstanding tliis, she was seven months 
 more before she could obtain her demand. 
 These were spent in the presentation of petitions, 
 always by order, always on stamped paper, and 
 
 mean the domic di teatro. The number of these marriages at- 
 tests the want of feeling, or at least the entire want of thought 
 of the last Venetian generation of nobility. To the offspring 
 of such, whose fathers were yet alive, a portion of their fathers' 
 lands were given by the abolition of the fcde-conmitsso. 
 
 To pursue these marriages of the nobility : There was, 1 
 believe, no country in the world where such precautions were 
 taken on this subject for the enforcement of what made part of 
 the policy of the state : a nobleman even marrying a noble lady 
 was obliged to communicate his marriage speedily to what was 
 called // Cotlcgio. If he did not, his children remained ex- 
 cluded from all the privileges of nobility. A certain degree of 
 law was indeed, given to parents, who had neglected this, 
 enabling them to recur by petition to the same body for the 
 same purpose within a limited time; but this term passed, there 
 was no raodo of repairing the neglect.
 
 1 12 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 in the almost daily beat of half the official stairs 
 of Venice, either in person or in proxy.* 
 
 But I willingly turn away my eyes from a 
 picture, every detail of which is painful, and 
 having described the fortunes of the Venetian 
 nobility, shall give some account of their ho- 
 nours. 
 
 The patricians, as I said before, all equal in the 
 eye of the law, had no titles as such, excepting 
 that of your Excellency ; though some bore them, 
 as Counts, 8^c. of terra ferma, before being en- 
 rolled in the nobility of Venice; and some had 
 titles assigned them as compensations for, or 
 rather as memorials of fallen "leatncss. Thus 
 the Querini, formerly lords of Crema, had the 
 distinction continued to them, after Crema was 
 absorbed in the Venetian state. 
 
 These families, however, usually let their 
 titles sleep, considering the quality of an un- 
 
 * This is by no means a single case : A Venetian judge, 
 displaced, but pensioned by the Austrians, neglected to receive 
 his allowance according to the example of the others. At 
 length he applied for his arrears, which were denied him. 
 " What," said he, " will you not give me what others have 
 received ? " " No ! " was the answer, " and those others will 
 bo forced to refund." — Note that these pensions had been 
 paid, in virtue of a solemn and printed decree.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. ] IJ 
 
 titled Venetian patrician as superior to any 
 other distinction. Nor does this seem to have 
 been an odd refinement, for the old re|)ublic 
 sold titles for a pittance to whoever could pay 
 for them, though such a person might not even 
 have had the education of a gentleman.* It 
 Avas natural therefore that a Lord of Crema 
 should fear being confounded with this countly 
 canaglia, and sink his having any thing in com- 
 mon with such a crew. 
 
 The great political revolution that has taken 
 place, destroying the splendour of the tibro 
 d'oro, has induced some to produce their terra 
 Jerma titles; but the majority content themselves 
 with the stjde of CavaUere,'\ which docs not 
 necessarily denote actual knighthood ; and is 
 often used almost as liberally in Italy, as the , 
 denomination of Squire now is in England. A 
 striking proof indeed of good sense and dignity 
 was given by the great body of the Venetian 
 nobility, on being invited by Austria to claim 
 
 * The qualification to be a Count was about what is sup- 
 posed to qualify for knighthood in England, and the fro paid 
 for the title, if I am rightly informed, 20 or 40/. 
 
 t No order of knighthood was peculiar to Venice, and her 
 citizens were precluded by law from becoming members of 
 foreign orders. 
 
 VOL. TI. I
 
 114 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 nobility and title from her, on the verification of 
 their rights, the great body of them merely 
 desiring a recognition of their rank, without 
 availing themselves of the offer held out to them. 
 A few, indeed, have pursued a different line of 
 conduct, and received patents of princes, &c.
 
 ( 115 ) 
 
 LETTER XLI. 
 
 C/iaraiteristics of Italy^ Moral and Fhysical. 
 
 Venice, December, 181 7. 
 
 * Trumpets sound, " Boot and saddle! " fold your cloaks, 
 And, guards, convey your king to summer's scat,' 
 AVhere no perpetual drizzle drives or soaks ; 
 Where skies are blue, and suns give light and heat ; 
 Where the wind woes you lovingly, and where 
 Wit walks the streets, and music's in the air.' 
 
 Court and Parliament of Beasts. 
 
 These few lines comprize, in my opinion, the 
 principal attractions of Italy, and I ought to 
 confess, that I have found all these without 
 going farther south than Venice, in pursuit of 
 them. 
 
 Till within these three days, we have had tlie 
 weather of an English May, with its accompa- 
 niments of green peas, straw herrics and roses. 
 It is now indeed hecome veiy cold, hut the 
 sun's rays are still so powerful that it is impos- 
 sible to take exercise where "at full they play;' 
 and I have frequently acted the traveller in the 
 
 I 2
 
 Il6 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 fable, and discarded my great coat, as well as 
 taken shelter under porticos. 
 
 Italy's skies and suns have passed into 
 a proverb ; but I have never yet heard her 
 coiTiparati\e calm remarked upon : though she 
 affords a strange contrast in this, to England ; 
 which may indeed be compared to the island 
 of Ruach, whose inhabitants, Rabelais tells us, 
 " eat nothing but wind, drink nothing but 
 wind, and have no other houses but weather- 
 cocks." Not only England; I think every 
 part of Europe which I have visited, is more 
 swept by winds than Italy, where continued 
 gales are unknown ; such rarely continuing, 
 even in the season of the equinox, for more 
 than three or four days Avithout intermission, 
 so that a winter's gale of wind is here, little 
 more than what seamen call a summer s gale in 
 England. A striking proof indeed of compara- 
 tive calm may be observed in the public gardens 
 of this city. These are situated on the sea-side 
 of the town, yet their acacias are neither bent nor 
 broken. 
 
 Something similar may be observed both of 
 the bays of Naples and Genoa, along both of 
 which are thousands of trellised galleries, covered 
 with the vine or the oleander, whose foliage 
 remains undishevelled by the wind. 
 
 One understands the immense power of this
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 117 
 
 in England, and one may say, that living in 
 an island, whctlicr in that of Britain or Ruach 
 is like living in a room, witli a thorougli draft 
 of air. But it seems somewhat more dilficult 
 to explain why Italy is so much less buffeted 
 than the remainder of the continent; the more 
 so as its peninsular form Mould apj)arently ex- 
 pose it to stronger ventilation. In crossing, 
 some months ago, tlie plains on the southern side 
 of Dol, I observed, that the trees, which border 
 the road, according to the general custom in 
 France, M^ere in some instances drifted, and in 
 others, nearly bent double, so that our flat and ex- 
 posed coasts could scarcely offer the picture of a 
 more cheerless champaign. Yet this feature of 
 desolation is never seen in the great plains of 
 Italy, though in these, and indeed on hill or 
 dale, you may encounter squall and whirlwind. 
 
 In further proof of what I have asserted as 
 to the calms of Italy, I never recollect having 
 seen a windmill in any part of it; though these 
 would be a convenience in some places. There 
 weije two in old Venice on the spot where the 
 public gardens, alluded to above, now arc, but 
 they were demolished, as I am informed, on 
 account of the insufficiency of wind. During 
 the last blockade an attempt was made to es- 
 tablish one in a yet more exposed situation ou 
 
 r 'o
 
 118 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY'. 
 
 the outer side of the lagoon, which is only shut 
 off from the sea by low and bare islands, but 
 here again the experiment failed, and the inha- 
 bitants ^\'ere obliged to grind what unground 
 grain was brought, in hand-mills. 
 
 Probably the chains of mountains which bound 
 and intersect Italy, break or stagnate the winds * 
 Something also is to be ascribed, perhaps, to the 
 form of the coasts, and the circumstance of their 
 being washed by inland seas, but undoubtedly 
 there is no want of wind in the Mediterranean ; 
 and the having sailed much upon this sea, which I 
 have traversed four times in its utmost extent, 
 and having lived five winter months at Malta, 
 enables me to speak with some confidence upon 
 the subject. But I have observed two essential 
 points of difference between the gales of the 
 Mediterranean and the ocean. The wind the 
 most violent, very seldom continues long in the 
 same point, in the Mediterranean ; and it may 
 be remarked, also, that even where it blows 
 fresh at sea, it often does not blow home; but 
 moderates on approaching the continental coasts. 
 
 * The old Venetian proverb of froppe feste, troppe teste, 
 € troppe tempestc, seems to be at variance with this ; but it 
 is to be remarked that tonpesta in modern Italian is often used 
 to express a storm of rain or hail.
 
 LETTERS FHOM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 1 19 
 
 This absence of storm is no doubt a great de- 
 light; but it does not seem a very far-fetched 
 conjecture that the malaria may derive a great 
 part of its intensity from such a cause. I have 
 however discussed this subject as well as I could 
 in other Letters. I pass to the conclusion of 
 my text, 
 
 " IVit walks the streets, and music's in the air." 
 
 These are graces which nobody, I suppose, 
 will deny to Italy ; but I have a mind to give 
 you some anecdotes illustrative of my text. 
 My first story will lose much of its point, from 
 being in need of explanation : For this pur- 
 pose, I prefer a prologue to an epilogue. A 
 favourite game of the populace, all over Italy, 
 called la morra, consists in two persons holding 
 up their hands at the same moment, with a cer- 
 tain number of fingers extended. The players 
 guess alternately at the aggregate quantity of 
 these, and he who guesses oftenest right, counts 
 most points. You therefore frequently see two 
 men walking soberly together; one of whom, 
 on a sudden, holds up his hand. I may now 
 introduce my dramatis personcc. I was walking, 
 the other morning with my poodle, when, in 
 the social spirit which characterizes Italy, he 
 
 i4
 
 120 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 was joined by another of his race. Soon after- 
 wards, my beast was seized, as it should seem, 
 by some convulsive affection, and lifted up one 
 of his fore paws, going provisionally upon 
 three. "What's the matter with that dog?" 
 said a Venetian sailor. " Oh don't you see 
 he is playing at morra with the other?" an- 
 swered his comrade. 
 
 There is certainly something very droll in 
 the humour which assimilates the actions of 
 beasts to those of men, and, as I am on this 
 ground, I feel disposed to follow up my Vene- 
 tian with a Florentine story of the same descrip- 
 tion. In my account of the Vicentine improv- 
 visafore, I mentioned that, at a certain hour of 
 the evening, a great proportion of the lower 
 people of Florence sally to serenade their mis- 
 tresses, a piece of gallantry which is termed la 
 cuccliiata^ in the language of that city. An 
 Italian acquaintance of mine was, at this time, 
 passing through a street, when he observed a dog 
 looking wistfully at a bitch in a balcony ; but 
 whose admiration was somewhat distracted by 
 
 * The serenade made at midnight, and which is, I suppose, 
 of foreign origin, is called by them, la serenata ; which is the 
 general Italian word for serenades, of whatever season.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 121 
 
 a flea-bite : This set him scratching with vehe- 
 mence, whilst his eyes were still fixed upon his 
 four-footed love. A lower Florentine, wlio was 
 passing at this moment, stopt, and cried out, 
 ^^ E' ummnorato, suona la chitarra; fa la cuc- 
 chiata alia hella,'' likening, in his mind, the 
 dog's scratching his ribs, to a man thrumming 
 on a guitar. 
 
 Florence and Venice arc the two places where 
 you indeed find popular drollery in its greatest 
 perfection, and of that gay and natural cast 
 which characterizes the humour of the Irish.* 
 But this is more or less diffused all over Italy, 
 and, perhaps, is not done justice to, from the 
 difficulty there is in understanding many of the 
 dialects. 
 
 Considering; national humour as forminu; a 
 striking feature of national character, I am 
 tempted to enlarge a little more on this subject, 
 and to mention a species of wit, which is, I think, 
 almost exclusively Venetian. Were I called upon 
 to describe this Jo7'mallj/, I do not know whether 
 
 * It is however of a more elegant character than the Irish, 
 and in this respect I should give the W-netian humour a pre- 
 ference over the Florentine, though in the absurd stories I have 
 cited, these two appear, in the lawyer's phrase, to run pretty 
 much on four legs. The Venetian wit is lighter: the Floren- 
 tine is perhaps of a more forcible description.
 
 122 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 I could define it more strictly than by saying it 
 consisted in practical jokes brought to bear in- 
 tellectually. To instances. 
 
 A proud patrician, asking a connexion to a 
 great dinner, regretted at the same time that 
 he should put him to the expense of a dress 
 suit of clothes. The guest arrived, habited in 
 black silk, and bringing with him his servant 
 who was to wait, dressed in a magnificent suit 
 of embroidery, the exact pattern of his enter- 
 tainer's; which he had ingeniousl}^ procured 
 from his taylor. 
 
 A Venetian lady, famous for her gallantries, 
 being alone with a young man in a gondola, 
 complained of a sudden pain in her back, which 
 prevented her adjusting a garter that had slipped 
 down : She in consequence desired her compa- 
 nion to replace it. He did so, with becoming 
 gravity ; and the lady on landing presented him 
 with a box of sugar plums for his pains. 
 
 A certain Abate, who was an accomplished, 
 but tiresome man, called upon a Venetian gen- 
 tleman who wasjust going out, and detained him 
 by complaints of the world. He said, he was 
 learned and clever, but that " nissun swceva sti- 
 marlo,'' " that nobody knew his value," or, lite- 
 rally, " that nobody knew how to value him." 
 The friend heard him out, put his arm under hisj
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. ]<23 
 
 and carried him away with l\iin. Tiicy had not 
 walked tar, when the hearer entered the shop 
 of a broker and appraiser, and exclaimed, ^^Caro 
 vu, stimhne sto Sior Abate, che nissim altro sd, 
 stimar.'" " ^ly good friend, value nie this Ablje, 
 whom nobody else knows how to vahie."' 
 
 A gondolecr was ordered b}' a foreigner to the 
 ehurcii of Saint Ermagora e Fortiinaio, which 
 is known, I do not know why, by the name of 
 San JMarquola, amongst the Venetian populace. 
 The gondolecr, therefore, not understanding 
 him, rowed him in vain from Saint to Saint, 
 till out of all patience, he carried him to the 
 church of All Saints, and bade liim " find him 
 out amongst them ; since, for his part, he did not 
 know where else to look for him." But I am lay- 
 ing the foundations of an Adriatic Joe Miller. 
 
 I have now something to say of the music bi 
 the air. Though it is undoubtedly of an in- 
 ferior description to what may be had in the 
 theatres, the street music of Italy, from the 
 general diffusion of this species of talent, on 
 which I have already remarked, is to be consi- 
 dered as infinitely superior to that of the rest of 
 Europe. The present favourite air, " which car- 
 men whistle," is the " Di tanti palpiti'^ in Tax- 
 CREDi ; which is warbled with as much passion 
 as the most tolderollol tunes are bawled about
 
 124 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 in England. But here it is curious to watch the 
 progress of refinement. The music is not too 
 clehcate for the merest mountaineer; but he 
 often embodies it in words which are more 
 within his reach. 
 
 It should be stated, that music all over Italy- 
 is to be had on pleasanter and much easier 
 terms than elsewhere, and that, in a coun- 
 try where it is so prized and cultivated, the least 
 fuss is made about it. Except in a new opera 
 which people are anxious to liear through, there 
 are very seldom more than three or four airs, 
 which excite general and deep attention, and 
 during the others, people talk, lounge, and 
 laugh with impunity. You will recollect how 
 differently *' things are managed in France," 
 where one is not only expected to be silent, but 
 to look all eye and ear, during an eternal roll 
 of recitative. —
 
 ( 12.5 ) 
 
 LETTER XLII. 
 
 On the Coincidence of Popular SaperslitioTi^ 
 
 Venice, December, 181 7. 
 
 As I gave you in my last Letter some specimens 
 of popular humour, I shall treat you in this, with 
 an odd example of popular superstition. 
 
 As I was passing, this morning, near my 
 kitchen, M'hich, according to the rational prac- 
 tice of Italy, is on the floor which you inhabit, I 
 heard my cook making great lamentations over 
 the loss of a bucket, which had got loose from 
 its rope, at the bottom of the well. I suggested 
 the obvious expedient of lowering somebody 
 down in quest of it; but was assured that even a 
 boy had been already employed upon this service 
 without effect. Upon my expressing some sur- 
 prize, that more confidence was placed in the 
 exertions of a chikl, than of a man, 1 was an- 
 swered Jlla, Sigiwr, ghe vol ini biisiaro. That 
 a liar was thought most calculated for this pur- 
 pose, somewhat surprized me ; but it explained 
 the preference given to a child, on the supposi-
 
 J 26 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 tion that lying is more peculiarly the vice of in- 
 fancy, though heaven knows it is that of all ages. 
 This anecdote seems to open some new 
 sources of superstitions : these, as I have already 
 observed, are, in general, the same all over 
 Europe, and are therefore evidently derived from 
 common origins. One is evidently our common 
 religion. Thus the fear, which is entertained 
 here and elsewhere, of beginning a journey or 
 any other operation, on a Friday, and the super- 
 stitious awe, which Friday brings with it to a 
 part of the inhabitants of Scotland, may be at- 
 tributed to the most solemn event, which marks 
 our creed, and which would seem to have given 
 a short triumph upon that day to the powers of 
 darkness. The ill omen of laying the knife and 
 fork across seems to be of the same parentage ; 
 and the fear of sitting down, thirteen, to table ; 
 and the destiny, supposed to attach to the first 
 that rises, evidently comes from the last supper 
 and the end of Judas Iscariot. It is remark- 
 able, that in the famous painting of this, by 
 Leonardo da Vinci, and known all over the 
 world through the print of Morghen, (which, by 
 the way, bears little resemblance to the original,) 
 Judas is represented as overturning the salt. 
 Did this superstition originate during the sacri- 
 ficial ceremonies of pagan worship ?
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALT. 127 
 
 Bat religion, of wliatcvcr dc.scii{)tion, is not 
 the only hot-bed of these follies ; which owe their 
 birth even to so unsubstantial a thing as a nie- 
 tiiphor. Thus the idea that a present of a knife 
 cuts love is as strong in Italy as in England ; 
 and the penalty is redeemed in the same manner, 
 by converting a gift into a sale. Does the par- 
 ticular superstition I am recording arise out of 
 an epigram? At least, the idea of sending a liar 
 to the supposed abode of truth, seems to savour 
 of this supposition.
 
 ( 1^8 ) 
 
 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 Observations on the Architecture of St. Mark's at Fe- 
 
 nice, Sfc. 
 
 Venice, December, 1817. 
 
 There is, I think, no wonder in Venice supe- 
 rior to the church of St. Mark. Canaletto may 
 shew you what it is without, but a Rembrandt 
 only could give an idea of its interior. Precisely 
 as I should, with Warton, try the taste of one 
 who professed to love poetry, by Lycidas, or 
 any beautiful piece which could not be brought 
 to the standard of general rules, so I should 
 sound the feeling of any one in matters of archi- 
 tecture by the impression which he received from 
 the grand canal, the piazza, piazzetta, and, above 
 all, the interior of St. Mark's. If I could have 
 visions any where, it would be here. There is 
 without doubt something particularly imposing, 
 when employed for religious purposes, in that 
 species of mixt architecture produced at Con- 
 stantinople, which I will venture to call Greek- 
 Gothic, and which bears the visible sign of its 
 purpose, the uniting two dissimilar ages in one
 
 LETTERS FROM THE XORTII OF ITALY. 129 
 
 common creed. But the picturesque eft'ect of 
 the church is, no doubt, in j3art, produced by the 
 mixture of painting and gilding, peculiar to this 
 style of building, as well as by the distribution 
 of hght, all which come in aid of the architec- 
 ture. Gilpin indeed tells us that the picturesque 
 eye overlooks colour. This, taken in the plain 
 acceptation of the phrase, is, to my under- 
 standing, perfectly monstrous ; for, were it tj ue, 
 a landscape of Poussin's would be reduced to 
 the level of one of his own dirty daubs, and a 
 forest in winter offer the same beauties, as one 
 variegated with all the tints of Autumn. 
 
 Though I have not been able to pass over St. 
 Mark's in silence, do not imagine that 1 am about 
 to drag you through the various churches of Ve- 
 nice, which deservedly form the admiration of 
 the artist and amateur. 
 
 I abstain, too, from enumerating pictures and 
 statues. For these, I shall send you to Guide- 
 books, which are safe authority in this matter, 
 if not in other respects; since they give you a 
 regular list of lions, all which you must once 
 see with your own eyes; though there may not 
 be a quarter of them that you would revisit. 
 
 VOL. II.
 
 ( 130 ) 
 
 LETTER XLIV. 
 
 f^isit to the Island of Torzelo, and Re/lections excited 
 hy it. 
 
 Venice, December, 1817. 
 
 Though I told you in my last I should turn 
 you over to Guide-books for lions, (and there is 
 a very good one for this city,) I do not mean to 
 ahhere rigidly to such a resolution, as there will 
 sometimes be objects of curiosity, deriving their 
 interest from association, or some other less de- 
 finable cause, which deserve the notice of the 
 traveller, though not registered amongst the 
 wonders of a place. 
 
 Of this nature was an object of curiosity, 
 which I almost stumbled upon by accident. 
 Having visited the manufactures of Murano 
 and Burano^ and witnessed such a scene of pro- 
 miscuous misery as I feel no temptation to de- 
 scribe, I prolonged my voyage, and landed on 
 the nearly desert island of Torzelo, about six 
 miles from Venice. 
 
 This spot, once the summer resort of the Ve- 
 netian patricians, and covered with their villas
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 1:31 
 
 and gardens, presented a very difterent ehaructci 
 of desolation. My eyes were neither pained by 
 the visible progress of ruin, nor disgusted by the 
 meanness of the instrument which liad wrouglit 
 it. Time was here the great destroyer, and, 
 moreover, Time had done his work. 
 
 I was favoure^l by one of those delicious days 
 of sunshine, common even in a Lombard winter, 
 which in some degree mitigated the melancholy 
 of the prospect, and enabled me to saunter 
 and view, without inconvenience, all the cir- 
 cumstances of the scene. Amidst the vestiges 
 of departed grandeur were left some poor and 
 scattered houses, and a church, the rij'accia- 
 mento of which dates, I believe, from the ele- 
 venth century. A broken column marked the 
 centre of what had been the piazza, and from 
 which had once waved the standard of St Mark. 
 Amidst these remains glided a few human 
 beings, the miserable tenants of the place.* 
 There was nothing striking in the architec- 
 ture, nothing picturesque in the landscape, 
 but the whole made an impression upon me 
 which no other ruins ever produced. M'hilst I 
 was musing upon the prospect before me, a clock 
 
 * A stray English doctor had been marked down there; but 
 I did not put him up.
 
 132 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH 0» ITALY. 
 
 from a half-ruined tower tolled twenty. Time 
 only had suifered no change, together with the 
 monuments he had overthrown : He spoke an 
 antiquated language, hardly intelligible to the 
 generation of the day. 
 
 The church here, though not very striking in 
 point of architecture, had in itself some interest- 
 ing features. Its stone shutters, carrying one's 
 ideas back to days of violence, are, as far as my 
 observation goes, a singular remnant of such an 
 age; and some very curious mosaics, in the 
 inside, may vie in beauty, and antiquity with 
 those of St. Mark. 
 
 To return, however, to the general impression 
 made upon me by this isle of ruins, other and 
 less fantastical reflections succeeded to those 
 which first presented themselves. Gazing upon 
 the scene before me, I could not but muse upon 
 the way in which Venetian empire had been 
 lost and won. When this scene was gay with 
 villas and with vineyards, Venice contented her- 
 self with insular dominion, and this may be con- 
 sidered as the most flourishing and triumphant 
 era of her state. She sought and obtained con- 
 tinental greatness, and thus sloped the way to 
 her destruction. Her ruin was not indeed the 
 immediate consequence of this change of policy, 
 but it was evidently the first step towards it ; nor,
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 133 
 
 in her aftci-strugglcs for dominion or existence, 
 was she ever capable of tlie gigantic effort she 
 made untlcr the Doge Michiel, for the conciuest 
 of Constantinople. For when we consider the 
 extent of this, the number and burden of the 
 vessels which comj)osed her armament, we may 
 perhaps at^rm that the history of the world does 
 not present a more striking picture of the unas- 
 sisted powers of commerce. 
 
 We are at first disposed to allow no quarter 
 to statesmen, who depart from the steps of their 
 fathers and risk the glory and happiness of 
 their country upon a new foundation ; but we 
 shall find grounds for alleviating our censure, 
 observing that these men usually either imagine 
 they are only taking a new road to the same ob- 
 ject, or at least believe they have not lost sight 
 of it, in the new path which they have struck 
 out. 
 
 Thus the first wars carried on, and the first 
 acquisitions made by Venice upon terra ferma, 
 had all a view to the immediate furtherance of 
 her commerce. The trade she drove with Lom- 
 bardy, by means of the large navigable streams 
 which intersect it, was continually interrupted 
 by the vexations of the Paduaus, &c. and her 
 manufactured and imported articles shut out at 
 this important entrance. Her first temptation 
 
 K o
 
 J 34 LETTERS FROM Tilt NORTH OF ITALV. 
 
 therefore was to get possession of the mouths of 
 these rivers: Experience sliewed her it was use- 
 less to stop there, and that if she meant to ac- 
 comphsh lier object, she must ascend them from 
 " (ill to fount." Thus was she involved in con- 
 tinental struggles, which, by degrees, changed 
 their character, and her riches and resources 
 were diverted into channels which brought no 
 return. Meantime she left that part unarmed in 
 which she was most vulnerable ; and resembled 
 the stag in the fable, who turning his blind side 
 to the quarter from which he expected no dan- 
 ger, was slain by an arrow from the sea.* 
 
 The discovery of the Cape of Good Hope 
 and America must indeed have been cruel 
 wounds to this republic : but I am led to think 
 that the necessary consequences of these two 
 changes have been somewhat exaggerated. 
 The discovery of the Cape deprived her of a 
 mighty source of wealth, which flowed through 
 Alexandria ; but what deprived her of her com- 
 merce, and what of her colonies, in other parts 
 of the Mediterranean and Archipelago ? What 
 cut off her trade with the interior of Africa ? 
 What with Flanders, so flourishing in the earlier 
 
 * I allude to the loss of Cyprus and the war of Candia.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OK ITALY. 135 
 
 days of the republic? What, in short, prevented 
 her sliaring, as a nation, in tlic very discoveries 
 to which the science and entcrprize of some of 
 her citizens appear to have contril)uted?* 
 
 If it is urged that she was less favourably 
 situated than others for sucli a purpose ; so was 
 she for the tralTic whicli slie drove with Flanders ; 
 so that the trifling difference of distance can 
 scarcely be considered as an argument. It might 
 be said to her that it was tlie mis-direction and 
 abuse of strength, and the loss of a right spirit 
 rather than any particular misfortune, 
 
 " Which sunk so low that sacred head of thine." 
 
 The evil once received into her system, she 
 never rallied from it ; and nations are like indi- 
 viduals : They may recover from acute and acci- 
 dental diseases, but there is no cure for debility 
 and chronic ones. Venice will now soon be 
 what sailors call a sheer hulk. May she be a 
 sea-mark to others, and may her wreck teach 
 them to avoid the rocks on which she split ! 
 
 * More will be said on this subject in a succeeding letter. 
 
 K 4
 
 ( 13^ ) 
 
 LETTER XLV. 
 
 Fresco Paititings in San liocco — Restitution of ancient 
 Monuments to Fenice, Sfc. 
 
 Venice, December, 1817. 
 
 It is a dangerous thing to make resolutions. I 
 am again tempted to depart from that, which 
 formed the subject of a former letter, unless the 
 salvo which I there made may be considered 
 justificatory of such a proceeding. This, to ex- 
 cuse a visit, or rather some account of a visit, 
 which I made a few days ago to the ancient 
 convent of San Rocco, the walls of which are 
 covered with the paintings of Tintoretto, &c. I 
 had seen many separate works of this master 
 at Florence; but these viewed separately give 
 no more idea of the powers of the painter than 
 a stray canto of Ariosto does of those of the 
 poet. The seeing this grand assemblage of his 
 paintings together produces something like the 
 effect of reading the Orlando ; and Tintoretto 
 may be truly characterized as the Ariosto of 
 picture. 
 
 These frescoes were never removed ; but the
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OT ITALY. 137 
 
 pictures and relics of departed Venetian great- 
 ness, which had been carried away, are all re- 
 placed in statu quo, and the pictures have no 
 doubt gained by the exchange, since some of 
 them (that, for instance, of the martyrdom of St. 
 Paul) were painted for particular lights. 
 
 I cannot, however, for one, detesting, as I do, 
 the atrocious system of robbery, which placed 
 the pictures and marbles of Italy in the Louvre, 
 see those grounds for quarrelling with their dis- 
 tribution which have been discovered by various 
 Englishmen. Speaking absolutely, it is impos- 
 sible that statues or pictures, crowded as these 
 necessarily were, could be seen to the best ad- 
 vantage ; but, allowing for this difficulty, the art 
 displayed in their arrangement, appeared to me 
 to be admirable. 
 
 It gave me great pleasure that the horses 
 which were taken down and packed by the Eng- 
 lish, arrived the least injured at their destination. 
 The lion, removed by other hands, w^as less for- 
 tunate. He was, however, repaired, and horses 
 and lions were hoisted, by the arsenalott'i, into 
 their respective stations, with a precision not 
 inferior to that of our own seamen. 
 
 I am told, that on the day of the restoration 
 of these national monuments, a general move- 
 ment was to be seen amidst the populace. They
 
 138 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 assembled in groups, with tears in their eyes, 
 talking over their departed happiness and gran- 
 deur, favourite topics with the Venetians of all 
 classes; and I am assured that had there been 
 a leader to animate them, the canals of Venice 
 might have run red with Austrian blood. The 
 clouds fortunately cleared away ; I say fortu- 
 nately, for what good effect could be hoped 
 from such a tempest? Divided and broken, as 
 Italy is, a revolution, if successful, could but be 
 local, and if only local, could never be perma- 
 nent, unless protected by foreign power. A 
 union of her provinces indeed would be an eter- 
 nal bulwark, and in cementing these together, 
 she would build a wall of brass about her fron- 
 tier. Two moments (for they were but mo- 
 ments) seemed to afford some faint hope of such 
 a consummation, but the master-mason slept, 
 and the mystic head was not heard. It has 
 spoken twice, and may speak thrice : but it w\]\ 
 speak in vain.
 
 ( y^9 ) 
 
 LETTER XLVI. 
 
 On the Possihili/i/ of a Union of the Italian Pro- 
 linces. 
 
 Venice, December, 1817- 
 
 To pursue the subject of my last letter : I have 
 been sometimes amused by the facility with 
 which people at liome unite the Italian provinces 
 under one government. Tliey seem to consider 
 them as a parcel of walnut shells thrown into a 
 washing- glass, after dinner, which must come to- 
 gether through the force of mutual attraction. 
 They have not, however, yet begun to act or be 
 acted upon by this reciprocal spirit of coalition ; 
 nor did I ever see any thing indicative of such a 
 principle, if I except a few loose wishes from a 
 few young men who called themselves Unita- 
 rians, and (if I recollect rightly) confined their 
 efforts to wearing a blue coat and white waist- 
 coat as the symbol of their fraternity. In truth 
 cognate provinces, as long as they are upon a 
 footing of equality, can never be efltcctively 
 consolidated. They may indeed w\\\\.c J edera- 
 tively, but to do this they must first become re-
 
 140 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 publics, for we have not yet heard o^ federative 
 monarchies, as the word is riglitly understood: 
 a circumstance which seems to afford an argu- 
 ment against the vulgar position, that republics 
 are worse neighbours than despotic states. 
 
 There is indeed only one way in which cog- 
 nate provinces may coalesce into the strictest 
 union, a principle that has been illustrated in 
 France and Great Britain ; that is, by one of 
 these possessing such a superior degree of wealth 
 and strength as could bribe or force the others 
 into union. It was on this ground I said that 
 the magic head destined to give the signal for 
 building a brazen wall about Italy had spoken 
 twice : the first time was when the fabric of 
 Buonaparte's power fell to pieces. Had Eugene 
 Beaiiharnois then been guilty of one of those 
 splendid crimes, which are to be abhorred or 
 justified not only by the motive which dictates 
 them but by the success which attends them ; 
 had he raised his standard, and Lombardy risen 
 at his back, all Italy might perhaps have been 
 gathered beneath it. A second opportunity was 
 offered when Murat marched his legions north : 
 this was an ill-conceived enterprize : still for- 
 tune presented herself for a moment, but this ad- 
 venturer let her slip through his arms. Had he, 
 instead of losing time in attempting to possess
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH 01 ITALT. 141 
 
 himself of the batteries on tlic Pd, a paltry pre- 
 caution when we consider that his enterprizc 
 necessarily involved success or ruin, and that 
 retreat was impossible — had he, instead of this, 
 given his enemies the slip, and marched into 
 Piedmont, he would have found there the rem- 
 nants of a discontented soldiery, trained to con- 
 quest, and who would possibly have lined his 
 army with such strength as might have enabled 
 Italy to make a desperate effort for indepen- 
 dence. He did not; and the last stake was lost.
 
 ( 142 ) 
 
 LETTER XLVII. 
 
 Description of the Fire in Ca Corner — Conduct of 
 the Austrian Government and Troops — Mode of con- 
 structing the Foundations of Houses in Venice — of 
 supplying the City with fresh Water, 
 
 Venice, December, 1817. 
 
 The repose of Venice, a few nights ago, was 
 fearfully disturbed. At about one in the morn- 
 ing, cannon were heard, the drums beat the 
 general, and troops assembled from all parts. 
 The first fear was that of a revolution ; but this 
 was soon changed for another, somewhat less 
 alarming. The cry of fogo ! was soon heard in 
 all directions, and a pyramid of flame which burst 
 out at no great distance, confirmed the truth. 
 
 The sort of square in which my house was 
 situated, was soon filled with people, but again 
 abandoned ; so that the stage, at intervals, re- 
 mained clear. And that there might not be 
 wanting some strange resemblance to an Italian 
 drama, three men of a low description, who 
 were apparently ignorant of the alarm, sud-
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 143 
 
 (lenly appeared, tuned their guitars, and began 
 a serenade. Their ill-timed music was paid in a 
 coin which they little expected : a party of sol- 
 diers issued from the military governor's house,* 
 opposite to that which I inhabit, surrountled the 
 unfortunate musicians, and drove them away to 
 assist at the extinction of the fne. They, as 
 you will easily conceive, had recourse, hut in 
 vain, to complaints and remonstrances. " Alala- 
 tetti, niente cap'u^'' was the only answer ; the in- 
 tended force of which words was inculcated 
 by a few pricks of the bayonet. I should be 
 ashamed to mention the momentary effect which 
 this strange interlude produced upon me, if it 
 was not notorious that the mind is sometimes 
 most sensible of the ludicrous, when under the 
 influence of awful impressions; a circumstance 
 which, perhaps, explains the possibility of our 
 deriving pleasure from a mixture of the horrible 
 and the ridiculous in works of fiction ; though 
 this, in common theory, would appear a con- 
 
 * The history of this house may give some general notion 
 of the state of Venice. It was parted with a few years ago for 
 a small sum by its last proprietor, a once rich and noble lady, 
 who died in the last stage of indigence and misery, or, as the 
 Italians term it, " upon itraiu."
 
 144 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 junction monstrous and disgusting.* As I had 
 no wish to share the fate of the conscribed, and 
 had no reason to beHeve my infirmities would 
 be a protection, I remained at home, or, to speak 
 more precisely, in bed. 
 
 The house in which this fire took place was a 
 magnificent palace, situated on the grand canal, 
 entitled Ca Corner, which I saw whimsically 
 enough translated, in an English paper, the Cor- 
 ner-house, and such it in fact was. The family 
 of Corner, you will recollect, formerly gave a 
 crown to Venice,t but their genealogical tree is 
 now withered, root and branch. They had, ac- 
 cordingly, sold this magnificent patrimony, for a 
 trifling sum, to the Austrian government, which 
 occupies, for its various offices, nearly double 
 the space of that to which it succeeded on the 
 expulsion of the French. 
 
 It is scarcely possible to imagine a house 
 more happily situated for the extinction of fire ; 
 for the basement story is washed, in front, by 
 the grand canal, and laterally, by one of the 
 rii, so that it is accessible on two sides by 
 
 * Madame de Stacl says, I believe, in her Dtfphine, " le 
 peril raonte la tete com me le via." 
 t The crown of Cyprus.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE XOUTIl OF lTy\LV. 145 
 
 water; an immense advantage, because the 
 engines, whicli are placed in well-boats, thus oc- 
 cupy positions both in front and flank, and have 
 a constant supply : Unless indeed the Austrian 
 soldiers could be supposed to have grounds for 
 their belief, that salt-water will not extinguish 
 fire; a street anecdote which was current next 
 day, and which, if not true, will at least shew 
 you in what estimation their wits are held by 
 the Venetians. The weather too, which was 
 drizzling, seconded local advantages, but the 
 flames raged, for a time, unabated, continued for 
 four-and-twenty houis, and finally reduced the 
 interior of this princely fabric to a heap of ruins. 
 Some account of the mode of operations for 
 the extinction of the fire, will explain the cause, 
 and indeed to some of these I was an eye-wit- 
 ness ; though, for the greater part, I remained, 
 whilst others 
 
 " Survey'd llic whole scene with wonder, 
 Much like Caligula, under a bed, 
 Studying the cause of lightning and thunder." 
 
 I have already mentioned the vicinity of the 
 governor's house to my own. Now the fire, 
 though it appeared very near, was almost in- 
 stantly proclaimed to be in Ca Conihr at the 
 distance of nearly half a mile. Notwithstand- 
 
 VOL. II. L
 
 146 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 ing this, the first detachment of troops which 
 was formed, instead of at once moving to the 
 spot, proceeded very deUberately to examine 
 the governor's premises, and having ascertained 
 that there was no fire there, marched off in what, 
 I suppose, they called quick time, to the place 
 where there xvas. 
 
 The fire in the mean time was of course gain- 
 ing ground, and indeed continued to do so after 
 their arrival ; a circumstance which will not ap- 
 pear extraordinary, considering their conduct. 
 For the soldiery of an Alaric could not have 
 presented a more barbarous spectacle of indis- 
 cipline. More intent on plunder, than assisting 
 in the extinction of the fire, these men forced 
 the doors, and seized upon cases containing 
 money,* or papers, vv^hich they broke up and 
 
 * Some of these deposits belonged to clerks employed by 
 the government, who were totally ruined by their losses. It is 
 to be observed, that the Italians rarely place money in the 
 hands of a merchant, but with a view to traffic. Hence all 
 keep money for present use in their desks, and some enormous 
 sums. I do not exaggerate when I state that I knew an 
 instance of a strong closet found propped, at the death of its 
 proprietor, on account of the weight of gold contained in it. 
 
 In support of the generality of this practice, and the neces- 
 sity of it, I shall mention two anecdotes. Wishing to profit by
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 147 
 
 threw into the flames, appropriating their con- 
 tents: they dashed in pieces magnificent mir- 
 rors, the manufacture of the country, carrying 
 
 one of our few lucid intervals of exchange, I once drew 
 four hundred louis in a considerable Italian city. I wished to 
 deposit these in the hands of the person who had supplied 
 them, but he refused the charge. I at last found a person who 
 took them, but he tormented me so continually to take them 
 back, that I was obliged to acquiesce in his desire. His rea- 
 son was, that, as the time at which I might have occasion 
 for them was uncertain, they were a useless incumbrance 
 to him. 
 
 I was more fortunate in my banker than an Italian friend, 
 from whom I learned accidentally that he had several thousand 
 francs deposited in his house in the country. Remonstrating 
 with him on the danger of this, he asked me, " What I would 
 have him do ? — that he had once deposited a large sum in the 
 hands of a banker, and that, on redemanding it, he told him 
 frankly he had it not in his possession, and that it would take 
 him a considerable time to re-collect it." 
 
 I need hardly observe how strongly the practice 1 have men- 
 tioned, attests the honesty of the Italian servants; for nothing 
 is more rare than a domestic robbery, indeed so rare, that / 
 never knew an example of it. I have lost many things travel- 
 ling, but never had any reason to believe that they were stolen; 
 and an ingenious English artist, long established in Italy, with 
 whom I recollect comparing notes on this subject, told me, that 
 getting up one morning in Rome, about ten o'clock he per- 
 ceived he had lost a book, which he thought he must have 
 dropt from his pocket overnight in searching for his house-key. 
 He immediately went in pursuit of it, and found it lying in the 
 
 l2
 
 148 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 off the fragments to serve tliem as shaving- 
 glasses in their quarters, and, in their senseless 
 love of plunder, stuffed even the well-soaked 
 sponges of ink-glasses into their breeches-pockets. 
 
 Yet the Austrian soldier, thus lawless when 
 protected by circumstances of night, and num- 
 bers, is the same man who lets himself be 
 bastinadoed in sunshine with complacency; 
 who issues from his rank at the bidding of a 
 corporal, makes a back, receives a caning, thanks 
 the inflictor, and returns in ordinary time to his 
 company. 
 
 You would, perhaps, think this system little 
 calculated to fit a man for the various duties of 
 a soldier, and not even likely to have the imme- 
 diate effect which it is intended to produce. 
 Such is not the opinion of the majority of con- 
 tinental marshals and martinets. These, with the 
 exception of the French and Italians, who abhor 
 the stick as much as the English, seem to think 
 that a magic virtue resides in the cudgel of the 
 corporal. But if the system is bad, the abuse 
 to which it is open is infinitely worse ; for it is 
 
 street before the door, though thousands^perhaps had passed in 
 the interval between the loss and the recovery. 
 
 The mirrors mentioned in the text belonged to the family, 
 which had not yet removed them.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 149 
 
 to be recollected, that in all services, more espe- 
 cially the one in question, there are fops and 
 tyrants, men 
 
 " Whose paltry passion is for slang and swagger, 
 The soldier's bestial oaths, and l)rutal jeering; — 
 For jargon, and jackboots, and sword and dagger, 
 And picketing, and caning, and cashiering." 
 
 Court and Parliament of Beasts. 
 
 How little essential discipline seems to be 
 j)romotcd by this system, has been seen upon 
 the present occasion. But if the conduct of the 
 troops had been more respectable, and had they 
 laboured heartily in the service, on which they 
 were commanded, there were not arms where- 
 with to combat the enemy. There were indeed 
 seven engines in the Arsenal, but only one was 
 fit for action. To render the others available, 
 they seized the first object which came to 
 hand, and official papers, containing accounts, 
 &c. were applied to the stoppage of holes and 
 crevices. The story told was, that aj)plica- 
 tion had been previously made to the govern- 
 ment of the place for their repair; but the answer 
 given, that a representation must first be made 
 upon the subject at Vienna. However this may 
 be, the fact that they had been for months out 
 of repair was notorious throughout Venice. 
 
 l3
 
 150 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 In this country (I may say throughout Italy) 
 the system of insurance against lire is unknown, 
 as is the insurance of life ;* and indeed the only 
 species of insurance which I know of is that of 
 contraband English goods. It will follow from 
 what I have stated, that the only means of com- 
 bating fire reside in the government. In the 
 ancient state of Venice, the provident care of 
 the magistracy was conspicuous with regard to 
 this ; for the arsetialotti, or artificers, of the Ar- 
 senal, were, in addition to their other services, 
 employed as firemen, and, as such, richly paid 
 and encouraged. These, in the days of the re- 
 public, amounted to three thousand ; they are 
 now reduced to as many hundreds, ill-paid, and, 
 in consequence, ill-affected to their employers. 
 It was said, that they worked upon this occa- 
 sion with courage and activity! in tearing down 
 
 * The insurance of life is unknown in Italy. Captains of ships 
 sometimes get it done at Constantinople. 
 
 t They gave a strong proof also that they were of superior 
 honesty. A connection of the family, with whom I had inter- 
 course, had some pipes of foreign wines in the cellars ; he 
 broke into these w hen the pillage was at its height, with a band 
 of arsetialotti, making his approach by the rio which I have 
 mentioned, and carried off all his treasures without loss, his
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NOUTll OF ITALY. \5\ 
 
 walls to prevent the communication ot" the lire, 
 but that their efforts were not commensurate in 
 extinguishing it. Their conduct may be ex- 
 plained in two ways. It would not, perhaps, be 
 attributing too much to Italian relinement to 
 suppose that they might labour cheerfully for 
 the preservation of the property of their fellow 
 citizens, while they saw with pleasure the de- 
 struction of that of the government. Another 
 and more simple cause would, however, afford 
 sufficient explanation. These men, ill-paid at 
 other times, were well rewarded, by the day, 
 when thus employed. So that they found their 
 account in necessitating the prolongation of 
 their services. 
 
 The Ca Corner was sold to the Austrian go- 
 vernment for the sum which had been expended 
 on its riva, or water-foundations. 
 
 I have not, in my account of the localities of 
 Venice, explained how these are formed. I shall 
 take this opportunity to supply the deficiency. 
 The water is excluded, as with us in works of 
 a similar description : The first stratum of soil 
 below the bottom of the canals is then thrown 
 
 assistants contenting; themselves with the gift of five or six dol- 
 lars, and not having pierced a cask. 
 
 l4
 
 152 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 out, because this, as being soft alluvial matter^ 
 afFoids no solid foundation, and piles are driven 
 into that beneath it, which appears to have been 
 the original bed of the lagoon, and on which a 
 mass of mud or malm (inelmd) has been accu- 
 mulated. 
 
 This naturally suggests another question. 
 Such being the nature of the soil, how is 
 Venice supplied with water? Every campo has 
 its wells; but these, though wells in appearance, 
 are, in fact, great reservoirs of rain water, which, 
 as the pavement slopes towards them, is received 
 in drains lined with sand, and so filtered into its 
 receptacle. This, that the salt water may not 
 penetrate it below, is carefully bricked with 
 mortar, upon a body of cement and clay. The 
 water thus collected is very considerable in 
 quantity, yet much more might undoubtedly be 
 procured, were the roofs of the houses con- 
 structed of flat terraces, as is the case in Malta. 
 It is true, indeed, that what runs from them 
 into the campi is conveyed into the w^ells ; but 
 what runs from them into the rii or the cale is 
 lost : in the rii necessarily, in the cale because 
 they are so dirty from the throng of passengers, 
 that the water would be rendered unfit for use, 
 as well as collected with difficulty. 
 
 Still a sufficiency of rain-water is usually
 
 LETTEllS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 153 
 
 obtained, though in hot and (hy summers, like 
 the last, the eity is not suflieient to itself. lu this 
 case, however, it is not without a supply; for 
 water is then brought, at a reasonable price, 
 from the Brenta ; and, as a resource against a 
 blockade, large reservoirs are formed in the Lido. 
 The ])ossibility of these running short, le(| the 
 government, at a time that the enemy was in 
 possession of the main land, to bore for a spring 
 on this spot, and the experiment was attended 
 with apparent success ; but the quick exhaustion 
 of the supposed source, as well as its mixed 
 character, (for it was slightly brackish,) proved 
 it to ha\e been probably salt water percolated 
 through the sand. 
 
 Still there is no doubt that fresh water might 
 be obtained by sinking deep enough, in Venice, 
 since ancient wells existed in Torzelo and some 
 other islands of the lestuary. Indeed it has been 
 found here, but always in a spot where it 
 could be of no avail, as in driving piles for 
 the foundations of houses, &c. It is usually un- 
 imprisoned on piercing a hard stratum, which 
 lies under the moist alluvial matter of a later 
 date. This is called, in \''cnetian, caranto ; but 
 I am, unfortunately, ignorant of its Italian, 
 French, or English name. It a|)j)ears to be a 
 species of indurated earth; the outer crust of
 
 154 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 which requires to be broken with the pick-axe. 
 On the inside, however, it is soft and saponace- 
 ous. Masses, seemingly of this description, are 
 to be seen on the beach, at the foot of Hordle 
 chff, in Hampshire, which have been brought 
 down by streams, in a different state, from the 
 height above, and apparently acquired their new 
 character from the mixt action of fresh and salt 
 water* with which they are occasionally cover- 
 ed. This substance is at Hordle of a blue colour; 
 it is here sometimes blue and sometimes of a yel- 
 lowish cast. 
 
 With regard, however, to the main point, 
 there exists very curious evidence of Venice 
 having been anciently supplied with fresh 
 
 * The circumstance of this substance being always, 1 believe, 
 found on the surface in planes apparently exposed to the action 
 of salt water, would lead me to suppose that such was neces- 
 sary to its formation. If this be so, we have here a strong ar- 
 gument for the great plain of Lombardy having been once co- 
 vered by the Adriatic, since the caranto is found every where. 
 Near Modena, as here, it forms the crust covering the springs, 
 which lie about si.xty feet deep. Yet the plain of Modena is, 
 according to Sir George Shuckburgh, 200 feet above the level 
 of the sea. 
 
 I cannot leave Hordle cliff unnoticed on another account. 
 The rare fossils, found there, are of the same kind as many 
 discovered in the mountains near Verona.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 155 
 
 spring-water. In the year 1680, when the eanal 
 called the Canaregio* was deepening, (the eanal 
 whieh forms the entrance to Venice on the 
 landward side of the Lagoon,) a considerahle 
 source of water was discovered which was more 
 nearly fresh than salt. 
 
 It rose from the centre of a (juadrilateral 
 cassoon, composed of thick planks secured by 
 strong palisades; the points of which were 
 planted one foot beneath the then bottom of the 
 canal, and seven beneath the low water mark. 
 The cassoon itself, was seven feet deep. The 
 spring which issued from it was so copious, 
 that it was found impossible to exhaust it. A 
 ship's pump, with the bottom of tlie tube se- 
 cured by a plug, was then forced into the hole 
 from which it sprung. This drawn, the water 
 rose perfectly fresh and sweet to the surface. 
 There is then no doubt that the surface of the 
 cassoon was formerly above ground, and it must 
 have formed a cistern for the receptacle of foun- 
 tain water before the canal existed, and before 
 the slow but progressive rise of the tides had 
 overwhelmed it. 
 
 In Italian, Canal ngio.
 
 156 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 Of this increase and invasion of the sea 
 there is no doubt, though some persons imagine 
 that Ocean has long been caUing oft' his waters 
 from the Lagoon. A few facts are sufficient to 
 disprove this error. In the island of San Seco?ido, 
 in front of the Canaregio, some years ago^ were 
 discovered Pcoman pavements and vaults, three 
 feet and a half beneath low water mark, and 
 the rise of water would seem to have been more 
 rapid in ages more nearly approaching our own 
 time; for, in turning the church of San Gem- 
 miniano, in the place of St. Mark, into a palace, 
 and penetrating below the ancient foundations, 
 a puntil, {as, it is called here,) or wooden landing 
 place, like those in modern use, was discovered 
 beneath them. 
 
 It is impossible to conjecture, with any proba- 
 bility, the date of the cassoon-fountain that I 
 mentioned, since some woods, when exposed to 
 the sole action of salt water, will last for many 
 centuries, and palisades have been found here in 
 pavements, known to be Roman from the stamp 
 and inscriptions of the tiles of which they were 
 composed. For the rest, the change in the chan- 
 nels which intersect the Lagoon is common, 
 and easily explained : They depend on currents, 
 which again depend on the rivers which flow into 
 it, and vary according to the volume of water
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 157 
 
 which these bring down, or the impediments it 
 meets. 
 
 Besides the reservoirs which I have mentioned 
 in the Campi of modern Venice, there are some 
 in private houses, and tlierc were two in C() Cor- 
 n^r, in which, according to vulgar bchef, the 
 water was filtered through quick silver and gold 
 dust, instead of sand. Tradition said that these 
 had been formed by a Corner (not the Corner, 
 I imagine, who published on regimen) as a pre- 
 caution against the gravel ; But the magnifi- 
 cence of the patrician palaces is sufiiciently 
 indicative of the disposition of the proprietors, 
 without recurring to the exaggerations of fable. 
 The houses of the rich nobles are spacious 
 throughout Italy, but more particularly in Ve- 
 nice. The palace of an acquaintance of mine, 
 now sold for nearly nothing, in consequence of 
 a distress for taxes, lodged two or three branches 
 of his family, and contained upwards of seventy 
 bed-rooms.* The immense size of these build- 
 ings is explained by the supposition that those 
 of the more ancient nobles served for magazines 
 as well as dwelling houses, and that the fashion, 
 thus begun, was continued; though the motive 
 for it no longer existed. 
 
 * In the kitchens were 100 stoves.
 
 158 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 One more last word respecting the Corner pa- 
 lace : I have already mentioned that it had been 
 converted into an office; and in this were depo- 
 sited public papers of considerable importance. 
 A quantity of these were missing, which could 
 not be supposed to have been destroyed. Two 
 days afterwards I saw a placard on the walls, on 
 the part of the government, not offering a re- 
 ward to any one who should restore them, but 
 threatening those who retained them with ven- 
 geance, much in the tone a conjuror or Avitch 
 would, I suppose, employ against such as had 
 purloined their cat or their cauldron. 
 
 A day or two afterwards there came out a new 
 order of the government, in the Venetian Ga- 
 zette, highly complimentary to the troops who 
 had been employed, and full of commendations 
 of their discipline and activity.
 
 ( 1.^9 ) 
 
 LETTER XLVIII. 
 
 Vetietian Festivals, Customs, and Table — Difference of 
 National Taste, S^r. 
 
 Venice, December, 1817. 
 
 The Christmas liolidays, properly speaking, are 
 just past. Tlie first, beginning with Christmas 
 eve, is a day of great festivity with the Vene- 
 tians; one of those on which the head of a house 
 usually entertains his family and friends; almost 
 every such person having a day, as St. Martin's 
 or Christmas eve, appropriated to such a purpose. 
 On these occasions the rich and liberal feed 
 many, and feast high, though in the present in- 
 stance, as it is the vigil of a holiday, and one of 
 those very few meager days which are (generally 
 speaking) observed by the Italian laity, their 
 fare is confined to loaves and fishes. Even I can- 
 not refuse a tribute to the excellence of the 
 table of Christmas eve, though, after feeding 
 two or three months on Catholic and frugal 
 cates in Tuscany, where 
 
 " il cane sen doleva e '1 gatto 
 
 Che gli ossi rimanean troppo puliti," 
 
 Pithi* 
 
 » — . where clog 
 
 And cat complain'd the bones were gnaw'd too clean.
 
 1(50 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY* 
 
 I had reason to say, with Mercutio, " O flesh, 
 flesh, how art thou fishyficd!" and am still almost 
 at odds with ichthiophagy. 
 
 This is, however, less dreadful because more 
 varied on these solemn days. On these the Ita- 
 lians usually dine late; and on this occasion the 
 lower people of Venice seldom dine at all, work- 
 ing double tides at supper. The practice seems 
 to originate in the notion that it is not right to 
 make superfluous meals on this solemn day, the 
 inconsistency of turning the single one, to which 
 they confine themselves, into a feast, having 
 nothing which is revolting to their ideas. It 
 should, however, be observed, that this practice 
 depends purely upon popular opinion, and on no 
 injunction of the church. 
 
 Speaking of these feasts, I was invited, I re- 
 collect, once, on St. INIartin's day, by a hospitable 
 family of Vicenza, but declined the honour, on 
 being informed by an annual guest that the table 
 was laid on that occasion with forty covers. 
 It is difficult, indeed, to conceive any thing more 
 tedious than one of these solemn repasts, on 
 whatever occasion it may be held, at which every 
 dish is carved and circled at intervals. This is, 
 no doubt, a most rational custom in the main, 
 leaving host and guests at liberty ; but the time, 
 occupied by the practice, when the society is 
 numerous, is surely more than a counterbalance
 
 LETTEKS FKOl^r THE NORTH OE ITALY. 1 6' I 
 
 to the coiucnicncc. I remember, for instanee, 
 beino- once present at a dinner, given by the 
 cardinal pro-secretary of state at Rome, where 
 the company consisted of twenty-five persons, 
 and the dinner, in consequence, lasted for three 
 hours. I dont know u hethcr three or four other 
 English, wlio were present, suffered as mucli as 
 I did, but, for myself, I never felt half so fatigued 
 at any after-dinner-sitting in Englandor in Scot- 
 lantl. For, though both customs are bad enough, 
 it is surely better to drink when one is not dry 
 than to eat when one is not hungry. 
 
 For the Venetian holidays I have mentioned 
 there are set dishes,*' as there are with ns, and 
 some of them of as strange composition: witness, 
 one of fruits, preserved with sugar, spices, and 
 mustard, which is the Venetian equivalent for a 
 minced-pie. For the rest, the fare of Christmas 
 eve, though meagre, is, as I have said, magnifi- 
 cent, alw ays bating a sort of pye-pottage, called 
 iorta dc lasagne., which might, I suppose, pair 
 off with plum-porridge itself. 
 
 There is indeed one circumstance very favor- 
 able to the meagre (lc[)artment of the kitchen. 
 The Mediterranean and Adriatic, in addition to 
 
 * Generally termed jticitti di nilnica. 
 VOL. II. M
 
 162 LETTERS FROM THE N(DRTH OF ITALY. 
 
 most of those of our own coasts, have various 
 delicate fish which are not to be found in the 
 British seas. Of the tunny, sword-fish, and 
 many others of the larger classes, you have of 
 course read. Some others, which are rare with 
 us, as the red mullet, swarm in these latitudes ; 
 and some tribes which are known to us, here 
 break into varieties which are infinitely bet- 
 ter flavoured than the parent stock. Amongst 
 such may be reckoned a sort of lobster^* a crab 
 of gentler kind, and various shell fish, entitled 
 sea-fruit'\ in Italy, all which might well merit 
 the eloquence of an Athenaeus. 
 
 But not to pass by the torta de lasagne, of 
 which I had nearly lost sight, though its taste 
 is fresh in my recollection: It is composed of 
 oil, onions, paste, parsley, pine-nuts, raisins, cur- 
 rants, and candied orange peel, a dish which, 
 you will recollect, is to serve as a prologue to 
 fish or flesh ! 
 
 It ought, however^ to be stated that the ordi- 
 nary pottage of this country, and which is, gene- 
 rally speaking, that of all ranks in Venice, re- 
 quires no prejudices of education or habit to 
 
 * The real lobster is, however, rarer in the Mediterranean 
 t*han with us. 
 t Frutti di mare.
 
 LETTEUS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. l63 
 
 make it go clown, but may be considered as a 
 dish to be eat at sight. It consists in rice boiled 
 in beef broth, not sodden, and rari ?iantes, as in 
 England and France, but firm, and in sucli (juan- 
 tity as to nearly, or quite, absorb the bouillon hi 
 which they are cooked : To this is added grated 
 Parmesan cheese. And the mess admits other 
 additions, as tomatas, onions, celery, parsley, &c. 
 Rice thus dressed, wliich have drunk up the 
 broth, are termed ?'isi desiirai, as capable of being 
 spread, right or left, with the spoon. There is 
 also a vulgar variety of tlie dish, termed risi a 
 la becliera, or rice dressed butcher fashion. In 
 this the principal auxiliary is marrow, which, if 
 it is entirely incorporated in the grain, makes a 
 pottage that (speaking after a friend) wouki 
 almost justify the sacrifice of an Esau. 
 
 The mode of cooking the rice to a just degree 
 of consistency, seems taken from the Turks, 
 who ha\e a saying that rice, as a proof of being- 
 well drest, should be capable of being counted. 
 You will recollect the importance attached to 
 this grain by the Janissaries, whose rice-kettles 
 serve as standards; and, iu general, by the 
 Turkish militia, which is recruited by parading 
 them, and calling for the services of such as eat 
 the rice of the Grand Signior. An almostequal 
 degree of respect is attached to this food by the 
 
 M 2
 
 154 LETTERS FROM TilE NORTH OF ITALV. 
 
 Venetians, and it is a common thing, on hiring 
 a Venetian maid-servant, for her to stipulate for 
 a certain monthly salary, and her rice. 
 
 Another custom, derived from the long inter- 
 course of V'enice with Turkey, is the presenting 
 coffee at visits. Neither do tlie Venetians yield 
 to their masters in the manufacture of this be- 
 verage, the flavour of which depends much more 
 on its mode of preparation than its quality;* and 
 it is curious enough that England, where the 
 
 * The coffee consumed in the Levant is generally that of the 
 West India islands ; and though I have drunk it a thousand 
 times in Turkey, as v.cU at visits as at coffee-houses, I 
 never but once had it even announced to me as of Mocha. 
 This was on board tlie Capitan Pasha's ship, whose servant 
 whispered the information with a sort of mysterious parade. 
 Since I am on this subject, I should mention that a friend of 
 mine, formerly commodore at Alexandria, was commissicmed 
 to procure a (quantity of Mocha coffee, which was sent him 
 across the desert, on camels, and carried by him, untouched, to 
 Malta. It was there delivered ovcrto the examination of coffee- 
 sorters, who are to be found in that island ; and these pro- 
 nounced one fourth part to consist of a berry of another 
 growth — so difficult is it to procure this fruit unadulterated. 
 The coffee in Turkey, however, is excellent, because it is fresh- 
 roasted, infused liberally, and drunk immediately. In England 
 it is detestable, because it is often bought in powder, (and 
 therefore probably adulU'rated,) or fried in fat, doled out by 
 pinches, and let stand till it is acid. From the same cause (the
 
 LETTERS IROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 1 65 
 
 coffec-bciiv and the cacao-nut arc to be had in 
 perfection, sliould be the only country in Euro|)c 
 where the drink w hich is composed from them 
 isunsufferable. 
 
 To return to a tlieme on which I have already 
 touched, the strange fashions of food w hicii have 
 some how or other passed into use amongst (hf- 
 fercnt nations, wliilst they are poison to their 
 neighbours, from tlie torta ik lasagjic of \\nice 
 to the partridge and poultice of England ; there 
 seems to be but one general exception to this 
 principle, which is the coupling bread, or some 
 substitute for it, with meat — a practice which is. 
 
 Frencli usually make it over nii^ht) coft'cc, though better than 
 in England, is never good in France. 
 
 Our custom of drinking creatn or milk with it proljal)Iy ren- 
 ders us so strangely indifferent to its flavour. 
 
 Tiic passion of the \'enetians for coffee-houses, in which men 
 and women of all ranks delight, is generally known. There 
 are, I think, twenty in St. Mark's Place alone. The Ijest of 
 these are adorned with great elegance, are covered with mir- 
 rors, and have handsome awnings before them in fine weather; 
 and under these arc assembled as many persons as in the room 
 itself. This, according to the tone of the country, is open 
 and undivided by partitions. Formerly, however, these shops 
 savoured more of the aristocratical spirit of separation, being 
 broken into large stalls like our own. But as this mitigated, 
 long previous to the French revolution, these barriers aiso 
 disappeared. 
 
 W 3
 
 166 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY, 
 
 I believe, common to all nations that have 
 grain, or farinaceous fruit or root, within their 
 reach. But this fact does not prove that there is 
 any natural standard of taste : For this union of 
 bread and meat is not dictated by instinct, 
 though in what it originates, except in the agree- 
 ment of different countries in its wholesomeness, 
 I know not. A strong proof of its not being- 
 dictated by instinct I have witnessed in Italian 
 as well as English children, who are both trained 
 with difficulty to the practice, and usually en- 
 ticed into it by bonuses of beef and mutton. A 
 whimsical confirmation, indeed, of my opinion 
 was lately offered, by this place, in an old gen- 
 tleman, who, not having been in infancy either 
 beat or bribed into bread, never adopted it in 
 after-life, continuing to his death a curious speci- 
 men of unsophisticated carrion. If his example 
 makes against the notion of this use originating 
 in instinct, it might also (as far as a single 
 instance can tell) suggest some doubt of its 
 necessity; for the carnivorous person lived long 
 and merrily. 
 
 The present anecdote, and some others which 
 I have not given you, and more particularly the 
 having once seen a man eat melon with Spanish 
 snuff, (a sight not singular, as I am told, in Italy,) 
 have almost forced the conviction upon me, that
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 167 
 
 there is no such thing as a gamut for tlie palate. 
 If you urge, in oj3p()sition, the general analogy 
 of nature, I do not know what hattie 1 can make; 
 but if you attack me with the trite instance of 
 the passion of young children for spirits, I sliall 
 observe that they soon grow out of it : and this, 
 therefore, seems to prove nothing more than an 
 early obtuseuess of palate, which is gratified by 
 any thing that is stimulating. And something 
 analogous mav be remarked in the voiing of 
 other animals, as in puppy-dogs, who eat filth till 
 they come to dog's estate, &c. 
 
 Having related the domestic uses of Christmas 
 eve, there yet remain those of tAvo other days to 
 be described. The table oi Christmas day is be- 
 sieged by a much smaller circle than on the vigil 
 of the feast, being, on the present occasion, only 
 surrounded by the family, or those intimately 
 connected with it. Here too there are dishes 
 of prescription, though I never heard that any 
 penalty was attached to the abstaining from 
 them, as is the case in England. But as almost 
 every superstition exists, in its whole or parts, all 
 the world over, so this is also to be found here 
 under the general head of Moon^ who, as the 
 arbitress of tides, is the great cause of all inex- 
 plicable effects. Hence a lower Venetian, who 
 )ias no money in his pocket, at the aj)pearance 
 ivi 4
 
 168 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 of this planet, expects to remain without it till 
 she has repaired her horns. 
 
 St. Slepliai's day brings with it, I believe, lit- 
 tle that is remarkable, except the general rush 
 from all parts of Venice to the theatres, which, 
 having been closed for a short time, re-open on 
 tliat day. There seems to be as much supersti- 
 tion, indeed, as to being seen at the Opera, at the 
 theatre of the Fenice, on that occasion, as is 
 attached to eating the torfa de lasagne on Christ- 
 mas eve. The only intelligible attraction is that 
 the Opera is always new ; but as such, it must ne- 
 cessarily be deficient in the precision of its ma- 
 chinery. Notwithstanding such an objection, a 
 box, on this night, cannot be had under five or, 
 perhaps, ten guineas, which, three nights after- 
 wards, may be procured for one — nay, at the 
 interval of some weeks, at the price of fifteen 
 pence, as I know from personal experience. If 
 it is suspension of rank not to appear at the 
 PhoinLv ; it is absolute forfeiture of cast not to be 
 able to say that you were at some theatre or 
 other; and, on the evening of St. Stephen, not a 
 lady is to be found at home in Venice. 
 
 To take a long leap : the Epiphany is called 
 here the Epif'ama, ox Befanla, indifferently; as if 
 it took its nan;e from the Bejana — an odd sort 
 of she-goblin, who is supposed to preside over
 
 LETTERS ruOM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 1(T£) 
 
 Twclttli-clay. This is not distinouislicd l)y the 
 ceremonies with which it is celebrated by us, 
 thougli some of tliese were of Latin origin. The 
 rites are propitiatory of the Bej'aiia, who seems 
 to fill the same j)lace lu re \\hich the queen of 
 the fairies formerly did in England. Children 
 usually leave her a part of their siipj)er, or, at 
 least, a brown roll, (for 6iie is supj)osed to prefer 
 brown bread to white.) and a tumbler of wine. 
 As a receptacle for the exchange of merchan- 
 dize, they suspend a stocking in the kitchen, 
 Avhich is found, the next morning, filled with 
 dirt, rubbish, and a few sweatmeats. I need not 
 observe that the bread and wine disappear. At 
 Kome a puppet, representing the Bcfana, is 
 dressed up and hung with Christmas presents. 
 
 There is nothing here, that 1 am aware of, 
 which is interesting in the scenic part of the re- 
 ligious functions of this festival, with the ex- 
 ception of the music of a mass, called la Pasto- 
 rale, in commemoration of that with which our 
 Sayiour is supposed to have been saluted by the 
 shepherds, and usually imitative of the sounds of 
 the pastoral pipes. This, which is various in 
 various churches, is always comj)osed according 
 to the ])rincij)les of the old school. Its tone, on 
 this solenni occasion, is much relished by the 
 Italians, notwithstanding they are by no means 
 iowiXo^ ancient music, having (as I should imagine
 
 170 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 is the general disposition of man) much more 
 sensibihty to melody than harmony, and seldom 
 pretending to a taste which they do not really 
 possess. 
 
 You will not, I think, quarrel with me for 
 stringing together the " auld world," as well as 
 the newer stories of the place; the less so as 
 all recollections of ancient Venice may be con- 
 sidered as things saved from the waters. The 
 customs of the city have changed ; her ports and 
 channels are filling up, and her palaces are 
 crumbling into ruins.* Yet a little, and Venice 
 will be a JBaby-Babylon, with the substitution 
 of the gull for the bittern and the porpus for 
 the fox. Should you be (as I believe) desirous 
 of raking for riches amidst her rubbish, read 
 the Feste Veneziane, lately published by la Dama 
 JHenier Michiel. This lady has, in her descrip- 
 tion of the Venetian festivals, put together much 
 that is curious and interesting, and having formed 
 a chaplet out of relics long trampled in the dirt, 
 hung it up on the altars of her country, in a 
 spirit that would not have misseemed the most 
 illustrious of her ancestry. 
 
 * The government, to stave ott' this evil, have prohibited the 
 pulling down of houses, so that the possessors have not eve^ 
 ^he benefit of their ruins.
 
 ( 171 ) 
 LETTER XLIX. 
 
 Ol/wr Festivals and Cusloms, S,c. 
 
 \'cnicc, January, 1818. 
 
 To one who hunts such game as 1 pursue, mat- 
 ter is nevTr wanting. This small chace may be 
 compared to bird-nesting, in a track, where there 
 are nests in every bush. There is no scarcity of 
 esfss — the difficulty lies in strinoin"' them. 
 Under the impression of this, I am tempted to 
 interrupt the order of time, (rather than break the 
 thread of my argument,) and to pursue the 
 subject of my last Letter according to old recol- 
 lections, though I shall greatly anticipate events. 
 The Carnival, thou^'h it is o-ayer or duller ac- 
 cording to the genius of the nations which cele- 
 brate it, is, in its general character, nearly the 
 same all over the peninsula. The beginning is 
 like any other season ; towards the middle you 
 begin to meet masques and mummers in sunshine; 
 in tlie last lifteen days the plot tliiekens ; and 
 during the three last all is lunly burly. But to 
 paint these, which may be almost considered as a 
 separate festival, I must avail myself of the
 
 J 72 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 words of Messrs. William and Thomas Whistle- 
 craft, ill whose " prospectus and specimen of an 
 intended national work," I find the description 
 ready made to my hand, observing, that besides 
 the ordinary dramatis personcBj 
 
 " Beggars and vagabonds, blind, lame, and sturdy. 
 Minstrels and singers, with their various airs, 
 The pipe, the tabor, and the hurdy-gurdy, 
 Jugglers and mountebanks, with apes and bears. 
 Continue, from the first day to the third day, 
 An uproar like ten thousand Smithfield fairs." 
 
 The shops are shut, all business is at a stand, 
 and the drunken cries heard at night, afford 
 a clear proof of the pleasures to which these days 
 of leisure are dedicated. 
 
 These holidays may surely be reckoned 
 amongst the secondary causes which contribute 
 to the indolence of the Italian, since they re- 
 concile this to his conscience as being of reli- 
 gious institution. Now there is, perhaps, no 
 offence which is so unproportionably punished 
 by conscience as that of indolence. With the 
 wicked man, it is an intermittent disease; with 
 the idle man, it is a chronic one. 
 
 On the first stroke of Lent, the sea is suddenly 
 hushed, and not even a swell remains. This
 
 LETTERS FUOM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 173 
 
 season of peace and penitence is however intei- 
 rupted by a very odd popular festival which 
 takes place (accordinu; to our University slang) 
 on the day that term divides. The origin of it 
 seems lost; for, though common, in the greater 
 part of Italy,* with some variety of circum- 
 stance, I never met with a person, from the pro- 
 fessor to the barber, m ho could suggest any pro- 
 bable explanation. I shall describe it as it is 
 performed in Venice. 
 
 A small stage, with a covering, is erected in 
 the most spacious campo of the parishes, M'hicli 
 celebrate the festival. Upon this appears the 
 effigy of an old woman, and seated before her 
 are two men, one habited as a notary, the other 
 as a sort of military jack-pudding with a drawn 
 sabre. These two eat and drink, and dispute 
 about her fate, one being apparently the advo- 
 cate and the other the accuser of the dame. This 
 insists upon her being burnt; and that declares 
 she shall be saved. An appeal is at length made 
 to the people, who unanimously condemn her 
 to the flames. At length, after some accessary 
 games, such as running in sacks, swarming up 
 
 * There is, I believe, some sort of popular festival at tlii> 
 period in France.
 
 174 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 a greased pole for fowls, flasks of wine, &c., 
 lashed to the top, the figure is set fire to 
 amidst a volley of squibs, and burnt, much as 
 Guy Fawkes is with us. 
 
 There is little that is striking in what is termed 
 passion week by us, and the holy week by the 
 Italians, the week preceding this last being 
 termed passion week here, and I suppose in other 
 Catholic countries. I except one circumstance. 
 Till the period of the Ascension, all clocks and 
 bells are silenced; and I recollect that this prin- 
 ciple was carried so far in Malta, that even the 
 Governor, Sir Hildebrand Oakes's dinner bell 
 was dismounted by the Maltese part of his es- 
 tablishment; a liberty which he had the good 
 sense and good-nature to suffer, contrary to the 
 usual habits of military chiefs. 
 
 It is impossible for me to go back in recollec- 
 tion to Malta, without observing the diiference 
 of colour which the Roman Catholic religion 
 takes from the national character of the people 
 amongst whom it is cultivated. I cannot look 
 back on the Procession of Penitents in that island 
 during the sett'imana santa without horror: 
 whilst at Naples there is something of festive, 
 even in the representation of those events, which 
 seem least to admit such a character. I allude 
 to the transparencies of the holy sepulchre ex-
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 175 
 
 hibited in different churches, and which arc 
 visited by numerous parties, in tlie spirit of 
 pleasure, rather than of pilgrimage. 
 
 As usual, something of superstitious obser- 
 vance mingles in the meats of this, as well as of 
 the other religious festivals. Our hot-cross-buns 
 have an equivalent in cakes marked with a cross; 
 and a lamb, or at least part of a roast lamb, is eat, 
 (I suppose this is Jewish) as are also hard eggs, 
 in every family of Italy, on Easter sunday.
 
 ( 176 ) 
 
 LETTER L. 
 
 On the Discoveries of the early Venetians. 
 
 Venice, January, 1818. 
 
 I WENT yesterday to the public library for the 
 purpose of looking at the famous maypamondo of 
 Fra Mauro^ a lion, which (strange to say !) I had 
 never seen. When we consider the age in which 
 this marvellous monument of science was con- 
 structed, and the circumstances which relate to 
 it, it is impossible to refuse the Venetians a high 
 place in the rank of discoverers. This singular 
 work was composed, we know, about the middle 
 of the fifteenth century ; at a time when one 
 should have thought that beyond what had been 
 made out by the ancients, materials must have 
 been absolutely wanting for such a work. Yet 
 what anticipations of after-knowledge do w^e not 
 find in it, and what a strange twilight must 
 have broken upon Venice; though the daylight 
 which followed was destined to other nations, 
 till then sitting in darkness ! 
 
 You are doubtless informed of the Fra Mau- 
 ro\ having maintained the possibility of circum- 
 navigating Africa, but are perhaps not aware of
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITAJ.V. 177 
 
 the precise evidence (tliough Tiraboschi lias 
 written on the subject) which exists of liis 
 inappcunoiido having suggested to Don Henry of 
 Portugal the very scheme which was, in the 
 course of time, to arrest the progress of Venetian 
 greatness. This fact lias been put beyond the 
 reacli of tloul)t, by the Abbot Ziirla, who lias 
 collected the most minute circumstances attend- 
 ing these transactions. Zurla has also illus- 
 trated the voyage of the Zeni to the north, 
 which, it appears to me, can no more be consi- 
 dered fabulous than the tra\els of Marco Polo^ 
 and has thrown ncw^ light upon the singular 
 discoveries of Alvise di Ca da Mosto* 
 
 There is much scattereil evidence of other 
 early unpublished discoveries; and the commerce 
 which these people carried on in the interior of 
 Africa, at an early period of their history, is 
 almost placed beyond doubt. 
 
 Conquest is always ruinous to knowledge. 
 A part of the old Venetian documents were 
 carried away to Milan, and those left are so 
 crowded and disordered that it is impossible to 
 
 * Or Alxisi of the house of Moslo. Persons ignorant of tlio 
 meaning of these terms bave run ihcni into one lump, and 
 christened him Cadamosto. 
 
 VOL. II. N
 
 178 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 refer to tliem ; yet an imperfect list of a part 
 of these confirms what I have just alluded to; 
 I mean the interior African commerce of the 
 Venetians, which appears to have been carried 
 on by regular caravans. 
 
 May not, perhaps, the distant voyages which 
 these people seem to have made, and the inter- 
 course they had with remote nations, which can 
 only explain the composition of the mappamon- 
 do, serve also to explain the odd prophecies and 
 half lights respecting another world* that were 
 atloat prior to the promises of the 
 
 *' Nudo nocchier promettitor di regni?"^ 
 
 Chiabrera. 
 
 Voltaire, with his usual flippancy, dismisses, 
 you will recollect, the famous passage of Dante, 
 as a mere accidental coincidence with truths 
 afterwards established ; and says the poet talked 
 metaphorically, signifying the cardinal virtues 
 by the four stars ; and spoke of purgatory, and 
 not of a real land. As to the first; he must 
 have read Dante with very little attention who 
 does not observe how often he speaks of things 
 in a double sense ; that is to say, in one real 
 
 * The same explanation may be given of the celebrated pas- 
 sage of Seneca. 
 
 t A scurvy skipper, promiser of crowns.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 179 
 
 and figurative; and how accurate be was in 
 applying his astronomical lights, according to 
 the site in which he lays his scene. Nor was 
 it extraordinary, that any one should at that 
 period consider the islands in question as the 
 actual purgatory. Voltaire, I believe, might 
 have learned from the Fathers, with whom he 
 affects so intimate an acquaintance, that Paradise 
 occupied a certain defined situation ; which is 
 even assigned to it in tbe mappamondo of Frd, 
 Mauro. And why then should not one of the 
 Western Islands have passed as well for the site 
 of Purgatory, according to the notions at that 
 time entertained? But a document indeed exists, 
 which ma}' throw more light on tbe probability 
 of that for which I co.itend. PktvG d' Abano^ 
 a physician of celebrity, mentions in a letter, 
 Marco Polos having delineated for him what 
 was apparently one of the four stars of Datite. 
 Now this man was cotemjiorary with the poet, 
 who, you know, made a long residence at Ve- 
 nice. 
 
 The " sit apud te honos aiitiquitati ct fabulis 
 quoque'' is an injunction which I feel in its full 
 force; but I believe, that I am borne out by facts 
 as well as fable in my reverence for the early 
 Venetians, and in an opinion, which I entertain, 
 that the early history of this country contains 
 
 n2
 
 180 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALl^ 
 
 curious matter in the branch of arts and sciences, 
 which is not generally known; .and that other 
 natious have, in truth, only restored much which 
 they iuiaginc themselves to have invented. 
 
 In the " Storia Civile e Politica del Commercio 
 de Veneziani" the author, a Venetian gentleman 
 named Cay^lo Antonio Marin, amidst a variety of 
 proofs and presumptions of early Venetian dis- 
 coveries, states that, in a visit to a convent, which 
 he specifies, he saw a Crucifixion painted on 
 glass, with the date of 1 177.* He mentions also 
 that the friend who shewed it him and who 
 had analyzed the colours, maintained he had 
 found oil in the composition. Dr. Johnson, 
 no inaccurate examiner of evidence, in his life 
 of Fra Paolo Sarpi, says : " By him Acguapen- 
 dente, the great anatomist, confesses that he was 
 iristructed how vision is performed, and there 
 are proofs that he was not a stranger to the cir- 
 culation of the blood." 
 
 Let me add that, together wnth the obliga- 
 tions we have to this extraordinary people in 
 the improvement of humble but more useful 
 science, such as the introduction of precision into 
 matters of trade,t &c. we have some, of a different 
 
 * The Venetians were perhaps (and probably in this instance) 
 the depositaries of some of the arts of Constantinople. 
 
 t The mode of book-keeping by singlfc and double entry, 
 styled the Italian, undoubtedly originated with the Venetians.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITAI.V. 181 
 
 character, which wc probably little suspect. I 
 allude to the first statute of mortmain, imitated 
 from a Venetian law, enactinu; similar but 
 stronger provisions, and known by the same de- 
 nomination ; Ic leggi (Idle mani morte. 
 
 In an act founded on this j)rincij)le in 1767, I 
 find the following preamble: "Con nioltiplici 
 leggi, e particolarmente con {pielle del 13^53, 
 1506, di questo maggior consiglio, e con I'altra 
 1605 del senato, si procur^ d'impedire che li 
 stabili di questa citta c di questo stato non va- 
 dano negli ecclesiastici e cause pie per via di 
 Icgati, &c. &c. kc^ 
 
 It is true that this principle of law was adopted 
 early, and very universally; I believe (though 
 you will know best) with the exception of the 
 Roman State, and I hnd it recognized in the 
 statutes of Milan, when under the dominion of 
 her dukes. Still no precise act upon the sub- 
 ject dates from so early a period as the first of 
 Venice. 
 
 Many Venetian words naturalized in Kngland (to say' nothing 
 of corresponding idioms) attest the great conwnunication we 
 must once have had with Wnice. Take, for instance, //rwo, 
 in our common English signilication piilegni, which is in this 
 sense called pituita in Italian ; slepa a slap, bullo a bully, artichucQ 
 an artichoke, (remark the ch is pronounced as with us) spienza 
 the spleen, ixc. &c. 
 
 N 3
 
 ( 182 ) 
 
 LETTER LI. 
 
 Notions of Delicacy comparative amongst different 
 
 Nations. 
 
 Venice, January, 1818. 
 
 I DINED yesterday with a Venetian friend who 
 had been in Eno^land and brouoht from thence 
 various Englishhabits and indulgences. Amongst 
 others, the usual after-piece of coffee and /i^wewr 
 was followed by the introduction of the tea-table, 
 with all its customary artillery. After a minute 
 inspection, and inquiry into the uses of the se- 
 veral pieces composing this battery, we arrived 
 at the slop-basin, when the lady of the house, 
 herself untravelled, shrugged up her shoulders 
 and turning to me, observed that, " all English 
 as I was, even / must allow the indelicacy of 
 this receptacle of leavings." I should perhaps 
 have attempted to say something in its favour 
 but that I had seen in her hands the " Quinze 
 jours a Loridres,"" and knew I should next have 
 to plead the part of a vessel of yet greater abo- 
 mination. So I abandoned our crockery-creed, 
 and silently acquiesced in all the reproaches
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH Ot ITALY. 183 
 
 which Avcre bestowed on tlic least offensive jiait 
 of our estabHsliment. 
 
 Nothing is perhaps more anuisini:;- than to 
 observe how arbitrary are all notions of reline- 
 ment, and how generally a nation which taunts 
 anotlicr \vith an ofiensive habit, is reproached 
 by the accused, for some ecjuivalent piece of 
 indelicacy. 
 
 A foreigner once told me he was warned by 
 an English lady of the impropriety of blowing 
 his nose overtly in the presence of the sex ; 
 but observed, at the same time, that he had 
 detected many of our fine ladies in secret sniffs: 
 A remark that brings to my recollection a 
 circumstance which will not be misplaced in 
 this chapter of comparative nosology. Seeing 
 an Italian lady once examine the seam of her 
 pocket-handkerchief, I asked her, indiscreetly 
 enough, what she was about, and she answered 
 that the difference of the two borders served 
 her as a rule for the side on which she blew her 
 nose. I do not know whether this piece of ulti a- 
 delicacy was personal, provincial, or j)eninsular, 
 but am certain that there is no woman in Eng- 
 land who does not ten times a day volunteer the 
 forced penance of a puppy dog. 
 
 You will, I am sure, recollect the tirade, in 
 Sterne's Sentimental Journey, upon national in- 
 
 N 4
 
 184 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY, 
 
 tolerance, arising out of an anecdote of a similar 
 description. But what sermon, or satire could 
 reform this uncharitable spirit? springing, as it 
 does, out of that general principle of 
 
 *' Indulging vices we're inclin'd to, 
 And damnins: those we have no mind to,"
 
 ( 185 ) 
 
 LETTER LII. 
 
 Visit to Bassano, S)C. 
 
 Valdagno, May, 1818. 
 
 It is SO long since 1 have written to you, tliat I 
 scarcely know bow to break niyselt' in anew to 
 the task. The fact is that, not to .s])cak of other 
 things which interrupted my labours, I had 
 really exhausted all I had to say. 
 
 I thought indeed that some excursions, made 
 by me early in the spring, when I broke cover 
 from Venice, in the impatience for green fields 
 and birds and beasts, might have furnished me 
 Avith something new% but this not being the 
 case, I determined to wait till time should pro- 
 duce matter for a letter. You may perhaps 
 think that the same motive for silence exists, 
 after reading the present. 
 
 I had been often i)ressed by a gentleman, 
 who makes Bassano his summer residence, to 
 visit him in his couutry-(juarters, and this 
 scheme I at last accomplished in company with 
 a small partv, \\ ith wiiom I set out iVom Padua. 
 The road from this place to Bassano presents the 
 usual features of Lond)ar(l scenery, but appears 
 as if i)rei)aring itself to be magnificent in pro-
 
 186 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 portion as it approaches the great gorge of the 
 Tyrohan Alps. 
 
 I could have wished to have had some of our 
 EngHsh acquaintance with me on this occasion : 
 1 mean some of those who echo the charge of 
 the want of hospitaUty in Italy, (because it 
 does not run in the same channels as in Eng;- 
 land,) and complain that they have housed 
 and fed Italians, 
 
 " Sed contra accipiunt meros amores, 
 Seu quid suavius elegantiusve est."*' 
 
 Catullus. 
 
 Not having announced our intention, the 
 head of the family was from home, being gone to 
 welcome the Austrian Viceroy at Verona. His 
 sister, however, insisted we should stay till his 
 return, and in the mean time, as we afterwards 
 discovered, dispatched an express to inform him 
 of our arrival. He accordingly returned the 
 day after. 
 
 There was now no possibility of a speedy 
 cacape ; nor, to say the truth, were we very 
 desirous to effect it. 
 
 The liouse where we found ourselves had a 
 large and pleasant garden beliind it, and was in 
 
 * But were with empty graces paid ; 
 Mere kindness — lights and lemonade.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 18^ 
 
 the centre of Bassanu, a city ot" about the size 
 of Southainj)t()ii, aiul coutaiiiiiig probably 8,000 
 souls. It is at fust a matter of surprize to an 
 Englishman, that a rich lauded proprietor should 
 establish himself in a town, or always in some- 
 thing apj)roaching to it; but various reasons, 
 some of which I have detailed in a former letter, 
 naturally lead to this. Not to repeat those 
 which 1 formerly adduced, personal security 
 from robbers is not amongst the least, a con- 
 sideration which weighs, more or less, all over 
 the peninsula. Another is the impossibility of 
 being well supplied with provisions, except in 
 populous places. 
 
 \ow will be disposed to ask me whether this 
 does not apply equally to England. I say No, 
 and will illustrate the difference by a recent 
 anecdote. After having fed on carrion, or 
 having fasted rather than feed on carrion, for a 
 long while in Abano, I asked the cook if he 
 could not get me a piece of meat from Padua; 
 he told me that he would venture it now and 
 then ; but that he could not practise this cofi- 
 traband often, as the local guard of the village, 
 if they detected him, would confiscate the ven- 
 ture. For on the same principle* my Paduan 
 
 * Sec an early letter Irom l^achia.
 
 188 LETTElfS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 friend could not in town have meat from the 
 country, /, living in the country, could not 
 have meat from a town, within whose limits I 
 did not happen to be situated. The explanation 
 of this was that the farmer of the meat-tax of 
 Abano would have suffered had meat been pur- 
 chased at any other place, and it was therefore 
 a violation of law in us the tenants of the hos- 
 pital, or in the inhabitants at large, to supply 
 ourselves at any other place. The consequences 
 of this system are obvious; but its most dis- 
 agreeable effects are confined to small villages, 
 as in towns competition secures attention to the 
 customer. 
 
 But if the country has its dangers and in- 
 conveniences, the city is not exempt from the 
 last. On going over my friend's premises I was 
 surprized to find his best entrance blocked up ; 
 when he explained this, by telling me he did it 
 to separate from his family an ofhcer, who was 
 in possession of that part of the house. As I 
 knew that there was only a squadron of cavalry 
 in Bassano, I was somewhat surprized at the in- 
 formation ; and still more when informed that 
 the officer had possessed himself of his quarters 
 without the form of an order from the civil 
 power, which even here assigns them in detail, 
 though obliged to comply with the military re-^
 
 LETTKRS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 189 
 
 quisition, in the gross. ISIy friend added, that 
 being of the nuinicipality, he might indeed get 
 redress, but in that case he should provoke the 
 enmity of a man capable of avenging himself in 
 a thousand ways, and who would probably hand 
 down the quarrel to his successors. 
 
 Such evils, however, as these are small in 
 comparison with what Bassano had to suffer 
 during the war. The country was wasted about 
 it in every direction, and it latterly sustained the 
 loss of its bridge, a most serious evil, in places 
 w here a river is not navigable : For the Brenta, 
 
 " un fiume 
 Che verso il vicin mar cheto si move," 
 
 in this place rushes along 
 
 " gonfio e bianco gid di spume, 
 Per neve sciolta, e per montane piove."* 
 
 Ariosto. 
 
 This river was here once spanned by a beautiful 
 bridge of Palladios : destroyed by one of those 
 dreadful floods which these Alpine waters occa- 
 
 a stream which, far from home, 
 
 Glides slowly to the neighbouring sea, in (juiet ; 
 But works and whitens here with froth and foam, 
 .And swoln wilii snows and niuiintain-rain runs riot.
 
 190 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 sionally jDour clown, bearing with them trees and 
 masses of timber, which no structure can resist. 
 To the Palladian bridge was substituted another 
 in wood ; the work of Rettiondi, whom Alga- 
 rotti, in his »S«^^7V) sopj^a I' Architettura, I think, 
 terms the Archimedes of Italy. This, reputed 
 one of the most curious monuments of mecha- 
 nism, was destined to be destroyed by another 
 element : It was burned by the Viceroy, Eu- 
 gene Beauharnois, in his retreat from Italy : a 
 piece of mischief, from which he would un- 
 doubtedly have refrained, had he known how 
 much law would have been granted him by his 
 pursuers. 
 
 But it is time I should say something of the 
 town : this is best seen, together with the cir- 
 cumjacent country, from the house of the arch- 
 priest, which is situated on an eminence, and 
 was once the residence of 
 
 " Ezzelino, immanissimo tiranno."* 
 
 From this place the view is very striking; for 
 there arc indeed few Italian cities so singu- 
 larly situated as Bassano, which is built upon a 
 high promontory winding into what was appa- 
 rently once a lake, through the deserted bed of 
 
 * Of Ezzelin, that most inhuman tyrant.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 1<)1 
 
 which runs the Brenta, many feet below the level 
 of the town. 
 
 In such a case it is impossible not to start a 
 theory : the most obvious seems to be that the 
 river having forced the mountain defile, had, at 
 the fust opening of the gorge, expanded its 
 waters into a natural bowl, capable of contain- 
 ing them, but that one of the sides of this, no 
 longer patient of the pressure iVom behind, had 
 given way, and the stream, bursting through 
 the aperture, drained off the waters of the lake. 
 Something like this seems to have caused the 
 subalpine lake of Como, and that of Iseo, be- 
 tween Brescia and Bergamo ; but in these, 
 either from the descent being less rapid, or some 
 other cause, only the superfluous waters are 
 carried off, the lake remaining and the river 
 issuing out of the side, opposite to that by which 
 it entered. So much for my theory, which you 
 may either adopt or batter down at pleasure. 
 
 Though the general appeaiance of Bassano is 
 curious, I know not that it contains much in 
 art which might interest in detail. There arc 
 however some fresco paintings by Jacopo da 
 Ponte, known by picture-mongers under the 
 name of Bassano, this town being, in fact, his 
 birth-place : The most striking circumstance 
 respecting them (a thing however by no means
 
 l92 LETTERS FR03I THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 uncommon) is the proof they exhibit of his 
 change of style ; he having" begun as an imitator 
 of the Perugian school, (as may be seen in his 
 Flight into Egypt, preserved, I think, in the 
 Town-hall,) and grown original in the exercise 
 of his art. 
 
 There are also many casts of Canovas con^ 
 tained in the Rezzomco palace, with a laudatory 
 inscription more happily imagined than the 
 papal decree, which ranks him with Phidias and 
 Praxiteles. This silly hope to prescribe to pos- 
 terity is no new attempt on the part of Rome ; 
 and the favours are not forgot which were pro- 
 fusely lavished by pope, prelates, and people, 
 on the Chevalier Bernini. The omen can 
 hardly be very flattering to the Marquis of 
 Ischia. 
 
 I cannot help returning for a moment to 
 the fresco paintings, which, fresh or faded, make 
 the ornament of so many Italian towns. I 
 remember seeing one on the outside of a house, 
 in a mountain village, which would not have 
 discredited Perugino himself* There is nothing 
 which more attests the ancient magnificence 
 of this people when " wealth Avas theirs,*' than 
 these remnants of art. To such too may be 
 added their relics in architecture, which are as 
 common: and I have counted six buildings.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY, l^.l 
 
 fairly called palaces, in the niisciahle town of 
 Valdagno. 
 
 But to return to Bassano : Its vicinities are 
 much more interesting than the tow n itscll", or 
 any thing which is contained in it. Mounting 
 the Brenta, or rather its hanks, (tor, as 1 have 
 said, it is not here navigahlc,) you see, every 
 where, though less marked, the features of tlic 
 Tyrol. A few miles up the stream you are 
 presented w ith a very curious |)henomenon: This 
 is the Ollicro, which rushes into it at ahout tiie 
 distance of half a mile from its sources, in such 
 a body as to communicate its own clear colour 
 to one half of the turbid Brenta, and for a con- 
 siderable distance. This river, indeed, which 
 rises from two springs, one very picturesquely 
 situated within a cavern, bursts out in such a 
 volume as to be capable of floating a lighter at 
 either source. 
 
 A fact (more curious in natural history) is that 
 though the mountains throughout tlieir whole 
 range on the western side of the Brcfiia contain 
 tt^ap, none is to be found throughout an im- 
 mense distance, I believe more than 1000 miles, 
 on the eastern. But I hear you ask me how 
 long I have been up to tra[) ? I an^w er, '' JS'^on 
 mens hie sermo,'" It is that of my host, who, I 
 would have you to know, is a mighty mine- 
 ralogist, and coni])limcnted as such by Brocchi 
 
 VOL. II. o
 
 194 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 who speaks of his collection of specimens of 
 Italian rocks, as of the best, whether public or 
 private, in the peninsula. 
 
 The province of Bassano, though rich in pic- 
 turesque scenes and natural wonders, is (as may 
 be conjectured) less fertile than the plains of 
 Italy. One sack of wheat, for instance, is said 
 to yield little more than three, and the maize 
 cannot be cultivated. Still this (as every where 
 else throughout the peninsula) is only com- 
 parative sterility. Wine and oil, wood, herbage, 
 and silk, are produced in abundance, and to- 
 bacco is cultivated with success, (if such a stric- 
 ture may be permitted from an Englishman) 
 notwithstanding the perverse regulations of the 
 government. Respecting these, it is enough to 
 say, that whilst on one side the Brenta, the 
 growth of this plant is permitted permanently, 
 it is only suffered for three years on the other; 
 whilst all must be delivered at a fixed price to 
 the government. This sends it in a raw state 
 to Venice, where it is worked up, and distributed 
 in other provinces : so that a Bassanese cannot 
 buy tobacco of his own growth, which is sold in 
 Friuli and its dependencies. He must go to 
 Vicenza, if he has occasion for any. Another 
 plant which is produced in singular perfection 
 here is the asparagus. I see you laugh at the 
 supposition of a particular soil being requisite
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 195 
 
 for the culture of M'hat you will say can be had 
 good at a small expense in an artificial one. 
 Yet, I can assure you, Covcnt Garden never 
 turned out such delicious asparagus as Bassano, 
 But the nature of the soil (whatever value our 
 gardeners may attach to it) is of much more 
 importance in Italy than in England: for hor- 
 ticulture, like all useful arts, is a century in 
 arrear throughout the peninsula. As for all 
 artificial vegetables, as tame-mushrooms, (for 
 instance) these are things never heard of, the 
 Italians usually contenting themselves with the 
 great red umbrella toad-stool, of which there 
 are two species, one wholesome, and the other 
 poisonous, or recurring only to the fields for 
 others. 
 
 As to the principles of succession, though 
 they might, no doubt, be reduced to practice in 
 shaded and well-watered places, (no country of- 
 fering such m(?ans of irrigation) e\'en these, and 
 many more are imperfectly understood. It is 
 true that in the neighbourhood of the populous 
 cities of Rome, Venice, &c. the exertions of 
 the inhabitants, in some degree, second the happy 
 dispositions of the climate, and tbe fruits of the 
 earth are plentiful in due season. But this is 
 not the case where labour is not equally goaded. 
 ValdagnOy for example, is frecjuented, during 
 four months in the year, as Tunbridge is. with 
 
 o 2
 
 196 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 US, yet roots and herbage are almost as scarce 
 there, as bulbs in Africa during- the dry season. 
 
 I told a servant I had brought with me, who 
 was a native of this province, to ask if it was 
 not possible to have some carrots with my beef; 
 and he returned laughing, and said the waiter 
 did not know what a carrot was. Recollecting 
 the precedent of the sultan in Mr. Celoe's Ori- 
 ental Tales, Mdio bade his vizir bring him a 
 man who did not know what canaffee m as, I 
 sent for him, and only by dint of description 
 succeeded in makins: him understand what I 
 wanted. I mentioned a nearly similar instance 
 of barbarity at Abano, a bathing-place yet more 
 throno'ed than Valdao-jio. 
 
 o o 
 
 If horticulture be a fair test of the progress of 
 useful civilization, Italy has at present advanced 
 no farther than England had at the time of the 
 revolution : I now, however, waver in a former 
 opinion, and am inclined to believe she was once 
 more advanced, as well in the useful as in the finer 
 arts, and that her present disease is a relapse. I 
 might cite various facts in confirmation of this 
 from the work of Filiasi su primi e secondi Ve- 
 neti, S^c. where may be found many proofs of 
 useful arts and sciences once successfully cul- 
 tivated in this part of Italy. 
 
 Whilst the advantages which the Bassanese, a 
 mountain territory, holds out to the cultivator,
 
 LETTERS FUOM THE NORTH OF ITAI.V. 197 
 
 are sucli as I have described, there are other, 
 and not less essential, temptations to tlie 
 stranger. In the south ot" Italy yoii can only 
 escape the excessive heats by taking refuge on 
 the top of the Apennines, where there is an ab- 
 sence of all other comforts but that of cool; and 
 I was informed at Rome, that the late Bishop 
 of Bristol used always to run up JSlount Radi- 
 coj'ani in the summer months. Such extra-epis- 
 copal activity is not necessary in Lombardy, from 
 the vicinity of the Alps ; and Bassano, and the 
 place M'hence I date, both situated at the foot 
 of the mountains, afford a striking instance of 
 this. You have indeed occasionally excessive 
 heat for about eight hours, that is, from ten in 
 the morning till six in the evening; but the air 
 is usually elastic, and the remainder of the four- 
 and-twenty cool. This is a great delight in 
 southern climates, where the heat of the evening 
 or the night is the only real and irreparable evil. 
 This is no doubt to be attributed to the Alpine 
 rivers, which produce a delicious freshness, and 
 more still to the prevalence of the bracing w inds 
 which come iced from the mountains, and give 
 check-mate to the scirocco. 
 
 I gave you some account of the waters of 
 Recoaro, m a letter from Vicenza. Taken at 
 the fountain, which is at a short distance from 
 
 3
 
 19!^ LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 this place, they are yet more efficacious, as well 
 as palatable. The effects I have seen protluced 
 by them are really marvellous : Thus, I icmem- 
 ber a man Avhen I was last in Italy, who was 
 suffering cruelly under a liver-complaint, and 
 who, judging from his looks, I did not imagine 
 could have outlived the year ; I found him this 
 winter, to my infinite surprize, in health and 
 spirits: he informed me he had undergone a 
 thorough repair at Recoaro; but, it sliould be 
 added, his resuscitation was not the work of a 
 single visit, but that of a spring and autumn's 
 course repeated for two years. 
 
 These waters are of the nature of those of 
 Pyrmont. 
 
 I ought not to conclude this letter without 
 mentioning a circumstance I observed on my 
 journey from Bassano to Valdagno, which leads 
 to some considerations on one of the natural 
 plagues of Italy, and the means which have 
 been suggested for its relief. The Agtio, which 
 gives its name to this place, like many other 
 rivers, often breaks its bounds; but furnishes a 
 remedy for its own excesses, depositing copi- 
 ously a rich vegetable soil, which serves at length 
 as a barrier against itself. Observing the effects 
 of one of its floods, I took the trouble to ascertain 
 what time had been required (taking advantage
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 199 
 
 of the works it had itself thrown up) to re-con- 
 fine it to its bed. I was answered " Twelve 
 years." 
 
 Now it is to Ije remarked that the ylgno is 
 very little above the levil of the circumjacent 
 country ; whilst many other rivers absolutely 
 overlook it. Tbe Po, tor instance, I should say, 
 had in some places raised its channel as much 
 above the lands throuL,h which it Hows, as the 
 Thames has his near Dagcnham breach. 
 
 I mention this, because a very strange project 
 has been broached by some foreign engineers, 
 and treated out of Italy with more respect than 
 it appears to me to deserve. Tliese arc lor 
 letting loose the rivers, that, by depositing the 
 matter suspended in them, they may raise the 
 neighbouring country to the heigbt of their 
 banks; and thus apply a radical cure to the evil 
 of inundations, necessarily frecjuent in the pe- 
 ninsula. 
 
 The circumstances howe\er which I have 
 mentioned, will, I think, shew the extravagance 
 of this idea. For if twelve years were necessary 
 to reduce the Agno to order, which is a brook 
 in comparison with the Fd of Lombardy, what 
 time must elapse before his enormous volume of 
 water could be poured back into his channel? 
 Nor would the evil be confined to deluging and 
 
 o 4
 
 200 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 poisoning* provinces for a century. The dread- 
 ful consequences would remain after the cause 
 of mischief was removed : for the Pd and some 
 other rivers, instead of depositing malm, (as the 
 /igno does) cany with them rubble and sand 
 wherever they wander, and form an upper stra- 
 tum of absolute rubbish. 
 
 The only practicable remedy appears to me to 
 be a good system of engineering, which is carried 
 on here, I should suspect, often upon an ineffi- 
 cient scale and foundation, and differs, like so 
 many other things in Italy, at the distance of 
 every few miles. The Italians have however an 
 answer to the reproach of the want of system 
 in this case, and say the various character of 
 their rivers demands a varied scheme of defence. 
 
 Whether this be a real justification of the 
 diversity of modes and materials which they 
 bring to bear npon the enemy, or whether it 
 arises from the strange want of concert which, as 
 I have frequently said, marks the different dis- 
 tricts of the peninsula, I really cannot venture 
 to decide. 
 
 * The malaria is often produced by the outbreak of a river 
 and the deposition of its stagnant waters, as at Caldiero in the 
 Veronese, &c.
 
 ( 201 ) 
 
 LETTER LIII. 
 
 Jonrnejf homewards. — Milan . 
 
 Paris, 1818. 
 
 After having conducted you (to say nothing 
 of devious excursions) halt-way tVoni one end of 
 the great Alpine chain to the other, I shall not 
 think it necessary to carry you back as regularly 
 to my point of exit : since a great part of the 
 way has been already trod, and what has 7iofy 
 resembles so much what has, that I shall let you 
 off with a few observations on the two great 
 cities which lie upon this route. 
 
 Milan, the first of these, is large, and situated 
 on a plain, and is what, I suppose, would be 
 called a fine city : But it has nothing very 
 strikino- cither within or without to recommend 
 it. Add that it is hot in summer, foggy in the 
 fall, and cold in the winter. 
 
 I know not whether it is to be attributed to 
 these its disadvantages ; but what Alfieri says of 
 the perfection of the plant man in Italy, certainly 
 does not apply to Milan ; for I think I never saw
 
 202 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 such a number of deformed and diminutive 
 wretches in any city of Europe. This is not an 
 observation pecuHar to myself, for it has been 
 remarked upon by Ugo Foscolo in a note to his 
 translation of Sterne's Sentimental Journey, and 
 I recollect once counting nearly sixty in two 
 days. This leads me to an observation which 
 applies generally in the peninsula. I never saw 
 deformity or infirmity excite a smile. Italy is, 
 I believe, the only country in Europe which is 
 free from this brutality. I have witnessed it 
 in England and Germany, and France. 
 
 Mishapen objects, though more common in 
 Milan, are also to be found in the neighbouring 
 towns, both on plain and hill, and spread into 
 the confines of the Venetian State, where they 
 are almost lost. I do not know to what one 
 should ascribe this local tendency to deformity. 
 Is it a defect of race, running through the 
 descendants of the GaUic subalpine tribes, as 
 one might almost be led to conjecture from its 
 stopping, or all but stopping, at those of the an- 
 cient Yeneti? As a confirmation of such a guess, 
 the absence of deformity forms the character- 
 istic of some nations, and I never saw a mis- 
 shapen person in Greece. 
 
 As in the Milanese, man is often cut short of 
 his fair personal proportions, so I should say
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF TTALA'. 203 
 
 that lie was liehind all tlic t)thcr Italians in 
 mental (lualitications, beinj^- ordinarily heavy, 
 and slow of understanding. The person how- 
 ever who will form the subject of my next 
 Letter, may serve as a brilliant exception to this 
 opinion.
 
 ( 204 ) 
 
 LETTER LIV. 
 
 On the Poetry of Parkii — state of Manners in Italy, 
 as injiuenced by the Government. 
 
 Paris, September, 1818. 
 
 You will, I am sure, recollect charging me to 
 give yoLi my thoughts on the poetry of Pari?ii, 
 the great luminary of the city I have just de- 
 scribed, in whose neighbourhood he was born, 
 which was long his residence, and which now 
 contains his ashes. 
 
 When I alleged the difficulties which such a 
 task presented to a foreigner, you answered that 
 you wanted to see him measured by a foreign 
 standard — by the judgment of an Englishman. 
 It is upon this ground only that I speak of a man, 
 who is perhaps of all the Italian writers least 
 amenable to the bar of a tramontane tribunal. 
 If I therefore venture to pronounce sentence 
 upon him, it will be, always in allowing him the 
 benefit of an appeal. 
 
 Parini is to be considered in the double capa- 
 city of a lyric and a satyrical poet. In the first
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OI- ITALY. 205 
 
 light, he is looked upon in the peninsula as a 
 great lefoiiner, or at least example, of the Italian 
 sehool; the diction of Guidi, <k.c. not enjoying 
 that unquestioned credit in Italy, which it lias 
 acquired amongst the i'ew cultivators of Italian 
 poetry at home. 
 
 To this style he has suhstituted a much chaster 
 and more natural character of expression. If 
 we allow, therefore, weight to the position of 
 Alfieri, who asserts that, in lyric poetry, expres- 
 sion is every thing, Pariiii has accomplished no 
 ordinary enterprize. But of all styles of diction, 
 that in which this author excels is perhaps the 
 least likely to take with foreigners. Its character 
 is elegant simplicity. Now if it requires no" 
 common sense of the beautiful to enjoy the 
 " numbers which Petrarch flowed in," respecting 
 M'liom I might perhaps say, that 
 
 " lo nol soft'crsi molto, nc si poco, 
 Cli' io nol vedessi sfavillar d'iiitorno 
 Qual ferro che bollente esce del fuoco," * 
 
 // VdradiMi. 
 
 it asks a yet steadier sight to distinguish the 
 lights of Parini — I will say a more refined 
 
 * I gaz'd not yet so dazzled or so darkling, 
 But what I saw him llanie and flash like steel 
 Snatch'd freshly from the forge, red-hot and sparkling.
 
 S06 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 taste and more exercised judgment to weigh 
 those nice combinations of expression, which are 
 recommended rather by their dehcacy than their 
 brilliance. 
 
 1 shall not however make a hasli out of what 
 Italian critics have written upon Parini, though 
 they might minister materials for an elaborate 
 essay ; nor dwell even in details of my own on his 
 lyrics, which I just feel enough to feel that I 
 do not feel them as I ought. I shall nevertheless 
 not pass over the most popular work of this au- 
 thor, which, though distinguished both by ex- 
 quisite beauties of rhythm and of diction, has 
 other merits that a foreigner is perhaps somewhat 
 better qualified to appreciate. This effort of 
 his muse, in the 
 
 ^' canti 
 Che il Lombardo pungean Sardauapalo," * 
 
 Vgo Foscolo. 
 
 is, though little known in England, more likely 
 to be esteemed there, than his lyrical flights. 
 It is a poem in blank verse, divided into parts, 
 and entitled // Alatlino, il Mezzodl, e, la Sera. 
 
 This, to define it in a business-like-way, is 
 descriptive of a day's work in dandyism, or may 
 
 * The strain which stung the Lombard Sybarite,
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 207 
 
 be considered as a calendar, ironically didactive 
 of Italian foppery. Such a scheme does not 
 promise much, but the immediate subject is not 
 kept rigorously in view, serving principally to 
 thread and hold together a series of digressions, 
 which spring happily out of the sid^ject and as 
 easily subside into it. 
 
 In this, Parini resembles Cmcpcr in his Task^ 
 and indeed in many points of detail ; as in his 
 sneering tone of satire, in his picturesque de- 
 scriptions, his precision, where there is a ques- 
 tion of any thing mechanical, in the adoption 
 of a species of blank verse between the familiar 
 and the dignified, which was new in the lan- 
 guage of each, and in a diction haj)pily adapted 
 to the vehicle he has chosen. But here the ad- 
 vantage is greatly on the side of Parini. In 
 more essential points I should give it to the 
 Englishman. Thus, though Cowper is caustic 
 as Parini, he sneers only by starts, and does not 
 fatigue you with that eternal drone of irony 
 which predominates in the music of the Italian; 
 this stop being heard above all others and often 
 drowning the sweetness of his softer tones. He 
 rises much above the other too in some yet more 
 important respects. There is a tone of feel- 
 ing in Cowper, which Parini never reaches, and 
 which, were verse to be measured by its depth
 
 208 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 of passion, would place our countrymen first 
 among the poets of the day. 
 
 But our business is with Parim. A slight 
 view of the Matti?io will serve to give a loose 
 notion of his design. The first part begins 
 with an ironical exhortation to the Dandy, with 
 respect to the distribution of his time. Then 
 follow the occupations of the day, all told in the 
 same strain, and unenlivened, as in other comic 
 poets, by a single sally of frank and good hu- 
 moured gaiety. The digressions in short are the 
 only part that please me. Some of these are 
 indeed delightful, but they are always so in pro- 
 portion as they lose sight of the subject. I am 
 disposed to select one as a specimen of the 
 poetry. He has been describing the duties of 
 Sirventismo, for the origin of which he accounts 
 in the following lines. 
 
 Tempo gid fu, die il pargoletto Amore 
 Dato era in guardia al suo fratello Imene j 
 Poiche la Madre lor temea, clie il cieco 
 liicauto Nume perigliando gisse 
 Misero e solo per oblique vie, 
 
 Time was the little Love, scarce fledg'd and creeping, 
 Was put into his brother Hymen's keeping ; 
 For much the Mother fear'd the graceless God 
 Might stray or come to mischief, if he trod
 
 LETTF.RS lUOM Till. NORTH OF ITALY. 20.9 
 
 K die, bersaglio agl' iiuliscreti colpi 
 Di scnza guida c senza tVeno arciero, 
 Troppo iinmatuio al fin corresse il seine 
 Umaii, eir e iiato a doniiiiar la terra. 
 PereicS la prole iiial seeura all' allia 
 111 cura (lato avea, si lor (liceiido : 
 " Ite o figli del par ; In piii possente 
 Tl dardo scocca, e tu piu cauto il guida 
 A ccrta ineta." Cosi ognor cnnipagna 
 Iva la dolce coppia, e in uii sol regno 
 E d' un nodo comun Taliiie stringea. 
 iMIora I'll clie il Sol inai sempre unit! 
 Vedea un pastore ed una pastoiella 
 Starsi al prato, a la selva, al colle, al fonte ; 
 E la Suora di lui vedeali poi 
 Uniti ancor nel talamo beato, 
 Cli' ainbo gli aniici numi a piene mani 
 Gareggiando spargean di gigli e rose. 
 
 The world alone, and man's imperial raco 
 
 In his first fury perish from ilioir place. 
 
 So putting him beneath his brother's care, 
 
 She, with this lesson, launched the little pair : 
 " Go, peers in power! Yoit, strongest, ply the dart. 
 
 To guide it. Hymen, be thy sager part." 
 
 She ended, and the brothers rang'd their round. 
 
 And in close couples souls and bodies bound. 
 
 Twas then that never sun beheld a swain 
 
 And shepherdess together on the plain. 
 
 By field, or fountain, or by bosky bourn. 
 
 But that his sister, in her nightly turn, 
 
 Saw them together laid in lowly shod. 
 
 While the young Gods rain'd roses on their bed. 
 VOL. II. P
 
 <210 LETTERS FROM THE NORTJI OF ITALY. 
 
 Ma die nan puote anco in iliviuo petto, 
 Se mai s' accende, ambizi-on di regno ? 
 Crcbber I'ali ad Amore a poco e poco, 
 E la forza con esse ; ed e la forza 
 Unica e sola del regnar maestra. 
 Perci6 a poc' aere prima, indi piu ardito 
 A vie maggior fidossi, e fiero alfine, 
 Entr6 nell' alto, e il grande arco crollando 
 E il capo, risonar fece a quel moto 
 II duro acciar che la faretra a tergo 
 Gli enipie, e grid6 : " Solo regnar vogl' io," 
 Disse, e volto a la niadre; " Amore, admique 
 " Il piu possente infra gli Dei, il primo 
 Di Citerea figliuol, ricever leggi, 
 E dal minor german ricever leggi 
 Vile alunno, anzi servo ? Or dunque Amore 
 Non osera. fuorch' una unica volta 
 
 But what will not ambition ? By degrees 
 Love's pinions push'd, and with the growth of these 
 Fast grew the stripling's strength (and stories shew) 
 Force is the single source of power below. 
 First in shoal air he play'd and narrow rings ; 
 At last more bold confiding in his wings, 
 Flung his steel case of sounding shafts behind, 
 Brandish'd his bow, and, borne upon the wind, 
 Bounc'd into baby rage ; and cried with scorn ; 
 •' First of the Gods, and Venus' elder born. 
 Shall I then, like a pupil, wait command, 
 — Say slave — and at a younger brother's hand ? —
 
 LETTERS PROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 1211 
 
 Feriru un' alma come questo schifo 
 Da me vonebbr .'' K noii potro giammai 
 Dappoi cli' io striiisi im laccio, aiuo slcgailo 
 A mio talento, e qualor |>arini iiii allru 
 Stringerne ancora? E lascenN pur cli'tgli 
 Di suoi unguenti impcci a me i mii i dardi 
 Perclic imii veleiiosi c iikmi criuUli 
 Sceiidauo ai petti r ()i- via pciclie iiuii logli 
 A me du le mie man quest' arco, e queste 
 Armi da le mie spallo, o ignudo lasci, 
 Quasi lifiuto degli Dei, Cupido ? 
 Oh il bel viver che fia qualor tu solo 
 Regui in mio loco ! Oh il bel vederti, lasso ! 
 Studiarti a tone da le languid' alme 
 La stanchezza e'l fastidio, e spander gelo 
 
 — Not twice with liis good will one bosom strike ? 
 Nor loose the knot once faston'd, as I like? 
 Nor, at my riper pleasure tie another? 
 And shall this squeamish, sober-blooded brother 
 Sheathe with his balsams my wide wasting dart, 
 That it may rankle less within the heart? 
 No ; bid mo rather here at once deliver 
 Mine arms, despoil me of my bow and (luivei- ; 
 And leave me stript and lielpless to all eyes. 
 The scorn of men aiul outcast of the skies. 
 
 Wiiat a rare worUl 'iwill bi', when thou shall rciizn 
 In place of Cupid ! I behold thee strain 
 To light in languid souls some faint dej^ire, 
 And see thee scatter frost instead of fire. 
 1' 2
 
 *iI2 LETTKllS FliOM THE NORTH OF ITALY 
 
 Di foco in vcce! Or, Genitrice, intendi, 
 V'aglio e vo' rcgnur solo. A tuo piacere 
 Tru noi parti I'impero ; ond' io con teco 
 Abbia oniai pace, e in compagnia d'Jmene 
 Me non trovin mai p'lh le umane genti." 
 Qui tacqiie Aniore, e minaccioso in atto, 
 Parve all' Idalia Dea chider risposta. 
 Ella tenta placarlo, e pianti e preghi 
 Sparge, ma in vano ; onde a' due figli volta. 
 Con questo dir pose al contender fine. 
 " Poicli^ nulla tra voi pace esser puote, 
 Si dividano i regni. E perche Tuno 
 Sia dall' altro germano ognor disgiunto, 
 Sieno tra voi diversi e'l tempo e I'opra. 
 Tu che di strali altero a fren non cedi 
 
 But mark me, Mother, I can reign alone, 
 And will; I'll bear no brother near the throne. 
 Then, at thy pleasure, portion our domain ; 
 Give each his lot; and so shall 1 remain 
 At peace with thee, while we our interests sever, 
 And Love and Hymen make divorce for ever." 
 He ended, and with threatening act and eye, 
 Appear'd to wait the Goddess's reply ; 
 She sobs and sighs with fond entreaties mixt, 
 But read his part resolv'd, his purpose fixt. 
 Then, hopeless to remove such settled hate, 
 With this short sentence stopt all new debate. 
 " Since you can't rule like brothers in the realm. 
 In fair rotation, take and quit the helm. 
 Diverse your task and times. — Wild Archer, smit^
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OT IT A TV. 213 
 
 L'alme fcrisci, c tutto il f;iorno impera : 
 E til clie (li fior placitli liai corona, 
 Le saline accoppia, c coll' ardtnle face 
 Regna la nottc." Ora di qui, Signore, 
 Venue il rito gentil, clie a' freddi sposi 
 Le teiielne coiufde e de le spose 
 Le caste uiembia : E a voi, bcata gente 
 Del piu nobil mondo, il cor di queste 
 E il douiiuio del di largo destina. 
 Fors' anco un di piu liberal contiue 
 Vostri diritti avrau, se Amor piu forte 
 Qualche provincia al sue gerniano usurpa : 
 Cosi giova .spcrar. Tu volgi intanto 
 A' niiei versi I'orccchio, ed odi or quale 
 Cura al niattin tu dcbbi aver di lei 
 Che spontanea o pregata a te donossi 
 
 The soul \v\th i/oiir keen shafts, and rule in light. 
 You of the kindled torch and saffron flower 
 Bind bodies, and bo tliinc the midnight hour !" 
 
 And hence, egregious Sir, the gentle rite 
 Which to cf)ld husbands yields the shades of night. 
 And spousal corpse ; wiiile you more happy sway 
 The heart, and hold dominion of the day. 
 Add (and the thing's within the reach of fate) 
 That Love, usurping on liis brother's State, 
 May win his wilful liegemen wider scope j 
 At least, we'll feast our fancy with the hope. 
 
 And now, illustrious youth, incline thine eaj 
 To my didartive strain, and studious hear 
 f 3
 
 214 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 Per tua dama quel d'l lieto che a fida 
 Carta non senza testimoiij fiiro 
 A vicenda commessi i patti santi 
 E Ic condizi-on del caro nodo, &c. 
 
 Though the extract which I have given, may, 
 as I have said, serve as a favourable specimen of 
 the general tone of Parini's poetry, it is not to 
 be considered as a flattering test of the execution, 
 either with respect to rhythm or expression, 
 \vhich are both as nicely laboured throughout 
 as in this short effort of his fancy. The poem 
 is indeed a painting in ivory, wrought with a 
 delicacy and precision of which perhaps no model 
 could be found in any language in Europe. 
 
 The original however of the miniature (Parini 
 copied from a living model) was so little satisfied 
 with his portrait that he had the poor Abbe bas^ 
 tinadoed, a mode of retort by no means unusual 
 in ancient Italy ; where vengeance was often 
 carried to severer lengths, and usually with im- 
 punity. 
 
 Since I am on this subject, another anecdote 
 may throw more light on the state of justice in 
 
 What morning cares await thee with the dame, 
 Who, woo'd or willing, partner of thy flame, 
 (Nor was the knot unwitness'd which you join'd) 
 With thee, to mutual duties seal'd and sign'd, &c.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 215 
 
 the peninsula previous to its conquest by France, 
 
 and niigiit alone i)lca(l the cause of the Italians 
 witii those nations who have steered, 
 
 Con iniglior corso, e con migliore sle/lit.* 
 
 II Paradisu. 
 
 A young man of cchication and hitherto unble- 
 mished life, resi(hng in a frontier city, received, 
 from a powerful noble, sucli an outrage as ren- 
 dered life intolerable, and w hicli he at last re- 
 venged in a manner which was scarcely less 
 odious than the injury lie had received. 
 
 This story was told to me and another Eng- 
 lishman who, as well as myself, expressed his 
 horror at the wrong as well as the revenge. 
 " Why did not he challenge the offender r " said 
 my companion. — " Because he would have been 
 amenable to justice, and punished forhis/;re- 
 sumption''' — " Why not keep his horse ready sad- 
 dled, pistol his enemy, and escape over tlic 
 frontier ? "' — " Because he would ha\ e left his 
 family subject to the persecution of that of the 
 miscreant whose life he had taken." 
 
 Is any thing more required to explain the po- 
 pular reproach bestowed on this peo{)le, and can 
 any thing more forcibly demonstrate the falsity 
 of the position, that the iuiluence (^f tyranny 
 
 * A better course 6enfa/A abetter star. 
 
 p4
 
 '2\6 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 falls merely on those within its immediate reach, 
 and that its evils, 
 
 " To men, remote from power but rarely known. 
 Leave reason, faith, and conscience, all our own ? " 
 
 I said in a former letter from Vicenza, that 
 French justice had extinguished that class of 
 enormities the most flagrant of which was assas- 
 sination. It certainly did so ; and during the 
 first visit I made to Italy, I did not hear a single 
 instance of the kind, even in provinces such as 
 Piedmont, where the vivacity and ferocity of the 
 national character led most to such excesses.* 
 
 * Nothing could be more ridiculous than the wonderment 
 excited at home by the attempt to assassinate the Duke of 
 Cumberland. Yet the circumstances of the murder of the 
 unfortunate D'A/itraigues which followed at no long interval, 
 might have sufficiently explained the spirit in which it was 
 perpetrated. 
 
 If a Piedmontese of the old school once bit his thumb at 
 you, (no matter how slight the provocation,) accompanying it 
 with " Tu me la pagherai! " a sentence generally pronounced 
 aside, the words were a death-warrant, and the action its seal. 
 
 It was for this reason that many other Italians would not 
 employ them as servants, and I remember one being refused as 
 a cook at Milan, on the sole ground of his being a Piedmontese; 
 though, be it added, they are the very best cooks in the penin- 
 sula.
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITAT.V. C17 
 
 It is (liK- to the Austrian govern inciit to say, 
 that Lombardy is yet IVcc tVoin micIi honors ; 
 but the tragedy is getting up in other parts of 
 the peninsuhi and will prol)ahIy take as deep a 
 dye as before. Turin, indeed, and Naples have 
 ahcady furnislied a prelude sueh as aflbrds a 
 dreadful earnest of what is to eome. 
 
 Not to shift my seene, I eonfnie myself to 
 the former metropolis. A noble, as I am in- 
 formed by an Englishman fresh from Turin, no 
 later than this spring, upon some real or imagi- 
 nary provoeation, sh(jt a very respectable citizen, 
 and has since been untouched by justice. 
 
 Such is the morality of a pious monarch who 
 has established a kitchen incjuisition in his do- 
 minions ! In these you may do murder, but 
 you must not eat flesh on a Friday.* The dread- 
 ful storm which so long raged in Europe and 
 devastated her most fertile provinces, at least 
 brouiiht with it the consolation of its bavins: 
 cleared the air of some impurities; but the 
 noxious exhalations and the reptiles are re- 
 turned. 
 
 * His inaximum on meat, ri<;i(lly enforced in Piedmont, 
 will do more towards forciiii; fasts than the host of spies whose 
 reports shut out the carnivorous from the favours and protec- 
 tion of the court.
 
 ( 218 ) 
 
 LETTER LV. 
 
 Turin and general Italian Recollections. 
 
 Paris, September, 1818. 
 
 Turin, the last city of Italy towards tlie French 
 frontier, affords a striking contrast to INIilan. 
 It is an elegant and uniformly built city, with 
 all its streets at right angles, and affording some 
 general recollection of Bath, though very dif- 
 ferent, both in its localities and in the details of 
 its architecture. 
 
 A city built upon this principle of uniformity 
 is very pretty in theory, but in practice seldom 
 produces the pleasing effect of irregularity ; for 
 the same reason that Portland-place does not 
 afford the same gay and pleasing prospect as 
 Pall xMail. 
 
 Throughout nature the picturesque triumphs 
 over the beautiful. 
 
 Beyond the mere exterior of Turin I have 
 little to communicate. When one arrives at the 
 threshold of Italy, one is always in a hurry 
 either to get in or to get out; and, as to my own 
 personal experience, I know as little of the
 
 LETTERS TROM THE NORTH OF ITALY, 219 
 
 state of manners in Piedmont as in Tunis or 
 Constantinople. Yet even the diflcience of 
 those usages in tliis and neit^hbourinLV cities, 
 whicli arc obvious to remark, is curious, and 
 may serve to prepare the traveller who enters 
 the peninsula by this road, tor that iniinite va- 
 riety of habits which distinguishes the provinces 
 of Italy. 
 
 London and Edinburgh do not aflord the con- 
 trast which is presented by Turin and Milan, 
 though only a day's journey from each other. 
 
 Thus, for instance, call on a person at Turin, 
 and you find him basking in the full glare of a 
 summer's sun. The Milanese, on the contrary, 
 has the good sense to exclude heat and flies, and 
 sits in twilight as long as the dog-star rages. 
 
 It is not hotter at iMilan than at Turin or Ve- 
 rona, yet this rational practice has neither passed 
 east nor west. Such things in themselves would 
 not deserNC obscr\ation ; but that they serve, as 
 I said before, to mark the insulation, as it may 
 be called, of every Italian city, even where 
 commerce and communication are most easy. 
 
 As to what is more worthy of attention, 
 the national character of the Piedmontcse ; I 
 believe Aljieri\ picture of himself and his ser- 
 vant is a faithful likeness of his unsophisticated 
 countrymen ; and let me add that wherever I
 
 220 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 have followed this distiiiguishcd author, I liave 
 found him a faithful painter of manners, not- 
 withstanding the boldness of his strokes and the 
 height of his colouring. For the sophisticated 
 Piedmontese ; he appears to me, wherever I 
 have met him going loose about the world, but 
 a bad imitation of the Frenchman, upon whose 
 model he appears to have formed himself. 
 
 Yet though this province has been, in a great 
 degree frenchified, there is always something 
 which marks transalpine character, and I recol- 
 lect being as much struck by a whimsical cus- 
 tom, on my first passage through Piedmont, as 
 I probably should be by any singular observance 
 in Otaheitc. 
 
 In almost every barber's shop in the country, 
 in addition to the equivalent for our " Shave-for- 
 a penny- inscription," you see Qui si scrive sulla 
 testa. I of course asked an explanation, and 
 was informed that it was a common practice 
 amongst the lower orders in the country, to have 
 their own initials, perhaps those of their mistress, 
 or any other capricious symbol, cut in their hair, 
 as children sow their cypher in mustard and 
 cress in England. Thus I once saw a man Avith 
 the cypher of his mistress whom he had lost, 
 cut on his forelocks and remember thinking I 
 had discovered a new beauty in the " Italia,
 
 LETTERS FRO:\I THE NORTH OF ITAI,V. C'J 1 
 
 Italia,' of Filicaja, and that he iiuist have had 
 this usage before his eyes, in the hue, 
 
 " Che scritli in iVoute per gran doglia porte." 
 
 But I unhickily found that tlie custom was pe- 
 culiar to Pie(hnont, and tliat Filicaja luul never 
 been there. So much for tlie discoveries of 
 commentators ! 
 
 The traveller scarcely expects to find antiqui- 
 ties in this land of the Allobroges ; yet Turin 
 is in possession of one which is interesting in 
 other points of view than as a mere remnant of 
 art. — I allude to the tavola Isiaca. In this is to 
 be found the exact representation of the modern 
 Venetian gondola, without its fehe or hutch, 
 which makes no essential part of the boat, but 
 ships and unships at pleasure. 
 
 Following this train of recollections, I should 
 say that the drawing comparisons between the 
 former and present state of art and the being 
 enabled to ascertain what usages have come 
 down to the moderns, unaltered from the 
 ancients, makes one of the great charms of 
 antiquarian pursuits. Such speculations often 
 entertained me at Pompcja, and I remember, 
 returning one day from thence, to have met a 
 jackass with a pack-saddle, the })reci^e counter-
 
 222 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 part of one (ass and housings) which I had seen 
 there, in picture on the walls. 
 
 Hue redeo uncle ahi'i : Amongst the customs of 
 Venice, it is curious to observe how many seem 
 to have been borrowed from the Egyptians. In 
 the island of San Cristoforo, now converted into 
 a general burying ground, was preserved tlie 
 body of the Doge Moro, in [i sarcophagus, which, 
 both in its form and materials, corresponds with 
 the description of that discovered by Belzoni. 
 
 But as I am on the subject of dead Doges, I 
 should remark that an infinitely more curious 
 process observed with respect to these, seems to 
 have been borrowed from the same source. An 
 old statute of Venice, which went, as Scotch 
 lawyers say, into desuetude, enjoined a post- 
 humous trial of these sovereigns of the Adriatic. 
 Those who liad any thing to allege against one, 
 were invited to prefer their charges upon his 
 death, and if after their examination, the body 
 was cast, a fine, proportionate to the offence, was 
 levied on the goods or lands of the deceased. 
 
 But I am transporting you at a flight from 
 one country to another in a way very different 
 from that in which I travelled myself; for in 
 my way homewards, I deviated from the straight 
 road in order to make an excursion in the 
 principality of Parma.
 
 LETTERS rUO.M TllK NORTH Or ITALY, C2ii 
 
 I was not infliicncccl in this visit by the wish 
 of seeing what are called hons, for I knew tlierc 
 "vvere none to Ije seen, but 1 had heard tliis .small 
 state spoken of in the rest of Italy, as the only 
 one which was well governed; perhaps in the 
 spirit of gallantry, or perhaps in the foolish 
 love of whatever was connected with Ihiona- 
 parte. 
 
 I soon however saw how ill deserved were 
 these encomiums. 1 found here the same system 
 in vigour (if tins be not an abuse of the word) as 
 in Austrian Lombardy, " with new additions 
 never made before." Take as instances the ac- 
 cumulation of a debt, the interest of which was 
 not even paid, whilst anti(juated and long re- 
 sisted pecuniary claims of Rome were acknow- 
 ledged and discharged, sundry monastic order^ 
 restored, and in short whatever weakness could 
 graft upon stupidity and perverseuess. 
 
 This naturally leads me to some general re- 
 flections on the political state of Italy. 
 
 Taking one's stand on the last of this cluster 
 of kingdoms it is imjjossible not to cast one's 
 eyes back for a moment on tlie pr()sj)ect which 
 we are leaving behind us. 
 
 It was my fust intention to give a somewhat 
 detailed description of it, and to point out the
 
 224 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 characteristic features of the governments into 
 which it is divided. But when I considered the 
 thing hotter, I observed, that however such a 
 picture might be diversified by hght and shade, 
 tlie parts were essentially tlie same, and the 
 same style of colouring prevailed throughout 
 the whole. 
 
 All these petty states are administered nearly 
 upon one model. All have preserved what- 
 ever there was of domineering and rapacious in 
 the French system; all have cast away whatever 
 there was of salutary in the new scheme of 
 things, and renewed whatever was most odious 
 and most contemptible in the old. 
 
 I have dwelt most upon the administration of 
 the Austrian provinces; because these are the 
 most important, and most likely to influence 
 more or less, the lot of the great continent of 
 Europe. But as a proof that the imperial por- 
 tion is not worse governed than the rest of Italy, 
 let us take a single glance at the state Avhich 
 ranks next in power and in influence ; respect- 
 ing which there cannot, I think, be a difference 
 of opinion amongst those who are not, as Elbow 
 says, "cardinally given." Such I should ima- 
 gine would be few : for the Catholics have on 
 every occasion and in every case, with the ex-
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALV. C25 
 
 ception of Spain, breathed a very different spirit 
 from that of this papistical i)eeragc.* 
 
 Not to retouch that most niiscliievous and 
 monstrous principle of taxing exported pro- 
 ducts, let us merely see how it is acted upon. 
 During the last year of scarcity, the prohibition 
 of exporting grain was, if ever, justifiable. Yet 
 this, though forbidden to the community, was per- 
 mitted to favoured individuals, I suppose in 
 foolish trust ; and the cardinal-legate of Bologna 
 was calculated to have made 50,000 francs by 
 this legitimate source of profit, whilst hundreds 
 were perishing by famine. 
 
 Under the government of France the annona- 
 laws slept, and justice, civil as well as criminal, 
 was well and expeditiously distributed. At pre- 
 sent, there is no one, uninfluenced by passion, 
 who would not rather renounce a debt than en- 
 deavour to recover it by law : while the Campagna 
 has been desolated to the very gates of Rome 
 by miscreants, of whose warfare she has only 
 obtained a remission by such a treaty as has laid 
 the foundation of future outrages, besides cover- 
 ing her government with contempt. Of this 
 treaty I have, I believe, touched the principal 
 
 * Yet Rome has at present a liberal Pope and a liberal 
 prime minister. 
 
 VOL. II. Q
 
 226 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 article — that of the wretches being bribed into 
 a temporary surrender l)y the promise of their 
 being " lodged and fed at public charge ;" these 
 bag-banditti being at the expiration of a certain 
 period to be again turned out for the diversion 
 of the public. 
 
 During the government of France the Ro- 
 man state had fine roads and noble public insti- 
 tutions. These are going to decay; yet she 
 pays, under the prediale and sopra imposie, as 
 much or more (if I may believe Romans) than 
 when subject to hostile usurpation. 
 
 This is the case, directly or indirectW, with 
 all the provinces of Italy : they suffer, to say 
 the least, all the evil, and share in little of the 
 good, produced by the revolution. 
 
 Can this state of things last ? If you say, the 
 machine performed its functions, well or ill, 
 once, and why should not it hold together now? 
 I answer, that this piece of mechanism does 
 not resemble what it was; for in the recon- 
 struction, new principles have been adopted, 
 which necessarily tend to its speedy destruction. 
 For instance, these governments were always, 
 no doubt, weak ; but they were at least indul- 
 gent to the subject. Thus, that under imme- 
 diate consideration had always its banditti and 
 its annona laws ; but it was sufficient to its ex-
 
 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 237 
 
 penses without the levy of direct taxes, exact- 
 ing even less than the old Venetian aristocracy. 
 Despotism had, moreover, formerly some- 
 thing to rest upon. Religion was not then, as 
 now, nearly extinct in Italy. The priesthood 
 were respected, and a rich and privileged nobility, 
 as well as the hierarchy, weighed naturally and 
 powerfully on the side of the prince. The 
 priesthood is now without influence; and the no- 
 bility, since the abolition of the rights of primo- 
 geniture, and their feudal privileges, is not only 
 without weight, but has, of course, no longer 
 any motive of attachment to the government ; 
 and has indeed, under the pressure of the times, 
 taken a character, which is least of all favour- 
 able to the support of absolute power.* 
 
 * Tlic taxes falling entirely on the landed proprietor, with 
 the exception of those which bear upon the merest necessaries 
 of life, the nobility, already impoverished by the abolition of 
 the rights of primogeniture, &c. have had recourse to all sorts 
 of ii:aijs and means and taken a peddling character, which runs 
 nearly throughout the cast. The number of those who lend 
 money privately, on what we should call usurious terms, is 
 inconceivable, and many deal in the details of commerce, 
 without even the assistance of agents. I liavc known a noble 
 sell his wine at his own back-door. Observing a machine in 
 the entry to a gentleman's house, and asking him its purpose, 
 he told me it was to weigh merchandize; and 1 shall not easily
 
 228 LETTERS FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY. 
 
 It is moreover a very serious consideration that 
 not only arc the weights and pendulum of this 
 
 forget another visit, in which I passed through a double rank of 
 women and girls, spinning and preparing silk, who entirely 
 occupied the spacious porticoes of a country-house, the hall 
 of which was half covered with mulberry leaves, the food of 
 silk-worms: What was worse, my own stockings were covered 
 with fleas who fed upon the women: The roptilc-stink ab- 
 solutely obliged me to hold my nose, while the rattle of the 
 wheels was such as would have provoketl the horse-whip of 
 Lismahago. 
 
 But to return to the sort oi gavel-kind which has been estab- 
 lished all over the continent, wherever French power took per- 
 manent root, this (a sign of the times) is generally considered 
 in Italy as a thing called for by the spirit of the age ; and in an 
 eulogium on Buonaparte, pronounced in the academy of Ce- 
 sena, since printed and puffed, it is ridiculously made a princi- 
 pal ground of praise. 
 
 In point of fact, however, this regulation of property, as 
 indeed the whole of the French civil code, sprang out of the 
 revolution, the principles of which it was well calculated to 
 promote. Buonaparte could not, therefore, as " the child 
 and champion of Jacobinism," directly oppose it ; but he 
 was too sensible of the obvious danger with which it threatened 
 monarchy, not to attempt a relief. It was to effect this that he 
 re-established the principle of the majorat, which would in 
 time, to a degree, have countermined the effects of an eternal 
 sub-division of property. He assigned estates in conquered 
 countries to his new nobles, strictly entailed on their eldest 
 heir male, and upon failure of such, revertible to tlie crown. 
 
 This ingenious outwork covered a yet more efficient defence.
 
 LETTERS FROM TllF. NORTH ()\- ITALY. i2'if) 
 
 machine altered, the med^m too is changed 
 in wliich they are to play ; and the tone w liich 
 marks this age is (in many respects most uu- 
 happily) not that winch characterized the last. 
 I venture hut one conjecture as to w hat is to he 
 the ultimate end of this : " no good : ot" that he 
 sure." For the present, a recollection of their 
 past suflferings and the necessity of repose, keeps 
 the Italians cjuiet; hut these are only temporary 
 sedatives, and hegin to wear out. The mine is 
 charged anew, and if any accident gives it i\vc, 
 half Europe will be shattered by the shock. 
 
 The possessors of these estates were enabled to sell thim on 
 condition of vesting; the price received in other lands of equal 
 value to hv purchased in France and settled to the same uses. 
 
 This note may serve a second purpose. It may serve to il- 
 lustrate the strange ignorance of the mass of Italians, even on 
 subjects of common inff)rnialion. We have here a learned ara- 
 demician pronouncing a discourse, in which he praises his idol 
 for being the author of a system which had been forced upon 
 him, and which he had attempted to thwart and undermine. 
 
 THE EXD. 
 
 Luixlon. I'rinlc'd bjr C Itovioilli, 
 Hill )i«<l, Iriiiple-liai.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 VOL.1, p. 304, line 20, for ' Oscauajid Atellan.'read ' Oscan or Atellan.' 
 
 VOL. II. p. 45, line 13, for ' were not worth a nominative,' read ' were not 
 always worth a nominative.'
 
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