obvious reason is certainly the great difference that there is in the humours and manners of the two nations, which always works more in the meaner fort, who are not able to vanquish the prejudices of education, than with the nobility. Befides, that the French humour, in regard of the liberties they take in female converfations, and their great ambition to excel in all companies, is in a more particular manner very fhocking to the Italians, who are naturally jealous, and value themselves upon their great wisdom. At the fame time, the common people of Italy, who run more into news and politicks than thofe of other countries, have all of them fomething to exafperate them against the King of France. The Savoyards, notwithstanding the prefent inclinations of their court, cannot forbear refenting the infinite mifchiefs he did them in the laft war. The Milanefe and Neapolitans remember the many infults he has offered to the house of Austria, and particularly to their deceased King, for whom they ftill retain a natural kind of honour and affection. The Genoefe cannot forget his treatment of their Doge, and his bombarding their city. The Venetians will tell you of his leagues with the Turks; and the Romans, of his threats to pope Innocent the eleventh, whofe memory they adore. It is true, that intereft of ftate, and change of circumftances, may have fweetened these reflec tions to the politer fort; but impreffions are not fo eafily worn out of the minds of the vulgar. That however, which I take to be the principal motive among most of the Italians, for their favouring the Germans above the French, is this, that they are entirely perfuaded it is for the intereft of Italy, to have Milan and Naples rather in the hands of the C 2 first,

first, than of the other. One may generally obferve, that the body of a people has juster views for the public good, and purfues them with greater uprightness than the nobility and gentry, who have fo many private expectations and particular interefts, which hang like a falfe bias upon their judgments, and may poffibly difpofe them to facrifice the good of their country to the advancement of their own fortunes; whereas the grofs of the people can have no other profpe&t in changes and revolutions than of public blessings, that are to diffuse themselves through the whole ftate in general.

To return to Milan, I shall here set down the description Aufonius has given of it, among the reft of his great cities.

Et Mediolani mira omnia, copia rerum :
Innumera cultaque domus, facunda virorum
Ingenia, et mores læti: Tum duplice muro
Amplificata loci fpecies, populique voluptas
Circus, et inclufi moles cuneata Theatri:
Templa, palatinæque arces, opulenfque Moneta,
Et regio Herculei celebris ab honore lavacri,
Cunctaque marmoreis ornata periftylo fignis,
Omnia quæ magnis operum velut æmula formis
Excellunt; nec juncta premit vicinia Roma.

Milan with plenty and with wealth o'erflows,
And num'rous ftreets and cleanly dwelling fhows.
The people, blefs'd with nature's happy force,
Are eloquent and chearful in difcourfe;

A Circus and a theatre invites

Th' unruly mob to races and to fights;

Monetą

Moneta confecrated buildings grace,

And the whole town redoubled walls embrace:
Here fpacious baths and palaces are seen,
And intermingled temples rife between;
Here circling Colonnades the ground inclose,
And here the marble statues breathe in rows:
Profufely grac'd the happy town appears,
Nor Rome itself, her beauteous neighbour, fears.

BRESCIA,

VERONA,

PADU A.

FROM

ROM Milan we travelled through a very pleasant country to Brefcia, and by the way croffed the river Adda, that falls into the Lago di Como, which Virgil calls the Lake Larius, and running out at the other end lofes itself at laft in the Po, which is the great receptacle of all the rivers of this country. The town and province of Brefcia, have freer accefs to the fenate of Venice, and a quicker redrefs of injuries, than any other part of their dominions. They have always a mild and prudent governor, and live much more happily than their fellow-subjects; for as they were once a part of the Milanese, and are now on their frontiers, the Venetians dare not exasperate them, by the loads they lay on other provinces, for fear of a revolt; and are forced to treat them with more indulgence than the Spaniards do their neighbours, that they may have no temptation to it. Brefcia is famous for its iron-works. A small day's jour

ney

ney more brought us to Verona. We faw the lake Benacus in our way, which the Italians now call Lago di Garda: It was fo rough with tempefts when we paffed by it, that it brought into my mind Virgil's noble defcription of it.

Adde lacus tantos, te Lari maxime, teque
Fluctibus et fremitu affurgens, Benace, marino.
Georg. ii. v. 159.

Here vex'd by winter ftorms Benacus raves,
Confus'd with working fands and rolling waves;
Rough and tumultuous like a fea it lies,

So loud the tempeft roars, fo high the billows rife.

This lake perfectly resembles a fea, when it is worked up by ftorms. It is thirty-five miles in length, and twelve in breadth. At the lower end of it we croffed the Mincio.

-Tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat

Mincius, et tenerâ prætexit arundine ripas.

Virg. Georg. iii, v. 14.

Where the flow Mincius thro' the valley ftrays: Where cooling ftreams invite the flocks to drink, And reeds defend the winding waters brink.

Dryden.

The river Adige runs through Verona, fo much is the fituation of the town changed from what it was in Silius Italicus his time.

-Venora Athefi circumflua.

Verona by the circling Adige bound.

C 4

Lib. viii.

This