fpectable, in vain fhall we look for successful

commerce.

The merchants, who attain to opulence, purchase patents of nobility, and then difcontinue traffic. Their manufactures are filk, cloth, and glafs; which were, formerly, the best in Europe; but, as they are extremely tenacious of old cuftoms, they are now excelled by other nations, who are ready to adopt new expedients and inventions. At a distance, Venice resembles a great town, half floated by a deluge. It is every where croffed by canals, fo that there is access to most houses, both by land and by water, This is a very great convenience to the inhabitants; for a gondola, with two oars, is as magnificent as a coach and fix in any other country.

The ftreets are chiefly paved with brick or free-ftone, and kept very neat; for there is no carriage of any kind paffes through them. Bridges appear without number, all of one arch, and without any fence on either fide, which would be dangerous in a city where the inhabitants were lefs fober. But as they are not permitted to converfe too freely with ftrangers, they are the lefs expofed to the danger of learning the vice of drunkenness from them; and they are too distrustful of each other, to indulge in conviviality.

Venice is replete with noble palaces; but their furniture is not very rich, if we except their pictures, which are very numerous, and executed by the beft mafters of the Lombard fchool. The rooms are generally hung with gilt leather, which, on extraordinary occafions, is covered with tapestry. The flooring is formed

formed of bricks, ground to powder, and mixed with oil, which, being well tempered, has a fmooth, fhining, and beautiful furface.

The arfenal of Venice is an ifland about three miles in circumference, which contains all their naval and military ftores. Here are docks for fhip-building, and a variety of buildings for the accommodation of officers. The edifice, in which the armour is depofited, makes a grand fhow; but great part of its furniture is grown useless by time and the change of fashion.

This republic was, formerly, very powerful, and they fill pretend, that, in cafe of neceflity, they could fit out thirty fhips of the line, and one hundred gallies; but it is not easy to conceive, how they could man them. Indeed, they owe their fecurity rather to the jealousy of their neighbours, than to their prefent ftrength.

The Venetian fenate is one of the most politic inftitutions in the world; though, according to the reports of fuch as are well verfed in their conftitution, many of its maxims are far from being honourable. If we reckon only the fitting members, the fenate is generally as numerous as our house of commons, and yet its refolutions are feldom known, till they are developed in the

execution.

Not many years ago, they had great debates about the punishment of one of their admirals, and though they lafted a month, and at last were concluded on condemning him, none of his friends, who were refolutely engaged in his defence, gave him the leaft intimation of what was paffing, and he was actually in the hands of justice before he fufpected his danger.

2

M. Amelot

M. Amelot computes, that in his time, there were two thousand five hundred nobles, who had a voice in the great council; but I was told they did not now exceed one thousand five hundred. The nobility spreads equally through all the brothers of a family, and the daughters are generally provided for in convents, to preferve the eftates. Hence the Venetian nuns are diftinguished for the liberties they allow themfelves. They have operas within their own walls, and are faid to admit, or meet their admirers, at their pleasure.

The carnival at Venice, is celebrated over all Europe. The great diverfion then, as on other occafions, is making; for though the Venetians are naturally grave, they love to give into the follies and entertainments of such seasons, under an affumed character. These difguifes give occafion to a number of intrigues; and I queftion not, but the fecret hiftory of a carnival would furnish a collection of many diverting novels.

Operas are another grand entertainment at this feafon, and the poetry is generally as bad as the mufic is delightful. The comedies are equally infipid, for having no idea of genteel comedy, when they with to make their audience merry, they fall into the most filthy double entendres; but the most wretched scenes of all are, where a fine gentleman converfes with his miftrefs, the whole dialogue, in that cafe, being a difgufting mixture of pedantry and romance. But it is not furprifing, that the poets of fo referved and jealous a nation, thould fall into fuch mistakes, when they have fo few patterns in nature.

At Venice I took a barge for Ferrara, and in my palage faw the mouths of the Po, by which VOL. XII.

D

it

it empties itself into the Adriatic. This is not
only the largest, but the moft rapid river of Italy.

The Po, that rushing with uncommon force,
O'erfets whole woods in its tumultuous courfe;
And rifing from Hefperia's wat'ry veins,
Th' exhaufted land of all its moisture drains.-
The Po, as fays the fable, first convey'd,
Its wand'ring current through a poplar fhade:
For when young Phaeton mistook his way,
Loft and confounded in the blaze of day,
This river, with furviving ftreams fupply'd,
When all the rest of the whole earth was dried;
And nature's life lay ready to expire,

Quench'd the dire flame that fet the world on fire.

At Ferrara I met with nothing extraordinary. The town is large, but not populous. It has a citadel, and fuch an extenfive fortification, that all the papal foldiers are not fufficient to man it. The ftreets, in length, breadth, and regularity, are remarkably fine.

I now proceeded down a branch of the Po, as far as Alberto, within ten miles of Ravenna. The intervening space is marfhy and uninhabited, and reminds one of what Martial fays:

Ravenna's frogs in bitter mufic croak.

The place that is fhewn for the haven, is on a level with the town, and has probably been choked up by the mud which the fea has thrown up; for all the foil on that fide of Ravenna, has been left there infenfibly, by the fea difcharging itself upon it for fo many ages.

The remains of the Pharos ftand about three miles from the fea, and two from the city, and have their foundations covered with earth for fome yards. On the other fide of the city, where

the

the fea is fuppofed to have formerly flowed, is a little church, called the Rotunda, at the entrance of which is a fquare piece of marble, which appears to have been a Pagan monument of two perfons that were fhipwrecked, perhaps in the very place where the memorial now ftands.

On the outfide of the cupola formerly flood a great tomb of porphyry, and the ftatues of the twelve apoftles; but they were all demolished by one cannon ball. It was perhaps the fame accident that occafioned the flaw in the cupola, though the inhabitants fay it was occafioned by thunder and lightning, at the fame time that one of their Gothic princes was killed by it, who had taken shelter here. I asked a priest what was the name of this Gothic prince; and, after a little hesitation, he told me he believed his name was Julius Cæfar. This fhews how ignorant the Italian clergy are in history.

In a convent of Theatines, they fhew a small window in their church, through which the Holy Ghoft is faid to have entered, in the form of a dove, and to have settled on one of the candidates for the bishopric. The dove is represented in the window, and in feveral other places of the edifice, and is in high reputation all over Italy.

The ftatue of Alexander VII. is erected in the large fquare of the town. It is caft in brafs, in the ufual attitude of popes, with the arm extended, as if in the act of blefling the people.

In another fquare, on a high pillar, is fet up the ftatue of the Bleffed Virgin, arrayed like a queen, with a fceptre in her hand, and a crown upon her head. By her interceffion it is believed the town was once freed from a raging peftilence, The custom of crowning the virgin is much the fashion among the Italians. D2

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