morning, there is a constant flux and reflux of company, of different ages, sexes, and conditions; not to speak of many smaller circles. Here all foreigners are well received; but to be an Englishman is to bring with you a sure letter of recommendation. He who is once asked, is always welcome. Moreover, he may go in boots, in a great coat, and, to small parties, even in a tabarro, the cloak of the country; and when there, without being squeezed or stewed, may find people right and left who are anxious and qualified to converse with him. The society of Venice may indeed be compared to the fire in the glass-houses of London, which is said to be never out; for there is also a continual morning assemblage at the house of one lady or other, who, in the phrase of the country, tiene appartamento, or, in that of London, is at home. This appears to be a sort of substitute for the casinos, now nearly extinguished. Society at Venice is on so very easy and rational a footing, that if it is to be enjoyed anywhere, it is here."

Formerly, a noble Venetian must have eight cloaks; three for the masks; one for the spring-fête of Ascension, when the doge married the sea; one for autumn, for the

theatre and ridotto; one for winter, for carnival-these three were called Bauta; two for summer, both of white taffeta; one of blue cloth, for winter, common; one of white cloth, for great occasions; and one of scarlet cloth, for the grand church ceremonial days of the republic. The Venetians have now but little taste for balls; and masques have gone out of fashion. The wild buffooneries and joyous extravagancies of other days would not withstand the atmosphere of later times. The love of play has survived; and Mr. Simond, who will not allow that the Venetians have any energy but for sensuality, adds, that they have "no passion but for cards." These sweeping stigmas are seldom just. For national character, we must look to the manners and amusements of the lower orders. "Florence and Venice," Mr. Rose says, "are the two places in Italy where you find popular drollery in its greatest perfection, and of that gay and natural cast which characterises the humour of the Irish." This is more or less diffused all over Italy; but the Venetian wit has its peculiar character; it is lighter than the Florentine, and shows itself, according to Mr. Rose's definition, "in practical jokes

brought to bear intellectually," or, in other words, acted repartees.* The Neapolitan humour, again, is more broad and coarse, and more closely allied to mere farce and ribaldry. The Venetians are naturally grave and sober. Some of their characteristics may be traced to their ancient intercourse with the Ottomans. As to their diet, rice is an article to which scarcely less importance is attached by all classes in Venice than in Constantinople, whence they appear to have borrowed their mode of cooking it. The custom of presenting coffee at visits is also Turkish. Their cafés are more oriental than Italian; and in their distaste for the extravagance of dancing, and their love of repose, they seem to resemble the more saturnine Ottomans.

Of the old Venetian character, however, the traces are, generally speaking, nearly worn out. "The most remarkable, as contrasted with the rest of Italy," says Mr. Rose, "certainly is so. The probity of Pantaloon was proverbial, and the honour and punctuality of a Venetian merchant were recognised throughout the various provinces of Italy. That it is not now the case, I attribute to the Austrians. Public honesty is scarcely compatible with their law. In the scale of honesty the highest rank, we are told, must now be given to the Jews, the second to the Venetians, and the lowest to the German settlers, who are among the principal money-agents of the city. Every office, indeed, from the clerk and corporal to the judge and general, is now filled with Germans, all unacquainted alike with the habits and language of the country. Nothing can be more execrable throughout than the fiscal and judicial administration of the Austrian government, and no one who visits Italy can be at a loss to account for the preference given by the Italians to their French masters over the Chinese of Europe.'"

• Molière's best buffoonery, Mr. Rose asserts, is borrowed from the Venetian drama.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

LOMBARDY-VERONA-PADUA-MANTUA CREMONA.

A GREAT variety of tribes formed the most ancient people that inhabited the country from the sides of the Alps to the banks of the Po; and their descendants possessed that part of Italy until the fall of the Roman empire in the west, about the end of the fifth century, when the Heruli, under the conduct of Odoacer, quitted the banks of the Danube, settled on those of the Po, and made Ravenna the capital of their country. Six years after their conquest they were subdued by the Ostrogoths, whose power was shaken by the energy of Belisarius, and overthrown by the eunuch Narses in the year 553.

Italy, restored to the emperors of the East, was not long secure against foreign invasions. The Longobardi quitted the forests of Germany, and founded, in 567, a powerful kingdom in the great valley of the Po, which, in the course of time, was styled Lombardy. But the bishops of Rome, anticipating their power, observed, not without fear and jealousy, the aggrandisement that threatened to destroy or possess the ancient capital of the world.

Stephen II. implored the assistance of France; Pepin took from the Longobardi the exarchate of Ravenna, and made the Pope sovereign over it. The kingdom was afterwards destroyed by Charlemagne, who confined Didier, their last king, in a convent. Although Lombardy continued without a sovereign, its laws were retained, and the country was divided into several principalities, subject to the western empire. But the spirit of independence was diffused over that part of Italy; and the emperors of Germany granted to some towns the right of choosing their magistrates. A custom that the cities had preserved the right of electing their bishops-led men to conclude that all power omanated from the people.

The inhabitants of large towns now proceeded to demand charters and more important privileges. All the cities of Lombardy, during the twelfth century, not only elected their magistrates, but deliberated on their local interests, and on the advantages of making peace and declaring war. Frederick Barbarossa was the first emperor who, violating the charters and treaties of his predecessors, attempted to establish absolute power in Italy. Milan was the most important town in Lombardy; and being besieged by that prince, the inhabitants, reduced to a small number by famine, consented at last to capitulate, but on conditions which the conqueror disdained. A few days afterwards Milan was changed into a heap of ruins. If the emperor protected the rivals of that large city, he destroyed their freedom, and the magistrates elected by the citizens were succeeded by the podestas that Frederick appointed. The peace which succeeded the noise and tumult of war was, however, only like the calm before the earthquake; for the people, unaccustomed to oppression, bore it reluctantly, and formed a secret league to restore their privileges.

The towns formed for that purpose a confederation; while Frederick, emboldened by success, marched against Rome, designing to humble the pope, and to unite his possessions

to the empire. But the Rn ans made a courageous resistance, while the plague cut off great numbers of the imperial army. The emperor made a new attempt against Lombardy, but, denounced and excommunicated, he became the object of hatred and contempt. The confederate towns gave him battle, his troops were routed and cut to pieces, and Frederick himself saved his life by means of a disguise, and at last acknowledged the independence of the Lombardy republics.

It is a lamentable result of political revolutions, when the inhabitants of the same nation, and even the citizens of the same town, are changed into irreconcilable enemies. Yet so it was here. While Barbarossa was prosperous and victorious, he was surrounded by ambitious flatterers, ever ready to pay their court to the powerful. After his death, however, the same persons adhered to his successor, and, as in the former struggle the court of Rome had principally contributed to the success of the people against the empire, Lombardy was then divided into two dominant factions. The partisans of the pope took the name of Guelphs, from an illustrious Bavarian family, allied by marriage with the house of Este. Those of the emperor were called Ghibelines, from a village in Franconia, the birth-place of Conrad the Salic, from whom the family of Suabia were descended. In their contests, both parties were, at different times, victorious, but the Guelphs more frequently than the Ghibelines.

Thus a party spirit was kindled, which spread and continued during the whole period that the emperors of Germany, of the house of Hohenstauffen, exercised even the shadow of sovereignty. In those cities where the Guelphs had the government, they were constantly opposed by a large minority, and the same state of things appeared where the other factions had the upper hand. Noble and other families were engaged in long feuds with each other, which endured through successive generations, constantly occasioning public murders or private assassinations. The history of these cities is filled with narratives that exhibit human nature in some of its most revolting forms.

A single, though far from a solitary instance of the prevalent state, may suffice now to illustrate it. A noble Guelph, named Buondelmonte, of the upper vale of the Arno, had demanded the hand of a young lady of the Ghibeline house of Amidei; and his proposals having been accepted, preparations were made for the marriage. But a lady of another family, the Donati, stopped the lover as he passed her door; and bringing him into the apartment where her females were at work, raised the veil of her daughter, whose beauty was most captivating. "Here," said she, "is the wife I had reserved for thee. Like thee, she is a Guelph; whilst thou takest one from the enemies of thy church and race."

Buondelmonte, dazzled and enamoured, instantly accepted the proffered hand. The Amidei considered this inconstancy as a deep affront; and all the noble families of Florence, of the Ghibeline faction, about twenty-four, met, and agreed that he should atone with his life for the offence. Buondelmonte was attacked on the morning of Easter Sunday, as he was passing the bridge on horseback, and was killed on the spot. Forty-two families of the Guelphic faction then assembled, and swore to avenge the insult; thus blood was shed to atone for blood. Every day some open battle or fresh murder alarmed the citizens of Florence, during the space of thirty-three years. These two factions stood determinately opposed to each other within the walls of the same city; and though they were sometimes reconciled in appearance, yet every trivial accident rekindled their animosity, and gave rise to deadly warfare. It was towards the close of the reign of the family of Hohenstauffen that this ferocious state of society began to subside, and various improvements arose.

The north of Italy, with which we have more particularly to do, is copiously supplied with streams of water from those capacious reservoirs which are found at the foot of the mountain ranges of the Alps. Those lakes are composed of water, partly arising from

springs, but chiefly from the melted snow and ice of the lofty summits around them. These lakes are never frozen in the winter, but run in continual streams, and thus serve the constant purpose of irrigation as well as of internal navigation, till they disappear in rivers which proceed to the sea.

The Po, the greatest of the rivers of Lombardy, has a course of nearly two hundred miles; and though languid in its current, is so filled, generally in the spring, as to cause inundations on both its banks. In its progress it receives the waters of the Ticino, which rises near Mount St. Gothard, and joins the Po near Pavia. The other streams which contribute to this great river are, the Olona, the Lambro, the Adda, the Oglio, and the Mincio.

The far greater part of Lombardy is a level plain, bounded on the north by the Rhætian Alps, and on the south by the river Po, into which most of the numerous rivers and rivulets empty themselves. The whole valley declines towards the south, but so gently, that the fall of water on that river, from its source to its mouth, is not more than a hundred and ninety feet; and the smaller streams are equally languid. The soil is

generally light, but fertile, on a basis of calcareous subsoil, except that at the foot of the mountains there are some portions of sandy heaths, and on the coast, where the great rivers discharge their waters, the land is marshy, and formed into extensive lagoons. In the mountainous northern border the land is frequently stony; but even there the soil that covers the valleys is a vegetable mould, of a greater or less degree of fertility.

The rural parts of Lombardy exhibit but few houses, except those of the mere peasantry. The owners of even the smaller proportions, though they may in some manner be viewed in the light of cultivators, yet, placing their estates in other hands, they seldom find it necessary to reside on or near them, and are satisfied with visiting them at the seasons when the produce is to be divided. When the estates are small or of moderate extent, or when they are large and comprehend several farms, the superintendence is intrusted to their agents. Such agents also, in some instances, have the disposal of the share of the produce, and account for the proceeds to the proprietors of the soil. The great body of the population who are in circumstances of even moderate ease are thus collected in the large towns and cities.

At one of these we have now arrived, and in doing so are reminded of a description